Last Wednesday evening, I attended a local Linked Orange County meetup that was sponsored by Bryan Elliott of the SoCalSportsActionNetwork. The crowd consisted of everything from unemployed folks looking for jobs, to consultants, marketeers, personal coaches, nonprofits, and of course, one New Media Evangelist 
One gentleman was there to promote himself for a new job. He described himself as a 20-year veteran of the apparel industry and when I asked for specifics, he rattled off manufacturing facts for all kinds of apparel, from sportswear to denim.
Impressed with his knowledge, I asked, “Do you have a blog?”
Sheepishly, he said that he didn’t. His next words were something that I hear often. “I should, but I just don’t know what to write about.”
Grrr…this answer really gets me going, because too many people sell themselves short. Everyone has a unique perspective on the world and Apparel Guy is not the exception. With 20 years of experience, he obviously has unique knowledge that a very specific audience would love to tap into.
About five minutes later, a trendy looking, twenty-something wearing a sports jacket, white shirt and stone-washed bluejeans, wandered over to our little group.
Somehow, the subject of denim came up and Apparel Guy transformed before our very eyes. The same dude who earlier claimed that he had nothing to write about launched into an enthusiastic explanation on how Trendy Guy’s pants were manufactured. Without taking a breath, he did a similar analysis of another guy’s jeans–guessing that they were probably cheaper because they hadn’t gone through as many processing steps as Trendy Guy’s had.
Apparel Guy was PASSIONATE about DENIM. He knew more about denim than anyone else I’d ever met and he loved to talk about it.
I interrupted him midstream. “I thought you didn’t know what to write about,” I said through a sarcastic smile. “You need to write a blog about denim.”
“I could do that!” he said, before jumping back to thread counts, weave patterns, and softening techniques.
What are you knowledgeable and passionate about? Do you have a blog?
Photo Credits:
Flickr Photostream from Six Revisions
Flickr Photostream from Chris Lorenz (@chrislorenz on Twitter)
Tags: blogging resume job-seeker passion experience denim New Media Evangelist
