Date: Friday, Aug 29, 2006
Time: 6:00pm-10:00 pm
Venue: Mynt Lounge (www.myntbar.com )
555 Davie Street, Vancouver
Who: Event planners, Public Speakers, PR Professionals, Media and Social Butterfly Club members, only space for 220!
Includes: Appies, 1 drink, door prizes and entertainment.
High Light: Launch of the new GH brand (website, logo, etc), Announce winner for the Chinglish Scavenger Hunt.
Attire: Black, Red and Silver only, come in your best, Prize for the best dressed for guys and girls.
Sponsored by: Vancouver View Magazine, Modern Love, Sasha's Secrets, Cea Swim, One Hour Cards, Shark Energy Drink.
Cost: Complimentary

Are you a fan of the Telus animal ads? I love the
Telus monkeys, and smile each time I see their
commercial or billboard ad. What Telus has done
brilliantly through this marketing series is associate
the good feeling people get from seeing baby animals
to their company. These ads also use old favorite
disco pop songs to bring you a sense of familiarity.
In marketing, we call that positive association.

If you’re not a Fortune 500 corporation and do not
have the budget for expensive ads, is it still
important for you to have a brand? The answer is:
YES, definitely!!!

REASONS:
1) Every piece of marketing you present (your business
card, ad, brochure, email, phone calls, trade show
booth, website, proposal, thank you card) should be
consistent in its look and feel. The quality of
paper, color, spacing, etc should be the same
everytime and for everything. Most major companies
have a brand standard book that indicates exactly what
and how to use the logo etc. in all their
communications. If you don’t pay attention to detail
in your own presentation, how much detail will you pay
attention to on the job you deliver for your clients?
2) People need 7 touch points with your brand before
they buy, so make it easy for them to remember you by
using a brand. Instead of simply “You know, I’m Joe
the plumber, one in two thousand”, let them see your
unique logo, slogan, web address, or image that’s
associated with your company.
3) People receive and learn information in different
ways. Some are visual or auditory creatures, while
others are kinesthetic (by touch) or learn through
interaction. This means that your communication piece
should offer information in various formats to please
all demographics of learning types.
4) Having a logo, slogan, catchy nickname, or
signature piece (wearing hats each time you go out, or
smoking cigars all the time like George Burns) will
help you to stand out from the rest. You might be
remembered for your unique voice, accent, or witty
humour. These are easier to remember than your
company sometimes, especially if your corporate name
is long and wordy.
5) People are doing business mainly on the web these
days, and many do not have offices or storefronts
anymore. As a result, the level of professionalism
displayed by your website is the level at which your
business will be perceived by your clients. So make
it count.
6) Branding is how you can effectively attract
clientele from your target market and earn more money
at what you do. When you have the right marketing
tools to clearly communicate to and draw in your ideal
clients, you will not need to sell anymore, but simply
present.

You might be thinking, look who’s talking?! I’ll
admit, at this point, my branding is not all together,
and it's for that reason that I’m in the process of
rebranding Gracious Host Events. I’m working with
Dave Childs from Living Blue Print to redesign my
brand, which will include new business cards, a new
website, brochure, portfolio, and letterheads. I’ve
met a lot of graphic designers in my travels, but he
is something different. As a branding specialist, he
understands that all my communication pieces have to
work together, instead of each design being unique and
different and innovative. He has worked with many
high end realtors (ex: www.karenknowles.ca) , and has
earned a reputation for his superb work. If you’d like to
find out more, please visit www.livingblueprint.com.
We, the Gracious Host team, will be launching the new
brand at our 3 Year Anniversary Celebration event ~
"Evolution": on Friday, Sept 29, at Mynt Lounge located
at 555 Davie Street, Vancouver from 6pm-1am.

English is not my first language, and even though I
have a degree in Communications and have taken several
courses in Grammar, Writing and Style, and more, I
can't seem to shake my Chinglish writing habits
(Definition of "Chinglish": when English and Chinese
is combined in writing or speech. Often retains
certain phrases, sentiments, or ESL issues).
Unfortunately, people seem to notice my Chinglish
writing the most through my Social Butterfly Club
Events Calendars and Newsletters. I’ve decided to
hire a professional editor consistently from now on,
but to celebrate the end of your Chinglish nightmares,
we have a contest for you!
Contest Title: Gracious Host Chinglish Scavenger Hunt
Who can enter: Everyone
Goal: Find the best paragraph or phrase of Chinglish
from past publications of Social Butterfly Club
communication.
Judging Process: Submissions will be posted on the
Gracious Host Website for Social Butterfly Club
members will view and vote via email ballots.
Judged on: how bad the grammar, spelling, typo or any
other writing mistake was, and if it is funny.
Winning Prize: Two Cineplex movie tickets with drink
and pop corn, and dinner for two at the Hilton Airport
Hotel in Richmond.
Open for submissions: September 1, 2006-Sept 22, 2006
Winner will be announced on Friday, Sept 29 at the 3
Year Anniversary Party: "Evolution" at Mynt Lounge.
BONUS: The first person to enter the Chinglish
Scavenger Hunt will receive a $50 gift certificate
from Fitness on the Go and a frisbee, courtesy of
Fitness on the Go and Gracious Host Events.

Last Saturday, we joined our friend Robert at a live
auction from 10am-noon, and brought home great
treasures for $450. I could not believe how much
beautiful antique and unique furniture, silver,
accessories, and art were at the auction! Most bids
started at $20. The tension was thick in the air, and
the auctioneers were holding up each piece and
describing it in great detail. I loved the poker
faces people wore, but when there is a bidding war,
you could see the arched eyebrows and clenching of the
fist. I was so happy that we got a dark navy blue
leather sofa and loveseat set for $80. We also won
the bid for a 16 piece silver set for $35. Now all I
have to do is learn how to sell things on
www.craigslist.com or ebay! If you’re looking for
some weekend entertainment and enjoys bargain hunting,
give live auctions a try. You can buy cars,
jewellery, technology gadgets, and more (tip: the RCMP
and Airports are famous for these auctions. Look for
them in the newpapers).

My mentor Albert Koopman lent me a book called " The
Sacred Journey: You and Your Higher Self", by Lazaris.
I've garnered many gems of wisdom from reading this,
and I’m not even finished.

Definition of New Age: a movement in the late 20th
Century when people willingly and joyously accept
personal responsibility for the world they are in and
have created. Then they begin a powerful personal
journey, using choice and decision, thought and
feeling, attitude and belief as the raw material of
change. They sculpt and carve and chisel their
reality with desire, expectation and imagination.
They create their own reality out of Dreams and
Visions.

Some may be better at creating their realities than
you, the difference is in their application of the
tools. They apply the tools more diligently with
greater intention, and with great vision. You need to
understand not only how to create but why you’re
creating this reality. Once you understand the why,
then you can re-create that same reality over and
over.

Spirituality is your relationship with the Source,
with the Love, with God/Goddess/All That Is. Being a
spiritually alive human being means someone who is
continuously seeking, finding, and then seeking all
over again a new and deeper loving relationship with a
very personal and caring God/Goddess/All That Is.
This is the Sacred Journey Home. The first step
towards that is practicing loving in all aspects.
Love yourself, and everyone you interact with, because
being willing to give love and being willing to
receive love are the greatest motivators, the greatest
fuel, of transformation. Being loved - letting
someone love you - is the most mystical and magical
power of transformation. Love allows miracles to
happen.

1) Security: Physical, emotional, intellectual, and
intuitive safety for yourself and for another. This
is where love begins.
2) Pleasure: To give, respond, respect, or know
yourself or someone else so as to provide them with
short and long-term pleasure – to be intimate, to be
committed, and to care for yourself or another so that
you and they feel pleasure.
3) Honesty & Vulnerability: To make it alright to let
down the walls of defense. To let it be all right to
be totally open and honest. To provide the space to
expose your anxieties and doubts without fear.
4) Trust: A most powerful energy you can give youself.
A most beautiful gift for others.
5) Reduced Fear of Loss: The fear of losing something
so valuable is terrifying. When you love someone all
fears evaporate, except one: The fear of loss is the
only fear that increases as love increases. The
answer is to give, respond, respect.. and care! For
love to be more than a word, it should work at
reducing the very fear it produces.
6) Intimacy and Caring: Act in such a way so as to
create a resonance of closeness and tenderness, to
create a resonance of freedom and safety.
7) Knowing: To communicate - to be empathic. Let
the other know that you know them. Let them know you
see their beauty, and the not-so-beautiful side, and
you love them anyway. With self-love, admit your
strength and love it. Admit your weakness. Admit
your ugliness, and love it. It is easy to love the
beauty, but the ugliness needs love and acceptance,
too.

1) Give: Give physically, emotionally, intellectually,
and intuitively.
2) Respond: Be responsible to yourself and then to
others.
3) Respect: You show respect when you allow others to
express and release what they honestly feel. Honor
your own emotions and the emotions of the others whom
you want to love.
4) Know: You know someone by either inflicting pain or
through seeking understanding. You’re not in this
world to be understood. You’re here to be
understanding.
5) Have the Humility to be Intimate: Humility is the
willingness to see each day as being brand new. It is
the willingness to let people change instead of
insisting that they can never change. Be humble
enough to be close, tender, and vulnerable with
yourself and with those about whom you care.
6) Commitment: Have the courage to commit.
7) Care: Honestly open your heart and mind and begin
caring for yourself and others.

**Excerpts and teachings from “The Sacred Journey”, by
Lazaris.

Quote of the Month:

"No one is in control of your happiness but you;
therefore, you have the power to change anything about
yourself or your life that you want to change."

Barbara DeAngelis
Author

Please RSVP for my 3 Year Anniversary Party: Evolution
via email, Sponosorship opportunity avaliable!

ps: I've attached the Toastmaster International Fall Conference
Sponsorship Package for you, please consider this as a great
marketing investment. Thank you.

Alice Zhou
Vancouver's Networking Queen
Gracious Host Events
Tel 604 676-1587
Cel 604 773-5231
alice@gracioushost.ca
www.gracioushost.ca