This was a wonderful greeting that met us one Saturday morning at Rainbow Bay Beach where we walk and swim most mornings.
The sign Beach Report is put out each morning to tell swimmers the current state of the swimming conditions.
We don’t normally see the addition of words like Living the Dream.
These words remind us to ask:
Are you living the dream with your life and business?
– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel
Earlier this month, many of you had the opportunity to attend the tenth SOBCon event in Chicago. It was a fantastic weekend, and we were thrilled that SOBCon’s co-founder Liz Strauss could join us. As many of you know, Liz has been dealing with throat cancer for the last few months. So it was wonderful to see her out and about, proving that Liz doesn’t back down from any challenge.
Following that event, a group of SOBCon folks and other friends who couldn’t be in Chicago had an idea. Liz has given so much to so many in the community, what if we did something for her?
Liz’s diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer last fall came with both physical, emotional, and financial burdens. To fight the cancer required extensive chemo and radiation. On top of her treatments, Liz also suffered a fall that broke her hip and shoulder. As a result, Liz was confined to the hospital from December through March. She has been through the crucible.
So while a recent CT scan and laryngoscopy both showed no signs of cancer, Liz is still dealing with the fallout of cancer treatments and broken bones. LizÂs ability to travel and speak professionally, her primary source of income, has been placed on hold as she continues to heal. For the next few months, Liz finds herself in the incredibly frustrating situation of needing to work, but not yet having the physical strength to do so.
So when we asked the question, what can we do, here’s what we came up with. We can’t help Liz heal faster, but we can ease the financial stress. To that end we’re creating an auction fundraiser with all proceeds from the fundraiser going to Liz.
We’ve received some wonderful and generous donations. In fact, a few items that came in were so generous that it just confirms how much people love Liz and want to show their support. And based on the response we’ve gotten to our initial request for donations, we wanted the community at large to have the opportunity to participate and show their support, too.
If you have an item that you’d like to donate for the auction fundraiser, please fill out this form on Podio.
The auction will launch in early June, and we’ll provide more details shortly on when and how you can participate. We’ve also received requests that we make an option available for people to donate directly. That donation link will go live in early June, too.
Again, thank you all for the support and know that Liz appreciates all the many kindnesses that have been sent her way in the last few months.
IÂm talking about blogging, people.
Your C-Spot is your creativity spot, your happy place, where you feel your flow, mojo, juices, ideas, you get the picture.
Sometimes it feels as though great writing is like lightning in a bottle–fleeting and electric. But I think you can do some specific things to capture the lightning.
This is our homework assignment for the coming week.
LetÂs use a sample writing prompt (in case you need one). Write for 30 minutes on the subject of Âwhat I learned from my first job that IÂm still using today. Liz has written some inspiration for finding your writing voice. When you’re ready:
Take note of how your Âflow feels in each time-frame. Was it easy to write, or did you stare at the screen for a bit?
Using the same writing prompt (substitute your second job), choose three different locations where you can write. Try your dining room table, your desk at work, in bed with your laptop, out on the porch, wherever you feel comfortable.
Did this affect your writing?
Some people need to have music playing in the background, and some need to write in absolute silence. Using what you already know about your style, experiment a bit with your writing environment. Light candles, turn the TV off or on, put on noise-canceling headphones, try writing with pen and paper instead of a keyboard…go crazy.
How did that work? Did changing the ambiance change your attitude? Did it spark new ideas?
At the end of the experiment, you can try mixing and matching your time of day, physical location, and ambiance to find your perfect ÂC-Spot.Â
Want to share yours?
Image: Flickr CC
Like many bloggers in the PR and marketing realm, I’ve been in awe of Liz Strauss ever since I became aware of the “name bloggers” in my professional world. When I started my own blogging journey, four years ago, Successful Blog was one of the first to become a regular stop; always for inspiration, and sometimes as I asked myself the question, “Will I ever be able tolike that?”
I met Liz fleetingly a few years ago, when she spoke at a DC-area event. Our meeting was brief. She was standing outside the event venue and, spying her in a rare moment of solitude, I couldn’t help but go up to her and tell her how much I admired her. She didn’t know me from Eve (probably still doesn’t), but that didn’t stop her from graciously thanking me. Later, she was kind enough to connect with me on various social platforms, even though the benefit was certainly skewed towards me.
As Liz recuperates from her illness, I couldn’t help but think of five lessons small businesses could learn from Liz Strauss.
This is the tagline of Successful Blog, but is applicable to your business if you approach your customers as people first. Sure, customers come and go. But a successful business will convert first-timers into repeat buyers, and repeat buyers into evangelists. I don’t care how large or small your business is, this is possible and applicable…if you treat them as people first.
How do you start doing this? By using today’s myriad two- and multi-way communication channels to build relationships instead of email lists.
Especially with the number of (how many? I donÂt know! Too many to count!) social media/self-help/gurus shilling their wares, I am not surprised at how many small businesses that think the way to use social media is this:
After all, once you have a presence, the rest will fall into place, right?
Wrong.
Connecting  i.e. following/being followed back  on a social network does not automatically translate into a relationship. All that that first connection means is that a door has been (slightly) opened to you; how you now conduct yourself will determine whether that door opens more fully or slams shut in your face.
How do you start doing this? Be a human super-collider. Find out what makes the people you meet, whether they are customers, or prospects, or business professionals you come across at networking events, tick.
Look at the way this blog has been running for the past several months. Liz health situation was announced at the beginning of 2013. The last post I read, as I drafted my own, was dated May 10, 2013. ThatÂs a full five months later.
Had Liz not spent several years genuinely building her community via real relationships, do you think she would have had people like Rosemary OÂNeill step up to manage the blog in her absence?
No way, Don Juan.
How do you start doing this? Part of the answer is in #2 above, so first I will say, ÂRead above, lather, rinse, and repeat.Â
The second part of the answer is to educate and empower your community. Tell them, as you engage with them over time, whatÂs important to you and why (and if your business is community-centric, chances are itÂs whatÂs important to them too).
How do you start doing this? As you continue to engage with them, find people who can become your de facto or de jure community managers, and empower them with enough know-how  such as your engagement goals and guidelines, and your content needs  so that they can step into the breach if and when they need to.
The great thing about this approach is that you may never need them to fill a void in your absence but if you do, they are ready and willing to do so.
A recent Constant Contact survey reported that 66% of small business owners use mobile technology. Continue reading, though, and youÂll see: Â… itÂs important to note that, of the 34 percent not using any mobile device or solution for their business, a resounding 65 percent have no plans to do so in the future, mainly citing a lack of customer demand.Â
I donÂt think this 65% of the 34% is necessarily behind the times. Being a small business owner myself, I know the conflicting demands placed on small businesses.
What will you pay attention to? When? How? WhoÂs going to do it?
It isnÂt a question of never paying attention to technological advances, itÂs a question of being attuned to the technologies your customers are using or expect, and providing the appropriate platforms, while planning for the future. Just as Liz does here on Successful Blog, by maintaining a framework visitors are familiar with, but by keeping an eye on whatÂs to come.
How do you start doing this? Stay on top of technological and industry developments. But donÂt jump on the bandwagon until your business can sustain and recoup the additional investment and donÂt let anyone pressure you into doing so either.
IÂm sure there are many other lessons you have gleaned, on a business level, from Liz incredible contribution to the blogosphere and our time. Would you share what you have learned, so that we can salute her collectively?
Thanks for the shout-out, Shonali! I was honored to be able to give back a tiny bit to Liz, who has shown her generosity and kindness to so many over the years. She is the nougaty goodness at the center of this amazing community.
Rosemary
You are the company you keep, online and offline
Finding a peer group that inspires and supports you is very important to the success of just about anything you do. If you find yourself frustrated or unmotivated, and canÂt seem to make an internal change to remedy the situation, look around you.
Who are you spending time with? What blogs do you read? What books, magazines? Who do you go to the gym with?
If you want to take everything up several notches, seek out people who are successful doing what you aspire to do, and connect with them.
Unsubscribe to the Âdebbie downer blogger who is spinning wheels complaining about things, and find new writers who fill your brain with useful and inspiring content. Take a spin through Technorati or just Google Âblog and Âkeyword. Better yet, just decrease the number of blogs youÂre reading every day and start writing more!
ItÂs admirable that you want to help others, but make sure your mix of friends includes people who are taking action, going places, full of energy and happiness. Minimize your time with the Âtakers. Be proactive about finding live events and local meetups that get you going. Check out Meetup.com for some possibilities.
First, recognize who is a friend and who is a distant connection, just looking for a Âlike. Find groups of connections who are helping each other, who arenÂt looking over your virtual shoulder for someone more important to come along. Keep an eye out for up-and-comers you can grow with. Why not start a Triberr group among folks you admire and want to support?
Consider aligning yourself with a built-in peer support group like SOBCon. ItÂs just one example of an event that is also a year-round community. By taking the leap and extending yourself, you get a launching pad for your dreams. And who knows, someone out there may need YOU as a peer! Heck, you’re amazing.
Are you taking steps to surround yourself with the right peer group?
WriterÂs block. It happens to the best of us. You may have had a good nightÂs sleep, a comfortable chair, the right resources, and a topic… and yet, your writing muscles refuse to flex, and you are left staring at the flickering prompt at the upper left side of a mostly-empty screen, or driving a hole into your pad with a pen.
Do a Google search and youÂll find that many writers have their own ways of dealing with this creative blockage. ItÂs not exactly a one-size-fits-all proposition, so itÂs a good idea to get as many ideas as possible. Utilizing those bits of wisdom, concoct your own anti-writerÂs-block remedies. Hopefully, one or more of them work.
Let me enumerate mine, and see if any of them work for you:
Find a new place to ply your craft. Stand up, pack your mobile writing implements (paper notepad, notebook computer, restaurant receipts, toilet paper, human flesh scroll, etc.) and wander. In my case, I pack my tablet (equipped with a cover/keyboard, because I canÂt type fast on a touch screen), some loose change for coffee, and a Taser pistol (you can never be too careful).
The new sights and sounds definitely help me get out of the funk, and for as long as I find a comfortable spot to whip out my tablet and type away, IÂll be able to get some paragraphs out.
When the first remedy doesnÂt yield any positive result, I just stop trying for the meanwhile and distract my mind with something else entirely. This should be easy for most of us, as the modern world is rife with distractions. You could live your entire life distracted, in fact. Those closest I have come to that is a three hour Fruit Ninja binge on the tablet. Made my fingers hurt, too.
Time out from writing gives the mind some time to recharge and recuperate. Unfortunately, we who write for a living donÂt have the luxury of too much off-time, so this solution may not be the best course of action to take when writing projects are restricted by a deadline.
Corollary to the tip above, go engage in an activity that requires the least synaptic activity. This ranges from sports and fitness-related stuff, to exposing your mind to slapstick, lowbrow, and even outright pornographic stimulation. Nothing is taboo (except if itÂs against the laws of the land, of course)!
Too much of anything can be detrimental, so be sure to set limits to your physical fun-time distractions.
Well, not absolutely nothing. Meditation, yoga, drinking tea, isolating yourself in a dark room, or even a light nap are ways you can calm your tempestuous mind and rejuvenate your creative juices. Find a place you can be undisturbed for hours at a time, and proceed with the refilling.
Yeah, it means you have to put away your tablet and other mobile devices.
I hope one of these tips will be the proverbial plunger that will help unclog your creative pipeline!