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Change the World: Breaking the Law of My Limits

February 7, 2007 by Liz

What If I Stopped Saying I Can’t?

Those who advise people to follow their passion, no matter where it leads, are believers in intentionality*. Many meditation programs that advise that imagining ‘success’, what one wants to happen, is the first step towards its realization, are believers in intentionality (the second step, they will tell you, is acting in accordance). Those who will tell you that having the courage to ‘real-ize’ what you were always intended to be and do, by living on the Edge beyond the reach of civilization’s safety net, is the only sane way to live, the only hope for us as individuals and as a culture, are believers in intentionality. And so are the ‘power of positive thinking’ and ‘appreciative inquiry’ proponents. . . .

The word intention literally means stretching toward. The word aspiration means breathing toward. — Dave Pollard, How to Save the World

If I say I can’t, you can bet I can’t.
I can argue for my personal limits with a clean, clear case of exactly what I can’t do — certain beyond certain, that I can’t do what I say I can’t. The future is easy to predict when I lay down the law of my personal limits.

Suppose just one time, or maybe once and for all, that instead of the law of my limits, I laid down my can’t do arguments?

I intend to break the law of my limits.
I will do something I once believed I could never do.
I aspire without a care, without fear of failing.
I will stretch toward, breathe toward learning.

If I trip or fall, I’ll simply adjust my steps.
If I get lost, I’ll stop for help.

I don’t need luck, when I can make things happen.

I intend to stop fighting for limits, and start exploring possibilities.

That’s a reality I can make happen.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

The Mic Is On: $100 Million Winners . . . !!!

February 6, 2007 by Liz

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

What Would You Do With $100 Million?

We might talk about

when we would claim the money
When would you claim the money – right away or after you get your ‘ducks in a row’?
how much money $100 Million is really worth
whether to hire an investment consultant
whether to work or run a business
what we’d buy
where we’d travel
what we’d give away
what we’d do about expectations from friends and relatives
And, whatever else comes up,

including THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: $100Million Winners!!!!

February 6, 2007 by Liz

Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

The Topic is: What Would You Do With $100 Million?

How would that impact your life? We might talk about when we would claim the money — right away or after some thought — how much money $100 Million is really worth, whether to hire an investment consultant, whether to work or run a business, what we’d buy, where we’d travel, what we’d give away, and what we’d do about expectations from friends and relatives. I bet we have 100 million ideas in our vision , . .

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Branding: A Tagline Is Not A Brand — How to Build a Positive Brand in 3 Steps

February 6, 2007 by Liz

Your Unique Brand Identity

People talk to other people about other people, products, and companies.

What we say to each other about what we like —

the other people, products, and companies we champion and warn folks about,
the other people, products, and companies we hold up as models and that we boycott
the other people, products, and companies we don’t ever mention, i.e. that we make invisible,

— becomes the brands that define the other people, products, and companies we talk about. Not one voice, but many voices form a brand. The branding voices come not from the ones who wear the brand from the ones who interact with them.

Everyone has brand.

Your brand may be as simple as You are unknown.

Not everyone has a unique and positive brand identity.

A Tagline Is Not a Brand

Some folks seem to think that putting a tagline on their business, their product, or their blog establishes their brand. Would that it were so easy.

A unique and positive brand identity is a concise, consistent, compelling message that conveys your unique value. It arrives before you and lingers after you’re gone. It describes you, defines you, and develops positive interest in you. It’s very definition of you weeds out people with whom you prefer not to interact.

This following statement is key.

A tagline is not a brand. It’s a suggestion for folks to start thinking about your brand.

These key assumptions underpin the ability to establish a positive brand.

Start by knowing that other people decide what they think about you.
Realize that their perceptions will be their reality.
Know that most people fit you into THEIR world view.

Knowing that our role in a branding strategy is to provide the unique and compelling reasons and the outstanding examples folks need to naturally want to share. In other words, as Seth would say, “It’s about being remarkable.”

A tagline is just words. A brand is actions that people talk about.

How to Build a Positive Brand in 3 Steps

Because customers are the branders, it makes sense that they should be the center of any branding effort. Customers at the center means that they get to talk. We get to actively listen. If we’re fixing a broken brand, we get to spend even more time with them while we’re listening, because they’ll need to hear our apology.

Step 1 — Listen to Your Branders

The first step is to find out what folks already think. Focus on the people — to know their needs, desires, and pains — and to find the one thing you might do to serve them better than anyone else can. Here’s how to do that.

Find your branders. Find the folks who talk about you. Find those who say both positive and negative things. Find the folks who don’t know who you are. Ask permission to talk to them.
Talk to them as much and as often as you can. Be a learner. Explore their thinking with them. Use it all to identify what skills you have to offer.
Listen actively to what they are not saying as well. Find their unexpressed needs and desires. Look for their points of pain. Look for solutions that you might be able to offer.

Gather all you’ve learned from your branders. Reflect on how it matches your unique skill set and your personal passions.

Step 2 — A Promise that You Put Others First

Use what you’ve gathered to write a customer-centered tagline to say you . . .

Do what you love in service to those who love what you do Steve Farber says.

Think of your tagline as a promise.

Not: The oldest bank in the Western Hemisphere.
But: Your bank, when you’re available, with your interest at heart.

Step 3 — Live Your Promise

Live your promise. Be your brand 100%. Actions speak. People tell more stories about what happens than they do about what they’ve read. Positive actions that meet people’s needs speak loudly and are shared with friends.

Have you heard stories about the great things that these two do? I’ve told a few myself.

Phil or Wendy live their unique brands. No need to try to live theirs, yours is just as uniquely compelling and just as important to the world.

Successful-Blog is where you’re only a stranger once.
After that, you’re a friend.
–ME “Liz” Strauss”
To have Liz help get your brand just right, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Branding, Self-Promotion, Selling: Are You OverDoing?

Branding, Self-Promotion, Selling: Are You OverDoing?

February 5, 2007 by Liz

It’s Easier to Write About Someone Else

Whether we work in a traditional enterprise, work in a boutique shop with a handful of people, work alone or work at a hobby, such as blogging, we need a goal to channel our investment, to direct it toward gains, to have the energy and time required to stretch and free ourselves.

Yet even when we choose productivity, to work totally alone without employee or employer, we’re still interacting with people who have myriad needs. We meet with others who have myriad needs of their own and we actively listen to take them on as our own.

If we do it well, we will gain credibility, if we miss the mark, we actually harm some part of the relationship. Relationships may be more difficult than editing this page. just forming. We know those times well, when we try too hard to convince others of our brand, apologize for our writing, ask links instead of earning them, or quote text when we should analyze.

Each day this week we’ll discuss one way we touch those we meet in business and in our personal lives. We’ll look at how branding, personal branding, self-promotion, and selling form the big picture of our image.

We’ll look at case studies and use each of our own core competencies to discuss how we might improve our interactions in each case.

We’ll begin tomorrow with the thought that all relationships are imagined and constructed within us and as such we can have an impact on how they work.

But you might start listening around the blogopshere for examples you see of branding, self-promotion, and sales today.

–ME “Liz” Strauss”

Bloggy Question 36: Mom, I Got the Part!

February 4, 2007 by Liz

Needy or Not?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life hypothetical question. . . .

You had almost forgottnen lonelygirl15. You’d even seen the video story on YouTube about a 15-year-old homeschooled girl and her strict religious parents. The series of videos had a huge international following when it was revealed in a New York Times interview that lonelygirl15 was an actress. At the time you didn’t know what to think when that happened. Mostly you didn’t care.

This morning you read this in the Blog Herald.

You may have heard about one of the latest YouTubes making the rounds Ã¢â¬â the one about the bride who freaks out about her hair on her wedding day, and proceeds to have a meltdown resulting in her cutting her own hair.

You may have also heard about the tidal wave of publicity, once people heard that it was, in fact, staged, with actresses, a script, and a contract. In fact, it turns out all principals involved were interviewed on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Inside Edition. . . .

You start to care about both of those news stories later when you get a call from an actor friend. . . His next job is too familiar.

He’s explaining how he’s going to be in a video, even mentions a YouTube release. He tells you the plot.

He’s going to be in an office working at a computer, when his boss, a woman, stops by to crticize what he’s doing. Her reprimand will be loud enough to humilate him in front of coworkers. When she’s leaves his cubicle, he gets two minutes demolish the office. He breaks everything, but the chair.

You ask who the client company is. He mentions the name of a furniture manufacturer.

He’s thrilled at the offer is $25,000 and a possible career . . .

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss