I started to write a blog several years ago when I left my corporate role but I just couldn’t keep it up. It was going to be about living with purpose as I started my nonprofit career. My friend Adam Albrecht, who changed careers about the same time that I did, began blogging and others were blogging. I admired what they were doing. But everytime I put pen to paper, or rather fingers to key strokes, I felt like a fraud. Who was I to feel like I had something to say that others should spend their valuable time reading? Did I think I was Oprah or something? I’m not some life coach guru. Sit back down, I found myself thinking which I eventually did.
Recently I caught up with one of Adam’s latest blogs and learned that he’s reached Greenland with his blog map and now only has Cuba, Iran and North Korea yet to reach. Wow. But what was more amazing was that he confessed to feeling the same way that I had when he started writing his blog, like he was writing into an abyss with nobody reading. But gradually it grew. 
I don’t know if it is a gender issue, a bravery issue or a Maggie issue, but I would be so much further along as a writer if I had started in 2016 when I first endeavored to write. I am not going to chicken out again. Even if this turns out to be nothing more than a digital diary, I am going to keep writing. Watch and see.
Recently something else happened that has given me courage, I’ve signed a deal to publish a book in the fall of 2024 about my transition from the c-suite to leading a small nonprofit and a bit about the rest of my life and career learnings. Ripples Media looks at me and sees an author so now I look at me and see an author and story teller. This theme has repeated itself in my life many times. 
For instance, in college, it was my sorority sisters who first created a leader by electing me president shortly after I moved into the Chi Omega house in Ann Arbor. When I graduated from Macy’s management training program, I was hoping to be placed in an out of town store far away from the critical eyes of the merchants, but others saw more in me so I was placed at the flagship Lenox Mall store in the neighborhood where most of the buyers lived. Thus was created a much different career trajectory. At HoneyBaked, CEO Chuck Bengochea, saw in me a leader of more than just HR and gently pushed me out of the nest until I flew as president and Chief Operating Officer. I think I need to start looking at myself and see who I want to see first. I am closing in on the last, best chapters of my life for goodness sake.
This time there are many providing wind under my wings; my friend and future business partner Jo Ann Herold has blazed a trail of writing, coaching and consulting that I long to emulate as she generously mentors me. My husband Bob who’s manner of support is often “I don’t know why you didn’t do this sooner, I always knew you could, I told you that you could.” Then there are literally hundreds of positive comments on FB, Twitter and LinkedIn cheering on the book news. I hear you, I feel you and I am using your energy to be brave.
So this time, I am going to write even if nobody reads it for a while. I’m going to write because somebody might benefit from something that I share. I’m going to write because I LOVE doing it. I’m going to write because I want to share my writings. I am going to write because I don’t care what those who judge me think, only those who love and support me, whereever they live and whereever they read.