Disrupting myself

I've been thinkng about a big change for a long time now. I write about disruption and innovation and as I looked at ways to disrupt my professional life I saw just how difficult it really is to do. It takes a bit of courage and a leap of faith and with two kids going to college in the Fall, it also takes a dose of common sense.

I thought about several ways I could change my professional life. I considered becoming an analyst or running the content marketing arm for a company, but as I thought about these ideas, I realized at my core, I love being a journalist and the change I wanted for myself didn't necessarily involve changing careers.

Then last month, fate intervened. My friend and fellow technology journalist Rob Pegoraro suggested I go to South by Southwest. It was a conference I had long considered, but with Rob's push I finally did it. At one of the sessions, I got to see three female tech journalists I have long admired -Kara Swisher from re/Code, Alexia Tsotsis from TechCrunch and Jemima Kiss from the Guardian.

At the end of the session, as is my habit, I went up to chat with the speakers and I met Tsotsis in person for the first time. We had known each via Twitter, but had never met in person. As the conference went on, I came up wth a story idea, one that didn't necessarily fit with my batch of current client publications, so on a whim, I pitched it to Alexia. And that was it. I didn't hear back from her.

Then, by sheer coicidence as I was getting ready to fly home from Austin, I ran into her in the airport restaurant and we chatted about the story idea. We talked over a price and I walked away with the assignment, which I wrote on the plane on the way home and submitted the next day.

Little did I know that series of fortunate events would lead me to alter my professional life, but after writing one more article, Tsotsis suggested I write for her regularly. I met with her fellow editors Matthew Panzarino annd Leena Rao by phone, and we struck a deal on the phone for me to become their new Enterprise Writer.

And with that, quite quickly, I had disrupted my professional life

The new gig would require a significant time commitment, which meant altering my current lineup of clients in a fairly significant way:

For starters, I've cut back my work with CITEworld from 8 stories a month to 4. And I'll be writing customer stories instead of stories about consumerization in the enterprise.
I'll be giving up my editorship at FierceContentManagement where I have spent the last 5.5 years covering content management and related subjects.

It will not be easy saying good-bye to Fierce where I've built the content management publication, forged relationships and enjoyed my time immensely. Nor will it be easy changing my role at CITEworld, a publication I've watched grow from nothing, but TechCrunch was an opportunity that was just too good to let pass me by and I've decided to grab it with both hands and move to a bigger stage.

I'm thrilled to be joining TechCrunch and although I'll miss the gigs I'm giving up, I feel like this is the sign I've been waiting for, that move that I knew I wanted to make, but I just didn't know how.

Here I go. Wish me luck.

Photo Credit: CanStockPhoto

Comments

And here I'd been thinking that the upside of you finally going to SXSW would merely be an in-depth introduction to tacos and BBQ!

I vaguely remember that you pitching the story to TC came up during a conversation at the PayPal media lounge, but I don't remember who said what. Either way: well played, sir. Well played.

Posted by: Rob Pegoraro | April 06, 2014 at 05:34 PM