Successful Blog

Do You Tune Your Goals to Get Maximum Opportunity Attraction?

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You Don’t Need Luck

My blog and my business changed when I wrote my blogging goal. Thing is I should have known that. Setting goals is one of those life lessons that I keep learning over again.

Sometime in college, I figured out that whenever I made a goal that was tuned tightly to who I am and what I do well, it easily became a catalytic action. Goals became my way of saying …

I don’t need luck, if I can make things happen.

What I realized was that goal set As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said …

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Every successful and outstanding business, every well-conceived campaign or action becomes an opportunity magnet with goals that are

  • clear, concrete, and intentional — What will you accomplish? Why will you be doing that? Who or what will help yo?
  • measurable — How will you know you got there? What will count as a good score?
  • reachable — The strategy can be to get to the stars, but the goal should be the next step. What will you do to get there next?
  • matched to your skill set Great goals make us stretch enough to be challenged an interested. What will will you need to learn or put in action to achieve this?
  • time dependent — Place a time frame on what you’ll be accomplishing. Goals need focus and urgency to keep momentum. What is the end date?

(skills x passion) + problem solving = opportunity magnet

For a goal to be an opportunity magnet, it’s got to have some actionable attraction. Great goals use what’s uniquely our own — the strength of skills, the leverage of our situation, and the momentum of our passion.

Do you tune your goals to get maximum opportunity attraction?

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!

Great resources:
Effective Business Process Solutions To Achieve Business Goals
Make good on new goals this year
If I Were Launching a New Small Biz Web Site Today
True goals are SMART.

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.

Liz's Signature

Beach Notes: You Don't Always Have to Own It to Enjoy It

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

We sometimes walk around the area out back of where we live, on the Anchorage Islands in Australia’s beautiful Tweed River, and we see boats from the local fishing fleet at the wharf across the river and a lot of more leisure-type vessels riding at anchor in the river.

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While we don’t have a boat ourselves, we can and do relish the spectacle that is there each day for us. We don’t have to own one of these craft to enjoy them. And if we were seized with a desire to go out on one it would not be a problem to hire one with someone to do all that stuff with sails and anchors and steering, for much less cost than actually owning one (or having a bank own one for us to use).

One of the things we notice is that some of these very valuable boats never seem to leave their moorings, which suggests that someone else may be getting the pleasure of looking at them, mixed with the work of maintaining them. We get that old 70’s dream, the pleasure without the responsibility.

What do you enjoy that you don’t have to own?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

More Upbeat Now Conversation with Raj Setty – Part 2

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Finding and Upbeat Path and Online Strategies We Miss

rajesh-for-website

As you might recall, I’ve known Rajesh Setty followed his wisdom for many years. He started his writing as a child in India at the young age of 9 and published his first book by the time he was 13.

I interviewed Raj the first time when he released his book Beyond Code. You’ll find the five days of our conversation introduced here.

This year I had the honor and the pleasure of being part of launching his new book UpBeat Now! at our SOBCon09 conference in Chicago. I’m more than delighted to share it here with you now.

This is the second part of the conversation we had …

Hi Raj, Now that we’ve found “the trap” and unfinished projects that befall us. How might online entrepreneurs use “the discipline” to get on an upbeat path?

For me, the discipline required for online business is like the discipline you require in any other business – probably a bit more, actually.

If you think about it, even when you are NOT solving a real problem, you might get a lot of people interested in your online business. It does not mean that they are willing to transact with you.

Add to that – the threat of competition from new players and incumbents.

Add to that the fact that people really don’t want to change easily.

Add to that the fact that somebody will offer the same (or stripped down version)of your service for free.

Add to that customers and prospects requesting features day in and day out feeling entitled.

Add to that the fact that one small bug gets blown out of proportion via blogs and forums.

Without discipline, one can get carried away and focus on everything except making their customers WIN in a big way.

The way to stay UpBeat in an online business is simply to make rockstars out of your customers. If they win, they will make you win.

Which part of strategy do online business builders seem to miss most often?

Creating the right ecosystem for their business.

Online or offline, without a solid ecosystem, businesses cannot scale. It is easy to miss that as you may not notice the need for a solid ecosystem in the initial stages of the online business.

If you could suggest one action that would make a difference in most online businesses what would it be?

Listening without filters

Most often, we listen with our filters and think and assume what the customers “might” want. If you simply “listen without filters” you will notice that customers and prospects will share their trials and tribulations, what they like and dislike about the product, what problems do they want to solve with your product/service, their wishes and their wants.

if you relentlessly focus on your customers, you will win sooner than later – listening without filters is the first step to do just that.

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Raj, what you said in just these five short questions today and Wednesday has been a primer on how to steer clear of some pretty serious business faux pas.

This only a taste of the insights and wisdom you’ve pulled together in your book!

I so recommend everyone should buy UpBeat Now!

Thanks Raj! Talking with you is always a pleasure!

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

An UpBeat Now! Conversation with Raj Setty Part 1

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BootStrapping During a Recession and Mistakes We Make

rajesh-for-website

I’ve known Rajesh Setty for many years and I’ve followed his wisdom for just as long. He started writing as a child of 9 and published his first book at the young age of 13.

I interviewed Raj the first time when he released his book Beyond Code. You’ll find the five days of our conversation introduced here.

This year I had the honor and the pleasure of being part of launching his new book UpBeat Now! at our SOBCon09 conference in Chicago. I’m more than delighted to share it here with you now.

This is the first part of the conversation we had …
Hi Raj, I understand the story of the book is an upbeat story in itself, would you tell the tale now?

Thanks Liz for the opportunity to have this conversation.

I had an opportunity to build my first technology startup during the previous recession. It was not easy. The easiest way to define what was happening then was that “nobody was buying anything from anyone and everybody was trying selling something to everyone.” If we loved bad news, then we were in luck. There was bad news everyday – on the TV, in the newspapers, on the radio and there was generally some bad news shared during any interaction with anyone – online or offline.

We learned a lot during that period as the only way to have survived running a “bootstrapped” startup was to stay Upbeat. So I wrote most of it during that journey but by the time I completed the book, that recession was over. So I packed it up and and kept it aside. I didn’t have to wait for long as there was a another recession very soon. I unpacked the book, updated it and got it published.

What is “the trap” and how do you see it among the people who are trying to start a business online?

One of the traps in the context of being Upbeat is to be gripped by engaging in discussions about topics on which you have very little control on. Some of these may be important topics (such as social security, economy, foreign policy etc.) but endlessly talking about them when you have “unfinished” projects is a trap.

When it comes to online businesses, I see several traps.

1. Thinking if they can do it, we can do it.

People get excited when they see an online businesses and think that “technically” they can also do what has been done. However, when you look at an online business you only see the “tip of the iceberg.” There are so many things that are not easy to see when you see an online business. It will be a miracle if someone can copy an online business just by watching it from outside.

2. Thinking if you build it, they will come.

Yes that may happen for a VERY small percentage of the companies. In MOST cases, you not only have to build, you have to drag people who will reluctantly (kicking and screaming) come to check out your site.

3. Thinking if people talk about their online business, they will succeed.

Getting press alone may not take an online business far. Unless the customers love the business AND are willing to pay for it, nothing significant will happen.

4. Chasing exceptions as if they are rules

Often people keep quoting YouTube,Twitter, Flickr etc which are successes in their own way. While you may be able to replicate the technology piece with your skills, it is not easy to copy their successes.

5. Using the wrong metrics

Rather than using revenues and profits as metrics, it is easy to get carried away by eyeballs, pageviews, downloads etc. Ultimately without revenues and profits, you will need a miracle to succeed.

Raj had so much interesting information that we’ll be sharing the rest on Friday. Tune in then to hear about the disciplines that online businesses can use to get on an upbeat path to success!

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

What Will You Do Today to Double Productivity?

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How Can You Get Someone Else Working Too?

Invigoration happens when we accomplish something.
Invirgoration is even bigger when we accomplish something that’s been nagging us because it needs to go somewhere.

Take a look on your desk, on your to-do list … Is there something that if you just do it someone else can be taking it to the next step?

One best way to be productive is to find the thing we can accomplish and pass on for the next person to work on. Then while we’re working on our second task, that person can be working on what we just passed on. I call that double productivity.

What will you do today to double your productivity … even for just a few minutes?

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