Building a Year of Evidence for Award Success

We share a simple way to turn award season from a scramble into a calm, year‑round practice. The focus is on documenting wins, making impact visible, and learning from finalists so submissions become a by‑product of good habits.

• why awards feel grueling and how reflection helps
• a shared brag file to capture proof as it happens
• what evidence to save: testimonials, screenshots, videos, KPIs
• making impact public across social, email signatures and signage
• using social as a memory bank for submissions
• studying finalists for patterns and standards
• building weekly and monthly habits to maintain momentum

PM COLLECTIVE - GUIDE AND SHAPE AN ENJOYABLE FUTURE

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Chapters

• 1:02 Why Awards Feel Grueling
• 2:22 Reflection As A Business Practice
• 4:16 Make It A Team Experience
• 5:55 Three Strategies For Next Year
• 6:59 Build A Brag File
• 11:27 What To Capture And How
• 13:36 Operational Wins Count Too

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:31

We have a solo podcast with me today. So welcome to those that are jumping in to listen. And what I wanted to do this episode on was about the awards, because we have obviously just had a lot of finalists being announced in different REI awards and uh the PMP awards and lots of them have sort of just all come up. And they're the process to actually apply is quite grueling. Like it is very, very time consuming, and it can often be quite disheartening if we don't become a finalist in them as well. And just keep in mind that there are so many, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applications that are put through, nominations that are put through, and only a few people can become finalists. And I remember someone recently said to me, Oh, I just thought everyone that nominated became a finalist. And I was like, no, there's actually like it's a it's a really busy, a busy thing. So what I wanted to talk about today was things that you can start doing now that are going to help you with the awards process in 12 months. So you may or may not have become a finalist or been nominated, regardless of what situation is. This is going to help you for next year. Um, and I think, like I've said before, the the process of award putting in an award application is actually really humbling because you get to reflect on the last 12 months of things that you've done in the business, things that you've done personally. And to be honest, the process of actually just entering in the awards is a um is a really, really important thing that I think all businesses should do. And actually, in a way, documenting like what you've done, reflecting on it, it's it's a really, really great exercise. So for those that aren't into doing awards, I found I used to be like that, and it's only probably been in the last three years that I've started entering awards, and I have to say, it's not about you, it's about your team, and I can't I can't harp on it about it more. Like the team really enjoy the process of you know, it's something that brings you all together, where it's like, you know, it's a team effort and you're applying together and you get dressed up together and you go out together. It really is something that I think that I underestimated how important it was for the team to to be involved in. So if you are like me a couple of years ago, please just take that in um into account. Now, those that have gone through the process of doing the award applications for whichever awards they are. I mean, I'm talking about all the awards that there are available in Australia. And the the questions when you have to start doing them, it's really hard to think about what you have done in the last 12 months. And sometimes we can actually also miss all those little micro things that you have done that have been amazing. So that's what I just wanted to do with you. Um, we'll talk to you through that today, with three things that you can do to help the awards application process for next year. So the first thing is documenting the wins as they happen. Now, my operations manager started doing this, and I think it's an amazing idea. I can't take any credit for it because it's absolutely something that she started doing, but it definitely has made a massive difference. And this is actually something like these little tips I normally keep for my my weekly one percenters for my members, but I just thought that this one was really good to share with everyone because it does it, it's really important. So basically documenting the wins as they happen, and and how you can do that is you can create yourself like what I would call a brag file. So whether that's on the desktop or maybe it's in a it's in a group Google Drive or Dropbox, wherever you have, wherever you can create a spreadsheet which allows you and the team to start putting in brags. So this might include when the team have got like a really cool client testimonial. When you get them, we all just like you know, share them and file them across. We don't actually do much with them. But if you actually can put it onto a PDF document and actually save that in the brag file, then that is something that you'll be able to upload as evidence in the award system. You can also do screenshots when you've had great feedback, again, pop that into the brag file. You can screen share videos of process improvements that you've been doing. You know, if you have um started using a new product or a software, it might even be getting feedback from your team on how they're going with that and how it improves their lives. Anything like that, I mean, we're talking lots of different types of awards, so it can be from property managers or it can be for like team stuff or operational leadership. But if you can start processing all of those things that you have been doing in your role that have been a great experience for your team, a great experience for your clients, or something personal, that's what you're going to be putting in there. I would also be putting in any like notable KPIs or any sort of good growth or retention KPIs that you've had for that month and celebrated, like I'd be putting that in. I would be putting in what else? You've got the feedback from your team, feedback from your clients, any screenshots and any processes, like any like on-the-business stuff that you've done. So if you have, I mean, just throwing it out there, like we've updated our logo to make it more refined. We have updated the website, we've changed our CRM to make the team's life easier. You know, all of those things which you might not actually see as anything major. I would absolutely be documenting them. And maybe in that brag file, you can have something like operational brag file, personal team brag file, client experience, like whatever categories you want to do. Maybe it's the community service or the marketing, or maybe you had like a reel that went really, really well, like the insights you can screenshot from your Facebook, like all of that type of stuff. Just don't just brush it over. Like document it, keep it because I promise you, when it comes to doing these applications later on, it's going to be so much easier when you've got that file handy and you literally can just pull up everything that you've got. I would just hate for someone not to put in applications because they found the process too hard, and that would be a real shame. So that is like 100% what I'll be doing, or what you know, I would recommend you do from now for the next 12 months before the, you know, before nominations are open for 2026. So the second thing that I would also do next is just understanding awards are about the impact and not always just about the results. So you do want to make sure that your work is visible. So I would be using social media, um, your email signature, any office signage to show uh all those good things that you are doing and impacting inside your community. So it could be your community contributions, if you do a donation or support a local school or a program, if you can get a letter of reference from them, or if you can get photos of the event, I would be definitely putting that in there. Sometimes when you participate in community events, they might send a thank you, you know, the event raised, you know,$5,000 or something like that. All of those types of things I would be keeping. And I would also, I would also share them on social. And the reason is is another part of the application process that we that we do when we need to think of ideas is we actually go through our social media just to have a look at anything that we've celebrated online. And this also gives us a little bit more inspiration and ideas if we're finding it tough to, you know, to think of something to put in. And the Facebook or the social media is it's like a diary. It's sort of like that visual reminder of things that have been, you know, a great impacts for the business throughout the year. If you were doing anything, you know, behind the scene or you know, different different innovation behind the scene and you're documenting all that, I would be including it because I mean, to be honest, I don't actually know the judging criteria and how that works, but I wouldn't, and and it may, and it probably is to be honest, just on the application that you put in. And I get that, but I still wouldn't underestimate the power of having a public presence with with all of the things that you do, and and you know, showing like the application, if you sort of think about the application that you do is sort of like private, like that's going off to you know, to judges and to whichever institute's doing the awards. But your all that impact and all that great stuff you're putting into your application, like is that also visible on your social media? And in in that, that's something that I would absolutely be taking into account, just to have that public presence as well. So making sure that you're building that strong brand and all those wonderful things you're doing on your social media so that everyone can see as well. And then the third thing would be you're not going to be able to get feedback from anyone for like why your application didn't become a finalist or anything like that. But what I do think you can do is really have a look at the finalists that did the nominations that did become finalists. And I think that you should follow those people, follow those officers. You should see what their social media looks like, what their brand presence looks like, and and see those. I'm not suggesting that for any minute, like you know, everything that people share is online. And you might sort of look at some of the finalists and look online and go, well, there's nothing on there. Like maybe that's that's it. But it also, I just think is just a good exercise to have a look at the finalist's presence. It could be having a look at maybe on their website, they talk about you know the good things that they've been doing or the programs they've been involved in or donations. You might see it on their social media, but but go have a little look and see if there is anything that comes up consistent for the others that you could potentially use to reflect on, you know, what you're doing as well. And and I think that that would be a good exercise to do. I mean, if nothing more, those people that are become finalists, I mean, they're doing something great. So why wouldn't you go connect with them and and follow them? That's what I would be doing. I don't think I've done it this year, but that's what I'd be doing because I think that that's a really a really good thing to show support to other people in the industry as well. So I think it's yeah, it's a good thing to do. So doing the awards and the applications, that that is something that is like a whole year process. So if you don't start documenting these things and working, you know, enjoying the journey of it, I think that that it's going to be very daunting putting the application in at the last minute when you've done, you know, when you're you honestly, you're not going to remember what you did nine months ago, ten months ago. So documenting, I just think is incredible. So if you are not doing that already, please go open a spreadsheet in whichever program that you currently use, and uh or just a simple old Excel spreadsheet and start documenting whenever you have great little things that happen or receive nice words from clients or contractors or the community so that you can start building up on that. And you know what? Even if you don't want to go in for awards, like whatever, just having a list of all those wonderful things that you've done throughout the year to reflect on, and maybe you reflect on as a team, and you know, at the end of the year or every quarter or whatever, as a team, you all sit back and you go, This is what we accomplished in the last three months, or this is what we accomplished in the last 12 months. What a beautiful thing to do with your team and your business, just to reflect on on all of those things that might seem little in the moment, but make up a really, really big picture of your business. So that's my little tip today. And I hope that that's something helpful and something for you to think about implementing. And as I say to my members, you know, that's your weekly 1% for the week. It literally will take you a couple of minutes just to set up that form and to do, and it'll be a uh make a massive difference in 12 months. So I really do hope that that works for you. And um, if you are a nominating yourself for anything, good luck. And if you are a finalist in anything, congratulations as well.