I had to sit on this for a while. The whole “I’ve got a secret” thing is really annoying and I can assure you, I hate doing this. I’m the sort of person that loves to blab about everything, so holding back is awful. In March I designed a new concept for Woodard and the Scaling New Heights conference.
As the title implies, the conference will be held in St. Louis, MO in 2020. Ironically, so will WordCamp US.
When I was 11 years old, I had an idea. I was walking around Sam’s Club (a new idea at the time – 1989) and something caught my eye; a large plastic jug with all the blow pops I could ever want. Enough sugar to get a sloth jacked up and twitchy. Each blow pop splattered in colorful plastic wrapping – I could almost taste it.
So the original idea was “They will be mine! ALL MINE!” which is expected from a 11 year old. Then, on the way home in our family van, another idea shot into my head; “I can’t eat all these, that’s crazy. Maybe I should sell them.”
What would follow became my first venture into business. I shoved the jar into my jansport backpack and tottered off to the bus stop. I proudly announced that I was selling blow pops to the 8+ kids gathered around the street corner waiting for their ride to school. By the time I got home, I had sold half of the jar and it was completely gone the next day.
The routine became habit and I quickly learned a lot and stashed the goods in my middle school locker. At one point my mom stopped me as I was counting all the cash I had wadded up. “Where did you get all that?” I explained that the candy I was buying from Sam’s was selling like hot cakes at school. She looked puzzled and shrugged. To my surprise my parents let me continue and I continued to make more money.
Eventually all good things come to an end. The Vice Principle caught up with me in the hallway and very nicely asked me if I was selling candy. I confirmed and then led him to my locker. He then took my candy and ended my business immediately.
At that time, I wasn’t creative enough to find was around the system. I dind’t pursue selling candy outside of school. I didn’t try to sell on the bus and hide it under a seat. I didn’t try a lot of things. What’s even worse, is I learned nothing from my experience. I just felt crushed.
I think back to that event to try and extract my mistakes and what I can do moving forward. I think the best thing I could have done was to keep going and continue selling candy. I also think I could have learned something about authority, but at that age, I was scared stiff of adults. Ironically, I sort of still am.
The silver lining of this post is that I still have something going for myself. I also love what I do and can really turn a website out in record time. I also like where I work during the day and find myself often joking with an easy crowd. Dad jokes FTW.
According to Douglas Adams, this number has a significance. But it could also mean absolutely nothing. Today I turn 42. I’m an old man : )
I am happy to report that I will be speaking at a WordCamp. Ok, not as happy as I am nervous and anxious to get it behind me. I will be talking about moving from a design role into a developer’s position. I’m working on the slide deck and pretty confident it will work out. Sorta : /
So here’s the deal. I’ll be doing my thing on Saturday, May 5th @ 2pm. WordCamp Atlanta will be at The Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta. Yeah, so I will have to come up with a creative way to park my car. Here is a link to the schedule for the three days (come Friday for beginners):
So that’s my life for the next month. Then I get ready for the United Kingdom. I’ll be going the first 3 weeks of June to visit with my family and float around on a boat while everyone gets toasted. It will be fun : )
I’m also going to throw out there that I’m really happy with where Outright is going. It is now an LLC with the state of Georgia and I’m tinkering around with Mailchimp to get a process in place for all my clients and you; my audience. All four of ya.
I’ve also started networking again. I’ve met a few people and will probably do business with some of them. I also have made headway outside my bubble and created a website for an accountant in Kansas. You can see it here: