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I’m having trouble coming up with topics to blog about.
I went for a drink with a friend over the weekend and she suggested that I starting using themes. I thought it was a great idea. I could choose a topic and then write between 4 and 6 posts under that theme with helpful information in. Useful tips and tricks. That people could then follow, know what to expect over the next coming weeks and take what they wanted or needed for their own work.
Genius, right?
Only I still couldn’t think of anything. After all, what could I possibly know that I could share with you lot?
I know, I just need to get on with it. I tell people this all the time. But it’s a bit of a mental block. I know I have a lot of experience in training or in using social media that I could share with you. I just can’t seem to get it onto the page.
I’ve got all of my promotional strategies sorted. I will be sharing my posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. I have added all the sharing buttons that I want at the end of each post. I’ve gotten over that fact that I can’t automatically post to Google+ from wordpress. (Just.) I’ve made sure my Pinterest profile is up-to-date. Which is nice, but a little redundant as Pinterest is about images and infographics. In fact all of my social media profiles are up-to-date.
There may have been some procrastination.
And that’s when it hit me. There are 2 reasons that I procrastinate.
- I procrastinate when I REALLY don’t want to do something.
- I procrastinate when I’m frightened of doing something.
Well, whenever I actually get down to it, I really enjoy blogging, I like reflecting on things I’ve done. I love reading other people’s blogs and I really want to see if I can raise the readership of my blog, so I deduce I must be scared of it.
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And I am. Part of me always surrenders to the imposter syndrome, even just a little and even in the face of a lot of really good feedback. Part of me always, just a little, thinks that perhaps I should just crawl back in to my hole and shut up.
But I’ve decided I’m not going to. I should be shouting about stuff. I’ve got the best and most brilliant opportunity in the world this year. I’ve started my own business. I need to make the most of it. So I’m going to. HONEST.
I am however going to ask for a bit of help. Those of you who do follow the blog, (a small but fabulous crowd) what would you like me to discuss? Talk about? Tell you how I did it?
You see if I feel that I mustn’t let you down, then I won’t and I’ll just write.
So what do you think? I think I could do 4 posts on training and then 4 posts on social media to start with. If we start with training tips and tricks, what do you vote for? I could talk about planning to deliver training? What helps me to create a good exercise? What steps do I go through to get creative? Would you be interested in that?
Or I could talk about how I deal with feedback? Or how I’m not very good at dealing with it, as the case may be.
I could talk about the presentation aspect – so how do I plan for mistakes? What are my coping strategies, what do I do so that I can cope with technology issues etc.
What do you need help with?
In the words of Pink Floyd, ‘Is there anybody out there?‘ and if so comment to let me know what you think.
Hi Lisa,
This is great, I always enjoy your blog posts so it’ll be lovely to see more of them 🙂
Personally, I’d be really interested to hear how you plan and integrate successful interactive exercises into training sessions. I’ve been to some courses where this was done well and everyone had a great time participating, and others where the trainer droned on for ages then suddenly expected the group to do something which no one wanted to. It would also be good to look at feedback – both how to collect it and what you do with it afterwards.
Hope you have a great year!
Emma
Thanks Emma, really pleased that you enjoy them and thanks for the good wishes. Your suggestions are now in my diary! I’ve had a couple of suggestions on twitter as well so I’m very chuffed and have things to talk about.
“I could talk about planning to deliver training? What helps me to create a good exercise? What steps do I go through to get creative? Would you be interested in that?
Or I could talk about how I deal with feedback? Or how I’m not very good at dealing with it, as the case may be.
I could talk about the presentation aspect – so how do I plan for mistakes? What are my coping strategies, what do I do so that I can cope with technology issues etc.”
Yes, all of the above! I really enjoy your posts Lisa, and would love to hear more from you. Some stuff on lessons learned from working freelance would also be really helpful – maybe about any pitfalls you’ve discovered while setting yourself up, or indeed any unexpected successes!
Looking forward to seeing more posts!
Hi Laura,
Thank you, really pleased you enjoy what I’m blathering on about. :)) I shall add freelance pitfalls/successes to the list as well.