CablesAndKits Blog

Adding value to your IT infrastructure

Jason Gazaway

CEO Daily Update – 12.16.2020

by

Today’s Topics: “So do washing machines” | Today’s Christmas Deal | Hand Sanitizers | 5G & Business | News to Start Your Day

Happy Wednesday!

December 16th is Pythagorean Theorem Day and Chocolate Covered Anything Day…The sum of the squares of the first two digits equals the square of the last digit. You can eat something covered in chocolate while you figure that out.

Yesterday I was reminded of a scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Do you remember when Clark was ready to show off his hard work on all the lights? He gathers the family outside, makes a big announcement about dedicating the display, asks for a drumroll, plugs in the lights and … nothing. His mother-in-law makes a comment about the work being a “silly waste of resources” and his daughter sticks up for him by reminding her grandmother how hard he has worked. His father-in-law, obviously unimpressed, pipes up with, “so do washing machines!”

We have worked really hard this year at CablesAndKits. In addition to keeping up with our technology business, we sourced and added PPE products within a matter of weeks. We worked diligently to keep up with demand, expanded that product line quickly and sold in ways we had never sold before. Not knowing what the future held, we kept our operations team lean even with the increased demand, and they really stepped up to the plate. Our product, sales and other supporting teams learned to work remotely in new ways. We tried many new marketing efforts and later onboarded a whole marketing team. And there’s so much more that happened behind the scenes.

I know our hard work is in good company, because I’ve heard similar stories from many of you. Everything felt volatile when COVID hit and work was something we could DO to move forward. And now that we’re here at the end of the year, we are actively evaluating what we’ve accomplished and seeking to make the work we do in 2021 even better.

How can we work better than a washing machine? We do not want to keep ourselves busy knocking items off of a never ending to-do list: laundry – check, grocery shopping – check, clean bathroom – check. We want our efforts to create value. Our formula for creating value is to provide you with products that you need, on time and with an exceptional shopping experience. We love that we can have a relationship with you through things like this email and hope to positively impact the lives of those we are able to connect with.

I hope you’ll take some time to do some self-evaluation this year, and if you haven’t done it already, you must watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It is a classic!

Christin

Product Spotlights & Updates from Rebecca:

Deal 7 of our “12 Deals of Christmas” is here and we think you’ll like it!

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.16.2020

CEO Daily Update – 12.15.2020

by

Today’s Topics: Gift Giving | Today’s Christmas Deal | Shoe Covers | What is Right? Part 2 | News to Start Your Day

Happy Tuesday!

December 15th is National Cupcake Day & Bill of Rights Day! Exercise your right to a cupcake today!

Today we received an unexpected gift from a vendor, and I just have to share it with you guys. This vendor often sends us little gifts for everyone in the family at Christmas, including our girls. This year he included a special gift – a 3D model/re-creation of one of our family pictures. It is so cool!

Here is the original picture from 2018 and a picture of the 3D model he sent. We all love it!

His gift made me think about the art of gift giving. I absolutely LOVE to give gifts. I enjoy thinking about what someone else would like and buying them something they (usually) wouldn’t buy for themselves. This little 3D model is a great example of that. I would’ve never bought this for our home, because I didn’t even know such a product existed. Thoughtful gifts can make people feel a variety of positive emotions – appreciated, seen or heard, loved – and it can bring great joy to the gift giver.

Do you have the gift of gift giving? If you do, please don’t be afraid to exercise it. The amount you spend isn’t important. By being thoughtful towards others you never know who you will touch in a special way when they need it most. So, whatever your gift is, exercise it well. If you haven’t read it already, check out The Five Love Languages for a breakdown of several (well, five actually) ways we speak love to one another. Knowing your language and the language of those closest to you will serve you well.

So that’s my encouragement for the day: Don’t be afraid to show love. We could all use a little more of it in this crazy world and in these crazy times.

Christin

Product Spotlights & Updates from Rebecca:

It’s time for Deal 6 in our 12 Deals of Christmas!

Today’s deal is an awesome HP GL360 Generation 8 Server! This Server comes with (2) Intel E52630 processors, 64GB RAM, and (6) 300GB Hard Drives! This 1RU server was specifically designed for server rooms where space is a concern. It features smart power and cooling management and comes equipped with fault tolerance! Further, it includes redundant fans, power supplies, and mirrored memory!

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.15.2020

CEO Daily Update – 12.14.2020

by

Today’s Topics: Deck The Halls | Today’s Christmas Deal | Alcohol Wipes In-stock | 10 Days of Christmas Giving | News to Start Your Day

Happy Monday!

December 14th is Gingerbread Decorating Day and International Monkey Day…gingerbread housing decorating ain’t no monkey business!

I am happy to report that the halls are finally decked at our home! Whew. Apropos for 2020, it did not go down as expected.

We have a great tree: slim form factor, real-feel limbs, pre-lit with lots of bright white lights, not too tall. It usually takes me 2-3 hours to get it set up and decorated, unless of course there are lights that are out. I’m pretty patient and generally take my time finding the problem lights and replacing them. But of course this year is special: the whole middle section is out … and I’m kind of short on patience. I’ll save the long story and just tell you that we are now the owners of a brand new color changing LED-lit tree. I’m choosing to look at the bright side: we no longer have to debate which is better, color lights or white lights, since we now have both – on the same tree!

The girls are thrilled that it is feeling like Christmas at home. We even watched The Santa Clause to make it officially official.

Are you Team Real Tree or Team Artificial Tree? Color lights or white lights?

I’m looking forward to doing some baking next weekend. Off to find a dairy-free, gluten free, egg free cookie recipe. (Oh, what a year.)

Be sure to check out our 12 Days of Christmas Deals and 10 Days of Christmas Giving series (first 5 below)!

Christin

Product Spotlights & Updates from Rebecca:

We are rolling into our 5th deal from our “12 Days of Christmas Sale” with an awesome sale on Fiber Cables!

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.14.2020

CEO Daily Update – 12.11.2020

by

Today’s Topics: Social Connection? | Rebecca’s Favorite Christmas Deal | New Use for Goggles | Cat8 Ethernet vs. 40G Fiber Optics | News to Start Your Day

It’s Friday!!! (2 weeks till Christmas Day!)

December 11th is Magnum Pi Day…celebrate and rock your mustache and Hawaiian shirt today.

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you all have a great weekend. We have plans at our house to finally get our Christmas decorations up. I guess this means I should take down Fall, right? (Ha!) I’m planning to make a pot roast (this recipe by The Pioneer Woman is my favorite) and maybe do a little baking. We also promised the kids a Christmas movie night. ‘Tis the season!

Hey, are you on social media? We are considering adding some different ways to keep in touch. I’ll drop our social links below. Connect with us if that’s your thing.

Connect on: Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn

Chat with you next week,

Christin

Product Spotlights & Updates from Rebecca:

It’s time for Deal #4 of our 12 Deals of Christmas and I gotta say, this is a great one!

We are currently offering one of our favorite conference phones, the CP-8831-K9 “NEW IN BOX” for just $315!! In case you were wondering, that is 43% OFF! This VoIP conference phone features high-definition voice performance as well as 360° coverage and a full-duplex two-way wideband audio hands-free speaker. We love the Cisco 8800 series of phones for their advanced features and scalability and we believe they are a sound investment for anyone looking to future-proof their space! With this phone, you get superior wideband acoustics with a two-element speaker for maximum voice bandwidth to give you enhanced speech quality and speaker recognition.

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.11.2020

CEO Daily Update – 12.9.2020

by

Today’s Topics: “Don’t let what you have stand in the way of what you need.” | Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Switch Deal | Sanitizer Dispensers | Lesser-Known Christmas Trivia | News to Start Your Day

Happy Wednesday!

December 9th is Christmas Card Day, National Llama Day, and World Techno Day, so get your Christmas cards ready to mail while sitting with your llama, while listening to techno music.

Hey there, friends. Hope you’re having a great week so far. I’ve been attempting to devote some time to reflection as the end of the year draws near. Today I was reminded of a phrase Craig uses occasionally to incite action: “Don’t let what you have stand in the way of what you need.”

I was chatting with a friend about some changes happening in her life. She and her husband want to move out of their neighborhood onto land and build a house. She is a successful small business owner, and she’s closing her business. Why would a successful business owner close her business? What she has is standing in the way of what she wants. While her business is successful, she has been stuck in a rut for several years. It isn’t interesting to her anymore. Moving out of her home will mean downsizing, which will require emotional and physical resources. Planning and building a new home will also take much of her time. She and her husband have had this dream of a smaller house with more land for many years. As we talked more about what was coming up for them, I was more and more excited for her. I believe the choices they are making for their family will be a creative reset for her, and I am excited that her family will be going after their dreams together. Big changes require courageous choices.

This year has been tough in many ways. Lots of unknowns, hard choices, and wildly different points of view about how to handle it all has stretched us. But in the midst of all the hard stuff, there has been something beautiful happening too, a reset of sorts. Families at home together more, less things to-do each day and more intentional choices about what makes it on the list for tomorrow or next week, a surge of creativity as people have to figure out how to live and work differently, and a strengthening of communities that comes from going through trying times together. I believe many of the consequences of the “new reality” we’re living in are positive ones, things people have longed for but were afraid to go after. What we had before wasn’t negative enough to make us change our ways. I encourage you to take some time to reflect. Let’s use the things we’ve learned from this year to remind us to be bold and courageous, to live purposeful lives. Don’t let what you have stand in the way of what you need.

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.9.2020

CEO Daily Update – 12.8.2020

by

Today’s Topics: Staff Favorites: Books | SFP-10G-SR Deal | 12 Days of Christmas Deals | What is Right? – Decision Filters | News to Start Your Day

Happy Tuesday!

December 8th is National “Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day”…anytime but 2020, right?!?!

Hey there, friends. We have been thinking through some gift guides that may be helpful to you all this time of year. I shared a CK Staff Favorites guide with you last week. This one is for the guys and gals in your life who are looking to expand their business knowledge. Here at CK we have several books that have been a source of wisdom or guidance for us. Out of hundreds of business books, these are the ones that we reference often, that speak to us most, and we think they could be helpful for the business leader in your life too.

(Fun fact: whenever Craig is recommended a book by a friend, colleague or acquaintance, he almost always logs into his Amazon account and orders it right away. When I say we’ve curated this list of hundreds of books, I’m not kidding!)

Hope this is helpful! Be sure to check out some of our product updates below.

Christin

Product Spotlights & Updates from Rebecca:

Happy Tuesday! We are kicking off our 12 Days of Christmas Deals sale with one of the absolute most popular transceiver modules we sell, the SFP-10G-SR!

The Cisco SFP-10G-SR module is a best seller for a reason! This module gives you a wide variety of 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options for your data center, enterprise wiring closet, and service provider transport applications. This transceiver boasts a variety of features and benefits, including being the industry’s smallest form factor, which results in the greatest density per chassis. The SFP-10G-SR is hot-swappable and can be switched out with ease. Cisco 10GBase-SR SFP+ modules also feature Digital Optical Monitoring (DOM) functionality, which allows you to monitor the signal strength, the temperature of the SFP, and the transceiver voltage.

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update – 12.8.2020