The Truth About Blogging

Blogging is something most people never try. Of the people who do give it a go, I suspect most of them believe no-one reads their musings.

Background

I’m certainly one of those people. I’ve never obsessed about my personal blog’s traffic, never tried boosting readership, or advertising anything on it. I blogged whenever I felt like I had something to share, something I believed to be of value to my imaginary readers. I have promoted some of my posts by sharing it to my Twitter followers, or if appropriate – to my Linkedin / G+ or even Facebook connections. Whether I did or didn’t depended on the topic and my perception of my audience’s preference. Of course, when people commented, liked or shared a specific blog post – I was thrilled! But that was never my driver to write…

I’ve also been sharing other content of value to my audience on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels, since 2007-2008. I had some retweets, comments, likes and shares. I never counted those. With my clients I always stress the value of having KPI’s and metrics for any marketing activities, being on Social Media or other initiatives. But for me this wasn’t about marketing my services. It was about Working Out Loud (explanation ahead…).

Coincidence #1

One of my connections on Linkedin had published a book, about 2 weeks ago. Not a ebook, or self promoting advertorial, but a real book! The title was interesting, and I knew the person from previous dealings a few years back, so I bought the book, and started reading.

The book, Working Out Loud by John Stepper, begins with giving live examples (some more well-known than others) of people who were forced to make a career change, or some other circumstances made them change the way they went about sharing their work, or making their work visible to a large audience. We’re not talking about artists, politicians or other public figures. Most of those people were corporate people, who felt the need to share their knowledge and work, in one way or another. In the book, John gives some practical, easy to follow exercises about Working Out Loud, to help the readers be more open and share their knowledge and build their name.

I really connected with some of those stories, as I found those circumstances really close to mine, when I first started blogging, back in 2008 (7 years ago).

Coincidence #2

On the 23rd of June, 2 days after I bought the book, I get another random LinkedIn invitation. One of 3-5 invitations I get on a daily basis. I get many invitations from bots (software generated profiles), sales people wanting to sell appointment setting and lead generation services, and invitations from real people, wanting to connect, between all that noise. I stipulate on my LinkedIn profile, that I don’t simply accept non-personalised invitations, and there are no exceptions to this rule. Every invitation I receive, I quickly scan the profile of the sender. IF the invitation is from a real person, who either lives in Sydney or work in a similar field, or for other reason I find this could be a beneficial connection, I’ll respond to the invitation, and ask for clarification: Why do you want to connect with me?

This particular invitation I received, was no different. I’ve checked the profile out, and it seemed to be legit, so I responded and asked for clarification. Within a few days, I got a response:

Hi Raz,

Raz, my sincerest apologies for the delayed response. I wanted to do it some justice to your mail. and have been travelling for work.
You are welcome for the invite.

In response to WHY YOU?
My nick name is Raz (smiles). Mum calls me that. The sum of two Raz’s is greater than their parts (smiles again).
On a more serious note, this is why I would like to connect with you on LinkedIn …

1. You are connected to people I respect and am connected to. I believe in the philosophy that a learned friend’s learned friend should also be one’s own learned friend.
2. I have read plenty of very valuable material on http://www.razchorev.com/blog/. I see great value in being connected to the source.
3. You have done some work with [Two of my previous clients, RC]  which is spoken favourably off in my network.
4. I would like to engage your services for the business I lead.

Hopefully the above is case enough to warrant a connection on LinkedIn (communicated in sincerity and not in jest).

Have a lovely day Raz.

Now I was intrigued! Not only I thought it was a great comeback, I wanted to meet this stranger! (After all, some of my  best friends started out as complete strangers, I thought..)

Since he’s a CEO of a large multinational organization (and I have a few things to do myself!), we finally got to meet yesterday. Now we weren’t completely strangers anymore. He already knew a fair bit about me (My career path is available online, and my thinking and work are well documented too), and I knew a bit about him from his own online presence. So conversation was flowing from the minute we set down…

One hour later – we were discussing next steps…

Coincidence #3

Yesterday we’ve celebrated my eldest son’s 13th birthday. In the Jewish tradition, a boy becomes a man on 13th birthday (with privileges and responsibilities). On Friday night I took two of my boys to the synagogue. After the evening service, the Rabbi gave a Drasha – a story related to the chapter of the bible being read this week. It started out with a biblical story, about a man (Pincus) who had his destiny to do the right thing, performing a heroic act. Then the Rabbi carried on to tell the story about one of the men in the congregation, who came to him for advice, regarding a dilemma he was facing. The response he received from the Rabbi, was counter-intuitive, but relied on his faith in god, and his destiny. Of course, the man listened to the counter-intuitive advice, god was on his side, and he got what he wanted..

Takeaways:

Some people call it Destiny. Others will call it Serendipity. Some will see those as unrelated coincidences. Others will say it’s God’s will.

I’ve been blogging since February 2008. That’s just over 7 years. The number 7 has significance in the Jewish tradition – The number seven was the general symbol for all association with God, and was the favorite religious number of Judaism, typifying the covenant of holiness and sanctification, and also all that was holy and sanctifying in purpose. The candlestick had seven lamps, and the acts of atonement and purification were accompanied by a sevenfold sprinkling. The establishment of the Sabbath, the Sabbatical year, and the year of jubilee was based on the number seven, as were the periods of purification and of mourning. The number 7 is the Divine number of completion. (Source: wikipedia)

People say that Luck is when Opportunity meets Preparation.  I tend to believe that…

I’ve been blogging for 7 years. There have been no major outcome to my blogging, other than me finding an outlet for sharing my experiences, and my work. Reading John Stepper’s book, made me feel it was really worthwhile. That meeting with the CEO made it real! Hearing the Rabbi talking about faith and destiny, added a spiritual significance to all of it.

Was it all coincidences?

Was it luck? Destiny? Who knows…

All I know is – I was working out loud, and it paid off… Will you?