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Time to Spend and to Save

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I've been thinking . . .

“Beginning in 2007, most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March . . ” This year that is March 11.

The clocks are about to change. I heard a bird yesteday. Soon it will be spring. I hope I get to see it. The tulips are my favorite.

My life has started speeding up. Gee, like it hasn’t been fast all along. Projects are reaching their launch. Big events are happening. SOBcon is one week. My son graduates from college the next. How can time go by faster than it already has?

Spring forward one hour — one hour less. I don’t need less. More might be useful.

Daylight Savings Time. Who is saving mine? I only know who is spending it. That would be me.

Sometimes, without thinking, I spend and save time simultaneously.

We’re on the porch in Massachusetts. My husband is fixing my glasses. My son smiled, “So, you finally found a use for him.”

We’re in the living room in Illinois. I wrote a poem for a kindergarten lesson. “You think you’re five, but you’re only four-thirty,” joked my husband.

I hear my father saying, “If you sleep on the floor, you’ll never have to worry about falling out of bed.”

My my older, older brother called on our 23rd wedding anniversary. “Tell your husband I said he chose wisely.”

When I was small, time was huge, unending, constantly thrusting me forward. But that’s not time, no, not really. Time’s not a moving, unbending force upon me.

Time is a paradox of meaningful or meaningless moments. We can lose track of it We can waste it or wait for our time to be over.

If we’re lucky we find that time is the one thing we can spend by living and save in memories..

Spring back and breathe.

I don’t need to save time, or find time or make more time in my life.

I need to spend more time that I can save as memories.

Liz's Signature

Self Promotion: A Winning Answer Every Time — Why is That?

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Why You?

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In the comment box last month, for a post called 5 Reasons People Don’t Get Hired and the Only 3 Questions that Count Martin and I discussed questions we use when interviewing candidates for jobs. But let’s put this in context.

This is my favorite interview question. It requires a form of self-promotion.

If I had a candidate with a resume just like yours, what 3 things would you bring to the job that no one else would bring? No need to worry there’s no right answer.

In 15 years of asking that question, no candidate ever stammered. All of them took their time, gave it thought, and came back with a winning answer. No two answers were even remotely close.

No one got tied up in the confusion that usually hangs around self-promotion.

Why do you think that’s so?

How would you answer the question? What three things are you bringing that no one else would? What three things are uniquely you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
(I’ll be gone late morning to the dentist. Don’t worry if I’m not hanging in the comments.)

Related
Shameless Self-Promotion: What Makes It Shameless?

Change the World: Doing What’s Humanly Possible

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The Power of Offering

Change the World!

In publishing the schedules were killer, at certain times of year — at some places all year — folks would work 16 hour days and through the weekend. I would find myself telling new editors to go home without work. The conversation would often be the same.

“Go on home. You’re tired. You’ll come back tomorrrow and in the first hour you’ll accomplish three times what you would do in the next hour now.”

“But I want to get this one thing done.”

“Okay, we have to do what we need to. But will you do one thing for me?”

The answer was always an anticipatory look, tinged with a fear of possible more work.

“Remember that you can only do what’s humanly possible. . . . and to think you can do more makes you a kind of snob [big grin here], because the rest of us humans can’t.”

The reply would shoulders relaxing and a move to start packing up.

When I start to get ‘whelmed and rushed, I know it’s time to slow my step. I
So often I try to do more, be more, help more than the next guy. I might try to out achieve the overachiever, but I cannot do more than is humanly possible. For me to think that is sort of arrogant. What human can do more than a human can?

I can only do what’s humanly posisible.

It’s such a nice thought. I immediately relax when I think that humans need to eat, sleep, relax, reflect, reach for balance to be effective.

I can only do what’s humanly posisible. It’s like a mantra for overachievers.

I accept it, and people start smiling. Being human is attractive. It makes other humans feel good to have me around

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

What Did We Talk About? Elvis, of course!

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We Talked About Elvis and Other Stuff

It was a busy night. The conversations included Elvis, Blue Suede Shoes, Jail House Rock, Las Vegas, … Elvis impersonators, Heartbreak Hotel, bingo, Elvis wall clocks, the Askimet monster, American Idol and House, … crayons and superheroes, Girl Scout cookies, Ricky Nelson, Cadillacs, Graceland, and … a marriage proposal while singing an Elvis song. Wow! You can read all about it in the comments section.

Here are the links we shared.

Joe was there (first again!). So were Char, Delaney, Marti, Robert, Monique, Douglas, Rick, cat, Tariq, Brooke, Renée, Francie, Terry, HART, Darren, Rodney, Glenda, GP, David, Sean, Sheila, Tony, Trevor, and of course Chris brought the Klondike Bars.

Thanks to everyone for the cool links and for being part of the conversation.

See you next Tuesday? I sure hope so.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

WANT TO GUEST HOST AN OPEN COMMENT NIGHT WITH ME? PICK A THEME AND TELL ME ABOUT IT. C’MON IT’LL BE FUN!

Shameless Self-Promotion: What Makes It Shameless?

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The Problem

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I’ve been thinking self-promotion for months. Wendy, and Jessica, and I discussed it when we went to dinner in January.

Our perceptive, observant sidebar bartender, money guy, JohnFTM has noticed, the same thing I have

you can’t swing a cat in the popular blogosphere without hitting a few clumsy attempts at self-promotion . . .

This situation is not just a problem for those of us who have to listen. It’s a problem for those of us who don’t know what it is about shameless self-promotion that makes it shameless, ineffective, and well, if not outright offensive, then certainly intrusive and unwelcome.

We need to know how to recognize shameless self-promotion so that we can sort it from self-promotion that serves our business. If we can’t tell the two apart, then we’ll always be afraid to talk about what we do. A business that goes undiscussed is a business that has no clients. A business with no clients is either a hobby or it doesn’t exist.

What Makes It Shameless?

Most of us need our businesses to be visible, booked with customers, and making money to pay the rent. With that in mind, we should know the traits of shameless self-promotion — so we can feel safe when we talk about what we do with prospective clients.

Here are some traits and tactics of shameless self promotion.

  • Shameless self-promoters focus on mentioning the business continuously, as a name dropper might mention famous people.
  • Every conversational response is a talking point about what the shamelessly self-promoted business can do for the listener.
  • A shameless self-promoter will sometimes forget to acknowledge that other information has been added to the conversation and will talk right past that information with the features of the business being promoted.
  • Shameless self-promoters are rarely listening for the purpose of solving the problems or meeting the needs of prospective customers. Their goal is to sell their product or service needed or not.
  • Shameless self-promoters can turn any topic into a sales pitch.
  • Shameless self-promoters live to move forward their own agenda. They invest in others only as a last resort to meet their goal.

The shameless part is the total disregard for others. In other words, Shameless Self-Promoters see only the game — not the relationship or the other person’s needs. Shameless self-promoters are focused on getting, not giving. Just now, a friend on the phone said that he had quit hanging around with a guy who became an affiliate marketer, because the guy couldn’t quit selling.

Most folks I know couldn’t shamelessly self-promote, no matter what you paid them. We’re so sensitive to shameless self promotion we don’t ever want to be seen that way. So we always stand as far from that image as we possibly can. Sadly the result is that we often choose instead the other extreme — not to talk about our work at all

I’m planning a post or two in which we can talk about how to talk about what we do without feeling like we’re shamelessly self-promoting.

What do you want me to be sure to include?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Don’t forget to sign up for SOBCon o7 to see the real deal in person, seats are limited.

Related
See the Brand You series on the Successful Series Page

The Mic Is On: We’re Talking about Elvis!

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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.

We’re Shaking it Up, Talking About Elvis!

Elvis

We might also talk about

  • his movies
  • his songs
  • is he alive?
  • has he left the building?
  • were we born before he died?
  • Graceland
  • who is the new Elvis?
  • other rock stars

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey.

Oh, and bring a link to share, if you have one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?