Climbing the Ziggurat

Dear family and friends,

Foremost, I would like to thank you for your years of support and prayers. Indeed, without them, I do not know if I would have had the courage and willingness to perserve. It has been from your strength that I have found the inspiration to continue to climb the ziggurat that has been my life. And so, I wanted to take an opportunity to share with all of you one of the proudest moments in my life.

[Prep the theme music here. LOL.]

For about three years now, I have been toying with the idea of a live-events promotions business, one that would marry all of the cleverness and creativity of our "cool" culture to the astute professionalism of the business world. In the fall of 2004, I called this venture Tempest Promotions, and in the winter of 2005, I actually drafted the first full sketch of its business model. However, at neither of those time did I actually leap at the opportunity to transform the concept into reality. In fact, to be perfectly honest, my personal failings were what stopped me in the outset, while, by 2005 and 2006, I was immersed in building Axiom Strategy Advisors into a larger enterprise.

Nevertheless, I did not lose that dream.

I have been a firm believer that all things happen in God's time--not our own--and that each of us must climb our own personal ziggurats, before we can ever reach the zeniths of our lives. That climb is usually a long and arduous process, but if we remain diligent and prayerful, if we maintain our faith in His Word, we will reach the points where we need to be with greater piece of mind. Indeed, that has been the case for my life.

I never lost the dream of Tempest Promotions, and I never stopped envisioning other bid ideas, but whether as a result of circumstance or something else, many of those ideas simply have not gotten utilized. I had told myself that, with my life coming together so well, and with my responsibilities to Axiom SA, there had been no time to invest in so many diverging directions...That was so, until now.

Last week, after a terrible amount of consideration (and one, eye-opening weekend in a nice city), I incorporated Tempest Promotions in the state of Louisiana. The company, in accordance with its mission, will aspire to become "a regional promoter of a wide spectrum of events" for diverse audiences. It will also aspire to set a new standard for the way events get crafted, coordinated, and executed, while preserving, or even enhancing, the experience for its participants. Tempest Promotions, Inc., in short, is "entertainment redefined"---and in the months to come, you will understand why that is so.

Understandably, this is point where everyone raises a question or two. And I will address the most immediate of them: Tempest Promotions, Inc., is a genuinely separate enterprise from Axiom Strategy Advisors, LLC, and at no point, will its existence have an effect on the operations of the latter.

In fact, where Axiom SA is concerned, I would like to take an opportunity to also share with you some of the changes being made to its business model. As most of you know, I have been thinking very succinctly about the near- and long-term direction of my consultancy and how that direction can better benefit its clients. Having literally started this business on nothing more than intellect, I understand the importance that knowledge brings to its continued success, and so, I wanted to make sure that I was building a business model that was, first of all, suitable for Axiom's clients.

In early May, I realized that the answer to that question was resoundingly negative. In fact, Axiom SA was being built into a consultancy of all thing, while its paramount clients continued to suffer from limited access to necessary resources. That had to change.Over the course of the next ten years, God permitting, the face of Axiom will change dramatically. It will no longer only be a consulting firm, but it will morph into an business-services firm, integrating an array of resources for small and mid-sized businesses, like accounting and commercial lending, in addition to business and IT consulting. The brand will continue to be Louisiana based, as it expands across the Southern Coast; however, given the new political and environmental realities in Southeastern Louisiana, particularly in New Orleans (and this is to say little of Houma), I no longer see a future for Axiom's business in this portion of the state. Over the next year or so, efforts will be made to make Baton Rouge its headquarters (expanding to Lafayette, later).

Today, in order to initiate these changes, I am honing in on core competencies. The consultancy is taking efforts to unwind its Government Affairs Unit, which provided political consulting and lobbying, and it is in the process of negotiating a strategic alliance with Koova Media, LLC, to whom the consultancy will outsource its marketing projects. This is perfect reason to now focus on the paramount clients: the small and mid-sized businesses who have come to trust Axiom SA and its ability to deliver impressive results.

The launch of Tempest Promotions and the changes to Axiom SA certainly do not amount to the zenith of my professional life. In fact, the reason that this is such a proud moment for me is only be/c I see this as just the beginning. In the years to come, I will do my part to strength these ventures, and I will also conceptualize and build others in the process. That has been my ultimate dream---to live life a serial entrepreneur and to become a monster of an angel investor (think: G. Harrell Corp.). And so, I am proud at this moment, because I have taken yet another step up the ziggurat to becoming just that.

Once again, I thank you all for your support. You guys have been making this climb a whole lot easier for me.

gh

Matt 5:16