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The Authentic Voice

March 26, 2009 •

Over the past week sev­eral peo­ple have asked me about the mix of top­ics in my blog – and my will­ing­ness (brav­ery? stu­pid­ity?) to write about yoga or leisure activ­i­ties in the con­text of a busi­ness-ori­ented blog. Don’t get me wrong – they like the mix of top­ics, and feel it reveals inter­est­ing things about the per­son writ­ing the blog. It’s one of the rea­sons they keep com­ing back.

These con­ver­sa­tions have taken place over cof­fee or lunch, after a meet­ing – but not in the blo­gos­phere. Some have been with peo­ple I already knew, oth­ers with folks who wanted to meet in part because of what they’ve read in my blog.

They’ve told me they use Twit­ter and/or LinkedIn (and maybe Face­book for fam­ily con­nec­tions). But they don’t yet feel the need – or have the time to com­mit – to their own blogs. From their ques­tions it’s clear they’re try­ing on the notion of writ­ing their own blog. A cou­ple won­der if they’ll find it a sat­is­fy­ing cre­ative out­let.

I sus­pect they’re con­fronting the ques­tion of find­ing their own voice, wor­ry­ing about reveal­ing their pas­sions, won­der­ing what they might find inter­est­ing enough to write about on a reg­u­lar basis.

The time fac­tor can be a real issue when the time avail­able for blog­ging com­petes with fam­ily inter­ac­tions, other leisure activ­i­ties or real-world social­iz­ing. Blog­ging, after all, is a kind of hobby for those of us who don’t earn our liv­ing in SEO, SEM, social media pun­ditry, etc.

For me writ­ing about yoga or what I’ve been read­ing lately feels authen­tic. Even if inter­spersed between more tra­di­tional busi­ness top­ics.

As a self-employed per­son I have the lux­ury of “flow” — more flex — in my day­time hours, unlike my hus­band who’s trapped in the cor­po­rate world. If I feel like writ­ing about mar­ket­ing con­cepts for yoga stu­dio own­ers – just for the heck of it – there’s no one stand­ing over my shoul­der ask­ing why I’m not doing “some­thing more worth­while.”

On the other hand I’m also not get­ting paid to blog. Need­less to say, when dead­lines loom, I don’t feel com­pelled to blog…

To those won­der­ing how to jump in, find your voice – Just do it. Find a blog­ging ser­vice that suits your needs, a writ­ing tool that lets you think (with­out risk of los­ing half-based thoughts), iden­tify some top­ics that get you ener­gized, and get going.

If the sub­ject is inter­est­ing to you, you’ll fig­ure out a way to tell the story in your own words. Or pic­tures.

Enjoy the ride.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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