After reading day before yesterday’s post, someone asked me, “Sunil, why even bother with your blog and podcast when you’ve decided to just focus on your executive leadership career?” Without a doubt, a solid question and something most followers of this blog might be wondering themselves.
I don’t think our career choices have to be in harmony with our creative pursuits. Writing is one such activity that allows me to be creative and critical with my thinking. It’s not an activity I “picked up” for content marketing but out of this burning desire to express myself through words, to help me think better, and document my journey through life’s ups and downs.
I think every ambitious person out there should be blogging or podcasting or do both, not for marketing purposes but self-exploration and creating blueprints for others to follow. Doing so will not only make you a better professional (with a myriad of invaluable skill-sets) but also a great person.
Think about your favourite entrepreneur or a business leader whom you admire. Imagine reading their blogs or listening to their podcast that gets updated every week (every day?). What are the chances that you will get influenced and inspired to take action on some of the suggestions they share? I can say pretty high.
That’s precisely why someone like me would show up every day to share my thoughts on things that matter to me. Who knows what might inspire you to take massive action that can literally change the course of your life? Of course, nobody can plan for outcomes; they happen. But taking action is the first step, and for me, that’s expressing myself fully, without any filters.
I have also observed that most business executives don’t blog or podcast as much as they should. Sure, they might not have the time to do so or perhaps, they’re juggling with a thousand other important stuff vying for their attention, or it’s just a PR thing — too risky to communicate. I get it. But it’s a missed opportunity for these leaders to directly influence and speak with an audience that follows, respects, and values their opinion.
One might argue that social media is where most leaders would hang out, owing to the content’s shorter form, sharable, and fungible nature. That makes sense, and I would love to go further by curating what’s going into the socials into something personal, forever, and one that you have total control over, like a blog or a website.
The ability to reference back to something that you might have said five years before is of tremendous value. Most don’t realize this until they look for something they have read or heard somewhere. And you and I know, a search like that is rarely successful and time-consuming.
My argument here is that writing a blog or producing a podcast doesn’t have to be a “content creation” activity regardless of one’s career path. We must start to think of these as fundamental pursuits geared towards self-growth, communication, documentation, and a reference for the future.
And if following the journey of an up and coming business executive sounds exciting, subscribe to this blog. Do share the website link with someone who benefits from my rants, random thoughts, and ideas of leadership and communication.