For the past two days, I’ve discussed several methods of blogging. If you missed the first two posts, check out Part 1 to learn from Joey Strawn and Part 2 to
Learn from Andrea Olson and Lynn Terry. Today we are going to discuss 2 styles more similar to mine.
John Morgan- Moleskine Master
Morgan said he has a notepad system & records headline ideas, blog post ideas, and keeps a separate notepad for writing his content. Instead of crawling out of bed at night if he has a great idea, he grabs the pen and notepad on the bedside table. What John and I have in common is we both hand-write most of our content before typing and polishing it.John has a pile of Moleskines similar to mine.
John is the self-described Chuck Norris of personal branding. He’s an awesome guy and pretty smart. Go read more of about his posts at http://brandbreakout.com. Twitter him at @JohnMorgan.
John Navin- My Favorite Kind of Client
I talk to John Navin on the phone more than I talk to my mother. (That may be because my mom has been in China for the past month and at $3.99 a minute…) He is a more verbal person and I can grasp his ideas with more clarity on the phone. Since John and I are working on a large writing project together, talking on the phone is much easier than me trying to use my Advanced ESP skills.
The technique here starts from us knowing John’s strength and him having the resources to facilitate that skill. Four Camtasia videos later and I have the information I need and John has created a new facet to his product line. John has a hard drive full of transcripts and content and pulls most of his blog posts from those files rather than reinventing the wheel.
Personal Style
I never leave my house without my digital recorder. I dictate when I’m in an inconvenient place to write like driving down the road, which is usually where I get the most new ideas. I also record most of my client meetings. I conveniently give my dictation files to my transcriptionists.
As I mentioned before, I hand-write most of my content. Even though it seems that typing at 160 wpm it would be faster to sit at the computer and write, my writing flows better with a note pad. If I spend 3 times as long trying to get the content out by using someone else’s method, it would have been quicker to do what worked best to start with.
Get outside your box and find what’s productive. Feel free to try the methods in these 3 posts and be sure to let us know what works for you too.
Thanks for playing along.
Erica
Erica Cosminsky is an HR Business Strategist for small businesses. She can slog through the pile of applicants and help deliver the best assistant to your “office door”, she transforms mile long to-do lists into manageable bites, and like your best friend after a raging party, she sticks around to offer assistance or clean up any messes, etc. Find her free delegation workbook at TheInvisibleOffice.com
She is a former corporate HR Manager, and ran her own virtual business team for 4 years. She has a BS in Organizational Leadership focused in HR and is a grad student in Industrial and Organizational Psychology focused in Workplace Efficiency. Honestly, if you have questions about working with people, Erica can probably help you. Ask her on Twitter. @Cosminsky
I always bring along a pad and a pen, so that when ideas strike at least I can write them down and not forget about them. Maybe I’ll try that digital recorder. Sounds really handy.