When I get a piece of information I can’t just hold it, I’ve got to share it so that it’s of value to more than just me.

Like money that’s just waiting to be spent, a new piece of information just seems to “burn a hole in my pocket.” That’s why I keep finding ways to share it. Articles, commentaries, magazines, radio and TV programs, Web sites, workshops, keynotes, you name it. I’ve used just about every medium to “inform, educate, enlighten, inspire, entertain and empower” people in any way I can.

Although I haven’t always worked in the publishing industry, I’ve always been connected to information delivery. I started out on the technical end of things, working as an IT professional. Then, in the late 1980s, while working for IBM in Tampa, Florida, I got this great idea to combine my passion for business, entrepreneurship and information sharing into a publishing venture. So I left an eight year career at “Big Blue” and created a business magazine.

For the next seven years, and with a lot of help from friends and colleagues, I was at one time or another the publisher, editor, circulation manager, production manager, and advertising sales manager for Urban Business Magazine. To satisfy my passion for fun as well as business, I also founded and published a bi-weekly newspaper titled The 4-1-1 Events and Entertainment News. Making sure I “got the word out” as much as possible, during the life of those two publications, I also hosted a number of workshops and special events which kept me in touch with my readers and their information needs.

Those seven years were challenging, rewarding, tiring and worth every minute, but in 1996 personal and professional changes led me to Pensacola, Florida and a job as a features writer and weekly general interest columnist for the Pensacola News Journal. Writing that column for several years along with a wide variety of feature articles that covered everything from the arts to business and from food to fitness allowed me to experience an expanded “dialog” with a diverse reader audience.

In Atlanta, I’m probably best known as the former editor of Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine. For 3½ years I was a ‘change agent’, enhancing the magazine’s position as a cutting-edge information provider. I was responsible for transforming the bi-weekly, tabloid-style newspaper into a full-color, glossy, monthly publication. The changes didn’t stop there. I also increased the publication’s newsstand presence and sharpened the editorial focus, concentrating on business, careers, technology and wealth building. My favorite role however, was writing the monthly “Editor’s Note,” which gave me the opportunity once again to dialog and prompt readers to “think outside the box.”

Over the years I’ve also accumulated entrepreneurial experience as a freelance writer, marketing consultant, fundraiser, television and radio host and community volunteer experience as an executive board member of the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs and president of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists, among others. I’ve used my accumulated knowledge and experience to consult, coach and train business owners on micro-business strategies and publishing, print and electronic content development.

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