Making some massive headway on outstanding projects at the day job, much more than I hoped. People are being hired, the major database is moved thanks in total to a ridiculously dedicated employee, and a major template revamp initiative is apparently months ahead of schedule.
As it has been since March, I’ve earnestly attempted to move family matters higher in the realm of things to which I need to pay more attention. I think my ridiculously understanding wife would agree that I’ve made leaps and small bounds on that front in the second half of our first year of officialdom.
In my previous blog I mentioned that I needed some uncertainty, something I’ve never done before and never dreamed I could. Leaving a company I’ve loved to start my own has made me hyperventilate more than a few times.
Knowing what I am doing -- the ins and outs of what I’m offering -- comforts me immensely. Having provided these specific communications services repeatedly in the last decade with positive results, more recently in the context of social media, gives me incredible confidence in our success.
It’s wildly surprising to me how social media has become such a crazy passion of mine (of ours) in the last four years. Communicating in online formats ... that’s easy. Everyone does it. Doing it with purpose is a different story. Doing it with a strategy, with an infrastructure, within a framework that supports grassroots engagement ... well, that’s just bonus. And that’s what this new gig is all about, really.
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
A New Chapter
Who is crazy enough to voluntarily leave a perfectly fine job amid the country’s second worst recession without a parachute?
That’d be me.
After more than seven years at my current employer and 16 in corporate, I’ll soon be off to my own devices, raising and nurturing the consulting business I launched in March. As is my inclination to stay behind the scenes, I am advising clients on the decidedly unsexy side of social media marketing strategy ... editorial calendars, crisis management, social media policy development, awareness strategy, and monitoring, mainly, with a little of this and a little of that thrown in for spice.
Last December and January surfing the holiday party circuit, eight people approached the wife and me asking for our help with this social media problem or that on behalf of their respective companies. We’re generous folks by nature, but we didn’t need to peel the velvet from the hammer to realize the opportunity before us.
The idea was simple. In no-B.S. terms, we would look at an organization’s overall marketing plan, audit its social media presence, and make fact-based recommendations on improving the social presence to help meet the larger marketing objectives. It all seemed so natural. These are exactly the conversations my wife and I have virtually every evening sitting on the back deck watching the sun go down. We live this stuff, eat it up. It’s most certainly a shared passion. But could we do it for a living for ourselves?
We joked about it. Then we talked about it ... a lot. And by mid-March, I gave birth to a bouncing baby LLC, complete with its very own FEIN. We were proud parents planning our baby’s future, and I’ll be darned if babies don’t grow fast! Managing the sentient family, two full-time jobs, a few extracurricular interests and the infant consultancy devoured that season called summer which most of you experienced. Meanwhile, I built out our partner network and began filling the umbilical cord, er, pipeline.
Clearly the wife is the more risk averse, and after seven years in largely the same role, I needed a change. I needed some uncertainty. I needed to do something I’ve never done before, and never dreamed I could or would. So on Thursday, after some herculean calculating to ensure the target audiences would be in the right places at the right times, I tendered my resignation.
It wasn’t a tough decision. In fact, I had already decided back in March. Finding the right time was another story. Change is good, and I had accomplished about all I could hope to there. I’ll stick around for another 5-7 weeks to wrap up a laundry list of projects large and small. It’s not in me to walk away from a mountain of work and leave it to someone else to clean up. After that, I become a full-time Mr. Mom, caring for this toddling company.
While the decision itself was a no brainer, I’m admittedly sad to be leaving such a talented group of employees and colleagues. I take no credit, but sincerely believe that my team is the best RFP team in the software business. And my many friends there beyond my team are also some of the most dedicated and smart people I’ve had the pleasure to work with. The execs taught me a lot about business, about growing a business, and I’ll forever be grateful for the experience. What an amazing ride it has been.
Thanks to the magic of technology, I don’t have to say goodbye. Everyone remains a click, a post, a tweet or a speed dial away. I know I will miss the routine, but I am trading it for that edge-of-my-seat, making-ends-meet thrill ride.
I believe in this so strongly, as does the most understanding wife ever. Demand is high; the pipeline is strong; the passion is off the charts. This.Will.Be.Awesome.
That’d be me.
After more than seven years at my current employer and 16 in corporate, I’ll soon be off to my own devices, raising and nurturing the consulting business I launched in March. As is my inclination to stay behind the scenes, I am advising clients on the decidedly unsexy side of social media marketing strategy ... editorial calendars, crisis management, social media policy development, awareness strategy, and monitoring, mainly, with a little of this and a little of that thrown in for spice.
Last December and January surfing the holiday party circuit, eight people approached the wife and me asking for our help with this social media problem or that on behalf of their respective companies. We’re generous folks by nature, but we didn’t need to peel the velvet from the hammer to realize the opportunity before us.
The idea was simple. In no-B.S. terms, we would look at an organization’s overall marketing plan, audit its social media presence, and make fact-based recommendations on improving the social presence to help meet the larger marketing objectives. It all seemed so natural. These are exactly the conversations my wife and I have virtually every evening sitting on the back deck watching the sun go down. We live this stuff, eat it up. It’s most certainly a shared passion. But could we do it for a living for ourselves?
We joked about it. Then we talked about it ... a lot. And by mid-March, I gave birth to a bouncing baby LLC, complete with its very own FEIN. We were proud parents planning our baby’s future, and I’ll be darned if babies don’t grow fast! Managing the sentient family, two full-time jobs, a few extracurricular interests and the infant consultancy devoured that season called summer which most of you experienced. Meanwhile, I built out our partner network and began filling the umbilical cord, er, pipeline.
Clearly the wife is the more risk averse, and after seven years in largely the same role, I needed a change. I needed some uncertainty. I needed to do something I’ve never done before, and never dreamed I could or would. So on Thursday, after some herculean calculating to ensure the target audiences would be in the right places at the right times, I tendered my resignation.
It wasn’t a tough decision. In fact, I had already decided back in March. Finding the right time was another story. Change is good, and I had accomplished about all I could hope to there. I’ll stick around for another 5-7 weeks to wrap up a laundry list of projects large and small. It’s not in me to walk away from a mountain of work and leave it to someone else to clean up. After that, I become a full-time Mr. Mom, caring for this toddling company.
While the decision itself was a no brainer, I’m admittedly sad to be leaving such a talented group of employees and colleagues. I take no credit, but sincerely believe that my team is the best RFP team in the software business. And my many friends there beyond my team are also some of the most dedicated and smart people I’ve had the pleasure to work with. The execs taught me a lot about business, about growing a business, and I’ll forever be grateful for the experience. What an amazing ride it has been.
Thanks to the magic of technology, I don’t have to say goodbye. Everyone remains a click, a post, a tweet or a speed dial away. I know I will miss the routine, but I am trading it for that edge-of-my-seat, making-ends-meet thrill ride.
I believe in this so strongly, as does the most understanding wife ever. Demand is high; the pipeline is strong; the passion is off the charts. This.Will.Be.Awesome.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Twitter Down! Twitter Down! 31 Things
Twitter went offline today for re-scheduled maintenance for one hour late this afternoon (Central Time).
Wow. This Twitter addict felt ... liberated! In that hour, free of the compulsion to monitor the enlightening and entertaining I accomplished the incredible.
1. I reduced my work inbox to 14 unread messages.
2. I conducted seven productive meetings and escaped with just two action items.
3. I volunteered and filled six sandbags for the next major storm that is sure to hit the city this week and spark a Katie Horror Fest.
4. I baked a cake.
5. I bought a new bicycle and rode 22 miles.
6. I recycled four aluminum Coke Zero cans.
7. I said hi to four strangers.
8. I did not speed.
9. I sent 42 text messages.
10. I admired a piece of art.
11. I thought fondly of someone close to me.
12. I learned origami.
13. I relearned calligraphy.
14. I built a bridge.
15. I designed an airport.
16. I sculpted a fruit bowl.
17. I read the Harry Potter series.
18. I watched the entire Friends series on DVD.
19. I posted 93 Facebook updates.
20. I considered buying a bag of marshmallows.
21. I bought more Purell.
22. I realized that my Pre is 1.7 million times better than my Moto Q.
23. I signed some forms.
24. I played nice when I could have taken a different road.
25. I ate some lasagna. (What? Like you didn't think I would? If only I was stocked with Idaho potatoes to mash with the 2% milk and margarine.)
26. I planned a much needed trip.
27. I admired the blue sky and speckles of white puffiness.
28. I loathed the humidity.
29. I wrote nine songs and won two Grammy award: One for my h.s. rap song, "Runny Nose" and, one for my karaoke performance of Sunday Morning.
30. I thanked six people for things they did that made my life better.
31. I cured fingernail cancer.
Thank you Twitter, for a brief workday respite. How I love you, but how I don't miss you when you're not there. Funny in a way that *life* is happening when we're not looking at Twitter or Tweetdeck or Seesmic or Facebook or whatever.
All snarkiness aside, I love the Twitter folks for what they are, for what the app will become, and for what they did today to reschedule their planned maintenance around a U.S. State Department request to accommodate the post-election protests in Iran.
For those that, in apparent, equivalent snarkiness, label Twitter an arm of U.S. foreign policy, would you say the same in the face of an overnight natural disaster or an accident at the Zion Nuclear Power Station for example?
This is social media. Twitter provides a voice to those without. Any ill-conceived, State Department motives aside, Twitter acted responsibly in letting those abroad voice their opinions and concerns at a time when it was (and is) most needed.
For my part, I hope that these demonstrations result in a peaceful transition of power. I understand that I am idealistic, but still, with a truly democratic Iran, what a wonderful world it would be.
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