In Business This is "As Good As It Gets!"

With a company that is reaching it 30^th year (hard to believe but true), and as the owner of that company, I have traveled many miles and interacted face-to-face with many event planners, very many. There are those who stand out in my mind and those who just stand out. BRAVO! is and continues to be one of those event planning companies that is superb. I have been involved with this company since 2007. Nancy Shaffer, Founder and CEO, is an amazingly talented woman who sought to use our company as a resource for high-quality awards. In my mind, she wanted awards that could match the quality of the events she produced. I think her work is stellar and I am proud that she considers mine the same.

We always hope to please our clients and when we do and they tell us so, it is particularly heart warming to all of us at MK Shannon Awards. You can work for money, most of us have no choice, but to work for things you love and to perform in a manner that you can be proud of is “as good as it gets” in business!

We recently received this email from Eldrina Jones, Chief Operating Officer of BRAVO! It was so touching I had to share it here. 

MK, I only speak the truth and when great client service is provided – I shout it from the hills. Too many times people only talk about the negative experiences and I am happy to acknowledge Kathleen and your entire team. I can see why she is your “right and left arm” – her warm and calm demeanor was always present on the phone.

We are a small business and know that every single person is vital for the body as a whole. These are the people that keep us going. We appreciate our BRAVO! family. Nancy and I have spent years nurturing the people who make our business.

I thank you MK for your artistry. It always brings a smile to our faces when we open the box. A bigger smile when we see such deserving people (as these honorees) who are most times overlooked, see these awards and hold them with such pride. That is when the joy is overflowing from the inside out.

We encourage our clients to use MK Shannon for their awards and will continue to spread the word.

Thank you MK.

Eldrina Jones

Chief Operating Officer BRAVO!

 


The following is our reply:

Eldrina, I trust that your awards will arrive safely and I am so pleased that you took the time to praise Kathleen. She is my "right and left arm", as you have witnessed. Everyone that works to make my designs into awards that you can present with honor to your recipients, deeply cares about making you proud. Very sweet of you to take the time to thank Kathleen; sincerely appreciate your business. ~MK

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Jamie Rose called me in October to ask about a bronze he acquired that had my signature and copyright. Once he described the piece, I smiled as I knew it was the first piece, and my favorite of all the 20 different bird images that I created for Shaklee Corporation. The Altus Awards were presented to their top sales people every year. Jamie seemed to love the lines of his piece, called Soaring, so much that I told him I would forward him another piece and his email below is the result of our interaction. It is a few moments with another mind that I will never forget and for which I am deeply appreciative. I am so glad Jamie Rose is on this planet!

Here's my email to Jamie:

Jamie, here is another old piece. I made this sculpture from a dream I had where I saw this image. I named it after my grandmother—"Alta". Also, I named it that because of the Spanish word (which means high or elevated). Anyway the piece has a head that shows only half of the face and the other half is an open space. I sculpted it without thinking. I saw the image in my mind and created it. Then someone asked me what the meaning was and I said, without hesitation, that half of the face is the part of us we know and the other space or half is the part we do not. We are always gaining self knowledge and forever having more to learn.~ MK

Alta by MK Shannon

Here's Jamie's response and description of Alta:

"MKWonderful! Thank you for sharing this image with me. At first the lighting/reflections gave me pause . . . but there is so much about it that resonates with me—your description and more so . . .
The universe—our existence our experience is both the ordered and the wildness together. 

And the 'open mind' half in the piece is our fill-able potential, still connected —with everything and within everything—sharing order, sharing disorder, at home with whatever meanings we come to terms with. :-) The head . . . seems poised astride; its tethered connection with Being and yet reaching beyond to . . . the rest of it.
Dreams and spontaneity are a gift of life, aren't they. Communicating the insights—a challenge. But it is imagery that lasts with people, and resonates.I've spent 66 years trying to get a message across on exactly the idea of this sculpture (albeit with words and mathematics—"Integrity Paradigm— understanding the integral universe" UIU)—so I definitely appreciate the challenge. :-) 

I am so glad to have connected with you around the eagle. It really means a lot to me. It's an elegant work. So hopeful in its sweeping lines. I wrote a poem back in the 60's about Yuri Gagarin that your sculpture made me remember. Because when he achieved orbit as the first human in space around the earth, he radioed back, "I am Eagle, I am Eagle" 'wingless and mystic he soared . . ." I always admired his exhilaration. 

And the sculpture's rough and reaching—curved base of the piece—is the earth below. I called her "horizon", the sleek and streaming active space beneath him- -lovers moving together in the stellar expanse, different from each other; separated but so closely connected. You captured that in your styling—both the soaring freedom, and the unbreakable connection. 

Please forgive me for adding this layer of personal relevance—your incredible story today literally took my breath away. All and so much happening and falling into place and opening up potential and opportunity for your life. You've had me smiling all day, and thanking life for hearing about such a phenomenal affirming experience. Just happy for you.(!) Don't know when or how but I will definitely act on your offer to meet at the foundry some day. I look forward to it. 

Stay incredible  :-)Jamie"