Today’s post is brought to you by Ken Mueller, the owner of Inkling Media, a small Social Media and marketing company in Lancaster, PA. He’s quite possibly the coolest guy I know, and deserves a lot of pie.
I have a secret about MJ: she’s a whiner.
Just the other day she told me “if I ever say to you, ‘oh, I’ll just get up early and do it’, make sure I stay up late instead. I’m a pathetic morning person”
Well, as I write this, it’s Thursday night, and MJ just said to me, via g-chat, “You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking I’ll get up early to write WTF Friday”
Now being the observant person I am, I realized this was a test. And thankfully I passed the test. Sorta. I responded, “I’m thinking that my very good and wonderful friend MJ should stay up and just do it tonight”. Her response?
She whined.
As in, “Wahhhhhhh”.
Yup.
And then suddenly, I went too far. I went from supportive Internet friend to enabler. I not only came up with an idea for her WTF Friday post (this one), but I offered to write it for her. Actually, I just started writing it while she was off getting pie. For her. Not me.
So here it is, a WTF Friday post about whiners who don’t want to blog, even though they know they should (that would be Marijean), and the importance of having others who hold you
accountable (that would be me).
But seriously, having that community of people is important. Marijean and I both have others who push us and encourage us, and allow us to vent and complain, and in her case, whine. More often than not, she and I are the ones that hold each other accountable.
One of the keys to blogging is being consistent, especially when you have an anchor feature like WTF Friday that people expect to see.
Oh, and have I mentioned that Marijean and I have never met in person? In fact, we actually met online by accident. And yet we have been able to develop a friendship that allows us to push one another, and whole each other accountable with our work and blogging.
So what have we learned?
- MJ is a whiner
- MJ gets pie. Ken works.
- If you’re going to blog, you need to be consistent
- It’s important to have others who can push you when you just don’t feel like blogging.
Blogging and Social Media are major commitments. You can’t just dabble. Make the commitment, and stick to it, and find others who can help you as you move forward.
Oh, and I wouldn’t mind a slice of Key Lime pie right about now…
Wow, this Ken guy sounds pretty cool.
I completely agree with the ‘accountability’ piece and it’s the piece that I struggle with the most. Even if I have stuff to write it doesn’t make it’s way to a consistent posting scheduling. And as far as being a pathetic morning person goes, I’d like to challenge MJ to a ‘while-off’ on the topic – I’d prefer working until 2am than being in the office by 8am any day of the week.
@DrewLawrence Ha! Drew I don’t really like to stay up late OR get up early but will when I have to, of course. Plus @KenMueller secretly loves it when I whine.
Hmm….
Pie. 🙂
Writing when too tired to be sensible. Not so much.
Enlisting friends (through whatever means are effective) to pick up the slack. Priceless.
@KenMueller Mebbe so. But he keeps strange company: women who complain to him and then eat pie he doesn’t get to share. Of course, he might be into that…
@Alice @KenMueller HAHAHA!
@Marijean I blame my mother, but my most productive hours are 8pm – 2am — part of that is the lack of distractions: the phone isn’t ringing, new emails aren’t coming in every few minutes, my RSS feed isn’t being constantly updated w/ new posts that I don’t even read but simply star for later so that I don’t miss them, and I feel like I’m more creative. I’ve heard rumors that once you have children it becomes easier to be a morning person, but I believe that I’ll prove to be the exception to that ‘rule’ whenever the time comes!
@Marijean @Alice oh you have no idea what kind of weird things i’m into!
@Marijean @DrewLawrence yeah, it is SO attractive
@KenMueller @Marijean There’s a certain grace inherent to my ignorance. I won’t deny it. More grace inherent to this window into the behind-the-scenes workings of this blog, though. 🙂
@Alice Also, in my defense, it was fresh from the oven blueberry pie paired with vanilla ice cream. Who can write with that nonsense going on?
@Marijean @Alice Am I the only one who sees the injustice here? Why am I enabling you???
@Alice @Marijean This is where I practice full disclosure. Any post you read here on MJ’s blog…if you like it…I wrote it. The ones you don’t like? She wrote them.
@Marijean I’m going to have to give you that one. Fresh blueberry pie is only resistible if one is a zombie or similarly dead. It’s a fact. I’ve read it in books.
@KenMueller @Marijean Ken, Ken, Ken… Has no one taught you the danger of open-ended questions in a hall of three-quarter wits?
@Alice @Marijean all i want is a freakin’ piece of pie.
@KenMueller @Marijean “Fish don’t fry in the kitchen. Beans don’t burn on the grill.” Words to live by, brother, words to live by,
@Alice @Marijean I know the reference, but I honestly have no idea what it means. I don’t want either fish OR beans in my pie. Key Lime will suffice, thank you.
Ken, what a hoot, but so spot-on. I have never procrastinated about anything in my career until blogging. It is time-intensive. If you have three hours a day, perfect. Maybe write 3 blog posts over the weekend, then take time to edit and write 2nd or even 3rd drafts, then publish, then you spend 3-5 hours writing, and another 15-30 minutes each article for edits and rewrites (always important).
I can’t write every day. I don’t have the luxury of isolation and I need quiet when I write to write well.
I may have to put off blogging regularly but I do admit it is the critical foundation for all social media efforts, if you want to be successful.
well actually I enjoy quiet time every day but I also need to exercise and meditate. I look forward to the time when I have time to write in every day. Quiet is important to productivity.
@Greetums The thing with blogging, like anything else, is there is a learning curve. The more you do it, the better you become. Once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t have to be time intensive. Each of us is different, but there are ways of making it a less painful and time consuming process. And not all of us need quiet. I do better with some distractions around me. And I admit, I don’t do multiple drafts and major editing or rewrites. That’s just how I function. We all just need to find what works best for us, and stick to it.
Fun post, Ken. @Marijean is one of the online friends I’ve made who (whether she realizes it or not) helps me hold myself accountable for my own writing.
Great points about consistency, especially in regards to anchor features.
Thanks for the light-hearted post!