Work
I'm a consultant for my own company called, appropriately, Steffen Consulting, Inc. Most of my engagements revolve around compiling data that's hard to get at and putting it in a manageable format so my clients can use it.
The best fit is usually with clients who have an enterprise system but are frustrated by how cumbersome it is to grab and present their data for reporting and analysis. It doesn't matter if the issue is resources or skills, I can fill staffing gaps or train full-timers. In the end, we'll get the data in an efficient manner and present it in a way that's best for business decision-making. It will be fun.
For more details or to get in touch please go to my LinkedIn. I would say "check out the Steffen Consulting website," but it's old and hasn't been updated in a long time. I don't do any significant marketing and I've met all my clients via word-of-mouth. I work remotely, for the most part, and would love to hop on a call or virtual meeting to see if I can be of assistance to your business.
Blog
I have this blog thing going on over at jstef.com. At certain points in my life I've felt the urge to write about things - like books, golf courses, and food. However, in 2015 I moved back to my hometown and lost the blogging mojo (big life transition). It hasn't been updated much but all the history is still there. Check it out, you may find something funny or disturbing. Someday soon I'll start posting again because I have some new ideas for content.
I blogged about books the longest, which makes sense because reading books has been the most enduring hobby in my life. I painstakingly published my take on every book I read from Janaury 2006 through May 2015. I no longer spend hours rehashing what I read and publishing it on the web, but I still read a lot of books and keep track of them in a spreadsheet here.
I also blogged about golf. I spent a big chunk of the early 2000s as a golf junkie, playing mostly at public facilities in the Chicago metro area. I had this vision of a review-style website called Chicago Public Golf, but I only got as far as a logo and a decent list of the top 140+ facilities in the region. I don't play much golf anymore but the Chicago list holds up pretty well, and the few golf blog posts are still up. Currently, much like books, I keep track of all my golf scores in a spreadsheet here, if you're interested.
Then there was the food blog. I spent an inordinate amount of time in 2007 documenting my dining experiences in the hopes that someone would notice. These were originally at the URL tastychicago.com, which I (regrettably) sold to a dating site (now defunct). I imported all the food posts so they're still preserved over at the blog.
N12
My brother and I are in advanced planning for an endurance race in our hometown of Findlay, Ohio. We were planning on doing something in 2020 but Covid-19 hit and we got off track, so the inaugural race will be way out in July of 2022. We're calling it the Northview 12 Hour Xtreme Challenge (N12 for short) and we hope it will be the first of many.
It will be the most grueling race ever in the history of Findlay and will consist of four disciplines:
- Cycling
- Running
- Carrying a truck tire
The route will be lap-based and will pass famous sites in Findlay and surrounding areas. We're working on distances for each discipline and we think participants will be able to finish 3-4 laps within the 12 hour cutoff. We will be testing the course for over a year to get the right mix of difficulty and fun. The date is significant because, on average, the third Saturday in July is the hottest, nastiest, most humid day of summer. IT WILL BE BRUTAL!
All festivities will start and end at XT Fitness, my brother's gym, at 2725 North Main Street. Details will start to roll out in the summer of 2020. Bookmark this page or follow XT Fitness on Facebook.