I'm on a Blogging diet... only one post per year!?

... But seriously... who else can claim they are a blogger and only do one post a year? Who?
I'm not proud of it, but it just "is".
So, what's in the news? Only that I quit my job at Avid after more years than I can count (at least on my hands) 20+? ..with 2 tours of duty... Good news is that I am now happier than I've ever been. I'm working from home with my lovely wife as I have joined her successful marketing and public relations business. www.highrezpr.com It was all part of a dream I didn't even know I was having... I started to realize while working for Avid over the years that the favorite parts of my job were my interactions with customers, and the communication and educational aspect of that interaction. I guess I've never really gotten over the thrill of giving a good demo to anyone who is interested. So, with that in mind, I made a bold move and switched careers at Avid, leaving behind my "Product Designer" role, and joining the marketing group as Senior Marketing Manager. Some people probably thought I was crazy... but, I needed to know if I could do it, if I could be any good at writing (still working on that), and if the whole marcom thing was really something I was interested in. It went ok, and I was fortunate to have so much knowledge on the subject that I could learn while doing. Of course I learned a lot of things I didn't like and had to continue to suffer an intolerable amount of high tech jargon. (leveraging our core competencies to deploy best of breed solutions) -- That could be an entire blog subject on its own (another day). However, I successfully wore the marketing hat, and found that although I can write "ok", there are a few people that can write so much better... I mean the WOW, how do they do that? kind of better..(my wife being one of them) I figure I'm as good or better than most, so I'll keep plodding along trying to up my game. As the year progressed, the dream started to materialize of possibly going to work for Veronique at HighRez. If we could just pick up enough clients, the math might work out and we could survive? So, we discussed the possibility for weeks, agonizing over things like health insurance costs, 401Ks, and all our other expenses. Almost like clockwork, potential new clients just started coming out of the woodwork. Without ANY solicitation by us!! So, if ever I felt something/somebody was looking out for us, it was then. We signed up three more (just the number we calculated we needed) and I gave my notice. Things really took off and I was working out my two weeks with Avid while writing and having meetings with HighRez clients. Avid could not have been better to me. They said "as long as you get your work done, we don't care where you are", which was lucky, since we needed to attend a kickoff meeting with a client in California!

So, that was July 2014... and here we are still going strong in November (touch wood). I've taken the title of "technology evangelist", which is certainly unique, but I have to admit that I'm doing a fair amount of it every day, so it's actually quite fitting. One of our biggest concerns is not taking on too much work, as we continue to get business leads from some great companies. We have to be careful not to get buried in our work. However, wintertime is a good time for such things! All in all, I'm so happy, I can't even describe it. Working from home with the woman I love is just heavenly. We have different strengths, so we make a good team. Some folks can't imagine working with their spouses, and I can understand that, however, so far (touching wood again) we are managing pretty well! The other problem I'm having is not taking this all for granted. I feel so blessed and full of gratitude, but I still can't express how wonderful the change is in words. It's truly extraordinary, and I owe so much of it to Veronique, because yet again she made it all possible! Love, love, love that woman!!