I’m out of the cave, back in saddle and ready to rock and roll again with all of you. About 60 days ago, I signed out, took a break from Oddpodz and just about everything else to finish my 2nd book Brand Turnarounds: How Brands Gone Bad Return to Glory (McGraw-Hill 2012). It was a long and arduous journey. There were many sleepless nights and days of extreme stress. There were times I questioned my writing skills, my creativity and stamina to stay in the game. There were other days that I was a writing machine pumping out words that felt like a national anthem for all small businesses and marketing pros, I felt tremendous joy.

About a week ago I sent off my manuscript to my publisher. Over 70,000 words of brand scandals, near death days for companies, people and stakeholders and the game changers that bought them back to glory. I was nervous, it’s a new publisher for me, will they love the content as much as I do? Would it pass the mustard test on tone and style and were they convinced it will be a winning book? My stomach has been in knots waiting for the word back.

Last night I received an email from my editor. Here’s what she said, “I was truly happy with the manuscript. Your tone was exactly what it needed to be for your audience. It was engaging—I found myself getting very wrapped up in all the various scandals and brand disasters—but you struck a great balance of providing great, actionable information on how to prepare for or recover from such falls from grace so that it didn’t feel like a scandal book at all but rather a truly helpful book for marketing professionals and the broader business audience”.

WOW, it’s writer’s relief and an entrepreneur’s dream, with a new chapter. All my sweat and work is paying off!!

I know many of you have thought about writing a book. It’s a project, but can be filled with many benefits. In an upcoming blog I will share all the steps I took to turn an idea into a published book. Stay tuned.

OK, back to Oddpodz.

In 2006 this small company, Oddpodz LLC, was born with its sights set on being a social network for creative-minded people. We had a business plan, raised money and were off to the races. Like with many start ups, we hit some big bumps, made some bad decisions about our technology partners and stumbled around for two years. These missteps not only cost us money and momentum, but time too. And with the loss of all, suddenly the team that started the project was reduced down to a single full time pilot, me.

Last year, the site was rebuilt and the business model changed into a publishing enterprise. The plan was to run three blogs and offer digital tools for creative-minded entrepreneurs. The new route has been successful, we sold some products, our traffic has increased almost 200%, our opt-in list has grown, our in bound links and online exposure has scored significant traction.

While that’s all good, its a giant struggle to maintain, market and brand Oddpodz and my Brain Tattoo Branding practice and speaking with a small team that ultimately want to built profits for both and create a return for my investors.

One of the lessons in my new Brand Turnaround book is about simplification, returning to one’s roots and maintaining a singular focus. So that is what I’ve decided to do. Streamline the businesses and better leverage the assets, even if this means naming a sacrificial lamb called brand Oddpodz.

So here’s the plan moving forward.

Within the next 30 days, the Oddpodz brand and name will be put to rest. This will be the last lesson from Oddpodz and the last newsletter you will receive under the brand Oddpodz name. The next newsletter will be from the brand Karen Post.

The three blogs and all of the Oddpodz offerings will re-skinned and marketed under the brand Karen Post. There will be one blog and one destination. This move will allow my team a more efficient way to give you and all the readers even better stuff, tools and resources. All social media channels will be merged with brand Karen Post too. Giving our community one easy spot to find business growing ideas and tools.

The Oddpodz LLC company 2006-2011 will not go away, just the old name. All digital products and online services will remain in that business unit. My plans are to launch our first niche market program in July that is dedicated to restaurant marketing (phase 1 is already up, see more here) and then we will add other niche programs geared to retail, healthcare and eco businesses soon thereafter.

The Branding Diva® speaking, writing and consulting will remain under the Brain Tattoo Corporation.

This news of burying brand Oddpodz is bittersweet, as it reflected the fundamental values of the brave, non conformist creative thinkers and doers everywhere. I hope that our efforts inspired many to take chances and lead change without fear.

I believe this decision to combine the sites will best serve our community and my stakeholders. Our focus will remain dedicated to providing creative-minded business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals useful and fresh business growing ideas and information.

So stay tuned, the new and improved brand Karen Post should be back with one single source for helpful, optimistic, insightful content and tools soon.

In closing, I want to share a heartfelt thank you to the community for sticking with us and the Oddpodz team that made the company possible, especially to Jocelyn Ring, Kristen Friend, Bryan Parnell, Lauren Angrick and all of our stakeholders.

The best is yet to come!

Karen