FRED Friday…Meet Holly
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| Meet Holly...creator of fine Holly Pops, Cake Dots, & MAGIC |
Several weeks ago a friend of mine at work sent me a text message, “you have to call me ASAP…I need to tell you something...”
When I called her she told me that she might have spotted a FRED in our valet booth at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
I could almost “hear” her smiling through the phone as she told me about how this dynamic, enthusiastic young talent makes magic for people in her role as a Valet Booth Cashier. I couldn’t wait to meet her myself.
This week I was walking through the casino, and I noticed a young lady in a valet uniform, almost bouncing as she walked by me, smiling from ear to ear…I knew it…this had to be Holly. I stopped her and said, “…Is your name Holly, by chance?” It was…and my friends, a FRED she certainly is…
Meet Holly…
Holly Merren’s job description probably says something to the effect of: Valet Booth Cashier – Responsible for coordinating the parking and retrieval of vehicles. However, she goes OneMoreStep in many ways for her Guests, coworkers, and community. She bakes what she calls “Holly Pops” and cake dots for her team in Valet and Bell Services, Hotel Operations, and many more lucky people in her family and community.
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| Yes, they're as good as they look |
I tried one…or a few…they’re fantastic. Picture a little tiny piece of cake on a lollipop stick. They’re little bite-size pieces of complete goodness. The neat part is that Holly designs them one…by…one…by hand, with various icings, sprinkles, and toppings…each individual Holly Pop is her own unique creation.
FRED moment…
I asked Holly why she bakes Holly Pops and so many other goodies for the team. She told me it all started because she had so much free time on her hands, and she just wanted to use her time for something positive…for other people. Baking came to mind.
So she taught herself how to bake and create these artistic, unique, and very tasty delights. She then took it OneMoreStep, and started making them for her coworkers, her friends, and even folks in her community just because she thought, “everybody loves sweets…so it will make them smile and happy, if only for a brief moment…” That, Holly told me, would make her happy.
“The valet runners LOVE them…they will eat one, go park a car, and come back and grab another one or two…it’s so fun.” – Holly Merren…a FRED if I ever met one.
Her favorite part is spending hours decorating and designing the tops of the “Holly Pops” because people have more fun with them that way.
She decorates and designs them with everything from what she calls “cake flowers”, to fancy “marbelizations”, to mini birthday cakes, to spider web designs, to “Holly Pop” baseballs, to even a cake dot version of bananas foster rum cake…(I am now officially hungry).
Holly has developed such a passion for her newly found artistic ability to delight others with her “Holly Pops” that she has recently started to receive requests and actual orders for special occasions such as birthday parties and weddings.
She told me that she wants to start her own business and take it even OneMoreStep with a concept she’s calling Positive Chocolates, which will be her “Holly Pops” or Cake Dots with an uplifting quote and/or positive one or two liner tied to them. Her reason for wanting to do such a thing: simply to make a positive impact on people and make them smile.
I don’t know about you, but I call that making magic, and I love it.
It’s such a beautiful thing having a FRED-Sighting. FREDs like Holly remind us that it really is more fun and fulfilling to do things for others. Mark Sanborn says in Chapter 6 of The Fred Factor:
Add “good stuff” – Think of your current position. Is there anything you could do to your teammates’ or customers’ experience that would make their lives more enjoyable?
For many of us life and work get tedious. We’re often frustrated with things beyond our control, yet we choose to sit and dwell on them, talk about them, and think about them. I’m guilty of this one lately. We should be more like Holly and focus on adding “good stuff” to the people in our lives. It's amazing how every single time we take the focus off of ourselves and focus on doing things for others life becomes more fun...and we become much happier people in the process.
Holly – thanks for the “Holly Pops”, but more importantly thanks for reminding me what it’s all about…creating value for others and making MAGIC for people…early and often.
When you think you’ve done enough…go OneMoreStep.
Have a great day.
Taylor
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What is FRED Friday?
In my favorite book, The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn tells an inspiring story of how a man named Fred goes OneMoreStep after OneMoreStep in his role as a Postman for the United States Postal Service. I love this book. Since my mom sent it to me in 2004, I've purchased the book for friends, coworkers, and girlfriends...I've even purchased and hand delivered copies of the book to several executives at both Wynn Las Vegas and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Mr. Sanborn paints the picture of how Fred makes magic for his community by taking a genuine interest in making a positive difference for others despite being an ordinary man in an ordinary job. However, Fred's impact and his legacy are nothing short of extraordinary. I'll let Mark tell you the story below and in the book, but the key take away is this:
If Fred the Postman can put this much creativity and passion into putting mail in a box for a living, how much of an impact can we all make in our roles as Teachers, Students, Managers, Leaders, Directors, Vice Presidents, and Sales People?
Fred Friday is a series in which the OneMoreStepRevolution blog will showcase a real life "Fred" on select Fridays. Reading The Fred Factor definitely leaves us with a desire to to be more Fred-like ourselves, but I also love looking for Freds. Freds are everywhere. I love it when I experience a real life Fred. I'm inspired just as I am every time I re-read the book. I thought it would be fun to spread the magic of Fred to our OneMoreStepRevolution community.
Hopefully a few things will happen with the Fred Friday series:
1) Real Life Freds will be recognized when these stories make it back to them
2) Companies for which these Freds work will have some positive feedback
3) People will be inspired to go OneMoreStep just like the real life Freds
Related Post...meet more FREDs...
What a beautiful young lady who gives of her time & talent.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this story.