Successful Blog

3 Simple Ways Passionate Problem Solving Attracts Clients

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When Passion is Sound Business

Creativity at Work

People say “do what you love.” Passion — a deep-seated desire to be doing what we’re doing — is key to keeping our interest through the pain it takes to transform an idea into business. But is passion enough? Not really.

It’s no surprise that passion needs to be directed toward solving a real problem that people need solved. If our passion is simply self-serving … well, I’m nice, but who really cares what makes me tick? Everyone is doing their own ticking and no one has a rewindable clock.

3 Ways Passionate Problem Solving Can Attract More Clients

As passionate problem solvers, what and how we present to clients and customers changes.

  1. Be an Advisor. Do the thinking. Builders offer products and services. Problem solvers listen, assess, and offer sound-thinking solutions that meet customer needs and desires. Demonstrate how you can focus on one bit of the business so that the client or customer can work on the rest.

  2. Be a Value. Demonstrate with numbers how investing in you will make more time or more money.

  3. Be Easy. Choose a tiny shared goal that can test the relationship. Make it something small and something easy.

When we’re talking about our passion, we don’t worry about whether we’re selling. When we frame our offers as opportunities that are easy and worth investing in, we no longer get caught in the idea of self-promotion or worry about personal rejection. We’re fully engaged in the ideas. People see our strengths. Relationships happen by attraction.

Clients who want to grow with us see the logic in our reasoning.

Have you got enough passionate problem solving into your work?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

What Would Be Missing If You Weren't There?

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You Are More than the Average

“If I had another resume just like yours, what three things would you bring to the work that the other person would not?”

I’ve used that interview question for well over ten years. It’s not a test of reactions or a comparison. It’s how I find out more about what a person values and who that person is. I’ve never thought about a “right” answer; never heard a “wrong” one; might have caught one or two that seemed a little unreal.

In over a decade I’ve never gotten the same answer twice.

What happens is the person stops, thinks for a while then says something of unique value.

  • I always listen when people talk.
  • I know what I know and make sure to ask when I don’t.
  • I’m honest. I’ll never lie to you.
  • I’m a quick study and I’m thorough.
  • I see things that other people don’t see.

Every answer is a bonus, above that person’s job qualifications. Sometimes it’s a natural talent. Sometimes it’s a skill. Sometimes it’s a core value or quality that speaks to his or her humanity. Always it’s a statement of an individual’s uniqueness.

We are our uniqueness, our skills and our abilities, our image, our traits, and our potential. Each of us as a person fits and fills a need or solves a problem in a way that no other person ever will.

You’ve got your own unique talents, skills, values, and human qualities.

You are more than the average person.

We all are.

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What do you bring that would be missing if you weren’t there?

I’ll go first.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

10 Ways to Live in the Moment Every Moment of Your Life

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The Moment of the Work or Life?

Ever met a woman who is truly what she loves? The idea of separating work from life doesn’t even come up. Work and life are seamless integrated in her days, in her cells.

Ever talked with a guy who’s passionate about his life? He doesn’t give one kind of energy during the hours of 8 to 5 and another when play time arrives. His moments are filled with enthusiasm and determination for being part of everything that he does.

10 Ways to Live in the Moment
Every Moment of Your Life

People talk about living in the moment as being an optimal way to live a life. In my experience, it’s just as easy to get wrong as it is to get right.

If the moments we choose to live in are saturated with work, we’re living buried in the labor and not in our lives.

The trick is to experience every moment as a moment of life. Here are 10 ways to energize every moment of your life.

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  1. Own your time. Know that every moment you spend doing anything is a choice. All of the “have-tos” and the “musts do” are because you choose what doing them will bring. Time is the only resource we can’t renew. Invest it in experiences, places, and people that are meaningful to you.
  2. Decide and define what you want your moments to be about. Are you a learner? an explorer? a teacher? a risk taker? a rodeo clown? When you look back in the last moment of your life what sort of moments will you cherish most? Decide now to make more of them.
  3. Don’t wait for the right moment to be alive. Stop yourself several times a day to look at the sky, to experience the environment you’re in, to hear your own thoughts as they move through your mind. Don’t wait for the someday to try something new.
  4. Spend time with people who truly live the moments of their lives. We slowly become what we look at most. If we hang with the best role models, we can learn the pros.
  5. Minimize the number and effect of negative moments in your life. Let go of anger and pain. Carrying around memories of bad times gets in the way of what we might be experiencing now.
  6. Don’t invest in fights that you don’t need to win. Who has time to argue about silly things? Meet with your friends in the places where you build things, not in the places where things get torn down.
  7. Make positive moments. Negative thoughts build fences and defenses. Positive people attract positive people who are doing positive things.
  8. Know when you’re getting swept into the current and losing sight of the moments of your life. It will be a need to speed up. Then it will be some sort of stress. Stop to reflect on who you are, where you are, what you value, and how you want to live your life.
  9. Stretch. Think of every moment as a chance to see more of yourself. Take small risks that push your ideas and ideals. Living is growing. Expand every moment into memory of a life.
  10. Curate and protect with bold intention. Let the people and places you care about know that part of living your life is dedicated to them.

Moments not minutes tell the story of a life.

How do you put yourself into the moments of your life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

Related:
10 Ways to Kill the Kudzu and Get Your Blogging Mojo Back

Tonight: LIVE Event in Chgo: Social Media and Journalism

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Media Bistro Panel at the ComedySportz Theatre

The Living Web

No longer is the big black headline the sign of the breaking news…

How to incorporate social media into your work

Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms have turned the web into a one-stop shop for news, entertainment, social, and professional engagement. For those who create content, it is a hyper-connected publishing system. No longer do you need to work for a major publisher like the NY Times or the Globe to get a story out; breaking news is found on Twitter, and journalists use the web to brand and market their work, whether freelance or staffed within an organization. What does this mean for the future of the industry as a whole, where are the opportunities now, and how can you use social media to help you grab them while they’re hot?

mediabistro

WHEN
August 18, 2009
Doors open at 6:15 pm; panel begins at 7pm
Meet the panelists at our cash bar reception, 8:30pm

WHERE
The ComedySportz Theatre
929 W Belmont Street
Chicago, IL 60657

WHO
Experienced and neophyte media pros who need help navigating their careers

Online Registration is closed, but you can register at the door.
For more information.

I’ve seen the questions, the discusion is going to be meaty, on target, and explore the new business models and the new rules.

Will I see you there?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

10 Ways You Can Use Twitter for Small Biz

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Twitter Friends

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I’ve been working on a new Twitter presentation for a client that wants the whole team — the whole company — to be part of the conversation. The one I used last was built a while back and Twitter has changed some since then. As I was working on this new presentation new ideas about how the Twitter culture has grown kept coming to me.

They became this simple list and I thought you might find them useful too.

10 Ways to Use Twitter for Small Biz

When you’re on Twitter, you might try a few of these ways to add value and extend your relationships …

  1. Curate a small biz reading list that you filter and share links from.

    2. @BeckyMcCray writes Small Biz Survival

  2. Follow the leaders.
    @smallbiztrends

    3. @barrymoltz
    @TobyDiva
    @problogger

  3. Share ideas that have worked for you … or not.

    4. @stacybrice tweeted: i just got my Play Doh from #sobcon hopelessly stuck to a piece of paper.

  4. Talk about what other folks do well.

    5. @johnhaydontweeted: @Veribatim Can @JeffHunt make robots? Have two ever seen “The Iron Giant”?

  5. Share resources when you find them.

    6. GrowMap tweeted: This is the blog post by @designstrike where I found those and many more #dofollow Social Networking sites. http://su.pr/5ggaxe

  6. Retweet what’s good.

    7. KennedyIAm tweeted: RT @warrenss: Great collection of “must read” whitepapers for social media & business curated by @123socialmedia http://bit.ly/D3wFU #smwp

  7. Share events and announcements

    8. @roundpeg tweeted: I’m attending Citizen Debate: Healthcare, presented by Smaller Indiana – http://hcdebate.eventbrite…. #indy will you be there?

  8. Find people who share specialized tips, tools, and tricks.

    9. @philrichards tweeted: The Temporary Workplace Rules explained – http://bit.ly/2PTKPW

  9. Talk to people … use the @ sign a lot.

    10. @david_body tweeted: @rubbish That’s what the sellers probably thought. (Doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.)

  10. Let your personality shine.

    11. @brentleary — tweeted: I always get the scrunchy face when I hear that guitar solo. if anyone ever doubted Prince’s skills on the guitar, send them a link to that!

Twitter has a lot in common with small business. It’s nimble, quick, and versatile. It takes time to get started. but can reach customers with care.

What’s Twitter has that most small businesses don’t is a far reaching network at little cash cost. Learn the culture and the lingo, you might find a world of friends and new ideas that make your small business take on that thrill of a new beginning again.

Twitter doesn’t just extend relationships, it makes it easy to make new ones. We find new friends, new customers, new people to partner with, new ideas, new channels of feedback. It’s an open channel for asking questions about our businesses and learning what others see, experience, and know. A curious learner can gain a wealth of knowledge a generous, experienced person can gain a wealth of followers.

Have you found even other ways that Twitter helps small business? Which work best for you?

I connect things … and people.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Extreme Hesitation and Extreme Strategy: Are You Willing to Own Your Life?

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I've been thinking . . .

about hesitation and strategy.

I was painfully shy as a child. If you’ve been there, then you know. Painfully shy is literally painful — it scrapes at your being. You know who you are are, but for some cloudy reason, a wall prevents you. You can’t let the world see you. All you are or all you can be stays tucked away .

It’s what today would be called Extreme Hesitation.

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Yet leaders outgrow those childhood fears and walls, don’t we?
Do we?

I was faced with a situation last winter. What was awful was that — even to me — the question looked so trivial, but it had to do with what I had named “visible authenticity.” They said wear this. I said “no.” They cared more than I did. But we had agreed that I would be dressing to reflect the essence of my personality. “This” wasn’t me.

I felt painfully shy once more … I recognized the conflict, but now I was grown enough to put words to the feeling.

I knew me better than they did. Authenticity was my choice, and choosing for me was my responsibility..

I learned about owning my life.
I think of it as Extreme Strategy.

Choose your own path, but always choose wisely.
Leaders don’t need to follow, nor do they choose the road that will draw the most followers.
They don’t say “yes,” when their hearts and their feet are telling them to say “no.”

Traveling other our path is what makes being shy truly painful.

Leaders don’t hesitate in moving forward.
People who are afraid do.
Leaders don’t look for approval.
They know.
They go where their head, their heart, and their purpose compels them to go.

And people follow.

Because deeply knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.

Authenticity is the key to leadership strategy. Own what you know and find the opportunities. The rest is just learning. We’ve been doing that since we started school.

Are you willing own your life?

I make connections.

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