Why blogging matters

My blogging journey began in 2008 when I started a charity called Knit-a-square.  It launched a movement now numbering scores of thousands of compassionate people worldwide, and in its tenth year, they are responsible for sending over 1.5 million knitted squares to my aunt in South Africa, to make blankets for orphaned children.  The story is told in a TEDx talk.

I fell in love with blogging, reaching out, telling stories, getting responses, and driving activity.  It was wonderful.  In 2010, I started a blog, Why You Must Blog for obvious reasons!  It didn’t get quite the same reaction as Knit-a-square.

Fortune intervened and a wonderful woman called Tea Silvestre reached out worldwide and asked bloggers if they would join her in what she called The Word Carnival.  Every month for more than three years, we blogged on a common business theme.  It was heaven.  Folk read, shared, tweeted and commented on our blogs.

As happens in life, things changed.  For some years, I sat on my blog, which I had come to love dearly even though it no longer served its purpose.  My professional life was transforming and now it was about stories rather than blogging.  I kept the blog, but changed it to Why Your Stories Matter. 

Now my business has further evolved.  It covers coaching, training, story telling, and speaking, and a partnership with Mahana Culture.   Still the principles remain the same across all of them, clarity, curiosity, coherence, and culture.

Having decided that these various offers needed to be housed in one website rather than four, I have none the less decided to keep my blog on Why Your Stories Matter.  Stories matter in all the work that I do.  If you are inclined, you can find my musings here or in the list to the right of my favorite blogs.