Alaa Hassan

The Most Passionate eCommerce Coach & Advisor

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How To Start Hiking As A Hobby (Perfect for Beginners)

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How to Start Hiking

What Is Hiking?

Hiking is another version of walking but for longer distances.  It can be done in the forest, mountains or any type of challenging trail.  Some people believe hiking is difficult or must be done on a steep trail – they are wrong! Hiking can be enjoyed at any level and that’s what makes it really unique.  You don’t need to be an expert or have sophisticated equipment.  All you need is a trail and some comfortable shoes and you’re ready to go!

How I Got Started Into Hiking

I was never a hiker or ever thought that I would become one someday.  I do enjoy going out for walks around the neighbourhood but that’s it. It all started in 2014 when my wife challenged me to go Ziplining up in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec but this was no regular zipline.  Here’s a video showing exactly what this experience was all about (it’s not me but some other person who recorded it).

zipline tremblant

Right after this, that’s when I started appreciating the outdoors.

My wife and I went on to do some canoeing, biking and finally tried hiking for the first time and that’s when I fell in love with it.

outdoors with alaa

 

7 Key Benefits of Hiking    

I’m sure you already know that exercise is good for you at any age.  It’s one of the best ways of staying healthy these days and you don’t need to go hardcore at it.  It’s recommended that you give yourself 20min, 3 times a week of cardio exercise.  This will help your muscles stay active and your heart pumping.

Obvious Benefits of Hiking

  • The smell of nature
  • The sounds of birds
  • Breathtaking views
  • Breathing fresh air

On the other hand, there are many other benefits to hiking:

  1. Improves blood pressure
  2. Improves bone density
  3. Strengthens your core
  4. Maintains a healthy weight
  5. Strengthens your overall balance
  6. Improves your mood (positive effect!)
  7. Strengthens your hips & legs

I’m sure there are many more positive benefits to hiking but I believe those are the most important ones.

Whenever I feel emotionally tired or stressed from work, I plan for some hiking.  It really allows me to relax my body unlike any other sport I’ve tried before.  Sometimes, you feel sore but nothing to intense unless you’ve hiked a very difficult trail.

After every session, I feel unbelievably good and ready to tackle what life has to throw at me.  I’m in a better mood and fully energized.

Equipment I Purchased for Hiking  

Only after 3 hiking sessions that’s when my wife and I decided to step up our game.  We realized how much we like this sport and figured we need to purchase the right equipment since we plan on doing it more often.

You really don’t need much in terms of equipment unless you want to feel comfortable during and after each hike.

4 Reasons Why I Decided to Purchase Some Hiking Equipment

  1. My feet started hurting whenever I did long trailshiking shoes
  2. My shoes were slippery
  3. I was sweating a lot
  4. I needed something to carry my wallet, keys, water bottle and some snacks

We decided to visit a Salomon hiking store in Montreal.  This brand is known for its quality products when it comes to hiking.  I also bought some other items from brands like Nike and Under Armour.

My Hiking Equipment List

  1. Shoes
  2. Comfortable socks
  3. Stretch pants
  4. Long sleeve shirt
  5. Boxers
  6. Hoodie
  7. Walking sticks
  8. Insulated water bottle
  9. Hiking backpack
  10. Sunglasses (already had a pair)
  11. iPhone with headphones

salomon hiking equipment

What should You Bring With You When Hiking?

My wife and I try our best to carry the least amount of things on each hiking trip.  It makes it a lot easier and you don’t need to carry lots of heavy things.  Here’s a list of items we bring with us:

  • Water
  • Veggies snacks
  • Protein bars
  • Simple sandwiches (for longer trails)
  • Camera

List of Hiking Trails in Quebec, Canada

Since I live in Montreal, I decided to try as many hiking trails as I can that are close enough to my city.  I didn’t want to have to drive more than 2 hours to reach one.  That was my limit.  Here’s  list of all of them I’ve tried so far:

  1. Mont-tremblant
  2. Mont St-Bruno
  3. Mont-Royal
  4. Mont Saint-Hillaire
  5. Old Montreal
  6. Île-du-Boucherville
  7. Lachine Canal

If you’re familiar with some of those areas, you will notice how accessible they are.  I consider long walks to be hiking as well as long as we maintain a fast walking speed.

montremblant hiking

Final Words

I plan on hiking in Winter but will need to purchase some extra stuff such a warm jacket, gloves and maybe snow rackets.

You should really give it a shot and try it.  Do it with someone as that makes it a lot more fun since you have someone to talk to along the way.  Remember to stretch before hiking.  Start slow.  You don’t need to go all out with the equipment. Use whatever shoes you have and just get out there and walk!

Let me know if you discover new hiking trails near Montreal that I haven’t mentioned above 🙂

You can follow me on Instagram since that’s where I share my hiking pics!

hike while you can

How Arianna Huffington’s Keynote Changed My Leadership Style at Inbound 2013

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Arianna Huffington Inbound 2013

In 2013, I attended Hubspot’s Inbound Conference where I heard Seth Godin’s keynote that truly changed the way I do business.

Arianna Huffington, president of HuffingtonPost.com, had also a scheduled keynote about Leadership.  All I have to say is WOW!

3 Things I Learned From Her

  • The importance of sleeping
  • The importance of disconnecting electronically
  • How to lead & be more productive

Instead of me summarizing the whole session, here it is via Youtube.  Enjoy!

Got A Passion? You Should Start Blogging About It

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Blog About Your Passion

Let me set the record straight: I dislike writing!

It’s hard to believe but I really do.  I honestly have a hard time writing content but nonetheless, I still try.

I’ve been blogging on and off for many years.  I started a simple Tumblr blog, moved to WordPress, tried blogger, tested out Medium and now back to WordPress.  I’ve launched many blogs in the past 2 years. Most of them simply failed.

Mistakes I’ve Done While Blogging

  1. I wasn’t serious about it
  2. I wasn’t consistent
  3. I wasn’t motivated
  4. I was too worried about how many people visited the blog
  5. I wasn’t writing valuable content
  6. I wasn’t focused
  7. I DID NOT HAVE A PLAN
  8. I DID NOT HAVE A STRATEGY

I’m sure I can think of many other mistakes but for now, those are the most important ones I can remember having contributed to my blogging failures.

I did learn a lot though. I’ve tested a lot of tools and technologies.  I’ve spent a lot of time and money as well. Nothing is gone to waste.

It was a great learning experience.

How I Started Blogging About My Passion

At first, I blogged about my life, business stuff & eCommerce.  I posted articles all over the place (Tumblr, WordPress, Medium).  But for some reason, I felt lost.  There was a need for me to create a central hub for all my posts.

But here’s the problem: if I was going to do that, it meant that I should stick to one topic since that’s what everyone recommends within the blogging industry.  Position yourself and blog about that topic so that you become relevant and focused. I felt I couldn’t do that since I loved blogging about everything.  It was sort of my own digital journal.

A couple of months ago, that’s when I decided to use my old domain name passionTribe.com for my new blog.  I didn’t know exactly what the blog is going to be about other than me writing about everything that comes to my mind.

I have many passions but one thing I’ve noticed is that I love to inspire people to do things.  Those are things I enjoy doing myself such as learning, trying new activities, working on projects, launching a new idea, entrepreneurship & having an online business.  I simply started writing about those topics.  I didn’t really care much if Google would rank my posts or not.  I was more focused on sharing my story and inspiring others.

What Else Can You Blog About?

So far, blogging on passionTribe has allowed me to train myself in becoming a better blogger.  I have to learn from my mistakes and so far, it’s working really well.  I’m actually starting to enjoy this 🙂

As always, I can’t sit still.  I decided to launch a new blog specifically for the eCommerce industry.  One way to drive new clients to your business is to create valuable content that will help your target customers solve their problems.

I have my own conversion rate optimization agency for eCommerce.  I need to launch a blog for it and I decided to blog about my whole experience here on passsionTribe.  It will benefit my current readers since it will inspire them to get started in blogging.

If you’re not sure what to write about, just start writing about anything just like I’ve done.  You will find something later on that will excite you to write about even more and specialize in it.

Just Start Blogging!

How Seth Godin's Keynote Changed My Business Thinking at Inbound 2013

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Seth Godin Inbound 2013

In 2013, I decided to attend Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing conference in Boston for the first time.

It was a life changing event for me.  Since 2005, I’ve attended and spoken at many eCommerce conferences every single year.  I heard amazing speakers and learned lots of valuable content.  I was lucky enough to hear Al Gore, Fareed Zakaria, Reed Hastings, Meg Whitman and many other powerful speakers share their insights about business & eCommerce.

My All-Time Favorite Keynote

I truly admire Seth Godin and seeing him speak for the first time at Inbound 2013 was a dream come true.  I was expecting him to deliver the best keynote as usual but honestly, I wasn’t expecting him to change my business thinking (which he did).  It was my AHA! moment.  It woke me up!

Glad to see that Hubspot recorded the event.  They keynote is around 1 hour.

Make some tea, sit back and watch it.  Trust me, it will be worth it!

What I Would Do If I Was Locked Inside a Shopping Mall

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Locked Inside a Shopping Mall

Let’s assume this was to happen to me in 1992.

I was a little boy with no experience in anything other than eating, wasting time and simply having fun.  Honestly, I was an expert and knew exactly how to be productive whenever I wanted to have fun.

Before we start..

Let’s assume all stores in the mall didn’t have any locked doors.  There might be some cameras but I was smart enough to hide from them and not have the security guard notice me running around.

Where Would I Start?

I would first wait to make sure everyone was actually gone from the mall…..and then…..

1. Go insane at the ice cream store

2. Try every candy at the candy shop

3. Play Video Games at the Electronic Store

4. Find the coolest sneakers to wear

5. Start jumping on all the mattresses in the furniture store

What If I Was Locked in 2014?

I feel kids these days don’t know how to have fun like we used to. Us parents are even more paranoid than ever.

I believe the first thing I would have done if I was locked inside the shopping mall was to call my parents. Why? Well, most of us now have our own cell phone.  I would also be too worried about what my friends would think of me if they were to find out I was stuck in a mall.

I would call my parents immediately and then I would remain in the same spot with my iPhone socializing with people on Facebook while waiting.

Don’t you wish we were back in the 90s?

 

How Ugg Australia Can Increase Online Sales in Montreal

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Ugg Australia Marketing Mistake

I was on my way back from speaking in Atlanta at IceRetailer, an eCommerce conference hosted by my good friend John Lawson, when I noticed this new marketing campaign.

Ugg Australia, a company that sells men’s and women’s boots, displayed its products in some very cool transparent plastic cubes.  They caught my attention as soon as I arrived at the baggage claims area in Montreal’s airport.

3 Positive Things I Noticed About the Boots

  • Good quality (they didn’t look cheap)
  • Perfect for our cold winter in Montreal
  • Many styles to choose from for both men and women

One thing you’ll notice in the baggage claim area is how many people are using their phones while waiting for the carousel to start moving.  I was one of them.

I did see a pair of boots that my wife would like to have but Ugg Australia forgot to make it easy for me to order them.

3 Things Ugg Australia Can Improve in This Campaign

  1. Add a product name or model #
  2. Display your website URL & how easy it is to ship to Montreal (is it free?)
  3. Which store carries them or Do you ship to store?

Those small tactics aren’t really hard to implement but can truly improve the campaign.

You’ll notice that even big companies such as Ugg Australia can make marketing mistakes.  Learn from them and make sure you avoid them within your own business.