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Marketing in Vancouver Book Almost a Reality

By Eric on Thursday, June 17th, 2010

In May – as I often do – I awoke in the middle of the night with a crazy idea. I’m sure you get those thoughts that nag at you to the point that you either go insane or do something with them, right?

Well, my idea was to write a book to help local business owners improve the marketing of their Vancouver-based businesses.  I immediately knew that the title was going to be Marketing in Vancouver: An Insider Guide to Successful Local Marketing.  I checked and sure enough both the dot com and dot ca extensions were available for Marketing in Vancouver so I snagged them both.

Of course, this concept is nothing new but how I planned to promote the book and leverage it to generate sales leads for my various businesses was revolutionary.

Fast forward about six weeks and the Marketing in Vancouver site is ready and the book is about 90% written.  The cover looks great and the feedback I’ve received from local business owners so far has been nothing short of awesome.  It is really cool.

My point?  How is it possible for objects so real and tangible – in this case a website, a book and paying customers – materialize so quickly from little more than a random thought?  I guess when push comes to shove everything on this planet began as  a thought inside of someone’s head.

I wonder how many more great ideas never come to fruition simply because the thinker isn’t paying attention or more likely, doesn’t think something is possible.  I know that I’ve been guilty of both of these conditions on more than one occassion. Not this time though :)

A Philosophy Lesson from Dave “The Hammer” Schultz

By Eric on Thursday, June 10th, 2010

So I was watching the Stanley Cup Finals this evening and the Canadian icon Don Cherry interviewed legendary tough guy Dave “The Hammer” Shultz before the game.

If you’re not familiar with “The Hammer” he was the king bully back in the 70’s when the Flyers were known as the Broad Street Bullies. I was only about 7 years old when Dave ruled the roost but I do remember him always beating up on some poor sap from the Leafs.  He was the toughest of the tough in an era of incredible tough dudes.

So Don Cherry is talking to him and the name Fred Shero comes up.  Fred was another legend but for his coaching skills, not his fists. In fact, he was known to have ‘disliked’ fighting in hockey – all the while putting together a team that would give opponents nightmares.

In any event, Shultz mentioned something that Shero said once to get the lads revved up.  It was something to the effect of, “If you’re worried about people criticizing you the solution is simple.  Say nothing, do nothing and be nothing.”

Huh?  Did I just pick up a great lesson from The Hammer himself?  I guess I did.  I have a number of half-completed projects on the go that I haven’t done anything with simply because they might not be well received.  In other words, I’m breaking my own golden rule of marketing – test everything.

Who cares what others think?

Gramps, the Canadian Weather and Cordaroy Pants

By Eric on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

I haven’t written anything just for fun for awhile so I thought I’d share this amusing little diddy.

I’m in Vancouver now where it has been raining for three weeks straight.  I was in Calgary visiting my sister’s family on the weekend and it snowed there. Not just a light dusting but two days and about six inches of snow.

Back in Ontario on the same weekend, Mom tells me that it hit 39 degrees celsius!  Even for Canada, that is a pretty crazy weather pattern.

In any event, here is the amusing part of the story.  My Grandfather is 87 years old and don’t worry, he’ll remind you of that fact repeatedly.  I guess Mom was taking Gramps over to a friend’s place to eat on that very hot weekend back in Ontario.  As Gramps is getting into the car, she asks Gramps why he’s wearing a velour sweater when it is over 30 degrees out.

His answer was, “I just realized I can’t wear short sleeve shirts anymore.  My arms are starting to look wrinkly.”

I guess the dinner on the deck was pretty funny.  Everyone was in shorts and t-shirts sweating profusely while Gramps sat there stoically in his sweather and cordaroy pants not even mentioning the heat.  Classic.

The Importance of Local Search for Small Businesses

By Eric on Monday, May 24th, 2010

Local search is the term we use to describe the action that people take when they turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses.  For the first time in history, people are more likely now to search for your business on the Internet than in the Yellow Pages.

What this means to the average business owner is simple.  If your website or information about your website shows up on the first page of Google for search terms related to your business, it is very similar to having your business situated in the prime retail area of your town or city.  People will find you. Read the rest of this entry »

This is an Awesome Story

By Eric on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

I’m blasting through a book by Mike Lipkin called “Luck Favours the Brave” and in it he shares a great story.  It is the amazing true story of Australian speed-skater, Steven Bradbury and it first appeared in the Globe and Mail on February 18th, 2002.

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The luckiest man at the Winter Olympics is an Australian speed-skater who once sliced his leg open and almost bled to death on the ice only to recover and break his neck.

In the men’s 1,000 metre short-track event, everybody fell down and Mr. Bradbury won. It happened in the quarter-final, in the semi-final, and it happened again, for the third time on the same night, on the last corner of the final.  Everybody fell down and Mr. Bradbury won.

Short-trackers have a habit of falling down and taking each other out like pins in a bowling alley. But what happened for Mr. Bradbury was beyond anything that anyone had ever seen before.  In the final, Mr. Bradbury was so far behind hit rivals, he could have stopped and asked for directions. He looked like a guy trying to hail a cab.  Then all of the sudden, China’s Li Jiajun went down. Then Korea’s Hyun-Soo Ahn went down and took out Mr. Ohno and Mr. Turcotte, and Mr. Bradbury cruised past thinking, “Hang on. This can’t be right. I think I won.”

Mr. Bradbury’s career has produced as many near-death experiences as accomplishments. At a 1994 World Cup event in Montreal, he slipped and impaled his right thigh on a skate blade. The gash was so severe he lost four litres of blood and required 111 stitches.  He said he would have died if it hadn’t been for the fast work of the paramedics who treated him.

Then in 2000, he fell while training in Australia and crashed headfirst into a barrier, breaking the C4 and C5 vertebrae in his neck. For six weeks he wore a metal halo.

But even after two horrific injuries, Mr. Bradbury refused to pass on a sport that had taken him to the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Games. Instead, he wanted to one last go at the Olympics so he could, “walk away satisfied.”  Never in his wildest dreams did he expect to walk away as an Olympic champion, the guy who stayed on his feet when everyone else was skating on banana peels; Australia’s new Olympic hero, whose brilliant strategy was to stay behind the leaders in case they all fell down.

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The moral of the story?  In order to finish first, you first must finish.

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