Over the past year and a half, I've written seven articles for CUES Credit Union Management Magazine. If you are interested in some light reading, I post them in our published articles section! These articles are typically about 2,000 words each. For someone who typically writes 300-to-500-word blog posts, coming up with 2,000 words is torture!
For a few of these articles, I have reached out to the digital credit union crowd for quotes and wisdom beyond my brain and experience. This technique has worked wonders and I am thankful for all of the crowd participation in these articles.
Case in point is this two-part series that was just published. It's a two-part series because of all of the insightful, open, heartfelt and honest answers I received.
Part 1: Fired up for life or just for now? (appeared in print)
Part 2: I'm in for life (web-only continuation of part 1)
A blog post, a few tweets and, boom, I received more than 8,000 words in response. I was blown away! The only problem was my editor, Theresa, asked for a maximum of 2,500 words. After cutting, organizing and adding my thoughts, I could only manage to get it down to about 5,500 words. I pitched the idea of a longer story and Theresa came back with the awesome idea to print the first half in the magazine and continue with the rest online.
If you are a credit union leader who is struggling with finding and retaining young talent, read these two articles. If you are a young professional struggling with getting your ideas heard or feel frustrated and isolated, you should read them as well to see that you are not alone. The value of the articles is not in my commentary or insights, it's in the candid, open and telling tales straight from young credit union professionals' mouths.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute! I really appreciate your help.
Tim