Take a look into my (intertextual) mind

Hello internet of things!

I'm Joshua and I've decided to leap head first into the world of blogging. Sure, the reason why I'm doing this is that I figured something out in one of my Masters' subjects (more on that later): I need to start developing these writing skills now. So why not start two days after Christmas - no time like the present, and writing this post is a present to myself. And hopefully for you.

I'm writing this blog for those that don't think they have the skills to be a leader due to their previous education and experience. In fact, those skills that are not perceived to be "leadership material" might be exactly what an organisation needs to shake things up for the better. When I joined my first committee all I wanted to do was make things pretty through my graphic design qualifications. Now I stand as someone who has completed a Masters in Not-for-profit management and had been on the executive board of a gay community group in Sydney for five years. I, slowly but surely, came to the conclusion that I am a community leader and believe that anyone can develop leadership qualities in whatever field they are passionate in.

So, what is my spark? My life has always been a muddle of unique and sometimes contradictory ideas due to the my lived experience. Visual Communication, Creative and Performing Arts, LGBT+ and Queer issues, and Business and Not-for-profit development have all made a significant contribution to the way that I am and the way that I think. And I've noticed that all of these combine in my head to create an intertextual weave, sometimes colliding in unexpected ways - those are the moments I want to capture in this blog.

What will you find here? These are examples of what pops into my head and blog post ideas that I will write about in the future:

• I might be watching a Queer film and my Not-for-profit sensibilities will say "This is the power of small third sector organisations!"

• I could be singing along to a musical theatre show and my business strategy head may shout "This show is all about Blue Ocean Strategy!"

• Watch a TED talk on authentic leadership and think "This is why I hate this popular movie musical..." (and used this as an example in a lecture, and the lecturer must have thought I meant the country. Made for an amusing response)

• Oh, I should write a review of this great book I'm reading - it argues the business case for LGBT+ equality and I should find people to discuss this with.

So, the core of this blog will be leadership and business development using motifs from other diverse texts and visual material. Thus the name of this blog "Intertextual Mind" as I'm pulling different sources from different perspectives to come up with novel ways of describing phenomena in the business space - it will be predominantly academic (though I will try and simplify language whenever I can) with elements from human stories to root it in reality and pragmatics.

As I'm new to this, my aims is to post a minimum of once a week and working towards posting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. In a few months time, I'm hoping to have a small but active community that will respectfully discuss the issues that I bring up in the blog. This means that comments are always welcome - no, encouraged - especially if you have a contrasting view from a totally different perspective or lens than the one that I present. Those shared conversations gives all of us opportunities to learn and be better humans.

So, enjoy your time exploring my mind with myself at the helm. Keep your mind open to thinking differently and you'll come out unscathed and more knowledgeable.