Episode #5 - What NOT To Do in Business (a Lesson From Best Buy), What TO Do (a Lesson From NCL Cruise Line), a Handy Plugin for Outlook, and How to Get Video on Your Website.
May 21, 2008New to this website? View Episode #1 to bring you up to speed (we don't want you to miss out). Oh, and don't forget to sign up for show updates (top right corner of this page)
Episode #5 - I share some really useful marketing lessons from NCL cruise line, a lesson in what NOT to do from Best Buy (see if you can relate to that one), how to get video on your website, and a nifty new plugin for Outlook with a really odd name of Xobni.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
www.xobni.com (spell it backwarrds…ah, now you get the name don’t you?!)
www.mercola.com (the #1 natural health website in the world).
www.easyflashvideo.com (Superb video player with very cool features)
May 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Love the show and the tips, Andrew. Great job.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:02 am
Andrew
Great stuff again as always Andrew, Xobni installing as I type, sounds very “nifty”.
Maybe you need to run a seminar/workshop on an NCL cruise for a few days, bit different!
Mason
May 21st, 2008 at 5:44 am
A pleasant and educational break from working….
Cheers Andrew
Right lets go look at Xobni
lol
Warm Regards
Randy Smith
http://www.SalesLetterABC.com
May 21st, 2008 at 5:52 am
About Best Buy–In my experience the workers there don’t know much about what they’re selling.
If you ask a question more complicated than “how do you turn it on?” you get blank stares.
I usually do my own research and buy from the net.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:52 am
Great show…thanks for letting me know that I’m not the only one who has issues with “BB”.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:56 am
Great show. Love the set and music. Can you show us how you do this. Green-screen, software and music? Behind the scene look.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:59 am
Hi Andrew,
Many thanks for another FABULOUS and inspiring video.
I can not believe that you actually went to Be….I mean Mest Buy. Why oh why did you not shop on-line?
I actually found you through Mercola’s business newsletter.
Keep it up, and thanks once again for great content!
Lisa
May 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
I don’t know what I would do without amazon prime, but I know how it is to want to get something TODAY instead of waiting for the item to ship.
Traditional brick and mortar stores are DRIVING people to shop more online. Might as well go online to research, check other’s reviews of the product and then click the button and the item is coming. Beats hearing Duane say, “…welcome..to Mest Buys…” and starring blankly as you ask him any question other then, “so, you name is Duane then, eh?”.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:23 am
Thanks for the http://www.xobni.com tool, I as about to dump Outlook for Gmail, but now I’m not going too!
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
SO glad John Jonas recommended you! I was ‘thrilled’ (kinda inside-out, lol) to view your Mest Buy experience. I’ve been in the PC and Net technologies since 1989!! And I’m here to say, it has been over one decade since I’ve darkened the door of Mest… or Circuitous City (they have you running circles), or ANY of the like. The Net offers the best way to research and to buy. Even then you must be careful. I’ve brought it down to a small handful of places that I trust, TRUST! And although sometimes it is a tiny bit more costly, it is well worth it. Not to mention, with the current gas costs… why drive to Mest, etc, just to be basically insulted? Give me Amazon, give me direct line to … DELL! Or Canon, or whatever. And always start with an engine search, using as many keywords as you can… it narrows down to the exact object you are looking for.
Well, again, I am glad to have landed here, and am signing up… right now!
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Andrew, I’m getting to the point where I actually look forward to these videos each week. Short, fun, highly informative. Thanks!
Re: next week’s bit about information overload, I have a new song about that: “Analog Brain In A Digital World.” You can watch it here: http://gregtamblyn.com/videos.html
Or listen to it here:
http://www.broadjam.com/gregtamblyn
onward,
Greg
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
You think you’ve got problems in the states? Try living in Spain, even the online shopping is completely crap. I use a French website instead…
May 26th, 2008 at 12:45 am
A very warm welcome to the new viewers, thank you for joining us.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Nice Show. I just bought a digital video camera at “Mest Buy” and had the complete opposite experience. I went there because more often than not I can find a salesperson that is well trained. The salesman help me quickly sort through the many choices to save me lots of time and money. The check out was done right in the video cam department. I can, however, very much appreciate your painful experience. Many stores do make the experience difficult and painful.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:11 am
John,
I’m so glad you had a positive experience. In all fairness, you’re absolutely right that sometimes you can find staff members who are passionate about helping, know what they’re talking about, and give good advice. If only that was the case with the majority, rather than the minority…
Regards
Andrew
May 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
My product has a unique edge. My CD teaches money management skills to teenagers, and I’m 16 years old. I figure if I can do it, I can teach what I’ve learned to other teenagers and then they can do it too.
Check me out at http://www.moneymanagementrevealed.com
Thanks!
Chris
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
thanks for getting out the word about another video service other than youtube
July 11th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I can’t imagine anyone that is online GOING offline to buy. Retail stores stopped SERVING customers over a decade ago. These are just lame bodies collecting paychecks while they talk on their cell phones. If I need something, I let my fingers do the walking.
I tried NCL’s “free-style” and unfortunately we went with a Group of fellow cruisers and we all rated it poorly. When you go with a group you tend to want to stay together…eat, etc. and NCL doesn’t accomodate that. Also, what’s with NO juices on NCL? Couldn’t get orange juice except for breakfast (and we almost always miss that because we aren’t going to rise EARLY when we are supposedly on vacation. They didn’t carry apple juice and since I’m not a cola person or alchohol ALL day, I was always stuck drinking water and of course at Premium prices…even water wasn’t FREE? Sorry, you can see I’m no Fan of the freestyle cruise and wouldn’t do it again and will sway any of my frineds to stay away, too.
I guess to each their own. Freestyling might have been a marketing ploy by NCL but they don’t focus on providing the REAL service you expect on a cruise. I hope other Cruise lines don’t follow their lead or we won’t cruise at all.
July 12th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Cheryl: Thanks for your comments. I was interested to hear about your experience with NCL. It’s true that it’s been either just the two of us, or 4 in our group at the most, but I’ve observed lots of groups on NCL cruises in the past. Which ship did you go on out of interest? I suspect that might have something to do with it. Re the juice, I’ve never had trouble getting juice after breakfast, and even breakfast has been open until 11am on the ships we’ve been on - we’re definitely not early risers! I’m also interested in what other lines you’re comparing NCL with. We’ve tried Royal Carribbean, and Carnival and NCL is light years ahead in our opinion. But as you say, different people have different needs, wants and desires. I don’t think freestyle is a marketing ploy, I think it’s a deliberate decision to offer what a segment of the market has been asking for, for a long time, based on feedback on board.