My schedule got all wonky today. An old/new client postponed a meeting and a rush project came to a screeching halt (for the moment). I don’t mind. I always have plenty of projects going on and appreciate the opportunity to pick the one I feel like working on vs. the one on deadline.

While working a bit on my home-study web content/copywriting course, I got to the part about generating ideas. That led me to start a blog post about finding content in the everyday, which led me to thinking about blogs I like and why, which led me to revising my original post to the one you’re reading now.

Whew. A bit circuitous, but that’s how ideas work most times.

And it proves my point, which is that by writing about something very ordinary that happened to me (working a blog post), I can share an idea that may prove helpful to you (write about your everyday life no matter who you are or what your blog is about).

My favorite bloggers do just that. Leo Babauta, Brian Clark and Alaina Sheer continually, constantly and consistently write stuff worth reading because they write about their lives and how it relates to you and to me.

Business and political blogs, on the other hand, have a tendency to slog, drone and drag their way through post after post with a self-serving agenda.

Who wants to read that?

So I propose a business and political blog revolution.

I propose that business and political bloggers (CEOs, politicians, their ghostwriters and the like) stop writing about their business or agenda — and start writing about their life and the application of it to the rest of us.

Wouldn’t it be more interesting to read about Carly Fiorina the woman on the campaign trail than to read a deadly, dull post that goes something like this: “During this morning’s event, Fiorina rode in a parade vehicle alongside Huntington Beach City Councilman Gil Coerper; Councilman Coerper’s son, Major Michael Coerper …”

Oh, joy and rapture. Carly road in a parade vehicle. (Who even talks like that?)

Instead, do what Carly doesn’t do and use your blog to let people live inside your world (at least part of it for a little while).

Tell us something personal and meaningful and then make a point about it.

Let us get to know you, the person with ideas — instead force-feeding us the prim, proper and staid persona you want to project.

Agree or disagree?

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Four years ago this July, I left my job at Resource Interactive, launched my business, and welcomed two adorable kittens into my life.

They’re no Sockington, but my two fur babies, Bailey and Avery, bring me daily doses of love, joy and delight.

Avery likes to stand on her head and be petted (but never held) and Bailey is what we affectionately refer to as a lap whore because she jumps into our laps even when we’re standing up. (Yeowch! Those back claws are killer.)

And every day of every year for the past four years, one or the other of them drags a certain toy we call their “baby” through the house, meowing and yowling along the way.

This baby is (I should say was) a white, feathery puff that I once used to dust on sparkly body powder. They confiscated it from me, claimed it as their own, and now drag it through the house with said howling in order to “gift” it to us as a presumed token of their affection.

I wash it. I sew it. I repair it. But over the years it’s gone from intact to unraveled and now thread-bare. But they love it; and so we hang onto it though its natural life ended long, long ago.

The baby, which today is literally hanging on by its last thread, made me wonder: What do we hang onto that’s comfortable, yet tattered and worn? What are we afraid to let go of?

In writing and communications, it’s often what we call “the little darlings,” the words and phrases and stories that we love and try to force-fit into our prose, often to its detriment. In life, it can be relationships, habits, jobs or shouldas/wouldas/couldas.

Perhaps today is the day to let go of something we’ve been hanging onto. What will you let go of?

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Creating a visual image through words while connecting with your audience on a real and personal level is what storytelling is all about.

And storytelling is not only possible in business … it’s desirable.

Using interesting and honest details to provide the who, what, when, where, why and how of your company, product or service will make your story worth listening to.

Stuck telling your story? Start by telling it to a friend, colleague or coworker. Pretend you’re trying to entertain someone at a party. Say what you really want to say rather than what you think you should say (or what your legal department or boss would like you to say).

Record your story and then transcribe it to use as your first draft.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how you get to the story – only THAT you get to it.

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As most of my readers know, I’m a HUGE fan of the swipe file. So why it took me so long to find and use Evernote, I’ll never know.

I’ve had it on my iPhone for weeks now and only started using it last night started. Wowza! This is the electronic swipe file application I dreamed up in my head in the late 80s. Seriously.

Now there’s no excuse not to start and keep a swipe file. And Evernote makes it far easier to sort and find that little piece of information you just know you put somewhere.

I refer to my swipe file several times a month but I recently purged my office and made the mistake of purging some things I hadn’t used in years — just to save file cabinet space. Had I scanned it and put it on Evernote, well, you see where this is going. I would’ve had what I needed.

That’s it. Just wanted to make you aware of Evernote if you weren’t already. I’m off to start filling up my own Evernote swipe file …

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