So, here’s the deal … Jay Deal that is, my littlest bro’.  Most of you don’t know that I was the oldest of seven children.   That’s a whole lotta Deals, who’ve spawned so many other Deals over the years I can’t keep track of them all.  Anyway, my youngest sibling is Jay, who happens to be the brain child behind our new website.  Besides designing it, organizing it and keeping it all running right behind the scenes, he’s designing some other pieces for our whole online marketing and distribution strategy.  So he’s not just the Web Designer and Webmaster, but our Online Marketing Director and IT Extraordinare, as well as several other jobs that elude me at the moment.  Wearing and changing those different hats would be enough to keep most scattered and disorganized, but let me tell you a little about him.

When I left home at 18, Jay was only 4.  So, to put it mildly I didn’t know him that well as he grew up.  That was back in Texas, and I made my way out to California early on.  Of course, I saw him periodically over the years, but we didn’t really hang out that much.  I was always so preoccupied with my own life and family that those opportunities were few and far between.  I try not to have regrets in life, because where does that get you?  But when I think back about those days I sometimes regret that I did not know my youngest siblings better, so busy getting on with my own life (usually not in Texas).  Anyway, the added treat of working with Jay, who has come out to California to work with me for a few months, is getting to know him better.  And I’ve come to learn a number of things I never would have.  Not only about a different take on our common past, but about where he’s grown to now and what he aspires to in the future.   And also, about the current family sacrifices he has made to be here.  He has a wonderful family, a wife and four kids who he left back in Texas.  His two daughters have left the nest, but his two boys and wife surely miss him.  I know that he misses them all.

Over the years, Jay has acquired a lot of experience building websites, running and managing a business, doing marketing both online and offline, as well as IT work.  So a while back, I asked him to help me put this part of the “Dreams Awake” odyssey together.  And I have been very pleased with where we are headed.  I really believe that I could not have found a better person to do all this.  I enjoy working with him immensely, and have total faith and trust in what he is doing.  He’s very smart and creative, and has a big heart.  In fact, it’s hard to put into words where it seems we are going.  Wherever we go, I think it will be fun.  I do so believe in win-win scenarios, and I feel we are building exactly that.  A win for us and a win for you, our future audience.  And the Deal’s are working hard to make that deal happen!

JAD