Who is Mal? That would be Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the spaceship Serenity, in the TV series Firefly. No, he most certainly doesn’t blog – but he can teach us a thing or two about life, which we can make use of in our blogging life.
Mal is a man who is quick on the draw, and does not agonize over what decisions to make.
Malcolm Reynolds is a man of action. He knows that not taking action when needed can get you in serious trouble. If you are not familiar with Firefly, there is a 10 second scene that sums Mal up perfectly.
Malcolm Reynolds small crew operates outside the law, and they have been infiltrated by a Federal Agent. Unbeknownst to Mal, he has a couple of fugitives onboard, wanted by the authorities. The agent is there to apprehend them.
In this particular scene, Mal has been out on a job, along with some of the ship’s crew. When he returns, he finds the Fed holding a gun to the head of one of the fugitive passengers. As Mal walks into the ship, the Fed says: “I am not playing anymore, anyone makes so much…” He never finishes the sentence, because Mal draws a gun and shoots him instantly. (By the way, if you have never seen the series “Firefly”, do watch the first episode and you’ll be hooked. This series is solid gold. Later, when you are a Browncoat, you can come back here and thank me.)
Mal assessed the situation, then acted immediately and without hesitation. There was no dialoguing, no pleading, no bargaining. Mal sees one of his passengers has a gun to her head. Does he waiver, wait, wonder? No, he takes in the scene, acts with swiftness and certainty, and then moves on. Taking care of business. Business in this case being tossing the Fed off the ship before taking off.
What does this have to do with you and blogging?
A lot, if you are like a many business owners that have a really hard time writing consistent content for your blog. One problem for too many business owners is that they never even get started, even though they have heard over and over that they should be blogging. They do in fact waiver, wait, and wonder.
There are plenty of reasons why business owners do not get started. The most common ones are:
Lack of time, Fear, Can’t see the benefit, Too hard.
Lets look at those reasons, one by one.
The “I don’t have time” excuse is often just a disguise for fear, because blogging doesn’t really need to take a lot of time once you have a system. Sign up for the eBook below for more on that.
It might be a fear of not being a good enough writer, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of being boring, fear of tooting your own horn. They agonize to the point of never even starting. If Malcolm experienced fear when he encountered the agent having taken the passenger River hostage, he didn’t let it stop him. He assessed the situation and immediately knew that the cost of NOT taking instant action would be much greater than the cost of pleading or bargaining. He took action before allowing any voices in his head to dissuade him. Waiting a second too long could have fatal consequences.
What are the consequences of not blogging?
Unfortunately, if you give in to the fear, and hold off on writing for your blog, there won’t be any immediate dire fallout. Not that you can see. The reason I say that is unfortunate is that it is easier to ignore something if you don’t see immediate connections. Business growth that would have happened, income increases that would have happened if you were blogging cannot be measured by their absence. So your unconscious mind does not acknowledge the huge upside of immediate action, and therefore gives greater weight to the fears.
The reality is that there is a significant cost to you when you put blogging on the back burner. Maintaining an active blog can be a huge factor in building your business online, and not having one can make Google pay less and less attention to your website.
Yet another reason for not getting started is failing to see the usefulness of a blog. But think about this carefully, what is a blog really? It is a direct way for you to communicate with your ideal target customer. Do you really want to choose not to talk with them? If you had a line of customers at your door, or customers calling you, or emailing you, would you chose not to open the door to them, not to pick up the phone, not to respond to their emails?
Of course not. You are a business person. Your goal is to serve your customers and entice your prospects. A blog allows you to build lasting relationships with them. And that creates new customers, repeat business and referrals.
When prospective customers come to your website, you want to have content there that serves their needs, answers their questions, and solves their problems. Your basic website will answer many important questions, but with a blog you can go way beyond what you can accomplish with your website alone.
You should have as much content on your website as possible, addressing the needs of your target customer before they even have time to ask the question. The wonderful thing about a blog is that you can choose niche subjects, to elaborate on any number of topics that would not otherwise fit into your website. Sometimes you might address your whole audience, sometimes you might speak to a very specific segment of your audience.
Start blogging
The best time to start blogging was years ago. The second best time is today. And the more you do it, the better you will become at it.
So stop analyzing. Start blogging. Make sure like Mal, you take immediate action. Start typing away on that keyboard as if there was nothing to fear and everything to lose by not doing it. There is nothing to fear, it doesn’t even have to take a lot of time, and it is a very effective tool for succeeding online, a tool that will give you a leg up on the competition.
Be like Mal: Shoot first. Launch that blog, before your competition does.
I did not forget the 4th reason…
Grab the free eBook below and make it easy.