Nancy L Starr, principal of Frolicking Frog, has been an Information Technology maven for over 22 years. Nancy started her career in information technology in 1974, when she earned a certificate in Data Processing and Business Machines while still in high school.
After a brief hiatus to start a family, Nancy began her IT career in the early 80’s as a mainframe computer operator for a bank in the Philadelphia area. She rapidly moved on to a private data processing firm where she worked on thrift software conversion projects. That operation closed as the crisis in the Savings and Loan industry peaked in the late 80’s. So, following her parents lead, Nancy moved to Fort Myers, Florida in 1989. The rapid adoption of the PC, and several strategic partnerships enabled the opportunity to start a computer service, support and training firm shortly thereafter. Her role in the business was multi-faceted: operations and project manager for the technical department, event planner, along with sales and training duties. She has had the pleasure of helping others achieve success by logging many hours as a data processing vocational instructor with the Lee County, Florida school system, and as a one-on-one tutor.
Creativity runs strong in Nancy, and she took great pleasure in utilizing Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Microsoft Publisher to create promotional items like brochures, newsletters, ads, posters, event calendars, and business cards for hers and others businesses, as well as several non-profit groups. One such group was The Cape Coral Computer Club, of which she was the charter president. Through her affiliation with the PC user groups, Nancy was fortunate to meet Allan, another entrepreneur who was a graphic artist, photographer, and web designer in-training; he had just started working with Macromedia Dreamweaver 1.0.
This became significant in several ways. Nancy’s company had recently won an exclusive referral contract from the second largest Association of Realtors in the area, giving her a large cache of clients in that profession. It was apparent to Allan and Nancy that the Internet would take the real estate profession by storm, so it seemed natural for them to team up. They realized that it would enhance the services of the two firms, and enable them to better address realtor’s needs as the Internet gathered steam. Further, Alan kindly tutored Nancy, sharing his advanced expertise of both Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop, and igniting her dream of becoming a web designer. Unfortunately, circumstances took Nancy in a different direction, eventually forcing her to close the business in late 1997.
Since then, Nancy has worked in a variety of progressive roles in IT, including 6-years at Sony Electronics National call center in Fort Myers as a level III technical support specialist. At the end of 2006, she earned an Associate of Science degree in Computer Information Technology, with a minor in Computer Drafting and Design, from International College, based in Naples, Florida. These studies truly got Nancy’s creative juices flowing again in earnest.
With the recent explosion of web 2.0 technologies enabling small firms to easily implement advanced marketing practices, Nancy decided to capitalize on the culmination of knowledge gained while earning the degree, in her work in graphic design and desktop publishing, marketing and sales, training and management, as well as her enormous cache of Internet and social networking expertise to redirect her career back to her creative side. As such, she has been working in web design and internet marketing since August of 2007.
Nancy has continued to advance her education by intensive study via the Adobe-sanctioned, hands-on video tutorials from www.lynda.com , amassing an extensive library of both ebooks and paper books, and attending workshops. Other ways Nancy hones her design skills is by regular attendance at the Adobe inDesign user group, subscribing to Layers magazine (tips and tricks on all things Adobe), and continued real-world practical application. Nancy has utilized a variety of methods to increase her understanding of SEO/SEM techniques such as keyword research, content mapping and landing page optimization. A favorite blog is Occam’s Razor, which is authored by self-proclaimed Web Analytics evangelist, Avinash Koaushik. His insightful book is a must read for any web marketer.
Photo Silliness at the Orlando Board Games Meet-up
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If you would like to read some of wonderful letters of appreciation I received during my tenure at Sony, please send a password request using the contact form. Thanks for your interest!
