On Medical Leave Till 2011

Effective November 1st (past Monday) I have been on medical leave from Own Web Now. During my absence a whole slew of people will be taking over my role as well as my Inbox so please be careful what you email.

As some of you may know, we are welcoming our second child into the family. I don’t necessarily need to be around for all that, I want to be around for it.

Those of you that know me are well aware that I won’t stop working. To me discipline and work ethic are big: If I’m not going to be there 100% and responsible for what I do, I don’t consider it working. There is no such thing as a “part-time professional” or “best effort CEO”.

As for what I’m up to and the projects I’ll be involved on… you’ll read about it here first. One of my (personal) objectives for 2010 was to reconnect with our partner base. We have benefited a lot from being so close to our partners throughout the history of the company that your opinion counts over everything else. In 2007, you told us that our products needed some work. In 2008, there were questions about billing. In 2009, there were questions about support. In 2010, I’m happy to report that those problems have been solved yet a lot of work still remains. And as we mature – along with the business models around us – VARs, MSPs, solution providers – my role is to keep on moving everyone forward.

This week we were sponsoring the trifecta of ConnectWise properties/conferences in Orlando: HTG, CharTec & ConnectWise. I spent virtually no time participating officially in any of those, Stephanie and Anthony did all the ExchangeDefender legwork. I spent time at the bar, in the hallway, at the bistro, at the restaurant.. all with the existing partners who are at this point ExchangeDefender stakeholders. What we do as a part of our business affects them directly and how well they can implement what we do affects us directly. In short, it’s probably the most valuable activity I do – as the conversations I get with my partners that have worked with us for years are every bit as effective as the ones I have internally.

So there you go. Next two months are all about acting on the feedback I have gotten this year. Remember we have two new projects coming out in November timeline along with the shell shocker we dropped with Shockey Monkey on Wednesday. I look forward to working on it all – but please don’t bother calling or emailing me as that portion of my role has been delegated away to someone that can work with you on a timely basis.