Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

How Do You Exercise the Perspective You Need?

Filed Under Productivity, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Exercise the Perspective You Need by Karen Sampson

These days it seems like everyone is worried about their money, the economy, or any number of things. What’s wrong is always available for you to focus on and a little perspective may be all you need to stop turning your worries into monsters and start breaking them down into bits you can tackle.

What Perspective Really Means

In order to get real perspective wherever you seek it, the answer is always the same: take a step back. There’s no way to inspect the box you may have found yourself in if you are sitting in a corner inside it. Perspective means looking at your problem in a different way, but it doesn’t take 20 years to have hindsight. It’s funny, but we all need to be reminded of this from time to time. So much focus can lend itself to entrapment, even a few minutes away from whatever is troubling you can shed light on ways to deal with it.

Take a Deep Breath

It sounds cliché’ sure, but researchers have established that your breathing patterns affect your body chemistry. Ever notice how you are breathing when you are worked up about something or something is frustrating you? Chances are you’re breathing shallow ineffective breaths. This not only charges your body with tension but changes your state of mind. Your mind goes on alert and only sees answers in its immediate path. Slow down, take a breath and get away from the problem. While it may not be possible or practical to forget the problem for too long, even a tiny break will help you make the most of future time spent on the project.

Do You Really Need an Excuse to Exercise?

Sometimes perspective can mean talking to other people who have faced the same problem, but in other cases those alternatives simply aren’t available. Take a walk. This simple and relaxing alternative always lets your mind reset itself so that you can come at your problem from a different angle. Do you really need an excuse to exercise? Think of this one as a double duty alternative: you’re increasing your fitness while decreasing your stress load. Both important if problem solving is going to happen on the long term.

Setting Goals and Translating Them

Breaking your problem into a bunch of smaller chunks can be a great way to pick away at it. Is there a portion of your question that you can answer? Then let that tiny tidbit be your guide and break up the rest of what you don’t know. It may be that as a whole the problem seems insurmountable. Think of things in the past that you have already conquered that you felt this way about. Your psychology will play a huge role in how effectively you can deal with any given situation, and if you have a relaxed confident approach you’ll find anything is within your grasp.

The view will be blue as far as your mind’s eye can see.

How do you exercise the perspective you need?

Karen Sampson writes about the online degrees. She welcomes your feedback at Karen.Sampson1120 at gmail.com

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

Have You Tried Negotiating from the Same Side of the Table?

Filed Under Marketing, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

Colgate Palmolive and Metzer Associates!

Monday, at a meeting at the Chicago Executive Summit, Louise asked how the SOBCon conference this year compared to last. She was surprised to hear that in this economy attendance and sponsorship are both tracking higher. We discussed what might be contributing factors:

Last year as I was putting together the sponsor kit for SOBCon08, I faced a marketer’s problem. How do you communicate the value proposition of a conference with a potential of 150 attendees to potential sponsors who would rather be reaching 150,000?

Knowing Where to Sit at the Table

In trying to find the correct sponsor value proposition, I considered the people who come to the conference. This isn’t a room of 150 “ones” — people who never met each other — but rather one 150 — people who are connected to each other. I thought I had it. I could even explain it.

If one evangelist can move a crowd, imagine what a swarm can do.

I’ve been wrong before. On it’s own the idea of a network of 150, didn’t carry much sway in the minds of sponsors who were looking for more concrete value.

I’d been offering a transaction for sale. I have this. This is why it’s of value. I pass the contract across the table. The magic didn’t happen until I metaphorically moved my chair to the other side of the table. It’s easier to make a deal when I sit beside the person I want to make a deal with.

“What are your goals for the next two quarters?”

“How can we configure a part of the conference to help you there? Would doing this work? Suppose we added an interaction like this one?”

From the same side of the table it’s easy find mutual goals and a path where doing business is natural.

This year, I built the conference with flexibility for sponsors goals inside their role as participants. I’m pleased and grateful that as a result I’m announcing that Colgate Palmolive and Metzger Associates have joined our sponsor team.

and


We love all of our sponsors: Wal-mart, Allstate, IttyBiz, BuzzCorps, Blog Catalog, Proforma, One2One Network, Pathable, and Summit Executive Center. And can’t wait for the chance to work at the same table with them and you!

Have you tried negotiating from the same side of the table?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the ebook.

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

See the value of a powerful network!

The Secret of Work-at-Home Businesses

Filed Under Business Life | 8 Comments

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

The Secret of Work-at-Home Businesses by Bizymoms.com

“Working for someone else is nothing like being an entrepreneur and the boss of your own business. To become an entrepreneur requires a different plan or map. You’ll be taking a different road to a different destination.”

~Noel Peebles (Author of “Sell your business the easy way.”)

Hundreds and thousands of home-based businesses are testimony to the growing popularity of work-at-home jobs. This is understandable; most people today are looking for work-at-home options because of the constantly looming threat of the dreaded recession-related job-cuts. Working at home also offers most people relief from a hectic lifestyle made worse by work-related stress.

However, not all such ventures are successful. What is then, that differentiates a successful home-based business from a not-so-successful one? What is the secret-formula that all those successful work-at-home business entrepreneurs are using? Noel Peebles was right; to become an entrepreneur requires a “different plan or map.” What is the plan/map that you’re going to use?

Do you have what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur? Just keep the following in mind and you should be on your way to building up a successful home-based business.

Don’t get caught to “get-rich-quick” schemes

The recent years have also seen a rise in “work-at-home job-scams.” This is when so-called “job posters” use “fake” job listings in order to get hold of applicant details, which include both personal and financial information. It’s important to be-aware of such scams before you start applying for jobs online. Always think twice before you provide any website with any of your details, no matter how “authentic” the website may seem. And remember – if it sounds too good to be true; it probably is. Contact the Better Businesses Bureau (BBB) for information on the company- The Better Businesses Bureau’s website will also give you information on complaints, (if any), in relation to the company. And if you require information on commission actions, contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Do something you enjoy!

If you don’t like what you’re doing, chances are that you’re not going to do your best. And if you don’t do your best, chances are that you won’t succeed. For your business to be a successful one, you simply have to do your best; give it your “best shot!”

Business planning is a must

It doesn’t matter how “small-scale” you think your work-at-home business is; you have to have a business plan. A business plan will help you plan effectively and keep an eye on your goals as well. Planning every single aspect of your business will ensure that most things – at least the ones in your control - run smoothly.

Be “money-wise”

Make sure you keep the cash flowing. If required, get yourself a good money-manager. No business can survive without a reasonable “cash-flow.”

Be “time-wise”

In order to manage a successful home-based business, it’s important that you manage your time wisely. This will ensure that your business runs smoothly, effectively and of course - efficiently. Even if what you’ve got is a small-scale, three-hour, part-time job; it’s important that you get yourself organized. When you work-at-home, most often than not, you get to choose “when” you want to work. This added time flexibility also means that most people who work at home begin to take time for granted. Make sure that you use the “time-flexibility” that comes with most work-at-home jobs, to your advantage -instead of the other way around. Allocate “business time” and make sure that you stick to your schedul

Create your own “work space” within your home. Get yourself organized. And no; you can’t do it later! Procrastination is a slow-but-sure way to kill your business. It’s also a very easily developed bad-habit; especially when you work at home.

Advertise effectively

Effective advertising can go a long way; whether you do it via a website or through flyers and leaflets distributed within your local neighborhood. Word-of-mouth advertising can go a long way too – so make sure you keep those customers happy.

Take extra care to keep your customers happy

Pay attention to your customers and make sure that you “follow-up” and “follow through.” Remember that keeping your customers is extremely important – just as important as “winning new ones over” is. Research has shown that most businesses thrive on business from regular customers rather than on business from new ones.

Atya Shakir is Manager of Webmaster Relations. he arranged for this article written by the writers of Bizymoms.com , which has been dedicated to helping women work from home for over 10 years! Visit their interactive message boards, informative articles, help and advice from the Bizymoms’ Home Business Support Team and achieve your own work at home dreams with our home business start up kits.

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

Are You Big Enough to Help Someone Become Greater Than Yourself

Filed Under Great Finds, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 3 Comments

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

The ROI of Relationships — Steve Farber and Patrick Lencioni on “Greater Than Yourself”

The first thing I noticed when I met Steve Farber were these linebacker shoulders that appeared as if they could support the world. Then he said, “Hello, let’s get breakfast,” and the smile in his eyes and voice made me think of Butch and Sundance saying in the old movie, “Who is this guy?”

Steve Farber had been someone I’d wanted to meet since the second I’d read both of books, The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership
and The Radical Edge: Stoke Your Business, Amp Your Life, and Change the World
back to back.

The charcters in his business fables, one particular named Agnes, had become people, friends to me. Agnes had sent me on a quest to identify that single value that wrapped up all my values into one. She called it “finding your frequency.”

Now Steve has a new book called Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership. I’ve read that too and it’s set me on another quest how to change the world one person at a time through generosity of spirit and true leadership.

In this new fable Steve investigates the story of a note he found inside the case of a guitar he bought, He meets people who believe that raising others up above themselves is the greatest form leadership. It sounds simple: expand yourself, give yourself, replicate yourself. But the commitment to choose another person well, to offer over all you know and give access to is a huge and wonderful form of extreme leadership.

In the video below, Steve talks to Patrick Lencioni and Matthew Kelly — their story is told in the introduction to the book. You’ll find more about them and others on the Greater Than Yourself site.

Greater Than Yourself officially launches April 6th. It’s not only the fable, but also case stories and tools for starting your Greater Than Yourself project. Check it out.

Steve will be stopping in at SOBCon this year. I can’t wait to see him. I’ve already started working on my Greater Than Yourself Project. You can learn how to start yours by reading this book.

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

The ROI of Relationships: David Bullock Talks with Jay Deragon

Filed Under Marketing, Successful Blog | 3 Comments

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

The ROI of Relationships — David Bullock with Guest Jay Deragon

Until they heard him speak at SOBCon08, people thought David Bullock was the SEO guy I brought in to teach them about analytics. He changed their minds and their hearts by showing that analytics is about relationships with people. Listen in to what he’s doing now.


David will be back at SOBCon09. Can’t wait to see him there!

David Bullock explains the analytics and intelligence of social media at DavidBullock.com and now at Social Media Connection.com His Twitter name is: @DavidBullock

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

keep looking »