Welcome Geeks
My name is Thomas Myer. I’m a consultant, technical author, and speaker on a variety of business and technical subjects. I’m also one of the founders of the Writing Mafia, and have kept myself fairly busy as a web consultant with my company Triple Dog Dare Media.
About a year ago, I was approached by a publisher who was interested in putting out a book focused on the consultant/consulting market. As I’d already written quite a few books, I agreed to come up with some ideas and then get back to the guy.
I needed to write a book that was completely focused on the needs of the little guy, and it needed to cover the first year in business. There were just too many books out there that presumed a certain number of things (you were already a big noise in some field, that you would be showered with clients and paychecks as soon as you put yourself out there, that within a year or two you’d have a swanky office and 20 fawning employees, et cetera) and weren’t very realistic.
So that’s the book I wrote. From Geek to Peak: Your First 365 Days as a Technical Consultant is organized along a timeline metaphor. It’s organized that way because certain things make sense at certain points in your career, a common sense idea that is violated by everyone giving advice. For example, on day one you need certain things (a working web site on your own domain, for example) and not others (articles of incorporation, a tax accountant, a downtown office, an expensive logo and letterhead). There’s always time to go and spend money on stuff later–right now, on day one, you need a way to make money!
Basically, the book is a distilled version of everything I’ve learned in the first eight years (and counting!) of being out on my own as a technical consultant. The advice is focused on the needs of web developers, IT analysts, UI designers, Javascript gurus, technical copywriters, QA ninjas, and any one else who makes the mortgage creating, organizing, describing, or destroying bits and bytes.
