Donna Dooher is a cook with over 25 years of professional experience in the kitchen. A graduate of the culinary program at Ottawa’s Algonquin College, she began her apprenticeship with The Ritz III Group there, working her way up to the position of Chef before moving to Toronto in 1983.

Donna opened her first business, Avant-gout Catering in 1986 and her wildly successful Mildred Pierce Restaurant three years later. In 1998, she pioneered the hands-on approach to cooking instruction when she opened The Cookworks Cooking Studio, offering informative classes and workshops which explored the practical aspects of cuisine. Her popular Food Network show ‘The Cookworks’ which grew out of this initiative is currently aired in over 120 countries worldwide. Her many public appearances include local and national spots on CBC, CTV’s Canada AM, City TV and Rogers Cable Stations. Donna continues to support the fundraising events of such groups as the Willow Foundation, Knives and Forks and The Aquarians in Toronto and the James Beard Foundation in New York. She has served as executive in residence for the University of Guelph’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Program.

As food editor of Wish magazine, Donna authored the best-selling ‘Market to Table’ cookbook adding to her previous triumph with “Out to Brunch”, a book of the most popular Mildred Pierce recipes and the winner of Cuisine Canada’s cookbook of the year in 2003. That same year she was awarded the Ontario Hostelry Institute Media and Publishing Award.

Donna is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Cuisine Canada, Women Chefs and Entrepreneurs, James Beard Institute and is a charter member of Slow Food Canada. She is co-chair of the George Brown Chef School expansion Capitol Campaign, and a passionate supporter of local food production.

Her personal motto is ‘Cook with Love and Reckless Abandon’

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observations rings true: urban legends, conspiracy theories and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile people with important ideas struggle to make ideas stick.

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do you improve your chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. The brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier.

Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. Proactive, eye opening and often funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas – and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own message stick.

I liked this book because it is well organized and resonated with my common sense approach to marketing. There are six key “stickiness” principles which spell out the acronym SUCCESs (small s stands for six!), so it is easy to remember whenever you have a creative expression challenge. Here are the sticky principles…

 Principle #1 Simplicity – How do you find the essential core of an idea?
 Principle #2 Unexpectedness - How do we get people to pay attention to our ideas?
 Principle #3 Concreteness – How do we make our ideas clear?
 Principle #4 Credibility- How do we get people to believe our ideas?
 Principle #5 Emotions - How do we get people to care about our ideas?
 Principle #6 Stories – How do you get people to act on our ideas?

Like the Heath brothers taking a creative challenge and applying the rules will help you and guide you on determining if your creative expression can stick.

As a summary the SUCCESs approach helps people to remember…

 Pay attention Unexpected
 Understand & remember Concrete
 Believe and agree Credible
 Care Emotional
 Act Stories

At The Marketing Chefs we recently had a creative challenge with one of our client’s products – Zero-Tox cleaner. Now cleaning agents are a low interest category. However, consumers with children and pets are anxious to make sure that what they use is safe and won’t harm their families. We also have those consumers that are interested in being green and helping the environment. Zero-Tox is one of those cleaners that does it all – ultra safe, effective, green. We tried some public relations activities and we were very lucky to be able to piggy back on a Hertz going green as an organization editorial. Hertz was actually Zero-Tox’s client and part of the inspiration for the product being made available at retail. The Hertz employees use the product to clean all the cars you rent. There are absolutely no fumes or hazards to the skin or eyes and it is safe for them to use all day. What was interesting is that we were able to drive traffic to the Zero Tox website and consumers were reading 6-10 pages of the website information, but nobody was buying. We then tried a “get it free” campaign to get trial and interestingly enough this was even poorer in generating results for our client. Consumers told me “it was just too good to be true”.

As a creative online agency we now had a “stickiness challenge” how could we get consumers to

 Pay attention Unexpected
 Understand & remember Concrete
 Believe and agree Credible
 Care Emotional
 Act Stories

We are currently creating a viral campaign based upon the SUCCESs principles. But we also thought it would be fun to get your input.

How would you promote a great safe, green cleaner that works?

Check out the Zero Tox website, order your free sample and let me know what you think?

I look forward to your responses.

Until next week, I wish you prosperity and SUCCESs.

Tricia Ryan
Principal The Marketing Chefs

Victoria is the owner of VCM Enterprises, a full service coaching and training organization dedicated to increasing the performance of individuals who are committed to a life of prosperity, through personal and professional growth.

Victoria graduated from the University of Southern California, and has spent over 20 years building and managing sales organizations in the high tech industry. Her experience ranges from working with Fortune 500, Start-up, and Government entities. She is a certified Master Coach with the Behavioral Coaching Institute and has also trained with the Coaches Training Institute, American Seminar Leaders Association, CoachVille LLC, Peak Potentials, and Miller Heiman. She is also a member of the International Coaching Council, International Coach Federation and International Association of Coaches.

During Victoria’s corporate career, she was consistently recognized for her decisive, motivational management style, resulting in high levels of team productivity and record setting revenues. Victoria is a highly skilled communicator with excellent interpersonal skills.

Victoria’s demonstrated management and leadership abilities over a distinguished career in sales management, has resulted in exceptional knowledge in the areas of: Leadership, Sales, Customer Service, Self-Management, Networking, Channel or Third Party Relationships, Goal Setting, Employee Retention, Organizational Development, Behavioral Change, and Motivation.

Victoria’s dedication to her own training has also provided her with in-depth knowledge in the areas of: financial management, wealth building, and creating passive income streams.

Victoria’s strengths include: persistence, a strong work ethic, high integrity, outside-the-box thinking, strong negotiation skills, and a commitment to “giving back” to our society.

Victoria’s personal life is centered on her passion for helping homeless people, animals, high-risk youths, and people in financial crisis. Victoria is married to John, and enjoys spending time with her step-son Michael, his lovely wife Flavia, and her precious granddaughter Ella.

http://www.vcmenterprises.com/