Same owner, different management

I recently went back and read through a bunch of my archives and realized something.

Like most people, I have a few different versions of myself. There’s the “I want to end you because you cut me off in traffic” David which I’ll be discussing in my next post. There’s the “I heart unicorns” David. There’s also the ”Daddy who dances to Lady Gaga with his daughters before Mommy gets home” David (FYI – if I DO ever release videos of that, it will be a paid membership site as apparently the demand for it is high).

And then there’s the “Corporate” David who is put together and clean shaven. He writes with authority on any subject he presents and is just short of being sterile. Actually, he usually DOES come across as being sterile because that’s a bit of an asset in the circles he has to move in. High level people rarely care for infusions of personality when reading about enterprise wide data-centric issues…so THAT David doesn’t really inject them that often.

I’m fine with the “Corporate” David existing since he serves a very useful purpose and because, frankly, for now he brings home a much bigger salary than the David that is taking over this blog. But as I looked back through my archives, I realized that the “Corporate” David had somehow slipped in and was running things without ever being invited to do so…so I’m taking it back from him.

Remember last week when I was throwing chairs against the wall? That was the first official act of kicking him out. It was a bit of a trial run.

The comments, the retweets, the emails, and the conversations that occurred because of that post confirmed something for me: THAT is the David that is supposed to be running this place.

So…what’s the difference?

Well, in the role of this David, I tend to be a lot more informal when I talk. I sometimes get mushy and say things like “I love my readers” (which I ABSOLUTELY do). I use lots of smiley faces (and parenthetical statements) in my comments and Tweets. Much to the dismay of “Church” David, I also swear more than “Corporate” David. (Actually, “Church” David couldn’t care less that I swear more; he’s more concerned with helping people who are hurting. I like him a lot!)

I tend to be a bit more ADD or ADHD or whatever they call it when you start talking about something and then…OMIGOSH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY! (I’ll try and keep that to a minimum though so as not to drive anyone reading this too crazy.)

I still fully intend to share with you things that I find useful on this journey of mine. Technical stuff. Marketing and business stuff. Pointless stuff. But I intend to do it as if you came over to my house, sat down in my front room, and we started drinking while talking about all of those things. The major difference between that scenario and what you’ll actually be getting is that we won’t have the kids running in every few minutes to tell us that they just went potty and requesting that we go look at their masterpiece while applauding the whole thing…though that might be higher quality than some of the stuff that I turn out sometimes.

Tell me again, what prompted this?

Basically, I’ve realized that I don’t just read blogs because of what I can learn from them. Sure, that might be what initially brings me to the site and catches my attention. But the truth of the matter is that once I’m there, I’m looking for a person to connect with. I’m looking for someone who I’d actually want to hang out with in real life.

I got to be that person last week when Mark Lawrence from Lifestyle Ignition came to visit me and stayed with me a few nights. When someone is sitting at your kitchen table, you talk to them different than if they are just reading your site. Mark got to see the real me. (Incidentally, he also got to see my wife, my kids, my two dogs, my brother, my mom, and my dad!) I had much more fun just being myself (video is forthcoming of me jumping in a lake with my clothes on) than I have had writing as “Corporate” David.

I’m not looking for a textbook, so I thought it odd when I looked back over my archives and discovered that I was turning into one on my own site. (Seriously, that “Corporate” David can be such a hypocrite! Loser.)

I’m hoping you like the new management. I can tell you, he’s much more fun to write as!

OMIGOSH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY!!

(Hopefully those shiny things are your comments! Mmm…delicious comments. OM NOM NOM NOM!)