Vlad: So here is what I’m really up to

I’ve pondered whether I should write this for a long time and not a day goes by without someone asking. I hope you can appreciate that there is a need for secrecy, after all, I do run a significant business and things are announced through proper channels as they go along.

Over the past two years Own Web Now Corp, my business, has grown significantly. My need to get in front of our partners and customers has also gone up. So I did Vladville, I did the SBS Show, I did the user group and user group tours and speaking engagements. I also benefited from the Microsoft connections, partner program, MVP award, etc. All of these combined really presented many great opportunities, presentations and gigs at the very top of my profession. I’d say I’ve been blessed but I worked my butt off to get where I’m at.

… and then I stopped, nearly all of it. Rather abruptly. Rather publicly. Epiphany? Not at all, it’s just that there were some very large companies after me, some very lucrative offers and I did not want to play favorites or pick and choose or go through an extended “it’s not you, it’s me” stuff. I needed to pursue what I feel really matters. What brought it on?

A little over a year ago I sat in a bar in Boston with Susanne and Chris and we talked about the SBS Show, about this whole Web 2.0 thing, about both concrete and fringe benefits of being a leader and a voice in this space. I laid out for them what I believed at the time to be the future, the benefits, the ideas and suggestions. I pushed forward with that agenda as you’ve seen through the Vladcasts, Vladfire, Vladville (so sue me, I’m not creative with names) and to say it has been an unbelievable success is a huge understatement. The more I got involved in this, the more research I did into it, the more I applied myself to it the more fun and satisfaction I got out of it. Not to mention all the business related stuff. I have so many ideas, so many projects under way, so many doors opened through this but I had to keep on delaying them because I was almost constantly either coming back and catching up or preparing to leave again.

So I looked at what I was doing, effectively distracting myself on the road. There are some 40,000 people on this web site each day and thats excluding the RSS feeds and syndication. The future of IT communication, as I mentioned to Chris and Susanne, is on the web and through its leaders – not press publications and events. Conferences used to be things where people would announce new and exciting things – the web really screwed that up, now you have to hit the market as soon as you’re ready and the whole aspect of secrecy has almost disappeared. So, do I waste a week on the road, to speak to a few hundred people (or 4 people if I’m up against Steve Riley again) or do I focus on what brings thousands of you here every day and love what I do? Pretty simple when you look at it that way.. It was an easy game of numbers, time and the potential and I chose to web it.

I chose the path which lets me speak to more of you and gave me more time to focus on what is truly needed. While I can’t yet tell you everything thats going on, I do want to thank each and every one of you reading this blog, whether you love or hate me or somewhere in between, agree or passionately disagree, thank you for paying attention, for sending me IMs, email, gift baskets, swag and thank you for making my piece of mind a part of your day. Good times ahead.