There’s a new award in The Malaysia Book of Records in the form of the longest-running business blog.
The recipient is Long Yun Siang, CEO of brand consultancy firm Roar Point Sdn Bhd.
The blog in question is Raw Points, one that he’s been running for almost a decade now, since starting it on Valentine’s Day in 2011 as a gift for himself and his company.
It’s one that he works upon every working day without fail, with good reason to do so.
Coming from his experience in advertising, marketing and being an entrepreneur, his blog is meant to give others in his position a voice.
“There are sometimes politically incorrect things that we do not talk about like how clients judge things that are being presented,” Long said, sharing a link to a 2011 entry that described exactly this.
“This is what a lot of agencies will go through. They complain behind closed doors, over beer and teh tarik. I just had the audacity and platform to write it right after presenting to a prospect.”
He added, “If they read the blog, they would know I was talking about them.”
Ad agencies and brand consultancies do not and cannot talk about it because they are too afraid to offend the client. And I do not blame them. But sometimes I feel some conversations need to be started and need to be said.
Long Yun Siang, CEO of Roar Point and author of Raw Points
Not Writing For The Masses, But For Those Who Need It
Long isn’t really chasing pageviews; he writes more so to give a different perspective to those seeking it.
The topics he writes about range from branding and marketing to motivation and creativity, and can sometimes touch on personal topics too, like knowing when to quit your job.
“Sometimes about entrepreneurship and business. Sometimes about attitude, work, work ethics, consumers, clients, and whatever that comes to mind,” he added.
“But every time, I try to inspire. I try to get people to think differently. Hence, it always starts with a seemingly simple question but answered in a very different way—one might say, an unexpected way. Then it ends with another question.”
It’s fair to say that Raw Points is an extension of his personal thoughts and beliefs, one of which is how a good consultant can give you answers, but an excellent consultant inspires you to question better.
Each of his blog entries is posted on their company’s Facebook page, and he knows that people find his content relatable when they PM him or react to the post on Facebook.
“But my favourite is when I meet clients or suppliers or friends who quote from the blog or joke about it,” he said.
“If it is a priority, you make time.”
Being a full-time CEO of an active firm, I wondered how he found time to write each working day.
Granted, his entries don’t seem long at only a few paragraphs each, but it still takes time to come up with topics and decide how you’d write about them.
Long’s answer was simple: “I make time. If it is a priority, you make time. Just like we schedule time for meetings and picking up our kids and having dinner with friends. So, I just schedule it in. I plan ahead.”
Writing is a priority to him, even though he doesn’t think he’s a writer and only writes to think and clarify his thoughts.
All his efforts have made him a sharper thinker, and he hopes this benefit cascades to his readers too.
Aside from the blog, he’s flexed his writing muscles by authoring books like “Rethink Your Marketing Questions And Answers” and “500 Questions to Inspire a Better Marketing Plan” too.
You’ll Never Know If You Don’t Ask
A year or so back, Long met someone dealing with records and achievements and casually asked them, “Hey, do you think my blog qualifies as a longest-running daily business blog?”.
The person shrugged him off, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of it being true after that.
One day, he was reading a book by Derek Siver that mentioned the topic of “let’s see what happens”.
“I took that as an exercise—let’s see what happens when I write to The Malaysia Book of Records.”
So, he did it and showed them what he had been doing with Raw Points thus far, and they wrote back for more details and verification before confirming its qualification.
Since Long doesn’t post on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays, Raw Points didn’t qualify in the daily category, but it still qualified as the longest running business blog.
With this award, he foresees that his readership will grow as the awareness of the blog increases.
The award may be one of the proudest achievements he’s had with Raw Points, but another one is how he had written about the possibility of Facebook having a “Love” button 5 years before Facebook actually launched one in 2016.
“But more than that, I am just happy to lead by example be it for my kids, friends, or staff. That is the philosophy of doing and taking action and not just talk,” Long said.
If you commit, it can be done. Turn up, do the work, don’t complain.
Long Yun Siang, CEO of Roar Point and author of Raw Points
- You can learn more about Roar Point here, and Raw Points here.
- You can read about another Malaysia Book of Records award winner in 2020 here.
Featured Image Credit: Long Yun Siang, CEO of Roar Point
