For as long as I can remember, writing has been my principal form of introspective therapy. When life has become too complex, confusing or complicated, I have found both emancipation and restoration in putting my thoughts on paper – either real or digital. I’ve long known that one of my gifts is that I can express myself so earnestly through the written word and it’s something I’m thankful for daily.
At the lowest point of my professional life in 2014, I once again turned to my personal therapist and began writing the only way I know how: honestly, genuinely, and sincerely. The only difference was that I wrote for more than just myself; I wrote with the intent to share my candid sales and marketing thoughts to the greater promotional products industry and I was petrified. The only analogy that feels apt is that I felt like I was standing professionally naked in front of a people I knew and respected saying, “here I am – please feel free to judge me and do so harshly.” While it wasn’t easy, it’s been immensely rewarding, and I’ll forever be thankful I had the courage to do it.
It’s never easy to broadcast your genuine thoughts to the world, but it’s something that has served me exceptionally well over the past four years and I believe it’s time to do it again: I am a fraud and have been for months when it comes to this blog.
To be clear, I have written every one of them – but I wrote them two to three years ago before I sold my company to PromoCorner. Oh, I’ve made an adjustment here and updated a blog there, but the lion’s share of the content has been published before which means I’ve essentially been plagiarizing myself. It started off innocently enough as I would post an “old” blog every other week or so to give me some extra time to focus on new products, training, or other aspect of my job. On the surface, I have no issue repurposing past content if it’s relevant and meaningful. However, it became easy – too easy – to simply find a blog from three years ago and repurpose it so I began doing it regularly.
With each repurposed blog that arrived on the internet every Monday morning, I would white-knuckle the moment it dropped at 7:00 AM CDT hoping that the people who supported me from the beginning – Danny Rosin, Kirby Hasseman, Mark Graham, Dana Zezzo, Charity Gibson, etc. – would either not remember that it had been published before or would simply give me the grace to remain silent. For someone who has always found solace in writing, it was a horrible way to start the week – every week.
One thing I hadn’t factored in was how I would feel when people DIDN’T notice my blog was an updated version of an older piece and would tell me how great it was or, even worse, marvel at how I could continue to produce written content on such a regular basis while doing my job, recording podcasts, etc.
To put it bluntly, when it comes to “Petrie’s Perspective,” BP hasn’t stood for “Bill Petrie” for months, it’s stood for “Big Phony.”
I fell into the trap that we all do from time to time – I told myself some reasonably accurate lies to absolve myself of the sin of laziness. Furthermore, I very quickly found myself living those lies and I loathed every second of it. Over the past few months, I’ve told myself:
“I’ve got a completely different audience now and many people probably haven’t read the old blogs.”
“Hey, they are still my blogs so it’s not like I didn’t write them – no plagiarism here.”
“This is a REALLY good one and never gained the traction I thought it should – I think I’ll throw it out there again.”
“It’s okay, I’m super busy – I’ll write a new one next week.”
While all of them are accurate and pass what I like to call, “the red face test,” the reality is that these are prophets of false comfort even though there is an element of truth in each one. I simply allowed myself to become “busy” which meant that I inadvertently neutered the one professional tool that’s always been there for me: writing my candid and honest thoughts. As I write this, I’m almost stunned how I’ve figuratively turned my back on one of my communicative gifts. Frankly, it’s shameful and I am ashamed.
For those of you who have read and continue to read my blog weekly, I’ve failed you and I’m truly remorseful for that. More importantly, I’ve failed myself and that is a feeling I have come to loathe and will no longer stand for it.
Beginning today, I will not permit the excuses of the past to falsely soothe me into complacency. Beginning today, I commit to everyone who reads “Petrie’s Perspective” on a weekly basis – and, perhaps more importantly, to myself – that I will no longer lazily repurpose old blogs as I attempt to find more hours in the day. Being “busy” can no longer be an excuse that I accept – and I won’t.
I believe that if something is truly important to me, then I will make time for it and Petrie’s Perspective is vitally important to me.
Even the simple act of writing this blog has brought me joy that I’ve missed over the past few months, much like welcoming home a long-lost friend. While it is a bit terrifying to share this failure so publicly, it allows me to work back to the authenticity I try to live by and I look forward to sharing that authenticity with you through the written word again.
More importantly, it’s the first step into BP standing for Bill Petrie again.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, immediate past president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), vice president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.