Executive Bios

So, here’s the deal. Back in the day, this page was full of honest to goodness executive biographies. They said things like:

Crossover Consulting was founded in 1999 by Chelle Honiker Yarbrough, CTC, as an outsourced information systems and training department for home based and small-to-medium sized travel agencies. Realizing that these agencies needed an affordable resource to help navigate their technology choices and implement cost-effective solutions, Crossover Consulting, Inc. helped hundreds of travel agencies position for the future. She credits her combined expertise as a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) and the experience she has gained in her more than twenty years as a travel industry veteran.

All this was written with the hope of making it seem like we were this huge impersonal corporate presence. It sounded like we wore suits and had florescent lighting and cubicles and other such nonsense. It was all true, mind you, but polished to perfection.

Here’s the real deal. I got mad at my boss back in 1999 and decided to start a company. My first client, Karen McCullough, became my devoted and wonderful business partner. We worked like dogs, dragged our husbands into the mix and did a lot of cool new things. One husband was a graphic art designer and had a lot of background in business. The other had a lot of financial savvy, and could make and fix anything. Our business was home-based and it kept us lean and mean. It still is. Its based on North Padre Island, a long tropical barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Texas, next to Corpus Christi, which is also called the Sparkling City by the Sea. We moved to Lake Arrowhead, California for a while, but wised up quick and brought our little business back to Texas. Want to kill a small business? Base it in California, I say.

When we started we had some pretty cool company benefits like passes to the Padre Island National Seashore, laundry pickup, catered lunches and neat Google-Wannabe stuff. My two small daughters grew up as Vice Presidents. They were in charge of mailings and said things to the UPS drivers like, “I’ll be needing a receipt for that, Bob”. Four years old and sassy. You betcha.

That was almost a decade ago, before the dot.com bust. Back then we would take our cell phones and laptops and go to the beach and pretend to work. Then sand got in the keyboards and we abandoned that. Honestly, we abandoned a lot of things. It would be lovely to say that we took advantage of all the “freedom” having a home-based business offers, but if you have one, you know. It is all a blur of work and home and life.

And we made a lot of mistakes. Let me rephrase: I made a lot of mistakes. I learned a lot. How to run a better company. Why you never hire your siblings. Never borrow operating capital when you should fire the dead weight. What my clients meant to me when I lost my StepDad, then my Dad, then my Grandmother. I almost walked away a couple of times. Eventually my partner moved to Florida and went into real estate, but she and I talk often and I miss her tremendously. She kept it all together when I was contemplating a career in burger flipping.

I eventually figured out that I couldn’t be all things to all people and now I focus on what I do best. I blog for myself and anyone that has a good idea - and a checkbook. I get paid to speak at conferences. I write. I design clean websites and modify templates. I host websites for those that I design for. I market and network and do public relations for good worthwhile things like small businesses, nonprofit organizations, coffeehouses and churches. Hey, I’m there anyway. Might as well lend a hand. If the project is more than I can handle I’ve got a network of smart people to rope in. Tech support is covered when I’m out. It’s all good.

My “brand” has been replaced by my blog: Mental Garage Sale. I sell what’s in my head. You can buy the stuff if you want to, but I have to admit, I’m a little more picky about who I sell it to now. Time suckers, energy wasters and emotional vampires: keep on driving. The rest of you, come on in. Have some coffee and tell me what you’re looking for. I probably have it around here somewhere.

If you’ve read this far, then you deserve some trivia:
I drink a lot of good coffee. I like the beans from Hester’s Café & Coffee House the best.

I coach volleyball for Annapolis Christian Academy and for The Boys and Girls Club of Corpus Christi. My knee surgery last year was a bummer, but I’m on the mend and bruises are cool.

I watch as much PAC-10 volleyball as my cable plan will serve up, and I love the Stanford Cardinals.

So, that’s the executive bio. If you’ve got something interesting noodling around in your head, give me a shout.