We can talk about tie dyed shirts, bell-bottom jeans, kids with names like “MoonBeam,” hippie transportation, and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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My friend, Ilker, has sent me a challenge as a writer. It’s one that appeals, because not too long ago Lisa Gates remarked at how my writing style has changed over time. The challenge Ilker sent was to select five original must-read articles that I wrote throughout history (so to speak).
Ilker’s challenge meant spending a while digging through the 2000 posts on this old blog. It was reliving the time I grew up here. I saw faces of the people who’ve passed through these posts and the so many others I considered including.
Who knows how and why I chose these that I did? I guess it was a bit sentiment, a bit practicality, and a bit of “oh why not?”
Without further ado, here they are.
been. Those who develop and mold original ideas are the new “killer app.â€
So there they are. Every one from over six months ago — a look into the past. Now I’m wondering what’s in your past? Are you still saying the same things? Will you share too?
Kirk, CK, Mike, Ann, Dave, Rick, Jeff, Chris B., Susan, Seth, and everyone else reading, which five posts would you pick from your history to share today?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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forgiveness.
I’ll take a risk and say something revealing.
All of my life, I’ve been, next to my dad, the most forgiving person.
And then I think my father had a little extra forgiveness tucked away for me.
That’s not to say. I can’t be nasty, or blind, or even selfish. I suffer from every distinctly human trait. Some more than most.
I just can’t keep an angry state. I have this overwhelming sense of hope. I can’t help but see another side besides my own.
I don’t know that all of this giving and forgiving is a good thing. I know it’s come back to bite me. I’ve the marks to prove that’s so.
Can one person be too forgiving? My head tells me that it could be a fact.
My heart tells me “no.”
I like my heart’s answer best.
SIMPLE SALES SERIES
We don’t decide what is a great product or service. Customers and clients do. If we what we do well is what our customers value, it will sell. In my publishing job, I said this over and over . . .
It’s not a good book, if it doesn’t sell — at a profit.
Customers decide whether our offer is better than any alternative. They let us know by how they vote with their money. Our job is to make an offer they find attractive, knowing full well that we cannot coax or coerce them to behave.
While I was publishing, I spent a great deal of time talking to customers who used my products and to customers who did not.
Most marketers would recommend that you find out how folks are using your “stuff,” what they like, what they don’t, what they wish for, and what other “stuff” they like just as much or better. They would suggest that you especially find out why folks who aren’t using your “stuff,” aren’t using it. I did all that — but only about 10% of the time.
The other 90% of the time we talked about THEM, not about my “stuff.”
That’s how I got to my recipe for a product that sells. It’s the recipe I used when driving the strategy of the company we turned around.
Listen actively to understand the outcome they prize. Find the patterns in what they say.
Every bit of the development is about how the features of the product or service benefits the customer. Add to “How are WE doing?” the additional question “What drives YOU crazy?”
How do you find customer needs customers that aren’t being met? Are you your own customer? How might you use that in your favor?
I’m really interested in informal ways we get customers to talk about their experiences.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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My son, at age 5, used to sit at a little table on landing that overlooked our dining room. He called it his office, and his office had rules. Like any good office manager, he wrote them down, so that people would know what to do.
Visitors to my son’s office could read each rule in big printing on a separate signs. One had a misspelling that was too charming to correct. These are a few that I remember: Be nice to each other. . . . Don’t take stuff you don’t need. . . . Tell mean people to stop. . . . Write neatly.. . . Do things in order. . . . Don’t yell. . . . . and Water the planets.
(Maybe it wasn’t a misspelling. He sure liked the planets when he was five.)
The signs were so marvelous, I asked to borrow them. I took them to work, and at our next team meeting, we discussed what they might mean. How much fun was that?!!! We got to remember how kids view the world. We got to apply our kid-like reasoning to the complex issues that grown-up work brings.
Throughout that week and for weeks later, when we problem solved issues, we would use the vocabulary of my son’s office rules. We would say, “Do things in order,” when we meant follow the plan. We would say, “Water the planets.” when we meant pay attention to people, or details, or the conversation at hand. Every time we would laugh.
We were a bunch of grownups pretending we were kids playing grownups. It made the whole thing a delicious conspiracy of getting things done.
We can change the world, just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I call it hilarious. Susan made a movie in JibJab by you.
Click the picture to see the results.
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Susan, it’s excellent! (My husband agrees.)
Chris looks a little like Antonio Banderas. Don’t you think?
Big smiles,
Liz