Coaching Wizardry

Joining the dots with thinking bloggers

I'm having fun watching the thinking blogger meme unfold.  It's proving a great way of finding new thoughtful and thought-provoking blogs, discovering new connections.

Thanks to Robyn I've found another new blogger - Lisa Gates, who's talking about how we can join the dots.  Be creative.  Create:

Something from nothing. Something from something. Something for us to ponder and move into our day with.

All with a view to inventing "a new arabesque".  That's right.  Another invitation to join the dance.

Meanwhile, Robyn has reminded us to acknowledge the origins of the Thinking Blogger meme.  I'll add a thanks for kicking this off, it's providing some great food for thought - and great opportunities to join the dots.

Blogs that make you think

One of the things that has surprised me most about the world of blogging is how much there is to learn - from other people's blogs, from your readers, and from the material you write yourself (I don't know about you but I often find myself answering my own, hidden, questions as I write.)  One thing's for sure - whatever the critics might say - blog reading and writing is a great prompt for getting us to think.

Robyn McMaster at Brain Based Biz is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking bloggers out there (her blog is full of the most amazing material on the workings of the brain) so I was surprised and honoured to find that she had named me for the Thinking Blogger Awards. 

I'm one of five that she's listed - the others are Word Sell, Branding and Marketing, Own Your Brand and Design Your Writing Life. I'm familiar with Word Sell (a great read) but not the others - so more to add to my list of reading material (= brain food).

The challenge is then to come up with your own list of five nominations: the blogs that really make you think.  It's hard, because each one gives you something (else why would you read it?).  But there are some that really do give my brain a good workout - and here they are:

1. Roger von Oech at Creative Think, whose questions, prompts and challenges get you thinking creatively

2. Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand, who gets you thinking about leadership - of teams but also of yourself - in a very natural way, using stories and anecdotes from everyday life

3. Hilda Carroll at Living Out Loud, who gets us thinking about our ability to be happy right now.

4. Liz Strauss at Successful Blog who gets me thinking about how to use great questions to stimulate conversation, and to help us to get to know who we are

5. Rosa Say at Managing with Aloha, who has started me thinking about the values of aloha and how to apply them in my life.  The start of an amazing journey of discovery.

Robyn's blog, I hasten to add, would be on the list had she not already been tagged...

If you don't already know these blogs why not dip into them and give them try.  I guarantee you'll get some interesting and unusual food for thought.

Here are the participation rules for the Thinking Blogger Award:

    1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
    2. Link back to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
    3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' (I know you'll want to!)

How a blog can tell your story

It's only three weeks since I launched this blog and I already feel like the story is starting to fly.

I've written elsewhere about the function of stories within a blog, not just as a way of constructing an individual post but the overall story that the blog is telling: about the author, the business, the network of readers.  I am finding that blog writing is also helping me understand and tell my own story - and to shape and develop the chapters that are still to come.

How does that work?  Well, I'm still learning but it's something to do with the ability to develop new ideas, express your values, find confidence in your own voice. 

It's the way the words and ideas and connections are shared - with other writers, blog owners and readers.  It's amazing how new characters and voices keep appearing from across the net!

And it's the way the material takes shape.  The posts don't follow a plan.  Well I start off with a plan, but then something else asks to get written.  And so I watch the blog unfold before me, growing organically, just like the best of stories.

For me it's very much so far, so good.  Thanks to everyone who has dipped in, offered feedback, left comments, made links. 

You're helping me to tell my story, to let my story fly.

How to crack the code

I've been working hard over the last few days setting up my new Confident Writing blog.  Some of that has been writing new content to get the blog going.  But I've also been customising the site, adding images, links, things like FeedBurner and Constant Contact and even some additional widgets.  This has taken me into previously unchartered waters - including getting to grips with a totally new language: HTML.

I am now reasonably confident with a 'sentence' like <img src ="http://example.typepad.com/image.jpg" />.  I can tolerate a whole 'paragraph' of HTML code appearing on my screen without panicking and running off elsewhere.  There have even been moments when I've started to enjoy it: the search for the missing " / " that's messing up a page; borrowing a bit of code from somewhere else and finding it just works... perfectly.

One small triumph was to add an image link without losing my visitors (a key piece of advice from BlogAngel Claire.)  As I was working on it I found myself wondering: what is it that's driving me on to do this?  What's allowing me to achieve these things that I couldn't have dreamt of a few weeks ago?

Bitten by the blogging bug

There's an interesting post and discussion at Mike Sansone's ConverStations about whether blogging has 'peaked'.  The general conclusion seems to be that although the absolute number of daily posts might be on the way down, the full benefits and applications of blogging are still to be developed.  As Mike says:

Even if blogging has peaked, the plateau ahead is wide and far. The participation and conversation is just getting started.

I buy that argument. In fact I'm so taken with my first few weeks of blogging that I've decided to set up another site.  Yes, a new blogsite Confident Writing: coaching tips from a writing coach has just been born.  It gives me the space to put all my material on writing with confidence over there, leaving this site with the focus on coaching and stories, which seems to be what people are enjoying so far :)

The site is a bit simpler in design than this one - I did it pretty much by myself so fingers crossed there aren't too many technical glitches - though it was very much inspired by the fantastic tuition I got from my Business Blog Angel Claire.  Her site quotes the saying  "teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and that is her approach all over - she doesn't just build you a site but passes on the skills, the techniques and the confidence to go forth and blog-multiply!

Anyway, I'm feeling really good about having the two sites and the chance to develop a distinct identity for both.  I just hope I don't end up spending too much time blogging at the expense of other things, or developing a split personality.

If you've got a moment you could call by the site and have a look, leave your picture (you MyBlogLoggers) or post a comment...

Meantime, any advice from experienced blog writers on the joys and challenges of managing multiple blogs?

Thirsty for insight? Read a good blog

I've been enjoying my early forays into the 'blogosphere' as part of the work to develop this site.  There are loads of advantages to reading blogs - it helps you with:

Generating new ideas - by asking yourself 'how is my situation/product/service like this...? How can I make use of this idea or connect it to what I'm working on?

Writing - reading different styles will help you develop your own.  What do you notice about the blogs you're drawn to -  tone, vocabulary, length, structure, clarity, a great headline?  What could you borrow for your own writing?

Creativity - some great blogs out there (eg Creative Think) which will leave you thinking and creating all day

Learning - look for sites where you can pick up tips and suggestions - I've already learned loads from some of the blog writing advisory sites and know I'll be going back for more

Networking - there are people out there who share the same interests or viewpoint as you - follow the blogs, leave a comment, make a link, build a network...

Seth Godin argues that the blog-reader is asking "how can I do what I do better?"  He says:

It's a thirst for insight, for shortcuts and for results.

So if you're thirsty for insight, how do you pick your way through the terrifyingly huge number of blogs out there (50 - 70 million from a quick google search... ) 

Well one way is just to pick up on links and connections from the blog that you're starting from.  If you like that site, chances are you'll enjoy at least some of the sites that they're pointing you towards.  Some blog sites have blog rolls running into the dozens (if not 100s) so there's plenty to choose from.

In that spirit of sharing I've added my own list in a blog roll at the left hand side of the screen - don't worry there aren't hundreds, just the top twelve or so that I'm currently following.

Let me know if there are other great blogs you follow and you'd like to see here.  Meantime, happy reading.

Something to say? Join the conversation

I love the idea of the blog as a shared conversation... or maybe even a story that we create together, that unfolds as we go along.  Well I'm pleased to announce that there's now a new widget on the blog which means you can add your voice to the story that's being told...

I was asking people recently what would make them more likely to leave comments on the blog.  I got some great feedback from fellow blog owners Emma and Claire recommending something called "MyChingo" - which sounds weird but is in effect just a way of leaving voice mail or a phone message on a website. 

I followed this thread to the voice-mail conversation on Mike Sansone's Converstations blog.  There's some interesting discussion there about the pros and cons of the new widget - is it just technology for technology's sake, how does it add to or detract from the rest of the conversation (which is still virtual after all... ) Well you can have a listen for yourself if you're curious. 

Anyway it was the comment from Claire on Mike's voice-mail that got me drawn in - she makes the point that people have different learning styles or representational systems and that we need to be flexible enough to meet those different styles and preferences. 

Which made me think about people that I know - some of whom love writing (like me) but others who would always prefer to chat, to talk on the phone, or even just to leave a message to say "hi".

And if that sounds like you, why not give it a try? 

You'll find the audio comment box under 'something to say' on the left hand side  - scroll down towards the bottom of the screen to find it.  All you need to do is press the button that says 'leave a message' and follow the instructions on the screen.  You'll be asked for your name and e-mail address (which isn't disclosed) then you can record your message.  You can play it back and record it again if you want to, then when you're happy with the message press "send" and it comes through to me.

You could leave a message to say hello, ask a question, make a point or just play back the messages and listen to what other people are saying.

Let me know what you think of the new widget - either by writing a comment or leaving me some voice-mail...

 

Joining the conversation: how to comment on a blog

Lots of people have been asking me why I went for a blog site rather than a conventional, static website to promote my business.  One of the main reasons is that a blog is so much more dynamic - that's partly because the content changes as often as the author writes it, but also because there's the space for readers to chip in with comments, ideas, questions, challenges, information on other resources, blog sites, web material and so on. 

And I don't know about you but I think a blog site with comments looks a lot more friendly and lived in too. After my first five days of live blogging the place already looks a lot more complete - so thanks very much to my early callers :)

I'm guessing though that there are lots of people out there who'd like to chip in but aren't used to leaving comments, may not know how to go about it or might not be sure what to say.  If that sounds like you then keep on reading to find out how to join the conversation...

Feel the fear and publish anyway

There's been some discussion over at Creating Passionate Users about the most scary thing that people have done recently.  (This is in the context both of software and the Sydney Bridge Climb - an intriguing combination!).  It has been interesting to read about the challenges people have set themselves: leaving jobs, snowboarding, sky-diving, sorting out personal finances, and jumping off a bridge...

The conversation is partly about what makes us scared, partly about how we feel the fear and do it anyway, partly about the buzz we get afterwards.  This is what the bridge climber Kathy Sierra said:

A short time ago I went on the Sydney Bridge Climb. At night. It was the most frightening thing I've ever done. But when it was over, I felt braver, stronger, and different.

And I realised that pressing the button to make this blogsite 'live' is scary too.  It's not the scariest thing I've ever done and it's not like jumping off the Sydney Bridge.  But there is a fear factor, an element of taking a deep breath, closing your eyes...and just jumping.