For the last couple of months, every time I talk to someone on the phone who is just getting started with ActiveRain, I usually end my conversation by offering to send them a post that is a good compilation of what the heck ActiveRain is all about. There are a number of people who have written excellent posts like this, but the one I have bookmarked on my browser is this post by Brad Andersohn.
Over the last week, the opportunity presented itself to bring another team member into the fold. Actually, Brad and I created the opportunity. Since the day he joined ActiveRain as a member, February 25th, 2007 Brad has continually gone out of his way to reach out to other members and assist them in understanding the power of our network. On his sixth day on the network, Brad was already getting referrals. Within a month, Brad hosted a blogging 'how to/what is it' class for the local Realtor association in his area. His first ActiveRain instructional post aimed at helping newbies came only a few short weeks later. Since then, he has crafted many great posts aimed at teaching you about new technologies, exploring how to utilize existing ones to help your business and been an all around awesome contributor to our network. His recent post that worked a powerpoint presentations into his blog continued to push the envelope. (Don't worry, now that he's on the payroll, we'll make sure he gets the follow up 'How to insert a powerpoint in your blog' post up too)
It should go without saying that we are really excited to have him joining ActiveRain officially!! (But I'll say it anyways......."We are EXCITED!!")
In mid February, Jonathan and I made a trip to San Francisco where we had dinner with a few members of the community. It was at this dinner that Brad pulled me aside and first expressed interest in joining the team. Brad wrote a great post about the magic of that particular evening, but he left out the part, that for me would end up being the most fruitful thing to come from that dinner. The seed had been planted. I think I can thank Jeff Turner for helping to water and nourish that seed. It was in a phone conversation a few weeks later between Jeff and Brad that Jeff asked Brad why he wasn't doing his passion. That conversation pushed Brad to follow up with me and see if we were looking to add to the team.
Although at that particular time, we didn't necessarily have a specific role to fill (although we are looking for good programmers :-)) one of Jon's hiring philosophies is to find remarkable people and fit them into your organization. We certainly have room for growth and over the next couple of weeks Jon and I, with the help of Brad, carved out a great role for him here at ActiveRain. (OK, OK......it was Brad and I plotting behind the scenes, and me biding my time as I knew we have some stuff upcoming that Brad will be great with........and when the stars aligned, we presented it to Jon). You'll start to get a flavor of Brad's role here in the coming weeks and months as we work to perfect it as well. But just like Rich and Nicole and I, he is here to assist you with anything you need!
So without further ado...............Please welcome the next great addition to the ActiveRain team and family, Mr. Brad Andersohn
(and of course, stop by and get Brad's version)
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