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Thanks to Week 214 SOBs

November 28, 2009 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 SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is 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– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Why People Pay Attention…

November 26, 2009 by Liz

A Hospital with ADD

In the ER
It was a long flight home from Amsterdam through Madrid to Chicago. I expected to be tired on arrival, but the day after I arrived something terrible was wrong. I felt like I was shot in my left side. The pain was constant, strong, and worse than childbirth. Five hours in, I knew I needed to find out what was going on.

My husband had H1N1. No way he could come with me. I went to the ER alone. In a short time they found me a place. set me up for a x-ray and a CT scan. A friend caught up with me via text and came to sit by me for hours while I waited. My cell phone didn’t work so I couldn’t call home.

My mouth was dry, too dry to talk. They gave me ice chips when they remembered. They never gave me a way to call for more. On the way back from the x-ray I asked for more ice or water. An hour later, I was still without.

When the tests were over, they said I had a mass in my lungs (pneumonia), a blood infection (ecoli), and kidney stones. Maybe and hour later or so, they said were going to admit me. My friend went home.

After being alone for a long while, I sent a note to the ER desk asking someone to call my husband or my son before they admitted me to tell them what was going on. The Dr. in charge of ER that night pronounced that he didn’t have time to make such a call. He spoke loud enough for me to hear him, but couldn’t walk the ten steps over to tell me himself.

I’d now been gone from home almost 6 hours. My husband had no idea what was happening with me. By then what the doctor had told me was a faint memory. I wasn’t able to answer questions about it. The pain was still there despite the pain meds they’d given me.

In the Room
The first doctors I saw were residents. They didn’t introduce themselves as such they just started asking questions about what medications I take. One took notes and took the name of my pharmacy wrote both in my chart

She told me to keep taking those meds.

I asked three times to be sure that was what she wanted, explaining that I have gone as long as week with out those meds and she said keep taking them.

Apparently this information was not important enough for other doctors to read.

This proved a serious mistake when they put me out for the procedure to remove the kidney stone. Because my meds interacted with the meds they gave me for procedure.

My oxygen level dropped deadly low — well below 80, I heard as low as 60 — causing me twice to have seizures on the table while they were getting me ready to go for removal of the stone.

I didn’t die, but I could have.

Back in my room I was on oxygen and a monitor now. Some help that monitor was. If I moved a certain way, the alarm on the monitor would show zero and sound an alarm. No one would come. We timed it once at 20 minutes without a response. Another friend who was there every day to watch over me knew how to turn off the noise.

I asked the charge nurse why bother with a machine if they weren’t going to come. The answer was a weak smile, a look away with her eyes, and a blanket apology.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. You are not.”

I can’t help but wonder what was more distracting or important than reading the charts and answering alarms?

What was more worth their attention?

Some people don’t pay attention even when it’s their job.

A Community Who Paid Attention

I was released after 8 days. The surgeon who performed the procedure hadn’t been to check that all was well with the stent he’d left in. I’d not seen him since 5 days before. I went home with about half as much pain as when I had arrived.

Then something beautiful, embarrassing, and unexpected happened. People started to tell my simple story of how hospital stay had knocked me low. They shared it on their blog and on Twitter and in messages to me that are unforgettable. Thank you, Deb Ng, Lucretia Pruitt, and Jenn Fowler for thinking of me. Thank you everyone who chipped in. And thank you to Kathryn and everyone who guest posted for all of the work you did keeping my blog going on.

People pay attention because they care.

I am grateful this Thanksgiving for every second of your attention.

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

The Blogging Brain

November 25, 2009 by Guest Author

Todays guest post is from Dr. Robyn McMaster.

Dr. Robyn McMaster is Sr. VP of the MITA International Brain Center. She’s the author of Brain Based Biz. She’s a close friend and wise advisor.

Blogging stimulates the brain as you make public ideas that rouse “aha’s.” Shaping and sharing ideas with a wider community provides incentive, especially as you’re rewarded by readers’ comments. Another bonus comes as surprises unwrap themselves as you read and learn from others’ blogs.

Interestingly, mental activities required for blogging, such as learning how to use technology to launch a blog, using your computer to write, writing for an audience, selecting just the right photo to go with posts, researching what others have written about your topic, commenting on their posts and writing from a new, fresh approach, leads to changes in the structures of your brain. How so?

Your brain rewires nightly as you sleep, based on the activities you do during the day. “It’s really a matter of neurons and dendrites,” Dr. Ellen Weber reports, “that spark new synapses for change. Ellen describes the process…

Your browser may not support display of this image. Remember, a neuron’s nothing more than a nerve cell, and your brain holds about 100 billion of these little critters. You can march them much more in your favor – with a few carefully crafted acts. How so? Neurons project extensions called dendrite brain cells – which connect and reconnect daily, based on what you do. Axons, in contrast, relay information back from the body back to the brain. In a rather complex electrochemical process, neurons communicate with each other in synapses, and that connection creates chemicals called neurotransmitters. Chemicals release at each synapse, and these shape mood, open brains to optimize learning and stoke creative solutions to complex problems. Many mysteries still occur in the quadrillion synapses within a human brain, and yet wonderful benefits await people who act on what recent research suggests.

As your dendrites rewire they strengthen blogging and writing skills. The more you write, seek to improve, try new formats, and use tips good writers, like Liz Strauss, share, the more new dendrites for writing skills will be wired into your brain.

Once you launch a blog and you are underway, you can gather readers interested in your topic by becoming active in social networks. And even joining social networks prompts our brains to rewire…

Social Networks Change the Face of Friendships Here’re some facts on ways blogging and networking alter the face of your friendships:

* The human brain steps up to challenges and intellectual ideas. These lead people to discuss deeper issues on topics of similar interest.

* Online users have the same number of friends in real-life, but even more counterparts online

* Myspace, Facebook and Twitter are changing the number of friends people have and the way they communicate

* 90% of online friends rated as ‘close’ have met face to face

* People choose friends in person and online based on their ‘quality’… In person, facial and bodily cues help, but online it’s harder to spot dishonest signals

* Social networks aid communication and may bring about a change in the size and structure of real-life social networks in the future

Social networks change us and we change social networks! Over time the demographics of bloggers changes, as described in Cason Analytics blogging stats.

Blogging promotes higher cognitive skills, according to Dr’s. Fernette and Brock Eide. You stretch your brain through:

* critical and analytical thinking The best of blogs are rich in ideas and promote active exchange and critique.

* creative, intuitive, and associational thinking Blogs must be updated frequently. This constant demand for output promotes a kind of spontaneity and ‘raw thinking’–the fleeting associations and the occasional outlandish ideas–seldom found in more formal media.

* analogical thinking Back-and-forth blog-based exchanges between experts also provide a unique opportunity for young thinkers to witness and evaluate arguments from analogy on an ongoing basis.

* medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information Because blogs link many facts and arguments in branching “threads” and webs, and append primary source materials and reference works, they foster deeper understanding and exposure to quality information.

* combinations of best solitary reflection and social interaction Bloggers have solitary time to plan their posts, but they can also receive rapid feedback on their ideas. The responses may open up entirely new avenues of thought as posts circulate and garner comments.

Think about it … Blogging’s quite a workout. When I finish writing a blog, I find satisfaction from all the intellectual stimulation. You?

5 shared habits that shape every effective blogger’s brain….

A blogger’s brain comes alive … Dr. Ellen Weber summarizes it well …

* Visitors stop by …. Have you seen your messages come to life with a new twist … an unusual turn … or two-bits of wit-‘n-wisdom that bumps a good idea to the next level.

* Traffic means humans more than scores or pings.

* Ideas… images … and applications pop up like popcorn ready to serve and share with eager … diverse crowds.

* Small rewards pay it forward. It could be in the form of a badge … a cup… or just a few words that lift a thought up to the rainbow for another look.

* You learn something new … from somebody new … about a topic that’s new….

Blogs are not only changing the way we think… act … and do business …. They are also helping us to come and go into one another’s worlds… and that reshapes the best bloggers’ brains. What do you think?

Bust a Move: An Exercise in Community

November 24, 2009 by Guest Author

Todays guest post is from Ben Boudreau.

Ben Boudreau is a communicator at Halifax branding agency Revolve and maintains his creative side on his personal blog, No Ordinary Rollercoaster. He’s at his happiest when equipped with a laptop, latté and his puppies.

If you had suggested last year that a simple lyric from a novelty rap song would have been the catalyst behind the most exciting and inspiring work of my career to date, I would have laughed in your face. Not that I don’t appreciate the work of say…Sir Mix-A-Lot or the Fresh Prince, but they don’t immediately conjure up images of empowering communities.

Yet here I am…doing what I love to do, making a difference, floored by the power of an inspired community and constantly trying to get that Young MC one-hit-wonder out of my head.

Don’t just stand there…Bust a Move!

In the summer of 2009, I was tapped to work on launching a signature breast health fundraiser like no other. On January 30, 2010, up to 1,000 participants will raise a minimum of $1,000 each to complete six hours of consecutive fitness including dance, aerobics, Pilates, and one hour with the King of Short-Shorts himself, Richard Simmons.

This one-day event in Halifax, Nova Scotia will launch two attempts to break or set new Guinness World Records and every cent raised will help purchase new digital mammography equipment that will instantly increase Nova Scotia’s screening capacity by 75%.

The prize at stake here – 75% more women getting screened every. single. year. – is one too powerful to be ignored especially when you consider that Halifax currently has the worst wait times in the province for mammogram screenings – the only source of early detection that can improve a woman’s odds against breast cancer.

That being said, we couldn’t just show up, ask people to exercise for longer than your average marathon on top of spending weeks raising money, and then go out for job-well-done nachos. Far from it, actually. We needed to be sensitive of other fundraising initiatives, respectful of the many people who are so passionate about beating this disease, and let the community – on whom we are relying to make this event a success – define how we will get there.

You want it? You got it!

As we began genuinely reaching out to others for support and suggestions we found, more often than not, that people truly adopted this cause as their own. Dancers and choreographers met in secret to rehearse a flash mob dance; the Halifaxchicks – influential bloggers and Twitter users – entered a team and took Bust a Move to a whole new level online; avid fundraisers and volunteers rallied to ensure their involvement; local students got to work on developing promotional content.

Step by step, all the pieces fell into place for an incredible launch week that saw over 100 participants and 100 volunteers registered, 300 new members to our Facebook group, over 500 mentions on Twitter. Not to mention that in the 48 final hours, we gained over 20,000 views of our flash mob.

While the numbers are all lovely, the best part of this experience is getting to watch communities come together to create a genuine movement that will benefit us all. We still have a way to go before the big day but those days are already booking up with pancake breakfasts, bake sales, gift-wrapping services and many more fundraisers in support of better breast health services in Nova Scotia. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

Now if we could only stop jamming to that song…at least while out in public….

http://bustamove.ca/

http://blog.bustamove.ca/

http://youtube.com/bustamovehfx

http://twitter.com/bustamovehfx

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=132055509226

Hunting For Treasure

November 23, 2009 by Guest Author

Todays guest post is by Sarah Robinson.

Sarah Robinson is a seasoned coach and business strategist who helps entrepreneurs, parents, authors and others blast through the grip of mediocrity. More information can be found here, on her blog.

This afternoon I am teaching my son the fine art of hunting for shark’s teeth. It’s a challenging pastime, to say the least, but as absorbing and all consuming as any good hobby should be.

Our hunting grounds are off the coast of Georgia where, ages ago, dredge from the bottom of a river was dumped during the construction of the Inter-Coastal Waterway. I’ve found teeth as small as a grain of rice and as big as my hand when hunting here. Most important, the teeth are plentiful which makes for an excellent classroom.

First, I show my son the unique “T” or “Y” shapes of most teeth. Then we review the particular shades and combinations of black and gray that are found only in these fossils.

The final part of our lesson is slightly more nuanced – especially for a seven year old. Holding a picture of the shape and color of a shark’s tooth firmly in our minds, we must start scanning the shoreline, filtering out anything that does not match our mental image.

This is especially tricky because the beach is littered with Grand Imposters – bits of black shell in the coveted “Y” shape or a smooth gray stone half buried in the sand. They appear to be the treasure we seek, but upon closer examination, they are nothing more than fool’s gold.

I think the reason I love hunting shark’s teeth is that it requires so much of me. All of my focus and attention must be laser sharp – there is no room for distraction. I must be fully present and in the moment – seeing only what is right in front of me. Anything less and my treasure will elude me.

My son’s attention span is short and the bright sunlight has given way to long gray shadows, making it difficult to spot our quarry.

Tomorrow, as long as the tides and weather cooperate, we will try again. My hope is that with practice, he will learn to overlook the Grand Imposters and train his eye on the particular prize he seeks. I tell him that if he can learn to do that, one day he will look down to see his treasure lying at his feet. He will simply reach down and take hold of it.

He smiles and takes my hand.

sharktooth

Beach Notes: Step by Step

November 22, 2009 by Guest Author

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

One morning this week this was the image that greeted us as we arrived at the beach. How perfect

An almost straight line of foot prints leading down to the sea.
I was reminded that when I focus on following a simple system and do take the step by step process, success can follow quickly.
Often I find it a challenge to keep on that simple path?
What about you?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh