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SOB Business Cafe 04-06-07

April 6, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Finding the Money is taking a radical new approach to getting traffic.

The 1-Step Plan Guaranteed To Get Readers For Your Blog


Sifry’s Alerts reports on how we’re growing.

The State of the Live Web, April 2007


The Art of Money lets us know whether we’re supposed to be afraid.

Is Fear Essential for Leadership and Success?


Smart Wealthy Rich explores using the whole brain.

Creative Zen – Your Left And Right Brain


Lorelle on WordPress raised Jesse’s question to the level of a challenge.

Blog Challenge: Does Your Blog Make a Difference?


SteveOlson.com went on an intellectual quest.

Understanding Your Intelligence – The Best Resources


Related ala carte selections include

Design for Your Writing Life has a question worth considering.

Stressed? Who, Me?


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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Design-for-Your-Writing-Life, Finding-the-Money, Lorelle-on-WordPress, Sifrys-Alerts, Smart-Wealthy-Rich, Steve-Olson, The-Art-of-Money

Self Promotion: Telling Stories for the Painfully Shy

March 14, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

Pleeeasse Don’t Look at Me

Business Rules Logo

I was a painfully shy child. They called me “Bashful.” Pictures of me hiding my face or crying on picture day aren’t hard to find. People looking at me make me very self-conscious. Many folks find that a surprise. I write this post for everyone who is shy.

In the conversation on the last post about self-promotion, GL Hoffman said

I find the best and most engaging way is to tell a brief story that sets up your work.

Gl also left a great link to a post on talking about what you do.

I so agree with what GL says that I’m going to tell you a story about telling stories. This is the reason that most folks don’t think I’m shy.

The Story about Telling Stories

My son was also a painfully shy child. He didn’t like people looking at him. When other young children were saying “Hi!” He was a child like I had been — hiding or being uncooperative about such things. Then one day, when he was about thirteen, I noticed a change in his behavior. He had suddenly become entertaining.

That day at work I spoke to a close friend about it. “You know my son has finally found a way to deal with the world. He gets entertaining, telling stories about what he wants to say rather than actually saying it. It’s so interesting. The shift is slight, but I can see it. By doing that he makes so that people are looking at him telling a story, they’re not actually looking at him — who he is.”

My friend Peg said, “Gee, I wonder where he got that from.”

“Guilty. I don’t mind if you look at my work. I think it’s fine if you watch me teach, or speak, or explain something I know. But I sure get self-conscious if I think you are looking at me.”

That’s why GL’s advice is particularly strong.

If you’re self-conscious about self-promoting, explain what you do by telling a story. Then people will be listening to the story and seeing the storyteller in you.

It works. I’ve been doing it since I was 13 too.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Related
Self Promotion: A Winning Answer Every Time — Why is That?
Shameless Self-Promotion: What Makes It Shameless?
Self-Promotion: How I Learned to Stop Shooting Myself in the Foot

Filed Under: Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, brand-You-and-Me, emoms-at-home, Finding-the-Money, personal-branding, self-promotion, shameless-self-promotion

Self-Promotion: How I Learned to Stop Shooting Myself in the Foot

March 13, 2007 by Liz 31 Comments

Pleeeasse Don’t Think I’m Self-Promoting

Business Rules Logo

Some rare folks are pushy and opportunistic in their self-promotion. It’s as if they don’t know when they’re spouting off that the other person is a person at all.

Most folks are the opposite. We see opportunists and we don’t want to be is taken for one of them. As a result we often shy away from any attempt to talk about what we do — fearing we’d be mistaken for the opportunists that we’re not. I used to be the poster child for thinking about self-promotion like that, and it found me getting myself tangled in knots unnecessarily. Here’s how it worked, or rather didn’t work, for me when someone asked about what I do.

My mind all triggered up, I’d be anticipating the question long before anyone asked it. Naturally, I only had part of an answer flushed out in my head. I figured I didn’t want to sound like a recording, so I’d keep the answer loose and free. The truth is I hadn’t really thought through what it was I actually did. I hadn’t made it’s message a part of who I am.

That’s the place where, like the children’s game, we all fall down.

Someone would ask me, “What do you do?”

Because I wanted to have everyone as a client, I’d be faced with this mental image of impossible dimension. In a rush, I’d hear myself thinking, “I can’t possibly say everything. What answer does this person need?”

Mind already triggered, now the barrel is loaded.

Rather than ask, “What makes you ask the question?” I moved ahead blindly trying to guess what the other person wanted to know. In the dark, listening to what I’m saying and how the other person is responding, I’d proceed to get more and more intense and self-conscious. That made me more and more unfocused in my response. My answer ended up so much high-charged mush that was impossible to follow or care about.

Bang. I shot myself in the foot.

unwittingly, I became a pushy self-promoter when that was what I was trying to avoid. Shooting myself in the foot hurts. I don’t do that anymore.

How I Learned to Stop Shooting Myself in the Foot

When I got tired of patching up holes and buying new shoes. I did some serious thinking, and here is where I got.

  • What was I doing trying to think someone else’s thoughts? The closest I can get to that is thinking what I think the other person might think. How silly is that?
  • I I need to know what I do before I can tell someone else.
  • My fear of self-promotion was turning me into someone else.
  • I picked the three things I love doing most. I wrote a sentence about each one and what my participation brought to that kind of work.

Those three sentences are what I want to do and what I do well. When someone ask me that same question now, I have those three sentences in my head. I can choose one or all and choose to elaborate on them or not.

No longer am I trying to figure out what someone wants or needs to hear. I simply answer the question with what I know is a fact. I’m relaxed and I no longer limp away from conversations that start with “What do you do?”

You don’t need three sentences. You really only need one that is uniquely you.

I know I’ve asked before, but this is a slightly different situation. Now what would your sentence be?

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Related
Self Promotion: A Winning Answer Every Time — Why is That?
Shameless Self-Promotion: What Makes It Shameless?

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, brand-You-and-Me, emoms-at-home, Finding-the-Money, personal-branding, self-promotion, shameless-self-promotion

Shameless Self-Promotion: What Makes It Shameless?

March 7, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

The Problem

Business Rules Logo

I’ve been thinking self-promotion for months. Wendy, and Jessica, and I discussed it when we went to dinner in January.

Our perceptive, observant sidebar bartender, money guy, JohnFTM has noticed, the same thing I have

you can’t swing a cat in the popular blogosphere without hitting a few clumsy attempts at self-promotion . . .

This situation is not just a problem for those of us who have to listen. It’s a problem for those of us who don’t know what it is about shameless self-promotion that makes it shameless, ineffective, and well, if not outright offensive, then certainly intrusive and unwelcome.

We need to know how to recognize shameless self-promotion so that we can sort it from self-promotion that serves our business. If we can’t tell the two apart, then we’ll always be afraid to talk about what we do. A business that goes undiscussed is a business that has no clients. A business with no clients is either a hobby or it doesn’t exist.

What Makes It Shameless?

Most of us need our businesses to be visible, booked with customers, and making money to pay the rent. With that in mind, we should know the traits of shameless self-promotion — so we can feel safe when we talk about what we do with prospective clients.

Here are some traits and tactics of shameless self promotion.

  • Shameless self-promoters focus on mentioning the business continuously, as a name dropper might mention famous people.
  • Every conversational response is a talking point about what the shamelessly self-promoted business can do for the listener.
  • A shameless self-promoter will sometimes forget to acknowledge that other information has been added to the conversation and will talk right past that information with the features of the business being promoted.
  • Shameless self-promoters are rarely listening for the purpose of solving the problems or meeting the needs of prospective customers. Their goal is to sell their product or service needed or not.
  • Shameless self-promoters can turn any topic into a sales pitch.
  • Shameless self-promoters live to move forward their own agenda. They invest in others only as a last resort to meet their goal.

The shameless part is the total disregard for others. In other words, Shameless Self-Promoters see only the game — not the relationship or the other person’s needs. Shameless self-promoters are focused on getting, not giving. Just now, a friend on the phone said that he had quit hanging around with a guy who became an affiliate marketer, because the guy couldn’t quit selling.

Most folks I know couldn’t shamelessly self-promote, no matter what you paid them. We’re so sensitive to shameless self promotion we don’t ever want to be seen that way. So we always stand as far from that image as we possibly can. Sadly the result is that we often choose instead the other extreme — not to talk about our work at all

I’m planning a post or two in which we can talk about how to talk about what we do without feeling like we’re shamelessly self-promoting.

What do you want me to be sure to include?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Don’t forget to sign up for SOBCon o7 to see the real deal in person, seats are limited.

Related
See the Brand You series on the Successful Series Page

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, brand-You-and-Me, emoms-at-home, Finding-the-Money, Its-Not-About-Your-Stuff, personal-branding, self-promotion, shameless-self-promotion

SOB Business Cafe 02-16-07

February 16, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Start Up Spark offers Ten Ways to check our identity.

Top 10 Ways You Know You’re An Entrepreneur


Daily Blog Tips has a strategic plan for goal setting.

Blogging Strategy: Goals


Hillbilly PhD has a question that we need to consider.

How do you measure success?


Finding the Money has the lowdown on A GLObal COmmunity.

The Lowdown On AGLOCO and AGLOCO Update: Viewbar Release Date, Forms of Payment


Genuine Curiosity saves us from extensive acrobatics.

Fresh Gear: A less bloated, more stable PDF reader


Related ala carte selections include

Passion Meets Purpose picks up where Emoms At Home left off.

I Blog, Therefore I Am


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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Daily-Blog-Tips, emomsathome, Finding-the-Money, Hillybilly-PhD, Passion-Meets-Purpose, Startup-Spark

SOB Business Cafe 10-13-06

October 13, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Lorelle at WordPress has Gary Larson remind us to take care of our children.

Copyrights and the Blogger

Another Blogger wonders whether the music industry’s loss is an omen for publishing.

Bye Bye Tower Records, Are Bookstores Next

Finding the Money shows a way to put your music to work for you legally.

Earn Money by Sharing Music

Converstations provides a quick overview of a popular new Google offering and offers a link to a deeper review, if you want even more.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Working at Home on the Internet has tried (and maybe succeeded) at foiling the bad guys, but wouldn’t mind our tricks to add to his protection.

7 Steps  to Stop Email Hacking

Related ala carte selections include

Life Coaches has a mind-changing secret that they are willing to share.

Secrets of Changing Minds - The Most Important Key

Zulit lets us in on how to reach our blogging goals by staging our how we handle them.

What Is Your Motivation-How Many Blogs Can You Handle

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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: Another-Blogger, bc, blogging-goals, Converstations, copyright, email-hijacking, Finding-the-Money, Life-Coaches, Lorelle-at-WordPress, Working-at-Home-on-the-Internet, Zulit

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