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No Mission Statement: One Simple Question

July 16, 2007 by Liz

Enough

inside-out thinking

Last week a Dawud Miracle and I discussed the problems faced by businesses. We mentioned entrepreneurs, small businesses, even corporations. So much of what came up was not encouragaing — bad messages; bad service; empty offers; no customers; not unique or remarkable; broken promises; clueless and out of focus. Not much most folks would take a risk on.

It’s as if some folks “get,” and the rest don’t get to know.

People rush after productivity tools and use them to further confuse their issues. People wait for customers, and no one comes. They talk about the chances they never got, but that that doesn’t get them. They’re stuck.

Why should anyone be stuck? . . . overwhelmed and out of focus? Why are there problem solvers without problems to solve?

It’s a disconnect. A swiss cheese hole in the available information.

Voices across the Internet say . . . Find your passion. . . . Choose your target market. . . . BUT, they stop there. No one says HOW to do that.

It’s got to be frustrating.

This connector can’t stand to watch problems going unsolved. I’m for breaking OUT of this paradigm starting now — with tools, models, and some basic Inside-Out Thinking.

Inside-Out Thinking

What is Inside-Out Thinking? Plain and simple, it’s starting from you — head and heart — who you are, as a person or as a company. We’re going to the core to find the values on which to build a concrete foundation.

I’m not talking hours parsing words on mission statements that gather dust. Their pretty, but they don’t pay the bills. I’m talking key, core terms that tell about DOING.

Don’t think heaven or humanitarian honors. Forget making money or impressive words.

Please, answer to one simple question.

As a company, as a person,

What businesslike thing do you LOVE doing?

Here’s how to answer that:
Forget any thought of money. Don’t you dare devalue or discount what you love doing. Not sure? STOP. Quiet yourself. Remember your successes. Here’s where to look for them.

  • Look to the future. Three years from now, if a wealthy patron financed you, what would you be doing?
  • Look in the past.
  • Look at last Saturday or the last time you were with friends. What were you doing that might apply?
  • What about your favorite job? What did you love about that?
  • What were you really good at in school?
  • What are you good at? What would you miss if you couldn’t do it?

You get the idea.

If you don’t know how to complete the picture of you. Ask a friend to tell you what you love doing. Ask quite a few. They know. Truth is, so do you. Once you find out what you love doing, that’s when the thinking starts.

I’m getting jazzed about this.

So, go ahead, give it a shot . . . what do YOU love doing?

It’s not hard. It’s just different — there wasn’t a model before. There will be now.

–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.

Filed Under: Inside-Out Thinking, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, do-what-you-love, Inside-Out Thinking, Liz-Strauss, Liz-Strauss-Inside-Out-Thinking-to-Building-a-Solid-Bus

All of the Information Available

July 5, 2007 by Liz

Knowing What We Can Know

Strategic Plans logo

Strategy is setting a vision, making a path, knowing what we can know, and planning for the variables. To know what we know . . . That means having command of the information available.

For a while now, new bloggers, mostly those who are younger, have emailed or IMed to ask me the most basic questions. It’s usually obvious from their message that they haven’t done the any research to answer the question on their own. I used to answer and send them on their way again. I don’t anymore. Now I point them in the direction where they might look.

Are they wrong to ask? No.

It’s always good to ask someone who’s been there. Though you might argue when to do that.

But they’re wrong if they rely on me to do their homework. It hurts them for several reasons.

  • I don’t have all of the answers.
  • My information could be dated.
  • I’m wrong as often as I’m right.
  • They’re not investing in themselves.

I’m only one source in a world of the Internet. We often stop at the first answer to our questions. The first answer isn’t necessarily the best. It’s a great strategy to seek out all of the information available.

  • Do a search.
  • Ask someone who usually agrees, someone who usually disagrees, and someone who usually doesn’t have an opinion.
  • Ask an expert.

Having a strategy to find all of the information available at the beginning sets the foundation to build upon. Curiosity is a great teacher.

end of story.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find your strategy, click on the Work with Liz!!

Related
Strategy: 40 Outstanding Blog Links, Bookmark Carefully!
20 Blog Promotion Guides to Inform Your Strategy
Strategy: How to Get Maximum Benefit from Complex Link Lists

Filed Under: management, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog-promotion, decision-making., Strategic-Plans, Strategy/Analysis, time-managment

40 Outstanding Blog Links, Bookmark Carefully!

July 3, 2007 by Liz

Time Management and Research

Strategic Plans logo

What is blog reading and commenting to you? Is it entertainment, interaction, or research for your work? How much time do you spend on the average day reading and commenting on blogs. Think about that before you read further.

I’ll do it too.

Ready? Whatever our answers, we have defined blog reading and commenting to us and quantified how much time we invest in them. Now consider the time we have available in a day. What percent of that time is blog reading and commenting?

Does that leave enough

  • time for our family and friends?
  • time for our work?
  • time for ourselves and for giving away?

If people read as many feeds as they say, I’m guessing it does not. Time is a resource we cannot replace.

Ten Blogs on Blogging

Everyone seems to know Darren’s ProBlogger, our friend from SOBCon Lorelle.Wordpress.com, the “evil” John Chow.com and Successful-Blog here. These are ten others in (no particular order) that offer consistent and quality information about blogging as well.

  1. Bloggingbasics101.com
  2. chrisg.com
  3. BloggingPro
  4. Vaspersthegrate.Blogspot.com
  5. A List Apart
  6. Smartwealthyrich.com
  7. eMomsatHome.com
  8. Alister Cameron, Blogologist
  9. Daily Blog Tips
  10. Buildabetterblog.com

Top Ten Blogs for Writers

For the Top 10 Blogs for Writers Mike Stelzner asked his 20,000 newsletter readers to participate in the nominations. I’ve shortened his definitions of the quality that each blog represents.

  1. Brian Clark’s CopyBlogger: does an amazing job of helping writers improve
  2. Deborah Ng’s Freelance Writing Jobs: for freelance writers seeking new work
  3. Tom Chandler’s Copywriter Underground: regular doses of inspiration and writing tips
  4. Liz Strauss’s Successful-Blog: amazing insights into the craft of writing
  5. Angela Booth’s Writing Blog: something useful for all writers
  6. Kristen King’s InkThinker: improving the written word
  7. Anne Wayman’s The Golden Pencil: gold nuggets of information to freelance writers
  8. Carson Brackney’s Content Done Better: write better copy and make a living (now by Michi Beck)
  9. Dianna Huff’s B2B Marcom Writer Blog: marketing communications copywriting
  10. Allison Winn Scotch’s Ask Allison: For writers looking to break into the publishing world, be sure to check this one out.

Top Ten Blogs on Making Money

The Top Ten Blogs About Making Money in which Shane spends an entire blog post explaining how he came to choose his top ten.

  1. ProBlogger
  2. Shoemoney
  3. Self Made Minds
  4. Entrepreneur’s Journey by Yaro Starak
  5. John Chow.com
  6. Net Business Blog
  7. Bootmoney
  8. Andy Beard
  9. Dosh Dosh
  10. Mike’s Money Making Mission

Top Ten Web Analytics Blogs

This is the April 2007 update ranking from Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik. Be sure to read the post that details how the ranking is done.

  1. Occam’s Razor
  2. Web Metrics Guru
  3. Google Analytics Blog
  4. Web Analytics World
  5. Web Analytics Demystified-Eric T. Peterson’s Analytics Weblog
  6. Increasing your website’s conversion rate
  7. Unofficial Google Analytics Blog
  8. Lies, Damned Lies…
  9. WebAnalytics.be Blog
  10. Web Analysis, Behavioral Targeting and Advertising

I gathered this set with the intention of an offering that would cross blogging cultures. In that way, I’m hoping we all might explore, expnd our tastes, but leave room to let some go early on.

We choose from thousands of books to read and movies to see. Let’s do the same with the blogs that we read. I offer this set of 4 lists of 10 blogs with the hope that we’ll keep the those give us the best return on our investment.

How do you choose the blogs that serve your purpose?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find your strategy, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Is Your Business Stuck? I’ve Found a Way to Help

Related
20 Blog Promotion Guides to Inform Your Strategy
Strategy: How to Get Maximum Benefit from Complex Link Lists
The 5-Point Strategy to a Powerful Network
Money Strategy, a Dead Horse, and Folks

Filed Under: Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog-promotion, decision-making., Strategic-Plans, Strategy/Analysis, time-managment

Strategy: How to Get Maximum Benefit from Complex Link Lists

June 28, 2007 by Liz

More Than What One Link Shows

Strategic Plans logo

Yesterday I offered a list of blog promotion guides that are current and relevant. One could get lost, overwhelmed, or just plain bored going through all of the links contained inside the 20 of them.

Yet, it’s good practice and a great exercise to know the territory . . . to have an overview of the range of techniques and tactics folks suggest, support, and champion. Having an efficient way to cull through such a list can save time and help us see more than just what each link has to offer on its own.

Here’s how I’d use that list and any complex link list to get maximum benefit.

  1. Look over the list, before you read. What do you notice about the titles? What do you notice when you quickly click each link without reading a word? What do you predict you will find when you look further?
  2. Read through the list with an eye to the playing field. How many bloggers say the same thing? What ideas are entirely new? Note ideas that interests you.
  3. When you finish, reflect on your predictions and note the unexpected things you found.
  4. Decide which strategies work well with your blog and your readers’ needs.
  5. Make a plan for how you’ll introduce new ideas in a way that won’t disrupt what you already do.

We often do what our friends do to solve our problems. Those answers can serve us well, be all right, or not work at all. It’s so much stronger to arrive at a plan with the longer view — knowing the playing field. Even when that view is not scientific, it’s still informative. What we learn gets stored.

Negotiating a long link list of information is like driving a complicated route to a never-visited meeting spot. When we plan our route we’re more likely to reach our desired destination without wearing ourselves out.

Hope this helps.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find your strategy, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
The 5-Point Strategy to a Powerful Network
Money Strategy, a Dead Horse, and Folks
Would You Change 3 Things You Think to Get to Your $Million Dream?

Filed Under: Links, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog-post-lists, blog-promotion, Linking, Links, reading-strategies

20 Blog Promotion Guides to Inform Your Strategy

June 27, 2007 by Liz

Strategy

Strategic Plans logo

Strategy, a solid plan that moves to a completed vision, doesn’t come on it’s own. Some folks appear to do it naturally. The part that is natural is that they are big picture thinkers. The part that doesn’t show is that they have done significant work. The two together is what makes it look easy to observers.

Strategy starts with knowing the territory. What Do the Other Guys Do?

20 Blog Promotion Guides

It’s silly to start from stratch to devise the unique promotion strategy for a business or a blog. That’s flying in the dark and re-inventing the wheel at the same time. Other folks do good things that work. It’s only efficient to know what folks who went before us did. Seeing their finished work can inform our choices in these ways.

  • We can see the standard approach.
  • We can imagine our version without producing it.
  • If we look as a customer would, we can see what to avoid.
  • We can notice the exceptions that work and determine whether they might work for us.
  • We can sense the depth, breadth, and repetition of the promotional noise.
  • Everything we see can be mashed into new ideas.

With those benefits in mind, I offer 20 links to review. Later we might choose to take a closer look at one or two of the approaches offered in this sampling.

  1. Mr. Ploppy’s Monday Tool List – Volume XXXIII – Weblog Promotion Tools
    Last January, Mr. Poppy pulled together an organizaed list. It works well to frame research into the promotion playing field.
  2. The Thinking Blog has an outstanding guide to promotion.
    Ilker points out that it’s the posts that count not the blog itself. Ideally, the simple act of blogging in and of itself would attract enough traffic to please the author but there are cases in which more is better.
  3. 21 Ways to Promote Your Startup Business
    This article on starting a business offers 21 venues for promotion, many of which are also useful in promoting a blog.
  4. How to spend $1,000 promoting your established site.
    TDavid has a wealth of information about growint readership, without and without investing cash. Now that the $1,000 is gone, there are still many little things you can do to promote your site that will cost you time, but not necessarily any out of pocket dollars. [via Newsome.org]
  5. SEO Tips: Increase Page Rank By Revitalizing Your Old Posts
    Writing at the Blog Herald, Lorelle explains how to Increase Pank Rank and Ad Vitality and Traffic Interest in Archieved Posts
  6. Best blog promotion techniques
    SEO Blog offers another list of basics perfect for new bloggers.
  7. My blog promotion advice for Ali in Kenya
    David Wallace has developed an acronym that makes the basics easy to remember.
  8. Blog Promotion: What makes sense for you?
    Scot Herrick explains what to consider when choosing the promotional techniques most appropriate for our unique situations.
  9. Offline Blog Promotion Ideas – It’s All About Branding
    blogexposure.com offers a list of ways to get known in our home towns. While online should be where most of your promotion efforts should focus on, do not overlook the opportunity to do some promotions off line. When done correctly, they can be more effective than your online promotions.
  10. Using Video to Promote Your Business
    Zeppelin Media Blog explains the structure of using video to promote a business. Becky McCray from Small Biz Survival gave me the inspiration to extend the conversation she started over at her blog. Be sure to start there! [link follows] . . . Specifically, I wanted to mention some ideas for using video that would help any business or organization.
  11. How to use video to promote your small business
    Any small business could use simple online videos for promotion. Video builds relationships and can be very persuasive. You can make simple videos with just your digital camera and some free software. Need some inspiration for how to use it?
  12. How To Use Community-Driven Blog Promotion For Your Blog
    I Help You Blog suggests that we have our community help us too. Community-driven blog promotion is the term I use for describing any technique a blogger uses to promote his or her blog and that involves getting a blog’s readers to do something that will result in greater exposure for that blog.
  13. 10 Techniques I Used To Go From 0 To 12,000 RSS Subscribers In Seven Months – With No Ads Or Leverage
    Trent Hamm explains how he did just that. I launched The Simple Dollar at the very end of October 2006. I had no pre-existing blog that I could use to drive early traffic, nor did I have any personal contacts that I could use. I also had zero advertising budget. But by June 2007, I had 12,000 RSS readers
  14. Blog Promotion 101
    Tristan from Blogopoly guest posts on problogger with 10 points to review.
  15. Webmaster Forum > Blogging
    John Scott’s Webmaster Forum covers the topic from many angles
  16. Blog Archive Promotion To-Do List
    One from me on how to use your archives to promote your blog.
  17. Promotion, self-promotion and [insert ad here]
    Seth’s take on a variety of free ways to promote a blog.
  18. 42 Methods for Blog Promotion???
    Web Analytics world sets the SEOmoz and Aviva suggestions side by side
  19. 5 Surefire Steps To Increase Readership 300% (or more)
    Ryan Caldwell gets right to it with a focus on increasing readership in ways that count.
  20. 7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs
    One of my favorites from my own blog. The title says everything.

This list is a cross-section of what’s out there currently. My goal was to make the list representative of the techniques and strategies suggested at a range of levels. Please feel free to add to the list, if you find something missing.

Know the territory, then decide. It’s the bsst strategy for any plan.

(Wish I understood that before I dated a certain guy in college.)

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find your strategy, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Strategy: 40 Outstanding Blog Links, Bookmark Carefully!
The 5-Point Strategy to a Powerful Network
Money Strategy, a Dead Horse, and Folks
7 Great Ways to Connect to Bloggers While You Are Out Reading Blogs

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog-promotion, decision-making., Strategic-Plans, Strategy/Analysis

Left-Brain, Right-Brain, Whole Brain Think

June 6, 2007 by Liz

Analysis and Synthesis

It’s no secret that our brains have two hemispheres or that the two work differently. Despite how we talk, people aren’t really right-brain thinkers or left-brain thinkers. Everyone uses both sides of their brain in everything that they do. Each hemisphere takes charge of certain specialized thinking.

What is managed by the left hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the right side of the body
  • sequential and linear thinking — a, b, c, . . . 1,2,3
  • reading left to right
  • interpreting the meaning of text without context
  • analyzing details — drilling down into spreadsheets
  • knowing logic

What is managed by the right hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the left side of the body
  • simultaneous thinking — That’s a math book. That’s newspaper.
  • reading right to left
  • interpreting the meaning of context
  • synthesis — the global view
  • knowing the world

People do have attributes that lean toward left-brain directed thinking or right-brain directed thinking. Here’s what Daniel Pink says about that in his book A Whole New Mind.

Call the first approach L-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain — sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. Ascendant in the Information Age, exemplified by computer programmers, prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools, this approach is directed by left-brain attributes, toward left-brain results. Call the other approach R-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain — simultaneous, metaphorical, aethetic, contextual, and synthetic. Underemphasized in the Information Age, exemplified by creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, this approach is directed by right-brain attributes toward right-brain results.

Of course, we need both approaches in order to craft fulfilling lives and build productive, just societies. But the mere fact that I feel obliged to underscore that obvious point is perhaps further indication of how much we’ve been in the thrall of reductionist, binary thinking. Despite those who have deified the right brain beyond all scientific evidence, there remains a strong tilt toward the left. Our broader culture tends to prize L-Directed Thinking more highly than its counterpart, taking this approach more seriously and viewing the alternatve as useful, but secondary.

But this is changing . . .

What changes do you see? Are you using your right-brain talents more? Are you feeling less appreciated for your left-brain abilities?

–ME Liz” Strauss
Behind every successful business is an outstanding manager –The Perfect Virtual Manager.

Related
A Silly Left Right Brain Test
Thinking about How We Think
5 +1 Whole Brain Steps to Believable Strategic Goals OR Find Your Bliss Without Wasting Time
10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy

Filed Under: Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: A-Whole-New-Mind, bc, Daniel-Pink, left-brain, right-brain, thinking

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