Successful Blog

Open Mic Tonight 7pm Chgo Time: We're Going Bowling Wearing Crocs!

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Join Us Tonight

JOIN US TONIGHT AT 7PM

No Need to Bring Your Bowling Shoes!

Today is a double invitation. We’re going bowling in the comment box tonight … We’ll be talking about everything that goes with 21st century bowling, great music, bags, shoes, and t-shirts, the great people who show up, and how unpredictable it all is.

And we’ll be talking with

George Smith of Crocs

George knows a thing or two about shoes and t-shirts.

We’ll be bowling again at

BowlHer
a fabulous event by Collective Bias
at
Lucky Strike Lanes on Saturday, July 25th

Sign up here to attend.

Check out the swag Bag for the BowlHer event in Chicago!

Join us tonight to go bowling. 🙂

Oh, and bring links with pix that might remind us your bowling experiences.

The rules are simple — be nice.

Do be nice. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Are You Overwhelmed by Internet ADD? What to Do …

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Everyone Else Is Doing So Much More

Do you see everyone around you getting where you want to be and wonder why you’re standing still? Have you given yourself over to that new generation of Internet ADD … ADOS – AD oh Shiny!! ?

The answer is inside yourself and in what you’re not doing.

Talk and move. That’s what every person with a success story has done to achieve it. Only two things — talk and move. It’s the essence of doing.

Want to get somewhere? Do something.

What will you do today to build your success story?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

Thanks to Week 194 SOBs

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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.

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lori-moreno
steve-boeses-hr-techonology
who-do-you-think-you-are

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.

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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

Great Idea? What’s Your Strategy for Visibility?

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Go Out and Tell People ????

It’s so exciting to have a great idea, a great project, a great new job! How can we share the exciting things we’re doing without constantly talking about about ourselves? No thoughtful person wants to risk turning to “that guy”? No one who’s met “that guy” wants to do business with him.

It helps a lot if we don’t go hunting an audience.

When I figured out that asking folks what they’re doing and how they might help me do better at what I’m doing, talking about my work got easier, more fun, and more meaningful.

What’s your strategy for making your great ideas visible?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

Toeing the Line

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“If you are asked to toe the line the you are expected to conform to the rules of the situation.” from James Briggs

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all have certain roles and responsibilities we are committed to upholding. Some of these commitments are made by choice, others we as a result of that choice. (Ex: you chose to marry someone: choice; you have a relationship with their family as well: acquistion).

528447370_1ffc43878c_m Some of these choices mean supressing certain aspects of our personalities. Some choices we make definitely require us to toe the line and I’m okay with that.

When we have a blog we have responsibilities to ourselves to be true in our writing but then we start to find an audience and often that audience comes with expectations. Those expectations can be seen in the comments and in the reactions to certain content. It does seem tempting to just stick with what’s been working.

“Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.”

But I wonder if we all toe the line a little too much.

Do you blog like you’re expected to in a “certain situation”, maybe according to what your readers expect? Do you write according to how you have always written? Do you write about the same things you have always written about?

When I meet someone offline that I read regularly online I’m always surprised by something about them. A crazy way they dress, an interest they have never expressed through their blog or an amazing sense of humor that I didn’t pick up in their writing.

I’d like to think I can write about all the things I am interested in and not hold anything back . I’d like to provide content a little outside the box from time to time. Something to get people thinking and hopefully provide some value. This could work as an advantage by attracting new readers and that’s always good! New conversation and opinions are always worthwhile.

The disadvantage may come from throwing off some of your regular readers and making them feel a little alienated. Hopefully we can think of ourselves as accepting and patient enough with those we read to allow them room to change, grow and try new things.

I’d like to think I’m adventurous enough. Are you?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

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Attracting Knowledge Workers to Real-Life Communities

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Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware, writing at The Future of Work
, ask:

What can you do to help your community become a net attractor of knowledge worker talent?

We have synthesized our ideas and Gardner’s into a few simple questions you can use in community development workshops. Please bear in mind that this list is research in progress and doesn’t yet exist as a formal diagnostic instrument; but we believe it gives us a good basis for working with serious community leaders to start the conversation.

1. Do the people in our community share a similar purpose for living here?
2. Is our community highly diverse in its cultural and ethnic makeup? Do we practice an openness that allows all of us to question all of our assumptions?
3. Is teamwork among our community members very important and valued?
4. Are people in our community recognized publicly for their contributions?
5. Does everyone in our community communicate well with each other?
6. Does our community have a distinct and unique identity? Is there local pride in what we do and represent?
7. Is our community connected economically and politically with others in our region? Do we play an active leadership role in developing the region politically, economically, and environmentally?
8. Do we welcome new members to our community, even when they come from different backgrounds and have different lifestyles?
9. Do we believe in the “equal rights” of all our residents to transportation, education, clean air, and public spaces?
10. How easily does our community resolve conflicts among our members?
11. Do our residents invest time and energy to develop the community? To improve our schools? To ensure a sustainable environment?
12. Do we have adequate resources in our community to help it thrive?
13. Are we constantly seeking to “push the envelope” and striving to become a better, more interesting place?
14. Do we support and encourage innovation in both our public and our commercial enterprises?

That’s it. Short and sweet. The world changes, and your community changes or dies. Give this quick-check diagnostic a try. Go out into your community and ask people these simple questions (and ask yourself, too). You may be surprised at the answers—or you may decide to rent a moving van the next day.

Read the whole thing, and participate in the discussion here.