Successful Blog

The Mic Is On: It's a Virtual Cookout Tonight!

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Bring Whatever You Like to Eat!

Let’s get some friends and enjoy the evening in the backyard. Let’s forget about bosses and mentors, outsourcing, or hiring a virtual assistant. We can talk about mosquitoes, and the fire burning, and maybe tell a story or two. Just like when we used to have time to do things like that …

Remember when?

Let’s bring it back for the heck of it!

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image: sxc.hu

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring links of your favorite CookOut things to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Have You Got a Change Manager?

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The Value of an Outside Observer

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A while back, I was at lunch with a consultant from a top tier strategy firm, a specialist in change management. Her company works with international mega-corporations. They investigate communication disconnects, process model breakdowns, and unproductive beliefs, habits, and behaviors. Their studies are qualitative and quantitative. Their strategic reports are solid, multi-leveled, interdepartmental, focused and team-based. It’s fascinating to hear how it works.

At the core of the process is helping corporations and individuals see themselves so that they can change to accomplish their goals. No one knows the value of an outside observer better than a world class firm in the business of doing do so.

Yet as the conversation continued, I heard the fatal flaw. The top-tier consultancy was performing a “change management” project within their own firm. No outside professionals were invited to help.

“We can do it ourselves. It’s our business,” was what she said.

I thought, I suppose every one of their clients thinks the same thing.

…

Of course, we’d never make that sort of mistake.

Have you got a change manager?
I started working with mine right after that lunch.

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Need a change?

Buy the ebook. Learn online conversation.

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We're Having a Virtual Cookout Tonight!

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Join Us Tonight

Bring Whatever You Like to Eat!

Let’s get some friends and enjoy the evening in the backyard. Let’s forget about bosses and mentors, outsourcing, or hiring a virtual assistant. We can talk about mosquitoes, and the fire burning, and maybe tell a story or two. Just like when we used to have time to do things like that …

Remember when?

Let’s bring it back for the heck of it!

Oh, and bring cookout links to share —

The rules are simple — be nice.

Do be nice. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Is Your Strategy About Winning Opportunities?

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Strategy

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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:

  • We don’t learn or teach good decision making in schools.
  • Most folks make random decisions.
  • Most folks confuse tactics with strategy — basically thinking they’re the same thing.
  • Few folks think of strategy as opportunity mining.
  • Few folks have a strategy that fully leverages their unique position.

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.

Is Your Strategy About Finding Opportunities?

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.

  1. Have a Mission — set an ultimate philosophical, economical, and / or political purpose
  2. Assess Your Position — Look, listen, measure, test your current situation, climate, resources, opportunities
  3. Move Forward Tactically in Increments — Size, choose, and commit to campaigns that reflect obstacles, goals, and prizes
  4. Celebrate and Record Your Winnings — All progress is good.

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.

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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?

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Can bing Help Me Decide?

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What Is This bing Thing?

bing arrived on my radar with an email that said …

In August, Bing shopping and cashback will offer significantly higher rebates from hundreds of retailers to help consumers save on essential back-to-school items. Below please find a press release that highlights the survey [and] information on Bing shopping’s upcoming back-to-school promotion. Also, watch for more information about the promotion on the Bing cashback Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cashback .

I accepted an invitation to talk with Melissa Powell, Senior Product Manager, bing, about the recent research and the the new “decision” engine.

How Does bing Help My Decisions?

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The first thing Melissa said was, “The search interface hasn’t kept up with the explosion of content.” In response to that situation Microsoft wanted to cater to what people are doing online and where they are searching for it.

bing has identified four verticals as important: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. For example, in travel bing has several interactive tools to help travelers. They include …

  • Price Predictor uses Farecast technology to predict whether the price of a flight is going up or down and offers a “Buy Now” or “Wait” recommendation with a confidence level and expected price increase or decrease over the next seven days.
  • Rate Indicator analyzes historical rate data to determine whether the current price is a good deal.
  • Travel Deals features up-to-the-minute flight and hotel deals for nearly 40 cities around the world and why particular flights are considered deals.

Melissa underscored the bing quest by stating …

Bing helps you make better decisions faster, especially in the key areas of shopping, travel, health and local. One of my favorite features is Bing shopping, which helps you search, shop and save in a snap. With back-to-school just around the corner, you can save on millions of products from hundreds of the nation’s top retailers. Starting August 10 and for a limited time, we’ll offer as much as double the normal cash back from select retailers to help families save on their back-to-school essentials.

Research Before I Decide …

You can’t miss the beautiful design of the homepage the changes daily and becoming a member of bing has perks — open a bing cashback account, get bing news alerts, add bing map collections, and gain full access to the bing Webmaster Center and the bing Developer Center.

I signed up. Well, I started to, but I don’t have an MSN Live address and I’m not sure I want another id … as pretty as bing is, I decided more research was in order.

So I used bing to check bing versus google.
You can check and compare here …

I compared the cost of living between Chicago and Salt Lake City. I think Google got closer to what I might want to know.

Some folks say bing maybe offering information to sway my decision … I tried to find more examples of bias and wasn’t successful. Some folks are more clever than I.

Decide or Decide to Buy? …

From the first hello “every bing” has been about buying. The introductory email pointed to a back-to-school shoppers survey. I learned that:

  • 56% of shoppers won’t be buying Back-to-School supplies online
  • 75% will trade down to get more value for price

At the sign up screen, I was greeted with

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and when I hesitated to complete that step … I was received an email reminding me of the opportunity to get cash back on my purchases. It read,

Hello,
Welcome to Bing, the search that pays you back!

What I hear is not “decide,” but “decide to buy.”

Can bing Help Me Decide?

A small sign upper right on the bing home page reads:

Live Search is evolving. Tour Bing …

Can bing help me decide?

I keep remembering my mom saying “if everyone jumped off the bridge …” As Judy Shapiro said,

Maybe I am just too independently minded (and not the primary target), but I resist the notion that Microsoft technology will decide anything for me. What I really want is technology to give me the information I need to make the decision I want.

Have you tried bing? What did you find?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Thanks to Week 198 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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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