Successful Blog

Beach Notes: A Few Minutes for Yourself and the Sky

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Every week Suzie and Des send the most amazing thoughts and photographs from the beaches of OZ. But everyone deserves a day off.

Do you ever take one? Do you ever take a day for yourself?
You don’t need beach. Actually you don’t even need a whole day, if other things call you.

What you need is time with yourself and the sky.

august_sunrise_by_liz_strauss

 

Find a sunrise, a sunset, a blue sky, a cloudy day and spend some time with it.

With our feet on the ground and our eyes on the sky, we get a new perspective on what matters and what doesn’t. It’s hard to take the little things seriously when we’re looking up at that. It’s harder yet to stay too much in our heads with so much expansive to take in.

Why not take a few minutes for yourself and the sky?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 248 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

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

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

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

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beyond-mom
dada-rocks
penn-olson
phandroid
social-media-b2b

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

I thank all 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 to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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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– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 07-23-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Awake @ the Wheel by Alexis Neely
If you are reading this blog, it means you are a pretty smart cookie. You love to read, think, critique, improve. Me too.

Reading at three. High school and college, a breeze. Graduated first in my law school class (more to do with over-studying as a result of massive fear that I was the dumbest person in the room than to innate smartness).

A smarty-pants.

The Brand Builder
Point: Knowing full well that a method, tool or model no longer yields the desired outcome (assuming it ever did), some organizations will continue to bet on it, in the hopes that the laws of the universe will shift in the night and miraculously turn a completely ludicrous project into success.

Geoff Livingston
Ever interrupt a conversation with people you don’t know at a party and start talking right away, only to find the members leave? It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? No one likes to have their conversation interrupted, and normal conventions are to walk up, listen, introduce yourself, maybe even ask a question, and then participate after listening for a couple of minutes.

Listening Comes First

Note: You can download the first drafted chapter of the new edition — Welcome to the Fifth Estate — for free.

Digital Peas & Carrots
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers, the latest report by eConsultancy, takes a look at consumer behavior in both the US and UK with a focus on 1) how consumers interact with e-commerce brands 2) how consumers conduct product research and 3) how consumers are affected by different factors in the buying decision-making process.

Carol Roth
After I stopped rolling my eyes, I realized it was such a great reminder of how you need to sell your products in a location and manner relevant to your customers.

Thought Gadgets
Web stats go up and down, but it’s noteworthy that Google’s share of total U.S. search volume has plummeted since it redesigned its main page back in May. In April, just before adding bells and whistles to its search venue, Google led U.S. search volume with 71.4% share. In June, its share had fallen to 62.6%. Third-place chaser Bing is gaining fast, up from 9.4% to 12.7% of all U.S. searches in the same period.

Related ala carte selections include

SOBCon COLORADO CONTEST
Win! Win! Win!

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

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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When Someone Blindsides You With a Negative Blog Post

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On a phone call last week, my friend, Zena Weist and I were discussing incidents such as the Motrin Moms and the Nestle-Greenpeace crises that happened last year or similar circumstances when a person or a group attacks another online.

That conversation reminded me of a negative blog post a few months ago that a fairly known blogger wrote using my name in the headline with two other key words as a obvious SEO ploy to get traffic. I say that because he ignored similar situations with other folks and didn’t attempt to ask me about the event. Nor did he respond to any conversation about it.

These sorts of confrontation can evoke a passionate response.

In the fast web culture, our senses get heightened by the idea that a wide audience of people we don’t know can be reading that bad press about us. It’s only natural to want to to set the record straight.

It’s at times like those that I try to remember this saying,

The more I want to run, the better it is that I walk slowly and with thought.
Passion rarely fuels grounded thinking.

Of course, a great social media team is hired to be mature and is prepared with a plan to handle a crisis such as those I just mentioned. But a knee jerk reaction can foil even the best plans. Realize that it’s happening. Often we sense a bad conversation before it’s really gone wrong. It might be our mood or the mood of the person we’re talking to. Unconsciously we rise to the bait and respond by making things worse.

So … Breathe. Before your hands touch the keyboard to respond realize that you’ve got a few minutes to go with your best reaction, not your fastest one. Take time to think of your best options. We can’t take back a bad response, but we can reconsider our options before we act like a jerk.

  • Own your part of what derailed. Apologize for your behavior not circumstances around you.
  • Diffuse any personal response you’re feeling before you respond.
  • See yourself on the other side of the conversation.
  • Find a way to say “thank you” for the information.
  • Don’t feel compelled to counter every point. Trust the people who know you to know what you stand for. Realize that some folks won’t listen anyway.
  • Get curious about finding common ground — make a goal to meet somewhere you agree. Ask them what they might do in your situation.
  • Live the example you respect. Choose thought-filled words that come from the heart.
  • Keep the conversation limited to the person who brought it and take it offline or private as soon as possible. If
  • In the case of folks who are simply inventing something to hijack your name, answer once, clearly and with grace. Then simply ignore the conversation or enlist your friends to set the situation straight.
  • Know the difference between a stampede of elephants and a flea who’s just irritating.

Of course, the best response is to be solid about what you stand for, willing to listen to questions about it, and open to other’s concerns. Then when things get confrontational, you can simply point out that the behavior, not the discussion, is inappropriate.

Have you ever been blindsided by a negative blog post? How did you handle it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

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Who Won’t Let Your Business Fail?

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We Need Someone Outside the System We’re In

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Some kids learn to ride a bike by just getting on one. They ride and fall down until the falling down part stops. Other kids have the luxury of someone who runs alongside the bike helping them balance as they ride. Those kids get fewer bruises and meet the sidewalk head on fewer times.

Launching a new idea, product, or service is a lot like riding a bike, or maybe more like trying to ride a horse after you already know how to ride a bike.

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We have a grand idea. It’s a good plan. We’ve think through the audience, how we’ll reach them, and how we’ll connect them to each other and our grand service, amazing product or outstanding event. …

Whether we work alone or on a highly competitive corporate team, the hardest part of our work is to get a balanced appraisal of our idea before we take off on the ride.

Why is that?

Each of us is inside a system — a network, a business, a circle of family and friends. Shouldn’t we be able to find help there? Maybe not, because …

  • some people who helped build the idea — participated in the thinking. They can see how we got where we’re going, but not necessarily what we’ve missed.
  • some people in our system often want to maintain the equilibrium of our relationships. Unless we’re about to ride off a cliff or over broken glass, they’ll let us try what we might even when they’re not sure they can see any way it will work.
  • some people in our system have already decided about us and our ideas. We know the people in our system who always say, “that’s brilliant,” “that won’t work,” “we’ll see.” “just go for it,” and “where do I fit in?” to every idea we have.

The problem is that we can’t see the holes in a plan that we’ve made. What we need is the feedback of a naive intelligent customer who doesn’t know how we got to our idea.

Who Won’t Let You Fail

What every system needs is someone outside the thinking to come in at the end to say “Why that?” Imagine a guiding angel (not a devil’s advocate) who is 100% for seeing you and your team succeed with the highest quality result.

The businesses who do more of this are the ones who come to market with renewed confidence. Recently, Dell did a great job of seeking out this kind of advice with their #DellCap initiative. (thanks Dell!) Old Spice has been listening in lots of new ways. SOBCon owes much to so many people: Britt Raybould, Kevin Ferrasci O’Malley, Geoff Livingston, Sheila Scarborough, Chris Brogan, Becky McCray, Jason Falls, Carol Roth, Jonathan Fields, Stephen Smith, Chris Cree, and too many others to name– who have told us their truth while we were working on ideas.

What we need is someone who won’t let us fail. Do you have someone who will

  • keep you and your team focused on your end goal and your passion
  • hold you accountable for your goals.
  • stays out of the thinking and developing in order to question your decisions without prior knowledge of how you got to them.
  • point out hidden assumptions and risks
  • make sure you’re not underestimating your abilities or setting the bar too low.
  • tell you when you’re building for yourself rather than the people you serve.
  • won’t let you fail or limit reach and will tell when you’re in danger of doing so.
  • keep your confidence and trust as you talk about what your worries are.

We can’t be inside the thinking and outside the thinking at the same time. Having someone outside your system who won’t let you fail is the best investment a business can make. A few hours a month to check in on what’s planned can save thousands in time and resources invested in the wrong things because no one noticed the hidden assumption in your plan.

The question isn’t whether the outside source is paid. It’s whether the source can tell you the hard truth gently. The right source would risk your relationship rather than let you fail.

Some folks have it in their DNA that they can’t stand to watch anything fail. Find a few of them and get them on your team. Make them heroes. Listen to what they say or they won’t stay around long. What better safety net can a business have than people who won’t let them fail?

What companies do you know who have found a way to listen to folks outside the system who won’t let them fail?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Here’s How You Gain Customers As You Grow Your Product Line

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Be Visible, Be Focused

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Mike and Larry (not their real names) had an idea. It was simple. When they came to me they had already figured out to enlist other folks by inviting them to be partners, experts, and heroes and their idea became a fabulous reality — a great first success. After their event, we talked about how to leverage their success into something longer and more lasting.

They had so many ideas! Their ideas were all over the place.

Whoa!

We stopped to take a strategic look at what was already at their door and where natural managed growth might go. We started with this model to guide the plan.

oldnewcustomer

  • [top left box] What is your core product / service? Who is in your core customer base? What was the form of your first success? Who are the customer you reached with your first success?

    Mike and Larry had developed an online webinar that had gained a huge following of fans — a core group of online small business folks, particularly pr and marketing people. We named them “old product” and “old customers” to remind us that we were focused on expanding both the product line and the customer base. Doing the same thing for the same people only leads to slow death

  • [top right box] How can you offer that same product to new customers? To extend the circle of people that attended the original webinar, Mike and Larry are offering it as an mp3 and a transcript. They may also use some as newsletter content and possibly later put it in a paid content subscription site.
  • [bottom left box] How can you keep serving the customers you reached with your first success? Mike and Larry have already started a second webinar series on a new question. They’re looking at new forms of the webinar, text versions of the same idea, a book, and offline events.
  • [bottom right box] How can you keep to solid path? Once we discussed how much bandwidth and risk it takes to veer away from a core audience and product niche, Mike and Larry agreed that the lower right box isn’t for them.

Ideas are good, but it’s hard to choose which will take you to the place you want to be, if you don’t know where you want to go. On the other hand, knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.

All you need to get started is two questions: Who’s in your core audience and what is the first thing you will offer them?

I can’t wait to hear.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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