How do you Zappos?

With all the great customer service stories and blogs out there about Zappos.com, I haven't really seen anything about how people shop at Zappos.com - How do you Zappos?

From my parents, siblings, and friends, to random people I've met, I've watched them all shop on Zappos.com. Some of them are internet savvy, others are not. Some were eCommerce savvy, others have never bought anything online. The one thing I noticed is that each of them shopped on zappos.com differently. Some of them would search for a brand, others would immediately click on the brands list to see the full list of brands available at zappos.com, others would click on one of the links on the Homepage (i.e. Women's Dress), while others would click on one of the New Feature spots. The one thing that everyone did know were the service offerings from this great company, in particular, Free Shipping & Free 365 Day Returns.

I just wanted to throw this out there. I shop on Zappos a lot. I mean A LOT! As you have probably guessed, I work at Zappos, so I'm on there all the time. If you have ever worked for a retail store, you will understand what I mean when I say every employee shops their own store and they are really the experts at the store. They know what's coming in, they know where everything is, and they can help any customer match items or find a similar item. The same can be said about Zappos employees. The difference is that we have a much larger selection with tons of new things coming in everyday.

I have a routine when shopping on zappos.com. This routine has been "developed" over time "practicing" the site and talking to various fellow employees/experts. What I wanted to do was to let you know what I do every time I go to the site. Here is my routine:

1. Go to Zappos.com
2. From the header, I click on 'New Styles'
3. From here, you will see several links grouped by Women's, Men's, Girls, and Boy's
4. I always start with Men's 'Accessories'. Most people don't know that Zappos is more than just shoes. There are socks, clothes, electronics, backpacks, women's handbags, books, jewelry, watches, hats, laptops, cameras and more! From 'Accessories', I get to see what's new for all things besides clothes, watches, sunglasses, and shoes.
5. I'll browse through the first several pages until I start seeing things that are familiar to me (from the last time I looked)
6. Next, I go through and click on 'All New Men's Shoes', then 'Clothing', then 'All New Women's Shoes', then 'Handbags' for the wife. If time allows, I'll check out the watches and eyewear

Did you know that Zappos is constantly receiving new items throughout the day, almost every day? Since I know this, I'll check the site roughly every 4 hours and do my routine above. You will be surprised how many new things you will see every 4 hours. The other great thing about this routine is that I get to see lots of new stuff very quickly and not feel overwhelmed.

My other routine if I'm looking for something specific, is to use the Search box that is stretched across the top. Typing in a brand or a couple describing words usually does the trick. For stronger search capabilities (i.e. searching by personality - casual laptop bag), I like to go to the Zappos Zeta site. It works really well. :)

Anyway, this is how I Zappos. It works really well for me and I know others at Zappos who do have a similar routine. So... How do you Zappos? Let me know. :)

Note: As you can see, this blog is my own personal blog and is mostly about golf. This blog post is not "sponsored" by Zappos.com or meant to be a Zappos affiliate. I'm not make anything by writing this blog and having links to Zappos.com. This post is intended to be informative and helpful if you already shop with Zappos - which I'm sure everyone already does, right? I <3 Zappos!

Lesson 2 & 3 - Practice

This past Friday was our Zappos.com Golf Event.  Our sponsor for the month was Oakley and we played at Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas.

Last week I got my new irons (Mizuno MP57) and the event last Friday was the first time I had a chance to use them.  It was kind of funny.  Every time I had an iron shot during the event, I would determine what iron I would need to use, then peel the plastic wrap off the head of the new iron, and hit the ball.  This has got to be the biggest no-no in golf... LOL.  New swing, new clubs, new bag, new ball (I was testing out the Top Flite Gamers based on reviews I read online), and all of this at a golf tournament.

Things didn't go as bad as I thought.  I didn't particularly play that great, but I didn't play that bad as well considering the circumstances.  I'm really feeling more consistency in my swing, particularly with keeping my shoulders level.  This is great!

Today, I went out to the range for about 45mins to practice on my swing some more.  I struggled a little at the start since I hadn't swung a club since Friday.  After 5 mins though, I was back in the groove of things.  I was striking the ball really well.  I felt my shoulders staying level and in sync with my hips.  The only time I didn't strike the ball well was when I tried to crush the ball because I was using my arms and hands to do it.  I have to keep reminding myself to just SWING THE FRIGGIN' CLUB and not to KILL THE BALL!

By the way, yes... I do love my new irons.  They feel great when I make good contact and they make sure to let me know when I don't.

Oh yeah... I just got my new Scotty Cameron putter in yesterday.  I practiced with it today for a few minutes too.  It's not quite as soft as my Odyssey Black Series, but it does have a nice feel.  I found that I had to make sure to keep the face of the club more upright with the Scotty than with my Odyssey.  If I didn't, impact wasn't very soft.  I'm going to keep practicing with it.  On a side note, I think I'm going to send it to Scotty Cameron Custom Shop to make it a little more... me.

I MISS my Macbook!

This past Sunday, in the early AM, while packing for my trip back to Vegas and on to Boston, I dropped my laptop on the ground. :( Being in hurry, I just put it in my bag and rushed to the airport. While waiting for my plane, I pulled it out and that's when I realized that I screwed up my Macbook Pro pretty bad.

My MBP would turn on and load the OS. I was able to login, so I thought everything was okay. Then I realized it wasn't... post- authentication, my account wouldn't fully load. I could see my desktop, but couldn't do anything and the cursor just kept spinning. My heart sank. :(

Anyway, when I got back from Boston, I took it to the Apple Store at Town Square in Las Vegas. I met with an "Apple Genius" and he ran some diagnostics on it. Turns out, I blew out parts of my hard drive, but not all of it. I was able to pull some of my data off (lost some too) and left it there for them to replace the hard drive.

Here's the crappy thing - on Saturday, while in LA, I was at Best Buy and I was thinking... I should by a portable external drive for nightly Time Machine backups. I decided against it because I would just buy it from NewEgg.com or Fry's (both places had more selection)when I got back to Vegas from Boston. On Sunday, when I realized that I had f*%ked up my laptop, I really, really wished that I had bought that hard drive. Then I could have got my laptop repaired and restored the backup quickly and easily with no data loss. I'm an idiot.

Last night was the first time in the past 1.5 years I used an XP laptop (loaner from our fabulous Zappos IT folks). Since I became a "switcher", I didn't realize how much I really loved Mac OS X. I really like not having pop-up messages telling me a bunch of things that Windows is doing. I also like the overall UI/UX of a Mac.

I was supposed to pick my MBP today, but they accidentally loaded the wrong version of Leopard onto it and it wasn't functioning properly. Apparently, there are various versions depending on what type of machine it is going on. They are reinstalling the right version tonight. I should have it back tomorrow.

Needless to say, I MISS MY Macbook Pro!

Boston Golf Charity Event

I just got back today from Boston from playing in a charity golf event put on by The Clark's Companies Foundation. We played at the private, members only Charter Oak Country Club in Hudson, MA. It was a beautiful course with a lot of history. It was great to play a "tree" course after always playing on "desert" courses here in Vegas. Here are a couple pictures I took:


As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a conscious decision to stick to my guns and maintain the changes that Tim made to my swing. I'm happy to report that I succeeded. However, I didn't help my team out too much. I had a few good shots, mostly on the par 3 holes, but my driver and I just didn't jive together. Oh well, it was still fun and I was playing with my good Zappos friends.

It's great to be back in Vegas. The weather was similar to Vegas (90+ degrees) but with severe humidity. I really felt like I was drowning out on the course yesterday. My allergies were also going nuts with all the pollen. In fact, there was so much pollen, there was a pretty thick layer on the black golf shoes of my teammates. I wish I got a pic of that.

Tomorrow, I have my first official lesson at GolfTEC. Last week was the Initial Evaluation where I learned about all the things I needed to work on and tomorrow, I believe Tim is going to focus on specific areas. I'm looking forward to it.

On a side note, I'm proud to say that I was the winner of 3 out of the 5 silent auctions at the event. It was for a good cause... why wouldn't I?

Initial Evaluation - Day 2 Practice

Today was Day 2 of practice after my Initial Evaluation with Tim at GolfTEC. I headed over to the Revere Golf Club to meet up with some friends who were going out as a 3-some to see if I would be able to join them for a few holes since I didn't have time to play 18. No luck on being able to play a few holes (without having to pay for the entire 18), but I did get a little time on the range.

Today was significantly better than yesterday. I think the new stance that I'm working on is starting to settle in with my body. Although I was still a little sore in the lower back, it was a lot more comfortable than yesterday. The new grip is feeling pretty good too. I hit a few balls fairly well and decided to work on one other thing that has been bothering me when I watch myself on video - the direction of the club at the peak of my swing. Essentially, what I did was forced myself not to wind all the way up in my swing. From what I can tell, the reason my club ends up turning to the right at the top of my swing is because I exaggerate the turn of my shoulders just before I get to the peak. Anyway, by forcing myself not to wind up as much, the club is much straighter at the peak and it doesn't appear that I'm losing any distance. In fact, I may have even gained distance since the club stays on a straight plane coming down through impact.

Here is a video clip from my practice session today. Personally, I think it looks a lot better than yesterday. I'm just glad that it's starting to feel more comfortable. I can tell that, with more practice, I'll get this down soon.



Unfortunately I won't get any golf in this weekend. I'm flying to LA later this afternoon for a wedding tomorrow and then on Sunday morning, I'm traveling to Boston to play in The Clark's Companies Foundation Charity Golf Tournament. I went last year and it was a lot of fun. I hope that I'll be able to leverage my new stance and grip to hit some great shots. If not, I'm still going to stick to my guns and use this event as further practice for the new things Tim wants me to fix.

P.S. As I said in my last post, I love my Flip Video for capturing footage of my golf swing. Here is a picture of my set-up (collapsed). Leaned up against it is my 56 degree wedge. As you can see, it's compact and lightweight. You can get yours at Zappos.

Initial Evaluation - Day 1 Practice

As mentioned in my previous post, I committed myself to really working on the things that Tim told me I needed to fix. Today is the first day after my Initial Evaluation and I went to the range at Legacy Golf Club during lunch to hit a small bag of balls. It was a horrible day for me. Everything was uncomfortable, I struggled to make good ball contact, but I was determined to stick to the things I needed to work on. At the end, I figured I only hit 2 balls that went well, but my new grip was feeling much more comfortable. I'm optimistic that tomorrow my stance will feel more comfortable. I can tell from the video I took, that i'm still overturning my shoulders (club head at the top of my swing is turning to the right). Oh well, that's for a future lesson. I'm just going to focus on my stance and my grip. From what I can tell, it looks like my stance is looking better.

Here is the video that I took today on my Flip Video. Mental note to self - I need to wear a shirt that is a little more fitted so I can see my form better.



Among other things, Flip Video is such a sweet device and is perfect for golf! You can get yours at Zappos.com.

Initial Evaluation - Lessons Learned

NOTE: The information below is specific to my golf swing and is not intended to be a lesson plan for you.

From my Initial Evaluation session with Tim at GolfTEC, I learned that I was screwed from the beginning (of my swing, that is). I wasn't addressing the ball properly (closed stance in my feet, open stance in my upper body) and was gripping my club incorrectly. Both of these things really suprised me. I always felt I addressed the ball square and I had learned my grip from my previous coach - although, I probably made my own "adjustments" from what he told me over a year ago. Also, I slouched over the ball and didn't stablize my lower body for the swing. This led to a lot of upper body and head movement during my swing which, of course, led to inconsistent ball striking. Plus, it looks U-G-L-Y. After this session, Tim told me that I needed to spend time focusing on the following things:

1. Address the ball square with my feet
2. Adjust my grip
3. Push my hips out and keep my back and head straight

When I did these things, it felt uncomfortable for me. But, when Tim snapshotted my stance and compared it to Tiger Woods, it pretty much matched up. So... i'm going to work on that.

Here is one of the pics from my session:



Here is my corrected stance compared to Tiger:


GolfTEC technology is really cool. These pics are from my online account that comes with my 3-month package.

GolfTEC Initial Evaluation Impressions

Ok. So yesterday, I went back to GolfTEC and did my Initial Evaluation session with Tim. Once again, I put on the harnesses and hit several balls. Like on the golf course, I hit some a little fat, some thin, and some right in the sweet spot - straight up inconsistent! It was perfect for the evaluation.

Once again, Tim showed me the video of the various areas that needed work. I think most people would be pretty depressed after hearing that everything they were doing needed work and was causing the inconsistencies. However, I was actually thrilled to hear it. For me, that meant I had a chance to actually become a scratch golfer one day. Once again I was impressed with the video technology they use and more impressed with Tim. He really took the time to explain my trouble areas and made sure to ask me if I understood what he was telling me and if I had any questions.

After my session, I determined that I was going to give it a shot and signed up for a 3 month package. Besides, if technology is used to help anything businesses, doctors, bloggers... why not the golf swing? And GolfTEC had the most advanced technology I've seen thus far.

In addition to signing up with GolfTEC, I committed myself to make the most out of my lessons. My plan is to try and go to the range everyday for about 30mins and hit a small bucket of balls to train my body to adjust to the new things I'm learning. Additionally, I decided I was going to take my Flip Video (yet another use for my Flipper), put it on an old camera tripod, and record all my practice sessions so I can review them later so I can see if I'm still making mistakes. To take it one step further, I decided to blog about each of my learning sessions and practice sessions. Pretty cool.

What is up with my golf game?!

So, I've been golfing on and off since I was a kid. When I picked my game back up a few years ago and made the conscious decision to stick with it, I knew it would be an uphill battle trying to get back to how I used to play. After all, I took about 10 years off from the game of golf. One of the first things I did was to buy a new set of clubs. I tried a few different types before I decided that Mizuno irons were the way to go for me. Previously, I was using Ping, then Taylor Made irons, and Mizuno's had the best feel I've ever experienced with with any irons - hands down.

Next it was onto a woods, wedges, and a putter. I won't bore you with the details, but I bought and sold several drivers, 3-woods, wedges, and putters and here's what I finally ended up with in my bag:

Mizuno MX-23 Irons - S300 DG Steel, Standard Lie, Standard Loft
Ping G5 Driver - Aldila NV-65 stiff shaft
Ping G2 3-wood - Aldila NV-65 stiff shaft
Cleveland CG10 wedges - 52, 56, 60
Odyssey Black Series putter - Orange Gripmaster Tour Laced grip

What a great set! Over the past few years, my game has improved significantly. I dropped my handicap from 30+ to 14.6. This set gave me confidence.

Last year, I decided to take some lessons from Gary Knapp out at Lake Las Vegas, I took a couple lessons from him, then my work schedule got really crazy, and the rest of my lessons expired. :( But, from these couple lessons, I learned how to fix a couple of bad habits I had developed.

Anyway, in the past few months, my game has turned south. I've been really inconsistent. My best 9-holes was +1 at Mountain Falls Golf Club in Pahrump and my worst was +18 (ouch!) at Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas. Unfortunatly, in the past few weeks, my score has been going up and not down. Some days my ball contact was great, other days... not so much. But, on all days, I haven't been scoring well. After this past weekend, I decided that I needed help, and I needed it bad. After all, I'm the self-proclaimed Chief Golf Officer at Zappos and I had better play like one, otherwise I'm going to have to strip the title from myself.

First things first... I needed to find a coach. I thought about going to my old coach Gary, but with all the problems that Lake Las Vegas has been experiencing, I wasn't sure how stable they would be if I bought a lesson package. Then I decided I would talk to Greg Stafford at Siena Golf Club. I've seen his results with a fellow Zapponian and it was impressive.

Second thing... I wanted to make sure that the equipment that I thought was so great for me was really right for me. I've been doing a lot of research online about custom fitting and everyone recommends getting custom fitted regardless of their skill level. I've always kinda been against this as I felt that one should change their swing to hit a standard set-up of clubs (more on this in a future post). But, I gave in and decided that I would head over to Golf Galaxy here in town to get my clubs looked at. You know... when things aren't going well, I begin to question everything and my clubs were no exception. Was I using the right shaft? Should I be swinging a regular shaft vs a stiff shaft? Is my grip too small for my hands? Should I use a shaft that has more/less torque? Are my clubs too long/short?

On my way to Golf Galaxy, I passed by a GolfTEC. I had heard of these guys before while reading various forums online, but didn't really know much about them. I decided to stop in.

It turns out that GolfTEC is actually a learning facility with a variety of services (including golf club sales). I was greeted by Tim Sam who is their Director of Instruction. After a few minutes of chatting, I decided to take him up on his offer for club fitting.

GolfTEC is pretty cool. During my club fitting, Tim had me put on these harnesses around my shoulders and around my waist. These harnesses had sensors that could monitor and report back various settings - i.e. shoulder turn, hip turn, shoulder angle, etc... These harnesses plus the 2 video angles are recorded so you can see your swing immediately. Additionally, they show your swing compared to a variety of PGA pros, which is really cool. After an hour, Tim tells me my results. From my swing speed, I'm actually between a regular shaft and a stiff shaft. The length of my clubs were right for me, but I did need to get my lie bent 2 degrees upright because the toe of my club was hitting the ground first prior to ball contact. Tim recommended that I get my clubs bent and that I stick with the stiff shaft and work on my swing (which needed help) to increase my swing speed.

Overall, GolfTEC club fitting was a very cool experience and I would recommend it to any golfer who hasn't been fitted yet. Tim, from GolfTEC, is really cool and seems to genuinely want to help me with my game. He gave me some information about getting instruction from GolfTEC and their rates. At first glance, I went "Ouch!" inside. It was not cheap at all. I decided to head home and think about it. However, I did decide to schedule an initial evaluation session to get a better feel of GolfTEC.