Ep. 040 - Tracy Record, Co-founder of the West Seattle Blog

THE SEA-TOWN PODCAST: Interviewing Seattle's Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs

This week’s guest is Tracy Record, Co-founder and operator of the West Seattle Blog, West Seattle's go-to news outlet. With husband, Patrick Sand, together they have run the West Seattle Blog full time for the last 10+ years (since 2006). Highlights From This Episode: The West Seattle Blog was launched in December of 2005 by Tracy Record as a personal project to have a place to write about West Seattle. The turning point was the famous December 2006 windstorm, which knocked out power for days, for a lot of people around Seattle, including West Seattle. They started getting a lot of inquires from people in the community asking if they knew when the power would be coming back on and after that they just started covering the local news around West Seattle. A year later, they decided to make it their full time business. Prior to doing the West Seattle Blog full-time, Tracy had been a manager and producer in TV news for 20+ years and Patrick's background is in journalism, radio, news and advertising. Patrick is the chief photographer and runs the business aspect of the West Seattle Blog, while Tracy is the full-time editor and chief reporter who compiles the news stories and blog updates. Christopher Boffoli has been a freelance photographer and contributor to the West Seattle Blog for the last 10 years and has become an internationally known art photographer with his "Big Appetites" creations series of photography.

• What do you love most about what you do? When they can reassure the community and when they can find out about stuff that the public doesn't know about but needs to know about.
• Where there other community blogs around when you got started? CapitalHillSeattle.com was started around the same time and they are still going strong and are a great resource for Capital Hill residence an news.
• What is your greatest strength? We are dedicated to accuracy in their stories and being honest about what we do and how we do it.
• What are you passionate about? Being able to help the community.
• What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of running the West Seattle Blog? Deciding to run it 24/7.
• What is a personal habit that contributes to your success? Personal ethics and honesty.
• Do you have a specific internet resources or application that you can't live without? Research tools: Seattle 911 realtime Log; Property information on King Co. Parcel Viewer; WA State Liquor Licenses Applications .
• Do you listen to podcasts? Don't have time to listen or watch much of anything considering how busy running the West Seattle Blog keeps them... though they did listen to one of the Sea-Town Podcast episodes after I brought it to their attention last summer and appreciated the straight forward conversation about what the business is about and what that person is about.
• What is your one book recommendation for our listeners? "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", a humorous book about the importance of proper punctuation.
• Parting Guidance - As your time allows, consider getting involved in the community and volunteering. Christian also recommended a couple local non-profits that do great work and that you can find out more about by listening to their interview episodes - Chris Langeler of West Seattle Helpline (Episode 26) and Nancy Woodland of West Side Baby (Episode 25).

Episode Links & Resources:

• Guest's Website: WestSeattleBlog.com
• Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westseattleblog
• Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/westseattleblog
• Learn more about Christian, Sea-Town Real Estate and more at: www.Sea-Town.com

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