This may come as a surprise to some of you loyal readers but I’m no longer a part of FreshBooks. As a way to avoid being asked “why?” over and over for the next few months I figured I would take the streets and explain it here.
Just so there is no confusion this isn’t going to be a mean spirited post full of venom and gossip so if that’s your thing you may be a little bored…and I considered offering up a humorous explanation for my departure ie: just found out the world was ending and wanted to spend time with loved ones or because they wouldn’t give me time off to take advantage of Black Friday deals and I even built a contest web site for companies to jump through hoops to hire me but suspected some of you folks that skim blog posts may not catch the joke and would just brand me a crazy person.
So with that out of the way here goes.
By my rough calculations I’ve been a part of FreshBooks for approx. 1591 days totalling about a half a decade. In that time I’ve done a few hundred projects that I’m very proud of and can say without hesitation that the legend of Saul! would not be as impressive without my time and travels representing the company. I’ve managed some great people, made some amazing friends (co-workers and customers, all of who I plan of working extra hard to keep as friends) and like to think I’ve taught some stuff so that even though I’m not with FreshBooks officially my spirit will live on a bit.
At this point I assume you’re asking yourself “Self, who are you and if things are so great why would you give all this up?” To answer both your questions, I am Saul Colt and I am one of North America’s best Word of Mouth and Customer Experience Marketers, and the answer to the other is because I started sleeping too well.
One of my favorite questions asked in interviews is always “what’s keeping you up at night?” Because it makes you think of the challenges facing you.
In my role at FreshBooks I had done so many things and figured out systems to keep things humming that the only real thing keeping me up at night is that I like to exercise after midnight. My career was on autopilot because I had done so many amazing things and momentum was rolling “up and to the right”.
Most people would be happy with this and I was for a very long time but it just seemed like a good time to shake things up again and stop sleeping. Get back to building things (brands, communities, companies) and finding something to really push me again to figure stuff out all over again.
So what’s next for me? Honestly I am not sure. I’m keynoting a bunch of conferences coming up in the new year and I’m almost finished negotiating a book deal. Have had a few promising conversations with some amazing opportunities but with nothing finalized I would love to have some more so if you think I can help your company (as a consultant, full time role or just to come in and speak to your group) please reach out. Don’t be shy! Please email me at Saul! Email
So to re-cap here are your four takeaways from this post.
1- I’m available for hire. Reach out. Lets Talk!
2 – If you’re a current customer of FreshBooks please continue to be. There is no secret message in this. The company is doing great and will continue to do so.
3 – If you’re thinking of trying FreshBooks soon use my referral link. I could use the income. #kidding #maybe
4 – If we’ve ever worked together or you’ve just been impressed by me please consider giving me a recommendation over at LinkedIn. I’d really appreciate it.
