Cyndie Shaffstall, entrepreneur

Cyndie Shaffstall has been a member of the publishing and print industries for more than three decades. Her career spans many interests, specialties, and job verticals, but first and foremost, she is an entrepreneur.

In 1991 Cyndie Shaffstall was a corporate trainer for companies looking to upgrade to a Mac-based workflow from traditional typesetting and pre-press workflows. Her clients at that time included reputable in-house and commercial publishers such as United Airlines and the Clarinda Company. In 1992, she self-published her first book, QuarkXPress: Making the Most of Your Negative Experiences.

Functioning primarily as a trainer, Shaffstall founded The World-wide Power Company, LLC, or ThePowerCo, as it was known. In 1998, Cyndie Shaffstall acquired the assets of XChange US and their publication, X-Ray Magazine. For a period of about two years, the companies were operated separately but in 2000, merged to form ThePowerXChange, LLC.

In 2005, Shaffstall resurrected X-Ray Magazine as a vehicle for the launch of QuarkXPress® 7. In 2006, the bi-monthly printed issues were discontinued and X-Ray Magazine was established as an on-line only publication, with occasional printed special editions. Cyndie Shaffstall remains publisher, editor, and contributing author.

In summer of 2006, Shaffstall invented and applied for a patent for StrappyArt. At this time she also founded StrappyArt, LLC, as the primary distributor of this women's fashion accessory. In addition, Shaffstall released her first commercially available software product, data2date.

With consideration for her position in the extensions-technology industry, in 2004, Quark, Inc., approached Shaffstall about assuming the lead of their XTensions® developer program. In 2005, she assumed the helm of the entire QuarkAlliance™ program, though she remained a contractor. Cyndie Shaffstall continued in this role until April 2007, when she joined Quark as the full-time worldwide director of the QuarkAlliance program — a position she still holds today.

In April 2009, ThePowerXChange’s shopping cart site, ThePowerXChange.com, was purchased by XChange UK and is under their operation at this time.

Also in 2009, Shaffstall became the SEO/SMO advisor for Spider Trainers, LLC, a company founded to parlay the power of search engines in order to create optimized professional visibility for the executive and entrepreneur.

Shaffstall's current project is an extended foray into social-media marketing as a project of X-Ray Magazine. Today's POV is a beta-launched web site dedicated to opinions and tally of those opinions.