Techie Tales

Today, it's really hard for me to believe that I left my brilliant hospitality and entertainment career 18 years ago to move to Denver and FIND technology. After 15 years of building a great reputation in travel and entertainment industry marketing in the Caribbean, Hawaii and California, I needed a reality check based on changing times. The NEW reality was technology and the opportunity was in Colorado where a mini-Silicon Valley was emerging. My husband wanted to move out of So CA and I agreed.

At that time I believed that anyone who really knew marketing could switch industries. That firm belief bubbled under my skin and truly propelled me from tourism to technology. There were no theme parks in Denver and I really didn't think my husband's work was going to take me to the ski resorts in the Colorado mountains. We were looking at life in Denver. Without a job and with little savings, I shopped at the Goodwill Store for winter suits and coats and enthusiastically applied to a wide variety of tech companies in the Denver area.

After three months of constant interviews with disappointing results, I finally had a couple of bites in May 1993. Those bites happened at the same time, of course, because that's how it always unfolds. One of the promising interviews was with a cable TV company that promised hundreds of channels in the near future, at a time when we only had seven or nine on local cable. The other job was with a "reseller" of computers and ancillary tech equipment. Back then all of the manufacturers' hardware was distributed to computer dealers by a handful of companies that specialized in distribution. The opportunity to work for a tech company that distributed computers, printers, networking equipment and software was something I couldn't turn down, and fortunately the woman I interviewed with who needed a MarCom pro really wanted me, probably because of my Disney experience. She offered me a job, thanks mostly to the recommendation of one of her staffers, and I became Alice in Wonderland.

I can't begin to elaborate on the fast-track experience of working for Intelligent Electronics (IE) in those days. It was MarCom beyond my wildest dreams. I had hit the mother-load of marketing energy and results, and the scary domain of what can and cannot be done legally with money that came from "vendors." I look back on it as the most exciting time of my life...until now, of course.

All this comes up for me because I watched Steve Jobs unveil the new iPad today. I noticed the news on an associate's monitor early this morning. Thoughts of the new technology, the new ways of "being" that amazing Steve Jobs introduces, played in my head as I worked. In the IE years, my Apple Rep, Nancy, was my favorite. And now, Tim, another IE icon and someone I loved working with, is one of Apple's senior executives, reporting directly to Steve. Notice I'm only dropping first names in these cases!

It's an honor and privilege to be associated with people who are really REALLY changing the world. That's how I feel about having met Steve Jobs and working to promote Apple years ago. And it's how I feel today to work for Silverado Senior Living. I took another big gamble three years ago when I decided to leap into a new career in health care. Amazingly, Silverado founders, Loren Shook and Steve Winner, won a big award for their new book this week and I will get to represent them at the Awards ceremony. "The Silverado Story - A Memory-Care Culture Where Love is Greater than Fear" won the award for Best Business Book of 2010 from the Los Angeles Book Festival. And today Steve Jobs debuted the iPad 2. Hopefully I'll get one of those very soon. It really is ALL GOOD!

Don't be afraid of embracing a totally new way of working, doing and being. That's the moral of this "techie tale." Jump on in!