Top Things Accomplished Using Twitter

Over the last several months I have been using twitter. During that time I have had so many fun experiences that I wanted to jot some down, so here we go.


· Met and became friends with speaker Chris Widener. Chris introduced me to Dino Rossi; Dino was the Republican candidate for the governor of our state and came very close to winning. Now he invests with a commercial real estate group that we are going to be investing with. Chris, along with my company, started up a Conservative themed coffee brand called Positively Republican. (He has a Facebook group has more than 100,000 members. Also Chris has introduced us to the Editors of Success Magazine. He is on their advisory board and has a regular column for possible inclusion of our company in a future issue of the magazine.)

· I was featured and quoted twice in a national cover story in USA Today along with other CEO’s including Jack Welch and Steve Case.

· I learned about and adopted some policies from Zappos since following Tony Heisch the CEO of Zappos and got a super extended tour of the HQ including extra 3 hours of Q&A with different dept on their outstanding policies and procedures.

· The Ford Motor Company gave me a sweet Lincoln MKZ to test drive for an extended weekend just so I could tweet about it and give honest feedback on the vehicle.

· We have sold hundreds of lbs. retail coffee on the Internet with very little promotion on twitter.

· It’s been a really productive way to get answers and opinions to business and personal questions.

· When we go to a trade show such as Coffee fest Las Vegas the rest of the staff is kept abreast of what is going on when they follow us on twitter.


· I have gotten to know what our people do for fun, allowing us to better understand our amazing staff.

· I’ve become top 30 Conservative on Twitter.

· I’ve become the #1 libertarian on Twitter.

· I’ve been ranked #1 for the categories of Coffee, Espresso and CEO on wefollow.com

· I’ve been introduced, had a cool tweet up @ my roasting facility with Nansen Malin (@nansen) the #1 top female Conservative on twitter.

· I’ve been inspired by tweets from @tonyrobbins, @johncmaxwell and many others which I follow from my other twitter account (@davidjmorris).

· Facebook and Twitter are the #1 and #2 reasons people go to our Dillanos.com website according to Google analytics.

Of course along with all of the specifics results. I have had a ton of fun!

Reach out and talk to someone

I had a great meeting on Wednesday with the Executive Director of Specialty Coffee Association of America, Ric Rhinehart. We discussed the future of the coffee industry, increasing retailer attendance at the annual conference, and his diverse background. I thought the conversation was both productive and stimulating. It really made me realize how important these interactions are. In your business make a point of getting to know the top people of your industry's trade organization. Their insights and perceptions of future trends in your field will be invaluable as you make decisions as to the direction of your business. So get out there and make a point of talking to someone you respect. All of my best ideas come from sort of outside trigger, and great conversations are a big one.

Thanks for the talk Ric!

A New Dawn

Today I started a "Get Healthy" program. It includes Cardio 4 times per week, Weights 3 times per week, and an eating plan that involves not eating processed foods, white rice, potatoes, or white flour. I will be eating lot's of fresh vegetables, legumes, and Lean Proteins. I am 42 as of last month, and over the last several years I have focused a little too much on entrepreneurial activities and not enough on my overall health. I am committed to my company and will continue to help run it with the utmost enthusiasm and my healthier lifestyle will give me even more energy to give my all to the people and duties that I love!

The Culture Club

One of the best things we have ever done at our company is to write our book "Brewing A Creative Culture". Each chapter is written by a different staff member. The subjects of the chapters range from going the extra mile, to giving back to the community. We wanted to write a book on our culture to not only specifically define it, but to document it permanently forever. And while it is available at Amazon and Borders etc, it's commercial aspirations were secondary.
Now as the company has grown, with more and more employees, it gets harder and harder to maintain that culture. Our solution was to create "The Culture Club". The culture club is a 10 person committee with a sole focus of perpetuating our culture and creating new ways of improving it. I have to tell you it's working awesome. They have come up with so many fun games and events. Some examples include company wide dodgeball tournaments, impromptu barbeques, the "Dilly" Awards, old school video game "excita-bike" championship, biggest loser competition, and most recently the homemade Salsa competition. Trust me when people walk in to our facility they can just "feel" the culture. I am very proud of our people. check out our book when you get a chance.

Kindle 2- A little Review

I just finished reading “Tribes” by Seth Godin. This was the first book I’ve read on my Amazon Kindle. I have to tell you how impressed I am with both. The book I wholeheartedly recommend . It has wonderful stories on leadership and the way things and ideas will be spread throughout the world in the forseeable future. But the Kindle, Good Lord, the Kindle. It’s the coolest thing ever. I am a huge reader and to be able to carry up to 1500 books with me at all times is awesome. The only negative, and I mean only, is that Sometimes you want the actual hardcover book. To keep and share and have it as part of your library. In that case buy it!! But if you’re like me, you’re a sponge, and want to suck every bit of information you can because learning is not just a passion , it’s a frickin necessity! So to be able to carry around all this info in one small electronic package is life changing. This thing downloads books (most 9.99, some more, but some even FREE.) in like 40 seconds! Are you kidding me? I find out about a book from a trusted business associates recommendation and poof I"m reading it right then!! I was in church today, of course I have the bible on it , and I updated my twitter status on it. Ok maybe I should have been paying more attention to the message, but the point is I updated twitter because I could. And it felt good. Now to be realistic you can read any review and they’ll point out that it’s not “perfect”. True, but are you kidding me, this thing rocks . The new Kindle iPhone app even knows where you left off. So say you're reading your Kindle and put it down. You can open the program on your iPhone 2 weeks later and it opens up to right where you left off. Reading on the Kindle is nice with the big screen and E-ink and all, but sitting and waiting somewhere the iphone does the job. Yes I am a fan , even a zealot. So order a Kindle 2. Seriously order it now. And oh yea Tribes is awesome! Maybe get that too. Next book? Groundswell, by Charlene Li.

Recieved this as an E-Mail Today

What a profound short little paragraph that says it all!!!

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005 ~~~~~

I just got back from a Business road trip that was extremely productive.I was on the road with my trusty partner in crime Lon LaFlamme. we traveled to Bellaire, Michigan for a trade show put on by Clark Foods. Clark is a Large food distributor with several locations throughout the midwest. The response to the coffee was unbelievable. we had a great time. We were accompanied by our highly capable and always crazy director of coffee Phil Beattie. His coffee knowledge wowed the crowd AND sold the beans. Saying the trade show was a success in an understatement. A big thank you to Phil and Lon for a great time (like always) but also for your hard work that helps Dillanos reach its ultimate potential. I am reminded daily of the constant extra mile efforts of our entire brilliant resourceful staff. I love all of our employees, Past employees, and even people that got fired or didn't work out!! I literally still love all of them. Life's waaaaaaay too short for grudges. I don't have the energy to waste on a grudge anyway. What I do have the energy for is to Help People, Make Friends, and Have Fun!