Dear Blogger…#ILoveYou

pay-it-forwardIt was one of those weeks where you wake up staring at strange, fancy furniture and forget what city you’re in. Where you take the elevator downstairs and unconsciously sit at the same corner table each morning for good people watching and some sense of familiarity. One where you sleep just enough to maintain the ability to form full sentences, but not enough to completely shed that bleary, red-eyed look that will be forever captured in recap reports. And stay there for long enough to start calling this odd, yet cushy place “home” when you describe where you are headed in the evening.

Full disclosure, these weeks are decidedly harder when there are sweet munchkins waiting for you with hugs and cheers at your real home.

I spent the week with my incredible Wines from Rioja team organizing a series of events that make up Rioja Week in Chicago – from a ~2,000-person wine and tapas festival with endless opportunities to pair tasty wines with cured pork and beyond, to an intimate winemaker luncheon with the sweetest bodegas principals in the world, to endless media interviews in a speed dating format. It was fast-paced, exciting, delicious and not just a little bit exhausting.

One day after getting home, my media teammate and I received the loveliest note from a blogger who will remain anonymous for the sake of this post (although honestly, she deserves a hug for this one). It made it all worth it, honestly. A marketer by day and a lifestyle blogger by night, she asked my colleague to forward the email to the entire team, her supervisor and the CEO of our company. She then laid down some of the most delicious and satisfying high fives imaginable.

Here’s an excerpt from the email:

Thank you very much for the opportunity to meet the wonderful Rioja winemakers on Saturday, as well as today!  As a professional marketer in my day job, as well as through the blog (which I’m excited to write a blog post about), I have to commend both of you for a wonderful event.  I’ve worked in marketing for quite some time and can only appreciate (and imagine) the hard work that PR folks such as yourself do. Throughout my career, I have to say you two were the most professional, organized, friendly, and upbeat.  A superb event such as the Rioja tasting on Saturday and the luncheon today can only be produced by extremely talented and professionals, as yourself. Keep up the good work!

we-must-find-time-to-stop-and-thank-the-people-who-make-a-difference-in-our-livesNow, I’m not posting this to pat my team on the back. I mean, I totally think we crushed it on this one, but that’s not the point. The point is, we PR people often work ourselves to the bone to produce seamless events, countless media interactions and wonderful coverage with, let’s face it, very little recognition. We usually move right on to the next thing without missing a beat. We hope someone noticed, make a sweet recap report, but typically the months of work result in a team hoorah, maybe a round of drinks, and then discussion about how it could have been better.

NOT. THIS. TIME. This time, a beautiful soul wrote this beautiful letter. She didn’t have to do it. Many might have had the thought but kept it to themselves out of shyness or busyness. But she spoke up and it meant the world.

So, thank you to our new blogger friend. You are awesome.

 

Photo credit: Moonjoggers.com and quotlr.com.

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