Getting Back to the Basics

A few years ago when I was studying business in college, I always envisioned myself as the kind of person who would graduate, get a great job and stay up to speed on the latest cutting edge marketing techniques across the board; online, offline, local, global and so on.

However, before I graduated, I never realized how truly broad the world of marketing is. Sure, I took different courses focusing on different aspects of marketing, but those were all sprinkled in between various business strategy, finance, legal and international courses. Needless to say, I was the kid who thought he knew it all, but I had a lot to learn.

For the last three and a half years, I’ve had the great privilege of working for a company called KC Distance Learning, which last summer was acquired by a company called K12, Inc. We operate virtual schools that serve students in all 50 states and about 70 countries worldwide, and we sell online curriculum to schools who need them for a variety of reasons. In these past four years, I’ve certainly learned a lot about business, marketing, and myself as an individual and as a professional.

For one, I learned that I’ll never be an expert at all things marketing; that’s impossible. What I’ve learned is that it’s far better to focus your energy on a much smaller subset of marketing activities and do them well, rather than spread yourself thin and be only “good” at what you do instead of “great”. I set the bar high for myself, and I want to take that next step.

This is precisely the reason I’ve started this blog. My interests lie in web marketing, new technology and everything that comes with it. Often I read things that can be applied in one way or another to my job, and I will use this blog as the place where I consider new web and social technologies, and how those can be applied to marketing for small and medium businesses.

Ultimately I would love to own my own business someday, so the thoughts and ideas that develop here should help myself as well as other marketers or business owners to do more with less by using the web and all of the great technology and tools that are often both inexpensive and easy to use.

So follow along as I write down my thoughts, and I encourage you to share yours in the comments. I’m excited for this creative outlet and I look forward to learning as I go.