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A Symphony and SOBCon: Are You Part of Something Bigger than Yourself?

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A Symphony in My Head


There’s a song in my head.
I heard it first quiet in the night at my computer.
Then it came again when I woke.

It never really left me.

It began … looping in and out of days … over two years ago.

I considered it an insignificant melody,
a memory tracing, some forgotten top-40 wonder.

Until I asked … until I tried … until I found …
no one, not anyone, could
recognize it, identify it … hum along,
then I knew.

It was mine.

Not a song, but a score.

When I claimed it, it grew
louder, broader, deeper.
It transformed into a symphony, with horns, woodwinds and strings.
I hear the most delicate and the most booming percussion
with a triangle and an ever-changing, but not-so-different drum.

Yet a symphony in a person’s head is hardly an idea.
It’s colors and rhythms that move hands and words.
(maybe feet when it’s certain no one’s looking.)

It’s still a thought.

To be a symphony it needs
a composer to score it
an orchestra to express it
an audience to participate and receive it …
and a conductor who understands
the music, the instruments, the players, the audience,
and the meaning of intentional serendipity.

A symphony takes breathing and doing
and more than one human being.

A symphony is expertise, artistry, community, and trust made real.

NOTE: When the symphony is playing, I might add room for a little thinking
about possible choreography for occasions when no one’s looking …
or even those when they are.

It’s true I have a symphony in my head. It started as we planned SOBCon07.
And it’s still playing louder, longer, stronger as we plan SOBCon again.

It has me thinking about the phrase “conducting business.” Somewhere inside that phrase is the idea of turning leadership from one to many. A conductor leaves space for the expertise and decisions of the players who know their instruments. Likewise in business, a leader steps back to let many people and their relationships — clients, developers, buyers, sellers, teachers, learners — come together in the best ways. Leaders produce something bigger any one person.

Maybe that’s why that symphony started playing right before SOBCon.

To build the conference, we knew we had to give ourselves over to the people who would be there. We had to step back and leave room for the many relationships — speakers, attendees, sponsors, signers, site managers, bartenders — that come together in the best ways to produce something bigger any one person. We designed it so that attendees would have as much time to talk each other about the ideas — as they did listening to the speakers. We trusted that every person in the room would bring expertise.

People who knew the value of working together were the ones who came to sit at our tables.

The first year we became “an awesome event.” The second year, we began teaming up together. We talked about and tackled real problems. We’re partners, teammates, and coauthors. We’ve entered joint ventures. After we left, we still call each other for support and advice. We still meet, talk, and Twitter. This year we’re coming back with more to offer to each other and every person who joins us. We only have one rule: Be Nice. But we also like it if you’re serious and you come with trust.

And I personally plan to bring more than anyone else in there — including my dearest friends, Mr. Starbucker, Ms. VanFossen, Ms. Piersall , Mr. Clark , Mr. Smith, Mr. Solis, Mr. Bullock, or even my poptart partner Mr. Brogan.

I’m also bringing a special guest … who said he’d help me.
Don’t worry, it’s a fabulously GOOD secret.

Because a symphony is a challenge to bring all that we are. And I plan to be playing with every bit of my head, heart, and purpose.

Every great event, every true community, every well-run business is a symphony, isn’t it?

Ever been to the symphony? Every played in an orchestra? Ever done anything like that? Are you part of something bigger than yourself?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

YES WE DO! How Will You Begin?

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Hope They Do Too

Last night at Open Comments we were sharing quotes. I came across one I like so much I posted it on Twitter as well. This is it.

Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.
–Sigmund Freud

RobynMcMaster responded by sending me this: @lizstrauss You said “Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” It gave impression you were inspired to write poem.

and so for Robyn, for Lucretia Pruitt, who surely would have written far better sonnet had she chosen to, and for all of us, I did.

YES WE DO!
When, in wonder of new life in my arms,
I looked upon my sleeping son,
And called angels down to keep this heart unharmed
To hold him whole, what fate might come.
Passing time finds a boy to his full height
Earth-tied like me, his world light years from mine.
Far from my mom’s eyes on me at night
Audacious hope harbored also in her mind.
When I think upon changes in that short span
I forgive the broken promises and loved lost prizes
And hear a two-year-old’s “YES I CAN!”
From White Houses to world spaces of all sizes

The awe of “YES, WE CAN!” is “YES, WE DO!”
Hope lives in places where they love their children too.

–E Strauss 01-21-09

Success requires work to realize that hope.

How will you begin?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Jack Frost, the Lights, and What My Dad Taught Me

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When the Frost Makes the Lights

It was 21 below out west of Chicago.

My dad was born in 1907. He left home when he was 12. He got a job fixing shoes 70 hours a week for 50 cents. He roomed in a small house with a man and his sister. He did chores for his food and rent. When he was seventeen, he found a job working in 700 degree heat, silvering mirrors. It didn’t pay much, but it was work. On the day that Prohibition was repealed, my dad was 24. He and the guy who took him in opened the saloon this blog hails back to.

My never talked about being poor or cold. He told stories mostly about people and how they think.

Think smart, work hard, and take care of folks who need. He didn’t say those things. He did them.

I look at below zero temperatures on my iPhone, and I think of people like my dad who had, and have, life so much harder than we do. Can you imagine? I’m grateful for the heat I’m feeling. It’s been a while since I saw frost on my windows.

But I remember real frost and the frost that was just inside me.

I remember my dad and I looking out windows at how Jack Frost made the lights beautiful.
I’d look in his eyes and see those lights and myself reflected back at me.
I’d see what he was living for and what I was living for too.

Here’s what my dad taught me.
Own yourself and you own your life.

Head, heart, and seeing your light.
The frost can make the light beautiful.

Don’t let a little hoary, cold, frost stop you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

A 5-Step Plan for Work in a Time of No Jobs and 25 Services that Could Be Sold Separately

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At times like this, you don’t need to be unemployed to need more money coming in. All of us have higher costs than we did a few years ago. My assessment just went up by $100 / month. It does that every year. How we approach this thinning cash flow is important to our future situation. It’s hard to be saving when the bills are growing faster than the income.

The answer used to be to find a job, but finding a job in a recession could take more time than we have available.

So I suggest we find work instead.

Here’s a 5-step plan for doing just that.

  1. Identify a problem everyone has … lack of time might be one.
  2. Choose a subgroup that knows you and your skills … let’s say, your network of business bloggers.
  3. Look how you might use your time to improve what they offer … find a problem or a wish they have in common that you can solve or make happen
  4. Package that problem or wish as a reasonable offer … be able to explain why it’s smart, appealing, and incredibly easy to hire to for that small thing you offer.
  5. Ask them to refer you to other folks who might benefit from the same offer.

and here are 25 services that could be sold separately

  1. True up my social media profiles.
  2. Keep follower lists up-to-date.
  3. Monitor the social sphere and clip posts.
  4. Set up interviews and guest posts.
  5. Update old content.
  6. Rewrite old blog headlines for more power.
  7. Identify archive posts that could be revised.
  8. Suggest and gather content for an eBook
  9. Develop a plan for a newsletter.
  10. Update and organize the pages in my sidebar.
  11. Make a blogger’s press kit.
  12. Write a Wikipedia page about the blog or the blogger.
  13. Shoot a video interview.
  14. Clean up the old code on my blog.
  15. Suggest a new color palette and header for an existing design.
  16. Research photos.
  17. Research trends and topics.
  18. Try out tools.
  19. Find and fix broken links.
  20. Delete dead content.
  21. Organize an editorial calendar.
  22. Set up a file system.
  23. Make a blog post like this into a slideshare presentation.
  24. Update my plugins.
  25. Suggest entries for a link post around a theme.

Most of the folks I know can’t afford a VA or a full-time assistant right now, but they could use some help on a discrete task or two on this list. If you chose those things you quickly and well, you price these tasks attractively and folks would feel good about the improvements you made.

I’m thinking of quite a few. I’d like to hire someone to do — one at a time. Are there other services you might like for you blog?

It’s good us and our blogs. It’s community-centered goal. How might we get some folks back to work this way?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Inspiration When You’re Not Inspiring

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Be Productive

Puppy

In a perfect world, I might find every day motivating. I might wake up inspired and inspiring, filled with energy and energizing those around me.

It’s hard to do some days, especially on Mondays.

But I’m learning. . . .

I don’t think I’ll ever hit the ground running when my uninspired self is in the building. I’m learning not to force things. When I push myself to be more than I’ve got with me, I somehow start pushing other people and pushing over things.

When I’m uninspired I walk slowly, make room for big thinking, and do something to improve while I wait for the idea machine. Accomplishing one thing — a clean space a new blog post — can be incredibly inspiring.

How do you get inspiration when you’re not feeling inspiring?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Image: GeekPhilospher – free photo

Social Networking in Another Culture that Speaks a New Language

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Ask Someone

The Living Web

Most folks find meeting new people and learning new situation stressful in some way. Yet, to keep moving forward, we have to be the “new kid who doesn’t know anything.”

And it’s not always timely or convenient. Just as we seem to know everyone, we turn a corner — online or offline — that takes us where it seems like we’re social networking in another culture that speaks a new language.

Are you like me? I become the proverbial “lurker.”

I find meeting new people in groups overwhelming. I stand on the sidelines hoping that folks’ll meet me instead. I take up observing rather than taking part. Observation is a start, but it’s not a great place to settle in. If everyone is doing the same thing, the middle of the “room” can be awfully empty.

I know better. I know situations are easier when I ask someone how things work.

If only I could remember that I don’t need to learn EVERYTHING by doing it wrong first.

Where do we find that networked, traveling, bilingual, cultural expert to help us hit the ground running on whatever new terrain we’re embarking? He’s everywhere. So is she.

The world is filled with smart people who answer questions. The trick is not to make the situation overwhelming and to learn little bits not tackling huge things. If we only ask each person one question, we can get a little education with out stressing any one of them. We’ll also get lots of tricks, techniques, and points of view to help us through the new situation. In no time we’ll be socially adept, culturally comfortable, and fluent in the new language, and someone will be asking us the questions we now have.

Whatever it is you’re trying to learn or conquer, don’t just watch. Wonder. T
Then ask a question.

Will you learn something small this weekend?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
The first eBook is coming . . .