I’m heading to AdTech Chicago today and tomorrow as a member of the blogger press. I’ll be attending sessions, exploring the expo, and engaging a few people in interviews.
What would you like to know about
Leave your questions here, and I’ll ask them while I’m there.
I make connections … for you.
— ME “Liz” Strauss
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Ssshhhh!My business roots are in product development. To make irresistible product, you have to be close to the people who buy and use what you’re making. To be close to anyone, you have to listen to what they’re saying.
Social media starts, moves, and fully connects through listening.
Listening is marketing. It connects us to customers, clients, readers, critics, innovators, and folks we meet for the first time. It takes an open mind to listen and an open heart to hear.
Who’s Worth Listening To?
Everyone.
Some of us get that. Some of us forget that.
But most of us don’t listen enough to one person in particular.
Doctor, marketer, product person, human being know thyself.
In order to be accountable and be present in a conversation, we need to know ourselves. We can’t share our values if we don’t know what they are or why we hold them. We can’t respond naturally, if we don’t know where stand when we’re alone with ourselves. That’s the essence of character and personal brand.
So do you take time to listen to
When we take time to listen to ourselves, listening to other people comes easier. We’re not waiting to be heard.
No apps necessary. Just time focused in another direction … reflection.
How often do you listen to yourself?
I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
This post was updated in July 2016 by Jane Boyd & Liz Strauss. It has been listed as a suggested resource in a recent GeniusShared newsletter article by Liz entitled “Owning Your Voice”.
I’ve been having conversations about strategy and tactics lately. Projects are launching soon and I’m planning for SOBCon2010 — Strategy and Tactics are going to be a big part of the content. That’s sent me on some blissful research and some not so lovely mind searching — realizing I had some strategic work of my own to be doing.
As strategy became my main topic of conversation, I came to the following realizations:
Tactics are interesting. The accomplishments they bring can be thrilling. But the bigger picture that a strategic mission lays out is powerful and amazing thinking.
Strategy isn’t a plan, a decision, a goal, a destination.
It’s a tool for leveraging who you are, what you know, where you are, the environment, and how people think and respond to each other. Strategy is a system for improving your position.
Strategy is based on the idea that you have a unique place in the world. All opportunities flow from that position. — Gary Gagliardi
All strategy is discovering, choosing, taking advantage of, and winning opportunities.
Strategic perspective can light unique and unexpected pathways.
Have you looked at your strategic mission lately?
Is your strategy about winning opportunities?
Are you leveraging your unique position?
I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to do some strategic thinking?
Invigoration happens when we accomplish something.
Invirgoration is even bigger when we accomplish something that’s been nagging us because it needs to go somewhere.
Take a look on your desk, on your to-do list … Is there something that if you just do it someone else can be taking it to the next step?
One best way to be productive is to find the thing we can accomplish and pass on for the next person to work on. Then while we’re working on our second task, that person can be working on what we just passed on. I call that double productivity.
What will you do today to double your productivity … even for just a few minutes?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your productivity!!
It’s so exciting to have a great idea, a great project, a great new job! How can we share the exciting things we’re doing without constantly talking about about ourselves? No thoughtful person wants to risk turning to “that guy”? No one who’s met “that guy” wants to do business with him.
It helps a lot if we don’t go hunting an audience.
When I figured out that asking folks what they’re doing and how they might help me do better at what I’m doing, talking about my work got easier, more fun, and more meaningful.
What’s your strategy for making your great ideas visible?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!
Who hasn’t had the joyous experience of a negative comment? We overhear them around the corner, confront them in conversation, and find them written boldly on our blogs. It helps to remember that they’re often more about the person talking … what that person heard, misheard, or never listened to from the start.
It helps a lot if we don’t make such things about ourselves.
A friend asked me once how I handled negative comments on my blog. My first sentence was, “Well I’m a saloonkeeper’s daughter and I used to teach first grade …” I had no idea how that sounded until she laughed out loud.
How do you keep negative words from turning you around?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!