During the post-meeting networking portion of a recent BNI meeting, one of the other members asked me for some time to help her with her blog. Eden is the Marketing Manager of an advanced IT solutions company – but that’s not what she wanted help with. She wanted help with her personal blog.
So we scheduled time to meet over drinks. When we got together, I learned that Eden’s personal blog is Girlfriend’s Guide to Baseball – “I could have a problem here,” was an early thought. I help my clients with blogs about their business, and the blogs we create explain things: the actual business, the industry, special processes they use, and so forth. My blog topics are generally informative and educational, what do I know about surviving baseball?
Actually, I know more than you might think, seeing as I married a rabid San Francisco Giants fan. Yet, I wasn’t sure that was going to be enough to be helpful. But, hey, I had a mojito, she had a sangria, let’s have some fun!
FYI, my baseball survival tip is TiVo, and maybe Eden will write about that someday – or not.
Once we started talking, I noticed Eden was writing notes. She ended up with a couple of pages of “ideas” for her blog. From my perspective, it seemed like we spent more time talking about our significant others, how insane they are, and how insane they can drive us. But, like I said, Eden ended up with notes, so she must have had a different take on the whole thing.
What I took away from the experience was a renewed appreciation for the random third party. I’m normally that random third party, as I was for Eden, and I use that fact as a selling point. Somehow, though, I needed the reminder of how useful that role is for “out of the box thinking” (I am really NOT a fan of that term). That I can help my friend come up with new topics around surviving baseball season reminded me that maybe she can help me come up with blog topics for myself over another brainstorming session.
The lesson I hope you take away from this blog is that when you’re stuck, calling in a friend for a drink and focused conversation can do wonders for getting you going again. (The drink with the friend is good; however, it’s the focused conversation on the topic that will get you unstuck.)