12 Most Viral YouTube Videos

Happy New Year!

How many hours (days) did you spend in 2011 watching YouTube? For some people, watching it has eclipsed TV watching. I can tell you my kids prefer watching Americas Funniest Videos over TV and have a ball laughing till they fall out of their chair. What I find interesting is that they will sit side by side on two chairs in the kitchen - bringing laughter and energy to the whole house instead of huddled mindlessly watching TV in the other room. Does the computer and YouTube change how your household consumes entertainment?

Well - in case you missed it - Here are the 12 most Viral YouTube Videos of 2011!

Special thanks to Sam Fiorella and one of my favorite blogs, www.12most.com, for the list.

Cheers

Calvin

Product Reviews on YouTube

We installed new desktop computers a few weeks ago and they have built in cameras.

Here is what the staff decided to use the cameras for. Product reviews.

I love seeing staff embrace the new and create art! LOVE IT!!!!

We are ordering lighting and microphones to make the reviews look even better.

Cheers,

Calvin

Sneak peek!

My Christmas present came today as we all had a sneak peek at our new Costless web site (99% complete).

It looks incredible! The functionality and tools will make customers grin from ear to ear, compared to our current and out-dated site.

I don't have an absolute launch date, but you'll all hear soon about the roll out.

Cheers,

Calvin

Thank You!

Sometimes giving a gift to someone who never expects it can be the most rewarding.
This year we discussed amongst our managers, who are the staff at our suppliers that we could recognize?
These are the people who are behind the scenes and the unsung heroes that make all the magic happen for Costless. I'm talking about the people who pick our orders perfect every time, the delivery drivers who show up on time, the staff who take back and process our return merchandise, the receivables departments that make our invoices perfect every time.
These are the staff at our suppliers that are in the trenches and never hear a thank you or a gift from customers. Gifts from customers to suppliers is rare at the management level, and I'm sure non-existent to these staff in the trenches.
A BIG thank you to all our suppliers for helping us have an incredible year, we couldn't have done it without you, and you, and you. Please know we recognize everyone's efforts!
Cheers,
Calvin

Giving Back

Tonight is a night to give back.
Police Chief, Jim Chu, spoke at our “We Care” event tonight.
The Vancouver City Chief of Police heard about our efforts on this event and insisted on participating. He addressed the group about the challenges facing the Downtown East Side and how he leads his team in addressing the myriad of issues in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood.
We are carrying the torch of a great event EO alumni Nigel Bennett and entrepreneur coach Kevin Lawrence started 7 years ago, and are proud to be involved in the efforts by donating food, socks, candy and the use of one of our delivery trucks. Our staff and friends had a chance to get engaged with the community. Other EO members brought their staff, spouses and children to make a group of over 180 strong.

We headed to the streets as small groups to hand out specially prepared care packages. This was a chance to see how grateful a fellow human being can be for something as simple as a dry pair of socks, a holiday treat, spare clothes or even a plastic bag they can use to keep their few possessions dry.  This was a unique opportunity for our key staff to directly interact with the most challenged neighbourhood in Canada. We were not there to change lives but are hopeful to simply brighten a day during a difficult season for many in this community.
This year over 1500 packages where given out. A new record!
Unfortunately I was out of town and truly saddened I could not be a part of the event but thanks to other Costless staff, we really made our presence known. Thank you to Shawn, Todd, Nabil, Chris, Michelle, Cindy and others on our team. Merry Christmas!!
Cheers
Calvin

Christmas Party at the Giggle Dam!

After some fun at the Costless offices playing Minute To Win It, we all headed over to the Giggle Dam. The staff was totally excited!
Getting 30 staff into the Giggle Dam on the hottest corporate party Saturday night in December took a small miracle and booking 4 months ago, but here we are!!
Here is how awesome my staff is: At the Giggle Dam, it's the boss who usually gets picked on and dragged on stage to be humiliated in a fun way in front of other guests and your staff. This time when the Giggle Dam staff asked who was in charge, they singled out Todd our Call Centre Manager.
Have a look at what ensued when they dragged him on stage (instead of me!!)

Atta boy Todd.

If you haven't been to the Giggle Dam, it is a must party place for your staff.  Ask for my new friend Patrick von Pander, Director of Marketing & Operations at The Giggle Dam Dinner Theatre, and tell him I sent you.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!
Calvin

Christmas Pre-Party!

Check out a few videos from our Pre-Party here at Costless, before we took off later to our Christmas party.
We set up a open bar, food, prizes and played the game Minute To Win It.

I had a great time building all the challenges my self and playing MC for the event. The challenges were harder that they look on the internet, but we did have a few outstanding moments like Sandy balancing 3 golf balls in about 20 seconds and Terry blowing several of the Christmas cards perfectly while other teams had trouble getting one.

An interesting thing happened when we drew for some of the top prizes like Canuck Tickets, Front row Prince tickets, Helijet sightseeing flights and Pacific Coastal tickets. It was a random blind draw where the first place teams picked first - and the last team went last. You would think being the last team to pick - all the best prizes would be gone. BUT, when the last team came to pick and there were only 4 choices left, the top prizes were still available. What amazing odds!!

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Calvin

Christmas came early for Nabil!

Christmas came early for Nabil!

He has been working on replacing our entire computer hardware systems from top to bottom.

Our shipment arrived early - over 50 boxes in total for the project!!

I've never seen a grown man hug and kiss boxes before ;-)

We are excited to gut our system over the Christmas break and hit 2012 ready to take on more growth.

Sales growth has been 15-20% per year for several years and we really got maximum value out of our old hardware, but it's time to bite the bullet and invest in the future. I can't wait to see the faces of the staff when they see their new desk top computers with a giant 27" screen with the computer built inside.

Cheers,

Calvin

Awesome is...

Awesome is...

Christmas decorations in the office :-)

Cheers,

Calvin

Dinner with Malcolm Gladwell, how could I refuse?

Tonight was a chance to attend a very small event at the Vancouver Club with the Bon Mot Book Club.

Malcolm Gladwell poses a provocative question: Why do some people succeed,living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reachtheir full potential?

The night was a gathering of about 20 EO members and started with a cocktail reception before we moved to a beautiful room with a majestic and massive old wood table where Malcolm sat at the head of the table, silhouetted by the grand fireplace burning behind him.

The setting was very informal, and moved along with a series of Q&A style dialogue. Malcolm was generous with his answers and insight into a host of different topics. I was impressed at "hearing" how complex his mind thinks aboutwhat can seem to be trivial topics.

One topic was on overcrowding in class rooms and the effect on education. He argued teachers should be paid like any other professional based on the quality of their product, in this case how well their students learned and were engaged. "If we added more teachers and lowered the amount of children per classroom, we are only allowing more teachers who are on the bottom of thebarrel into the system. Do you want your child to be in a smaller classroom with a bad teacher or being taught by a great teacher and forget about the size of the class?"

To our amazement, Malcolm began talking about his yet-to-be-published next book. It was so interesting to hear that he has some of the ideas and chapters fleshed out, but the remainder of the book has yet to appear for him. He is living in LA and doing research and waiting for the results to appear.

If you are not familiar with Malcolm Gladwell's work - have a look here.

Steve Jobs' Biography

Whew, just finished 627 pages of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

I couldn't put it down. From how chance and strategic decicions set history for how the Macintosh was created, to Pixar, to the iPhone, to creating the most valuable company on the planet - it was all quite an amazing story. Sadly, it seems Steve Jobs possibly set other decisions in place that may have cost him his early death.

Here are some challenging questions I am working on right now based off the readitfor.me work books.

I'm loving the tools readitfor.me offers to help boil down over 600 pages of tidbits and lessons into one easy presentation. Click here to learn more.

Focus:

How many priorities are you working on right now? List them. Next, starting with the least important

priorities, start crossing them off until you only have 2 or 3 left. Are your best people (or all of your

effort) on those 2 or 3?

Ignore Reality:

What goals have you set for yourself based on “reality”? What might those goals look like if you suspended your understanding of “what’s possible”? As Jobs knew well, creativity shines when you try to do the “impossible”. Set unrealistic goals, and then try and find ways (different ways) to accomplish them. You can always fall back on the “realistic” goal if it doesn’t work out.

Inspiration:

List 5 industries besides your own where you could get inspiration from. Now, go looking for what makes people in those other industries successful. How can that apply to your business?

Experience:

Map out your entire customer experience chain. Then, on either end, map out the things your customer does right before and right after they use your product or service. Have you done everything you can to make sure that the experience (including things not currently in your control) is a great one?

This book is well worth the investment in your time.

Cheers,

Calvin

Visiting 1-800 GOT JUNK

Today I went for a tour at 1-800 GOT JUNK.

Brian Scudamore has been a member of EO for many years and, like most of Vancouver's business community, we have watched his company blossom.

Today was a peek behind the curtain on how Brian runs his business, with a chance to hear and see confidential information on sales, service and profit numbers. Even Jon Wolske, the Lead Culture Evangelist from Zappos, flew up for the tour.

The 1-800 offices were decorated in WOW fashion. I definitely going to use the "Can you imagine?" wall idea, and the Wall Of Wow.

 

 

Thanks Brian for the tour!!!

Cheers,

Calvin

Seattle

Today I'm in Seattle for an MBA style Finance course held on the edge of the University of Washington.

As an entrepreneur my strengths have been Sales and Marketing, so a goal I set for myself was to strengthen my finance background. I now have 3 companies in two countries, and the finance side gets more complex each year.

While in Seattle I wanted to visit a good friend of mine, Robin Ross, Senior Director, Corporate Marketing Costco Wholesale.

Robin was kind enough to give a tour of the Costco campus in Issaquah, Washington.

The highlight for me was swinging by the desk of Jim Sinegal, the co-founder and CEO of Costco Wholesale. A real mentor and driving force for me in how I shape my business.

Of course, I was star struck and didn't get a picture. Jim's office and style are well known in corporate America. He answers his own phone, has a no door policy and only gets paid $350k per year to run a $83 billion dollar monster of a company.

I did get a picture of Jim's favorite saying, "You've got to take the shit with the sugar"

Cheers,

Calvin

Memphis Day 4

A trip to a new city wouldn't be complete without checking out the sights.

Gotta do the best BBQ! Rendezvous BBQ!  (See in their website how it is full of FedEx pictures)

Gotta check out some of the best Blues in the world on Beale Street.

And some bars you just want to walk by...

Gotta check out the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel 

Funny story here it that our group had the very rare honor of assisting in escorting the ducks up the elevator. Our buddy Mike did the honors and for the first time in 20 years two of the ducks escaped! Watch it happen here.

YOU GOTTA check out the Civil Rights Museum.

It was truly humbling and inspiring. I went in with barely an understanding of the civil rights movement and came out a better person.

What I found incredible was a chance to stand in the Lorrane Motel on the balcony next to the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. The museum was quite empty and I found myself fixated on that spot for 10 minutes just soaking in the history.

And you gotta love the street performers with a cool version of the EcoYIKE!

And Memphis isn't complete without a visit to Graceland  and The Gibson Guitar Factory.

Cheers,

Calvin

Memphis Day 3 - FedEx WOC

Today we were given a private tour of the FedEx World Operation & Tech Centre.

Let me sum up what happens here with this cool video that showed up called "The Ant Hill"

It's all the air traffic within the FedEx fleet over a 24hr period. I like watching Memphis and Vancouver.

Here at the WOC, they showed us how all the magic really happens. Here are some highlights from the tons of info and limited notes I could reel off.

• FexEx Pilots are the only NON Unionised pilots in aviation and make multiples more than commercial pilots.
• Very soon planes will not even have a pilot!
• One of the main jobs at the center is to worry about the worst events that can happen to the company so customers can sleep easy. They constantly think about research black swan events such as 911 - they already had a plan in place years before it happened and were the last planes out of the sky and the first planes back up when the FAA shut down air travel.
• FedEx captures more data than any airline (fuel consumption, repairs).

One question I asked their VP of Marketing was about the movie Castaway, that was basically a 2 hour FedEx commercial. Can you believe it cost FedEx nothing to be in the movie! Actually they charged fees to have filming done on site.

How the story goes is that Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, and Tom Hanks were at a charity function together and chatting about Tom's new movie. The character of the movie was time obsessed in his job, and then gets stranded in the island, but they had not decided what the character's job was going to be. Fred chimed in and said there is nobody more time obsessed on the planet than a FedEx employee. The rest is history.

Here is a funny spoof commercial on the Castaway movie.

Cheers
Calvin

Memphis Day 2 - FedEx

Tonight, we were taken on a private tour of FedEx at the Memphis World Hub.

Check out what we saw in this 2 min video:

We arrived at 10pm in order to see all the action, because that's when all the packages from North America start arriving to be sorted.

The FedEx facility is like a small city, with up to 35,000 employees working in Memphis (1 in 5 homes in Memphis has a FedEx employee).

I'm sure I can only scratch the surface of what we saw on our night tour, but here goes a few highlights.

• As we entered the facility, it is part of the Memphis Airport, so thousands of employees were being screened (they kept their shoes on) just like we do when we go thru an airport. What was amazing is the main shifts started about 10pm and workers are not allowed thru security more than an hour before their shift. Imagine starting and finishing every shift at your company that way?
• How FedEx works is all packages picked up that day in North America are shipped to a hub like Memphis where the planes are unloaded, the packages resorted to their new destinations and loaded back on the new plane bound for delivery. All this is accomplished overnight in 4-5 hours while sorting over 800,000-2.5 million packages.
• We were taken to a air control tower to watch planes landing. Off in the night sky, you could see a dozen or more lights in the sky as planes approached at a rate of one landing every 90 seconds!
• We toured inside their small package sorting facilities where over 42 miles of conveyor belts directed packages at incredible speed.
• Errors on 800,000 packages sorted are said to be on average 12 ERRORS per day!

Here is a 7 minute video showing the building and the complete HOW TO of FedEx.

Cheers,

Calvin

Memphis Day 1: Sun Records

This week I'm in Memphis with my EO Forum Group to tour FED EX. It's a yearly adventure to visit new cities and tour the world's best companies.

Last year was Cisco Systems. See my  VIP Tour of Cisco Systems on October 13th, 2010.

Memphis Day 1 - was a private reception at Sun Records, the label where Elvis, Conway and Johnny Cash all got their start. It was beyond words to be in what many call the "Birth Place" of Rock and Roll.

For me it was extra special, I think, because it was an audio engineering degree that I was taking in college before I left to start my first company.

What amazed me most was that the studio actually sat empty for over 20 years before it was brought back to life as a museum and working studio. Imagine how this jewel of history could have easily been turned into a Subway sandwich shop, but some how was never rented out as retail space during those dark years.

Just over 20 years ago, U2 came to Sun Studio to record "Angel of Harlem", "When Love Comes To Town" and "Love Rescue Me" for their Rattle and Hum album. Bono says they came to Sun Studio to experience "the chill" you get from the room's history. To add some additional chill to the experience, the band enlisted "Cowboy" Jack Clement to co-produce the tracks. Clement had produced tracks by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins in the early days at Sun Studio. The session allowed U2 to add their own magic to our history as Angel of Harlem became one of the biggest selling singles recorded here at Sun Studio.

At the studio they even had some of the original microphones used by such greats as Elvis and Jerry Lee.

Here's a bit more about this great music location.

The Sun Sound began when Sam Phillips launched his record company in February of 1952. He named it Sun Records as a sign of his perpetual optimism: a new day and a new beginning. Sam rented a small space at 706 Union Avenue for his own all-purpose studio. The label was launched amid a growing number of independent labels. In a short while Sun gained the reputation throughout Memphis as a label that treated local artists with respect and honesty. Sam provided a non-critical, spontaneous environment that invited creativity and vision.

As a businessman, Phillips was patient and willing to listen to almost anyone who came in off the street to record. Memphis was a happy home to a diverse musical scene: gospel, blues, hillbilly, country, boogie, and western swing. Taking advantage of this range of talent, there were no style limitations at the label. In one form or another Sun recorded them all.
Then in 1954 Sam found Elvis Presley, an artist who could perform with the excitement, unpredictability and energy of a blues artist but could reach across regional, musical and racial barriers.

Movember!

It's MOvember time again.

Calvin

Shawn

Gord

This year at Costless Express the ladies got involved.

Sandy



Brynn

Hailey

 

 

"Hey, I heard your radio ad"

We just launched a month of radio advertising here in Vancouver. Let me know what you think of the ads.

Chime in on our Facebook page and tell me your favorite from these two (or any other comments).

Our goal is to let customers know how easy it can be to order all your office and breakroom supplies from one site, and save the stress and aggravation of running out or "running out".

Cheers,
Calvin

Verne Harnish

Yesterday Nabil, Shawn and I were in Victoria to meet one of my business heroes, Verne Harnish. 

Verne is one of the founders of EO - a global network of 8000 business owners in 38 countries. I've been a member for 11 years and this is the first time I've been able to see Verne live.

The three of us spent a few days in Victoria on other business, and a full day with Verne courtesy of my friends in the EO Victoria chapter. We have used many of Verne's ideas over the years and read his books, so it was great to see him in action and to expose my two top VP's at the same time.

The day was a fire hose of ideas, concepts, best case stories, lots of book recommendations and exercises. With over 100 entrepreneurs and top level people in the room, ideas were flowing fast. A highlight for me was addressing the room about how we offer free breakfast, lunch and dinner to our staff - something Verne picked up in an earlier conversation we were having together and called me out to share the success we have had with the added benefit.

Last night we came in late from Victoria and I am in Richmond this morning to see Verne - again.



Nurse Next Door



I was given a special invite by my uber successful friends Ken Sim and John DeHeart, the founders of Nurse Next Door, to sit in on their Franchise Summit today. Our warehouse, purchasing and call center managers came with me so they too could be exposed to the ideas and concepts Verne teaches. Within the last 48 hours we have aligned our management team to row in unison. Something you can never be doing enough of in business.