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Why I blog, circa 2011 (and about ‘real books’)

April 18, 2011 by Rosa Say

Fellow blogger Becky Robinson writes, “Clicking the publish button on a new post always requires me to muster both faith and courage.” She also shares, “Here’s another confession: apart from the fun of blogging, I am not clear about why I am doing it.”

I’m with Becky; writing a blog is fun. And I can relate to doing something because you sense it’s good for you, without being completely clear on how or why, and having trust in the process — even when it takes faith and courage.

However Becky got to me wonder if it’s time that I share more of my present day reasons with you as well, especially since I never hesitate to encourage others to blog too. Case in point: Write your story of leadership. I haven’t done a meta-blogging article like this for quite a while (a post about blogging), feeling I’ve adequately covered it in the past — there’s a bunch of them in the archives, from the earlier years of Talking Story. But I suppose that’s a little naive. Things change. The world changes, and with it the ecosystem on the internet changes, as does my purpose, and yours.

This isn’t what all the “how to blog” coaches out there are likely to agree with, for their common teaching is that a blog should be written for the reader, and not for the writer. But that’s them, this is me, I’m not looking to monetize my blog, and though I took a lot of their advice early on, this is my truth about blogging today — it’s the pono background you deserve as my generous readers, gifting me with your attention as you do.

My blog is for me, my books are for you

Though it hasn’t always been like this, and you may get a different feeling when you dig into the archives, my blogging now is for me, even in welcoming conversation with you as it does, so that my books can be for you. I went through a number of years blogging, here at Talking Story and elsewhere as guest and columnist, with Managing with Aloha all the book I felt I needed, because I worked with it so actively in my coaching business (and still do). But I’ve continued to learn more as the years go by, as we all do, and now that Managing with Aloha is seven years published for me personally, I feel it’s time for me to get back to book writing.

Book publishing has changed dramatically, and in the past year I’ve stuck with ebook publishing as my learning process about what that entails, however I plan to do both with the manuscript I’m working on now, releasing it in both ebook and printed book form. For me, as a publisher of managerial business writing, there is a good, better, best continuum that goes like this:
Blog posts ~ good. Ebooks ~ better. Books ~ best.

And not just for me as a publisher, but as a reader too. That’s why you’ve seen me get back to sharing more book reviews here with you lately, with as-they-happen updates shared on Goodreads. I’m working at improving the inputs I take in with reading, feeling that:

Blog posts (and most ‘online journalism’ today) ~ good reading, good sharing.
Ebooks ~ better reading, better exploring.
Print Books ~ best of all for true learning.

Tab it and mark it up!

A ‘real book’ is more substantial. It’s something we want printed, because it represents this very tangible filing cabinet of learning which started out as the author’s learning, but became ours too. Both author and reader will invest substantially more energy in a book, and that investment pays off with far greater rewards.

Managing with Aloha represents over three decades of work experience for me, back to the first job I ever had. The book I am working on now, will cover some specific workplace experiences I have had between 1989 and today.

Work should be relevant and useful for you

Even the ‘work’ it takes for you to read, or write. Mine certainly is. It’s all part of Ho‘ohana (chapter 2 in Managing with Aloha: here’s the free book excerpt).

As my blog, Talking Story circa 2011 is a combination of current commentary on our world of work, what I read and learn about, and a drafting of the way I write to make sense of it all. Said another way, it’s a book germinating laboratory for me today. I blog to draft publicly because I enjoy inviting you into the early part of the process, so your feedback, our conversations, can be incorporated into my thoughts too; it’s a kind of rudimentary collaboration. But I know that my blogging will not give most blog-reading managers the complete “how-to” they might be looking for help with, and that’s why I want to write more books.

I feel there is a void out there for managers today, especially in an economic climate where good professional training has been cut from business budgets, and unfortunately, is still considered a luxury, as short-sighted and naive as that is. Books can help as an affordable option; they certainly help me learn! Substantial books as I’ve described them, books that are more relevant, practical and useful, aren’t easy to find for the Alaka‘i manager, and I want to help in the best way I’m able to.

Offering book reviews, of books I have read and can recommend, is one way. Writing books myself is another.

You know how I feel: In my view, there is no good leadership without great management, at least not in today’s prevalent organizational business models (though that can change in our future, a change I’d welcome). Management is a profound responsibility, and it’s not for everyone. It’s a calling when done in the with Aloha way, not a place-holder on an org chart designed for business efficiency over and above talent development. I’m honest and vocal about telling people who manage for reasons of career climbing to get out of management as their temporary occupation as soon as they can, because they’re probably creating too many casualties along the way, instead of developing other people like managers are supposed to.

It all gets back to Kuleana, the personal responsibility we accept

I feel pretty blessed in knowing where my stronger activities lie as a writer, with ‘managing with aloha’ now more than book, and the threading theme coursing through the various business topics I’ll write about. It’s the heart of everything. I know how writing connects to my thinking, and my accomplishments, with the values-based philosophy of MWA grounding me as my Nānā i ke kumu (spirit source, wellspring, and sense of place).

I never get writer’s block, and more than anything else, my literary life is a constant search for more time to simply sit and write, versus coaching and speaking for hire, and the rest of day-to-day living. I’m rarely looking for blog topics to share with you, in fact, what usually happens is that I hold myself back or add finds to my Tumblr, fearing that I’m flooding your sensibilities with way too much early thinking on my part. I often feel I need to be more selective about when I hit that publish button here on the blog. Along the way, there is stuff that drops out of the queue, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I stop thinking about it, and it may come back in a book when its time has arrived.

Talking Story is now 7 years old, amazing really, and I’ve gotten past the newbie blogger’s anxiousness to hit publish too quickly. I do sleep on posts, queue them up in better order, revising and editing several times along the way, however I eventually let it go as a blog post, knowing full well it’s a draft of thought in process. Hopefully, you accept my invitation, and step into the laboratory because it’s enough to get you thinking about a comment you can share at times too, allowing me to be Mea Ho‘okipa in hosting this conversation platform for you.

I resist publishing blog posts until they feel ‘good’ to me in that continuum I mentioned. I want my book manuscripts to move through better and onto best. I have a much higher expectation with them, and I’m sure you do too.

The more you read, the greater the context

Read back over the last few paragraphs in the previous section, and it’s fairly obvious — I this, I that. I, I, I, and my Ho‘ohana responsibility in a blog post written about me in this blogging purpose. However please know I am very sincere about writing my books for you.

I had some hesitation in writing this post at all, for I hope you’ll stick around, and stay with me through this part of the collaborative process too. But I know that my books are better written, and better for you when reading time is at a premium, as it is for us all. This expectation has actually been a change for me over the course of my blog years too; I love when you read Talking Story and participate here, but I no longer expect it as unreasonably as I once did.

I shared a draft of this post with someone who I know reads Talking Story faithfully, and she disagreed with me completely as to the absence of more how-to’s here. However, I suspect she disagreed with me because she has already read my ebooks, and actively uses MWA with her workplace team in the value mapping process. For that’s when your blog reading changes here: You have the context of more backstory, more learning curation you’ve already journeyed through. You’ve connected reading to personally experimenting, and to gaining your experience through chosen action. As one of my haumana (students), you can easily get more of the how-to that actually is here, how-to that other people will miss.

Reading choices, with more help in the choosing

So I’ll end this post with an honest pitch for the 1 book and 3 ebooks I have written so far. 3 need to be purchased, and 1 is free, but free is subjective, isn’t it… the how-to within it is extensive, and you have to do the work it proposes to get the most out of it.

My intention with ebooks going forward, is that they fall into the $4.99 or less price point, to package one concept at a time — just as Value Your Month to Value Your Life did for the MWA m.o. of value alignment, with value-mapping the how-to. I’m quite proud of Business Thinking with Aloha, and had released it as a more robust ebook to get the distribution started in expanding the collaborative laboratory possible in exploring it more fully, suspecting it could be ‘real book’ one day in the league of MWA. It’s somewhat of an ebook experiment unto itself for now, for the big advantage to ebooks as essays, are that they can be so easily revised and updated as their ideas are further developed.

So on to the suggested reading… Those were my intentions, and what follows is what I published them as for YOU. (see all the dust jackets on my book page. I keep the link up in the blog banner.)

  • Please start with MWA ~ Managing with Aloha. You can get it in hardcover, or on Kindle.
  • Then, if MWA resonates, and you share these beliefs, deciding to answer your calling for managing others well, download Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks from Smashwords. It’s the free one, and I wrote it for people who opt for self-coaching; hiring me for personal coaching and attending my workshops are not options for them. Thus reading annotation to learn and retain is a key part of that self-coaching process (as you are starting to see me do more visibly here on the blog with my own book reviews for others).
  • If you’re looking for a more immediate start with your MWA practice, buy Value Your Month to Value Your Life. The how-to within it is value-mapping within the workplace, and it will help you see more how-to relevance in the rest of the OIB business model as it is discussed both within MWA and here on the blog. If blog posts are all you have read from me so far, this is also your shortest ebook choice. I think it’s a very good companion to the 5-week program too, helping you create an atmosphere conducive to your Ho‘ohana. Choose from Smashwords or Kindle.
  • The Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks program is an in depth study. If you decide it’s a bit much for you, consider warming up with Business Thinking with Aloha, for I wrote that ebook visualizing college graduates and other early job seekers as my audience, as a ‘business of life Thought Kit’ they can consider framing their job experience with, as they learn on the job. The framing how-to within it is based on the 9 Key Concepts (linked below). Choose from Smashwords or Kindle.

BTWA features the 9 Key Learning Concepts of MWA.
Blog page: Learning Managing with Aloha: 9 Key Concepts

The next book

So that book I mentioned writing right now” I hope to have it out soon, very soon. My first draft of the full manuscript is complete, and I’m in edit process, hoping to make it shorter and not longer. I’ve been writing it since January, having started it the day after I published Value Your Month to Value Your Life, and in my Ha‘aha‘a humble yet Aloha biased view, it will be the ultimate how-to for managing people in an extremely generous way — even if the manager who reads it decides that the full workplace bench press of the Managing with Aloha OIB (‘Ohana in Business model) isn’t for them.

The book will also launch a new coaching program I hope to have in place this summer with Ruzuku.

Stay tuned, and know that as a Talking Story reader, you’ve already been an important part of it, a very important part. Thank you.

Kindle, a year later

February 3, 2011 by Rosa Say

January 11th was my Kindle’s first birthday. I’d bought it for myself using a Christmas 2009 bounty of Amazon.com gift cards, and with each book I kindle I remember those who gave them to me with increasing thankfulness.

Ralph Ellison on the Kindle

I admit that I had an author’s motive with buying a Kindle at first, and not purely a reader’s. I was long overdue in getting Managing with Aloha reformatted for e-reading, and I wanted to understand the entire Kindle phenomenon as I set about to get the chore done. The first book I downloaded to read on the Kindle was Daniel Pink’s Drive, the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” oh the appropriate irony of it all.

You don’t curl up with a Kindle compared to a book, at least I don’t, but it’s still great reading. It’s a different experience, one which is more lightweight-mobile and focus-efficient for me, and I now shake my head at the scarcity thinking when I hear the separate camps of those who defend the timeless honor of “real books” versus those who delight in being completely ebook savvy: Why not enjoy both?

“When the only tool you own is a hammer,
every problem begins to resemble a nail.”

—Abraham Maslow

A year later, ‘kindle’ has become another verb for me: I’ll say I kindle a book to mean I road-tested it (being able to sample books on Kindle is a fabulous feature), and then opted to buy the complete download for the fast (and still satisfying) read without much die hard annotating: I don’t add many notes or highlights to my Kindle books — I’m iPhone spoiled, and not a fan of the Kindle keyboard.

I initially expected I’d have all fiction on my Kindle and keep buying my non-fiction choices, feeling there was more to study within the art and science of business, but no. That’s a statement which gets fiction lovers everywhere to scoff at my small mindedness — and they’re right. Unless it’s of the pure trash variety, all reading is likely to teach you something. Miraculously, it’s often teaching you more about what you think — revelations about your personal values abound.

I still buy books for three main reasons, and I’m quite sure I’ll continue doing so:

  1. I suspect they will be real thought provocateurs, those books I want to keep as a mini filing cabinet of my annotations
  2. They are books which are beautiful for hand and eye: They have more poetic journal potential, or are visually inspirational
  3. They are impulse buys from sales tables (even though the Kindle price may still be cheaper). You’ve gotta let books come to you as they will. Sometimes this works the opposite way too: I preview the book somewhere, then decide it’s one better kindled.

There is a 4th reason too: The book will be a gift I share with another reader.

If you give a reader a Kindle (or Nook, or another e-reader) do load it up with a book or two so they can try it right away: You’ll move quickly from them thanking you for the gift, to having a conversation about the book, and that’s the cherry atop the reading.

Reading on a bike break

Value Your Month to Value Your Life

January 12, 2011 by Rosa Say

Now shipping!

This is what you, and blogging here within our Talking Story community can Ho‘o — make happen…

Book Jacket for Value Mapping


Now published on Smashwords:
Synopsis ~
This ebook will teach you about Value Mapping, a learning/doing process within the Managing with Aloha philosophy of worthwhile work. In building values-based habits you develop a way of belief-aligned living wherein good begets good, beginning with the inherent truths which already reside within you.

YOU know how this happened…

Started by declaring 2011 the Year of Better Habits.
Then you sent me a question about the Value Your Month to Value Your Life program I’d done before.
Answering that question spun off into a collection of 5 more posts.

Then I started thinking.

I’m always encouraging all of you to finish well.
I should lead by setting a good example.

So I dumped those 5 value alignment posts into a new document, cleaned them up with healthy doses of additional information, and wrote a brand new 7,505 ebook (about 18 pages as a PDF). Here’s what it includes:

Table of Contents:
Prologue: Our Values Vocabulary
Introduction: The Managing with Aloha Story
Chapter 1 – At the Heart of the Matter: Our Values
Chapter 2 – Where did our values come from?
Chapter 3 – Value Immersion and Value Steering
Chapter 4 – The Logistics of Value Immersion
Chapter 5 – Your Projects with Value Steering
Chapter 6 – The Logistics of Value Steering
Chapter 7 – Take a Stand and Learn More
Addendum: 19 Values for Value Mapping

It’s selling on Smashwords for $4.99. If you have a Kindle I’m especially loving how it turned out in that format, however you’ll have to get it from Smashwords for now (very easy… how-to here. Be sure you open the documents folder in your Kindle).

January 14 Update: For those who prefer grabbing it from Amazon.com, Value Your Month to Value Your Life has is now available on Kindle, and listed with the rest of my kindling :)

One more thing: Thank you so much for pushing me to be better as you do.
I think you’ll especially like what I’ve added in that 19-value addendum: Each MWA value has application suggestions for either value immersion, value steering, or both.

Yeah… my Year of Better Habits? Already is.

What shall we do next?

Imagine having a Thought Kit

May 3, 2010 by Rosa Say

Last week I encouraged you to Embrace your Systems Thinker. Well, when it comes to THINKING there is so much more nurturing of it we all can do!

“What did you learn today Ralph?
Did you learn what to believe or did you learn how to think?”

— The questions Nathra Nader posed to his then ten-year-old son, Ralph Nader
when he came home from school
From The Tradition of Education and Argument, The Seventeen Traditions

The thinking I’ve been doing lately is about kit creating. It’s thinking, and writing which has spun off into a brand new book!
(If the photo doesn’t pop up for you in your reader, please click in to see it!)

Publisher’s Synopsis:

Become a Business Thinker.

Re-imagine work, and gain better control of your life as you do so, even if you never decide to go into business for yourself. Adopting and adapting a business mindset opens up your options, helping you feel confident, connected and in-the-know. This book presents the business thinker’s possibility for a new working attitude with a values-based bonus: the coaching of the Managing with Aloha movement.

Purchasing Options:

Business Thinking with Aloha is now available on Smashwords, within their Premium Catalog: I hope you’ll take the time to check it out, for you can sample 40% of the book for free there, and then choose from eight different reading options, including Kindle.

A note for Kindle owners: Business Thinking with Aloha is also available in the Amazon Kindle Store, however the sample size may be shorter. You can find instructions at this link on purchasing Kindle downloads from Smashwords.

A note for Business Thinkers: Smashwords does have an affiliate program you can check out too! Become an affiliate.

Why Ship So Soon?

I know this seems to come rather quickly on the heels of Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks, yet very naturally so from my perspective. My reasons for publishing the two books align: Both offer Take 5 coaching programs. Both have strong connection to the evolution of  Managing with Aloha in response to the challenges we face in today’s economic climate.

Business Thinking with Aloha (BTWA) is written for the person who has not read either Managing with Aloha or its new how-to guide for Alaka‘i Managers, and who may also be meeting me for the very first time.

As you know dear readers, I write quite a bit, and for a variety of different audiences. Out of everything I have written, this is the mini book I wrote with both of my children in mind (they’re young adults now, ages 26 and 23), and because I felt compelled to be part of the solution for our workforce challenges. I’ve asked them to read this, and share it with their friends and contemporaries, because I want them to have a healthy relationship with work; they’ll be tackling a lot of it! I want them to be inquisitive young adults who seek to shape their world in the best possible way, loving life as they do so, and fully cognizant of how powerful they are with creating their own destiny. Life needn’t just happen to them; they can navigate their choices skillfully and design it.

So can you. As I wrote BTWA I also thought of it as a way I could help the Alaka‘i Manager who would like to give their employees a gift as suggested reading, i.e. something in full alignment and support of what that manager is seeking to learn in their own self-development: I asked myself, “As a manager grows, what lighter, but parallel path can their staff start with?” and Become a Business Thinker became a possible answer.

If you are already into the reading and application of Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks, I suggest you finish that one first. You will then find that BTWA works great as a follow-up which takes you deeper into the 9 Key Concepts, and where Become had ended — and you’ll likely be the person who gains the most benefit from it. Consider BTWA number 4 to this posting: The 1-2-3 journey of Alaka‘i Managers.

Business Thinking with Aloha is a shorter book (it’s about a fourth the reading time of MWA). I think it offers  fabulous utility, an ever-present goal of my work, and I hope you will agree. Go on, grab your sampling today and take a look!

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