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The Mic Is ON: We’re Back to Talking about Summer Before Twitter!

July 13, 2010 by Chris Cree 122 Comments


It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Has Twitter Ruined Blog Conversation?

Just a few years back, it was so simple. We met on each other’s blogs like meeting for coffee or wine at the back fence. Now we meet on so many public platforms that we’re talking more, faster, and in shorter bursts.

Are we losing the long conversations we used to have?

1108003_say_what

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring example links to share —

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Filed Under: Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, Open Mic

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We're Going on a Road Trip

March 11, 2008 by Chris Cree Leave a Comment

Join Us Tonight

Liz is Out of Town & We’re Going On a Road Trip

Liz is on the road heading home from SXSW tonight. But never fear she left me the keys to the blog so Open Comment Night is SO on.

Bwaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Chris Cree Gravitar

We might talk about favorite road trip stories, places we’d most like to visit, must have road trip items, passing the time on the road, and especially Klondike Bars! (Mmmmm….)

Oh, and bring example links to share — especially examples of great road trip destinations!

The rules are simple — be nice.

Do be nice. 🙂

–Chris Cree

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Filed Under: Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, Chris-Cree, discussion, letting_off_steam, living-social-media, Open_Comment_Night

The Relationsheep Factor: A Successful Blog Birthday Bash Interview with the Phil Gerbyshak and Lisa Gates!

October 23, 2007 by Chris Cree Leave a Comment

Phil Gerbyshak, sheep, Liz Strauss, Lisa Gates = Relationship Geeks

In honor of Liz Strauss, the fabulously sticky writer and queen of relationship blogging, Lisa Gates of Design Your Writing Life and Phil Gerbyshak of Make it Great team up to offer this first-time-ever interview to talk about Liz’s impact on the Relationsheep factor and what it’s like to have Liz inside your computer.

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Evoca, interview, Lisa-Gates, Liz-Strauss, Phil-Gerbyshak, Successful-Blog

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Hard Work

July 28, 2007 by Chris Cree 17 Comments

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” –Harry Golden

The Blame Game

We live in a lottery culture. Instant gratification is the working model we are presented with most times. If it doesn’t happen right away, then most folks tend to give up.

One Way to CC It logo

When they give up they tend to fall into one of two categories, both of which are looking to find a place outside themselves to affix the blame for their lack of success. I guess our psyches are somehow wired in such a way that as long as there is an outside source that we can point to as the cause of our circumstance, then we can press on without facing the pain of actually working though our own part in events leading up to where we find ourselves.

This blame phenomenon is so prevalent in our culture that we used to joke about it when I was in the Navy. “It doesn’t matter if you fix the problem as long as you fix the blame.”

The first category of blame fixers either point to some entity as the cause of their circumstances (“I can’t save any money because the government taxes me too much.”) or they will double down on their circumstances and blame one circumstance for another (“I can never be wealthy because I was born poor”).

When I ask one of these folks how they are doing I’ll probably hear something like, “{Sigh} OK. Under the circumstances.” I want to fire right back, “What are you doing under there?”

But usually I don’t. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Chris-Cree, lottery, Luck, work

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Friends

June 14, 2007 by Chris Cree 7 Comments

“Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.”
—Peter Ustinov

I like people.

I mean as a general principle.

Oh, sure. There are some folks that I really would rather not be around. But mostly I like hanging out with other people.

In my book there is nothing better than hanging out with a couple people either over a good meal, or perhaps in a big cushy chair with some coffee and shooting the breeze. It doesn’t much matter to me whether we are solving the world’s problems – politics, religion, famine, disaster, war, WordPress vs. TypePad – or just simply making small talk, either way I’m for a good round of jawing most times.

One Way to CC It logo

So when it comes down to it, I’m all about friends.

Friend Defined

Who is a friend? I mean there are friends and there are Friends, if you know what I mean. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Chris-Cree, Friends, One Way to CC It

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Order

May 20, 2007 by Chris Cree Leave a Comment

“First things first. But not necessarily in that order.” –Doctor Who

One Way to CC It logo

Liz said something very kind to me the other day.

We were catching up on some post conference details when she said, “Chris, you are a Choreographer of Success. You clear roadblocks so things can get done.”

That’s me. Mr. Snow-Plow.

I clear the way and things happen.

I guess you could say I’m sorta like Doctor Who, but on a much smaller scale.
Doctor Who
I mean the good Doctor seems to chronically stumble onto some sort of doomsday end-of-humanity scenario. Then he’ll figure out exactly what needs to be done (and no more), and get it done just in the nick of time. All with a cheery attitude and a touch of drama (of course). And then he slides off into the Tardis as anonymously as possible.

One of the tricks to being a successful snow plow (a snow plow of success?) is the ability to prioritize well. And that obviously means the ability to put first things first.

Except when it doesn’t.

The thing is we try so hard to formula-ize things like success as though we can follow a recipe or program ourselves like a computer to achieve success. There is a whole industry making a ton of money selling people all kinds of formulas.

Some work better than others, no doubt.

But the truth is success isn’t so much a set of action steps as it is a montage of guiding principles that when collectively applied produce desirable results.

One trick is to know when to keep first things first. And then recognize those times when you will get better results doing something else first. Unfortunately I haven’t found the formula that will tell the difference every time.

Until I come up with one, I’ll just plow on. Like the good Doctor, I’ll keep applying what I know and making the rest up as I go.

And that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Chris-Cree, Doctor-Who, Order, success, The-Way-I-C-it

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