I work on an event called Ignite Phoenix, in which 18 presenters go on stage to share their passions in 5-minute talks. We fill an 850 seat theater, manage tickets, create tshirts and programs, bring in local bands and food trucks, live-stream it in HD, and have an incredible evening. It takes a core team of about ten volunteers, and an extended team of about another dozen people, months of planning, meetings, fund raising, and coordination to create what I (admittedly biased) think is one of the best grass-roots events in Phoenix.
As things were winding down at Ignite Phoenix last Friday someone came up to me after the show and said “You probably hear this all the time, but that was a great show. Thanks for all your hard work putting it on!”
I replied quite honestly that No, we don’t hear it all the time but we always appreciate it when we do. I had someone else come to me and say she had been coming to our events for nearly two years but only just now got around to saying Hello.
We get a fair amount of kudos and recognition, but a lot of it is online. And when you work on something big you will always get complainers, who even if they are few in number are usually loud and bitchy.
It never fails to make my day to have someone come up to me personally and say Thank You.
Sadly, I’m guilty of not doing this often enough myself. If I have bad service at a restaurant I’ll complain quickly, but how often do I stop and give extra thanks when it is great?
Saying Thank You is a little thing that can mean a lot. Never pass up an opportunity to tell someone you appreciate what they do, even if you think they’ve heard it before.
Leave a Reply