Well, my Christmas gift was indeed a special one (see above), but one good turn deserves another, hence this story of giving, not receiving.
I had to send out a special present to four companies who have been very good to me and the upcoming Pow! book, namely the folks at my publisher (John Wiley and Sons), my new speaking agent (Tom Neilssen at the BrightSight group), the good people at 800 CEO Read, and Bill Gladstone, the Super-Agent who cut the deal in the first place.
Being the Prince of Pow!, the standard basket of chocolates or popcorn can just wouldn't cut it; I had to walk the talk and do something Surprising that would not just get people talking, but embody the spirit of Surprise and incorporate some sort of Pow!
Another fine challenge I got myself into...
To the rescue came the brilliant Nancy Essebag, the Concordia University student I hired to be my assistant for all things having to do with the aforementioned book (which is a story for a whole other blog post).
Her suggestion?
A pinata.
Pow!? I guess so...once you take a stick and whack the hell out of the thing.
Surprise? Yup...when the candy and other innards come pouring out once whacked.
But...and here's the BIG BUT:
Given who it's coming from, and who they're going to, they had to be more than the ol' reliable striped burro or cutesy animal or Santa Claus or any other traditional party Pinata.
Next level necessary.
So Nancy got to work and somehow found the amazing Jo Juarez somewhere in San Antonio, Texas, who worked with some graphic elements of the book and this blog and CUSTOM-MADE the Pinatas pictured below, which--in my opinion--were WAY TOO special to be smashed...but I digress:
The end result? Some of the sweetest and hysterical thank you notes I've ever received. The grizzled vets of the publishing ans speaking industries LOVED 'em.
So Nancy...what do we do NEXT Christmas?
(And if you haven't already done so, check out Jo's work at PartiesToGoByJo.com.)