Sunday is my two year anniversary.

It’s been twenty four months since I sat down, said, “Hmmm. upstartHR sounds kinda cool,” and started on a journey that has been exciting and unpredictable.

Just… Wow.

What advice do I have for others?

• Start when you’re at 90%. If you wait until you are 100% ready then you’ll never get going. It will be a bit unpolished. That’s normal. Just go!
• Write like you speak. Looking back now, my writing style hasn’t changed much in two years except to incorporate more of the knowledge I’ve learned in day-to-day Trench HR.
• Quantity of posts is less important than quality, to a point. If you only post once every two months nobody will read what you’re saying. If you post once a week with a really thoughtful, interesting idea or two, people will take notice. Here’s a great blogging example of that by my buddy Michael Brisciana. He posts once a week or so but it’s worthwhile to keep up with! And once a week is 50 posts a year, which isn’t too shabby. That’s how I got RocketHR off the ground while keeping upstartHR going simultaneously.
• It will make you better in so many ways, some visible and some not. I think I’m a better husband and dad because I am conscious of my time and work to make it worthwhile when I spend it with my family. I think I’m a better employee because I constantly am researching and building my knowledge base. Can’t tell you how many times something comes up at work and I’m able to say, “Well, I just read the other day that you can <insert brilliant solution here>.”

What would I do differently if I started over?

• Write more. Yes, I write a good bit, but I wish I shared more content by guest blogging. I wish I had more time and energy to write all the ideas I have in my head. See the screenshot on the right? I have 300+ drafts if I just had time to write them all!
• Take more time for mechanics/fundamentals. I take care of the essentials, but I wish I spent more time on things to help more people find the content that could help them be better at what they do. SEO, partnerships, etc. Room for improvement, eh? :-)
• More shout outs! I would spend more time working on promoting others and helping them to be successful. I try to do that now but when it comes to shoving an idea out of my head and onto the screen, that has to win or I end up going crazy.

Looking ahead

• Ongoing projects: HRevolution, Project:Social, eBooks, etc. I’m going to keep participating in these things and offering support wherever possible. My life is steadily getting more complex and I’m not sure of the time I can dedicate to additional programs, but I’m willing to offer advice at any time.
• More products. I have ideas for a handful of targeted, valuable tools to help HR pros in the trenches.
• Mentoring other bloggers. Want to do it? Hit me up. I’ll be glad to help with the entire set up from the technical to the writing to the networking.
• Speaking and consulting. I’m looking for ways to get out and talk with more people. I have spoken at local events, I’m looking at working with one of the state SHRM leadership conferences to do something with the Rock Your Chapter stuff, and I am going to be doing more this year.

If I had to list everyone I appreciate for helping me get to where I am, you would leave and never come back. I’ll shorten it to say that I am so appreciative of everyone who makes this experience possible for me. In the daily life, there’s Melanie (everlasting patience and letting me bounce ideas off her), the babies (learning a lot about managing people!), and my manager when I say “Ooh, that’s going in a post.” Outside of that, I have the opportunity to work with so many amazing people. Trish McFarlane, Daniel Crosby, Chris Ferdinandi, Cori Curtis, Dave Ryan, Victorio Milian, Curtis Midkiff, Anne-Margaret Olsson, Chuck Salvetti, Stephanie Walsh, Crystal Peterson, Bryan Wempen, Krista Francis, Stephen Harrison, and many, many more.

Here’s to yet another great year of blogging!