The big news is my son, David Estill, has a blog.
Early and busy day today. Arrived at Ronson about 7:15 (and it a 45 min drive to get there) and found out my card to the gym does not work that early on Sunday. No problem though - it worked when I tried again at 1. I was inspired by one of my friends who is competing in the Penticton Ironman. I know I do not have time for that kind training right now but that does not mean I cannot be inspired to up my normal training a bit.
Of course my problem is I tend to become over inspired to train and that can lead to injury. I still have a bit of a sore back and sciatica today (on the other had, I ran 5 miles so perhaps I should expect a bit).
Then back to Guelph for tea with my oldest daughter Laura. I do not see her often so that's good. She is preparing to move to Windsor where she will commute to Wayne State to take her PhD.
Then to a Willie Nelson concert in Hamilton tonight. It is his 73rd birthday today. He was still great on stage. Lots of experience. When they introduced him they said how many CDs, songs, etc. and it was amazing. He has accomplished a lot. NOt only that, he uses Biodesiel on his busses. My brother, Lyle Estill, even sold him some.
The warm up group was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They were just as good.
Awesome evening.
And for those readers who want business advice. My refrain is always filter what you read and make it yours. 2 quotations from Forbes magazine I read today. I will let you guess which I believe:
"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having the sense to be lazy" Milan Kundera
"Education...has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading." G. M. Trevelyan
(hope this does not reduce my blog readership)
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Saturday, April 29, 2006
CEO Blog and links
I changed my CEO Blog domain to http://www.jimestill.com/ off of blogspot about a week ago. So please change your CEO blog bookmark.
I changed to my own domain after studying internet search engine behavior. With my own domain, I can gain more hits as I get the credit for the traffic rather than Blogspot.
As with many changes, this is short term gain for long term pain. I lost my Technorati ranking. I was at about 40,000 with 116 links from 55 blogs. A week ago, I started at 1,200,000 with no links and am now at about 600,000 with 6 links from 4 sites. So feel free to help me out and link to CEO Blog at www.jimestill.com.
I also start from scratch on many of my other rankings and referals. Of course my old CEO blog points to my new CEO blog so if people click on one of the articles, Amazon book reviews, old links etc, they still get here.
One of my friends was in town last night and staying over today. He is a big triathlon guy so we were talking about running, training etc. so Elizabeth broke out the Jack Daniels. I told her it was a bit early in the morning but ...
I changed to my own domain after studying internet search engine behavior. With my own domain, I can gain more hits as I get the credit for the traffic rather than Blogspot.
As with many changes, this is short term gain for long term pain. I lost my Technorati ranking. I was at about 40,000 with 116 links from 55 blogs. A week ago, I started at 1,200,000 with no links and am now at about 600,000 with 6 links from 4 sites. So feel free to help me out and link to CEO Blog at www.jimestill.com.
I also start from scratch on many of my other rankings and referals. Of course my old CEO blog points to my new CEO blog so if people click on one of the articles, Amazon book reviews, old links etc, they still get here.
One of my friends was in town last night and staying over today. He is a big triathlon guy so we were talking about running, training etc. so Elizabeth broke out the Jack Daniels. I told her it was a bit early in the morning but ...
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The Psychology of Winning
Today I had a long YPO event. Took me out of my comfort zone which is good. I often do things that are a bit beyond my comfort zone. It helps me to grow.
I read a very fast book recently called, "The Psychology of Winning" by Dr. Denis Waitley. This book is almost too shallow in that most of it is about thinking positively and having positive thoughts. On the other hand, sometimes the simplest of ideas are the deepest and have the greatest impact.
One thing I always try to do it to plan appropriate responses to challenges. Reframing can be very powerful. Reframe what happens into a positive. My assistant recently did this for me. I was telling her about an aquaintance who just died of cancer. Her response was "it makes us realize how lucky we are".
Because the book is such a fast read, I can't suggest anyone not reading it.
I won't give away the punch line; however, it never hurts to think positive.
I read a very fast book recently called, "The Psychology of Winning" by Dr. Denis Waitley. This book is almost too shallow in that most of it is about thinking positively and having positive thoughts. On the other hand, sometimes the simplest of ideas are the deepest and have the greatest impact.
One thing I always try to do it to plan appropriate responses to challenges. Reframing can be very powerful. Reframe what happens into a positive. My assistant recently did this for me. I was telling her about an aquaintance who just died of cancer. Her response was "it makes us realize how lucky we are".
Because the book is such a fast read, I can't suggest anyone not reading it.
I won't give away the punch line; however, it never hurts to think positive.
Just Do it - 9 ways to keep inspired to blog
Last night I met one of my blogger CEO friends at a Communitech function. I won't identify him because I do not want to embarrass him. His CEO blog is not current. No entries in the past month. His excuse - he was too busy. When is a CEO not busy?
It got me thinking of how to keep people inspired to keep their blog current. Here are my "9 ways to keep inspired to blog"
1 - Keep a file of blog ideas. As I come across things that might be of blog interest, I clip them and add them to my file. I have a physical file an electronic one.
2 - Get a few blog entries "in the can". Sometimes I feel creative and the blog entries just flow. In these times, it is easy to write an extra entry. Then when I post it, there is usually only a few minutes of polish to make it right.
3 - Book reports are an easy way to create a post for me. I am going to read anyways so may as well do a short summary and comment on the books I read. I usually post my review on Amazon as well so this brings a bit of added traffic to the blog.
4 - Borrow a complete entry from someone else who has a good entry. I follow a few blogs and can easily use technorati to search for blogs that might have appropriate entries I can use. Of course I ask for permission but no one ever says no. I do the same thing with articles.
5 - Use a guest blogger. I have not done this but am sure many people would be willing to do a few entries if asked. This is a great way to cover if you are on a vacation.
6 - Just start to write anything. I find usually this gets the juices flowing and soon I have an entry.
7 - Use and comment on a quotation. There are lots of sites with quotations out there. Just choose one that resonates and post it with some comment.
8 - Entries do not have to be books. Short is fine. I like to limit my time for a post to less than 20 minutes. Readers do not like them much longer and it makes blogging justifiable in my mind.
9 - Just Do It (Nike - feel free to sue for trademark infringement but know that I have a lot of runner friends)
It got me thinking of how to keep people inspired to keep their blog current. Here are my "9 ways to keep inspired to blog"
1 - Keep a file of blog ideas. As I come across things that might be of blog interest, I clip them and add them to my file. I have a physical file an electronic one.
2 - Get a few blog entries "in the can". Sometimes I feel creative and the blog entries just flow. In these times, it is easy to write an extra entry. Then when I post it, there is usually only a few minutes of polish to make it right.
3 - Book reports are an easy way to create a post for me. I am going to read anyways so may as well do a short summary and comment on the books I read. I usually post my review on Amazon as well so this brings a bit of added traffic to the blog.
4 - Borrow a complete entry from someone else who has a good entry. I follow a few blogs and can easily use technorati to search for blogs that might have appropriate entries I can use. Of course I ask for permission but no one ever says no. I do the same thing with articles.
5 - Use a guest blogger. I have not done this but am sure many people would be willing to do a few entries if asked. This is a great way to cover if you are on a vacation.
6 - Just start to write anything. I find usually this gets the juices flowing and soon I have an entry.
7 - Use and comment on a quotation. There are lots of sites with quotations out there. Just choose one that resonates and post it with some comment.
8 - Entries do not have to be books. Short is fine. I like to limit my time for a post to less than 20 minutes. Readers do not like them much longer and it makes blogging justifiable in my mind.
9 - Just Do It (Nike - feel free to sue for trademark infringement but know that I have a lot of runner friends)
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Blueprint to a Billion - 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth
My brother Glen has finally joined the blogsphere with a blog at http://glen-ferndalewind.blogspot.com/. My brother Lyle has had a blog forever and even got a Biodiesel book published from it.
One of the latest books I have learned from is "Blueprint to a Billion - 7 Esentials to Achieve Exponetial Growth" by David Thomson. He talks about businesses that successfully move from zero to over a Billion dollars in sales. According to Blueprint, the odds of doing this are one in 20,000. Does not seem like totally bad odds to me.
Of course we are over a Billion now but I can always learn. One of my principles is to filter information and morph it into something I can use.
The companies that hit this Billion $ status had a start up phase (called the runway to growth) where things move at a normal sales growth. This period takes 4 to 12 years. Then an inflection point where revenue breaks into an exponential trajectory. My challenge it to figure out what causes the inflections.
The book talks about tying growth to marquee customers (dangerous but can work - eg there are many successful car parts companies like Linamar and Magna). It also talked about working with alliances - tying in with a big company not only as a customer but in a stronger partnership.
Billion $ companies are masters of exponential returns. I could have figured this - I just need to figure out how to get it.
Of course I like the book because as I have said before, growth is key to a healthy company. Good growth (growth not lead by just price cutting) leads to painless efficiencies.
One of the latest books I have learned from is "Blueprint to a Billion - 7 Esentials to Achieve Exponetial Growth" by David Thomson. He talks about businesses that successfully move from zero to over a Billion dollars in sales. According to Blueprint, the odds of doing this are one in 20,000. Does not seem like totally bad odds to me.
Of course we are over a Billion now but I can always learn. One of my principles is to filter information and morph it into something I can use.
The companies that hit this Billion $ status had a start up phase (called the runway to growth) where things move at a normal sales growth. This period takes 4 to 12 years. Then an inflection point where revenue breaks into an exponential trajectory. My challenge it to figure out what causes the inflections.
The book talks about tying growth to marquee customers (dangerous but can work - eg there are many successful car parts companies like Linamar and Magna). It also talked about working with alliances - tying in with a big company not only as a customer but in a stronger partnership.
Billion $ companies are masters of exponential returns. I could have figured this - I just need to figure out how to get it.
Of course I like the book because as I have said before, growth is key to a healthy company. Good growth (growth not lead by just price cutting) leads to painless efficiencies.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Winning in Life and Sales.
I moved my CEO blog to my own domain courtesy of www.easydns.com. Buy your domain names from them - they are good people. So if you bookmark this change it to http://www.jimestill.com/
I was advised that this is a way to increase the legitimacy of my blog. Ultimately this yeilds more traffic. I figure if I am going to blog, I might as well have lots of readers. I checked and most CEO blogs are on their own domain.
It was good to play duplicate bridge tonight. Takes my mind off a stressful day. I won with only a 54% average. Most of the other players played between 47 and 53.5% games. Not much difference.
It reminds me of the very small difference between the winner and the rest of the people in life. It applies to many areas. Great Olympic atheletes are only fractions of a second faster than ones you have never heard of.
A lot of what we do involves sales. Coming in second in sales mean you make no sale. Each presentation we give that results in no sale means no revenue. We need to learn from each failure (and in sales - second is a failure) so we often ask prospects for a debriefing. Often they say we came in second. Big deal. We do not want second - we need first. So we need to learn, course correct and win.
I was advised that this is a way to increase the legitimacy of my blog. Ultimately this yeilds more traffic. I figure if I am going to blog, I might as well have lots of readers. I checked and most CEO blogs are on their own domain.
It was good to play duplicate bridge tonight. Takes my mind off a stressful day. I won with only a 54% average. Most of the other players played between 47 and 53.5% games. Not much difference.
It reminds me of the very small difference between the winner and the rest of the people in life. It applies to many areas. Great Olympic atheletes are only fractions of a second faster than ones you have never heard of.
A lot of what we do involves sales. Coming in second in sales mean you make no sale. Each presentation we give that results in no sale means no revenue. We need to learn from each failure (and in sales - second is a failure) so we often ask prospects for a debriefing. Often they say we came in second. Big deal. We do not want second - we need first. So we need to learn, course correct and win.
I've moved my blog
Finally I have my own domain. Please bookmark my new location www.jimestill.com
Thanks.
Thanks.
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