After a decently lengthy hiatus from blogging, it’s a new year and I have a fresh vigor for writing about things that are meaningful to me both as the Founder and CEO of Eclyptix and more importantly as a person like you.  What exactly does that mean?  It means that I’m going to write with more candor about personal development, what’s going on in tech and interactive and of course what gets me most excited –startups–. I’m not going to to lie – blogging for me has gotten boring and a bit arduous, especially in light of my constant workload.  But don’t get me wrong, I’ve re-committed to write honestly about my day-to-day life, both as a person and as a CEO of an Interactive Agency.  And for some reason I’m vehemently against someone blogging for me.  That just seems like a rip-off to myself and our fans.

It’s going to get more honest and hopefully more useful and interesting.  I stay jam-packed in terms of my schedule, but I’ve made it a goal to get out at least one meaningful post a week for our community of fans.

What is Eclyptix doing in the new year?  What are Sam and I doing in the new year?  To put it simply, our goals are lofty, but achievable.  We’re dedicated to growing Eclyptix to the next level, hiring 2-4 more staff members this year, getting at least 3 more retainers with clients we enjoy working with and expanding our mobile/smartphone experience and services.  Additionally, we’re excited about launching our re-designed website and identity in March.  We’ve worked extensively on re-branding ourselves across all of our collateral and are excited about showcasing our new identity and our updated portfolio!  Despite all of this, we’re staying lean and true – continuing our profitability and shunning investors or borrowed money.

In addition to Eclyptix’s growth we are launching our global digital directory at http:///www.digitaldirectory.co in the next week (an announcement will be made upon launch).  We’re incredibly excited about this intuitive, clean and editor-moderated global platform for tech jobs, job seekers, internships, investors, recruiters, freelancers/consultants, vendors, events, projects and gigs.  We love forward to launching new cities, partnering with credible editors and growing this business.  If you’re interested in becoming a city editor, please reach out to info@eclyptix.com.

We’re also partnering with entrepreneur and genuine amazing person Andy Koehn to build a revolutionary iPhone app that helps you discover, share and rate the best sushi, pizza and burgers wherever you’re at.  It’s called Suzabu and it’s coming soon!

We’ve currently got an exciting client roster – a start-up, web-based project management system for lawyers, a robust property social network for a client in London, England, a beverage social network we’ve invested in called ThinkingDrinker.com based in Dublin, Ireland, a newly re-designed WhereToGetEngaged.com (2009 Best of the Best by InStore Magazine) in March, an online consultant directory that is driven by resource publication, user interactive and game dynamics entitled GorillaDiamond.com, a revolutionary social site entitled MyLivePlace.com (details under wraps) and an ongoing relationship with Wise Brother Media.  Additionally, we have several large projects on the verge of commencing and are geared up for successful launches and awards in 2011.  We recently launched http://www.babyprofinder.com and http://www.urbanbonfire.com.

Moving on to Sam and I personally – Sam is currently doing classes in the evenings to become a volunteer LAPD in addition to his role as Managing Partner of Eclyptix.  This means our clients will need to pay their bills or else!  :) But seriously, Sam’s excited about giving back and I’m excited for his contribution to the local LA community (and his ability to protect me, lol).

What’s going on with me?  I recently finished consulting for an ad agency in Tampa, Florida over four months and learned a great deal more from the advertising world.  This, coupled with an extended consulting engagement for a software firm years back and running Eclyptix for ten years alongwith starting up side ventures and helping my clients has really shaped my experience, paradigm and vision for the future.

In my spare time, I am also writing a book entitled “Millennial Entrepreneur”.  More to come on this in the future (I’ll probably branch out a separate blog on my newly registered millennialentrepreneur.com).  I am also going to be writing and blogging more on globalization and offshoring and its effect on economies and, as ridiculous as it may sound to you, world peace.

Those of you that know me know that I also love to travel – I’ve been to 48 states and 11 countries in Europe (primarily the extent of my travels, though I’ve hit the mandatory Caribbean countries and Canada and Mexico) and I’ve recently booked tickets to live in Belgrade, Serbia for four months from March until July.  I will be rotating between Belgrade and Los Angeles, but will be working directly with many of our staff based in our office in Belgrade and I’m excited about working with them as well as further exploring Europe and perhaps Russia and/or Africa.  I have much confidence about the Eastern European Bloc and look forward to learning more culturally and economically about each country and what opportunities exist for my clients and I.

I think that’s a fairly lengthy update for now, I definitely have more to say given the silence over previous months.  I want to talk about what’s happened over the last year and get into more detail on plans for this year alongwith where I will be spending my team and where my team is allocating their resources.  After I feel you and I have caught up, we can move on to more interesting and topical discussions that have been on my heart and head recently.

Join us at Facebook.com/eclyptix and me personally at Facebook.com/berthume or LinkedIn.com/in/RobbyBerthume!  Until next time…. be well!