50/50.  I think that’s my success rate so far this year on this blog.  And that might even be too generous on the “success” side, I don’t know.  But I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’m offering here, and I just feel like I’ve missed the mark at least half of the time.

It all begins and ends with value.  I talk to my clients about this every day and there are many posts on these pages that talk about the same thing.  But when I step back and ask myself if I’m offering value on this blog, I don’t come away with an overwhelming majority of “yeses.”   I think now, more than ever, there are many “experts” in many fields and they all talk about things like they know it all.  I’d lump myself into this group, although I’ve never claimed to be an expert on anything.  But I’m here, in this forum, offering up my opinion and chiming in on many things.  But I think there is a big difference between talking about and actually doing.  That’s how one really becomes an “expert” – by doing.  And it’s not just a “I-did-it-once-so-I’m-an-expert” type of thing.  It’s doing it many times over a period of months and years.  Think of the 10,000 rule.

So, from this perspective, I feel like I have a lot of value to offer.  I’ve been working in the “digital” business for over 10 years now, in the “storytelling” business for ~17 years (since I was in college) and in the “living-and-working” business for well over half of my life.  And, as I said when I started this blog, I spent the last 4 years of my life developing software for an Interactive Out-of-Home solution.  And now, since I’ve been with FH, we’ve been doing things in and out of the social space, in and out of the digital space, and even in and out of the home.  All of this to say that I feel like I have something to offer – otherwise, I wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time.  But I don’t feel like I do as good a job as I should be here with imparting my experience and learnings.  So, this is a renewed commitment to take it to the level of trying to provide real value in everything I write from this point on.

I’m going to CETW next week and rather than just provide a regurgitation of the sessions I attend, I’m going to spend more time doing things like talking to the exhibitors and learning about who does what and who does it well.  I’m afraid I’ll hear more of what I normally hear – “we do it all, soup to nuts” – but I’ll try to cut through all that and get to the core of other people’s value.