Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 08-21-09

by

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

Problogger
My arms were out in front of me, I was taking baby steps, and I was sure that I had been doing everything right. So how could this happen to me?

Painfully lying in bed, I made a startling realization. I was doing it all wrong.

Dumb Little Man
There are millions of brilliant people who pursue aggressive career paths and have their sights set on great achievement. While their ability is nothing short of genius, many lack the soft skills that could put them over the top. These are the traits, qualities and understandings are what make good people great.

Small Biz Survival
One of them said in the last five years, I was the second person to ask about wi-fi. (I may have been the first guy, too, as I go to this place regularly.) My takeaway here is that if you expect a autoshop to do good auto work, chances are that you may have to forfeit other “conveniences”.

As I sat in this shop, I listened to the guys ordering spares. Sometime I would hear them give out a fax number, and then it happened – the fax machine broke.

Prevential
In 2003, I dressed up as an AIM Buddy List for a college Halloween party. I dangled a piece of blank cardboard from my neck that said “I have no friends.”

When I walked into the party, people actually LINED UP to sign it. I didn’t know half of them, but they all wanted their name on my piece of cardboard.

Levite Chronicles
I say “just” a lot. If I don’t say it, I think it.

Related ala carte selections include

Constructing Social
The Constructing Social Genealogical Research division has uncovered the following amazing similarities between social media and mass media mega stars – pure coincidence? We think not!

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

What Are You Doing to Keep Your Garden Growing?

by

Gardening and Social Media

insideout logo

I didn’t start gardening until I moved to Austin.

That’s me I waited until I left the rich black dirt and found the wet brown clay and hot dry sun to figure out growing things could be soul building. By the time I got to Massachusetts I was a regular flower farmer. I spent a hours, days, seasons living in a dormant three-acre spread. In the fifth year I was rewarded to a winding, spectacular show of color.

What Are You Doing to Keep Your Garden Growing?

As a beginning gardener, I learned that just plopping pretty plants into the ground got pretty darn expensive — not to mention time-intensive — It didn’t make lasting beauty. The scratches and the itching sometimes lasted longer. Plants that don’t have the right nutrients or climate are hard to keep thriving.

Soon I was learning what made solid ground for things to grow. Gardening takes strategy and strategy is knowing what you know and knowing what you can and can’t control.


Gardening and social media have a lot in common.
What are you doing to keep your community growing?

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Change your thinking with Liz!!

Buy the ebook. Learn listening.

Could You Be a Chief Executive Social Gardener?

by

Enter the Chief Executive Social Gardener

insideout logo

Recently a friend asked me how we might get big brands to think more like entrepreneurs. I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe we should get the C-suite executives to start a gardening community.

Gardeners follow time-tested strategies and tactics. Gardeners

  • have a goal — whether it’s a garden or community we’re building, we know what we’re setting as the mission.
  • know their field — we need to understand the qualities of the playing ground, the terrain, and the creatures who live there.
  • understand the systems and cycles, rhythms and patterns — we see our own habits, the natural paths of outside factors, the effects of climate, the weather, and unexpected events
  • consider the units (plants or people) that match those circumstances, how they work and compete, and which of those we can manage most easily
  • determine what we know, what we want to know, and watch out for what we need to learn

Gardeners talk to each other about what works and what doesn’t. What you know about anything is what applies to making plants happy and thriving. If you’re good at that, you’re gold.

Gardeners also:

  • watch and listen. We are constantly testing the information we think we know. We talk. We listen. We read everything. Not a gardener with any experience thinks that he or she can outwit the variables that nature can bring together.
  • remove weeds, trolls, and competitive threats, while finding opportunities. When gardens fail, great gardeners look for learning and new solutions, when they thrive we look for the same things.
  • amend what’s failing and care for what works — so that threats can’t take hold. Gardeners know that little problems grow, in the same way as beautiful fields do.
  • know that life cycles peak and know what works to extend them. We’ve been watching our gardens. We get to know when they need boosting and when they don’t.
  • realize what we don’t control and we’re careful about when and how changes and new ideas are introduced.

Every enterprise should have a Chief Executive Gardener to be a true partner in getting the Chief Bean Counter more beans to count.

Could you be a Chief Executive Social Gardener?
What seeds are you planting now?

More about social media gardening tomorrow …

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Grow your community with Liz!!

Buy the ebook. Learn listening.

Tonight: LIVE Event in Chgo: Social Media and Journalism

by


Media Bistro Panel at the ComedySportz Theatre

The Living Web

No longer is the big black headline the sign of the breaking news…

How to incorporate social media into your work

Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms have turned the web into a one-stop shop for news, entertainment, social, and professional engagement. For those who create content, it is a hyper-connected publishing system. No longer do you need to work for a major publisher like the NY Times or the Globe to get a story out; breaking news is found on Twitter, and journalists use the web to brand and market their work, whether freelance or staffed within an organization. What does this mean for the future of the industry as a whole, where are the opportunities now, and how can you use social media to help you grab them while they’re hot?

mediabistro

WHEN
August 18, 2009
Doors open at 6:15 pm; panel begins at 7pm
Meet the panelists at our cash bar reception, 8:30pm

WHERE
The ComedySportz Theatre
929 W Belmont Street
Chicago, IL 60657

WHO
Experienced and neophyte media pros who need help navigating their careers

Online Registration is closed, but you can register at the door.
For more information.

I’ve seen the questions, the discusion is going to be meaty, on target, and explore the new business models and the new rules.

Will I see you there?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Trust Agents and a Last Laugh of Visible Joy!

by

Go Get Yours Now!

Early this year I wrote Cool Kids, Granny Dresses, and Back Channel Intercoms: How Do You Trust People You Can’t See? It was the humiliating tale of something that happened at the awful age of 13. It was the problem of trusting people / kids who weren’t worth trusting.

I’ve grown up some since then.

I found people I trust can and we’ve formed a virbrant efficient community.

Community grows from what we see, what we are, what we imagine together. We learn from and teach each other. That the more we see, the more we find in each other and the more we help each other, we all become more.

Trust is speeds action and lowers cost and fear.

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith talked about that at SOBCon They’re the authors of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

But Chris and Julien weren’t there to hawk books. Chris and Julien helped Terry and I built the SOBCon community by speaking, and attending, and sharing with the folks long before the Trust Agents was written.

Who are the trust agents? We all are, especially when we start or inspire new communities. Learn what it means to grow and work with a community of trust agents. This book is head and heart and purpose true to them and true to us so that we and others can use the web more efficiently in business.

Get the book at your favorite supplier: 800 CEO READ (also recommended for bulk orders)
Amazon.com, Amazon.ca (Canada), Barnes & Noble,
Book Depository (UK), Books-A-Million, Borders, Chapters (Canada)
IndieBound

    * Yes, there will be a Kindle version.
    * Yes, there will be an audio version.

Trust them and me … we’re all serious.

Congratulations, Chris and Julien! A visible last laugh of joy to think how far I’ve come since those granny dresses to a real trust community … to be here with you watching your day!

… and I trust Julien and Chris will never, ever wear a granny dress. except maybe for Karoake…. K?

Buy your copy of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
… this minute!

I trust these connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

What's at the Crossroads of Your Skills and Your Most Passionate Challenges

by

Doing What You Love

We’re always hearing that to live the life that we’re meant to live, we should be doing what we love.

Easier said than put into practice.

Sleeping on the beach in Caribbean won’t find most of us getting enough income to keep the life moving forward.

Yet, every one of us has had some experience with success, with that optimal experience when we’re so sure of where we’re going that we know we’re on the right path.

Strategy always starts with our own unique position. What better way to strategize a great life than to start with who you are and what you love?

If we make a connection with where our skills are perfectly matched to the challenges that fit our passions, we’ll find that we’re already loving where we’re going.

What’s at the crossroads of your skills and your most passionate challenges?

I dare you to claim it in the comment box. 🙂

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Connect to yourself!!