Work Related

I know- it's been a while. I feel guilty about posting because I don't have the time to read other peoples' blogs. But then I remind myself that this blog is for me and my family so:
A: I can search for stuff in my "diary" and
B: My family knows what's going on in my life because as everyone knows, I despise talking on the phone!

Things are rolling like crazy in this household. Both of us are busy with our consulting careers and thank our lucky stars that we were let go from the chains of employment (aka working for 'da man.)

I was a little frightened when I first started with Big Fish, because everything was so new and foreign to me. I know from past experience that when I feel fear, I'm about to go into a huge growth spurt. I'm settling in quite nicely and think that I'm going to really be able to make some significant changes for that company. How cool is that?

(it's cool- trust me)

I met my first shark yesterday. I was quite appalled at his behavior, but chose to go the high road as usual. I'm working with this guy through my contract with Big Fish. He's another vendor that provides information security training. His stuff is way out of my league technologically speaking and I never saw him as a competitor. Apparently he sees me as one, which is ridiculous. He's been busy thumping his chest to Big Fish about how they should let him do the kind of training that I *can* do. Apparently he does not realize that I really could toss this vendor over the side of the ship if I really wanted to, and find another vendor to do what he does.

Oh, and he offered to give me a commission if I sell his product to other people. That was the part that was appalling. I'm representing Big Fish in this project, not my company, and he has no business even offering that to me. I can assure you, that I have absolutely no plans to do any sort of business with this person. I wish I didn't have to through Big Fish, but I'll just keep my yapper shut and let him think he's running his show.

In other news...

• I'm trying to wean myself off of the drugs from the first head injury. I'm off two of them, but worried about the last two. I'd really like to see if I can go without, but worried that I won't be able to. Time will tell.



• The surgery on my tendon was a complete success. I have full range of motion in my jaw now and can actually chew stuff. I won't likely take that for granted anytime soon. I see the surgeon next week about potential surgery number two. On nice days, I'm rarely in pain but on rainy dreary days I sometimes feel as bad as when I first took the face plant almost a year ago. I am still numb in parts of my face and my lips get tingly (not in a good way.) I'm sure that I'm the only one that notices it, but I still have swelling in the cheek area.



• The Hubs's a-fib is gone, but he's still on lots of drugs. He hates that, but you gotta do what you gotta do. He's been so good about exercising and eating healthy. It's been a lot of work and self-control, but he's done it and I'm very proud of him.



• Einstein is becoming a wonderful dog. I guess he's not really a puppy anymore since he's 10 months old. He drives The Hubs batty at night with his squeaky toys and squeaky ball. He loves making things squeak and turns into a full-on puppy between the hours of 6pm and 9pm. Thankfully, The Hubs thinks he's as cute as I do.

I think that about catches me up.

Holy smokes. My little business is growing to such proportions that I can hardly keep track. Thankfully, I've always had a good email filing system. I have a folder for each customer and sub-folders for each project for that customer.

I now have five solid clients. In addition to the endless (in a good way) projects with client number one, the contract with mega-company (client number 3) and the bank (client number 2), I have client number 4- a new partner (a huge information security company), and I've just landed another MEGA company (client number 5)

You'll see the names of the mega companies if you're logged in and have been given permission to view my private posts.

I think out of all of these clients- the new partnership I'm forming is the most exciting to me. He has the business model that I wanted to originally do for my business; create off the shelf compliance and information security training and license it to small banks. How we came across each other is SO happenstance it's mind-blowing. He posted a question on a message board that I rarely read, asking if there was someone in that forum that knew anything about consumer compliance training. It wasn't on a compliance forum. It was on an infosec forum, so he was pretty much barking up the wrong tree.

I emailed him on a whim, thinking that I really didn't have time for another client. Boy am I glad that I did. We had a brief exchange of email, I sent him my resume and gave him the link to my business site. He emailed me and asked me to call him right away if I could. I did and the rest is history.

He owns a huge security company that caters to small banks (my clientele if I actually got to my business plan.) They've been asking him for information security training and compliance training, so he was looking for someone to do that.

::ahem:: that's what I specialize in.

We're in the early stages of partnering on this. I'll create the training (which I already have the content), and he'll license it to small banks. He currently has 3,000 banks under his belt and has people marketing to the rest. We'll share the profit and I get to keep the intellectual property rights to my training; meaning I can use this same training to sell to anybody that I want as long as it doesn't compete with his current clients.

He's so excited about what he saw in my portfolio and what I can offer, that he's thinking of splintering off this portion to start another company.

Peeps, this is H.U.G.E.

Thank goodness I now have a business attorney. I have a feeling I'm going to keep him busy.

As you can guess, I haven't figured out a way to clone myself. Thank goodness I have the next best thing, genetically speaking. I'm giving Son#1 and Son#2 (my sons) training to help me with this. They have the background that I need, because they both worked at WaMu's call center. They know all the weird terminology and they're both very computer literate. So, kind of like clones- only they're boys. Eventually I might have enough business to bring on more people.

I know that Son#1 and Son#2 will be able to hit the ground running, which is what I need right now.

Holy cow. This thing is like a snowball rolling downhill. I'm going to let it keep rolling until the end of the year and make some big decisions in January, like where do I really want to go with my business? I know this- I really don't want it to grow so big that all I do is administrative work. I want to always my hands in the creative part.

Four months, and all of this. Every bit of it has been either happenstance or just a mention from someone I've worked with in the past. I'd like to think that this is my reward for being willing to dig in the trenches and always be the best employee possible.

September 25th will be the anniversary of the failure of Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu). I remember hardly being able to catch my breath after we got the news and how we (my co-workers and I) were working in a stressful environment every single day until we knew what was going to happen to us.

Gosh, if only I had a crystal ball then.

Boy, do I feel a book in my future. Seriously. Sometimes when I think about ALL of the twists and turns my life has taken over the years, I can hardly believe it all happened to one person. Good and bad. Or rather, bad and good. I have a message in me that really wants to get out.

I just came across this photo I saved of a newspaper picture of the job fair right after The Hubs and I were laid off.

The arrows point to us in a long line of people. I saw many of my friends at the fair; ex-coworkers from WaMu.

I think that day was the most depressed I've ever felt on this journey; feeling hopeless for both of us. It's really hard to believe that this was only a few short months ago. What an incredible ride....

The big fish (aka client number 3) liked my portfolio and my proposal, so gave me the contract! I'm so excited and a little bit unbelieving.

The contract is for only 3 months because of budget constraints, but there's a definite possibility of it being extended if I do a good job. I'll do a good job. Trust that.

I'll get to create Information Security training and communications (my favorite topic!) and will be sent to some really great places.

This is the first contract I've landed that was helped by word of mouth. Big Fish mentioned to previous manager's manager that they were looking for someone like me. Previous manager's manager mentioned my name, but was out of this process after that. I emailed her to thank her and she told me that she only mentioned my name and the rest was all me. That really made me feel good because I never would have dreamed to submit my portfolio to a bit company like that.

Big Fish hired me based on my portfolio! Or maybe it was just the interview. I can be charming if I want to. Tee hee.

This is just nuts! I had to tell client number one yesterday that I'll need to cut back on the hours working for her. I'm keeping the stuff I enjoy and gave her the name of someone that would be an awesome fit for one of the parts that I really wasn't looking forward to. I also gave client number 1 the name of another person for the technical writing piece. I would hire people to cover this client's work but I TOTALLY underbid myself with that one. I had no idea my true value at the time.

A valuable learning experience and one that wasn't horribly costly since we didn't have a contract.

I've enjoyed these two weeks of just being lazy and playing with Einstein. Next week might start getting a little wild. Certainly the week after will. I have four pending projects with client number two that are about ready to pop any minute now. EEEEK!

The title of my post? That there is my mantra.

Forgive me if this post seems like bragging. I'm truly not. I am acknowledging the truth of my belief.

I look at where I'm at today and see the reality of dream I had for myself unfolding. It's happening a heck of a lot sooner than I'd planned, and that's OK. I'd envisioned this to happen starting 01/31/15- the day I planned to retire.

I even had a countdown here on my blog. That is until I was laid off on January 29th, 2009. ::ahem::

I had plenty of notice before that date, and so had plenty of time to think about what I wanted to do next. I'm not exactly sure when I decided to pull the trigger on my business, but once I made that decision, I never looked back. Not even for a second.

I could probably look through my posts, but I think it was in May. I got my first client (a company specializing in lending training) in May, client number two (a bank) in June, and am about to sign a contract for a client number three (a HUGE client- someone I'll bet every one of you have dealt with.)

On top of that I'm getting another big project from client number one and three projects from client number two. Client number two's education director also referred me to her friend at another company. I also am nudging my way into another HUGE company, hoping to get a contract from them. I don't have the time to service all of these people, but that's beside the point. I have people in mind to help me get the work done. In fact, I have some training time set up for my *minions*.

The best news is that I'm getting repeat business and referral business. For someone like me who is always worried that my work might not be good enough, that's a huge deal. A company that's willing to give me more business, refer me to their friends and not question what I'm charging them, tells me that I'm doing something right.

As soon as the contract is signed with client number three, I'll be making WAY more money that I made at my previous employer, however that's not what this vision is about. Anybody that knows me knows that I don't care about money. I care about having a home and food on the table, but I don't care how much money I make other than that.

This vision is about the ability to do what I enjoy doing, all the while sitting in my home. I've come to the point where I simply couldn't even dream of working 40 hours a week in an office somewhere, even if there was only a small commute. I had to do something that allowed me to be a stay at home mom (ha ha ha- to a dog.)

I'm so thankful that I was born with an adventurous, and for the most part fearless spirit. This enabled me to feel confident to pick and choose what I wanted to do in my past career and then go for it. All of the experiences I've gathered in my 'job hopping' have given me a skill set that is unmatched. I'm 100% positive that there is nobody in this world that has my skill set, and so I don't have any competition. I just need to know what company will benefit from my skill set and target them.

So far, my aim has been 100% right on.

(get it? target? aim? ha! I should be a comedian)

I will continue to look forward, just as I have with my head injury journey. Looking backward serves very little purpose unless there are lessons that haven't been learned from those past experiences. I've been working on this over the past few months. I think I'm ready to say that I've mastered this idea.

Onward!