Erica Gamet

Lately, I’ve heard some disparaging feedback from people who’ve taken training from large national training companies. It’s not that the training was bad, necessarily, just that it left people wanting more.

As a small, local, independent trainer, I hope that none of my students walk away feeling unsatisfied with what was learned in my class. The only “more” I want them yearning for is how to do more cool stuff in their particular software.

Does this mean that all national or large training companies are bad? Absolutely not. I just think that you get a few extra perks – warm fuzzies – when you choose an independent trainer.

For instance, my classes tend to be smaller, not so much of the “herding cattle” approach. This allows me to give each student a little personalized attention, if that’s what’s needed. I can also customize and tweak class content on-the-fly if the group is gravitating a particular way.

I am also able to make myself available to participants outside of class. This might be answering questions about the workbook or topics ahead of time, or follow-up questions emailed to me after the class. And, since I offer post-training consultation, I am able to continue working with a participant and, possibly, to follow up on any issues right in their working environment.

There are a lot of small, independent trainers offering high quality instruction just about everywhere. Here in the Denver area, there are several and I’m lucky to be good friends with some of the best. While we independent trainers might not offer “one-stop shopping” for all of your training needs, chances are that we’ll know someone that teaches just what you’re looking for. All you have to do is ask us.

Don’t forget to check out my Current Training page to see what classes I’m currently offering.

This week, I’ll be talking about one of my newest obsessions: WordPress. I’ve found this open source software to be quite fun and more than a little bit addicting. Sometimes working with WP can be a bit daunting, but I just see that as part of the challenge. I’m not a coder, by any means, but I’ve found digging into WP’s code to tweak functions and fonts and colors to be intriguing.

Lots of sites (like ericagamet.com) are using WordPress at their core. You’d be surprised that many of them don’t look like blogs…because they’re not! With a little bit of tweaking and re-arranging, a WordPress site can be used as a Content Management System (CMS) to look just like a “regular” website.

Come to my free hour-long seminar to find out what WordPress is, how people are using it beyond blogging, and ways to customize a WordPress site to your liking. I won’t be getting all technical at this seminar…don’t want to scare anyone away. I hope you’ll join me for my casual chat about WordPress.

Location: Buzz Coffee – Longmont
Date: 11-18-2009
Time: 7:00 pm

Back to School. Those three little words used to make me just a little sad. It wasn’t that I hated school (quite the opposite, really), I just really enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of summer vacation. I could get up when I wanted, play whatever games I wanted, hang out with whatever friends I wanted. School, on the other hand, meant getting back to structure and routine. What 10 year old wants that?

Well, I’m not 10 anymore, and I thrive on structure. I still enjoy the more laid-back atmosphere summer brings, but I look forward to getting “back in the groove” when September rolls around. I take this time to re-focus on goals that I may have been neglecting or pushing aside. I also re-assess ideas conceived or implemented at the beginning of the year. Autumn puts me in a whole new frame of mind and prepares me for the sometimes uncertain nature of the cold weather months. I guess it’s the modern-day equivalent of stocking up for the long, cold winter!

This summer, my class schedule went on hiatus, but now I have launched a new schedule of current training. If you’ve been thinking about getting some training to add to your skill set, now is the time. Get in that new frame of mind that focuses on preparing for the months ahead. I will be adding additional classes soon…including my beginning Illustrator class and more! I look forward to meeting you at an upcoming training event and if you have any questions, please use the Contact Me link in the sidebar.

Enjoy your autumn!