I am a husband, father of three, and a communications professional.
I have spent most of my career working with non-profits, churches, community organizations, and higher education in various capacities. I have worked in small organizations, large organizations, and rapidly growing organizations. But one element that has been consistent along the way is my interest and love for communication and communications media.
Before the internet was in everybody’s pocket, back when attaining an email address involved plopping a disc that you received in the mail into your computer and dialing in on a 14.4 kbps modem, I was writing and creating newsletters and publicity pieces for my organization. I was splicing together video footage using a camcorder, a couple VCR’s and an analog video mixer for youth events. I may have actually salivated the first time I saw a non-linear video editing system in action.
It was a high school student in 1999 that first showed me the basics of building a website using HTML. I was in grad school at the time and went on to use what I learned to build websites for several professors using mostly Notepad and Internet Explorer. It wasn’t WYSIWYG. It was a lot of experimenting, typing in the HTML that you thought was required, saving the document and refreshing IE to see if the changes you made did what you expected.
Over the coming years I continued to be involved in communications for the organizations I worked for. I learned how to manipulate images and create graphics. I began making videos with free software and eventually graduated to the Final Cut Suite. I took on more and more responsibilities with communications. Eventually, I was in a position where I was responsible for overseeing the communications for the whole organization.
While I love getting my hands dirty playing in Photoshop or shooting video on a DSLR or creating 3D animations in Motion, what intrigues me the most and grabs my attention today are the intangibles of communication – the overarching principles to consider, thinking through what your message communicates beyond the actual words or images themselves, the non-verbal side of communication, and how to keep up with changing technologies and user expectations especially for smaller organizations with little or no professional communications staff.
I had the privilege of serving on the leadership team of an organization that more than doubled in size in about three years. In reality it was the decisions that were made and the groundwork that was laid in the three years leading up to this phenomenal growth that made it possible. What I learned about leadership and communications in those six plus years has largely shaped my perspective today.
I started my first blog in 2003 as a way to keep my extended family updated on what was going on in my life. I was two years into marriage and my wife was expecting our first child. I wanted a way to communicate that would simplify things on my end. A single place to post updates and pictures that was less hassle than using email. I chose a free blogging platform, added an email subscription form, and even attempted to monetize using Adsense. It really worked well. But then Facebook came along.
I started at least two more blogs over the years but suffered from the same issues that many others did. I didn’t commit. I posted infrequently and inconsistently.
This time I am committed! My interests in this site lie in writing about both the personal and organizational aspects of leadership and organizational communication. I will post once each week on average. If you enjoy what you find, please take the time to comment or share.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jason
