In total, there were about 11 people there, including the focus of one of John’s recent posts, Tim Sykes. In a nutshell, Tim’s story is that, as a teenager, he managed to turn his $12,000 of Bar Mitzvah gift money into $1.65 million dollars by shorting stocks. He’s in town for a seminar, and I guess John convinced him to come out to Dot Com Pho as well.

I really enjoyed the 2 hours we spent at the restaurant, casually chatting about politics (both Canadian and American), blogging, and any other topic that sprang to mind. But most of all, I appreciated meeting so many new contacts in the Vancouver-area that are interested in blogging, blogging for money, and making money online through a variety of mediums. Of course, meeting John Chow, Internet Blogging Celebrity, was definitely a bonus.

Actually, no, the real bonus was walking away with some Dot Com Pho schwag. Courtesy of Market Leverage, I received an “I’m blogging this” t-shirt, and from Tim (or John, maybe) I got a signed copy of Tim Sykes’ new book An American Hedge Fund, which details “How [He] Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.”

I am looking for books, eBooks, or websites.

If you know of any good ones, please let me know! Revenue from my websites is getting to the point where I’d better cover my bases before the Gov’t comes after me.  : )

I’m only a couple chapters into Blue Ocean Strategy, so I don’t have the familiarity with the book yet to describe in detail what it’s about. But, the tagline on the book cover does give some insight into what is discussed in the book. It reads: ”How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant.”

One interesting company highlighted in the book is Casella Wines, makers of the [yellow tail] wine brand. The book describes how Casella Wines found uncontested market space by focusing on three areas that traditional wine companies couldn’t. By creating wines that were easy to drink, easy to select in-store, and that were fun and adventurous to drink, Casella Wines could distinguish its [yellow tail] brand from other wines, both luxury and budget, and actually create a new wine market appealing to existing wine drinkers as well as ready-to-drink cocktail and beer drinkers.

I found this Blue Ocean example to be especially interesting because I drink [yellow tail] wine. Looking back to when I first started to drink wine, I realize that I was a perfect match for the market that Casella Wines was targetting. I was largely a beer and liquor drinker that wanted to drink wine for it’s added sophistication factor, but found it a difficult transition to make due to the more “refined” taste of wine. At the same time, I recall my attempts to purchase wine at the nearby liquor store to be frought with confusion and embarassment, as there were so many kinds of wine and brands available.

For some reason, I gravitated to [yellow tail], and specifically the [yellow tail] shiraz. I guess the “look” of the bottle agreed with me. The label was bright and simple and I sensed that the wine was targetted at a younger audience like myself, as the bottle was missing the stuffiness that I sensed more experienced wine drinkers expected.

I also enjoyed the taste of the wine compared to other red wines that I had sampled during those first few months. I could actually take a large sip without wincing afterwards. And even better, I drank a second glass, not because I wanted to force myself to get used to the taste, but because I enjoyed the taste. I had found my perfect wine.

Shortly thereafter, I actually felt the buzz around [yellow tail] pick up. Acquaintences would mention [yellow tail] in casual conversation, TV shows like The Shopping Bags would recommend the wine, and all the while I felt that I was a trend-setter because I was drinking the wine before all of this buzz began. But, after reading about Casella Wines in Blue Ocean Strategy, I realize that I was just one of the early conversion successes of a great marketting move by Casella Wines rather than a trend-setter.

Although I’m finding Blue Ocean Strategy to be pretty dry read at this point of the book, I’m forcing myself to continue trucking along. That said, the tidbit about Casella Wines has definitely raised my interest in the book and the topic of Blue Oceans as I now have a personal experience with one example of a successful Blue Ocean product, the [yellow tail] brand.

For that reason, I’m renaming my blog from “Rory on Rails” to simply, “Rory Hansen”, as I don’t foresee myself writing about Rails anytime in the near future. Who knows– maybe somewhere down the line, I’ll regain interest in RoR, but right now, my mind and my time are focused elsewhere.

At work, I program almost exclusively in ASP.NET and C#. For the type of development I do, ASP.NET is fine. I appreciate the power of the framework and, given my experience with it now, I can get new webapps up and running quickly and easily. Do I like ASP.NET? Actually, yes I do.

Outside of work, I’m constantly trying to better myself through learning new skills and improving existing abilities. As my buddy Jeff would say, I’m just trying to ”raise my NPV.” Whether it be by reading great business books like Blue Ocean Strategy or Good To Great, or by practicing my networking skills at various conferences around town, I’m consciously trying to improve myself, thus raising my “market value,” so that when I’m ready to find a great new job somewhere, I’ve positioned myself as best as I can to actually get that job.

So, with all of that said, future posts on my blog will be about many of my current interests, such as learning how to play the acoustic guitar, improving my communication and networking skills, making change happen in business, and futher developing my leadership abilities.

Stay tuned!

Rory