Like attracts like.
Be who you are,
calm and clear and bright,
asking yourself every minute
is this what I really want to do,
doing it only when you answer yes.This turns away those who have
nothing to learn from who you are
and attracts those who do,
and from whom you have to learn as well.
— Messiah’s Handbook, Reminders for the Advanced Soul,
by Richard Bach
Illusions. It’s all illusions. We invent the world.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
The other day, we were talking about being shy and telling stories in the context of self-promotion. I said something about the “ME” in self-conscious. I’ve always thought about it. RK came back and put to words in a pair of comments that said exactly what I always had wondered about . . . am I shy or am I egotistical?
Then, oh then, the killer sentence was this one.
I’d say the ME in the Self-Conscious could be very much due to hyper thinking and analysis. — Comment by RK
Guilty.
This is one of my best stories . . . ever.
The company had a feeling about people that was good. Some folks were larks and some were owls was how the president described it. So no one really watched what time anyone came in the door each morning. Everyone assumed we all knew what our role was and that we did our fair share.
Except well, it started to get noticed that my team was coming in later. Then later. Soon it was after 9:30 when the last ones were trailing in. Okay so maybe I was the only one who noticed . . . but I don’t think I was.
In any case, before anyone else said something I thought maybe I should.
We had a short meeting at 11 a.m. I explained that we were kind of pushing the envelope on the time we came in, that maybe we should be aware that other folks might misinterpret things. After some conversation, everyone went to lunch.
Two hours later, two people still weren’t back.
This is the part where I did too much thinking. . . . I had two completely different arguments going on in my head at the same time.
I bet I had this argument going on for at least 20 minutes as I kept looking at the clock on my wall. I got absolutely nothing done during that time — talk about not doing my job.
As I’m in the middle of this argument, the two return. I hear their manager say to them, “Are you NUTS!?”
It was the perfect response for the two people and the situation.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. She’s much better now.
Suzannah of the Square Periods — you know the editor, who didn’t play the banjo but should have — was one of three editors who had started work on the same day. I started work as their Executive Editor a few months after. Sheila and Kris had been teachers. Suzannah’s husband was a teacher still.
What all three editors knew about pay raises looked like the scheduled increases of teacher salaries.
That, unfortunately, turned out to be a problem.
When the time came for their first-year performance appraisals, I met with each of them individually. We went through the process of how the self-appraisal part worked, what I would do after that, and what we would talk about together.
Sheila, the star of the three, was already being considered for the next promotion. In the meeting with Sheila something unusual came up. She might have been looking to short-circuit what she didn’t want to happen.
Sheila told me about an agreement the three editors had made.
“The three of us are having lunch to celebrate our first anniversary.” Sheila mentioned that they had agreed to reveal the amount of their salary increases. She said they wanted to be sure everyone was treated fairly.
“Oooh. That’s not a good idea.” I said. “I don’t think you want everyone to make the same.”
“Why’s that?ââ¬Â she asked. Remember that teachers don’t go to business school. They think in terms of grades and whole class rules. We spoke about company no tell policy, but I was focused on getting her personal investment in not wanting to share. Understanding that the no tell policy is a support and a protection is important.
“Imagine I hire a guy named Frank with a resume just like yours on the very same day as I hire you. One year later, you’ve done great work. You have managed three projects on your own. Whereas Frank has been confused at every turn and managed to screw up two projects so badly, they will miss their release dates by months. Same raises for both of you?”
“No.”
Sheila had just figured it out.
Money is paid for what the work is worth — and for management of that work in the company’s interest.
The more I wake up in the middle of the night, the more I have to think about the goals of the company, the more I’m responsible for the work of others, the more money I should make. Money = stress, execution, productivity, responsibility. End of story.
I then had the same conversation with the other two. The lunch happened. The salary revealing discussion did not.
Business Rule 9 may sound simplistic, if you already know it.
It’s key to ANY negotiation. When I learned it, suddenly I knew I understood how to buy a new car and how to purchase a house. The mysteries of talking money started to demystify before me. The value of money isn’t just important at work.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related
Business Rule 8: What Are Your Square Periods?
Business Rule 7: Sound Bytes, Stories, and Analogies
Business Rule 6: Who Dropped the Paddle?
Business Rule 5: Never Underestimate the Power of a Voice on the Telephone
It’s a typical conversation. I’ve had it with many authors. They work really hard on a manuscript only to find out that it doesn’t work as a book. The conversation goes something like this:
AUTHOR: [confused, frustrated] I don’t understand why this doesn’t work. I’m an intelligent person. I should be able to do this. Why am I so stupid about this?
ME: First, stop the self-torture. I’m better at it than you are. Your intelligence shows everywhere. You’ve just never done this before.
AUTHOR: [disappointed] But I read. I’ve written two dissertations. I’ve managed policy documents for entire organizations.
ME: Yep. That experience helps, for sure. But think about this. I’ve lived in a house. I wear shoes, drive a car, and have 1.5 million miles on airplanes. I can’t build any of them.
AUTHOR: [cheerfully sardonic] And your point is?
That is the moment at which I get their attention.
I understand an author’s feelings of confusion, disappointment, and frustration. Something about using books all of our lives, gives us an intimate relationship with them. Well, we think the relationship is with the book, but really it’s with the content. That’s where the misconceptions start. Here are some cold truths publishers wish every author realized.
Publishing is a business.
So what does it take to get published?
You can overcome these cold truths with two proofs.
- Prove that you can write a professional manuscript readers will want to buy.
- Prove that you’re an author, who is a pleasure to work with and brings value to the process.
Want to get published? Are you willing to prove it?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you make a plan to meet your goals, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.
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I was working for a company just outside of Boston. I was living just outside of Laguna Beach. The job was a great fit. At 13.5 hours door-to-door when the weather gods were on my side, the commute was not.
I was part of a team hell-bent on turning around a company in crisis. They had lost 10% for three years before I got there. About six months earlier, the staff had been cut from 200 people to 40. The culture was hurt. Everyone had ideas about what went wrong, but no one was sure about what to do right. The process models had fallen apart.
Itââ¬â¢s so easy to talk about negatives in a situation like that.
Because of my circumstances, I attended two executive meetings each month via telephone — a black box on the table. Iââ¬â¢d say hello to the group. Theyââ¬â¢d place the food of the day near the phone, and the meeting would start. They would forget I was there. I got to be the proverbial fly on the wall.
Three important things happened over that telephone.
It was the absence of the visual that made our words so powerful. We actually heard each other better and valued each other’s words more.
The difference was that we had to listen.
The common wisdom is that we lose more when we lose the visual. In this case we gained. Learning to listen wasn’t the only lesson that I learned that day.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with your PRM, check out the Perfect Virtual Manager on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.
Related
Business Rule 4: You Know Your Truth ââ¬â Listen to Yourself
Business Rule 3: In PRM, the First Test Always Outweighs the Final
Business Rule 2: How to Do What You Want
Words are the fuel of the Internet. We type the name or description of a product, service, or topic into a search engine, and the search engine takes us to it. With luck we get where we would like to be. Easy enough from our end — usually.
Of course, our search words have to match those that marketers use to describe their product. And therein lies the problem. Sometimes as marketers, we are too clever for our searchers, or as my husband would argue, “Peach is fruit, NOT a color.”
In his post Words That Work at Marketing Profs, Gerry McGovern, uses the book “Words that Work,” by Frank Luntz to show that the words we sell with are often not the words we punch into a search engine. Take a look at Prof. McGovern’s examples:
However, according to Overture, in December 2006, 730,958 people searched for “used car,” while only 949 searched for “pre-owned vehicle.”
Nearly 73,000 people searched for “housewife” (122,000 searched for “desperate housewife”), while only 43 searched for “stay-at-home-mom.”
Over 30,000 searched for “gay marriage” while 19,000 searched for ” same-sex marriage.”
While about 17,000 people search for “impotence,” over 100,000 search for “erectile dysfunction,” proving that some words are indeed falling into disuse, even from a search point of view.
The point is that the words that might bring us to products — cheap office supplies, budget hotel — aren’t the same words that sell us when we get there — office supplies at great prices, campy hotel. Prof McGoven wonders whether we need to use more than one set of terms to describe things. Hmmmm. I don’t know.
I keep thinking that transparency and deep knowledge of our customers as people would lead us to write copy that naturally avoids the problem.
I’d love to know what you think.
— ME “Lia” Strauss
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Enough About Me, Letââ¬â¢s Talk About What You Think
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