900th Blog Post
Today is my 900th blog post. My goal is 1,000. That should happen early next year. 
The Huffington Post suggests these are the top 10 reasons to start a blog:
- Attract an Audience
- Establish Authority
- Build Rapport and Engagement
- Create Opportunities
- Organize Your Thoughts and Learn
- Tell Your Story
- Meet New People
- Stand Out
I’m sure all these are fine reasons, but the best one is No. 5, Organize Your Thoughts and Learn. It takes nearly one hour to research and write a blog post that will take you one minute to read. Over nine years of posting, I have learned so much about marketing, psychology, business and technology. Articles and books I never would have read in the past provide fuel for blog ideas.
Should you start writing a blog? Yes, but be ready. As the Huff/Post says, “Blogging forces you to teach yourself what you don’t know and to articulate what you do know. Writing out and articulating your thoughts is a great way to internalize something you’ve learned or experienced.”
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.