BLOGGING: SEEKING PEACE AND JOY—Some notions on intention and connection.
I apologize for not having an entry for a bit. I have rewritten this one a couple times because it involves my characterization of some blogger/writers podcasters, and storytellers. I have points to make with each of the 3 people mentioned below (please see and USE the links to these people below.)
I didn’t want to make these people out to be saviors or sinners or losers. And winners. I only wanted to place them in the context of my development as a blogger/writer. In this era of social media, tribes, and such.
So since humans learn very well via the story, let me tell you mine.
I was born at a relatively young age and raised by an energetic herd of Catholic nuns. Oh, maybe we better not start quite that far back. How about we start a decade or so ago when I first heard about this thing called a blog. I started one and wrote maybe five entries. They were as I recall fairly structured philosophical collections of verbiage. All formed up in those things called, ummm paragraphs. Well, that lasted about a month and then I got bored with myself and quit. There was no writer’s block or lack of creativity. I may have experienced the results of not having good writing habits and not observing the world very closely. By the way, I don’t believe in writers’ block—more on that later. Moving forward... It was around last Thanksgiving when I was experiencing some sleep issues and someone I know had said: “I hope you find something that will bring you some joy.” Well since I was awake and it was the middle of the night I decided to write up a list of things that bring me joy. The minute I opened my iPad and started to type, it dawned on me that just sitting down to write brings me some joy and allows me to express some thoughts which brings some significant peace.
So after a couple nights of writing two or three pages of rambles, I started thinking—what about that blogging thing again? Well, this time I decided not to just jump in head first, which is my usual pattern. I decided I would find some info on that web thing about writing. A blog. Well....since I was already. Listening to a handful of podcasts I thought “someone must have a podcast about blogging.” Well, I scrolled around the podcast offerings and then like a stroke of good luck (what kind of phrase is that? I have never associated a stroke with having good luck) in big white letters on a blue backdrop were the words, "Do You Even Blog?” My first thought was “Great title...not yet, but I am sure as hell gonna learn how.” So then I scrolled around some more and some white letters on a black background struck me as relevant. It was the blogging podcast. You can find the links to each of these below. After listening to a few episodes I figured I'll write up a few blogs and then listen to these podcasts to see how I did, so to speak. So it began after posting a few entries and sending out an email to a select few; I was getting a whopping six or seven page views a day. That didn’t bother me for about 22 seconds and I decided to reach out to the people who did these podcasts on blogging. I was a bit surprised that both of them replied fairly quickly. Pete and Giles both provided answers to my questions. Pete sent me a short video. Now that was significant because Pete knew that I didn’t see well and he figured the audio explanations would be faster and more personal than struggling with a long text or written answer. He was right. He talked about only expanding my platforms if it didn’t detract from the quality and fun of writing the blogs. Giles pretty much echoed the ideas of Pete and added some ideas about some of the trends in blogging that had come to mind in the last year or so. Pretty much they gave me the idea of blogging a bit longer sometimes in terms of word count and pretty much making it good or don’t bother.
I highly recommend that anyone just starting out, listen to the two podcasts.
Now I started forming better narratives and choosing more tangible subject matters in the realm of daily peace and joy. I started looking at breakfast cereal, shoes, and cookies as subject matter. And the overall impact such things really have on a person’s outlook. Well, that did the trick. The page view count started rising slowly but very consistently. Pretty soon we were averaging in the mid 20's for increases. Each day and sometimes more if I added some pictures, poems, and an occasional song. Holy crap! This started to make me feel a bit more joyful!
Now here comes a third big influence in my development as a blogger. I started thinking about the “marketing” aspect of blogs and social media in general and I discovered Seth Godin’s “This is Marketing.” This is a book that incorporates many of his earlier ideas......but mainly he preached find your flock, your group, no matter how small, and focus on what that group wanted and would share with like-minded folks. He emphasized that you as the author/storyteller were not the important piece; it was giving the audience opportunities to connect that was critical.
Finally, that brings me to a friend of mine and a great storyteller who often helps me focus on the peace and joy aspects of things. Peter Leidy is a “consultant”/storyteller/advocate/songwriter/problem-solving facilitator. In his role, he visits any number (well not any number like 888342) of organizations and conferences each year and presents on topics such as employee engagement and morale, self-advocacy, mindfulness, and using improvisation to combat organizational, program brain-freeze or stagnant groupthink. I mention Peter because he does all the “content” work, and probably more than most “experts”. However, the one aspect of his developmental process that I have learned from, is that he has not had the time to construct the tools to connect what could be an infinitely powerful tribe if they had the structure to get and stay connected in the wake of Peter’s visits with them. Now Peter is a humble person and a really genuine sort of guy and doesn’t seek “followers” and normally I would stand and applaud that. However, as he knows I believe that a blog or some regular writing where his audience could be connected would benefit the people he has spent a lifetime learning to serve. If Peter would offer a connection point for people across the spectrum of his great work, many of the people he impacts would pick up the threads, think about them, make connections with others and extend the wisdom and curiosity Peter exhibits in person. There is a link to his web-page down below as well.
He has inspired me to expand my thinking on many personal and professional levels and I’d like to see others feel that impact and spread it which brings me back to the beginning— the peace and joy of blogging.
First, it has helped me express myself to others in ways that I choose and those ways often bring me both peace and joy. Second, there is a community of folks that rise above “marketers” to make the writers feel welcome and able to grow. Even the mighty Seth Godin responded to my email personally and thus highlighted the importance of connecting his audience when he used a common phrase of going out and causing a ruckus. Pete continues to do his podcast, his blog and has dipped into the Instagram space. He is a generous storyteller and.encourages his guests to provide their wisdom through the telling of their stories. Giles provides basic information and then also talks about resources and tools available to writers and bloggers that can really improve the visual and content appeal of that mode of expression. I must warn you that his prime interest is in travel blogging and he is off in Western Canada so his posts are a few less than they have been. I guess the moose, elks, and bears still use dial-up out in the wilderness; so you know Giles will reappear soon with some really good stuff. Peter knows how to write, but it is my belief that he worries about the perfect post and highest impact per post. I have great faith he will drop a pebble in the water almost by mistake and then he will see the true power of the force, so to speak. Anyway, directly through what these folks have done and what they are yet to do...they have kept me writing and improving slightly each time. Learning is a joyous experience for me and these folks almost seem to intuitively understand that about their “tribes.”
Now to the end of this very long post....I’ll put into four points.
- I like to write because the words that can be used are like musical notes and I can string a pop song or a concerto together about the same topic if I wish.
- There are others out there who will help you learn how to have an impact and improve without judging where you are right now (that makes them nicer than I am to my friend Peter)—and allow you to have the joy of learning.
- There are many folks out there who have so much potential if they choose to trust their own writing voice and those it would connect with. That brings me hope!
- It’s going to take more than four items.
- The #writing community, #readers community,# advocates, and most other groups on Twitter are ravenous and supportive of sharing our successes and failures— thanks to all of you, oh and there are #bloggers too and I haven't even scratched the surface of that group.
- Finally, the diversity of acceptable blog materials that I share and people pass along is interesting and creates hope that we can get through this temporary period in American (and world) culture where we must all choose one side or another and lean hard to the extreme. Well, I have two more posts on writing and peace and joy to come. They will come tomorrow in the form of a poem and on Tuesday in the form of a song about blogging (Some of this song you may have heard, but it has been revised...)
Those two posts are dedicated to you my friends who have joined the peace and joy crowd. Soon I will offer a mechanism for you to connect maybe through Twitter or a Facebook group or as the first customers of a book of this stuff I’m channeling... Okay enough...
More soon.
I
The Do You Even Blog Podcast
The Blogging Pod by Giles Jordan
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