No and Yes, the Job Change

It’s been a month of big changes in the ScLoHo world.

At about 2:30pm on Thursday 2/7, I announced to my two superiors at the radio stations I was working for, No.

My No, was no to accepting the offer they were giving me to continue working as an advertising sales representative for their two radio stations.

There was nothing wrong with the stations, they do very well from a listener perspective and also business wise.  But I had decided that my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

I had been looking around for awhile for something outside of the radio career field that I’ve devoted 25 years of my life to since I was 16.

I continued to do my best for my clients during this time but I knew, deep down that I would be leaving one day.

Which made me a bit sad.

I really have loved working in radio, as a jock, as a creative guy writing and producing ad campaigns, to brainstorming and helping businesses be successful.  It’s why, back in 2003 I joined another group of Fort Wayne radio stations and stayed with them for over 8 years.

But the reason I left those other stations were similar to why I left these stations.

I wanted to say Yes to something else.

I wanted to start what I was hoping for would be my last career move.  Or at least one that could last 8, 10, 12 years or more.

In 2011 I said Yes to working for a local website development company.  My role was related to Social Media but quickly became primarily sales.

The company, like nearly any company, had some problems, but they were filled with a pool of talent in the web industry that I had never before encountered.  I learned an awful lot during my time with them.

Nearly a year later however, I decided to return to familiar ground, the world of radio.  I was hoping for a lifelong career ending move during the interview process, yet when I was signing the final paperwork to accept their offer, I had a nagging feeling that some of the things they wanted me to do and some of the things they didn’t want me to do were not what I really wanted.

I agreed anyway and for the next several months, followed their plan for success until I knew that this was not going to be the long term relationship I really wanted.

So, jump back in the story to earlier this month, the afternoon of February 7th, when I told my superiors that I would be resigning.

I did not have another job lined up.

I had a plan.

Within 5 days, counting the weekend, I had 5 employment offers, including two that I believed would finally satisfy that long term career change I longed for.

The one I said Yes to, involves using my social media background on a daily basis to take over and manage separate brands and their Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Blogs, along with a host of other associated responsibilities.

(The ones I said no to included one in television,  and three in totally unrelated fields from what I’ve been doing for the past 10 years.)

This is exciting.  This is taking what I’ve been doing personally for nearly 10 years as a sideline and making it a full time occupation.

There are some details that I’m learning about their business and how they have been successful for over 80 years, transforming from a printing company, to a catalog based firm to a web based international company, and my first week was filled with training, learning, self-education and even learning from a few mistakes that our internet marketing team made. It was at times, information overload.

But at last I am able to take what I have taught others via workshops, seminars, hands on training and mentoring, combined with my own experience in advertising, marketing and the social world and take our companies to the next level in a very competitive field.

As a side note, I’m only the new guy for a week, as we hired the last part of our Internet Marketing Team last week, and he’ll start Monday.