The Sopkos met in 1981 and married in 1988. They've lived in Austin, Texas since 2000.
Karen and Steve have lived and worked across North America and Europe, both have traveled extensively.
Throughout their relationship, they've often been on opposite sides professionally:
- Karen was a university and Dale Carnegie instructor, Steve was a student
- Steve was an outsourcer (moving jobs out), Karen was an insourcer (moving jobs back in)
- Steve was a home-body while Karen jetted all over Europe
- Karen was a home-body while Steve shuttled back & forth to India
- Both worked at Dell, Karen facing outside while Steve faced inside
- Both worked at Kennedy Space Center, briefly, Karen indoors and Steve outdoors, kicking buzzards...
The Sopkos are masters of Ideaphoria, the talent to generate hundreds of new ideas in an astonishingly short amount of time. In Austin, entrepreneurs take the two of them to lunch to be "Sopko'ed" - hearing masses of paths forward, possible outcomes, and ideas on how to prepare for them...
They have multiple blogs:
- Sopkos.com - personal thoughts, game design and current reading for both
- ContractInsider.com - a journal of contracts & sourcing
- Stolentime.us (coming in March 2009) - a blog about 20+ years of hyper-intelligent & competitive people staying married
Their current ventures include:
- Confidence Call - a service for building phone interview skills
- Creative Bandwidth - designing games for authors, coaches and business
- Sopko & Sopko - advisory services for clients seeking to rationalize business
They can be reached via email or by searching for them on LinkedIn:
