Successful Blog

Time, Details, and Being Bent

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I've been thinking . . .

being bent.

I know a few things about myself . . . I know that I’m not always such “a prize.” When time — a true sense of urgency enters in and details begin to pile up — I get focused on answers and moving things forward. It’s at those times, I try to be extra nice, because I don’t want to be. What I want to is get things done.

It works something like this . . . I focus on the tasks at hand, but people who know me, aren’t used that. So they expect me to be my usual laid-back self. When I call and ask for a few minutes, they say how busy they are. I get confused. I say I only need a five-minute answer. I hear their whole schedule.

I feel put in a box — made less — by people who don’t have time and don’t remember that I always have time for them.

Right now with SOBCon, I have many things to handle all lined out and organized. I only have exactly enough time and bandwidth to get it all done. Some folks started to help then faded away. I know we all can’t give a lot.

The irony is that ones who don’t have time for a quick question are the ones I’ve helped the most. So I’m doing something wrong, because I would hope they would know me the best.

Have I talked too much at them? Have I not have been respectful of their time in the past?

I’d sure love to know what you see. Straighten me out. Would you? I’m obviously bent.

Liz's Signature

Bloggy Question 77: I’ll Never Get There Alone!

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And Not Think About Motives

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . . .

A friend of yours is beginning her business. She’s got a great plan and most days she’s totally focused. But like most people, especially us on the Internet, she sometimes gets overtaken by all of the messages around him that say “do this, do that, do what I say to be successful.”

You tell her it’s merely a case of keeping at what she’s good at, being focused, and expanding on her circle of influence, but she keeps getting off track — following trends and fads without knowing why. She seems to have this perception that everyone who talks about making money actually is and that she’s years behind.

She’s got a business coach, a life coach, and you as a friend. Yet about once a month she seems off track again, saying something like “I’ll never get where I’m going. I wish I could find a good mentor.”

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Bloggy Question 75: Stop Thief!
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Bloggy Question 72: And in a World Where Thinkers Meet Feelers
Bloggy Question 71: Blogging by Candlelight

On a Saturday Night, Thinking about Life Inside Your Computer

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I've been thinking . . .

about life inside your computer.

It’s a lovely place to be, really. I’m not ‘whelmed with messages from the Internet. Your computer is a nice buffer for me. I get to read what you write on its own merit — each piece one at a time, at my leisure. No feeds get to where I hang out deep in here.

Sometimes, it’s even quiet.
Inside your computer everyone’s words look the same. Every name is simply a bunch of letters. Buzz words and marketing messages don’t impress a CPU so they don’t bother to invade these spaces.

But your conversation sings and echoes.

That’s my favorite part of being inside your computer. When I least expect it, you’ll send a message my way, and I’ll get to be part of a whole new phrase of imaginings and ideas. Excellent thoughts happen then. Once in while, they stay long enough that I think to share ’em. . . . when I don’t forget to remember. Sometimes I forget, because the next thing I just as interesting as the last.

Life is very cool inside your computer.

I sure like being part of the business of your life.

Thank you for having me.

Liz's Signature

Invest One Day of Experts to Be a Winner?

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SOBCon08 I’m There!

Planning a conference is a lot like planning a wedding reception. Everyone thinks, “Oh it doesn’t matter if I RSVP.” But business is about being able to make a decision. We made our decisions. Can you make yours?

Would you invest one day of experts, models, and teamwork to build your business around your strengths, your situation, and where you want to be?

Success is a decision.

Karen at bestwellnessconsultant [@] gmail [dot]com has volunteered to help coordinate a list of roommates for those who are looking.

Southwest has come great airfares. They also require a decision.

SOBCon08: Stop the Noise, Drop the Details, DECIDE YOUR BUSINESS

SOBCon08: Business Is Decisions

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The $350 Is Going Away April 1

SOBCon08 logo

Now that the details are set and the wheels are all rolling in the same direction, I’d like to bring you into some decisions as we make them. Later, I’m planning to share how the SoBCon08 came to be as it is and the future we see it unfolding.

We need to put an April 1 end date on the $350 registration fee for the folks who came to SOBCon last year.

The reasoning is simple. We care about the event and the experience deliver. We know what made it awesome last year. We were after the best wifi, a business venue, a location downtown, reasonable hotels, and a way that we might “hang out” close enough together.

We succeeded.

As in last year, our goal for this event has never been to make uber profits, but maybe you should know that every person attending, speaker, sponsor, Terry, me, and all participants cost us $300/head in fees.

Why are we doing it?

  • We know that behind every great business are three things, great people, great tools and models, and solid decisions. Models, masterminds, and mastery is what builds dreams.
  • It’s not for the money. Truth is, though, we’re getting a fabulous deal. We’re just passing the price onto you. (A business markup would put this conference cost at $900+.)
  • We made a decision to built something better than last year and deliver it to you.

You’ve watch exactly how making decisions and getting determined has put my business on concrete. Isn’t it this the year you were going to do the same thing?

Are you up to the challenge?

Drop the Details, Decide

Planning a conference is a lot like planning a wedding reception. Everyone thinks, “Oh it doesn’t matter if I RSVP.” But business is about being able to make a decision. We made our decisions. Can you make yours?

Would you invest one day of experts, models, and teamwork to build your business around your strengths, your situation, and where you want to be?

Success is a decision.

Karen at bestwellnessconsultant [@] gmail [dot]com has volunteered to help coordinate a list of roommates for those who are looking.

Southwest has some great airfares. They also require a decision.

SOBCon08: Stop the Noise, Drop the Details, DECIDE YOUR BUSINESS

Seriously
Liz
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

3 Reasons I'm Sorry I Joined Doostang . . .

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Too Secret for Me

You must guess how hard I tried not to write this. I sat down, turned around, wrote several emails, found their blog and asked for help. . . . But I also think bad practice is bad practice and bad service is bad service. I don’t want any more of my friends asking their friends to get involved with a service that seems only to serve itself.

It all starts with an invitation that reads something like this . . .

I’ve requested to add you as a friend on Doostang, an invite-only career community started at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. You can use Doostang to find a job or internship, network, and access valuable career information from peers and industry professionals.

Who wouldn’t be curious about something like that?

3 Reasons I’m Sorry I Joined Doostang

Harvard, Stanford, and MIT . . . pretty enticing. Some great things have some out of those schools. Some folks who have gotten nowhere have also started in exactly the same places. But most folks who go there are smart in some way — eh?

Inside Doostang are networking opportunities and job listings — some are open to all; many are open only to members of certain “professional groups.” There in lies the rub. To be considered for membership in one of those groups, a member must

  • complete a profile
  • enroll 20 new members in Doostang
  • AND request to join.

Note: The new member cannot see much more than the group’s name. There may be a slight description, but you’ll find no qualifications for membership, no viewable list of members, no sample of jobs that they’re hiding behind their membership.

The invitation above touts the core value they offer, but the rules are that you deliver your value to them before they deliver that core value to you — if they do.

Who’s serving who?

Reason 1 — Secret Meetings

I invited 20 of my friends who joined. Then I applied to four “professional” groups — two I cared about. I was rejected from all four of them. What appeared was single sentence that stated simply your application was rejected — no details were given. No sender is anonymous. The qualifications needed are stated nowhere. There was an invitation to contest it.

I went to the forum to check that out. There I found a thread which said that nearly everyone gets rejected from every group! The information came from a Doostang team member, stating that each group decides who will fit the qualifications of the jobs they offer. I visualized a secret meeting in a secret room. I would quote what I read and link to it, but I can’t (see reason three.)

Reason 2 — Secret Club

I took up the offer to reapply to two groups, pointing out my experience in the given areas. I was accepted. The jobs weren’t as exciting as one might expect.
Many of the job listings use that phrase “top-tier school” as a qualification. Guess that would exclude Truman Capote, Bill Gates, and Matt Mullenweg, all of whom left that path to make their own success.

Unfortunately, some highly qualified friends with deep educational credentials and visibly successful careers did not have the same reapplication success. My friends feel “taken” because they shared their high level contacts only to be treated this way.

Perhaps being rejected was more of an honor than getting in?

Reason 3 — Secret Locks on the Door

While there. I wrote roughly 3 emails asking to start a conversation about consulting possibilities regarding jobs that were offered. When I got no response from all three. I decided to sit back to watch how things worked. I watched for what seems a month.

About 4 weeks ago, I was greeted with this screen.

Doostang

I waited two days thinking it was a cookie or cache issue or software issue at their end. Nothing. Then I wrote to one of the founders, an address I had from helping a friend with an earlier issue.
I said . . .

Hi Mareza,
For two days now and no apparent reason, Doostang no longer recognizes me.
My user name and password don’t work and my email is not recognized.

I find this a serious problem. Can you help me resolve it?

Thanks!
Liz

After sending it a second time, I got this reply:

HI Liz,

Forwarded it along thanks. Not much more I can do from here.

Cheers,

I wrote a comment on this post at the Doostang blog on February 28th — it’s still in moderation. You can see it there.

Nothing’s changed.
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UPDATE: ONE THING HAS CHANGED. They took down the post on which I commented. Someone from Doostang also visited my Linked in profile. Still no one attempted to contact me about this matter.
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They have my contacts. I apologize to my friends to whom I sent invitations. I hope that your experience is better than mine.

Harvard, Standford, MIT . . . top tier on the Internet?
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UPDATE dated April 02, 2012: Please read read the blog post Doostang Today: An Apology – Better Late Than Never written by me and Jeff Berger, CEO of Doostang, which was acquired and reorganized last summer.
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