Category: Business Blog

written by john c ashworth

Every time I read this company’s blog, I’m disappointed. Sometimes just downright mad at them for wasting my time. Which is, of course, my own fault. I could just unsubscribe. Walk away. Move on to the next blog. The next company. The next book. The next resource that is more likely to inspire me than this one. For some reason I stick around. Maybe it’s because it’s such a good example of how a sucky blog can become such an unfortunate missed opportunity. A really bad reality TV show that I just can’t stop watching because it’s so darn juicy. “Thank goodness this isn’t me.” I think.

I’m not going to name the company. That’s not really fair. There are likely others who find it useful. To them I say, be careful. In fact, it reminds me of something I heard while listening to the Daily Stoic today. Something like, ‘Beware of those who talk a lot and often. It is likely that in reality they have nothing to say.’ Not always true, but very good advice all the same.

The point here is that if you don’t have a blog for your business or it is sucky like this one, you are missing a very important opportunity to connect with your audience – your prospects and customers and anyone else for whom your idea and your mission resonates. In fact, that was their topic today. The idea that before you create anything, you need to get clear on who your audience is and what they are looking for so that you can go about creating great content for them. No matter the medium.

That’s true. You need to know your audience. But you also need to follow your muse and give it the proper space needed to speak through you. When you do that in combination with your diligent and on-going work of connecting with your audience, you will find great comfort and reward and connection with your work. The right people will find you. Otherwise, you’re never really following your own instincts exclusively and you will likely get caught up in trying to please an audience that might not even exist, instead of staying present and true to yourself, and cultivating clarity so that your muse can speak freely and have the space it needs to expand; and then attract the right people. This can take time, of course, which is why so many skirt the responsibility and ignore its importance. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s necessary and very important.

Now, I’m not saying that all you have to do is follow your muse, create cool stuff and magically people will find you and your business will grow. That’s a lot of BS and if you’ve been around long enough like I have, you know that in the early stages of the internet and all the blogging and then the birth social media, there was a lot of that false hope being sold.

When you use the word ‘ideating’ in a blog post, I am forced to question everything about you; and all that you claim to represent. Because boy, that is a stupid word. I’ve never even seen it before.

Again, there are likely some who would not have that same kind of reaction to that word, but to me what that word represents is the much larger problem for this company and for business blogging as a whole. Not only are they not following their own advice, but they are actually contradicting themselves inside this post, and likely without even realizing it. They are so caught up inside themselves, that they’ve actually used this word in the same sentence as ‘brand values’ which is another BS Buzz-word. A made-up word that means nothing. Even if you spend the rest of the afternoon ideating , you will still end up where I am now. Lost and wishing you could have the last 15 minutes of your life back.

Do me a favor. Be smart enough to know and courageous enough to act on the ideas that make sense to you because they represent who you are and are an extension of YOU, your personal beliefs and your mission. Stay clear of buzz words and made-up ideas that make no sense, are not based on real expert experience; and leave you feeling unfulfilled and confused.

Stay on YOUR path. Follow YOUR bliss. And listen carefully to YOUR own muse and let nothing in the world distract you from that.

-John