Blogger A Day Call: Hello is David there?

David Armano left New York for Chicago. My first question was what he found when he got here. He said he was surprised at how beautiful the city is and how it surprised him that we don’t live and breathe fashion the way they do in New York City. “Everything is more casual,” he said. These days David says he beginning to like that, especially now that he’s raising a family.

That was a perfect opening for me to give one Chicagoan’s view of New York, LA, Boston, and Chicago. It goes something like this: You’re easily forgotten after 15 minutes in LA. In Boston, after 15 years you’re that person from wherever you came from. In New York, it takes 15 times for them to really get to know you. But in Chicago after five minutes a Chicagoan will take you out for a beer. We both laughed.

David and I talked about how he started blogging. He mentioned that he tries to keep his blog completely separate from the work he does. He pointed out that it still spills over some — folks mention in HR, while they are interviewing that they have read David’s blog. He said it’s not so much that he doesn’t want his blog to represent his company, but that he doesn’t want it to raise his profile in the workplace. He likes his blog to be his creative space away from work.

David and I spent some time talking about the people who blog and the effect that blogging has on people. I asked David whether he thought blogging changed him appreciably. He said, “When I first started blogging, I was a corporate citizen . . . now a year later, people put me in another class.” I said I understood what he was saying, calling my blog a 1200 page resume, pointing out that obviously he had shown he was a thought leader. We talked about whether anyone experienced the same change in “status” that he had. We decided it took more than a blog to do that.

David talked about other changes he sees in his life. How a few years back he’d never have thought of himself as an author. He said he’d never have considered writing a book, but now, he thinks about that very thing. He said that he never has faced his blog wondering what he would write. It was exciting and fun to discuss how he can feel himself reconnecting with his creative spirit. THAT was a cool conversation to share with him!

I think about how when the conversation started, I told David how Chicagoans like it when people who move here call themselves “Chicagoans.” David said that he might try that. I sure hope he does.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I’ve found out things about myself that I’ve rediscovered. I always valued the quick creativity and ideas I had in college. The fact that I’ve rediscovered that has a lot of meaning to me.–David Armano

Stop by David’s Blog, Logic + Emotion, and say hi!

Thanks, David, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.