Successful Blog

Change the World: When Someone Hurts

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Please Show Up as You Are Able

changetheworld8

I received a call last night from our friend, Jeff Brown. who relayed the tragic story of Aaron Anglin — a 24-year-old young husband and father killed in his car on his way to see his sister.

Lani, Aaron’s sister is a blogger. She’s a best buddy of our friend, April Groves. April tells the story of the accident on Lani’s blog and also points to the television reports. Her commentary explains how alive and joyful this young man was.

April also says.

Lani is my “BBF” – Best Bloggy Friend. Over the past months, we have become really close and her feelings are very important to me. Today, I ask them to be important to you.

Over at the Bloodhound Blog, where Jeff writes, the owner, Greg Swann has moved to action with April.

Aaron Anglin is survived by a wife and two very young daughters. The way I’m reading things, he died without life insurance, which puts those three ladies on a very hard road.
If you can spare something for them, put it in the form of negotiable funds — cash, cashier’s check or money order — and overnight it to:

Aleisha Anglin
c/o Lani Anglin
2719 Costa Azul Cove
Leander, TX
78641

April is working on setting up a donation account with Bank of America, and I’ll amend this post when that account becomes available. In the meantime, Jay Thompson has set up a donation system using PayPal.

But: I will promise you that there are people who will want to be paid now, and this young family will have immediate and ongoing needs. There was a time in your life when fate could have hit you this hard. Now is your chance to redeem that good fortune.

This morning Jeff emailed me this, the link at which you can get the button to support the family who survives young Aaron Anglin you see in my sidebar. Please, if you can, pick it up and place it on your blog and plass on the story. That small act matters a lot to one young family.

When the world seems so huge and all on my shoulders, I am humbled and heartened by the humanity of how we help each other when we are hurting.

Thank you April, Greg, and Jeff for being human.

I was asked to pass the word on, to ask the many people I know if you might help. So, now I do.

Will you help? Please. Someone hurts.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

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SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Reading Is My Life

insideout logo

We all learned to read and kept on reading. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. I went on to learn about readers and literacy — how folks interact with text and ideas became my field.

Knowing about reading is a tricky thing. People think that because they can read they must know how it all works. Just underneath the surface are secrets they don’t realize . . . Why would they, unless readers have been their customers for years?

I’m going to share those secrets with you.

The 7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

Ever been to a great restaurant or club where the mood is right; the service is grand; and every offering is spectacular? When the whole experience comes together in just the right measure, we leave a place already thinking about when we’re going to go back.

Written information, when it’s presented well, has the same effect. It’s a great fit that’s so satisfying, we’re thinking about the experience as a whole and the feeling that we came away with.

These secrets have been researched with every age group from pre-school to graduate school and every reading level from pre-literate to way over my head. But I know you’ll know they work, not because I said so, but because when you read them they will totally make sense.

  1. Be interesting. Be entertaining. Be silly. Be informative. Be controversial. Be anything but preachy or boring. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN tell. You DO know. Take the time to look. If you don’t, you’re lost before you start.

  2. Be simple. Put away the big vocabulary words and the long sentences. Only use that incredible word once in an entire piece. Elegance is understated. Impact is quiet. Take away all of the words you can without losing meaning. Extra words get between your message and me.

  3. Be positive. Know what you’re saying and show me how to get to a positive end. No one wants a problems without a solution. No one wants to live every day reading about doom. Think about how you invest your time with friends . . . do the downers really get more than the ones who help make your world better?

  4. Be trustworthy and respectful. Be who you say you are. Deliver on your tagline. Make sure your headlines tell the story of what you write. Answer comments. Most of all, know what you don’t know and invite your readers to share what they do.

  5. Be consistent. Let folks know what to expect of and from you . . . and in like manner, what you expect of and from them. Every relationship is based on an exchange. Readers and writers exchange the same way. It’s okay if folks don’t like one of your features, if you are consistent about how you label things or when you offer them, you make it easy for folks to get to the content they appreciate.

  6. Be readable. Make sure that every word you write is readable without distraction in every browser that your readers use. Configure your content to serve readers. Some folks get confused and try to do it the other way around.

  7. Be generous and satisfying. Care passionately about what you write. Care even more about the folks who come to read it. Know that readers want to like you and what you write, just as diners want to like the chef and the food in a great restaurant. Let us look smart. Let us help. Let us feel important, connected, and a part of what you’re doing. In other words, make readers the stars.

Readers and a writer work have a relationship like diners and a chef. Only part of that relationship is what is served up from the menu, the rest is the experience. Every successful chef . . . writer . . . first grade teacher knows that.

That’s how we’ve been getting folks to come back for years.

Got more to add to the list? I’m thinking you do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Will You Make Joe's Promise with Me?

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I've been thinking . . .

about Joe’s promise.

About a week ago, Joe wrote a post that’s been on my mind.

It’s authenticity. It’s transparency. It’s more than that . . . it’s outright honesty without a filter and it came with a promise attached.

It’s a stunning example of writing.

Even more, it leads to a blogger’s promise that is beautiful in its own right.

Joe’s Promise

  • I will be sure to comment on other Blogs if I can add to the conversation.
  • I will respond to comments on my own Blog.
  • I will acknowledge any links to my Blog with a comment on the linker’s Blog.
  • I will continue to link to other Blogs that are pertinent to a posts content.
  • I will once again be a part of the Blogging Community.
  • That is my promise to the Community as a whole, in part, and individually.

If you feel you are losing some of the interaction that is an integral part of Blogging, you may want to join me in this Promise to the Community.

What I’ve been thinking is this . . . this is a promise worth making.

Will you make Joe’s promise with me?

Just pick up the words, post them on your blog, and link back to Joe’s post. Tag it “Joe’s Promise,” and pass it on.

What do you say, Chris, Ann, Phil, Terry, Bes, and everyone?

Thank you, Joe, from me . . . and from everyone who cares about the conversation.

Liz's Signature

SOB NEWS — Congratulations to Lisa Cree!!

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We Knew!

Everyone who met Lisa Cree at SOBCon07 already knew Lisa Cree is dynamic, intelligent, and someone incredibly special. We’re delighted that she’s getting the recognition she deserves.

Lisa-Cree-is-Savannah’s-Entrepreneurial-Woman-of-the-Year!

All of SOBCon celebrates with you! One highly-esteemed blogger was there in a tuxedo to see the whole thing.

Please join us in saying, “Congratulations, Lisa!”

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Getting Comments: Seven Secrets of a Superstar Conversationalist

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A Superstar Conversationalist? Who Me?

<relationships button

Chris Brogan, no shrinking violet, called his blog post 39,000 comments. He said it was the first thing I said. It wasn’t really. I talked about Becky McCray and Darren Rowse, and all of the people who come here. The comments were just what caught his attention.

Then in the comments to that post, Phil Gerbyshak — the all-time relationship geek, not a quiet job — named me a superstar conversationalist.

I hear my older brothers translating . . . kid, they’re saying you can’t shut up.

Seven Secrets of a Superstar Conversationalist

Writing or talking about what we know isn’t a problem for most folks. People don’t ask me how to do that. What they ask is How do you get folks to talk back?

Here are seven of my secrets.

    Secret 1. Be an enthusiastic learner.
    The words of folks who stand at the podium and talk down to me never sound like conversation. They sound more like a lecture. Who wants to be lectured by an expert? It’s more fun to talk to a friend who knows.

    Learners, on the other hand, are magnetically attractive. They’re not intimidating. They offer a subtle invitation to participate. I know if I stick around I might find something I never knew before. Learners ask me questions they really want to know the answer to. When they get an answer, they ask more.

    Secret 2 Be imperfectly human.
    Don’t finish up every blog post so perfectly that I have no room to answer. Make that list with what you know, but don’t research it to death so that I can’t add to it. I want to talk to you too. Conversation always means you say something. Then I add what I know to it. We do it together.

    A conversation is always started, constantly revised, and never finished. We don’t tie our conversations up with a bow and hand them in to our 8th grade teacher. Let’s not do that with our blog posts either.

    Secret 3. Be an active listener.
    What is a conversation if I’m talking to myself? . . . hearing voices and talking to them? Isn’t that a sign of something?

    People are the most important part of any conversation. I listen with every cell. I try to crawl inside the experience they’re relating. I’ve discovered so much about the world and myself, and most of all, the folks who come to visit, by taking the time to listen and answering back. I answer and ask questions to make sure that I understood what I heard. Comments are just like real-life conversation.

    Secret 4 Be an easy laugher.
    Laughter makes the world turn easier. It gets the chemsitry in our brains going. We type faster and smile when we do. We connect and feel safer when we laugh together. My husband often says to me, “You’re smiling at your computer again.”

    Secret 5 Be you.
    I make a bad version of you. You make a bad version of me. Somehow we make a perfectly incredible versions of the unique individuals who we are.

    Blog your experience. Put your head and heart in what you write. If I tell my authentic truth and myunique view, no one can argue with that. Folks can’t help but respect it — the folks I want to interact with anway.. They want to know they they can tell theirs too. It sounds counterintuitive, but the more a writer tells his or her individual experience, the more people can identify with it.

    Secret 6 Be a cheerleader, a bartender, a friend, a host.
    Make a place where folks can be who they are. Make it about THEM. Be glad to see them. Be proud of their accomplishments. Have faith in their endeavors. If you care about their lives, they will care too. They’ll also care about yours and each others’. That’s how communities form.

    Secret 7 Be nice.
    I couldn’t leave that out — could I?

It hardly takes much to be gracious. Communities and conversations really build themselves. We don’t build them. If we stop trying to control them and let people know we’re not afraid to hear what they have to say in respect and honest communication. Amazing thing can truly happen.

I know. 39,000 comments was a long time ago.

I don’t really count comments. I count friends, and who could ever have enough of them?

C’mon let’s talk!

What did you right before you read this post? It had to be more interesting than reading about me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
10 Essential Needs of a Thriving Community

How I Chose 18 Thought Leaders to Follow (and Their Links)

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Business, Blogs, Living

Outside the Box logo

Yesterday, I talked about

Today I thought I might take that further and tell how to choose who to follow.

How I Chose 18 Thought Leaders to Follow

Great leaders don’t have the answers. They have the questions. They seek the answers. They look at who came before them. They talk, but listen more. They write, but not as much as they read. Great leaders are a curious lot.

They encourage us to do our own thinking. Here’s the criteria used to choose 18 Thought Leaders and links to their blogs and blog posts to demonstrate what I’m saying.

Follow the folks who like ideas and learning.

Follow the folks who are curious and curious about you.

Follow the folks who are positive.

Follow the folks who are jazzed about what they do.

Follow the folks who know where they are going.

Follow the folks who’ve made it and are still there.

Need I say more?

The number of leaders on our doorstep is unimaginable. We could be inspired every minute.

Think of the leaders you recommend. What qualities do you use to choose who you follow?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
I Have an Idea — I Have Lots of Them!
Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet