While the movie isn’t the most spell-binding flick ever made, it brings up an interesting component that’s been lacking in modern shopping: no-strings-attached referrals.

For those of us needing a refresher, a theme throughout the movie is that the original Santa Claus works at Macy’s, and when children ask for a certain toy that Macy’s doesn’t have, Santa tells their parents which Macy’s competitor has it in stock. This sends shockwaves throughout the nation, with major competing brands giving each other free business, in the name of Christmas spirit.

Hokey, right?

Not really, actually. You see, this is actually a fantastic business practice that not enough businesses use. If you can be seen as a resource, you’ll be seen as an authority. And you’ll become the endpoint for people’s purchasing decisions because they can trust you. You might lose some sales, but you’ll build a much more supportive customer base.

Because, you know, they trust you.

Becoming a resource means that you’ll always win. Think about the possible outcomes: At best your competitors will soften, and might even return the favor. At worst, they’ll wonder why you’re sending people to them, and be glad for the unexpected business.

But you didn’t start your business for your competitors did you? You started it for your customers.

It seems the hot thing right now is to push “authentic”, “heart-filled” business practices. You know those all-too-common catchphrases like “it’s not really about money”. Well, it is. If it wasn’t about money, then we’d just give everything away for free. At the end of the day, businesses exist to put food on the table.

I think originally those buzzwords were created to push businesses into putting the customer first, not the company’s bottom line. This is what makes the good ‘ol fashioned referral so awesome. You have potential to make more money, sending people away.

Customers haver excellent memories, especially of the really good (and bad) experiences. And they talk about them.

Think what the Web would be like if we focused more on helping customers find exactly what they want, not what we wanted them to want? Something to think about this holiday season.

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I’d like to share some love this holiday season and give you a list of some fantastic resources that have helped me this past year, without an affiliate code tacked on. (Note: I have nothing against affiliates or being an affiliate. I enjoy taking commissions from referring people on posts throughout the site, and especially on this page.)

These are what I thought were some of the best work I’ve seen this year, and my judgement shouldn’t be swayed with affiliate commissions. Enjoy!

Fire Starter Sessions

Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions literally made me rethink everything I’ve done in the past year. It helped me retool what I wanted out of my work, and how it fit with my personality and goals. Aside from being smart ‘n sassy, she’s insanely knowledgable. She knows her stuff, and the FSS price tag is worth every penny.

The Empire Builder Kit

Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Builder Kit is exactly what it looks like. What I love about Chris’ products is that he doesn’t rely on flashy copy to sell. He matter-of-factly tells you what it is and how it will help you. End of story.

The Empire Builder Kit teaches you how to build or improve your business, one day at a time. You’ll get 365 daily emails to help you do one little thing per day that will help you grow your business, videos, case studies and other tools. Perfectly sound advice for someone who’s a little gun-shy on starting a small business.

focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction

Leo Babauta’s focus manifesto is also exactly what it looks like: a kit for helping you overcome distraction. The free PDF is wonderful, and the premium version includes interviews and videos with people much smarter than me.

Making Ideas Happen

Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen was the type of book that you read and re-read, marking the pages up and taking notes. Scott is pragmatic in his approach to getting the most out of creative people and teams, and his book is almost scientific.

The process of being creative is one that Scott has been researching for a while now, and his book is stellar for anyone trying to make the most out of their creative gifts.

On Writing Well

If you’re a blogger or writer, On Writing Well should be in your toolbox. You can’t count how many times it’s been reprinted since 1976, and it’s still one of the most popular books on writing. I try to read it every year.

Making it All Work

David Allen’s first book Getting Things Done was, well… one of the main inspirations to this blog. (See: the GTD cheat sheet.) However, I found his second book Making it All Work even better. Less about the fine details of idea capture and more about pieces life and work together.

Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin takes a surprising and pragmatic approach to improving her happiness. The result: a wonderful book, the top of the New York Times bestseller list and an impending TV show. Snag it.

Delivering Happiness

I love quirky people. Tony Hsieh is definitely quirky, and crazy smart when it comes to business. The CEO of Zappos tells his story of founding the company, and the best part is that it doesn’t feel polished. Not in a bad way, mind you. It’s real, and you can tell Tony wrote the book without any outside help. In the words of that epic movie Wayne’s World: You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll hurl.

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If you celebrate Christmas, than Merry Christmas! Otherwise, Happy Holidays! I’m grateful for you all.

Downtown Port-Au-Prince after the massive earthquake in Haiti.

My friends Carolyn and Doug are incredible people, and I don’t think I’ve ever looked up to two people more. Doug and Carolyn work in a church, and if you’ve ever worked in a church you know that all kinds of needy people use (and abuse) the church with handout requests. Droves of people come to the church with a sob story of some kind, and literally expect the church to give them money. Here’s an example:

A man came into the church and said that he needed money for gas to go home to care for his wife in Texas. So, the pastor offered to personally go and fill up his car for him and buy him any supplies needed for the trip. (Quite generous, if you ask me.) The guy flat-out refused. He said that he just needed the money, and left hurling empty threats at the people who “wouldn’t help him”.

There are thousands of examples just like this, and the storyline is always the same. They have a need, but it usually just comes down to wanting cash. They take advantage of the Church’s helpfulness and reputation of helping the needy.

So, it naturally came as quite a surprise to Carolyn when an older woman came in with her grandson, asking if there was any work around the church that she could do to get a place to live for her and her grandson.

When homeless people come to the church, they typically never ask for work, and they almost always ask for just money.

So instead of just giving the homeless woman money to pay her bill–which they did–Carolyn offered her own house for the two to live while they got back on their feet. She literally welcomed two complete strangers into her home to live for a few months.

Now contrast that with something that happened yesterday.

A man claimed the Haiti earthquakes were due to the people being “cursed” because of a “pact made with the devil”:

Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal.

Aside from how ridiculous and downright crazy Pat Robertson sounded, his comments did absolutely nothing except catapult his own name. In a time when a whole country of people are looking for relief, Pat condemned them. (It’s estimated the death toll could rise to 500,00, half of Haiti’s population.)

I don’t think I would mind Pat’s stupidity if he actually did something about the problem. Contrast that with someone like Carolyn. Carolyn is doing what Pat should be doing as a “religous” thought leader: helping people. Not making stupid-ass prophecies and taking a holier-than-thou stance.

Statements like Robertson’s (and others) really pissed me off yesterday. I can’t think of anything much worse than someone using catastrophes as a way to generate attention.

We should think long and hard about Haiti. What if the roles were reversed? The best part about being rich (compared to the rest of the world) is that we are in a position to give. To help others that can’t help themselves. (Apparently people were miffed at the White House’s website redirecting people to organizations like the Red Cross.)

Even if you don’t have any money, you can still give. It cost Doug and Carolyn $0 to open up her home to complete strangers. Love costs nothing.

You don’t have to fly to Haiti to help with relief efforts. You don’t have to donate large amounts of money. You just have to be open to giving, whether that’s your time or money.

But we shouldn’t stand by and do the worst thing of all: Nothing.

There are plenty of ways to help Haiti financially, and a great place to start is the Red Cross.

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Ok, rant = over :) We’ll be bringing you your regularly scheduled programming shortly…

Now that the holiday season is in full swing, it seems like everybody is pulling out their Christmas decorations, in attempt to add some yule tide cheer. Contents from the attic, garage and other various storage places become a little barer, and the house becomes a little more cluttered. While Christmas decorations are all about fun, they aren’t the only way to get into the Christmas spirit. Here are some fun ways to instantly

1. Buy some holiday scented candles
You know the ones I’m talking about. Smell has an incredible affect on our nostalgia, and smelling one of these babies burning will probably take you way back. I know it does for me.

2. Seasonal Drinks
Nothing like some good ‘ol fashioned egg nog to get into the swing of the holidays. Or maybe some hot cider, cocoa or seasonal coffees.

4. Start a Christmas Tradition
My girlfriend’s family has a great tradition where the grandmother gives everyone a themed Christmas tree ornament from Hallmark, with each person having their own theme (for example, my girlfriend always receives a puppy ornament). Every year everyone looks forward to getting a new christmas ornament.

5. Watch a Holiday-themed Movie
My favorite movie in this genre is “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It really is a timeless classic. There are a slew of other movies that can easily fill this niche, but here are some classics:

• Home Alone
• Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (stop animation version)
• A Muppets Christmas Carol
• Love Actually (for the adults)
• … and many others.

5. Think about how you’ll start giving
While the holidays may mean lots of gifts for some people, deep-down at its core the season is all about giving. (Insert whatever cliche fits here, like “‘Tis better to give than receive”, etc.) The real joy comes from giving.

How about you? How do you get yourself into the holiday spirit?

Photo by Justmeagain

1. Thinking Outside the Box: 8 Ways The Dark Knight Shines
2. “What Do You Want To Give This Christmas, Suzie?”
3. 5 Creative Ways to Get Around Roadblocks

Alex Shalman is running a contest to benefit a charity.  For each link he receives to his site, he’s going to donate one dollar to a charity.  The choice of charity will be determined by a random winner on April 15th.  He’s willing to pony up $500 towards a good cause.  There is one rule though.

You have to use this exact phrase in the blog post:

Alex Shalman at Practical Personal Development (a blog about self help and personal growth) is hosting a Donation Contest in which you press a button and he donates a dollar.

If the contest goes really well, he’s got some backers lined up to donate too.  So go ahead and link to a great cause.

1. The Powerful Link Between Creativity and Play
2. Subtle Format Changes

Every year, Americans spend $250 billion–$100 billion during the holiday season, alone–buying presents for one another. “Imagine, for one delirious moment, what we could accomplish if even a small percentage of that gift money were redirected to nonprofits working to make the world a better place.”

I love the idea for ChangingThePresent.com. Instead of an infomercial with some well-dressed British man standing around 50 starving African children making you feel terrible because you’d rather let them starve than eat out, you have a site that lets you pick what type of organization you’d like to help, based on your own preferences. Instead of feeling guilty, you feel great about giving (and without being pushed). Isn’t that what giving is supposed to be anyway?

And the cherry on the cake: a Hall of Shame for stupid gifts that you shouldn’t waste money on this Xmas.
Hat tip: Jen

1. Casual Friday Video: Kevin Spacey Rocks at Impressions
2. Pick The Best RSS Reader For You

When little kids hear the word “Christmas”, one of the automatic word associations is “gifts”. Sure, you’ve got “Frosty” and “Rudolph” and “Santa”, but those are just afterthoughts. The core of Christmas is GIFTS. Yet they’re never associated with giving.

We all know how it works. You ask Santa for what you want, and hope you get it. Sometimes the jolly man delivers, and sometimes it’s “maybe next year, honey”. A lot of disappointment hinges on whether you pull in the loot you so carefully outlined in your 53-page report addressed to the North Pole. Sure you’ll willing to overlook some of the smaller items, just so long as you get that Red Ryder BB Gun, right Ralphie? There’s a lot of pressure to being a kid around Christmas.

So what happens when you don’t get that thing you really wanted? Every other present doesn’t really matter. The ham loses it’s flavor, even Grandma’s pie doesn’t taste as sweet as it usually does. Christmas is ruined. It’s tough being a kid.

I wonder what it would be like if Santa asked “What do you want to Give this Christmas?”. By placing all of the emphasis on getting, we’re setting getters up for failure, and putting tremendous pressure on the givers. But if we shift the focus on what we’re giving, this problem goes away.

The true meaning of a gift is something that is given, as an act of thoughtfulness or love. There is no love involved in buying something off of a list. That’s called grocery shopping.

I’m trying it out this year: I’m giving no hints as to what I want, and I’m talking freely about what I want to give. What do you want to give this Christmas? ;)

I recently have been checking out the various “list” programs via Techcrunch that allow you to save items to your list, in hopes that your friends and family will buy what you want for a change. No more weird coffee mugs, no more sweaters that your dog wouldn’t wear. Now there will be no excuse why your loved ones can’t get you the perfect gift this year.

But if they are your friends and family, I really hope they don’t take your advice on what to get you this Christmas.

You see, the whole spirit of Christmas is giving. Arguably the second greatest feeling in the world is when someone has given you a truly thoughtful gift. (The only feeling better is being the person to give it.) When you make a Christmas list, you’re putting an obligation on the buyer to not use any creativity or thoughtfulness, but rather to purchase that Red Ryder BB Gun. But now the ‘gift” has become an obligation, no longer making it a true gift. Now it’s more like a payment. Like rent.

Knowing that someone cares enough to keep you in their thoughts in the busiest time of the year is something special. Don’t cheapen it by not allowing them the pleasure of giving the perfect gift, or by not allowing you to receive it.

1. “What Do You Want To Give This Christmas, Suzie?”
2. Casual Friday Video: Dave Barnes Christmas Extravaganza
3. 12 Programs to Put on Your Brand New Christmas Mac