The BEST Office Christmas Party EVER!
Stephen doesn’t know I’m making a “guest” post on
our Rainmaker blog today, but I just had to
share this with you... 
I'm the Director of Marketing at The Rainmaker Institute and I just wanted to tell everyone that last Friday I attended the BEST office holiday party EVER and I really wanted to share what our CEO, Stephen, did to make this office tradition so exciting and special for all of us this year.
We had about half of our Team members meet up in Phoenix for our annual Christmas party. Not everyone could make it as we are a hybrid company—half of us are in Phoenix, but the other half live all around the country. However, some of our Team came from as far away as Chicago and Philadelphia to attend!
After a great meal, we all participated in our usual white elephant gift exchange that included some good-natured “stealing” and side deals. Stephen’s Executive Assistant, Maria, thought we could spice up the luncheon with a little holiday karaoke so Kenny, one of our Rainmaker Advisors, brought his impressive music equipment and had the ensemble all set up at the front of the room ready to go.
After we concluded the white elephant frivolity, Stephen gave a touching and heartfelt thank you to The Rainmaker Institute Team for their collective efforts in the record-breaking success the company has achieved this year (in case you didn’t hear, we doubled our revenues in the last 6 months)!
THEN, he announced we would begin the second half of the party...but we would NOT be singing karaoke! I'm pretty sure I heard several audible sighs of relief.
We adjourned to another room that had 3 six-foot tables filled with wrapped gifts!
By the way—NOBODY knew about this...not even Maria! How Stephen arranged all of this without her help is beyond belief! Sometimes it seems he can hardly walk out the door without asking Maria where he's going first (just kidding Stephen, not really).
Stephen announced that we were doing ANOTHER gift exchange, except he was providing all of the gifts! He shared that there were over $4,000 in items up for grabs and that nothing was valued less than $100. You could feel the excitement building in the room!
As people were called up one by one, they had the opportunity to either steal someone’s gift or select a new one from the table.
I was the first one to go and opened up a gift card that included $100 in Wal-Mart gift cards—which drew a lot of laughs as I am NOT ALLOWED to shop at Wal-Mart as my husband has worked for one of their fierce competitors for 30 years!
Some items were quickly out of circulation as they were “stolen” the maximum number of times. First to go were 2 Southwest airline tickets that included two free round-trip tickets to anywhere Southwest flies! They were hidden inside a piece of luggage with a cryptic message to ‘pack your bags.” Nice!
Next to go was a brand new Visio 42 inch HDTV (internet ready and built in wi-fi)! Followed quickly by the brand new Amazon Kindle Fire!
Other popular gifts included: multiple paid days off; $100 Amazon gift cards; multiple massages at Massage Envy; a day on Canyon Lake in Stephen’s Sea Ray boat with 4 guests of your choice; multiple pairs of shoes from your favorite shoe store; a top of the line digital camera, and several “all expenses paid 
nights on the town” in some of the best restaurants in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area!
We had such a great time! It felt like we were all lucky contestants on a game show, except everyone walked away a winner! The creativity and thought behind each of the gifts was amazing and Stephen did it ALL himself.
I was grateful that someone eventually “stole” my Wal-Mart gift cards and so I “stole” an all-expenses paid 2 night stay at a luxury resort & spa in Sedona from one my co-workers PLUS ½ day paid time off to get an early start on the weekend get-away!
Rikki, one of our 6 Social Media Assistants, successfully “stole” one of the other top gifts—a “37 minute shopping spree at your favorite store!” But knowing Stephen, there were “terms and conditions”:
1. She must set the date for the shopping spree at least 1 week in advance so anyone at The Rainmaker Institute can go watch.
2. She can't have any outside help.
3. Everything must fit into 2 shopping carts that she has to push.
4. The time starts the moment she steps into the store and she must be at the checkout counter before the timer runs out and here's the BEST part—
5. It ALL has to be videotaped so everyone can watch the experience!
You can be sure I’ll be there firsthand! Maybe we can even get Stephen to post the video on our blog. Let me know if you want to see it in the comment section below.
When the gift exchange was over, Stephen thanked US again. After his unbelievable generosity, he was thanking us! Can you believe it?
Thank YOU to all of our faithful readers for letting me share our TRI holiday fun!
Here's to wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Years!
(Stephen, when you read this…THANK YOU from all the TRI team for the opportunity to work for such an amazing company)!
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