Has it really been 6 months since I last posted an entry into my blog? What an eventful 6 months it's been, too bad you missed it... I will be recapping it over this week, so stay tuned!
Jonathan
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Rubber Hits the Road
So briefly, here's what I've done in the past few weeks:
My dad did a lot of work to help me send out 8 smoke detectors retrofitted with a special customized message I mailed to various CEOs and Sales Execs about how my product can help them. I got a iPad application completed which is basically a proof of concept for more complex programs to sell to customers later on. I completed two versions of an interactive demo of my software, one of which is highlighted in a demo I put on youtube, and one you can download from my website.
I also just finished working out a deal with a PR firm who is going to give me unlimited press releases each month as well as access to a number of PR tools for $25/ month. Normally it costs about $200 for *each* press release you have. This will give me some extra credibility for subsequent contact with future clients.
One of my virtual assistances recently finished up a list of 150 prospective clients, and I've already lined up my next 40 I will be contacting.
Speaking of contacting, this week will be the week I start calling up lots of prospects. Probably my least favorite thing to do, but that's what I've been working hard on the website and my mailers for, so here goes nothing. I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and hopefully I'll make some sales this week too!
My dad did a lot of work to help me send out 8 smoke detectors retrofitted with a special customized message I mailed to various CEOs and Sales Execs about how my product can help them. I got a iPad application completed which is basically a proof of concept for more complex programs to sell to customers later on. I completed two versions of an interactive demo of my software, one of which is highlighted in a demo I put on youtube, and one you can download from my website.
I also just finished working out a deal with a PR firm who is going to give me unlimited press releases each month as well as access to a number of PR tools for $25/ month. Normally it costs about $200 for *each* press release you have. This will give me some extra credibility for subsequent contact with future clients.
One of my virtual assistances recently finished up a list of 150 prospective clients, and I've already lined up my next 40 I will be contacting.
Speaking of contacting, this week will be the week I start calling up lots of prospects. Probably my least favorite thing to do, but that's what I've been working hard on the website and my mailers for, so here goes nothing. I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and hopefully I'll make some sales this week too!
Balance in My Life
Wow, has it really been over 3 weeks since my last post?? Here's a brief recap:
First, I want to say a big thanks for my parents who were up here for the past two weeks. While things have been very exciting, they've also been very stressful with Debbie working nearly full time, and me trying to get my website up, demo ready etc. I really could not have launched the website and be ready for the next phase in the business without my parents coming up and helping out, watching Elliana, preparing marketing mailings for me, etc.
Secondly, I have been reminded of Dan Miller's words about mortgaging areas of success in your life for the sake of the business, and I've definitely been borrowing heavily on areas such as exercise, time with Debbie and Elliana, etc lately and it's time to throttle down the business efforts and get a better balance in other areas in my life.
I ran a half marathon with Debbie a week ago, and I think it pretty much served as a metaphor (ok, maybe prime example) of borrowing from areas of success. Debbie's been training the past 14 weeks for this 13.1 mile run, and while I didn't feel I needed to train as much as she did since I've run 13 mile distances many times in prior marathon trainings, obviously you do need to run a decent amount. Well, in the past 60 days leading up to the race, I think I ran right around 20 miles total. I ran a few 5 mile runs here and there, a 10 mile run 6 weeks earlier, and then a few 3 mile runs after that. To put it another way, I should have averaged at least 20 miles each week for the past 8 weeks, i.e. 160 miles run, and I ended up running almost nothing.
This wasn't by choice mind you, I had planned to run more, especially the 4 weeks leading to the race, but between a few colds, being crazy busy, etc, one day I just realized the race was 4 days away. Whoops. So I ended up running it, and amazingly, I survived. Between caffeine and ibuprofen, I kept up with Debbie, and came through as her encouragement to finish the longest race she's ever done. I paid the price in pain the next few days, but I survived.
So back to the whole metaphor deal, that's pretty much how other areas in my life have gone as well. I've just managed to eek out victory on the brink of seeming massive failure, and while I've been bruised and banged up, I've survived. While it might make for a good story for someone reading about such an adventure, it most definitely is not the smartest way to roll, and is a bit like playing Russian roulette.
So, starting this weekend, even though I have a ton of things to do on the businesses as I finally kick off selling in earnest, family needs to come first. The business is either going to blossom or wilt with the amount of time I'm able to allocate towards it, (and obviously with God's guidance and direction in our lives), but the break neck speed of the past 6 months needs to slow down considerably.
Today I must say has been considerably less stressful than many previous days despite the fact that my parents left, Elliana was fussy, and I had tons of ideas swirling in my head about the business. Debbie, Elliana, and I spent a lot of good quality time together, and things just seemed to work out. In the past, a day like today could have lead to lots of stress and frustration as the worries and problems piled up, but I think we're off on the right foot. We'll see how the week unfolds...
First, I want to say a big thanks for my parents who were up here for the past two weeks. While things have been very exciting, they've also been very stressful with Debbie working nearly full time, and me trying to get my website up, demo ready etc. I really could not have launched the website and be ready for the next phase in the business without my parents coming up and helping out, watching Elliana, preparing marketing mailings for me, etc.
Secondly, I have been reminded of Dan Miller's words about mortgaging areas of success in your life for the sake of the business, and I've definitely been borrowing heavily on areas such as exercise, time with Debbie and Elliana, etc lately and it's time to throttle down the business efforts and get a better balance in other areas in my life.
I ran a half marathon with Debbie a week ago, and I think it pretty much served as a metaphor (ok, maybe prime example) of borrowing from areas of success. Debbie's been training the past 14 weeks for this 13.1 mile run, and while I didn't feel I needed to train as much as she did since I've run 13 mile distances many times in prior marathon trainings, obviously you do need to run a decent amount. Well, in the past 60 days leading up to the race, I think I ran right around 20 miles total. I ran a few 5 mile runs here and there, a 10 mile run 6 weeks earlier, and then a few 3 mile runs after that. To put it another way, I should have averaged at least 20 miles each week for the past 8 weeks, i.e. 160 miles run, and I ended up running almost nothing.
This wasn't by choice mind you, I had planned to run more, especially the 4 weeks leading to the race, but between a few colds, being crazy busy, etc, one day I just realized the race was 4 days away. Whoops. So I ended up running it, and amazingly, I survived. Between caffeine and ibuprofen, I kept up with Debbie, and came through as her encouragement to finish the longest race she's ever done. I paid the price in pain the next few days, but I survived.
So back to the whole metaphor deal, that's pretty much how other areas in my life have gone as well. I've just managed to eek out victory on the brink of seeming massive failure, and while I've been bruised and banged up, I've survived. While it might make for a good story for someone reading about such an adventure, it most definitely is not the smartest way to roll, and is a bit like playing Russian roulette.
So, starting this weekend, even though I have a ton of things to do on the businesses as I finally kick off selling in earnest, family needs to come first. The business is either going to blossom or wilt with the amount of time I'm able to allocate towards it, (and obviously with God's guidance and direction in our lives), but the break neck speed of the past 6 months needs to slow down considerably.
Today I must say has been considerably less stressful than many previous days despite the fact that my parents left, Elliana was fussy, and I had tons of ideas swirling in my head about the business. Debbie, Elliana, and I spent a lot of good quality time together, and things just seemed to work out. In the past, a day like today could have lead to lots of stress and frustration as the worries and problems piled up, but I think we're off on the right foot. We'll see how the week unfolds...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Chillin' at the Flying Saucer in Nashville, to Collect my Thoughts
Met with Dan Miller today. I have to admit I was a bit concerned considering I was flying out to Nashville for a few days, and dropping a good bit of dough for a few hours of the guys time seemed a bit caviler even by my standards. I guess I was basically going "all in" with my business poker chips if you will, and it's sink or swim time, if you don't mind the mixed metaphores.
My first observation was he wasn't as tall as I'd expected he'd be. He was about 5'10", but not didn't look like he could leap buildings in a single bound,like the persona I'd made him out to be. Despite this, he really ended up giving me some excellent advice. Some of it was nothing new and earth shattering, after all I'd been following the guy for over a year, and have read tons of the same books he has. However, he did have a few really good nuggets, and had a number of suggestions for books, websites, and ideas to research.
Most importantly, he was able to tell me how I could make my company personal, and not just a cold corporation. There's basically two schools of thought out there for biz. development it seems. One says you get real slick marketing, throw money at google ad words, etc. and your clients are compelled by your persuasive marketing to go out and buy your product. The other school says it's all about connections, networking, and relationships.
I couldn't figure out how to combine the two with a engineering software program, so I was gearing up to do the slick marketing route. This left me with the problem that with maybe 120 potential clients, after I contact all of them and make say 20 sales, then what? His solution was to consider the clients as not a single thumbs up or thumbs down sale, but as a pool of potential. Dan suggested I need to establish about 30 close contacts with my pool of contacts, and instead of simply try to market to the clients, think of ways I could help them with podcasts, articles, etc, and send them useful info for their industry. In short, become one of acoustical group who also happens to sell products as well.
I've already made 3-4 good contacts in my sales efforts, and this approach seems to fit my personality much better, and take the pressure off of just trying to extract a sale. It also seems like an excellent long term strategy as well. When I start making my calls, it will be as much to form a relationship and find ways to help potential clients, even if that's not with my product right out of the shoot.
Anyway, I won't ramble about all the details of my biz, but I'll just say that going in I felt like I had a lot going for me but wasn't hitting on all cylinders, and now I feel I have all the pieces in place to go out and and making waves in the field. Just as importantly, this biz will serve as a model for future businesses, so even if it didn't pan out, I could switch gears, and quickly move in another direction.
I can't wait to kick off my new marketing campaign and launch my website. We'll be visiting family this weekend so I won't be able to work on the biz much, but next week I plan on hitting it hard and hopefully generating some sales in the very near future.
Meeting Dan Miller Today...
Things are a little crazy right now. I'm in my hotel room on Nashville, and will be meeting Dan Miller in about two hours. I've been working with a marketing guy this morning, and a layout guy on my software to make it look more professional. This weekend I need to launch my marketing campaign where I'll be sending letters and other info to 20 potential clients. A week after that, I want to have my website up and running. Once these to hurdles are crossed, things should be slightly less hectic.
We'll see how things go, so far I've really enjoyed my trip here. Things seem more peaceful and laid back here in the Bible belt, and I've been able to collect my thoughts and spend time in prayer. This still doesn't seem like a real business but more of a pipe dream, and I imagine it will stay that way until I make a number of sales and can support the family for a number of months in a row. Still though, I was looking at RVs last night, and dreaming about traveling the US. We'll see...
We'll see how things go, so far I've really enjoyed my trip here. Things seem more peaceful and laid back here in the Bible belt, and I've been able to collect my thoughts and spend time in prayer. This still doesn't seem like a real business but more of a pipe dream, and I imagine it will stay that way until I make a number of sales and can support the family for a number of months in a row. Still though, I was looking at RVs last night, and dreaming about traveling the US. We'll see...
Friday, May 28, 2010
Am I In A Made for TV Special (part 2)
Wednesday was indeed, a new day. Still kind of reeling from the faux invader of the previous night, I didn't have too long to dwell on this as I had a meeting with the fortune 500 company who wanted to use my technology. Now when I try and learn a new subject, I go on a reading spree, and so I've recently purchased about 6 books on marketing.
I was going through one such marketing book about a half an hour before my meeting, and one of the points it made was that competition in the market place can be good. The whole Coke v. Pepsi thing actually helped both companies by increasing awareness of the dark cola market. Polaroid shot themselves in the foot by suing and kicking Kodak out of the instant development film industry. I'm not sure why, but then I began to wonder to myself "but what if you could own both "competing" brands? You could market one against the other to create a buzz, get loyal followings for both, and come up the big winner".
Putting that though aside, I went downstairs to my computer to get ready for my meeting. That's when the crazy made-for-tv light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel music would have began if there was a producer in the house. I checked my e-mail, and I had received an e-mail from my former company which I had proposed to work with on this type of technology, back in October.
At the time, I gave them a totally sweet offer that would have cost them nothing, but looking back, the marketing mistake I made was I didn't "find the pain". They didn't have a need, so the potential reward was outbalanced by the perceived risk of working with an outsider.
Wednesday morning, they had their pain. For the past 3 years since I left the company they've been advertising this program that only I knew how to create. Now it seems, someone wants this program, in a big, big way. A typically customer might have 5-8 products they want highlighted. This company wants 50. In short, it's roughly 8 times bigger than the standard project. It's so big, that it would take about 2 months of engineering development time.
So now, a half an hour prior to my first project which is very large in it's own right, my former employer, who only 7 months ago thought this type of technology was not worth pursuing, now has a very interested client.
So only 7 hours from the faux burger incident, I have the potential to have my first two projects, both of which are unusually large. And remember the Pepsi v. Coke scenario I had been thinking about only minutes earlier, it could totally happen here. My brand takes off, I create a project for my former employer with their company brand, and presto! There's a buzz in the industry, and the two leading brands are controlled by yours truly.
Granted, there are about 50 ways this whole thing could go wrong, but I do think God's timing is really interesting. Who knows what the future holds, but our dreams of traveling the world 2-3 months out of the year to do mission work, school Elliana in far off cultures and places etc. seem more and more like a real possibility each day...
I was going through one such marketing book about a half an hour before my meeting, and one of the points it made was that competition in the market place can be good. The whole Coke v. Pepsi thing actually helped both companies by increasing awareness of the dark cola market. Polaroid shot themselves in the foot by suing and kicking Kodak out of the instant development film industry. I'm not sure why, but then I began to wonder to myself "but what if you could own both "competing" brands? You could market one against the other to create a buzz, get loyal followings for both, and come up the big winner".
Putting that though aside, I went downstairs to my computer to get ready for my meeting. That's when the crazy made-for-tv light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel music would have began if there was a producer in the house. I checked my e-mail, and I had received an e-mail from my former company which I had proposed to work with on this type of technology, back in October.
At the time, I gave them a totally sweet offer that would have cost them nothing, but looking back, the marketing mistake I made was I didn't "find the pain". They didn't have a need, so the potential reward was outbalanced by the perceived risk of working with an outsider.
Wednesday morning, they had their pain. For the past 3 years since I left the company they've been advertising this program that only I knew how to create. Now it seems, someone wants this program, in a big, big way. A typically customer might have 5-8 products they want highlighted. This company wants 50. In short, it's roughly 8 times bigger than the standard project. It's so big, that it would take about 2 months of engineering development time.
So now, a half an hour prior to my first project which is very large in it's own right, my former employer, who only 7 months ago thought this type of technology was not worth pursuing, now has a very interested client.
So only 7 hours from the faux burger incident, I have the potential to have my first two projects, both of which are unusually large. And remember the Pepsi v. Coke scenario I had been thinking about only minutes earlier, it could totally happen here. My brand takes off, I create a project for my former employer with their company brand, and presto! There's a buzz in the industry, and the two leading brands are controlled by yours truly.
Granted, there are about 50 ways this whole thing could go wrong, but I do think God's timing is really interesting. Who knows what the future holds, but our dreams of traveling the world 2-3 months out of the year to do mission work, school Elliana in far off cultures and places etc. seem more and more like a real possibility each day...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Am I In A Made for TV Special (part 1)
5-26-10
The last 24 hours have been drama. Full of highs and lows, victory, and failure, love and um, anger. Here's a recap...
Last night I went to state street in Madison to work after Debbie came home from work. I've got it down to an art. I've got an extra battery, a desktop wireless mouse, headset for talking with my VAs over skype,and a list a mile long. The evening started off pretty well with a conversation with a marketing expert about how to position my brand. He thinks my product could be really big because it's not a "me too" brand. No one else is out there doing this sort of thing, so being the first is always a good place. We discussed a marketing campaign followed by a press release a month down the line after I have my first 5 clients. Etc.
This got me feeling pretty good about the business. By the time the coffee shop closed at 11pm, my mind was buzzing with ideas, and a walked up and down state street for awhile to process things. Then I was off to buffalo wild wings - they're open until 1:45am, and free wifi, plus .45 cent wings on tuesday. Win-win-win.
Anyway, at about 12:30 I felt like I had gotten a lot done, and didn't need to push on to 1:45am, and would come home early. I really felt like things were really starting to fall into place with the business, and things were getting better and better. I probably wouldn't need to do many more late nights out until 2am as things were starting to gel. I decided to take a victory lap up state street, around the capital, and to my car, smoking a victory cigar. I was making my way 'round the capital building, and on my way back down state street to my car when the trouble began.
I got a frantic call from Debbie. She though there was a burglar in the house. Normally she can be a little skiddish at night, but she seemed particularly worried. She was whispering and I could barely hear her, and it was noisy on state street, so that didn't help. She told me to "get home fast" and I tried to explain that if there were indeed a burglar in the house, then me arriving home 30 minutes later despite a highly accelerated pace and sprint to my car would probably not be the best course of action.
We went back and forth for about 10 minutes while I tried to tell her she should call the police if there was truly a home invader, and she told me to wait, and then hush, and then she couldn't talk loud. Meanwhile, I was so distracted trying to determine the legitimacy of the home intrusion that I was unable to find which lot I parked at. She kept asking if I was almost home, and not wanting to alarm her further, I told her I was on my way.
Finally after about 25 minutes of agony on the phone, her fear coupled with her frustration that I was not home resulted in a hanging up of the phone. When I finally got home, there was no burglar, but there was a very angry and scared wife who told me that I should never go to Madison to 2am again, and that I should just get my work done and home, etc. etc.
Not the best way to end the night, but a fitting spot for a commercial break.
The last 24 hours have been drama. Full of highs and lows, victory, and failure, love and um, anger. Here's a recap...
Last night I went to state street in Madison to work after Debbie came home from work. I've got it down to an art. I've got an extra battery, a desktop wireless mouse, headset for talking with my VAs over skype,and a list a mile long. The evening started off pretty well with a conversation with a marketing expert about how to position my brand. He thinks my product could be really big because it's not a "me too" brand. No one else is out there doing this sort of thing, so being the first is always a good place. We discussed a marketing campaign followed by a press release a month down the line after I have my first 5 clients. Etc.
This got me feeling pretty good about the business. By the time the coffee shop closed at 11pm, my mind was buzzing with ideas, and a walked up and down state street for awhile to process things. Then I was off to buffalo wild wings - they're open until 1:45am, and free wifi, plus .45 cent wings on tuesday. Win-win-win.
Anyway, at about 12:30 I felt like I had gotten a lot done, and didn't need to push on to 1:45am, and would come home early. I really felt like things were really starting to fall into place with the business, and things were getting better and better. I probably wouldn't need to do many more late nights out until 2am as things were starting to gel. I decided to take a victory lap up state street, around the capital, and to my car, smoking a victory cigar. I was making my way 'round the capital building, and on my way back down state street to my car when the trouble began.
I got a frantic call from Debbie. She though there was a burglar in the house. Normally she can be a little skiddish at night, but she seemed particularly worried. She was whispering and I could barely hear her, and it was noisy on state street, so that didn't help. She told me to "get home fast" and I tried to explain that if there were indeed a burglar in the house, then me arriving home 30 minutes later despite a highly accelerated pace and sprint to my car would probably not be the best course of action.
We went back and forth for about 10 minutes while I tried to tell her she should call the police if there was truly a home invader, and she told me to wait, and then hush, and then she couldn't talk loud. Meanwhile, I was so distracted trying to determine the legitimacy of the home intrusion that I was unable to find which lot I parked at. She kept asking if I was almost home, and not wanting to alarm her further, I told her I was on my way.
Finally after about 25 minutes of agony on the phone, her fear coupled with her frustration that I was not home resulted in a hanging up of the phone. When I finally got home, there was no burglar, but there was a very angry and scared wife who told me that I should never go to Madison to 2am again, and that I should just get my work done and home, etc. etc.
Not the best way to end the night, but a fitting spot for a commercial break.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Gearing up for the big launch
I just realized I currently have almost 10 Virtual Assistance working for me. No wonder I'm so busy! I've got a guy working on an IPAD app for me, 2 web researchers compiling a list of potential clients, a guy doing audio DSP work, a flash programmer, marketing guy, web layout person, and a few others. After the dust settles I think I'll have spent about $250 for all the work I think.
I won't do a recap of all the irons I have in the fire, but basically I'm trying to ramp up to get my website up, my first marketing campaign launched, my software capabilities expanded, and keep up with 3 potential clients.
My first marketing campaign will involve offering a free IPAD if clients spend $2,500 or more. We'll see how it goes.
Gotta run!
I won't do a recap of all the irons I have in the fire, but basically I'm trying to ramp up to get my website up, my first marketing campaign launched, my software capabilities expanded, and keep up with 3 potential clients.
My first marketing campaign will involve offering a free IPAD if clients spend $2,500 or more. We'll see how it goes.
Gotta run!
Friday, May 21, 2010
I've never been more tired, or more excited in my life
More exciting news. Well first of all, today I was really, really tired. I got about 4 hours of sleep for the past three nights straight, plus Elliana kept waking up, so I'm not sure how much of that was actual sleep. Debbie and I have worked out this schedule where a few nights a week I can go to Madison to get some work done. I usually start at a coffee shop from 8pm-11pm, and then move to buffalo wild wings until 2am. Both have free wifi so I can get my work done.
Don't have much time here, so here's just a few quick developments....
1) Have a meeting with green glue and their marketing firm next Wednesday to discuss the project
2) Hired a lady from Egypt with an IT degree to do some research for me. Came up with a crazy idea of having her sell my product in the middle east on my behalf since she speaks Arabic. She's actually pretty excited about the idea. There's about 50 ways it could totally not work I know, but it might be fun to give it a shot. The most important thing though is not to make this a distraction for all my other stuff, or sales. So I'm limiting my time on this to 2 hours a week max. She basically has do to all the research, learn more about acoustics, and try and find some sales. I'll give her some pointers here and there. If she makes a sale then great, if not, she's learning in the process, and I'm learning about international selling as well. We'll see...
3) Got a great idea to port my software to the Ipad. That's cool in and of itself and I'm talking with some VAs to see how much it would cost. The real cool thing though, is I'm thinking about having a promo - Buy a $2,500 project and get a fee Ipad! I'm thinking that marketing people already will like the product, and the chance at owning an Ipad might be enough to push them to buy.
4) Dan Miller has agreed to meet with me to discuss my business! He's got this program where you spend a few hours with him and he helps give you direction for your business. He only takes people whose business seems like they have good potential, so I'm really flatter he's agreed to take me on.
Next week is when I hopefully can get a lot of the loose ends tied up on the website and product development, and can start to focus on selling. I think I tend to focus on the product and the process, and really need to go out and get some sales. I know that will make Debbie happier and more prone to think all my scheming is a pipe dream. We'll see...
Don't have much time here, so here's just a few quick developments....
1) Have a meeting with green glue and their marketing firm next Wednesday to discuss the project
2) Hired a lady from Egypt with an IT degree to do some research for me. Came up with a crazy idea of having her sell my product in the middle east on my behalf since she speaks Arabic. She's actually pretty excited about the idea. There's about 50 ways it could totally not work I know, but it might be fun to give it a shot. The most important thing though is not to make this a distraction for all my other stuff, or sales. So I'm limiting my time on this to 2 hours a week max. She basically has do to all the research, learn more about acoustics, and try and find some sales. I'll give her some pointers here and there. If she makes a sale then great, if not, she's learning in the process, and I'm learning about international selling as well. We'll see...
3) Got a great idea to port my software to the Ipad. That's cool in and of itself and I'm talking with some VAs to see how much it would cost. The real cool thing though, is I'm thinking about having a promo - Buy a $2,500 project and get a fee Ipad! I'm thinking that marketing people already will like the product, and the chance at owning an Ipad might be enough to push them to buy.
4) Dan Miller has agreed to meet with me to discuss my business! He's got this program where you spend a few hours with him and he helps give you direction for your business. He only takes people whose business seems like they have good potential, so I'm really flatter he's agreed to take me on.
Next week is when I hopefully can get a lot of the loose ends tied up on the website and product development, and can start to focus on selling. I think I tend to focus on the product and the process, and really need to go out and get some sales. I know that will make Debbie happier and more prone to think all my scheming is a pipe dream. We'll see...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
More Progress
Things have been really busy lately, where to start... My Virtual Assistant from the Philippines who does DSP has been working out great, better than expected. Between the two of us we've really nailed the engineering side of the project, and streamlined it. I've been hiring him on a per project basis, but now I'll be hiring him part time for $1.85/hr.
I hired a guy from Pakistan to do some market research. I spent about an hour working on a spreadsheet and explaining acoustics to him in a document. He did well his first 14 hours... then he kindly asked if I'd give him a raise. Curious (and a bit dumbfounded) I asked what he would suggest. He suggested I increase his pay 4 fold. I declined, and promptly went out and started looking for another VA as backup.
One thing I'm finding is if I take the time to detail the processes and instructions, it helps me think through the process, as well as makes it easy to shift the work to someone else if needed.
I decided I should have a professional looking logo, so I went to the website 99designs.com where a bunch of designers compete for your business. You spec out what you're looking for, and a bunch of people submit designs. You set how much you're willing to pay for the logo, and the winner wins your cash. Had some really good ideas come through the process, and as I've given feedback to various submissions the designers have been tweaking and improving them.
I hope to have my website up in two weeks. I was shooting for this weekend, but the person working on the website theme is taking longer than expected, but should be done this weekend.
I'm also looking for some flash programmers and a layout artist to help me create some new software templates that are more professional looking and have more features. The first company that bid on my job gave a really good rate, and then when I spoke with them they did the ol' bait and switch and promptly increased their fee 4X.
So in about two weeks I hope to have a much more professional business in place. A good looking website and logo, expanded software capabilities with a more polished look, and hopefully a marketing plan in place to attack the 200+ companies I'm finding.
In the back of my mind, it still feels like something's going to crash and burn here. Like I'm forgetting something obvious that's going to totally crush the whole idea. Maybe it's just that I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that maybe this could actually work out. Maybe it's just the fear of the unknown, I'm not sure.
Guess that's it for now.
I hired a guy from Pakistan to do some market research. I spent about an hour working on a spreadsheet and explaining acoustics to him in a document. He did well his first 14 hours... then he kindly asked if I'd give him a raise. Curious (and a bit dumbfounded) I asked what he would suggest. He suggested I increase his pay 4 fold. I declined, and promptly went out and started looking for another VA as backup.
One thing I'm finding is if I take the time to detail the processes and instructions, it helps me think through the process, as well as makes it easy to shift the work to someone else if needed.
I decided I should have a professional looking logo, so I went to the website 99designs.com where a bunch of designers compete for your business. You spec out what you're looking for, and a bunch of people submit designs. You set how much you're willing to pay for the logo, and the winner wins your cash. Had some really good ideas come through the process, and as I've given feedback to various submissions the designers have been tweaking and improving them.
I hope to have my website up in two weeks. I was shooting for this weekend, but the person working on the website theme is taking longer than expected, but should be done this weekend.
I'm also looking for some flash programmers and a layout artist to help me create some new software templates that are more professional looking and have more features. The first company that bid on my job gave a really good rate, and then when I spoke with them they did the ol' bait and switch and promptly increased their fee 4X.
So in about two weeks I hope to have a much more professional business in place. A good looking website and logo, expanded software capabilities with a more polished look, and hopefully a marketing plan in place to attack the 200+ companies I'm finding.
In the back of my mind, it still feels like something's going to crash and burn here. Like I'm forgetting something obvious that's going to totally crush the whole idea. Maybe it's just that I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that maybe this could actually work out. Maybe it's just the fear of the unknown, I'm not sure.
Guess that's it for now.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Things looking up for the biz.
Lots of developments since my last post, where to start... I got my first project! Also, the company that gave me the first project referred me to another company who's looking for similar work. I'm actually more excited about the reference because to me it tells me that they see real value in what I do.
Also, I hired a VA (virtual assistant) from the Philippines. He's in his final year studying to be an electrical engineer, and has a strong background in digital signal processing. I'm teaching him how to do a lot of the audio legwork for my projects. He's also going to do research for me as well. We've talked over the internet a few times now, and things are going really good.
I just read the book 4 hour work week which is revolutionizing my thinking. The book sounds like a get rich quick scheme, but it actually has a lot of practical steps to make any job more efficient, and shows you how you can work from anywhere in the world, take 1-3 month trips to far off places very inexpensively, and basically do the dream Debbie and I have of doing mission work part time each year.
I know, probably sounds like pie in the sky, but I'll get more into it later. Next on the horizon is I plan to hire another VA to do research and data entry for me, probably for $1.50/hr, hire a graphics design VA to get my projects to look much better, and save me the time of doing that portion of the project, and finally I'm looking into hiring someone to do the selling of my project, which is the part I struggle with the most, and takes of the largest portion of my time.
Once I get all these systems in place, instead of a project taking me 35 hours it will actually only take me 4 hours of work. The selling commission is still the big unknown, but I'm beginning to think this could actually work.
To think that if I get 1-2 sales a month, spend 5-15 hours a week on the business, and be able to do my work from anywhere in the world on my laptop is really mind blowing. We could travel the country, go to India from Jan-March, and I'd be doing the work I love. That's still hard to wrap my head around. I know there are still ups and downs, and twists and turns in this drama, but after almost 5 months of hard work on the business and Debbie supporting us financially, it's great to finally see some headway.
Also, I hired a VA (virtual assistant) from the Philippines. He's in his final year studying to be an electrical engineer, and has a strong background in digital signal processing. I'm teaching him how to do a lot of the audio legwork for my projects. He's also going to do research for me as well. We've talked over the internet a few times now, and things are going really good.
I just read the book 4 hour work week which is revolutionizing my thinking. The book sounds like a get rich quick scheme, but it actually has a lot of practical steps to make any job more efficient, and shows you how you can work from anywhere in the world, take 1-3 month trips to far off places very inexpensively, and basically do the dream Debbie and I have of doing mission work part time each year.
I know, probably sounds like pie in the sky, but I'll get more into it later. Next on the horizon is I plan to hire another VA to do research and data entry for me, probably for $1.50/hr, hire a graphics design VA to get my projects to look much better, and save me the time of doing that portion of the project, and finally I'm looking into hiring someone to do the selling of my project, which is the part I struggle with the most, and takes of the largest portion of my time.
Once I get all these systems in place, instead of a project taking me 35 hours it will actually only take me 4 hours of work. The selling commission is still the big unknown, but I'm beginning to think this could actually work.
To think that if I get 1-2 sales a month, spend 5-15 hours a week on the business, and be able to do my work from anywhere in the world on my laptop is really mind blowing. We could travel the country, go to India from Jan-March, and I'd be doing the work I love. That's still hard to wrap my head around. I know there are still ups and downs, and twists and turns in this drama, but after almost 5 months of hard work on the business and Debbie supporting us financially, it's great to finally see some headway.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Which way is this ship headed, anyway?
Only a few weeks ago I had realized that I needed to put things aside from work in better balance in my life, and also take some time to get organized. So far, things have stayed organized, but I would have expected that I would be spending more time looking for a job and less time on the business.
Debbie will be working for the next 3 months, so our thought was to figure out how to transition into finding full time employment for myself in that timeframe. I have talked to a number of people about my business and how best to make the transition, but instead of finding good ways to wind down or scale back the business, they have given me lots of ways to expand and improve the business.
On one hand I would be content to taking a job I don't particularly like and work on the business part time until things pick up, but on the other, as I speak to and hear about how other people around me started their business, it seems obvious Debbie and I have some huge advantages that most other people didn't. Some of these advantages include: 1) A good amount of money set aside in savings 2) 80% of our health care paid for from my past job for about a year 3) Living in a triplex which helps pay for the mortgage, and the ability to quickly move and rent it and live somewhere else if needed 4) Access to a large network of like minded entrepreneurs who are going through the same process or have succeeded, and have the same moral beliefs 5) A business which requires very little monthly overhead.
So really, the only thing in the negative column (and obviously is pretty big!) is the fact that the business is not presently providing an income we could live off of. If it were, I think both Debbie and I would be very content with where we are. Ok, I know that sounds a bit obvious, aren't most people happy when their bills are being paid?
What I mean by that for a long time I have been trying to find a job that I love and that I'm good at. Debbie and I are never content to just "pay the bills". We don't want to live the standard American dream, but we want to be able to do mission work 2 months out of the year, and have jobs that are more flexible, and fulfilling. If we were satisfied with normal, we wouldn't have left Detroit, or gone to Pennsylvania, or ultimately moved back to Wisconsin.
So far with the business, it looks like we're really on the right track as far as finding a job that I love and is fulfilling, would allow for a flexible schedule, and has the potential to make much more than a standard salary.
Debbie will be working for the next 3 months, so our thought was to figure out how to transition into finding full time employment for myself in that timeframe. I have talked to a number of people about my business and how best to make the transition, but instead of finding good ways to wind down or scale back the business, they have given me lots of ways to expand and improve the business.
On one hand I would be content to taking a job I don't particularly like and work on the business part time until things pick up, but on the other, as I speak to and hear about how other people around me started their business, it seems obvious Debbie and I have some huge advantages that most other people didn't. Some of these advantages include: 1) A good amount of money set aside in savings 2) 80% of our health care paid for from my past job for about a year 3) Living in a triplex which helps pay for the mortgage, and the ability to quickly move and rent it and live somewhere else if needed 4) Access to a large network of like minded entrepreneurs who are going through the same process or have succeeded, and have the same moral beliefs 5) A business which requires very little monthly overhead.
So really, the only thing in the negative column (and obviously is pretty big!) is the fact that the business is not presently providing an income we could live off of. If it were, I think both Debbie and I would be very content with where we are. Ok, I know that sounds a bit obvious, aren't most people happy when their bills are being paid?
What I mean by that for a long time I have been trying to find a job that I love and that I'm good at. Debbie and I are never content to just "pay the bills". We don't want to live the standard American dream, but we want to be able to do mission work 2 months out of the year, and have jobs that are more flexible, and fulfilling. If we were satisfied with normal, we wouldn't have left Detroit, or gone to Pennsylvania, or ultimately moved back to Wisconsin.
So far with the business, it looks like we're really on the right track as far as finding a job that I love and is fulfilling, would allow for a flexible schedule, and has the potential to make much more than a standard salary.
Friday Meeting
Friday night I had a real good meeting with a lady who advises midsized companies and CEOs/managers about the direction to take their company. We met on a plane a few years back when she was working for the Palin campaign. Turns out she lives about 15 minutes south of Debbies parents. We've kept in touch since we have a common interest in missions work, and a few weeks back I e-mailed her asking her for some advice for the direction to head with my business.
She generously offered to meet with me for two hours free of charge (I found out later she normally charges $350 / hour, so it was a real blessing!). She had some excellent advice and suggestions for me. Basically I've got these bits and pieces that are good, but I need to work out the rest of the details for my business. For instance, I have a marketing CD that's good and a marketing plan to get someone on the phone, but I don't yet have a good follow up strategy for what to do after they watch the demo, or how to close a sale.
Also, I don't yet have a website up, and she strongly suggested I focus on getting that up and running, especially since my product is web based.
In general, I think I'm starting to transform the business and my mentality from some guy who has a unique technology to sell, into a marketing company that offers unique and custom, interactive solutions. The difference was apparent when we discussed a potential client of mine. I told her that after I complete my first project for them, I was planning on approaching them for hire on a part time basis for an even bigger project I thought they might go for. She suggested that instead, I offer that they take me on retainer for say 6 months, where I'd get a fixed fee each month and block out a fixed number of hours each month.
On one hand it seems a bit crazy for me to be talking about retainers and such, but on the other hand, I can see that if I'm offering a technology and marketing plan available nowhere else, and they are concerned that the competition might use my technology that this arrangement would make sense.
So I guess the bottom line is I'm starting to put all the pieces together to form a fully integrated business, and that's exciting. Even if I change the products, technologies, or area I market to tomorrow, once I get the business methods and procedures in place, I'll be able to quickly adapt and refocus or branch out what I do.
I'll have to end it there, but there's a bit more to the story I'll have to pick up with later...
She generously offered to meet with me for two hours free of charge (I found out later she normally charges $350 / hour, so it was a real blessing!). She had some excellent advice and suggestions for me. Basically I've got these bits and pieces that are good, but I need to work out the rest of the details for my business. For instance, I have a marketing CD that's good and a marketing plan to get someone on the phone, but I don't yet have a good follow up strategy for what to do after they watch the demo, or how to close a sale.
Also, I don't yet have a website up, and she strongly suggested I focus on getting that up and running, especially since my product is web based.
In general, I think I'm starting to transform the business and my mentality from some guy who has a unique technology to sell, into a marketing company that offers unique and custom, interactive solutions. The difference was apparent when we discussed a potential client of mine. I told her that after I complete my first project for them, I was planning on approaching them for hire on a part time basis for an even bigger project I thought they might go for. She suggested that instead, I offer that they take me on retainer for say 6 months, where I'd get a fixed fee each month and block out a fixed number of hours each month.
On one hand it seems a bit crazy for me to be talking about retainers and such, but on the other hand, I can see that if I'm offering a technology and marketing plan available nowhere else, and they are concerned that the competition might use my technology that this arrangement would make sense.
So I guess the bottom line is I'm starting to put all the pieces together to form a fully integrated business, and that's exciting. Even if I change the products, technologies, or area I market to tomorrow, once I get the business methods and procedures in place, I'll be able to quickly adapt and refocus or branch out what I do.
I'll have to end it there, but there's a bit more to the story I'll have to pick up with later...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
With my headphones on
Gotta keep this short for now, but things have been going quite well this week. The house is much cleaner, and things are getting more organized. Debbie and I have been getting our training in for the half marathon, and eating healthy too.We're trying something a little different in working on the business. I'm trying the late shift, from 6pm-midnight. Monday night I went to a coffee shop and worked for a number of hours which seemed to work, tonight I'm going to try and do the same. I just found out that Buffalo Wild Wings is open until 2am, and they have free wifi. Sweet. True it's more noisy and hectic than a coffee shop, but with my Etymotic Research headphones in, I won't hear a thing other than my sweet sweet music.
Speaking of trying something new, today I pushed Elliana in our jogging stroller for my 5 mile run. The theory was that she could sleep and I could exercise. Throw in the fact that I was listening to a podcast on business technology, and we're talking some crazy multitasking going on. I only listened to the podcast in one ear, and it actually seemed to work pretty well. I'd stop every so often to check on Elliana and she actually slept for most of the time. I'm calling the run a success. I'm thinking about hooking up some portable speakers so I don't have any earphones in and running with that on a future jog.
We'll see if I can find a balance between working late hours, keeping things organized and the house clean, taking care of Elliana, and spending time with Debbie. Maybe with a bit more tweaking and organization we'll be humming right along...
Speaking of trying something new, today I pushed Elliana in our jogging stroller for my 5 mile run. The theory was that she could sleep and I could exercise. Throw in the fact that I was listening to a podcast on business technology, and we're talking some crazy multitasking going on. I only listened to the podcast in one ear, and it actually seemed to work pretty well. I'd stop every so often to check on Elliana and she actually slept for most of the time. I'm calling the run a success. I'm thinking about hooking up some portable speakers so I don't have any earphones in and running with that on a future jog.
We'll see if I can find a balance between working late hours, keeping things organized and the house clean, taking care of Elliana, and spending time with Debbie. Maybe with a bit more tweaking and organization we'll be humming right along...
Monday, April 19, 2010
Freeze Tag, Spiderwebs, and Manifest Destiny
In my quest for wise council these past few weeks during a pivotal point in the development of my business, I went back to the resources I've used in the past. I think it's very interesting to see how groups are often times so interconnected and integral in each others success, as in this example.
Back when I was starting off on my quest, I listened and read a lot of stuff by Dan Miller. Through his site I found a coach named Jay who gave me some good advice last October. I reconnected with Jay recently, and he suggested that I take a look a the site podcastanswerman.com where a guy with a similar background to mine has been very successful selling hardware, and consulting with podcasting. His name is Cliff.
As it turns out, Dan Miller had also been instrumental in Cliff's success. Cliff currently charges $150/hour for his expertise, and has started charging $2,500 a day for on site support.After about 2 years of part time and 2 years of full time work on his business, he's on track to make $10,000 a month, with lots of potential for this to keep increasing as he fine tunes his business.
While I was waiting to hear back from Coach Jay, I had written Dan Miller about a business question, and he had recommended I speak to a guy named Justin. Looking on Justin's website, he's become successful in his own right, and just two weeks ago had Podcast Cliff on his show talking about his success.
One common denominator in listening to each persons story of success is that they had surrounded themselves with a group of successful people, and had also reciprocated the help to others along the way.
A second common thread seems to be that in making their needs and goals known, those coaching and supporting them seemed to be more than happy to come to their aid. For instance, Podcast Cliff had mentioned on his show that one dream of his was to interview Dan Miller. A few weeks later, Dan was interviewing on his show.
In a way, this is similar to the idea of manifest destiny where you focus on a goal, make your goal known verbally, and it happens. To be fair, it's not in a lot of ways in that the driving mechanism isn't some cosmic force that you've harnessed, or some deity which must do your bidding, but instead when someone goes out on a limb to make known a goal (and open themselves up for failure in front of friends and family) often times people seem to step in to give them a hand.
How does freeze tag fit into this? Well, it also seems to me that another key element to being successful is being part of a group that have that 1)share a similar outlook on life, 2)are willing to help, and 3) you must also be "in the game" of trying to succeed to get this help.
Dan Miller, and the people in his network who have succeeded and are more than willing to help others succeed no doubt cross paths with people who could be helped by them on a daily basis. However, many are either afraid, complacent, lazy, or too proud to take the steps needed to be in a position to be helped. So in a way, they are frozen in life, and missing out on great opportunities available to them.
To be fair, I am sure there are plenty of people as well who are in a tough spot in life despite their best efforts. I am just speaking of those who fail to act, and just assume there is no way out of their situation without putting in the legwork to find out. They are not "in the game".
Back when I was starting off on my quest, I listened and read a lot of stuff by Dan Miller. Through his site I found a coach named Jay who gave me some good advice last October. I reconnected with Jay recently, and he suggested that I take a look a the site podcastanswerman.com where a guy with a similar background to mine has been very successful selling hardware, and consulting with podcasting. His name is Cliff.
As it turns out, Dan Miller had also been instrumental in Cliff's success. Cliff currently charges $150/hour for his expertise, and has started charging $2,500 a day for on site support.After about 2 years of part time and 2 years of full time work on his business, he's on track to make $10,000 a month, with lots of potential for this to keep increasing as he fine tunes his business.
While I was waiting to hear back from Coach Jay, I had written Dan Miller about a business question, and he had recommended I speak to a guy named Justin. Looking on Justin's website, he's become successful in his own right, and just two weeks ago had Podcast Cliff on his show talking about his success.
One common denominator in listening to each persons story of success is that they had surrounded themselves with a group of successful people, and had also reciprocated the help to others along the way.
A second common thread seems to be that in making their needs and goals known, those coaching and supporting them seemed to be more than happy to come to their aid. For instance, Podcast Cliff had mentioned on his show that one dream of his was to interview Dan Miller. A few weeks later, Dan was interviewing on his show.
In a way, this is similar to the idea of manifest destiny where you focus on a goal, make your goal known verbally, and it happens. To be fair, it's not in a lot of ways in that the driving mechanism isn't some cosmic force that you've harnessed, or some deity which must do your bidding, but instead when someone goes out on a limb to make known a goal (and open themselves up for failure in front of friends and family) often times people seem to step in to give them a hand.
How does freeze tag fit into this? Well, it also seems to me that another key element to being successful is being part of a group that have that 1)share a similar outlook on life, 2)are willing to help, and 3) you must also be "in the game" of trying to succeed to get this help.
Dan Miller, and the people in his network who have succeeded and are more than willing to help others succeed no doubt cross paths with people who could be helped by them on a daily basis. However, many are either afraid, complacent, lazy, or too proud to take the steps needed to be in a position to be helped. So in a way, they are frozen in life, and missing out on great opportunities available to them.
To be fair, I am sure there are plenty of people as well who are in a tough spot in life despite their best efforts. I am just speaking of those who fail to act, and just assume there is no way out of their situation without putting in the legwork to find out. They are not "in the game".
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The balanced life
It's about 10:45 and I just got done with my sales calls for the day, so I figured I'd take a short break and catch people up on the past week.
For the past four months I've been working really hard on the business. One thing I'm pretty pleased with is my sustained hard work over a number of months. As I've mentioned before, for much of my professional career I felt like I was just drifting along, not being too challenged, and not reaching my potential. When I trained for my first marathon a few years ago, that was really the first time in my life that I felt really pushed and challenged, and really proud of accomplishing that goal.
So on the whole, I'm pleased with what I've accomplished so far this year. That being said, one thing that got my attention in a recent podcast from Dan Miller was the idea that when your work consumes you, you start to borrow from the success in the other areas of your life. My fitness level has definitely suffered the past few months, and it's been stressful on Debbie as well.
I've been thinking about all this for about a week, and just yesterday we put Elliana in daycare for half a day for the 2nd time ever. I dropped her off at 8am, and we got a call at 10am that she'd just woken up from a nap, didn't recognize the lady at the nursery (the person in the nursery switched with someone else while she was sleeping) and she was crying pretty hard.
So I rushed over there, and picked her up from the daycare. That got me thinking about how much of a strain my working so much on the business was affecting both Debbie and Elliana. When I got home, Elliana went down for a nap, and I started thinking about all the things I'd heard lately about balance in ones life.
Looking around the house, the place was a mess, and I realized that one of the reasons was that since we had Elliana last August, we kind of just put her baby stuff in the living room, I'd crammed my workspace at the other end of the living room with no good place to keep everything organized, and really, the house was kind of a metaphor for the face that for the past 9 months, a lot of things have just happened without us taking the time to organize or put in place systems to keep our lives and house organized and in balance.
So I spent all day yesterday rearranging our downstairs, the closets, basement, my workspace, etc. I also think it's pretty clear that I need to dial down the efforts on the business a notch and get organized.
Debbie gets stressed when the house is a mess, and it will make it much easier and less stressful on everyone if we get the house and our lives more organized. So probably for the next few weeks we'll be organizing the house, putting into place methods to keep our lives and paperwork, and schedules more organized and more balanced.
My next entry I'll talk a bit more on the business side and how dialing things down a notch seems to fit in with how things are going with the business as well.
For the past four months I've been working really hard on the business. One thing I'm pretty pleased with is my sustained hard work over a number of months. As I've mentioned before, for much of my professional career I felt like I was just drifting along, not being too challenged, and not reaching my potential. When I trained for my first marathon a few years ago, that was really the first time in my life that I felt really pushed and challenged, and really proud of accomplishing that goal.
So on the whole, I'm pleased with what I've accomplished so far this year. That being said, one thing that got my attention in a recent podcast from Dan Miller was the idea that when your work consumes you, you start to borrow from the success in the other areas of your life. My fitness level has definitely suffered the past few months, and it's been stressful on Debbie as well.
I've been thinking about all this for about a week, and just yesterday we put Elliana in daycare for half a day for the 2nd time ever. I dropped her off at 8am, and we got a call at 10am that she'd just woken up from a nap, didn't recognize the lady at the nursery (the person in the nursery switched with someone else while she was sleeping) and she was crying pretty hard.
So I rushed over there, and picked her up from the daycare. That got me thinking about how much of a strain my working so much on the business was affecting both Debbie and Elliana. When I got home, Elliana went down for a nap, and I started thinking about all the things I'd heard lately about balance in ones life.
Looking around the house, the place was a mess, and I realized that one of the reasons was that since we had Elliana last August, we kind of just put her baby stuff in the living room, I'd crammed my workspace at the other end of the living room with no good place to keep everything organized, and really, the house was kind of a metaphor for the face that for the past 9 months, a lot of things have just happened without us taking the time to organize or put in place systems to keep our lives and house organized and in balance.
So I spent all day yesterday rearranging our downstairs, the closets, basement, my workspace, etc. I also think it's pretty clear that I need to dial down the efforts on the business a notch and get organized.
Debbie gets stressed when the house is a mess, and it will make it much easier and less stressful on everyone if we get the house and our lives more organized. So probably for the next few weeks we'll be organizing the house, putting into place methods to keep our lives and paperwork, and schedules more organized and more balanced.
My next entry I'll talk a bit more on the business side and how dialing things down a notch seems to fit in with how things are going with the business as well.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Expanding the territory
One of the things in the back of my mind lately has been the fact that the target market for my current product is rather small. It's only a matter of time before I contact all the major players in the industry, and have either made sales, or been turned down. I don't want to have to start from scratch with something completely new, and so I'm going to need some new direction to head.
I contacted a career coach who had given me some good suggestions last October when I was starting off, and we had an excellent talk today. He not only gave me some really good suggestions, but he also has contacts to help get the ball rolling on the marketing end.
One of these suggestions is the hearing aid industry. I could characterize the various forms of hearing loss in an interactive demo, and create applications for hearing aid manufactures, educators of the workplace, etc. With a huge baby boomer population needing hearing aids, and over 30 million Americans with some form of hearing loss right now, this does seem like a large enough market to keep me busy for some time. Also, my career coach just happens to be on the board of directors for a large disibility board, and has a lot of contacts in the industry.
I am confident I can make some interesting interactive programs which will add value to indivuals or companies, but the marketing side is always key and not my strong suit, so going into an industry with access to major decision makers is going to be of huge benefit to me.
A second idea he suggested was offering a service to improve the sound quality of the voices for podcast hosts. I'd have a website where people would upload a sample of their speaking, and I would tweak it and improve it with say 10 different options for them to listen to and evaluate.
Well, I've got taxes to finish, some books on selling to read, and a demo to work on so I'll have to end this here.
I contacted a career coach who had given me some good suggestions last October when I was starting off, and we had an excellent talk today. He not only gave me some really good suggestions, but he also has contacts to help get the ball rolling on the marketing end.
One of these suggestions is the hearing aid industry. I could characterize the various forms of hearing loss in an interactive demo, and create applications for hearing aid manufactures, educators of the workplace, etc. With a huge baby boomer population needing hearing aids, and over 30 million Americans with some form of hearing loss right now, this does seem like a large enough market to keep me busy for some time. Also, my career coach just happens to be on the board of directors for a large disibility board, and has a lot of contacts in the industry.
I am confident I can make some interesting interactive programs which will add value to indivuals or companies, but the marketing side is always key and not my strong suit, so going into an industry with access to major decision makers is going to be of huge benefit to me.
A second idea he suggested was offering a service to improve the sound quality of the voices for podcast hosts. I'd have a website where people would upload a sample of their speaking, and I would tweak it and improve it with say 10 different options for them to listen to and evaluate.
Well, I've got taxes to finish, some books on selling to read, and a demo to work on so I'll have to end this here.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The week of the sales call
If the Chinese named weeks instead of years, and I was the one in charge of the naming, I think I'd name this week "the week of the sales call" because it is the week I have been making sales calls. So I've managed to get a few people on the phone to pitch them my awesome products. I quickly realized however, that once you have someone on the phone, you have to have something to say to them. Should have thought that through I guess. Sure, I could sit down with someone face to face and tell them about how I could help them sell their products with my awesome software, etc. etc. but I think over the phone you have to be more structured. After all, they can just hang up. It's so easy, and tempting, and so impersonal talking to joe schmo on the phone.
How life was so much easier when I was just calling people and leaving messages, not actually talking to them. So anyway, the next step in my sales evolution is to write down not only my talking points, but my roadmap for a conversation, and contingencies for when things don't go as planned. What's the next step? Do I tell them I'll send them more info? Do I set up another meeting? Do I try and find their problems and outline some ways I could fix them specifically?
I've got some good books to read through this weekend so hopefully I can get down my plan of attack for Le Phonecalle, and the process from cold call to making the sale. Also got this nifty sales software to keep track of who I've talked with, where we left things, and my upcoming todo list. Software always saves the day. Maybe I should just develop software that manages your software. Speaking of which, let me just add that for the Iphone, Geodefense swarm is hands down the best game ever. If I was to develop a game, this would be what I'd model mine after. If I was at work at my previous job and not working for myself, I'd so be playing that game right now over lunch instead of writing an e-mail as a stall tactic to making my next cold call.
Well, the boss is looking over my shoulder, so I better go...
How life was so much easier when I was just calling people and leaving messages, not actually talking to them. So anyway, the next step in my sales evolution is to write down not only my talking points, but my roadmap for a conversation, and contingencies for when things don't go as planned. What's the next step? Do I tell them I'll send them more info? Do I set up another meeting? Do I try and find their problems and outline some ways I could fix them specifically?
I've got some good books to read through this weekend so hopefully I can get down my plan of attack for Le Phonecalle, and the process from cold call to making the sale. Also got this nifty sales software to keep track of who I've talked with, where we left things, and my upcoming todo list. Software always saves the day. Maybe I should just develop software that manages your software. Speaking of which, let me just add that for the Iphone, Geodefense swarm is hands down the best game ever. If I was to develop a game, this would be what I'd model mine after. If I was at work at my previous job and not working for myself, I'd so be playing that game right now over lunch instead of writing an e-mail as a stall tactic to making my next cold call.
Well, the boss is looking over my shoulder, so I better go...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sweet Moses I'm Finally Done
I finally finished my website and application packet for the UW job. Still some things I could change and tweak on the website, but I've got more pressing things to do now. Like taxes, contact potential clients, looking for other jobs, working on a second demonstration for my interested client, etc. I probably put a good 40 hours on the application packet and web site. Still not sure if my chances are that good to get the job since there seems to be a pretty big emphasis on an academic background. A lot of that time spent was on getting up to speed on various internet technologies, and I plan to use the same template on my company website as well, so I think I ended up learning quite a bit.
That's it for now, nothing too earth shattering or profound...
... come to think of it, since you most have a little time on your hands, if you've got nothing better to do you could always jump on my uw website and look for the easter egg. Whatever you do, don't click it though. Thanks.
That's it for now, nothing too earth shattering or profound...
... come to think of it, since you most have a little time on your hands, if you've got nothing better to do you could always jump on my uw website and look for the easter egg. Whatever you do, don't click it though. Thanks.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Good news on the business front
Good news on the home business front. The company I've been talking with for awhile had a meeting late last week and they really, really like my product. Evidently their marketing department liked it so much they're going to the corporate head for a request for funding. He's currently traveling in Europe and Australia right now, so he's pretty busy. Sounds like they want to do a pretty complex project, and break it into a product and an educational module (per my suggestion in an attempt to upsell). So when everything is said and done, it might be a $4,000 - $10,000 project.
I know, I know, it's all just talk until you sign the deal and get paid, but things are looking good in that front. In the mean time, I've identified 10 other companies to contact next.
Always trying to swing for the fences, I've been dreaming up ways to increase the scope of the project further. They seemed pretty warm to the idea of having a rather complex educational portion to the project, so I'm going to suggest they have a website dedicated to sound education, offer seminars and DVDs, workbooks and other instructional materials, etc. etc. And of course, who would be the one to bring one integrated solution to them? You guessed it.
In the mean time, if you'd like to see the website I posted for my upcoming job, you can go to www.hiremeUW.com. I've still got some loose ends to tie up on the website, but hopefully by Monday it should be pretty much 100% functional.
I know, I know, it's all just talk until you sign the deal and get paid, but things are looking good in that front. In the mean time, I've identified 10 other companies to contact next.
Always trying to swing for the fences, I've been dreaming up ways to increase the scope of the project further. They seemed pretty warm to the idea of having a rather complex educational portion to the project, so I'm going to suggest they have a website dedicated to sound education, offer seminars and DVDs, workbooks and other instructional materials, etc. etc. And of course, who would be the one to bring one integrated solution to them? You guessed it.
In the mean time, if you'd like to see the website I posted for my upcoming job, you can go to www.hiremeUW.com. I've still got some loose ends to tie up on the website, but hopefully by Monday it should be pretty much 100% functional.
My past two weeks
The past two weeks have been very busy, which is one reason I have not posted a blog in awhile as you might have guessed. Elliana has been teething and needing more attention than usual in the day and at night, which has severly limited my abilities to work on the business and look for a job.
Combined with the fact that late last week I found a job that looked interested at the University of Wisconsin, but the deadline to apply is fast approaching, if I'm not watching Elliana, I'm working on my application for that position/looking for other jobs/working only my business. A few days ago Elliana was up most of the night, and so finally at 3:30am I just got up and got some work done until 7:30 when Debbie went to work.
I should also mention that for the University of Wisconsin position, I'm taking a page out of a listener to Dan Miller who posted a website hiremecompanyx.com to get a marketing position at a particular company. In this case, the job is to launch multimedia infinitive at the university, so a website demonstrating my skills would be appropriate. Also, given the fact that the job is in acidemia, I think I have a disctint disadvantage concerning the fact that my background is not working for another university, so anything I can do to set myself apart will help.
Regardless if I get the position or not, I need to put up a website for my business, so I'm using the same template that my business is going to use, so I'll be gaining valuable experience as I put the website up.
One thing I've been pleased with is most of the time I've spent looking for a job and working on the business I've been able to utilize new skills and abilities, so in a way it's really like I'm taking a course in flash programming, or some other pertinent skill, and happen to have a project related to finding a job or making money creating products.
I've probably spent 30 hours on the site so far, and it's almost finished. When it's complete there will be a talking badger introducing the site, a 90 second promo video to watch, an example of a program I've developed, and some info on my background. I'm basically combining a bunch of technologies both to learn them, and to get across the point I am versatile in my skills. I'll post a link to the site once it's up.
Combined with the fact that late last week I found a job that looked interested at the University of Wisconsin, but the deadline to apply is fast approaching, if I'm not watching Elliana, I'm working on my application for that position/looking for other jobs/working only my business. A few days ago Elliana was up most of the night, and so finally at 3:30am I just got up and got some work done until 7:30 when Debbie went to work.
I should also mention that for the University of Wisconsin position, I'm taking a page out of a listener to Dan Miller who posted a website hiremecompanyx.com to get a marketing position at a particular company. In this case, the job is to launch multimedia infinitive at the university, so a website demonstrating my skills would be appropriate. Also, given the fact that the job is in acidemia, I think I have a disctint disadvantage concerning the fact that my background is not working for another university, so anything I can do to set myself apart will help.
Regardless if I get the position or not, I need to put up a website for my business, so I'm using the same template that my business is going to use, so I'll be gaining valuable experience as I put the website up.
One thing I've been pleased with is most of the time I've spent looking for a job and working on the business I've been able to utilize new skills and abilities, so in a way it's really like I'm taking a course in flash programming, or some other pertinent skill, and happen to have a project related to finding a job or making money creating products.
I've probably spent 30 hours on the site so far, and it's almost finished. When it's complete there will be a talking badger introducing the site, a 90 second promo video to watch, an example of a program I've developed, and some info on my background. I'm basically combining a bunch of technologies both to learn them, and to get across the point I am versatile in my skills. I'll post a link to the site once it's up.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
It's almost 1 in the morning, and I just fired off my first quote and demo to my first potential customer. I've been putting in a number of late nights working on this demo as well as a marketing CD I need to send out this week to future customers, but it's nice to finally complete this first proposal.
I just went out to the car to bring in the milk I'd left from an earlier shopping trip. Tonight is a quiet and cold rainy night and winter finally seems to be departing. As I walked to the car, I wondered if tonight will be the sort of night that marks the budding of a new career path, one where I will eventually be developing products full time, giving talks and advice on acoustics, and able to take time off and take the family to India for a few weeks each summer to do mission work. Or perhaps like with my Home Automation business, a year from now things will have fizzled out. Or maybe my path will be diverted as I take another job I don't enjoy to provide for the family this year.
I don't know, but what I do know is that tonight was a good night. If only for a moment, I'm doing what I love to do, and what I'm good at, and it seems like it has the potential to pay pretty well too. And that, in the words of Michael Scott, is a "win-win-win".
I just went out to the car to bring in the milk I'd left from an earlier shopping trip. Tonight is a quiet and cold rainy night and winter finally seems to be departing. As I walked to the car, I wondered if tonight will be the sort of night that marks the budding of a new career path, one where I will eventually be developing products full time, giving talks and advice on acoustics, and able to take time off and take the family to India for a few weeks each summer to do mission work. Or perhaps like with my Home Automation business, a year from now things will have fizzled out. Or maybe my path will be diverted as I take another job I don't enjoy to provide for the family this year.
I don't know, but what I do know is that tonight was a good night. If only for a moment, I'm doing what I love to do, and what I'm good at, and it seems like it has the potential to pay pretty well too. And that, in the words of Michael Scott, is a "win-win-win".
Thursday, March 4, 2010
I know, I know, if I'm going to write a blog entry on notepad, I should just post it online instead of posting a bunch of postings all at once, and back date them all.
Today I had some promising news for my business. I called my first customer today, and he seemed very interested, and had that sweet combination of interest and money. It was almost like the fish was jumping in the boat!
At first when we talked I was a little disappointed because what he seemed to have in mind for me to do I would probably only charge $1,500, and their business seemed to be the type of business that could pay more. But as we talked, it soon became clear he was limiting what he wanted me to do because he thought it would cost a lot more! That means that my products have a higher perceived value to the customer than I thought.
I know a common pitfall for starting businesses is to think they need to charge a lot less than they actually do to cover their time, because unlike working for a company, you only get maybe 60% billable hours, so you have to raise your rates to cover all the time you spend marketing and other small business stuff.
I think I've done a good job in calculating that already, so I'll be able to offer the customer more than he was expecting for the same price, and also make more money in the process. I guess this assumes I haven't wildly missed something in estimating my time.
In any event, my next step is to give them a proposal with some concept ideas. I'm under no illusion that this means I'll be set for the coming weeks, but it's a positive first step for the business. We'll see how it goes...
Today I had some promising news for my business. I called my first customer today, and he seemed very interested, and had that sweet combination of interest and money. It was almost like the fish was jumping in the boat!
At first when we talked I was a little disappointed because what he seemed to have in mind for me to do I would probably only charge $1,500, and their business seemed to be the type of business that could pay more. But as we talked, it soon became clear he was limiting what he wanted me to do because he thought it would cost a lot more! That means that my products have a higher perceived value to the customer than I thought.
I know a common pitfall for starting businesses is to think they need to charge a lot less than they actually do to cover their time, because unlike working for a company, you only get maybe 60% billable hours, so you have to raise your rates to cover all the time you spend marketing and other small business stuff.
I think I've done a good job in calculating that already, so I'll be able to offer the customer more than he was expecting for the same price, and also make more money in the process. I guess this assumes I haven't wildly missed something in estimating my time.
In any event, my next step is to give them a proposal with some concept ideas. I'm under no illusion that this means I'll be set for the coming weeks, but it's a positive first step for the business. We'll see how it goes...
Monday 3/1
Today I got up at 6, as Debbie had a (veterinary) surgery she was supposed to perform this morning, that she just found out about on Sunday. I was going to spend a few hours before she had to leave trying to get some stuff done, as I was going to be watching Elliana until noon, which was going to eat up half of the day.
As it turns out, she didn't have to do the surgery, and I ended up spending about an hour reading the Bible and praying instead. I probably should have planned on doing that in the first place, and the day seemed to go much smoother than normal, and was very enjoyable too.
Case in point, I sent off four letters and one e-mail to various companies about offering my acoustical software services to them. I got a very positive response from my e-mail within an hour, and I'll be calling that company up on Thursday.
I had figured I'd have to contact each company about 3 times just go hear back from one of them. I've spent all this time on business development, and trying to figure out the best way to market, and my first response came very easily.
One of my friends got a good laugh at my quick response, since he knows I always put a lot of thought and research before I go out and try and sell myself. Maybe I just should had fired off a bunch of e-mails two months ago instead of spending all this time planning!
Now that I've sent my first round of letters, the pressure is on to come up with a good demo CD to follow up my letters with. It will probably take about 20 hours to do, and I don't know how I'll get it done this week watching Elliana Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I'll just need to figure it out.
Today I got up at 6, as Debbie had a (veterinary) surgery she was supposed to perform this morning, that she just found out about on Sunday. I was going to spend a few hours before she had to leave trying to get some stuff done, as I was going to be watching Elliana until noon, which was going to eat up half of the day.
As it turns out, she didn't have to do the surgery, and I ended up spending about an hour reading the Bible and praying instead. I probably should have planned on doing that in the first place, and the day seemed to go much smoother than normal, and was very enjoyable too.
Case in point, I sent off four letters and one e-mail to various companies about offering my acoustical software services to them. I got a very positive response from my e-mail within an hour, and I'll be calling that company up on Thursday.
I had figured I'd have to contact each company about 3 times just go hear back from one of them. I've spent all this time on business development, and trying to figure out the best way to market, and my first response came very easily.
One of my friends got a good laugh at my quick response, since he knows I always put a lot of thought and research before I go out and try and sell myself. Maybe I just should had fired off a bunch of e-mails two months ago instead of spending all this time planning!
Now that I've sent my first round of letters, the pressure is on to come up with a good demo CD to follow up my letters with. It will probably take about 20 hours to do, and I don't know how I'll get it done this week watching Elliana Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I'll just need to figure it out.
Sunday 2/28
Sunday the sermon was excellent. It was on having peace in the midst of the storm. I think I've been trying to get peace from thinking the storm will eventually pass, or by X date I'll have a job, or my business will be humming. I now think that in the long run, this phase in my life will be judged ultimately a success not by the prospect of financial security, but instead if I am able to learn to have real peace when things don't seem to be going to plan.
I have a feeling that's one of those life lessons you can only learn when you struggle, and so if I get through the struggling part without learning how to find peace and trust in God in the middle of it with no end in sight, I'll miss out on an opportunity to grow.
I usually try and take the long view on things, and I've had the feeling in the back of my mind that this time around, God might really want me to grow through the struggle. I think I'm finding that one downside of the tendency to take the long view is that you can stay calm through the unknown without necessarily relying on God.
It reminds me of when I swam across the lake this past summer. I really dislike swimming, but there was this swim across the lake and back - I think it was about a mile total distance, I don't remember exactly - and I decided to do it just for the challenge.
I am a very weak swimmer, and have zero form. I don't like the water, and I hate water in my nose. However, I think I've become a bit overconfident in my physical ability after running a few marathons, thinking that mental toughness can push me through almost anything.
When I woke up that day, I did put my chances at drowning at maybe 20 percent seeing as if you're on a long run and have to stop you can walk, but if you're on a long swim and have to stop, you're hosed! So I was kinda nervous. But when I got to edge of the water and found out my name would be on a plaque on the inaugural swimming event, there was no way I was going to wuss out.
It was long, and it was hard, but once I got going, I enjoyed the challenge. In fact, I spent a good portion of the time talking philosophy and cosmology with the guy in the jet ski who was next to me the whole time (I think he put my chances of drowning at about 40% since he saw me struggling a few days back on a 300 meter swim).
Ok, I'm getting off track. Point is, through the whole ordeal I thought if I was determined enough, I'd eventually make it. I didn't think that God would have to deliver me via divine intervention from the swim (although without jet ski man by my side on the way back, my theology probably would changed), I just gritted my teeth and swam.
I think I've been bringing that mindset to finding a job and working on my business the last few months. I just grit my teeth and go, and seem to be ok even when it gets really tough at times. I get the suspicioun that perhaps God keeps piling on the diffulities and stress level because in the back of my mind I still think I can get through it was sheer power of will. I've not yet been fully trusting and focusing on God first.
I'm not saying that the only reason I haven't landed a job and my business is a success right now is because God's preventing it, that would seem a little arrogant I think, but it does seem that things have been unexpectedly rocky lately, right when it seems things are about ready to come together.
Hopefully God doesn't have to break my will before I start relying on Him more and less on my stubbornness...
Sunday the sermon was excellent. It was on having peace in the midst of the storm. I think I've been trying to get peace from thinking the storm will eventually pass, or by X date I'll have a job, or my business will be humming. I now think that in the long run, this phase in my life will be judged ultimately a success not by the prospect of financial security, but instead if I am able to learn to have real peace when things don't seem to be going to plan.
I have a feeling that's one of those life lessons you can only learn when you struggle, and so if I get through the struggling part without learning how to find peace and trust in God in the middle of it with no end in sight, I'll miss out on an opportunity to grow.
I usually try and take the long view on things, and I've had the feeling in the back of my mind that this time around, God might really want me to grow through the struggle. I think I'm finding that one downside of the tendency to take the long view is that you can stay calm through the unknown without necessarily relying on God.
It reminds me of when I swam across the lake this past summer. I really dislike swimming, but there was this swim across the lake and back - I think it was about a mile total distance, I don't remember exactly - and I decided to do it just for the challenge.
I am a very weak swimmer, and have zero form. I don't like the water, and I hate water in my nose. However, I think I've become a bit overconfident in my physical ability after running a few marathons, thinking that mental toughness can push me through almost anything.
When I woke up that day, I did put my chances at drowning at maybe 20 percent seeing as if you're on a long run and have to stop you can walk, but if you're on a long swim and have to stop, you're hosed! So I was kinda nervous. But when I got to edge of the water and found out my name would be on a plaque on the inaugural swimming event, there was no way I was going to wuss out.
It was long, and it was hard, but once I got going, I enjoyed the challenge. In fact, I spent a good portion of the time talking philosophy and cosmology with the guy in the jet ski who was next to me the whole time (I think he put my chances of drowning at about 40% since he saw me struggling a few days back on a 300 meter swim).
Ok, I'm getting off track. Point is, through the whole ordeal I thought if I was determined enough, I'd eventually make it. I didn't think that God would have to deliver me via divine intervention from the swim (although without jet ski man by my side on the way back, my theology probably would changed), I just gritted my teeth and swam.
I think I've been bringing that mindset to finding a job and working on my business the last few months. I just grit my teeth and go, and seem to be ok even when it gets really tough at times. I get the suspicioun that perhaps God keeps piling on the diffulities and stress level because in the back of my mind I still think I can get through it was sheer power of will. I've not yet been fully trusting and focusing on God first.
I'm not saying that the only reason I haven't landed a job and my business is a success right now is because God's preventing it, that would seem a little arrogant I think, but it does seem that things have been unexpectedly rocky lately, right when it seems things are about ready to come together.
Hopefully God doesn't have to break my will before I start relying on Him more and less on my stubbornness...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
This has been a pretty hectic week. It feels like the week was going in fast forward and I was struggling to keep up. Debbie worked four days this week, and I really enjoyed spending time with Elliana, but it was really hard to get much done on the business, or find a regular routine.
On the plus side, the meals have been a big success. Monday I made hummus and Shish Tawook, and Tuesday and Thursday I made Indian. Food was much healthier, tastier, and less expensive this week.
Tuesday I dropped off my proposals which I burned to an interactive CD at the company I interviewed for. I didn't hear back from them all week, so probably they're still not interested. I'm still glad I did it though, as I learned quite a bit in making it.
Friday was kind of a bummer. Another company I'd sent my resume to about a month and a half ago sent me an e-mail that they didn't have any openings. That's not too surprising as I sent my resume to them unsolicited, but they were an acoustical based company that would have been fun to work for.
Today I'm basically regrouping and trying to get better prepared for next week. Debbie works a lot which means I won't have as much time as I'd like to work on the business, but this weekend I'm working on taxes, preparing marketing letters for my business to send out, and am thinking about cooking all the meals for next week tonight or tomorrow.
Guess that's about it for now, I'll keep up with the blog better this week.
On the plus side, the meals have been a big success. Monday I made hummus and Shish Tawook, and Tuesday and Thursday I made Indian. Food was much healthier, tastier, and less expensive this week.
Tuesday I dropped off my proposals which I burned to an interactive CD at the company I interviewed for. I didn't hear back from them all week, so probably they're still not interested. I'm still glad I did it though, as I learned quite a bit in making it.
Friday was kind of a bummer. Another company I'd sent my resume to about a month and a half ago sent me an e-mail that they didn't have any openings. That's not too surprising as I sent my resume to them unsolicited, but they were an acoustical based company that would have been fun to work for.
Today I'm basically regrouping and trying to get better prepared for next week. Debbie works a lot which means I won't have as much time as I'd like to work on the business, but this weekend I'm working on taxes, preparing marketing letters for my business to send out, and am thinking about cooking all the meals for next week tonight or tomorrow.
Guess that's about it for now, I'll keep up with the blog better this week.
Bring the Mojo Back
From Sunday 2/21
Today as I'm at a coffee shop working on a proposal I'm going to pitch to the company again, I've once again reclaimed a place of real enjoyment and happiness. Listening to some laid back REM and Seal, reading through acoustic literature, and putting together a sweet power point presentation, I'm really enjoying myself. I really enjoy researching acoustics, and trying to find solutions to problems. Regardless if my efforts are successful, I know I'm doing what I really love to do.
Today as I'm at a coffee shop working on a proposal I'm going to pitch to the company again, I've once again reclaimed a place of real enjoyment and happiness. Listening to some laid back REM and Seal, reading through acoustic literature, and putting together a sweet power point presentation, I'm really enjoying myself. I really enjoy researching acoustics, and trying to find solutions to problems. Regardless if my efforts are successful, I know I'm doing what I really love to do.
Sorry for the delay in posting, here's a recap of the last two weeks...
From Saturday, 2/20
Tuesday evening I recieved a call that the company I'd interviewed for was not interested in hiring me. Actually, I missed the call and recieved the message over voicemail. I was more dissapointed than I thought I would be. Looking back, I must have been expecting to land the job even though the odds seemed long. Tuesday night and most of Wednesday I didn't want to talk about it with Debbie, or really think about it. I wasn't at the precipise of dispair or anything, but thought it would take a day or two to absorb and move on.
Wednesday morning I was really congested and sick, and pretty bummed. Elliana has been really constipated and somewhat conjested all week which meant she'd been waking up a lot at night, and not taking many naps during the day. Coupled with the fact that Debbie was working most days this week, it really made it difficult to get anything constructive done, or shift gears to working on the business again.
I had a major sinus headache, felt generally pretty sick adn tired, I felt out of sinc, and my future and direction seemed unclear. Not that a direction in life would have helped at that particular moment as I was too tired to take any real action. Debbie told me I looked like a pretty sad sight that morning in the shower huched over resting my head on the shower wall while the water just ran down.
By Thursday I felt much better. The sinus headache was gone, and I was no longer bumbed, but more irritated I got turned down. I knew I could have done an excellent job, and HR had given the old "we've moved on with a more qualified candidate" line when I knew full well they had been looking to fill that position for 2 years and they had 2 open spots.
My entrepreneurial spirit started to rise up, and I decided to call my potential boss up and pose the idea of working on a contract basis. My thinking was that he seemed to like me, and if it was HR pushing back then this would be a way I could get a foot in the door without having to get HR involved as much. So I called Epic and pitched the idea via voicemail.
Friday I was feeling pretty chipper again and able to start working on the business again.
This morning was rather peaceful. Elliana got up early, and Debbie and I went back to bed at 9am. For some reason I couldn't sleep. My mind was swiriling with ways I could pitch myself to the company. Finally, I jumped out of bed, and went to the library to work on a more concrete proposal to the company. After all, I still had nothing to lose.
Today has been highly productive, and it's seemed like I got a ton done, and ideas have been flying off the page.
From Saturday, 2/20
Tuesday evening I recieved a call that the company I'd interviewed for was not interested in hiring me. Actually, I missed the call and recieved the message over voicemail. I was more dissapointed than I thought I would be. Looking back, I must have been expecting to land the job even though the odds seemed long. Tuesday night and most of Wednesday I didn't want to talk about it with Debbie, or really think about it. I wasn't at the precipise of dispair or anything, but thought it would take a day or two to absorb and move on.
Wednesday morning I was really congested and sick, and pretty bummed. Elliana has been really constipated and somewhat conjested all week which meant she'd been waking up a lot at night, and not taking many naps during the day. Coupled with the fact that Debbie was working most days this week, it really made it difficult to get anything constructive done, or shift gears to working on the business again.
I had a major sinus headache, felt generally pretty sick adn tired, I felt out of sinc, and my future and direction seemed unclear. Not that a direction in life would have helped at that particular moment as I was too tired to take any real action. Debbie told me I looked like a pretty sad sight that morning in the shower huched over resting my head on the shower wall while the water just ran down.
By Thursday I felt much better. The sinus headache was gone, and I was no longer bumbed, but more irritated I got turned down. I knew I could have done an excellent job, and HR had given the old "we've moved on with a more qualified candidate" line when I knew full well they had been looking to fill that position for 2 years and they had 2 open spots.
My entrepreneurial spirit started to rise up, and I decided to call my potential boss up and pose the idea of working on a contract basis. My thinking was that he seemed to like me, and if it was HR pushing back then this would be a way I could get a foot in the door without having to get HR involved as much. So I called Epic and pitched the idea via voicemail.
Friday I was feeling pretty chipper again and able to start working on the business again.
This morning was rather peaceful. Elliana got up early, and Debbie and I went back to bed at 9am. For some reason I couldn't sleep. My mind was swiriling with ways I could pitch myself to the company. Finally, I jumped out of bed, and went to the library to work on a more concrete proposal to the company. After all, I still had nothing to lose.
Today has been highly productive, and it's seemed like I got a ton done, and ideas have been flying off the page.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Two week retrospective
I would have thought that I would have been able to focus strictly on my business these past two weeks, and regardless if I get offered a job or not it wouldn't really bother me, but in actuality between Debbie working , and the prior week when I was studying acoustics, I kind of got out of my grove, and it's been hard for me to focus back on the business.
Each subsequent day past the interview I've been focusing more on business development, yet in the back of my mind I've been expecting to hear back from the interview a little more, with the net result of a constant distraction in the back of my mind.
It has been nice to see God moving in the whole situation though. For the last few years, God has seemed to be in the habit of working not so apparently and plainly when it has come to major life changes, or perhaps it's just that I haven't been listening too, I'm not sure. I'm not saying this has been a bad thing, it's actually stretched me and helped me grow.
For instance, when Debbie and I were trying to get pregnant last year with Elliana, I never got a peaceful feeling like we were going to get pregnant, but more of a long silence. Previously in life it's seemed that God's given me a heads up on how things were going to work out, which has eased the situation. But coming face to face with the prospect we might never have children actually made me stronger, and grow deeper in my faith, so I appreciate God not giving the ending away to me.
But back to the current job situation, a few weeks ago after church when I was really wondering what direction God was going to take my career, a friend of ours came up and talked to me for 20 minutes about a similar situation he was in. He changed career paths from an engineering career to one completely not using his degree, and he shared how God had really blessed his life as a result. This was encouraging to hear not just as an engineer, but also because I could see God was using him to tell me not to worry.
And last night, our neighbor who I've only spoken with once before came over and struck up a conversation about my job. He works at the place I interviewed at and he said he thought he saw me interviewing there a few weeks back, and thought it would be great if we could carpool together.
So that was encouraging too. Of course, if I don't get the job, I guess I'll just have to blame God for leading me on and tormenting me with false hope, but for the time being, I'm going to give Him credit for more out of the blue encouragement. ;-)
So I'll just have to see what the next few days hold. One final observation is that I don't seem to be as confident that if I don't get the interview that it's just because there's a better plan out there for me. I'll probably wonder what I could have done different. Maybe if I would have answered a question differently, or had a higher GPA, or worked harder during my career.
I'm not exactly sure why my mindset has shifted since I left Harman and was totally confident things were going to work out completely fine. Maybe it's a subtle philosophical shift I'm having. Like the guy who smokes 6 packs of cigarettes a day and wonders why God gave him lung cancer. That one clearly seems to fall on the shoulder of the chain smoker, but how about the guy who decides to drive when he's dead tired, falls asleep at the wheel, and gets in a bad accident? Then let's say he wrecks his car, he has a nagging health problem, but looking back on his life he sees it as a turning point where things actually got better. Was it God's intent that he have that accident, or did the guy make a stupid mistake and God had to go to a plan B and bless him anyway? I used to lean towards it was God's will, but now I think I'd probably call it plan B.
So I guess in a way I feel like the guy driving his car late and night all sleepy. For quite a few years in my career I kind of drifted along, and then about 4 years ago I decided to find my purpose. If I get the job I'm interviewing for, it will seem like a vindication that I'm on the right track. If I don't get it, for the time being, it will feel like perhaps my years of slacking caught up with me, not that God just had a better plan in my life. Hmm...
Each subsequent day past the interview I've been focusing more on business development, yet in the back of my mind I've been expecting to hear back from the interview a little more, with the net result of a constant distraction in the back of my mind.
It has been nice to see God moving in the whole situation though. For the last few years, God has seemed to be in the habit of working not so apparently and plainly when it has come to major life changes, or perhaps it's just that I haven't been listening too, I'm not sure. I'm not saying this has been a bad thing, it's actually stretched me and helped me grow.
For instance, when Debbie and I were trying to get pregnant last year with Elliana, I never got a peaceful feeling like we were going to get pregnant, but more of a long silence. Previously in life it's seemed that God's given me a heads up on how things were going to work out, which has eased the situation. But coming face to face with the prospect we might never have children actually made me stronger, and grow deeper in my faith, so I appreciate God not giving the ending away to me.
But back to the current job situation, a few weeks ago after church when I was really wondering what direction God was going to take my career, a friend of ours came up and talked to me for 20 minutes about a similar situation he was in. He changed career paths from an engineering career to one completely not using his degree, and he shared how God had really blessed his life as a result. This was encouraging to hear not just as an engineer, but also because I could see God was using him to tell me not to worry.
And last night, our neighbor who I've only spoken with once before came over and struck up a conversation about my job. He works at the place I interviewed at and he said he thought he saw me interviewing there a few weeks back, and thought it would be great if we could carpool together.
So that was encouraging too. Of course, if I don't get the job, I guess I'll just have to blame God for leading me on and tormenting me with false hope, but for the time being, I'm going to give Him credit for more out of the blue encouragement. ;-)
So I'll just have to see what the next few days hold. One final observation is that I don't seem to be as confident that if I don't get the interview that it's just because there's a better plan out there for me. I'll probably wonder what I could have done different. Maybe if I would have answered a question differently, or had a higher GPA, or worked harder during my career.
I'm not exactly sure why my mindset has shifted since I left Harman and was totally confident things were going to work out completely fine. Maybe it's a subtle philosophical shift I'm having. Like the guy who smokes 6 packs of cigarettes a day and wonders why God gave him lung cancer. That one clearly seems to fall on the shoulder of the chain smoker, but how about the guy who decides to drive when he's dead tired, falls asleep at the wheel, and gets in a bad accident? Then let's say he wrecks his car, he has a nagging health problem, but looking back on his life he sees it as a turning point where things actually got better. Was it God's intent that he have that accident, or did the guy make a stupid mistake and God had to go to a plan B and bless him anyway? I used to lean towards it was God's will, but now I think I'd probably call it plan B.
So I guess in a way I feel like the guy driving his car late and night all sleepy. For quite a few years in my career I kind of drifted along, and then about 4 years ago I decided to find my purpose. If I get the job I'm interviewing for, it will seem like a vindication that I'm on the right track. If I don't get it, for the time being, it will feel like perhaps my years of slacking caught up with me, not that God just had a better plan in my life. Hmm...
Today is the greatest day I've evern known
It's a little after 3pm on Tuesday, and I've got some time on my hands so I thought it was high time to add another blog entry. Today I'm at home while Debbié's at work. She's been working about 2-3 days a week some days part time, and some days full time. That's kind of been throwing off my schedule I had going of getting up around 6-6:30, working out for an hour, and then working at a coffee shop / library from about 8-5.
Today in particular, Elliana has been really constipated so I haven't been able to get a thing done as I've pretty much either been trying to feed her or hold her so she doesn't cry. She didn't go down for a nap until just now.
So here's an update of the last two weeks. Two weeks ago I had an interview with a local company that would be doing work related to acoustics and multimedia. At first, about a month and a half ago when I first heard about the job, it didn't sound like it would be a particularly good fit, and I was more focused on developing my own business.
However, after the interview I've started to think I would actually enjoy working there. I've been somewhat torn because on one hand I think I'd like the freedom of continuing to develop my own business, and this potential job would stop the direct development of my career in that direction. On the other hand, I also don't think it's prudent to pass on an opportunity for acoustical work I'd learn from when the business is still in the development stage.
That being said, it's now two weeks since my interview. I was told I'd hear from them within two weeks, so that would be today. I've heard from others at this company that they can take awhile to get back to you, so I'm not reading too much into the delay so far.
Bottom line - even though these last few weeks have been bumpy and my future is not certain, I'm glad I've been able to still enjoy the time in a lot of ways. I'm thankful for the extra time I've been able to spend with Elliana, Debbie who's been willing and able to work at the vet clinic, and for the time I've had to pursuit my dream of my own acoustical business as I look for a job.
Today in particular, Elliana has been really constipated so I haven't been able to get a thing done as I've pretty much either been trying to feed her or hold her so she doesn't cry. She didn't go down for a nap until just now.
So here's an update of the last two weeks. Two weeks ago I had an interview with a local company that would be doing work related to acoustics and multimedia. At first, about a month and a half ago when I first heard about the job, it didn't sound like it would be a particularly good fit, and I was more focused on developing my own business.
However, after the interview I've started to think I would actually enjoy working there. I've been somewhat torn because on one hand I think I'd like the freedom of continuing to develop my own business, and this potential job would stop the direct development of my career in that direction. On the other hand, I also don't think it's prudent to pass on an opportunity for acoustical work I'd learn from when the business is still in the development stage.
That being said, it's now two weeks since my interview. I was told I'd hear from them within two weeks, so that would be today. I've heard from others at this company that they can take awhile to get back to you, so I'm not reading too much into the delay so far.
Bottom line - even though these last few weeks have been bumpy and my future is not certain, I'm glad I've been able to still enjoy the time in a lot of ways. I'm thankful for the extra time I've been able to spend with Elliana, Debbie who's been willing and able to work at the vet clinic, and for the time I've had to pursuit my dream of my own acoustical business as I look for a job.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
My Brain Hurts
Today I had an interview with a local company, and my brain still hurts. For the last week I'd been studying a bunch of technical stuff which I knew they probably wouldn't ask, and they didn't. This afternoon they had a number of tests I had to take. It was part SAT type questions, part logic and brain teasers, and part programming. I think I did well on some parts, but I know there were a few questions I blew.
The interview portion went pretty well I think, and liked the people that I interviewed with. The job was clarified more. I think I could learn a lot and have a lot of latitude in what I did. One of the people there got a PO for $60,000 in recording equipment approved just to record all the seminars and speakers.
It seems like there could potentially be well over 100 multimedia rooms that need to be automated/managed with over half yet to be built / finished, and they're looking for someone to oversee the acoustical details of the install.
Plus there's a real need to implement an overall management strategy for all the AV rooms themselves. They use some pretty powerful hardware which has the potential to integrate everything. I.e. you could get an e-mail if a projector was malfunctioning, and check out the status of all the rooms on a web page.
I also found out that over 20 people have interviewed in the past for the position and they turned them all down! So I'm not holding my breath.
Still, it's been good to study acoustics and audio these past few days as it will no doubt help in the coming weeks whatever my career path is. They said they'd get back to me within two weeks. Tomorrow it'll be back to working on my business...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Job Interview and Acoustic Juggle
Last Friday I had a phone screening with a local company. Based on the job description, it seemed like not too much engineering would be involved, but it was related to acoustics and multimedia, so I applied. During the phone screening, the job description was much different. Basically this company has a $100 Million dollar (no typo) learning center, over 65 Audio-Video rooms, and a brand new huge auditorium that holds over 4,500.
They're looking for someone to oversee the management of these rooms, make sure things run smoothly, and are open to suggestions to upgrade and improve. This sounds more like an IT/Management position but with the potential to play with a lot of fun audio hardware and software, RFID, etc. The truth usually lies somewhere in between, so we'll see what the role looks like at the actual interview.
I guess the phone screening went pretty good as they contacted me this past Tuesday to set up an interview, which will take place next week. It would definitely be a good opportunity to put my acoustic and multimedia knowledge to use, as well as learn quite a bit a well.
As a result, I've been reading lots of acoustic and multimedia books which has been really helpful as I work on my consulting business as well. From what I've read, only about 1% of people that apply land a job at this company, so I'm not holding my breath. But at least it's given me extra motivation to brush up on a lot of acoustic reading.
They're looking for someone to oversee the management of these rooms, make sure things run smoothly, and are open to suggestions to upgrade and improve. This sounds more like an IT/Management position but with the potential to play with a lot of fun audio hardware and software, RFID, etc. The truth usually lies somewhere in between, so we'll see what the role looks like at the actual interview.
I guess the phone screening went pretty good as they contacted me this past Tuesday to set up an interview, which will take place next week. It would definitely be a good opportunity to put my acoustic and multimedia knowledge to use, as well as learn quite a bit a well.
As a result, I've been reading lots of acoustic and multimedia books which has been really helpful as I work on my consulting business as well. From what I've read, only about 1% of people that apply land a job at this company, so I'm not holding my breath. But at least it's given me extra motivation to brush up on a lot of acoustic reading.
Past Week Recap
Things have been real busy this past week, so here's a quick recap. Last Friday Debbie, Elliana, and I went up to Madison in the evening. Debbie needed some new running shoes so she went to get fitted. They didn't have what she was looking for unfortunately. Then we went to Whole Food's where we picked up some olive oil that Debbie really likes, Willie Street Coop which is another organic type food store where we picked up some sushi quality salmon, and Trader Joe's grocery store where we picked up some real good indian dinners, avacado, cucumber, and real crab for the sushi, and a few other things. Then we headed home and watched Night at the Museum 2.
Let me just say that we really enjoyed Night at the Musuem 2. The writing was good (as far as a slapstick comedy goes), Ben Stiller and Owen Wilsom were good (although better in the first movie), and the guy who played the Blue Raja in Mystery Men played a similar role this time as a pharoah . It also had one of the funnies dialogs I've seen in a long time between Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill you can see here
Saturday night Rene and Shane came over, and I made Sushi. I'd prepared the rice ahead of time because it takes awhile to rinse the rice thoroughly, cook it, prepare the rice vinegar and sugar, mix, and let it cool. I made california roll with real crab that Debbie really liked. Also made Salmon roll, Philly Roll, and Salmon Nigiri . Rene wasn't a fan, Shane thought the Salmon was decent. Me, I was in Salmon Nirvana.
Sunday morning we drove down to Chicago with Rene, Shane, Don, and Judy where we picked up Laura and Aaron who were returning from Ethiopia with their son Yedidiah. It was really great to be there when they arrived, and Yedidiah was very happy and smiling, and not really fussy at all, considering all the new faces, the long trip, and jetlag.
When we got back to Brodhead, Doug and Jenny and their family as well as Aaron's family were their waiting for us to meet Yedidiah. It was a great time and lots of pictures were taken. Then we watched football, and later that night I headed to Stoughton while Debbie stayed in Brodhead. I had a big week and needed to get up early Monday to get a jump on the week.
Let me just say that we really enjoyed Night at the Musuem 2. The writing was good (as far as a slapstick comedy goes), Ben Stiller and Owen Wilsom were good (although better in the first movie), and the guy who played the Blue Raja in Mystery Men played a similar role this time as a pharoah . It also had one of the funnies dialogs I've seen in a long time between Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill you can see here
Saturday night Rene and Shane came over, and I made Sushi. I'd prepared the rice ahead of time because it takes awhile to rinse the rice thoroughly, cook it, prepare the rice vinegar and sugar, mix, and let it cool. I made california roll with real crab that Debbie really liked. Also made Salmon roll, Philly Roll, and Salmon Nigiri . Rene wasn't a fan, Shane thought the Salmon was decent. Me, I was in Salmon Nirvana.
Sunday morning we drove down to Chicago with Rene, Shane, Don, and Judy where we picked up Laura and Aaron who were returning from Ethiopia with their son Yedidiah. It was really great to be there when they arrived, and Yedidiah was very happy and smiling, and not really fussy at all, considering all the new faces, the long trip, and jetlag.
When we got back to Brodhead, Doug and Jenny and their family as well as Aaron's family were their waiting for us to meet Yedidiah. It was a great time and lots of pictures were taken. Then we watched football, and later that night I headed to Stoughton while Debbie stayed in Brodhead. I had a big week and needed to get up early Monday to get a jump on the week.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Busy Thursday
This morning I went for a 5 mile run outside. It seemed rather brisk, and after I found out it was only 5 degrees with 13 mph winds which translates to about -13 below, that explained a lot. I didn't really notice the cold so much as the fact that the previously powdery snow on the trail I ran was now frozen with lots of mini-craters from people walking, which made for a bumpy run where I had to focus on not turning my ankle.
Today I'm reading through some acoustic books on architectural acoustics and also one by Dr. Floyd Toole who used to work at Harman and I had the privilege of chatting about acoustics over supper at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas a number of years ago. He's done a lot of research on acoustics and psycoacoustics of speakers and home theater design. I've been meaning to read his book for some time, and now I have a good excuse and some time to do so.
Things left to do today and tomorrow: Work on bills and budget, work on a marketing strategy and put together a software demo for a potential client, follow up with a local acoustic company I sent some info to a few weeks ago, and probably about 5 other things that don't come to mind right now.
Today I'm reading through some acoustic books on architectural acoustics and also one by Dr. Floyd Toole who used to work at Harman and I had the privilege of chatting about acoustics over supper at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas a number of years ago. He's done a lot of research on acoustics and psycoacoustics of speakers and home theater design. I've been meaning to read his book for some time, and now I have a good excuse and some time to do so.
Things left to do today and tomorrow: Work on bills and budget, work on a marketing strategy and put together a software demo for a potential client, follow up with a local acoustic company I sent some info to a few weeks ago, and probably about 5 other things that don't come to mind right now.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Background 2000-2006
Really busy today, so now time for a post right now. But, here's a background blog I wrote a few weeks back...
Here's a very brief snapshot of my life since college - Back in 2000 I was blessed with a job working for an audio company in a division that developed surround sound systems for cars. It was a dream job. My first week I was watching the matrix in an SUV trying to track if the bullets were properly appearing to fly past my head.
The job started in Indiana for a year, and then they moved to Detroit. I didn't want to move to Detroit, so I planned to go to India for 6 months to do mission work. I had taken a trip to India my freshman year of college, and had a heart for missions as well. My company surprisingly agreed to give me a 6 month leave of absence, but then India and Pakistan seemed on the brink of nuclear war, 9/11 happened, and I got engaged to Debbie, so plans changed. Ended up taking a 2 month honeymoon/mission trip to India in 2001, and it was totally awesome. Debbie and I knew we wanted to do more mission work in the future.
Fast forward 4 years to 2006 and the job was still great, but one big downside was we were far away from family. We'd been taking many trips on the weekend each year to Debbie’s folks in WI as it was a 6 hour drive. We'd leave 5:30 Friday and get back at 2-3am Sunday night. Plus, my folks were 12 hours away so we just couldn't swing the weekend trip there so we hardly made it back to Missouri.
Anyway, even though I still had a totally awesome job and a great bunch of friends, I really felt like ultimately family should be a higher priority than even an awesome job, so we decided leave Detroit. Lots of people thought we were crazy (even some of our family! ;-) ) Looking back, there was a bit of entrepreneurial sprit in the decision too, because deep down I resented the cushy life I'd become complacent with, and wanted to challenge myself so I could grow and wouldn't regret spending the better part of my life just drifting along.
Anyway, so we left Detroit, took another mission trip to India, this time with Debbie, her Dad, Mom, Sister, and Brother-in-Law. When we got back, I was looking for a job in WI, but I was looking for another job like Harman, which didn't seem to materialize.
I did get a job offer doing a job that paid great, but I really, really, would have been unhappy with. With both of us working, we probably could have stashed away 75k after two years, enough to pay off our school debts and have a good down payment for a house. Seeking guidance from God, I felt like I was getting zero guidance when all other times the answer had always been clear. It seemed as if God was wanting me to make my choice, and see the consequences work themselves out. It felt like I was being given the responsibility, and couldn't fall back on "well, things might not have worked out as expected, but it was clearly God's will".
In the end I just couldn't bear to take the job, it went against everything I believed in when it comes to following your dreams. I realize many people would have chosen differently, especially when your decision impacts your wife as well, and I can understand that. My gut told me that if I settled for a job just for the money instead of finding what I loved doing, in the long run it just wouldn't pay off.
We ended up heading out east to PA for a year. Debbie found a dream job working with horses and also one of my best friends’ wife. They are both vets, and both love horses. Instead of taking a typical electrical engineering position, I ended up taking a job at an acoustic test lab, and even though it was more of a technician position than an engineering position, I learned a ton about acoustics, and realized that this was something I really enjoyed doing. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Matt too, playing basketball, and dominating at Age of Empires. Sometimes I'd feel bad and let him win though.
Just as an aside, it was also during our time out in PA, I started running, and eventually trained and ran a marathon starting from barely being about to run 2 miles in the winter, to a full on 26.2 by the fall. What precipitated it was when Debbie's sister Laura kicked my butt on a short run after I foolishly assumed my man determination could overcome her years of serious exercise. She must have more man determination than I.
Probably one of the most beneficial things I did out east was train for the marathon. It taught me mental determination and toughness, and showed me that often times 90% of what stood between me and my goal was my mental attitude. This has helped me in many other areas of life as well.
Here's a very brief snapshot of my life since college - Back in 2000 I was blessed with a job working for an audio company in a division that developed surround sound systems for cars. It was a dream job. My first week I was watching the matrix in an SUV trying to track if the bullets were properly appearing to fly past my head.
The job started in Indiana for a year, and then they moved to Detroit. I didn't want to move to Detroit, so I planned to go to India for 6 months to do mission work. I had taken a trip to India my freshman year of college, and had a heart for missions as well. My company surprisingly agreed to give me a 6 month leave of absence, but then India and Pakistan seemed on the brink of nuclear war, 9/11 happened, and I got engaged to Debbie, so plans changed. Ended up taking a 2 month honeymoon/mission trip to India in 2001, and it was totally awesome. Debbie and I knew we wanted to do more mission work in the future.
Fast forward 4 years to 2006 and the job was still great, but one big downside was we were far away from family. We'd been taking many trips on the weekend each year to Debbie’s folks in WI as it was a 6 hour drive. We'd leave 5:30 Friday and get back at 2-3am Sunday night. Plus, my folks were 12 hours away so we just couldn't swing the weekend trip there so we hardly made it back to Missouri.
Anyway, even though I still had a totally awesome job and a great bunch of friends, I really felt like ultimately family should be a higher priority than even an awesome job, so we decided leave Detroit. Lots of people thought we were crazy (even some of our family! ;-) ) Looking back, there was a bit of entrepreneurial sprit in the decision too, because deep down I resented the cushy life I'd become complacent with, and wanted to challenge myself so I could grow and wouldn't regret spending the better part of my life just drifting along.
Anyway, so we left Detroit, took another mission trip to India, this time with Debbie, her Dad, Mom, Sister, and Brother-in-Law. When we got back, I was looking for a job in WI, but I was looking for another job like Harman, which didn't seem to materialize.
I did get a job offer doing a job that paid great, but I really, really, would have been unhappy with. With both of us working, we probably could have stashed away 75k after two years, enough to pay off our school debts and have a good down payment for a house. Seeking guidance from God, I felt like I was getting zero guidance when all other times the answer had always been clear. It seemed as if God was wanting me to make my choice, and see the consequences work themselves out. It felt like I was being given the responsibility, and couldn't fall back on "well, things might not have worked out as expected, but it was clearly God's will".
In the end I just couldn't bear to take the job, it went against everything I believed in when it comes to following your dreams. I realize many people would have chosen differently, especially when your decision impacts your wife as well, and I can understand that. My gut told me that if I settled for a job just for the money instead of finding what I loved doing, in the long run it just wouldn't pay off.
We ended up heading out east to PA for a year. Debbie found a dream job working with horses and also one of my best friends’ wife. They are both vets, and both love horses. Instead of taking a typical electrical engineering position, I ended up taking a job at an acoustic test lab, and even though it was more of a technician position than an engineering position, I learned a ton about acoustics, and realized that this was something I really enjoyed doing. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Matt too, playing basketball, and dominating at Age of Empires. Sometimes I'd feel bad and let him win though.
Just as an aside, it was also during our time out in PA, I started running, and eventually trained and ran a marathon starting from barely being about to run 2 miles in the winter, to a full on 26.2 by the fall. What precipitated it was when Debbie's sister Laura kicked my butt on a short run after I foolishly assumed my man determination could overcome her years of serious exercise. She must have more man determination than I.
Probably one of the most beneficial things I did out east was train for the marathon. It taught me mental determination and toughness, and showed me that often times 90% of what stood between me and my goal was my mental attitude. This has helped me in many other areas of life as well.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Thomas Edison had a novel idea for creative inspiration. He’d sit in his chair in his office with a ball bearing in each hand. On the floor under each arm he had tin pans. He’d then slip into a semi-conscious state where the creative solutions would start to flow. Once he dozed off, he’d drop the ball bearings, they’d hit the pans, and the clanging would wake him up. Then he’d write down whatever ideas he had.
I thought I’d give that method a try this afternoon while Elliana slept. Only problem was I didn’t have any ball bearings or tin pans. Not surprisingly, I woke up an hour later after an unexpected nap.
I did manage to get a lot of organizing done this afternoon and night after my afternoon siesta. Overall, it was a really productive day, especially given the fact I was home taking care of Elliana all day. I’ve got a lot of things planned for tomorrow too, so I’ll be ready to hit the ground running, and hopefully get to the coffee shop early tomorrow morning to get a jump on the day.
I thought I’d give that method a try this afternoon while Elliana slept. Only problem was I didn’t have any ball bearings or tin pans. Not surprisingly, I woke up an hour later after an unexpected nap.
I did manage to get a lot of organizing done this afternoon and night after my afternoon siesta. Overall, it was a really productive day, especially given the fact I was home taking care of Elliana all day. I’ve got a lot of things planned for tomorrow too, so I’ll be ready to hit the ground running, and hopefully get to the coffee shop early tomorrow morning to get a jump on the day.
Busy Day
I’ve got a lot on my plate for the rest of the week, and today has been quite busy, but so far, things are going well today. This is the first day Debbie’s going to work for a full day. I’m home watching Elliana, and trying to get my work done too.
So far, I knocked out P90X Plyometrics from 7-8am, did an online pre-interview test from 8:30-9:30, played with Elliana from 9:45-10:45, and in the past half hour I’ve joined an acoustical society and applied to join their linkedIn group to meet some people in the acoustical field, set up a phone interview, and am now going to try and identify some prospective clients for my business.
Debbie should be home around noon to feed Elliana, and we’ll see how the rest of the day goes!
So far, I knocked out P90X Plyometrics from 7-8am, did an online pre-interview test from 8:30-9:30, played with Elliana from 9:45-10:45, and in the past half hour I’ve joined an acoustical society and applied to join their linkedIn group to meet some people in the acoustical field, set up a phone interview, and am now going to try and identify some prospective clients for my business.
Debbie should be home around noon to feed Elliana, and we’ll see how the rest of the day goes!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Background Part III: Forming a Plan
After Dan Miller had inspired me to keep dreaming big, my next step was to form a plan to make that dream a reality, not letting it get extinguished by fear, or the opinions of friends, family, or coworkers. I immersed myself in all sorts of motivation/goal setting stuff by people like Napolean Hill, Zig Zigglar, etc. I probably listened to literally 200 hours worth of podcasts, books on tape, sermons, etc. Slowly a vision began to take shape, and I began to form a plan of action.
It's at this point that I'd like to interject that when you enter the realm of positive thinking, self motivation, etc. there's a lot of junk out there. Books like “The Secret” or most any of the fluff on Oprah, most anything by a guy who calls himself a “guru”, the bald guy on PBS fundraisers (you know who I’m talking about), anyone talking about energy, metaphysics, ancient wisdom, or invisible horsemen that point the way.
Or the people claiming to be Christian who preach the idea that God's a divine santa clause wanting to give you anything your heart could desire if you simply "name it and claim it". Or those that teach God is bound by His word and is forced to bless you if you only follow a few simple life principles.
Napoleon Hill is a good example of an inspiring speaker who offers lots of motivational advice, but when he gets around to discussing the nature of this power, he relegates God to some sort of infinite intelligence out there to do your bidding. I go back and forth between chucking his advice wholesale, or just the parts that are out in left field. It reminds me a bit of how often times a good theologian doesn’t make a good scientist, or an excellent scientist who has a messed up theology. In those cases, I’d say people should stick to their area of expertise, but now I’m starting to drift off into another topic entirely…
It's at this point that I'd like to interject that when you enter the realm of positive thinking, self motivation, etc. there's a lot of junk out there. Books like “The Secret” or most any of the fluff on Oprah, most anything by a guy who calls himself a “guru”, the bald guy on PBS fundraisers (you know who I’m talking about), anyone talking about energy, metaphysics, ancient wisdom, or invisible horsemen that point the way.
Or the people claiming to be Christian who preach the idea that God's a divine santa clause wanting to give you anything your heart could desire if you simply "name it and claim it". Or those that teach God is bound by His word and is forced to bless you if you only follow a few simple life principles.
Napoleon Hill is a good example of an inspiring speaker who offers lots of motivational advice, but when he gets around to discussing the nature of this power, he relegates God to some sort of infinite intelligence out there to do your bidding. I go back and forth between chucking his advice wholesale, or just the parts that are out in left field. It reminds me a bit of how often times a good theologian doesn’t make a good scientist, or an excellent scientist who has a messed up theology. In those cases, I’d say people should stick to their area of expertise, but now I’m starting to drift off into another topic entirely…
Monday, January 18, 2010
People - a means to and end, or a fellow person
I've noticed something interesting now that I'm working for myself, and that is that I want to be much more efficient, and that's causing me to tend to be less patient with inefficiency, and sometimes with others. I'm a pretty laid back person most of the time, even when I'm on a mission, I'm usually ok with setbacks and changes of direction. However
At present, I don't have life insurance. I assumed that was rolled into COBRA, but I found out the day before my last day at work it wasn't. So I made some calls a few weeks ago to find out how to get life insurance. I've been playing phone tag with a lady who wanted to talk about my benefits. I went ahead and scheduled a meeting up in Madison to discuss my benefits. I was assuming this was something to do with my whole heath insurance, etc. But then I started thinking about it, and realized it was probably just about getting a life insurance policy extended now that I'm no longer with my former employer.
Normally at this point I would have just shrugged and said "sure, let's meet" and then I would have driven up to Madison, taken probably 2-2.5 hours between driving up there, meeting, having lunch, and driving back. However, as I thought about this, I realized that all I was going to accomplish was they were going to give me a price for continued life insurance.
I asked if we could do this over the phone, and she said that since it was confidential, we couldn't do that. I then told the lady that if they already have all my info, and all I needed was the amount life insurance was going to cost, then we could do that over the phone without discussing anything confidential.
Turns outs that they'd actually be writing a new policy from scratch, and they don't have any of my info, nor would I be getting any sort of price break I don't think. It's at this point that I started to get irritated - here I was rushing around to leave for a meeting up in Madison, when I could just go online and get a quote from 10 other places in a matter of minutes.
So I called back and explained the situation, that it didn't really make sense for me to drive all the way up there just for a quote I could get online, and cancelled our meeting. I realize the lady was just doing her job, so there's no sense in getting irritated with her, and I think I was pretty polite although a bit short.
I think part of the deal looking back was that I feel a bit stressed today with a lot of things I feel I need to get done today, on top of the potential disruption of my schedule. The only other time I can recall feeling similar is at Christmas time when I'm trying to return something, or get in the store and get out, and the cashier is having a problem.
Times like this I have to remind myself that the person I'm dealing with is a person with their own problems, and not to get wrapped up in my own world. I think this is also an example of trying to do things on your one strength instead of trusting in God. Having my own plan puts the pressure on me, and the focus on me. Making plans but focusing on God throughout the day allows me to see people as human and not a means to get what I want. I think I'll have to try and keep that in mind.
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