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Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About What You Think

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That Couldn’t Be Us Or Could It?

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I share a joke with a friend in California. It’s like a script. It goes like this.

I call him up. He answers.

I say, “Hi, Eddie, how am I?”

He replies, “Oh, you’re fine. What do you think of me?”

I tell him he’s wonderful.

Then he says, “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about my sweater?”

That’s when we laugh to think that we’re not like the people who actually do that.

This morning at Poynter Online something made me realize how it is to do what Eddie I joke about.

Butch Ward gave five New Year’s Resolutions. It’s number 2 that brought this thought home to me. His second resolution was talk to your readers. My thought was I do that. He offered fine advice on ways to engage in dynamic conversation. Then Mr. Ward made a suggestion for this New Year’s conversation . . .

Don’t ask him what he wants you to put in his newspaper or on his news broadcast. Instead, ask what he does. What she thinks. Then you decide how your newsroom can be more relevant to their world.

That’s when I realized it.

Those standard, customer-survey questions sound like “What do you think of my sweater? What do you think of ME?”

Sure, we need to ask how we’re doing, but those can’t be the only questions, or we’ll never know our readers.

Authentic values aren’t revealed by survey questions.

Relationships and understanding come from listening to what folks want to talk about — dreams, desires, unexpressed needs and wishes — what they find marvelous, annoying, heartwarming, concerning, breathtaking. At least, that’s my experience.

But hey, enough about me. Let’s talk about what you think.

What do find worth spending thoughts and words on?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

The Mic Is On: Do you Remember the Time When. . .? What’s Your Favorite Family Story?

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

open mike night

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.

What’s your favorite family story? You have several, don’t you? They are each as different as a snowflake.

We might also talk about

  • what happened this holiday season that will become a repeated story
  • our most embarrassing story
  • stories that make us roll on the floor laughing
  • how our memories differ from those of our family members

AND THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey, and Milton the Skinny Moose.

Snowflake

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
The Mic Is On: What’s Your Favorite Food?

NBC Don’t Change My New Year’s Eve Plans!!!

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Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Now, I’m no great football fan, but I know a thing or two about people and plans.

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The game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers has been changed from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night.

This from the NBC Sports Website
The Chicago Bears will host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football on NBC, Dec. 31, in the final flex game for the 2006 season.

[ . . . ]

NBC’s coverage starts with Football Night in America at 7 p.m. ET. Kickoff is at 8:15.

During Week 17, the decision to move a game-time start can be cut to six days — the league has said the idea is to aim for a night game with playoff implications. Only games originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon are eligible for a swing to Sunday night.

Did no one care that Sunday night is NewYear’s Eve?

What about . . .

  • the folks with season tickets who have other plans?
  • the folks who’ve spent money on romantic evenings?
  • the woman I just heard crying on sports radio about her wedding that was planned for after the game with her family of football fans?
  • the guys who planned to propose in grand fashion that evening?
  • the people who wanted to watch the game that afternoon with their families?
  • the folks who had plans to attend and now can’t?

Who was NBC choosing for? In 1968, NBC chose to cut the Super Bowl to start a movie. That disaster is now called the Heidi Game.

I find this decision beyond “business amazing.” It’s stunning in it’s thoughtlessness. It asks the audience to change their life at NBC’s whim. The rules say that they can do this. Just because they can, doesn’t make it a good idea.

Please help me understand this. I’m truly baffled here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Do You Know the Difference Between Quality and Cost?

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When Quality Is Wrong

I've been thinking . . .
Writing, designing, tweaking anything, we work to bring what we do to the highest level. Who decides what the highest level is? Who determines the definition of quality? At first we think we do.

But we don’t.

The customer does.

If the customer can’t see what we add, it’s not quality.

If the customer doesn’t value our additional tweak, that’s not quality either.

If the customer doesn’t want that bell or that whistle, we may have gotten her way, we may have actually taken something from him.

If the customer can’t tell shades of blue as well as we can, we may have just made the customer wait.

In each of those cases, we weren’t adding value by investing our time what we added was . . .

COST.

What’s really silly is that some of us will sit back and wait for a thank you, a thank you that will never come from customers who want what we called quality. Thanks come so much more quickly when we give our customers something they want.

I don’t want a new chair. I want this one fixed.

Liz's Signature

SOB Business Cafe 12-15-06

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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 title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Marketing Profs is explaining why everything old is new again.

Creating Passionate Users suggests that we innovate on our own model.

The Copywriter Underground points to something unconventional and asks whether it could be a trend.

Who's Writing Next Year's Blog?

Resonance Partnership discusses a trend most folks are hoping will die out.

Attention - Are Your Children Blackberry Orphans?

Attract More Customers points out three reasons people miscommunicate.

Seth unveils the magic and mystery that is the difference between being an Apple and owning a Dell.

Brand as Mythology

Related ala carte selections include

Lorelle on WordPress has a challenge. Help her compile the list.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Being Smart by Accident: Why Living Your Brand as a Writer Is Everything

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Every Choice IS the Story

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In 6+1 Traits — Word Choice, I make the point that we cannot talk without talking about ourselves. The words that we choose to express what we mean also reveal things about who we are and our world view.

The same is true about every choice we make. What we bring to each choice is our experience as a person and a writer. Therefore, each choice we make reflects who we are in a most telling way. Our writing and how we present it says more than we sometimes imagine. That’s why we need to internalize what we stand for, what we value and offer as an entire story. In other words, as a writer, a business person, someone people read . . .

It’s crucial to live our brand to communicate clearly.

I had this brought home to me by a reader, TS, this week. Choices I unconsciously made affected how he saw, not just this blog, but blogging in general. I’ve included an excerpt from his email that tells the story. . . .
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