It May Be Small……But a BIG Personality

I was asked a question recently that a lot of people are quietly wondering about.

 Would a gift that thrills my biggest client fall flat on the new graduate we just hired?

Yes. It absolutely would.

 And there is nothing wrong with either gift. That is the part most people miss. The gift wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t careless, and plenty of thought went into it. It simply was not for that person.

A good gift can still be the wrong gift

If someone hates cooking, the beautiful kitchen piece is the wrong call. If they never go near the water, that luxurious beach towel goes straight into a closet. Food boxes are a wonderful idea, as long as there is something inside they will keep, but a steak box lands very differently with a client who is plant-based.

Notice that none of those were bad gifts. Every one of them would have delighted somebody. Just not the person who opened it.

Here’s the thing. You spent the money, you put thought into it, and it still missed—because the thought just went into the gift instead of the person.

It is not about age. It is about the person.

It used to be that you could do one thing across the board. Everybody got the same item, and that was that.

That is over, and not because of age brackets. This is not an ageist conversation. It is about finding what someone would actually like.

But it does help to know what has changed. The youngest generation in the workforce is telling us something interesting right now. They want to put the phone down. They want to go out, meet people, and be somewhere. And what they are drawn to is retro and nostalgic—the things a lot of us loved at their age.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, the conversation is about quality you can feel. Something still being used in three years.

Not better. Not worse. DIFFERENT.

So where do you find out?

You already have the tools. Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and even ChatGPT, Claude, and the rest of AI. Fifteen minutes on your top clients will tell you who they are when they are not at work, and that is where the clues are. The 5K they run every spring. The board they sit on. The dog in every photo.

And the richest source of all is a conversation you already had. People tell you who they are constantly—in the small talk before the meeting starts, on the way to the elevator, and in the thing they mention twice.

It is the little things that tell someone you were paying attention. And it is the same little things that tell them you weren’t.

A gift that proves the point

The Cutie Cam is the one I keep coming back to when people ask me what a younger client would like. It is a tiny camera that hangs on a chain around the neck, and you can put a tagline or a logo on the disc.

Here is why it works. They are out with friends, they want the picture, and they don’t have to pull out the phone they are trying to spend less time on. It is small, it is a little retro, and it does one thing well.

Would every baby boomer on your list love it? Probably not. And that is exactly the point of this whole post. The right gift for one person on your list is the wrong gift for another, and the only way to know the difference is to know more about who is receiving the gift.

Mark your calendar for the next BIG Show & Tell

The next quarterly edition of The BIG Show & Tell airs Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 1:00 PM CST. The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us, so come gather ideas early and plan with less stress.

Watch live on YouTube, DonnaBender.com, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

And if you missed the September bonus GIFT show, the replay is waiting for you on YouTube and DonnaBender.com.

Watch Good Morning Entrepreneurs Show 162 featuring my weekly Roving Reporter, Surprise & Delight Marketing segment.