November 2007
SOB Business Cafe 11-30-07 →
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
Everyone take a second to click through to vote for Glenda today! Bookmark the site and keep voting. Let’s whether we can put her in first place. We’re awfully...
Bloggy Question 69: If You Could Be Anywhere . . . →
If you could be anywhere, be anywhere, do anything, this very minute …
No problems, no repercussions, no harm to anyone or anything,
Where would you be?
Why there? Has the answer changed in the last few years?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles Bloggy Question 68: 2 Palm Trees, You, Me Bloggy Question 67: Doors . . Bloggy Question 66: If I Gave You a Yellow Rose Bloggy Question...
How to Receive a Compliment Without Being a... →
Most Folks Have Been There
It was a one-person project and one you fell in love with. You put your heart in it and delivered beyond expectations. The project was elegant. Every minute you worked meant every detail came together with the highest quality.
This morning you presented it to the executive time. Just now, the president of the company came up to you in front of your coworkers and...
Business and Life: Are You Making the Most of the... →
Which Conversations Are Important Too!
In the world of business, it takes an action to make something happen. Watching rarely gets anything done. A conversation is a great place to make things happen. Yet, many of us seem to be missing out.
Where do you fit in the conversation? Are you a lurker, a listener, or a participant?
If you’re a lurker, you’re getting the value of the information....
B.A.D. Bloggers, Leah Jones and Jeremiah Owyang on... →
Bloggers About Dialogue
Ask a blogger why he or she started blogging and it’s likely you’ll hear that it had to do with sharing a wealth of knowledge and finding an audience to teach. I enjoyed a conversation last night with a blogger who had been blogging for 5 years and she told me that she started for every same reasons. It’s information sharing that gets us here. But it’s the conversation...
The Mic is On: We’re Talking about Gifts →
It’s Like Open Mic Only Different
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...
Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We’re Talking about Gifts! →
We’re Already Thinking about Them…
We might talk about gifts we gave, gifts we got, gifts we had to take back, gifts we wish we never got, and gifts we re-gifted.
Oh, and bring links to share!
The rules are simple — be nice.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related article What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
Share This
3 Easy Steps to Persuade a Quality Blogger to Link... →
Linking Relationships
The blogosphere is a web of connections made by links from blog to blog. The strongest relationships and the links that last longest are those that are made between bloggers.
If you want a link from a blogger you’ve not yet met, you’re really asking for a vote of trust. The link I give to your blog or your blog post means that I’ve tied my name to yours. Naturally any...
You Have to Understand . . . No You Don’t →
Who Am I Talking to?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot.
I’ve been listening to when I say,
“You have to understand.”
I’ve been listening to when other people say that sentence too.
You have to understand… . No, you don’t.
Truth is, no one “has to” understand anything anyone says anytime anyplace at all.
Yet, even more amazing is that often when the sentence, “You have to...
Holiday Shopping 2007: The Business of Matching... →
Buying Is a Business Skill Too
They call today, Cyber Monday, the busiest shopping day on the Internet. Folks in the US, returning to work after the Thanksgiving holiday, realize that the shopping window to the holidays is limited and that the sales have officially started.
We seem to be getting the hang of this online shopping thing.
Forrester Research says this year’s sales are...
Positively Me →
about those sentences in our heads.
They were useful once I’m sure — those sentences in our heads that tell us how to act and who we are. But some of them are woefully past their “sell by” date and still they play over and over. It’s time to stop paying attention.
Just because it made sense once to raise my hand before I spoke… .
Just because someone had a different idea of what’s...
Dots of Wonder and Light →
Connecting dots with The Idea Dude
This week’s dots are about children. Ergo, it is about intelligence, curiosity, wonderment, humour, determination and everything they do so naturally. They are the best dots.
Dream like an 8 year old
Matt over at The Digital Perm started me on this theme. He says, That is why kids just rock. Everything is possible.
Be curious like a child
Pam reminds...
Personal Identity: Who Are You Really? →
I Would Agree
Last night at a gathering, I had a conversation with a woman who had decorated the condo in which we were enjoying the evening.
She said, “My passion is home decorating, but my real job is … ”
She saw the smile that crossed my face and asked about it.
I wondered back why she thought about herself and her life that way. I said, “Just because right now you spend more...
Surviving Explosion, Implosion, Meltdown and Other... →
Fine Memories or Forgettable Mess?
On this busiest shopping weekend, phone purchasing something can be a fine memory in the making or a most forgettable mess. We change how folks act or what they do, but we get to choose how we think about it.
Surviving Disasters of the Holidays
Yes, Virginia, it can be done. We can get to the New Year with our Joyful Jolly still fully functioning. As...
Thanks to Week 109 SOBs →
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.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better,...
SOB Business Cafe 11-23-07 →
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
Creative Think brings news that Various studies suggest men and women have differently structured neural networking possibly due to early exposure to sex...
Change the World: Think Our Way Out of the Box →
We Make Our Reality
It’s only sensible that we make our reality. What we perceive comes through the filter of what we have experienced before.
When I used go home to visit my family for holidays, every trip was a stress. I felt they didn’t see me.
Families have a way of bringing us back to our “role” in the group dynamic. I would return telling people how my siblings thought I was still...
Generosity and Gratitude →
In this universe
so much larger,
infinite and spectacular,
filled with wisdom.
filled with wonder …
We want,
we worry,
wander searching
for meaning,
for beauty and for connection.
We reach. We find our hearts, ourselves, each other.
Our lives are connected by beauty, meaning, and generosity.
Generosity and Gratitude
are inseparable, as lifelong friends...
Gratitude Is Sticky →
Something in Every Job, Every Person
If you consider the people who truly light up a room, to a person they are always people who are quick to see value in others.
If you smile at such a person, she’ll smile back in a way that shares the smile and gives you all of the credit. You’ll hear a “Look at you!” or a “Wow! How you made my smile brighter!”
It’s about more than giving thanks.
Deep...
Working Smart or Working Away the Time of Your... →
Whoa! Look around us!
Everyone is so … busy. We’re almost can’t see each other.
We’re juggling, talking, typing, scanning instead of reading, talking instead of thinking, putting off time with our family and friends. We all know so much about productivity, goals, keeping connected, and following our passion to build the business that we love. It’s enough to make a brain shut down into...
How to Think Like a Millionaire and Be What You... →
Congratulations! You’ve Won!
How would do if you won lots of money?
Most folks who win the lottery don’t do so well. The headlines shout out their stories.
8 lottery winners who lost their millions
Britain’s biggest lottery winner says jackpot ruined her life
Lottery winners often make bad financial choices
Lottery Winner Loses $114 Million In Four Years …
Most lottery...
Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We’re Talking Turkeys and... →
That’s Right, We’re Talking Turkeys and Millionaires
We might talk about people we’ve met and read about; people we may have dated; times that we ourselves have acted like either turkeys or millionaires, and then, of course there’s which one our family thinks we’re most likely to be?
Oh, and bring links to share!
The rules are simple — be nice.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related article What is...
The Mic is On: Yep, We’re Talking Turkeys and... →
It’s Like Open Mic Only Different
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...
Change the World: It’s Millionaire Day! →
Feel Rich and Appreciated
When I lived in Austin, I worked for a company that had a strict matrix for how merit performance increases were allowed. To say that in plain English, in an effort to be fair — or was it to control the budget? — the company had a chart showing how monetary increases would be “done fairly.”
I don’t remember the exact merit increase chart, but the matrix looked...
25 Days to Organize a Blogger’s Life in Time for... →
Problems, People, Paper, and Plans
I looked at the calendar this morning. Roughly 6 weeks stand between me and the end of the year. I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions, but I love the feeling of new beginnings when everything is cleaned up, put away, and ready to rock. On the other hand, I don’t like to make work, especially at holiday time. So this morning, I’m putting together a plan...
Blogger Relationships: A Meeting of the Minds →
about how our minds meet.
This week I met a blogger friend at an event in Chicago. We have a common geography. His thoughts live in places where my thoughts had once had a home, and he went to the same high school my brothers’ kids did. We are the same kind of shy, but I might have talked too much for him to notice.
He told me he tended not to mix at a gathering of strangers. I told him that...
The Importance of Dots →
Connecting dots with The Idea Dude
Can you imagine a life without blogs?
Life would go on, there is no doubt but I would imagine it would be with a heart a little less warmer, a mind a little less inspired, a life with one less dimension and a lifetime with one less connection…
It makes us smarter, quicker
Mike says it makes him smarter - quicker. It amazes me the number of technical...
Free Spirit: Are You One? →
about spriritual freedom.
Free spirit. What a curious term that is.
I suspect it’s like glamour and greener grass, only found where the speaker is not.
I’ve been called a free spirit.
When I hear someone say that, I immediately relate to the spirit … I’m still looking for the free.
I can’t think of any free thing that doesn’t come with an investment. Even sitting in the...
More Pollyanna Than Pollyanna →
“See the prism! See how it breaks the light into a rainbow?!!! Raindrops do the same.” It’s such a Pollyanna world view. When my mind offers me thousands of nuances, why would I choose any but the most beautiful? It seems that the times I do are times that I’m off-balance, off-center internally. It seems at those times, I’m not thinking really about the world, but...
Kite Flying and Nobility →
And I Heard Him Say …
Only four years after college, my was diagnosed with only months to live. Then, my father took seriously ill. For a short time, it looked as though he was dying too.
In a restaurant, across the street from a Mayo Clinic hospital, my mother and I became friends with a waiter — a guy who was joyful, unique, and fully alive. His name is Paul. His eyes had depth...
Thanks to Week 108 SOBs →
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.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better,...
Blog World Expo: Internet People 3 →
The Energy Was Amazing
Bring out a bunch of bloggers and you’ll soon see a conversation get rolling. After all communication, information, and relationship is at the heart of every great blog.
Still on Wednesday night … I finally got a chance to speak with Des Walsh and Suzie Cheel. We’d been passing each other for days. They introduced me to Rich Brooks. Rich was interviewed earlier...
SOB Business Cafe 11-16-07 →
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
Logic + Emotion asks “Is the business world really ready to work a little differently? Evolve business models and offerings? Offer new solutions? Or will we...
Life and the Universe →
life, people, and the stars.
I look at the stars. I look at my feet on this planet.
My life. What is it?
Every bit of my singular life stands in my heart and on my head refusing any label I try to give it.
Those bits, those moments where I’ve been … they aren’t all of my life, are they? How could my life be what it’s been without the people who went before me, who lived around me,...
Interview 1.9: Andy Tilley, a Novel and the... →
Andy, What Do You Do?
Out in the desert in Algeria, Andy Tilley is finding it a creative endeavor to promote his first book. So he turned to the Internet and bloggers for support. We held a conversation via email about the challenge that posed. Andy has become a friend an penpal … as you’ll see the conversation is really about the author and the new blogger known as Andy Tilley and how he...
How Smart People Can Be So Dense, Difficult, and... →
Thinking about What I Think About
It was Valeria who challenged me and Joe who challenged her. The challenge was simple enough. Choose something that I have a negative response to and find a way to give my view a new spin … think “different” … change the way we’ve thought in the past.
When she put forth the challenge, Valeria said,
I tag Liz Strauss at Successful and...
Blog World Expo: Internet People All Have Cameras →
I Found One and Took It Back
If you go to a blogger meet up that involves more than yourself, you’re likely to find at least one camera in the group. Actually it could be two, couldn’t it?
Cameras of every sort were in use at BlogWorldExpo. A camera or two got pointed at me now and then. I even found one on a bench left behind when designer, John T. Unger, headed off to a session. I returned...
Change the World: Put Yourself in Your Work →
It Makes a Difference to Know
Yesterday I was in a business meeting with some spectacular human beings who own a digital animation company. We had reached that point at which our conversation turned to contracts and a formal relationship about the work that we would do together.
As we spoke of who, how, what, and how much, one young man excused him and left. He’d gone to find a single sheet...
The Ageless Project: David Wilkinson →
A Problogger in His Teens
by Keith Dsouza
Did you think that age could deter you from blogging? Did you think that a 13 year old only can accomplish things in school?
Well lets break the myth today. Blogging is ageless.
David Wilkinson has shattered any idea that blogging is restricted by age… .
David Wilkinson, a 13-year-old blogger from Manchester, England, was born on...
The Mic is On: Nick Schmidt, Video Blogging, and... →
It’s Like Open Mic Only Different
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...
Blog World Expo: Internet People 1 →
How Cool Is All of This?!!
If I said it once in Las Vegas, I must have said it a million times — no I don’t exaggerate … much — still the point is the same, blogging is NOT about writing, it’s about the people. The people are who bring the ideas, who give an event life. The halls are quiet and desolate without the people walking in them.
Will you visit a few with me? I thought I’d check...
Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Nick Schmidt is... →
That’s Right, the Famous Vlogger, Nick Schmidt, Is Bartending. C’mon In
You might talk about favorite barroom pasttimes, games, and conversations; pick Nick’s brain about video; talk about what we’ve been doing; discuss which flavor of Klondike Bars we’ll be having, and start a pool about what time Liz might actually will show up …
Oh, and bring links to share!
The rules are simple — be...
Outstanding Question From An Outstanding Mentor →
Guest Post by Alex Shalman
Liz and I go back to about mid-march of 2007. I had just launched a donation contest, and asked Liz to participate. Her initial reaction to the contest was that it was transparent link bait, and she was a bit annoyed. I immediately apologized for offending her, she saw past it, and the rest is history. I now consider Liz one of my best friends, and feel like I’ve...
Looking Up from Under →
Take the choice about where we look and what we see… . I used to be ultra-sensitive to a feeling of when I needed to get out from under. Being under was a stifling location, claustrophobic and limiting. As I think on it, those limits were merely my inability to spread my view and take in the beautiful detail of where I was currently standing. Under can be a learning place and a place to...
Authenticity Is Sticky →
In a World Where We Are Blind
We wander in a world of humanity. We can’t see intent or motive. We only see the words and acts that a person might care to reveal. Are they true? Are they an act?
That reality makes authenticity so vibrantly attractive … in the 3-D world and even more in this virtual one.
When we consistently speak with authenticity, people hear the person behind the...
Open Comments Tomorrow! Want to Be the Host? →
Do I have a volunteer to act as host?
I’ve been called out for a spectacular meeting.
I know that you folks can hold a conversation without me here.
So, I can invite you to be the host until I get home around 9pm or so Chicago time.
Or I can move it or call it off … seems a bit drastic.
What would you do? I leave at dawn in the morning.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related article What is...
Internal Links: What Have You Done for Yourself... →
Stronger Foundations
I was over at Dosh, Dosh last night, reading his post about building a popular blog. A point he made got me thinkng of a post of my own about successful and outstanding blogs. Linking the two together is a service to Maki, me, and our readers because it connects like information for like-minded folks. It’s also a way to show spiders how related we are.
When we add a...
Mondays and Futures →
about Mondays.
Mondays get me thinking about the future. I am moved out of this place and time. I think about what I am going to do, must get done, will accomplish, rather than what I am doing. Mondays are goal-oriented, live-in-the-future times.
Is that what causes the burden of Mondays? The entire future is larger than any one day should bear.
Would I live my Mondays with more joy and...
Remembering Dots →
Connecting dots with The Idea Dude
Remember when? reminiscing is something we often do. Sometimes it is with a friend, walking back together to a special point in time. Sometimes it is in solitude to replay a fond farewell, a sad passing or a victorious moment. Reflection stirs our souls, brings a sigh, a smile, a tear. We look to the mirror of our past to draw inspiration, strength and...
Bloggy Question 68: 2 Palm Trees, You, Me →
Reflection Is Good
Two palm trees, a great bottle of wine,
maybe some bread and cheese, me, and you …
What would we talk about?
Would it be music, books, blogging …
C’mon, you know we’d talk for days.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles Bloggy Question 67: Doors . . Bloggy Question 66: If I Gave You a Yellow Rose Bloggy Question 65: You’ve Always Had It EASY! RIGHT?!!!...
