Successful Blog

Everyone Is Having Marvelous Day

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Before the Day Is Fully Conscious

When the first bit of morning comes to visit, I’m hardly awake. I walk in the dark to the kitchen. Still, I have an intention, an aspiration ready and waiting. I think about it before I go sleep.

Sunrise before the day is fully conscious

I will have positive things happen. I intend. I mean. Intend to make my a positive life. Positive things make a life light free. I mean to fill my life with them. I see. I will. I see no reason that why I cannot be or do what I set out to be or do. I will be someone who changes the world one person at a time.

The word intention literally means stretching toward. The word aspiration means breathing toward.

I intend to aspire to bend my knee and fly higher. I intend to become more and then imagine even more.

The possibilities are as big as my heart, as unconditional as my love, as generous as the rain. — Aspire

I wish those ideas into my head and my heart even before the day is fully conscious. When I succeed, everyone around me notices they’re having a marvelous day.

What will you stretch toward, breathe toward, today?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

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SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Reading Is My Life

insideout logo

We all learned to read and kept on reading. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. I went on to learn about readers and literacy — how folks interact with text and ideas became my field.

Knowing about reading is a tricky thing. People think that because they can read they must know how it all works. Just underneath the surface are secrets they don’t realize . . . Why would they, unless readers have been their customers for years?

I’m going to share those secrets with you.

The 7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

Ever been to a great restaurant or club where the mood is right; the service is grand; and every offering is spectacular? When the whole experience comes together in just the right measure, we leave a place already thinking about when we’re going to go back.

Written information, when it’s presented well, has the same effect. It’s a great fit that’s so satisfying, we’re thinking about the experience as a whole and the feeling that we came away with.

These secrets have been researched with every age group from pre-school to graduate school and every reading level from pre-literate to way over my head. But I know you’ll know they work, not because I said so, but because when you read them they will totally make sense.

  1. Be interesting. Be entertaining. Be silly. Be informative. Be controversial. Be anything but preachy or boring. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN tell. You DO know. Take the time to look. If you don’t, you’re lost before you start.

  2. Be simple. Put away the big vocabulary words and the long sentences. Only use that incredible word once in an entire piece. Elegance is understated. Impact is quiet. Take away all of the words you can without losing meaning. Extra words get between your message and me.

  3. Be positive. Know what you’re saying and show me how to get to a positive end. No one wants a problems without a solution. No one wants to live every day reading about doom. Think about how you invest your time with friends . . . do the downers really get more than the ones who help make your world better?

  4. Be trustworthy and respectful. Be who you say you are. Deliver on your tagline. Make sure your headlines tell the story of what you write. Answer comments. Most of all, know what you don’t know and invite your readers to share what they do.

  5. Be consistent. Let folks know what to expect of and from you . . . and in like manner, what you expect of and from them. Every relationship is based on an exchange. Readers and writers exchange the same way. It’s okay if folks don’t like one of your features, if you are consistent about how you label things or when you offer them, you make it easy for folks to get to the content they appreciate.

  6. Be readable. Make sure that every word you write is readable without distraction in every browser that your readers use. Configure your content to serve readers. Some folks get confused and try to do it the other way around.

  7. Be generous and satisfying. Care passionately about what you write. Care even more about the folks who come to read it. Know that readers want to like you and what you write, just as diners want to like the chef and the food in a great restaurant. Let us look smart. Let us help. Let us feel important, connected, and a part of what you’re doing. In other words, make readers the stars.

Readers and a writer work have a relationship like diners and a chef. Only part of that relationship is what is served up from the menu, the rest is the experience. Every successful chef . . . writer . . . first grade teacher knows that.

That’s how we’ve been getting folks to come back for years.

Got more to add to the list? I’m thinking you do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

The Single W Seal of Approval

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Can we talk about . . .

a seal of approval.

No, I’m not advocating that anyone be a “people pleaser.” For goodness sake, I just wrote yesterday about the incredible influence of being a 65th Crayon.

A comment on the post about saying “thank you” to folks on social networks got me thinking. Here’s the part of the comment that Rob Scott left . . .

Sending thank you notes is a good idea. My grandma would definitely approve too – and there’s not much on the internet that she would approve of!!

It’s not about Rob’s grandma, or my grandma, or that fact that I’m old enough to be someone’s grandma — even though I’m surely not. It’s about how the world has changed since we’ve gone from an alphabet that had one W to addresses that have three — www. It’s also about how, though the world has changed, people have stayed mostly the same.

So I’m thinking about the question and I wonder if you’ll think with me.

Be it my dad (born in 1907) or your grandma, or any hero you know from the era of the Single W . . .

What on the Internet would get your hero’s Single W Seal of Approval?

I’ll go first. You can find my answer in the comment box.

Liz's Signature

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The Mic Is On: We're Talking About Comfort Food!

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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.

You know, those foods that make us feel good . . .

Here’s a few ideas to get us started:

  • Macaroni and cheese
  • milk and cookies
  • Grandma’s treats
  • foods you can’t find
  • childhood delicacies
milkandcookies.jpg

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 about comfort foods to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Let's Talk About Comfort Food . . .

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Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

Join Us Tonight

You know, those foods that make us feel good . . .

We can talk about macaroni and cheese, cookies and milk, Grandma’s treats, foods you can’t find
childhood delicacies, bangers and mash, hot tea, soup, and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.

Oh, and bring links about comfort foods that you want to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

How to Own the Incredible Influence of a 65th Crayon

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65th Crayon Portrait

When I was little, I used to play with crayons. They were like people to me. In some ways, crayons helped form my philosophy of life. Now sometimes I think of people as if they are crayons. For me, the metaphor works. I see — the Needy Pinks, a Bossy Blues, or the occasional Frail Gray ones.

Those folks don’t get much of my time. When they tell me what to do, I don’t really listen no matter how loudly or sweetly they speak. That’s because, at the end of the day, they’re always trying to move me to do something for them.

People who are centered on themselves are like broken crayons to me. They’re not as much fun to work or to play with. It’s kind of sad really. I don’t think that most “broken crayons” are particularly aware, or particularly selfish on purpose. They seem to be trying to hard to prove they have a right to be here.

I’ve been lucky enough to have the privilege of knowing a Shining Silver. One day I hope to be one. The Shining Silver is special in that she knows herself well, and she’s about everyone else.

It’s always a pleasure to do whatever she asks. That’s incredible influence.

In that way, she’s a 65th Crayon.

How to Own the Incredible Influence of a 65th Crayon

What’s a 65th Crayon? Why is one so influential? A 65th Crayon is someone who is one of a kind, who thinks individual thoughts. Some folks call it being out of the box. Well, of course, a 65th Crayon would be out of the box — only 64 come in the box.

You need to live seven key ideas to own the incredible influence of a 65th Crayon.

  1. A 65th Crayon is self-sharpening.
    It is, and always will be, sharp enough already.

  2. A 65th Crayon isn’t about making a mark or proving it’s smart.
    It doesn’t need to make a point, to get a point, or to point out anything.

  3. A 65th Crayon isn’t about drawing lines.
    It blends and balances other colors, coaxing out their vibrant shades.

  4. A 65th Crayon doesn’t worry about fitting in the box.
    A 65th crayon is the perfect size to fit in the whole world.

  5. A 65th Crayon is unique and thus precious like every crayon ever made.

  6. A 65th Crayon cannot hide. It’s colorful personality gives it away.

  7. A 65th Crayon may get misplaced, or shared, but it is never lost.

Influence comes from understanding that we’re all different, that we all come to our conclusions on our own. Incredible influence comes from knowing that it’s always about the other guy not me and that we all feel like the one left out of the box now and then. Turning that feeling into a good thing is a spectacular outlook to live by and model. That’s what a 65th Crayon does so well. Who isn’t attracted to that?

In the end, who do we listen to? . . . I listen to the ones who assume the rest of us crayons already know how to draw.

Are you a 65th Crayon? What other crayons have you known? Go ahead. Have some fun. Give them a a colorful name.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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