dsmBUZZ: Raise your sails and blog on!

My blog is my vessel for the journey on the sea of possibility. Thanks to Liz Strauss for the opportunity to think about my blog in terms of a metaphor. The story of that lesson goes like this:

The fact that I blog is a complete accident. I had been working with Tammy Brice to create a static web site for my business but I had a couple of problems. One issue was that I was still "figuring out" what I wanted and the other challenge was that she was due to have a baby soon and couldn't wait for me to vacillate on my options. She met Mike Sansone and realized that my needs might fit with his approach and tools. I met with Mike and also Sandy Renshaw and found myself "sold" on something I didn't even begin to understand.

With instruction and encouragement I began to blog even though I didn't really "get it" for awhile. I'm familiar with operating in this confused state. I'm the person in the group who is always late to get a punchline to the joke, snorting my laughter after others in a group have moved on. I'm the "late bloomer" understanding concepts I've heard FOREVER only after I've thought about them FOREVER.

However I kept blogging into what felt like the "big empty" accepting that maybe what other bloggers were saying might be true. I assumed nobody was actually paying attention to what I churned out and that my thoughts were wafting off into Internet air. I didn't really BELIEVE in the benefits of blogging or the term "viral media" until I got clunked in the head with a small but significant experience.

It happened with my very first pod cast. I interviewed Chaden Halfhill of Silent Rivers on my program Entrepreneur People. We had a nice interview and I thought, "well that was fun, but who will care?" A couple of weeks later I noticed that listeners had checked in and I was excited. Then Chaden called me and said he had gotten a call from an architect in Minnesota who had heard the podcast and wanted to meet him. I felt chills. Oh my goodness. Someone was listening!

I have not yet lost my sense of joy when I find that someone responds or offers a comment on something I've written or a pod cast. The same holds true when someone becomes a member or a merchant of dsmBUZZ. (They get it, they get it!) It feeds me and reinforces the first lessons and my passion. I'm building a community of consumers and small businesses in central Iowa who care about supporting locally owned businesses! It turns out that not only am I growing by the process of writing a blog (organizing and shaping my own vision) I also am afforded this wonderful opportunity of shared ideas and feedback. I improve and gain access to other journeys learning from their lessons as well.

Last Friday was the monthly Central Iowa Bloggers gathering. The gift of blogging keeps unfolding itself as I travel. In only five months I have met many incredible people I wouldn't have known if not for blogging. I've had the beginnings of business success, received the gift of knowledge and information that has led to useful tools and personal growth, and helped give other people information and resources.

Blogging is a sturdy vessel for anyone who has the courage or interest to sail on the sea of possibility. Whether you blog straight out, or read and comment in the blogosphere, man your stations, raise your sails, plot your course and blog on!

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