How Blogging got me into MACLEANS Magazine

I went back to school in the Fall of 2008. I was laid off from my executive-level job in advertising. An early casualty of the fast downward spiral in the economy.

Unfortunately I was not alone: a number of very good friends and business associates also got the bullet. None of us understood what was happening. We were seasoned executives who had built and led effective teams in developing marketing and advertising campaigns. Yet we were out of work.

To find a way out, my decision was to begin blogging; to learn about social internet marketing. There were three specific reasons.

First, I wanted to write a book. Mine was about the crazy sayings that I had heard over my long advertising and marketing career. Those original posts and are archived under the Label, "Working". One day I will get around to actually printing it...maybe.

The second reason was more personal: I needed an outlet for my emotions surrounding the death of my Father in September. That post can be found under, "Living" http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/2008/12/he-was-supposed-to-live-forever.html.

The third reason was to find a job. And since I was feeling more comfortable in the social marketing world, I blogged about that as well http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-hero-pilot.html. It was more of a rant but that post was likely the match that lit the fuse that led to appearing in MACLEANS magazine.

As a Newbie Blogger, I searched constantly for ways to improve my on-line presence and increase traffic for my blog. One of the ways suggested was to comment on other blogs leaving a URL for tracking back. I started to do that and still do on a regular basis. My favourite news magazine blog was MACLEANS http://www2.macleans.ca/category/blog-central/. I got in the habit of commenting about stories that I was interested. One of those comments caught the attention of the reporter, Colin Campbell. The magazine was publishing an on-going series of articles, "The New Middle Class Reality" and he wanted to interview me.

After some consideration, I agreed. The interview was done over the telephone and lasted about an hour. I gave him a lot of material and was pleasantly surprised at the quotes that got published.

After that, MACLEANS sent photographer Cole Garside to our home in Wasaga Beach. Great young photographer. He spent the morning with us and shot over 500 photos. He told us that MACLEANS wanted to get natural shots of us going about our regular workday routine. I had never had that experience before but after a few minutes I actually forgot he was there. It helped that I had a conference call that morning with Motivatorman, Emmanuel Lopez http://motivatorman.blogspot.com/.

Only after the photo session did it feel that that this was really going to happen. But until I actually picked up the printed magazine and flipped to page 34, it wasn't real. I bought all the copies in the store immediately!

You are can read the article on-line here http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/31/retiring-into-the-unknown/

Since then Sally and I have had our share of fame. We have been introduced at a business meeting as 'those people in MACLEANS' and Sally has even been stopped in the local supermarket by someone who recognized her. We love our 15 minutes of fame :)

A final note: while I haven't found a 'job' yet, I now work in multiple areas. I do sales and marketing for alteredperceptioninc.com in Barrie, Sally and I are Independent Associates with Pre Paid Legal and my public speaking career kicks off April 14 at my first event at a Women's Business Association in Wasaga Beach.

School may now be out, but the learning continues. :)