About

Welcome to the Product Launch and Business Growth Blog, a blog that helps companies improve their product launches and boost business growth.

My name is Rick Braddy and I’m a full-time marketer, making a living from this great online media businesses have available today.

From Hobby to Profession

Back in 2004, I was a professional marketer and executive at a top software company.  I was also a budding poker player, caught up in the Texas Hold’em craze that hit the country and that’s now a worldwide phenomenon.  I learned online marketing more out of necessity than anything back then. I had developed a piece of shareware software known as Poker Sidekick in my spare time (to help keep my technical and programming chops intact), and needed a way to sell it online…

I launched the first version of Poker Sidekick in 2004, and it marked the beginning of my first sustained profitable online business.  Today, it’s grown into a full-service poker club and training site – still going great.  Over the next several years, I bought every kind of online marketing course and tool I could get my hands on.

At the same time, professionally I moved into a role as VP Product Marketing and Product Management for CITRIX Systems, where I led a worldwide team of product marketers and product managers, driving a billion dollar software business, speaking in keynotes and breakouts at trade show events and traveling to meet with lots of customers.

In 2006, my family and I decided we’d had enough of living in South Florida (where CITRIX headquarters was located), so I moved the family back home to Texas – mainly because my youngest daughter wanted to graduate from high school with her friends – and it was time to put family ahead of career for a change…

I continued with CITRIX in a different role, taking on the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) position, leading the company’s business, product and technology strategy areas.  I enjoyed this role a lot and continued for a couple of years, until I grew tired of the commute and constant travel, which finally took its toll.

Fortunately for me, the CITRIX stock did well over the years, so I was able to retire from having a real job at the end of 2007.  But I’m far too young and energetic to just hang out at the lake fishing all the time (which was actually quite good for a while, though).  So one door closed and another door opened…

ConXentric, Inc. and WinningWare.com

In 2008 I founded my new company ConXentric and joined forces with a 30-year marketing veteran, Jeff Sulma. Together we built the WinningWare.com site and a line of DIY product launch and email marketing solutions.  We’ve also been involved in a number of product launch and online marketing consulting projects.

At one point, I realized that I had accumulated a lot of useful information and experience in both my professional career as a software executive, marketer and developer and as an online marketing entrepreneur. It was high time for me to share that information with others and make a selfless contribution to this world.

So I began blogging in 2008.  In 2009, I took my blogging up a notch and started publishing more often and (hopefully) better, more useful articles.  In 2010, I plan to take it to a whole new level again, in terms of blogging and social networking.

Product Launches

It’s said that to be successful at whatever you do, you must truly be passionate about it.  Well, for me that’s launching new products, companies and websites.  Why?  First, because it’s always a challenge.  I love a good challenge and launches are typically interesting and challenging – every one is different.  And launches usually involve working with something new and innovative – and THAT’s really my cup of tea!

Moreover, I have a vision for the future of product launches for high-tech companies and small businesses.  The Web and social networks have brought us into a new era of opportunities and possibilities. The world of marketing is rapidly changing, as online media and social networking disrupts traditional broadcast media.  And anytime there’s widespread disruptive change taking place throughout a marketplace, there’s huge opportunities for those who tap into it.

I have begun sharing that vision in The New Rules of Launch e-book that’s available here on the blog site.

Story-based Marketing

My partner, Jeff, is an award-winning marketer, screen-writer and copywriter.  We are both extremely passionate about the use of storytelling in marketing. Storytelling unlocks the real power of the world we live in, making it possible for others to relate to our world.   This is another area we specialize in – bringing effective storytelling into everything we do, wherever possible and appropriate.

Download The New Rules of Launch

I would invite you to download The New Rules of Launch e-book and read it.  It contains more than 62 pages of best practices, strategies and tips for getting the most out of a product launch.  We could’ve charged for this e-book, but decided to make it free as a way of contributing to the community and sharing our vision of the future in launch technology.

You can get all the details and view the table of contents here.

Visit WinningWare.com

Be sure to visit WinningWare.com and check out the our products and solutions, along with more free tools available there.  You will find a number of affordable, do-it-yourself product launch and email marketing tools that will make you money – guaranteed.  And there’s some free tools there you will also find very helpful in your online business.

Subscribe to this Blog

Be sure to register to my blog and you’ll get an automatic email notification anytime something new is posted. This is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest posts. Of course, subscribing via the RSS feed is another great way to stay up-to-date.

Wishing You the Best

I hope you pick up some new ideas from this blog that serve as useful stepping stones and building blocks of success for you and your company.  Please feel free to post comments here as well and contact me if there’s anything I can do to be of service.

Carpe Diem!

Rick

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