Living the dream – in blaze orange

The Packers are in the playoffs. It snowed last night. A tradition unseen in most of the NFL took place with a vengence today: someone had to shovel Lambeau.

I there are a few teams which also have – or have tried – to get fans to shovel. This awkard exchange is one example in Minnesota. I will give them some leeway, losing their dome and then having to deal with weather does present some new challenges.

Photo from MilwaukeeMart's Facebook Page

But in Green Bay, the shovel brigade is a long-standing tradition. Articles released this morning alerted NE Wisconsin residents that the first 450 people to arrive at Lambeau would earn $10 an hour (up from $8 last year) and the story of a lifetime to help remove the 4+” of winter wonder now covering the stands. I remember stories from my childhood indicating you had to bring your own shovel; this apparently is not the case now.

If you’ve never been to Lambeau, go. Go early and often. Watching a game there is electrifying and unlike any stadium I have experienced. I know, there is something different about your home field, but I’ve been to a few Detroi Lions games where the color spread in the stands is about 50/50.

The seating at Lambeau is alumnim benches, for the most part. Yes, they are freezing. There is a fair amount of “packing them in like sardines” at Lambeau, for better or worse. It’s you and 73,127 of your closest friends in a space that feel like it was designed to hold considerably less. No shower room, plenty of body heat. You get the picture.

Another Green Bay tradition should be in full effect on Sunday: a sea of blaze orange.

Even when it isn't snowing Packer fans love the blaze orange

Possible snow today and tomorrow, with a high of 30 on Sunday means bundling up for the game will be a must. Attending a game should mean putting on your warmest clothes. You’re sitting outside on metal seats in the middle of January people, this is not a fashion show! For many people in NE Wisconsin, the warmest thing they own is blaze orange.

Generally, as a Packer fan, you do what you have to do. We help each other. We stick together. We wear hats. Sure orange isn’t technically part of the team colors. It’s just part of our colors.

On to the Giants!

One one-thousand. Two one-thousand.

I know I’m not a normal girl. Mostly, I think that’s one of my best qualities. I have a circular saw. I asked for and received a compressor for Christmas. I watch football. In fact, I generally love football. (I also bake and sew and other girlier things – lol)

So this weekend, with my beloved Green Bay Packers on the bye week and me in Chicago for work, I still made time for the game. I found myself at The Tin Lizzie, 2483 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614, for the Detroit Lions’ first playoff appearance since 1999. The story I’m told is that Tin Lizzie’s owner is an alum of Michigan State University. True or not, it’s a Michigan sports bar. I arrived with my coworker/Lions fan friend just less than an hour ahead of kick off. It was packed, but the atmostphere was amazing and everyone was ready to cheer. If you’re in the area and want to cheer on Michigan sports team, I recommend it. But go early. There are more MI-ex pats in the Chicagoland area than I anticipated.

The first 3 quarters of the game were very exciting. The Lions were in the game, leading most of it. Matt Stafford was on point, connecting on passes which seemed too risky to have taken. The opening drive ran them right down the field for a touchdown (with only one ridiculous flag). Then, the 4th quarter. Don’t forget some of the most one-sided officiating I’ve seen in a long time. And I’m not really even a Lions fan! Wrong is wrong, no matter which color jersey you’re wearing.

But there is one lesson in this game that every other team, especially the Packers, need to pay attention to. I’m not going to pretend the Packers have a phenominal defense. They do not; and if they face the Saints… they need this advice.

You cannot give Drew Brees an average of 7 seconds to throw the ball on every single pass. The 3-second sack by Suh aside, Brees had all day to make a pass on just about every single play. I only started counting the seconds around the middle of the second quarter, but generally he was on the 5-9 seconds every time. Every. Single. Time. (Again, except for the one…)

Let’s hope the natural turf at Candlestick prove to be a bit of Kryponite this week.

In the past 5 games, including Saturday’s ass-handing with Detroit, Brees averaged 75% completion. Keep in mind, it’s only 75 due to a 59% completion against the Falcons the day after Christmas. (59% is also perfectly acceptable when you trounce the other team 45-16. Let’s be honest here.) Excluding this outlyer, he’s at 79%.

If you are playing a team where the quarterback makes 79% of his attempts, you will not win if you cannot collapse the pocket and put pressure on the guy. If you don’t believe me, watch Saturday’s game tape.

Yours. Mine. Ours?

Ah, the holidays. Love or dread them (maybe both?), they came and went. Welcome 2012! How do you celebrate holidays as a grown up? My holidays are a mix of then and now, making the journey to my family home on alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s not the screaming, up early, wrap-flying Christmas of my youth. Admittedly, this is sometimes a blessing.

And holidays are for kids right? Mostly, I suppose. Most of my friends have small children, and I’m fascinated by a battle I watched my sister and brother-in-law work out years ago. How do you decide what from your childhood stays and what from their childhood stays? Can two different experiences be merged into something that makes everyone happy?

The aforementioned conversation with my sister and bil started with “Santa doesn’t use gift tags.” No, he doesn’t. He uses a Sharpie and writes your name in all caps then circles it. Except that Santa did use gift tags at the bil’s house. I don’t know if they couldn’t agree, but the Santa who visits my nieces does neither! He wraps each of their gifts in different paper and puts a few small ones in their stocking so they know which is theirs. Interesting compromise.

Do you give St Nick’s gifts? Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? Do you open gifts one at a time? Are you up before dawn? Movie and Chinese food to end the night? Forget the holiday and have a vacay on a sunny beach every year?

This is my new fascination. I’d love to hear what you kept, gave up, and changed.

Love, and not just when they’re winning

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…. I love football. While I’m in no hurry to get out of summer, I do look forward to a good Sunday of yelling at the tv, comfortably wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and sleeping with blankets and the window open. I’ve posted before on growing up a fan of the Green Bay Packers, and how I learned while in college how different Packer fans are. Living in metro-Detroit, and watching the Lions have a spectacular preseason, I’m reminded on what made me watch football all these years.

Here’s the thing: it’s not about winning. Not for me.

A coworker recently commented that she doesn’t “get football,” despite her husband’s desire to have a tv-yelling partner. I gave her my version of football, in the simplest of terms, focusing on what you really need to know. The simplest football explanation I can come up with: our 11 guys are trying to get past their 11 guys to get the ball to the end of the field as many times as posssible. The better they do, the more chances they get. The team with the most points at the end wins. There should be yelling, food and beer. Someone will spill on you; do not wear ‘dry clean only’ to the game. Plan to lose your voice.

But this got me thinking about why I love football, or really, why I love the Packers. (That’s something I’ve noticed about Packer fans too; we love them.) When I was young, in the 80s, the Packers were horrible. Horrible. Every week, we watched the game and yelled and cheered and had our hopes raised and, more often than not, dashed. We spent the week talking about what should have happened on the field, or in the office, or during the draft and how it will be better next week. My brother and his friends played football and pretended to be the Packers, and didn’t seem to notice they weren’t winning either. And we did it all over again the next week.

We didn’t root for winning. We rooted for the Packers. Winning was a surprising bonus that carried us through weeks of losses. Winning was secondary. Winning was a goal, but not the goal.

As I watch my colleagues and friends celebrate the Lion’s winning preseason, I’m a bit sad for them. Footbally in Detroit is different. Detroit fans root for winning. And it’s understandable because there are so many other teams here. Lions lost? Big deal, the Wings new season is right around the corner? Or the Tigers. Or the Pistons (well, maybe not this year…)

There are exceptions; I know. I know people who love the Lions all the time, not just when they’re winning. As a marketer, I think of loyalty  – love – differently than a lot of people. For better or worse, that’s the truth. Not surprisingly, I have some ideas. I’m not saying they’re easily executed or that I have bothered to consider all of the details (Joel Scott, your job is safe – lol)

My dad is the reason I’m a Packer fan. He loved them, and I loved him. We went to games and watched games together, yelled and laughed together, strategized and consoled together. But more importantly, we did this my whole life. When I speak to my dad now, we talk about the game and if we got to see it and what we thought about plays, or players. I learned to love football, and the Packers, from my dad. Every week. For 36 years.

It was nearly 20 years ago when I was in college and learned that local teams aren’t always on tv. Blackouts were not something I experienced as a Packer fan… being entirely season ticket holders and all. If the preseason Lions show up in the regular season, there should be no blackouts in Detroit. But if they don’t, we’ll be watching the Bengals or the Chiefs or some other team I couldn’t care less about. (Sorry, the truth hurts some times.)

With Detroit having some of the highest unemployement rates in the country, a $45 ticket can be difficult to take. I know tickets are more expensive at other stadiums. (Hell, a ticket to see the Packers in Lambeau will run you over $250 a seat, so this is a bargain relatively speaking.) But for a family of four to see a Lions’s game – before parking, food, drinks, gas to get downtown, etc – is over $200 with fees. $200 buys a lot of groceries.

My question is this: why can’t you sell a family package for $100. Two adults and two children can learn to love a sport, a team, a city, together. Sure you’re taking a loss now. But what about the long term investment into the fans? Why not give a little now and get it back in spades later when they are returning? Isnt’ investing in fans actually a self-serving move to invest in the future of the teams. How does that saying go? There’s no such thing as a selfless good deed? Yeah, that’s it. There’s no such thing as a selfless good deed.

I don’t think deals will be had at Ford Field this year. At least, not early on. They won’t have to give the seats away to sell out the game. There’s an excitement in the air that maybe the Lions won’t be half bad this year. If they keep playing the way they have been — winning the last 4 of the 2010 regular season and dominating opponents in the preseason — I give them 8, maybe 9 wins this year.

But that’s not so important to me. I’m not in it for the winning.

Bloapp

I found a great article this morning on synching up your blog with Bloapp, which will make it accessible and readable on the free Bloapp app. Which sounds great, and really means if I’m going to start thinking about blogging again I had better get to getting on it.

The directions are easy to follow, but now I’m stuck on the uploading a meta tag to my blog. Hey. I’m good at a lot of things, but I’m going to need some context clues to get this taken care of.

I’m going to try a few things, and we’ll see what works.

Ah, the holidays

I live 8 hours from most of my family. This 8-hour timeframe is the “normal” time it takes me to drive up I-75 and across US-2, in the summer, without my nieces. Of course, at Christmas, all of these assumptions go out the window. Driving through Michigan, during the winter? That is easily a 10 hour day. And with two seven year olds in the back? Shoot me now. God forbid there is snow, because more than anything that means trucks with snowmobile trailers.

So this year, to eliminate stress and not pay $450/pp on airfare, I suggested that my sister, her husband and their two daughters and I take the train. It was a tremendous value, with all of us traveling for about the price of one ticket. Of course it wouldn’t be as easy as getting on the train here and getting off the train there. We left from Ann Arbor, transferred at Union Station in Chicago and detrained in Milwaukee. From there, we had a three-hour drive.  (There is a lovely old train station in Marinette, WI and I just have to say it would be wonderful if Amtrak would continue their service up there. Please and thank you.)

Just to make sure things were extra stressful, my sister had to fly back to the family after having a medical emergency. So the rest of us made our way to the Amtrak station … at the very dark and cold 6:30 a.m. After a short delay, we were off and a few mindless hours later we arrived at Union Station. Here we met the hero of our day, an Amtrak porter named H. Mohammad. Not finding out his whole name is one of the biggest regrets of my life.

When we started down the steps with the first round of the bags and the girls, Mohammad was there. He took our bags, loaded them and us onto his cart, and took us through the station. He gave us a tour, showing where several movies have been filmed. He brought us to a restaurant where we got some lunch. He waited patiently, only stepping away for a moment. When we were done eating, he drove us “behind the scenes,” right out to our train and helped us load all the bags.

This is how traveling on Amtrak business class goes. Awesome.

Now, fast forward eight days… We arrived in Chicago, via the train from Milwaukee. There were porters, but they were …. different. The second biggest regret I have is not finding out the name of our return porter. He was, um, crabby. After finally convincing him that we needed his help (my sister was still not allowed to lift more than 20 pounds, and we did have two children), he drove us straight into the middle of the station and jumped off the cart. He returned from around a corner a moment later, declaring it “too crowded in there” and telling us we’d just have to get out here. Um, where is here?!

“Here” was the cattle-call that Union Station calls gates C-D. And there we sat for just over an hour, with about 3,000 of our closest friends. I don’t recommend it.

Boarding finally began, and we were optimistic when they called business class first. We made our way through the crowds, being stopped twice by elderly passengers who were furious that “those kids” were getting to board before they were. But we tried to brush it off. Because we were boarding! Or so we thought.

We weren’t boarding. We were just moving to another, smaller waiting area. Where we had to sit. And then they called in senior citizens and families with children. Who stood in front of us as there were no more seats. Great… And with no porters anywhere to be seen, and about 100 stop-and-go seniors in front of us, we began our walk down the train.

By the time we reached the business class car, my sister was crying, her daughters were crying, and her husband and I were furious that somehow our entire experience seemed ruined.

But why was it ruined? Nothing especially out of the ordinary happened. Yes, my sister had had surgery and there was no way Amrak could have known that (except that we told everyone so they wouldn’t bump her!) . Was it unreasonable to expect someone to walk the length of the train to board? Even if they paid for what amounts to first class? Maybe not. For someone else.

For better or worse, my “normal” was set by the explemplary service we received on our first visit to Union Station. Mohammad made my day, and ruined my return trip. Not personally of course, but by setting the bar at a height his coworkers were unwilling to meet.  The question for you is: who set the bar you’re reaching for? Are you delivering the service or product you were hoping for, or the one your customer is expecting?

Despite the poor taste left in my mouth by my trip home, Mohammad has made me a lover of the train. I will return to Chicago some day, and hope to meet him there again. He was everything you hope for on a trip – and I hope everyone meets someone like him on their travels.

My parting advice? Do not, under any circumstance, arrive in Chicago at 5:00 on a Wednesday. They are too busy for you.

Food hates me

For as long as I can remember, I have had a love/hate relationship with food. For reasons I could not understand, seemingly normal meals would have me scurrying off to the bathroom before I was even finished eating them. If it hadn’t been for my struggle with weight, I’m sure people would have suspected those regular trips were something else.

I believe I have found the answer to my problem, and I have my grandmother to thank. And to blame, it turns out. A few months ago, she was diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease. Celiac’s Disease is a gluten intolerance. While complicated, it means that her body (and that of millions of other people) reacts to gluten — a protein in wheat, barley and rye — differently. Celiac’s Disease makes your small intestine attack itself every time you eat gluten. And as you might think, that’s just about every time you eat.

Celiac’s Disease is genetic, (Thanks, grandma.) and is reported to affect one in every 133 people.  There are a few people in my family who seem to have problems with this, with different symptoms. There are over 300 symptoms known to be associated with this disorder. Or you may have no symptoms, just to make it more interesting. Tyroid disease and infertility are problems in my family, and I wonder if Celiac could have something to do with it. Others have symptoms more similar to mine.

As I explore this horrible and reasurring explanation to my problems, I’m reminded how much of communication is listening. Listen to my body. Listen to the people around me. Listen to my doctors and ask smart questions.  Remember, if we all knew everything, we won’t need anyone else. Pay attention. Help when you can. Listen when you can’t.

By the way, almost everything contains gluten. Which is an over-statement, but when you want a nice sandwich, it certainly feels like that. There are many resources for gluten-free eaters, more now then there ever have been. Most grocery stores have a growing section of gluten free products. I had a gluten-free pizza at Uno’s last week. My local Trader Joe’s has gluten free bread, made from brown rice flower. Betty Crocker’s website has a section on gluten free products. More and more products are being labeled and gluten free, so the search is easier. The Gluten Free Chef website is a great resource on foods you should, and should not, eat.

For more information on Celiac’s Disease, please visit their website or your doctor.

Ignorance on fire

**I’d like to preface this post with an apology. To Derek, Leslie, Kim and Heather, I’m sorry  for taking so long to put this up. **

In an earlier post, I explained that my views of reputation and business communication come from my history with family business. When earning a living and buying groceries depend on your name, you learn the rules quickly.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with three women who are building their own business in Arbonne. Despite how close their businesses over-lap, their stories and goals are quite different.

Leslie Hipp, Kim Barabas and Heather Hesano sat down and shared with me how they decided to choose Arbonne, and some of the challenges and surprises they have faced on the way. They are all part of the same team, Leslie being the most senior. And for full disclouse, Heather is my sister. And she had a cold, so she’s a little scratchy.

The first thing I wanted to ask the ladies about is how they got involved in Arbonne. With so many network business opportunities, why this one? How this one? Here, they speak about how they started their journeys.

Leslie                   Kim                    Heather

The rest of the conversations were more fluid and casual, so I’ll leave them in their entirety.

One of the aspects that I was most curious about was how the reality of starting this business compared to the ideas they went in with. Network marketing offers great opportunities for tens of thousands of Americans every year. Most of these businesses were started by something with an idea about how they could do it differently. And as networking is the key, I wondered how their communication expectations met their reality. I love my sister; thanks for the blog title. I like to call this part I had all the right answers to the wrong test.

An issue that has come front of mind to me recently is reconciling your personal brand with the company brand. As I dive into social marketing in my personal life, I am finding the line with how I can and will use it for my professional side. My company has very strict guidelines around what we can and cannot due in social media, and who will lead that push. With myself, I am the decision maker and the doer. The ladies explain how they merge themselves and their business. Let’s call it  How do you sell yourself?

All businesses have challenges, and these ladies are not unique. Which is exactly wrong – they are unique people facing common circumstance. Their reactions and choices are what makes their story theirs.

And there is more where this came from!

There is crying in basketball

There are two kinds of people in Michigan: University of Michigan fans, and Michigan State University fans. Relationships fail over this kind of divide. Instant enemys are formed over it. And while I can’t quite figure out the hate, I definately understand the love now.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I grew up watching professional football, and have a great love of the sport. I started watching basketball when I went to college, but didn’t choose my college for its sports. I think I went to seven games in my four years. I am getting my Master’s Degree from Michigan State University. I chose it for the program, not for the teams. But, oh, what a time I’m having.

And I’d like to thank Tom Izzo for a hell of a good ride for my first year as a Spartan. I have always enjoyed watching athletes who seem to be having a good time. Most pros play better when they’re having fun. Ah the good ole days of Brett Favre in his green and gold number 4 running and jumping around Lambeau like he was a boy. And we’ve all seen what Tiger Woods can do when he plays like it’s just a game. When your real, grown-up life is playing the game you love, you’ve got to see how lucky you are. Coach Izzo seems to be seeing it too, and watching him speak about how proud he is and how happy he is… I cried right along with him.

The city of Detroit (which actually means Detroit and all the cities around it within an hour in every direction) has been out in force today with pre-final four activities. The Spartan’s held an open practice at Ford Field, and 30,000 people attended. A pep rally was held tonight at The Sumerset Collection in Troy, and 6,000 people crammed into all three levels for that.

But this day started with an honor for Coach Izzo, as he was awarded the “Good Guy” award by the US Basketball Writers Association. A lot of people think he should be named national coach of the year, including me. Matt Synder called him the great, underrated Tom Izzo in his fanhouse post. He was right on all counts.

During the Somerset rally, Coach Izzo was interviewed on stage by Don Shane, sports director at the local ABC affiliate, WXYZ. The coach and Don clearly have a long relationship; they obviously respect each other. Don gave one of the best compliments I have heard in quite some time, “(Tom)’s a better person than he is a coach. And he’s a heck of a basketball coach.”

As an MSU student, I received an email from Coach Izzo noting his appreciation for the send off he and the team received leaving East Landing this week for Detroit. He stressed the role of integrity to the team, and the relationship they have with the students. Integrity is important to Coach Izzo, his players, and his team. (And I feel confident that Spartan fans wouldn’t boo a national basketball star because he went to a competitor’s school 30 years ago. That was low class.)

You may have heard, the state of Michigan is having a hard year. We are leading the country in all the things you don’t want: unemployment, foreclosures, recession. Add that to the fear that the word “Detroit” still produces in most people, you might begin to understand why we’re so excited about the Final Four. I wish all the teams, and their fans, good luck this weekend. Of course I am rooting for the Spartans. If you don’t have a team, I recommend them.

Go Green! Go White!

When you answer to yourself…

There is no business where your word means more than when it’s your business. I grew up the child of a family business. Picture it: Menominee, 1921. (Apparently I’m channeling Estelle Getty, and can’t stop laughing about it!) My father’s father’s father (follow that?!) and his business partner opened what would come to be known as Eickmeyer Heating and Sheet Metal. In my family, we just call it the shop.

There are lessons you learn growing up in a family business. Especially when its in a city of about 10,000 (city is relative, you know).  One of the most charming things about this situation is something that happens to me now, as an adult who doesn’t live there anymore. When people find out my last name, the question that is most often asked is “whose are you?” When I was in high school, this annoyed me to no end. Now, I love it.

During my lifetime, my grandfather, my father, three uncles and my brother have all worked at the shop. When the livelihood of your family is tied directly to your last name, you quickly learn that your word means everything and that you are nothing without your reputation. “You are only as good as your word” is not a phrase I am new too.

One of the biggest challenges in small business is setting yourself apart. There is more than one other heating company in Menominee. It can’t be just that. It can’t be just price or equipment or speed or any one thing. In business, as in life, it’s the package. You know there are things you buy at a less convenient place for one reason or another. It’s charming, or its close to your favorite lunch place, or the people behind the counter make it so great to walk into that store. Whatever it is, that’s the thing that sets that business apart for you.  For small businesses especially, communication is key.

In my next few posts, I’ll be posting some conversations I had with three women who are making their way in network marketing and owning their own businesses. We’ll explore some of their challenges and surprises. Stay tuned.