Successful Blog

How Do You Capture Your Irresistible Ideas?

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Be Irresistible Instead

Every great movie star did a movie or two for the cash until he or she could do the movies he or she really wanted to do. That’s one thing. It’s fine to do if we know that’s what we’re doing. It’s a skill-building, bill-paying short-term strategy that works to keep us solvent.

But, if we’re not careful, we can get so busy doing, that we lose sight of the end game — the strategic goal out there on the horizon. While we’re busy making money to pay the rent, we can have outstanding ideas and let them get away while we work at things that don’t inspire us.

Work without inspiration steals energy. It keeps us in the same place or moving in the wrong direction.

What powers and fuels a career or a business is irresistible, value-added, real WOW ideas — what folks need, wish, and dream for — can’t live without ideas. Even if you’re working on something that’s boring, are looking for your own irresistible ideas that will head you to your own horizon? Here’s how to know one …

  1. An irresistible idea addresses the practical and the emotional simultaneously. Think of a great car that makes you feel something when you drive it. Irresistible ideas appeal to the child and the adult in us.

    2. I bought my Toyota MR-2 Spyder for many reasons. It had great performance specs — practical. It has its flaws — 1.9 cubic feet of storage space. The WOW is the faux titanium door handles — emotional. No other car has them, not any Porsche, Ferrari, BMW two-seater. I know. I look inside them all. They all look boring to me. Those door handles make my car look like it cost 3 times what it cost. It will also allow me to resell it much higher. And the dealer was willing to sell and service it at a great price — it fit into my life.

    An irresistible idea fits easily into our lives. We don’t have to work to buy that product, to learn a lot use it, or to explain it when we share it with our friends. Irresitible save us time, saves us money, or gives us a sense of ease and comfort.

  2. Irresistible ideas are in the details, not in giant bells and whistles.

    3. Every car has an engine and four wheels. Trying to improve on those gets you into trying to be original. Original is risky and expensive. Why not piggyback on what has been tested and perfected. Irresistible ideas come in the back and the side doors. They approach things from the inside out. They make things work better, feel softer, stop being a pain. Irresistible takes one part and makes it elegantly simpler.

    Irresistible ideas are joyfully unexpected. I still love the person who invented the wireless mouse.

  3. Irresistible ideas are authentic. Spectacular ideas can’t be knocked off with the same effect, because they came from customer-centered thinking. Gotta be Apple to make the iPod. Gotta be Iain Dodsworth to make TweetDeck. I can’t build your event or product your way, because you are the special sauce that makes it just right.

The most irresistible ideas come from where your passion and your intelligence cross with the places you spend the most time. We have more ideas than we might actually realize and when we’re busy working on something tiring it’s easy to forget them.

How do you capture your irresistible ideas?

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

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Beach Notes: When the Breakthrough Doesn't Come

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

We were talking about breakthroughs. How when you are experiencing being stuck, not able to move forward, you remember times past when you had a breakthrough and look to be able to do that again. And if the breakthrough doesn’t come, that can be very frustrating and drain your energy and resolve.

So what if instead of a breakthrough there was a slidethrough? What if you were alert and watchful and an opportunity arose, an unexpected opening in a situation that seemed to have none? What if you were ready to just slide through into a new, productive, wonderfully prosperous phase? Would that be any less desirable, any less worthy of celebrating than a breakthrough?

Whatever works, baby. May the Force be with you.

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Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Thanks to Week 207 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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TheFutureBuzz
hank-wasiak
phil-gerbyshak2

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Enter the Social Media Space Gracefully

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Start by Learning the Culture

A few months ago, Jim McGee and I were talking about how businesses and individuals have different experiences upon first entering the social sphere. It wasn’t long before we were into the usual cocktail party analogy.

The problem seemed to be as simple as this.

Two people, both new to a group, attend a social gathering.

The first person is interested in who will be there. She dresses nicely with thoughts about the people attending and the venue — as she would for any event. She comes alone. Most folks don’t notice her entrance. She smiles when someone looks. As she walks over to say “hello” she trips on a loose rug. Someone who caught that friendly smile reaches down to help her up.

A nice person … We identify with her. We’d want help too.

The second attendee wants attention. She floodlights her walk as she enters dressed in sequins and stars. She’s followed by an entourage who are flashing cameras and opening doors. She’s noticed long before she trips.

Think about which person is likely to get helped up and which is likely to be left on her own.

To pull off stars and sequins in a social situation, you have to be friends with the folks you’re meeting. Shine the lights on yourself before people know you, they’re unlikely to see fun and clever. They’ll see disrespect or arrrogance.

Grace enters quietly reflecting light on everyone.

@comcastcares entered gracefully. You’ve probably seen example of folks who made their entrance with too much noise.

How would you counsel someone looking to enter social media gracefully?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Hate Self-Promotion? … Could Trust Be the Issue?

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Deliverables Depend on Trust

Ask a venture capitalist what moves him or her to invest, what you’ll hear is a definition of the word trust. How could it be otherwise? A VC is betting on an investment to pay off. It’s a trust situation. A sure thing doesn’t exist in business.

Trust is part of most every purchase decision we make. We trust that we get what we paid for in working order. We trust that the people who offered it will stand behind their offer.

Trust is also part of the offering. Marketing and promoting what we do also requires trust — trust in ourselves, trust in our products and services, and a bond of trust with the person we’re telling about them.

  • If we trust ourselves, we’re confident that we’ll deliver on the promises we make.
  • If we trust our products and services, we know they’ll meet and surpass the expectations of the person who invests in them.
  • If we have a bond of trust with people about what we do, we’re not worried about our credibility. We talk to them as we talk to our friends, fully expressed and enthusiastic to share something we believe will help. They hear us as we want to be heard.

Do you hate self-promotion and marketing? Could it be that you’re trying to sell before you know the potential buyer trusts you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your irresistible offer.

World Business Forum: A View from the 3rd Mezzanine

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Up here the front row of the third mezzanine of Radio City Music Hall, world leaders speaking on the stage look like miniatures. On the video screen behind them, they appear larger than life.

I can’t help but notice the lovely irony that to us invited to blog about this event, the video version is easier to see and identify with.

rWe stepped out of the online culture to listen in here and report back. We’re tweeting, writing, and making opinions … listening to statements from a world of experience.

Most profoundly I see some connections that only we online might see. From Bill George challenged us Who’s going to step up today and make a difference?
Bill Conaty spoke of CEOs who need to support truth and candor. Patrick Lencioni said, We spend a lot of time making an organization smart, but not a lot of time making them health.

and Kevin Roberts brought it home with these statements …

reason leads to conclusions
emotion leads to action
inform … inspire …
do one thing

The chance to listen to outstanding people speaking about what they know has been huge and hugely thrilling. I’m sure many will detail the report of what was said.

What I notice is how, when we meet at the core of the matter we’re not so different online or off.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence.