Celebrating 50+5 Blog Posts For Speakers And Leaders

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

This is the 55th blog post!

Why not celebrate the 50th post? That was the intent but that milestone passed silently.

Highs

Blogging is easy to start ... and even easier to quit.

Psychologically, 50 posts feels like the minimum for a real blog during a year. Each of my two personal blogs (Marketing Actuary and Riscario Insider) has a post per week with a break in late December.

A regular schedule is also important. The goal is what Seth Godin calls consistent persistent generosity. I promised that this blog would have two posts per week from Jan 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012, when my term as club President ends. That schedule has been maintained.

Lows

This blog was intended to inspire club members to show courage by blogging here. That hasn't happened. I've written most of the posts, especially in recent months.

Leaders make statements that go on the record. Blogging is a low-key way to build leadership skills, another way that Toastmasters helps members.

I was especially hoping that the club executive would volunteer to participate. They haven't and I haven't pressed them.

Unexpected

I already publish about 1,000 words a week (two personal blogs, each with a post of about 500 words). Here, I focused on two weekly posts of about 350 words each (minimum 300 words). As an exercise, I looked for ways to write faster and used techniques from Table Topics.

I start with an idea that happens to come to mind. I then write and publish about 350 words. The process takes an hour. Here's where the time goes

1. 15 min: initial draft (see how to write better faster using an iPad and iA Writer)
2. 30 min: editing and adding links (mainly on the iPad)
3. 15 min: finalizing and posting (using Windows Live Writer)

Some posts have images. Finding and editing an image takes about 15 minutes.
Since I've been writing four posts a week (two here and two of my own), I've gotten faster. Practice does help. I'm also getting more ideas, especially for short posts.

Because the ideas keep flowing out, I know I can write a book. I can also sketch out new presentations much faster (using mind mapping).

Next

I'm hoping the new executive will continue to support the blog. I'm intending to write one post per week. In a year, we'll have at least 100 posts. That will be worth celebrating ... if other members contribute regularly.

Links

• How to apply consistent persistent generosity
• The best places for free images
• Prepare your speech with a mind map
• How to write better faster
• image courtesy of Tom Oliveira

Promod Sharma has written over 500 blog posts since 2007 about marketing for entrepreneurs and risk.