Now Archive: September 2020

  • 3rd Sep 2020
    •  • 
  • 5 min read

This is my Now page and here’s what’s up for me these days (as posted on 09/03/2020). For my current Now page, go here.

Two months in on my new job as Global Learning Technology & Analytics Manager for ConvaTec and all’s well. I’m basically doing a single-handed “migrate in place” exercise with their Learning Management System, while the rest of the learning admin team (one f/t employee, one p/t contractor) keeps the LMS ship afloat. I’m auditing everything everywhere in the system and starting from the ground up to essentially re-implement the LMS while it’s running. Delicate work, with a lot of time pressure to get it done.

I’m also recently certified as a Prosci Change Management Practitioner, and am working closely with a fellow coworker to implement a training intake process utilizing that methodology. Of course I’m thinking bigger than that, and trying to solve all the problems that there are that our department comes into contact with.

And because I have video skills, I’m getting kinda suckered into helping produce some presentations for the top brass too. It is nice to break out the old interview, animation, and video editing skills, as I don’t get so much call for them these days.

Yes, I’m still serving as the Director of Marketing for Energy Utility Group, and our price comparison tool finally launched! I’d link to it but it’s only for our corporate partners in deregulated energy markets in Texas right now. When I can share the link for you to compare pricing on green energy solutions in your area, you bet I will :) Now that it is live, I have a plan to hand off the coding work fully so I can focus on the marketing part as I was brought in to do.

Snap Synapse LLC, my company of 15 years, is now almost completely dormant. As of this month, I’ve finally closed out the old contracts. Though I do potentially have two light-duty opportunities waiting in wings with previous clients. We’ll see if that lines up, I’m not pushing. I have plenty to do.

Personal projects for September include:

  • Building the 8×16 greenhouse kit that I purchased last month. Not all the pieces have arrived yet, but most of it has so I’m prepping the site and designing the contents now.
  • Building out the Synology 920+ NAS that arrives tomorrow with 32TB of storage to consolidate, deduplicate, and backup all my data. I’ll also be hosting a Plex media server on it, though I may not get to setting that up until next month.
  • Preparing & delivering a 1hr webinar “eLearning Under the Hood” for eLBX Online, this year’s eLearning Brothers conference which is again paired with Learning DevCamp.
  • Starting my Data Analytics Bootcamp training program that I was just accepted into. Being that my new job will eventually require some heavy-hitting data analysis and visualization skills, I thought it good to refresh and strengthen them now.
  • Completing my first Cornerstone OnDemand Certification. As you may recall, I won a Rockstar of the Quarter award from Cornerstone last year for my valued contributions to their user community. Though I know a lot about their Learning Management System, I’ve never actually gone to the trouble of going through their certification programs. They have several, and this month I plan to begin (and hopefully finish!) what I think will be the easiest one.
  • I may make a brief appearance as The One Mouth Band again online, backing up a friend and fellow musician who’s passing through, Martesimo. In these COVID-times, beatboxing is basically a superspreading event, so I have to be careful where I play. Livestreaming from home should be fine. I’ll probably stream it on Facebook or something.

Speaking of Facebook, I’m barely there anymore. I pretty much abandoned Instagram moths ago after reading too much research about the psychological impacts of that platform in particular. I’ve sworn off of Twitter until after the Election here in the USA. Everything is so hate-fueled and divisive and addictive that…I just can’t hang. LinkedIn I do still post to every weekday for L&D folks. That’s all automated though, I’m not actually on the platform daily anymore. If you’re thinking of doing something similar with social media yourself, I highly recommend that you read Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Even as someone who’s done social media fasts many times before, this was super helpful to me and I hope would be for you too.