“How does your blog relate to your business?”
This is a challenge my friend’s friend posed on to her and which she decided to pose on to me. Actually, the question was asked on my friend’s friend’s friend’s blog. In the blogsphere news travel fast, one single question can suit many and so the challenge was up. I learned through my google reader I had been tagged to respond to this challenge the day Carla Arena posted her answer (RSS feeds travel even faster!), but somehow I was having trouble finding the right words for my answer-post. I don’t think I have come up with the right ones, but I can’t delay it any longer.
So, “How does my blog relate to my business?”
Well, my blog is me… or part of me. It is my thinking-aloud corner, where I jot down some random ideas, try to answer some queries, and most times end up raising even more questions than actually answers, which was the purpose of the blog post in the first place. Blogging is like this joint and at the same time personal never ending journey, which “forces” you to relentlessly examine your practice, (re)evaluate your believes and be prepared to new challenges [to change, adopt, adapt and re-adapt to a world in a ceaseless (r)evolution] .
None of this would ever be possible without the networks I have cultivated around me, or better, the people (those are the key) with whom, in one way or another, I have bonded in this cyber-world, and who have offered me diverse and relevant perspectives of a landscape always in motion.
My blog – or my blogs, if you want – completely relates to all my businesses. I have grown professionally through my blog. Blogging on a regular basis is my own reminder of how much I still have to learn (B. Brecht once wrote (something like this) : “let’s try and reduce our ignorance even if only 1mm” – as long as I keep blogging, I know I am still working at achieving it!)
I have also developed better inter-personal skills through the multi-blogging interactions. They are fun, they are interesting, they bring out the best of me…the best I can…I mean!
On personal and professional levels (and yes, the two dimensions intertwine Big Time, and I am not complaining, because that’s who I am), I think I have been able to develop a “voice” – an identity. Not that I have any presumptions of being an authority in the field or anything of the kind, but by blogging I have been able to grow more confident about what I do and try to pass on, and somehow I have been able to speak my mind out: for the better and for the worse too… 
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In short, my blog is a continuous update of who I am, what I do, what and how I think, and what and how other people make me perceive the world around me. And this last part is the most important bit: because without the “other people” – my friends (and I have made really good friends online) – none of this would ever have been possible.
I blog, because they blog… because they comment, because I comment…because there is a conversation going on. I can hear the sound of voices. I enjoy it.
I don’t like the disturbing silence of thinking.
And if I wanted a mono(b)log I would have started a paper based journal…or maybe not (just remembered I attempted it several times and never got past the second or third page of those perfumed note books from my teen years).
And now it’s time to pass on the challenge. To answer “How does your blog relate to your business?” I am tagging: Anne Fox, Dennis Oliver, Hala Fawzi, Graham Attwell, Joao Alves, Nina Lyulkun and Ramona Dietrich, and anyone else that reads this blog (just let me know through the comment feature and I will tag you too! 
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Looking forward to reading your answers. And don’t forget to pass the challenge on to other bloggers . Thinking about the answer to this question is actually a very good exercise.
Dear Cris,
The reasons why you blog are the same why I blog. If it weren’t for all those voices around us, maybe I’d have missed the chance to learn as much as I’m learning now. Just like you said, blogging is about me, my practices, beliefs and the ones around me. I post what I learn from others, what I see around, and I have friends like you who gives me feedback, who feeds my desire to move forward. I guess we’re all trying that 1 mm of knowledge, and I do my best to keep what I learn recorded, re-evaluating it every single day.
Fun chain of thoughts going on, right?
Thanks for taking the challenge and passing it on! I’m sure it will go unexpected paths!
I am blogging because I am a life-long learner. I am willing to share what I have learned. I need to learn with/from others. I love to read/watch others’ contribution to knowledge . I like to track how knowledge is distributed. Isn’t this what is all about? Sharing knowledge, experience, feelings, networking collaboratively with local and international communities. Although I hate writing, here I am, blogging about everything. I blog because I NEED to be inside the blogosphere which is created by bloggers, the real people with whom we live and interact. I guess it is also about communicating with people. Can I call it peo-blogging ( people-blogging)? I don’t have many blogs, five at Blogger and two at Wordpres! When I started to blog, which is the way how to learn the blogging process, I wasn’t aware of the dozens of the world-wide-windows that keep on opening with every blog post I add, or every post I read. I blog because blogging have changed my life and it will keep on giving me a better life, with other bloggers!!
Dear Hala,
So true that we have no idea on how many windows we’re opening through blogging in figurative and literal language!
The ongoing conversation in a blog where everybody gets a chance to participate and share ideas is the best thing a Blog provides.