Ian Isanberg

Honestly, I don’t have coffee with people much anymore…

In the last five years, Coffee With Ian had been my online identity. In the old days, I would list the times that people could sign up and meet people for coffee. I would primarily use Meeting Wave (http://www.meetingwave.com) to schedule such meetings. It became my identity. I would go to techy meetups in the city and people would say “hey, you’re the coffee guy”.

Networking was a big part of my life a few years ago. However, it’s laid dormant for a while. I’m rarely in the city at this moment in my life, and my schedule changes on a weekly basis, where I just haven’t put in the effort to schedule times to invite the world for coffee. I would like to continue to meet people, but I feel a bit inauthentic at the moment to be known as “The guy who has coffee with people” when I don’t.

I just know I want to be out there, but not necessarily through the Coffee With Ian brand that was a big part of my identity for a long time. What do you think? I invite you to discuss with my privately or publicly.

Over the past few months, actually years, I’ve been thinking about what was next for me. Professionally, personally. In 2007, I started Coffee With Ian, which originally was a personal networking platform for myself, which evolved into a personal brand. My Twitter handle has been @coffeewithian since almost the beginning (I also registered @ianian and briefly used it before switching to my coffee moniker).

Before Coffee With Ian, there was Ian Ian. Ian Ian was a nickname I got at camp when I was 12 years old, and was a big part of my online identity before Coffee With Ian. I registered ian-ian.com in 1999 (ianian.com was taken at the time, but I was able to snatch it up a few years later).

Once I became “Coffee With Ian”, I let the Ian Ian identity lay dormant, mainly as an archive of the website that I built from 1997 until the early 2000s. I taught myself HTML when I was in high school, before I even had regular dial up internet access at home. I used the web as my creative outlet, long before blogging and social networking became the norm.

So, right now, I have decided to bring new life back to Ian Ian. I will be blogging here about personal stuff and professional stuff, instead of my Tumblr, which I had essentially used as a blog instead of the social network that it is. I hope you enjoy my writings, and leave comments and feedback.

(P.S. All the old stuff I used to have up on IanIan.com is still here. I’m not linking to it, but I invite you to find it!)

Ian Isanberg

So, should I kill Coffee With Ian?

IanIan.com reborn as a blog.