Don't miss Jaynie Smith on Competitive Advantage on Friday, January 2nd

Jaynie Smith is the author of Creating Competitive Advantage.

She will be our Vignette Speaker on Friday, January 2nd at 4pm.

Take a look at this video interview on ABC of Jaynie where she talked about recession proofing your business.

Recession proofing interview on ABC



Jaynie's credentials include:

• 30,000 plus hours experience consulting CEO’s
• 15 Top Performer Awards for CEO coaching
• Featured in Entrepreneur, Industry Week, Investors Business Daily & Business Strategies Magazine among many other magazines and newspapers
• 20 years experience working with Fortune 500 companies
• Appeared on several TV business shows including ABC World News This Morning & MSNBC
• Selected by TEC/Vistage, an organization of 14,000 CEOs worldwide, as one of the 50 most influential people of their first 50 years
• Her Competitive Advantage proprietary workshop was selected as one of the leading new courses for the 2007 curriculum for the American Management Association
• Selected to deliver Microsoft Office Live Seminars 2007 with speakers such as Michael Gerber, Stephen Covey, Marshall Goldsmith, Jack Canfield & Jim Kouzes
• Guest on Bloomberg Radio, WABC Radio “Brinker Show,” & NPR affiliate WLRN among scores of other radio shows
• Featured in telecast with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing Association
• Contributing Business Expert Columnist to Affluent Magazine

Transition Group call on Monday at 4pm ET

For those of you that are in transition, I am holding a special call on Monday, January 5th at 4pm ET.

We will review the model that I talked about last week on the call and will share some survival tips and a new job posting service offered by EGG. As any of you hear of jobs, please send me the information and if it comes through a recruiter, I'll get permission to post the jobs on our site.

Hospitality Jobs - Washington DC area

Spa Director
A luxury boutique hotel southern Maryland just outside Washington DC is hiring a Spa Director. The property has all suites less than 100 rooms. Full service spa. Located on water, so lots of aquatic sports. Part of a worldwide luxury hotel group.

For more information, send your resume to the recruiter, Ron Cribbet:

roncribbet@Aston-Remick.com

If the client is interested, he will share more information directly with you.

Hospitality Jobs - Memphis TN

Sales Manager & Director of Sales (reports to Dir Marketing)
A luxury boutique hotel near Memphis Tennessee. Just finished a $24M renovation of property. Hope to gain Mobil 5 Star status. Less than 100 luxury rooms. Several thousand sq/ft of meeting space.

Reservations Manager
The same hotel as above is hiring a reservations manager.

For more information, send your resume to the recruiter, Ron Cribbet:

roncribbet@Aston-Remick.com

If the client is interested, he will share more information directly with you.

Happy Holidays

2008 The Fitzgerald Year in Pictures

Happy Holidays. Here is the Fitzgerald year in pictures in lieu of our normal holiday letter.




See you next year!

Chicke Fitzgerald

Happy Holidays - NO CALL THIS WEEK

Nancy Widmann was wonderful on Friday. Thanks for those of you who participated. It was our largest call yet! A very nice way to end the year.

You are all very special to me, my gift for 2008.

I hope this finds you winding down for the holidays. My "present" to you is to lift each of you up this holiday season and pray for peace in your hearts and your families and for clarity of vision for those of you who are in transition or unsure about your future or your finances.

Here is my favorite Christmas song. It presents an interesting perspective. Take a little time to ponder the man behind the day.

Blessings,

Chicke Fitzgerald

Don't miss Friday's Call

Nancy has a story to tell. Don't miss it.

Friday 4pm

Dial-in Number: (218) 844-8230 Participant Access Code: 874258#

Nancy is the former CEO of CBS Radio and the author of "I didn't see it coming".

From the calls and emails that I'm getting, I know you need to participate. Please don't be afraid to share your side of this story.

The final chapter of your story is one we can all write together.

It has success written all over it. Let's do something big together.

WOW - What a stat....

"It has been reported that over 70% of new U.S. business start ups
are owned by women. "

I now know how important "Go for No" is!

For those of you who missed yesterday's call with Andrea Waltz, we learned that going for "no" can be really empowering. She encouraged us to have "Go for No" goals - such as getting turned down for funding or trying to sell a given product 20 times. She said that if getting turned down is your goal, it depersonalizes it and actually can make it into a bit of a game that you don't take quite as seriously as if you are going for "yes". The odds are that if you increase the number of times that you are trying, you will get some yes answers along the way.

Another really interesting insight was that we often say no for our customers/prospects without giving them the chance to even react. We talk ourselves out of even trying. That is a NO-NO!!

Get Andrea's book and gain some new courage in your negotiations - both personally and professionally.

Chicke Fitzgerald

Today's Call with Eli Davidson was terrific!

Well ladies, those of you who did not make the call today really missed out. Eli Davidson was very informative and entertaining at the same time. She gave us some great tips on how to manage our relationships.

I won't do it justice by putting the highlights here, but I'll do it anyway:

1. Men and women communicate differently - women talk like we toss salad and men talk like they are laying bricks.
2. Train your man like you train your dog.... ok this one I can't summarize as easily but after Eli was off the call we got great pleasure in imagining training our bosses the same way....
3. Men use about 10k words per day, women 25k. If you have an excess of words and no one to deliver them to, call a girlfriend.......
4. Secret words to use in communication "Happy", "Hero" and "I need" versus "I want"
5. Vitamin "G" (girlfriends) are a very important part of our daily needs. Thankfully we all have EGG that helps us fulfill our weekly requirement.
   

I did tape the session (although I've never quite figured out how to get it from the teleconference company, but can if if someone wants it!). So let me know if you want it. I'll need a credit card to process the $10 fee.

Join us next week for the author of "Go for No". See you then. Have a super weekend.

Chicke Fitzgerald

Why men are never depressed

Jane forwarded this to me. I've tried to find proper attribution, but it seems to be going around as an anonymous post. Hopefully this will shed some light to us ladies out there on why men are never depressed, cause at the end of the day, men are just happier people, right?

• Your last name stays put.
• The garage is all yours.
• Wedding plans take care of themselves.
• Chocolate is just another snack.
• You can be President.
• You can never be pregnant.
• You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
• You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
• Car mechanics tell you the truth.
• The world is your urinal.
• You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
• You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
• Same work, more pay.
• Wrinkles add character.
• People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
• New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
• One mood all the time.
• Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
• You know stuff about Tanks (Sherman? Tiger? T70?).
• A five-day vacation only requires one suitcase.
• You can open all your own jars.
• Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
• Your underwear is $5.95 for a three-pack.
• You almost never have strap problems in public.
• You are unable to see wrinkles on your clothes.
• Everything on your face stays its original color.
• The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades even.
• You only have to shave your face and neck (or head)
• You can play with toys all your life.
• Your belly usually hides your big hips.
• One wallet and one pair of shoes - one color for all seasons.
• You can wear shorts no matter how your leg looks.
• You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
• You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.
• You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in just 25 minutes.

Now, no wonder men are more happier !!