Mena Trott on blogging and being real

I'm off to BlogHer's Business Conference in NY. The red eye out of here doesn't leave until 11 pm, so I have time to check email one last time. Today's offerings included an email from VOX. The links on it take me to TED and Mena's presentation.

If you aren't a blogger, by now you're asking, What's VOX? Who's TED and Who's Mena? (along with the imposed, Why should I care?)

VOX, is the offspring of Typepad - the professional software that allows anyone to start a blog of their own free of advertising. A starting point on Typepad is a whopping $5 a month. There is no excuse not to have a professional blog. As the free and fun spawn of Typepad, VOX does allow advertising and those banner ads flow throughout the site(s). It's a nothing price to pay to have your own presence on the web and in the world.

TED isn't a who, but a what. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and has over 1000 thought leaders talking on everything under the sun and under our skin. If you are ever in need of an inspirational fix, surf through TED and download one for the road.

Mena Trott is the co-founder of Typepad and VOX. To me she's the "princess of presence" and spoke eloquently on what that means on blogs.

If you're one of those who dismiss blogs as meaningless chatter, I invite you to listen to Mena's talk. Think about computer games and vitural reality and companies that function in a franchise-like manner and then think about the gift that blogs give back to us as a species. Blogs not only allow us to show oursleves as we really are, they practically demand it.

Mena's a great example. She's at the top of her professional game and is unembassingly candid. In doing so, she gives us all freedom to embrace the real and distance ourselves from those who aren't there yet.

That's really hard to do if you're idea of being "professional" still has quotes around it. There's a lot to unlearn. Mena encourages us to put our personality back into business.

Thanks Mena - you're just what I needed to hear. It's important that we all remain present and bring our full, colorful selves to life.