Passion Series: Dirk Myers

August 14, 2013

This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!

Julien Smith, co-author of the book Trust Agents, once said that it was always good to learn new things outside of what you were passionate about, because you never knew how those new things could relate back to what you actually were passionate about. I recall him saying this because as I sat down to review Dirk Myers’s blog for this post tonight, and happily absorbed all of the information he has written there, I realized that I was learning really valuable information that I would probably never think to seek out intentionally. And Julien was right–it totally related back to things I’m interested in.

Let me tell you a little bit about Dirk’s highly valuable blog, Service With a Style. It’s a blog centered on how to prosper in the service and hospitality industry, an industry Dirk has been thriving in for over 25 years.

In his posts, Dirk uses a great technique for coming up with good content–he takes situations that happen to him in a given day and turns them into informational blog posts related to his blog niche, resulting in really informative posts that stick. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, he used a bad experience at a restaurant to illustrate how important honesty and communication were between customer and employee in the service industry. Before I knew it, I was reading blog post after blog post, and immensely enjoying how much I was learning about teamwork and employee management, something I’ve always been interested in. You just never know where you’re going to learn something that ends up being really beneficial towards your end career goal.

Here’s what he had to say.

Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?

I created this blog because I wanted to share some ideas that I thought would help some people. Seeing the feedback indicating that it has been helpful to people has been very rewarding. It helps me feel like the time and effort have truly been worth it. Seeing how I am read in several continents also expands my horizons a bit and helps me think out of the box. It also makes you realize how widely received some simple ideas really can be.

Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?

It’s actually helped me to set some goals. The fact that what I have done has been received so well has made me decide to take all of this to another level. I am in the process of seeing what opportunities there are for me to help companies put their best foot forward in Service. I am looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?

Participating in the WordCount Blogathon helped me build some good practices for regular blogging. I would recommend participating in such an event to any blogger. The event also helped me learn tools to assist me through creative blocks. That has been a very beneficial tool for me.

Thanks so much Dirk! I’ll need to check out this Word Count Blogathon sometime. I think my readers would get plenty sick of me if I blogged every day, but maybe one day I will have a host of more important things to say.

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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks! See all Passion Series posts >>