You will have seen me Tweet about my eBook and site changes. If Iām honest, even though I enjoy the world of sales and marketing (arenāt we all in sales?), I still feel uncomfortable promoting me or my work. Itās not because Iām Britishāweāre renowned for our insular personality typeābut, 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, itās inevitable weāll have to go on the (sales) offensive.
Iām also crucially aware that I only blogged once in July (thatās not quite true as I was still writing on Tumblr). Was that deliberate? Partly. For a while now Iāve vascillated between my split personality: the creative self, and the business coach and consultant. Itās 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 flourishĀ not justĀ as a blog. What Iām getting at is that blogging, for all its avowed merits, does require fortitude, imagination and time, and Iām not sure that to be a writer and poet I need to constantly blog.
But, on balance, Iāve 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 ādigitalā 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 wonāt 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 Iāve discovered, that means facing their fears.
As regards Tumblr, Iām going to focus on creativity. In my case that means poetry, calligraphy, spirituality and the awesomeness of nature.
I recognise that in the past, itās 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 thatās 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 didnāt matter hugely whether I blogged or not.
In part I still think thatās the case. But for me itās no longer about promoting a ālook at meā 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 doesnāt mean, in all likelihood, that Iāll get down in the technical weeds of the latest changes to Twitter or SEO; itās much more likely that Iāll inject my creative passion in demonstrating that for any firm to develop they have to undergo radical transformation built upon the people.
I donāt yet know how often Iāll 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 Pressfieldās book Turning Pro, I know that I havenāt committed nearly enough time to my writing, poetry, calligraphy and creative self. (For the record Iām immensely proud of what Iāve produced (my two ebooks) but itās not enough, not nearly enough.)
I will fill the rest of the time with podcasts on Soundcloud, sharing of relevant content and speaking. If Iām honest, as well as the consulting and coaching work, I feel that thatās more than enough to keep me busy.
Thanks for all your support.