My Writing’s Focus (or apparent lack of focus)

Years ago I maintained a writing & publishing habit on LinkedIn. I found it an excellent way to think more clearly about topics and push myself to sort out facts from opinions. I wrote for myself, while others apparently found some of it helpful or interesting.

Parts of me wished I maintain this habit for the last seven years during my hectic travel and work schedule. I found excuses and reasons to avoid publishing, mostly busyness. Looking back to that writing period where I published twice a week, I feel it was among my most concentrated growth periods. There is something special about writing to help clear the mind - and publishing to hold one accountable.

As I push myself to instill a writing and publishing habit again over the next months here is a brief guide to the three core themes I plan to focus on:

1)????Business management, marketing, and strategy – Over the last decade I’ve converted almost all my driving time to audiobooks and podcasts, and I drive a lot. My career experience has been focused on the challenging industry of food and meat production.

Listening to management or marketing concepts that apply well to Silicon Valley or other trending industries can be intriguing to apply to the realities of meat and food processing, and agriculture as a whole. Labour and human resource management remain the toughest challenge in this industry.

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2)????Human health and wellness – For the last 15 years I have been paying more attention to my activity level and nutrition. I spent my 20s focused on my career while I dirty bulked on convenient food, had no exercise routine, and even smoked. I changed things shortly after turning 30. I started with running and migrated to mountain biking and kiteboarding.?

For the last six years, I switched to resistance training and jiu-jitsu – partly due to age and partly due to location. Moving away from a great mountain biking and kiteboarding mecca on the West Coast to the prairies and becoming a parent changed a few things.?

With age, I’ve learned that nutrition and fitness are key to feeling good, moving better, and preventing issues. I’m not an expert and I’m busy. So I try to do a minimal amount of a broad range of habits to keep me on track.

I also love meat and feature it at the centre of my nutrition. I am excited to see the counter-current of several health experts talking loudly about animal-based foods and their benefits to human health.

I want to spend more time sorting out myths from reality in this space. It is alarming to see government-supported recommendations that continue to place processed foods, especially sugars, ahead of meat. When it was recently recommended Lucky Charms is superior to meat, it was a catalyst for me to get back to writing and clearer thinking on this subject.

3)????Societal authenticity – This is where I struggle a lot with writing but yet this theme is likely needed the most. But it feels like such a minefield.

We’ve heard a lot about the importance of authenticity on an individual level. Yet as a collective, there are several topics where group dynamics have led to dogmatic decisions and directions. For example, society is not being authentic suggesting Lucky Charms is healthier than ground beef.

Society is not being authentic making net-zero goals while blocking the development of nuclear energy or restricting food production while millions of us remain malnourished or rely on dung or wood for energy.

Are we being authentic suggesting mono-culture agriculture for plant-based meats is always better than animal production for the environment?

As we navigate the corporate ESG age while our leaders rely on increased polarization, it will do society and the rest of us a lot of good to question the directions being presented as 'good' by the group.

Scientists do excellent work – but information that hits populations are often facts adapted or distorted to catch attention, or to support a certain narrative. Issues are complex, media is fragmented, attention is non-existent, and people are rewarded for loudly supporting their groups’ interests.

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We all want to live in a better world. My tiny contribution will be to focus on doing better myself and within my companies. I believe we can bring modern management principles to food and meat production while creating meaningful career opportunities for its participants. I believe more people need to move their bodies more and eat more whole foods, including meat. And I believe we need to be more honest with ourselves that no single group has our world problems sorted out – we all need to listen better and contribute to solutions.

I find it a challenge to write and publish frequently but with practice I remember it gets easier. Some of my articles will require heavier research, others are simple reminders for myself that staying out of the weeds and maintaining a broader, simpler view can be more useful. As a general rule Tuesday's I'll publish meatier posts and Thursday's I'll allow myself to experiment with shorter thoughts.