STEFF AS A BRAND

May 2021
Welcome to the landing page of SaaB (Steff as a Brand)!

Living a life of curious pursuits and varied interests, has yielded an abundance of experience, learning and inspiration. Here, I'll share what I've learned, where I plan for it to take me and how I am pursuing these passions in the everyday, here and now.

Navigating: SaaB is the primary, or umbrella, brand.

Subsidiaries (below) are grouped into three categories:
1. Professional Brands - related to my 30 year (and counting) career in communication technology and technical sales (including content distribution, international markets, startup environments, emerging markets, and the leverage of artificial intelligence).
2. Personal Brands (research/writing/genetic genealogy - my 'more than a hobby' passions)
3. Lifestyle Brands - Travel, Gourmand, Sailing

Please click on a tile photo to be transported to the subsidiary's splash page.

Thank you for visiting and please frequently check back as this site and the subsidiaries continues to evolve.

With gratitude,
Steff

Professional Pursuits

To edit, simply click directly on the text and add your own words to tell the world.

L5 is dedicated to practices of advancing leadership principles which represent the pinnacle of a career spent developing and executing strategies to drive engagement, satisfaction, focus and success, which, of course, leads to increased productivity, revenue realization and ,ultimately, velocity in profitability.

We also address navigating corporate culture, communication, and authentic engagement in what most matters.

"Good-to-great transformations don't happen without Level 5 leaders at the helm. They just don't". ~Jim Collins, Author "Good-to-Great

A very special opportunity to engage girls and young women in exploring the future of communications technology.

We start by questioning what we see - and how it functions - and how we can shape the future.

How does that Tik Tok video get to your mobile phone? Where does it come from? What happens from the moment you click "play" to the moment the video begins? And who/what is involved along the way? You'd be surprised!

C'mon girls - Let's play, grow and earn!

Personal Pursuits / Books / Research

Clicking a photo below will transport you to the related site.

My black ancestors is a website dedicated to research of ancestors of African origin. Research and documentation of African-descended ancestors is particularly challenging, as the system of American slavery relied upon the erasure of one's identity in order to maintain a position of power and control. As such, tracing ancestry through the American historical system of record keeping requires a special skill-set, which may be learned and honed, with the support of targeted databases. See also our GenQuest DNA link below for information on using DNA to repair familial bonds which were broken in slavery.

Site dedicated to the life and legacy of Oliver Cromwell Gilbert, who escaped slavery in Maryland in 1848 at the age of 16 with the help of black and white abolitionists. Oliver learned to read and write, eventually being elected Secretary of the Colored Republicans of the State of New York. He lectured, taught music, operated a guest house and an 'ice cream saloon' and, having personally aligned with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, worked to free his brothers and sisters from bondage. He later returned to Maryland to confront the family which held his in bondage for at least 5 generations - which meant confronting the Governor of Maryland, leading to a 22 year letter-writing campaign between the two. The site is supported by Oliver's handwritten narrative of his life and the papers of Governor Edwin Warfield.

When thinking of the lives of enslaved people across America, we often think of chains and whips and fields of crops - and misery. Indeed, such was the reality of enslaved people. However, this site is dedicated to the rest of the story. These resilient, brave, inspiring humans lived rich lives built on faith, family and friendships. Despite torturous circumstances placed on them, they found joy in the communities they created for themselves. THIS is the story of The Quarter Place (.com).
(Written work for publication)

GenQuest DNA: Founded in 2015 as a personal project to trace family lineage for relatives and friends using the raw data from standard DNA testing kits. Over time, I volunteered to help adoptees, foundlings (doorstep babies) and other people with unknown or unexpected parentage. The more I worked with DNA over time, the faster I could solve 'cases'. Each solve has been incredibly gratifying, as what is often the greatest mystery of someone's life can be resolved in a matter of days (or weeks or, in some cases, years). My quickest solve took less than 48 hours - and it was a good thing because the adoptee's son was engaged to marry her 'sister's' son. Yes, a pair of siblings had been separated at birth and unbeknownst to these two sisters (who didn't know each other as sisters), their children were planning to marry (having no idea that they were first cousins). The wedding was called off, but nobody regretted learning this truth. I find truth in genetic strands. DNA is also extraordinarily useful when researching family ties broken during the period of American slavery, as identities were intentionally erased.
Learn more at the site and, if you need help, complete the inquiry form.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle blog dedicated to travel, culture, gourmand and living our best lives! (Content soon!)
Would you like to contribute content? Please do.

Clubhouse is the inviation-only, audio-based social media app. And, yes, it is HOT! So, we've decided to get in early and capitalize on the success of this launch by hosting a weekly review of what clubs and rooms are hot, and not! Hotclubhouse.com and clubhouseweekly.club (below) are aligned sites and we are not yet sure how we will structure content, but stay tuned. This one has the potential to blow up and we are HERE FOR IT!

ClubHouseWeekly.club is Companion site for HotClubhouse.com (above)