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Engage & Show YOUR Support To Send BMAC Down Under!!!
The announcement for the Top 3 Chief Funster finalists is just a day away!!! Tomorrow evening I will know what my Chief Funster fate is. If I make Top 3, this means that I fly down to Australia for a week in June for final interviews.
It’s a crazy feeling knowing the reality of my future is so close. My heart has been racing all day today with the anticipation of tomorrow’s big announcement. The doubt has started to set in where I feel like I didn’t do enough and/or should have done even more to express my excitement and passion for the position of Chief Funster. I know this is a normal feeling leading up to such a big announcement like this, I just have to keep thinking positively!
I do happen to have a challenge for YOU, my wonderful Send BMAC Down Under followers, should you choose to accept it!
We need to show the contest all of the people who support me and believe in me for the position of Chief Funster. I need you to engage with me on my social media pages and show your support to Send BMAC Down Under!!! This means tweeting to me, posting on my Facebook timeline and sharing my blog. I encourage your creativity for a tweet and Facebook post!
Tweet @BMAC_DownUnder using #SendBMacDownUnder and your personalized message to me! Tell @Australia and @ChiefFunsterNSW why they need to pick me!
Post a message on the Send BMAC Down Under Facebook wishing me luck and why you believe I would be THE BEST Chief Funster IN THE WORLD!!! Pictures are encouraged 🙂
I really need your help for this one! Please rally and support to help me show Australia that I am the one they need to bring tourism to Australia and live the life of a Chief Funster!!!
Fierce Competition, Unexpected Surprise
Dear Tourism Australia,
I would describe myself as a competitive person because once I have my sights set on something, I do whatever I can to reach my goal. After the shortlist announcement and the reality set in that I was in the Top 25, it was time to scope out the competition to see what I was up against.
After checking out the competition, what’s cool about all of the Chief Funsters who were shortlisted is that we all took a different route of how we would get to Chief Funster. Everyone has a different personality. This makes the contest fun and diverse and I can only imagine how hard it is for you to have to compare apples and oranges to pick your Top 3 “shining stars” for Chief Funster.
I have been following my competition closely and it’s been challenging for me because although I truly want to be Chief Funster, I have to admit that the competition is fierce and I really like what some of the other contestants have been doing. I keep wondering who will make it to Top 3 and if I will be one of them. If I am, how will I feel about the other two people who would stand beside me? Although one of my favorite parts of life is meeting new people, I never expected to find a friend in this contest. Over the past week I’ve gotten to know Shay Mirza and if there’s anyone I’d like to see in Top 3 with me, she is one them!
Shay is glitz and glam, which makes her perfect for the eye of the public, but the best part about her is that she is authentic. I never expected another contestant to be so supportive of everything I am doing to win especially when we are competing for the same position. Shay has been such a great team player supporting myself and a couple other Chief Funsters while also doing what she needs to in order to make it to Top 3.
Shay and I have been talking non-stop about the contest about all the “ifs” plus next steps. It’s been very nice to have someone in the same position as I am to talk to. I keep forgetting we are “against” each other. I wish we could both be Chief Funster.
If I had to describe Shay in three words they would be thoughtful, thorough and fabulous! What I respect most about Shay is how she composes herself and her resilience. What most people probably don’t know is that Shay has been receiving cruel messages on her blog from an anonymous commenter. Shay has not let this bother her or get the best of her. Obviously getting nasty messages from someone who doesn’t even know her is not a comforting scenario, but Shay has risen above this radical behavior and has only let it make her stronger and more confident in this competition.
I know Shay would make a fun-tastic Chief Funster, which is why you should to pick Shay Mirza to advance to Top 3! I’m on #TeamShay!
Looking forward to the Top 3 announcement and fingers crossed Shay and I will be lucky enough to advance together and meet in Australia 🙂
Best,
Brittany MacLeod
Close The Curtain On Round 2
Andddddd CUT! That’s a wrap, folks! Round 2 of the Best Job In The World contest is officially over. Yesterday I submitted my final official report to Tourism Australia of all my efforts and everything I accomplished in round 2. I tried to make it crisp and to the point. Here is a piece of what I sent in with my report. Click below to see the video I made summarizing my efforts for this round of the contest!
There was a lot that I couldn’t fit into the video or wasn’t meaningful enough to report to Australia. I wish Australia could’ve seen my phone ringing off the hook the whole 2 weeks of different people and places calling me back and making moves for this round. I transformed from a “regular student at Marist College” to the CEO of my own PR agency handling my number one client “Send BMAC Down Under”. For an advertising major, I certainly learned a lot about public relations these past 2 weeks. I had dabbled with PR before, but I would say I’m efficient in it now.
I had so many things running through my head before I pressed the “send” button, as I’m sure all the other Chief Funster candidates did. I had so many thoughts and yet none at all at the same time. My mind was blank. I was just staring at the screen. There was nothing else for me to include. I knew I covered everything. My heart was pounding like a drum and I could feel the energy rush through my finger tips as my pointer finger hovered over the “send” button and then *click*… it was gone. My entire report sent into cyber space and in the hands of the contest judges. It’s up to them now. My future is in their hands.
I’ll tell you what friends, I’ve never wanted something so bad in my life. I gave a speech in Toastmasters last week about success and I wrote it based on my feelings and procedure of the contest. It went a little something like this…
When you want to be successful as much as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful. First you have to want something. Really want something. When you think of this “thing”, you feel the burn in your body. The fire ignites in your stomach and spreads out to the ends of your body. You fall asleep thinking about this “thing” and wake up with the same thoughts on your mind. It’s similar to the way you feel when you’re in love.
Next step: do whatever it takes to get this “thing”. Don’t let ANYONE stop you. It takes 8 “no”s in sales before you get 1 “yes”. Let me just tell you what that sounds like… No. No. No. No. No. No! No! NO! yes. People are always waiting for you to fail. No one wants to see someone else succeed. It’s a dog eat dog world out there. People only want what is good for his or herself. My advice to you? Be relentless. That’s a powerful word right there. Do it. Be relentless.
But don’t do anything that doesn’t seem natural. Do you. Be you. No one else could possibly be you, so do you.
The ultimate key to success, you ask? Do what you love. It’s what you want to do. Everything else will fall into place from there. It’s true what they say, when you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. So do what you love. I really love social media. What I love even more than social media is having fun! Half the fun of social media is showing and talking about how much fun you had living life to its fullest.
Having the opportunity to be Chief Funster would be an absolute dream come true. It makes too much sense in my life right now. I am graduating college in just over 2 weeks. I would have most of the summer off then start being the Chief Funster in August (which is my birthday month! HOLLA!). Yes, that’s right, I graduate in 17 days. I wouldn’t be sacrificing my last moments and memories EVER in college if I didn’t think every second and ounce of the time and energy I’ve put into this job wasn’t worth it. Everything happens for a reason, right?
And with that, my friends, I leave you with this– the definition of a Chief Funster according to UrbanDictionary.com
A Letter From My Mother To Australia
Chief Funster Search Committee
Tourism Australia
Sydney, New South Wales
Greetings,
You have all been hearing about my daughter Brittany MacLeod (BMAC to her friends) from her co-workers, mentors, professors, Dean of the Marist School of Management and one of our State Representatives but as her mother I wanted to give you a different perspective of my impressive daughter. I know right about now you are all thinking every mother thinks their child is impressive but I want to give you specifics where she has shined and caught the attention of the world around her.
Brittany and Malcolm playing in the leaves when Brittany was little. My daughter has always had something say since she learned how to talk!
My husband, Malcolm and I knew Brittany was special when she walked at 8 months old and was conversational at 18 months old but one of the things that has continued to set Brittany apart from others is her singing. When Brittany was little, I would take her out with me shopping and Brittany would entertain herself in her stroller by singing to herself. People would stop me and ask me if I realized how beautifully she sang and at such a young age. After a while instead of just thinking it was a “mother’s pride” that thought she was special, I brought her to a vocal coach to see if there was something different about her. I came to find out she had perfect pitch at age five.
At ten years old we were visiting a historic home in Newport, Rhode Island where they were hosting a Renaissance Faire and they finished a planned event early and asked if anyone had any special talent. Brittany said she could sing and they thought they were humoring a child when they invited her to go ahead and entertain everyone. She was so much better than they ever expected that a couple of hundred people were blown away by her unexpectedly professional voice. People even came up to Malcolm and I afterwards asking permission to take their photograph with our daughter. Pretty impressive!
Brittany continued to sing and set herself apart by becoming the “go to” person in our town to sing our National Anthem at sporting events. One event in particular to be mentioned was the re-dedication of our local Ice Rink, to honor the memory a fallen Medal of Valor recipient and veteran from our town. That was in addition to performing in all kinds of music performances and venues. Brittany still performs while at college gaining attention with her beautiful voice still performing our National Anthem and performing in showcases of talented students.
I was astounded by Brittany one day when she came home from High School at age 14 and she told me she wanted to play Ice Hockey. Well, you’re now asking yourself why is this impressive? Well, you see, Brittany had never watched an Ice Hockey game before. Sure, in principal she knew what it was, what New Englander didn’t, but she had never been interested before. So she set out to play Ice Hockey and had to learn the game very quickly to be able to make the team and compete. Brittany not only made the team, she played Ice Hockey all 4 years of High School. To mine and Malcolm’s amazement, our daughter who is bright, sings and was a cheerleader for 4 years had another talent to add to her list, Ice Hockey player!
But Brittany didn’t stop there. Brittany became the voice of the student body for her High School by representing the student’s point of view at our School Committee meetings for two years as you learned from State Representative Jeffrey Roy. This was the beginning of Brittany’s foray into public speaking and this is important when you consider when Brittany went to college she joined an international organization called Toastmasters International, an organization with over 280,000 members. Brittany is on target to earn her Distinguished Toast Master (DTM) in three years. Once she gets her award, she will also become the youngest DTM ever in the world. It normally takes a Toastmasters anywhere between 5-8 years to earn this honor but when Brittany sets her mind to something there is usually no stopping her.
So now that I have told you all that, I can tell you that the reason I picked these unconnected factoids about Brittany is to tell you that she often surprises us but never disappoints. She is energetic, talented, driven, intelligent, thinks on her feet, and you would be lucky to have her representing Tourism Australia because she will give you 100% of her effort 100% of the time in communicating to the world how awesome Australia is and that everyone will want to “go down under”. That is the type of young woman she is.
I am so very proud of my daughter and all that she has accomplished! She can, and always has captured the attention of all the people who encounter her and Australia will never forget her, I promise you that!
Sincerely,
.
Franklin Wants YOU To Send BMAC Down Under!
Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for your love and support for Send BMAC Down Under so far. The second round of the Best Job In The World Contest is almost over! Tomorrow I report back to Tourism Australia with everything I have done in the past 2 weeks to show off my creativity, passion and commitment to becoming the Chief Funster by generating advocacy and media interest about why I am the best person in the world for this position. I find out May 14th if I make it to the next round of the contest. Fingers crossed.
A large part of who I am is because of how I was raised and how I grew up in Franklin, Massachusetts. Now that I’m only less than 3 short weeks away from graduating college and entering the “real world” it’s time I take all of those life lessons and values with me to tackle my next challenge and make my mark on the world. I wouldn’t have made it this far if I didn’t have my friends and family back home cheering me on to become Chief Funster. Check out my Franklin peeps showing their support to Send me, BMAC, Down Under!
Endorsement from Model Tucker Des Lauriers
Send BMAC Down Under endorsement from model Tucker Des Lauriers.
Tucker has modeled for New Balance, Reebok, Adidas, Puma, Hasbro, Hollister, Abercrombie, H&M, Seventeen Magazine, Hercules Magazine, GQ style Korea, GQ Online, Lucio Castro, Marlon Gobel, Calvin Klein Exclusive Milan, Out Magazine, Vogue Homme International Magazine, Kids Wear Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, Stage stores, VMAN Magazine and that’s just to name a few!
Here’s Tucker with “Send BMAC Down Under” painted on his chest as one of my official high profile endorsements in the referee challenge for round 2 of the Best Job In The World Contest! These pics are too good not to post all of the ones he sent me. Ladies, swoon!
You can follow Tucker on instagram at “Tsdeslauriers”
Follow Tucker on twitter: @Tsdeslauriers
A lucky few of you may be accepted to be Facebook friends with him: https://www.facebook.com/tucker.deslauriers
I’m Bringin Sydney Back
Letter of Recommendation from Mark Gamarra
Mark M. Gamarra
Los Angeles, CA
Dear World,
I’ve been asked to convince you why Brittany MacLeod is the perfect Chief Funster for Tourism Australia’s “Best Jobs in the World” contest. This sounds like a tough assignment, but for me, it’s simple.
Brains. This young woman has the smarts for the job. As the Chief Funster, she’ll review festivals and events and serve as the social media guru for New South Wales, Australia. Based out of Sydney, she’ll have to tweet, blog, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Foursquare… you get the picture, everything she does. With her ebullient spirit and her contagious energy, every Aussie will be ‘following’ her through her adventures and knowing where the “IT” spots are to be. I would say social media is second nature for her, but it isn’t. It’s her life, all day, everyday. She developed a thorough campaign to successfully gain herself a position in the Top 25 candidates – she has the tools and knows how to use them, to create a fun and informative environment wherever she goes.
Maturity. It’s easy to say, “she’s too young…” or “oh, but, she’s just 21.” Age is merely a number for Brittany. It means nothing. Though I have known her for four years (although it seems a lifetime!), she exemplifies a character of responsibility with her schoolwork, her job as the social media liaison for Marist College, her close-knit family, and her community. She has always been involved in leadership organizations throughout her college career, typically holding an elected position of authority, or being the #1 advocate for her fellow peers. This position is not one she will take lightly, as she takes everything she does to heart. I have full trust that she will handle it with professionalism and the utmost respect for the contest organizers, whom she will be representing.
Assertion. You couldn’t imagine someone with such ability to break the ice in any situation. She’s not the “type of person” to start a conversation, she IS that person. As her advisor for a student-leader organization at Marist, I witnessed firsthand the kind of gusto she brings to a group. While attending conferences throughout the States, it would be me asking, “WHERE’S BRITTANY?” not even five minutes upon arrival. Where would she be? Making friends, complementing other schools, running around telling everyone where she comes from and why they should care. Her dynamic personality is incomparable, to the point where by dinnertime of that first night, everyone would be pointing (laughing) and yelling at me “THERE’S BRITTANY!”
Commitment. True dedication is what drives Brittany – in everything she does. Whether speaking in front of fellow Toastmasters, singing her heart out, helping out a friend, or taking the lead on a group project, she always makes sure goals are met. She determines her path to success, and through intricate planning, as well as a solid subconscious stream, she gets the job done. The loyalty she has towards the people she works with, combined with an effervescence that keeps the most tired alert and ready to grind all gears… there’s honestly no stopping what this young lady can accomplish. What surprises most people when they get to know her is that she isn’t someone who is ‘all talk’ – she’s all-action and gets the best from her team. I know this will hold true whether she’s home, at school, or
DOWN UNDER!