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My Life a Year After Working for Revenue River

Doug's Transition from Employee to Client

I feel melancholy as I sit on my front porch this evening writing. I almost feel like I’m back home after a long trip away. I’m sitting in the same spot where I wrote my first two articles for Revenue River, before I was even offered a job there. I’m sitting in the same place I sat as I wrote countless articles for clients whose industries covered the gamut and retainer sizes were representative of the basic inbound philosophy that has now evolved into truly customized strategies and solutions executed by the same yet far more experienced team at Revenue River. But, the past is the past, and I think I reminisced quite enough last year when I published this ridiculously touching piece seconds before I walked out the door. Now, all eyes are on the future, which wouldn’t have been possible without Revenue River.

True, to discuss the present, sometimes you have to explain the past. Context is what it is and if skirted around will merely confuse you. As for me, it is hard not to write a post that calls out my old friends, some of which I’ll even be golfing with this weekend and some of which, much to Eric Pratt’s dismay as he reads this, I’ve even tried to pry away; to no avail I must admit, as something must be going quite right over in Golden, Colorado.

As one of only three people to ever leave Revenue River voluntarily I think it’s important that I tell the story of what happens when you leave a company like Revenue River. Or, maybe only when you leave Revenue River.

7 Habits

I work for a European company now. I wake up to a full day’s worth of email. It’s really easy to sit down as I drink coffee at 6am and delve into the forest that’s already grown around me. But, thanks to Revenue River, I know better.

Every month for the 2 years and 2 months that I worked at Revenue River, Steve Woolley would come to the office and teach us the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’ve written about the 7 Habits before, so I won’t bore you with them now, but I will say that thanks to that training I just keep drinking my coffee at 6am and check my calendar when I get in at 7:30am to make sure that my day is doable. And, guess what. Only the urgent emails get responded to right away, the rest wait until I take my fifteen-minute lunch break. (a short working lunch break is not one of the seven habits by the way, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do)

The Sweet Smell of Success

I’m not going to lie; I now gallivant around the world. I take quarterly trips to Munich, including one during Oktoberfest. I frequent cities such as London, New York and Chicago to ensure our presence at industry events. I feel like I don’t even live in the Mountain Time Zone anymore, rather a global time zone where I have to converse with people from Delhi to Europe to the US day and night. (I don’t even know when to start drinking anymore, so I just go by Delhi time in the morning and London time in the afternoon, then Denver time at night) In other words, as a major of cultural geography and a marketing professional, I’m living the dream. But, that dream was only possible because of Revenue River, because of more reasons than my experience there.

I hired Revenue River as soon as I could get the budget and it made me look really good. When I mentioned ideas to my team such as sales enablement and growth driven web design they didn’t know what to think. We were at the time, and still are, way too small of a team to take the time to learn and manage processes like that.

Our form placement, client page, and sales dashboard was brought to you by Revenue River !

Saying Thanks

While I have to give some credit to myself and my colleagues across the Atlantic for more than quadrupling our traffic in the last year and an over 100 times more leads per month increase than we had a year ago (there were no lead gathering methods then and now we are averaging over 100 leads per month) I also have to give Revenue River their share of credit. Not just for the work they did for us, but the work they allowed me to do, which taught me how to be successful in this role.

As I conclude this article I feel good. I feel home again sitting now in my living room as the night has settled in, writing for a blog that I used to manage. While I’m glad I moved on, it makes me feel good to know that no one else is. It makes me happy for my friends to know that they are happy building something that I only partially built. But, it also makes me feel good that what I’m building now is a direct result of Revenue River.


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