Successful Blog

How Do You Make the Dream Within You Visible?

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Do You Dream a Dream?

We unconsciously believe “What you see is what you get.”

When I started this quest for visible authenticity, I didn’t realize how important it would be. I didn’t know how hard I’d been working to get past what people assumed about me. I thought it was just my shyness from childhood kicking in. Now with minor changes barely in place, I already see a difference in how people are responding.

After our first meeting in November, Kali wrote …

“Liz’s visual presence is perfect for someone, just not Liz Strauss. It sorely misrepresents who she is and the depth of her talent. If the bulk of Liz’s interactions are vocal or written, she may be less aware of the impact of her visual image – but I am certain that it is affecting her life.”

“I am confident that when Liz is in front of people, she is taken less seriously than she should be,”

The same could be said of Susan Boyle the amazing, inspiring woman in this video. She wasn’t taken less seriously than she should be. Even if you’ve seen this video before, watch again. Experience what happens when people realize “what you see isn’t always what you get.”

YouTube keeps disconnecting the embed. You can also view it here.

When we see each other’s dreams, visibly authentically, we are drawn into to them.
Susan made her dream visible. Imagine if everything about her shared her dream — what then?

Do you dream a dream? How do you make the dream within you visible?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Make your dream visible.

SOB Business Cafe 04-10-09

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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

Outspoken media asks …
As companies dive deeper into social media, as Community Manager job descriptions are being created and employees are becoming “spokespeople” for the company they work for, we’re being forced to ask a hard, somewhat controversial question: Who owns an employee’s social media connections?

1 to 1 media wonders …
There’s no denying it’s tough out there for America’s workforce. Every week more layoff numbers are announced. It seems like everyone is in jeopardy, no matter what field your in or how well you do your job. In the corporate world, marketing departments are one of the high-profile areas that unfortunately seem to get unwanted attention during cost-cutting times.

Hound Dog Blog recalls …
It has been said that Frank L Baum named the title ‘OZ’ by glancing at his files and seeing the folder: O – Z … crazy… to me where such a place comes from . .

Junta 42 measures …
Right now, maybe more than ever, your content marketing efforts deserve a little measurement. Amidst budget cuts and strapped resources, elements of a marketing communication plan that lack at least some metrics linking back to effectiveness tend to be early casualties. “Nice to have” is often “first to go.”

Related ala carte selections include

InnerNoodle unravels …
This is part 7 of a 9 part series. If you missed the first six posts, please take the complimentary ride on the Inner Noodle Warp.

Oh and..
Invest in your future.

Register for SOBCon09!

Make something happen!

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

Have You Put More Hard Work into Your Successes or Your Failures?

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I've been thinking . . .

about the hard road to success.

I’m not thinking about getting rich quick. I’m thinking about accomplishing rigorous, heartfelt dreams. What I’m wondering is

Is the road to success really hard?

I worked for someone once, who believed that if you got good grades and didn’t complain about the work, you went to an easy school. She would argue for the problem — that school was supposed to hard, that work was supposed to be taxing. That success needed to be earned by blood, sweat, and tears.

Does it really?

Every success I’ve known has come from being saturated in learning. I threw myself at every minute of my university time. It didn’t feel hard at the time. It felt thrilling. I wasn’t thinking about how hard it would be to get to the goal. I was thinking about the path to take me there.

All I saw was what new process I got to learn, which new skill I got to master, which new person I got to meet to accomplish the next step to make my way. Nothing seemed like so much work, but at the end I knew and could do things..

I realize now that every time I’ve been a success the work hasn’t felt hard — It’s felt huge, but energizing — pushing me forward. It seems that I’ve put more hard work into trying to save my biggest failures.

Seems to me, if we think the road to success is hard, then we’re on the wrong road.
Seems to me, if we choose our own right road, the work becomes less like work.
Seems to me what comes natural comes more easily.

How about you? Have you put more hard work into your successes or your failures?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Imitation

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“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Coined by Charles Caleb Colton in 1820 in his ‘Lacon.’

“Imitation” happens all the time on the web and is the source of much frustration for newspaper and other print media. The concept of “fair use” and “scraping the web” are terms mostly used when talking about copyright infringements for print media producers. The idea that citizen journalists can now report on news and other happenings with information taken from news sites it a disturbing phenomenon for many journalists to deal with, not to mention print media in general.

But is this type of imitation really flattering? Is this plagiarism? You’ve worked hard on your post. You’ve taken the time to think about it and possibly, do some research. You’ve carefully written and posted it on your blog. It’s your content based on your idea. Later , you discover through Twitter, or a friend that the very same content has been taken, copied and posted on someone else’s site! Sound incredible? It happens.

I’ve even seen it happen even on Twitter! We all know, or learn quickly (there is a LOT of twitter advice out there) the idea of the RT. You see something of value from someone else and you share. The RT is the attribution, the link back. Twitter has been called micro blogging – when you see something you’ve found and shared go by two seconds later from one of your followers with no RT, do you feel flattered by the “imitation”? I don’t.

I think it’s important to protect you work, your ideas, your content. The very idea of taking the time to think about, write and post your ideas deserves respect. That respect should allow you the right to not have your work copied without permission. Creative Commons is an excellent resource to help you with this. There are different licenses you can apply to your work that will protect it. A great resource for questions regarding this issue is Jonanthan Bailey, @plagiarismtoday on Twitter. He would be happy to discuss anything related to “imitation” with you.

Have you had experience with this and your writing? Do you see this as a problem?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

photo credit: The Green Album

How Do You Invite a Shy Company to Taste Social Media?

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Sometimes a Taste Is All We Need

Last night David Panscot wrote a compelling comment on my blog. His question was how do we get people trained to broadcast a message to become part of a culture of trust relationships?

He already knows what we all do — it’s hard to change thinking like that. It requires a cultural shift. It takes empowerment to face the risk of doing something that goes against what “we’ve always done.”

I always think of how Baskin Robbins gets us to try something new. They give us a taste before we buy.

Here are five ways to invite a shy company to take a taste of social media.

  1. Invite a member of the organization to be an advisor on social media project. Ask him or her to sit in on calls as you decide the direction of your plans.
  2. Invite the organization to become a sponsor by offering to lend a hand in the form of design work on your marketing effort.
  3. Invite two or three traditional organizations to participate in a survey that you might send to your customers about how they might like to interact with your product or your web pressence. Then send them the results of the actual survey once it has been completed.
  4. Invite an organization to try a limited size version of a social media class that you want to pilot.
  5. Invite the CMO of an organization to be your guest at a local tweetup. As you introduce him or her, ask folks to tell share the single most important value of Twitter.

That’s a start. Not everyone of these might work for every organization or environment. The point is to give folks a relevant taste that fits easily into their lives — no risk with noticeable benefit.

How do you invite a shy company to taste social media?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Do Leaders Wear Jeans? Does What You Wear Show Who You Are?

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How We Look at Each Other

I’ve always been a bit frivolous and uninvolved with fashion. I like nice things, but I don’t like to spend time acquiring them, maintaining them, or thinking about the right thing to wear. Maybe it’s because I grew up with the luxury of school uniforms. Maybe it’s because I try not to define people by their clothes and their hairstyle. I say try because I know that I still do.

  • When someone comes to a geek party looking like she just stepped off of a yacht, I think she might have missed the boat on connecting with this group.
  • When a guy’s hair is dyed so screaming comic book pink I have to fight to see the face beneath it, I wonder what he doesn’t want me to see.
  • When I’m in a room of highly fashion savvy people, I start shrinking a bit and wondering what other cool things they know that I don’t.

It’s not fair really, but I think things based on what people are wearing. We all do. We sort with our eyes before anyone even says a word. We assume a person’s visual presentation reflects his or her choices, values, and intelligence. We gravitate toward people who choose as we do. People who look like who they are and what they’re saying get our trust more easily. When the clothes and the conversation don’t match, we go with what we see.

How could I have been slow to realize that a disconnect in what people see would make it harder for them to “get” me? I connect more easily with people online than off.

Let’s consider something as simple as a pair of jeans. Who’d have thought that a new pair of jeans would shift my ability to connect by 180 degrees?

Do Leaders Wear Jeans?

When I first went to The Image Studios last fall, I was told that my jeans had to go. I argued with the idea.

I work with geeks. I don’t want to look younger, but I don’t want to look something I’m not. AND I sure don’t want to look my mother!

The smart stylist who had just met me. Let it go.

You might remember that right before SxSW Deshaia, a talented stylist from The Image Studios came to my condo for Wardrobe Smackdown 1. She explained again that my jeans had to go.

These jeans you have on are baggy, traditional, and acid washed. They say who you were. You need jeans that communicate who you are. In your case, they need to speak to Connected, Irresistible, Intuitive, Creative and Loving.

Jeans communication. Strangely enough I sort of got what she was saying. The jeans I had were from the 90s. They looked old fashioned and comfortable — not alive, creative, and innovative. My jeans drove off in a bag of Good Will donations for someone who authentically is still living in a baggy, traditional, acid washed world.

With no time to lose, I bought the new pair, contemporary and well fit. Suddenly, I understood — soon as I put them on I felt more “with it.” I’m sure I looked more connected to now than 10 years ago.

old jeans Joes Jeans

The new jeans (right) add credibility. I look like I know the ideas that suit the world now.

Do they change my thinking? Of course not. But they underscore my values before I even talk. That’s what this visible authenticity project is all about — being seen, heard, and understood on every level. When your jeans are working for you, you don’t have to work so hard.

Baggy, traditional, acid-washed jeans doesn’t communicate my ideas or my values.
Contemporary, well-fitting, one-of-kind jeans worth talking about do.

Does what you wear show who you are?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related:
Visual Authenticity: How Do You Show Your Promise?
Why Play the Game, If We Aren’t Playing for Keeps?