My Next Chapter

After 25 years with BissettMatheson Communications, I determined it was time to downsize. I wanted to simplify my life. Most days I like what I do, in fact I like it a lot, I just don't want to do as much of it. So hell no, I don't want to give it up. Let's call it semi-retirement. Enter Duncan Matheson - just a person, not a company. No more beating the bushes for work to keep the team busy and employed, no more (or at least far fewer) long days. Just me, but still working...a little. 

As you will see from the Services page on this website, I plan to keep busy with projects that interest me but don't require a huge time commitment. Also, I will continue offering my Media Training courses, because they are just too much fun to give up.  

My intent with his new chapter is to balance a limited amount of professional communications work with more volunteer work on social issues I care about including the Community Action Group on Homelessness, continuing to be a regular participant in the CBC political panel (Fridays on Shift, right after the 5:30 News if you care to have a listen), more motorcycle trips, and when the fancy strikes me, to continue writing blogs on communications, the media, and who knows what else. I have been searching all my life for that elusive life balance, and I think I am finally on the verge of finding it. "About time", some would say.  But I know my personality and that if I take something on, I'll be all in. This is why I will be selective. 

As I close the BissettMatheson chapter I look back on it with fondness because BissettMatheson had an amazing run with a group of wonderful clients, many of whom had been with us for many years. It started in 1992, a year after I had left CBC, when I formed a partnership with an incredible PR practitioner, Pauline Bissett.  She retired a few years back, but I continued on with an amazing team that had as its core Gina Wilkins, Sharon Pond and Benoit Duguay, colleagues who became friends I will cherish forever. They have now gone their separate ways. Gina is now working directly with one of our former clients, The New Brunswick Association of Community Living. Benoit and Sharon opted to retire, but if I take on something that requires more resources than just me, they are there if I need them. I'm a lucky guy; I have the best of both worlds.

Life is good.