Why this exists
Ken Hive is a personal notebook: a place to collect thoughts on life and business, along with a running record of what I am learning as VP of Public Relations for the Alcott Toastmasters Club.
I am not a professional blogger, and I do not yet write at the level I want. That is part of why this site exists. I want to get better at noticing what matters, thinking it through, and expressing it in a clear, structured way.
If something here turns out to be interesting, entertaining, or useful to someone else, even better.
I thought about starting a blog for more than a decade before I finally published one. It was easy to make the idea larger than it needed to be: the right platform, the right workflow, the right time, the right level of confidence.
Eventually the more useful answer became obvious.
Start. Write. Learn by doing.
This is not a finished body of work. It is a record of the range, in progress.
The range
“ken” is an old word for the range of what you know. The name Ken Hive brings that idea together with a place where separate observations can accumulate, connect, and become more useful over time.
Experiences, habits, relationships, and moments that change how the picture looks.
Building things, useful ideas, ambition, work, and what makes an effort worth pursuing.
Communication, leadership, confidence, attention, and helping ideas reach other people.
Writing, technology, creative experiments, systems, and the tools that help ideas become real.
Some posts arrive at a clear conclusion. Others simply mark where my thinking is today. Both belong here.
Speaking up
Toastmasters is one of the places where ideas become practice. As VP of Public Relations for the Alcott Toastmasters Club, I get to think about how a message earns attention, how people find the courage to share it, and how a group helps its members improve.
I expect to write about the ordinary moments behind that work: preparing an announcement, promoting an event, watching a message connect—or fail to connect—and learning what useful feedback actually sounds like.
Those stories involve real people. When I share them, I intend to protect their trust, make myself the subject of my own mistakes, and focus on the lesson rather than the backstage details.
What shapes the work
Derek Sivers and Seth Godin were two of the strongest influences behind finally starting this blog. I admire the way they take one idea seriously, remove what does not serve it, and leave a reader with something worth carrying around.
I also learn from long-form conversations and people who examine communication, optimism, endurance, behavior, vulnerability, and health—including Simon Sinek, Jefferson Fisher, Rich Roll, Mel Robbins, Brené Brown, and the Huberman Lab podcast.
Influence is not the same as imitation. The goal is to pay attention to what makes their work useful, then develop a voice that sounds recognizably like Ken Hive.
Writing, tools, and authorship
Everything on this blog begins with my own thoughts, experiences, and emotions. I also use tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to help brainstorm, organize material, and find connections across things I have already written.
When tools play a meaningful role in shaping a post, I intend to say so. The standard I care about is not pretending tools do not exist. It is being honest about the process and remaining responsible for every idea I put my name on.
Read the writing practiceWhere this may lead
I would be happy if this body of work eventually led to new conversations, trusted sponsorships, collaborations, or a career opportunity I cannot predict today. But I do not want those possibilities to become the reason I write.
The focus right now is simpler: keep writing, get better at it, and share what I am working through with anyone who wants to follow along.