Successful Blog

It's Easy — Go On Try It!

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I've been thinking . . .

about being down and lifting up.

Look at that flower facing the sun.

It’s a flower. It catches the sunrise, the sunset. It gets nutrients from the ground.
It’s beautiful. You and I didn’t do that. No piece of code made that happen.

No guy or lady driving in traffic to get to some desk made those petals.
No argument over words on a page, no conversation about behavior made that light on that color.

Because bringing each other down isn’t what we were meant for.

When we stop to breathe, when we look at the light around us, we know we were meant to lift each other up.

What are you doing right now in this moment to raise someone higher?
Not only is it easy, it feels good. Go on try it.

Liz's Signature

Are you going to experience SOBCon09?

Beach Notes: Model of Service

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

Our beach notes today are inspired by the 100 year commemoration of the first surf rescue on our local Coolangatta beach, by the all-volunteer Surf Life Saving Club.

Four women – clad in the neck-to-knee swimming costumes dictated by the times – and one man – swam out to sea, to then “get into difficulties” with the surf and have to be rescued by the volunteer “lifesavers”, to use the traditional term now being supplanted by the imported American term “lifeguard”.

It was an inspiring moment, thinking not just about that particular rescue 100 years ago today, but of all the volunteers, at hundreds of beaches around the country, turning out every weekend, rain or shine, to watch over their fellow citizens and regularly risk their own safety, even their lives, to save people from drowning and to resuscitate those they can.

Not all those stories end happily, but many have over the years been plucked from the waves by these courageous men and women in their distinctive red and yellow caps and spared the fate of a watery grave. Two years ago the Australian Surf Life Saving Association estimated the number of lives saved at over 500,000.

Yes, we do have some paid lifeguards, provided by local councils, during the week and even – in our part of the country – through the winter months, at the more popular tourist-oriented beaches.

But without the dedicated service of those thousands of volunteers of the Australian Surf Life Saving Association, a cherished part of life for many Australians – “having a surf” – would become a much more hazardous pasttime.

And it’s not just in Australia. The movement started by a few people in Sydney, Australia, some 103 years ago, has spread also to other countries, including South Africa, the USA, Great Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Sri Lanka, Ireland and New Zealand.

The motto of the Surf Life Saving movement? “Vigilance and Service”.

We salute the dedication and heroism of our lifesavers, past and present.

A model of service, an inspiration.

What do you say to commemorate 100 years of people serving the world?

Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

IttyBiz, Walmart, and You: The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

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This week was a great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!

It started with an email from Naomi Dunford, CEO of IttyBiz. The subject line was “Sponsorship info, please?” About 6 emails later we had a full-company sponsor deal that means a win for everyone:

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for IttyBiz and direct sampling of new products to key influencers
  • Naomi’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how she built her business so quickly to a full sponsorship level.
  • about $700 worth of solid value for every attendee

The very next day, I enjoyed a call with John Andrews of Walmart. We extended the relationship we’d started at BlissDom09. In a short 9 or so minutes, we put together a package that included value in more directions than first meets the eye.

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for Walmart
  • John’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Walmart is connecting their vendors with their blogger evangelists.
  • and some other surprises

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

Why Sponsor Love Is Good for All of Us

How can I say it better than this?

Love makes the world go round, but my landlord wants bankable currency.

Conferences are expensive events. We all know that. We’re doing all we can to make this one as valued packed and affordable as we possibly can. One huge way to do that is to form solid working relationships with sponsors who have the same goals as SOBCon — to learn more about business on the social web and to form long-term, working relationships that make our lives better, smarter, and more fun.

Conversation becomes relationship and respect. We set goals in the same direction. They invest. We invest back. We all commit to the plan. When they invest — funding, time, valuable product, and expertise, we get to pass that love to you.

Want to get sponsor attention? Show that you’re invested too!

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe you can tell us how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

Heck, you can even write a love letter to a sponsor you’d like to have a relationship with. Pick a company that’s done something great for bloggers in the past and tell them why you think it was important and valuable that they did what they did. Propose an idea for how you might do something a SOBCon sponsor already listed on the SOBCon blog.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon09, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

Like I said, was great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!
We got the chance to pass on sponsor love on in the form of a price discount — Thank you, Naomi and John.

The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

Here’s the secret to getting serious sponsor interest and support for your goals … find sponsors with goals you’re seriously interested in and take every opportunity to reach out, talk about, and support them.

People don’t care about what you know until they know you care.
People notice when you value them.
Sponsors are people too.

If we do this together, we could make a powerful noise.

SOBCon09 is only picking sponsors who get what we stand for and then “we’re loving them to death.”

Join in. Would you? — C’mon! Blog, Tweet, Talk!! The more we talk about SOBCon09, the more we talk about sponsors who participate, the more potential sponsors everywhere will see value in supporting all of us in more and more ways.

Sponsors notice you when you love them.

Love the good sponsors loudly and proudly. Love loud enough to be heard by the sponsor’s boss.

Do that and you can bet reluctant sponsors will notice who gets the love … and where it’s coming from.

You already know, I notice the good things you do.
And I’m thanking you.
Sincerely.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Thanks to Week 174 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

SOB Business Cafe 02-20-09

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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

social media explorer
With so many different services, blogs, and sites out there, small business owners and other marketers who are usually already stretched thin often figure that monitoring and participating in social media will require a time commitment and technical savvy that they just don’t have.

Not true. It’s better to participate at a level you can manage than to ignore social media altogether.

Barry J. Moltz
Process needs to trump outcome. This is nearly an impossible goal because regardless of what we say, the common belief is that the ends always justify the means.

Direct Marketing Observations
There are people out there, that don’t like you. I know, shocking isn’t it? For some of you, it might be. In social media we talk about, and write even more about how social media creates these magical relationships of synergy, business alliances, and friendships. But what people rarely talk about, are the relationships that have originated from social networking-that have gone sour.

Divine Purpose Unleased
There are lots of ways the roles you play change; actually roles change often. Sometimes your role gets yanked out from under you like when you get fired from a job. Your role shifts when your children grow up and move out of the house. You might get married… or divorced.

RANDOM ACTS OF LEADERSHIP
As of today 316,641 results returned when searching Amazon for books on leadership. According to Warren Bennis in Leaders (1997) “academic analysis has given us more than 850 definitions of leadership”. I think it is fair to say that defining leadership will be studied and debated for a long time to come and it is likely we will never all agree on THE BEST definition.

Related ala carte selections include

Amy Derby wants to know …

Terry Starbucker is making a great offer …

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

Rituals, Glituals, and Success – How Will You Turn Things on Today?

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FAIL NOT!!

This morning I got up.
I followed my path that gets things rolling.
I walked through the kitchen. Gotta have coffee.
I went to my office space. Gotta have connectivity.
I head on back to the shower. Gotta be clean and clear thinking.

It’s my ritual to hit the ground running.
I like the thought of everything firing up at the same time.

And every morning, I walk back through the kitchen, get my coffee, sit down at my computer. and start right in making the world mine.

Except today.

Today my ritual was a glitual.

My computer wasn’t running.
I forgot a critical key to success.
Whether it’s the coffee, the computer, or yourself …

You gotta turn it on to get things going!

How will you turn things on today?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!