Tickle this
What was that thing I was going to write about? It was a great idea. A blow-your-socks off insightful bit of brilliance. If I could just remember what it was. I was driving somewhere, I think. Heard something on the radio that made me think about something I knew would make a great blog entry. Or maybe I was watching television? Or maybe it was at the beach last week when summer dropped in just to tease us. Now here it is Tuesday and I’m a day past when I wanted to post and I’m pressed for time because of deadlines and I’m tempted to push it...
read moreWriting in vivid color
The creator of the world’s thinnest wallet is getting ready to release his first infomercial. It’s a big step for the Big Skinny, which up until now has largely been sold at shows and on the Internet. This sort of mass exposure has incredible potential, so every detail has to be just right. Take, for example. For this ad, there are just two: luxurious tuxedo black for the daring, dashing and discerning customer and comfortable chocolate brown, for the steady, dependable, let’s just hang out sort. It would have been easier, and just as...
read moreBloggers beware – legal issues lurk
One of the best things you can do as a blogger is to share content that you come across on the web. You will find things that could be of interest to your readers, or you might see something that illustrates a point you want to make. In general, bloggers are happy to have their content disseminated by others and you will likely be thrilled if other bloggers pick up your posts. However, although it seems sometimes that it’s a free-for-all and technology makes it easy to cut and paste, the laws still apply. You can still get in trouble...
read moreWhat’s Holding You Back?
I often here from people that they’ve launched a blog but they’re not updating it as often as they think they should. I’ve also come across plenty of blogs that haven’t been updated in months. It makes me sad when I see one that was off to a great start and then it just stops. Why does this happen? There are lots of reasonable explanations. We run out of time. We run out of ideas. Other things are more important. The real question is whether your first answer to why the blog isn’t updated as often as it should be is the real answer. Is...
read moreI don’t get no respect
Do business bloggers suffer from Rodney Dangerfield syndrome? Getting “No respect, no respect at all?” Yes, according a recent survey of ten well-read bloggers by the Ten Company and Gotham Research Group. These bloggers working for top tier national, regional and trade outlets said they believe that chief executives don’t take them seriously enough. They said there is a lack of appreciation for their power and potential influence. They also said they feel that companies are slow to respond and public relations staff are too controlling. As a...
read moreJust Blog It
I had a great time presenting a workshop this morning at the Enterprise Center at Salem State University. Thank you to all who came and are now stopping by the blog. I was impressed with all the great ideas for blogs, as well as the overall energy in the room. I’m really looking forward to reading what people come up with. Of course any idea is only as great as its execution, and you could have the best blog in the world, but if it remains locked in your head, it won’t do you or anyone else any good. In order to help unleash that...
read moreWhere are we going? Are we there yet?
Which of the following statements is true? Blogging is fun. Blogging can change your business. Blogging can change your life. Blogging is overwhelming. Potentially, they all are. There are millions of blogs out here in cyberspace, but many are dormant, dying or dead. People start and stop. Companies put up a post or two and then get swept up in the daily grind that doesn’t include the love and care of a blog. The one thing that is definitely true is that you will get no more out of a blog than you put into it. I believe that you can...
read moreGoal Play
Paul Levy has a lot to say about leadership. After all, he’s had plenty of practice as the head of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority during the harbor clean up and as head of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center when it came back from the brink of demise. His ideas are sometimes counter intuitive and often a radical break from conventional wisdom. And yet, they work. In breaking up the traditional strangleholds that cripple institutions, he creates an environment in which people are able and eager to do their best work. All of...
read moreIt’s just silly
In an effort to boost my creativity and to take life a little less seriously, I recently signed up for an on line drawing class called “Silly 5” offered by Carla Sonheim, author of Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists. She uses classes like this to sort of trick people into learning how to draw. Although the assignments are to do silly things like drawing your feet without looking at them or to draw elephants hanging on trees instead of leaves, you are learning to observe more closely and improving your eye hand coordination without even...
read moreDoodling and noodling
Some days the stories get stuck. You know what to say, but not how to say it. Or worse, you’re not even sure what to say, you just know you have to say something. You could stare blankly at a blank screen. You could go eat a quart of ice cream and run around the block ten times. But sooner or later you have to actually put letters together to form words that form sentences that make some sort of sense. When this happens and you can’t or don’t want to put off the writing, steal a technique from the art world and start...
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