Over the last 4 years, I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with an amazing group of friends at Google.

Yesterday, I celebrated my very last birthday as a Googler. As soon as I turned on my computer to start the work day, I was bombarded by Happy Birthday messages. Throughout the day, I had visitors to my office wishing me a Happy Birthday. A couple of my very close friends at work even got together to get me an Ipod Nano!

Later on in the afternoon, I was surprised yet again when I was scheduled for a meeting that turned out to be a full-blown birthday celebration with everyone on the Optimization Team, complete with fruitcake AND tiramisu!

In the evening though, the REAL party started! It was a birthday and bon voyage celebration in my honor. One of my very best friends whom I met on my very first week on the job at the AOL party in May 2002, actually HOSTED the party for me at his Monte Sereno ranch!

Complete with a full bar attended by a bartender and the musical sounds of a resident DJ, the party was a tremendous success!

Over 100 of my Google friends turned out to send me off with birthday and well wishes! Friends I’ve known since day one to ones I met up to the day before the event, those on my team as well as those I haven’t seen in several months, and local as well as those from southern California and even out of state were a part of this historic night, which undoubtedly marked the end of an epic era.

Needless to say, I am definitely overwhelmed by the friendship and support of my fellow Googlers. Some have been there for me since the beginning, many have been instrumental to my progress throughout the years, but without the support of each and every single one of them, I would not be where I am today.

When the announcement about my departure was made at the AdWords Team meeting, the room was filled with a very sentimental response. The director of the department, who also happened to be my manager at one time for almost 2 years, made the announcement. She did a great job summarizing my career as well as accomplishments, and it made me feel a great sense of achievement to know that I was able to contribute so much to the team.

And now, the time is almost upon us for me to finally move beyond the safe boundaries within the walls of Google and venture the road not yet taken.

It’s a dark and scary road ahead. But from a page taken out of “The Secret,” you can drive from New York to California in the dark. And even though your headlights only give you visibility to 100 feet or so ahead of you, all you need to do is believe that the road will take you to where you need to go, even though the destination is not yet in sight.

I was listening to Mike Filsaime’s call several days ago on Brian Edmondson’s List Profit Academy, where they discussed once again the importance of having a squeeze page to capture your visitors’ contact information.

Even though I’ve heard and know this information already, the way that Mike put it really hit me in between the eyes this time.

Mike told a story about how in his beginner days, he slowly discovered that there is a correlation between the number of subscribers on his list and how much he’s making online. It pretty much boiled down to $1 per subscriber a month.

Ever since then, he has dedicated himself to list building.

Now, this is obviously the kind of stuff we already know. It’s not so much the story, nor is it the statistics that affected me. It was what he said he did after having discovered the fact.

You see, after Mike realized that he needed to build his list at all cost, he then decided that he had to put a subscription box not only on his main squeeze pages, but on every single one of his websites.

That’s what I’ve been doing wrong!

Up until this point, I’ve only had one main squeeze page for my AdWords Optimization Newsletter, located at AdWordsOptimization.com. Yes, this is the only page I’ve been capturing people’s names and email addresses.

But what about my main Internet Marketing portal site for my company at BuzzMeIn.com? Or my Internet Marketing MySpace Profile at MySpace.com/SimonLeung? Or my Internet Marketing Power Blog, the very website you are reading right now at SimonLeung.com?

You guessed it - every piece of traffic I’ve gotten up to this point has all gone to waste, because those visitors came to my site, peeked around and left. And I’ve got absolutely nothing to show for them!

Well, this all changed this week as I completely re-vamped my entire marketing strategy…

Yes, I’ve added a subscription box to all the websites I just mentioned, including this one. You will see that on the sidebar to the right.

However, not only that, but I also created a whole new set of content for each one!

For complete details on the content and topics of each new ezine, check out the My Sites section of this website. Better yet, subscribe to them all and experience the excitement for yourself!

Earlier this afternoon, I had the opportunity to present LIVE for the very first time on a teleseminar call!

It was a presentation on Google AdWords where I gave my Gold Club Team members a brief overview of Google and the AdWords product. I then proceeded to walk the team through the sign up process step-by-step and laid out the exact account set-up procedure to make an AdWords ad go live.

The timing of this opportunity was almost uncanny as Joel Christopher is actually half way around the world in the Phillipines, so he is unable to attend the entire length of the call. Coincidentally enough, we also happen to be in step #9 of the Master List Builder program, which talks about the various ways of driving traffic to your website.

One of which, of course, is Google AdWords…

Joel was able to attend the first 30 minutes or so of the call before he had to go. Prior to that, he briefly covered the alternative forms of traffic generation. Before I knew it, he passed the mic off to me!

For over an hour, I spoke with my team on the call.

Was I nervous? You bet!

Was it exhilarating? Absolutely!

Granted, I had given client presentations and even went through webinar trainings in the past, but this was my first dibs at doing it for myself.

This is the type of work I will be doing for my Internet Marketing business!

I can’t remember another time during my 4+ years at Google where I felt more excited about giving a presentation!

Yes, today was a good experience. Tomorrow and beyond, it will only get better…

Many things have happened in my personal and professional life within the recent months, and I’m afraid that I have been cornered into making a decision that I’m not quite sure I’m ready to make.

I won’t bore you with the exact details, but the impact is so dramatic that it will result in a HUGE decision that I’m not mentally prepared for.

At this point, it looks like it’s going to happen. In just 4 short weeks from today, I will sit down in front of a table, press my pen against my resignation letter, and sign my way out of over 4 years of sweat and tears at Google.com.

That’s right - the time is almost upon us. Although this day is bound to come sooner or later, I guess it is safe to say that I would have expected it to come later rather than sooner.
Yet, I suppose it couldn’t have come at a better time. After all, for the past 2 months, I have been under the heavy guidance of my mentor, Joel Christopher, as well as the amazing members of the Gold Club Team.

With everyone’s help, I guess you could say that I had been all along preparing myself for one of the boldest moves of my life. Nonetheless, leaving a stable bi-monthly paycheck, from a top-notch technology company, not to mention a good amount of stock options on the table and INCREDIBLE friends was NOT an easy decision to make, by any means.

However, my team that I first met in San Antonio back in May has helped me realize that this is also the most important, rewarding and life-changing decision I will ever make. With their support, I was able to come to terms with what I need to do, and realize that since many elements are currently out of my hands, I might as well make the most of opportunities that may arise as a result.

A whole lot has happened during the past several weeks, and even more will develop in the next few weeks alone. This is all very new to me, and I can’t believe that my time at Google is almost up.

From 4 years down to the last 4 weeks. My friends, the countdown has begun!