The only one thing constant in life is change.  Today I decided to change my blog “matt’s blog-business and philosophy.” It’s lack of focus has been bothering me for some time, not being as hyper-focused as I would like and essentially writing about whatever I felt deemed worthy.

So starting today mattcrowe.com will be about business only, focused on my passion for building companies through the eyes of an entrepreneur turned VC. My personal development, psychology, and philosophy writings are going to be launched on a new website – dedicated purely to self-improvement.

Lastly, I also decided to pursue my passion for politics by beginning to regularly write Political Commentary for The San Francisco Chronicle, giving ALL Conservatives a voice during a frightening time in our country’s history as liberals and their socialist leader attempt to change the very  fundamentals America was founded upon.

Stay tuned…..

This past week I was out with a friend, and I was telling her about some of the touching comments and feedback I have received from my writings as a blogger. She said to me, “It sounds like you’re finding your voice as a writer.” For someone who has no formal education or training and who struggles to even consider himself a “real” writer, what a wonderful compliment!  As bloggers, I believe we create our own piece of art; not on canvas, not on paper, but on our WordPress, Typepad, Blogger, and Posterous blogs. In any event, I believe what my friend meant to say was, “It sounds like you’re finding your voice as a Blogger.”

Most of us have heard the expression “finding your voice as a writer”.  Even Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous Self-Reliance dives into the concept of finding one’s voice.

But how do you “find your voice as a blogger?”

Blogging today is comparable to the journaling, writing, and publishing of a hundred years ago, but with over 100 million blogs on the Internet today, and with numbers ever-increasing, how do you find your voice?  How do you set yourself apart, affect and inform readers, and simultaneously be heard with all the noise there is on the web?

The difference is that now we can write, edit, publish, distribute, and promote all within minutes via the Internet. Does that make you, as a blogger, special? I don’t believe so.

For me, I love to write. People seem to enjoy reading my content, and if I affect at least one person, then my job is done. However, finding your voice as a blogger is what will make you remembered, unique, interesting, authentic, and most importantly – subscribed to!

Here are a few simple tips that you can use to find your voice as a blogger:

1. Think about what do you absolutely love doing more than anything else in life and blog about that.

2. Blog the way you think. This is what makes the “authentic you.”

3. Remember: Nothing you can say is wrong.  Too many people get trapped into being someone they are not, and finding your voice is nothing more than being truly yourself. This is what makes you special as a blogger. Insincerity comes off the same in a blog as it does in real life, and no one likes to read something they cannot relate to or identify with.

4. Ask yourself: Where do you feel life is directing you?  What do you feel your purpose is? Follow that.  Your intuition is always correct, and the uniqueness of who you are and what you have to offer via your creativity and passion is what will make you a great blogger.

5. Write consistently and regularly. Every great skill comes with deliberate practice and continued repetition and improvement.

6. Dedicate yourself to constant improvement in regard to both the blogging industry and the grammar and vocabulary of the language in which you primarily blog.

7. Learn to participate in continual trial and error.

8. Define your niche and work at becoming a Thought Leader in that niche rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

9. Contemplate and focus while writing and before posting.

10.Perseverance (This is most important)

Earnest Hemmingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934 “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit.”

For some of you who don’t know much about me…..I write about business, philosophy, and personal development all the while running a venture capital firm named Huckleberry.  My life is hectic to say the least, but always make time for what’s important. That’s why I decide to write, even when my little eyelids can barely stay open anymore… like right now….all in hopes to help other people.

Here is a few other places other than here at mattcrowe.com where you can find me and my writings:

Writing:

Blogger             Star Tribune

Author              Winners Persevere

Columnist        Real Business Magazine

Guest Post       Dumb Little Man

Guest Post       GetYourBizSavvy

And BTW – I always love when I get comments!!!!!

Starting today, my writing is going to be different.  When I started this blog a few months ago I didn’t know what I was getting into, my writing skills were crap, I had this vision in my head that “if you build it, they will come”, and really knew almost nothing about blogging or writing in general.

Today, I was listening to a man speak this morning and he said something that hit me like a ton of bricks. A light bulb finally turned on inside my head.  He said that we must SERVE.  To put others first, care for them. As hard as it is for me to stomach and recognize this myself, let alone openly admit it, I think when I first started this blog that it was all about me.  A way to promote myself, show the world what I do, get myself known, blah, blah, blah.  There is nothing wrong with that, but after thinking about this all day long, I think we have to let that part go to truly make a difference in peoples lives.

So here is what has transpired over the past 3 months with my writings and I would like to share some of these things with you:

There were people in my life that I thought didn’t care about me. One person in particular was my father. It has become apparent to me that he does now from his commenting, and responding privately to my writings and I even sense him being proud of me which I didn’t think would ever happen.  I think we all seek validation from out fathers, and it’s a nice feeling when someone you care about so much thinks the world of you.

My writing skills went from about a 9^th grade flunkie level to for the most part, proper and pretty damn good if I do say so myself. I think I have found my writing style, times to write – as I think this is different for everyone, and what to write about.  I write at least 1-2 hours every day now, and usually at least for a large 4-6 hour chunk on the weekends.  Sometimes I force it out, and others (like right now) it just flows.

I started writing a weekly column for a magazine and really enjoy it! It’s really cool to be able to write whatever I want to write about and have an editor to make it really sing!

I 100% finished and published my first book (which any writer knows how hard it really is to make their piece of “art” fully complete). At least for me, I saw all the imperfections, edited, and re-edited, until I finally had to just had to say screw it, its never going to be perfect, publish it, and let it go. Now, I have some AMAZING things that are happening with this and will let everyone know when the time is right.

I have outlined my next book and will be sending the book proposal to one particular agent that I think should take a hard look at me, and it. When I wrote my first book it took years to write, needed the help of an editor to pull the information out of me, and was unknowingly just writing for my ego’s sake.  Now, I think if I were to lock myself away in a room, or go on a trip to Ireland or something and focused strictly on writing for about a month I would get my next book done and I know it will be NY Times Best Seller List quality.  Mostly I know this because of my writing skills, and the topic I want to write about, and look forward to checking out from real life and society to create my next piece of art. It is entirely intoxicating for me to think that currently at age 26, I have a lifetime ahead of writing.  I also know that not everything I write is going to be a masterpiece.  Some will be crap.  Some will be mediocre. And some will be my best work.  So when I think about the fact that I will have the blessing to be writing fairly conservatively guessing for the next 50 years or so and this is just the beginning…I can’t wait to see what book 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, etc. turns out to be over my lifetime. Maybe I will write short stories, maybe a novel, maybe kids books, maybe more philosophy, maybe more business, any of which would be an absolute blast to do.

This weekend I started to get ready to submit a few guest posts to very popular blogs. When that happens, my blog and writings should start to become more widely known across the internet, that is, of course, if people like my content.

I now consider myself well-informed in the writing and blogging industry.

This weekend I decided that I am going to try to write for at least one more magazine on a regular basis and am going to contact the publications that I am thinking I would like to write for this week.

And I left this one for last because it is the most important.  I mentioned that when I was writing my first book, looking back I realize that it was for my ego.  I also mentioned that today it hit me about serving others. So here is the big change that you will see from now on moving forward:

I realized that when I write I need to not just put my thoughts down onto paper.  That’s not writing, it’s word vomiting. When I think about “serving others”, I look at what I wrote down months ago as My Major Desire In Life.  I am not going to tell you the full details of my desire, or what I am willing to give to achieve this desire, mostly because a lot of it is private, but I wanted to tell you this little part, which I think is most important. I wrote:

“I intend to give all and any of the knowledge and wisdom that I have accumulated along my journey back to everyone as to help them not have to go through what I did.”

So, “serving”. What does that mean? What does that mean for you? What does that mean for me?

When I wrote down my desire my ego was not there. My ego is not here right now when I am writing this.  Serving is what I feel called and destined to do. Not writing to become famous or rich, but to help others in any and every way I possibly can with every ounce of my mind, body, and soul.

The gift of life allows us to decide many things. 3 months ago, I decided to start writing on a regular basis and look at what has already happened. What I decided today was to no longer consume, or write to just write, but to really “serve others” by providing insight, detailed accounts of wisdom that can be passed on, real life experiences with emotion, and let go of fear and write about what I am truly passionate about in a way the informs and serves others.

Today, I start writing to serve.