There really is not much else to do on a rainy dank Saturday..unless you are a blogger. And since today is my Birthday I thought I would take a walk backwards and revisit some of the reasons I am doing what I am doing today to celebrate my birthday. Maybe it will help some of you who are just starting or even been around for awhile out here in La-La-Land.
The Questions
I get asked several times a week ..
Why do you blog?
Depending on my mood or where I am when I am asked this question will depend on my reaction. So today, I thought I would sit down and put some thought in to the REAL answer.
In The Beginning
When I started this adventure five years ago last month I was like so many newbies today on the internet trying to figure out what the big deal is about being on the internet. Back then blogging was just reaching a fever pitch and was only done by techie’s or people with large amounts of knowledge of HTML coding. New blogging software or platforms were just being developed. So blogging was a challenge for a person like me with no background in programming or coding.
Naturally I took the path of least resistance, like so many today are doing, and jumped on what I thought then was the easier (non-tech friendly) blogging platform to use..Blogger. I won’t get into the Blogger vs Others debate since for me there was no debate when it came time for me to review my purpose online and the new career developing before me. Part of that beginning was learning to blog professionally, so Blogger was a good learning ground for a few weeks.
Mentors
Being a trained operations manager I naturally had thousands of questions in my head about blogging and like any newbie to anything the primary questions were prefaces with the one word question…
Why?
Little did I know that one word question would be the foundation of my blogging for the next five years and probably beyond. Still, answers to these questions were not easy to find nor come about in any timely manor. Finding others online who may have the answer seemed to make sense. But Who?
I spent nearly six months visiting one group after another. Back then Facebook was still in Mark Zuckerburg’s college dorm and MySpace had not figured out how to be a social network. Social Networking was just getting started and Business Networking was only for internet oriented business plans. So, I was left to finding small groups around the internet that might have likeminded members. I had no idea at the time there were so many Unlikeminded people..and angry upon that..online.
Finding trustworthiness online was my mission and back in early 2005 I finally ran into my first online mentor and now new father..Rex Dixon..in one hell of a god-awful social (using that word lightly) network. I’ll leave the name of the group nameless since they are still stumbling upon themselves out there as so many techies will little, if any, practical business operations experience were doing.
Where Is ‘It’ Going?
Now having a solid wing man with Rex, who had been in La-La-Land much longer than me, I was able to learn things like HTML and how the internet REALLY works. In the beginning Rex and I teamed up on many tests of social media concepts and projects that was part of the Web 2.0 push,the beginning of cleaning up the internet.
It was a great two year fulltime run with RD before it was time for him and I to take separate flights..him off into new start-ups and me..developing the Business Golf Country Club. RD and I touch base periodically to sound out things going on out here in La-La-Land, compare notes and comfort each other that the internet is not imploding upon itself.
Now I have a dozen or so newbies to the internet I am professionally mentoring online and offline. I highly recommend everyone find a mentor to get started in business on a solid foot.
Fortunately, this intense training that RD ran me through resulted in my blogging improving, the creation of the ClamBake Cafe Talkshow Podcast and eventually developing the business/social network serious golfers are flocking to..the Business Golf Country Club.
So, where am I taking my blogging now?
That is what I like about blogging. Each day is a new opportunity to tell views what is going on in the real world of the internet and to answer the hundreds of questions I am asked. As long as I am helping someone to find the solution to their problems I will keep at it…which, with the large number of questions still coming in, looks to be for quiet a while.
Blogging is a very powerful tool if it is used correctly. It offers a great opportunity to put your thoughts down in writing, which I have found sometimes changes my thoughts on an issue that turned out to be one of those..Does This Really Matter..categories.
Still, blogging for me is a great way to pass on information and educate the misinformed on all of the issues I have now, from my studying of so many issues, am an Jedi Ninja expert. I enjoy passing on my years of business operations management and logic processing. Many business people today do not have any of the training and experience I have which makes what I know, and what I know how to do, very valuable.
Humor is a big part of me and having fun is now what I seek from everyone I associate with in business and life. I spent too many years dealing with the Bad Guys of the C-Suite which gives me a edge on knowing how those numbskulls think..and believe me, there are still a bunch of those guys and gals still around for me to battle.
I see a lot of good in the internet that is behind a lot of the bad and I know once the good is seen by those who find the internet appalling, there will be more FUN for all to be had out here in this wasteland of opportunities.
Soooooo, having fun, doing business, meeting new people and passing on my experience is why I blog…why do you blog?
