December 30, 2024 • 15 mins
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This time of the year we reflect on the importance of taking time off during the holidays, sharing personal experiences with family traditions like the Elf on the Shelf. We dive deeper into how this new tradition fits into the broader Santa universe and the strategies behind creating engaging experiences that are limited in time. We also have a question for you! It relates to the planning strategies for the new year, whether or not encouraging reflection on personal and professional goals.
Rob is a host and consultant at Professor Game as well as an expert, international speaker and advocate for the use of gamification and games-based solutions, especially in education and learning. He's also a professor and workshop facilitator for the topics of the podcast and LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) for top higher education institutions that include EFMD, IE Business School and EBS among others in Europe, America and Asia.
Links to episode mentions:
Some Episode Takeaways
- The Elf on the Shelf as a modern holiday tradition.
- Expanding existing narratives can create new engagement opportunities.
- Limited time experiences can heighten excitement and engagement.
- You don't always need to create something new; existing themes can be effective.
- Integrating seasonal themes into projects can attract interest.
- Creating a sense of novelty can enhance user experience.
Lets's do stuff together!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, this is Professor Game where we interview successful practitioners of games,gamification and game thinking to help us multiply engagement and loyalty.
I'm Rob Alvarez.
I'm a consultant.
I'm a coach and I'm the founder here at Professor Game.
And I'm also a professor of gamification and game inspired solutions at IE University, IEBusiness School, EFMD, EBS University and other places around the world.
(00:26):
And before we dive into the interview, if you're struggling,
with engagement in your business and are looking to find out how to make your users staywith you, you will find our free community full of resources quite useful.
You can find it for free in the links below in the description.
Hey, Engagers, and welcome to this episode of the Professor Game Podcast, this holidaysepisode.
(00:50):
I'm always excited to do these episodes because I've realized that I've started to becomea little bit of a tradition in these times where, you know, it's whether it's the summer
holidays, whether it's the winter holidays, I do think that taking this opportunity totake even, you know, just a very few days to take off and to reflect, I found that to be
reinvigorating and getting you ready for many new things.
(01:13):
opportunities coming up and all that stuff.
So I'm going to continue to recommend that over and over again to you.
But the first thing and probably one of the most important objectives of this episode isto wish you some very happy holidays, however it is, and whomever it is that you decide to
spend them with.
I do wish you all the best.
Enjoy again, take that little bit of time off, reflect or just enjoy and have somethingdifferent from what tends to be your day to day your work.
(01:41):
Everything it is that you're doing so I I wish you all the best whatever it is again yourreligion Whatever it is that you're celebrating most cultures are celebrating something
during the season or even just some time off from work Please take that time to celebrateto take some time with yourself to think to reflect take some time with friends family
whomever you want to spend that with and I've always started trying to when I do thesesolo episodes to try to incorporate something
(02:07):
Some of my reflections some of the things that I've observed in the world recently andright now as you You've probably heard me a million times in the podcast lately, you know,
I have a very young daughter right now She just made two years old and we started this,know, I think it's relatively new I honestly haven't researched it too much, but this it's
a relatively new tradition the elf on the shelf I don't know if you've heard it
(02:28):
So we started this and I started to after a bit of doing some of this, I started torealize that if you put on as you'd like to know, you know, I didn't realize that at the
time when we created the logo, I'd like to say that I do, but I'm very, very honest when Italk about about things, the glasses that you see in the logo, I like to say about, you
know, putting on some glasses and when you see things through these lens, these glasses ofgames and gamification, you start.
(02:54):
understanding things from a different perspective.
You start to see things in a different way and you're able to analyze them as well alittle bit.
So I don't want to take too long because this is essentially an episode where I want to,as I said before, congratulate you on the holidays and wish you all the best.
But I did want to introduce some of this magic, so to speak, into the episode with theanalysis of the Elf of the Shelf.
(03:15):
And of course, it also is very much into the season and into what many celebrate as theChristmas season and has to do with this elf on the shelf.
What does the Elf on the Shelf do or what have at least we been doing?
I know there's a book that comes with it and tells you some recommendations and so on.
So thing is you get the Elf on the Shelf.
sort of here she arrives to your home.
You name the Elf of the Shelf.
(03:36):
Our daughter decided on a name for the Elf.
Of course, we said like 50 names before she said, yeah, that's the one I want.
And you put the name, you sort of have a birth certificate where you put the name down.
So everything is very well wrapped into this theme.
And one of the things that at least we've been doing, and I understand there's some smallvariations of this as well, is every morning when our daughter wakes up, she finds the elf
(03:58):
in a different place doing something, right?
She's found the elf on top of the milk that she has.
She's found him on the Christmas tree.
She's found the elf sitting on my chair.
She's found the elf in many different places, and she's kind of always excited to find himthere.
In the different places that that that he's been showing up right?
Yeah, it's our elf is a he in this case There's a there's a I don't know if there's adiscussion on it or not But there seems to be a bit of the the sort of the lore of the of
(04:28):
the elf on the shelf is that you know He's doing naughty stuff or I'm not sure if it'skind of naughty or just you know home alone kind of things I'm not exactly sure
our tendency has been more to for him to be doing nice things, So it's like getting on topof again, he's drinking some milk, you know, it's a normal thing to do sitting on a chair,
like, it's not something naughty.
(04:49):
We don't want to set that example in any way for for our daughter to see that.
I know, maybe it does have some benefits to see that elsewhere.
I don't know.
But that's that's what we have decided.
And of course,
That's the way that these things tend to happen.
You as a kind of the designers of this experience for our daughter, we have made thesechoices.
Another thing that I wanted to highlight here is how well and whomever created this,again, quote unquote new tradition, it fits into what we can call the Santa verse, this
(05:18):
fits perfectly, perfectly into, Santa, the whole story of Santa in the North Pole.
The elf comes from the North Pole.
comes and visit nearby Christmas leaves, soon after Christmas to continue working withSanta is associated with the gifts that the kids get.
So it fits very well into this whole universe.
And the dressing is red and everything again fits in very, very well.
(05:42):
So they did a good job.
Just like recently we've seen.
Well, recently in the past few years, we've seen how these universes from D.C., fromMarvel, from Star Wars,
from Hogwarts, all these universes are sort of expanding around into different places.
LEGO, one of them, for example, that you see, you know, the LEGO pieces, there's LEGOmovies and LEGO games of Star Wars, for example.
(06:04):
So it's, it's all extension of this universe.
You see how Star Wars is having different movies and also games, also, comic books,everything like these universes are sort of expanding.
The Elf on the Shelf seems to be an attempt of expanding this Santa verse as well.
of, sort of growing it bigger.
in many different ways.
at least in my experience, it's been relatively successful to that as everything as again,as with Star Wars, with Star Trek, with, the Lord of the Rings as well, which has had its
(06:31):
expansions and so on with Marvel and DC has its fans, people who love it, people who don'tcare about it, people who hate it.
That's, you know, pretty normal.
But I'm precisely talking about those people who would be a potential audience for that.
In our case, our family, we would argue that it has been pretty successful.
The other thing that is important and that I think is also a strategy that we see fromgames and we've learned from games and that can be applied in many, many different
(06:55):
circumstances is that it's for a limited time.
We were talking the other day.
She's very, very young again.
She's two years old.
We're saying, yeah, well, you you can start saying goodbye because Christmas is just aboutto finish.
And, know, once Christmas is done, he's going to go back to Santa and to work in theworkshop and do all the stuff that they do throughout the year because the elf is not
going to be around.
We're not going to be playing with
(07:16):
you know, the same thing with the elf all year round because you kind of run out ofarguments and stuff.
And it's also fun to have some novelty and that kind of thing during Christmas.
In any case, it is for a limited time, right?
It starts, it ends, and then it's done.
Then maybe it comes back, like, you know, it's seasons in Fortnite, some things thathappen, the season happened, and then some things might be brought back, some characters
(07:37):
and so on.
This happens the same way.
Happens, depending on how you decide to do it, but let's say...
somewhere near to Christmas, let's say November, and some say it's the 25th of December,some might do it a little bit longer.
But in February, you'll definitely if you sort of follow the standards.
So such a thing, by February, you'll definitely not have the elf around.
So most of the year, the elf in the shelf is not going to be around.
(08:01):
It's limited time.
So the enjoyment is sort of focused in there.
And that brings further joy to those things that
It also associates to one of the things that we tend to do with our daughter is, as manykids were blessed with the fact that she has more toys than she can play with in a day for
sure.
And even in a week, I would say.
So we try to put away some of the toys so she can play with some of them.
(08:22):
And then we put some of those away and bring out quote unquote new ones.
They're not new.
It's just that she didn't see them for a while.
And then she feels like she can be excited and play with them again.
So it is along those same lines also.
Another thing that I've seen and we actually enjoyed ourselves is that in several citiesaround the world, they have sort of events around the elf on the shelf.
(08:42):
I'm not sure exactly how that fits into their commercial strategy or whatever that is, butthere are.
literally went and we visited the elf on the shelf on a sort of small mall that there ishere in Madrid.
Our daughter got to know a huge elf right there.
She hugged the elf.
she kissed the elf.
She was super over the top excited about meeting.
(09:03):
The elf in person she didn't really know what was happening when we got there, but thenshe saw him It was like everything changed.
She was running around because he had to take a break Of course, it was hanging around for20 minutes.
I had to take a break then when he came back She was super excited again.
She couldn't wait to get in then she hugged him gave him, High-five everything that shecould do with him.
She she definitely tried.
We've got a bunch of pictures these physical gatherings bring those things that in ourcase there's no digital world for her but from the books from the stories from
(09:28):
the toy, but also into a real physical world, which we can again translate from thedigital into the physical.
That combination of different experiences, I think is something that we've learned thatworks pretty well in different experiences joining together.
Again, the digital or the lore with something physical, something actually to do or toshare with different people around, in a specific place.
(09:50):
this is definitely somebody whoever created it.
is having a blast with all the trademarks and all the stuff that they created becausethere's plenty of, I don't know, merchandising and whatnot happening around the world of
the Elf of the Shelf.
They have books, have the dolls and the toys themselves.
These events are probably associated to them.
They're selling others.
Like, I'm sure that this was, just like many other things, it was created for a purposeand it is serving the purpose quite well.
(10:18):
And that makes sense.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I think there is...
a good way that that can happen.
if it brings further enjoyment and it doesn't mean that you have to, I don't know, likeit's just, think overall it has a very positive balance.
one of the things that I see here and that I realize is you don't need to reinvent thewheel every time you're creating something, In their case, they did invent something,
(10:44):
pretty new.
The whole elf in the shelf concept is new.
still is not entirely new.
it integrates into the Santa verse, as I said before, it has all these things that, arealready created, and it sort of fits very well.
But even if you don't want to create something associated to something, you don't evenneed to create something new, For your business, for your projects, for whatever it is
(11:06):
that you have going on.
Oftentimes, very often, you can use what is already out there where people are alreadylooking at getting excited about
We mentioned a few weeks ago, I it was one of our emails, we talked about Halloween andhow the theme fits into what many people are getting excited about.
Well, Elf on the Shelf did the same thing.
You can do the same thing.
(11:26):
Use whatever is happening outside in the world that fits whatever your purpose may be.
If it's educational for young kids, probably the Elf on the Shelf could be a good fit.
Christmas in general, or the holidays, or the winter season.
Whatever is happening out in the world.
See if there are ways in which you can integrate it to your project project to bring, as Iwas saying before, something new, something that is quote unquote limited time offer, so
(11:48):
to speak, happens for a while.
It brings some novelty, changes some things up, and then it just leaves and something newcomes in or, you get back to to the same things that you were doing before.
And then something new comes back because you want to keep people excited about what'sgoing on, especially if you're looking at this in the long run, in the long term, which
when you're talking about real deep engagement and true loyalty, you don't tend to betalking about this in a one off in a one time thing where you you get to meet people and
(12:16):
then it's over, It's like, well, this is a Snoopy Christmas, So this has been going on fordecades and it's been fantastic.
But it's not like very few people are living day to day all day around something that hasto do with Snoopy every now and then bringing it up, bringing it back.
In the case of us, holidays tend to have,
We love the Snoopy episodes and the stuff during the holiday.
(12:38):
So we bring up these sweaters.
We have a couple.
Our daughter has one has sort of a meaning.
And then they sort of go back to where they were and then they will come back at somepoint.
So, again, bringing these possibilities out from the world, integrating into existingagain, respecting all trademarks and all that stuff if needed, but integrating into those
worlds or even just taking from what is happening out there and using it for whatever yourpurposes are is something that definitely
(13:04):
could make sense for you.
And I want to close this episode with a question.
There's many theories and there's many people doing different things when the years arebeginning.
And you'll be seeing this episode very close to the end of the year or to the start of theyear, hopefully, if you see it when it's going live, or you can see it later.
(13:25):
It doesn't matter.
Because what I want to ask from you, and I'm not going to still reveal what it is.
that I do and to be completely fair, I've done different things as well.
But in any case, I don't want to tell you exactly what I do because I want to hear hear itfrom you.
When you're looking into a new year, some people love to think, oh, what are my objectivesfor 2025?
(13:46):
In this case, what am I going to achieve that you reflect back on what you made in 2024?
Then you look forward to 2025, make a plan of what the year may look like and so on.
There's other people say, you know what?
January is just like another month.
Let me plan the next month ahead and I'll continue to do that.
Other people say, you know what, I'm not a planning person.
I just continue to go with the flow or I'm going to just going to plan the next day, thenext week.
(14:10):
And that's it.
What does it look like for you?
Do you when the year ends, do you set this sort of new year objectives or, you know,personally for your business?
How do you do it?
What do you do when these days come?
And the answer again could be absolutely nothing different.
Or it could be, I change everything and I take a few days off to just reflect on what'scoming to the new year and everything, of course, everything in between.
(14:35):
I'm to leave you that question.
What do you do when the new year comes from the perspective of planning towards that newyear, the new month, that new week, whatever that looks like for you?
So again, Engagers, as we love to say often in every single episode, at least for now andfor today, it is time to say that it's game over.
(14:55):
Hey, Engagers, and thank you for listening to the Professor Game podcast.
And since you're interested in this world of creating motivation, engagement, loyalty,using game-inspired solutions, how about you join us on our free online community at
Professor Game on Skool?
You can find the link right below in the description, but the main thing is to clickthere.
(15:19):
Join us.
It's a platform called Skool.
It's for free, and you will find plenty of resources there.
We'll be up to date with everything that we're doing, any opportunities that we might havefor you.
And of course, before you go on to your next mission, before you click continue, pleaseremember to subscribe using your favorite podcast app and listen to the next episode of
Professor Game.
(15:40):
See you there.
Hey, this is Professor Game where we interview successful practitioners of games,gamification and game thinking to help us multiply engagement and loyalty.
I'm Rob Alvarez.
I'm a consultant.
I'm a coach and I'm the founder here at Professor Game.
And I'm also a professor of gamification and game inspired solutions at IE University, IEBusiness School, EFMD, EBS University and other places around the world.
(00:26):
And before we dive into the interview, if you're struggling,
with engagement in your business and are looking to find out how to make your users staywith you, you will find our free community full of resources quite useful.
You can find it for free in the links below in the description.
Hey, Engagers, and welcome to this episode of the Professor Game Podcast, this holidaysepisode.
(00:50):
I'm always excited to do these episodes because I've realized that I've started to becomea little bit of a tradition in these times where, you know, it's whether it's the summer
holidays, whether it's the winter holidays, I do think that taking this opportunity totake even, you know, just a very few days to take off and to reflect, I found that to be
reinvigorating and getting you ready for many new things.
(01:13):
opportunities coming up and all that stuff.
So I'm going to continue to recommend that over and over again to you.
But the first thing and probably one of the most important objectives of this episode isto wish you some very happy holidays, however it is, and whomever it is that you decide to
spend them with.
I do wish you all the best.
Enjoy again, take that little bit of time off, reflect or just enjoy and have somethingdifferent from what tends to be your day to day your work.
(01:41):
Everything it is that you're doing so I I wish you all the best whatever it is again yourreligion Whatever it is that you're celebrating most cultures are celebrating something
during the season or even just some time off from work Please take that time to celebrateto take some time with yourself to think to reflect take some time with friends family
whomever you want to spend that with and I've always started trying to when I do thesesolo episodes to try to incorporate something
(02:07):
Some of my reflections some of the things that I've observed in the world recently andright now as you You've probably heard me a million times in the podcast lately, you know,
I have a very young daughter right now She just made two years old and we started this,know, I think it's relatively new I honestly haven't researched it too much, but this it's
a relatively new tradition the elf on the shelf I don't know if you've heard it
(02:28):
So we started this and I started to after a bit of doing some of this, I started torealize that if you put on as you'd like to know, you know, I didn't realize that at the
time when we created the logo, I'd like to say that I do, but I'm very, very honest when Italk about about things, the glasses that you see in the logo, I like to say about, you
know, putting on some glasses and when you see things through these lens, these glasses ofgames and gamification, you start.
(02:54):
understanding things from a different perspective.
You start to see things in a different way and you're able to analyze them as well alittle bit.
So I don't want to take too long because this is essentially an episode where I want to,as I said before, congratulate you on the holidays and wish you all the best.
But I did want to introduce some of this magic, so to speak, into the episode with theanalysis of the Elf of the Shelf.
(03:15):
And of course, it also is very much into the season and into what many celebrate as theChristmas season and has to do with this elf on the shelf.
What does the Elf on the Shelf do or what have at least we been doing?
I know there's a book that comes with it and tells you some recommendations and so on.
So thing is you get the Elf on the Shelf.
sort of here she arrives to your home.
You name the Elf of the Shelf.
(03:36):
Our daughter decided on a name for the Elf.
Of course, we said like 50 names before she said, yeah, that's the one I want.
And you put the name, you sort of have a birth certificate where you put the name down.
So everything is very well wrapped into this theme.
And one of the things that at least we've been doing, and I understand there's some smallvariations of this as well, is every morning when our daughter wakes up, she finds the elf
(03:58):
in a different place doing something, right?
She's found the elf on top of the milk that she has.
She's found him on the Christmas tree.
She's found the elf sitting on my chair.
She's found the elf in many different places, and she's kind of always excited to find himthere.
In the different places that that that he's been showing up right?
Yeah, it's our elf is a he in this case There's a there's a I don't know if there's adiscussion on it or not But there seems to be a bit of the the sort of the lore of the of
(04:28):
the elf on the shelf is that you know He's doing naughty stuff or I'm not sure if it'skind of naughty or just you know home alone kind of things I'm not exactly sure
our tendency has been more to for him to be doing nice things, So it's like getting on topof again, he's drinking some milk, you know, it's a normal thing to do sitting on a chair,
like, it's not something naughty.
(04:49):
We don't want to set that example in any way for for our daughter to see that.
I know, maybe it does have some benefits to see that elsewhere.
I don't know.
But that's that's what we have decided.
And of course,
That's the way that these things tend to happen.
You as a kind of the designers of this experience for our daughter, we have made thesechoices.
Another thing that I wanted to highlight here is how well and whomever created this,again, quote unquote new tradition, it fits into what we can call the Santa verse, this
(05:18):
fits perfectly, perfectly into, Santa, the whole story of Santa in the North Pole.
The elf comes from the North Pole.
comes and visit nearby Christmas leaves, soon after Christmas to continue working withSanta is associated with the gifts that the kids get.
So it fits very well into this whole universe.
And the dressing is red and everything again fits in very, very well.
(05:42):
So they did a good job.
Just like recently we've seen.
Well, recently in the past few years, we've seen how these universes from D.C., fromMarvel, from Star Wars,
from Hogwarts, all these universes are sort of expanding around into different places.
LEGO, one of them, for example, that you see, you know, the LEGO pieces, there's LEGOmovies and LEGO games of Star Wars, for example.
(06:04):
So it's, it's all extension of this universe.
You see how Star Wars is having different movies and also games, also, comic books,everything like these universes are sort of expanding.
The Elf on the Shelf seems to be an attempt of expanding this Santa verse as well.
of, sort of growing it bigger.
in many different ways.
at least in my experience, it's been relatively successful to that as everything as again,as with Star Wars, with Star Trek, with, the Lord of the Rings as well, which has had its
(06:31):
expansions and so on with Marvel and DC has its fans, people who love it, people who don'tcare about it, people who hate it.
That's, you know, pretty normal.
But I'm precisely talking about those people who would be a potential audience for that.
In our case, our family, we would argue that it has been pretty successful.
The other thing that is important and that I think is also a strategy that we see fromgames and we've learned from games and that can be applied in many, many different
(06:55):
circumstances is that it's for a limited time.
We were talking the other day.
She's very, very young again.
She's two years old.
We're saying, yeah, well, you you can start saying goodbye because Christmas is just aboutto finish.
And, know, once Christmas is done, he's going to go back to Santa and to work in theworkshop and do all the stuff that they do throughout the year because the elf is not
going to be around.
We're not going to be playing with
(07:16):
you know, the same thing with the elf all year round because you kind of run out ofarguments and stuff.
And it's also fun to have some novelty and that kind of thing during Christmas.
In any case, it is for a limited time, right?
It starts, it ends, and then it's done.
Then maybe it comes back, like, you know, it's seasons in Fortnite, some things thathappen, the season happened, and then some things might be brought back, some characters
(07:37):
and so on.
This happens the same way.
Happens, depending on how you decide to do it, but let's say...
somewhere near to Christmas, let's say November, and some say it's the 25th of December,some might do it a little bit longer.
But in February, you'll definitely if you sort of follow the standards.
So such a thing, by February, you'll definitely not have the elf around.
So most of the year, the elf in the shelf is not going to be around.
(08:01):
It's limited time.
So the enjoyment is sort of focused in there.
And that brings further joy to those things that
It also associates to one of the things that we tend to do with our daughter is, as manykids were blessed with the fact that she has more toys than she can play with in a day for
sure.
And even in a week, I would say.
So we try to put away some of the toys so she can play with some of them.
(08:22):
And then we put some of those away and bring out quote unquote new ones.
They're not new.
It's just that she didn't see them for a while.
And then she feels like she can be excited and play with them again.
So it is along those same lines also.
Another thing that I've seen and we actually enjoyed ourselves is that in several citiesaround the world, they have sort of events around the elf on the shelf.
(08:42):
I'm not sure exactly how that fits into their commercial strategy or whatever that is, butthere are.
literally went and we visited the elf on the shelf on a sort of small mall that there ishere in Madrid.
Our daughter got to know a huge elf right there.
She hugged the elf.
she kissed the elf.
She was super over the top excited about meeting.
(09:03):
The elf in person she didn't really know what was happening when we got there, but thenshe saw him It was like everything changed.
She was running around because he had to take a break Of course, it was hanging around for20 minutes.
I had to take a break then when he came back She was super excited again.
She couldn't wait to get in then she hugged him gave him, High-five everything that shecould do with him.
She she definitely tried.
We've got a bunch of pictures these physical gatherings bring those things that in ourcase there's no digital world for her but from the books from the stories from
(09:28):
the toy, but also into a real physical world, which we can again translate from thedigital into the physical.
That combination of different experiences, I think is something that we've learned thatworks pretty well in different experiences joining together.
Again, the digital or the lore with something physical, something actually to do or toshare with different people around, in a specific place.
(09:50):
this is definitely somebody whoever created it.
is having a blast with all the trademarks and all the stuff that they created becausethere's plenty of, I don't know, merchandising and whatnot happening around the world of
the Elf of the Shelf.
They have books, have the dolls and the toys themselves.
These events are probably associated to them.
They're selling others.
Like, I'm sure that this was, just like many other things, it was created for a purposeand it is serving the purpose quite well.
(10:18):
And that makes sense.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I think there is...
a good way that that can happen.
if it brings further enjoyment and it doesn't mean that you have to, I don't know, likeit's just, think overall it has a very positive balance.
one of the things that I see here and that I realize is you don't need to reinvent thewheel every time you're creating something, In their case, they did invent something,
(10:44):
pretty new.
The whole elf in the shelf concept is new.
still is not entirely new.
it integrates into the Santa verse, as I said before, it has all these things that, arealready created, and it sort of fits very well.
But even if you don't want to create something associated to something, you don't evenneed to create something new, For your business, for your projects, for whatever it is
(11:06):
that you have going on.
Oftentimes, very often, you can use what is already out there where people are alreadylooking at getting excited about
We mentioned a few weeks ago, I it was one of our emails, we talked about Halloween andhow the theme fits into what many people are getting excited about.
Well, Elf on the Shelf did the same thing.
You can do the same thing.
(11:26):
Use whatever is happening outside in the world that fits whatever your purpose may be.
If it's educational for young kids, probably the Elf on the Shelf could be a good fit.
Christmas in general, or the holidays, or the winter season.
Whatever is happening out in the world.
See if there are ways in which you can integrate it to your project project to bring, as Iwas saying before, something new, something that is quote unquote limited time offer, so
(11:48):
to speak, happens for a while.
It brings some novelty, changes some things up, and then it just leaves and something newcomes in or, you get back to to the same things that you were doing before.
And then something new comes back because you want to keep people excited about what'sgoing on, especially if you're looking at this in the long run, in the long term, which
when you're talking about real deep engagement and true loyalty, you don't tend to betalking about this in a one off in a one time thing where you you get to meet people and
(12:16):
then it's over, It's like, well, this is a Snoopy Christmas, So this has been going on fordecades and it's been fantastic.
But it's not like very few people are living day to day all day around something that hasto do with Snoopy every now and then bringing it up, bringing it back.
In the case of us, holidays tend to have,
We love the Snoopy episodes and the stuff during the holiday.
(12:38):
So we bring up these sweaters.
We have a couple.
Our daughter has one has sort of a meaning.
And then they sort of go back to where they were and then they will come back at somepoint.
So, again, bringing these possibilities out from the world, integrating into existingagain, respecting all trademarks and all that stuff if needed, but integrating into those
worlds or even just taking from what is happening out there and using it for whatever yourpurposes are is something that definitely
(13:04):
could make sense for you.
And I want to close this episode with a question.
There's many theories and there's many people doing different things when the years arebeginning.
And you'll be seeing this episode very close to the end of the year or to the start of theyear, hopefully, if you see it when it's going live, or you can see it later.
(13:25):
It doesn't matter.
Because what I want to ask from you, and I'm not going to still reveal what it is.
that I do and to be completely fair, I've done different things as well.
But in any case, I don't want to tell you exactly what I do because I want to hear hear itfrom you.
When you're looking into a new year, some people love to think, oh, what are my objectivesfor 2025?
(13:46):
In this case, what am I going to achieve that you reflect back on what you made in 2024?
Then you look forward to 2025, make a plan of what the year may look like and so on.
There's other people say, you know what?
January is just like another month.
Let me plan the next month ahead and I'll continue to do that.
Other people say, you know what, I'm not a planning person.
I just continue to go with the flow or I'm going to just going to plan the next day, thenext week.
(14:10):
And that's it.
What does it look like for you?
Do you when the year ends, do you set this sort of new year objectives or, you know,personally for your business?
How do you do it?
What do you do when these days come?
And the answer again could be absolutely nothing different.
Or it could be, I change everything and I take a few days off to just reflect on what'scoming to the new year and everything, of course, everything in between.
(14:35):
I'm to leave you that question.
What do you do when the new year comes from the perspective of planning towards that newyear, the new month, that new week, whatever that looks like for you?
So again, Engagers, as we love to say often in every single episode, at least for now andfor today, it is time to say that it's game over.
(14:55):
Hey, Engagers, and thank you for listening to the Professor Game podcast.
And since you're interested in this world of creating motivation, engagement, loyalty,using game-inspired solutions, how about you join us on our free online community at
Professor Game on Skool?
You can find the link right below in the description, but the main thing is to clickthere.
(15:19):
Join us.
It's a platform called Skool.
It's for free, and you will find plenty of resources there.
We'll be up to date with everything that we're doing, any opportunities that we might havefor you.
And of course, before you go on to your next mission, before you click continue, pleaseremember to subscribe using your favorite podcast app and listen to the next episode of
Professor Game.
(15:40):
See you there.
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