I love WordPress. Nothing about that is changing. And I love all my friends at Crowd Favorite. That's not changing either. But professionally, it's time to make a course correction…
Nineteen months ago I stepped full time into the world of WordPress.
I joined my friends Karim and Jason at Crowd Favorite to help them navigate some particular challenges after the merger of VeloMedia and Crowd Favorite. They had two cultures in place, two sets of staff, two sets of internal systems, a lot of talent, and a couple of issues they thought I could help with.
I've had the privilege to work alongside them, and the rest of the leadership team they assembled, over these last 19 months. In that time, they've accomplished a lot. There's now one culture, one staff, and a lot fewer issues. I've been thrilled to lend my hand wherever I could to help things out, under their joint leadership.
Four Months Ago…
Four months ago my wife had emergency surgery to deal with internal bleeding that was life-threatening. It's the kind of thing that you never hope occurs, but when it does, brings sharp focus and perspective to your day-to-day life.
She's recovering well and I'm so thankful for that. But it did cause the two of us to have some conversations, about our hopes and goals—for our family, our kids, and my career.
Last Month…
While many of my friends were at Pressnomics, I was at a personal retreat. It's something I do with a set of guys that I've now known for more than 25 years. Every year we meet to catch up, connect, and challenge one other. This year, much like 7 years ago, they asked me about influence and impact (the key drivers of my story).
Seven years ago the questions drove the decisions behind moving to San Diego and stepping into the WordPress ecosystem. This year the challenges, along with everything else, have pushed me to make a new decision:
This Friday will be my last day with Crowd Favorite.
I'm making a change
I've had a lot of fun helping with Crowd Favorite, but let's be honest—I'm not the guy with 21 years of services experience. That's my friend Karim.
I'm the guy with depth in products: product marketing, product development, product design, product pricing, and more. It's time for me to focus there—hopefully having the impact and influence that I can.
Never fear (if you were), I'm not leaving the WordPress space, though I think our product space needs to move itself a bit (towards more SaaS, but that's a topic for another article).
I don't have a next gig…
In case you're wondering, or scrolling to see which company I've joined—there is no announcement there. I don't have a next gig.
It's the first time in my professional life that I've wrapped up time with a company without knowing what's next.
But the reality is that I have some product ideas, a lot of blog posts, another couple of eBooks, a few new talks, and more that are calling out to me.
And I hope to get the chance to work with a few more product companies as well—in coaching and consulting—while I figure out everything that's next.
So that's it. My big news.
I'll be stepping back into the product space on April 18th. Actually, make that the 19th—I plan to spend the 18th in the hot tub all day smoking cigars!