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Bad Boys: You’re Losing Your Memory

July 21, 2006 by Liz

What Was I Going to Say?

I’m ready to write something and as I sit at the keys, it’s gone. It was a spectacular idea. I know it was. Damn. It’s the second time this week, or is it the third? Suddenly I’m forgetting things — things that I’ve never forgotten before.

I used to be known for this memory of mine. Some folks even steered clear of it, feared it. They knew it could track details for decades and offer them back at lightning speed. Now what? A brain of mush has moved in where the razor sharp memory was. . . .

-Stop-

That’s the voice of a Bad Boy of Business. Bad Boys are negative messages, bad tape recordings, in our heads. Bad boys are ideas that we tell ourselves that undercut our success and productivity.

The bad boy here is “You’re losing you’re memory.”

What’s happening? [Read more…]

What to Do Before They Ask What Do You Do?

July 18, 2006 by Liz

What’s Your Name

When is a rose not a rose? When it is Compassion. When a car not a car? When its a Model J DUESENBERG. Why did I quit teaching? Because I couldn’t find another word.

It’s true that’s the reason.

I left college being called a master teacher, with student teachers following me into the classroom. It had something to do with my philosophy that if I couldn’t sit in a desk all day, I’d be damned if I would ask a 6-year-old to try to do so. I loved the kids and the teaching, but when new friends asked What do you do? I heard myself saying, I’m a teacher, but not like any you ever knew. That wasn’t good. That’s when I realized that I needed a new word or I wouldn’t be teaching.

You’ve probably not left a career over a word, and probably suspect there was more to it. There was, and there wasn’t. The way folks viewed me was the problem. I wasn’t what they imagined. I didn’t like being put in their box.

But we rely on words figure out our world view.

There is no getting away from that.The next best thing is picking our words.

What Are You? a Blogger? a Writer? a Publisher? a Sales Rep? a Marketer? a Citizen Journalist? a Critic? a Martyr?

What do you do? they say. What do I answer? [Read more…]

Critical Skill 6B: 5+1 Ways to a Best-Fit Niche for YOU & the Market

July 17, 2006 by Liz

Finding that Ellusive Niche

Everyone talks about finding their niche, but I haven’t heard much about how to do it. How do you do a niche that fits? Finding a niche is Critical Skill 6 in what I call The 10 Skills Most Critical to Your Future. Once you can find hidden assumptions, you’re on your way to finding hidden niches.

Finding a niche that fits you and the market takes involvement, patience, and self-awareness — you need to know all points of view to get the perfect fit, and nothing less will do.

That best-fit niche is a tiny space where you’ll live, work, and relate to people. You’re going to have to like it there, but so are folks who don’t even know you. How do you find the niche that works for you and attracts an audience? [Read more…]

Great Find: How to Create a Positive Home-Work Environment

July 16, 2006 by Liz

Home, Sweet, Home

I found this while researching The Zehnkatzen Times.

Great Find: How-To: Create a Positive Home Work Environment
by Beth Dean

Permalink: http://designorati.com/web-design/2006/how-to-create-a-positive-home-work-environment/

Audience/Topic: All work-at-home folks
Content: Beth Dean offers ten points that all of us would better to remember when we set aside a space at home for working — whether we work at home always or only occasionally. It’s easy to read and offers some new points. To get there, click the title.

Thanks, Beth, for the reminders!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Critical Skill 6A: Five Tools for Finding Faulty Assumptions

July 15, 2006 by Liz

What Is the Premise Behind your Thinking?

At the time I was an Executive Editor. The project was simple. Build a binder of about 300 pages. I’d probably built four times that many books already. For a rush job, this one should be a piece of cake.

We made the bookmap. We went through the usual steps. We got the pages. Got the binders. Got everything ready for assembly. That’s when we faced our hidden assumption.

We’d assumed that Binders go together exactly like books do.

They do except in one important way. Books don’t have those tab dividers. Our tiny assumption caused a major, stressful, and immediate problem. The first divider belonged between pages 23 and 24. So? [Read more…]

Bad Boys: You’re a Fraud, a Fake, a Phony

July 14, 2006 by Liz

New Job, New Career, Finally On Your Own

We land a new position, change careers, or finally take the plunge and start that business of our own that we’ve always thought about and for the first few weeks, few months we’re sailing. Enthusiastic beginner they call it. Even though we’re not beginners. It’s the newness. Everything’s shiny. Then, it’s not.

A Bad Boy roars into our thnking. Bad Boys are negative messages, bad tape recordings, in our heads. They’re things we tell ourselves that undercut our success and productivity.

The bad boy here is “You’re a Fraud, a Fake, a Phony.”

Sound outrageous? I’ve seen it happen. I’ve predicted it. I’ve even done it myself. [Read more…]