Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The love of planning

I love planning. I adore how my calendar already has bookings until November. With the exception of April, I can tell you what I am doing almost every week and weekend until the 2009 holiday season. Sick, right? Nah, I love it.

And even more so, I love complex planning. For work, I have been culling together a team in pursuit of a large contract I was alerted to back in August. This past fall, I gathered multiple team members from my federal practice segment and hosted a strategy meeting. Since the new fiscal year, I followup with potential teaming partners on a monthly basis, and I am glued to all federal programming intel coming from the beltway—esp. in light of the new administration’s economic stimulus plans and evaluation of DoD and DHS components’ budgets. I have lived, breathed, and dreamt about this pursuit. And today, a final piece of the puzzle was delivered to me, wrapped in a bow. I finished my three day stint in Anchorage on a high note. I hosted a meeting with a big wig at another firm. My boss and my new office manager decided to tag along (no pressure, pshaaawww). The big wig and his marketing coordinator, whom I had met before but for a different pursuit, greeted me warmly, and I felt comfortable immediately. I was there to sell a partnership and slip tidbits to persuade them that URS (me) had the intel and know-how to approach and win this valuable and crucial work.

Hook, line, sink ‘er. I got ‘em. I got them so well that my new office manager high-fived me as soon as the elevator doors closed. . Yes, I did the happy dance in response. I was ecstatic and charged with closing the deal asap. Even on the flight home to Kodiak, I opened the laptop and drafted the follow-up email with the information they requested.

A shout out to Flo: forget project management. Focus on honing your subject matter expertise and continue charming the socks off of anyone in your path.

3 comments:

Tidden Tales said...

I'm giving you a internet high five.... did you get it? :) I'm so proud of you

Flo said...

Heck yeah! Another internet high five from me, congratulations!! I'll try learning the charm factor but since I'm going down the public affairs route, the scope of subject matter is pretty slim lol I'm so so proud of you, congrats again!

Mom said...

Rain, Sleet, Snow, etc. nothing is going to keep her from ...

The Eveready Bunny...

I am Woman, hear me Roar, get out of my Way.

Either way you look at it, Christina Rocks! HT,SS,Ruff