Back from the grave!

Oh, hey. ‘sup?

Yeesh. I guess the title of that last blog post turned out to be a little more prophetic than I originally intended! The prior article published on December 31, 2020 was simply meant to signify the last in a series of daily posts that I published through the entire year of 2020 — but then I stopped publishing here on dontheideaguy.com entirely. WTF?

A quick catch-up

I left one job.
Not only did I stop writing daily posts at the end of 2020, I also left a full-time job doing content marketing for a B2B retail fixtures company. I worked there for about five years and had the opportunity to work with some phenomenally dedicated people (hi Rachel, Aaron, and Donna!). I also really respected the business owner (hey Matt!). His ability to juggle family and business priorities was inspiring. The way he handled all the drama, business, and health issues surrounding the economic shutdowns due to Covid-19 was amazing. No one lost their job or was made to feel unsafe, he pivoted the business to temporarily focus on items like sanitation stations, plexiglass shields, floor distancing decals, etc. helped keep essential retailers and business up and operating safely.

I started a new job.
The reason I left the job described above was because I had a chance to go back to work in an industry that had captured my creativity and imagination in the past — broadcast Radio. Over my career I have worked for several media companies and left them for various reasons; losing faith in a company owner, the corporate absorption of independent stations, and philosophical differences on the most effective ways to use media to deliver results for advertiser. One thing that never waivered was my belief in the medium of Radio and its ability to connect to listeners and bring value to advertisers.

A local and privately-owned radio station in my city that I’d been a fan and listener of for decades was poised for a big change in the market and we connected to bounce around some ideas over lunch. That conversation led to a idea of working together and he extended an offer to become the station’s Senior Account Executive and Special Projects Manager starting in January of 2021.

Dying to get back to work.
On Monday, January 4th I started my first day at the radio station and was excited to begin my new adventure! On Wednesday, January 6th I started feeling unwell and left the office early. On Thursday, January 7th I called-off work completely and felt absolutely miserable. I’d feel sweating-hot and then shiver from cold chills, my head hurt, I was coughing, and my entire body ached. On Monday, January 11th I was tested and diagnosed with Covid. My breathing and ability to speak without gasping for air was of concern to my family and I was put on a pulse-oxygen monitor and told if the reading hit a certain level I should go to the ER immediately. The nurse at the clinic prescribed an inhaler (the only medication they recommended to me for treatment) and it really helped over the next couple of weeks as I slowly recuperated. It took about 3 weeks to get to the point I could return to work. I’m thankful to the station owners for being patient with me and the time it took to get well and re-start my employment with them.

I’ve been in Sales-Mode.
After returning to work it was a mad scramble to make up for lost time and reignite my career as a marketing geek specializing in radio. I have been fortunate to find awesome customers to work with on creative campaigns and no shortage of prospects to reach out to with ideas to help them grow their businesses.

While I still plan to post articles on creativity here on my primary and personally-branded website (as well as still being available for paid brainstorming consultations!), I’ve added a new website to the family of Idea Department sites that focuses on my efforts to help advertisers use Radio as a more effective marketing tool for reaching customers and inviting them to do business together…

Announcing RadioCaffeine.com!
My new site is RadioCaffeine.com — a mash-up of my favorite advertising medium and my favorite means of generating creative ideas. Please visit or recommend the site if you or an associate are interested in new ideas and advice for using what I believe is the most effective remaining mass-audience media tools available. Audiences are skipping or blocking online ads, subscribing to commercial-free video streams, and canceling their magazine and newspaper deliveries — but everyone still has a favorite radio station or local disc jockey. Radio listening has seen a dramatic jump in audience since returning to their offices to work and driving their kids back to school. Radio still ranks as the most common method for discovering new music, and the radio stations that are still live and local do on-site activation and bring excitement to events and promotions better than ever.

I hope you’ll check out my new site and share it with others. It’s a brand new “baby” site and I’m still building out the content, but I’m happy with the direction it’s taking. If you’re interested in creative marketing ideas and audience-building, I think you will want to be along for the ride.

DonTheIdeaGuy.com isn’t going anywhere…
And if you’re more interested in the general brainstorming and idea-generation insights you’ve enjoyed on this site, stay tuned. I’m still planning on publishing new content here (albeit a little more frequently than of late) and look forward to bouncing around more ideas with you soon!