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Have a Strong — Even Silent — Signal to Rise Above the Noise

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This week was week of the same conversation. Clients — businesses and individuals — were stuck in the noise. They had lost or never found their signal. They didn’t know who they were trying to be. I kept hearing about folks being everything for everyone, doing everything that everyone could need.

When I’d say, “So what, who, does that make you?”

The answer came back in a passel of words — mushy and undefined — unfocused and noisy. The answer was really. “We’ll be whatever, whomever they want us to be.”

They were floating without direction, changing ideas with every shiny new thing. Wandering aimlessly. What they couldn’t see is that no one else has the information, inclination, or time to do the work for them. To the rest of us they are so much noise with out signal.

We all have too much noise. Road traffic, little hassles, things that break and don’t work as they should. What we look for in the people and businesses that attract us is a clear signal of who they are and what they do. That let’s us know that we can count on them to be what they say they will be.

All winter the tiny crocus only does one thing — gather nourishment so that every spring it can show us outstanding flowers. A crocus knows what it does and it does it beautifully — without saying a thing. That strong purpose — that signal — makes the noise around crocus fade into irrelevancy. People who love crocuses know them, seek them out, and bring them home to their gardens and their fields.

Have a strong signal and rise above the noise.

What’s the one thing that you want to be known for? What’s signal sets you above the noise?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Social Bookmarking to Manage Your Online Presence

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Are Your Bookmarks Working for You?

The Living Web

Are you reading more and enjoying it less? Are you voting up links that you haven’t read as a favor to a friend? Has the social part of social networking overtaken the information exchange that once was there? Do you race to read headlines and never finish the post that they name?

How many thousands of links do you suppose are recommended on SU, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious? After you put one there how often do you go back?

Chris Miller brought up a great point . . . Social Bookmarking: The Race to Be Famous or a Useful Tool?

Did you / will you go read Chris’ post or just take my word?

We don’t try to see every movie. We don’t try to read every book. We know that life isn’t long enough for that. But for some reason, many of us seem to think that we need 700 feeds and to bookmark them all for thousands of friends.

I’m learning that the best use of bookmarking sites — to manage my reputation and focus my efforts — is to capture information I want to keep.

I’m only capturing to a specific list of criteria.

  • I capture information that I know will be useful for a project or a proposal that I’m working on or about to write.
  • I capture blog posts that I hear myself quote in conversation, because I know I’ll want to find them again.
  • I capture well-written articles that change the way I think about my work or my life.
  • I capture anything that makes me think, “I wish I (wrote / thought of) that.”

You might note, I didn’t say that I capture things because they were written by a friend.

This change in my bookmarking behavior has made a significant difference in two critical aspects of my online presence.

Reputation Online reputation is made of everything we put under our name. Now what I bookmark naturally reflects me. When potential friends and clients visit my page they see something that is consistent with who I am, what I do, and what I’m working on.

But even more . . .

Focus I’m more focused on my business goals. I don’t spend time on information I don’t need. I find that I read more carefully what I choose to read. I also stop to think about why I bookmark what I capture and keep. Sometimes I only clip a quote. Sometimes I keep an entire piece. I even think about where I put things based on the people who use that list.

I’ll still vote up your work, if you call to my attention things that match my goals, values, and who I am.

What do your bookmarks say about you? How might you use them to manage your online presence more successfully?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Decision or Choice: Is the Difference Stealing Your Focus and Your Time?

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Possibilities and Direction

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You walk into an ice cream store. So many flavors sit in the case before you. You consider or you know right away. You place your order.

You have a meeting with your boss only to find out that the job you love is likely to be gone in six months. You have an opportunity to take a higher position in another state or you can stay in the city you love with a fair certainty that your job is going away.

One is a choice. The other is a decision.

One is about possibilities. The other is about direction.

Decision or Choice

Whether we’re thinking about sending a child to private school, where to go on holiday, or buying office supplies, every day we opt for one thing over another. Sometimes we’re choosing. Sometimes we’re deciding. Doing one when the other is called for can get in our way.

Do you know the difference between a choice and a decision? Consider what the words mean and how that might apply to your business and your life.

The Definitions [via Answers.com ]

  • A choice is a selection from a number or variety of options.
  • A decision is reaching a conclusion or passing judgment on an issue.

The Etymology — History of the Words [via Merriam-Webster Online,]

  • Choose — Etymology: Middle English chosen, from Old English cÄ“osan; akin to Old High German kiosan to choose, Latin gustare to taste
  • Decide — Middle English, from Latin decidere, literally, to cut off, from de- + caedere to cut

Synonyms [via Thesaurus.com]

  • Choose — (definition select) — accept, adopt, appoint, call for, cast, co-opt, commit oneself, crave, cull, decide on, designate, desire, determine, discriminate between, draw lots, elect, embrace, espouse, excerpt, extract, fancy, favor, finger, fix on, glean, judge, love, make choice, make decision, name, opt for, predestine, prefer, see fit, separate, set aside, settle upon, sift out, single out, slot, sort, tab, tag, take, take up, tap, want, weigh, will, winnow, wish, wish for
  • Decide — (definition determine) adjudge, adjudicate, agree, award, call shots*, choose, cinch, clinch, commit oneself, conclude, conjecture, decree, determine, elect, end, establish, figure, fix upon, form opinion, gather, guess, judge, mediate, opt, pick, poll, purpose, reach decision, resolve, rule, select, set, surmise, tap, vote, will

When we choose, it’s like picking an item from a menu. If we come back the next time, we can make another choice. But a decision, cuts off — kills — other options. By its very definiton a decision is a turning point.

Is the Difference Stealing Your Focus and Your Time?

Decisions and choices build our character, form our life path. They’re the sum and substance of what makes our resume and our business success. Even so, what is a decision or a choice for you, me, or anyone is, in itself, a decision or a choice.

How we handle decisions and choices deeply affects our lives.

  • Do you angst over every choice as a life-changing decision? Take a look at what you’re investing — time, energy, stress — and what you’re investing in.
  • Do you avoid clear decisions by treating them like choices? Take a look at the options you’re holding onto and how they’re holding you in place.

Those two mistakes steal time and focus and often generate stress.

The difference is fairly simple.
A decision marks a direction.
A choice marks an option until we return to choose again.

How will you use this information?

It’s your decision . . . or your choice.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related:
When Is Being Good Not Good for Business?
7 Ways to Carve a Path to the Future of Your Dreams
How to Know If You’ve Lost Track of Your Vision