Importance of Following Up

It's a new week and I'm feeling anxious. I probably shouldn't be feeling like this, because there are good things going on. I've been focused a lot on the date auction, I've been working really hard to get financial sponsors, but so far, I'm not getting the results that we need. It is very frustrating when you contact people and never hear anything back. A funny thing did happen today and it is a reminder to never give up- keep following up with people, even when you think it is a lost cause. I had someone email me about a personal business matter a couple of months ago. We had talked on the phone and emailed. I had last heard from him in early February when he had asked me a question and I had quickly responded- but never heard from him again. So on Friday night, I was helping at an event and I had a lot of down time- and I was sitting in front of a laptop. So I decided to catch up on a few emails- I only planned to take a few minutes, but it turned into 2 hours of emailing. It is amazing what one can accomplish when they are forced to sit and work on one thing without any distractions. I was scrolling through my inbox and I saw his email, I figured there was no harm in sending a follow up email- if I hadn't had all that extra time on Friday, I might never had bothered to email him again- figuring that since I hadn't heard from him, he wasn't interested. This afternoon, I received an email back from him and we are conducting a business transaction together. This is such an example of the importance of following up. It can get kind of disheartening when you have to keep making phone calls and sending emails, but it is so important.

We have a lot of good things happening with the date auction- we have two fabulous hosts, Sofft Shoes back to sponsor, I just signed up 4 fabulous bachelors/ettes who were voted Boston's Most Eligible, already have a few gift certificates donated for the dates, I have some commitments for gift bag items and I'm lining up our marketing. This is all really good progress. I need financial sponsors, a lot more gift certificates, more single guys/ladies, more gift bag donors. I know I go through this anxiety every year and it turns out wonderful, but the process is very stressful. The good thing is we have 6 more months before the event- plenty of time to pull everything together.

I've been paying a lot of attention to the date auction, but I also have the Anniversary event to keep working on and calendar sponsors to obtain AND grants to write. I really need to allot my time better. Even though I usually have a list, sometimes I will work on a certain task for much longer than I intend to. Considering that I have a lot of other things that need attention, I can't keep doing that. We have received some cool auction items for the Anniversary event though- a beautiful flag that flew over the Capitol, a gift item from Wachusett Brewery, museum membership, Sturbridge Village passes, Direct Air tickets and a couple of other things. So far, we have raised 35% of our sponsorship goal for the Anniversary Celebration- which is pretty good, considering we have just under 7 months to go.

What else is going on? My interview with Candy O'Terry aired yesterday morning on Magic 106.7. It was a really cool interview. Our awesome web host got it on our site today, so if you go on our homepage www.projectsmile.org you can click on the interview and listen to it right there. Let me know what you think!

Well, I should go to bed. I actually feel wide awake, but it is 12:50 and I'm trying to adjust to the hour change- and go to bed at my regular time (1am). It is really hard to adjust to the time change. Anyways, off to eat a banana, write my list and bed- all within the next 6 minutes! Until next time..