The Perfect Balance

Thanks for reading, we have moved

2009-07-10T09:33:00.003-03:00

I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know I have moved my personal blog over to Tumblr. You can check out my tumblr page here (http://cnadeau.evolvingsolutions.ca) You can subscribe to the RSS feed there if you choose to stay in touch via an RSS reader or you can Subscribe to Chris Nadeau - Me on the Web by Email

Thanks again for reading and I am looking forward to seeing you over at the new blog.

Hangin' with Gary V and the WLTV Crew

2009-06-22T14:53:00.003-03:00

Adrian and I are back from our spot on Wine Library TV. We really enjoyed the spot and would love to hear what you guys think!

Check it out!

Would love to hear your answers to our Questions of the Day!

Don't be afraid to learn something new

2009-06-10T10:49:00.002-03:00

Breaking Tradition - Quonset "Secret" Show June 6th, 2009 from Adrian Nadeau on Vimeo.

Don't be afraid to learn something new. That is one of the greatest gifts we all have. The capabilities to step out of our "safe harbour" and try something new.

Well, here is an example of that. My bro, Adrian is now a drummer in a band. Guess what? He just learned how to play the drums a little over a year and a half ago. Way to go bro, pretty impressive!

Here is a clip from a recent outdoor show.

You can also so the post over at my new tumblog.

Go Perpendicular

2009-06-08T12:11:00.002-03:00

I think we all know what happend when this dude decided to Go Perpendicular.

"It’s not possible to discover new oceans unless one is willing to lose sight of the shore."

Reading Robin Sharma's Greatness Guide Book 2. The quote comes from Chapter 77 in the book. It talks about going perpendicular to the shore. If you want great things to happen, sometimes you have let go of the security you receive from the shore. Very powerful

Professionally - For me, one of the biggest announcements EVER!

2009-06-03T16:27:00.001-03:00

My bro and I are going to be hangin' with Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV. Gary is a hugely successful entrepreneur who loves wine, business, the Jets and most recently, the newest addition to the Vaynerchuk family, Misha Ava.

The show will be taped June 16th at Wine Library's corporate headquarters in Springfield, NJ.

We will be talking wine, hockey (HockeyTweets), the web and whatever else comes up. Hopefully not my wine. :-) I better polish up my wine tasting skills. This is like meeting the Great One of new media.

Here is a recent show with the Great One. Can you believe it...The Great One first and now the Nadeau Bros. :-)

Tell your story via Social Media

2009-06-02T13:37:00.004-03:00

Don't wait any longer! Stop putting it off. What are you waiting for? The time is now.

Yes, it's true, you need to figure out how your business can integrate social media as a process into it's daily engine. Seth Godin said it best in Meatball Sundae - "Realize that most businesses are still living in 1964. Time to get in sync with the New Marketing"

Here is a post I wrote back in January of this year, referring to a blog post written by social media pioneer, Chris Brogan explaining how the power of the web can work for your business. Just look at the connection Chris has made with is readers from that blog post (view comments). Very powerful. I am sure Applebees did ok after this post as well.

Now even further back in May of 2008 I wrote a post, titled, " I don't need social media for my business" Please read it again and see how John Jantsch describes how a non-traditional business utilizes it's blog to build a relationship with its customers. Yes, it is possible. :-)

It really is time to step into the ring. Don't be afraid. Just be yourself. Think of it like being at a dinner party while people ask you questions about your business and how you got there. Cause in the end, all it really is, is Storytelling.

If all of this doesn't make you rethink your strategy, maybe this will. Look for more and more businesses looking for individuals to perform this role.

Tumblr is pretty slick & why I am switching

2009-05-29T14:46:00.005-03:00

So for the last month or so I have been really trying out Tumblr. I know, I can hear you now... "please Chris not another website". Well, I was thinking the same thing when I signed up to give Tumblr a whirl. Well a couple of months later, I think Tumblr provides the best platform out there to convey your personal brand online. See mine here.

What do I mean by Personal Brand?
Here is a video by Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the webs biggest personal brands explaining how important and easy it is to get your brand out there online.

Why do you want to get your Personal Brand online?
Because Word of Mouth is so much more powerful now then ever before.

Get it now?

So, Tumblr is a great platform to show who you really are and what you are up to. Check it out, I think it would be a great fit with your corporate website and your twitter account.

Tumblr also has some very, very cool features.

How Do I Add Twitter to my Website?

2009-05-25T15:54:00.012-03:00

I received a great question from one of our Big Santo customers today. How do i add twitter to my website? Great question and I am sure there are others out there trying to figure this out as well.

Twitter is hot right now and businesses want to tap into the buzz, so they can benefit from it. There are many ways a business can benefit from Twitter, but that is a whole other post or two, but here is how you can easily add your Twitter conversations to your website using Big Santo.

Using Big Santo, makes adding any sort of widgets to your website easy for the non- techie, trust me I am very low tech.:-) The following video explains step by step how to add a Twitter Widget to your website.

For more help and tips on Big Santo, feel free to check out our online support center.

Social Media in Your Local Market

2009-05-19T14:45:00.003-03:00

Shama Hyder is a brilliant video blogger who talks about all things social media and marketing. She has a video (which you see below) that talks about how social media can work to your advantage in your local market. Awesome stuff. Thanks Shama!

Gmail - A Hub for Production

2009-05-12T09:05:00.005-03:00

I have written before about how big of a Gmail fan I am. I love their Google Apps offer for small business and it's a great solution we have been providing to our Evolving Solutions/Big Santo customers for about 2 years now.

Like most of us, the Internet is gobbling up more and more of our time, with Email, social networks, blogging, twitter and who knows what will be next. So how do you stay productive with all this noise?

Enter Gmail.

Leo Babauta, owner/writer of the Zen Habits blog, recently wrote a post on how he uses Gmail to be super productive. You can read the entire post here.

I will review a few of the suggestions Leo mentions that I incorporate with my Gmail.

Email - Obviously I use it for email. If you are not using Gmail and better yet Google Apps for your business, I strongly suggest you consider changing. Just being able to access all your email from any computer/mobile device says it all. Along with having a great Spam filter, threaded conversations and the power of Google Search at your finger tips for all your email.
Google Calendar - The easiest calendar in the world to use. It was always easy to use, but now you can use it right in Gmail, with the GCal gadget. Great for seeing a snapshot of what events you have coming up while cruising through your email.
Google Doc's - For the last two years I have had no real need to have an office suite installed on my computer. I do everything in Google Doc's. The biggest feature for me in Google Doc's is the simplicity of sharing and working on doc's with other individuals. Like Google Calendar I can now access my most recent doc's in my Gmail sidebar.
Tasks - Very simple to use To-Do lists. Add the task and check it off when you are done. Nice and simple. Works well with email, by adding a task for a specific email and then you can archive your email and clean out your inbox.
Twitter Gadget - As you know I am a big fan of Twitter as well. It is an amazing place to connect with individuals who you would of never met before. It's also a great knowledge resource as people share some great information via Twitter. But it can create some noise as well. I recently installed the Twitter Gadget with Gmail and it's a nice way to stay in touch with your twitter stream, while working in Gmail. I also use Tweetdeck, which is a full fledged desktop app. that works very well when you really feel like conversing with your Twitter crew.

To enable all or any of the above features you can do so by clicking on "Settings" and then by going to Labs (in the upper right corner of Gmail). There is a long list of other items, but these are what I find most valuable.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T05:00:00.000-03:00

Today is a day we should be thankful and show our appreciation for our Moms. I know I don't do it enough and I really do appreciate everything my Mom has done for me in the past and today. She is the best and she has been a huge part in creating the person I am today.

Thanks Mom! I love you.

Here is my digital Mother's Day Card.

Also, there is another mother in my life that I cannot go without mentioning. Jodi, you are a great mother to our children and we are lucky to have you. We love you and thank you for all the Mom things you do for us.

Here is your digital Mom's day card, that we created for you.

Does your website sell?

2009-05-04T12:13:00.005-03:00

You most likely have a website for your business and if you don't, please give me a call. :-) But now that you have a website, is it working for you? Is it selling to your visitors? The days of the fancy, cool, flashy website doesn't win anymore. It's the one that explains to your customers what they need to hear and lets them act on it.

AIDA is an old marketing acronym that works very well when designing a website.

A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.

I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).

D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

AIDA according to Wikipedia

I read a great post over at Zygote, a blog about web business. They show a few great examples of how websites are designing to sell. They also share a great clip from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, where Alec Baldwin gives his overview on why the team isn't selling enough mortgages. Here it is, please be aware the language may seem offensive to some, but it does bring up some great points.

Which Ad Platform Should I Use For My Website?

2009-04-28T11:49:00.006-03:00

Well we ask ourselves that exact same question all the time and to answer this question it really depends on what you want to do with your website and what your market will be interested in.

There are many great ad networks and platforms out there - Google, OpenX, AdBrite, Federated Media and the list goes on. Some of them have very strict guidelines and some have none. An example of a guideline for an ad network might be, you need to have "X" amount of page views before you can work with a certain network. Another one might be, you need so many visitors per day.

Over the last couple of years I have been following the evolution of VideoEgg. VideoEgg started out as a video hosting website, that offered advertising with their platform. Basically they were competing against YouTube for viewers. VideoEgg realized this to be a tough climb and they decided to shift their focus and business model to a video ad network. I remember reading this and thinking way to go VideoEgg. Not saying this was going to be the right move, but way to go for doing what you think is right and running with it. Since then there has been no looking back and I would consider VideoEgg one of, if not the most innovative player in the ad network market today.

Their ad campaigns are very engaging and innovative. The continue to push the envelope with their product development. Check out their recent product, twig

Twig is the industry’s first ad unit that is always at the top or bottom of the frame and has an opt-in full page expansion, allowing advertisers to bring a rich interactive environment directly to the user. As with the other AdFrames ad units, Twig is offered with VideoEgg’s cost-per-engagement (CPE) model, ensuring advertisers only pay when a user engages with the ad.

If you are looking for a solution, I highly recommend VideoEgg. Their network consists of over 100 million uniques across hundreds of leading sites, blogs, and gaming sites, as well as social and mobile applications.

What do you think? Is this where advertising is going? See it in action. Does it work for this example?

Habs Fan Learning From Tough End To Season

2009-04-24T09:50:00.004-03:00

I am learning so much from the whole situation Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens are going through right now. Just remember:

Be thankful & grateful
Adversity makes us stronger - "The wisest smile in the face of adversity" - Robin Sharma
Judgement - Passing judgement limits yourself. It's your ego talking
Be present - Just be.

It's amazing what you can learn from a 21 year old and 21,000 + fans at a hockey game.

NHLTweetup, A Lesson For All

2009-04-15T17:33:00.006-03:00

We held the first ever NHLTweetup in Saint John last night. The National Hockey League kicked off the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs in social media style last night. The league sanctioned 20 + cities across North America to "Tweet-Up". @anadeau and I hosted the event at Rocky's Sports Bar last night. The event was a succes and for the NHL it was an international success.

What is a tweetup?

A tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. Normally we connect with our friends online after we have met them. At a tweetup, you meet the people you might only otherwise know virtually. Like finally putting a name to a face, a tweetup is a great opportunity to really connect with the people in your network and share just a little more than 140 characters at a time.

How did this all happen?

This is a great story and you can find our more here. Read closely, this is very important for those of you who might not get Twitter. Dani, whose twitter handle is @dani3boyz and loves the New York Islanders, sent a message to @umassdilo, who is Michael DiLorenzo, the NHL’s Director of Corporate Communications. The tweet from Dani basically suggested that they should have a tweetup in NYC for the playoffs. Meanwhile @Hockeyskates, Chris Lucas, who also rocks it over at Formspring, suggested there be a Twitter wide Tweetup across US & Canada for the first night of the playoffs.

Ok, now first, what other medium could put a fan/customer directly in contact with such a large brand like the NHL? Nothing. Twitter can. Second, and more importantly is this whole event was conceived by non NHL employees, which created mass media attention. How cool is that? The other cool part is how quickly the NHL reacted and was willing to take part and give the marketing push to make this event a success. All the key parties deserve a round of applause!!! (@dani3boyz, @goaliegirl, @umassdilo, @Hockeyskates). This event was a HUGE succes!

The numbers don't lie.

Click here for larger view

See how you can make an impact with Twitter? Maybe your company should do a Tweetup? Make it happen!

Here is some footage from our event last night. We didn't quite have the excitement like there was in New York, but we had a ton of fun. Thank you Bud Light and Labatts for sponsoring our event here in Saint John.

Go Habs Go! :-)

The NHL Playoffs Are Here

2009-04-13T20:39:00.005-03:00

It's that time of year. The first round of the NHL playoffs, probably the most fun I have as a sports fan. So if you see me at work a little sleepier then normal, you now know why. Trying to stay up to watch the western conference games until 2 AM can get a little tiring. :-)

I thought I would share our most recent episode from The Hockey Zen TV Show. Adrian and I discuss round 1 of the 2009 NHL playoffs and we make our predictions for each series. For fun we also let a 5 and 6 year old make their predictions to see if we are smarter then a 5 and 6 year old. See all of our picks here.

Don't forget to sign up for the first ever Playoff TwtPool and please share with us your first round predictions.

You might want to check these out - 2nd Edition

2009-04-07T15:19:00.004-03:00

Well it's been awhile since I shared what I think are some cool tools & places on the web. So what better time then now to share a couple of more tools I have been using a lot of lately.

As mentioned before, some of these you might already know of but I am trying to provide a wide variety for all readers.

1. Jing - Jing is a free online tool that lets you share images & video with others very easily online. We have been using it with our online help center for our Big Santo product. Here is an example of how the video works.

2. Dropbox - Dropbox is a great way to synch your files online and across multiple computers. I have been using it for a few months and it works like a charm. Very easy to synch up your folders on your computer. Once you do that, Dropbox does the rest. You can even access your files online. Try it now!

Let me know your thoughts and if you get a chance you should try them out.

How many people are in your company?

2009-04-02T11:38:00.003-03:00

Are you an entrepreneur? If so, you probably have heard this question a few times - How many people are in your company? Why do you think people ask this? Are the looking to create conversation or is this how they gauge your company?

I know when we started Evolving Solutions almost 8 years ago, we had big dreams of growing our organization to 50-100 employees. And we were on that path, as we reached 8 employees at our peak. As we, (we ='s Adrian and I) grew in employees, it started to feel like we were living someone elses dream and not ours. We were scaling, but for the wrong reasons. Scaling because we thought we had to. That is what society tells you when you start a business. Grow!

Don't get me wrong, we worked with some tremendous individuals who helped us get to where we are today. It's part of the process, the journey.

Is bigger better? For us it wasn't. And I think most companies today are to big and that is why they are running into some issues with the current economy. Seth Godin wrote a great post on The right size, which I think hits the nail on the head. It's a must read if you are an entrepreneur.

So, where are we now. Well we want to be small and great. That is the vision for our company and we will get there following through on our core values.

What do you think? Does size matter? - keep it clean please :-)

First Ever NHLTweetup in Saint John, NB

2009-03-30T11:51:00.011-03:00

Well I think most of us are familiar with the NHL, but you ask what is a tweetup? Well, I asked myself same question.

A tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. Normally we connect with our friends online after we have met them. At a tweetup you meet the people you might only otherwise know virtually.

So we (Adrian and I) decided it would be a great idea to participate in the first ever NHL Tweetup. We are going to be the host for Saint John on April 15th at Rocky's Sports Bar. What are we going to be doing? Well we are going to gather with other hockey twitterers in cities all over the US and Canada to watch the first playoff game on April 15th. The night is also being used to launch ThePortal at NHL.com.

Should be a fun night and if you are interested in joining us you can check out our twtvite page. We would love to have you there. There is a good chance the first game might be the Bruins vs Habs and you know how much we would love that.

Twitter Fun - Twouble with Twitter

2009-03-25T11:02:00.003-03:00

I thought I would share a fun Twitter parody video. The video explains how a young man struggles against the pressure to Twitter his life away. Enjoy

We can thrive on less

2009-03-25T09:20:00.004-03:00

If you aren't reading Leo Babauta's blog, Zen Habits or following him on Twitter, I highly recommend it. He provides a real solid information on achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.

I am still working on the flat stomach and getting out of debt. :-) He recently wrote a great post on 8 Ways to Make Huge Savings in Your Budget. Let me know what you think of the tips. Are you already doing some of them? I know we are. Having one car we realized is a huge savings and great for the environment.

Leo has also written a book called "The Power of Less". I haven't read it yet, but I have read his Free eBook, Thriving on Less - Simplifying in a Tough Economy. You can download it by clicking on the link above or you can save the copy below.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: business social

Can't find what you're looking for on Google? Try Twitter

2009-03-23T15:36:00.009-03:00

There is a new little engine that could on the block now. That little engine is Twitter. Twitter just turned three the other day. After 3 years Twitter is really starting to make some noise now with the mainstream folks. It's creating a very comparable buzz similar to what Facebook did about 2 years ago. So what does that mean for Twitter?

Well we all remember the big splash Google made when they began dominating the search market 10 + years ago. Well look out, Twitter just might be the next big thing in search. If you are using Twitter and you are not familiar with their search page, you should definitely check it out.
I have been using the Twitter Search page for about 3 months now and I am amazed at the quality of information you can find in real time. Here is a screenshot searching the word hockey.

Now what does this mean? Well first it means, congratulations to the folks at Twitter and before them, Summize who they aquired the search engine technology from. Second, no, they will not over take Google, but Twitter search is a very nice add on to your Google searches. Twitter search will only get better and better as they add more people to their community.

What do you think? Will Twitter search be as powerful as Google Search?

Stay tuned and who knows, maybe Twitter will get a YouTube payday.

Oh and if you are on Twitter, lets connect - @cnadeau

Go Social with Big Santo & JS-Kit

2009-03-20T12:35:00.001-03:00

Looking to create more of a conversation on your website? Well we have been testing out JS-Kit's commenting platform with Big Santo and it works like a charm.

JS-Kit commenting provides an amazing platform for web developers to integrate into their websites. It has very effective ways to fight and delete spam, and people can create avatars for their comments on blogs as well. JS-Kit is installed on 600,000 blogs and has already managed 75 million comments. It powers major sites like eVite, Sun Microsystems, InfoWorld, JetBlug, and Experian.

Now you can make your website social with Big Santo and JS-Kit.

JS-Kit Comments

Powerful threaded commenting system

Connect your blog to a community of over 600,000 sites. Easy to install, simple to customize, advanced controls.

Upgrade Your Site Now »

Feel free to leave a comment to see it in action.

Hockey For Everyone - Lets help everyone play

2009-03-19T10:39:00.005-03:00

Hockey has had a big impact on my life. I know personally I would not be where I am today without the game of hockey. It has had a huge impact and continues to do so.

Even today I watch my young fella in his first year of hockey and I see all the kids on the ice having so much fun and learning hockey skills and other soft skills like teamwork & perseverance.

Hockey for Everyone is a program that makes it possible for economically and socially disadvantaged youth, between the ages of 8 and 12 to play hockey. It greatly benefits underprivileged children living in urban areas by teaching them about teamwork, organization and respect through organized sports. It would not be possible for these kids to play without community support.

The funds raised provides hockey equipment, ice time transportation and coaches for economically and socially disadvantaged youth, between the ages of 8 and 12 in our area. The children involved in this program reside in homes living at or below the poverty line. The result that often occurs is diminutive instruction in organization, teamwork, respect for others and themselves. These factors can lead to drug abuse, criminal activity and misspent lives. The goal is to provide a chance for these children to explore a world that otherwise would be alienated from them. Teamwork, organization respect for coaches, their team members, and public property are taught through the sports programs we initiate.

The main focus of the program is to give these children a possibility of living successfully and productively. Sponsoring this endeavor relays the message that the community does care for them. In turn this will instill in them a reason to care and be productive in their community as they mature.

Here is a commercial by Jumpstart that illustrates what is happening to youth.

Please consider making a contribution. To do so, go to the Hockey Zen Main Page. or make your donation below. Thank you!

Are you enjoying the journey

2009-03-16T13:55:00.007-03:00

Over the last year or two I have been working on improving my quality of life. It all started when I received Robin Sharma's book, The Greatness Guide. Reading that book really helped me put things into perspective. It was a great starting point for improving my lifestyle. From there I moved onto reading a book by Eckart Tolle, called A New Earth. The biggest thing I learned from this book is how important it is to live in the present moment. Good or bad, it is just a moment and you should not let your thoughts control that moment.

Pretty deep I know, but it has worked wonders since I started focusing on being present. By no means am I an expert, but it is really interesting when you see yourself being controlled by your thoughts and not allowing things to happen.

I found this passage in a book I read last night, which explains the importance of inner peace while you are on the journey.

Symptoms of Inner Peace

A tendency to think and act spontaneoulsy rather than actiong on fears attached to past experience
An unmistakable ability to enjoy the moment
A loss of interest in judging other people
A loss of interest in judging yourself
A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others
An inability to worry (this is a very serious symptom!)
Frequently overwhelming episodes of appreciation
Frequent acts of smiling
An increasing tendency to let things happen rather then to make them happen
An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it

-- Authour Unknown

What does the journey and quality of life look like to you?

The Hip Check - Hockey OpenSocial App.

2009-03-12T15:22:00.007-03:00

Today we launched our first ever OpenSocial application. You ask what is OpenSocial?

"OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. Using standard JavaScript and HTML, they enable developers to create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds."

Whoahhh! What does that mean?

Basically Google and a bunch of other powerful web companies got together and realized there needs to be a better way to allow websites to interact with each other. So they created OpenSocial, which is the backbone behind applications on MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, Ning, LinkedIn, Plaxo, hi5, and many more.

What's the advantage of an OpenSocial app./website? When you build an OpenSocail app./website people from all of the above websites can add your OpenSocial app. to their profile and interact with it from that particular Network. Here is an interview with Gina Bianchini, Ning CEO, about OpenSocial.

What is The Hip Check?

The Hip Check is an online, hockey blog center where you can view all of the top hockey blogs out there. You can view NHL team blogs, hockey news blogs and the top hockey bloggers in the world. We will continue to add new blogs and if you are interested in having your blog added, please contact us.

You can also list your top 3 stars/picks on your profile page.

If you want to sign up for The Hip Check, you can go here or watch our latest episode as we talk about The Hip Check and some other stuff.

How do you invoice your clients?

2009-03-03T09:28:00.005-04:00

Do you send a word or pdf file via email? Do you print an invoice and send it in the mail? Do you have a receipt book you carry around and write out your invoice? These are all possible scenarios and options, but after being in business for almost 8 years, we have found what we think is the best way to manage your invoices. For the last year we have used Freshbooks.

Freshbooks Manifesto says it all - " Our mission is to deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services that help you manage your business."

That's exactly what they do. It's not rocket science, it's not a full on accounting package, it's a nice simple way to manage your invoicing so you can spend time doing what you do best.

Some of the great features we love are:

Customers can pay online
Simple, easy to use reports
Automatic notifications when customers are over due
Recurring invoices.
And they even have a quarterly report card

The FreshBooks’ Report Card Service ™ gives you an analysis of your business, and compares your business to other businesses in your profession.

FreshBooks Industry Benchmarks from FreshBooks on Vimeo.

According to Freshbooks we are 4 out of 5 for our industry.

Hockey Day in Canada, Hockey Zen Style

2009-02-23T14:35:00.003-04:00

What did you do to celebrate Hockey Day in Canada? Here is what we did and we had a blast!

What are some of your favourite hockey memories?

We were thinking, wouldn't it be a great idea to have a Hockey Mom's Day. What do you think? http://twtpoll.com/j1opvp Sarah Palin thinks we should have one.

Check out what else we are doing over at The Hockey Zen TV Show.

You Might Want to Check These Out

2009-02-19T14:22:00.006-04:00

I decided today that I was going to write a post every once in awhile about some cool tools & places on the web that you might want to check out. I thought this would be a great way for others to find some good use out of all the crazy things I see online each and every day. Think of me as the pizza delivery guy, but I deliver assorted web stuff and not Delissio.

Some of these you might already know of but I am trying to provide a wide variety for all readers.

Here are my three for today:

Jango - Jango is a music social network that lets you customize your own station. I know what you are saying, a music site, how does that make me work better? Well for me I need good music when working and Jango gives that to me. For example as I write this I am listening to one of my all time favs by STP. (http://www.jango.com)
Jumpchart - If you have a great website idea and you want to map it out in a website mock up, before you forget it, then check out Jumpchart. Easy to use and it could help send you on your way to a successful website. (http://jumpchart.com)
Gary Vaynerchuk - If you want to get some spunk in your step, just watch Gary talk about biz, life, social media, anything actually. (http://garyvaynerchuk.com)

Let me know what other kinds of tools you're hoping to learn about. I'm here for you, folks. Leave a comment and tell me about the tools you need to know more about.

The "Big Aristotle" Lives For The Moment

2009-02-16T10:27:00.005-04:00

The "Big Aristotle" is one of the many nick names Shaquille O'Neal, the Phoenix Suns center, has earned over is illustrious career. I was watching "The Big Aristotle" during the NBA All-Star game last night and I was lucky enough to catch Shaq's introduction for the game. It was awesome and you can see it below.

While watching his intro, I started thinking about Shaq and his persona. The guy lives for the moment, whether playing in a game, being introduced, being interviewed, no matter what is is he enjoys every single second of that particular moment. You can see it in his face. He loves life and it is this attribute that makes him amazing. We should all take a page from Shaq's book and try to live for the moment.

The NBA will definitely miss him when he retires, but I am sure Shaq will continue to do great things, just like the other Laker great Magic Johnson. If you want to know what Shaq is up to now and in the future you should follow him on Twitter.

Shaq thanks for being cool and a great dancer. :-) Congrats on the CO-MVP win!

The Pavilion Cup A Success...Raises Big Coin

2009-02-09T14:11:00.006-04:00

I was lucky enough this past weekend to participate in The Pavilion Cup, hosted at the Hatheway Pavilion at Lily Lake!

The pond hockey event was a huge success, even if Mother Nature didn't cooperate on the final day. Unofficially the event raised $40,000 + to send 300 underprivileged kids to summer camp year for children.

My guess is that with the success of this years event,this will become an annual event. Congratulations to all the volunteers and committee members for making this event a success. It would not have happened without you.

Here is a clip from one of the Chiefs games. A couple of washed up hockey players trying to relive their glory years. :-)

Are you still thinking about using Twitter?

2009-02-03T22:17:00.008-04:00

I was cruising through my (@cnadeau) Twitter streams today when I saw a tweet from @umassdilo - Michael DiLorenzo who is the National Hockey League's Director of Corporate Communications. Michael posted a tweet with a link to a NY Times article that mapped out popular SuperBowl words on Twitter during the game.
When you play through the timeline of the game, it is amazing to see all the action on Twitter at certain points of the game. Imagine if that was your company or your product? Or if it was you raising money for your favourite charity. Ya, I know the SuperBowl is one of the biggest events in the world, but imagine if you could even have a small percentage of that action for anything you do. With Twitter you can actually see "word of mouth" in action. This is a perfect example.

So why aren't you on Twitter? Still thinking about it? Think of it like going to one of your Chamber of Commerce events, where you meet some new people. It's called networking. Well it's the same thing, only online. Just say hello, or as Gary Vaynerchuk would say, "it's a darn handshake."

Viddler is the way to go

2009-01-31T20:51:00.005-04:00

I love it when you find something that just rocks! To me Viddler rocks online video. They get it. It's not about them, it's about you. Robert Sandie, the President of Viddler explains it way better then I can here. These are the kind of people we want to deal with. Real!

When we were looking for a provider to host our hockey web tv show, Viddler really stood out to us. Clean player, video comments, text comments on videos, tagging and you can brand the player. And did I forget to say, it's very easy to use.

Way to go team Viddler. You guys get it. Hopefully we can make our show over at The Hockey Zen as good as Viddler's product.

This is why you want to use Social Media

2009-01-26T09:27:00.004-04:00

Just cruising through my feeds in Google Reader this AM, drinking my coffee and I found a couple of great post. Side note: For those not using Google Reader and reading blogs, it's the new way of reading the newspaper, but on steriods. :-)

Back to the post. Chris Brogan, at chrisbrogan.com wrote a post about a great experience he recently had at an Applebees restaurant. He then went on the explain how social media tools can help you and your business bring his Applebees experience to life for you. Read his post, he explains it so much better. :-)

Look Like A Rockstar With Animoto

2009-01-20T10:56:00.004-04:00

I have briefly talked about Animoto on the blog before, here and here. I thought I would share with you more of my thoughts on one of the coolest technologies out there for people or businesses wanting to create slick slide shows that look like a video compilation.

How it works?

Animoto lets you grab photos from Flickr, Facebook, Picassa, Smugmug, Photobucket, or your desktop. You pick which photos you want to highlight in your slide show, add some music and Animoto does the rest.

You can create free slide shows under 30 secs, but if you want something longer then that you can pay for a year membership, which cost a whopping $30 a year. :-) No brainer really.

Here are a few we have created recently:

You can embed videos on your website or blog, you can post directly to YouTube, download as a DVD and even work with Animoto from your iPhone. If you are lucky enough to have one. :-)

Here is how we integrated the intro for The Hockey Zen TV Show from Animoto.

Be The Best

2009-01-14T21:43:00.004-04:00

A duhhh, really Chris. Yeah, I know I am not the first to say this, but it is so true. Especially in the world of business. This is how you are remembered. This is why people talk about your product or service. This is why they call you. Don't settle for being average, because average makes you, ummmm, well average.

Being the best at something will get you through any type of economy. How do you become the best? Robin Sharma recently shared some great practices on his blog on how to be unforgettable.

Keep Your Promises
Best in the World
Be Radically Ethical
Be Fun

What can you do to be the best? Whatever you do, don't be boring. Seth thinks you are.

The Hockey Zen TV Show

2009-01-13T08:54:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned before, if you want to be a TV Star, then you should start your own show. Well I am a man of my word and while I might not be a star, I have started my own show with my brother Adrian. The Hockey Zen TV Show is a show hosted by Adrian and myself. The basis for each show is Adrian and I pick our top 3 and we compare/discuss during each show. Our first episode is about our top 3 favourite hockey websites. Check out episode 1 below and if you want to join in on the conversation after the show you can check it out at The Hockey Zen and The Hockey Zen Vlog

Stay tuned for episode #2 as Ade and I discuss our favourite Bruins and Habs moments.

Update:Here is Episode #2, before the Habs vs Bruins game on Tuesday night. Bruins ended up winning, but we still had fun,

Big Santo has a new look

2009-01-08T20:43:00.003-04:00

Notice the fresh design on Big Santo's homepage? We just rolled out the changes. We think the new design has a cleaner and more professional feel than the previous one. We also plan to add a new look and some additional capabilities to the user admin area which we hope our Big Santo friends will enjoy.

We also created a cool video with Animoto showcasing all the stars Big Santo has worked with in the last year. Check out the Big Santo Feature Movie.

We hope our Big Santo friends like the new changes. Please let us know what you think in the comments. Stay tuned for more updates!

What does 2009 hold for you?

2009-01-06T07:05:00.005-04:00

Being the start of a New Year and a blog reader like I am, I have come across a lot of blogs talking about the upcoming year. Two post that really hit me was one a video post by Gary Vaynerchuk and a post by Robin Sharma.

In different ways they both talk about how there is an abundance of opportunities out there, even during this so called bleak time. In the end, it is up to us what happens and no one or nothing else can stop us.

Robin talked about anything being possible in the new year.

Powerful idea: the beautiful thing about being in the unknown is everything is possible.

You just received a giant gift: a fresh, virgin new year - utterly open to it being made into anything you choose it to become. Forget the doomsayers. Block out the fear-mongers. Shout down those voices of mediocrity encouraging you to play small with your days amidst the dramatic changes in our world. This is a time to dream, to shine - to lead.

And Gary, well he was his usual passionate self.

YouTube's Most Popular in 2008

2009-01-03T10:54:00.005-04:00

I am not a big YouTube user, but I do understand it's power and the power of online video. With 13 hours of video uploaded every minute, hundreds of millions of views a day and 23 country-specific versions of the site, maybe I better start watching more. :-) I was checking out the YouTube's blog the other day and I noticed they were promoting the 24 most memorable videos of 2008. I still can't believe the first video and the battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park while on safari.

Some other very cool videos, and it gives you an idea of what people find interesting on YouTube. Does it give you any ideas?

My New Year's Commandments

2008-12-31T15:33:00.002-04:00

I stumbled upon a great blog written by Leo Babauta, Zenhabits. Leo recently wrote a post about writing down your own personal commandments. This is an amazing exercise to try moving into the new year. What are your personal commandments? Please share in the comments. Here are my six:

Being Present
Cause No Harm
Be Remarkable
Listen Twice as much as I Speak
Lead Without Title
Just Be Nice

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays From Evolving Solutions

2008-12-22T08:16:00.000-04:00

All the best in 2009!

You want to be on TV? Start your own TV Show

2008-12-18T16:51:00.004-04:00

That's what we are doing. Adrian and I are going to begin filming a web tv show about hockey in the New Year over at The Hockey Zen. We will be talking hockey (news, coaching, training and fun stuff). It should be a blast and we are looking forward to your participation.

Here is a sneak peek at our intro - Coming Soon! Heck, come on over and join up if you want to talk some hockey with us.

We created this intro. using Animoto. Animoto is an amazing piece of technology that generates custom, professional-looking slideshows from user-uploaded music and photos. Thanks to Animoto we look like award winning video producers.

Rallying for close friends cause

2008-12-16T22:13:00.005-04:00

My close friends, Toby and Stephanie Burkitt are going through a difficult time right now. Stephanie has been diagnosed with brain cancer: a tumour, identified as stage 3 astrocytoma, was removed from the right frontal lobe of her brain in an operation performed in Houston last August. She has just finished a cycle of radiation treatment and is still in the midst of chemotherapy to deal with what’s left. Chemotherapy will continue for up to a year.

The challenges continue for the Burkitts as Steph a phys-ed teacher, who can’t work, Toby is being laid off from his job at General Motors. Also, Toby recently had a growth removed from his finger, and while the biopsy is not back yet, doctors have told him it appears to be cancerous.

They have two young girls with hospital and medical bills to pay.

Lets put the Abundance Principle in full motion here. Abundance is an energy that circulates in the world, and the more you send out, the more you will see come back to you. Good things always happen to people who do good things.

You can help their cause by visiting the pledge page I created here. Your donations would be greatly appreciated.

Leading - Not An Opportunity, It's An Obligation

2008-12-15T15:48:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading the book Tribes and I must say I was pleasantly surprised in Seth Godin's knowledge of leadership and how he explains how important it is for us make the choice to lead. No matter what it is we do. The book is a very good read, with some very useful information.

One of my favourite snippets from the book:

And so, the obligation: don't settle

To have all these advantages, all this momentum, all these opportunities and then settle for mediocre and then defend the status quo and then worry about corporate politics -- what a waste.

Flynn Berry wrote that you should never use the word "opportunity." It's not an opportunity, it's an obligation.

You are special and don't forget it.

Pond Hockey Tourney Announced

2008-12-11T14:19:00.005-04:00

The Lily Lake Pavilion will be hosting the first ever Pavilion Cup Challenge from February 5th to 8th. The festivities will attract close to 500 participants, musicians playing a wide variety of music, fantastic prizes and of course, some good, old fashion pond hockey! (All details are here).

Registration is now open and the first 120 teams to sign up will get in. Don't wait. If you want to keep track of the event, the best way is to visit the website or join in on the conversation about the event at The Sports Zen.

Update: Teams are signing up fast. Get signed up soon.

Do What You Love!

2008-12-09T13:02:00.006-04:00

You have heard it over and over again, but it still doesn't sink in for most. Do what you love.

Robin Sharma recently spoke about how important it is to Live for Something Bigger than You.

Fellow New Brunswicker, Dan Martell is doing it. We are over at The Sports Zen and at Evolving Solutions.

Gary Vaynerchuk, decided years ago to go for it. See where his passion has lead him. Just listen to him speak. What more do you need? Go for it! I know after the last few weeks, life is really to short to sit around and not do what you love.

Thanks for the heads up on this Dan! If you haven't you should check out Dan's cool, new blog.

Celebrating the Life of a Great Leader

2008-11-27T13:23:00.015-04:00

We all remember the greats, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, the list goes on and on. But what about all those other great leaders who make a huge impact, but do not make 'celebrity status'. Can we learn from them like the ones mentioned above? We sure can.

I am going to share with you some things I learned from one of the greatest leaders I have ever known. That leader is my grandmother, Dora Nadeau.

Nanny, the leader of the Nadeau tribe passed away recently on Wednesday, November 26th. We lost Nanny somewhat suddenly at the age of 94, but as I reflect on the 36 years of life with her, she was the greatest role model one could have.

She never complained.
She always listened.
She was kind.
She worked hard.
She put her family first.
She always forgave.
She helped those in need.
She exercised daily.
She was happy with what she had in life, never asking for more.
She never passed judgement.
She had tremendous faith.
She always lived in the moment, whether good or bad.
And she made the best home made bread & pancakes.

Nanny, thank you for everything and we love you. Your death is not an end, but a reason for us to celebrate such an amazing person.

Vision Coaching Wins!

2008-11-27T12:25:00.015-04:00

Vision Coaching continues to rock along, as Dave Veale and his team at Vision Coaching won the Emerging Enterprise Award at the Saint John Board of Trade Outstanding Business Awards last night.

Here is Dave's acceptance speech from last nights event. When you watch the speech you will notice how important community means to Dave and his team and the importance of doing it together as a team. Oh and you will notice he has a real cool "Mo" going. :-)

Dave, congratulations and you guys should be proud of all your successes. That's what happens when you put yourself out there. That's what makes great leaders. You would know that. :-)

For those who do not know who Vision Coaching is, I recommend you find out. Here is a quick video on who they are and what they can do for you.

Untitled from Hemmings House Pictures on Vimeo.

Two Passions Come Together

2008-11-24T10:39:00.006-04:00

Well this past week, Adrian and I started an new online community for all hockey enthusiast - players, coaches and fans. No it is not the same as YourTeam Online, but it does actually compliment the community over at YourTeam Online.

YourTeam Online is an online community geared towards team collaboration. The Sports Zen, however is a place where all hockey people can share and learn online.

The goal of the community is to:

Share Your Experience
Get answers
Assist others
Track your game & how you want to improve
Find a way for The Sports Zen & it's community to give back.

You know if I am going to do something like this, it means a lot to me. :-)

Find more videos like this on The Sports Zen

If you like hockey, cmon' over and join us. You will even see the brotherly rivalry in action.

Keep Your Website Simple

2008-11-18T14:16:00.005-04:00

It has been our motto here at Evolving Solutions for years. Please keep it simple when building your website or anything for that matter. It is even more present now with all of the websites that are out there today trying to grab your attention.

What do I mean by simple? Well I don't mean a blank white page with text...although, in today's world that would stand out.

Here is our theory and why we think your website does not have to cost you a fortune. Here we go:

Your website does not have to be a design master piece. Find a site or two that you like out there and model your site after it. There are millions of pages out there and you should be able to fine one or two. Don't copy a site, but find one you feel will function well with what you are trying to do on the web with your business.
When looking for example websites, look for sites NOT in your industry. For example if you sell houses, maybe you should take a look at websites that sell software as a service.
Once you find a site or two you like, next thing you should do is create a layout in Photoshop yourself or have your provider you selected to create a draft layout for you. From there make any changes before you start any coding.
Once the design has been agreed upon, (hopefully you are working with a small committee and not a large one) you can then make it look and function the way you want visitors to interact with your content and product/service.
Then go live!

It really is quite a simple process and it doesn't have to be complicated.

If I could add two final points, not related to the simple process.

I am not suggesting you rip off someones website. Just get some ideas.
Keep your content short and sweet. Most people are to busy and they don't have the time to scroll through your long winded product feature list.
Have fun with it!

Movember Update

2008-11-15T15:26:00.005-04:00

As you can see the Mo is moving along quite nicely. Only 3 days in.

I didn't love the handlebars look, so I thinned it out a bit.

Ok, good for a laugh. In all seriousness the "Mo" is coming along nicely and so are the donations. Thank you to everyone for their generosity and their donations. If you haven't donated yet and you would like to, feel free to visit my "Mo" post here or go right to my "Mo" donate page here

Also, if you want to have some fun with your pic's like I just did, swing over to Build A Beard. For every pic you send to them they donate a buck to Kiva.

Movember

2008-11-13T20:50:00.006-04:00

I am off to a late start, but during Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'm growing a Moustache. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against prostate cancer. During the next 17 days, I think I can grow a great Mo. Here is Day 1.

Check back to see how the Mo is coming as I will be posting daily pictures of my new Mo.

There are some pretty crazy facts about prostate cancer that I did not know until I started growing my Mo.

Did you know:

Every year around 24,700 Canadian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,300 die of the disease, making it the number one cancer threat to Canadian men.
1 in 7 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.
All men over the age of 40 are potentially at risk and should talk to their doctor about the disease and early detection. Prostate cancer is 95% curable if detected and treated early.

So, yes I am growing a Mo, but I am looking for your support during Movember. Maybe I can go Rollie like?

To donate to my Mo you can click this link https://www.movember.com/ca/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=2092006&country=ca and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account.

Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The money raised by Movember is donated directly to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada who will use the funds to create awareness and fund research across the country into prevention, detection and treatment, with a goal to ending the threat of prostate cancer.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your support. Don't forget to check back and see how the Mo is coming.

Be Thankful

2008-11-12T15:34:00.003-04:00

Like most of us, I spent yesterday remembering and being thankful for those who put their country before their personal lives.

November 11th, Remembrance Day is a special day for all of us in Canada to remember and be thankful for the sacrifices made by the members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War.

We owe alot of gratitude to those who helped make our country this great place to live. Thank you.

Even though Novemember 11th is a dedicated day for us to remember and be thankful, it got me thinking about all the other great things in my life that I am thankful for. Family, health, friends etc. We really should take more time to be thankful for what we have and not focus on what we don't have.

"We all have a lot more blessings in our life than we know. It's human nature to focus on what's not working rather than to embrace all that is. No matter how good - or bad - your life looks at this very moment, there really is so much (and so many people) you can be thankful for. And gratitude begets gratitude. The more good things you see, the more good things you see."

Powerful words to live by.

Tim Hortons Goes Social On Us

2008-11-10T10:34:00.010-04:00

It makes sense and I am glad Tim Hortons has started drinking some of the social media "kool aid". We all know how passionate we are about our Timmies coffee. It just makes good business sense for the money making machine to bring their conversations online.

Tim Hortons recently launched a dedicated website for people to share their Double, Double stories online with others. Every Cup Tells A Story is great way for Tim Hortons fanatics to let everyone see how they enjoy their coffee and how big of a part Tim Hortons is during those moments. How is that for brand recognition?

We recently attended one of my 5 year old sons Saturday morning hockey practices. We got him ready to go on the ice and like almost all the other parents we were enjoying a warm cup of coffee. While the practice was going I was snapping a few pictures here and there and I snapped a good one of my daughter and wife. Not thinking anything of it, I showed the picture to my wife and she said, "we should put this on the Tim Hortons website". I was like "what for?" Well now I know. :-)

Jodi went online, told the story behind the picture and now we are sharing our story with thousands of others online.

Check it out here. A New Hockey Mom.

You can rank stories, share them in Facebook and you can even view a tag cloud
of what people are telling stories about.

While it is great to see Tim Hortons is getting involved in social media, in my opinion they are just barely dipping their toe in, compared to what they could be doing. Good job on the start though.

Really, the web does work for your business

2008-11-05T15:30:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I was doing my usual cruise through my Google Reader catching up on some of my favourite blogs. I was reading a post on Chris Brogan's blog talking about a music artist, Chris Blake, who uses the web to promote his product - music.

Now before I read this post I never heard of Chris Blake...sorry Chris :-), but now I have and I really like his music. And what got me to dig deeper into Chris Blake's music was the video he put together on YouTube, that Chris Brogan shared in his post. (I am getting confused here with all these Chris's). He put together the video above by "Googling Web's Biggest Regrets". Very cool music and the messages in the video really make you think.

Chris touches on it in his post, that we have the power to make change and the web is one means of doing this.

Chris Blake now has a new fan, via a blog post, Google Search, YouTube and MySpace.

How easy was that? Way to go Chris's!

Kronomy Makes Your Life Cool On The Web

2008-11-03T12:45:00.003-04:00

My last post, which was dedicated to my sons fifth birthday was created using Kronomy's 3D timeline website.

Kronomy enables you to create a time line of your life, business, products with descriptions, pictures and video. You can then share your story and make your life flash before yours and other people's eyes.

With the US election coming up, here is a 3D timeline created on Kronomy portraying the life of, hopefully soon to be President of the United States, Barrack Obama.

Obama is a cool dude. Check out the cool pose with the trench coat on back in 1990. We need a cool dude running the US. :-)

Barack Obama ´s life path
Support Obama Share this timeline

Happy Birthday Bud

2008-10-30T21:55:00.006-03:00

Today my boy turned 5. I know, I can't believe it. It just seems like yesterday I was leaving the hospital with him in his car carrier.

Time flies when you are having fun. This has been an amazing five years and thanks for all the great memories bud. I love you.

Cade Nadeau ´s life path
Details Create your own

Less Is More

2008-10-28T16:21:00.012-03:00

It is really starting to make sense to me. Yes, I know it takes awhile for me to figure things out, but less, really is more.

Robin Sharma knows, Tim Ferris talks about it in his book and on his blog. The smart ones get it.

Peter Drucker said,"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Do the good things you do really well and let the not so good things be done by some one who does them well.

Less is more. Simplicity is power. Create a solid foundation, and roll with it.

Grooveshark Widgets Rock

2008-10-27T10:08:00.007-03:00

Well if you like music and you are on your computer a lot you might want to check out Grooveshark Widgets. I wrote about Grooveshark back in May and at the time I was very impressed with their music player.
Grooveshark recently added widgets that you can add to your blog or other websites that you can share with others. I had a small party on Saturday night and I put together a small playlist for the night using Grooveshark's widget.

The widget didn't disappoint and I don't think my DJ skills did either. :-)

Creating a widget in Grooveshark is very easy to do. It can be done in 3 steps:

Choose your style and colours
Add your favourite tunes
Copy code and paste it on your blog or website. Very easy if you use Big Santo

Here is the playlist from Saturday night, which was a pretty good time and music always helps in having a good time.

One thing that I think would make the widgets even better is having the ability to add songs from your widget.

Feel free to Add this to your own site for your next party!

Cause No Harm

2008-10-24T14:39:00.005-03:00

This is the Buddha's Mantra - Cause No Harm. Imagine if you brought the Buddha's principles to your business. Would it change your organization? I definitely think so.

I am currently reading a book by Lloyd Field, Business and the Buddha: Doing Well By Doing Good. It is really making me think about business in today's society and how we all operate. We all operate for profit. Profit can create suffering.

The problem, as identified by the Buddha, is "Suffering" is caused by our sense of what we want (money, desires, status, power, etc.). There is an antidote to suffering, and it is the Buddhist path.

Field offers up the Four Noble Truths, along with advice for how senior leaders can bring them and other significant Buddhist principles to the workplace.

A perfect example of how this is working is the "Slow City Movement" which is a movement founded in Italy in October of 1999. The goals of the movement includes improving the quality of life in towns while resisting "the fast-lane, homogenized world so often seen in other cities throughout the world See here how to become a Slow City. Maybe we should try this in Saint John?

It is examples like this that make you realize that we should be looking at our businesses to see if we are causing harm and look at human value as our top priority, or at the very least put it at the same level as profit.

I am pretty sure we will be adding a new core value to our already four current values:

Just Be Nice
Listen as twice as much as we speak
Lead without Title
Be Remarkable
Cause No Harm

I haven't finished the book yet, but it is very enlightening.

How do you measure success?

2008-10-23T16:02:00.004-03:00

Sometimes we just make things so complicated. Simplicity is a beautiful thing. Some of the happiest people in the world do simple things daily. Why is that? How can someone teaching surfing on a small island be happier then a person who is currently climbing the corporate ladder, earning a six figure salary?

Maybe keeping things simple plays a big role in that? I recently read a post by Robin Sharma that talks about the importance of Leading Without Title, which I have talked about here before. Robin's explains how this is the new definition of success and it will be this simple message that will break the winners our from the pack in life and business.

Robin recenlty launched his first post to his Vlog and it is about a man who lays flooring and leads without title.

Think about it.

Britney's on Twitter, Maybe You Should Be?

2008-10-20T15:15:00.006-03:00

Hitting the mainstream audience is always a big challenge for most Web 2.0 start ups. Facebook is an example of what can happen when a product gets traction from main streamers, it can take it to a whole new level.

Well just the other day, Twitter announced that Britney Spears is on Twitter. Check out her page here. Now I am not a huge Britney fan, but I think this should get you thinking whether or not Twitter is a place for your business.

From a business prospective I would say Britney is one of the most popular brands in the world and if her PR folks think Twitter is a valuable tool for her business, then it might be for yours as well.

John Jantsch wrote a post back in August on how to use Twitter for business. He even wrote a beginners guide.

Twitter for Business - Upload a Document to Scribd

Here are a couple of other businesses I am following on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/Starbucks
http://twitter.com/CirqueLasVegas

Some good stuff

2008-10-16T13:44:00.004-03:00

Are you an optimist or pessimist? Are you positive or negative? Whichever, you can read minds.

Are you launching a new product or service in the future? How can you make something in the future appear real?

How do you make it to the big time? Sam Lawrence thinks he knows...I think he is right.

NHL.com Just Got Cool

2008-10-14T21:24:00.004-03:00

If you are a hockey nut and don't have the power to change the channel from Dancing with the Stars to Hockey Night In Canada, you might want to check out the NHL Gamecenter.

With NHL GameCenter LIVE?, you control the action:

Streaming TV-quality video of all live game broadcasts.
Inside-the-glass camera angles for select games.
Multi-game view for up to four games at once.
Complete access to the REPLAY game archive.

NHL.com has a special promo on right now for $19.99 a month. See if I can fit that into the budget.

Check out the video demo and Happy Thanksgiving.

Beer Goggles for your Gmail?

2008-10-10T09:21:00.003-03:00

I think we have all heard the phrase, "You have your beer goggles on". I know back in my university days I heard it a few times. :-)

Beer Goggles is a slang term for a phenomenon in which consumption of alcohol lowers sexual inhibitions to the point that very little or no discretion is used when approaching or choosing sexual partners. - Wikipedia-

Well like beer goggles, Google recently launched a new feature in Gmail called Mail Goggles that prevents you from sending drunken emails late at night. Well hopefully late at night :-)

If you happen to be in front of your computer on those nights when you are slightly inebriated with nothing to do and you think it might be a good idea to send out some emails. Think again.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.

Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night email to your girlfriend -- I mean wife. :-)

Party with pingg

2008-10-04T21:47:00.007-03:00

I love things that are simple. I am a huge fan of the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) theory. It must be the jock in me. :-)

pingg is an invitation creation and event management site. With pingg, hosts can create stylish online invitations; choose how to send their invites— online (via email, social network or mobile text) or print (pingg will print, stamp and mail the invitations for you); customize their own event web page and manage all guest communications from one location. With its stylish designs, integrated print and online features, personalized event web page and easy to use tools, pingg will change the way you create and plan your event on the web.

When you get an invite from pingg, you don’t have to click through to a Website to sign up or one blaring with advertisements just to find the address for a party. All the information is right there where it should be, in your email. You can RSVP right from the email and move on. The invite, image, and event details all come through in your email. And you can RSVP from the email as well. Here is an example one I set up.

The e-mails and Website are free. But you can also send out printed invites as postcards for $1.50 each (including postage) or send the invites as text messages to guests’ mobile phones ($1.50 for 20 messages).

The application is drop dead simple to use and they have some amazing looking templates. They also manage automatic reminder messages and thank-you notes when they are creating your invites. And the RSVP options include the ability to limit an event’s capacity, or to allow invitees to bring guests or transfer their invites to others.

Very cool and very easy. Congratulations to the pingg team for making my invites that much easier.

Have I told you I love the web? :-)

Slow Down & Enjoy Now

2008-10-02T07:51:00.003-03:00

I just finished reading "The Four Hour Work Week". It is a pretty good read and the main point I took from the entire book was that we shouldn't wait to defer life until later on. Why not enjoy it now, via mini retirements. To do that we need to put the proper processes in place to make it happen. This poem was in the book and it really helps validate the point of slowing down and enjoying now.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask "How are you?"
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say "Hi"?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Great Customer Service With Get Satisfaction

2008-09-30T21:38:00.003-03:00

Customer service is something we take very serious here at Evolving Solutions and YourTeam Online. We see it as one of the pillars to any successful business and we continually strive to find ways to improve our service.

We recently introduced Get Satisfaction to our Big Santo customers. Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services.

The web is a great equalizer and products like Get Satisfaction provide small businesses an opportunity to provide better customer support then a big one.

How does it work?

You can ask questions, report problems and bugs, share ideas and get feedback, or just talk and give your opinion.

It’s a unique way to create a transparent, free-flowing dialogue between you and your customers. And it makes support easy.

Have a question, a problem or an idea for Big Santo, please let us know.

You can even add a widget like this to let viewers to your site see what topics are currently being discussed.

Active customer service discussions in Evolving Solutions about Big Santo

Get Satisfaction support network

Track Any Web Page With Page2RSS

2008-09-26T09:55:00.006-03:00

My last post I spoke about our recent integration with JS-Kit. After I submitted my post I realized that my RSS feed was still working because Big Santo is integrated with Blogger as well, but when someone was to view my feed in their reader of choice, if they clicked on the title in their reader they would be taken to my Blogger page. Now that is fine, but not the perfect solution. So I went on the hunt for any easy way for a "non-techie" like me to create an RSS feed.

First I tried Dapper, which looks very solid, but was still a little tech heavy for someone like me. Remember I am still a jock by nature. :-) Then I found Feedity, which I thought was going to work like a charm, but while it was easy to try and make work, I still coudn't quite figure it out. Once again, simple jock.

So then I said, well lets go out to my fellow Tweeters on Twitter and I asked the question, like I have before

Now I didn't get tons of resonses, actually I only got one, but you know what. It was the perfect answer, because it was simple and it worked. The answer came from our good friend at Spheric, Adam MacDonald and he recommended Page2RSS

We all know RSS helps to get the feeds of the favorite/selected sites that gives away the xml/RSS feed (more on RSS). But what if my favorite sites are not publishing any feeds?

Page2RSS is just a perfect solution. Just enter your favorite site which you want to monitor and it will display a meesage in your reader.

The page http://evolvingsolutions.ca/evolve/419/ThePerfectBalance is monitored for updates. There are no changes detected since 09/24/08 15:06:11.

So now you can create feeds for others very easily and you can create feeds for web pages that you want to follow that do not have feeds. Your favourite websites, competitors, you name it, you can do it.

All you have to do is drag and bookmark the link Add to Page2RSS and click on the bookmarked link if you want to monitor the site you are viewing. This way you can monitor almost every site that you browse.

Thanks Adam! Who needs Google when you have smart people all over the world helping you out. Well Google still helps :-)

All the Top - Online Magazine Rack

2008-09-21T21:29:00.005-03:00

So you keep hearing all about RSS feeds and RSS readers and you have no idea what everyone is talking about? Well Guy Kawasaki might have just found the secret to let all of those folks who don't have the time to figure out RSS get involved in the blogosphere. No RSS skills needed.

Alltop is a website that functions as an “online magazine rack” with the latest from a wide variety of news sources and blogs covering “all topics.” Many of the Alltop sites are very useful to entrepreneurs, investors, and everyone else in the high-tech community:

Alltop covers more than just business. The breadth of subjects is amazing. You can explore more than 200 topics from the home page at Alltop. Here are just a few examples:

Don't waste anymore time and get started. Congratulations to Guy on a great and simple idea coming to fruition.

Should Government Use Social Media?

2008-09-18T21:17:00.004-03:00

Why the heck not?

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to present to a group of PR Professionals from ACOA during their yearly retreat at the Pictou Lodge today. Side note: Pictou Lodge is beautiful and I recommend anyone looking for a great getaway, definitely think about going to the Pictou Lodge!

Our topic for the hour was social media and how might the government utilize it to their benefit, and more specifically ACOA. We had an engaging conversation, which opened my eyes to some of the concerns government has with social media.

We discussed how other organizations and individuals are using social media, like Barack Obama, Dell, Nike + and My Starbucks Ideas. I am hoping the examples helped them see how they can sell the idea of conversation into their risk averse cultures. It's all about knowing the fears then gently leading the fearful through the issues.

Like anything new though, there is always the fear of change, which can be difficult. So I thought I would search out some success stories that illustrate gov't using social media and I was able to find a couple of great examples. Joseph Thornley points out a great example on a model he would love to see here in Canada to increase government accountability. I also found a wiki that is being used by the City of Melbourne, called the Future of Melbourne. The wiki is the community's vision for the management, development and direction of their city to 2020 and beyond. Great idea!

So yes, I do think there is a place for social media in the government and I know the great people I was in the room with today will find a way to incorporate it so we all benefit. I can feel the change approaching.

Some good stuff

2008-09-12T13:55:00.004-03:00

Ever wonder what the most over looked secret to marketing is? Seth Godin thinks it's Time.

Be what you want to be to your customers. Robin Sharma explains how YOU CAN NEVER TAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS TO A PLACE YOU'VE NEVER BEEN.

Why can't you grow a successful business in your community? The Zingerman's have been doing it for years in Ann Arbour, Michigan. John Jantsch discusses their community business model on his Ducttape Marketing blog.

My son would love the pic of the Oreo cookie. :-)

Moncton MP Candidate Goes Web 2.0

2008-09-09T15:08:00.005-03:00

The Daniel Allain campaign is planning a Web 2.0 attack on its competitors and so far it looks like a fantastic strategy.

You do not need to look much farther then to our cross-border counterparts to see how a smart social media campaign can assist in victory. Barack Obama's recent campaign utilized social media to its perfection. His 15 million views of his "Yes We Can" videos on YouTube are proof that social media helps increase the speed of Word of Mouth.

The Allain campaign is a truly 21st century campaign. So many things are being done at the grassroots level and leveraging the power of the Internet these days is very important.

Since Allain officially declared his candidacy on September 4th, the following has happened:

The Daniel Allain website was launched.
The campaign has created a Blog to release press information.
You can follow Daniel Allain's every move during the campaign on Twitter.
A facebook page here.
His own YouTube channe l.
And all of this is running underneath the hood of the Big Santo Web Content Master.

I believe, by this campaign leveraging the power of social tools, it will teach all the future candidates that there are tons of techniques online that can be used efficiently to both deliver the message and engage voters in distributing this message out of their own free will.

Make sure you check out his site and see how everything comes together for Daniel. Vote for Daniel!

Ramesh Ferris - A Leader Without Title

2008-09-05T22:38:00.013-03:00

"Every great advancement was once nothing more than a dream in the mind of a visionary." Powerful words by Robin Sharma.

I met one (a visionary) today. Ramesh Ferris is an amazing individual who had a vision one day while sitting at a campground with his dog. His vision was very clear - eradicate polio, to educate about the continuing need for immunization against polio and to support the rehabilitation of polio survivors in poor countries. It was this vision that birthed Cycle To Walk.

A 28-year-old polio survivor, Ramesh was adopted from India by Canadian parents in 1982. He can walk with the assistance of braces and crutches; however, his legs are not strong enough to propel a conventional bicycle. Instead, he rides using a hand cycle which relies upon his powerful upper body strength to maximize distance and speed.

The Cycle To Walk campaign started back on April 12, 2008 which was the anniversary of the release of Salk’s polio vaccine. Ramesh started his 7,200 km hand cycle journey from Victoria BC and he has made his way to the East Coast and is 3 weeks away from his end point, Cape Spear NL.

Ramesh is closing in on his quest to see Polio become only the second disease eradicated in human history. Ramesh wants to see it happen and remind Canadians that the fight to end polio isn’t over. I am willing to bet my money on Ramesh seeing this to the end.

Ramesh has raised close to $300K and he would love to reach 1 million dollars. Lets do our little to not only help Ramesh in his journey, but to help ourselves.

If anything you should definitely check out Ramesh's website. It is an amazing resource for Polio.

"Happiness hates the timid." Eugene O'Neill, 1936 Nobel Prize Winner

Why Set Bigger Goals?

2008-09-03T15:51:00.004-03:00

I never really asked myself that question before, but I recently started reading Tim Ferriss's new book, The 4 Hour Work Week and in Chapter 4, the System Reset, Tim talks about Why Bigger Goals ='s Less Competition. When you look at that final statement, Why Bigger Goals ='s Less Competition, it really hits home and it is so simple. Don't be realistic, be unrealistic!

Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.

The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit homeruns while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.

I recommend reading his book, but if you can't, check out Tim's blog post about Striving to be one of the few.

Here is an example of someone I know who seems to be setting bigger goals and taking a risk, no matter what anyone thinks. Good luck Dan and we can't wait to hear about your experience.

Google Browser? It's True, It Is Coming

2008-09-01T21:46:00.008-03:00

Look out Microsoft IE and yes Firefox, my favourite browser the last 4 years, you might be in trouble too.

While catching up on some of my blog reading I came across this breaking news at Techcrunch and GigaOm. Looks like this is very true, as Google announced on their official blog that they would be launching Google Chrome tomorrow in 100 countries. Google Chrome is a browser developed by the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company.

In typical Google fashion, they have found a unique way to launch their new product. They have created a cartoon around the browser and you can read it here.

The new browser will have some very cool features. Some of them include:

It has tabs, auto-completion, and a dashboard-type start page that can help you get going to the web services you need.
It has a privacy mode that allows you to use the machine without logging anything on the local machine. It might be similar to a feature called Incognito in the latest version of Microsoft IE.
Malware and phishing protection would be built into the browser

Chrome is an Open Source project and it first release will be for Windows only, but Mac and Linux will be coming soon.

This is a big move towards MSFT's dominance in the browser market, as they own 75% of the market with Firefox in a distant second with close to 25%. Firefox has done really well recently, but they are still not even close to hitting the mainstream user. This is where Google can bully their way in and take over the browser entirely.

Stay tuned and I can't wait for the Linux version.

Update: Google Chrome is making some noise with the Early Adopter crowd. I think this is a huge move on Google's part, especially when Mobile browsing becomes an every day thing and Chrome will have a huge advantage being built on the same platform (WebKit) as Android.

Hug A Developer

2008-08-28T21:35:00.006-03:00

My brother Adrian sent me this video tonight and I have to say it is so very true. I am not a developer, but I have seen his pain over the last 7 years we have worked together.

If you see Adrian in the next day or so...please give him a hug :-) I know I will give him a hug tomorrow morning. You are the best Ade!

Learn the Guitar on the Web

2008-08-25T21:26:00.005-03:00

Well I don't play the guitar...yet. But after finding the website Songsterr, I just might start learning how to play. Songsterr is an online guitar tab player that solves the biggest problem of guitar tabs (absence of information on rhythm and duration) and allows one to actually listen to the guitar tab played by a realistic guitar engine.

Now I have no idea how to read music, but I checked out the site and it looks like it would be an awesome tool for learning new songs. Here is a classic riff.

With all the Blippin' I have been doing lately, I must have music on the brain. Let me know what you think.

Radiohead Gets It

2008-08-19T22:50:00.005-03:00

How can you incorporate Radiohead's ideas into your business?

Not only am I a huge fan of Radiohead, but I have the utmost respect for the way they market themselves and stay true to their core values. Lets go through a few recent business decisions they have made:

Eliminated the record labels.
Gave away their music for free or let people pay what they want for their CD.
Started their own YouTube Channel for their wicked song "House of Cards".

In fact, the video for House of Cards was created through complex data visualization which you can see and manipulate here .

Here is the video.

They are doing an amazing job at letting their fans get involved. How can we get our fans involved in our businesses?

Some good stuff

2008-08-18T10:46:00.008-03:00

I have been writing less lately for a few reasons:

Working on some fantastic projects for some fantastic customers.
Moving into the new house.
And enjoying the summer with family and friends.

Even though writing is important to me, reading is even more important. I think it is important as a human to continue to learn. Reading does that for me. Here are a few great blog post I have read recently and wanted to share with you.

How do you become great? How does it happen? Is it luck? Watching the Olympics recently made me wonder about this. Usain Bolt, where did you come from?

Video from CBC.

Robin Sharma wrote a great post recently on How Champions Are Made.

Intangibles? - What do they mean to you? You hear the greats have them. They do the little things right. Well Seth Godin writes a great post on how you can bring more value to your relationships by focusing on the intangibles.

Blip Makes Music Fun Online

2008-08-13T16:56:00.005-03:00

I started using Blip today and it was actually quite addictive. Think twitter meets Pandora.

Most people enjoy some sort of genre in music and blip lets you share your likes with others on the web. If you like music and you like sharing, I definitely recommend Blip. Here is what you can do when you are on Blip:

Access to millions of streaming songs
Your own music station
A station programmed by your friends
An audience of music enthusiasts

I tried the integration with Twitter, which worked really well, but if you like music like me, you might annoy your twitter friends if all they see from you in twitter is a bunch of songs you blipped on Blip. So I think I will deactivate that today. What would be cool is if when you blip a song, you can select which third party site you want to share it on.

Another cool sticky feature is Blip hands out stars every time you hit a certain milestone with listeners. Add me so I can get my 50 star :-) http://blip.fm/cnadeau

Also, if you are a rockstar or want to be one, Blip might be a good place to upload your music and let others listen. If you want to be a DJ like me, check it out.

Living in a Browser

2008-08-06T16:02:00.005-03:00

What would it be like if you were MIA from your office for almost 3 weeks? Would you be sifting through emails for weeks on your return? Would you be looking for Word documents, proposals, etc. for clients? Would you be feeling out of the loop from what is going on at work? Sometimes being out of the loop isn't a bad thing :-) but being a small company and the owner it is important to be aware of things while you are not at the office.

Well I can tell you what being MIA from the office was like for me, since today is my first day back in the office in almost 3 weeks. :-) My recent hiatus is a combination of our vacation, moving into our new house and I had to buy a new computer that took me almost two weeks to get, while my other one was sitting on the sidelines burnt out.

And guess what...It wasn't that bad. I attribute the success to this disappearing act to "living in a browser"

Long the domain of Microsoft, the productivity apps market is turning into a lively, competitive arena thanks to the rise of a variety of SaaS and open source deployments, which provide much cheaper alternatives to the software giant's Office suite. There's also an emerging group of newer on-demand and open source players that are targeting the business apps market. Therefore we are not tied to our office or Microsoft like we used to be.

This time away made me realize that I can operate our business from any computer as long as I have an Internet connection. Here is what I use to get this done.

Google Apps - Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs
Google Reader - Web based reader for organizing your RSS feeds
Blogger - Web based blogging software
Twitter - Micro blogging
Facebook - Social network for staying on top of all of your personal relationships
Firefox 3 - Best browser out there, but I am considering checking out Flock latest version

That's it and the great thing is these are all free or close to it. You might have to hire someone to set the software up fr you, especially Google Apps, but it would be a very smart investment and save you tons of money in the long run.

So that is how I live in a browser, now if I could just find a decent webtop to replace my desktop and outsource my email like Tim Ferriss, I may never have to work again, let alone go into the office. :-)

Twellow Lets You Search For Like Minded Folks On Twitter

2008-07-24T11:11:00.005-03:00

The explosive growth of online social media has led to unprecedented opportunities for finding and connecting with people of experience and expertise in your areas of interest. However, sifting through the overwhelming volume of content and services in order to connect with people you want to find can be daunting and frustrating. Enter Twellow.com

Twellow is a great new search tool and directory for discovering Twitter users. For those of you balking at the idea of getting involved in the social web, this is a great way to get involved with people of the same interest.

All you have to do is go to Twellow, search for something you like and there you go. A list of like-minded individuals using the social web who you can communicate and share with. Here is a search I did for hockey, 14 pages worth.

Makes sense to me. Give it a try.

2nd Hands On Crash Course Rocks

2008-07-23T10:33:00.005-03:00

I saw the lights come on with a lot of individuals at last night's Third Tuesday New Brunswick event. It was great to see so many people thinking about how they can use the social web to better their life and business.

The event took place in Fredericton at Radian6's world headquarters. As usual I met some new folks and continued the conversations with others that I have met through the Third Tuesday events. Always good to network socially as Jason Falls would say.

Here is a quick snapshot of what went down at the the event.

We set up five stations - Linkedin, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Plurk and flickr. Similar to our first Hands On Crash Course in Saint John, the participants had a 15 mins conversation at each station before the moved onto the next one. Once again the "Hands On" event created some great conversation and people were able to build some new relationships.

Recap of Each Station

Linkedin: David Alston (@davidalston)

David discussed how he creates connections within Linkedin and making new contacts through Linkedin is a lot easier then the old fashion way. I never had so many Linkedin invites in a 8 hour span like I did after this session :-) If you are on Linkedin make sure to look me up http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisnadeau

Google Analytics: Lisa Rousseau (@walkinggal)

Lisa discussed how easy it is to become a Web analytics pro. Google Analytics is very powerful and FREE!

Facebook Ads: Danielle Hotchkiss (@DHotchkiss)

Danielle talked about the ease and power of Facebook Social Ads. Facebooks ad platform has a reach more than 50 million people with advanced targeting, content integration, and flexible pricing.

flickr: Chris Nadeau (@cnadeau)

I was the flickr dude. We had some great conversations about utilizing flickrs powerful API, Groups in flickr and the Creative Common licensed photos you can use for your website through advanced search. Doug also did a cool demo of KD4 for some of our developer friends. Thanks Doug!

Plurk: Chatic Haddad

I am not a user of Plurk, but I heard that Chatic showed the group how well organized Plurk keeps your conversations. It is like Twitter on steriods. I must check it out.

As usual, a great event put on in Fredericton. Now it is time to figure out what we will do in Saint John for the next one. Any suggestions?

Craiger, It's Been A Slice

2008-07-19T19:24:00.005-03:00

Yesterday was Craig Allen’s, the Magic Maker's last day at Evolving Solutions - today he begins a new chapter in his personal career.

Craiger started at Evolving Solutions in January 2006, we think :-) and has worked along side myself and Adrian, day and night, since then. Craiger wore many hats during his time with us, Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Event Planner and Aquarium Fixer.

He was a loyal employee, always reserved and thinking about the customer. In addition to being a great writer, Craig did many other great things over the years while he was here:

He raised the level of all our brands to a place Adrian and I couldn't of done on our own - Evolving Solutions, Big Santo and YourTeam Online
He was great dealing with our customers and the projects he worked on
He helped our company grow with his work and ideas
He was a great coach at the Geeks On Ice hockey tournament :-)
And he has been a great friend to Adrian and I over the years

You’ll be missed, Craig. Come by any time to write a newsletter or two, for old time’s sake. And good luck with your next venture. Wherever you land they will be very lucky to have you. We will miss working with the Magic Maker and we wish you the best.

It's been a slice.

Are You Becoming A Commodity?

2008-07-14T22:19:00.006-03:00

More and more things are becoming a commodity these days. Is your business or product becoming one? It might seem like a silly question right now, but take a look at the list below. I bet there was a time when the listed items were scarce.

"A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. In other words, copper is copper. Rice is rice. Stereos, on the other hand, come in many varieties of quality. And, the better a stereo is, the more it will cost. Whereas, the price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand."- Wikipedia, July 2008

Here is a current list of traded commodities. Seth Godin recently wrote a post on the Apple debacle over the past weekend. It makes so much sense to me. Does it to you?

How can you make your product or service scarce?

Try This

2008-07-10T12:00:00.002-03:00

If you can do this let me know and let me know the secret. I giggled to myself a few times trying.:-)

Is The 4 Hour Work Week Possible?

2008-07-07T22:59:00.008-03:00

I have been reading a lot these days about Tim Ferriss. Check out his blog, it is great! Tim is the author of the best-selling book “The 4-Hour Workweek”.

Tim has created a system that helps you work more effectively, not efficiently. I have not read the book yet, but I will definitely be purchasing it in the near future. If his book is as good as his blog, then it should be good. I recently watched a video with him and Robert Scoble on Fast Company. Check it out.

What do you think? Did you read the book? If so, please share your comments.

My Little Girl Turned 1 Today

2008-07-07T16:16:00.005-03:00

My baby girl turned 1 today. Happy Birthday Cali. The last year has been amazing and I am so proud to be your father. I love you.

Creative Friday

2008-07-04T22:46:00.009-03:00

Today was a different day, but a great day. I did some things out of the norm. It started with a "right brain" thinking session with the Leadership Forum group I am involved with, which is being facilitated by Dave Veale of Vision Coaching. Dave arranged for the session and we all traveled down to St. Andrews, NB for a four hour session with Robert Van de Peer at the Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre.

Robert took us on a a creative roller coaster, letting us use our creative brain and allowing us to let go of our judgements and fears so we could create our own masterpiece. That's what I am calling it anyways :-) As a group we were each given an individual task to take a section of a Claude Monet painting and replicate our section. Good luck! :-) There are two lawyers, a web guy, a call center dude and a city employee in our group. What do you think our chances of recreating the Monet painting were? Not good? Well in the end it didn't matter.

The reason it didn't matter, for me anyway, was the journey. It sounds corny, but it is very true. The biggest thing I took away from the session is that we all have our own ways of doing things and what they are really doesn't matter, but it is the path we take along the way that really counts. Each and every moment is something we create, and it is important we accept the moment, enjoy the moment and be enthusiastic about each moment. It was a great session and if you are ever in St. Andrews you should definitely go into the Nature Centre and have a chat with Robert. It is well worth the time. Here is my masterpiece replica. Which one do you think Monet did? :-)

So if trying to be Monet for an afternoon wasn't enough, when I got back from St. Andrews, my wife and my family went to see a play at KV High School put on by KV Players the Saint John Theatre Company. The play was Tuesdays with Morrie. I read the book a couple of years ago, so seeing the play reminded me of how great the story was. Morrie says it best "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in..." The play was great! The day was great and I highly recommend trying something creative every once in awhile. You never know what you might find out.

I might make this a weekly event. What do you think?

Take Notes While You Cruise The Web

2008-07-02T11:48:00.006-03:00

As we all know the web has tons of information and as knowledge workers we continually cruise around for more and more knowledge. For some of us we use favourites in our browser or social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us. I currently use Del.icio.us which I find very good and I will continue to do so. But for those who do not like the idea of using Del.icio.us you might be interested in The Awesome Highlighter.

Awesome Highligter provides a tool that enables you to go to a website and highlight information to save for later or share with your friends. It is very easy to use. How it works is you go to the site and either install the plugin, or type in the URL of the site you’d like to highlight. You pick your color, highlight what’s important, and copy the short URL provided and share it with your friends, or click the “pass it on” button to share your highlights with friends through email, Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us.

Here is the link to view the page http://awurl.com/jklaey123078

If you are getting frustrated with your favourites list getting to long and you want a better way to share & save content from websites, I definitely recommend checking out The Awesome Highlighter.

Lets Give Mr. Bill Gates A Round of Applause

2008-06-29T17:07:00.006-03:00

Friday was Bill Gates last day of work at Microsoft. I know I am sometimes hard on Microsoft, but Mr. Gates is a living legend and if it wasn't for him my life would definitely be a lot different right now. If Mr. Gates hadn't defined the PC era like he did, I might never have had the opportunity to start Evolving Solutions or YourTeam Online with my bro, Adrian . This is one man that can actually say his product(s) have had an impact on almost everyone in the world. Mr. Gates, thank you for your leadership, innovation and your willingness to put yourself on the line to make the world a better place. Awesome!!!

Lorne Feldman of 1938 Media explains it the good old fashion way in his latest video post.

I definitely don't think this will be the last we hear of Mr. Gates, as we know he will do great things with his foundation. I still think he might make a comeback at Microsoft, similar to how Jordan did with the Bulls. Microsoft still has a ton of cash, but the software world is changing at a rapid pace and I am not sure the guy who is in charge can get them in line. What do you think? Time will tell.

Actually lets give Mr. Gates a standing ovation!

Alien Nation - Good Friend Launches New Radio Show

2008-06-25T13:30:00.007-03:00

Do you have teenagers? Do you wonder what they are thinking about or what they are doing with their lives? Heck I think about it and my kids are 4 & 11. :-)

I think your teenage years are some of your greatest and some of your most difficult. My good friend, Judith Mackin has just launched her first ever CBC radio show, Alien Nation.

The goal of Alien Nation is to take listeners into the lives of Canadian teens. The show is driven by Judith, a 40-year-old mother trying to keep a connection with her son, Robyn, as he struggles to find his way in a complicated world.

Alien Nation features dozens of teens from a wide range of backgrounds, speaking frankly and often surprisingly about spirituality, family, technology, friendship, love, sex and altered states.

The first episode aired June 23rd, introducing Judith and her sixteen-year-old Robyn Mackin.

"Robin, who runs away from home, pushing his mother to the brink of a meltdown. His decision to bolt from the house tops a long list of defiant acts that began around puberty. That's according to Robyn's mother, Judith Mackin, host of Alien Nation. Instead of giving up, Judith sets out to better understand her son and his generation. And so the journey begins into the hearts and minds of Canadian adolescents. What does it mean to come of age in 2008? And what can a parent do in the fleeting moments that remain before children move out and move on?

Catch the first episode here

Judith, congratulations and you should be proud of the show and putting yourself out there. That's what makes great leaders.

Oh and Judith, I think it would be great if CBC would let bloggers, social media users share their shows via podcast on their own websites. It would definitely improve the viral marketability of their shows across the web. Please check with your CBC friends on this one :-)

Websites That Help You Budget

2008-06-23T09:58:00.011-03:00

I never thought I would say it, but yes I am going to try the budget thing. Especially now that we are building a new house and my wife is in transition for the time being, trying to figure out what she wants to do professionally. For now
she will be working with us at Evolving Solutions, so look for Jodi (a.k.a Valley Girl) if you need a new website for your business. :-)

So over the weekend we decided that we wanted to put together a monthly family budget. Being a web guy and knowing of a few personal finance websites out there, I decided to really dive in. The first one I tried out was Wesabe.

Wesabe combines goal-setting, local reviews and tips, and management of your bank accounts. The idea is Quicken or Money software as a service with the addition of a community. There is a Firefox extension that helps you to add all this bank data faster: visit your bank accounts online and it will help you grab the required info. It also lets you take screenshots of online receipts and attach them to transactions in your account: see the video below for a demo. I tried the extension for Linux and had some troubles, but on Windows/Firefox it worked like a charm and uploaded all my bank details instantly. I then tagged all my spending so Wesabe could read all future expenses and categorize them so it can create some really nice looking graphs, to help visualize where you are spending your money. Here is a quick video on setting you the Firefox plugin.

Security Note: Your third party bank and credit card account credentials are not stored on Wesabe’s servers - instead they are downloaded to your personal computer. Hackers can’t access your account credentials by breaking into Wesabe’s servers.

So after 30 mins or so in Wesabe, which was quite impressive, there was still no real way to set up a budget. I could create a goal to spend so much a month, which might work fine, but I wanted to actually set up and track an actual budget. So I cruised around the forums in Wesabe and saw one of the Wesabe employees recommend PearBudget.

According to the PearBudget website, five years ago, Charlie and Sarah created PearBudget as a spreadsheet to help them track their spending. On a whim, they posted it online, in case other people might find it helpful. It was downloaded over 100,000 times, and was even written up in the Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, and dozens of popular websites and blogs.

They decided to make a good thing better, so they turned PearBudget into a web-based application. It’s now even friendlier and easier than it had been before. From what I have found it’s the simplest budgeting and expense tracking tool on the internet. My brother Adrian also found Budget5000 which he highly recommends. Being his brother I just have to pick something different. :-)

So we now have a family budget set up and we are going to combine Wesabe and PearBudget to see if we can make this work. We are off to a good start, we spent $2.10 yesterday :-).

I also checked out Mint, which looks like it would do everything I want it to, but they currently only work with US banks. Boooooo!!!! :-)

Is budgeting worth it? If so, how do you budget?

The Sports Zen Logo Update

2008-06-19T12:32:00.002-03:00

Going back to the well again. Would love your feedback on which one you think will rock out! Time to let the smart peeps decide. Thanks.

Revision 1

Revision 2

Revision 3

How Social Media Can Help You Find The Answers

2008-06-19T07:21:00.006-03:00

Sometimes owning a small business can be a lonely thing. You have all these decisions to make and sometimes you would just like to bounce a few things off of other people. Well, if you haven't gotten involved in social media yet, this might be the reason to get more involved.

My last post I shared four new logo concepts for the re-brand of our YourTeam Online product. The new product will be called The Sports Zen and we really liked all the concepts, but we wanted some more feedback to help us make our decision. I wasn't sure if we would get any feedback, but thanks to you I was pleasantly surprised with the number of responses.

By using Twitter and my blog, I was able to get some great feedback from some very smart people. Here is a snapshot of what I got through Twitter and my blog comments.

When you think about it, social media gives you an instant advisory board. You should give it a whirl.

Thank you to everyone for your great feedback!

We Need Your Help! Which One Do you Like?

2008-06-17T10:36:00.003-03:00

Maybe it was the recent trip to NYC, but we have decided to slightly change the brand and positioning of YourTeam Online to The Sports Zen. What do you think? Please say you like it, because we have already started the logo process :-)

Currently YourTeam Online is an online community where teams can communicate with other teammates, parents and coaches online during the season, with the two main sports being soccer and hockey. We are still going to keep the key team components, but we are integrating a community for all individuals to interact with other YourTeam Online members, outside of their team. We are looking to create more collaboration outside of the team, but still keep the team part. Hence, the new name, The Sports Zen.

Here is where you can really help us. Which logo do you like best? Please leave your top 2 selections in the comments section. We truly appreciate it!

Composition 1

Composition 2

Composition 3

Composition 4

I will keep you posted on the transition and we hope to see you at The Sports Zen!

VC, Startups & Social Media - Moncton, June 17th

2008-06-11T08:18:00.002-03:00

Happy Wednesday Morning from the Hampton Inn in Waterville, Maine. Just getting ready to head to the Big Apple this morning, but before we hit the road I wanted to remind everyone about the next meet up in Moncton. Dan has a great event lined up for us. Should be excellent!

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING & STARTUPS!

Special Guest, from Toronto - Jevon MacDonald (www.startupnorth.com) presenting on Venture Capital, Startups, and Social Media (http://is.gd/uad)
Panel: Social Media Marketing Do's & Dont's - local leading experts
Video Interviews: 2-3 minute interviews to promote your company, or project.
Twitter.com Station! Get signed-up, and learn how to integrate your blog & Facebook.

FYI: IT'S FREE! Why? Cause were very passionate about helping companies
compete online. It's time Atlantic Canada takes back the crown of
being pioneers!

Limited seating, so please sign up ASAP.

SIGN-UP: Facebook OR Meetup
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19045167092
Meetup: http://publicrelations.meetup.com/99/calendar/8067791/

What is your niche?

2008-06-08T11:23:00.003-03:00

There has been a lot said about the huge impact social networks like Facebook and MySpace have had on the mainstream. There are millions of people now online using social networks to communicate with others online.

What comes next for social networks? Can you say specialized. All of the networks today have been great at introducing to us the features that we can utilize in a social network. Now it is time for us to build networks that target very small, but targeted groups.

Want to see a great example? Check out The Drum Fill, a social network for drummers. Adrian my brother, is the founder of The Drum Fill has just started his new online community and, while it is a small group they are creating some great conversations around events, learning and commenting on some of their favourite drum solos by their favourite drummers.

Here is my favourite

There are over a 100 million blogs today, do you think social networks will grow like blogs? If so, what is your niche? And if you have a blog, maybe you should build a community around your blog?

Oh by the way...you gotta love Animal!!!