Friday, March 02, 2012

Greener Pastures

Greener pastures. That's where I'm heading. After six years on my
own as a consultant, I have decided to return to the corporate
world. It was a difficult decision. I've enjoyed some very good
years but also experienced some very challenging years. I've
enjoyed the constant variety of projects. It's kept me on my toes
and forced me to develop new skills. I've enjoyed the new
relationships I have developed through consulting; I've made some
very dear friends.

I left Corporate America back in December 2005 when my position
at TV Guide had been moved for the third time to Los Angeles.
While I was always given opportunities to relocate, I chose to
stay in Tulsa to raise my family because the quality of life is
good here, and you don't have to be rich to live well. There's a
church on every corner, and people -- total strangers -- stop to chat
in the street all the time. It's a friendly, safe place to live
and raise a family.

I wanted to travel less and be more accessible to my family,
especially my young children. At least that was the goal. But
like most goals, not always achievable. As my consulting practice
grew, I found myself traveling even more and being away from home
every other week. Eventually, something had to give, and I walked
away from some very large retainer relationships in favor of
staying home more.

Eventually, I transitioned from a home office to a shared office
space a friend offered to me. This exposed me to new
relationships and opportunities. But then the economy starting
taking a turn for the worst, and life grew more complex.

While I managed to keep things going for a long time, it became
harder and harder to maintain the quality of life I wanted my
family to have. And so, I threw my hat in the ring for a job
opportunity that crossed my email box a few weeks ago, and
starting on March 5, I go to work for AT&T, as an Area Sales
Manager over Internet Advertising Solutions for Tulsa and
Springfield. I'm very excited and consider myself very blessed to
join their team.

I've shut down all of my consulting sites. If you visit them,
you'll see I've posted a photo of greener pastures. Just my way
of saying I've moved on.

I'm actively transitioning design projects like ebook covers and
such to my daughter. She is a very talented illustrator
considering she is still in high school. Rather than encourage
her to find a part-time job waiting tables, I'm encouraging her
to explore her entrepreneurial side and assume the helm for
EbookCoverArtist.com. I'll be mentoring here from the sidelines,
but it's her baby, now.

I'm hoping my son will start running my other passive web sites,
keeping them updated and responding to questions. He's still a
little young, but he is a techno-wiz, and exhibiting an interest
in all things Internet. I'm blessed to have such great and
capable kids.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the past few weeks, I've received some emails from new
subscribers asking me "what the heck is this newsletter about?"
Most folks claim they love my newsletter and have been
subscribers for over 15 years! There's over 2000 of you guys out
there. Even I'm amazed by this number. 2000 pen pals!

This newsletter has taken many twists and turns. When I first
started newsletter publishing back in the late 1990s, I had
cultivated several different email lists based upon different web
sites focused on different subject matter areas where I had some
level of expertise. Eventually, trying to publish a dozen
different newsletters got to be too much for even me, so I
decided to roll them all into one, and try to touch as many
different subjects as possible. At one point, there were as many
as 10,000 total subscribers, but since my consolidation, 2000
have stayed loyal and continue to receive, read and respond to my
ramblings.

So what's this newsletter about? It's about me and my family --
real people -- trying to lead a good life -- financially and
spiritually. It's about the things that excite me: marketing,
writing, designing, inventing, the Internet, performing magic, my
family, and my God. Part slice of life and part business.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of my favorite sites is CoolToolAwards.com. I've been running
this site since 1997, reviewing and recommending products I buy
and use everyday. I've recently added two product reviews which
some of you will find worthy of your time to read and learn more
about.

The first product review is for AutoWebLaw. This product was
first introduced several years ago to help anyone with a web site
to protect themselves from unwanted legal action against them. It
was a forms-based software package that included specially
written legal documents for the web site owner. You entered your
personal information, clicked a button, and the software quickly
created a custom set of documents you could copy and paste into
your site.

Given the constantly changing Internet/Legal landscape, it's more
important than ever before to make sure you are adequately
protected with the right types of legal documentation. Hiring a
lawyer to do this for you could cost thousands of dollars, but
AutoWebLaw can save you both time and money. Learn more here:


http://www.cooltoolawards.com/AutoWebLaw.html


The second product review is for Roku. Now if you already own an
Internet-ready TV, then you won't need this device, but if your
TV is not Internet-ready and you would like to watch Netflix or
other subscription-based video streaming services on your TV,
then you might like to learn about the Roku.

When my family decided to lower our cable TV expenses by
eliminating movie channels, we decided to go with Netflix. For
under $10/month we had instant access to over 17,000 movies and
TV shows, and we could watch them anywhere we had Internet
access. The only problem was the TV in our master bedroom was not
Internet-ready.

The Roku box is a low-cost product that plugs into the A/V in the
back of your TV. It's wireless and enables you to quickly connect
to Netflix and many other services. Click this link to learn more
how you can save $5.00 on the purchase of a Roku box. Highly
recommended.

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/Roku.html

The honorable mention for product of the month still goes to
XSitePro. If you want to design web sites for yourself or clients
faster, better, cheaper, I can think of no better way to do it.
This product is so full-featured, it's not funny. It's so easy to
use, even a techno-phobe could design and publish a good looking
web site in a few minutes. Learn more here:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/XSite-Pro.html

Well, I need to clear out my office today and start getting
myself focused on the new job. I'll still remain in contact with
you guys at least once a month. After 15 years of cultivating our
relationship, I'm not about to say goodbye just yet!

All my best,

Steven