About a month ago I took the three blogs I was maintaining and combined them into one: this one.
That included my business/technology blog, my family/personal blog, and my Christianity/faith blog … and that was quite a combination.
One response I got about that was fairly typical, I think, of how many of my business/technology blog readers might have responded. It happened to be from Juan Carlos Hernández Cámara, a blogging acquaintance:
Hey, I am just curious of your decision of merging all of your blogs… isn’t a branding principle to diversify with different brand names and focus each one?
I am interested in your response since (no offense) some of the subjects that you are now incorporating to your bigger blog are not relevant for me or maybe I don’t care to associate them with my blog.
What’s your strategy?
Here’s the reply I gave him:
Sorry for taking so long! I’ve been insanely busy …
I have been thinking about your question and would like to write a detailed answer. I guess the short version is:
- you’re right as far as branding goes
- but I stopped wanting to parcel myself out into bits
- and I stopped wanting to treat myself like a brand
I am who I am. I don’t expect everyone to like everything about me, or even necessarily anything about me. But I can only become my best me by being honest and real and integrated.
The point you make about irrelevance is a real one, as is the point you make about maybe there being pieces of me that you don’t care to associate with. I can only say that the essence of decency and the truest sense of tolerance is being able to associate with people who have traits you disagree with. But it doesn’t mean you shun them or hate them … and it doesn’t mean that you have to be silent about them either.
It does mean that on some things we may respectfully disagree.
And here’s the reply I received back:
Awesome and inspiring answer John… your my kinda’ guy!
I thank you so much for it. It tells me a lot about you and elevates my respect for you.
See ya around!
That was a wonderful conversation … and I hope to have more like it in the near future with others.