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Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

4.5: 25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Perfect Virtual Manager, Successful Blog, The Big Idea | 18 Comments

Everyone Has Customers

insideout logo

I’ve been thinking a lot about customers lately. We all have them. Some are traditional sorts. They come to our businesses and pay us for products or services. Some are a little less conventional — they come in a customer role for things that don’t cost. Blog readers, first graders, park users are customers like those. Other customers don’t seem like customers at all, but really they are . . . mothers, fathers, sons, daughters all rely on our services like customers.

So it seems that knowing what customers want is more than a good idea. With that many customers everywhere we look, knowing what keeps them on a happy note would seem more like survival. Don’t you think?

25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

Whether we have a business or we are just in the business of living, it’s good to know what will help us deliver a smile on the faces of the folks we care most about.

This list works for every kind of customer I’ve been able to think up. (Don’t go getting kinky on me.)

  1. People want help solving a problem.
  2. People want folks to notice them.
  3. People want to be heard when they offer their thoughts.
  4. People want to feel smart.
  5. People want to be a part of things.
  6. People want to be generous and for you to be generous too.
  7. People want give and be good things and want you to give and be good things too.
  8. People want to not worry . . . about time, money, health, injury, or other danger.
  9. People want to know that you’ll be the same person or better than the last time they saw you.
  10. People want to be entertained.
  11. People want to be informed.
  12. People want to learn.
  13. People want to know you don’t say bad things about them.
  14. People want to know they aren’t a number or a metric.
  15. People want good cake not just icing on a bad one.
  16. People do want the truth. They just don’t want it delivered with a sledgehammer.
  17. People want to believe in something without someone picking on them for it.
  18. People don’t want innovation. They want things that make life more livable.
  19. People want things and experiences that make their fill their time more meaningfully.
  20. People want to be understood.
  21. People want their questions answered even when the answer is “I don’t know.”
  22. People want the right to make mistakes without losing every time they do.
  23. People want to make their own choices.
  24. People want to know that you value their differences.
  25. People want to know that you know they are people.

People aren’t hard to understand. We all were born one of them. The trick is to keep in mind that folks around us — even folks we don’t know –are people too. They have their own thoughts and desires in the same way we have ours. We can meet with them where we agree — 25 points up there give us plenty to start with.

In our lives and in our businesses, people are our only customers for our actions and behaviors. If we make it about THEM, everyone will be just a little bit nicer. Lose track of that and they’ll remind us.

What things do the people in your life want? Are you a product of your environment? Could you be a better one?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Change the World: When Someone Hurts

Filed Under Community, Successful Blog | 20 Comments

Please Show Up as You Are Able

Change the World!

I received a call last night from our friend, Jeff Brown. who relayed the tragic story of Aaron Anglin — a 24-year-old young husband and father killed in his car on his way to see his sister.

Lani, Aaron’s sister is a blogger. She’s a best buddy of our friend, April Groves. April tells the story of the accident on Lani’s blog and also points to the television reports. Her commentary explains how alive and joyful this young man was.

April also says.

Lani is my “BBF” – Best Bloggy Friend. Over the past months, we have become really close and her feelings are very important to me. Today, I ask them to be important to you.

Over at the Bloodhound Blog, where Jeff writes, the owner, Greg Swann has moved to action with April.

Aaron Anglin is survived by a wife and two very young daughters. The way I’m reading things, he died without life insurance, which puts those three ladies on a very hard road.
If you can spare something for them, put it in the form of negotiable funds — cash, cashier’s check or money order — and overnight it to:

Aleisha Anglin
c/o Lani Anglin
2719 Costa Azul Cove
Leander, TX
78641

April is working on setting up a donation account with Bank of America, and I’ll amend this post when that account becomes available. In the meantime, Jay Thompson has set up a donation system using PayPal.

But: I will promise you that there are people who will want to be paid now, and this young family will have immediate and ongoing needs. There was a time in your life when fate could have hit you this hard. Now is your chance to redeem that good fortune.

This morning Jeff emailed me this, the link at which you can get the button to support the family who survives young Aaron Anglin you see in my sidebar. Please, if you can, pick it up and place it on your blog and plass on the story. That small act matters a lot to one young family.

When the world seems so huge and all on my shoulders, I am humbled and heartened by the humanity of how we help each other when we are hurting.

Thank you April, Greg, and Jeff for being human.

I was asked to pass the word on, to ask the many people I know if you might help. So, now I do.

Will you help? Please. Someone hurts.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

Beware: Bad Business at b5media Today!

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

It’s not Just Me!

b5media

The business channel at b5media has gone bonkers! Everyone is giving them most insane advice.

It seems that some folks were reading historically correct rotten leadership tactics that led them to Get Linked Out on LinkedIn. This involved the despicable acts of Worst Practices in Social Media, Surefire Ways NOT to Make Money Online, and Mistakes a Home Business Owner Shouldn’t Make.

The above will Get your Tax Return Noticed by the IRS (and that’s not a good thing) , will Ensure You Don’t Get the Job, AND will Destroy your Credit Score.

Business folks beware of articles on historic bad guys. They can Disengage your Employees and lead to behaviors that Kill Credibility (BANG!), just like that.

Don’t go to the business channel today — unless you want to know what to avoid. Even then beware of Mistakes that Could Lead to Buyer Regret.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

9 Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Credibility (BANG!) at a Live Networking Event

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog | 32 Comments

Look at Me!!

relationships button

I’ve been writing on demand for years. I was a teacher. I have a background in theater. Writer’s block and stage fright are distant enemies I’ve since made friends with. Hand me a keyboard, a pencil, a microphone — even a headset or a telephone — I can find my way to an intelligent, dynamic conversation, . . . but put me in a roomful of networking professionals, and I’m not exactly in my element.

What skill I have at live networking is not a natural talent, it’s something I’ve earned.

You could say I am an ex-kamikaze networker. I found too many ways to kill my credibility in the past. Since then, I’ve seen even more — some so amazing they should be on YouTube today. I’m going to share the 9 credibility-killers that I find to be guaranteed.

9 Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Credibility (BANG!) at a Live Networking Event

If you are out to kill your credibility, here are nine great ways to do it.

  1. Come as you are. Whatever the event, wherever the location, show up dressed in your signature duds. Of course, the iridescent tank top will stand out in a room of tuxedos, but if they judge you by that why would you work with them? Simply assume when you don’t draw the rock star crowd you might expect that the room is standing in awe.


    2. Or you might show your respect and dress appropriately. It’s one way to show that you understand that different situations call for different responses.

  2. Bring someone who has no reason or desire to be at the event. When you introduce your guest, encourage him or her to talk first. After all, the people you meet have been networking chat all night. Their gratitude (ahem) for your forethought in providing the irrelevant conversation will show.


    3. Or you might trust yourself (and the group) and show the confidence of attending on your own. Your motivation to meet possible colleagues will be higher and their interest in you will be stronger if they understand that you don’t need a “date.”

  3. Let everyone know how you feel. If you’re shy, as I am, put the SELF in self-conscious. Tell everyone how nervous you are. If you’re merely uncomfortable, share that too. You’ll understand when folks have “needs” of their own . . . to be elsewhere.


    4. Or you might shift your focus from how you feel to the people in the room. Some idea, cause, or working relationship binds the people in the room together. How might you use that to ask an intriguing question that will get other folks to talk?

  4. Know what you came to get. Networking events are about meeting people who can do things for you. Come with plan of how you can take advantage of everyone of them and make it clear that’s why you’re there. The folks you meet will be grateful for your honesty. It will save them time of finding out how selfish you are.


    5. Or you might know what you came to offer. Networking is far more effective when we have something to offer. How often has it been said that it’s better to give than receive?

  5. Talk the talk liberally — buzzwords show you belong. No one really wants to talk business. Stick with the lingo. That way, from the start, everyone you meet will be able to see that deep down inside you can be shallow as shallow as you assume they are.


    6. Or you might assume that people have given up their time precisely to meet and talk business. Folks who network tend to be curious learners who invest their own time. They are likely to know more about the business they are in than most folks in their field.

  6. Stick to your agenda. When someone offers you the floor to tell what you do, hit your talking points like a politician. Make sure that you get every point across that you test your listener on them all. The impression that will leave is guaranteed to be a “killer.”


    7. Or you might try listening at least as much as you speak. Networking is about conversation and the exchange of ideas.

  7. Keep an eye on the room. Whether you’re shaking hands to say hello or involved in a conversation, you’re too important to let one person monopolize your attention for too long. Each event is limited in time and scope. Keep an eye out for those other someones you absolutely must meet. If necessary, interrupt what you’re doing if you spot someone across the room.


    8. Or you might realize that one solid connection is worth more than 50 acquaintances any day. By listening well on an initial meeting, you’re much more likely that a potential client will return the interest and think of you as someone with whom he or she might want to work.

  8. Act like you know people and things that you don’t. Then try to piggyback on every person’s network you might. Drop the names of famous people you might have met, but didn’t. Spout information about your industry that you don’t really know enough to talk about. No one will be listening to notice your bluff. No worries. No conversation you have will last more than five minutes or so.


    9. Or you might show that what you know and who knows what you know is more important. sooner or later, people always find out when they have been oversold.

  9. Do be sure to take advantage of the free hospitality. The wine and cheese are there for you. It would be wasteful not to do your part. Besides, a little more alcohol could make the night easier and your stories more entertaining — especially the ones that involve people in the network who are worth gossiping about. Great story tellers of that sort always have a long life.


    10. Or you might start working on a reputation for never passing on stories and for always being cordially enthusiastic and in control. People wonder, if you pass on a story about someone, what story you will be telling about them.

If you’re an overachieve who wants to tackle all nine credibility killers in one fell swoop — just make everything at the event about YOU.

However, if your goal is to enjoy and prosper at future live networking events, you might find that things get easier if take the “Or” options and make everything about the other people in the room. Any day is brighter (and every career is stronger) when you don’t kill your credibility the night before.

Have you ever crashed and burned at a networking event . . . or am I the only ex-kamikaze networker I know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Change the World: Love Animals and Learn from Them!

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

For GP, Hart, and Whitney

Change the World!

Sometimes we only have to participate in a small way to make a big change.

One of us, plus one of us, plus another one and we make a difference.

For all of our animals and all of our animal lovers . . .

Hart is looking for stories of how people saved animals. It happens all of the time. Save an animal. Save a life.

Whitney saves animals every day.

GP brings us the wisdom of two particular sages and role models both of whom are “interested and interesting.”

Animals help us live longer, know ourselves better, and appreciate things other than buildings and paper. When we understand that, we somehow expand as human beings. People around us notice.

We don’t have to stop a highway. We only need to appreciate our relationship with all creatures. The planet would be a lonely place, if we were left with only each other.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

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