By B.L. Ochman
I started blogging in 2002. Before that, I had a newsletter: first in print and then online. But it was What’s Next Blog that changed everything.
Until 1995, I ran a NY PR firm, BL Ochman Public Relations, and was blessed with great, household name clients and extraordinary employees. Together, we grew it into one of the top 100 independent PR firms in the US.
The Internet was new
One day, in 1994, I saw the Internet. It was like nothing else I’d ever seen, and I was instantly struck by its coolness; its vastness; and the amazing people who were its creators.
I closed my PR firm soon after that, took a year off, and re-tooled myself. There was no class you could take, no creative technologist degree, no webinar to teach you how to market yourself. I looked at everything that people and companies were doing and saying. And whenever I saw something interesting, I called the person and said “can I talk to you, can I interview you, can I learn from you, will you show me…..”
Everyone said “yes”
And everyone said yes. I started writing about what I thought the Internet would do to communications and to marketing. To my amazement, IBM called me, and Ford, and other big companies and asked me to come talk to them about the Internet and how it would impact brands.
Being stuffed with opinions, as I am, I was thrilled. I also took on the leadership of a list of called IPR, which stood for Internet PR, with about 10,000 subscribers. I began aggregating PR-related news and sharing it with the list twice a week.
Pretty soon, I knew I had to have my own blog because there was just so damn much going on that I wanted to share it with people on a daily basis. In the early days, I posted as often as 10 times a day. My client load soon made that schedule impossible, but I never stopped blogging.
I blog for the love of it, and so everything that has come of it has been a huge but unexpected bonus. What’s Next Blog has been my storefront, my own personal bit of Internet real estate, and my ticket to meeting wonderful people in all walks of life.
Meeting Hugh Macleod
In the early days of blogging, we bloggers were eager to talk to each other. We linked to each other, commented on each other’s posts, and, called each other on the phone.
Hugh Macleod used to call me from Scotland, where he lived then. We’d ask each other, “are we crazy, should we get jobs?” And then we’d laugh and say we were sure we could make something out of this blogging thing somehow.
I got to hire Hugh to do the art direction for Up Your Budget, the first online treasure hunt, which I created for Cendant’s Budget Car rental. And we finally met in London a couple of years later. We’ve been buds all along.
If it were not for blogging, I’d never have met and become friends with Seth Godin, or Steve Rubel or David Armano, Toby Bloomberg, Judy Vorfeld, Robert Scoble, or David Berkowitz or Ann Handley, or the dozens of other incredibly talented people who blogged in the early days and are still blogging today.
And I’m quite sure I never would have had clients like Cendant, IBM, McGraw-Hill Meijer, American Greetings, and more. Or been headhunted into a Managing Director position at WPP.
I blog for the love of it
I am not one to blog in my underwear. How I stay focused is to get dressed every morning, put on makeup and I noticed that as eyelash extensions have become popular, Eyelash Extensions Melbourne have become known as the best at creating classic and volume lash extensions, comb my hair, and caffeinate like mad. But before that, even when I have to get up at 5 a.m. to do it, I spend an hour in Central Park with my dog, Benny. Because I can. And because it’s how I clear my head and renew my energy.
By following my heart, and exercising my head, I have seen my blog change my life for the much better, and I’m just as happy blogging today as I was 10 years ago.
#FreedomIsBlogging
Cartoons, Hugh Macleod
Nice retrospective essay.
Sweet blog post Ms. Ochman, definitely inspiring! I myself have been blogging since 2007 & I have 3 (!!) blogs. I keep up somehow, & I always keep my client load under control so I can take time to climb a mountain several days a week here in Jackson Hole.
Kudos to you, you are a leader in this industry & I will always enjoy reading every detail of the very fine wisdom you share with us. Cheers!
Thank you Rose. that’s so kind of you! And much appreciated. I take time to play also. It’s the only way to keep one’s head on straight. what are the urls of your blogs?
BL – Thanks for the walk down memory lane and the shout out. Seem incredible that only 8 years ago (but seems like a lifetime ago) Merriam-Webster named “blog” the #1 Word of the Year for 2004.
The sweet part “of back in the day” was we were learning together through those midnight Skype calls, emails and blog posts. Those friends are as real as any I’ve made offline .. like ours! They opened doors for me too and brought people and experiences into my world that could never have happened in any other way.
Congrats! on your 10 years of blogging. Diva Marketing is bebe entering year 9 this month. We need to have a blog birthday party for those blog.
This article shows that how good you are as a blog writer or any kind of writing.You can inspire people who love to write.
Thank you! That’s so nice of you!