As 2018 comes to a close, it’s important to take some time to reflect on professional and personal successes from the year. Here are a few of my highlights…
2018 was kind of crazy for me!
This year, I decided I wanted to invest in myself and my speaking career, and took two speaker trainings in Denver, Colorado.
We focused primarily on crafting our signature talks in the first trip. Then, during the second training, we learned body language and stage presence techniques.
Not only have I developed myself as a speaker through this training… I’ve also discovered a new passion – and that is creating bridges between generational gaps through communication.
Having spent a lot of my career working with millennials (often as employees), as well as alongside other Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers – I know firsthand the challenges that can arise in our communication – and relationships – due to generational gaps. In my talk, I aim to provide some insights that support us to all be more heard, valued, and understood – because we actually aren’t so different after all.
This year, I’ve done a lot more coaching, training, and speaking for economic development and main street organizations, including being a speaker/panelist at conferences like:
- Maryland Economic Development Association – Annual Conference
- International Economic Development Council – Future Forum Conference
- International Economic Development Council – Annual Conference
- Maryland Economic Development Association – Fall Conference
- As well as being a speaker for Chamber of Commerces, multiple workshops, Main Street Maryland, and more.
Inside of PPR Strategies, we’ve had some staffing changes, which has been a big opportunity for reflection. Even with the changes, we’ve been able to maintain current client needs, while picking up some new clients, which is always really exciting and fun.
Some of our client successes have included:
- Maryland Economic Development Association’s ongoing projects – like the Chesapeake Basic Economic Development Course, Annual Conference, Economic Development Week and more
- Orr’s Farm Market – always a fun client (despite the rainy year) – Thank goodness they had a huge expansion of their retail store!
- The Charles County Economic Development Fall Meeting
- Lots of strategic marketing planning and content creation (blogging, social media)
- We’re also excited to have a few new clients this year — you know who you are 😉
On a personal note, my daughter Tabitha and I kicked off our 12 months of fun, with trips to Ireland, New York City, and a family wedding in North Carolina. We’re currently busy with our Advent calendar (daily surprise activities now through Christmas).
We also created a lot of amazing content this year. Here are a few highlights from our blog:
- The Top 5 Website Non-Negotiables for EDOs PDF (Download it here) – This breaks down the 5 most important non-negotiables that EDOs should have on their website.
- The 4 Marketing Secrets of the Future Blog Series (Secret #2, #3, and #4) If you start utilizing these secrets in your organization now, you’ll be ahead of the curve!
- How to Repurpose Your Annual Report – How to make the most of this important document and the information you collect.
Thank you for being a part of the PPR Strategies family! Now I’d love to hear some of your successes from the past year. Leave a comment below and share with me! 🙂
‘Til next time,
Sandy
P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for next week’s blog post, which is all about how to start planning for 2019!
