Why Write?

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity, a guide that shares my story of interviewing small business owners in Austin, Texas, and a guide to help anyone anywhere interested in doing a similar project in their own local community. This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project.

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Why Write?

Grammar is to writer what anatomy is to a sculptor, or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered, it will support you like a rock. — -B.J Chute.

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Okay, first thing, we are not talking about grammar, not entirely. Yeah, it will come in handy later, but let me draw a bit from the quote above.

Writing is a ‘flesher’ of thoughts. It brings order to things said, and is one of the greatest skills you can develop. Anything that has to be put into writing challenges the writer to think carefully — he has to put one word after the other to make a point — and brings out what’s not necessarily clear.

Why not just say it, you may ask? Well, you could, but the spoken word unless written down gets taken up by the air, and though could be collected in the memory, in time the memory fades. So to rely on it is to leave you scratching your head when it comes time to recollect it for use. Herein comes the point of this saying: A short pencil is better than a long memory.

But in saying this, for our purposes here, I do mean excellent writing. I mean a decent record of your thoughts that others can read and see what you mean, and at this point mistakes are allowed. This is why I do not stress grammar, but the ability to start practicing now.

Marco Polo

Okay, let’s look back a little. Let’s see why you know Marco Polo, or the Marco Polo sheep:

Growing up as a kid, I heard a bit of the Marco Polo sheep but didn’t quite understand why the sheep was so named. Later in life, I read a piece somewhere of Marco Polo, and why he is renowned worldwide for his documentation of his travels to Asia, and how his book — “The Travels Of Marco Polo”— was Europe’s introduction to Central Asia and China.
But wait, was he the first, or was he the most knowledgeable about that region of the world, at the time? Enter Wikipedia:

Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China (see Europeans in Medieval China), but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travellers. There is a substantial literature based on Polo’s writings; he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map. — Wikipedia

There, is the power of the pen, which is said to be mightier than the sword. Well, in our day, it will be punching the keyboard, right?
Yet you may say to me, “Kingston, nah, I am not Marco Polo, I am not that big.” Well, we all have to start somewhere, right? We all can’t be great from the outset. We have to start where we are, though; use what we have, build a muscle for whatever skill we desire, and see what opportunities come our way to use it. I am sure Marco started writing, or had a great appreciation for it at a much earlier time before he penned the famous book. Plus, his expedition to Central China or Asia, in a large sense, was a project, too.

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What About This Project?

In this case of a project, how useful is writing? One, it’s a way of creating a story for yourself while you go about the project. There are many things that will happen during the project, and not recording it means a lot is lost along the way. I see value in all things, and so the chance to record my discoveries, conversations, observations, and even mistakes, gives me a record to look back on. This record is a store of things to learn from, things to improve on, and proof that this actually happened.

Two, you need a platform. This is why I talk about starting a blog. When you start a project like this one, with the few people you may share it with or who will know about it ( or even the professionals you end up interviewing), they will like to follow your progress, and reading is how they do that.

So in that sense, reading is how they consume what you are creating. Reading, then, is consumption. It’s like eating, and proper eating demands that food be served on a plate. Your project is a service you are rendering to others. Serve it on plate, a platform — which is simply a “form” of “plate,” and writing is the tool you use to put it on that platform.

This very book you are reading itself is a platform. There has to be a ground upon which I share my story and the lessons. The story is my ground, and the book is my writing pad, my platform, and I typed the words onto the “plate.”
Three, writing on a platform like a blog, sets you up to share your findings. The project will lead you to discoveries, not only about your neighborhood, people, or situations, but your own self. Make sure you note those. And when you will like to share some of these, a blog gives you a tool with share buttons ( Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and others) to easily distribute it.

Also, the more you write, do projects, and share your thoughts, the more the right people will come to you. The reason people are hesitant to come to connect with others is a lack of information. Lack of information is like walking in the dark. Few people like that. Knowledge is light, and the more you share, the more people know about you, and makes it easy for others to decide how to connect to you. This is how writing improves your chances of getting where you want to get by connecting you to the right people.
The president of the United States, president Barack Obama, is a writer. I have heard stories here and there about how he sometimes writes his own speeches. How does being a writer help him? Well, in a few key ways.
I’m sure some folks read his books — “Dreams From My Father” and “ The Audacity Of Hope” — especially during his first campaign for president, and saw his thinking process. They checked if they agreed with him or not on most issues at play. For those who did, they easily voted for him. That — writing, someway, somehow, helped pave the way for his election. It supported him and connected him to the right people.

So it is with all of us. Your ability to gather your thoughts, package it, and use it to make a point is a rare skill. Not everyone can do that. But you can start small, and with a project that you enjoy, and can write all about it. In time, you’ll get better.

Even the great God Himself who created all things, when He sought to record His thoughts, He put it in a book for men to read. This is how we know His will. 

End Of Sample

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This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project. For free updates and sample chapters as I build the book, go here.

7 Steps To A Local Interview Project

1. Get Ready, Get Clear
   

Get ready by deciding what you are interested, or what you’d like to learn about — this is key because almost all of your time on earth should be spent harnessing your gifts and talents, and what interests you are clues to it. After this, figure out if there are people already in your neighborhood/ or close to you who are already doing something similar or the same thing. If not turn the tables and pick a few worthy folks you are not already friends with and interview them on their thoughts on something you are passionate about.

A good example will be interviewing people about my desire for a local “little or no sugar” bakery/pastry shop. An interview like this validates the idea and gets people thinking about it.

One of my questions will be this: If a shop like that existed in Austin, would you come check it out? If they say “yes,” I would go on to keep them in mind if I end up doing something about my desire. My next question would be this: Okay, this is not a promise, but if I end up starting something like that would mind that I let you know?
Based on the response I get, this gives me a chance to get peoples opinion and a decent list of people to contact if I were to go through with it. Anything is possible.

Why a “little sugar or no sugar pastry shop”? Well, I love pastries but dislike how almost the pastry shops I go to have very little options for people like me, so I have thought about starting a shop like that in Austin. You could have a similar desire, or one entirely different, but starting a conversation about it can lead to interesting results.

But back to the scenario where you have people in your neighborhood who are already doing something you want to learn about. This was my case with small business. Start with them.

How do you reach them, though, and upon what grounds?
This is where you build a platform. When I say a platform, I mean creating a basis for why you would like to interview them.

This was my platform: To hear and document the stories of small business owners in Austin, Texas. To learn from it myself, share it with others — on my blog (I talk about that below) and online, and possibly be of help in one way or another.

This is a sensible platform and it’s win-win — I want to learn, provide value, help, and share the lessons. With this sort of clarity, you can start a conversation with almost anyone.

2. Go

Now, it’s time to go. With you blog set up, a clear platform in mind, and a few useful tools, you all set to get out there in your local community and talk to people.

I assume that you do know your local community fairly well, or at least know where to find people. With this fair understanding of your local community, or where the pros you’d like interview hang out, decide how you’d like to contact them. Will you make contact in person, via phone, or via email? 

I chose in person by walking up to the shops directly and introducing myself and sharing the purpose of my project — -it’s more weighty, and shows seriousness.

Now, go out and meet them.

3. Connect

Whether you contact your prospects — the people you’d like to interview — in person, by email, or by phone, on your first encounter present your idea or grounds for why you’d like to interview them. In other words, your reason for connection.
This again goes back to the platform you set in step 1.

An example, in person: Hi, my name is Kingston, and I’m currently doing a 21-Day project of interviewing small business owners in Austin about their journeys as business owners and what makes them unique. The hope is to document it, share it on my blog and online, and learn from it myself. Would you have 20–30 minutes to share your story with me?
With this mini presentation, most business will ask a few questions to get to know, or check out your blog, and try to find a good time and date to sit with you. That’s the appointment setting time.

After this, you’ll decide on a date and time that works for you both. But generally, set appointments on what works for your subject and work around their time.

4. Firm Up

With an appointment set, consider it to be tentative, not set in stone. Why? That gives you a reason to make sure it happens. This is precious time, not only to you but to the business owner/ or professional, and making sure it happens is good use of time on both ends. So confirm it.
Confirm appointments via email and phone. Canceled interviews don’t happen, and time is wasted in the process. Guard against it by confirming ahead of time.

5. Chat

Do the interview. Have a guide of sorts, one that’s loose yet shows the way. Use questions that are useful to the subject and gets them to share their story. Look for lesson points by asking good questions — what was difficult in starting your profession or business? What didn’t you anticipate? How did you overcome challenges. What will you like to teach others from your story?

An interview that focused on stories always makes for a good chat. Good for the subject, since they get to talk about their own stories; and you, as it gives you a chance to know them more, brings up lessons most people can learn from, and eases the atmosphere by making it more of a conversation than a stiff interview.

Note: Every interview should be recorded. I use my smartphone’s voice recorder and a lapel microphone.

6. Write/Inform

Package the experience into words and audio. With the interview done, you not only now have an interview on record, but a story to tell as well. 

How? With each owner, you went through a process of contacting them, setting the appointment, firming it up, and then doing the interview. All this took you through some steps, emotions, encounters, even mistakes, and all this is a story you now have. Write about it.

What’s more, every interview you do will have a story behind it. So with every interview you have writing material in the form of the by-product. This is what you practice your writing with, and what gets posted on your blog.

So write about it on your blog and upload the interview to your blog and share it with others — your friends, family, online friends, and others you may know. Also inform your subject — the professional you interviewed — of the upload, and begin sharing it on social media, if you want.

7. Repeat

Rinse and repeat it for your next interview. Learn from the first one, prepare for the second one, and do it again.

Value Of Local Interview Projects

This is part of an email course I am building: Thoughts welcome.
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Let me start with a hypo a hypo example: Let’s say you want to build a school for low income children in your community. Sure you know a few people in your community. But you don’t have much money, and not many significant relationships to help you make it a reality. Where do you start?

You must at least get the idea out there, right? Why? Because you can’t do it alone. So a good way of giving yourself a chance to succeed is to start a conversation about it among people who know something about what you want to do, care about it, and know other people, and could help.

Is it a bad idea, then, to start an interview project with these people about what you want to do and how it could be useful to them? Can you discuss with them what your plans are and how you may need their help, and what they will get out of it? Can you put it in win-win terms, the conversation? And to make it more earnest, is it a good use of your time, their time, and for results if you put it into a project with a defined goal and a definite time frame?

Yet you cannot do this with your current range of relationships you have, if the project is sizable enough? This is where you will have to step outside of your comfort zone and approach people you do not have prior relationships with but know have knowledge and resources that could be useful to you. So in a sense, go out and talk to strangers. So it is with interview projects, and that’s the value of this course: People and communication skills that will come in handy for useful causes.

An interview project gives you an opportunity to pick up some valuable people and communication skills that is rarely taught at schools: stepping out of your comfort zone and engaging with others. What’s more, if you document your journey, you also strengthen you writing skill.

What else is an interview project good for?

If you were to start a project like I did (which was definitely not to build a school) and document your experience and share it online, here are a few things that you could come away with.

Initiative

It’s a show of initiative. This is good for all work positions. But if you were looking for work, this is a good notch on your resume. This doesn’t mean you should not look for work, but it gets you in a position to add to your skills besides a show of initiative, which almost all job ads require from applicants. What’s more? Write about it, document it, share it online, and when an employer were to ask, simply point them to your site (and you can get a site up in 10 minutes for free to use to do this). How many of the other job applicants can say that?

A Good Word

When your project is done, providing you conduct yourself well, and provide value to those you interviewed, they’ll likely speak well of you when you ask them to give you a recommendation on how you did your project. This is not to fake it, but when you go out there with a sincere desire to learn from others, add value to your community, learn from the experience, and possibly teach others by sharing it, you’ll definitely have a few people say a few good things about you when you need it.



     Find A Suitable Job

Looking for work? Why not turn the tables and interview employers instead. Rather than wait to get calls for interviews, why not go out and interview people who could hire you, or know others who could?
During one of my interviews — -the one with Mr. Matt Lacey — -at the end, he jokingly remarked on his desire to offer me an application to work with him. I didn't take the offer, but the reason he offered is not far-fetched. He saw my joy in talking with him, the value of my questions, and my initiative to do something like this. The same opportunity could be next door in your community, while you may be looking for work.

Discovery Opportunity

As the interviewer, the ball is in your hands, since you will be the one asking the questions: One of the questions you want to ask is what they are currently having a difficult time with. Out of 10 employers who answer this, one of them most probably will have a challenge that falls right in your wheelhouse of skills or desire, and you can offer your skills to the employer to help them solve it. You can do this after you have completed the project, or start a side gig to help them out.

Improve Your Writing Skills

I recently read in Basecamp’s book, Rework, on how they’ll recommend that business owners hire writers. Why? Life is all about communicating, and without effective communication, nothing will be done effectively. Copywriting, essays, books, even web design/programming is all language based, an ability to clearly and creatively get a point across. So write.
You may say, I’m not that good at it. Yeah, no one starts out excellently, but how do you build a skyscraper? A brick at a time, right? What about eating an elephant? A bite at a time? Okay, so is writing, as is walking, one step after another.
Also, as the saying goes, writing makes a man exact, and refines your thinking. So keep a daily journal of what happened. Few people can do this, and of those who can, few will take the trouble to: this separates you froma lot of people.

Startup Chance

Again, you’ll come across problems that some of the people you interview may be struggling with, and if you have the skills offer it to help them solve if for a fee. If you come across a problem, you can’t solve, see if you can find someone else more qualified than you are to help solve it. But probably more important than all of this is, if you find out that you will like to turn this into some sort of start-up, you can. Simply figure out how you can turn it into consistent revenue through more marketing or referrals.

Volunteer Spirit

Since you will not charge anyone anything for your time and effort, this demonstrates a good degree of a volunteer spirit — the ability to do something for another person for free. Who doesn’t like a person like that? Most employers want someone like that on their team, who can take something upon themselves without asking, and do it without asking for anything in return. Remember, almost all worthy professionals did many things for free when they first started out. Everyone would like someone like that for a friend, a coworker, or even a boss — A generous spirit is a great treasure.



       Relationships

If you do something like this, you’ll end up with relationships with people you did not know previously. Life is all about connecting, and most will come in handy later, if you genuinely set out to help them, and they in return.
Finally, this means you are giving something, and it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Give instead of receiving: Many are waiting for someone ( an employer) to give them a job, but you package a value and give it to employers instead.

Skill Gathering & Demonstration

Demonstrate some of the skills employers are looking for — -email writing, diligence, follow up, packaging ( in packaging the project), people skills, audacity, initiative, leadership, and others. This paves the way to easily show some of these skills and gather others while you are at it.
Since it may be your first, it will not go perfectly, but there’s always the opportunity rinse and repeat to for the next one.



        Take Advantage of Time

Most folks are left in the job-hunt routine for a month, 3 months, 9 months, sometimes years, and often are left without work for want of initiative. 21 days is less than 30 days, and definitely less than a year. So why take the 21 days (or less, if you will) and do something with it? It’s a win-win either way you look at it. It improves your value, exposes you to employers, gives you people to turn to for recommendation if you need it, and afterward you’ll have a better resume

      Where Do I Start?

An Important question: Where do I start, and how do I go about an interview project. My desire with this course is not only to do an interview project, but also to use it as a vehicle to explore more of what you love, and to help you get a clearer idea of what you want to do (if for some reason, that’s not already clear). To that end, first figure what you want to learn a lot about. Are there people in your local community already doing that? Start with folks in that industry.

For example, I wanted to learn about business, so I started with small business owners in my community. Get clear on yours and see how an interview project could help you learn a lot more about that and build relationships.