Successful Blog

Roger von Oech Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Roger there?

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of spending a great time on the phone with Roger von Oech. We took the time machine back to the days when he wrote his first books. I got to think about the fun I had giving people A Whack on the Side of the Head. It was fun as a publisher to ask him about his experiences while bringing that incredibly popular book and its partner, A Kick in the Pants, to market while magazines — Fortune and Business Week — and television responded with noise and pleasure that corporations were finally trying to do something creative.

Roger explained that the real change came when he switched from the book to the Creative Whack Pack, a 64-card deck that is a creativity tool. He said folks were wilingl to share copies of the books, but they wanted to keep their Whack Packs. I can understand that. I like to keep my favorite toys too.

Actually though our conversation didn’t start with Roger’s stuff, before I’d barely said hello Roger was asking questions. With his creativity he has a healthy dose of what he called beginner’s mind. I would have to call it insatiable curiosity. The man likes to know how things work and why they work as they do. That makes a conversation with him lively and constantly filled with questions and ideas. Bet you can see why I was having the time of my life listening and talking about anything and everything that happened to interest us at the moment.

Some of the topics included the fact that Roger had breakfast with Guy Kawasaki and that they had been to the same school together and only met recently. Roger’s been reading blogs for over three years, but only got into writing his own blog in the last few months. We discussed how moving from link to forms people relationships not just connections of web relevancy. He said that’s how he met almost every Internet friend, because one let to another and then to the next. We talked about blogs we like, but how blogs can’t replace the depth of reading a book.

We found we’re of like mind when it comes to discovery. Today I was wishing I had a dime for every time that word was used during our conversation. We talked about the ways that it’s valuable to cross purpose content to make it fit each audience perfectly, because they don’t have time to find it or make it work for them. I think we laughed a lot and bet we were picturing many of the same things.

You can’t help but imagine possibilities when you talk to Roger von Oech.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Some of my blog posts have been picked up by other blogs and they got me in touch with people I’ve not been in touch with for years. One is a man from India I met while speaking there in 1993, it looks like I’ll be going back again now.–Roger von Oech

Stop by Roger’s Blog, Creative Think, and say hi!

Thanks, Roger, 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.

Char Polanosky Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Char there?

The first thing that Char Polanosky told me is that she lives in area of Virginia steeped in history. I said that having lived outside of Boston, I understood what she meant. She explained that where she lived was on a Civil War Battlefield. I countered that she had me there, and Then I said that I hoped she had a house in the package.

That was the light note that began our conversation.

Char told me that her life in technology began when she directed a center teaching kids about design and technology. We talked about how teaching is the best way to learn things. She mentioned that soon after that she was doing things for clients, designing for the web. That has obviously become her passion.

Char said her beginnings were in technical writing, but that’s not where she works now or wants to be. I said that’s not a place I would want to be either. We discussed the incredible detail and the hard work of techinical documentation. Char and I were soon talking about the romance of and her love for design and marketing.

Soon our conversation shifted slightly. We were discussing designing for print and designing for web. We discussed the differences between the two media and the differences between the clients who worked with each type of media. Char was much kinder to the print folks than I was. I told a few stories from my past in print. Char gave a why print wasn’t attractive to her. She also said the web is where she enjoys working most.

We both agreed that too many people don’t know how to find the fine line between something that is different and something that is wrong. Char said she prefers a client who strongly knows exactly what she wants, to one who wants to be told what to do. That made me feel better about having strong feelings about what I know.

The conversation turned to having ourselves as clients. We agreed that sometimes we are pickier on our design, yet in a strange balance we can be more forgiving of mistakes. I wondered whether that was because it seemed silly to try to read too much into what clients say, or to try to predict what clients might like beyond what they actually tell us.

Char and I talked about the traits of blogging during winter. I said lately I was thinking mine started in October, not November as it once had.

Before we hung up. Char and I promised to meet at Tuesday Night Comment Night that eveinng She helped me pick out a theme for us to talk about on. Thanks Char! It was a rousing success! Char is one creative, helpful, and enthusiastic lady.

Then she asked me what essential tools I use daily. I told her. She wrote a post about it for her blog. She got her post up hours before I got mine up. Char is also one efficient lady.

No wonder I like her admire her work so.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Blogging works very well. It’s as if you start behind your shield of annonymity., and it lets you reveal parts of yourself as you want to. —Char Polanosky

Stop by Char’s Blog, Essential Keystrokes, and say hi!

Thanks, Char, 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.

Rodney Rumford Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Rodney there?

If you go poking around MojoPages, you’ll find a page called “About the Team.” On that page, you’ll find a picture of Rodney Rumford. It says his title is “Visionary Geek.” Look closely at that picture. It’s a revealing one, to be sure. The smile on his face is a give away. This man is having the time of his life. He’s the proverbial kid in the candy store.

“I love blogging!” Rodney told me. He wasn’t just talking about typing into a dashboard. He was talking about every bit of technology that could be possibly, minutely, in any way be related, contemplated, configured or construed to be blogging or a cousin to it.

“I love blogging!” Rodney said as we talked about his personal “blog” podblaze which is really podcasting and videoblogging. He asked me whether I was Mac or PC .Then he was off to the races, telling me exactly what I should be downloading — in which order and how to use what for podcasting and video. I hardly had to ask and I knew the quality that each would produce for me. We both agreed that podcasting was where I was probably going to end up next. We talked about Liz on Blog Radio.

Rodney and I talked about content theft and spam blogs and the weird attraction such tawdry activities hold for the sort who do it. I could almost hear him shaking his head as he told his story of the run in he’s had in the past. I told him my own story and we decided that folks like that must get some charge that we don’t understand.

Soon enough we left that topic behind and were talking again about things that could be built and cool things that would be coming in the future.

“I love blogging!” Rodney mentioned as it came up that he was developing a blog platform that would interact with Google in a way that would put real estate folks’ listing into Google almost immediately. We had quite a discussion about which industries, which sorts of people, take to blogging most quickly and which seem to lag behind almost wanting to be dragged to the web. We wondered what makes some folks resist change so — even when their phone books are dead.

Then Rodney told me the story of an 80-year-old client, who is now a prolific blogger. Rodney says he blogs five times a week. This client teaches people everything he knows –the guy is an award winning shooter. “I couldn’t stop him.” Rodney said.

I bet that’s just so. Rodney’s love for blogging and everything about it is contagious. It sings in his voice and shows in his blog pages.

Of course, most of all I can still hear him saying, “i love blogging!”

Which really means that blogging is what thrills the visionary geek in him.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Blogging is a way to leverage technology so that I can share knowledge.–Rodney Rumford

Stop by Rodney’s Blog, MojoPages, and say hi!

Thanks, Rodney, 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.

Scorpia Is a B.A.D. Blogger

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Scorpia there?

The first words I heard were “Hi Liz! Here we are again.” And sure enough, there we were. Only this time we weren’t trying to figure out why I couldn’t find my way into her chat room (crazy software issue she resolved in no time at all). This time we were up for a real conversation, and a real conversation is exactly what took place

I started with a question that I had been wondering — What are the folks who visit Scorpia’s Gaming Lair like? Scorpia told me that by twist of fate, luck, and technology, the people that have been her readers have always been grown-ups. She said that in the beginning, the adults had the computers; now they’re the ones who have the CPU/RAM/VIDEO to run the games. It was clear that no Playstations or X-box conversations are happening at the Lair. Scorpia serves up solid information — reviews, hints, and conversation on real gamers’ games.

We spent some time talking about podcasting and blogging. We did a while on business. We even talked about my inability to see what I type. Somehow Scorpia and I got to talking about words on the web that we’ve read and never heard said. That brought us back to words from high school facade, canape, and faux pas and the first time we heard someone say them.

Next thing you know we’re discussing how we don’t watch television and what we say when people ask us if we saw some show or other. Then we got quite involved in discussing videos. She said she had only bought eight. I told her I had only bought one. We talked about which they were and came to the same conclusion — we couldn’t see why we would buy them, if we didn’t plan to watch them many more times than once.

Scorpia said she felt the same way about books. Then she went on to say that she had shelves and shelves of them. She said that she goes to the library unless she plans to read a book more than once. I said that tied me to someone else’s schedule.

When we got to talking about what books we like, Scorpia mentioned Erle Stanley Gardner. I mentioned my mother’s index card of his titles. She knew it was so that my mom didn’t buy a copy of The Case of the Velvet Claws twice. We both agreed that his Perry Mason novels weren’t his best stuff. Then Scorpia went on to tell me that mysteries from that era were her favorite reads. When she can’t find those, she said she likes history. I said I like that rare fact-based historical fiction. Scorpia answered that she preferred the real thing.

I didn’t find that surprising. Everything about Scorpia is the real thing.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Game bloggers are like everyone else who cares about what they do, they’re serious about it.–Scorpia

Stop by Scorpia’s Blog, Scorpia’s Gaming Lair, and say hi!

Thanks, Scorpia, 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.

Dr. Delaney Kirk Is a B.A.D. Blogger

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Delaney there?

From the second that we first started talking at 7:30a.m., Delaney and I were immediately discussing people and their behavior.

We started with people who speak for a living — how so many are animated and outgoing when in front of an audience, but extremely self-conscious when they first meet someone individually. I suggested that the difference was once explained to me as a matter of who is holding the microphone. I suppose in today’s environment that could be considered the ultimate permission to talk.

Delaney and I discussed talking to the audience before a presentation and other ways to draw an audience into the experience, ways to make a relationship before the first word is spoken. We shared the pain of watching someone who had memorized every word, and the misuse of PowerPoint <--well, we said the word, PowerPoint. We were more interested in mindmapping and storytelling. It figures that two teachers would be. We spent the most time talking about how people remember stories and the ideas that stories illuminate.

Dr. Kirk taught me a term I’d not heard before — impression management — managing how people perceive us. We discussed the way teachers manage their image so that students respond with respect for them and what they have to say. That made me think about how I did that with the first graders in my classes. It came up how our impressions affect whether we cut someone a little slack when we find they have reached a rough spot. I told her that’s why I studied harder for the first test than the final in my college classes — the first test said who I was. Delaney knew exactly what I meant.

Delaney wanted everyone to know that the book list she asked for is longer than she could have imagined, and now she has her work cut out deciding which books to use when class begins in January. That led us into a discussion of how she was thinking that her next book might come from her blog. I pointed out that knowing that now works in her favor; she can write her blog with the book in mind. We talked about ways to do that. One way was to write a series of blog posts that would become each chapter — later she could pull the content together already organized, rewriting only to smooth the segues.

She’s full-time professor, one busy blogger, our Dr. Delaney Kirk, and now she’s going to write another book!

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I enjoy blogging because I’m able to reach out to mentor people, and share the little bit I know and other people can do that too. —Delaney Kirk

Stop by Delaney’s Blog, Ask Dr. Kirk, and say hi!

Thanks, Delaney, 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.

Phil Gerbyshak Is a B.A.D. Blogger

by

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Phil there?

By a weird turn of the calendar and of the clock, I didn’t realize it, but I was blogtipping Phil on Friday, and he was my B.A.D. Blogger call. It was 6:30a.m. when I spoke with Phil. Yes, he’s the same cheerful guy even then. If he wasn’t truly that way, it would be really annoying. Instead he’s kind of amazing. Talking to Phil is a great way to start any day. I highly recommend it.

Phil is the VP of the Help Desk Department for a company of over 2000 people and the Wisconsin President of Help Desk International. We talked about how Help Desk is internal customer service. I asked what sort of folks are drawn to that group. He said people who like computers, but want to work with people not machines.

Phil said that it’s not uncommon for people who work Help Desk to have a poor self-image, that they are often treated as the lesser half of IT. We discussed how that was a skewed perception, that the Help Desk was more of a bridge than a back yard. Phil said there’s not much support for Help Desk people about their jobs — that’s why he decided to take on the Help Desk Notes Blog for Know More Media.

I couldn’t help but point out what a helpful guy Phil is. We talked about that for a few minutes. I got on the subject of stories from childhood that seem to define us before we even know who we are.

As an example I told him a story in which I changed a question on test because I couldn’t answer it the way it was written, and though I got every answer right, my teacher took 10 points off for editing her test.

I asked Phil if there was a story from his childhood that predicted the consummate helper he grew up to become. Phil thought for a minute and then told me this one.

He said it happened when he was two years old. He was in church with his family. A little girl he didn’t know fell down. He immediately ran over to her, bent and kissed her knee to make it better.

As I said, if it wasn’t he truly that way, it would be really annoying. 🙂

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

There’s a lot of nice people out there that needed the blogosphere to connect. Isn’t it great how you can open the network and people just help?!!” — Phil Gerbyshak

Stop by Phil’s Blog, Make It Great! and say hi!

Thanks, Phil, 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.