Resort Marketing: A Day In The Life

Posted on April 13, 2009 by michelle.mack

grouse-view-from-peak It has been suggested I write more about my day. As the Marketing Services Manager for a mountain/ski area/attraction (sometimes I hate putting a title to it – it seems so limiting), I know many people are curious about how I spend my time. The truth is, it depends on the day and it depends on the season.

In reality, though, it’s not all resort marketing I guess; I do marketing for Grouse Mountain, but also for Whistler Water and Polaris Water ever since the owners purchased them in 2004.

Mondays I work at Whistler Water, so I’m not actually at the mountain today. It doesn’t much matter, though, because I could really work from anywhere and get the same stuff done – ah the beauty of the interwebs! Well, except that I’m most efficient while connected to the Grouse Mountain network for my email, files and FTP setup etc. I work on Grouse Mountain stuff from Whistler Water and Whistler Water stuff from Grouse Mountain; I also work on both from home when required.

Spring is a time of planning for me, so in amidst the regular marketing execution stuff are some larger projects, proposals, reports etc. to prepare for the year ahead, starting with the summer season. To make things more interesting, my colleague – the Marketing Specialist I work VERY closely with – is on a well-deserved vacation for over 3 weeks (two more to go) and I am doing a little more of the stuff she usually does while she’s gone: website edits, graphic layouts for ads and collateral materials, fulfilling logo and photo requests etc. so this is just today… tomorrow will be entirely different.

So here’s how today went down:

Work started around 8:30. I checked my email. I start with Twitter follow-backs because each adds an email to my inbox. As soon as they’re taken care of I can get the emails out of my inbox so I can see the actionable items facing me that day. I then check my Facebook fan pages for new wall posts or messages for Grouse Mountain, Grouse Mountain Terrain Parks and the Grouse Grind. Found the cutest posting from a guy who obviously developed a little crush on someone last time he came to the mountain. I love those kinds of messages I’ve seen so many proposal stories, wedding stories, relationships starting, first dates… my second date with my husband was on the Grouse Grind, incidentally.

After deleting the new Twitter follows I’m down to 11 emails in my inbox. I’m a little neurotic about filing emails.

I find an email from Google letting me know I need to renew my site search so I process the renewal but the credit card doesn’t go through… I re-process on another card. Now I’m hoping it doesn’t go through twice in the end. I file the emails for when Accounts payable wants to know what I bought before paying my credit card bill and then send an email to AP as a pre-emptive measure anyway.

I find an email that was sent to me Thursday evening asking for an ad to be prepared and submitted by first thing Monday morning; originally when I read it (from home on Good Friday) I read that it needed to be done ON Monday morning, not BY Monday morning… such a small but important detail. So I prepared the ad in InDesign (I use CS3) and submit it by about 10am.

I then checked my voicemail and realized there was something I should have called back about on Thursday. Oops. I have no idea how I could have missed a voicemail or left the office with one still on my phone, but such is life. Honestly, the phone is my least favourite communication tool; sometimes forget it exists. I like email; and I respond faster that way. I also get a running record of everything I’ve discussed, assigned or agreed to.

Next on the day’s agenda was updating the new Whistler Water community site with info about the Adopt An Athlete program and have the navigation updated throughout Whistler Water’s corporate website to take visitors to the new site.

I then make a quick update to the Grouse Mountain website with a message about the main Red Skyride maintenance beginning tomorrow.

While I’m doing web edits, I remember the next item on my outstanding to-do list: rebuilding a web page I built last Monday for the Polaris Water site. It is a little improvement to the private label water pages. I managed to lose almost 2 hours of work without saving… this time I CTRL+S’d in Dreamweaver a few times during the process. As an aside, if anyone is interested in ordering their own private label water, just let me know…

Sidetracked: Discussion with co-workers about Jian Ghomeshi’s interview with Billy Bob.

Finally I finished the Polaris Water website updates and moved all the updated files to the live site, then ate lunch at my desk while working. Lunch was way too small. Booked a yoga class online for tonight.

Had another conversation with my colleagues about art and music – one of my colleagues is a fairly well established singer/songwriter.

Stopped to check twitter and found the latest post from VanCityAllie on her surfing trip to Tofino for the Easter weekend – couldn’t help but indulge in a little read…

That was followed up by a long conversation with my colleagues about the differences in promotional needs for selling bottled water vs. selling a resort lifestyle experience. Definitely deep and definitely interesting, but not fodder for my blog.

It’s now coming up on 3pm.

After getting side tracked checking Twitter and Facebook and then checking the GrousePark admin for new posts and stats while I was in there, and then reading How to Make Money with SEO from Seth Godin, I am now working on an e-commerce requirements report. I would like to get it finished and sent out for estimating soon. I’ve finished most of how I want the e-commerce stuff to work, but I’m working on writing out the CRM elements I’d like to include.

Now it’s 3:10pm and while the E-Commerce report is begging to be worked on, I think I’ll go get a cup of tea before I start… Can you tell I’m stalling? Why is that?

Oh yeah, and I returned a call to someone from a large resort not to far from here who will be involved in a major world-scale winter event in the not too distant future in our general locale, who wanted to look at cross-promotional ideas. Now my brain is pondering hiking and wind turbines and all sorts of upcoming stuff rather than e-commerce and CRM. But I digress…

Before I start adding to my report, I read through a bunch of info on CRM Trends to make sure what I want is actually what I want. And, woah, now it’s 4:30. Lots of good info there interspersed with some comical conversation with my boss about ears on posts, mobile payment solutions and bathing cats (thanks to Jess Sloss for the cats link).

I almost don’t have any time left to actually finish writing the CRM portion of my report, but I sure do have more things to think about and include.

Tomorrow will be an entirely different day. Here’s the agenda:

Morning meeting about Tourism Vancouver’s new online advertising
Vancouver Restaurant Awards in the afternoon
Conclusion of staff day on the mountain after the restaurant awards
Try and finish my e-commerce/CRM report
Work on my social media report (that’s a whole new blog entry on its own)
Process a bunch of outstanding invoices before my accounting department freaks out

I’m not sure if it’s interesting or not. I do know, though, that the variety of different areas my job touches on keeps me excited. There’s a great variety between quick and easy check-them-off-my-list types of tasks and bigger projects that require a lot of deep thought. It also allows me to use my love of communicating with people as well as my technology-prone curiosities to solve probems… I consider creative problem solving one of my biggest strengths to be honest.

So there you have it. Hope it was interesting to you.

I’d love to see some track backs to a day in the life at your job…

Giving Up Our Vices

Posted on April 6, 2009 by michelle.mack

Vice:

a practice or habit considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness and corruption. The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means “full of vice”. In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning “failing or defect”. Vice is the opposite of virtue. [Wikipedia]

Okay, well… maybe drinking excessive amounts of coffee is not a vice. I mean, drinking coffee is part of the fabric of Vancouver society, so it’s most certainly not “degrading in the associated society”. But it’s not particularly beneficial to one’s physiology is it?

Photo: g-monkey on Flickr

Do you ever stop and take stock in the things you rely on to feel good? That glass of wine at dinner that has slowly evolved into a half bottle? That 3pm chocolate fix? Those cigarettes you hate but love all at the same time? I think it’s important to look at all those things we rely on and try and think of what we stand to gain from them? Is there a way to get that ‘thing’ from something healthier? Is there another way to deal with the state of mind that made us want that ‘thing’ in the first place?

I have come to a place where each morning I make a very strong cup of coffee in my French press. Then, when I get to work, I drink a quad-shot Americano from Starbucks. It started as a harmless few-times-a-week Grande (3-shot) but slowly evolved over time into a daily ritual. Then Starbucks started making espresso shots in twos and the 4th shot came to me free… that’s how these things tend to go. But not only does that cost me nearly $50/month, it’s just become a habit that serves no real benefit.

Today is my first day without the Americano in a long time… and I’m fuzzy-headed and easily distracted. Now, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and I worked a good chunk over the weekend, but I’m really less productive today than I usually am. I’m craving a coffee so bad I’m irritable and I have a mild headache from the lack of caffeine. If that alone isn’t indication I should consider dealing with this relatively newfound addiction I don’t know what is.

Besides, I take my coffee with half and half cream and sugar, so the calories also pack a bit of a punch out of my day. I estimate my daily Americano to be about 150 calories. If I have one 300 days of each year, that’s about 12 lbs worth of calories right there… another good reason to favour green tea instead.

What are your bad habits? Are you ready to give them up?

Dreaming of Warmer Climates

Posted on April 3, 2009 by michelle.mack

Given our recent Vancouver weather, and a request to see the photos from my vacation to Cancun this past January, I thought a little reminiscing wouldn’t be out of order.

Everyone knows I love my job, but honestly if I could figure out how to move to some tropical destination and do resort marketing while my husband works as a divemaster/scuba instructor I’d be all packed. Without thinking twice. That said, we face a bit of an added challenge in that wherever life takes us, we need to stay connected to Canada and our awesome medical system here. Our son has hemophilia, and while his condition is mild, we’re super blessed to have all his treatment costs covered without added insurance.

Here are some of my favourite photos.

We stayed at the Crown Paradise Club Resort because they have a baby club for kids 18 months to 3 years; most resorts’ kids clubs are for kids 4 & up.

The weather was a little stormy the first few days, but it was still warm and mostly dry. Well, except for in the ocean… here is my son’s first trip into the surf with my husband; he’s not quite 3 in this pic. What you can’t see is that immediately after that, mini-man fell off of daddy’s back and tumbled through the surf. After that he said quite calmly as water still dripped off his eyelashes, “I don’t like the waves.” Yeah, I don’t blame you, kid. Little rough.

He did thoroughly enjoy the sand, though…

One of the days we were there we took a day trip on the Lupita Trimaran to Isla Mujeres:

This is what the water looks like between Cancun and Isla Mujeres:

We enjoyed a beer at a little cantina; we sat just to the right in this photo – at the end of the dock I stood on to get this pic:

… while mini-man had a nap.

After his nap, we went to a private beach where we had a buffet lunch (mediocre at best) and I took the opportunity to take mini-man out for a little paddle.

It’s really hard to give a two year old a ‘time-out’ in Cancun. I sat him on a ledge for misbehaving. Within seconds he was saying, “Look mommy, I found a shell!”

This was our second trip to Cancun; next time we go I think I’d like to spend the whole vacation on Isla Mujeres. It’s just beautiful there.

If you’d like you can see more photos on my Flickr stream.

The Break Up: Dear Snow

Posted on April 1, 2009 by michelle.mack

Photo: Powi on Flickr

Dear Snow,

We need to talk… Now, you know I love you, right? I have for a really long time. There are days each year when I just long to be with you… to feel your cool fluffiness on my tongue as I look skyward and to hear the sweet sound of silence as you cover the ground and a little pitter-patter as you gently touch my coat.

But here’s the thing… somehow we seem to have become exclusive when I really wanted to keep things light. It seems sometimes like you want more of my life than I’m prepared to really give, you know? I think we should see other elements.

I’ve begun thinking a lot more lately about Sun.

There’s something I never told you: Sun and I had a brief but oh-so-memorable affair in January. It was just me and Sun for a whole week… we enjoyed drinks on the beach, swimming, and just chilling together. I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s me… I just need something different right now.

Maybe we can pick things up again next November… but for now I think we need to take a break. I hope you can understand.

With love,

Michelle

Self Preservation Through Sport

Posted on March 14, 2009 by michelle.mack

Photo: m_e_l_o_d_y on Flickr

I remember a childhood filled with sport. Is it just me?

I don’t remember having to drag my butt off the couch and give myself a self-pep-talk in order to get outside and enjoy myself. Do you?

I tried gymnastics, ice skating, roller skating (and not the inline variety – yes, I’m that old!), soccer, ballet, swimming, t-ball, track & field, skiing and basketball. My brother and my friends and I used to ride our bikes everywhere we went and walk to and from school about a mile each way. Being active was just a part of childhood.

Now I’m really going to sound old, but when I was a kid the TV programming was pretty bad (made worse by watching on a black & white TV), the closest we came to viable video games was Atari and Coleco Vision and a cassette tape only held about 20 songs. We didn’t get a computer until I was about 10 and then it had a tape drive and games included Pong and Space Invaders. Just. Not. Worth. It.

Anyway, back to sports…

Photo: carf on Flickr

There are certainly times in my life when I’ve been more active than at other times. When I was in elementary school I was always involved in at least one sport at any given moment. Through high school, however, I was much less involved as music became the centre of my world. At the end of high school, I joined the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves (to be a musician, actually) and found out just how unfit I had become. Wowza. Basic Training sure served to remind me of the need for a physical existence and awakened in me something I needed to explore.

I took up kickboxing in 2000, just before I turned 25. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. There’s something about martial arts training that really helps you to feel good about yourself and what your body is capable of. From there I added running and yoga. Running seems to feed my soul somehow – it’s so primal – and it also doesn’t hurt that it burns a crapload of calories. Yoga is a great complement to running in that it helps stretch out all the muscles that tend to want to shorten when I run. Add in my love of snowboarding in the winter and even the odd day kayaking in the summers and I feel my life has been enriched tremendously by these activities.

When I don’t get to participate in sport of some kind my life feels out of balance.

It’s so easy to say, “I don’t have any time for exercise.” The truth is, you have to make time. You wouldn’t say, “I just don’t have time to shower regularly so I don’t do it.” You would be gross. But what’s happening to your insides, your cells, your organs, your skin? What’s happening inside your body when you don’t make time for exercise? It isn’t pretty.

In my opinion, sport is the way to self-preservation, and I don’t think active living needs to be as hard as people make it out.

Photo: CasaDeQueso on Flickr

Photo: targophoto.com on Flickr

Now, if you’re anything like me you’d rather cut off your left arm than spend an hour on a cardio machine at the gym and follow it up with a series of weightlifting sets while staring at the spandex-clad fitness model doing one-armed pushups in the mirror. Forget gyms. Go elsewhere.

Going back to that childhood thing… we played sports, we made up games, we lived actively. We didn’t sit so still during the day we had to plan in a trip to a ‘fitness facility’ at the end of it else our muscles would atrophy. I think everyone needs to make it their goal to find a sport they enjoy and participate whenever possible. I don’t think this is an option; it’s absolutely imperative.

If you don’t like it, you won’t do it. If you don’t do it, it’s like not showering. But if you search and you find, I guarantee your life will be enriched and you will likely live longer.

Here are just some ideas for non-gym sports and activities you might enjoy, even if you hate the gym:

Kickboxing/tae-kwon-do/karate/muay thai (hard style martial arts)
Tai Chi/Kung-Fu/Capoeira (softer style martial arts)
Yoga (so many great styles to choose)
Ballet/hip-hop/belly dancing/pole dancing
Walking/running/hiking/trail running
Skiing/snowboarding/telemark/cross-country skiing/snowshoeing
Ice skating/hockey/curling
Swimming/diving
Cycling/Cross-Country or Downhill Mountain Biking
Softball/Baseball
Soccer (indoor or outdoor)
Surfing/Wind Surfing/Kite Surfing
Rock Climbing/Ice Climbing/Mountaineering
Kayaking/Canoeing/Rowing/Dragon Boating
Scuba Diving
Water Skiing/Wakeboarding
Bowling/Lawn Bowling
Ultimate Frisbee
Football/Flag Football
Volleyball
Tennis/Badminton/Ping Pong
Squash/Handball/Racketball
Horseback Riding/Water Polo
Golf

There really is no need to ever set foot in a gym again if you don’t enjoy it.

I’m going to continue running and snowboarding when time permit, hitting the odd yoga class as I can fit it in and hiking the Grouse Grind once the trail opens. What do you like to do to stay active and enrich your life?

Belly Laughs

Posted on March 4, 2009 by michelle.mack

Do you ever just need a good laugh?

I do. All the time. And there are times, particulary when I’m stressed out, that I enjoy a good laugh more than others. So yesterday, I put out a question to my trusty Twitter followers, asking for them to hook me up with laugh links.

Here’s what they came up with…

The first is from Failblog, where I should always remember to go when I feel a need to take myself to the edge of peeing my pants:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYckGMNknQw

Then, my friend Karl Woll of Outdoor Vancouver sent me this Excessive Ping Pong Celebration video… which gets funnier and funnier the more you watch it, particularly when you realise the music is edited in for the video and this guy was celebrating to just the music in his own head.

This next video made me laugh so hard I felt uncomfortable but did manage to forward it to my one black colleague… I figured he’d get as much of a kick out of it as the Stuff White People Like blog he was enjoying in the office a couple of weeks ago.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWblCaFL1lc

Next up, dinosaurs, pigs, farts and stuff…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWRDjTm1wto

Then this one shows how I feel during the night with a snoring husband, only this baby is cuter than I am and doesn’t assault the snorer with a poorly disguised kick.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUVwfp8gF8

The Piece de Resistance was this offering from @GodFodder who sent me a Whose Line Is It Anyway sketch featuring Richard Simmons… worthy of forwarding all ’round the office. Not sure my General Manager really thought it was as funny as I did, but whatev.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ_lXJTaT5g

I still maintain laughter is good for the soul.

Longing for Simpler Days

Posted on February 27, 2009 by michelle.mack

Do you ever find yourself at the end of the day Sunday wondering where your weekend went? Or worse? Going into the weekend feeling overwhelmed at all that has to take place during those two prescious days off?

My husband and I both work full time. And sometimes we can find outselves with a lot of stuff that needs doing on the weekends. I admit we don’t get enough chores done during the week. I always have aspirations to do more but my hobbies and pet projects usually get my attention instead – I opt for a workout instead of tidying my kitchen or blogging instead of vaccuuming.

But what happens, is we end up with the lion’s share of chores needing doing on the weekend. It sometimes feels like we don’t have much time for fun.

Now, part of our challenge is that mini-man still naps, so we have a 2 hour chunk during the middle of each day where we can’t plan on being anywhere. But we’re not very good at using that time wisely either. I don’t know… maybe we’re just lazy. I find the running around shopping and errands of a Saturday morning lead me to want to chill out during that coveted noon naptime rather than, say, scrub my toilet bowl.

To keep the quality in our lives, we try and do one fun thing as a family each weekend, if only for a couple of hours. Sometimes we’ll go swimming, or we’ll go to a park, or an indoor play area when the weather’s bad. There’s storytime at the local library, or even just playing a round of Wii Bowling. I think it’s more important to spend time together than it is that your home is just so.

Having my son in daycare every day gets me down sometimes. He’s there 9 hours each day Monday through Friday, and sadly, we couldn’t live in the community we do – where I grew up and grew to love – if I quit my job to stay home with him… or my husband did. But sometimes I long for a simpler life.

Just yesterday I found myself wanting to pack up and move.

In the meantime, however, I remind myself of how blessed I am to have a good job in this current world, to live in a beautiful community in a great city, to be happily married with a beautiful son… to have a loving and helpful extended family. And while I do find myself longing for simpler days, I still hold out hope that one day I’ll find that beautiful place of balance.

Grouse Mountain Zipline Preview

Posted on February 14, 2009 by michelle.mack

Yesterday was another one of those perks-on-the-job days. A definite fun one.

A group of media visiting from various parts of the world visited Grouse Mountain as part of their Vancouver visit to preview all the city has to offer visitors during the 2010 Winter Olympics. As part of the Communications Team I was invited to help escort the group to the mountaintop, ensure everyone got to where they were supposed to go while acquiring the gear they needed and then… yes, I got to ride the two brand new ziplines that haven’t yet opened to the public right along with them.

The Air Grouse Mountain Ziplines opnened in 2008 with 3 lines – a trainer line, a line across the mountaintop Blue Grouse Lake and a 3rd line back across the lake; those three lines constituted ‘Phase ONE’. Construction of the 4th and 5th lines, referred to as ‘Phase TWO’ was underway during the summer and completed late in the fall… just in time for ski season.

Yesterday was the first trip across the lines for anyone not involved in their construction or operation. I was thrilled to have an opportunity to participate in this historic event. Another reason I love my job!

Here is a video of the entire 5th line that runs from Dam Mountain to The Peak of Grouse Mountain. Off to the right there is a beautiful view of West Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768QpSS7FAk

[video]

If you get the opportunity, you should try this. Grouse Mountain operates the only ziplines in the Vancouver area and they really are a blast.

The Sweet Sound of Serenity

Posted on February 4, 2009 by michelle.mack

Photo: just.K on Flickr

I’ve been noticing more and more how music is a unique and vital part of my life. It’s what moves me, what relaxes me, what compels me and what frees me from the world around me.

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was little I’d wake up to my dad playing beautiful classical or big band jazz on his stereo; he had a giant record collection. Sometimes he would play the radio, but whatever was on added something that warmed our home and all of us in it. That’s actually one of my fondest memories of my childhood: waking up to my dad’s music and seeing him sitting at the dining table, grading papers or writing report cards.

I started playing piano when I was 6. I always grumbled about practicing, but I loved playing duets with my brother and my friend Sarah, with whom I took lessons. The first pop music I remember was the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album in 1983 – I was 8. Around 10 years old I was firmly enjoying the Mini-Pops, my friend’s parents’ ABBA albums and playing air guitar with the neighbourhood boys. It was also at that age that I started playing the trumpet in the school band.

Photo: papalars on Flickr

In high school I discovered my talent for singing but was way too shy to use it. I did a couple of musical productions and sung in a few school talent shows and whatnot; but mostly I stuck to my trumpet and various bands I was a part of. I played in school concert band, jazz band, orchestra, and a community band… at one point I played in all 4 at the same time. I was never a particularly great trumpet player but loved it anyway. I still didn’t enjoy practicing much – probably because the sound of a trumpet alone didn’t move me… but when I played with a full band that was when the music would awaken something in me.

I still play now.

The thing I’ve noticed about music is that it calms me in the midst of life’s turmoil, deadlines, busy-ness, and stress. It is physically impossible for me to think about other things while I play. I’m thinking about sound, tuning, the notes, the rhythm, the dynamics, the emotion… I can’t think about my work, my worries. I can’t think about my shortcomings or my failures, my insecurities or even my hopes and dreams. It’s just me and the music right there in that moment: the sweet sound of serenity.

Music has become my escape. It’s the only time I can truly turn off all the other thoughts that swirl around my head constantly. For that couple of hours every Monday night when I rehearse with my band it’s like the world fades away and I get to recharge. During those precious times when we play for an audience the expectation challenges me, awakens me, thrills me.

It’s the same, incidentally, when I sing at my church. In that moment, I feel like I was created to make music. Nothing more, nothing less. And lately I’ve been feeling a calling to write. I feel like there are songs inside of me that someone needs to hear… like a message to someone I don’t yet know.

Photo: kayugee on Flickr

I am so moved when people play a beautiful melody or sing with passion; it’s like you can see their soul… like you can hear it. Like parts of them are stripped away and all that’s left is the heart and their intentions. Even when I was very young I found myself crushing on boys who played beautiful solos because in that short span of time, they were just their authentic selves. And while at this point in my life I’ve long passed the adolescent homonal rampages, the beauty of that glimpse into a person’s soul hasn’t faded for me. It’s still something I cherish. I see it in my brother, whose gentleness emerges in the sound of his trombone; I see it in the faces of my musician friends when they play from the heart.

It’s a part of every musician… and it’s very special.

Video Edit: Grouse Mountain Terrain Park

Posted on February 1, 2009 by michelle.mack

I had to post this somewhere when I found it. It’s probably one of the best amateur edits I’ve seen from Grouse Mountain’s Quiksilver Terrain Park. It’s also got some fantastic footage from the January 2009 temperature inversion where the city was blanketed in fog while the mountain was super sunny and warm:

The Introduction from Boss Media on Vimeo.

The amount of skill, talent and passion that comes out of these young guys who ski and ride the parks continues to amaze me. I love being a part of this industry.

im.seeking.balance

The Life of Michelle Mackintosh | Faith, Family & Fulfillment

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