Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

Robert Hruzek Is a B.A.D Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Robert there?

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It was a while ago when Robert emailed me that he was ready to be be a B.A.D. blogger. He warned me, though, that if I was as bad at small talk as I profess to be, the resulting conversation could be rather slow. He said that was because he’s writer, not a talker. I told him I wasn’t worried about my ability to people talking with me.

You might call it irony — that we started by talking about bridges — the bridges in Chicago and in Portland. I live in Chicago, and we have lots of them over the river that flows backwards through our city. Bob remembered them and then told me about the bridges of Portland.

I kind of liked the idea of two bloggers who don’t take to small talk starting out by talking about bridges. It seemed to lie a perfect writer’s segue.

Somehow from there we got talking about “the mysteries.” We discussed people who use the details of their job to cloud the issues by making what they do sound “mysterious.” You’ve run into them, I bet. We mentioned the print buyers who say, “Oh no, that will never work on the press,” nixing what they don’t want to do by using the mysteries of the equipment most people don’t know. We talked about folks across every industry who do the same thing.

Then, Bob told me about his grandmother’s attic where he found a love of reading. He said she had a window there with hundreds of books and magazines. He said he’d sit in the window and read. I could picture him perched in the daylight of the attic window, nose in a book, unaware of the rest of the world.

When he spoke of blogging, Bob was speaking of the cosmopolitation nature of the community. “I’ve met people from every corner of the world . . . It’s fascinating . . . I can travel with my computer . . . It’s really fun.”

So was talking our way across bridge with a guy who doesn’t like small talk as much I don’t.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

It’s truly addictive to find a voice I didn’t know I had. — Robert Hruzek

Stop by Robert’s Blog, Middle Zone Musings, and say hi!

Thanks, Robert, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Karen Lynch Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Karen there?

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Karen Lynch answered the phone and immediately we were talking about her husband, her 3 kids, and her cat. It seems that she has a special family to share her life, and she’s pretty proud of them. She’s also the kind that you can tell right away that they’re pretty proud of her as well.

Karen has a blog for breast cancer survivors, and she is a survivor herself. She spends time on the cancer blog sharing informtion and her story so others can move forward. Karen’s also a writer and a journalist. She has writer’s blog as well. Over there, she writes about her writing work and related writing subjects.

I asked Karen where her life had taken her. She said that she’s been writing since grade school. We talked a bit about that. She told me that she started journaling as a teen and did creative writing, during and after that. Karen said that even when she had a coporate marketing job she was still writing. I knew what she meant.

Karen said that she left the marketing job for a writing life — magazine writing to be exact. She talked about when she would know she was a writer and her definition of success. Then I told her mine.

I could tell that magazine writing is her passion. Possibly the easiest way for me to tell it was her calling was that I tried to talk her out of it, told her all of the reasons not to like it; gave her the pitch about everything wrong with writing for magazines . . . and Karen answered simply that she had decided that was what she wanted to do. She would make the big glossy magazine article happen. I have no doubt about that.

I’m usually quite convincing. Karen must be quite sure of where she is going.

I like that about her. I also like her laugh, her sense of humor, and a whole lot more.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I want to be an anpproachable resource who says to new writers that we can walk the walk together. — Karen Lynch

Stop by Karen’s Blog, A Writer’s Blog, and say hi!

Thanks, Karen, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Jodee Bock Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Jodee there?

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It was New Year’s Day when Jodee Bock left her first comment on Successful-Blog. Of course, I knew who she is. She is a friend of Phil Gerbyshak, I’ve seen her book, and I’ve read her blog. Then there it was a comment she left, that told of her burning belief in Extreme Leadership ala Steve Farber. We have a lot in common. I had only one choice then.

I called Jodee Bock up within minutes of her comment.

We spent some time talking about Steve Farber and how each of us knew him. We detailed the parts of Radical Leap and Radical Edge, his two books, that were our favorite parts. We tossed quotes at each other. We’re both teachers and we’re both invested in the study of creativity.

We discussed other folks that we had in common. It’s amazing how small the world is, yet how long it took for Jodee and I to meet.

Jodee told me of her business, Bock’s Office. We talked about the variety of projects and people that she brings together. She is a person who makes things happen.

Jodee explained how she works with clients using research from her own book, her Accerated innovation training, and ideas from Steve Farber’s books. She said that one of her favorite challenge points is the “questioning machine.” That’s a telephone recording device that when a call comes in it asks two questions — the most important questions of a lifetime. Who are you? and What do you want? Jodee said she uses the questioning machine idea often when she works with groups on creativity innovation, and leadership.

It’s not a surprise that she and I met in the comment box under a post quoting Steve Farber. Jodee Bock is an Extreme Leader. She’s also a creative, insightful person to talk with, not to mention lots of fun.

Jodee Bock knows who she is and what she wants. She has no fear of that questioning machine.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I’ve connected with people. I’ve met with people. The people are so generous and so real, they given so much . . . — Jodee Bock

Stop by Jodee’s Blog, You Already Know This Stuff, and say hi!

Thanks, Jodee, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Carolyn Goodwin Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Carolyn there?

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Carolyn was a bit wet from a rainstorm in Houston, but she was armed with a cup of coffee when the telephone rang at her end. We talked about the Houston weather, but soon enough we were on other topics, such as blogging and getting used to the differences between print and online text.

Then we were discussing the content in spam comments. We had a laugh about the idea of what cartoon characters do for fun. We also talked about how we were the market for spammers, since we’re the ones who read the awful things they try to plant on our blogs.

Carolyn told me about her past life in the financial industry. She pointed out that “People act so differently in a board room.” I could almost hear her asking them, “Why do you do that?” Carolyn says it’s important to break down those boardroom walls for us to get to know each other. I listened to her tell how she does that by connecting art and business to bring out the human side.

Carolyn explained that now she has a custom gift business and in her business she teaches executives how to get to know their clients through personal gift giving.

Carolyn’s approach is to teach executives to talk with clients about their weekend, their family, or something personal before every meeting or phone call. She encourages that as that a “little investigating.” She said that when the time comes, the executive then can give the client a more personal gift for doing business. Carolyn explained that she provides her executive clients choices for first gifts that aren’t too personal, but show that the executive has been listening.

Here’s an example of a thank you Carolyn might send to someone she just met.

Carolyn has found a way to help businesses show they care about people.

That makes it easy to care about Carolyn.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Anyone can do it. It’s so accessible to anyone. There are so many great ideas. It’s going to be so exciting to see where it goes. — Carolyn Goodwin

Stop by Carolyn’s Blog, Whirled Events and say hi!

Thanks, Carolyn, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Shirley George Frazier Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

Filed Under B.A.D. Blogger, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Shirley there?

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Shirley George Frazier’s first comment on Successful-Blog was November 10, 2005. Making this call was going to be exciting. It’s not every day I get to have a conversation with a Week 4 SOB!

Shirley and I started right in talking about her books. She’s written several, but I was asking about one — the one she was writing and documenting on her blog when I met her. She told me the story of how her publisher had a slightly different vision for the release of it. She related one of the biggest differences — the book was finished months ago, but wouldn’t be published until next fall. We talked about her disappointment that 1.8 billion individuals who work as solo entrepreneurs would have to wait for the help she had gathered, how some of the information might be outdated. . . . Then there was the boring title issue, but we didn’t dwell on that one.

Shirley’s reaction? “Things that are negative make you want to go after the things you can control.” She’ll be self-publishing her next book for sure. That’s what Shirley said.

Thinking like that and being an entrepreneur, Shirley told me, is in her DNA for generations. She provided the proof by telling me family stories. My favorite was the tale of her grandmother, who ran a strawberry business in 1905 Virginia. That story lead to the stories of each of her parents in New York City. I told a story or two of my own.

Shirley’s own entreperneurial path led her into the specialty gift basket business. She was all energy when she talked about how it began and how the business grew into something remarkable. Shirley had some quite famous clients, who still call her up when they need something special even though she doesn’t do that for anyone but them anymore. When she wrote a book about how to do what she did and began to speak on the subject, Shirley had to hire people to run the business. Now her primary work is speaking, writing, and blogging on small business topics both online and traditional. She sounds jazzed about every minute of it.

What fun it was to get to know someone I’ve known for so long. She’s exactly as cool and as much fun as I expected, only 100 times even better.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

A person who is under the radar can share an opinion, and still stay under the radar if they want . . . but they can still have a voice. –Shirley George Frazier

Stop by Shirley’s Blog, Solo Business Marketing, and say hi!

Thanks, Shirley, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

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