For years, I’ve been thinking “I wish I had time to start a blog”. Not necessarily because I think you, or others, will care what I have to say, but because I wanted to capture my thoughts on certain topics so that someday I can share them. So this is a start and now is the time. Thanks mostly in part to a 2015 New Years resolution.
You’re either still with me, or I have lost you after that New Years resolution nonsense. If I’ve lost you, thanks for stopping by. If you’re still with me, I hope you’ll stay for a while more. I have some topics coming up that I hope will trigger some thoughts, intrigue and if I’m doing my job, a little conversation.
My goal here is simple. To capture my perspective on things related to Entrepreneurship, Life, Family, Marketing, Leadership, Politics, et al. Many of the elements in life that provoke emotion. I would love for you to join me on this ride and as a fellow passenger, I’d love to hear your perspective on the topics we discuss.
So without further ado, let’s get started. I’m afraid my first post is going to disappoint following my statement above about my intentions here but as our relationship evolves, I think it’s important that you know me and my story in order to understand why I position things the way I do. For those paying attention, if you just said “why is the title “Our Story”, when you just mentioned “my story””. Score a point for you. You’re right, “my story” is best told as “our story”.
Our story begins in the year 2000, or more popularly known as Y2K. The “our” here, in case you haven’t guessed, is my wife, Jessica and I. High school sweethearts. I am not going to bore you with all the high school and college stories but here’s your first clue into one of the traits in people that I hold in high regard, Loyalty. Together for 15 years, Jess and I have moved to Missouri, graduated college, moved home, started a business (www.verrillstables.com) and welcomed a beautiful baby girl (Taylor Grace) into the word in December, 2014. Ohh, and on the side, I have my career where I helped build and launch RueLaLa.com, was the VP, Sales at Punchbowl.com and am now the VP, Acquisition Marketing at Dyn. The kicker, throughout it all, we’ve been happy. Stressed at times, yes. But we’ve made it mandatory that while we look forward to the destination, we enjoy the journey.
Let’s pause, this first post is not meant to give you my life story, but more a sense of what I hold valuable so future posts are more relevant. In summary:
I value Loyalty in a big way
I try to take time and enjoy life
I love being an entrepreneur
I am driven to succeed
My family is my strength
Onward. Let’s dive in to the acquisition of Verrill Stables to reveal a bit more of where my perspective comes from. 3 years after we graduated college, Jess came to me with the reality that the job she was in was not right for her. We had a decision to make. Move south where horses and jobs were waiting? (Did I mention she’s a horse trainer? Not to worry, that will most certainly be a conversation for the future.) Or...stay in NH and start something on our own. It was January, 2008 and we were months from launching Rue La La. We both agreed it wasn’t something we could miss out on. So we took the plunge, at 24 years old. Dove in head first and asked questions later. I remember it like it was yesterday. Sitting across the table from the seller, the bank representative present, executing on a massive loan. I was scared. I was excited. I was hopeful. 6 months later, the stock market fell apart and we plunged into a recession. A testament to Jess and the amazing team we have around us that the business has thrived. It’s been a wild ride but one thing’s certain, I learned more from starting and running a business than I ever would have in the classroom getting a Masters Degree.
More takeaways:
NH & The Northeast are home
Experience earns you credibility in my book
I love taking risks
In business, ignorance isn’t always a bad thing (we’ll come back to this, great topic)
As the VP, Acquisition Marketing for Dyn (Dyn.com), I am responsible for the marketing initiatives aimed at acquiring new business. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to lead a team of killer individuals and, not to sound cliche, I love every minute of it. We’ll spend a lot of time here in the coming weeks and months because of the passion I have for quality leadership and what it can mean for an organization. Not saying that I believe myself to be a member of the distinguished leadership class, but it’s absolutely something I aspire towards. Prior to Dyn I was in the online retail, B to C space with Rue La La. Loved the space, but having spent 2+ years in the B to B, high tech space, it would be hard to ever go back.
Dyn is a cloud based, internet performance company. Dyn helps companies monitor, control and optimize online infrastructure for an exceptional end-user experience. Through a world-class network and unrivaled, objective intelligence into internet conditions, Dyn ensures traffic gets delivered faster, safer and more reliably than ever.
Nailed it. For the non-tech oriented, the above statement simply means Dyn is doing some pretty radical stuff to ensure that the internet is a safe place tomorrow. For businesses and their customers. It’s something we take pride in. For the marketers among us, what a sequence of sentences. Captures who we are, what we do and what we’re passionate about…Our customers.
Last time:
I value quality leadership
Working with great people gets me out of bed in the morning
I’m falling in love with the B to B industry
My fashion background defines me
I am a marketer
So there you have it. Some insight into me and what drives my behaviors, beliefs and perspective.
Welcome aboard. Thank you for joining and I really do look forward to the conversation ahead.
- Josh