Successful Blog

Something about Bloggers and a Chocolate Bar

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I've been thinking . . .

It’s not every day that i meet for dinner people that I’ve never met before. But it was a blogger’s blind date of sorts that brought Ann and me to a restuarant where we found CK, Sean, and Matt.

We were bloggers every one.

Ann, CK, Liz, Sean

. . .
What is it about bloggers that makes conversation so natural? . . . Have you noticed?

Have you seen what happens when we meet? . . . a hug — even the shy ones, the I’m not Kumbayah ones seem to have that part down.

A lack of small talk seems to be the hallmark of wuch a grand event.

Like a first date, after dinner, we went walking, and picking up a detail said in passing ealier, Sean pointed out an Internet Cocoa Bar. We inside for an after dinner conversation about the world, each other, and how telephones work.

At one point we remarked that the little shop would be perfect place to take a first date to extend as evening — just the right amount of intimate, casual, and romantic.

It was exactly what we had done.

Blogger relationships seem to come easy . . . like talking over real hot chocolate in a fabulous chocolate bar?

Sweet.

Liz's Signature

SOB Business Cafe 06-08-07

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Problogger’s having a party in NYC. I’ll be there. Will you?

Manage to Change tells the highlights of our NYC trip so far.

LifeDev uses Google as a personal example

Ask Delaney Krik has student advice that works for more than college professors. Use college professors as a metaphor for bloggers.

Daily Blog Tips wonders about the timestamp.

Related ala carte selections include

Workboxers has a request.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Chas Edwards and Conversational Marketing

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relationships button

For me, the best part of the Future of Online Advertising Conference today was the presentation by Chas Edwards, Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer of Federated Media. His talk was both up my alley and filled with synchronicity. Chas spoke about conversational marketing — a topic that Dawud and I had been discussing not more than a half hour previously.

The main points Chas summed up were that we need to follow through on each these tasks to make the most of conversational marketing,.

  • Locate your brand. Know it and what it stands for — and stand it firmly on concrete.
  • Follow the leaders and look for opportunities to partner with them.
  • Find the existing conversations. Add to them. Conversations lead to relationships. Be where things are happening.
  • Listen as mush as you speak.

I was lucky enough to have had a short conversation with Mr. Edwards in the hotel visitor’s loungs. I’ve added him to my regular reads.

Do you seek out the conversations about you? Or do you wait for the conversation to come to you?

Sometimes we don’t realized when we make it harder for our customers to talk to us=

–ME “Liz” Strauss

More Metaphors to Explore

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The Metaphor Project: Wow! Even More!

This is the third set and I’m so enjoying reading these metaphors. I always knew that bloggers were teachers at heart. The variety and the depth blows me away with enthusiasm for how well we know the subject.

Thank you for all of the submissions to The “What’s Your Blogging Metaphor?” Group Writing Project. Some of you are new to me and I’m so enjoying this introduction to you and your blogs. Some are familiar faces and it’s so exciting to get to know a new part of who you are.

Check this new batch out and pass them along to your readers. The more ways we look at blogging the better we’ll be able to explain it when we need to.

Let’s find some more.

Because this project spread so quickly and not all links are making their way to me, if you’ve written a metaphor and you’re not on the list, please email me a link. If you’ve already done that before 10pm CDT on June 6, please forgive me and send it again.

Be a Part of the Project

So, what’s your blogging metaphor? Join the project. There’s still time to be a part – I’ve extended the list to 10pm Chicago time (GMT-6hrs.) June 11th the Monday I return from NYC. So you have plenty of time to take part. Here’s the original post for the background — the whats and the hows.

C’mon tell us. How would you explain blogging to someone who knew nothing about it? What’s your blogging metaphor?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

How to Recognize a Friend

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Identity and Relationships

relationships button

Since SOBCon, a lot of conversation has gone about friendship and what it means. Many words and phrases have been used to describe it.

As you read this, I’ll already be on a plane on my way to New York, where I’ll meet friends again — three already in my heart (two I’ve met, one I have not yet); two I’ve talked to on the phone; one I hardly know; and some I’ve not imagined. I’ll miss them all when I head home again.

With those thoughts in my head and my heart, I’m moved to write about how to recognize a friend when you have the luck to meet one.

Friendship isn’t hard to spot.

It’s an action, a feeling, a way of being all at once.

It’s a perception and a reality that is exchanged without speaking.

It’s the comfortable white space between the words in conversation.

It’s the smile in the eyes of someone that says, “We just met, but I know who you are.”

It’s that “come out and play” kind of feeling.

You can recognize a friend, because no matter what happens, with that person you are someone you want to be.

Liz's Signature

Left-Brain, Right-Brain, Whole Brain Think

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Analysis and Synthesis

It’s no secret that our brains have two hemispheres or that the two work differently. Despite how we talk, people aren’t really right-brain thinkers or left-brain thinkers. Everyone uses both sides of their brain in everything that they do. Each hemisphere takes charge of certain specialized thinking.

What is managed by the left hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the right side of the body
  • sequential and linear thinking — a, b, c, . . . 1,2,3
  • reading left to right
  • interpreting the meaning of text without context
  • analyzing details — drilling down into spreadsheets
  • knowing logic

What is managed by the right hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the left side of the body
  • simultaneous thinking — That’s a math book. That’s newspaper.
  • reading right to left
  • interpreting the meaning of context
  • synthesis — the global view
  • knowing the world

People do have attributes that lean toward left-brain directed thinking or right-brain directed thinking. Here’s what Daniel Pink says about that in his book A Whole New Mind.

Call the first approach L-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain — sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. Ascendant in the Information Age, exemplified by computer programmers, prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools, this approach is directed by left-brain attributes, toward left-brain results. Call the other approach R-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain — simultaneous, metaphorical, aethetic, contextual, and synthetic. Underemphasized in the Information Age, exemplified by creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, this approach is directed by right-brain attributes toward right-brain results.

Of course, we need both approaches in order to craft fulfilling lives and build productive, just societies. But the mere fact that I feel obliged to underscore that obvious point is perhaps further indication of how much we’ve been in the thrall of reductionist, binary thinking. Despite those who have deified the right brain beyond all scientific evidence, there remains a strong tilt toward the left. Our broader culture tends to prize L-Directed Thinking more highly than its counterpart, taking this approach more seriously and viewing the alternatve as useful, but secondary.

But this is changing . . .

What changes do you see? Are you using your right-brain talents more? Are you feeling less appreciated for your left-brain abilities?

–ME Liz” Strauss
Behind every successful business is an outstanding manager –The Perfect Virtual Manager.

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