If variety of experiences makes for a good writer, then I have had mountains of experiences.

I’ve worked in logging, fishing, core sampling in Northern Canada, gardening, helium recovery, systems integration, farming, ice making, and a few things I try to forget.

I have played in bands and have musical contacts that have met most of musical stars in the last 50 years.

As a driver for a limo service, I have met people who have met most major actors in the last 50 years.

I have driven many myself.

I have been to every province, state, and territory in Canada and the United States except Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., Delaware, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. 

Alaska was only fifteen minutes, and there is a story there.

Overseas destinations include the The Bahamas, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Yogoslavia, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and India.

I am not sure the airport in Seoul, South Korea counts!

Education

It may not surprise you that I had trouble picking a focus in college. I took courses in sciences, literature, psychology, philosophy, and music.

I had it narrowed down to literature, psychology, and philosophy by the time I went to the University of British Columbia.  I eventually joined the Honours English Literature program because it seemed the best philosophy and the best psychology was in literature.

My favourite writers were Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dickensen, Wordsworth, and Melville.

My most inspired essay was on Moby Dick. I became a Jane Austin fan after graduating.

Since then it has been constant lifelong learning. 

I am a Zen master of Google searches, buy too many courses, and read a lot.

Caveman building a wheel

Technical Background

I’ve published articles in magazines about programming the Commodore 64, which is why the graphic to the right appeals to me.

I went on to study computer system with a focus on Expert Systems.

That lead to working at a systems integration company as a programmer. I ended up as a Systems Architect, Project Manager, and managed the regional corporate newsletter.

Writing Experience

I wrote about 40% of the content for each issue of the corporate newsletter and enjoyed ‘influencing’ the content. I would say to contributors that they could submit articles in any format they were comfortable with. 

The head accountant sent an article in a text cell of Microsoft Excel. 

Whatever works!

Other publications include articles on customer service and other topics for the Scribener Magazine, and locality articles for a publication in North Vancouver.

I spent a few years writing technical documents in the X.400 and Pager areas (see caveman above).

Website Development

Since then I have create dozens of websites ranging from a few hand-crafted HTML pages, to a data driven photo site, to WordPress sites, to a highly secure data-driven site for presenting, scoring, and reporting on HR Assessments for some of the largest companies in Canada. 

I designed and built almost everything the public would see on the outside, the candidates would see completing the assessments, and the client would see in the form of scheduling and reports.

The management assessment system stored around 1,000 pieces of information and generated seven pages of printable reports using ColdFusion, SQL Server, CSS, and some formatting tricks with tables that I discovered.

Today I focus mostly on WordPress websites, blogging, and social media posts for myself and clients.

Marketing Systems & Tools

I am a student of Marie Forleo, Dan Kennedy, Dave Dee, Nick Usborne, Andy Jenkens, Kim Walsh-Phillips, Karen McGregor, and many other marketers and business coaches.

I was part of the Kartra beta test and have been watching the platform get better as an all-in-one marketing platform.

I use Kartra in my marketing services and highly recommend.

Video

My video business under Shared Visions Unlimited has resulted in creating hundreds of videos including keynote speakers, concerts, theatre productions, business profiles, demonstrations, beautiful scenery, training, and more.  See https://www.youtube.com/user/GregDixon2007

Photography and Travel Writing

My video business under Shared Visions Unlimited has resulted in creating hundreds of videos including keynote speakers, concerts, theatre productions, business profiles, demonstrations, beautiful scenery, training, and more. 

I have a few thousand photos and many experiences to generate travel articles and stock photography.

So there you have it, not quite sure what I want to do when I grow up?

The positive side of this diversity is that I have skills and experiences that could make me a valuable team member in a wide range of companies.

Writing Training

Here are some recent leaning activities and course subscriptions:

Aspiration: 

To study and absorb more of  the wisdom and training of the above programs to become an even more fabulous media and marketing master:-)

See: