You will have seen me Tweet about my eBook and site changes. If I’m honest, even though I enjoy the world of sales and marketing (aren’t we all in sales?), I still feel uncomfortable promoting me or my work. It’s not because I’m British—we’re renowned for our insular personality type—but, instead, I feel that our best work shouldn’t need promoting: people will either find it or they won’t. I suppose, though, given the digital Wild West we all now operate within and under, it’s inevitable we’ll have to go on the (sales) offensive.
I’m also crucially aware that I only blogged once in July (that’s not quite true as I was still writing on Tumblr). Was that deliberate? Partly. For a while now I’ve vascillated between my split personality: the creative self, and the business coach and consultant. It’s been a hard reconciliation. Many a time the creative self has questioned the need to write in either camp when I wish my creative work to flourish not just as a blog. What I’m getting at is that blogging, for all its avowed merits, does require fortitude, imagination and time, and I’m not sure that to be a writer and poet I need to constantly blog.
But, on balance, I’ve decided (once again) that I will continue to blog here but limited, much like I have with Soundcloud, to talking about digital transformation (note I say ‘digital’ and not social media), mindfulness in the workplace, personal development and Excellence. You might ask what that has to do with my strap line of Awaken the Genius Within? Well, quite a lot actually. I still believe that whether it be a company or individual, for digital transformation to unfold, or the artist (in you) to blossom, it comes from within. It won’t happen because an organisation decrees that you must blog or Tweet. You have to want to. Sure, you may need some convincing (WIIFM) but the passion must unfold from within your being, and for a lot of people, as I’ve discovered, that means facing their fears.
As regards Tumblr, I’m going to focus on creativity. In my case that means poetry, calligraphy, spirituality and the awesomeness of nature.
I recognise that in the past, it’s been hard to understand who I am and what I do, but in refining my blogging, I hope that what emerges are a number of core themes which chime with how I see my life developing. You see I would like to think that my life has moved so far in the creative direction that digital is no longer of interest or a necessary part. But that’s simply not the case. Oh sure, in the early days, I might have blogged about social media as a way of carving out a niche and generating work, but I soon recognised that my buyers were mostly not online and, in a way, apart from doing a search for social media (never the best strategy to build a consulting business), it didn’t matter hugely whether I blogged or not.
In part I still think that’s the case. But for me it’s no longer about promoting a ‘look at me’ message, but expressing my belief that digital transformation is and will become a huge part of our professional lives whether we like or it not. If I can, through my writing and speaking, help people navigate the choppy and ever-changing waters then I will be forever grateful to have had the opportunity to share in the debate. That doesn’t mean, in all likelihood, that I’ll get down in the technical weeds of the latest changes to Twitter or SEO; it’s much more likely that I’ll inject my creative passion in demonstrating that for any firm to develop they have to undergo radical transformation built upon the people.
I don’t yet know how often I’ll blog but I expect it to be no less than once a week. I could blog more regularly but I need to leave myself more creative room to breathe life into my other self. The thing is, much like the message in Steven Pressfield’s book Turning Pro, I know that I haven’t committed nearly enough time to my writing, poetry, calligraphy and creative self. (For the record I’m immensely proud of what I’ve produced (my two ebooks) but it’s not enough, not nearly enough.)
I will fill the rest of the time with podcasts on Soundcloud, sharing of relevant content and speaking. If I’m honest, as well as the consulting and coaching work, I feel that that’s more than enough to keep me busy.
Thanks for all your support.