Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

What Color is the Sky in a World of Digital Media?

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Would Seeing Be Believing?

Suppose a colleague, a photographer, called asking you what you thought of the sunset last evening. You’re forced to admit that missed you it entirely. So the colleague emails you this huge photo.


Evening sky colors


What do you imagine your response would be?

My dad often said, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.”

What color is the sky in the world of digital media?
How do we know what’s real?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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One-Way Relationships with People We Don’t Know Exist

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I've been thinking . . .

about a village of relationships with people we don’t know.

I spent many summers in a village. The main street had a bank, a grocery, a bar, a funeral home, a church, a park, and and an ice cream shop. You could find a bowling alley, a school, a gas station, and the city dump.

The town was too small for a stop light. Traffic didn’t find it useful. The kids I played with in that village had the run of the place. We knew who lived in every house on every street. We knew who told great stories, who let us use their yard, and who gave out the best treats on Halloween.

People were connected by stories and by history. Everyone knew my aunt who I stayed with. They knew she was my dad’s sister. They knew him. They knew me. We knew them and their families too.

In my own town, the scale was slightly larger. Still we knew when something was being built anywhere on any street.

I knew all of the kids in my neighborhood and all of the kids in my school. If we met folks from across town, it was easy to find out who we all knew. Even now, when someone from my hometown happens along, it’s “Oh you’re from there, do you know . . .?” The answer usually gets to a “yes,” by question three.

This virtual village can be similar, but a huge difference occurs shortly after a person takes up residence here.

At some point we cross a line that only famous people used to see. That’s when we find that we know far fewer people than the number of people who believe they know us. Social networking and social media have put this process on an even faster track, but it seems a natural phenomena of an interactive web. We attract, collect, and connect with

people who read what we write without leaving word,
people who follow our feeds, our photos, and our twitters,
people who from across time who will read in some future years,
possibly one day intelligent life from other places than this planet . . .

Surely those people think they know us. They form opinions and decide our beliefs without benefit of any personal interaction — just as we might do about Heath Ledger’s final role and the end of his life — and like Heath, we don’t even know that these people exist.

It changes something to consider that people are having one-way relationships with us.

How do you manage a village of relationships like that? Or do you not?

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Suppose Tomorrow Morning Found You

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Walking Down This Road

south american road 2008 191 _by_etstrauss


It’s the road to a year-long project that grew from your idea. You choose it. You got the right folks interested in it for what you thought that might get accomplished.

The deal is when a year is over you’ll be right where you are this moment.

So what would you be doing?

What would you value most deeply and miss most completely while you were walking down this road?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Get your best voice in the conversation!

Questions to Get Closer to You Question 24

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Get Closer to You

This is a series of questions, I don’t know how many. They are the ones I ask when I help folks get closer to their personal identity.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in 2008?

I’ll answer first to get things started.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Buy the eBook and find out why it’s attracting new clients.

Related<
Branding: 5 Ways to Help You Find Out Who You Are

Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 23
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 22
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 21
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 20

Questions to Get Closer to Your Brand: Question 1
You’ll find the entire series of Questions to Get Closer to you on the Successful Series page.

Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 23

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Get Closer to You

This is a series of questions, I don’t know how many. They are the ones I ask when I help folks get closer to their personal identity.

If you could choose, what would be the first thing that you’d want people to know about you?

I’ll answer first to get things started.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Buy my eBook and your best voice in the conversation!

Related<
Branding: 5 Ways to Help You Find Out Who You Are
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 22
Branding: 5 Ways to Help You Find Out Who You Are
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 21
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 20

Questions to Get Closer to Your Brand: Question 1
You’ll find the entire series of Questions to Get Closer to you on the Successful Series page.

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