Welcome to Manager Tools. Today's topic, New Direct First Day Meeting, and Manager Tools 500's

podcast. Here we go. Oh, All right, folks, before we get on with the show, I just want to give you a quick little

warning for some of you folks, and that's perfectly okay.

Won't want to listen to Mark and I as we

read off the winners and I think there's eight of them of our 500 podcast

testimonial contest.

So if you're one of those who don't want to listen to it,

you just want to get to our regularly scheduled topic today,

you know, skip ahead about, it's about 20 minutes roughly and you'll get to the normal podcast

If you a long time listening your interest and hearing what people have to say then by all means we hope you'll stick around and listen to the beginning of this.

So with that, we'll get on with the rest of the show here.

Well folks, welcome to Manager Tools 500th Podcast. I never imagine that we get this far frankly but here we are.

And folks we are thrilled to be sharing the show with you six and a half years after we started this effort in June of 2005 and

we consider pretty auspicious that our 500th cast falls on New Year's Day

at least for our listeners in most of the world.

We hope that this year and many, many more to come for us more opportunities to serve you.

And it is our pleasure to do so, that's for sure.

Now for our 500th cast celebration, we asked you if you're so inclined to send us a short essay explaining

what manager tools and our career tools meant to you.

And we gave you a deadline of Christmas Eve and offered prizes to the top

five submissions including lifetime membership to MT and CT for the top submission.

That's right, lifetime membership. I don't know about you Mark but I was totally

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