Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Valeria Maltoni

Valeria Maltoni's belief that talk can change our lives led her to begin Conversation Agent as a way to share ideas and build community online. Perhaps it's because being Made In Italy adds a touch of spicy, soulfulness to her writing. Or perhaps it's because Valeria's passion, focused on the human side of business, comes through in her writing, is the reason her blog resonates with so many people.

Blogger Story Teller: Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent

Connecting ideas and people – how talk can change our lives

Do you know when you do something and then look back and think: “my whole life prepared me for this moment”? That’s what blogging was for me. In early 2000 I got involved with Fast Company magazine at the readers’ network level – I had been a long-term customer of the publication and was ready to make some of the things they talked about happen.

Sure, I had been successful at creating opportunities to do that at work in corporate America, yet it still felt that designing a lab for the exchange of ideas to then take the best to market might be a good use of my time. Fast-forward 7 years and you have at least 4 solid businesses that exist today on the strength of the thinking and doing from that group. Our online community and the face-to-face forums acted as a catalyst for talent and skill to meet resources.

Last summer I was working on the recalibration of the group’s brand to incorporate the latest thinking and learning with many of the future trends of business I always brought to the fore. Still working in corporate America and looking at expanding once again my horizons, I decided that online was the way to go. It was the next way to help more people connect with ideas and other people

I was Made in Italy and I speak the language and culture of 2 continents, as well as those of 5 industries operating in more than 16 countries – it was time to take the conversation to the flat world of geographically different neighborhoods. Conversation Agent was born to extend the reach and hone the skills of an expansive mind. Learning, listening, and loving apply to the context of my daily life.

Blogger Stories: Kristen Havens

Kristen Havens began her journey into social media in 2000. As a shy but raging egomaniac writer she found blogging to be the perfect medium to express her views and opinions. Kristen found even more .. she discover that the internet is an amazing, efficient, and often quite meaningful place to find like, literate minds hanging out together and exchanging ideas and experiences. 

Blogger Story Teller: Kristen Havens, My Back Pages

When I first started blogging, around September 2000 (on a hand-coded site FTP'd to Tripod), I was an aspiring screenwriter in a new city. I had a lot of energy and hope, but not a lot of outlets -- so I did what any self-respecting social isolate would do.  I started a website to talk about it.

In those early days, blogging for me was a way of taking something long-running and private -- my self-deprecating chronicle of day-to-day aspirations and humiliations -- and turning it public. I didn't enter into the endeavor with hopes of building an online community or making friends. But as a writer and therefore a shy but raging egomaniac, I felt a burning need to express my wit to a public audience, even if it was an audience of two or three.   

Over the years, that audience of two or three grew to an audience of ten or twelve, then twenty or thirty. They followed me from the hand-coded site to Blogger, and then to Typepad. Now I have 45 Feedburner subscribers and get a modest but consistent amount of daily hits to my site.

My readership has never been large, but what it has been is loyal and life-saving, both in its offers of material and emotional support.  One reader secured me a part-time job when I was anxious for work to supplement my freelance writing.  Another -- a journalist for the L.A. Times -- sent me an email telling me one of my poems was "exhilarating".   A third referred me to his literary agent friend, who needed someone to set up and consult on a blog for one of her authors.

This third opportunity was the one that changed everything for me.  Suddenly my hobby had given me something tangible and enjoyable:  well-paid work that utilized my full suite of writing, editing and web geek skills.  As an added bonus, I was working for the publishing industry inside my apartment, in Los Angeles.  Those are two atypical statements I'm able to make within a single sentence.  I'm very lucky.

As it turned out, that initial pro blogging job lead to other jobs working with authors on social media campaigns, and it's all snowballed from there.  With the proliferation of social media sites and the rise of giants like MySpace and YouTube, suddenly everyone's aware of what I've seen first-hand since the late 90s: that the internet is an amazing, efficient, and often quite meaningful place to find like, literate minds hanging out together and exchanging ideas and experiences.

Blogger Stories: Geoff Livingston

Starting a new business is always a challenge. When Geoff Livingston launched his new marketing company the information he found on blogs not only guided him on his new path but inspired him to start his own blog. He began his blog as a way to chronicle the challenges of a small business owner. Soon he found his posts were helping people make their dreams come true too!

Blogger Story Teller: Geoff Livingston, Diary of an Ad Man

Live Blogging a Start-Up

Before starting my own company, blogging was not part of my daily life.  However, writing was a daily activity as I aspired to be a novelist.  I had gone so far as to have written two full manuscripts, as well as several other incomplete concepts.

The decision to go out on my own last spring was made quickly, and as a result, I found myself scrambling to learn everything I could about starting a company.  Most of the published material was chest-beating, “97 principles of success” in business, which I found less than interesting. One thing I came across that was absolutely useful was Pam Slim’s “Escape from Cubicle Nation,” a blog dedicated to starting your own company!

As a PR professional I needed to be aware of blogs, but this was the first time I became personally engaged.  Escape from Cubicle Nation enthralled me, and it also inspired me to start my own blog, a chronicle of the daily trials of starting a company. Thus “Diary of an Ad Man” was born.

Blogger Stories: Kristie T

Bling for websites. That's what Kristie T first thought of when she decided to launch her blog. As an at-home entrepreneur, who sometimes works in her bathrobe, Kristie found that blogging led her to a community of people who offered support, encouraged creativity and brought friendships. So much more than just a little bling!

Blogger Story Teller: Kristie T, Kristie T's Home Business Blog

In December of 2005, from the depths of a home office decorated with colorful drawings by my kids, the Kristie T Home Business blog was born.  I remember seeing that some of mom marketing friends were setting up blogs and couldn't help but thinking, "that is cool, I want one too!" It kind of felt like getting new "bling" for my website.

Blogging has opened up a whole new world to me.  Suddenly instead of feeling isolated as a lone entrepreneur I felt a real connection to my audience.  Now I could actually "touch" and communicate with the mom entrepreneurs.  I would share a story about a cool business strategy or a mommy moment and my audience was connecting back to me.  It's an amazing experience.

The high of that is like the ultimate sugar rush.  I felt like someone had uncorked my heart and information was spilling out all over into posts on my blog.  And I never feel at a loss of words.  Between what I see and experience in my daily life, what happens in the news and on other blogs, and my "blog idea basket" there's always something cool to write about.

You'd be amazed who you connect with in the blogosphere.  I blogged about my mom being presented an award in Texas for a mural she painted for the local school.  And within a few hours, a member of the Texas media contacted me asking for contact information for my mom so they could cover the event.