About once a year I like to revisit my life goals.   What are life goals? They are what Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) likes to call your “BHAG” – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. They are your “shoot for the stars” goals. They are not easily achievable.   I started doing this about 3 years ago when I started Astonish Results. There are several components to my goals. I break them down into the following categories: professional, personal, relational and spiritual.   An amazing thing happens when you force yourself to set BHAGs.  It makes you think about what you REALLY want in life. I get motivated by the mere act of thinking about what I Read more [...]

I recently read a case study on Esurance’s ebusiness strategy. There were many points which confirmed what we know to be true at Astonish Results. Independent insurance agencies MUST refine and develop their own ebusiness strategy if they don't want to be left in the dust.   Here are just a couple “take-aways” from the case study. BTW, before I get into that, see the graph to the left that shows the share of online quotes. Esurance has 14% of the total.   Defined Customer Experience Process   Esurance analyzes the entire customer experience, from the point someone calls or visits their website to the time they decide to buy. They not only analyze, Read more [...]

I think it’s important for any business person to have a basic understand of economics. In light of the recent talk of unemployment, inflation (or deflation) and government bailouts I realized how much I didn’t know. So lately, I’ve been trying to educate myself. I don’t want to be caught off-guard and not really understand what going on around me.   The other day I picked up a book on the subject called “Animal Spirits” by Akerlof and Shiller. The book seeks to describe how what they call “animal spirits” contribute to the performance of the macroeconomy. The first half of the book is devoted to defining these animal spirits and the second Read more [...]

I’m reading another great book called “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. I've linked to his blog here. The book describes how businesses have changed with the advent of new technology. This technology gives customers access to the things they really want as opposed to what makes sense for large retailers like Walmart to carry.   Anderson uses the example of Netflix and Amazon. These companies aren’t constrained to only carry titles that are the most popular since there is no brick and mortar overhead. Instead, they can carry literally hundreds of thousands of titles. Even though the consumer may only purchase 100-200 of these “less popular” titles, the Read more [...]

Astonish Results was featured in the July 2009 issue of Rough Notes, an insurance industry publication. The article highlighted a few of our customers, Paul Murphy and Steve Lewis to name a few. It was great to see an outside publication acknowledge what we're doing in the insurance space and how we're helping so many agencies. You can check out the article by going here. Rough Notes changes the online version of the magazine each month. Read more [...]

I’m still reading Mark Sanborn’s book, “The Encore Effect”. In it, he lays out some great concepts on achieving incredible performances in our lives. I was struck by one of his simple concepts, practicing.   Sanborn made the point that athletes and musicians have a regular practice routine so why shouldn’t we? Here are five strategies for effective practice that can be applied to any environment.   •(1) Make time to practice – This is similar to Steven Covey’s time management matrix in “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. We need to set time aside for those tasks that may not seem urgent, but are very important. Practicing Read more [...]

I’ve recently got back from a vacation at Walt Disney World. I’m always amazed at the Disney brand. This time I kept my eyes out for areas where Disney presented it’s brand or marketed itself in a way that amazed me. Here’s what I found...   Characters – People will wait in line (I was one of them) for up to an hour just to take a picture with a Disney character. The chief among them, Mickey Mouse, even though we ALL know it’s just a person dressed up in a costume. Now THAT’s a brand!   Pins – If you’ve been to Disney you’ve seen them. “Cast Members” (those are folks who work for Disney) wear pins and you can buy Read more [...]