John Saddington - Entrepreneur

The Ultimate Danger of a Bad WordPress Theme

December 6, 2012 — 27 Comments

Ouch.

The above graph really does show it all (click for larger view).

I have often shared here that one of your greatest assets as an entrepreneur and starter is to experiment – never stop experimenting and evolving as an individual for your own personal growth as well as your business.

Of course, this goes for your blog as well and I continue to experiment wildly on a number of stealth blog projects (as I like to call them) – even with things as drastic as changing the core WordPress Theme that is being used.

Well, I set out to do just that with one of my blog projects and like most of my experiments I set a time-limit which is most typically a full 30 days to see if the change is working as intended.

Well, I sometimes have to break that rule when the results are so obvious that it’s painful to watch as the graph above clearly shows. What I did was I switched WordPress Themes and instantly saw a drop of traffic – it was so dramatic that I wrestled with abandoning the experiment altogether within the first 48 hours, something I rarely do.

Typically switching a WordPress Theme won’t see much movement at all in terms of traffic, both up or down – but this time it was incredible shift in the wrong direction.

In WordPress Themes

Great Startups Capitalize on Already-Existing Markets

December 5, 2012 — 13 Comments

My wife picks this up off the front porch and walks inside with a scowl on her face:

John, what is this?! Another game?!

Caught completely off-guard I prepare myself quickly to provide some sort of explanation – but I simply don’t remember buying any video game lately (besides iPhone 5 apps… … …).

I stare at what she’s got in her hand, blink a few times, and then look at her:

Sweety, that can’t possibly be mine – I didn’t order that!

She hands it to me and I look it over – yup, it’s addressed to me and everything. I rip it open and find this inside:

In Startups

The Internet is a Time Suck – Don’t Get Caught

December 4, 2012 — 6 Comments

Isn’t this image so true? Haven’t you experienced this to a certain extent? We all have goals, short-term, long-term and many right in between and yet there are even more distractions that we either manage or that completely manage us.

The internet is a double-edged sword providing endless opportunity for those that are interested in pursuing a vocation upon this incredibly powerful platform as well as an eternal distraction for those less wary.

And when endless opportunity meets endless entertainment you have a strange concoction for either dramatic productivity or wild amounts of waste.

In Tips

austin-presbyterian-theological-seminary-coffee-mug

My father put the final pieces of his ordination process in place this past week – it was actually the main reason we traveled to Austin, TX in the first place.

Thanksgiving and my mother’s birthday were naturally close by so we stayed for those (which are important too!) but my father’s ordination service and celebration was the primary reason that all four of my siblings and I congregated in the same physical location for at least 24 hours. This, feat, in and of itself, was a large challenge as well!

My father is now officially ordained as a Chaplin via the PCUSA after having finished his Masters of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and will serve at Hospice Austin where he will do some of his most significant life work.

He’s already been doing great work there for the last year or so as a part of the program he’s “official” now and can move to a more part-time role – although there’s really nothing “part-time” to being a chaplin in hospice care, the stories are incredible and the time required is more than intense.

Posted on December 4, 2012 In Coaching

9 Comments

You and I are more dispensable than we believe – the past few weeks (and a mentor of mine) have clearly reminded me of this very important perspective. You see, we can easily deceive ourselves and believe that we are of greater importance and an uncompromisable asset to those that we believe need us.

This is far from the truth and our own perception of value that we bring to our projects, organizations, and the systems that we are a part of can simply replace us – we don’t often want to encounter or admit this reality. It’s not that we are valueless or not important – it’s that we simply forget that we are here and gone and that life does in fact move forward with or without us.

Posted on December 2, 2012 In Coaching

2 Comments

Decorating Christmas trees my daughter stumbled upon an ornament that I created for my parents back in 1989. @Roenne, so pleased with herself, showed me and told me that I looked so young.

That was nice.

As I stare in to the face of someone more than 2 decades younger I am compelled to tell him something, anything, that would spare him heartache and regret – at the same time I know that I wouldn’t be who I am without those experiences and that they were invaluable to me.

Posted on December 1, 2012 In Community

Migrating My Father to a Mac

November 30, 2012 — 14 Comments

A few of the essentials to make it happen.

One of my life goals is to fully move my entire extended family to Apple-powered products. The chief motivation? That’s easy: For my own benefit.

I am the IT support technician for my family of 7 and since I do all the work of keeping their systems up and running, updated, and bug-free, it is in my best interest that I’m able to have a homogeneous environment instead of a heterogeneous.

This past week I had the time to make the most significant switch that would signal the beginning of the end for a Windows-dominated era – my dad.

My father had been in corporate america for nearly 4 decades using Windows-based software for all of it. The challenge that I faced was on multiple fronts, migrating GBs of data as well as the largest Outlook PST/OST file in the history of mankind – without losing a single byte of data.

Beyond the simple user experience challenges I had to recreate the environment on my father’s dated Windows machine on a 3rd generation Macbook Air that I picked up earlier this week. I also had complicated scripts that I had created specifically for him that would systematically backup his data to various media including cloud-based solutions.

I hoped that I could somewhat recreate my own killer home backup solution so as to make as much of the process “just work.” Continue Reading…

In Tools

Coaching, When They Are Ready

November 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

I spent a little time doing some professional coaching for a few individuals while here in Austin and it dawned on me that it is very rare indeed to have much success when a coach approaches someone who needs coaching and tells them that they need it.

The right attitude and perspective is desperately needed on the side of the coachee (one being coached) to come to a place where they accept the reality that they can’t do it all by themselves and that the best answers do not always necessarily lie within their own formulations.

Two examples popped up in the last few weeks which highlight this important difference:

In Coaching

How to Solo Onyxia as a Rogue – MOP 5.1

November 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

I also managed to solo Onyxia after my Razorgore attempt. Heck, I got my Bloodfang Mask which is the same model as the Bloodfang Hood to complete my 8/8 Bloodfang Armor Set – just need the chestpiece and the best Rogue set in the game will be complete.

In Gaming

How to Solo Razorgore as a Rogue – MOP 5.1

November 28, 2012 — 1 Comment

The above video may seem a bit out of place here on this blog but as my About Page says on #8 I really do enjoy video games and play them when I can find the time – I don’t often have the time and I certainly don’t have the time to blog about it.

But, with my recovery time from a major illness here in Austin which requires a lot of downtime I’ve found a bit of time to do a few different things. Reading books, catching up on news, and things that require very little travel. In fact, I’ve been literally bedridden having time for very little else than some light gaming, email, and watching random Youtube videos via my iPad Mini, which I have come to absolutely adore – it is the best iPad yet and the past two weeks have proven that it works well with my small asian hands.

Anyways, as many of you know I love to help people out and educate them on the things that I know about – this blog’s purpose is essentially about education. This week a recent patch update to one of my favorite games of all time, World of Warcraft, was released (Mists of Pandaria 5.1) and some of the patch notes mentioned the ability to down “old world” end-game bosses a bit easier by yourself.

Heck, why not give it a try and video record my efforts?

In Gaming