A New Job....A New Start

For those of you out there who know me personally, you'd know that for the last three years I have been employed by the provincial government, working in a department of the the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. 

During that time I have somehow managed to maintain this blog, sell advertising for TAPS: Canada's Beer Magazine, write my Burtch on Beer Column for TAPS. conduct interviews with people in the industry for TAPS features, help out with a weekly radio show, and attend numerous events and festivals throughout Ontario.  It has been hard work (I know you might laugh at that.  I mean, how hard could it be to attend beer events, talk about beer....?), especially juggling everyday work commitments while a deadline is looming over my head or spending an entire weekend doing nothing beer related. 

Something had to change.  I was getting bogged down, feeling stressed out at times.  I knew that I needed to re-evaluate things in my life and was hoping that the beer writing wouldn't lose out to the steady job that working for a government branch offers. 

So, I'm about to make a significant change to my life and the beer world that I've ingrained myself in over the last 3 1/2 years won't disappear at all.    In fact, it will become my life.  As I mentioned last week, I left my cushy job with the government to embark on a new venture. 

Starting today, April 6th, I'll be assuming my new role with TAPS Media as the National Director of Sales and Marketing.  I'm very excited about this.  I have a lot of ideas for the magazine and everything that goes along with it, some that I hope to get up and running in the next month.  And as I'm getting my feet wet I'd love to hear from TAPS readers out there with their thoughts on how to improve the magazine, changes you'd like to see, articles that would be of interest to you, or anything you'd like to pass along for consideration.  Feel free to drop me a line at troy@tapsmedia.ca.

I'll continue posting information on this blog, but I'm assuming that the post count will  drop slightly.  The new position will provide me with the chance to travel the country, visiting our terrific breweries, brewpubs, and pubs/beer bars which will give me much to post on. 

Goodbye government - hello beer!