Lessons Learned from the Blog Challenge

Tomorrow is the finish line for the 30 day blog challenge (#blog30), organized by Jeanette Cates and Connie Ragen Green. This is the second one I’ve done in 2010.

I used this new blog, The Reasonista, for this challenge. The standard was that all posts were to be on the same blog.

Just for this June 2010 challenge, I’ve written more than 5000 words. That’s enough to make a book.

This project has helped me crystallize my thinking, with more to come.

Lessons from the blog challenge.

• Fit your blog into a larger business plan. How can the blog contribute to your larger business goals? Will it help you build a mailing list, or your online authority?
• Make the decision. It might seem daunting when you think about it, but if you think you can, you can.
• Feel for the focus. The direction of your writing and your blog will change over time. You will adjust as you go along, like the course corrections that the pilots make during an airline flight.
• Think in terms of campaigns or promotional themes. This will help you bring your posts together to build around a main subject, and generate more ideas.

This much writing has also helped me get better and write faster, both beneficial goals that will be useful in this and many other projects.

Now, on to the next…

Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Humility

Pride goes before a fall, says a verse in Proverbs. And humility is the opposite of pride.

I recall from the Autobiography that humility was the toughest virtue, according to Ben.

He had a lot of accomplishments to be justly proud for. His inventions helped lots of people, even saving lives with devices like the lightening rod.

And he did not profit from them in financial terms, but had given them freely without patent. Manufacturers were free to make and sell these products to help fuel the budding American economy.

The last of Ben’s 13 Virtues:

13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates

Most people can associate Jesus with humility, but what do we know about Socrates? He was a Greek philosopher who lived about 400 years before Christ.

Socrates is known indirectly, through later writings by his students (including Plato and Aristotle). He ran afoul of the Athenian government, and was ordered to drink poison, which he did. Perhaps he became too proud for, paradoxically, being wise enough to recognize his own ignorance.

Interesting that Ben would choose to remind himself of Socrates.

It is a fine line between being confident due to one’s accomplishments, and being arrogant.

Given Ben’s other virtues which all speak to balance, it’s no surprise that humility made his list of virtues to practice.

Ben is a good role model even today, more than 200 years after his passing. He showed that dedicated efforts at self-improvement can move anyone forward in their lives. Though he never achieved perfection, he accomplished a lot. America as we know it would not exist without him.

• Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Moving Forward
• The first four Virtues
• The second four Virtues
• The third four Virtues

Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Part 4

Ben had a reputation for loving the ladies, at least, on a mental level. Besides beauty, he loved an active mind.

It’s easy to imagine that he felt freer to explore certain subjects with a lady. Less need to be guarded when heading into test theories and possibilities.

And it probably did make the practice of some of his virtues, on some days, easier than others.

The third group of four, of Ben’s 13 Virtues

9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve

10. Cleanliness .Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloths, or habitation

11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable

12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation

Again, balance plays a big role in Ben’s virtues. Moderation reflects another note on each of the other virtues. A middle path has a lot to recommend it.

Cleanliness is another form of Industry, and Tranquility another form of Silence. Chastity, another form of Temperance.

Interesting how growth is a spiral, and the themes on the wheel come back around, but in a different octave.

More to come…

Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Part 3

There’s a story about Ben, having just arrived in Philadelphia. He was walking down the street, with a long roll of bread under each arm. He’d just spent the last of his money.

Although he was 17 years old and a fugitive from his apprenticeship in Boston, his mind, it seems, was on immediate matters.

He had already been in trouble for writing letters to his brother’s newspaper under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. He impersonated a middle-aged widow to voice opinions about the establishment in Boston.

He ended up in England for a few years, then returned to Philadelphia to get down to business. The second group of his virtues reflect that focus on practical matters.

The second four of Ben’s 13 Virtues

5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing

6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions

7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly

8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty

Frugality and industry go together, in that the focus is on productivity. Work to bring in more business, and stop up the drain of unnecessary loss. Forward motion comes from choosing goals, then acting on them with purpose.

Similarly, sincerity and justice both point out the importance of being aware and making a conscious decision before speaking or acting. Why create ill will or problems from a thoughtless comment or action?

More to come…

Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Part 2

Ben Franklin was forward thinking in a number of ways.

His self-devised program of focusing on his list of 13 Virtues, in weekly succession, was just one of his innovations. Central heating, bifocals and the lightening rod and other inventions are all attributed to his resourceful mind.

And his success in business is certainly attributable to his cultivation of his virtues. They are qualities for success. Any modern entrepreneur can benefit from this kind of self-development as well.

The first four of Ben’s 13 Virtues

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation

3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve

The first three qualities speak to balance. All things in moderation, whether they be food, drink, speaking or tidiness.

Resolution means making your word good. If you decide to do something, say you are going to do it, you owe it to yourself to follow through. Resolution brings forth self-confidence and respect.

More to come…

Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Moving Forward

My eighth and ninth grade English teachers passed out several college-prep reading lists, and I spent my high school years on a mission to read many of the books on them.

I made quite a bit of progress. One of the most memorable of these books (even after 40+ years) was The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Ben was into self-improvement in a big way. He believed that, with hard work, anyone could overcome any obstacle to success. And he was smart about making money at it, too.

His education was mainly from reading. In his adult years, he started a library company in Philadelphia, so that he and his friends could pool resources to buy books, to make them available for all the members to read.

He was a lifelong learner.

Because he was so widely read, I have to think he was aware of the 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Contrary Virtues, as taught in religion.

Whether that was his basis or not, he developed his own list of 13 Virtues, and he put them on a weekly rotation to focus on, each in turn.

In the end, he said that it was worth the effort, though he never achieved perfection. As I recall, humility was the one he struggled with the most.

I like to think he knew about flipping the coins over, because he focused on virtues (something to reach for) rather than mistakes (something to avoid).

We are better creators than avoiders.

Be the Storyteller – Part 4

The arc of a story takes the shape of a rainbow. It starts at one end, it rises to a climax, and then it resolves at a level similar (but not the same) as the point where it started.

Something occurred during the story, an insight or a change. We know something more than when we started.

To get the most impact from your story, give some thought to where the end will be, and how it will relate to the beginning. Then write your story to create harmony between the beginning and ending.

How did this story change you, and how will your reader be different?

Continued from Part 3, the last installment of the story…

Part 4 – Tie Up Loose Ends

I’ll say my journey to storyteller is a lot like George Lee’s journey to the west. He was willing to go despite obstacles, change all their lives, face uncertainty. He must have thought it would be worth it in the end.

My journey is mental, my Oregon a metaphor, and my wearing the garb of storyteller an analogy. Still, the role is real and I wouldn’t trade it.

Becoming a storyteller will put you on stage. At least to some extent, no hiding yourself under a basket.

Yet as storytellers, we have the privilege to see the awesome in the everyday, and tell those good stories.

Be the storyteller.

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By making an arc in your story, you to tie up loose ends. Yet, there can always be another story, even when a particular tale seems final.

For example, Star Trek fans know that world and its stories well. However, in the most recent Star Trek movie which debuted in 2009, a new version of the story could be told. The imaginative creators found a way – consistent with the existing universe – to give this franchise new life.

I won’t spoil the story for those who haven’t seen the movie. Just say they left plenty of room for sequels.

Your own stories will be ongoing as well. My living your life – observing learning and experiencing – you will have plenty of material for your writing.

Then tell your story.

Use these links to review the story and storytelling tips:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Related post, The Leonidas Pipe, from Diary of a Dishie

Be the Storyteller – Part 3

Stories help illustrate and ground more esoteric concepts. In the story within this series, I’m using the tale to illustrate topics such as developing another factor of your personality, pursuing a dream and moving forward with life.

You can think of this as a theme.

For Martha Stewart, I say the theme is how to create beauty at home, self-reliance in knowing techniques to create beauty, and enjoying those creations.

What will be the major point or lesson of your story?

Now, on with the story from Part 2…

Part 3 – Illustrate a Theme

So the Kimbels moved to Oregon, but it didn’t last. One day in 1929, my grandfather didn’t come home for dinner. Men from town found him behind the Fern Hill school, where he had been cutting a tree. A falling limb had broken his neck.

My grandmother did what had to be done: she packed up the children, came back to Michigan and went on with her life. She remarried, but I think part of her mourned Oregon for a long time. It became a conversation to avoid, something that was too distracting, to impractical, or too painful to bring into the present by talking about it.

She was not a sentimental person, but it is hard to remain untouched by an experience so profound, so large in family history.

George Lee passed into something like myth, almost like Camelot – a dream, briefly grasped – that has slipped away, taking on an ethereal quality like gossamer silk floating in a delicate breeze, lost to all but memory, sometimes even the memory doubted.

My father was only 4 when he returned to Michigan. He always said he wanted to go back to Oregon someday, to find his father’s grave.

And the story might have ended there, with an unfulfilled wish.

But we know Oregon was real. We added onto the story. We went there.

In 1983, I had to make a business trip out west. Remembering my father’s wish, I said, “Take me.” So we went.

We drove to Oregon and went to Rainier. We drove around the town and saw the places our ancestors saw. The story said that George Lee’s grave was on a hill overlooking the Columbia River, and it is.

I feel proud both to take a page and add a page in George Lee’s story, to reach for the distant star – because dreams are a place to start – and in middle age, to wear the mantle of the storyteller.

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Balance the factual elements with those that involve emotion to make your story memorable. What’s appropriate for your story will depend on the overall goal of your site and the business you are doing.

Just one more part to go…

Be the Storyteller – Part 2

Memories are a rich mine for stories. Look for the dramatic qualities, the universal qualities, that everyone can related to, even though they may not have had those experiences.

My customers in my dinnerware business, for example, are interested in replacing grandma’s china, even recreating whole sets of a certain, special pattern that is tied to family memories. In some cases this means a few pieces. Other times, it means a whole set.

Their mission is to obtain and use something that brings back happy times around the family dinner table or holiday occasions from the past.

What role will a story play in your communication with your customers?

On with the story from Part 1…

Part 2  – Mine memories and experience

My father knew this story, but mostly we had to pull it out of him, like gold out of the ground. In 1927, his father, my grandfather, George Lee Kimbel, moved his wife and three small children from Grand Rapids to Oregon. They sold most of what they owned and drove across the country to Rainier, a small lumbermill town on the Columbia River.

Generations of Kimbels had their share of wanderlust, but usually they stayed close to the Great Lakes, where they could maintain their connections with more rooted reltives, like the Cole and McClish families.

George Lee’s little band knew no one in Oregon.

I can imagine the family arriving in Rainier that November, after a long, tedious car trip. A fourth child was born within days of their arrival.

The cool autumn evenings were probably misty, like they are here in Michigan. And the air must have been thick with the earthy aroma of fir and spruce trees, so much like the pine woods of Manistee County, where my grandfather lived as a boy.

The Kimbel men worked at lumbering and carpentry, and George Lee had worked as a cabinetmaker in Grand Rapids. In Rainier he eventually found work at a local sawmill. But life was still difficult. He was laid off and picked up temporary work cutting trees.

It takes a dream to move, a vision of better things. George Lee must have had that, an imagined idea of how life would be better in Oregon, at least in the long run.

And he was determined. It takes work to make a cross-country move.

It also takes courage to change, when the only certainty is that you’re traveling into the unknown. You may think you’re going forward, but there are no guarantees.

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Using specific details, such as place names and dates, helps a story come alive. Remember this is the Internet, so there might be things you don’t want to disclose, but many things can be told.

More to come…

Be the Storyteller – Part 1

I’ve been working on websites, and become immersed in the process of choosing and developing niches.

As I think about them – making refinements and choices – it seems to me that there is a broader level, above the niche, that is important to the overall goal.

And that is the story.

What story will I tell to illustrate and explain everything that comes next? Part of this will depend on the nature of the niche, the goal of the site, the customers and the products.

For example, Martha Stewart has a story that overarches her business, as do many others. Hers is about cooking and catering, flower arranging, her homes and chickens – there are many facets.

Your story, and how it connects with your business, is vital to your USP (unique selling position). It helps build your interaction with your customers and position within your niche.

It does not have to be a big or dramatic story, just something to add a human touch.

Human interest has always been interesting, regardless of the media used to deliver those stories.

What are the elements of story?

I’ll show my ideas by telling you a story, in serial form, like Dickens and other authors used more than 100 years ago, but still relevant today…think Lost.

Part 1 – Set the Stage

No one in my family tells stories about me, even my twin sister. I’m the one who notices the connections and distills the stories.

I’m the storyteller.

In ancient tribal societies where the storyteller is an official function, the novices spend years and years memorizing oral traditions, learning at the feet of the old masters, every generation adding a new piece. The Aborigines in Australia, the ancient Celts in Ireland, Native Americans, all had someone.

Storytelling has deep roots in humanity.

I took the storyteller role upon myself. No one else was doing it. I had to find my own way. I learned how to listen and how to see truth in simple acts. I dug up the ancestors, and started to tell their tales – from the simple ones, like Grandma Rice cooking chicken, Aunt Gertie’s greeting cards, or my sister Sue’s Internet romance. These are the charming stories that are easy to tell.

Then there are the hidden stories, the more complicated ones, like this story of a move to Oregon – the rich but difficult stories every family holds.

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Since this series is about becoming a storyteller, the background on storytelling traditions makes sense to help stage the story about this family tradition.

More to come…