“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement” – James Clear
Today is a big day as it marks the writing of our 100th blog post! When I wrote the post introducing this blog back in the Spring of 2020, I had to overcome some fears. To quote from that post:
“For a long time, I have resisted blogging for one reason or another but ultimately it comes down to worry. Worry that I have nothing of value to contribute in my writing. Worry that no one will read it. Worry that I will say something wrong.”
Whether or not the content of the blog has been valuable I suppose is subjective but I can say confidently that the second fear was squashed by the (what I deem to be) large list of weekly readers that we have had join us along the way. I can also humbly say that my last fear in starting a blog was also confirmed. More than once, I have made a mistake (sometimes big ones) in my blog posts but thankfully readers have kindly pointed them out thus giving me the opportunity to correct them. I am a strong believer that mistakes are necessary for learning and growth.
In that first post I also referenced the above quote by James Clear in his book “Atomic Habits”. Admittedly, building good habits is one of my greatest weaknesses and one that I had hoped to work on by starting a habit of weekly writing. Of course, if you are any good at math you will recognize that if I started the blog back in April of 2020 then our 100th post should have come some time ago. It turns out that simply reading a book about habit building isn’t quite enough to overcome a life time of bad habits! Thankfully, when I asked my brother, Joshua Overbeek, to become a regular contributor to the blog, he agreed.
Since then, Josh has written 27 blog posts beginning with his first one titled, “Diversification or Diworsification” back in October of last year. It has been a lot of fun working with Josh on this project and I am very thankful that he agreed to step in and help me create some consistency with our postings. More than that though, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him develop his writing chops and have been very impressed with his progress thus far. It appears that our readers agree with me if the email open rates are any indication! It has even become a friendly competition to see who receives more readership from week to week!
When I started “A Wing and a Plan”, the goal was pretty simple: To bring value and education to both our clients as well as the general public. That was, admittedly, a fairly broad goal but I believe it is one that we have stayed true to (in my humble opinion). Writing the blog has also led to another benefit that I did not foresee when we started. By writing weekly posts, we have been able to convert much of that content into other mediums including videos, lectures, an online course, and of course the weekly podcast bearing the same name and content. I think that I speak for both Josh and myself when I say that weekly writing has also had the added benefit of helping us solidify and put to paper our own investing and planning knowledge in a way that I am not sure much else ever could.
That brings us to one final question regarding “A Wing and a Plan”; What’s next for the blog? First and foremost, we are committed to continue bringing you quality information and financial education on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future. We enjoy writing for you too much to stop now! Secondly, we have a number of ideas for other projects that we are researching right now for 2023. They include:
- An email referral reward program for current readers to refer others to the blog
- An additional podcast featuring interviews with other local business owners
- Video testimonials from our current clients
- Additional online courses
- Co-authoring a book (this one is a lofty goal 😊)
We would appreciate your feedback on the above ideas to help us understand what would and would not be of interest to our readers. Feel free to reach out to either of us with your thoughts (alex.overbeek@lpl.com or Joshua.overbeek@lpl.com).
Lastly, Josh and I would just like to thank you all for your support over the last couple of years. While I said in our first post that I would write regardless of if anyone reads it, it is a lot more fun to write for an audience of engaged readers! Thank you all for making this blog, and our jobs in general, so much fun!
I leave you with the blog’s first ever song of the week from May of 2020. I believe it is befitting of our time together. Enjoy!
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