After the realization had sunk in a couple of weeks back that I was leaving Capstrat, I decided to write down all the things I enjoy about my work. I wanted to document the things that truly excited me and I was passionate about. My goal was to identify what I wanted to do moving forward.

The highlights:

I wanted to:

• Focus my time developing successful social media and online marketing campaigns.

• Work with folks who understand the time, resources and costs necessary to deliver successful work.

• Work on projects with well thought out strategies. In my humble opinion, no marketing campaign will be successful without a foundation strategy, everything else is just tactics.

• Finally, I want to work in an environment where taking chances and risks are not only encouraged but required, to ensure the work is innovative.

I did not want to:

• Manage a team. While watching several members of my team grow into superstars gave me a great deal of pride and satisfaction, managing a team takes a lot of time each and every day. I did not want to use the amount of time required to manage a team effectively at this point of my career.

• Spend my time focused on any type of web design/development work. I am not saying anything negative about the work, it is just not something I am passionate about.

I had a plan on what I wanted to do and began executing, but as usual in life and one of the reasons why I get up every morning, something unexpected happened. I got together with a couple of folks who wanted to talk to me about a position. As they described the position, it was like they had broken into my computer and was reading off the list of things that I was passionate about and wanted to pursue. After our great discussion, my original plan required a revision as this position, this company and this team were too great to turn down.

I am excited to announce that I will be joining Ignite Social Media as their Director of Strategic Innovation. I have known Jim Tobin and Lisa Braziel for several years and have been so impressed with their work. I knew after a couple of conversations with the team this was an opportunity I wanted to pursue. I am very excited to begin working with the talented folks over at Ignite!

In the meantime, I am going to take a week or so off and potentially you know sleep and maybe hang with my wife and daughter. Thanks again for everyone’s insights, kind words and encouragement. As I said in my previous post, at times I forget what a wonderful community we have here in RTP and just how lucky I am to be a part of it. Thanks again.

After five great years, I have decided to step down from my position at Capstrat and pursue other interests.  In the coming days I will provide an update on what I will be doing and all the details, but this post will not be going into that.  Over the last several weeks as I worked with the Capstrat management team on my transition, I had an opportunity to stop and look back at the last five years and I wanted to share a few thoughts.

I have loved my time at Capstrat and the reason for this is very simple – the people.  I consider myself a lucky man for having the opportunity to work with so many talented, passionate and special Capstrat folks.  I have learned so much from so many of you.  There are not enough thank you’s that I can say to express my sincere appreciation for all we accomplished over the past five years.   What made Capstrat so special five years ago when I joined the agency is the same today – You.

I’ve had a really interesting couple of weeks and I wanted to thank the people that took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me.  I forget at times how special this area is and how many smart and talented people live here. Your thoughts, insights and recommendations have been invaluable. I have already thanked each one of you individually, but I wanted to send my appreciation again for your wisdom.

The question I have been asked most over the last couple of weeks by co-workers and friends, has been why?  Why now? I have been trying to put something into words that would make sense and here is what I came up with.  My first several years at Capstrat, I spent a good deal of my time laughing. Even though there was pressure, deadlines and all that fun agency stuff, I spent a lot of time laughing with my co-workers. Recently, I have not been laughing as much. The birth of my daughter eight weeks ago really put life into perspective for me and bottom line – life is too short and too precious to not spend laughing.

I wish my co-workers and clients the very best of luck. I am staying local so I have no doubt I will be seeing you in the future.  Thanks again!