Successful Blog

Thinking about thinking . . . and playing

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I’ve been thinking . . .

about this quote:

Too often, young artists paint before they think. Over the years, I have disciplined myself to think before I pain. When I see a paintable subject or interesting situation, I paint more than I see. I paint what is to be seen. I paint what is inside me. I personalize the scene, make it my own so that through my painting you and I, viewer and artist, can communicate. My goal is to create paintings that are a voice, not an echo — Charles Wysocki, Heartland from The 9 Rights of Every Writer

Purple coneflowers

I’ve learned to think about what I write before I write. I know that when I do it’s so much more valuable. The words, the words I choose are chosen so much more carefully when I finally get around to deciding to choose them.

Thinking, trying on a thought, I let it live in me. Giving a thought time to breathe like a fine red wine sets the nuances out where I can see them. They’re like the wisps of a fall dandelion in the breeze floating against a blue sky background.

While I while away time letting thoughts go where they will go, my body takes a posture of relaxation. I breathe in ideas about whatever I’m letting myself think upon. So when I start to write I have a peaceful, deep understanding. I type slowly what I know intuitively about my ideas.

Today I was thinking about thinking about how a life might be wonder-filled if I were to take time to think before every important thing I ever do, especially playing.

Liz signature

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SOBCon News –Time to Book Your Room

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Don’t BE Left Out

Hi Everyone!
Today is April 6.
All of the SOBCon Speakers are pulling together the final touches on their conversations with the groups.

SOBCon 07

We all really want you to be a part in the most convenient and inexpensive fashion. That’s way I write this email today. It’s time to get urgent about attending SOBCon. Let me tell you why.

  • People are signing up remarkably early for this conference of this size.
  • All rooms at the Chicago OHare Sofitel outside of our special group rate have bookes. Our blocked rooms will be released on April 13 that in 7 days!!! There are no room or room rate guarnatees after that date. Click the picture to get to the hotel information and the special rate hotel promotion code.
    Chicago OHare Sofitel
  • kayak.com has the air fares for major airlines right now!

    Check your city’s flights to Chicago. kayak is amazing and known for service and realiablity.

    Lorelle on WordPress checks their fares for every conference she plans . . . and she’s about 75 conferences ahead of the average event planner I know.

    • Miami to Chicago Ohare starting at $188 -over 1600 choices

    LAX to Chicago Ohare starting at $259 – over 600 choices

    DFW to Chicago Ohare starting at $195 – over 500 choices

    LaGuardia to Chicago Ohare starting at $144 – over 600 choices

    Newark to Chicago Ohare starting at $149 – over 500 choices

You get the idea — We don’t want you to miss getting there because of a technicality.

We need your brain and your heart to make each speaker’s conversation go deeper.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
SOBCon 07 limited seating. Register Now!
If something is getting in your way, please let me know — Liz

Interview 14: Jason Alba Knows the Value of Relationships

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Jason’s Dream

Jason Alba

Jasonn Alba had a dream. That’s what he called it. You might call it a vision. He saw too many people who found themselves without employment and with no network or networking skills to support their need to get back into the work force.

Jason’s dream was to build a a personal relationship manager that allows folks to nurture their most valued relationships – for the lifetime of a career! Jason is a natural relationship blogger.

I got to talk to Jason on the phone yesterday. We agreed to this interview. I’m hoping it might be able to get him to SOBCon. He’s the kind of guy who would add great ideas to the audience mix.

Jason, When I first visited Jibber Jobber, your site, some time ago, I thought it was a job recruiter site. Now I know it’s more. Why would someone want JibberJobber while they still have a job?

It’s true there is an area in JibberJobber to manage a job search. But it’s much more than “job search” software. JibberJobber is a personal relationship manager – relationships may be the most important thing to direct your career! Statistics claim that jobs are filled by networking between 60-80% of the time.

JibberJobber is your personal relationship manager. Understanding, managing and growing your network is important for everyone: student, entrepreneur, job seeker, cubicle warrior, executive, artist… don’t we all have relationships to manage.

It makes sense to network (build relationships) when you don’t need to. And it makes sense to start using JibberJobber when you don’t need to look for a job!

As an added bonus there are other features that make sense in managing a career. A place to store elevator pitches. An interface with Google Maps to get directions to your contacts or target companies. A relationship management goals tool. A view of your network graphically, which will allow you to see how wide and deep your network really is. There’s a ton of features in the system – but just realize it was designed to give you professional tools to use in your personal career management.

What was the inspiration behind Jibber Jobber?

It started when I lost my job in January of 2006. I was using a homemade spreadsheet to keep track of who I talked to, where I sent my resume and where I was at with each job I had applied to. It was okay at first but as my job search went on the amount of data grew… and it became a mess (and I even studied how to manage data in college)!

I thought “what if I could take the CRM tools (like Goldmine or SalesForce) and marry them with what career experts tell us to do? That would be an awesome, useful tool for just about anyone!” And that’s what we did – we made it web-based and we made it very affordable (90% of the program is free, with an optional upgrade for $10/month).

It incorporates advice from master networkers, job coaches, resume experts, etc. Put all of this together and you have an excellent personal career toolset.

What part does the Jibber Jobber blog play?

I started blogging last June – and haven’t stopped since then! I love to blog about career issues – sometimes I talk about specific job search techniques but I love paradigm-shifting topics. My most commented post is in response to a monthly award I give called the “You Get It” award for people that use the web to quantify their personal brand. The winner put that she is associated with PETA, and one of my readers commented that some people association PETA with terrorists — and the pursuing conversation was incredible!

So I blog on personal branding, networking (social and unsocial), job search stuff, recruiters and general career management. Its been a blast and I enjoy the conversations around the issues.

Jason sees a bigger picture. He sees how relationships move with us from job to job and from career to career. Jason has found a way to help us keep our business relationships thriving and part of our lives, despite the mobility of the job market and the world in which we live. Plenty of testimonials tell the value of what he’s built.

That’s why Jason is hoping to make it to SOBCon 07 in Chicago in May.
He knows everything he learns about relationship blogging can only add to the effectiveness of what he does and that every relationship he makes will only strenghten his business.

Thanks for the interview, Jason! Hope to see you in Chicago

Don’t let important relationships you value slip away over time. Sign gn up for Jason’s easy to use managment tool. Jason is offering a special lifetime upgrade of JibberJobber premium for only $99 (that’s down from $495), but its only available through April 9th. The price goes back up after Monday!

Then come meet Jason at SOBcon with me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Reister Now for SOBCon 07, the hotel is sold out except for our special rate room block. The content-rich presentations all demonstrate how to take your blog and your business to the next level though conversation and relationships that turn readers and customers into brand-loyal evangelists.

Karen Shanley Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Karen there?

BAD Blogger Button

Go to her blog and you’ll find the words One Writer Mom, One Tween Kid, One Brilliant Australian Shepherd, One Comical Border Collie Mix, and One Big Fluffy Maine Coon Cat. The words are not very large, but they’re in all caps.

Karen Shanley named every one of them in the email she sent saying that she wanted to be a B.A.D. blogger. This is a woman who considers her animals to be a cast of characters in her life. Who wouldn’t enjoy a conversation with someone who has a joie de vivre like that?

Gosh we had a fine conversation of the kind that two abstract thinkers with too much say can do. We talked about writing and blog writing and why we do it. We talked about our dads and unconditional love and how we wished everyone could experience it at least once in their life.

When we talked about being moms. I think I told her the story of how, at 17, my son thought it tragic that people over 30 just don’t care about anything. That seems to be when Karen said that “Getting older is humbling in a good way.” I still like the sound of that.

Karen and I had a full-out writing discussion. We talked about how writing makes a person a better thinker — deeper, quicker. “When you go about it with integrity and vision, you’re sure to grow,” is how Karen said it.

Karen writes about the two-legged and four-legged creatures she loves. and “Good people take the time to read and make thoughtful comments.” she says.

It’s easy to see why. She serves them stories abour the characters in her life. They make you want to tell her stories abiout the characters in yours or get her talking more about the characters in hers.

Karen Shanley makes conversation easy.

I smile to think back on it.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

My writing is about finding the words someone else would hear, but not shying away from difficult conversation. —Karen Shanley

Stop by Karen Shanley’s Blog and say hi!

Thanks, Karen 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.

WOMMA: What Gets People To Talk About You?

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What People Talk About

Word of Mouth Marketing Book

Andy Sernovitz knows what people talk about. He knows how to get people like me talking the way I’m talking to you about him right now. In fact, he wrote the book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.

If you want to get people tarking, Andy says in his book. You need to know what people talk about. People talk about three kinds of things.

  1. We talk about other people and their stuff. If you are interesting, we talk about you or the stuff you are selling. We talk about how the service you offer is grander or more remarkable than we expected or how you have done something that captured out imagination. We want a reason to talk about you. Good conversation makes our life more interesting too.
  2. We talk because it makes us feel smart, important, and helpful. We remember how you treat us and pass that along to our friends. Treat us exceptionally nice, and we become die-hard fans. Give us a product or service that amazes us, and we’ll become the experts on where to find you — making sure everyone knows you are the best in your field. Everyone likes to feel that they have the key to something special. We like to help our friends by showing them how to find a great deal. Keep your attention fresh and exciting, and you will keep us interested and talking about you.
  3. We want to feel part of a bigger group. When we share how we feel about a product or a service we have enjoyed, we feel connected to the experience and connected to the people we tell about it. The more times we tell the story, the more we identify with it as a part of us and our life. Offer something people want to be a part of and they’ll tell others about it.

Talking to each other is what we do — on the phone, at our desks, in the comment box, in the grocery, over the kitchen table. We fill up our life with stories about our experiences. Talking is how we share the experiences that we find interesting and defining.

People like to talk to people. What can you do to get people talking about what you do? What stories come to your mind when you read this? Are they all BIG and heroic or are some stories of regular size?

Thanks Andy. I can’t wait to hear you speak at SOBCon.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Hurry! The special rate rooms in the SOBCon Block at the OHare SOBCon 07 will be released back to the hotel on April 13th.

Related
WOMM: If You Hate Self Promotion, Get People to Talk about You!
Andy Sernovitz Is Speaking at SOBCon! Pass It On!

Great Writers Read Great Writers

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Once Upon a Time

Power Writing Series Logo

If I asked you to name a great writer, who might it be? And if I asked you to name more than one, would all of them, any of them, have gone to a university?

Abraham Lincoln, a self-educated man, wrote the Gettysburg Address.

Ayn Rand left the USSR in 1926 — her formal education was over. She came to the U.S., took odd jobs in Hollywood to support herself. Ayn Rand wrote The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged.

Truman Capote ended his formal education at age 17. He wrote In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

All of these great writers learned to write by reading.

That’s how writers learned through history. Writers learned to write before there were oficial writing teachers. What did they get?

  • They got the music and the structure of the language.
  • They got a sense of story.
  • They learned to put words together to make meaning.

Oh sure, they got much more. Every word they read taught them something about their writing.

Do you read like a writer? What would a writer of your sort be reading? How might a writer read in a different manner? Is reading blogs enough?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.