Successful Blog

Are You Going Out of Your Way Not to Repeat Yourself?

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Think about That

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When you sit looking at a blank screen wondering what you’ll write about today. Do you find yourself thinking, “I already said that.”

Do you go out of your way not to repeat yourself?

Think about that …

That single idea will make your job harder and harder the more you write.

AND

Establishing a coherent core marketing message that identifies who you are, identifies the problem you can solve and gives the potential customer a look at what life looks like after their problem is solved is key to success in your consulting business. Anton Pearce

Studies show that people need to hear the same message many times in many ways to process it fully. Why do you think repetition is such a big part of both school and advertising? Great brands, great marketers, and great teachers know that their message is key to expressing how they what they have to offer can solve problems and change lives. Service professionals spend hours on their 30-second pitch to introduce themselves. Don’t set such power aside.

Our most basic message positions and defines us.

A good positioning statement easily adapts to various media. It should be simply stated and works in every aspect of your marketing effort. So in summary, a positioning statement is:

* Short sentence-less than 12 words (not counting product name)
* Simple language
* Adaptable to various media
* A compelling statement of one benefit
* A conceptual statement…not necessarily copy
* Supported by 3 additional benefit claims
* Satisfies 4 evaluation criteria (unique, believable, important and useable)
— Messages that Matter

Great speakers and writers say the same things in different contexts. Great rock bands are constantly asked to play the same songs again. Weave your message into everything you write and don’t be afraid to write about it often. It’s what your readers came to learn more about.

Surely your classic message deserves to be discussed more than once.

What message of yours is worth repeating most often?

You’re not a stranger anymore.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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I Asked for Hot Fudge and Cool Whip but I Got Skittles

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The Gesture Was Lovely

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It was a mission. The task was simple.
On the way home from dinner, he said “I need to go to the store.”

We hired a taxi to place him at his destination.

On the way out of the car he asked, “What for you?”
I said, “hot fudge and cool whip.” I was thinking hot fudge with the butter pecan ice cream we had for a late night sundae. I was thinking Cool Whip for an early morning “blogger’s latte.”

Didn’t get the hot fudge or the Cool Whip.

What he brought home was Skittles.
I like Skittles, but Skittles — they are his favorite!

The gift was lovely, but … he got me what he liked, rather than what I asked for. It was nice thought and I said, “thank you.”

Still uou can’t make a blogger’s latte with Skittles, no matter how much anyone loves that candy …

Ever been there? How do you respond when someone — maybe a favorite company — gives you what THEY want.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Watering Ideas at the Reflecting Pool

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A Guest Post by
Pamir Kiciman

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Browser tabs are great. Emails, tweets and feeds update so you can switch tabs and see what it is. But what happens when you switch in the middle of a juicy post, mindmap or other creative jaunt? You break continuity at the mercy of an insatiable beast. And breaking continuity can spell disaster for your output.

Ideas are ephemeral. The act of putting them down is a way of preserving them. The mind already computes at high speed and distraction is just too easy. I often wish I didn’t know about ALT-TAB (I’m a PC) which easily switches this in-progress Google doc to that third-party app which just dinged!

After all, it’s the real-time web and it HAS to be important.

What was I saying?

Ideas and the Mind

Fortunately the mind can be harnessed. In fact its real power becomes available only when it is. Why? Because the mind is layered and each layer has its own fluctuation. To get to the layer where ideas are generated, surface fluctuations have to be stilled.

Say you’re a diver and your favorite body of water is very turbulent one day, so you don’t go in. On another day conditions are perfect and you dive. When you do, you find treasures that couldn’t be seen from the surface.

The mind’s fluctuations are called brainwaves. There are four basic brainwaves: beta, alpha, theta and delta, each with its specific cycles per second. Brain states are a combination of these with one or two emphasized depending on the state.

Delta is sleep, but also the deep unconscious (darkest ocean depths). Theta is serene, meditative awareness (depths sunlight penetrates). Alpha is relaxation and comfort (floating atop gentle currents). And beta is conscious functioning in the world (driving to the ocean).

Some ocean creatures that live where sunlight doesn’t reach have bioluminescence which is a wonder to see. The unconscious (delta) may be dark but it stores treasures. In theta we access some of that, and all our creativity. Alpha relates to fantasy and visualization. Beta is logical thinking, problem solving and external attention.

Trouble with beta is that too much of it leads to a churning of unfocused thoughts. And without alpha there isn’t creative recall, for alpha is the bridge from reflection to output.

Single-tasking is actually a form of reflection. The reflective mind is concentrated and unified, making use of logical processes and intuitive ones. To produce anything, everything has to move in the single direction of that thing. Multitasking is like being a jack of all trades, but master of none.

Flowing with Ideas

An idea won’t reach fruition unless you engage the “reflecting pool.” You may not even craft the idea at all. For example, “attentional-blink” happens when two pieces of information are given in rapid succession and the brain doesn’t process the second one because it’s still thinking of the first. You have to flow with an idea and follow it.

The reflective mind is a flow state, which can also erect a dam so an idea can concretize. Often reflection takes place best at times other than the moment of creation. In fact, it’s way of life, an orientation. Your accumulated reflections establish a resource from which you draw at the time of production. There’s in-the-moment reflection too, but without a cultivated well this dries up fast.

Inner and outer stillness engenders reflection, and dipping daily into an alpha-theta state solidifies it. Really good ideas are submerged. The inmost layers of the mind will gladly let them surface but you have to be present. If you’re gasping for oxygen in the infostream, you can’t be present.

There are some apps below to ‘force’ reflection and one-pointedness, but in the end this is an internal discipline that must be developed. Interiorizing the mind is where ideas are watered. Here are some ways to do so:

  • Look into the distance
  • Look at nature or a cityscape
  • Watch the sky or sunrise/sunset
  • Watch and/or listen to water
  • Look at inspirational images
  • Turn on a fountain
  • Use a rain stick back and forth
  • Play a drum with a steady beat
  • Read wisdom literature
  • Learn breathing and relaxation techniques
  • Learn meditation

I’ll be monitoring this space so please use comments to give your input and ask questions so we can dive deeper together.

Useful apps:

—-
Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt is a Classical/Original Usui Reiki Teacher, Meditation Coach, Healer. He writes at the Reiki Help Blog. You can find him on Twitter as @gassho.

Thanks, Pamir! I’m going to take my time exploring those tools!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Trusting and Tracking the People Who Help Us Thrive

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It was a train ride to my first meeting with Nick Sarillo, new client. We met over a pizza in his Crystal Lake restaurant — a rare experience. It felt like “going home.”

As Nick showed me around and told me about his restaurants, as I watched and listened, I realized this guy — whose social presence was basically a website — already had the keys to community and social media. I saw proof in the faces and the stories of the people who worked with him.

It’s been a pleasure to work with Nick and his team on their integrated social marketing plans. But this post is about what I’ve learned from watching what Nick has built and what he does.

10 Trust and Track Keys to Community Culture

  1. Invest creatively, emotionally, financially, and personally in your commmunity. Care about the people who help you thrive. Realize their stories are your stories. Take a risk in favor of the folks who support you. The right risks show you are with them.
  2. Intentionally attract amazing people. Set a standard or a process that makes them proud to be participate. Nick’s hiring process is strategically organized to bring in only the most dedicated employees.
  3. Learn together and share rewards. Let everyone know what works for the community and what doesn’t. Let them participate in ideas. Reward and promote the folks who contribute in predictable and surprising ways.
  4. Trust and be trustworthy. Trust people to be intelligent, responsible, and trustworthy human beings and live up to that standard. Make your trust visible in your actions and systems. Support structures and flexibility that build the community.
  5. Know when to say “no” immediately. Deal with disrespect or destructive behavior as soon as it happens. Tell the hard truth in a careful, gentle manner. Protect the culture and the people who invested in it.
  6. Value the input of experienced people outside the community. You can’t be inside and outside of a problem. You can’t have all of the new ideas. You don’t need to test out everything on your community.
  7. Let people tell you the “bad news.” The most useful information is the hardest to find out. Make it safe and easy to share what’s wrong. Trust people to protect what they’ve helped to build.
  8. Care more about their mission. It’s not what they do or say that’s important. It’s what they value. Build a culture around common values and let folks choose how to they use it.
  9. Pay attention to what’s working and quickly lose what’s not. It’s easy to hand over all of the community direction once things are going well. But that brings us back to point 1, be invested in the community. You can’t neglect what folks love.
  10. Take your time to build it together. Every great community started with two people and took time.

This month on the newstand issue of INC. magazine, Nick’s story is on the cover. Bo Burlingham did a brilliant job of capturing the client I’ve come to know. Do go read about him.

This is Nick’s story, but it’s my story too. It will be a long time before I forget him or how well he does what he does.

Can you share a story about a client or a customer who helps you thrive?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Conan’s Good-bye: 10 of 10 in Leadership, Reputation, and Community

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A Lesson in Reputation Management

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At a time that anyone serving the public is aware of the importance of brand and reputation management. It’s still rare to see a fine example of a response to a tough situation that shows authentic, human leadership. The recent NBC / Conan O’Brien situation had so much press that millions of people were following it.

Conan O’Brien’s farewell came after what could be called an unseating, what may have felt a betrayal. His final good-bye was televised. How would he communicate with grace and dignity when a crowds of fans and lawyers are looking at him to recognize what’s been?

10 of 10 in Leadership, Reputation, and Community

Corporations, small businesses, every one of us could learn a lot from how Conan said good-bye. His words were the careful words of a leader delivered from the heart in a difficult situation. He was visible authenticity, leadership, and grace in these visible ways.

  1. He took control of the situation. Gently, but firmly he said …
    There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can’t say about NBC. To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want.
  2. He told the truth in fair and generous context.
    … between my time at Saturday Night Live, The Late Night Show, and my brief run here on The Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over twenty years. Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we’re going to go our separate ways.
  3. He shared his pride and his gratitude.
    But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.
  4. He was honest about state of mind and his feelings of loss.
    Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium.
  5. He celebrated the positive.
    Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.
  6. He moved the focus to the future.
    I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-11 parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.
  7. He raised up and cherished all who might be his friends.
    And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
  8. He gave everyone’s investment meaning.
    To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. .
  9. He invited everyone to be part of something better.
    All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.
  10. He offered hope even to the nonparticipants.
    Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

It took leadership, courage, a sense of humor, and trust in his audience to deliver on that message. If you saw it, you know it was real. Unfortunately, the video has been taken down at YouTube, but you can see it at the Huffington Post.

Conan won day and probably won a huge following of new fans by showing humanity, fairness, and leadership. He kept his focus on who and what mattered and left out who and what did not. He raised us all by not tearing anything down. I hope we’re never faced with such extreme circumstances. If we are, I hope we come back to this example of how to build good relationships from conflict.

Imagine if every corporation, business, and individual demonstrated that same 10 or 10 in Leadership, Reputation, and Community when conflict occurs.

What was your personal response to Conan’s last words?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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SOB Business Cafe 01-22-10

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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

Chrisg
Steven Aitchison has a strong blog. Most people would regard his site as a success (in fact he claims it as the “biggest personal development blog in the UK) … So why would he ask for a blog critique when he is doing so many things right? With stats like these, Steven could be giving advice rather than asking for it.

Steve Woodrufff
It’s a none-too-fancy restaurant that has been serving mouth-watering chicken, biscuits, and jam since, oh, the days of the Pony Express. Loveless Cafe.

Starbucker
Sometimes a leader needs to think like a plumber.

Yep, a plumber.

How so? Think about pressure for a minute. A plumber deals with pressure all the time – in their case, water pressure.

Seth’s blog
Find a calling. Then deliver

Barry J Moltz
Now that jet lag has subsided, I can now reflect on what I learned on my three week vacation with my family to China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

1. You can stop and the world will go on…and that’s okay…

Deaf Mom’s World
Have you ever been caught in a conversation where you weren’t sure what was going on yet you nodded along, laughed along or excused yourself to head to the bathroom?

Related ala carte selections include

A New Player?
This is fun.

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

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