When I entered the workforce at age 15, it felt like walking into the jungle. So many different types of people - so colorful - so limitless. Each "species" had it's own strengths that earned them a place. Those who were at the top of the food chain got there by being at the top of their game ... and liking it! That's where I wanted to be.

It didn't take me long to see that setting myself apart from the masses required specialization, experience, and rock-solid hard work. Period. So that's what I set out to do and have been doing since.

As a member of the Golden Key National Honors Society, I had an insider's opportunity to work in many high-level internships.

Even before I graduated from San Diego State University with degrees in Business Communications and Management, I worked in marketing and sales with global, Fortune 500 companies and niche organizations.

Some of my internships included writing for McCann Erickson Public Relations; marketing and production for Starlight Musical Theater; and event planning and fundraising for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. All were in San Diego, CA, where I was born and raised. 

I landed my first real job after college in marketing with Advanced Marketing Communications in San Diego. Even to this day, they are the sole distributor of books and audio to large, warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's across the world, and BJ's Warehouse on the East Coast.

One day when I was working there, I saw this guy come in and spend most of his time with company executives behind stacks of books in what looked like show and tell.

Now that looked like a pretty cool gig that I wanted in on!

After observing him in the office a few more times, I went up and introduced myself. Long story short - I left that position to work for HarperCollinsPublishers San Francisco in U.S. sales.

Within a year, the sales executives at our New York headquarters were asking, "Who is this person making over a million dollars a year doing inside sales on the phone?"

Yes, that was me, and I was immediately promoted to outside sales, where I busted through all kinds of sales records over the next 5 years. I just loved sales! Later I moved to Cedco Publishing as national sales manager; and then later as their marketing manager.

At Cedco, I managed a 200+ sales team, 2 regional sales managers, an inside sales team, and created marketing promotions to sell calendars and gift products. The products were based on popular licenses like Star Wars, Dilbert, Anne Geddes, and more.

After a few years, I realized that if I wanted to raise a family, my heavy travel schedule wouldn't be good. That's when I decided to switch industries - from publishing to high tech and software. In my first high-tech position for Convene Online Education, I developed marketing programs for UC Berkeley Online, University of Phoenix online, and other online universities.

After just a few years, I moved up into a marketing communications position for OSIsoft, an enterprise software company who owns the performance management niche for heavy manufacturing companies across the world.

There I created the first marketing communication assets for the company, and was thrilled to hear how much people liked and used what I produced...

"I was the vice president of sales and marketing at OSIsoft during their growth from $8 million in sales to $80 million in software sales.  In the earlier days of the company, we had a marketing staff that organized trade shows, an annual user’s conference, and produced some limited advertising copy. However, as we grew, we decided to assemble a more professional marketing group. 

Elin Bullmann was one of the marketing professionals that we brought in to upgrade our message, our literature, and our presence in the media. Elin quickly became the star of our marketing group. While she was highly prolific, the quality of her work set her apart from others.  She was able to pick up quickly on highly technical concepts, and to then translate those concepts into easily readable, benefit-oriented web and advertising copy, sales collateral, etc.

As an example, one day I received an email from a marketing executive from outside our industry. This person said that she had stumbled across (on the web) one of the brochures which Elin created, and asked for permission to use this document as an example for her marketing department. She said that the brochure was “the best benefit-based brochure she had ever seen.”

Please contact me if you would like more information about Elin and the work that she developed for OSIsoft. "

--Phil Ryder, former vice president of OSIsoft; current pr esident of Accelerated Information Technologies, 440-423-0064

(see more testimonials)

Later at OSIsoft, I became the company's case study program manager. I traveled internationally to pluck ROI (Return on Investment) stories out of large corporations across virtually every industry - pharmaceutical, oil and gas, power, transmission and distribution, chemical, food and beverage, water and waste management, and metals and mining.

I delved deep into complex manufacturing, business, and technology processes as I worked inside major companies such as Roche Pharmaceuticals, MeadWestvaco Paper, Dow Corning, San Diego Gas & Electric, and dozens more. I worked closely with virtually every level of personnel within these organizations - executives, VP's of finance and human resources, engineers, auditors, process managers, and security departments.

This experience honed my ability to not only understand complex concepts, technologies, and processes, but convert them to marketing pieces that regular people like you and I can understand! These were materials that salespeople could sell with and executives could quickly grasp the value.

After almost 8 years, I decided to charter unexplored territory by starting my own business. Yup, that's the one you're reading about right now called The Write Effect.

So to sum it up, I'm blessed to have such a solid and diverse background. But believe me, it took years of hard work and persistence to be able to do what I do today ... create online businesses that sell for many wonderful customers.

I hope to work with you very soon! Don't forget to take me up on my *free gift* to you ...

Get a complimentary evaluation of your website's selling ability (Retail value:  $197).

Simply email me the URL to your website (for example, www.thewriteeffect.com) and I’ll email you back with your website’s selling quotient. I'll explain where and why your site fell short in selling power, plus a tip or two about online marketing.

Or give me a call anytime at 541.388.2156.