I have the privilege of writing a column for our parent company’s publications that gets into several of our newspapers each week. OK, so I have written two columns so far and this week’s just got out online at GoDanRiver.com. It is in tribute to the Avon Walk that I did, but also goes more broadly to this month – October (which I will now always consider to be “Pinktober” for the numerous reasons mentioned in previous posts) – THE awareness month for Breast Cancer. Please read and consider ways you, too, can participate.
My son turned three this past week. It was the first time I have ever missed one of my kids’ birthdays (made the first 18 across my three kids) due to work. I wanted to make it special for him, so I turned to DealTaker to find something small and meaningful; and most importantly a good deal
I have been very pleased with Proflowers ever since I met some of their senior management about 6 years ago when I was with JCPenney. With an amazing business model that delivers top quality products very quickly, I knew they had to have something that would put a smile on a 3 year olds face. I found the “Beary Happy Birthday Box“. It was 7:30 pm PT the night before the birthday, yet I was able to order it and get it shipped for delivery the next day. The excitement and smiles were awesome and I am thankful that Proflowers had a solution for me to make it happen.
In less than 48 hours I will be in the middle of Long Beach, California eagerly awaiting the start of the Avon Walk forBreastCancer. Ahead of me will lie a 26.2 mile walk on Saturday followed by a 13.1 mile walk on Sunday. This is no small feat. A marathon plus another half marathon in two days is a challenge. I started training back in March for my general well-being and then got involved in this walk. With the support of my DealTaker team, the community of DealTaker users and my friends and colleagues, I can say this has been the least stressful event for which I have ever trained. I think it also has to do with the fact that the cause is worthy and is one that DealTaker has broadly supported during its entire existence. I am grateful to be able to carry the torch further in support.
With the help of DealTaker, we have been able to raise just over $6,400 so far (over the initial $5,000 goal that was set). The team on which I am walking, Affiliate Marketers Give Back, has raised money beyond the $50,000 goal that was set (and it also places us in the top 5 teams raising money for the LA Walk). All in all the path up to the event has exceeded my expectations and my excitement is extremely high.
I again want to express my thanks to all those around us that have participated with well wishes, encouragement and donations. That, combined with the goal to raise money and awareness for a cause that affects so many around us, leaves me even more humbe than when I started. I hope to be able to do my part and complete the walk to the best of my ability. I plan to be tweeting on my Blackberry throughout the event (http://www.twitter.com/kstraw) and will also be bringing a video camera to capture snippets of the event that I will then use to create a small compilation – I will post that here as soon as possible after the event.
We recently launched a new website called NewatNoon. If you haven’t been there yet you should go check it out. We’re offering a different deal every day starting at noon. Launching the site was exciting, frustrating and nerve-wracking all at the same time. We were making changes up to the very last minute (and I do mean until the last minute). I think I have bruises on my forehead from hitting my head against the proverbial brick wall trying to get some of the changes made. (That’s a whole other story for another post).
So one of the things you do when you launch a new product is a logo – check – and a tag line. Uh Oh, no tag line. Now tag lines can sometimes make or break you so I wanted the tag line for newatnoon to really stick with you and reflect what the site is. Now whether this reflects my warped sense of humor or not remains to be seen, but all I could think about was “a nooner”. Seriously, you can’t voice that sort of thing outloud in the office, so I kept it to myself (this took a great deal of effort on my part). The problem is “nooner” was the only thing I could think about. I was totally stumped, sort of like a tag-line block.
Finally, and I can’t tell how relived I was, someone else from the office mentioned it first. After that all bets were off. “Newatnoon – putting a twist on a nooner”. Trust me it got weirder from there, but you get the idea. Come to find out that once the cat was out of the bag, everyone was thinking the same thing about “nooner” .
As I sit here writing this post the whole team is still throwing around ideas for taglines and how could we possibly fit “nooner” into the tagline. We haven’t come up with a tag line yet, so if you have any ideas let us know. After all, who wants a boring “nooner”?
For the last 17 weeks I have been walking and training in my beloved “Kstraw” shoes I made on Nike ID about two years ago. They are the the NikeFree 5.0’s. They have been quite comfortable as my walk around shoes and have actually been quite supportive during my walks while training.
However, after consulting with a good colleague at Road Runner Sports in San Diego, she suggested the Men’s Nike Zoom Vomero+ 4. Because of the extra focus on cushioning (which is best for the long walk) and the good look of them, I decided to make those the shoes to wear. Basically, I got the best shoes possible by shopping at RRS online – they provide so much information that the shopping part is easy. Thank you Road Runner.
I can’t wait to get them this week and start breaking them in - Just in time for the Avon Walk September 12-13, 2009.
DealTaker has always proudly supported charities around the country, most notably charitable groups for breast cancer research and support. Each year we give money in sponsorship related ways to the Komen walks in various cities. In addition to that, we are literally going to jump in feet first and raise money and give by participating in the LA Walk of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer September 12th and 13th.
I am going to humbly represent DealTaker and our team of dedicated people by walking with the Affiliate Marketers Give Back Team led by Missy Ward. Missy has been a strong supporter of many charitable projects throughout the years and I am honored to have an opportunity to give back along with a great group of people joining us this year (including Melissa Salas of Buy.com).
The walk is one month from today and I will be geared toward training for the 40 mile walk, raising money via the support of the DealTaker community, colleagues and friends, and working to make a difference in an area that affects too many people around the world. I will post updates on the Inside DealTaker blog from time-to-time, as well as keep up with a daily journal on my own blog at KstrawWalks.
Where you can, please join me in support – either through monetary donations via my personal page on the Avon site at -
DealTaker has a review for each employee 2 times a year, pretty standard practice for any business. The reason I mention it is because it happens to be one of the things I look forward to. Some people’s stomach turns at the thought of their work being critiqued but it should be an opportunity to grow and improve. Without constructive criticism we would all be at the same skill level as when we began a process. I am always open to becoming a better person than I was the day before, weather its in my work environment or in my personal life. Being new to this industry I had a lot to learn when I started this position just 5 months ago and I am far from perfect so there are lots of things I can do to improve everyday and I’m sure these things will be brought up and addressed in a kind way. I feel lucky to have a management team that will help me to grow by bringing to my attention both the good and the not so good. Its a great give and take system with open lines of communication that not all people are lucky enough to have. Come to think of it, not all people are fortunate to have a job at all much less one that they enjoy.
The year was 1977 (the same year the REAL King died) and I was a kid following my dad around all the time while he was working on home projects. There were all kinds of fun things to do growing up in Vancouver and Seattle, Washington. That year, my dad had gone to a trade show and saw this amazing new ladder called the Little Giant. It was amazing because it was sturdy, could be contorted to all kinds of shapes and sizes, and was sure to fulfill many needs on those project days. Fast forward 32 years and my dad still has that ladder. It is still just as sturdy and still fulfills those project needs. Four years ago, my dad got me my own Little Giant ladder as a thank you gift for helping him with some things. I have used that thing like it is going out of style. But the true testament came this last week when I loaned it to my neighbor that “just wanted to borrow a ladder”. When he brought it back, he could barely control his amazement in how functional and sturdy it really was. Now, working for DealTaker, I have the opportunity to share a way for other people to buy a Little Giant – we are proud to be a marketer working with the Little Giant Ladder Company. Right now they offer free shipping and a free work platform with each order. You will never have to get another ladder for around the house again.
As most of you know, the DealTaker office is located in Plano, Texas and I live in Akron, Ohio. There are quite a bit of miles that separate me from the office which, obviously, makes me a remote employee. Yes, I am one of the lucky few that gets to work from the comforts of my own home. I have my little office area positioned right beside two windows that overlooks the great beyond. Living on a high elevation gives me quite the spectacular view into the distance.
Most of the time you can find me at my desk working usually with loud music accompanying my mission to put a dent in my work load or scoping out stores for deals and coupons. On the rare occasion that my chair is empty, you could find me in my backyard tending to the garden, running around the house cleaning, on the floor playing with our dog, in the kitchen whipping up some tasty vegetarian meal, or taking a walk around town. I’m one of those people that likes to be doing something at all times. If you find me laying in bed or on the sofa during the day it’s usually because I’m trying to get rid of a headache or I need a power nap (doesn’t happen often).
There are so many times in life when you know how blessed you are. This is a time in my life that I can look in all directions and see how I am taken care of. It has been amazing to watch things unfold around me. I am now at 38 weeks with my pregnancy and have been shown such amazing love and kindness. Over the course of the last 38 weeks, my life has blossomed in all fashions. I have many friends I will never be able to repay for all of their support. I also have many loving people that have made it possible for me to have all that I have.
First off, the AWESOME company of DealTaker.com; I started out in a different position with different hours. Over the course of the last year, my position and responsibilities have changed and my superiors worked with me on my hours. Not only did they support the change in my path with them, they also supported me as things were changing outside of my work arena. To all of you, Thank you for your support and flexibility! You will never know how much it has all meant to me.
…and the smell of sunblock that goes along with it? I for one do and so I thought my buddy Shane did too. Until I tried to help out by making his car(which is his baby might i add) smell beachy.
Here is my story on how to get that beachy smell:
So we are driving down the road headed to dinner and I’m sitting super low in his nice shiny Bimmer(did i forget to mention his baby is a BMW). So he’s like you can raise your seat up. So me being one who loves to play with buttons raises my seat. Then I lower my seat, and raise my seat, and lower my seat again. Then my help with the beachy smell commences. We hear a SSSSSssssss sound. My air vent was closed so I thought maybe that was where the sound was coming from. No. Shane is like it’s coming from your purse. No. Then he is like, “what is that smell?” Perfume? No. So then I’m like, “is something going to blow up on me”? I put my feet in the seat. All the time laughing(me saying over and over, “I’m sorry I know how much you love your car”) and trying to find this smell and noise while he is driving. Then we find it! He stops at a stop light and a can of sunblock rolls out from under the seat. I seemed to have punctured it when playing with the seat. OOoops! So this can is spraying sunblock all over the floor of his car. I try kicking it back under the seat. It’s spraying up my dress all over my legs. We are still both laughing so hard. FINALLY he pulls over and the can has already stopped spraying. He has like two napkins to clean this mess up with. And yes we are still laughing about it. I look under the seat and not much there. I say, “good thing you have a mat under there”. UMmmm No! “That’s a speaker”, Shane says. Ooops again! After the two napkins have been used and can tossed we set out looking for a carwash. We find one and I give him 5 bucks to clean it up. Now some of you may be like you gave him $5 to clean his own car or you ONLY gave him $5 to clean up your mess. Well I have offered to help him pay to get it cleaned (now hurry up Shane and get that done mister!), but he won’t accept. And you guys know what?!?! He still took me to get ice cream!
Those that know me will tell you that I hate to fly. In my adulthood I have always made the decision to travel via ground. Over the years I’ve heard people ask me countless times, “How do you know you don’t like to fly if you’ve never been in a plane?” I will admit, they had a point and in April of 2008 I decided to fly to Texas for a business trip. Long story short, by the time I landed at the DFW airport I was convinced that after my flight back to Ohio I would never fly again.
Surprisingly I am not afraid of heights. In fact, one of the things I want to do in my lifetime is go sky diving. The only thing holding me back from the “I love to fly” group is the mere fact that when I am on a plane I have no way to get out. If there are any problems on the plane or something malfunctions and the only solution is evacuation, you can safely assume what the end results will be.
I had been living in San Francisco bay area for roughly 8 years; the weather was good, lots of Chinese food. However the public schools and house price were really a big headache. Do you want to pay 1.2 million dollars for a 1500 square foot, 40+ years old house? Of course someone will, NOT ME. With the economy heading south, the state of California is in big trouble and deeply in debt, the politicians there planned to raise income tax, sales tax and cutting education funding, I lost interest and decided to leave and head to Dallas to find a job. After online research and chat with my friends, Plano/Allen and surrounding area sounds pretty attractive to me. Cheaper and bigger house, better schools, what is better than that for my family.
When I came out here, I decided to drive. Checked with google maps, and it was 1700 miles to go.
Sounds crazy, isn’t it? I did think so by myself. However, there is a saying ” life is about experiencing, not a burden”, so I told myself ” Dallas, here I come”.
I planned to drive 3 days and stay 2 nights on the road, reason for that is that everyday I only need to drive from my home to Las Vegas, that will make this easier.
I thought I would be sleepy in the car since I got up around 4:00am pacific time, then I drove all the way from Sunnyvale, California to Albuquerque New Mexico, I arrived around 9:00pm local time and stayed in a motel. Well I meant to continue, however when I called my wife, she ordered me to stop and call it a day. 1050 miles is gone, the next day was even easier, I got up at 7:00am mountain time, had a breakfast, then drove down to Plano, arrived around 5:30 pm central time.
Now I look back, I can not believe what I have done. I drove such a long distance alone. you know, I am not a professional driver, I am the man who hates to commute farther than 5 miles everyday. However, I did this and after a sleep, I jump back to normal.
Once in Dallas, I interviewed with DealTaker and was offered a position.
Well, if you ask me right now: Is 1700 miles a long way to drive?
Guess what, I don’t have an answer. It is better to figure it out by yourself. Try it, you might have different answer than what you thought.
I must give credit where credit is due and this Inside DealTaker entry was soley inspired by lacywebb’s recent entry ‘Getting To Know You.’ It got me thinking that most users who view our threads, regardless of which forum, only see our DealTaker member name, an avatar, a brief caption and a few stats. While some of us personally know other members, most of us are left wondering who is behind the member name. I know that I wondered the same thing when I first became a member of DealTaker.
I began working at DealTaker a few months ago and wanted to get to know my coworkers and our users better so I came up with some fun questions that would give me insight on what makes you guys tick. Here are a few that I have commented on.
If you had a slogan that best represents you personality, what would it be?
Just Do It (Nike). The more you sit around and think about something the more excuses you make to not get it done.
What is your hidden talent?
I’m great at construction projects.
What’s the worst thing you did as a kid?
Put my kitten in the pool to teach her to swim and then forgot about her. She was ok, my mom pulled her out.
What is your favorite childhood injury?
Cut my leg open on a barbed wire fence running from a chicken (I was 12).
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Do you have any phobias or superstitions?
I am afraid of caterpillars (I once jumped from a moving vehicle to get away from one)
What bad habits of other people drive you crazy?
People who procrastinate and then freak out because they are stressed.
If you had one week to live what 3 things would you do with the time you had left?
(1) Go snowboarding in Whistler. (2) Host a big party with all my friends and family and eat all the great food that I usually don’t allow myself to enjoy. (3) Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef with sharks.
If you’ve got fun answers to some of these questions, or if you have any questions of your own that you would like to add Id love to here from you. Always remember, you’re unique just like everyone else.
This e-mail was received the other day by someone in our offices – Hoax or Not a Hoax -
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys In the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other ‘remote’ for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
Last week we got a great opportunity to do a live spot for DealTaker on KABB Fox 29 in San Antonio. Being that it was relatively last minute and I was driving down from Austin, I figured it would be no problem to find a hotel room for the brief stopover. Of course I did not take Spring Break into account and there were not many places to stay. However, I stopped into the The Howard Johnson All Suites at the junction of I-10 and Loop 410 hoping something would be available. I was greeted by Gina Figorito – the ever helpful Manager. I explained to her my situation and she quickly offered to help. She gave me a stellar rate and the property was a great place to stay. If you plan to go to San Antonio for travel be sure the check www.allsuitesmotelsa.com first. Or, give Gina a call at 210.738.1100. Tell her DealTaker sent you
I had hoped to get a plug in for her on the TV spot, but it ended up a bit shorter than planned and I was not able to. So, hopefully this post will be a chance to make up for that.
Where has the time gone? Granted I was not with DealTaker when it began back in 2004, but I do remember when it began. Shortly after it’s inception I was working at JCPenney.com managing their affiliate program. In the midst of rebuilding that program and trying to make it as efficient as possible, we had closed it to invitation only. With DealTaker just down to road from the JCP HQ, the founder made a good attempt to get in as an affiliate, but alas they did not meet our minimum threshold for acceptance and I denied them entry. I still defend the action at the time- DealTaker was just not ready yet for Prime Time. However, a few short years later as DealTaker found it’s community (built on seekers of Black Friday Ads) and began to grow, my successor let DealTaker into the program (as have 1,600+ merchants now) and the rest is history.
DealTaker has been blessed to attract such a great and loyal community of users (over 180,000 registered users – amazing) and has found top quality merchants that want to partner to provide great deals and online shopping experiences.
This week, our merchants and community get to come together to celebrate in good, old fashioned birthday party style. Online we are having games and contests and here at the office we are actually inviting our fellow building tenants to have some cake and celebrate. Many thanks to all of our merchants that contributed birthday gifts that our users will get a chance to win. Happy Birthday DealTaker – 5 years down and many, many more to go…
I’ve been using Microsoft office religiously for both personal and business needs for about 16 years now. Although, I’ve tried competing products like Sun’s Open Office, I never seriously considered switching my allegiance. I didn’t need to. Microsoft Office was super easy to use and I was very productive using it at school and work. Not only that, it was the standard. Just about anyone who needed to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets was using it. Like the great William Shakespearein his play, The Merchant of Venice, “But love is blind and lovers cannot see.” I was too blind to know I was in love with Office.
However, this past week, I basically had that infamous “It’s not you, it’s me” thought about my love and dependence of Microsoft Office.
Each day that goes by, more news is released about the economy, job losses and the effects of changes within companies. At DealTaker, we pride ourselves in the fact that we are here to help in the good times and the bad when it comes to shopping, finding deals, and developing unique ways to make a dollar worth more than a dollar.
Stretching those dollars became a little more personal for the DT staff yesterday. Our parent company announced that we are to be taking a mandatory 10 days off over the course of the rest of the year without pay – a furlough. It is something that caught us off guard, but at the same time seems to be in line with what so many other people, at companies from all walks of life, are facing. In the end, we see it as a sacrifice for the greater good – something that all Americans have to embrace as this country works through deep-cutting issues.
So, know this, as has always been the case, we will not only be posting and facilitating great deals on DealTaker.com, we will also be using them – trying to save some money to make up for some of that salary sacrifice we have ad to make. Things like:
Buying necessities
Getting clothes for our kids
Ordering gifts for loved ones
Occasionally splurging on that special item that just helps us to cope with these times through which we are going.
That’s what makes the DealTaker community important and why it is especially important during this time. We’re committed to finding the best deals we can and sharing them with you and we encourage you to share with the DealTaker community. We have fun doing this day to day and we take advantage of these deals just like you do. Working together we can all help each other. With a few pennies here and a couple of dollars there we will save….because every little bit helps.
My son turned three this past week. It was the first time I have ever missed one of my kids’ birthdays (made the first 18 across my three kids) due to work. I wanted to make it special for him, so I turned to DealTaker to find something small and meaningful; and most importantly a good deal 
BreastCancer. Ahead of me will lie a 26.2 mile walk on Saturday followed by a 13.1 mile walk on Sunday. This is no small feat. A marathon plus another half marathon in two days is a challenge. I started training back in March for my general well-being and then got involved in this walk. With the support of my DealTaker team, the community of DealTaker users and my friends and colleagues, I can say this has been the least stressful event for which I have ever trained. I think it also has to do with the fact that the cause is worthy and is one that DealTaker has broadly supported during its entire existence. I am grateful to be able to carry the torch further in support.
With the help of DealTaker, we have been able to raise just over $6,400 so far (over the initial $5,000 goal that was set). The team on which I am walking, Affiliate Marketers Give Back, has raised money beyond the $50,000 goal that was set (and it also places us in the top 5 teams raising money for the LA Walk). All in all the path up to the event has exceeded my expectations and my excitement is extremely high.
The year was 1977 (the same year the 
As most of you know, the DealTaker office is located in Plano, Texas and I live in Akron, Ohio. There are quite a bit of miles that separate me from the office which, obviously, makes me a remote employee. Yes, I am one of the lucky few that gets to work from the comforts of my own home. I have my little office area positioned right beside two windows that overlooks the great beyond. Living on a high elevation gives me quite the spectacular view into the distance.
I must give credit where credit is due and this Inside DealTaker entry was soley inspired by 
