A Lesson In Failure

I’ll save you the resolutions and excuses and cut to the chase. This blog has been sitting here for 2 years. For 2 years I’ve been paying for my domain and I haven’t written a damn thing.

Not 1 thing. I’ve had some really good stories to tell, and I haven’t said one word about any of them on my own blog.

This blog post is yet another attempt to try and start writing more. In all fairness, I’ve been busy blogging more for work, talking shop on recruiting and marketing.  While writing a prescriptive article with a prompt comes somewhat easily, and publishing usually comes with a swift ego boost, writing about my own story and ideas is more challenging.

For one thing, there’s little to no swift ego boost when you put yourself on the line. But getting your ass kissed doesn’t make you any better or even stand out in a sea of people who all think they’re special snowflakes. In fact, and I was reminded of this earlier in the week by Laurie Ruettimann, if you’re not failing – you’re not getting out there enough for anyone to care. It’s about damn time I pursue more opportunities for imperfection. I need more people to argue with me and push me to justify what I believe so I can actually do something that matters instead of treading water, like most of us inevitably choose to do. It’s comfortable to float.

Writing is not my version of floating. Writing has a way of always having imperfections – some glaring to all, some only to me. By putting my words out into the world regularly, I guess I’ve always had this fear somewhere in the back of my mind that what I say or how I feel might hurt my chances at some great job but the more I write, the more I recognize that it opens doors instead of closing them. Doors in my own mind that stop me from taking on new challenges and doors to seeing the world and learning more about how my perspective might actually help someone. That’s why I get paid to write, after all.

So, on that note here’s to fucking shit up.

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Life

Kat Kibben View All →

Kat Kibben [they/them] is a keynote speaker, writing expert, and LGBTQIA+ advocate who teaches hiring teams how to write inclusive job postings that will get the right person to apply faster.

Before founding Three Ears Media, Katrina was a CMO, Technical Copywriter, and Managing Editor for leading companies like Monster, Care.com, and Randstad Worldwide. With 15+ years of recruitment marketing and training experience, Katrina knows how to turn talented recruiting teams into talented writers who write for people, not about work.

Today, Katrina is frequently featured as an HR and recruiting expert in publications like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. They’ve been named to numerous lists, including LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Job Search & Careers. When not speaking, writing, or training, you’ll find Katrina traveling the country in their van or spending some much needed downtime with the dogs that inspired the name Three Ears Media.

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