“Instead of sending my clients bottles of wine for Christmas, I decided in the year 2000 to send Christmas ornaments bearing inspirational messages,” said Rosemarie Monaco, the Upper Grandview resident who founded and heads Group M, a Nyack-based marketing firm.
Some messages were in poetry; some, story form. “All sought to bring out the child in us. Whatever happened to belief in magic?” she asked.
This year, instead of the usual tree ornaments, clients of longstanding will receive a bound and decorated book in which she has published her holiday literary creations of past years: “Just Believe ”” Stories of Inspiration.”
Monaco credits an old oak tree outside her former office for the idea of inspirational ornaments. “Something made me look up from my work,” she recalled. “An oak leaf lilted across the glass door in slow motion, like a prima ballerina. I went outside and picked it up. I t was perfect ”” not a mark, just the rich pattern of its colors. Nearby were dozens like it.”
Monaco placed them inside book pages to keep them from withering and later sprayed them with preservative and decorated them with glitter and ribbons. She wrote a poem, “The Gift,” to accompany the packet sent to clients.
In 2004, the story titled “The Light” was written to neutralize racist attacks. “It got me thinking how prejudice begins,” Monaco said. “Kids do not see color, religion or gender. They learn it from others.” With each copy of her story “The Light” she enclosed a candle, hoping “to shed light symbolically and literally.”
“The Faerie and the Mirror” poem of 2005 has a message: “We tend to look outside ourselves for answers, ignoring our own wisdom. With each poem I enclosed a decorative mirror as a reminder that answers lie within.”
For her most recent gift last year she obtained skeleton keys to accompany the aptly named story, “The Key.” Decorating the keys to become Christmas ornaments, she said, “I wanted to impart the idea that individuals hold the key to their futures and anything is possible. You must never give up on your dream.”
Monaco did not give up on her dream. In business she helps clients obtain their dreams. She refers to the client who was promoting a new environmentally friendly chemical-free printing plate. “They offered environmental recognition awards to customers who use the plate, but who also engage in other green activities. Few nominations came in. We renamed the award the Greenworks and produced a complete marketing kit with instructions on how to prepare local press releases and ads. We devised a spokes-frog named Murray to be featured in ads. Then we worked with a leading trade publication to provide readers with a list of ”˜green”™ printers. Out client”™s goal was for 25 award recipients by year”™s end. In a little over a month we had more than 50 Greenworks award recipients.”
Clients run the gamut from business coaches to serving needs of clients that include high technology clients, financial organizations, publishers and manufacturers.
Graduating from New York University, Monaco went to work in SONY”™s marketing department. “I fell in love with the business,” she said. When SONY relocated, she joined another international firm before founding her own business in l991. She survived the deep depression in 2008, deciding to hang in there, opting for salary cuts rather than eliminating positions until clients came back and new ones were added.
Among her numerous awards is the Rockland County Business Association”™s Pinnacle Award for Excellence by a Woman-Owned Company. She serves on the board of People to People food pantry.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
