SOB Business Archives - Page 153 of 238

The Mic Is On: Great Places to Visit!

January 23, 2007 by Liz

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

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.

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.

Where do you want to go for winter vacation?

This is the view from a porch in Jamaica. There’s lots of places to go though. Would you rather go skiing?

We might also talk about

Places we’ve been
Places we want to go
How to get away from technology – or not
Best places to take the family
Best times to travel
How to travel
Vacations in our imaginations

including THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We’re Talking About Great Places to Visit . . .

January 23, 2007 by Liz

Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

The Topic is Winter Vacations

We might talk about places we’ve been, places we dream of, where to take the family, working vacations, vacations from technology, best times to travel, how to travel, vacations in our imaginations, . . . and who knows what else we’ll talk about?

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Karen Lynch Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

January 22, 2007 by Liz

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Karen there?

Karen Lynch answered the phone and immediately we were talking about her husband, her 3 kids, and her cat. It seems that she has a special family to share her life, and she’s pretty proud of them. She’s also the kind that you can tell right away that they’re pretty proud of her as well.

Karen has a blog for breast cancer survivors, and she is a survivor herself. She spends time on the cancer blog sharing informtion and her story so others can move forward. Karen’s also a writer and a journalist. She has writer’s blog as well. Over there, she writes about her writing work and related writing subjects.

I asked Karen where her life had taken her. She said that she’s been writing since grade school. We talked a bit about that. She told me that she started journaling as a teen and did creative writing, during and after that. Karen said that even when she had a coporate marketing job she was still writing. I knew what she meant.

Karen said that she left the marketing job for a writing life — magazine writing to be exact. She talked about when she would know she was a writer and her definition of success. Then I told her mine.

I could tell that magazine writing is her passion. Possibly the easiest way for me to tell it was her calling was that I tried to talk her out of it, told her all of the reasons not to like it; gave her the pitch about everything wrong with writing for magazines . . . and Karen answered simply that she had decided that was what she wanted to do. She would make the big glossy magazine article happen. I have no doubt about that.

I’m usually quite convincing. Karen must be quite sure of where she is going.

I like that about her. I also like her laugh, her sense of humor, and a whole lot more.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I want to be an anpproachable resource who says to new writers that we can walk the walk together. — Karen Lynch

Stop by Karen’s Blog, A Writer’s Blog, and say hi!

Thanks, Karen, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Thanks to Week 65 SOBs

January 20, 2007 by Liz

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Jodee Bock Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

January 17, 2007 by Liz

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Jodee there?

It was New Year’s Day when Jodee Bock left her first comment on Successful-Blog. Of course, I knew who she is. She is a friend of Phil Gerbyshak, I’ve seen her book, and I’ve read her blog. Then there it was a comment she left, that told of her burning belief in Extreme Leadership ala Steve Farber. We have a lot in common. I had only one choice then.

I called Jodee Bock up within minutes of her comment.

We spent some time talking about Steve Farber and how each of us knew him. We detailed the parts of Radical Leap and Radical Edge, his two books, that were our favorite parts. We tossed quotes at each other. We’re both teachers and we’re both invested in the study of creativity.

We discussed other folks that we had in common. It’s amazing how small the world is, yet how long it took for Jodee and I to meet.

Jodee told me of her business, Bock’s Office. We talked about the variety of projects and people that she brings together. She is a person who makes things happen.

Jodee explained how she works with clients using research from her own book, her Accerated innovation training, and ideas from Steve Farber’s books. She said that one of her favorite challenge points is the “questioning machine.” That’s a telephone recording device that when a call comes in it asks two questions — the most important questions of a lifetime. Who are you? and What do you want? Jodee said she uses the questioning machine idea often when she works with groups on creativity innovation, and leadership.

It’s not a surprise that she and I met in the comment box under a post quoting Steve Farber. Jodee Bock is an Extreme Leader. She’s also a creative, insightful person to talk with, not to mention lots of fun.

Jodee Bock knows who she is and what she wants. She has no fear of that questioning machine.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I’ve connected with people. I’ve met with people. The people are so generous and so real, they given so much . . . — Jodee Bock

Stop by Jodee’s Blog, You Already Know This Stuff, and say hi!

Thanks, Jodee, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Some Conclusions About Stats . . .

January 17, 2007 by Liz

Stats and Analytics . . .

This week on Tuesday Open Comments Night we talked about crazy stats, spikes, keyphrases, trends, ratios, traffic, backlinks, pageranks, SERPs, splog sites, algorithyms, RSS subscribers, patterns, plugins, goals, and search terms.

There was also mention of weather, grammar, punctuation, spelling, Mark Twain, Ferraris, a story in six words, full moons, reading tea leaves, gypsies, movies, The View, 24 Hours, Z-list meme, Alice in Wonderland, MyBlogLog meme, weird statistical stuff, workloads of small-business owners, and The Long Tail.

We shared hellos, grins, jokes, laughs, congratulations, poetry, advice, questions, recommendations, addictions (to stats), and goodnights. There was even something about measuring traffic and feet? (I didn’t see any food though.)

Anyway, a thought is that blogging for stats is not the answer. Writing about your passion is.

Sounds like many people use more than one tool to measure stats. Here are some of the tools and sites we mentioned that you may want to check out:

103bees
Alexa
Amibook
Askimet
Awstats
blo.gs
Blogbeat
Crazy Egg
Digg
EasyTask Manager
Feedburner
Google Analytics
Google Pagerank
Google Sitemap
gVisit
Habari
HitTail
Inc.com
Mapstats
Mint
Moveable Type
MyBlogLog
MySpace
Performancing
pingomatic.com
ReviewMe
Shortstat
SiteMeter
Squidoo
StatCounter
StumbleUpon
SuperStats
Technorati
Text-link-ads
The Blogging Times
Tracksy
Typepad
weblogs.com
WordPress

Here’s some of the links that were shared:

Thanks for the cool links and for being part of the conversation. I wish I could quote you all, but I know you have an idea of how much time it takes to make that long link summary happen each week. I hate to let it go, but I thought you’d understand.

So, for 2007, we’ll just tell the story and share the links that you bring. You can always read the comments – they’re all there.

After all, how DO YOU explain Open Comment Night, if you’ve never experienced it?

See you next Tuesday? I sure hope so.
–ME “Liz” Strauss and Sandy Renshaw

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?