Understanding how to leverage social media (Facebook, LinkedIn etc) is key to the success of growing your online presence. No longer is it good enough just to have a website. That is so last decade!Website, Facebook fan pages, blogs, events and so much more all need to work together to build the brand.Drive traffic to a place where you can interact with your audience, provide value without having to always be selling, proving to these potential clients that you are the "go to" expert to solve their problems.

I learned how to leverage assets to build wealth through real estate - fix-n-flips as well as rental properties.

Do any of these seem familiar to you?- More month than money- 30 years into a career and still have a mortgage- A bank balance that never seems to grow- Afraid to open bills- Unsure exactly how much debt you’re carrying- Hate budgetsThose were daily worries in our home, even though I was making good money and we were living a good lifestyle (nice cars, vacations etc) However, behind the façade, we were sinking into the proverbial quicksand of debt - a six figure mountain of debt. It took us years of practice!But one day, coming to the sickening realization of where we were, we had two choices: drown in debt and possibly lose everything or learn some money management skills and erase our debt load.That was in 2002, soon after the dot com bubble burst.It wasn’t easy. Finding the right help was extremely hard and we had to make some MAJOR adjustments. We made mistakes, but we learned. We measured, monitored and adjusted. We saw progress. New skills helped to accelerate the progress.After 7 years, we paid off all of our debt, including the mortgage. Free and clear. Debt free. Paid in full.April 15th 2009 was our debt freedom day. Imagine waking up and knowing that everything around you was yours. Every inch of your home. Every blade of grass. All of the tables, tools and toys.As a personal finance coach, that is the type of feeling that I enable my clients to experience. I collaborate with them to create a strategy that works for them. I use simple tools and strategies to encourage new habits, habits that will create a surplus each month and accelerate debt payoff. Skills that come from experience.Imagine being able to turn your financial life around PERMANENTLY, to never have to worry about money again.How long will you choose to live in the shadow of debt? Don’t wait for an “oh crap” moment like I did before taking action.Take control of your own economy.It’s just a decision you make.Don’t put it off any longer.

As a senior project manager, Simon’s role was to ensure a quality multi-million dollar wireless telecom product was delivered to our Fortune 50 customers. On time, no major defects, on or below budget and with high CSAT. To actively and proactively perform risk management and mitigation strategies.Due to the highly technical nature of the product, success in this role requires a broad understanding of the processes and outputs of each of the groups represented in each of the matrix managed teams.The matrixed teams (engineering, documentation, tech support etc) all produced customer-facing deliverables. As a customer advocate, Simon’s role was to ensure that they met the quality expected by our customers. When appropriate, Simon arranged mock up tests and reviews with the customer.Enabled two way communication of the new product details and project status through the sales and account teams, soliciting feedback for the design and product management teams.Negotiate priorities and development direction with the internal teams – building a product based on how the customer would use it, rather than how a designer thinks it should be used.• In order to ensure that the on-site, regional engineering and support teams were ready to deploy the new products, a readiness plan was developed with each of the matrixed teams.Interfaced with internal groups to ensure a smooth and timely delivery, including: design, test, account team, sales, program management, technical support, installation, training and documentation.Built and maintained relationships with hundreds of people across the organization, creating win-win teams, making sure we were aligned to the project goals – for the customer and corporation.Optimized and automated report generating processes – customized output for several audiences, one time input from contributors.

Simon was part of the core project team that delivered new products into the telecommunications market place.Several teams are represented on the project team, including design, system test, engineering and field validation teams. Simon's role was to represent the engineering and field validation teams and provide feedback to and from the core project team in order to ensure the best product quality in a timely fashion.Knowledge of how the product operates in real life and what customers expect is key to success in this role. Using his extensive knowledge from software design, working directly with customers in an account manager capacity as well as leading a field validation team gave Simon a unique insight to what creates a successful introduction of a new product. Building value for the customer as well as the company.

Simon was a technical prime working in the account team which supported one of Nortel's largest CDMA customers. The role was to help the customer become more familiar with the product and enhance CSAT. At times, being a high level troubleshooter before engaging the 1st level technical support.

Responsible for directing a team of CDMA validation engineers to bring new releases of software / hardware into a customer’s live network. Objectives are to deliver the new release to market with no negative impact to their network, to validate functionality of the release as advertised to customer and to validate the new release in such a way that issues / bugs / deployment issues are corrected before it is deployed to other customer's networks.Tracking of issues encountered during the NPI project, ensuring accurate descriptions, working with the customer and internal groups to ensure a quick and correct solution.Interface with internal groups to ensure a smooth and timely delivery, including: design, test, account team, sales, program management, technical support, installation, training and documentation. A high degree of communication with the customer is also needed to plan and execute the activity at their site.Scheduling of all projects, allocating appropriate resources and equipment in order to meet the specified release dates for the project.