Purpose
What if every business in our community had an incredible website?
That's the question that started this project, which aims to educate and equip our local community's businesses and workforce!
Introduction to Cloud Wise Academy
Cloud Wise Academy is a leading provider of marketing courses and coaching services in Johnson City, Tennessee. Our mission is to empower small to mid-sized local businesses with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in today's digital landscape.
At Cloud Wise Academy, we offer on-demand marketing courses and one-on-one coaching to help our clients achieve their marketing goals. Our courses are designed to be flexible and accessible, so that busy professionals can learn at their own pace. Our coaching services are tailored to each client's unique needs and provide personalized support and guidance.
Our team of experienced marketing experts are dedicated to helping our clients succeed. We believe that with the right training and support, every business can achieve their marketing potential. Let Cloud Wise Academy help you reach new heights in your marketing journey.
The skill-gap crisis facing online businesses today is concealing a huge opportunity.
In this Daytime TriCities interview with Chris McIntosh,
In this Daytime Tri-Cities interview with Chris McIntosh, Joe Mckenna explains how Cloud Wise Academy, which offers short-term classes that teach business owners to master specific sets of marketing and technical skills, can pay off exponentially for the Tri-Cities business community. Classes cover skills like app development, SEO (search engine optimization), and website coding—all of which are presented in an accessible, easy-to-learn step-by-step program.
We launched Cloud Wise Academy to help individuals learn in demand tech skills.
We help people learn in-demand technology skills that will make them attractive to employers who are hiring.
Discover how to effortlessly create professional content using DreamSite Builder's new AI feature. Learn how to generate fresh content, enhance existing content, and overcome writer's block. Transform your business with Cloud Wise Academy's marketing school. Visit the link to explore the powerful AI improvements and take your online presence to the next level.
Are you ready to take your online presence to the next level? Get ready to meet your new digital partner in success: the upgraded Website CoPilot. This all-in-one platform is now more powerful than ever, thanks to our latest AI improvements.
One of the most exciting new features is the AI-powered content creation tool. This tool assists users in creating an 'About Us' section and a customer avatar for their websites. The AI uses the information provided in the 'About Us' section to develop a customer avatar, recommend color themes, fonts, and keywords, providing explanations for each recommendation. This feature simplifies the content creation process and ensures that the website is tailored to the specific
In this post, I'm going to show you how to construct URLs that will get you more traffic. I'll teach you how to make your URLs short and easy to remember, and how to make your URLs look good.
The Redding Record Searchlight recently ran a piece about a young Redding Workforce finding avenues to good jobs. This piece is on the forms of non-college education people engage in to find the technically skilled jobs that make up today’s economy. Cloud Wise Academy, and Chris Webber, a graduate of our school, were both featured in the article. The Local organizations Several local organizations were showcased in the piece, all trying to make a difference for young people entering the job market. For instance, the Shasta Union Fire Academy, which teaches high school students the skills and procedures they need to become fully-qualified firefighters. About 80 percent of graduates of this program receive job offers from state and federal firefighting agencies. One firefighter, Alex Golden, expressed his deep appreciation for the training, saying “I would have been lost without the academy.” Golden has received a job offer from a local fire station. The article also mentioned the Career Technical Education Pathways program, which helps students gain first-hand experience in many different professions, Reach Higher Shasta, Shasta College, and Cloud Wise Academy. Cloud Wise Academy in the News The article discusses how Chris Webber, a navy veteran, was having trouble finding good-paying work after leaving the military. An injury sustained in the navy forced him to abandon gunsmithing after it provided too physically taxing. Around that time, he was contacted by Joe Mckenna from Cloud Wise Academy, who wanted him to take the very first coding class. About a year later, Chris Webber supports his two daughters with his own web-building business. He describes the process of learning to code as much simpler than he thought it would be, and a skill that’s very much in demand. “There’s so much coding work to do, and not enough people to do it,” he says.
The Redding Record Searchlight recently published a video showcasing people who found local jobs out of high school through paths that were somewhat out of the ordinary. They interviewed Alex Golden from the Shasta Union Fire Academy, and Cloud Wise Academy’s most famous graduate, Chris Webber. Shasta Union Fire Academy His junior and senior year of high school, Alex Golden attended the Shasta Union Fire Academy, which allowed him to become qualified for all state and federal firefighting jobs by the time he graduated. After graduating, he found a job with “I decided to go into the workforce before going to college because I discovered nothing made me happier than being a firefighter,” he says. Alex Golden has been offered a job at a local firefighting station. Cloud Wise Academy Nathan Solis, the reporter from the Record Searchlight, also talked to Chris Webber, a graduate of several Cloud Wise Academy classes. “After I got out of the Navy,” Chris recalls, “the job market was horrible. I went into gunsmithing for a few months, but my injuries got so bad I had to quit doing that.” Later on, he says “Joe from Cloud Wise Academy asked me to take the first Cloud Wise Academy class and offered to pay for the whole thing.” This was in June of 2016. Approximately a year later, Chris now owns his own web design business. “Because of my medical conditions,” he explains, “I wasn’t really interested in working for anyone. Especially because of time restraints, medical restraints. So I decided to start my own company and here I am.” Watch the full interview with Alex Golden and Chris Webber.
August 3rd, 2017 – Redding, California – In a short ceremony held at the Shasta Regional Community Foundation offices, Cloud Wise Academy received a donation from the Leadership Redding Class of 2017 . This money, paid to the Cloudwise scholarship fund, is intended to help female students take Cloud Wise Academy’s accelerated technology courses. The goal is to encourage young women to succeed in the increasingly important field of technology. Cloud Wise Academy Cloud Wise Academy held its first class in July of 2016. Since then, it has trained approximately 100 students in the high-demand technology skills that matter so much, including WordPress, HTML, and Search Engine Optimization. The classes are accelerated – from three to six weeks – and teach only the skills that employees might need, cutting out theory from the curriculum. These classes are also taught by professionals in web development and other technological fields. Since the inception of the school, many graduates have gone on to launch prosperous careers in technology. For instance, Chris Webber, became a web designer after taking several Cloud Wise Academy Classes. “The goal of Cloud Wise Academy is really to help Shasta County, by making sure we have the type of workforce we need,” said Jake Hinton, as he accepted the check. He is the Project Manager at Cloud Wise Academy, and a former student of the program. Leadership Redding and women in tech Numerous important individuals in the community attended this event, including the Shasta County District Attorney, Stephanie Bridgett. There were also representatives from many local businesses. Megan Conn is the development manager at Turtle Bay and a member of the Leadership Redding class of 2017. “Every year, Turtle Bay sends someone to be in Leadership Redding – I’m lucky that this time it was me,” she said. Conn described the team’s decision to fund a Cloud Wise Academy student this way: “Every year, the current class of Leadership Redding does a project,” she says. “For ours, we decided to focus on a problem we heard about throughout the year, at all the different events we attended: Low educational attainment in Redding and Shasta County. We wanted to help with efforts designed to keep young people there and to develop better paying jobs. During our economic development day we attended an event called Amplify, and many of us were very interested in the speakers from Cloud Wise Academy.” “We talked it over,” she continued, “and we thought it was a valid and wonderful alternative for people in terms of career paths. Also, we noticed there weren’t quite as many women speaking at Amplify that day, so we decided our project would focus on that aspect as well. The money for the donation came from the pockets of all of the students in the Leadership Class, who were really inspired by the work Cloud Wise Academy is doing and wanted to pay it forward.” The donation to Cloud Wise Academy is only one part of the project. “Later in the year,” Megan explains, “we’re going to be gathering some professional clothing to donate for job interviews at the career day for Pioneer High School – which is the continuation high school in Redding.” As Cloud Wise Academy is a private company, rather than a non-profit, the Shasta Regional Community Foundation administers the scholarship fund. The scholarship completely pays for student classes – many of the students who were most successful in the program were able to attend because of a scholarship. Cloud Wise Academy was founded in 2016 to teach “learn to earn” skills that workers and company owners can use to succeed in today’s e-commerce economy. Classes are purposefully held in the evenings so people with jobs and families can attend conveniently. Courses are taught by experts in the field, who use those skills in their own professions.
Thursday, November 17 – Redding, CA – When 1st District State Senator Ted Gaines visited the Shasta Venture Hub recently, he found himself “very impressed with the sophistication and collaboration in the community.” He explained, “If you’re a new startup you can get help from angel investors, and you can access the necessary skills to start your business – all under the same roof and all at an affordable price.” He believes that the efforts of the Shasta Economic Development Corporation, in association with the Chamber to help startups flourish, could provide an “opportunity to see good-paying jobs in the Redding area, which has seen setbacks as logging has reduced over the decades.” He also referred to Cloud Wise Academy, which is also located in the Shasta Venture Hub, as a “very innovative idea. It’s an opportunity to give skill sets to locals to transform their careers, and allow them access to a whole new world. They can start businesses with their new knowledge and skills, and hopefully hire even more people.” An alternative to Silicon Valley Senator Gaines represents the most rural district in California. Recently, rural areas have struggled with changes brought in part by the technology that has made globalization possible – the Internet. Yet Senator Gaines sees the Internet as the key to rural salvation as well. “A whole new world has opened up for people all over the nation, but especially for those in rural areas,” he says. “These areas can now offer an alternative to Silicon Valley.” “Silicon Valley is a tech hub,” the Senator continues. “It has all the ingredients for creating new startup companies: The knowledge, the capital, and the geographic location. These are huge advantages. But the people who have been in Silicon Valley are starting to look at areas where they can actually afford to buy a house, where they can have a little slower lifestyle and less traffic, and where they can raise a family. That’s Redding.” Senator Gaines is not just an elected official – he is also the owner of an independent insurance agency. He knows full well the steps business owners need to take to adapt to changes in technology. “We’ve seen that the Internet is now an interactive version of the Yellow Pages,” he explains. “If we want to communicate with individuals who are looking for insurance, we not only need to have a website, but we need to make that website friendly to customers. Last year we made our site mobile-friendly, and we did search engine optimization. The phone started ringing! It’s really amazing what you can do with the right tools.” Business is not the enemy As a staunch fiscal conservative, Senator Gaines maintains that it is the responsibility of business owners, not the government, to grow the economy in a community. “If I own a business in Redding, it is to my advantage to make sure we are creating jobs, making the economy as a whole grow, and bringing in an infusion of youth. That is the next generation that’s going to bolster the economy locally.” The responsibility of elected officials, he holds, is to “get out of the way.” As a member of the state legislature and a business owner, he admits he has been frustrated by the legal red tape in California. “We put up barriers that make things a lot more difficult,” he remarks. “We’ve got small businesses who are now going to have to be looking at increasing this minimum wage every year until it gets up to 15 dollars an hour. Are they going to be robust enough that they can sustain that hit on their bottom line? You can also look at the amount of litigation that occurs in California. That is another expense, another cost, another barrier to entry for small businesses.” “Not to mention the regulatory environment,” he adds. “Not to mention the very high taxes. I try to remain ever vigilant on the issue of keeping taxes as low as possible in the state of California.” “Business is not the enemy,” Senator Gaines concludes. “Business is the driver of the economy. It’s what fills the coffers. It’s what fills the treasury so government services can be provided. We want a government that works side-by-side with business. Every day I fight for the rights of small businesses, and every day they’re being diminished. It’s been a real struggle.” Pockets of optimism Regardless of these obstacles, Senator Gaines is highly optimistic about some areas of the state. “There are pockets of optimism in rural California, because I think the local government ‘gets it.’ They can provide incentive packages, they can regulate in such a way that it’s easier for a start-up business to get going. They can provide micro-loans for new businesses. There’s a lot of opportunity in places like Redding. And we have a huge market here! While it’s difficult to do business in California, we have a huge market to sell to.” Shasta County, in his estimation, also has unique advantages in its journey to become a powerful, competitive tech hub. “Shasta County is a beautiful area,” he says, “with the crystal-clear Sacramento River running through it. Great agriculture, attractive rural flavor. And it has the I-5 Corridor right here! The infrastructure is here to easily transport materials. It’s got an airport. A lot of successful folks from Silicon Valley have second homes in my district.” Overall, Senator Gaines is looking forward to the future of areas like Shasta County. “We have to remain ever-vigilant about the cost of doing business in California. But there’s a lot of opportunity there for growth and opportunity for small technology startups that began as just an idea to flourish and transform the community. It’s really exciting.” Cloud Wise Academy was founded in 2016 to teach high-demand technology skills. The Academy works closely with businesses in the area to make sure that the courses teach skills that companies are hiring for. Cloud Wise Academy is also related to Project Hometown, which helps Shasta County businesses sell their products online, and the Cornerstone Marketing Center, which helps businesses diagnose and resolve their web marketing conundrums. www.cloudwiseacademy.com
