Miss Clipboard

Don't get mad...I haven't blogged in a year and a day and I apologize. Life is busier than expected but here is the LDSBA update:

LDSBA went SO well! We set up the day before in the hot, hot warehouse but it left way less work to do at 6 am the next morning. We set up for the breakfast and then bookstore owners, buyers and employees came in at 7 am for the breakfast. I had personally been working on the schedule for the the program so I was watching the clock...we definitely did not run on time. Surprised? Not really. We had a full blown program. Jericho Road, David Osmond and Alex Boye all performed and we had Paul Cardall speak as well as Heidi Swinton....author of President Monson's new biography To The Rescue. In case you didn't know...this is monumental! It is the 4th biography written about a living prophet. CEO Sheri Dew announced it at the breakfast. It was a great event and people reported that they could have stayed longer because they enjoyed it so much! They all received a bunch of free items including a few chapter teasers from President Monson's biography.

My responsibility for the event was to hand out the tickets. Once we cleared up the confusion of where I would hand them out, I got in the mode and went to town. I got to meet so many great people including amazing authors such as Gale Sears- The Silence of God, Chad Hawkins- The Mountain of the Lord, Wendie L. Edwards- Hidden Light (the first book of a volume 10 series!) and many others. I had the fortunate opportunity to chat with Gale while I was eating lunch and she was signing books. She is a great lady and very humble. Wendie is a creative genius who knows the scriptures so incredibly well! Her series is similar to the Left Behind series. So, if you are a fan of that, check her out! She is a super woman. I also got to chat a lot with Catherine Rae Purves, author of Libby Boom: I Want To Be Baptized. This is her first book and she is a DOLL. The book gave me chills when I read it. Before I even met her I looked at her poster with the book on it and thought, "That book will sell." I believe it will and we exchanged information and I will be blogging more about it in the near future.

The event lasted two days and it went way to fast. I was busy the whole time talking with people, answering questions, and dealing with some pretty cranky people who wanted a free book and signature. One of the executives reported that the marketing department did a great job and that they were impressed with the image that we displayed for the company. That is why I LOVE marketing. Job satisfaction is incredible. Looking back on that weekend I learned so many principles about preparation and delivery.

Principle #1: Being over prepared is important. I had the schedule in hand and I knew who was going up next and so anytime Roberta had a question she could ask me and I could answer. I am glad I brought that clipboard :)

Principle #2: If you don't know the answer to a question, GET IT! People would ask me questions that I didn't know the answer to but I would do everything to find it out including running across the convention center in 3 inch wedges to find whoever they needed to speak to.

Principle #3: Customer service pays off. There were people who missed their author signing and so I turned down a few people and apologized and then realized I could probably do more. I had the authors signs extra books and I would keep them with me to give out to the stragglers. I even ran back to the storage room to grab a book for a man and he thanked me profusely and even pulled me aside later the next day to thank me again.