Successful Blog

  • Home
  • Community
  • About
  • Author Guidelines
  • Liz’s Book
  • Stay Tuned

Kirk M and Kent Newsome Are B.A.D. Bloggers!

July 22, 2007 by Liz

Hello, Hello! I’d Like You to Meet . . .

BAD Blogger Button

It’s a fine way to spend a Sunday visiting some B. A. D. Bloggers I know. Without hesitation, these are folks who are worth getting to know. I can say that because I did.

Have you met Kirk M?

I got a B.A.D. Blogger email from Kirk M.
He said, “If you’re still doing this, I would like to offer myself as a victim…er…I mean interviewee if you would be willing to risk your mental health by talking to me.” You should have seen me smile. The prospect was lovely. This fella who came around my blog with always a thoughtful remark, wanted to spend time talking to me.

It was a gracious man, Kirk M., who took a phone call from me. We talked about submarines, wheelchairs, dreams, blogging, the sort of people we are, the sort of people we meet, how our minds ramble from subject to subject. I told stories. He told some. We talked about claustrophobia, fear of heights, and that crack between the floor and the door in an elevator. It was a fun and relaxing conversation.

Kirk was in the room he once described in a comment.

Currently my back room is located in a corner of our library (we live in an old house so we set it up in an old fashioned way), with a rocker to my right with a forest of plants behind it in the window. Behind me is a old table made out of rock maple and a grandfather clock on the other side ticking away ready to tell me I need to get started for work (and more plants).

He was the guy I knew who typed those words. Authentic Kirk.

Kirk original email had also said, “Just think…then I could put a ‘I survived a call from Liz Strauss’ thingy in my sidebar!” He did. At least, I think he did.

Oh and, do you know Kent Newsome?

I met Kent for the first time when he suggested we might meet virtually. So on went out head phones and up went the conversation level. From his first words, I started thinking about and calling forward my memories of Texas just from hearing his voice. It was lovely.

I had recently discovered Kent’s blog. He had recently emptied his feeds and asked his readers to recommend new ones. Somehow my blog got in the mix. Somehow we ended up on a voice call.

Kent and I spent time discussing what made a great blog post. It was a conversation about conversation and blogging — how to leave the blog post open and unfinished, the way conversation happens. That led into writing and interacting with people. We talked about how long we’d been blogging. That led into a glance at our philosophies of life and our histories . . . isn’t that always the case?

We compared notes on everything from the web to songwriting to lawyering.

Kent told me a bit about his background in law. He’s songwriting lawyer who blogs — well not all at once, but it’s fun to say. Kent wove all three into the coversation about his blog and his blogging. He’s an integrated guy. He brings his skills out when he needs them.

Kent said he started blogging to see whether a guy who didn’t live in the Bay area or work in the tech industry could make his way into the conversation.

The answer is a resounding “yes.”

Kirk and Kent, you are B.A.D. Bloggers!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: B.A.D. Blogger, bc, Just-Thinkin, Kent-Newsome, Kirk-M, Newsome.org

One Blinking Dot

July 22, 2007 by Liz

Connecting Dots with The Idea Dude

Connecting Dots logo

I started this week’s column with one blinking dot… actually it was my cursor. It was waiting impatiently for me to connect this week’s dots. The blinking dot could have also been my heart, thumping in anticipation of what is to come.

dotdoticon-tiny

Sara, over at Frugal Village would understand this, she inspired the analogy. I read her wonderful post about filling the blank page because the only reward she really wanted was to know that her voice, her one single thought could reach a total stranger. She said, I want to reach through the page and continually say I believe in you, you’re not alone, and everything will be OK.

dotdoticon-tiny

It reminded me of JJ, who describes herself as having an addiction to blogging. She shared her joy this week. She found her voice after searching many years. The people at this party are the coolest ever! she exclaims. She comments wherever she stops because it feels good when people do that on her blog and she wanted to help others know they are not alone.

Two dots, two voices, two hearts.

Speaking of hearts . . .

dotdoticon-tiny

Speaking of hearts, there is none larger that the one that belongs to my friend, Mike Sansone. The bear hug he gave me at SOBcon07 still lingers. Mike has been ill recently. The first thing he did on his blog was to create the biggest heart I have ever seen made up of all the logos of bloggers who wished him well throughout his adventure. To describe Mike best is to tell you what he wrote to accompany his post. . . Got better sooner, thanks to you.

What better place to speak of hearts, right here on Liz’s blog because she taught us all to never forget to connect our hearts to our heads.

And what did all this mean to me? I’m humbled… even after leading many companies and teams in my career, this master has become the apprentice.

I am thankful. And why not? Karin would tell you from her own experience, teaching and learning is the two way traffic of life. Joanna reminds us, we don’t need grammar books to write. All you need to do is identify the things you consistently do that might make you look dumb — then take responsibility for working out how to change them.

May the dots be with you!
Vern, The Idea Dude

Connecting dots at TheGoodBlogs

Related
Connecting Dots

Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Connecting Dots, the-Idea-Dude, Vernon-Lun

The Old Neighborhood Bars and Blogs

July 22, 2007 by Liz

relationships button

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods and neighborhood bars. Every neighborhood has a name. Every neighborhood bar is like Cheers. People go there because the folks inside, especially the bartender, knows their name. Names are important. They’re the first words we know about ourselves and each other.

When I think of my favorite neighborhood bar, I can’t separate it from the folks who are always there. Over time the people grow and change. Some days all one bartender can talk about is his camera. Other days all he can think of is sports. That’s who he is. That’s part of what makes him interesting.

We have personal jokes. He knows some of what I like. I can tune in. I can have my beverage and hardly talk to him at all. There was a time when he was not a happy guy. He’s a friend. You ride it out. Everyone has phases. . . .

It’s a well-known fact that I think of my blog as my father thought of his saloon. But in one way it can’t be the same. Saloons don’t have RSS feeds.

What difference does that make?

When I change focus for a while — you might do it too, or you might not, but we know I always will — readers can decide the new direction is not their “beverage of choice.” That’s cool. That’s only right. I do the same thing — with the blogs I read, not with the people in my life.

In life when my friends shift gears, I often come back to see what they’re doing later. Most often what I find is that we have plenty in common still. Yet when a blog has changed direction, it’s felt more permanent. I hardly ever go back. I’m rethinking that today.

Over the next week or two, I’m going to check in on blogs I used to read. It will be like visiting the old neighborhood bar to see who’s still there. I’m looking forward to it.

I think I might find some nice surprises. What do you think? What’s your experience? Do you ever go back to the old neighborhood?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! Liz understands how people think.

Filed Under: Audience, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Chicago, Chicago-neighborhoods, My-Blogging-Goal, relationships

Thanks to Week 91 SOBs

July 21, 2007 by Liz

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

church tech matters

create business growth

Great Presenations Mean Business

Making life work  for you

Next Up

Skinny Moose Media

The Social Media Marketing Blog

Stories by REL

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank every one of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, dialogue, relationships, SOB, SOB_Directory, successful_and_outstanding-bloggers

Hope Seth Doesn’t Mind if I Go Even Further

July 21, 2007 by Liz

If You Can’t Keep a Secret . . .

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box
I hadn’t really thought about the Harry Potter leaked ending, except to shake my head at the industry that used to be my home. To spend $20M on a secret that couldn’t be kept seemed such a waste . . . How I remember the thoght process that gets companies to do that sort of thing.

Then this morning Ann Michael and I were discussing Seth’s insight on publishing and the Internet. He pointed out what I would have never thought.

Five hundred year old technology (books) is just too slow for the Net. The act of printing, storing and shipping millions of books takes too long for a secret to ever be in a book again.

He suggests that, well, read Seth’s post for his brilliant solution. He advocates using the Internet to control the secret. I sure hope Seth doesn’t mind if I use my publishing experience to take his idea just a little further.

Fact: As Seth said, the secret was in always in jeopardy — from the moment the manuscript was written. The company should have seen that $20million, $40million to protect the secret was playing to a weakness.

One thing I’ve learned from Seth is that every weakness can be a strength. Here’s what I would have proposed, had someone asked my opinion. . . . Don’t worry, they didn’t.

How to Release the Harry Potter Secret OR How Choosing for the Customer Is Choosing for the Company

The problem wasn’t having the secret where people could get to it. The problem was the company thought of the secret as a problem rather than an opportunity,

Strategy always begins with the customer. In this case, the customers are kids (of every age) who grew up with the series. $20million of security was choosing for the company not the customers.

If I think about the kids, here’s where I end up.

Ready?

  • I would ask J.K.Rowling to reveal the ending to me as soon as she was able. I would spend a fraction of that $20million building a cool online video game with seven levels to match the seven questions of the Harry Potter Campaign. I’d spend the security there. Fewer people involved, much more control.
  • I’d release the game that reveals the end of the story, three weeks before any pre-launch copy.
  • To register to play the game, I would ask that each player sign in with a name, and a parental permission with verifiable email address (if the player is under 13).
  • The game would be as difficult as any game on the market. It would also have cheat codes and book with hints as salable products. It would take hours– whatever is the industry average — to complete successfuly.
  • When a player made it through the last level, he or she would reach a Howart’s Honor Code screen. The screen would announce the success and point out how difficult it was to achieve it. The Honor Code would leave the question to winner to hold or pass on the answer as they honor their own work. They earned it. People value what they earn.

It’s as Seth said, no one can keep it a secret — but we can control how it gets out. The company could have made finding the answer part of the Hogwart’s World. It could have been an experience. It could have been fun. Besides, I’m not sure that if I worked 10-20 hours to find out an answer that I’d give it away, . . . well, maybe secretly.

Who knows? I might play the game again and again — even after I read the book.

If I knew what I was talking about I’d still be working in that industry . . . right? I’m probably just confused. That comes from thinking like a kid.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, bestof, Harry-Potter, harry-potter-spoiler, leaked-secret.-Seth-Godin, Liz-Strauss, Seths-Blog

Closed Beta Needs Intelligent, Helpful, Active Listeners

July 21, 2007 by Liz


A Beta Baby Is Being Born

Sshhh! Beta being born

I was on the phone yesterday with Aaron Stanton. You might remember him from his question to get Google to listen. I liked his style then. So when he wrote to say he’s got something going on, I said let’s talk . . .

Here’s what I know after our conversation.

Are you hearing things go bump in the night at about 4 in the morning?

Shh! A secret beta is being born. A handful of programmers in Boise, Idaho, with the help of 20 or so more around the world, are putting the finishing touches on their new “baby.”

They’re asking for intelligent, helpful, active participants . . . to help by interacting with the “little tyke” while it gets a sense of itself.

Can you stop by their place for an hour a week for the next 4-6 weeks to help them get the bugs out?

If you’re interested in finding out more . . .

Can Google Hear Me? — Beta

Aaron’s fun, they’re on their own, and they sure are into what they’re doing.

But remember, Sshhh! the beta is still being born.

This is for Successful-Blog reader’s only, and you’ll need to use this code 19982E.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: Aaron-Stanton, bc, Can-Google-Hear-Me?, closed-beta

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 398
  • 399
  • 400
  • 401
  • 402
  • …
  • 707
  • Next Page »

Recently Updated Posts

The Creator’s Edge: How Bloggers and Influencers Can Master Dropshipping

Is Your Brand Fan Friendly?

How to Improve Your Freelancing Productivity

How to Leverage Live Streaming for Content Marketing

10 Key Customer Experience Design Factors to Consider

How to Use a Lead Generation Item on Facebook



From Liz Strauss & GeniusShared Press

  • What IS an SOB?!
  • SOB A-Z Directory
  • Letting Liz Be

© 2025 ME Strauss & GeniusShared