Blog deadlines

Im ashamed to say its been over a year since I last wrote a Melber Flinn blog, and so one is well overdue. In a company far far away, many years ago, writing a blog was a monthly target, one frequently missed by me and my colleagues. I used to resent it. “I’m a recruiter, not a writer” was my hushed objection, and I felt it non sensical to be spending time away from live requirements and business development to write an article trying to prove I was some kind of thought leader in my field. Recruiters aren’t really thought leaders, they are usually better at process and relationships, and I always felt thought leadership should be saved for policy makers and industry titans. My resentment of blog writing was also fuelled by the fact that it was a KPI and we ideally had to stay on topic, or on industry. Maybe if I had had the creative freedom to write about any topic, at times when I was quieter with workload, my creative juices would have flowed more easily to create better content. Maybe. Or maybe I still would have found an excuse to put off writing them.

Here I am running Melber Flinn and my views have evolved over time. I no longer have to write blogs as a target but in the first couple of years at least after setting up the business, I felt more compelled to write them, I knew I could write with more freedom about any topic and people seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. Its also a fantastic way to remind people that you are there. It can be difficult in any recruitment business keeping up relationships and maintaining contact with people at regular intervals. I like to think we mostly get it right here at Melber Flinn, but sometimes it feels too long since you spoke to that great contact who you had dinner with 7 months ago. Melber Flinn doesn't advertise, and there is no marketing budget, we prefer to do everything in a relationship driven way, but when you adopt that policy and don’t sponsor conferences or advertise roles, you limit the potential of your brand to penetrate networks and markets. The blog acts as a touch point, as a beacon to remind people that you’re here. Still trading, still growing, still available to help. So I feel guilty that I've fallen out of the habit, and occasionally people ask me when the next blog is coming out, or whether they have missed one. This happened to me last week when I was meeting a good contact, who is also a keen runner and he asked me what happened to my latest race report, and I felt guilty for not writing it up, or about blogging about anything else for that matter for over a year. I also read another blog on Linkedin by another recruiter - he was funny, honest and satirical, and he had a lot of positive comments and feedback. I felt jealous.

So I've come full circle and am hereby committing to writing a blog every month for the next 12 months, although this time it will be a self imposed target not one pressed upon me. My boss at the same company always used to say if you publicise your goals and ambitions, they are more likely to be realised. I’m sure that’s mainly because constant repetition of those plans keeps you on track and focused, but by publicising this particular goal I'm practically inviting you to nag me if you don’t see another one by the end of September. The topics covered will be deliberately varied and hey, I'm also open to suggestions, although be warned - I'm not sure I have many more IR35 blogs left in me.