Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone,

It's been a really interesting few months since Owning The Stage got started.  We've published more than 70 articles!  We have started a coach directory that is proving to be extremely popular as more and more people discover the resource, and it will be even more important as virtual coaching gets more and more popular over the coming months.  Virtual coaching is an exciting development whose time has come!  It will change everything about how people and groups get the expert guidance they need, and we at Owning The Stage are proud to be in the vanguard of that movement!

I'm not planning (at this point) to do much until January, but I certainly hope to hit the ground running with new, useful and inspiring articles that help performers of all stripes meet their potential.  What direction will the articles take in the new year?  I have no idea!  But I'm sure that given the right conditions, inspiration will strike.  My reading list stretches out many months, thanks to the capacity of the Vancouver Public Library.

I will also take direction from you, the readers and members of this blog.  If there's something you want to see in the future, just let me know.  I do take requests.

One thing I'm quite sure of is that the Coach Directory is going to grow a lot, and will need to be automated.  Right now I expect I'll implement that functionality as a plugin for Wordpress, but beyond that I have done no design.  The more coaches and reviews I have to manually cut-and-paste, the more motivated I get about automation.  Suggestions welcome.

I'm also planning to take the articles written so far and use them as the core of a book, for those people who would rather read the Owning The Stage articles in a logical order, in paper form.  Any suggestions about the content, format or name of the book are very welcome.

So Merry Christmas everyone, happy holidays, and may 2009 be an exciting and successful year for you and your loved ones!

Cheers,
Tom and Kari Metzger
Owning The Stage