Successful Blog

Have You Tried the DO Strategy of Social Business Success?

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Relationships in Business

We’re not just tools and sticks. Business is inherently social. People add value to or interrupt the flow of every transaction we make. We interact with coworkers, our customers, our clients, our vendors, the person who delivers our packages.

How well we do at getting to our goals is our definition of whether we succeed.

I’ve been watching people who succeed. They have common traits. They know what they do well. They are focused on their destination. They’re saturation learners and more than anything, they DO what it takes to get themselves where they want to be.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success
on page 39 when he says

… the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he o she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

They do the work.

I’ve been thinking about doing as a strategy for success. It’s got some research (like Gladwell’s) behind it. It also make plain sense. Try this for the next two weeks.

  • Do what you’re good at.
  • Do what you say you will.
  • Do it when you promise.
  • Do your homework before you ask question so that you don’t waste other people’s time.
  • Do it right the first time, so you don’t have to do it twice.
  • Do what you were asked, not what you think is better unless you’re 100% certain everyone will agree.
  • Do what’s right, what’s beautiful, what you know you’ll be proud of when you look back in 10 years.
  • Do own your missteps and mistakes so that bad spirits don’t linger.
  • Do care about the people touched by your work, your words, and all you do.
  • Do hold control for your success in your own hands.

I wonder if these are the “DOs” Nike had in mind?

Have you tried the DO Strategy of Social Business Success? What do you DO to succeed?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy Liz’s ebook to learn to how to write for conversation.

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Spend a weekend working with a dream team of social media.

Beach Notes: Advantage of a Bird's Eye View

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

In any business there is an advantage to be gained in every now and again stepping away from the details of what we are doing and all our tasks, however essential and urgent, so that we can look at our challenges and the business itself from a more “elevated” perspective – a bird’s eye view.

Not an original thought, but how many of us do it? And if we do it, do we do so often enough?

The thoughts and the questions were prompted by seeing a new structure – a kind of observation platform made of scaffolding materials and a sheet of corrugated roofing – at our local beach, Rainbow Bay.

Every year about this time we have the week-long spectacle of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro surfing championships at Rainbow Bay , or as surfers probably think of it, the famous Snapper Rocks break. The whole end of the beach, in the area surrounding the Rainbow Bay Surf Lifesaving club building, becomes a kind of instant tent city, with temporary shops, cafe, exhibition space, media center, and what appears to be a large chillout area for competitors. The event brings champion surfers, men and women, from around the world, and pumps large sums of money into the local hospitality industry.

We love it!

It also brings hordes of photographers, who set their tripods or other camera props up on the beach or on the rocks, to capture the performances of the competitors.

The observation tower at the other end of the beach is a new development this year. We spoke the other day to the guy in it, who was set up with still and video cameras, in a position commanding a totally uninterrupted view of the whole beach and looking straight down to the area where the surfers are doing their stuff over the coming days.

There is no question that he will have a better overall picture of what is happening than will his colleagues/competitors on the beach. Some of their photos and videos might be more striking than his, but he will be able to take pictures that they can’t take from the level of the beach or the rocks.

He has a bird’s eye view.

Have you been able to get a better picture of your business by stepping back and getting a bird’s eye view?

Any tips you would like to share, about how to do that most effectively?
Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Would You Do a Working Weekend with a Dream Team in Social Media?

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150 People Looking in the Same Direction

TIME.

It’s only resource we can’t get more of.

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise

  • to focus entirely on your business
  • to work with the support of a team
  • to get quality time to interact with the best names in social media
  • to get the best information AND time to dicuss how you’ll apply it
  • to work with sponsors in the social media space
  • in a room that only holds 150 people — all focused in the same direction
  • without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

A weekend learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
Brian Clark Liz StraussBrian Solis Kali Evans-Raoul KD Paine Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons Denise Wakeman Wendy Piersall and David Bullock Stephen Smith and Michael Martine Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson — 150 person dream team.

Would you invest in your business to experience that?

Thank You, Buzz Corps!!

I’m delighted to announce that Geoff Nelson and Buzz Corps have stepped up to make it easier.

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

We’ve had great response to the discount we offered last week, almost more than we could afford. With the help of Buzz Corps, we’re able to keep our promise bright and shiny in every way. Thank you, Buzz Corps!!

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe you can tell us how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

Heck, you can even write a love letter to a sponsor you’d like to have a relationship with. Pick a company that’s done something great for bloggers in the past and tell them why you think it was important and valuable that they did what they did. Propose an idea for how you might do something a SOBCon sponsor already listed on the SOBCon blog.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon09, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2009.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

We’re all coming for the same reasons.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Make the investment.

Thanks to Week 175 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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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

SOB Business Cafe 02-26-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Pick the Brain
Whether we are entrepreneurial spirited individuals, currently employed and even unemployed, we must operate with the proverbial “The Buck Stops Here” sign on our desks.

lip-sticking
Running a business can be like that, too. Trying to connect with a market that is always in flux can be challenging and fraught with the unexpected, almost as a matter of fact. The marketing to real women online shows this better than anything because it’s immediate, now, focused, relative, and maybe a little volatile, at times.

Manage to Change
Except for the Super Bowl, I never show much interest in TV commercials. But last week two new spots from Kaplan University got my attention.

Bold Enterprises
Words are power.

Their impact often out of proportion with their intent.

Attract More Customers
With corporations hemorrhaging jobs, it’s no surprise that interest in self-employment is skyrocketing. For me, personally, a pink slip was just the motivation I needed to get off my ass and finally start a business of my own.

Related ala carte selections include

Vandelay Design

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

What Do You Do Because Sometimes You Know How?

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This morning I had my morning all laid out. I knew exactly what I was to get done. I was ready prepared and willing, until I turned computer and Tweetdeck served up this short note.

3 things that stop me from doing… “Over Coffee…”
(http://twitthis.com/8ln6i4) Inspired by @lizstrauss

Who would I be not to see something like that? What I found were thoughts that started like this …
I love to write and doodle. So why don’t I do more of it? What am I afraid of? And how do I stop the fears and get going again?

And my head and my heart answer, “Yeah, I know. I get those feelings too.”
I read that post. Then I read the next — the one with the beautiful painted in drawing, the one I only wish or dream I could make myself.
Who would I be not to respond?

Because Sometimes I Know How

Every writer gets stuck for words.
Every writer gets caught up
or lost looking for an idea to explore.
Every writer has an ego that pushes words out
and a critic that tears them down.
We all have time that we hope
and fear that will never write again.
If only I could draw and paint a lady so lovely,
But I write I write instead
because sometimes I know how.

What do you do because sometimes you know how?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Image: Barbara Hartsock
Work with Liz!!