Going through my life history, even briefly would take a while. So strap yourself in and let's go for a ride.
I was born on a farm in southeastern Minnesota and graduated with a class of 16. After a stint in the Air Force and some weird odd jobs, I decided to try the college thing. Somehow I ended up with a degree in chemical engineering and worked in the paper industry for a few years. I eventually left when I realized that most people like me ended up in mid-level management, running production and personnel schedules. No thanks!
I went back to school for a degree in teaching science and taught in rural schools in Minnesota before helping start a charter school for the arts where I taught every science and math class we had. I loved teaching, but I hated having to go to the same place every day and work the same hours. During this time, I got my Master's degree in Earth Literacy.
Next, I worked for a cool guy in Winona, MN that wrote a point-of-sale software program for his local food co-op. I became his sales and training guy and drove from coast to coast, eventually visiting just about every food co-op in the country. Food co-op people are cool! But of course, I eventually got tired of that much driving.
I knew I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to be able to work on the computer and from anywhere I damn well pleased. I decided to learn web design and I loved it. It was coding mixed with design, science and art. I play a mean bluegrass guitar, so this artsy fartsy stuff was right up my alley.
To compliment the web design, I learned about marketing. I discovered Dan Kennedy and then a whole world of Internet marketers, both good and bad. I'll talk more about that in a bit. I also learned photography, videography, copywriting, Photoshop, InDesign, and all the ins and outs of self publishing. I've helped several authors self publish via Lulu.com, a service I can't recommend enough. I also learned I'm pretty darn good at making audio books and doing voice overs.
I'm an avid reader and have been writing in blogs forever. This led me to take writing workshops and that led me to the field of editing. I met the best editor out there, Harvey Stanbrough, who has generously given me guidance and introduced me to a whole new world. I love editing! I love helping authors improve their work by helping them with all of the nit-picky details that drive most people nuts.
Back to marketing. I learned a ton from Internet marketers, but holy cow, what a bunch of obnoxious hyperbole. I found myself connecting with a few online characters that are honest and authentic, but also respectful about earning money. It isn't the money itself that is so important, but money is a way of measuring how successful you are at doing what you love. I love that balance. Recently I stumbled across a website that epitomizes this. It's called the Third Tribe and it's a bunch of cool people that really get online business. I've already learned a ton of good stuff and am excited to build my business in a way that helps people and also fuels my passion and allows me to make decent money.
So that's my brief history. You already know that I play guitar, but I also play fiddle and mandolin and sing. I'm an avid birder, hiker, and biker (the non-motorized kind) and am into zen, minimalism, peace, sustainability, and a bunch of other hippie stuff. I don't like sports, it bores me to tears. I like balance and simplicity. And that, my friends, is me in a nutshell.