Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

How to fly without wings

Filed Under Connecting Dots, Guest Writer, Inside-Out Thinking, Strategy, Successful Blog, Survival Kit, Tips, leadership | 8 Comments

“Look before you leap,” says conventional wisdom, But if you have an iota of entrepreneurial essence to your soul, part of you inherently rejects this “wisdom.” Entrepreneurs, by and large, operate outside conventions. These are they who see what doesn’t exist, march to different drummers and chart their own courses.

But as we’ve also established through previous posts, there’s a difference between risk and folly. An entrepreneur takes calculated risks and is also comfortable with flux and the unknown. That said, part of any “risky” action is performing due diligence, whether that is researching your chosen industry; reaching out to others in related fields or drafting a business plan.

In so doing, you begin to form a network (some call it your tribe). These are the folks you turn to as mentors, guides and other resources as you move forward toward independence and fulfilling your dream –  launching from the cliff, as it were.

Your network is your wings.

Your wings actually form themselves – triggered by your action.

Once you step out in faith, your network activates in an effort to help you. If you’ve cultivated your network properly, the anchors within will enable you to move upward more easily (see my previous post, “How Anchors Free Us). These people have probably achieved a level of success that enables them to operate from a position of stability and strength. They *want* you to succeed as well.

Choosing and nurturing a strong network is critical to achieving your independence.

Abundance begets abundance. A strong network comprised of secure people will want you to achieve (or even exceed) their levels of achievement because they are not threatened by your success. Rather, they understand that abundance magnifies itself. The Whole is elevated by your success, rather than diminished by it.

Your responsibility is to determine what you can offer, focus on it, develop it and implement your idea through consistent action. Leap.

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish the Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through the Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

What do chaos and rocketship underpants have in common?

Filed Under Connecting Dots, Inside-Out Thinking, Motivation/Inspiration, Outside the Box, Successful Blog, Tips, ZZZ-FUN, leadership | 2 Comments

“From now on, I’ll connect the dots my own way.” – Calvin and Hobbes

In a rare allusion to the number, quantity, interactivity or any other reference to my followers on twitter, faithful followers will notice periodic tweets from me titled simply, “Why I miss Calvin & Hobbes,” including a link with a random panel from Bill Watterson’s masterwork.

I have loved the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ever since I can remember. Not only is the humor therein wry, cynical-yet-laced-with-hopefulness and warped, but Watterson manages to convey elemental, essential lessons through the alchemy of ink and paper.

Calvin: – “I’ve been thinking Hobbes –”
Hobbes: – “On a weekend?”
Calvin: – “Well, it wasn’t on purpose…”

Calvin is bombastic, self-centered, short-sighted, delightful – an imaginative imp with a tenuous, but intact moral core. His stuffed tiger, Hobbes, serves as his foil, counsel and ballast. Calvin is NOT a literal six-year old, but rather, a composite of the human race, our collective Inner Child. He is a loner by nature, being an only child, but more than the familial construct into which he has been drawn, Calvin operates outside the norm in other ways.

He’s not a big “joiner,” preferring instead to create his own worlds within his own mind. Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet and Stupendous Man (the arch enemy of Babysitter Girl/Rosalyn) are a few of the alter egos that help him escape the confines of his two-dimensional plane.

Calvin also thrives on mayhem and chaos, oftentimes oblivious to the fact that he himself has created most of it. He is also a big fan of “winging it” and improvises his solutions on the fly, with mixed results. His wagon and sled often provide the means for us to follow his “logic” as he ponders matters both large and small.

Calvinball is a great example of making things up as he goes along. The Rules always change; there is no predestined means of playing the game itself; no special equipment, and quite frankly, I don’t know that Watterson ever drew a panel explaining the terms of “winning.” I’m not sure when (or if) the game actually ends.

“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.”- Calvin

And so, on this weekend of new beginnings, I ask you to join with me in taking stock of our choices. What can we do this year that brings us more independence? How can we chart our own course? When can we do to incorporate fun and “managed chaos” into our lives? How do we connect the dots in our own lives and what is the picture we hope to create?

We always have control over our choices. I hope you all have a wonderful, productive, satisfying and joyous New Year. I recommend buying a pair of rocketship underpants.

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish the Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through the Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Do your friends hold you back?

Filed Under Business Life, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog, Tips, leadership | 3 Comments

“If someone is not nourishing you, they are draining you.” – Anonymous 

Independence is seldom something that strikes from a clear blue sky. Gaining one’s independence is a process. Even folks who do seem to gain independence through an event like winning the lottery must proceed through stages in order to gain true independence. Financial solvency is only one aspect of being independent. Psychological, spiritual, physical and mental aspects apply as well.

Along the way, as you transform, choosing different habits, perhaps making new friends, you will also encounter resistance from some of those closest to you. Your changing upsets the status quo, and as we’ve discussed in previous posts, most people are averse to change. Parents, siblings and friends are used to the person they’ve been around for the past few years. When you change, they sometimes see your changing as a judgment or possible disapproval of them.

If you wish to be truly independent, you must divest yourself of the opinions of others.

“What you think of me is none of my business.” – Terry Cole-Whittaker, author

This doesn’t give you carte blanche to be a jerk. Nor does it mean that you can flippantly tell others, “If you don’t like it/me, it’s YOUR problem.” What it does mean is that you’ll have to get even better at distilling what people are saying, what they are doing and what they mean by it.

The phrase, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” also applies here. It’s not necessary to dump all of your current friends and to disown your family. There is a difference between “selfish” and “self-care.”

Selfish is applying a “my way or the highway, like it or lump it” approach to the way you deal with others. If you are steam-rolling others’ feelings to benefit your immediate needs, then you are being a jerk.

Choosing to spend time at the gym and leaving your buddy on the couch while he plays Black Ops until his calluses bleed is an example of self care. You are responsible for your choices; he his. It may be that he eventually joins you at the gym. It may be that he doesn’t.

If the latter is the case, then you have to think about whether his friendship is building you up or draining you. In order to excel, we must surround ourselves with people who inspire us to fulfill our greatest potential. These pace-setters, mentors or guides help us to set and achieve our own goals. Their encouragement when we second guess ourselves is priceless.

Take a moment to list the top ten people you see each day, even if it’s a clerk at a store. I know that the clerk may seem like a minuscule exposure, but our habits affect our mood, our perspective and our trajectory. If you stop at a place for coffee every morning and the clerk is snide, abrupt and rude, how does that set the tone for your day?

  1. Does this person care about YOU or what you can do for him/her?
  2. Does this person encourage you in your goals?
  3. Does this person make more or less money than you?
  4. Does this person smile a lot or complain instead?
  5. Do you feel like a better person when you are around this person?

“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.-”Oprah Winfrey

Water does indeed seek its own level. It’s not judgment: it’s physics. If you wish to become independent, you must surround yourself with people who have achieved what you aspire to be. What say you?

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Do your friends hold you back?

Filed Under Business Life, Motivation/Inspiration, Strategy, Tips, leadership | 1 Comment

cooltext469056289

“If someone is not nourishing you, they are draining you.” – Anonymous

Independence is seldom something that strikes from a clear blue sky. Gaining one’s independence is a process. Even folks who do seem to gain independence through an event like winning the lottery must proceed through stages in order to gain true independence. Financial solvency is only one aspect of being independent. Psychological, spiritual, physical and mental aspects apply as well.

Along the way, as you transform, choosing different habits, perhaps making new friends, you will also encounter resistance from some of those closest to you. Your changing upsets the status quo, and as we’ve discussed in previous posts, most people are averse to change. Parents, siblings and friends are used to the person they’ve been around for the past few years. When you change, they sometimes see your changing as a judgment or possible disapproval of them.

If you wish to be truly independent, you must divest yourself of the opinions of others.

“What you think of me is none of my business.” – Terry Cole-Whittaker, author

This doesn’t give you carte blanche to be a jerk. Nor does it mean that you can flippantly tell others, “If you don’t like it/me, it’s YOUR problem.” What it does mean is that you’ll have to get even better at distilling what people are saying, what they are doing and what they mean by it.

The phrase, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” also applies here. It’s not necessary to dump all of your current friends and to disown your family in order to become “independent.” There is a difference between “selfish” and “self-care.”

Selfish is applying a “my way or the highway, like it or lump it” approach to the way you deal with others. If you are steam-rolling others’ feelings to benefit your immediate needs or goals, then you are being a jerk.

Choosing to spend time at the gym and leaving your buddy on the couch while he plays Black Ops until his calluses bleed is an example of self care. You are responsible for your choices; he his. It may be that he eventually joins you at the gym. It may be that he doesn’t.

If the latter is the case, then you have to think about whether his friendship is nourishing you or draining you. In order to excel, we must surround ourselves with people who inspire us to fulfill our greatest potential. These pace-setters, mentors or guides help us to set and achieve our own goals. Their encouragement when we second guess ourselves is priceless.

Take a moment to list the top ten people you see each day, even if it’s a clerk at a store. I know that the clerk may seem like minuscule exposure, but our habits affect our mood, our perspective and our trajectory. If you stop at a place for coffee every morning and the clerk is consistently snide, abrupt and rude, how does that set the tone for your day?

  1. Does this person care about YOU or what you can do for him/her?
  2. Does this person encourage you in your goals?
  3. Does this person make more or less money than you?
  4. Does this person smile a lot or complain instead?
  5. Does this person talk about the past or “the good old days” frequently?
  6. Do you feel like a better person when you are around this person?

“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.-”Oprah Winfrey

Water does indeed seek its own level. It’s not judgment; it’s physics. If you wish to become independent, you must surround yourself with people who have achieved what you aspire to be. What say you?

——-

Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

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Blue ‘Vette, Pink Flamingos, and Customer Relationships

Filed Under Comments, Design, Inside-Out Thinking, Marketing, Motivation/Inspiration, Productivity, Successful Blog, Survival Kit, Tips, Writing | 2 Comments

How a Car Made a Conversation

cooltext443809437_relationships

I had the lovely experience of spending two hours with @connieburke in a Chevy Corvette Grand Sport while we were at SxSW. It wasn’t because I’m anything special. Chevy had two ‘vettes, two Camaros, and the Chevy Volt ready for Ride and Drives so that folks could have the experience.

On Sunday when my SOBCon partner, Terry Starbucker walked by the cars, we stopped to say hello and talk to Connie about how ride and drive was going.

All I did was ask.

“Hey, Connie, you know I used to live in Austin. We could take one of these ‘vettes to go see the house we built. I could show you hill country and why folks really love it out by the lake.”

All Connie did was ask.

“I’ll put in for a car on Tuesday. Let’s see if we could make that happen.”

As it turned out, Tuesday it was raining … our GOOD luck because it meant we got the Blue Grand Sport for a couple of hours.

grandsport_blackhorse17


Connie and I hit the road at around 11:30 a.m. As we started, she was driving. Google maps wasn’t much help getting us to where I wanted to go. We ended up having a conversation with Onstar.

Seemed kind of weird having OnStar in ‘vette, just sayin’ … Good weird though because it got us to the “pink flamingos” at Pots and Plants the Nursery at 360 and Bee Caves Road in Austin.

The flamingos enticed us to pull in and park.

pinkflamingos_mondmann


But I think Connie was most partial to the old Chevy truck.
Or maybe she was just taking pix for my dossier.

pinkflamingoes_cogdogblog-2 flamingo_chevy_connie_burke-2


I took the wheel as we left. Going up the on ramp to 360, I slowed for a car to pass. Connie quietly said, “Ya know, you have the acceleration.”

Oh yeah! I was driving the ‘vette.

While we took 360 out to 2222 old route then to 620, I told stories of ’69 ‘vettes — one that my best friend, Nancy, raced in gymkhanas and another that my husband raced in the Grand Nationals.

When we reach the house I once lived in I looked over the fence to see the red oak I planted in the clay caliche soil in the dry Austin heat.

liz_at_fence_by_c0nnie_burke-3



On the way to Austin’s famous Oasis restaurant on the lake, we told stories about how our kids grew up. We talked business and possibilities.

At lunch we did about 10 minutes trading our favorite Stephen Wright jokes. Who knew that about either of us?

And at the end of lunch, I bought t-shirts for my son and my husband who’ll remember many meals we shared there.

That’s how a car connected Connie to my best friend, my husband, my son, a house we built — all parts of my history — and a hillside full of pink flamingos.

I became a person during that conversation. So did she when she told me some of the same things.

You can bet that I’ll be showing up if she calls. Proof to seal the deal is that I’m not sharing the conversation on the way back into Austin down 6th Street.

It’s not so outlandish that blue ‘vette and some pink flamingos would lead to good business … The car connected us in a mutual experience. Our trip wasn’t about the car it was about the people in it. The car started a conversation that led to a relationship. I can’t imagine how much longer it would have taken to cover the same ground without it.

This wasn’t a free ride without purpose. It was building relationships one person at a time. Back at the convention center, our meeting with Mark Horvath went even better because we knew other just that little bit more.

We’re already ready exploring some ideas together. A natural one is Chevy: Your Mission. Our Drive. People who would like to make a difference in their community (with the help of Chevy vehicles and volunteers) can fill out a short, online application on our Facebook Chevy Missions tab or follow progress on @ChevyMissions

Every business is relationships and relationships are everyone’s business. Companies who reach out fearlessly with trust in their customers are the ones who can win.

You must have a story about how a product connected two people in business. Will you take a minute to share it now?

_____
Thank you, Connie and Chevy for that … looking forward to how we’ll be helping folks in North Central region with the new initiative.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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