Hello there! Earlier today I started this blog.
Here’s the exciting (to me at any rate) sort-of narrative of events:
I bought the domain name on Godaddy after making sure it was still available (since I got the idea of this blog a month ago and looked up the domain, even though it may sound dumb, I was just the slightest bit concerned about someone coming in and buying the domain before I did –having read a rumor that this can happen ). To pay for the domain, instead of just buying it right away, I waited until I literally set aside $12 for this purpose (I will talk more about my meticulous money management strategies later). The money was available a few days ago, but I was playing for an all-consuming musical theater gig for the past few days. Also, today I have the house to myself (outside of our two cats) since my wife is at a conference. So I guess this morning was the first chance I had to really focus on a new creative project. So I checked on GoDaddy and saw that the domain was still available, bought it, and immediately set WordPress up on it. And there followed a few hours of finessing my first blog post, publishing it…
..And here I am back at it. I still haven’t shared this blog with anyone (Not even my wife, but I told her about it). I guess what it probably is fear of failing. Because I realize I have absolutely no idea what the hell I am doing. All I know is, I’m willing to give it a whirl anyway.
You see, I have learned that people who do significant things usually don’t know what the hell they are doing. At least, not completely. They may have hunches. They have some of the plan in place. But mostly, they don’t know what is going to happen. The author starts the novel not knowing the ending. The composer writes the opening of the concerto without knowing how to orchestrate it. Or the businessman doesn’t know yet how to deliver some product to the masses. Yet.
But these things still get done! It’s because people are willing to try ANYWAY, they are willing to get started. And they don’t worry about that scary little word that finished my last paragraph. “Yet.” They don’t worry if they don’t know it all YET. They don’t get stopped if they don’t know how to handle it all YET. They don’t get paralyzed thinking they don’t know what to do once they cross that bridge. YET.
They do it anyway. And then they find out.
As for the word “marketing” I use up in my post title, I think that word is appropriate because I really do want this blog to be “marketed” to people. As in, “to reach market.” Ie to reach an audience. But unfortunately, I have no frigging/flipping/fucking clue how to reach market (yes I crossed the bad language barrier! This blog officially now has an R-rating). I have been reading about marketing for years, the promises of Internet marketing, all that jazz, and it still completely befuddles me.
That’s okay.
To be honest, it kinda feels good to just tell the truth. That is partly (or mostly, perhaps?) why I decided to write this blog. Because it’s an outlet for me to tell the truth… er, at least, whatever feels true in the moment. I don’t promise absolute truth, but it feels kinda good to say, “I have no idea how to do this” and then just let it go, like a bird I need not keep trapped in my office (I would have to let it out through the back door, since the windows don’t open in here).
The fact is, I may not really have figured out this “Marketing thing” that all the marketing gurus wax on about, but I do know how to do a few things. First, I know how to write. At least, write a discursive, hopefully-interesting thought piece like this. Secondly, I know what I have learned about life and happiness so far. And what I have learned is, it’s better to just get started.
So here goes another one.