600 Articles . . . How Am I Doing?

Just hit 600 posts on my blog. Hooray. I NEVER thought I would be here - when I first re-launched my site back in 2009, I decided to include a blog to let viewers, prospects, and clients know what's inside of Rich Gee's crazy mind.

Four years later, I have 600 small peeks into the wacky world of Rich Gee. If you subtract weekends, you get approximately 261 working days each year (this doesn't include holidays or my 4-6 weeks vacation time). So if you take 600 and apply it over almost four years — I've been posting over 75% of the time.

WOW. I hope you've liked the ride. I sure have. I think it's time to find out if I've been hitting the mark. How am I doing?

I WOULD LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK. Please let me know below this post.

Tell me if you like the direction my blog is going — if you like the topics, or if I hit the mark (or I don't). I want constructive criticism — please tell me what I can do to make this even BETTER. Oh . . . also tell me your favorite posts — I will write more.

I'm just catching my breath and beginning to start another marathon. Anyone have any water?

Thank you! Rich 

Be A Catalyst: Spread The Word.

Most clients and attendees to my talks ask me how to truly accelerate their career and business. All I say is: "Spread The Word." You see, we're all out there hoarding key information, knowledge and experience in our brains. We think if we do this, it will give us a leg up or a significant advantage over our peers and the marketplace.

You're wrong.

Today, in the 21st century, people who spread their knowledge around are the ones who get the advantages the world has to offer - promotions, projects, more money, clients, customers, etc. Showing people what you know and freely giving away information makes you more attractive and influential than the person who isn't doing it.

You become an authority.

Now most entrepreneurs can do this. There is no regulation, no compliance department to deal with. But for those who work in corporate and their area is highly regulated, it might be a little harder.

I didn’t say impossible. I just said harder.

Check with management, see who is already writing and 'getting away with it'. Look to your industry — who are the mavericks out there doing it? Finally, if you hit too many roadblocks, write for your company's blog — most of them suck and are written by your PR department. I've recommended this idea to one of my clients — it will provide an incredible platform for his ideas and experience to help him get more clients.

Every word you publish out into the world is one more reason why people should do business with you. One more reason why you sell more product. One more reason why you get a new job/promotion with an incredible increase in pay.

Writing gets you noticed. Again, you become an ‘authority’ on the topics you write about. It behooves you to investigate how to start your own blog, book, facebook page, twitter account, uStream channel to spread the word.

Trust me — your career and business will skyrocket. Since I’ve taken the step to publish a post every day, my visitors have jumped from 2-5 readers to 75-100 readers every day. I get clients from all over the world calling me for my services. WOW.

Has anyone taken the step (even though it was looked down upon) and started spreading the word?

This has been another installment in my ongoing series, “Are You A Catalyst?” — today’s focus is how to get published and get noticed.

Grow Your Business and Have Fun With A Blog.

I'm late to the blogging game — I started on January 1, 2009. But over the past two years, I've seen my business explode and in the process, I've had more fun, engaged in more powerful discussions, and I'm thinking about business at a higher level. Why do you think this is happening?

A blog makes you think, ponder, develop and publish important ideas. Every day. It's almost like a crossword puzzle — if you do one every day, it exercises your mind, making new synapse connections and keeping them healthy. A blog does the same thing — it forces you to think of innovative ways to present information that's easy to absorb by the reader.

A blog makes you communicate to the world. Communication in business is paramount and most executives and business owners tend to forget that. My blog is followed by roughly 500-700 people every day — I'm beginning to get future clients calls from California, Hawaii, Canada, UK, and even Stockholm!

A blog invites two-way communication. I get many comments on my blog, not only on my site, but in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. People all over the world are expressing their interpretation of my blogs while agreeing, disagreeing and spreading the word.

A blog is easy. For all of you out there who think, "I don't have time to write." or "I don't have the ability to write well." — welcome to my world. I felt that way for years — until I met Rebecca Morgan (link) who convinced me to blog every single day.

At that moment, I realized that my blog, my site, and my ideas should be given freely to the world. It's the 'giver's gain' model — I give freely, and business comes knocking at my door.

A blog is fun. Try not to be serious all the time — have fun with it. Post cartoons, be irreverent, and add a bit a humor every so often. It also is a blast when people call you up, clients comment, and strangers exclaim, "You're Rich Gee? I love your blog!"

In fact, I was sitting in a Starbucks a few weeks ago (my favorite pastime) and someone approached me and asked, "Are you Rich Gee? I was just reading your blog over at that table!" — within 30 minutes of conversation, he was my client.

If you have your own blog — what do you like about the experience? If you don't blog, what's holding you back?

P.S. By the way, if you want to learn more about my blogging experiences (successes and failures) give me a call! I use Wordpress (link) and highly recommend two other sites - Problogger and Copyblogger. Brian & Darren bring lots of great ideas, innovative topics and powerful info — stuff I would never think about on my own. (link) & (link)