Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Hold the Sky, Feet on the Floor . . .

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Often before I write I need time to reflect, to find the words. I put on my headphones and let music to get me there. Music takes me from the worries on my desk and lets me access my center.

Today, I wanted to hold onto a beautiful day in Chicago.

I let Howard Jones help me.

Ordinary things in life are where
this heaven likes to be

Hold the sky, feet on the floor
Hold the sky, feet on the floor

We make our sun to shine
We make our space and time
We make the weather
We make it change

Howard Jones, We Make the Weather, People

I’ve listened to this song for years. Yet, every time I hear it, I learn a little more about what it could mean to me.

What a great way to approach to business, life, relationships. Hold the sky, feet on the floor. That client who didn’t show for a meeting last week, he can’t stop my sun from shining, neither can the numbers in my blog stats or the phone that won’t stop ringing.

Everyday is a new day and we get to decide what the weather will be. It’s not such a hard concept, if I take time to breathe.

Isn’t that part of our branding? We problem solve to change bad weather? Don’t we innovate by changing time and space? Aren’t the best big dreams well-grounded in what we can actually do?

And the people . . . the relationships that add the greatest value to my life are the ones that just by being change the weather. They are the friends and colleagues who teach me to dream BIGGER and still keep myself standing in reality.

Relationships like that have changed my life. They have the power to change the world.

Today is the only today I have. You can bet I’m going to hold that sky with both arms standing right here in my living room.

We make the weather. We make it change.

Liz's Signature

Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Bookcraft 2.0

When I left you in Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would, Phil Gerbyshak and I had agreed on two “working” book titles that can be built from posts in his archives and one “working” title that we’re going to write from scratch.

Phil and I chose one of the two “working” titles that drew from his archives. We made our choice based on these criteria.

the amount of content he felt sure was there
the success of his current book
what his readers would feel was a natural next step

With the working title in my head, I wrote a subtitle — the 25 words or less definition/premise of what the book would be about. That definition would be my tool for deciding what content to keep. Some folks call that statement the “elevator pitch.”

Armed with the premise as my tool, I could effectively mine Phil’s archives for relevant content.

Rough Cut Content Strategy

Rough cut mining for relevant content is what it sounds like, a systematic process of gathering the content that might be useful. Rough cut is the key term. I went to the archives to make a yes/no choice and move on. I used this criteria to gather the content to form the rough cut of the book-to-be.

1. The content is original.

2. The content ties to the premise of the book.

3. The content is of a size worth picking up.

4. The links are few and superficial (not integral to the point of the text.)

5. Quoted text is secondary to original content.

6. Link lists belong in an appendix, if anywhere. They are probably best left behind at this juncture.

The value of each point above changes depending on the type of book being built. The size of content chunk needed in Point 3 is larger, if the book will be running text and smaller, if the book will be a write-in work text. Point 4 changes completely, when my only goal is an ebook. Point 5 takes on new meaning, if the plan is to start each page with a meaningful quotation.

Rough Cut Content Tactics

I went right for the date archives and read them in order. I read to see whether each post meets the premise and the criteria set. Standard operating procedure for dealing with raw content is to get all content in pages of similar size and moveable form. So I also followed these procedures.

Print each post separately.

Make sure every print out carries the reference from where it came — in this case, the post date. If necessary, write it by hand. Captured keystrokes are valuable when the time comes to assemble the book.

The pile of pages on my desk is 140-150 pages deep. I’ll guess high and say that 30% won’t work. That would leave me with about 100 pages to play with. I can do plenty with that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Carnival of Extreme Customer Service Is On!

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Looking for More Service in Your Live?

Did my FedEX guy story get you thinking about great service . . . wishing we had more of it? Then head over to carnivale and check out how to get the customer service competitive edge.

Meikah at Customer Relations: The New Competitive Edge has brought together a list of exceptional bloggers writing on Impossible or Exceptional Service. At this carnivale you’ll find.

Doug of Service Untitled
Glen of Customer Service Experience
Mike of ConverStations
Paul of The Unlawyer
Maria of CustomersAreAlways
Reden of Renewable Energy

and me.

Now there’s a list! Stop on over for fine writing and insights you won’t find everywhere by clicking the title below.

Thanks, Meikah, for putting these wonderful works together in one place for us.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 9-25-2006

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

US Telecom Bill Is DOA

Net neutrality kills overdue legislation, as new Internet lobby force rises on Capitol Hill.

The Communications, ConsumersÃ¢â¬â¢ Choice and Broadband Deployment Act looks to be on the verge of extinction.

[ . . . ]

The bill is the first piece of comprehensive telecommunications legislation in a decade. It covers a wide range of telecommunications and regulatory issues such as video franchising, universal service, and municipal broadband.

Still, passage of the bill hinges on Net neutrality, a concept not well understood in both the general U.S. population and the Senate.

A coalition of organizations and individuals led by MoveOn.org, the Free Press, Consumers Union, Gun Owners of America, Google, and Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org, moved the Net neutrality discussion into the mainstream with a relentless Internet-based lobbying effort.

In both the Senate and House committees, Net neutrality dominated the sometimes disjointed debate. Despite the fact that bills passed in both houses that did not include Net neutrality provisions, the SaveTheInternet.com coalition seems to be on the brink of victory.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Bloggy Question 22 — A Real Issue: Blogger Justice?

September 24, 2006 by Liz

What if It Were You or Me?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, This question comes from a piece that Chris Garrett wrote in August. The piece began with this paragraph . . .

What would you do if someone wronged you in a blatant way? You would probably have words and if that didn’t produce an apology would more than likely as a next step blog about it, right? And probably invite your blogger friends to also blog about it? Of course a lot of them will anyway, particularly if what the dude did was dumb, damaging or both. And of course their readers might well pick up the story. Then what if the guy, instead of getting the point threatens you with lawyers and all kinds of legal threats? — Revenge of the Bloggers

It wasn’t hypothetical. Real bloggers did and said real things that completely ruined a person’s name. Did he deserve it? He was wrong, so wrong. Does that make them right?

Who gets to decide? It’s an important issue.

Click the title below to read the story. I’ll wait until you come back.

My bloggy question is what do you think about all of this?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Extreme Customer Service? I’m Still Telling the Story

September 24, 2006 by Liz

Extreme Times Call for Extreme Customer Service

I have never worked for FedEX, nor do I know anyone who has. . . . I wrote this because Meikah asked whether I knew any stories about extreme customer service and this is the one that I know. I know it because I lived it

The Flood

We stood on the deck of our second floor condo, watching the flood waters rise. The rains had caused the river to rise by 12 feet. It overflowed its banks, wiped out the highway, covered the streets, and was overtaking our parking lot. Word in the building was that we would be evacuated some time that day.

“We” was me, my husband, our 2 year-old son, and a 7-year-old cockatoo named Chicken.

Rescuers were coming, in rowboats on streets of suburban Illinois, to take us away from our home. The rain had stopped — not the flooding. We stood most of the morning on the deck watching the water rise and get closer. It was already up to the seats of our cars.

Deadlines Don’t Care About Floods

My husband and I were working freelance on a deadline project. One part was due that day at a publisher about 12 miles east of us. It couldn’t be late. It was part of a program costing $millions being submitted at state level. The state had no give to the cut off submission date.

My husband and I had the work done. We didn’t know how to get it there. Our cars were useless. We didn’t know where we’d be that night. We got the package ready in hopes of finding an answer before we were evacuated.

The FedEx Guy

About then the phone rang, it was a young man. “Excuse me, this is FedEX,” he said. “I have a package. Do you need it?”

The package was the next part of the same project. Who knew how it would find us, if we didn’t take it now? I said, “I’m sorry, but yeah, we really do need it.”

“No problem, Ma’am.” he said. “I’ll walk it over to you.”

I put the phone down and took my husband out on the deck. Coming through the water — at one point it was chest deep — was a guy in a FedEx uniform, holding a package above his head.

Our neighbors started cheering and applauding. The young man was smiling and waving. He made it look fun.

When the FedEx guy got to our door, we traded packages. My gratitude was all over him, explaining. He was all smiles still, saying it was his job. (I took his name. I wrote the company about him.)

Meanwhile, our neighbors had gathered everyone they could. The crowd was much larger when the FedEX guy left. As he opened the building door to go through the water, the applause started again.

FedEX man raised the new package high above his head and said very loudly, “Fed EX we deliver. We pick up too!”

What a gift that guy was. Every one of us was worried about what was happening, what damage would be done, when the water would stop. FedEX man did more than deliver a package. He walked right through the scary water to us, smiling.

He got us to laugh.

THAT is extreme customer service on every level.

That happened almost 20 years ago, and I’m still telling the story . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss