My First Ever Christmas Letter

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous, and healthy new year!


May 2015 bring you everything you dreamed of, and moore!






Warmest of seasons,


Tom

So Random

Enter December.  Some random thoughts as we move into the rest of the holiday season.  Sometimes we forget about the subtle things that can really impact our lives, and others. 


The term game changer is so over used and what does it really mean anyway?  It's used in sports, business, weather, you name it.  I laugh every time I hear it.  My dog turns her head every time she hears it which confirms it is used way too much.

A Seattle radio personality has come forward and said he is done with downtown Seattle.   It used to be a family tradition to go to the Westlake Center for the holidays for Dori Monson and his family.  It's so out of control with bums, crack heads, protesters and the like that he has come out and said he's done.  My recent trip there for a conference was heartbreaking for me considering I grew up there.  It's just not the same place and nobody is doing anything about it.

It's #TuesdayGiving and what a great feeling when I dropped off a Starbuck's "Joe to go" at Touchstone Jewelers this morning.  I've never felt so appreciated in a long, long time.  Especially considering what they've been through with the loss in the family.  Love those guys.  Support the local guys and go see them this holiday season.  #shoplocal


Happy December!

This is Apple Cup week

It's that special time of year.  My back hurts, my heart hurts, and I still hear the coach telling me I have to play hurt.


This is Apple Cup week.


It's an emotional week for me because another year has gone by and I don't have the pleasure of talking to my parents who are both gone.  I used to be able to pick up the phone and share all the fun things that were in store, and of course predictions on the big game.


This year's game even has more meaning because it also falls on Thanksgiving week.  Time to gather with family and friends and give thanks to all the wonderful things that happened over the course of the past year.  I'm sure there won't be a lot of discussion on the successful year the Cougars had.


So what will be the big play this year?  Will Spider Gaines reappear and catch a ball off the helmet of a Cougar and run for an unprecedented touchdown?  Will Drew Bledsoe set down his red wine and come back to throw another game winning touchdown pass to Philip Bobo in the snow?


A load of us will head to the game on a Mercedes bus with TV's, satellite, and all the fixin's to make it a great day.  One of our friends is celebrating her 60th birthday and couldn't think of a better place to celebrate than Sonny's in Washtucna on the way up.  If you aren't a Coug you probably don't understand the significance of such a feat.


This is Apple Cup week.

7 tips for 7 years of growth

If someone would've asked me 7 years ago if I could sustain growth every year in business I would have literally fell over in my chair.


Not in this day and age, especially in advertising.


Fortunately we have and here's some tips that might help your biz achieve desired growth and success.


1.  Be prepared to diversify.  Things never turn out the way you expect them to.  Especially in the advertising business.  We all know the first thing to be cut by advertisers in a slow economy is their advertising dollars.  This is why its important to constantly diversify.  The only way to grow is to generate new and incremental revenue streams.  If it means adding something new to your bag of tricks, have at it.  The little things add up in the end.  And sometimes the smaller accounts are the most rewarding ones.


2.  Continued education.  Everything is changing and you must change too.  Marketing and advertising can be like a revolving door of new products and services.  Stay abreast to what's going on and educate yourself with continued education, whether it's an annual conference, a trade magazine, or anything that might help you with a new product or strategy to boost your business.


3.  Be humble.  We always respect the person that doesn't have to brag about their success.  Your work should speak for itself.  If you do all the right things every day, positive things will happen.  Like any sport, teamwork always leads to successful outcomes.


4.  Stick to your mission statement.  There's a reason why companies establish mission statements.  It's a pattern used in every day practices, something to refer to on a regular basis.  It keeps us grounded and is a constant reminder of the important fundamentals that help achieve positive results. Have it somewhere visible so you see it every day.


5.  Promote yourself because nobody else will.  Don't be afraid to share some of your success stories.  There is nothing more powerful than telling a story.  Remember, if you don't share your successes nobody else will.  And yes, you can do it and still be humble at the same time.


6.  Find your happy place.  It's so important to have balance in your life.  Find that place that helps you relax, breathe, and get away from the every day rat race.  A place that helps you get your mind off of things and create that balance you need.  It's like a mini vacation that can rejuvenate the soul.  It doesn't always have to be an actual place, it can be a good book, exercise, a long walk in the park, or anything to help clear the fog.


7.  The most important relationship is the one with yourself.  You know you better than everyone.  Go with your gut when it comes to making a tough decision.  It won't always be a popular one but that's ok.  Your gut always wins out.  Be the biggest ambassador for your company and yourself.


 After all, they won't build a statue for you when you leave.

That kind of salary

I'm sitting in my office, it's the end of a Monday, and for the life of me I'm contemplating how a coach who makes 2.5 million + a year can go to a bank in Pullman with a straight face sporting a 2-6 record in his 3rd year.


Especially when he makes that kind of salary. 


As we drove the dismal two plus hours home on Saturday night, my friend Steve and I were trying for the life of us to figure out what is missing.  I can't speak for him but I'm trying to compare the career of a hard working coach, to a normal hard working person who has accomplished a lot in the last 30 years, but they don't make near that kind of salary, nor will they ever.


Let's look at a person who has worked for three fortune 500 companies, a strong, top producer at all three, and never made near that kind of salary.  They generate tremendous revenue for the company every day, and they have a record to show for it.  He or she grinds it out every day, does everything that is ever asked of them, qualifies for incentive trips that go to the top producers of the company (similar to the New Mexico Bowl but a lot nicer), but when you compare won-loss records they never went 2-6, ever.


So what was the appeal to Mike Leach?  Was the WSU contingent so impressed with the 9 bowl appearances, and the most impressive being the 11-2 record in 2008 at Texas Tech where they were rated as high as #2 in the country?  Or was it the throw on every down offense?  Anyone who has been following the Pac-8, Pac-10, and now the Pac-12 since 1967 like I have knows you have to run the ball effectively to win championships in this league.


Or was it that he could have success in Lubbock, Texas.  A place where one person referred to it as "Ellensburg without the hype".  I can't remember who that person is, but I sure want to meet them!


With USC coming to town next weekend, it's not looking bright.  The team has fallen on hard times, and listening to the radio on the post game show, star quarterback Connor Halliday is visibly shaken.  When Jim Moore writes something negative about the Cougars, you know something is terribly wrong.


With that kind of salary, I just hope the head coach at Washington State signed up for automatic deposits. 

I'm giving up an addiction

The idea of forever is kind of ridiculous.  Especially when you are talking about Facebook, and an addiction. We hope it won't be here forever, and at one time or the other we say we won't participate anymore.

It's come that time for me, especially with my personal account.  

I try to convince myself that I'm not addicted to Facebook.  You know, I only use it when I have time, or when there's a break in the action.  Lunch time, break time, off time, that time, this time, sometime can even be all the time.  You log off for the last time at night, brush your teeth, and all the things we do in our nightly routine before we shut off the lights for the very last time.

Then we log in one more time.  And we continue to convince ourselves we aren't addicted.

I'm just waiting for that new, exciting social networking THING to come along just so I can completely forget Facebook, but then I have to remind myself I'm in the advertising business,  and I need to continue to promote different things from my company page, which I plan on doing.  

Recently I returned from the Seattle Interactive Conference where social networking was at the forefront in nearly every session for two long days.  

We just can't get away from it.

_________________________________________________

Welcome to Facebook!  The place where people add you as a friend but don't acknowledge you when they walk by you, or see you at a party.  Where relationships and marriages are perfect.  People think your status is for them when truly it isn't.  Where you post things straight from the heart but yet some people will take it the wrong way.  Where people have the most amazing dogs in the world, like me.

And how about this quote:   "They changed the name to Facebook because stalk my ex seemed a little too creepy".

The true Facebook followers will probably take all of this wrong but for some reason I'm not sure I care anymore.  I want to make it clear that I'm as guilty as anyone, but if people on Facebook could post images and nothing else for just one week, it just might be more enjoyable, and worth staying.

But we all know that won't happen.

Thanks for being my friend on Facebook.

 You can find me at my company page if you are interested in following me at www.facebook.com/mooreshotsdirect. You can also find me on Twitter @mooreshots.   No pressure, really.  Who knows, you might win something like a cup of soup.

Winning is overrated

It's US Open week which also means its Father's Day weekend.  The best players in the world will gather at Pinehurst this weekend, the greatest Dad's in the world will spend time with their families, some in front of the television.

In golf, every shot counts.  We don't really recognize it until the tournament or round is over and then we reflect on all the shots that were left out there.  In life, every day counts as a Father.  I wouldn't know but I'm pretty sure it's the truth.  I'm sure Father's second guess some of their decisions every day, just like golfers do.

This past weekend I had a reunion with my longstanding partner in the Member-Guest golf tournament at Meadow Springs.  We haven't played together in a few years, but some things never change.  We still laugh at the same things, we still have our routines that will probably never change.

Although we finished 2-2-1 in our matches, it was a lot better than that.  We only finished two points behind the winners.  We lost the two matches only by one hole, and we tied the second to the last match to the eventual champions by bogeying the last hole.  In golf we call it halving a match.

We should have beat them but who cares.

Winning is overrated in sport, it really is.  Winning is when you know you've given it your all, you haven't left anything at the plate, and hopefully you've made an impact on someone.  Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce or roll our way, but at the end of the day if we've done the best we can, we are leaving an impact on someone.  We may not know it, but we are.

So happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.  

You are winning every day.