Paula, what brilliant relatives! I'm not surprise — you do quite well yourself. I love how your cousins made that connection to both need and to the human side of things.

EP, that's true. I get very little in mail these days worth reading. It's such a treat when anything beyond a bill shows up!

My cousin (a writer/marketer with his own company) and his daughter (a graphic designer who works for a firm but is also starting her own shop) really impressed me with two recent pitches. After both got European delivery of their new cars they were astounded to discover the automaker only has a tiny percentage of US customers taking advantage of it. They pooled their talents to put together a well-researched and executed Power Point presentation about how they would promote the European delivery program and sent it in. It got the immediate attention of the company, who said they'd be in touch soon.

The daughter loves card games, board games, ALL games — and just happens to carry a travel game or two in her purse at all times. In November she and her boyfriend were at a casual beer event and she got everyone at their table playing Old Maid. One of the guys just happened to be a marketing executive at one of the major beer companies co-sponsoring the event. They kept shop talk to a minimum, but she wanted to see if she could find an "in" with the company. In December she bought a pack of Old Maid cards at the dollar store and sent it to the exec in lieu of a holiday card. He remembered her. I'm still waiting to hear if/when it leads to a freelance job.

My own relatives are putting me to shame! I need to up my game.