Posts in Blogging

Why do you blog?

Blogging Meandering Genius

A couple a days ago I was having a conversation with a friend at work about a blog she’s putting together.

As I thought about that conversation, I think the fundamental question you should ask yourself before you even start blogging is why do you want to blog in the first place.

That base reason is what will drive a lot of things in how you actually go about blogging.

If you have been hired to be a blogger and are getting paid to do it as part of your job or specifically as your job, then this might be the conversation you should have with your employer.

Your decision why you want to blog should lead you to decisions regarding frequency of blogging, material you will blog about, and details about the blog itself.

I believe the best stories and messages (and thus blogs) provide a deep level of transparency into the writer. Being honest with your message is a key to a good blog. To that end, let me share why I blog as an example.

Currently I have a full time job and on the side I have my own consulting company with myself as the only employee. I started the company, Crosscutter Enterprises, in 2008 when I retired from the Air Force. I have done several pro bono and a few paid consulting assignments through this company over the past five plus years. Right now I’m ramping up a project with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, here in San Antonio.

I also am an aspiring author. I have my first book out, published in 2012, called One Dead Marine. It is a post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy about a US Marine who wakes up in the future where monsters, magic, and technology crash together in a post-apocalyptic US. I am also working on publishing my second book–a nonfiction, business book, called Overcoming Organizational Myopia. It is about breaking down stovepiped organizations.

At 48 years old, I still have several years to be eligible for retirement with my current company. However, my plan is to continue to work as a consultant, writer, and speaker after “formal” retirement (this will be my second retirement since I’m already retired Air Force).

Knowing more about these thing gets to why I blog…

I have three reasons why I blog.

1. Blogging regularly helps me think through writing concepts and hones my writing skills. The more I write, hopefully, the better I will get at it.

2. Encouraging and gaining followers creates an audience base for when I release future books, which I expect to publish. Obviously if people are interested in what I write about, they might also be interested in buying my books when they come out.

3. Blogging provides topics and material for future books that, with some adjustment, could end up as new books. For example, I have found several people are interested when I write about blogging itself. Perhaps writing a book on blogging might be a good idea.

Understanding why I wanted to blog led me to some blogging decisions.

1. If I really wanted people interested in what I’m writing and to follow me, I needed to blog often. The rule of thumb is to post one blog a day. More then one a day becomes overload and less than one a day loses interest. That doesn’t mean people read your blog every day, but every day they have something to read.

2. My blogs need to be informative and helpful. Going off on political rants every day might attract interested people, but really isn’t demonstrating my understanding of publishable topics like strategic planning, process improvement, employee engagement, blogging, etc. I’ll leave the political discussions to Facebook.

3. In order to blog daily and gain the interest of a broad audience, I needed a broad topic list. Not too broad to lose the interest of readers…in other words, today I’m talking about blogging, tomorrow it’s fashion, and Saturday it’s global warming. No, I needed to focus on specific things that I think my readers would be interested in.

4. This is important. I’m not selling anything. I am not monetizing my portal and posting a bunch of ads. At the bottom of every blog, I’m not posting links to my business page encouraging you to hire me. Basically, my blogs are not veiled marketing messages and sales pitches. There is a guy named Steve Harrison that promotes “free” speaking and speech advice and webinars. Every day, I get a “blog-like” post from him that is 5% content and 95% marketing. His webinars are essentially the same. You will not get that from me.

5. I’m giving away the secret sauce. I’m not going to share part of the way I recommend or actually do things, especially in my weekend strategic planning and leadership blogs. I am going to provide the full advice and you don’t have to hire me to get the rest of the story. If you think I know what I’m doing and want my assistance, the reader knows how to get a hold of me.

6. I will have some structured messages. On Saturday, I have a blog dedicated to strategic planning called Think Big, Take Small Steps. I started it a while back, but never followed through on the writing. This year I delved into it with earnest. On Sunday, I now have a regular article on leadership and management. Both of these messages, once created and posted, I share to specific groups on LinkedIn.

Can you see how knowing why I blog, led to how I blog. This is much like Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why.

If you just want to write about things for the fun of it, then the frequency doesn’t matter and neither does the topics. If people follow you, so what, so encouraging any followers is pointless. You can definitely ramble on with your blogs and things like spelling, grammar, and sentence structure really aren’t important.

If you are looking to make money off your blogging activity, well, you need to monetize the platform. You need to sell in your blogs and your blog page needs to direct people to things you are selling. You better be really good at writing and have a solid message that people will want to read. If you blog for a company, chances are, you are blogging for this reason.

If you are like me and you blog to build credibility for future opportunity. Then your focus will be entirely different.

So, if you are blogging today or you are thinking about blogging, ask yourself why do you want to blog. This will lead you to determine how you want to blog and honestly, what you want to blog about.

Good luck blogging.

Ever forget what you planned to blog about?

Blogging Meandering Genius 1 Comment

Here I sit, first thing in the morning, ready to start writing my daily blog. Yesterday, I had two great ideas for topics, but this morning, they completely escape me. Does this happen to you?

This isn’t the first time that I’ve drawn a blank on what I was thinking about the day prior.

Without having anything else to write about this morning…well, nothing top of mind…I thought I would examine my problem and discuss a solution.

This helps me think through the problem–I’ll call it Blog Brainstorming.

For some people, ideas come to them when they are in bed or in the shower. Not so true for me. I have about a 30-minute commute to and from work every day. It’s mostly one straight highway–IH 10 between San Antonio and Fair Oaks Ranch. That’s when the ideas tend to come to me; mostly when I’m driving home from work, because on the way in I tend to be thinking about the day ahead.

So yesterday, as I was driving home, I was thinking about “things” and one of them struck me as a potential blog topic. Every time I have these ideas, I tell myself not to forget the idea. Nine times out of ten! I do.

So, how to fix this?

As I was about three paragraphs into this blog, I remembered the topic that I was thinking about on the way home. I was thinking about writing about why you blog…exploring the reasons why people might write blogs. This idea came based off a discussion yesterday with a good friend of mine at work that is planning to start up her blog.

So, how do I capture that idea? Do I tell myself not to forget the idea, which I will probably do anyway? No, that doesn’t work.

I had considered going into my WordPress app and posting it as the title for a draft blog and then saving the draft. I have done that before, but that can have issues. One of those issues is that I just remembered the topic while I’m writing this blog and that would mean saving this draft blog, opening a new one, and then saving that draft. Those steps on the app are not that easy. Additionally, two things happen when you do that in WordPress. First, the blog takes on the date that you saved the draft. So, I have to remember to change the posting date or what will happen is it will look like I posted it earlier than I really did when I publish the blog. Second, the app doesn’t allow you to simply publish once you’ve saved it to draft. To actually publish blogs on the app, I have to do some things to get it to post.

All that said, I think my screen would be pretty cluttered with bunches of draft blog ideas mucking up the system. So, I am discarding that idea.

I could carry around a pen and paper everywhere I go. That way I could write down the blog ideas when they hit me. That sounds like a good idea, but then I would have to always have that notepad with me…in bed, near the shower, in the car, at work, out to dinner. You get the picture. No pad with me, no blog ideas written down.

So, that idea, however potential, probably wouldn’t work for me.

But then I think about what do I have with me pretty much all the time…the electronic leash. That’s right, I almost always have my cell phone with me. I don’t take it in the shower, but it’s in the bathroom when I’m taking a shower. I literally take the cell with me always. Also, Monday through Friday I blog on my iPad, not my iPhone, so it’s free to use and I don’t have to hop out of The WordPress app to save an idea. With any mobile phone, you have some Notes app and there are a ton of them I’m sure that you can download that might have better features. I use the notes apps for a few purposes already…mainly to put together my weekend to do list so I can check off things as I get them done.

As I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve not only added the first idea from yesterday that came back to me, but I have listed two other blog ideas. They are right there on my Notes app ready for use tomorrow and future days. So, I think I will try this idea capture tool for a bit and see how it works.

The phone is with me all the time. It has a simple way to capture ideas and save them. It is separate from my iPad, so I don’t have to switch apps and it won’t clutter my app screen. Sounds like a good idea.

What type of ideas do you use to capture those fleeting ideas for blogging?

Blank Page Bingo Blogging

Blogging Meandering Genius

Do you have days where you stare at the blank blog page and simply have no idea as to what to write about that day?

The harder you think, the more menacing that blank page becomes. Just starring back at you laughing and mocking you.

Here’s a way to solve it…Blank Page Bingo.

It takes a little bit of preparation, but it’s worth it.

1. Build a six by six table and number the rows and columns 1 to 6.

2. Down the left side, next to the numbers, list six big things you normally like to blog about. For example, mine might be things like Strategy, Process Improvement, Employee Engagement, Blogging, Leadership, and Communication.

3. Across the top, above the numbers of each column, write done these words: Getting Started, Educational, Something Funny, Pro, Con, and Future.

Now, when you’re staring at that blank blog page, roll a six sided die twice. The first roll is your Blogging Interest (row) and your second roll is your Topic Generator (column).

In my example, let’s say I rolled a 1 and a 1 (snake eyes). Then I would talk about Strategy and Getting Started. So, what I could write about is getting started in strategic planning…how did I start…how could you get started. Now all kinds of ideas can flow from these two things–strategy and getting started.

If you write about more things than six in your blog, then create 11 rows and label them 2 to 12. Your first two rolls are added together for a 2 to 12 number. Need more Topic Generators…create 11 columns the same way.

I wouldn’t recommend that you use this generator every day you blog, just when you get stuck. If you roll your numbers and you still can’t think of an idea, then roll again…no biggie. You can also close your eyes and point, toss a coin onto your grid, literally however you would like to pick.

If you have ten rows and ten columns, you could use the month number and the last number in the day to do your picking, but that’s less random.

I think you get the concept.

Blank Page Bingo is nothing but a simple idea generator for you to come up with a quick blogging topic if you can’t think of something to write about. Anyone should be able to write about the things they know something about, once you have a direction.

Have fun with this tool and feel free to change it out if you use it a lot. Honestly, I was having a bit of blog block myself this morning and I was thinking about how to get over that while staring at the blank page and this idea popped in my head.

So, what I’m telling you, it was like I rolled a 4 for Blogging and a 2 for Educational. Additionally, I just made this up so it’s about as simple as that. Use it with caution, this method has been know to generate some pretty interesting blogs.

Have a great Friday!

Dealing with the flamers on your blogs

Blogging Meandering Genius

Framers? Darn autocorrect!

Do you have those people that repeatedly flame on your blog? Practically anything and everything you talk about they take the other stance and infuriate you with illogical arguments and sometimes simply wrong information?

How do you deal with them?

I have two primarily.

One is on Facebook. There I tend to get a little political and very pro military with my posts. There is this one guy that almost always adds his two cents, which is totally opposite of the stance I’ve taken in my post. There for a while, he was reeling me into his discussion…argument. I was letting him get to me and I was going off. Then I got to the point where I would simply delete his comment on my post so I could ignore him.

The other is on LinkedIn. He’s a know it all on a strategic planning site that tends to read and comment on every one of my Saturday morning Think Big, Take Small Steps, strategic planning blogs. His comment are always in complete disagreement with my approach that I’m discussing, how his company does this and it’s the only right way, and supposedly he has peer-reviewed articles and that makes him a God. Again, I started off challenging him, but he’s way too arrogant to listen and simply fires back veiled insults across the Internet. I’ve noticed, because I read many of the posts on these groups, that he is like this to everyone, but never seems to share anything himself…just belittle everyone else’s posts. I guess because he’s peer-reviewed, which I’ve never found. Now, I ignore him.

I’ve had people tell me to simply unfriend or unlink to them. I have considered it. Of course, on LinkedIn that doesn’t work. He’s on the group so whatever gets posted, he reads…not being linked to him doesn’t matter.

I have tried to debate the subject with them, but their views are almost purposefully opposite and so far from what I agree with that it seems more of a challenge than it’s worth.

Do you have flamers on your posts and blogs?

How do you deal with these people when they choose to use your avenue as their sounding board?

Do you think that they are honestly trying to add positive information to the conversation, or are they simply miserable people that want everyone to accompany them in their misery?

How Blogging Started

Blogging

BloggingAccording to Wikipedia, the authoritative source on everything, the term “blog” wasn’t coined until the late 1990s, but the history of blogging started in 1983.

I disagree!

Recently I was watching Big Trouble in Little China.  Awesome movie from 1986 by the way (although my wife disagrees).  Jack Burton, played by Kurt Russell, is truck drive that’s dragged into a centuries-old mystical battle in Chinatown.  The storyline isn’t what’s important…it’s the opening and closing scenes that are paramount to this blog.

Blogging started with the Citizen Band Radio — yes, that’s right, the CB Radio started the blogging revolution.

You remember that really cool silver and black box your dad used to have mounted under the dash of the car set to channel 19 and making all that static.

Well, maybe some of you don’t remember that…possibly some of you don’t even know what a CB Radio is or was.

The citizens band radio originated in the United States  in 1945 to permit citizens a radio band for personal communication (e.g., radio-controlled model airplanes and family and business communications).

The CB Radio

After the 1973 oil crisis the U.S. government imposed a nationwide 55 mph speed limit, and fuel shortages and rationing were widespread.  The CB radio was used, especially by truckers, to locate service stations with better supplies of fuel, to notify other drivers of speed traps, and to organize blockades and convoys in a 1974 strike protesting the new speed limit and other trucking regulations.  One trucking leader was able to almost singlehandedly coordinate this interstate highway blockade of hundreds of tractor-trailers in eastern Pennsylvania using the citizens band radio in his truck.  His name was J.W. Edwards and his radio name (handle) was “River Rat”.  The blockade began on I-80 and quickly spread throughout the country, with “River Rat’s” messages literally being relayed from one area of trucks to the next (sounds like retweeting, doesn’t it?.  The radios were crucial for independent truckers; many were paid by the mile, which meant their productivity was impacted by the 55-mph speed limit.  The use of CB radios in late 1970s films such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Convoy (1978), popular novelty songs such as C.W. McCall’s “Convoy” (1975), and on television series such as Movin’ On (debuted 1974) and The Dukes of Hazzard (debuted 1979) established CB radio as a nationwide craze in the USA in the mid- to late 1970s.

It was in the movie Big Trouble in Little China, where Jack Burton laments over his CB Radio his personal journey of the Pork Chop Express (essentially blogging to anyone listening).  This is how the story opens…Jack is riding in his truck on a stormy evening wearing his dark sunglasses and preaching over the CB.

When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Jack?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.

So, don’t you go thinking that blogging is anything new.  It’s been around with CB radios since the mid 40’s.  As Jack Burton always says…

Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake.  Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.

Over and Out, See You On The Flip Side Good Buddy!

Selling yourself, not products, through blogging

Blogging Meandering Genius

Last night I was on a free teleconference regarding becoming a successful speaker. The actual title was How to Become a Highly Paid Speaker Quickly. It was a hour and a half presentation and the first 30 – 45 minutes were some tid bits about being a good speaker. Then the teleconference evolved into a sales pitch for their speech coaching service.

Blogging is just like that teleconference. Its a free service where you can provide information that people might find interesting and valuable. As a matter of fact, yesterday’s blog on Blogger’s Block turned out to be extremely popular, so I thought I would continue to talk about blogging for a while.

However, there are three kinds of blogs, which are free information shared to people:

1. Blogs fully dedicated to selling a product or service, which pretty much are nothing but wordy advertisements. These blogs promise when you open them up to provide good information, but are really fully focused on providing you information on what they can do for you in regards to that information.

2. Blogs that are informative to a point, but then (normally at the bottom), become an advertisement. These blogs give you some information–enough to get you interested, but not really enough to do anything with the information. Then they hit you with the “if you want to learn more or how to do this, this is why you should contact us.”

3. Blogs that share information openly without holding back information. Simply put, they’re giving the recipe away for free. Yes, they might have some contact information at the bottom, but they’ve really shared the whole story and held nothing back to sell to you.

These approaches are all forms of what has become known as Content Marketing. It’s marketing, even if you didn’t know you were doing it, because the marketers have coined what you’re doing and they are packaging it up to sell–even though many of your have been doing this for a while.

The problem is that Content Marketing is really what cause blog type 1 and 2. I’m sure you’ve fallen into the trap of opening a blog that looked really cool by its title and first paragraph only to be fully disappointed by the blatant marketing of the body. Much like the teleconference I was in yesterday.

Last night I was looking for information on how to become… However, what I got was, an appetite wettener for what I wanted and then a how to buy their service.

So, let’s talk about true Content Marketing.

Content Marketing is about selling your capability by “giving it away.” Many bloggers out there today have been “giving it away” for years and inadvertently selling themselves without even focusing on the act. That is true Content Marketing.

When the likes and follows blew up yesterday after my Blogger’s Block article, that told me that many people were interested in information about blogging itself. Hence, I figured I would write another blog about blogging. Why, not because I want to sell my services as a blogging mentor or something like that, but because I want more people to enjoy, share, like, and follow my blog.

As a blogger, your focus should be on selling yourself and you should provide stuff that your readers find interesting. That interesting stuff is called Content and getting more and more people to read your blog is called Marketing.

Yes, it is that simple.

One thing that the presentation did share with me, before it went marketing crazy and I hung up, was that when speaking, you have to be genuine. Genuine speeches are what attract listeners and genuine and genuine blogs attract readers.

That’s why I’m blogging about blogging again today. Yesterday, my Blogger’s Block blog received a lot of attention’ so I wanted to continue with what you might want to read.

I’m not doing this to attract followers and get you to buy something, but to share information and hopefully learn something back in the process.

True Content Marketing is just that. Anyone can openly share information–Content–with their readers. Hopefully their readers will find their content interesting and continue to come back and read their blog. Better yet, they will follow them and share what they’re saying to others. This is true Marketing without selling anything.

Somewhere in there, someone is going to read their blog and be at the point that they need help in that area. They will see, through their multiple of free blogs, that this company or person is really good and knowledgable at whatever they’re talking about. Then they’re going to contact that person and see if they can get their help. Or, someone who has been reading these interesting blogs has a friend that has a need and they’re going to share the name of the company or person that has been providing all these great blogs.

Anything in the 1 or 2 category of blogging is nothing but marketing and no one is going to follower share that. Even if you want to ultimately sell your services or products, be genuine in your blogs.

I’m not the all knowing expert in blogging, but I am pretty darn good at strategic communication. I wouldn’t want anyone to really ask me to be a “blogging coach” or something like that, but I can definitely help companies build and implement strategic communication plans.

However, my purpose in this is to not sell that or any other service. My purpose is to share my opinion on blogging and using blogging to sell yourself, not something else.

As always, as all bloggers should do, I ask for your thoughts on blogging and content marketing. If you don’t want to comment’ but like the blog, please like it, follow me, and share this to others. I won’t mind.

Dealing with blogger’s block

Blogging Meandering Genius

If you plan to write regularly, even once in a while, you may run into writer’s block and not know what to write about for the day. In boll going, I call that blogger’s block.

Since I blog daily and six out of seven of my blogs each week aren’t planned, blogger’s block could be a real issue. When you are coming up with a new idea to write about every day, then this issue can hit you at any point.

If you are prone to blogger’s block, then here are some ideas on how to deal with it. As always I welcome your thoughts and inputs.

The first thing you can do is actually draft up a list of topics for a period of time…say a week. Let’s assume you blog daily…on Wednesday, sit down and write ideas for Monday through Sunday. Every week you are preparing what you’re going to write the following week. Having a list of blogging ideas and topics can help you generate your blog without thinking about it. My weekly blog, Think Big, Take Small Steps, is planned for several months out with an outline of different topics. I have the title and the subtitle, which provide me with enough information to write do each weekend.

Sometimes, writing needs to happen when you have time every day and when you won’t be bothered. I’m up early every morning–4:30 during the week–and I write my blogs over coffee while my wife and the dogs are still asleep. Having a similar time of the day to write when you’re blogging helps you think and possibly research topics.

If you tend to have a lot of time at only one time during the week, consider pre-writing several blogs when you have the time and prepping them to go out. Remember, it’s best not to blog more than once a day, but you can schedule blogs or have them ready in draft to send. This way you have a blog a day (or so), but you are only writing a few times a week.

Having trouble coming up with ideas? Here are some ideas that might help you generate ideas…I think it’s much easier to generate ideas when on the computer, but every day I write on my phone or tablet.

Have a set of topics or categories that you like to blog about and know something about. For me, I try to focus on blogging and writing itself, process improvement, employee engagement, change, human capital planning, strategy, and other things like that. Having a set of categories in my head helps to come up with ideas on the fly.

If you have an idea, put it in a google search engine and search for images related to that work or phrase that represents your idea. Add that picture to your blog and then center the message and your thoughts around the picture that represented the idea you started with.

I have four quotes and proverbs applications on my phone. In the morning, I like to read each one of them for the day. I haven’t written about anything I’ve read yet’ but the ideas get my mind moving so that I’m more stimulated to write. You could use these type of devices to generate your ideas.

There is a month each year where many bloggers participate in this A to Z blogging event. For 26 days, every day, but Sunday, they post a blog corresponding to the letter of the day. There is no reason what you couldn’t apply this technique to every month and make sure that the letter of the day ends up in your title each day.

As an active and longtime Toastmaster, we always researched the word of the day. Everyone was required to use the word of the day in there speaking to practice extemporaneous speech. You can get a word of the day from apps and from the computer and blog to that every day…or just the day you are trying to get over blogger’ block.

One of the last ideas, is to write about the very thing that your are fighting against–blogger’s block. Honestly, I wasn’t dealing with blogger’s block, but I was thinking about ways that I might deal with it and thought this would be a perfect blog to share and discuss. If you are suffering from a block, then talk about it…discuss why you think you are having a block. Maybe there’s a story in there after all and you just couldn’t see it.

That gets me to my last point…almost like I planned this blog ahead of time. Sometimes, it just helps to start typing and then the words start to flow. Except for my weekly strategy blog entry, I never know what I’m going to talk about day to day. Additionally, I never know what the blog looks like or how it’s organized. However, when I start writing that first paragraph…the one that everyone is going to see, I start thinking about the structure of the blog and the main points. Even with this blog, I put it together roughly as I started writing and formulated it’s I wrote. For me, this gets my mind moving in the morning.

Dealing with blogger’s block, is a personal thing, but there are many ways that you can prepare or deal with it on the fly. Who knows, maybe these tips will help you move from a weekly blogger to a daily blogger.

Looking to hear from you on the subject.

An opportunity to vent regarding ASQ

Blogging Business Consulting Meandering Genius 1 Comment

Well, thank you American Society for Quality (ASQ) for providing me with a topic for today’s blog.

My faith in ASQ has been restored.  All I can say is that when something doesn’t seem right, challenge it.  That’s really what ASQ is all about anyway. (see recent blog)

I have been an extremely active member of the local ASQ Section in San Antonio for many years, not only attending most meetings, but speaking at several of them.  I’ve been on their standing list for the last three years to call upon at the last minute if they need a speaker and I speak at least twice a year.  I’ve been a member of ASQ since early 2000, soon after returning to the states (retired from the military in 2008).  I even attended the world conference last year and had planned on attending this year–I offered to present at the world conference this year, but ASQ wasn’t interested in my topic.

I’ve been going to school for a long time–11 colleges to date–due to military moves and earning four degrees.  I’ve been a management consultant for the last 20 years (internal and external) and my recent Master’s Degree is in Quality Systems Management.  I also have earned Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt certifications and I have two Change Management certifications–Prosci and a Master’s-level certification from Georgetown University (Change Management Advanced Practitioner).  Additionally, I’m trained to be a PMP, but never bothered with the certification.

There are three main categories of membership in ASQ, Full, Associate, and Student.  Full Membership in ASQ provides little difference from Student, except price–Associate cost less then Full, but more than Student, but has very little benefits.  Because I’ve been a student the entire time I’ve been an ASQ member, I always selected the Student membership category.  It has pretty much the same membership benefits, but is much cheaper.  This year’s renewal would have gone from student to full since, for the first time in many years, I’m not a student, but I am considering starting my PhD in Organizational Psychology this year, which would have made me a “student” again.  However, I didn’t “chose” the category because of the price, but simply because I’ve been a student for my entire membership and plan to continue with school in the future.  After all, it is a category of membership, right?

This year, instead of staying with the Student category, I thought I would apply for a special category–the Senior membership category.  I had thought that with my experience, education, and involvement with ASQ, that would be the right decision at this point in my life.  I had actually hoped to someday be considered a Fellow with ASQ, but you have to be a Senior member for three years minimum first.  These advanced memberships are for loyal and longtime members that serve as the backbone of the Society.  Regarding Senior membership, ASQ says, “Leadership and professional achievement do not go unnoticed by ASQ.”

Well, I submitted for the Senior membership category this week and I received this email from ASQ yesterday:

“Thank you for applying for Senior membership.  We are unable to process your application at this time due to one requirement has not been met.  You must be an ASQ Full member in good standing for at least one year prior to the date of application for advancement.  Your currently not an individual full member but are a student member.”

I seriously would recommend ASQ consider not using membership levels as their criteria.  Senior Member in my mind denotes someone with a high level of experience, education, and involvement with ASQ–punishing someone because they’ve been a student for several years (it’s a category of membership after all) really doesn’t make sense.  However, if a ‘full membership level for one year’ is their key “requirement” to be considered a Senior Member over experience, education, and involvement, then I’ll guess I’ll have to consider whether I’m with the right organization or not.  It would seem that money is more important to them than accomplishments.  Maybe I’ll simply let my membership drop since clearly the Senior membership in ASQ means very little in the grand scheme of things–people will look at it and simply say, “Oh, he just paid more money.”  Now I wonder if being an ASQ Fellow means anything either.

Needless, I’m very disappointed with ASQ–they seem to have lost focus on what is important as a professional organization.  What are your thoughts?

It’s been a while…

Blogging Meandering Genius Publishing

I was just looking back at past blogs and my last one was when I released my paperback, One Dead Marine. That was in 2012.

Back then the WordPress app was pretty weak, so I literally had to sit down at the computer and write. Now, when the thought hits me, I can put a daily blog together. That seems to be inspiring me.

Lately I have been examine lots of productivity tools in the area of phone apps. The market seems ripe, but I’m not seeing a lot. At work I often think about some of the apps that could really speed up things. We use Good for the Enterprise and often I don’t see much Good in it at all.

A couple of years ago, after I got my iPhone, I bought the Lark at Best Buy. It’s an armband that tracks your sleep at night and wakes you up by vibrating. I’m thinking there are better tools out there today for this.

In a world where Google Glasses, Autonomous Vehicles, and 3D Printers are taking the center stage, I think we have a lot of room to improve on what we have today.

What are your thoughts? Do you use any apps that make your life more productive?

Totally New Year

Blogging Books Meandering Genius Publishing

So begins another year.

How many of you started this year off with resolutions? How many decided not to have resolutions?

This year, I put my planning juices to practice. I not only have several New Year’s resolutions, but I developed a plan to implement them. That’s right, an actual year-long plan of all things.

Top on my list is to get back into shape this year. Several years ago I worked toward this and then I kinda just let go. Selling two houses, moving twice, getting married, a huge water leak–things just got a little overwhelming. Well, this year I’m back on the wagon. I’m starting out slow and plan the whole year to get back into the groove.

I’ve always been focused on reading, but this year it’s one business book a month. This month is Starting with Why. I started it last month, but will finish it this month. I already have the next three books lined up.

That brings me to writing. My business book–first one–Overcoming Organizational Myopia is done and I just need my editor to finish it. I plan to stay on her this quarter so I can publish it. Finishing it was my goal last year and I did that. Now I need to get it on the shelves. But blogging is something I used to do and I have decided to do again. My plan is to gradually get to a blog a day (lesson Lisa taught me). For now I meet my goal if I do one a month–check.

I downloaded the WordPress app and expect to exceed my goal and get to one a week or more soon. Of course, my plan is to reengage my strategic planning blog and get the whole thing finished, but I will also blog thoughts and ideas.

What are your thoughts on blogging? What do you like to read about–what interests you?

For now, I’m signing off, but I’ll be back sooner than you think. I look forward to your thoughts.