Six years ago, I began writing the Making Mediation Your Day Job blog. Five years ago I began blogging chapters and sections of my soon-to-be book of the same name. Two years after that, my mediation marketing book, Making Mediation Your Day Job, was released and went on, happily, to win several awards.
It’s been quite a ride, one made even better by the amazing mediators I met from all over the world as a result of the blog and book, many of whom I’m now lucky to count among my close friends.
I started this blog because so many mediators – graduate mediation students of mine, mediation training participants, mediators I’d never met but who heard I’d made a go of it – were asking me for mediation marketing and practice-building advice. I thought that if I blogged what I knew, I wouldn’t have to keep repeating advice email by email.
I started the book when mediators began asking for my advice in consolidated form so they didn’t have to read back through hundreds of blog posts to get the best of what I had to offer. At the time, I was working on another book, but a publishing consultant friend of mine suggested I write Making Mediation Your Day Job first. “People are asking for this one right now,” she said, “and since it’s not as close to your heart as the one you were working on, it’s a good book to learn on…learn the publishing industry, learn what it takes to market a book, learn for the next book.” A long-term mediation marketing blog and the book were unintended detours, happy though I am to have brought them to life.
The time has come to say good-bye to this blog. It’s run its course, it’s done its job, and now I want to turn my attention to other projects that have been waiting too long for my time and dedication. Though many of you know me mostly as a mediation marketing person, my first love – indeed, my primary love – is conflict resolution and that’s where I want to spend what writing time I have available.
I won’t cease blogging, of course. My main blog, Conflict Zen, which is just shy of a decade old, will continue. I may even occasionally post something about the business of ADR. Readers of Conflict Zen are both members of the public and other dispute resolution professionals, and I hope you’ll consider subscribing to Conflict Zen if you haven’t already.
The 582 posts I’ve written here at Making Mediation Your Day Job will remain available, many of them still relevant. Just visit Making Mediation Your Day Job anytime to comb the archives.
My deepest appreciation goes out to all of you who’ve read, subscribed, commented, and passed articles along to others…you were what this blog was all about and your presence here made it something special for me. Thank you for being there and going along for the ride.
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