Successful Blog

SxSW People and a Panel that Rocked Butt

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Gee “Butt” It’s Great to Be Back

Sometimes you have to take an airplane clear across the country to have a conversation and conversations are being had. From the minute, I came down the escalator to baggage claim and saw Becky McCray waiting for me the talking began. Before the bag even arrived, Jonathan Fields and David Maher Roberts showed up.

From the airport, it was off Vignette for Austin Social Media Club — where I finally got meet up with old friends and new Connie Reece , Mike Chapman , Ben and Lani Rosales , Lauren Vargas , Aaron Strout , Jason Falls , Shannon Paul , and many others.

Later we caught up with the guys from Radian6 and had finally found our way how to @SheliaS and @CFanch where Becky and I are holed up.

We collected our badges and @Tojosan in the morning and set up Table2.0 for a Tweetup Firday that corresponded with @EricaOGrady’s birthday party. We also met up with @ShashiB, @EricaBiz and few others, including @Geekmommy and @SaulColt

Later it was on the BlueSky event, I finally got to see my friends @ChrisBrogan and @Copyblogger and to meet the famous Pam Slim. So many good conversation were had.

I had the bp pleasure of walking over with a great group of the Walmart Moms to the high point of any conference is the @BrianSolis and @StephAgresti Tech Set event.

Amazing how much fun you can have in a new pair jeans – heh heh!

BTW, Sheila Scarborough’s travel panel rocked butt!! Watch the video.

(CC) Brian Solis. www.briansolis.com
(CC) Brian Solis. www.briansolis.com

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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That many incredible people make it incredible!!

E = mc2 of Business — Better than Flow

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E = mc2

You’ve probably heard that.
In the world of physics, it’s explained as

Total energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

Not long ago, I had the rare and amazing experience of being in a group, with a group, part of a group of coworkers who are on common quest. They’re building a company and they’ve invited Amy Derby and me to join their social media quest.

The room was electric with ideas. The total kinectic and potential energy really did equal mass multiplied times the speed of light squared. I can’t stop thinking about what makes that happen — because when we went back it happened again.

  • The leaders are learners who liked learners around them.
  • Every person in the room is clear on his or her role.
  • Every person has the power to see what see and know what they see and know.
  • Information is the currency of getting thing done and the trust was the speed of execution.
  • Making progress and enjoying it is more important than being right.
  • They understand how to be personally invested without taking things personally.
  • The challenges were within reach for the skills and the time line.
  • Everyone knew which priorities came first.

The first four-hour meeting sailed by with total engagement, without self-consciousness or boredom. The seond one did too. It was group flow — that state of “being in the zone.” Twitter was discussed, but no one even thought of tweeting.

E = mc2 of Business is putting all of our social-relational team energy into our work. It’s better than flow, because it’s got the exponential power of a team.

I wonder if they were aware how much they smile.

Have you ever experienced the E = mc2 with the people you do business?
How do you know when you’re with a team that has it?
How do inspire it and fire it up?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

 

How to Build a Yellow Ferrari Product YOU Resume / Brochure

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Make New Rules — Don’t Be the List

Somewhere along the line, you probably learned rules about writing resumes pr asking for sponsorship. You probably learned about starting with your objectives and your history. What I’m about to tell you is going to break rules … make new ones instead.

The old resume was all about you, anyway. In today’s world, the new rules are all about them. Think about the person or people you are writing to or for. They’re the only ones who count.

It’s easy to think of a resume as a list — three suits: two blue, one gray — of what we’ve done. We tend to think of a resume off as one more painful requirement of job acquisition. We tend to think of a request for sponsorship as a list of what we want. That thinking sets us up for major missed opportunities. With a few tweaks, your resume or your request can be a dynamic tool in your business or career strategy.

You may need the list, but you don’t have to be the list.

Make your resume or your request more like a marketing brochure.

Most people will do what we want if we can prove it’s to their benefit.
That’s your quest.

A Yellow Ferrari Product YOU Resume or Brochure

Imagine that you’re a product — a yellow Ferrari.
Build a spec sheet quantifying your performance stats — those THEY care about.
Ask a helpful — not hypeful — marketing person to help you write copy about your soft skills — the skills THEY care about.
You’re well on your way to serious attention.

Include your product history — tell only what THEY will care about — on page 2.

Use Time and Technology to Show Not Tell

In the age of computers, we should be sending out fewer resumes and requests, not more. Ten well-investigated contacts beat out 100 attempts to knock on the wrong doors. Computers make it easier to seek, find, and learn about the people you want to do business with — be they clients, sponsors, or employers. Use the technology show them, not tell them!

  • Make a generic Yellow Ferrari Product You Brochure.
  • Set aside time daily to identify 1 or 2 client, sponsor, employer candidates whose goals match your goals.
  • Research each candidate to understand how your goals and their goals align.
  • Use that information to personalize the sample document for each specific candidate.

When we research a company before we approach them, it changes the way we write. It changes our pitch, our volume, our tone and word choice. We see how our personal skill set might add value in their context rather than talking in a manner that’s shooting blind.

A Sample Outstanding Product You Branding Brochure

Turn a resume into a Yellow Ferrari Product YOU brochure.
PAGE 1: Why not start with …

This document prepared for [Company XYZ] by [Person ABC] a web strategist who can offer tested experience to [goal MNO]

Career Accomplishments — Delivers results.
This is a short bulleted list of quantitative results, such as sales numbers, profit numbers, great hires, Google results.
Always numbers first.

Core Competencies — Tends the Intangibles.
This is sections of qualitative skills, such as team skills, management skills, publishing skills, interdepartmental skills.
Key ideas highly organized.

PAGE 2: With your skill set laid on page 1, you can list your chronology simply with far less detail on page 2. Depending on your industry, you might offer it as a short narrative summary in place of or above the breakout chronology — the way some restaurant menus do. [Be careful. More traditional industries won’t find that inspiring or cute.]

Use It as a Promotional Tool

Change the way you look at your resume and you’ll soon find a world of uses for it. Use it as you do your business card. I’ve sent mine to a business friend with a note saying, “Let me know if my voice might help you in the meetings with the publishers you told me about.” Design Page 1 into your blog’s About Page to let your readers know more about you, your brand, and your business.

Most importantly look over what you feature to focus on what has contributed most to your success. Know that just the act of doing so will make talking about what you do more fluent in the future.

What would you expect in a Yellow Ferrari Product You Resume / Brochure?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related articles
Building a Personal Brand YOU
Brand YOU — Capitalize on Your Strengths
Personal Branding: Strengths Assessment Tool
Brand YOU –What’s the BIG IDEA?

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How to Find Your Tribe in One Word

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relationships button

Two weeks ago, I wrote about finding your voice when the tribe has spoken. Losing a job is a sure a way to feel we’ve lost our tribe, but it’s not the only one. A relocation, a divorce, a huge setback of some sort, or some way of thinking can make us feel apart.

Lots of folks have lots of reason for feeling we’re on the outside.

It’s almost overwhelming. The world can seem to be one huge tribe and we can seem to be the only one who’s not a part. Of course, that’s flawed thinking. Ever met a group of people who could agree on anything huge for very long? The whole world is too big to hold a meeting about who belongs.

It’s not how the world sees you. It’s how you see yourself that counts.

Which tribe do you want to be part of? You get to pick. Now is a better time than any other to get the word out about who you are. We have social tools to launch a campaign and so many ways to find a new tribe.

The key to it all is in one word — chosen and used wisely.

Connect — Online and Off

  • Connect with the things that made you successful in the past.
  • Connect with the things you want to accomplish in the future.
  • Connect with people who are positive and who see the person in you that you like.
  • Connect with your family and friends and talk about what they’re doing.
  • Connect with positive people who can teach you.
  • Connect with people you find interesting and smart.
  • Connect over coffee, at church, at any venue that invites learners.
  • Connect online and off.
  • Connect with people who enjoy helping you connect.

Every person you connect to is an opportunity to find out about what you’ve been missing and what you can learn to survive.

Keep these thoughts in mind when you connect.

A connection is not as simple as clicking on the “follow” button. It’s finding out about a person, learning what you have in common, showing what you have to give, not what you need to get.

Solid connections are built by listening and then sharing back. Taking the time to connect with fewer, quality people can be more efficient — each person you get to know well can open the door to a whole network of friends.

The Three Rules of How to Connect

  • Connect with an open, hungry, beginner’s mind to the situations that teach you.
  • Connect with an open, generous, fearless heart to people who want to help you.
  • Connect with purpose to the future that you couldn’t imagine until now.

How will you know when you’ve found the tribe where you belong? You’ll not be thinking about who you are when you’re with them, you’ll be thinking about what you’re learning and what you can offer them.

And if you have a tribe … your tribe will strong if you invite new folks in.
How might we reach out to help someone who needs that first connection?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! Buy Liz’s ebook to learn to the art of online conversation.

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Connect to a Power Network.

SOB Business Cafe 03-06-09

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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

Riding Dragons
Last summer David Zinger showed up at Jodee Bock’s annual Bigger Small Talk Summit. I heard him say that he can do almost anything for 10 minutes so tends to break down difficult or unappealing tasks into 10 minute chunks. That sounded wise to me and I determined to try it out. When I returned home, however, I quite promptly forgot about it.

Pick the Brain
You’re stressed, overworked, and tired. You feel like you’re dropping the ball on so many things. You find yourself lying awake in the early hours, thinking about those items still on your to-do list, those emails not yet cleared.

Virtual Impax
On Monday I get an email from a client who has been neglecting to protect her online reputation by neglecting her blog. She’s now busily meeting with lawyers to try to trademark her branding elements – something I suspect would be easier to do had she been maintaining her blog under the domain name she registered. At least she would be ranking #1 on her term – which is what started the fuss.

Remarkablogger
I have a confession
I have a confession to make.
I was once…
A vacuum cleaner salesman.

Work Happy Now
My wife discovered a story about a teacher who changed her/his work culture with a simple plan that anyone can implement at their organization.

Related ala carte selections include

New Twitter Movie: For the Birds
Here’s a new Twitter short movie that shows the impact each and every person you follow has on your social network! Have you ever had someone “hog the line” and cause a stir like this? The Betty Boop song might explain why some do what they do online.

Just Creative
To say the least, ranking fonts is an obviously hard task… how does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity and so fourth?

Oh and..
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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

This Shoemaker Has Decided the Ratty Shoes Have to Go

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To Be Seen, Heard, and Understood

Yessir, Chris Brogan, I have ideas. Thank you for linking my ideas to yours. I’m good at ideas and when they connect, my ideas light fires.

It’s the connecting that makes the ideas take off.
Connecting happens when people see, hear, and understand our ideas.

I’ve decided this year I want my connections working online and off.

Meet Vince

I’ve enlisted the best designer, Vincent Franco, to bring out the hidden content on this blog, to get it ready for where we’re going. The concept is rolling. We’ll be making room for new features, a bow to the past and a long look to the future. I’m taking over my dad’s saloon once and for. The new look will focus on what this blog and the successful and outstanding bloggers who hang out here are about.

  • We’ll be rolling up the categories into key locations. As we get going the content become more focused around the main topics of web strategy, how communities form, communication, social media, blogging / writing, and creativity / ideas.
  • I’ve already invited Kathryn Jennex to write a column called “Practical Communication.” Have you been reading what she writes every Thursday? She constantly hits it out of the park!
  • My dear friends from OZ, Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh will still challenge us to reflect as they share coastline of tomorrowland.
  • If you’d like to participate email me. It’s always been a community blog.

Meet The Image Studios

The most professional soft skills, image communication consultancy in Chicago, The Image Studios, has agreed to show me how to leverage the best of my head, heart, and purpose so that people can see, hear, and understand who I am — at first glance.

  • This is not a TV makeover. This is a serious quest to be recognized. The operative term is visible authenticity. You’ll be hearing more of that from me all year.
  • I had my first meeting with image team last fall. My meeting with Kali Evans-Raoul, the founder, brought out a baseline that is firmly grounded in who I am and where I want to be. The plan is to get what doesn’t work out of my way, not layering new things on.
  • I’ll be blogging. We’ll be taking photos and video. Most importantly I’ll be trying to track the thoughts behind the decisions and changes.

The why of this is simple enough. Social media, social business is about connections. Connecting starts long before we talk.

2009 is the Year to be SEEN, HEARD, AND UNDERSTOOD.

This shoemaker has decided the ratty shoes have to go.

How about you? Are you ready for visible authenticity?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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