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Are You Big Enough to Help Someone Become Greater Than Yourself

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

The ROI of Relationships — Steve Farber and Patrick Lencioni on “Greater Than Yourself”

The first thing I noticed when I met Steve Farber were these linebacker shoulders that appeared as if they could support the world. Then he said, “Hello, let’s get breakfast,” and the smile in his eyes and voice made me think of Butch and Sundance saying in the old movie, “Who is this guy?”

Steve Farber had been someone I’d wanted to meet since the second I’d read both of books, The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership
and The Radical Edge: Stoke Your Business, Amp Your Life, and Change the World
back to back.

The charcters in his business fables, one particular named Agnes, had become people, friends to me. Agnes had sent me on a quest to identify that single value that wrapped up all my values into one. She called it “finding your frequency.”

Now Steve has a new book called Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership. I’ve read that too and it’s set me on another quest how to change the world one person at a time through generosity of spirit and true leadership.

In this new fable Steve investigates the story of a note he found inside the case of a guitar he bought, He meets people who believe that raising others up above themselves is the greatest form leadership. It sounds simple: expand yourself, give yourself, replicate yourself. But the commitment to choose another person well, to offer over all you know and give access to is a huge and wonderful form of extreme leadership.

In the video below, Steve talks to Patrick Lencioni and Matthew Kelly — their story is told in the introduction to the book. You’ll find more about them and others on the Greater Than Yourself site.

Greater Than Yourself officially launches April 6th. It’s not only the fable, but also case stories and tools for starting your Greater Than Yourself project. Check it out.

Steve will be stopping in at SOBCon this year. I can’t wait to see him. I’ve already started working on my Greater Than Yourself Project. You can learn how to start yours by reading this book.

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

The ROI of Relationships: David Bullock Talks with Jay Deragon

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

The ROI of Relationships — David Bullock with Guest Jay Deragon

Until they heard him speak at SOBCon08, people thought David Bullock was the SEO guy I brought in to teach them about analytics. He changed their minds and their hearts by showing that analytics is about relationships with people. Listen in to what he’s doing now.

David will be back at SOBCon09. Can’t wait to see him there!

David Bullock explains the analytics and intelligence of social media at DavidBullock.com and now at Social Media Connection.com His Twitter name is: @DavidBullock

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Experience the ROI of Relationships

Sponsor Love: Buzz Corps and Allstate Join the SOBCon Sponsor List!!

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Sponsor Love Is Contagious

At SOBCon09 What fun to announce this! SOBCon09 has two new sponsors!!

My relationship with Buzz Corps started with track I managed for BlogWorld Expo. I asked Geoff Nelson if he would speak on a panel about the sponsoring deals Buzz Corp makes For, By, and With the community of Blogger. One of the first things he said to me was that he and his partner Chris Aarons are champions for bloggers because they believe they learn most of what they know from blogs. We got to know each other at Gnomedex and through the months after — Geoff, Chris, and Nick, their third partner talked to introduce our event. I’m thrilled Geoff and Chris will be joining us at SOBCon.
Their contribution will provide

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants
  • visibility and new conversations for Buzz Corps
  • Geoff’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Buzz Corps works with bloggers and perhaps how Buzz Corp might work with them.
  • A new kind of expertise brought to the SOBCon table.

Kudos to Beth Rosen who helped connect me back with Marcia Hansen, a woman I sat next to at BlogWell. Marcia and I got a chance to extend our relationship recently and now Allstate is sponsoring SOBCon. I’m delighted that Marcia will be fully participating in our event including

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants
  • visibility for Allstate
  • Marcia’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Allstate is using social media.
  • The Allstate entry in the “Show the Sponsors Challenge”

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

Thank you to our new Sponors!!

Thank you also everyone who took the Blog It Earn It!! Discount

If you don’t have your promo code, please leave a link to your post below (with your email in the form) and I’ll make sure that you get it.

We’re sincerely grateful to everyone who makes this such an incredible event!!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

That many incredible people make it incredible!!

Conference Time!

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I attended a Podcamp unconference over the weekend. It was so much fun. Not only did I learn from the sessions, which covered topics such as podcasting, metrics, and monetization, but I met so many wonderful people as well. The conference was a two day event with days full of sharing information and dinners and parties at night. It was busy and exhausting. In order to get as much out of the conference experience as possible I have suggestions that might be helpful.

 – take the time to say hello and introduce yourself to as many people as possible. If there is a person at the conference whom you admire, say hello.  Say hello to the person you’re sitting beside, the person who presented and the person in the coffee room. Chances are you have come across these people online and just may not recognize them. If not you’ve just made new connections!

–  remember the hallways, lobbies, and all public spaces in the venue. You’d be surprised how much networking occurs in these busy spaces. Hang around and introduce yourself to the other people hanging around there.

– remember business cards. I’ve asked this question a few times on Twitter and I always have someone say “business cards are obsolete”. That may be for someone who’s famous online, but business cards are like souvenirs for encounters. Make yours memorable. One of my favorites has a picture of the person and their url on it. Be generous in handing them out.

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It’s conference season coming up. SXSW is the big one that comes to mind and, of course, there’s the one we’re all looking forward to – SOBCon 2009. Plan your time there wisely you so you can walk away with a wonderful ROI in the relationships you create there. Are you planning on attending any conferences this year?

from Kathryn aka @northernchick

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photo credit: @SuzeMuze

Anita Roddick's "The Body Shop" Was Built on Relationships

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Dame Anita Roddick, Business As Unusual
by Gerald Neo

“The old views of business as a jungle where only the vicious survive will, I hope, soon be giving way to a new view of business as a community where only the responsible will lead. If yours values are heralded and if your heart is in the right place, if your feeling are recognized and your spirit at play, I believe there will be footprints out there for all of us.” –Anita Roddick — Business As Unusual

The late a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick”>Dame Anita Roddick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick) is one of those few business person whom I always admired. She had built a business empire The Body Shop not just on making profit out of producing cosmetic products but also an ambassador for fair trade, environmental awareness, animal protection and respect for human rights.

Anita had always being known for her campaigning work on social and environmental causes. And through campaigning, she had caused multi-national companies like Shell and government to take remedial action on the things which they have done wrong.

In one of her books “Business As Unusual”, she mentioned the following reasons as how The Body shop maintains their identity in a business environment that usually alienates humanity in every way.

  • We didn’t know how to run a conventional business. We had never read a book on economic theory and had never even heard of Milton Friedman.
  • We valued and respected labour as fuzzy and cuddly, nerdy as that sounds. We understood that life was no more complicated than love and work.
  • We had no money. Every original was based on reusing everything, refilling and recycling we could.
  • We were naïve. We didn’t know you could tell lies. That grace has stayed with us to this day.
  • We loved change. We believed everything was subject to change.
  • We had a secret ingredient called euphoria. We shared an extraordinary level of optimism, and we still do.

Finally – and this was the main ingredient – we couldn’t take a moisturizer seriously!

Anita had built every business relationship on those reasons. And those reasons had also become the foundation for the values, which every employee of The Body Shop used to guide them as they worked with each other.

In the ever-changing business world, companies can only be successful if the people running it are true to their values. And usually how are they being judged on that? It’s not based on their bottom line but how they maintain their business relationship with everyone from business partners, customer, vendors and even their employees.

Gerald Neo can be found at geraldheralds where he
writes about anything from leadership managment and organizational
managment to online marketing and social media.
His twitter name is @gneo

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

MinuteFix: Computer help is only a click away

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I’m pleased to announce that this week while I’m in the UK,

Phil and Diego will be hosting
Tuesday Open Comments
Come Ask Them Questions!!

Minute Fix and Diego Orjuela
Guest interview by Phil Gerbyshak

Recently I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes chatting with my friend Diego Orjuela, founder and CEO of what will hopefully the world’s greatest tech support company, MinuteFix. Full disclosure: I got to know Diego at the 2007 Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference, and have been working with him at MinuteFix since December of 2007 as the Customer Experience Officer.

I wanted to share this interview with the audience here at Successful Blog because a service like this can really help you out if you’re in a pinch working at your home office and you need tech support. If you don’t want to pay $50 or more to take your computer into your local computer shop, give MinuteFix a shot.

Without further ado…

Tech support from MinuteFix

An interview with Phil Gerbyshak and Diego Orjuela

Phil Gerbyshak: So tell me Diego, what is MinuteFix?

Diego OrjeulaDiego Orjuela: MinuteFix is the first provider of tech support that is powered by a community of experts. Think of it like a Geek Squad combined with the power of a community model like Wikipedia or eBay. Customers can get help for any computer problem, no matter how big or small, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. The service is very affordable, at only $0.99 per minute. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, our certified community technicians will do
their best to fix it. And, if we don’t fix your problem, the session is free.

PG: Wow, why didn’t I think of that? Seems like it could be very useful for anyone working at home or with a limited budget.

DO: Absolutely! Imagine you are at your computer and you are having trouble with a
simple task like downloading an image from the Internet. MinuteFix can help you complete such a simple task in a few minutes, which otherwise might have taken you an hour to figure out on your own, all the way to more complex issues like virus or security problems. One customer last week lost her entire iTunes music library. We were able to help her recover it, and get her on her way, saving her tons of lost time and money.

PG: I hear you guys are very big on customer service. Why is that so important to you?

DO: Well, we are a company built by a passionate community of technicians who love what they do. With tech support from MinuteFix, we empower technology experts to work from home, at the hours they choose. Because they do what we love, we can offer a superior service. We deeply believe that technology should help us to interact seamlessly with the people we care about, produce tremendous results while making us more productive – and not get in the way in the process. We are your friend, and maybe even our neighbor, so we want to treat you as that. All Certified MinuteFix Technicians are thoroughly screened and tested, and must pass a customer service exam. Great customer service is the foundation of MinuteFix. [Read more…]