My Personal Whirlwind (aka Life of Late)

Life has been whirlwind as of late - I've changed more during the last three months than during the entire 25 years prior.

In September I moved to Wenatchee to take a job as a reporter at the local business journal and hated it. I was happy and grateful to get a job as a journalist after graduation. Getting a job as a reporter right out of college is a tough thing these days.

But in college I worked hard, paid my dues, spent copious amounts of time in the newsroom, and became editor-in-chief of WSU's Daily Evergreen - a 12,000 readership daily. The next step was to get a job as a reporter. So I did.

I moved up here and decided I would listen a lot and say a little, start back at square one, and be polite to everyone. And I was. And it worked well - with sources.

But being a new media kid in an old media company was a bit like being an unsuspecting lamb wobbly walking into the wolves' den. If you haven't heard - print media is dying. Older journalists are scared and confused and print media companies are doing one of two things: 1. Embracing new media and transitioning to the new norm or, 2. burying their heads in the sand, downsizing and hoping the Internet will just GO AWAY.

But it's not going away. And I'd had enough of being treated like dirt, overworked and underpaid. I wasn't raised to be the sort of fool who waits around for orders or gratefully accepts scraps from his master's table when there's opportunity to be had and money to be made.

So I went into business for myself. I went to the dark side: marketing.


I signed my first client two days after walking out of my former newsroom with nothing more than a handful of business cards and righteous anger.

Since then I've started working with Mission Ridge Ski and Board Resort, Caffe Mela coffee shop and the Wenatchee Valley Museum. I'm doing social media and digital media for them - which is what my business, Strategically Social, is all about.

I've also been freelancing for the Wenatchee World writing business stories and writing for their satellite site: The Leavenworth World.

And other than a setback as of late (my truck, computer and iPhone all got stolen yesterday, while I was at Mass) things have been good.

I've been happy and busy and best of all - there's competition to be had and competition to be won.

I shoulda been a business major...