It has been almost two and a half months since I posted about leaving ClubReady, my employer for the prior seven years. In that time a lot has changed. I’ve gone 100% vegan, lost a bit of weight and lowered my blood pressure to a very healthy level, and held it there. I wonder how much of that was diet, and how much of that was leaving my role ;) (It was diet, my BP was still high after leaving CR). In the 2.5 months I’ve had a lot of time to spend with my family, a little time to spend catching up with friends and former coworkers, and a little time to try to figure out what comes next. My last day at CR I actually had a phone interview scheduled with a local St. Louis company. That interview led to a few more calls, all conducted remotely, and ultimately led to a job offer back mid/late February.

If you’ve recently upgraded to DotNetNuke 7.3, you might not have noticed that your scheduled tasks aren’t running. How do you know if your tasks are running or not? Follow these steps

Recently I was promoted, from my position of Sr Software Developer and team lead, to Director of Customer Experience, directing a team of 15 people at ClubReady, Inc. I have 4 software developers that work for me, and 11 customer support and training personnel. One thing I've noticed, not just at ClubReady, is that people often times have a hard time communicating with others, be that in person, or electronically. Over the years I've learned a thing or two about communicating, so I wanted to put together a list of ways to help people communicate better in your professional career.

I don't think I've always been a good communicator, so I do believe it is something that anyone can work at, and improve. As a kid, I was pretty shy, I didn't like getting up in front of people and speaking, and I clearly remember missing out on a holiday concert in preschool when I cried my eyes out because I didn't want to sing in front of a crowd. At some point though, that changed, I really don't know when that was? If I could attribute it to one thing, I guess it was likely my 6 years of band (saxophone) in middle/high school. In College I managed to be a DJ on the college radio station after interviewing for the program multiple times, though it wasn't really until after college that I started doing any public speaking.