So I get an email from my website provider, LiveBooks (who are a really awesome host to work with and who have made my life much easier over the past couple of years) informing me that my blog was ready. So naturally I didn’t read anything and just jumped in to get going writing the most eloquent and prolific blog postings the internet has ever seen. Then it hit me…. I have no idea what to write about, well I have some ideas, but those take planning and I’ll have to spend some time fully thinking them through and spell checking and everything else.
Even starting off writing the Ethics Statement, which because I plan to post some articles and thoughts on some of the equipment we use and love, is really important when so many people are cynical about the intentions of a person writing an honest opinion about something they have personal experience with.
Which made me think about two things: First was something that I learned while going through countless media training sessions (a couple dozen at least) with executives from a massive multinational who were being enlightened by some really knowledgeable and talented media relations experts. That is, that someone cannot possibly dispute an ‘I’ statement, such as in When I was in Fort McMurray working on a video about environmental reclamation, I saw first hand the work being done. No one an dispute the veracity of my statement because I was there, they weren’t. Just as I cannot possibly write an opinion about New Zealand because I have never been there. I learned the power of ‘I’ statements years ago and it has always stuck with me, being there, doing it, and experiencing something that you can tell a story about is far more powerful than just developing an opinion.
Second, just like how when computer word processing first came into being, the publishing world was all hot and bothered that everyone would now be a writer… Well that didn’t happen, in fact it served to illustrate that just because technology comes along to enable, empower and otherwise put potential into the hands of the masses it doesn’t mean everyone will be able to produce something worthwhile with it. And that is the crux of this experiment, can I somehow manage to write blog posts that are not only articulate, but also informative and relevant that people are going to find interest in? Or will this blog and my pontificating simply languish alongside so many other blogs that no one reads or cares about?
Time will tell I suppose….. if you are someone who just read this, then thank you!