Not that you asked, but I have some things to say.

"In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create." David Ogilvy Mr. Ogilvy...original Mad Man, advertising guru, and a man I've written posts on before (two of which you can find by clicking  here  and  here  ), sums it up pretty well. Unless your product outright sells itself (which is remarkably rare), you need marketing and sales. The more complicated your product/service, the less you can rely on marketing and the more you need a salesperson.  I recently posted about the amazing entrepreneur/start-up community in Nashville (find  here ) that I had the honor of mingling with during the 2012 Nashville Technology Council (NTC) Awards Gala. I mentioned to several of the folks I chatted with that night that I needed to A) re-engage with the NTC and it's offshoots; and B) get to know the start-up community better.  So, I have a plan. I've been trained for over a decade on how to sell, an

Officially I am an employee. I collect a base, get a W2, and am regulated by corporate HR policies. But....I am a franchise. The rules, to me, aren't exactly intended for me. I have been trained to ignore the metaphorical and actual "No Soliciting" signs that exist in the world. I must tell C-level executives that they are wrong (often). I often operate outside of many of the norms of the 'social contract'. I must contact total strangers, and let them know that the research I have done on their company leads me to believe they are missing something. I must ask for the opportunity to interview a client to see if they are worth spending more of my time with. I will set my own schedule, my day may start at 7am. It may start at 10am. It might end in the wee hours of the morning. If I want to go get a milkshake at 2pm in the afternoon, I do so.These are not typical employee situations. I must market my company. But I also must market myself, because I am a franch

The Nashville Technology Council recently had their annual Awards Gala. In a nutshell, the night is to celebrate the many key players in our grand little community. What I love about the evening is how it brings together folks from some pretty diverse walks of life. There are your 'Enterprise' type folks, larger companies working with larger companies on facets of business that can be, well...larger. This is the category I generally find myself in, and there is never a dull moment. But the 'larger company' dynamics can sometimes bring with them a large degree of work that many would consider tedious, possibly even mundane. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but I do get a bit envious of some of the other folks in the category I'll define below. NASHVILLE'S BEST KEPT SECRET.....Tech Cocktail released an article in August of 2012 listing Nashville as one of the Top 12 cities ranked by  The Young Entrepreneur Center  that is "a start-up paradise&quo