Successful Blog

The Mic Is On: Happy 3rd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

open mike night

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME
The rules are simple — be nice.

DING! DING! DING! Some comment boxes are pre-loaded with a prize.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

TODAY, ALL DAY, IT’S A PARTY!!

Other Birthday Kids

Bring a Link! Bring a Link!

That’s right, you’re invited to bring a link to your most successful post. When you leave the link, please write a comment about how you chose the most successful post to bring.

  • Bring a link to a page, a picture, a post that demonstrates, celebrates, illuminates your success and outstanding-ness as a blogger.
  • Or bring that ebook, that manifesto, that photo, that priceless work that you want to offer as a birthday gift to everyone.

I’ll compile a list of all of the links when the party is over.

C’mon in and get to know us! There’s free beverages and snacks in the sidebar. Join the party. See who you meet. Stay and come back again.

Happy Birthday, all of you! Thank you for making what we do meaningful!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic Is On: Happy 2nd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!

Can Someone Get Something from Being Nothing?

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Look Up, Look at Someone Else

sad_man_by_ the _water

Yesterday I met someone who was nothing.

He wore his nothingness like a badge. It was his role, his definition of himself. He had tied himself too closely to “things” and a company he lost years ago. Now they were lost and he was nothing.

He argued for the reasons that his days held nothing, that he could do nothing, that nothing suited him.

His reasons were well-thought and often repeated. They listed his inability to compete with other people and things outside of him. They outlined every subject about which he couldn’t care and every task at which he was inept.

As time and conversation passed, it became clear that he planned on staying exactly where he was. Nothing got him something. Was that “something” attention or a reason not to try anymore? Maybe it was the opportunity to talk about the past?

Sane humans don’t stay in situations that don’t pay off. In some way we’re getting something. We always buy into the “contract” of what we’re doing and where we are.

When things truly aren’t working, we get determined. We change the situation.

Yeah we get something from being nothing, but when being nothing gets to be a problem, we become the something we could have been all along.

Ever met someone who got something from being nothing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Social Anchors that Link Us Together

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Social Media Can Be Words

I've been thinking . . .

about connections. Earlier this year I had a conversation, tossing questions and answers with a person I just met.

Cheryl asked, “What are you proud of?”

Plenty of events rose before me, and faded gracefully back again. None of them what I might take pride in. This one owing to my child’s work. That one owing to a team’s participation. The other being a serendipitious aligning of the stars.

Proud feels like approving. Even when I feel proud just know someone, word often don’t say . . . I don’t want raising folks up to seem like putting them lower.

I didn’t know . . .

I replied, “I have an unusual relationship the word proud. I don’t see things quite that way.” I explained as best I could.

She said, “I like the way you think about that.”

Funny how words like that, words that scare ya in some way can turn out to become an important– an anchor — something that holds and ties you to a person and a moment in time.

It was an ordinary day — a day without a parade or ceremony. Someone who knew me wrote the proud word in the comment box. He put it there where people could see it. It was a simple statement.

“Fiercely proud.”

We were two Internet people who’d never been in the same room. He had trouble with the proud word too. He said, “It sounds weird to say.”

Can I tell you what that meant?

It was a link that worked in both directions.

I was fiercely proud of him too.

Those words were a social anchor — a link, a connection, a relationship on the Internet — only this one was between humans not sites. They placed us and a moment in time forever together on the same thought, like the star rising in the photo below.

star rising

Links hold us together. Some can last forever or as long as a star.

Do you have a social anchor — words that reflect a human relationship link you found on the Internet? Would you tell me the story?

If you leave your story, we’ll be linked in yet another way.

Liz's Signature

In the Company of Trees While Walking in the Forest . . .

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november_in_szczecin

There’s something about being an artist or a choreographer that’s akin being a writer. It’s the experience of doing the work and the learning that comes from it. A person gets to understand how parts together work differently than they do alone. It’s learning that the spaces and the empty bits add importance to the message.

There’s something about being a person that’s akin to being all of them. It’s the experience of learning that being with people is different than being alone. It’s learning that the spaces when we remove ourselves can add vibrancy and color to the times when we return.

This time of year many folks see the trees filled with color and don’t bother to see the leaves. Some folks see the leaves and never look at the trees they fall from.

To feel whole, we really need both to use our whole mind, to see the whole picture, to get the full meaning.

Spend time in the company of trees as well as walking through the forest.

How do make sure you’re putting all of the meaning in and getting all of the meaning out of what you’re doing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Money or Principles: Do We Have to Pick One?

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Are We Better than That?

Tonight AiraBongco said “. . . it’s an issue on what a person values: principles or money.”

I know. But it’s not like it’s been all honey up until now. I don’t know anyone who’s been living easy. I can’t imagine you’ve had it much differently. Do you know anyone who’s life hasn’t been hard won?

We use easy to describe some other guy’s life not our own.

Yeah, I worry about how things came this bad and where they’re going. The story is complicated, on the other hand, nothing new happens where humans are concerned. The good keep being good and the bad, well you know. People keep doing the same people stuff again and again.

Didn’t we see misbehavior like this on the playground and survive it then? We’ve made it out with self-respect in tact and our feet on the ground before.

money grabber

Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, didn’t gain the confidence of million dollar handshakes by being untrustworthy. His businesses were built on his principles.

I guess I look at it this way, principles will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no principles.

Maybe we should write that on a wall.

Do we have to pick one — money or principles?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Invite Back Your Muse by Cleaning Up Your Blog

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Duck! The HTML Is Falling!

falling_leaves

Any time is a good time to look around at we’ve been living with, but not seeing. At the change of seasons, it seems we even get the urge to do that. I’ve got a server move coming, so I have an additional incentive. Who wants to back up and pack up things that aren’t working?

The point is that over time we load up out blogs with noise and clutter . . . is it time for a clean up?

Any time of the year is a good to clean up your blog. Here’s a quick checklist to make your home base more appealing.

  • Clean up the side bar. Seems we’re always adding to the sidebar. Take a look at what no longer needs to be there. Are things in the best order? Are the most important things above the fold?
  • Change a color. Be conservative and freshen up an existing color to make it feel more up to date and fashionable. OR take a leap and change out more. Get some attention. Save your stylesheet and you can always go back to where you are.
  • Try out a new header. Chances are good that you’ve outgrown the one that you’re now using. Are you still writing about what it shows? Is it still the best representation of your brand?
  • Fix broken links and falling html. I spent last night working the SOB directory. I’ll be doing more of that over the next few days. Plenty of folks have moved their blogs or retired them completely. Fixing the list is a professional service.

See what other folks are doing. Find your own version of new trends in the blogosphere. Naturally, you’ll want to have a compelling reason, but when you do, changing things on your blog can attract new attention.

A new look — a cleaner, sleeker blog — can inspire a blog writer and appeals to a blog writer’s muse . . . who wouldn’t like an easier more ideas and less distraction? Readers won’t find a cleaner, sleeker blog a problem either.

What else could help with blog clean up?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!