Recently I added a stats counter to my website so I could see how many people actually read my blog and to my surprise there were several of you that followed my stories so I thought I should actually update it a little more often. With that being said, this year has been AMAZING and I have had a lot of cool opportunities to travel so I thought I would share some of my experiences with you!
SALT LAKE CITY – 2012
This was my second trip to Salt Lake City, Utah but was fun all the same. I was luckily enought this time to be able to go with some of my good friends Patrick Mitchell and Craig Clayton. The trip was only a few days long but was packed FULL of excitement.. I will outline some of the things we were able to do while on the trip.
- When we arrived in Salt Lake on the first night we were treated to an EXCITING NBA Basketball game compliments of Bluehost, a company that I do a lot of business with. One of my really good friends from that company, James Grierson had brought us all third row seats to the Utah Jazz/LA Clippers game.. The tickets’ face value were over $600 a piece so needless to say, we wouldn’t have gone without the generosity of James and Bluehost. Although we were a little bummed that the home team (the Jazz) lost, it was still a GREAT game and we had a blast.. And got acknowledged by a few previous UK Wildcat players.
- One the second day we all got a tour of the new datacenter and facilities at Bluehost. The datacenter, which was built by the previous owner of Bluehost, Matt Heaton, was no doubt the most state-of-the-arch datacenter in America. The technology used in the datacenter blew me away and it was such a great experience! Shout out to Patrick for hanging with us all day even though he knew absolutely nothing about web hosting or datacenters. We closed out the day by having lunch with the new CEO of Bluehost Dan Handy.. Thanks again to Bluehost for such an amazing trip.
- Finally on the last day of our trip the three of us went snowboarding. Craig is pretty much a pro-snowboarder and Patrick and I were going for the first time.. After buying some new boards, loading up, and accidentally reaching the top of the mountain (where the hard slopes were) our adventure began… Needless to say, Patrick and I may have spent quite a bit of time on our butts
… But it was a blast! And I instantly became a fan of snowboarding.
SAINT LOUIS – 2012
Ok.. So you just learned that I fell in love with Snowboarding.. So.. Just a week or two after going boarding in Salt Lake I decide that I wanted to go again. My business partner (who lives in Saint Louis) invited my down to his house to go boarding at a local slope (Hidden Valley), obviously this place was no mountain; however, it was much more suited for me and would serve as great practice for my new snowboarding ambition.
On February 14th (since I was single and had no obligations on the day I hit the slopes for the second time and made some drastic improvements to my boarding skills… And spent far less time on my butt… Practice makes perfect… And I CANNOT wait to go boarding again! Thanks again to my business partner for letting my crash at your place, you are the BEST!
LEXINGTON, KY – 2012
For those of you who don’t know I am a big college basketball fan.. I am always rooting for my Murray State Racers and Kentucky Wildcats. I have been to a Kentucky game on the road before but never had I had the chance to travel to Lexington to a game at Rupp Arena.
This year I had the opportunity to go to a game against Vanderbilt with a really fun girl that I met back when I was a student at Murray State. The Kentucky game was a blast (we won) and the entire weekend was one of the more fun weekends that I have had in a long time… It was a great get-a-way and I really appreciate the hospitality of Bridgett and all of her friends.. Hope to go back soon!
In the mean while.. Both Murray State and UK will be playing in the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournament so I guess you know what I will be doing over the next few weeks.
FUTURE TRAVELS
It is still really early in the year so I have plenty of traveling to do and I CANNOT WAIT… Here in just a couple weeks my newly engaged friends Chris and Kelly and I will be travelings on their spring break… Destination… Still unknown.. But it will be fun.. And I will keep you posted.
Hope all is well with my friends and family! For now… Take care!
On my personal blog I normally wouldn’t spend time promoting products but I think this book deserves a special exception for a couple of reasons:
1. I am a featured speaker on the CD that comes with it.
2. The author of the book is not only a master of communication but is an amazing person/mentor of mine.
3. Most Importantly… It is an amazing resource that can be applied to anyone’s life.
First, let’s start off by talking a bit about the author. This amazing resource and guide is written by Dr. Crystal Rae Coel Coleman, an amazingly talented and professional woman who has her doctorate, masters, and is a licensed attorney (pretty impressive resume). This woman is a distinguished communication professor at Murray State University in Kentucky and has personally touched my life with her knowledge and unselfish desire to help people improve their life.
When I attended Murray State University there were only a handful of professors that I can say truly transformed my life and Dr. Coleman was one of them. When I entered her class Dr. Coleman recognized that I had unlocked-potential, she coached and encouraged me using her techniques (read the book to see), and ultimately gave me the confidence I needed that was previously lacking before taking her class. As a business professional and owner of some very large and profitable online marketing websites I MUST give some of the credit to what I learned from this great teacher/mentor/friend.
I would highly suggest that EVERYONE travel across the world and take one of her classes at Murray State (would be worth your time and money), however, I realize that this option is not feasible for many individuals out there. For those of you that this may be the case you are now very lucky because you can still experience and take in the vast-knowledge of such an expert in the field. So what is the book about? Although there are many tips and advice included in the book other than the main topic, the primary focus is to teach using SPECIFIC tricks/techniques/advice how to deliver a STUNNING presentation. You may say, anyone can give a speech OR I’m too nervous to give a speech… I say.. Yep, your right anyone can give a presentation, but very few can give a GREAT PRESENTATION. And if you are avoiding speeches because your nervous about them… Your not going to be a very big asset to your class, organization, or business. In a rough economy it is already tough to get a job, and many employers are only hiring workers with great communication skills and presentation skills… Ps. A job interview is definitely a presentation, you are presenting yourself to the employers… This book will give you the knowledge and skills to master the art of presentations and will show you so many things (many you probably never thought about) that can be applied to giving a perfect speech.
Credibility is everything when it comes to a book and knowing the author, I can tell you she is THE BEST presenter that I have ever witnessed and I have heard many distinguished speakers throughout the years. You will be blown away by the knowledge that you will find in this book (I know I was), and I highly recommend it to EVERYONE!
So who can benefit from this book:
1. People in business – If you are management and work for a business, there is a very good likely hood that you will have to make some sort of presentation while you are there. No one wants to be shaking uncontrollably and present a mediocre speech do they? If your speaking with your boss won’t you want to sound knowledgeable and confident? If your a manager, it is a must you buy a copy of this book for all your employees. If your an employee and your manager hasn’t bought you this book, tell them to do so!
2. Students – High school, and college is filled with presentations… Most are utterly bombed by UN-educated and UN-informed students. Most students are scared to death of making a presentation and if they would just read this book, that could all change very quickly.
3. Clergy – Ok, if your a pastor and your making speeches… You should read this book… I don’t think an explanation is really needed here.
4. Those looking for a job – A job interview is a PRESENTATION…. Those who present themselves the best are hired, those who lack confidence ARE NOT.. It’s that simple.
5. Any and everyone – basically if you exist on this good earth you are at one time or another going to have to PRESENT something.. Even talking to your children is a form of communication and I think most everyone wants to be a good parent and have a great relationship with your children. With that being said, I can honestly say this book (along with the Bible and Who Moved my Cheese) are books that every people should read, study, and apply to their life.
With that being said, I want to end by providing you with a couple of resources that will help you to get one of these books (or multiple of them)…
Would you spend $50 if you knew it would change your life for the good? I would.
You can view the books website at: http://thepresentationguidebook.com
You can buy it right now on amazon: Click here.
So until now, I really hadn’t put any effort into managing my Linkedin profile and to be honest, when I looked at it today it was in pretty sad shape with very little information. With that being said, I decided to revamp my Linkedin account a bit and update it a bit. When I logged in I had 20+ pending connection requests that have been pending for several months now, I apologize to those who had to wait so long for me to accept your request, I’ll do better in the future.
If you have a linkedin account be sure to add me, I can definitely see the benefit of utilizing this service. Regardless if you have linkedin or not be sure to check out my public profile at:
Jonathan Burdon – Linkedin Page
I decided earlier today to go ahead and purchase a couple other domains to add to my portfolio just in case in want them in the future. Because I am not doing much with the domains right now, I decided to redirect JonathanBurdon.net to my personal twitter account, and Jonathan-Burdon.com is temporarily serving as a simple online resume. Hope you enjoy, if your not following me on twitter be sure to add me! Goodnight!
Well, it’s Christmas time again (my favorite holiday)… And I am in Kentucky for a few days with my family so I had a little time to write a new blog post! Hope you enjoy.
2011 went VERY quickly! I think the fact that I had so many big changes in my life, and so many activities going on it allowed the year to slip away with nothing left than many great memories! My first year in Nashville has been great! I have met so many great people and friends, and love how when you least expect it you can meet someone amazing in the strangest of places.
It was early in the year that my friend lance took me to my very first hockey game and every since that game I have been hooked. And I am excited that yet another season is kicked into to full gear and I look forward to walking across the street to many games over the next few months… If your ever in Nashville and want to go to a game.. Just let me know!! I’m always looking for an excuse to go cheer on the Preds!
I’m still living in the same apartment in Downtown, Nashville.. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to living downtown; however, when you can go on your balcony and have a view like the one I had the other night, it definitely outweighs many of the negatives
So what else is new? Well, I am excited to be going on a hunting trip with my dad on Dec 28th! We will be headed to Sledge, MS (very small town on Mississippi river) with some friends to enjoy some waterfowl hunting. I love my family very much so I am looking forward to spending some quality time with dad. As soon as we get back (early New Years Eve), my friend and old college roommate Patrick is headed to Nashville for NYE, I really don’t think he has any idea of how crazy busy Nashville gets on that night!! I guess he will just have to learn for himself.
Well.. It’s getting late so I think I am going to sign off.. I’ll try to blog again in a day or two. I am really looking forward to what 2012 has in-store, I have a gut feeling that it is going to be a GREAT YEAR!
God bless!
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Entrepreneur Jonathan Burdon has purchased ProReviewTheme.com and correlating products. The ProReviewTheme is one of the best WordPress Review Themes on the internet and one of the web’s most talked about new theme.
With this purchase Jonathan’s internet business portfolio has been further expanded, other sites owned by Burdon include: AlreadyHosting.com, 110mb.com, WebHostingJoe.com, MangoOrange.com, i3Theme.com, and the i2theme.com.
Jonathan is also the previous owner of sites: JoomlaPanel.com, Moof.com, and Popcart.net .
SALT LAKE CITY – 2012
LEXINGTON, KY – 2012
