Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

No Worries

Filed Under Analysis, Business Life, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 25 Comments

I've been thinking . . .
When I was traveling to other countries, what I was most likely to bring home were a tiny change in my accent and a word or phrase that became mine forever. I also bought lots of books and an occasional other thing, but who knows where they went?

Considering my love of words, I think I ended up with a nice collection of souveniers.

One word I got from the Brits was Brilliant! It’s a lovely word for describing something wonderful and magical.

From the Italians, I carried home a pair Prego, Grazie. How much more musical could welcome and thank you sound? I want a life filled with the two of them.

In OZ, the land of the Australians, I couldn’t leave without No Worries. They’ve become my weekend words.

“No Worries.”

I worked out a while back that worrying about things I can’t change doesn’t make stuff any better and doesn’t make me feel good either. In fact, worrying makes me cranky. I get to feeling sorry for myself.

Talk about a way to blow weekend — being cranky ranks right up there.

So I subscribe to “No Worries” weekends.

(I have my meltdowns on Thursdays, if I really need one.)

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When that Friday Thing Happens . . .

Filed Under Analysis, Bloggy Questions, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog, Tips | 4 Comments

I've been thinking . . .
When I commuted between Southern California and Boston, I finally quit traveling on Fridays, because that Friday thing always happened. Some little incident, accident, impediment to my leaving popped up . . . ah, it was never anything really. On Fridays, things just seem bigger than they are, especially when you’re traveling.

So I decided it was worth it to fly home on Saturday, and it sure was.

That took care of one kind of Friday thing — the people who lined up at the door as I was leaving — people with questions, suggestions, and decisions they felt couldn’t wait.

But it didn’t take care of that other Friday thing — the thought in my head that I wanted to have everything put to bed for the weekend to start. How unrealistic is that?

As the day would wear on little things would seem to get BIG, because of that thought. They got BIG and as a result, I got small.

Until I was lucky enough to find myself thinking this question, “Do you really want to be someone who gets so involved over something so tiny?”

These days I use that Friday question, a lot.

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How to Make Your Writing Unforgettable — Using the Music of the Gettysburg Address

Filed Under Analysis, Successful Blog, Writing | 22 Comments

What Makes Writing Unforgettable?

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When people tell me I write well, it’s because I do something extra. After I finish writing and revising a piece, I go back again to listen. I listen to the rhythm and sounds of the words. I listen and make small tweaks. It’s like being a technician at a sound board. I’m mixing the music of the language. I say that seriously.

One guy who understood what I mean, who really had it down, was Abe Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President. He understood that fewer words and more music would deliver more meaning. To me, that’s the reason his Gettysburg Address — less than 300 words — is considered the most remembered American speech in our history.

Listen to the Music of the Language

Read the first paragraph of The Gettysburg Address below. Read to see what the words say.

Now read to hear the music, don’t think about what the words mean. Read them aloud slowly, evenly. Listen to how they sound. Read the paragraph aloud two or three times this way.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

Do you hear the rhythm, the rat-tat-tat of the syllables? It’s kind of fun to say the words, especially liberty,. dedicated, and proposition. Those words seem to stand out at the right spots.

Can you hear the difference that occurs when you change that last word equal to the term the same. The sounds change too. The two syllables of equal have more stress on the first syllable — E-qual. That difference in stress doesn’t happen with the two words — the same. It doesn’t sound like an ending.

Without that ending, without the feeling of closure, the impact of the whole sentence is lost. The final word doesn’t ring and stay in our ears — or our minds if we’re reading silently. Unconsciously we’re waiting for the next word, the way we wait for the next shoe to drop. The sentence feels incomplete rhythmically.

Abe Lincoln understood how words make meaning and how they make music.You could almost sing the Gettysburg Address. It wouldn’t surprise me if folks already have.

It’s not hard to do what Abe did.
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Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life

Filed Under Analysis, Branding, Business Book, Business Life, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 49 Comments

I've been thinking . . .

I’d known him for 7 years when, in 1995, I hired him as my “partner-in crime,” and my intellectual sounding board. Officially he was a consultant on an internaltional venture.

That week he’d introduced me to my counterparts in the UK — 23 meetings in 10 days. After the last meeting, he suggested a leisurely lunch on the next day, before I left for Heathrow. . . .

We’re close friends, but I didn’t know about lunch.

Finally, I said, “Only if you show up. I don’t want to see the guy who’s been with me all week — I want the person I know.”

Lunch was at a small bistro. The fruit creme brulé was spectacular. The wine was wonderful. The conversation was even more than I’d hoped for.

My friend had one way to be in business and another in real life. I suppose that’s not so uncommon. . . .

But that doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Does it?

Steve Farber, was working for Tom Peters way back then. Now he’s a leadership coach and author of Radical Leap and Radical Edge, a two-book narrative on extreme leadership and personal growth. He’s got words for what I was thinking and where I want to go.

In Radical Edge, the characters — Steve, himself, is one — call what I’m thinking of finding your frequency. They say these things about it in a scene over dinner.

“The first thing we have to do is find our frequency, find our station, the one thing that clearly expresses who we are at our core.”

“You have no business, no money no life without yourself right at the center.”

“I don’t know how much of that I could have accomplished if I hadn’t found my frequency.

Steve wrote the book, and he questioned the idea, “Human beings are more complicated than than that.”

He got this answer.

“Yes they are, But it’s not about finding your frequency by ruling out everything else; on the contrary, it’s about finding the frequency that includes all those other important values and ideals. The very act of trying to wrap it all up is what’s really important, because in order to do so, you have . . . define them, think them through, understand them to their core, and evaluate your life against each one.”

I can’t quit thinking about how much sense that makes. It’s the extreme added-value of relationships to really “show up” at the table. It’s the “authentic voice” of leadership, of being who I am I could argue that it’s what my gene pool was designed for.

Talk about finding a way to make a life, change the world, and have no regrets that you’ve used what you’ve got.

If you know what you value, you value what you have to offer.

I’m tuning out the static, to home in on my signal.

Can you hear me now?

Is this better?

Imagine what we can do when we can actually hear each other.

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Are Telcos Changing Their Ways Now?

Filed Under Analysis, Business Life, Customer Think, Successful Blog, Trends | 6 Comments

AT&T Call Number One

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About 6 weeks ago, I paid my ATT bill online, as I have for months. I finished. I got a receipt that said, “Successful.” I put it with the bill in the file where such things go. It was 3 weeks later when I got a notice saying my bill was unpaid.

I wasn’t happy. I called them up.

My first surprise was that my call didn’t cross an ocean. My second was that the person at that end listened and wanted to help. She was patient and as perplexed as I was at what happened. She gave me the time I needed to be sure that no money was taken from any of my accounts.

We settled the amount due. She removed the late fee. Subject closed. I said thank you for a most pleasant call. I meant it too.

I was surprised that things went so well.

AT&T Call Number Two

This morning I received the usual update reminder. It’s the one that tells me that my next online bill was about to come due. The “wonky” amount was sitting there again. “Too good to be true,” were the words in my head.

I wasn’t happy. I called them up.

My first surprise was that AGAIN my call didn’t cross an ocean. My second was that AGAIN the person on the other end listened and wanted to help. She assured me that my account was fine.

Then she let me know how I could get FASTER INTERNET SERVICE AT A LOWER PRICE. Did I want that?

Our conversation was professional and pleasant — so much so that I asked her whether AT&T had moved their outsourced calls back to the US. She said that they never had all of them there, but that yes they had moved many calls back here now.

She sounded like a telephone blogger — authentic, transparent.

I’m thinking that NET NEUTRALITY and bloggers have their attention. I’ve never enjoyed a conversation with AT&T until these two — I was thoroughly frustrated with them as recently as June 22, 2006. — Now I’ve just enjoyed talking to them twice in a row!

I’m not at all sure what to think, or what to do with this information. If they start actually doing customer service, I’m not sure I’ll remember how a customer acts.

–ME ‘Liz Strauss

Related articles
AT&T & ME w/o DSL — Why AT&T Won’t Fix Problems
See Net Neutrality Page I and Net Neutrality Page II.

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