Hello, world! 10 Things About Me
One of my favorite things about Medium is also one of its greatest weaknesses.
There’s no need for a blog theme or an about me section or even a title. You just start writing ideas on the blank page. It’s a great way to get thoughts out of your head and into the world.
But it’s not ideal for learning about the people behind those ideas. Because there’s no about me section, blog title or easily accessible archive, you don’t get to learn much about the writers of Medium.
I miss that context. I miss getting to learn more about a blogger’s life, journey and motivations. What’s their story?
So I’ll start. Here are 10 things about me. Consider this the about me section that you used to see on Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad.
- After college, I ran off to Montana and started working as a bell boy in Glacier National Park. I started my first blog to chronicle the experience. That’s when I fell in love with blogging. The greatest appeal to me was the freedom to be able to write anything I wanted — instead of having to fit the narrow parameters of a newspaper or magazine article.
- After working as a bell boy, I became an airline baggage handler to get free flights and travel. After an article I wrote went sorta viral (it was on the front page of Yahoo in the early days of social media), I appeared on 20/20 sharing my confessions. (“Mr. Cigelske confesses that he once put a cart of bags on the wrong plane by accident,” The New York Times once wrote.) But 20/20 didn’t quite get the story right. I now use that clip as teaching moment in my media writing class.
3. I’m the social media director at Marquette University and have been in this role for nearly 10 years. Naturally, we have a Medium publication.
4. Outside of my day job, I teach media writing and social media analytics in the Diederich College of Comm along with an honors seminar on creativity. I wrote a book about social media measurement for my analytics class.
5. I’m a podcast ADDICT. I write lessons I learned from podcasts in the Medium publication 100 Podcasts. I also started a few new podcasts at Marquette that you can find on iTunes or Soundcloud.
6. What I learned from 52 Medium articles is the most popular article I’ve published on Medium. It was the №1 article on Medium on New Year’s Day 2015 and amassed 39,000 views. (Bonus brag: I also once won a t-shirt from Medium.)
7. As a beer blogger for DRAFT Magazine, I ran and drank beer every single day for 3 years. I still run and enjoy craft beer. But now I take off days.
8. I’ve been meditating every day for 512 days. I learned 10 valuable lessons after 100 days.
9. Jess and I have 2 crazy kids — a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old.
10. I really like to run.
I know this is really gimmicky and probably better belongs on Facebook, but I don’t care — I’d love to hear 10 more things from 10 others. Are you with me? I’m tagging maureenlewis342, Justin Cox 🍩, Kris Gage, Nate Miller, Luke Trayser, DHBogucki, Brent Gohde, Jack Preston King, Gail Boenning and Jennifer Ponig — share your stories!
Who are you? What are 10 things we should know about you? Respond with your own post, and tag 10 more people!
