On July 24, 2015, 6 extreme athletes embarked on a first attempted traverse from Zig Zag to the Columbia Gorge. By first attempt, we mean it was the groups first attempt. After drop off at Lolo Pass road, we took the Pacific Crest Trail eventually meeting up with the Eagle Creek trail and out to the Fish Hatchery. Approximately 28 miles in total.
In May 2014, Nate, a GAC founding member called and said he had an extra entry for the Stumptown 50k in two weeks. We periodically challenge each other to mild-extreme adventures so it was of course, on. The rules are simple, no training (we don’t want to risk injury before the event), don’t be last (we are competitive) and you have to finish. Some of us ran a couple 3 mile training runs beforehand, but didn’t feel like that was cheating.
Nate, who is a firefighter, is somewhat fit for work, but not a runner. He picked up some new Nike’s the night before and spotted some compression socks so grabbed those as well. I googled ultra runners and found some ideas on foot care. I made a quick trip to Rite Aid and picked up some Tincture of Benzoin, bandaids and athletic tape. Following various Youtube video’s, we taped our toes, slid on toe socks, our shoes and were off to the start.
6 hours and some minutes later we crossed the finish line, not last.
Adventure team explored Croatia and the islands Summer 2018.
Itinerary:
December 2018 expedition to Tokyo and Nozawa Japan with my 8 year old adventurer.
Itinerary:
We weren’t sure what to expect from Bulgaria. It exceeded our expectations.
The itinerary:
Bankso is a ski region about 90 minutes drive from Sofia. After a condo and resort boom, many projects ran out of funding. Many of the projects are concrete shells. We stopped at the Rila monastery on the way.
Rila
Bansko
Gella Village
One of the reason SaaS business are so effective is they are driven by data, systems and continuous improvement. Post-decision interviews are one of the most critical SaaS systems of input and improvement for any company.
Win/loss analysis is one of the most cost-effective ways of generating insights and validating initiatives needed to increase effectiveness and grow revenue. It’s a rapid way to gather data and identify insights that improve outcomes. For prospects, perception is reality when it comes to buying behavior, they buy what they believe to be true. This makes collecting and acting on this information so critical to success.
Bottom line is it provides vital, accurate information that informs how to spend limited resources to maximize impact.
I suggest start by doing these in house to have direct access to the data vs. a 3rd party where it’s one step removed. At some point as you scale it may make sense to outsource this to an expert. Just getting the process started is most important so keep it as simple as possible. This might mean having a small group of people conduct the interviews where the quality controls can be higher – or alternatively it could be “crowdsourced” across more people and used to better connect executives and front line managers that don’t have the opportunity to hear directly from customers. Each have advantages and disadvantages. Hearing directly from a prospect why we win or lose can be a powerful motivator.
Next we need to select the questions. I suggest defining the data that is most opaque or controversial and defining a set of questions that can help answer. While scripted, interviews take a life of their own and some may be cut short with one word answers where others we won’t be able to get off the phone. The key is having a repeatable guide and qualitative and quantitative answers. Here are some example questions we can consider:
i suggest scheduling these immediately post close won or close lost with a goal of completing within 2 weeks. It’s important to attempt via a phone conversation instead of a written survey. After the interview the interviewer can send a written thank you note. You might consider the post-decision interview a component of the sales process and add to workflow so close opportunities are closed after this step is completed. The workflow and reporting can be automated using your CRM so it’s easy to view a list of opportunities “ready for post-decision calls” and ones that are completed.
Performing a periodic or ad-hoc win/loss investigation might be interesting, but it provides no indication of improvement or degradation of performance. It’s important that this is integrated into your company’s “operating system” so trends, themes and improvements can be tracked over time. Use a combination of open and metric-based interview questions. What a prospect shares after a decision is often steeped in emotion. As a result, it is easier to secure a scale of how they feel about a subject than try and summarize a free-form conversation about the sale. You can also capture the free-form contextual comments which are just as valuable.
The data from each interview is compared against a running set of metrics, themes and action items. Decide the frequency of review – quarterly, monthly or weekly. At the review, use the findings to update your strategic goals and action plans with any new insights – or create new action plans for new issues.
Note: If you do not budget time for taking action on the data – don’t waste time collecting it.
Here are some ideas of a Post-Decisions analysis and action plan review. The format can be refined over time but key is to automate the data collection where possible and use a presentation template consistently over time for faster review and understanding. It’s an easy trap to change the format each time to fit the data and end up confusing the audience.
Purpose: To ensure that we are taking action on the highest value initiatives that will accelerate our sales process and grow revenue.
We’d seen photos of the beautiful scenery. We’d heard stories from our friends that we must visit. So on one of our trips back to Haarlem, our home away from home, we went to Iceland. Along with 3 million other tourists!
We took advantage of Icelandair’s stopover program which allowed us to stay in Iceland for a few days while traveling to Europe. We flew from Portland, Oregon to Reykjavik on 19 July. We had our usual seats in the back of the plane, not together. The airline staff said there was nothing they could do. We understood the difficulty when someone purchases five tickets with the same last name and enters their ages, birth dates, passport numbers, scans in birth certificates, provides DNA samples to know these passengers are related, might be young children and may want to sit together. We arrived at the airport early to see if we could arrange to sit together. The friendly on the inside, stone faced on the outside agent suggested perhaps we could negotiate with other travelers once we’re on board. Check-in was efficient and security lines were non-existent. Icelandair doesn’t participate in TSA pre-check so we couldn’t skip the security line. But we had plenty of time as we followed TSA recommendation to arrive 8 hours before our flight.
Icelandair flies older 757 planes that are nicely updated inside. The 757 is essentially a stretched out 737 with 3×3 seating. Each seat has it’s own video monitor with a selection of movies, TV shows, music and games. We’ve found unlimited screen time plus a pound of candy keeps the kids from wrestling each other on the plane. Actually the kids become great mini-travelers. We did indeed successfully negotiate a few sweat swaps so husband and wife could sit together. We’re not sure if the kids found a way to sit together but we did reconnect when we arrived at Keflavik airport. We’d read reviews of the airport unable to handle the increase in travelers, not having any place to sit and general chaos. We found it clean, easy to navigate with great food. It felt a lot like PDX and we give it high marks. In fact, it’s one of our favorite airports. Our oldest keeps asking to back to Iceland so he can get the avocado pesto sandwich from Joe & the Juice.
We left 90 degree weather in Southern Oregon for 80 degree weather in Portland and landed in 40 degree, rain in Reykjavik with rain forecast for the next 100 days.
We cleared passport control with no line and grabbed our bags, bought 2 bottles of wine at duty free. We have no idea what duty is. We’ve never paid duty as far as we know. We’ve never seen anyone buy something in a duty-free shop. But someone had told us to buy wine in the airport so we did. We were out waiting for the shuttle to the rental car agency in less than 20 minutes from touch down. Impressive. It was 6am and had the whole day to explore. We had rented our car through an online broker that contracted with a local company. This turned out to be a mistake, but I’ll cover that later. In the future, we will stick with a major brand when traveling to Iceland to not hassle with the “damage” scheme. We found driving easy and the roads were in great shape.
We drove straight to the Blue Lagoon which is about 20 minutes from the airport. We suggest you skip it. It’s hard to skip it because everyone says you must go. We didn’t want to miss out. You won’t want to miss out. We bought the “comfort” package. For $100pp we got to walk in waist deep hot-water discharged from the geothermal energy plant. Our “comfort” upgrade meant we received a towel – but if we wanted a robe, we’d need upgrade even more. The experience was nice – just not something we’d do again.
Everyone had told us Iceland was shockingly expensive. We were still shocked. We had arrived at the Blue Lagoon early. They let you in up to 30 minutes before your reservation. We arrived 90 minutes early so went to the cafe for breakfast. We had a coffee and a couple yogurt smoothies for $45 USD. We usually don’t fixate on the price of things but here we are, fixated on the price.
We rented a house in Reykjavik near downtown through AirBnB. It was a cute house. It had a small driveway with off street parking. Heating and hot water are geothermal so you have unlimited hot showers. The downside of long showers is the water smells like eggs. Dad had selected the house as it advertised a big back yard with trampoline and half-pipe. While technically it had these amenities, the back yard looked like a homeless camp with broken glass, wood piled up and overgrown grass. It wasn’t a big deal though as we had places to go and things to see and didn’t plan to spend much time at the house.
We walked around town and the kids quickly identified their favorite spot of the entire town, Freddi Retro Arcade. While the kids played Ms. Pac Man and Donkey Kong, Mom and Dad were able to check out the shops and more of the downtown area. It’s a nice small town that is quite walkable. In July, the sun sets at midnight and rises at 3am so one has plenty of daylight. It was clear that Iceland was on the destination map now. The crowds of tourists downtown were speaking English. There might have been more tourists from Portland than locals when we were there.
That night we went out to dinner as we hadn’t made it to the grocery store. Remember that everyone warned us Iceland is expensive so we were ready. We found a cute sushi restaurant and looked at the menu. They offered kids sushi rolls for 2,500 ISK. We googled the exchange rate, did a quick calculation and figured $2.50 isn’t bad for a kids sushi roll. We ordered 5 rolls, I had a beer. When we got the check, we pulled out the calculator to confirm the math we did in our head. It turns out we were off by a factor of 10 and our sushi dinner came to $274 USD. Everyone had told us to be prepared, but we were really shocked. We will stop talking about prices now.
Jet lag hit us hard this trip. We were all on different schedules with one of us waking up at 2am and others sleeping until noon. I think that was one factor why this trip wasn’t tops overall. We spent our day roaming town in a daze seeing the sights.
We visited the church and took the elevator to the top. Outside is a statue of Leif Erickson. Named after a running trail in Portland, Oregon, he and a bunch of others apparently beat Columbus to America. Iceland seems to believe in alternative facts.
The next day, we eventually got everyone out of bed around noon to do some exploring on the famed Golden Circle. Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park. We thought it was quite nice and are certain many important things must have happened there. It’s just when the kids are screaming at each other and refusing to walk so we must drag them along in the dirt, it’s a bit difficult to enjoy the scenery. The kids are usually stellar travelers so we gave them a pass and chalked it up to the jet lag and the IV bag of sugar on the plane ride over. We hiked through the park and then made a quick exit. It was quite serene.
From there it was geyser time. With ice cream bars and promises of massive volcanic eruptions the kids moods improved slightly. We walked along the path of several geysers appreciating the ability to stand directly under the geyser and test if the water stayed scalding hot after the eruption. This gave Mom an opportunity to discuss different safety standards in various countries.
Recognizing that hours in a car on a windy road wasn’t improving the children’s moods, we turned back toward town and spent a low key evening back at the house.
Dad had been doing some reading and found there was a playground made from recycled materials in the 70’s a couple hours away. This seemed like just the adventure we needed and since Dad was wide awake at 4am, he woke everyone else up and we headed out of town. We drove deep into western Iceland. The highlight of the drive was the Hvalfjörður Tunnel which reaches a depth of 541 feet below sea level. It was eerie being the only car in a 3 mile long tunnel under the ocean. The scenery is stark, desolate and beautiful in Iceland and often it felt like we were the only ones on the road although that might have been because it was Saturday morning at 5am.
Eventually we found the playground. It wasn’t quite as cool as Dad hoped but we did spend a few minutes playing on the equipment before heading to the public swimming pool we spotted on the way in.
It turned out that our favorite part of Iceland and where we spent most of our time was the geothermal swimming pools that also function as the community center and social gathering spot in each town. The water was warm and most had water slides and we could spend hours going down the slides while Mom and Dad relaxed. We visited six different pools around the country.
We spent a few days touring the swimming pools of Iceland. There are rules to visiting a pool. You must strip, shower with soap, then put your suit on in the wet area of the changing room and then walk out to the pool. Most pools are outside with a variety of hot tubs. Signs state the water temperature of each tub. And then there is a cold plunge pool. This is typically a small wooden box or metal trough of -100 degree water. The locals sit calmly in the freezing water and then go swim a few laps. We dipped a toe in but it froze solid. We would do endless laps on the water slides while mom and dad sat in the hot tubs. Iceland’s swimming pools are highly recommended and kid approved.
One evening we stayed until the pool closed at 10pm. We were starving. We had noticed that unless you were downtown, most shops and restaurants closed by 9pm. The only place we could find open was a KFC. We hadn’t been to a KFC for 10 years and not much has changed. We ordered the family bucket of chicken. It was $87 USD.
On our last day, we drove to South Iceland and the Westman Islands. We had discovered a bakery that makes fresh cinnamon rolls (Braud & Co) so we stocked up and headed out of town. This turned out to be our favorite part of Iceland and highly recommend it as a day trip. The ferry ride was about an hour. When we docked, we hopped off the boat and walked directly across the street to Ribsafari. We stashed our backpack in their office and changed into survival suits. Anytime one gets to wear a survival suit, you know it’s going to be an exciting day! We figured it must be safe as a reviewer on TripAdvisor said so. Dad double checked with the captain who confirmed no one had gone overboard that year yet.
We all climbed into the Rib boat which was a large zodiac with giant twin engines. There were seats but you stand over them as it’s so bumpy. Then your captain turns on a fantasticly loud stereo system, tells jokes, plays Beyonce, and then floors it and you go full speed out and around the island. While it sounds a bit odd and might not be for everyone, we loved it. Nothing like a high speed scenic tour with JayZ blasting in -5 degrees temps. Some of the captains jokes were R rated but were actually quite helpful as we’d been putting off the “where babies come from” conversation with the kids. We saw lots of Puffins, a few seals and lots of beautiful scenery.
After the high speed boat safari, we were picked up by the owner of Lyngfell stables. We love it when we get personal service from the owner. She drove us up to her barn where we picked out our favorite Icelandic horses. While trail rides aren’t at the top of our fun list, they are at the top of Kaitlin’s so we all went along. It was a nice afternoon, the sun came out and we rode down to the beach and back.
After the trail ride, we were delivered back to town where we made a quick stop to the local museum to see the rescued puffin.
Farewell Westman islands, you were our favorite part of our trip to Iceland. We caught the ferry back to the mainland and then drove back to town for our last night.
Our final morning we packed up and dropped the rental car off. When renting Dad made two fatal mistakes. First, our credit card covers rental car damage but you must refuse to buy “extra” insurance from the rental company. So we turned down the insurance. This of course marked us immediately as an easy target for “car damage”. The second mistake was not videotaping every inch our well used rental car with a floodlight in the presence of an attorney to record the condition of the car before driving off. After we dropped the car, from inside the office, the attendant looked through the tinted window across the street to our car parked in dim light covered with dust and said “I think I see some damage”. We walked outside, across to the car where he made a beeline to the passenger side, not visible from where had been inside the office. “See there” he said pointing to a perfectly non damaged car door. “I don’t see anything” said Dad. We peered closer and closer until our noses touched the car. He used his sleeve to rub the dust from the car and sure enough, at the very bottom of the door, when the dust was removed, and you looked at a 27 degree angle and shined a light on the metal you could just barely make out a slight indentation. “That” he said looking very serious, “is damage you’ve done to the car. And now you must pay”.
Had we actually damaged the car like we did in Argentina, we’d be happy to fess up and pay. But this was clearly a scam. He showed Dad the price list which showed $800 USD for “minor dent”. He said he would do us a favor and only charge $600 as he wanted to help us out. We won’t bore you with the details but after a few months of heated emails back and forth and research that showed this was a common practice and a draft social media post, Dad had our money refunded. After a great family trip, we flew out with a sour taste in our mouth thanks to the rental care return.
On to Denmark….
It all started when we saw one of Alexa Mead’s photos and knew we found the perfect Thanksgiving weekend art project. Here it is…
And the photos
The Global Explorers Club 