These educational episodes of Talk to Tatiana may be my favorite. In a recent episode, I discussed the idea of doing something special for the holidays. 

I'm not talking about doing something special for your family, because that’s a given. I’m talking about the people you work with, the connections you want to preserve, and the employees that work for you. Let's talk about doing something special for them. 

Right now, the week of Thanksgiving, we're all thinking about and honoring the people that work for us, work with us, or help us out. The best advice I ever received about this was from my coach Chuck Bauer. 

Chuck LOVES to stand out and be different. That includes how he shows up for the Christmas/holiday season. 

He taught me, first of all, to start sending my gifts early. This helps with what Chuck calls “top of mind awareness” and helps start people’s holiday season off with a bang. 

For my employees, I like to make sure that they are able to use their bonus to get Christmas and holiday gifts and relieve some of that holiday stress.

Another point I often make is that some people are not Christians who celebrate a standard Christmas. Some people are atheists, Jews, or Muslims. There are so many religions out there. You can't really make someone feel special when you discard their religious preferences and only acknowledge a holiday they may not even celebrate. 

Granted, in the United States, it feels pretty safe to assume that people are celebrating Christmas, but that doesn't mean that others don’t exist. For me, being from Russia and married to someone who is jewish, I try to honor all the unique different types of people out there. 

So, what kinds of gifts do we give? 

When we give gifts, we need to make the gift about showing appreciation for people that matter. These gifts should be thoughtful and make people feel special. Think of things that create a lot of good and positive energy in the world. Be willing to explore out of the box options. (This is another reason it is important to really understand your clients and what things would be meaningful to them.

Don’t forget about yourself in all this. I want to encourage you to do something for yourself for the holidays. It doesn't have to be something that costs a lot of money. Just something that will keep moving you forward, even small simple steps. Small steps forward are still steps forward.

Consider things like maybe listening to more podcasts on a topic that you're interested in. Maybe it's learning more about something or reading a book, that's they'll push you forward. Maybe it's setting goals for next year and establishing your non-negotiables.

Set a goal for next year. Make it something that's a non negotiable for you. Start showing how grateful you are for the people around you and do something nice for them during Thanksgiving week. Don’t wait until Christmas. 

Stand out, Be different. Be thoughtful.

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You can check out the full episode of Talk To Tatiana by clicking here.