From The Contest Queen

Like sweepstaking, convention is always an adventure.  This year has been no different.  We decided to combine a family vacation with convention again this year.  Unfortunately, at the last moment, my husband Craig could not attend due to work commitments.  We were very lucky and the convention organizers were able to change Craig’s registration to my assistant Aprile (see, good luck flows into all areas of one’s life).  So it became a girl’s road trip; myself, my daughter Nicole, the nanny Jennifer and Aprile.

We left on Monday morning. We could drive all the way to Manchester NH, but we decided to break up the drive to make it less of a long haul along with allowing us to sight-see along the way.  We drove to Burlington VT, then stayed the night.

Tuesday morning we began our trek to Manchester. We had two important stops to make first.  Our first stop was the Vermont Teddy Bear Company factory.

We began with a tour and Nicole left with a new teddy bear.  Then it was off for lunch before we got dessert, at the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory.

We made spin art, a tye dye t-shirt, took the tour and, of course, ate ice cream! We arrived in Manchester just in time for dinner.

Wednesday we had planned to go to the beach (an hour east of Manchester), but the weather was not co-operating.  So we did what four girls would do, we went shopping!  After lunch we took Nicole to the SEE Science Center.  It’s a small hands on centre for kids (of all ages).  They have a really cool Millyard LEGO installation that used over 3 million pieces of LEGO.

Wednesday night we went to the famous Red Arrow Diner.  I had my first Whoppie Pie. YUMMY! !

Thursday at noon the convention officially started with the Vendor Room opening. It was wonderful to see so many of my sweepstaking buddies.  Lots of hugs all round.

After a quick dinner, the festivities kicked off with an Ice Cream Social and PRIZES! (Lucky me, I won 100 Forever stamps, WOOHOO!!)

If you didn’t make it this year, make sure you attend the 21st Annual National Sweepstakes Convention.

Hope to see you there!

It seems that the many complaints sent to the Competition Bureau did nothing. Club Season Canada is running their “contest” again, offering a free vacation a year for the next 10 years as the prize.

BE AWARE! This company sells timeshares. They legally do give away the prize. However, there is a catch.  You must pay the annual maintenance fee, which by my last calculation added up into the thousands.

In my opinion, it is not worth your time entering.  There are hundreds of wonderful contests out there.  Go enter those.

To review, read my last two posts on Club Season Canada:

Borderline

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

Earlier this week I wrote about how I helped Wendy win a house by recommending she learn from Helene Hadsell, “the woman who won every contest she entered” and author of The Name It & Claim It Game.

Well, since I like to multi-task, I play motivational CDs, MP3s and videos while I work.  Since Aprile and I share an office, she is subjected to all the wonderful inspirational and motivational messages.  Of course, one of my favourites to listen to is Helene Hadsell’s program.

Aprile took all of Helene’s teachings to heart, followed her SPEC (Select, Project, Expect and Collect) method to heart, and today she won a trip for two to Jamaica from EZ Rock 97.3 FM.

Aprile told me how she decided she to Select a trip to win:

This year is our 5th anniversay and I was hoping to win us a romanitc trip for two. One morning while listenig to EZ Rock, they announced they were giving away a trip a day. I thought to myself, “This will be an easy contest to win.”  When I got to the office, I went on my laptop, read the rules, and took the picute of the resort from the EZ rock website and made it my wallpaper so I could Project plus envision Barry and I poolside with fru fru drinks.  I made sure I was up in time every morning to hear when the cue to qualify would be that day.  Three days went by and I did not qualify, but I knew I was going to win.  Thursday I qualifed. When I hung up the phone, I said to Carolyn, “They are going to call me back.”  I Expected to win. And they did!

(She then Collected her prize.)

Aprile is going to the Sunwing Vacation Grand Palladium Resort & Spa in Jamaica.

If you want to know more about Helene Hadsell, and her winning techniques you can:

read more about her,

listen to an interview with her and Mind Valley President, Vishen Lakhiani,

or view a short video with Helene about how she won her house.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

Months ago Wendy emailed me. She required my help and encouragement.  A pair of radio stations in her city had teamed up to give away a house. They were taking 700 qualifiers for a key-turn competition and Wendy had qualified.  She was on disability and her husband was unemployed. She was desperate to win the house as it would change their lives, their fortune.

I told her to banish desperation from her mind as it would only push her desire away from her.  I told Wendy to listen to the interview I did with Helene, take her advice, and go win her house.

This is the email I just got from Wendy:

Hello,
I just wanted to follow-up on my email to you. You may remember I qualified on the radio through our two local radio stations; Rock 95 and 107.5 Kool FM. 700 contestants, over approximately four months qualified for a chance to turn a key to the house. On Friday May 8th, we attended the Gala Party, where upon entry you deposited your ballot with assigned number into a drum. Throughout the evening there were thirty numbers selected. Mine came up in second to last group of five. All thirty of us came to stage where thirty actual keys were in a fish bowl. You would pick a key from the bowl and try to open the door. Twenty-one people before me were unsuccessful. I chose the key that opened the door to a $250.000.00 home.

2 DAYS PRIOR TO THIS EVENT YOU SENT ME THE LINK TO HELEN HADSELL I LISTENED,…..I SELECTED, PROJECTED, EXPECTED AND COLLECTED. Is it a coincidence? This is my biggest win so far. Like the words in Elton Johns’ song SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT. I am on disability and with my husband out of work, we just had signed the papers to re-mortgage our current home to pay off debts. We were able to cancel the re-mortgage because of this wonderful event, and that is my story. THANK YOU!

I feel my purpose is to teach others how to bring more fun, excitement (and even prizes) into their everyday lives.  I am so glad I was able to help Wendy do just that.

If you want to know more about Helene Hadsell, and her winning techniques you can:

read more about her,

listen to another interview with her and Mind Valley President, Vishen Lakhiani,

or view a short video with Helene about how she won her house.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

Coca Cola Tells $10,000 Winner He Did Not Win; Gives Him $500 Instead
A Connecticut limo driver with six kids was thrilled to discover he had won $10,000 in scholarship funds in a new Coca Cola sweepstakes. He even got a message from Coke congratulating him on his win. Read balance of blog post…

This is exactly why I want to consult with even more companies in advance of a sweepstakes launch. If you, as a marketer, know your client’s products are going to be on store shelves before the launch date of the promotion, then your live testing must be done before the product ships.  It’s poor marketing to anger your client’s loyal cutomers and generate negative media.

So, are you going to enter the Twist & Text Sweepstakes? It’s open to the US and ends January 31, 2010.

It was so nice to sleep in.  (When I say sleep in, I mean 8am. I have a 7-year-old.)  After doing my morning exercises (yes, I even packed my wrist weights) I got ready for the day.  I then had tea, an apple and potato chips for breakfast (Hey, you gotta support the sponsor!) while I sat at my computer catching up on my contesting.  (My husband Craig can sleep through anything.)

When he got up we we thought we would go our for brunch only to discover it was pouring rain out.  (When did it start raining? The sun was out when I was exercising.)  So after a eating in the hotel restaurant, we went back to our room.  I continued to drink tea and enter contests.  After a few hours I said, “I wonder what time that game starts tonight?”  I pulled the tickets out of my purse.  They were marked 16:30.  I looked at the clock.  It was 4:15pm.  “Holy Cow!  The game starts in 15 minutes.  Let’s go!!”  Thankfully, there was a courtesy shuttle car available.  We only missed 2 minutes of the game.

We weren’t in our seats one minute before Windsor scored against Kelowna.  Pregame, Craig was sure Kelowna was going to win against whoever won Friday’s semi-final game.

Kelowna managed to get in one goal before they finally lost 4-1. “That’s why they play the game.” ~ Chris “Boomer” Berman

We got the courtesy shuttle to drop us off downtown and we went looking for a restaurant for dinner.  Our first choice turned out not to be open on Sunday’s.  However, we got lucky and found a really funky little spot, Le Bien, Le Malt.  It was empty because it was the first Sunday of the season it was open.  We had drinks, snack plates and played Mille Bornes.  It was so relaxing.  It was like hanging out at home.  The perfect end to a perfect weekend.

THANK YOU OLD DUTCH!

Where does the time go? How can it be Wednesday already?! I thought before a whole week went by, I had better finish blogging about our adventures in Rimouski QC.

Saturday was wonderful.  As a mom, I don’t get to sleep in very often.  And when I say sleep in, I mean 8am. I awoke to find my husband, Craig, up and working away on his computer.  So, I got ready and when I emerged from the bathroom, he had gone back to bed and was fast asleep.  (I didn’t think I was really that high maintenance!)

So I got myself a tea, sat down at my computer and finished my newsletter.  (One of the best things about owning your own business is you can work when ever you wish.  One of the worst things about owning your own business is you can work whenever you wish.)  Since I was already three days behind in getting it to my webmaster, I thought I had better finish up.

At 11:30am we headed out to the “Ceremonie de Remise des Trophees Individuals“.  We had been given tickets to the VIP cocktail reception and tickets to the ceremony itself. I had packed for the weather, cool and damp, so upon arriving in jeans and sneakers, I felt very under dressed.  I said to Craig, “Why didn’t I think VIP meant VIP dress?”

The award ceremony was very well done.  They had two presenters: one French and one English, and they even had comic relief, in the form of Miss Memorial Cut, to provide some laughter to a potentially very dry ceremony.

The Brian Kilrea CHL Coach of the Year Award was sponsored by Old Dutch. It was won by Bob Boughner of the Windsor Spitfires for the second year in a row.

We then when out for a very late brunch at Chez Oeufs followed by a carb coma (aka afternoon nap).  We woke up in time to have a swim in the hotel pool followed by dinner in the hotel restaurant.

It was the perfect day.  Relaxing and indulgent with a fun mixed in.  Exactly why I enter contests to win trips and adventures.  What would be a perfect day on a trip win for you?

It is amazing how quickly a winning weekend passes!

My husband Craig and I left home at noon on Friday to catch our afternoon flight from Toronto to Montreal.  We changed planes to fly to Mont Joli. We then caught a shuttle bus to our hotel; Hotel Rimouski. We got our room, dumped our bags and headed to the semi-final game of the 2009 Memorial Cup hockey game between the Windsor Spitfires and the Drummondville Voltigeurs.  We arrived halfway through the first period.

What an exciting game!  Both teams played hard.  At one point the score was tied 2-2.  During the third period we got to have a VIP tour of the Rogers HDTV broadcast truck.  It’s was amazing to see an entire TV broadcast room squeezed into an expandable 18-wheeler.  As we watched the clock countdown I knew the game was going to go into overtime.  On our way back to our seats we got to stand behind the goal and get another view of the game along with spotting the winners of the Right Guard Extreme Fan Memorial Cup Contest.  We sat down to watch the Spitfires score the winning goal 5 minutes into overtime.

This trip is one reason why I enter many contests.  I get to have adventures and experiences I would never have in my everyday life. Make sure you are entering contests that could add adventures into your everyday life!

Sharon Elaine and I are kindred spirits.  We both love entering and winning sweepstakes.  We both believe in the Law of Attraction and we both enjoy sharing our fun and excitement with others.  Sharon has shared her winning secrets in Ready, Click, Win! How to Find and WIN Legitimate Online Sweepstakes and her Law of Attraction secrets in The Book of Affirmations.

As a college computer teacher, Sharon has used her teaching skills to make Ready, Click, WIN! a wonderfully easy book to read and understand.  Sharon only talks about online sweepstakes.  She begins by introducing readers to the hobby, for the “newbie”, through; how to find sweepstakes, how to enter, how to win, and how to stay safe online.

Chapter 2 is titled Rules of Thumb. Here are the tips that every sweeper should follow:

1. Don’t check the odds!
2. YOU go looking for the sweepstakes, don’t let them come looking for you.
3. Once you enter it, LET IT GO.
4. Get your mind right!
5. Be patient.
6. HAVE FUN!!

Sharon’s #1 tip is to expect to win.  When she goes off to enter her daily sweepstakes she says, “I am off to WIN!”, not “I am off to enter.”  No wonder Sharon wins so many online instant win prizes!

Sharon is an active member of Sweepstakes Advantage.  You can find her in the forum, ready to help others win, or on her website Unleashed Minds. Sharon was also a guest on my online radio show With The Contest Queen on Monday May 18th. Listen here.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN!!

Helene spoke with Stephan Jacob on LITR.

Listen to interview here.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

FIND HELENE’S BOOK HERE: Contesting: The Name It & Claim It Game.