Successful Blog

Inside the SEARS Wishbook — A $500 Grant a Wish Giveaway!

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This post is a sponsored post on behalf of SEARS via Izea.
The opinions, memories, and words are mine.

Every year when I was a kid, my mom would sit us down with the Wishbook from Sears. She’d have us make list of what we wanted for Christmas…. The tradition came with a solid promise that at least one item on each list would end up under our tree. My list kept me busy for hours — busy dreaming, and wishing, and learning the life skill of filling out order forms.

When I got with this special assignment, Would I be part of the SEARS “Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish” program? You can bet that Wishbook was the first thing I thought of — the miles of lists and the piles of wishes all through my childhood.

The request was simple: I would get a $500 gift card to buy whatever I wished. Then I would go to Sears.com to put together three $500 gift packages — so a lucky reader will get to choose the one they wish. Two cool complicated, positive problems to solve. Who wouldn’t go for chance like that?

More about my wishtory in a minute.

Towels, Socks, and Underwear

Ah walking into the the Sears Flagship store at State and Madison in Chicago — It was like walking inside the Wishbook for real. I met @AmyDerby, who brought her camera, at the coffee shop in back. Amy and I fueled up on coffee. (I had a caramel latte.) Then we got a cart, looked around … wandered aimlessly … stopped to look at the “Chipmunks Movies,” and talked about passing lyrics to Chipmunks songs with @Starbucker via Twitter. Not many folks know the words anymore.

Shopping is more fun with someone you like.

We walked on overwhelmed by the clothes, jewelry, and beauty products. They’re nice, but not what I’m after. We didn’t really know where to look first. How do you wish when you’re surrounded by so many things and your holdiay shopping is already done?

Don’t you just love the towel all lined up that way? I never buy any because it makes me want all of the colors. Where would I put them?

Luckily I had asked Grandma whether she had one more holiday wish I might grant. She said, “Do something for yourself, but remember — get socks and underwear.” So we over to the socks. We played a bit with the multi-toed muppet socks. Then I picked out three pairs of dress socks for meetings … 3 pairs of socks for $10 …

Time for a new plan, this rate we’d be there until 2020. Underwear was out.

Wishing for a Good Night’s Sleep — Pillows and More!

My wish was a good night’s sleep. Nights are short in my life. Sleep is precious.

Down the elevator, past the luggage, through the rug aisle, straight for the pillows we went. Big, beautiful, fluffy pillows. The best white down pillows were what I was after. My husband and I hadn’t bought new pillows this century. Now we were talking wishes happening — four of them.

For better sleeping, my husband wished for an electrostatic air filter — fresh air in a high rise building is a wish worth having. On the way to the that filter, we stopped and got him a hair trimmer he’d been looking at the night before. It took two seconds. When we said we wanted, Iza, the woman who helped us with the pillows, knew exactly where to find it.

We’d got those wishes, but one wish was still whispering in my head. We were off to electronics.

That’s When We Met Dick Tracy

We saw iPod accessories, brand name computers, and a display of Flip Video cameras (already have one and love it). I was in blogger heaven.

I was headed to a real camera to replace the grainy iPhone photographs on my blog. Problem is, I didn’t know what I wanted. I called @BeckyMcCray who advised in a flash — pun intended. Now I could talk to the man — and he was the man — Richard Tracy. He answered every question I asked — and a few that I didn’t — about my new Olympus FE-360 camera. Amy took our picture while we talked. That’s it up there.

Boom! I had a camera I knew would make my pictures look good.

That afternoon Amy and I had a meeting planned. So we took a few more pictures and I talked to the guy who would be holding my stuff until the next day. Amy took care to see that details were looked after in fear that I’d get back and my packages wouldn’t be there.

We took light stuff with us. Well, we got the camera at merchandise pickup in 1 minute and 40 seconds. Gosh, they were nice. One person brought the camera to us, but three people found reasons to smile.

The whole shopping adventure cost $558.81 — and $57.32 of that was taxes.

One Hitch, But a Happy Ending

The next day, I returned with my husband to pick up the huge pillows and air filter. A manager on the elevator recognized me and said “Hi!” My husband was impressed. Unfortunately, the guy who said he’d be working when I returned wasn’t there and my stuff wasn’t either. No one seemed to know where to find what I’d bought and I had a meeting in an hour.

Special Thanks to Jessica, the third floor manager, who came to the rescue. She problem solved by thinking through who might have moved it and where. She realized that my stuff was placed in layaway overnight. Jessica turned around an almost unhappy ending to what might have been a perfect experience. Her thinking got me to my afternoon meeting just in time with everything. No harm, no foul.

Granting a Wish for You!!

The second part of this cool assignment was to put together three Grant Wish Packages that I thought a reader here might enjoy. That was pressure …

ENTER TO WIN!! A $500 WISH PACKAGE Giveaway!

The second part of this sponsored assignment is where I hope your own wish comes true. I’ve put together three Grant a Wish packages. (Well, @Tojosan and my husband helped me with them.) The winner will receive the package he or she selects. You’ll find the official rules here.

The Three Wishes I Designed To Choose From Include

Chicago DVDs Wish

Toshiba 10.2″ WIDESCREEN PORTABLE DVD PLAYER
Sears item# 05799414000 Mfr. model# SDP101S $349
And 11 DVD Movies all Made in Chicago

  • The Dark Knight DVD
    (Widescreen, Special Edition, 2PC) $22.99
  • Wanted
    (Widescreen) $20.99
  • I Robot DVD
    (Widescreen, Special Edition, 2PC) $14.99
  • The Blues Brothers
    (Widescreen, Anniversary Edition, 2PC) $14.99
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
    (Widescreen, Special Edition, 2PC) $9.99
  • Road to Perdition
    (Widescreen) $7.99
  • Risky Business
    (Widescreen, Anniversary Edition, Deluxe Edition) $14.99
  • The Untouchables
    (Widescreen, Special Edition, Collector’s Edition) $9.99
  • Proof
    (Widescreen) $14.99
  • Chicago
    (Widescreen) $9.99
  • Wayne’s World
    (Widescreen) $7.99

Cool Tools Wish

Images, Music, and Words

How to Enter to Win a Wish!!

You can enter via blog comment, tweet, or blog post.

To Enter by Comment: Leave a comment here with the name of the wish package you would like to win.

To Enter by Twitter: Tweet out the following message: “RT @lizstrauss please grant my wish to win the #Sears (package name) – tweet to win your own wish http://urlbrief.com/1aba4d”

To Enter by Blog Post: Write a post about the contest and linking back to your post. Be sure to leave a trackback or a comment linking to your post.

Good luck with the contest, and I want you to win a wish too. I got a chance to meet some wonderful people, to remember what wishes are about, and how fun they can be.

Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish — and if you get a chance, tell a wishtory of how someone made a wish come true for you.

And remember there’s only one rule: BE NICE!

My Wishtory

Some cool kids — real celebrities — are telling their wishtories over at Sears.com
Mine is simple. You’re looking at it — my blog.

My Dad didn’t give me a chance to visit his saloon … he showed me the meaning of community.

Every holiday card I write brings back thought of those wishbooks, and I sign most with hope that all of our wishes come true. This year SEARS didn’t just give me a gift, SEARS granted me a wish of my childhood … one that I’d never, ever that would come true. That’s me, sitting with the lighted reindeer, thinking I’m probably not the right age for next year’s Wishbook cover, but knowing I have the feeling they’re going for.

Thank you, Amy, for coming with and getting these pictures for me.

If you want to know more about Sears Gift Cards, that’s here.

The preceding was a sponsored post. For more information about the sponsor SEARS or the contest see Izea.
It’s the spirit of the season!! Thank you.

Beach Notes: Do You Acknowledge Your Greatness?

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

Last Friday in a strategy session I was asked what it was that people saw in me that would have them want to work and engage with me. I was stumped.

While we were walking on the beach I discussed this with Des.I said I know that people find me helpful and inspiring. I have written and illustrated a book emergings – a meditation on the emotions of change, which Liz launched for me at Blog World Expo, and which is inspiring people. I have received many words of praise.

Why is it hard for me to acknowledge this? Des asked whether there was some social conditioning at work? I think that could be right.

Many of us have been conditioned from an early age not to think too highly of ourselves. I am no exception. I am just surprised that after all these years I stil have to work on this. A work in progress.

Looking at myself,

sometimes realize

I don’t see in me

the gifts and talents

the way others do !

Do you see in yourself what others see?


This is Liz’s special page from the book, you can see Liz claiming this in the launch video

Suzie will be doing a special Xmas launch of emergings as an e-book on Tuesday.
Suzie

Thanks to Week 164 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

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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Dad's Workbench: A Dad Blog
Ewa in the Garden
Fashion Grail
The Floating Frog

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.

deep purple strip

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

Why I Like to Know Who’s Following Me . . . Extreme Twitter Personalities

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Not everyone who does these things is a faker, some are just learning how things work.

Before Twitter got to be such a phenomenon, it seemed only the natural thing to say “hello” and follow back folks who followed me. Every person was an opportunity to learn more about the dynamics of the blogosphere, who hangs out here, and how the conversation really works.

When business conversations came to Twitter it became even more. Client relationships are being formed and forged there. New products ideas are being born there. People are finding jobs and recruiting people fill job openings. Opportunities like that get people talking and that got more people Twittering. It’s almost an explosion of fast and furious growth. Fast growth always has it’s problems — on the people side of Twitter one of those problems for me is how to sort the fakers from the followers.

Who’s Following Me?

You may have bumped into them, the Extreme Twitter Personalities. I’ve seen my share. Some follow you so that you’ll follow them. Then they disappear hoping you won’t notice they’re gone. Some do more nefarious things.

Because we talk about who we are and sometimes say personal things, such as where were going or who we’re with, I like to know who’s following me. I follow almost everyone who follows me, but I check them one at time. I use these traits to watch for Extreme Twitter in my Twitter Stream.

The ones I notice first do of these things:

  • The GAMER — sends an auto Direct Message that says “Thanks for following me! … ” It asks me a question or to click a link. When I try to Direct Message a reply, I find out that the person is not following me. The gamer never has an interest in learning about the other person.
  • The CLUELESS — sends an auto Direct Message that says “Thanks for following me! Would you tell me, how did you find me?” I followed this person because he or she followed me.
  • The MURDER MYSTERY WRITER — follows 2000 people without a tweet. I was feel like I’m in slasher novel where a group of people have been invited to a weekend at a mansion where there is no host. I suppose this could a silent listening account.
  • The SEX SELLS SHILLER — has a sexy picture and a tweet or two about how I can make a six-figure income. Again this Twitter usually has a girl’s name with Candylim12 and is following thousands. She’s a friendly girl with lots of accounts.
  • The TWITTER TROLLS — talk to people who don’t know them or jump on sentences out of context to criticize or pick fights. The controversy the cause, though entertaining at first, is a waste of time. They do it for followers and attention.
  • The INFORMATION FONT — only passes on links to things people might want to read — the links come too quickly for the Twitter to have checked them out.
  • The BROADCASTER — has a home page filled with tweets with his or her own url.
  • The RETWEETER — reads links that others tweet and passes them on, hardly ever talks. This is a service.
  • The INTERNET MARKETER — only tweets about why people need his or her product.
  • The MAGPIE — puts ads in an already overly chatty twitter stream.
  • The ROMANCER — quickly switches to IM to try to talk about personal romance ideas.
  • The PARTY TWIT — Can’t spell on certain occasions and parties every night.
  • The LIVE TWEETER — wants you at the conference too and seems to be at a conference every day.
  • The CAT TWEETER — tweets as if channeling animal he or she has bonded with.
  • The STALKER — is this square box avatar is following 1, 2, 3 people only.

    • The NOOBIE — Could be doing almost any of these things by accident.

Keep in mind that Twitter does have its glitches and beginners don’t always get everything right from the start.

What makes Twitter so fun and useful is that connects people to converse about almost anything … my guess is most of us have been a few of the above on a given day. And we’re all extreme to someone who thinks far differently from the way we do. Twitter seems to have room for all except those who cause danger or harm.

Some I hope I’ll never be. Some I block right out of the box. Some I wait to see if they’re just getting started. I’m grateful when noobies say so in a tweet so that it’s obvious what’s going on.

If I’m not sure about someone, I usually

  1. look at who’s already following them
  2. ask someone who might know
  3. or do what @KurtScholle told me he does.

When something looks just a little off @KurtScholle told me his solution is to keep a file called Twitter to Consider when he’s not sure whether he wants to follow back. Great Idea.

What other Twitter Extreme personalities have you found? What’s your response to each?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Image: ADOdesign

7 Things About Me Then for Marc Meyer Now

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I’ve tagged by my friend Marc Meyer. He’s made it clear that the time has come for me to reveal my deepest, darkest 7 secrets that he might or might not want to know. I’ve this once or twice and so the challenge goes deep to bring up something that I’ve not revealed before.

bloggy tags small

For this round, I’m going to travel back in time to the early years … we’ll look at how them fits in with now.

1. The early years: I was born about 85 miles from Chicago in a town of 20,000 people. We lived on a wide street in a quiet part of town, but our house was backed by the Illinois River. So I never had a rule that said, “You can’t cross the street,” or I’d never been able to go anywhere. I grew up to get a job that let me fly around the world every year. Some kids who had that “don’t cross the street rule are still living there.”

2. Age 5: My Kindergarten year book says that all the kids in my class were Pat Boone fans by I was a fan of Elvis Presley. My teacher writes of how surprised she was the day this painfully shy child got up and sang “The Good Ship Lollipop,” the way that Elvis might have done.

3. Age 6: “Be home from school by 4:30 was another rule.” School got out at 3:00, and I walked about 2.3 miles. I should say I could have walked it in that. I tried my best to take a different route whenever I might. Maybe that’s why my problem solving never seems to happen in the usual way. I don’t think or walk in a straight line.

4. Age 7: I used to draw huge murals on the long graphite bar at my dad’s saloon. Everyone who came in talked to me, and though I was shy, it was my job to talk to them. Drawing made it easy to have something to talk about. To this day, I’d rather talk about what I’m working on that talk about how I am.

5. Age 8: I spent my summers in a town of 1300 people staying with my Aunt. The town was so small was like a living city made just for kids — we could wander wherever we might want. I had a whole set of friends there. One was my “summer boyfriend.” We knew that was the case because we had a “boy’s fight” in the street. We fought because he wouldn’t be nice.

6. Age 9: My best friend Craig and I put on carnivals and plays all summer in my yard. We had penny games and gave out prizes that were things my older brothers donated to the cause. The neighborhood was filled with kids so we had an audience.

7. Age 10: The first grade teacher enlisted me to work with the first-graders who were having trouble learning to read. That became my job at the school until I left when I was 13. I actually worked at another school doing similar things when I was in high school too.

In later years, I taught at a dancing school and was an art director at camp for kids who have emotional, behavior, and severe learning disabilities.

There you go. I guess a lot of me then is still showing up now.

I pass this challenge along to my dear friends
Amy,
Richard,
Lucreita
Kathryn
Chel
Robert
Karen

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 12-12-08

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

davidbullock has been thinking about where our content turns up without us.
Let’s face it. You can’t control the creation and distribution of user generated content. The tools are available and the web is too big to police it all. So what is a business owner to do?

Embrace it. Yes, embrace it. And work to really understand the mechanics of the web and social media.

Small Biz Survival has been thinking about how keep our businesses going and growing.
Ready for some help with your business? You can research online all day, read every book, even talk with friends and family, but sometimes you just need another experienced business person to sit down with you, face to face, and work on improving your business. No matter where you are, odds are that you are in the territory of some free business consulting sources.

Amrit Hallan has been thinking about manners and manners of doing business.
Being polite is good in general. One should always be polite. Politeness can be an invaluable asset to you if you work as a freelancer. But where do you draw the line? There is a big difference between being polite and being obsequious.

Catskill Cottage Seed has been thinking about who we are.
What does it all add up to? All this social media activity with our interactions and our presence across multiple platforms (or stages as I like to think of them), to what end

Related ala carte selections include

Shtikl

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