UPDATE: Sadly I'm not going to be a 'winner' for 2013 NaNoWriMo... I got up to about 30,000 words and the story sort of ran out of steam. That, coupled with a work trip that involved late nights and early mornings meant that I was going to be pushing it anyway. In the end I just decided to call it and do a better job of getting ready for next year. Alas...
So. I might have mentioned that we have Movember going on and I'm participating again this year... (My Movember Page). That's fun, but a pretty passive thing really - I just need to not shave like I normally do for a month. So, I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo again.
For those of you that don't know what NaNoWriMo is it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it's a month each year when people write an entire 'novel' in 30 days. I have novel in quotes there because the criteria that makes a 'novel' for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words. It doesn't specify that your piece of literature needs to be good (thank God) or that it has to be complete. It just needs to get to that word count. A couple of years ago I participated and 'won', but I figured I'd do it again this year as I need to do more writing and it's a good way get things rolling again.
I'm posting this, not because I'm going to share what I write (not going to happen - it's just so bad already), but because I figure that I'll be more motivated to stay on track if I make my participation public. When I did this before I did hit 50,000 words, but I never finished what I had started. This was mostly because what I had written was so terrible that I just couldn't work on it anymore after I hit the goal. This year I'm hoping for a slightly better result, but part of the joy of the exercise is the freedom to write absolute crap and not feel guilty or ashamed about it.
To anyone else out there participating in either Movember or NaNoWriMo - good luck and enjoy the crazy month!
About Alex Crittenden
My clients tend to be rapidly-growing and forward-thinking organizations that are looking to improve the execution and value of operations and/or sales. They are looking for a partner that has experience and expertise in building those functions and setting up processes to be as effective and efficient as possible.
With experience in building sales programs and operational frameworks - as well as delivering on both, my role is to help clients drive growth through increased sales and the efficient execution of delivering on those sales.
Additional Background:
- Built / Led Operationsat White Oak Security from 2017 to 2023
- Part of executive leadership team
- Built-out PMO, responsible for overall execution of operational team
- Developed (and was responsible for) all company contracts and policies
- Responsible for client legal contract negotiations / review
- Developed overall price modeling methodology
- Developed sales training program & content
- 20+ years of sales experience in both leadership and 'feet on the street' roles
- Value-driven selling
- Strong history of successfully bringing new services and products to existing markets
- History of working with wide range of clients in a variety of industries