David Coursey Consulting
Editorial, Event and Business Advisory Services
David Coursey Consulting
A Letter to My Friends and Colleagues: Hire Me!
I am writing because, after more than two years spent away from daily technology work, I am dying to get back and think you might be able to help. But first, why did I leave in the first place? And what have I been up to for the 24 months?
In early 2006, I left Ziff-Davis during the reorganization that split the company into pieces. I’d been working for two of the three new business units and ended up belonging to neither in the new org chart. I left my full-time job, but continued doing some contract editorial work for ZD into the summer before we parted ways.
As ZD was winding down, I noticed something funny: My eyes were getting cloudy. I had been told the previous fall that, because of my diabetes, I was developing cataracts. The good news? According to the doctor, “it will be five years before you’ll need to do anything about them.”
How quickly time flies! Five years quickly shrank to six months, when I began noticing some cloudiness and flaring around bright objects. I didn’t think much of it at first—supposed to be five years, right? But, my vision kept getting worse. Over three months, my world turned into a yellow-tinted haze.
Worse, I lost the ability to read even large text on a large monitor. I started carrying around a large magnifier for when I had to read something. Goodbye, books and magazines. Things would get worse before they got better.
It was nine months from the first serious symptoms until my lens replacement surgery was completed. During that time, I became unable to drive, read a computer monitor, or do any writing. I also became pretty seriously depressed.
When I should have been finding my post-ZD life, I couldn’t earn a living as I had been for the previous 25 years.
Fortunately, Microsoft asked me to do some product development in the emergency management space. That was great since it didn’t involve writing and I’ve been an emergency services volunteer for many years. I’d also been pitching them on the project for the better part of a decade.
I finished my surgery during the spring of 2007. The lenses of both eyes were replaced with acrylic replicas. The technology involved in lens selection and implantation is quite incredible.
Thankfully, my “new eyes” work very well—my eyesight is now normal except for the need for reading glasses, which existed before the two lens replacement operations.
Since regaining my normal eyesight, I have been helping a friend run a software and hardware business, also in the emergency management market.
I’ve realized, however, that I’m not terribly happy being so far from the technologies I love and the industry I’ve been in since 1983.
Back to why I am writing:
I am hoping that you can point me in the direction of new projects or potentially even full-time employment. I am interested in a variety of corporate communications and marketing projects, including:
- White Papers
- Backgrounders
- Bylined articles
- Web content
- Marketing pieces
- Case studies
- Dummy/practice reviews
- Product demonstration design and coaching
- Presentation coaching
- Speechwriting
- Corporate publications
- Crisis communications
- Webcast and seminar development and hosting
- Due diligence
- Competitive analysis
I would be very grateful for any projects or leads you might be able to point my way.
For more than a decade, David Coursey Consulting has been working with publications, Web sites, and technology companies in a variety of ways. For more of about my consulting work, visit the About page on this site.
Current projects include a series of webinars for an online services company, strategic and marketing advice for a software-as-a-service company, and various writing assignments.