For more than 10 years, I have drafted and submitted a monthly column for the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. Every month. That’s equaled more than 120 columns. This will be my final installment.

My family has made the difficult decision to leave our hometown and move to Seattle to accommodate the educational needs of our school-age children. 

The Journal asked me to reflect on my experience as a regular columnist for the publication. 

I never intended to be a writer. I generally considered myself a mediocre writer with a tendency to be too terse. So, how did it start?

The beginning

My recollection is that in 2015 the Journal was looking for an attorney to write a column about noncompete agreements, and I was the third or fourth attorney they asked. 

I reluctantly agreed to do it and completed the project as prescribed (on time and with the proper word count). 

Then, the Journal offered the opportunity to write four additional columns. I agreed to give it a shot and wrote all four. 

After I submitted those four, it became a monthly column from then on. We had no formal agreement. No compensation. No quid pro quo. I just kept writing because I enjoyed the opportunity to write and the Journal kept publishing.

Consistency

I don’t really know why the Journal chose to publish my column, but I can speculate. 

Importantly, my writing is logistically consistent. I provide the columns at the same time every month and well in advance of any publication schedule. 

I keep the word count at the preferred number (750 words). And I take the time to clean up the column in terms of mechanics and grammar, so the submission is relatively presentable and easy to insert. 

The topic isn’t as important as the proper delivery of a clean product. Sometimes people ask for my thoughts on how they too might replicate my publishing, and they focus on choosing the exact right topic. 

Whatever topic they propose, I inevitably say, “Sure, and have five more topic ideas ready to go.” The point is to plan on consistency and volume. A single published column is nice but ultimately not as impactful as a consistent slew of them because the payoff requires continuing effort.

It was years before I saw any payoff. I was well into my 30th column before I started to notice any significant traction. 

The first couple dozen yielded the occasional comment from a friend or family member. But as the number of published columns continued to grow, so did the apparent impact. 

I started receiving calls from people who had read them – both locally and nationally (the Journal publishes both print and online). 

I would meet people for the first time who were familiar with my writing. More people asked me for advice on how they too could publish. 

Challenging expansion

Expansion proved challenging. It wasn’t until maybe 2022 or 2023 that I thought to submit columns to other publications. 

At this point, I have published in probably a dozen local, regional, national and international publications. But, each additional publication required substantial work and coordination. 

I had to find a way to meet and pitch the editor and showcase both talent and reliability. I had to conform to different publishing preferences for topics and word count and delivery times. 

Sometimes I wrote three separate columns a month. 

I no longer do that. Instead, I now deliver the same column to about eight publications, and they can choose to publish or not under my delivery terms. 

Writing itself hasn’t proven to be directly profitable. I have published more than 120 columns in as many as 12 publications. My total income from publishing my writing has been $800. 

Though not profitable on its own, it has proven valuable nonetheless. 

It has provided me with greater name recognition, the ability to capture and widely convey my thoughts, and a trove of personal advice in my toolkit that I can easily share with others (knowing that I agree with the author who wrote the resource about 90% of the time). 

My writing has been a mixed bag of garbage and (I hope) really insightful commentary not discussed anywhere else. 

When I look back, I’ve found embarrassing typos or sometimes flawed or incomplete analysis. I look back on my collection of columns with both embarrassment and pride. 

Luckily, it’s more pride than embarrassment. And, I have seen limitations in sharing a single individual’s perspective. 

This isn’t a reason to back away from sharing. Instead, it’s a call to bring more voices into the conversation to enrich or unveil the details or nuances in the topics.

It’s been a privilege to share my thoughts. Thanks for reading. 

Beau Ruff, a licensed attorney and certified financial planner, is the director of planning at Cornerstone Wealth Strategies, a full-service independent investment management and financial planning firm in Kennewick. His last day is April 1.