It has been a few weeks since I have written about my “blogging journey.” I find myself struggling to gather the motivation to write after a long day at work and I prioritize things like reading during my free time before work or during my lunch break. I am currently reading “Talking to Strangers” by Malcom Gladwell and while it is not quite what I expected, it has been a good read so far nonetheless.
I think a lot of my hesitation with writing is related to the “fear” of “wasting time” rather than “doing something productive.” The mindset that I have been trying to develop is that ANY writing, about ANYTHING, is more beneficial than not writing at all. What is the worst case scenario? I get no views? So what. I don’t expect or plan to get views anyways, at least not this early on. Writing for me has always been about expressing my thoughts and becoming better at it. At a minimum, it will help me in my personal and professional life.
With that being said though, following up on my previous post – Struggling to find a Niche – I am beginning to be strategic in my thinking when it comes to a niche. I have always been great at brainstorming but have had trouble with taking action, but I think I may have finally found something that will motivate me to take action.
My thoughts lately keep coming back to two specific ideas: sports and recruiting/nursing. Both of which will allow me to leverage my current network. If I can create contact that nurses and/or fellow recruiters want to read, I can then tap into my current network of nurses and recruiters through my current role. Additionally, my true passion has always been hockey and I have developed a decent network in the hockey media space. My passion for hockey shows in my writing and that is another spot where I feel that I could leverage my current network.
I am writing this today to help sort out my current thoughts, but also to inspire others to think about how they can leverage their current network. In my role as a healthcare recruiter, if I compiled a bunch of blog posts that would be beneficial to travel nurses and added a link to my blog in my email signature, imagine how many page views I could get right off the bat. I encourage readers to think about their current network, passion, and knowledge to determine where there is a gap in content and then to go create that content.
I am talking to myself as much as readers when I say this, but do not be afraid to leverage your network. Do not be afraid to share the content that you are making. Get past the “fear” of “being judged” and post the content you make to your website, social media accounts, etc. Writing is the first step of course, and it is a big one, but you will get viewership much more quickly if you write about what your followers want to read and then you post it for them to read.
As always, thank you for reading, and comment below if there is anything you’d like me to write about!
Matt Morrow 