We can talk about beer, wine, whiskey, scotch, cognac, brandy, bars, saloons, taverns, liquor stores in Oklahoma, and whatever else comes up.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
SIMPLE SALES SERIES
You’re at a party, a social. Someone walks up. You introduce yourselves. She offers her card and asks, “What do you do?”
The rest of the conversation and possible future business hinges on how you answer that question. Before you start consider the outcome you’re going for.
Many folks would tell you this is the time for your “elevator pitch.” I suggest that term might not be the best way to look at a relationship. Why don’t we say that an authentic conversation is our goal? After all, if you’re looking for potential clients, we want to know them well and for them to know us too.
Let’s look at how we might talk about ourselves without getting caught in that self-promotional loop.
Marketing and self-promotion are only difficult when we’re not inside what we’re talking about. When we’re fully-expressed in what we’re saying, the words come out as if we’re talking over a kitchen table to a close friend. So how do we get to the answer that is ourselves fully expressed, that says what we do?
It takes these three steps.
My first try was something like this: I spark discussions that get thinking businesses to engage their customers in beneficial conversation. (I know. I know.)
I refined it to: I teach businesses how to turn strangers into fiercely loyal customer-friends.
Hint: You’ll know that you’re at a good one when you can hear someone replying, “How do you do that?” After all the goal we established was to get a conversation started.
Everytime you say the sentence in answer to the question “What do you do?” listen and watch the response. Use that feedback to adapt it even more.
The idea is to have the answer inside and thought through before the question comes up. Then the self-conscious blues won’t get in the way of you being able to show your best thinking and skills to someone new.
Try on a few answers, if you’re not sure. Having a handful is better than being caught out without one.
What do you say when someone asks you, “What do you do?”
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!
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To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.
unconditional love.
Unconditional love is like a package that comes without strings. I arrives without asking, delivered on a breeze. No invoice is ever written. No charge is ever made. It’s so softly sent that it can go unnoticed as if it didn’t exist.
Unconditional love seeks no reward, no response, no glory for its gift. It sees the reality of a whole human as he or she lives. The dirty socks on the floor and the ringed milk glass in the sink don’t change the astounding feeling of love for the heart who has done these small worldly things.
It’s the opposite of indifference. Indifference has no soul.
It’s surrender to another the way one surrenders to music or art.
Unconditional love is patient, brave, and relentlessly disarmed.
I’ve seen it. I know.
Unconditional love begins when we stop to understand that I hurt me when I hurt you.
It’s believing that inside the happiness of others is where we will find our own.
What does it take to let go?
It’s such fun to be inspired!
Jan of Circular Communication wrote a wonderful guest post for Lorelle called Why A Link Post Should Be Like Mingling at a Party. Joanna of Confident Writing used it as a springboard into a post of her own, How to write a links post.
Joanna said that as a writer she prefers to write link posts that have these characteristics. This is one fabulous definition. [I’ve edited her words slightly.]
A great links post
Can you write a thematic link post that meets Joanna’s definition? It’s like telling a story. . . . Vern does it every Sunday linking three or four blogs. It’s not as hard as it seems and it’s quite satisfying.
Are you up for the challenge? If you come through, I’ll build a story link post linking all of your thematic link posts together.
Go on, make my life miserable . . . the more who participate, the more work I’ll have to do. Rally a crowd. I’m up for it now. Nothing can be as hard as the 10 Chapter saga of A List Becomes 301 Links in Story.
C’mon try it. Pick five links that go together. Then write a post to connect them. Or pick 10 or 20!!
You just might find that you had a great time! Think of the link love we’ll spread. Yeah, it’s time to get jazzed about linking and writing.
Are you going to give it a shot?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1.
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How to Code Accessible Links–Part 2
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 3
Richard was the boy in my first grade class who never had quite enough for lunch. He made his way to school alone along the back path on foot. He told stories no one believed, and he always wore the same wrinkled and stained shirt. Unless they had reason, the other kids left him alone.
Every morning as writing practice, I wrote a sentence starter on the board. The kids would copy it down. Then they’d finish the sentence with their own words and continue writing on. The language they wrote in, a special one called First Gradian, was one only they could decode, but the practice of putting a message in text was an important. So after they wrote, I asked each child to read his or her missive aloud.
On this morning, the sentence starter was What I really want is . . .
It was a big class for a first grade, and so there were many answers. One by one, the children came up to read their papers. They asked for a bike, a trip to the circus, a video game, the latest doll — all were innocent dreams of children with no worries. All except one.
Richard’s paper showed only more two words longer than those I had written down. He stood by my desk turned toward the group and read.
What I want is . . . a hug.
A child in the front came up and gave him one. Then came another. Soon a room of first graders was hugging each other.
Richard was brave and vulnerable. He knew what he needed, and he asked.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . . .
Congratulations! Consolidated Media has acquired your blog for US$100,000. Better yet, they’ve been paying you the same six figures to write for them for the past six months. Life is good. You’ve enjoyed more money, more traffic, more-engaged readers, and a couple of tasteful ads on your blog. You couldn’t feel better about how things have been going. Well, that was until this morning.
This morning, you received an email quoting Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind.” Here’s what the email said.
_______
Dear Consolidated Author,
Consolidated Media is pleased to announce a new initiative, “The Whole New Network.” This initiative, based on Daniel Pink’s famous work, “A Whole New Mind,” will move us firmly into the 21st Century. To quote Mr. Pink“Today, the defining skills of the previous era — the “left brain” capabilities that powered the Information Age — are necessary but no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous — the “right-brain” qualities of inventivesnes, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning — increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders.”
With these words in mind, Consolidated is setting aside our left-brain, spreadsheet image to support our right-brain thinkers in these ways.
- Webinars will begin next week on empathy and play as the driving force of business.
- We’ll be renaming your categories to reflect “high touch” and “high concept” values.
- We are lifting the posting requirement of 6 posts per week. Post when it’s creatively important.
- Blog posts that score well for high-emotion keywords relating to empathy, play, and finding meaning will receive a monetary bonus of US$1.00/keyword. You’ll be receiving a list of words that qualify, please feel free to propose others.
- Most of all have fun!
Thank you for joining our initiative to launch a Whole New Network. Feel free to offer feedback on how we might make this plan more successful.
Sincerely,
Consolidated Media
________You can see plainly that Consolidated Media has missed Dan Pink’s message — that both left and right brain thinking are needed to be successful in this new age.
How do you respond?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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