Charles Stricklin

If you’re visiting this blog immediately after the 4th of July holidays you can’t help but notice things in disarray. That’s because I’m converting this entire domain over to WordPress MU instead of the single-user standard WordPress. This will allow me to move some of my more personal, and often controversial posts to more appropriate domains without having to install, like, a bazillion different instances of WordPress.

In the meantime, I’m afraid you’re stuck with the default Kubrick theme, and links and images may not work properly. Bear with me, because I hope to have it all working properly soon.

For future reference, and to prevent anyone from confusing me with another person, I state for the record that my name is Charles Stricklin, I am 49 years old and I live in Shreveport, Louisiana.

I am apparently somehow being confused with someone with my identical first and last name, including spelling, elsewhere in the United States. The other Charles Stricklin has asked me to alter the way I sign my name to include my middle initial. I have declined to do so, at least on a consistant basis.

I was given this name at my birth and, although I’ve answered to the nickname “Chuck” at various times throughout my life, I’ve always introduced myself as Charles Stricklin. To now change everything for the comfort of someone who shares my name but not my views seems… wierd and a hassle.

I quit my day job back in September to go into business for myself, and although I’m not swimming in money yet (far from it!) I’ve given some consider of things I’d like to buy or do with my profits one day when the money starts rolling in (in no particular order):

1. An Apple iPhone 3G
2. An Apple MacBook Pro
3. A maxed-out Apple Mac Pro
4. Lasik eye surgery
5. New reading glasses
6. Two or three 1.5TB drives
7. A new couch
8. A new dining room table set
9. Office space
10. A Toyota Prius
11. A Canon XH-G1s 3CCD HDV Camcorder
12. New headshots and other marketing photos
13. A vacation in and around Washington, DC (I love history!)
14. A cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line. (Not sure where… Maybe Europe?)
15. An Ibanez SR650PB Bass Guitar and amp

Those are just a few of the things I’d treat myself to.

I’ve hinted about this on the podcast for some time now, but today I’m finally free to discuss it openly. Without getting into specifics, I’ve worked for a local company for the past nine years and four months, and for that I’ve extremely grateful. For personal reasons I won’t go into here, I’ve been looking for another career path to pursue that would excite me and provide a better balance between my personal life and my work.

When I started The WordPress Podcast in 2006, it was a hobby… something to do during my weekends. I’d been blogging on and off since college in the late nineties, and podcasting seemed like the next logical step. Soon, I kept learning my craft and people began to recognize me as a thought-leader and would ask for my opinions on what software to use, which microphones to use as well as WordPress-related questions. Not wishing to be a braggard, but it turns out I’m pretty good at those sorts of things.

A personal friend and my new media/entrepreneurship mentor, Jason Van Orden, along with his business partner Jeremy “Sterling” Frandsen have been producing Internet Business Mastery for years now, where they encourage entrepreneurs to declare their independence from the traditional 9-to-5 day job in favor of embracing the opportunities and personal freedom affording by businesses using the Internet. Over the past several years, he has managed to first employ me as a sort of “virtual assistant” to help me learn about branding and Internet-based business, and later encouraging me to shed my fears and insecurities about becoming “unemployable” as Jay and Sterling like to call it.

Last year, I started Four-Oh New Media, LLC to handle my business and began accepting clients. I’ve also been planning for some time to quit my current job and freelance web design, podcast and new media consulting and public speaking full time. However, much as I may have planned and dreamed of becoming fully self-employed, my old insecurities kept coming up. “Would I earn enough to live?” I asked. “What about medicine and insurance?” and “Am I able to do this?” I worried.

Well, I’ve decided to step out in faith and put my dreams to the test! This morning, I walked into my employer’s office and submitted my letter of resignation. In two weeks, September 12th, I will declare my independence from a life I was not meant to live, and begin to live a lifestyle of my own design. It won’t be easy, but I’m certain it will be rewarding and oh, so worth it!