Ryan Wofford

Image by sarniebill1 via Flickr

I’m not really one of those people who is big on New Year’s resolutions, or who came into the first few weeks of January talking about how this was going to be a great year, or a decade of change. As a matter of fact, I probably downplayed it, if anything. I’ve had a lot of change in my life over the past year… my mother passed away, I was forced to move houses, I got engaged. And, I was aware of some change coming my way in the new year… the company I’ve worked for over the past 9+ years is going through a merger and while I wasn’t happy about it, I was interviewing for a new job, we’re hoping to buy our first house this year, and more. My point is–change happens. Like many, often I find myself resistant to it at first. Then, it happens. Something changes. And the only thing you can do is adapt.

Sure enough, after months of discussions and a turn of events, I was offered a Director of Marketing position with a local SaaS company, which by all accounts appears to be a wonderful opportunity for career growth and to practice what I have a passion for, which is developing marketing strategies to attract and connect with customers on an intimate level. This opportunity is really what sparked me into launching this blog and getting better about documenting and sharing knowledge with my peers (and friends or enemies or frienemies or whatever you call our twisted relationship), and make more of a conscious effort to write more. I’ve even dusted off the ol’ screenplay, as well (but we’ll leave that for another discussion)!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

So, here we go into a new year. A new era. A new decca (as Flavor Flav would say), and I look around and I have to say… the winds of change are ‘a blowin’. I’m leaving behind almost 10 YEARS with my current company (that’s almost unheard of these days!). I’m officially starting my new job on Feb. 1st. I’m crossing into a completely new vertical industry. I have a LOT to learn. And, I’m scared.

I actually recalled another time in my life when I was exposed to change and someone lent me a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.. I had given the book back, but wanted to read it again and needed instant gratification so I purchased it on iTunes so I could listen to it while I cooked dinner that night. I realized again that it was okay to fear change, whether you understood it or not. Life begins when you react to that decision. I think I made pork chops with apples and kale that night. I made the decision the next day to take the offer.

So, here I go… about to embark on a new phase in my life and I can only hope it proves to be as enriching and self-defining as I believe it has potential to be.

Stay tuned to this blog as I hope to keep you posted with how things are going, new developments in my personal and professional journey, and of course my experiences with developing and executing marketing strategies using today’s (and tomorrow’s) new technology!

How will you foster and embrace change this year?

Tags: change, Marketing

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 10:33 am and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.