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Finally . . . Move to WordPress

By on July 15, 2011 in Blog Coach, Books with 3 Comments

WordPress All-In-One for Dummies Book
After 5+ years, ConverStations is operating on something other than TypePad. On June 27, 2011 – with a post title Conception is Messy – I began publishing this site on WordPress.

When I first began this project in 2006, I chose Typepad as a platform for two reasons:

  1. Then, Typepad was easier for most business folks to use and update, and
  2. WordPress didn’t have the flexibility unless you knew code.

About a year ago, I decided that WordPress was a better way for two reasons:

  1. Now, WordPress is easier for most business folks to use and update, and
  2. with a plethora of themes and plugins – a more complete web presence is a few clicks away.

A few distractions and one great attraction later, and we’ve finally made the move.

Theme: I’m using the Standard Theme (aff link) by 8bit for its simplicity and its support, but it also fits the needs for most of the clients I currently work with. It’s so very easy and clean. Highly recommended!

Site Help: WordPress Hacks and WPBeginner were two sites I referred back to often and oftener.

Manual: The manual I used until it became dog-eared was the WordPress All-in-One For Dummies
(8 books in one volume).

I’m still not done. There’s plenty of links that need to be checked, images needing moved, and a category cleanup – but for the most part the framework is up and the inventory is in-house. I’ll share more on plugins I’m using and some of specific help-texts I found in the very near future.

I stayed calm knowing this: Before Organization is Disorganization. (Deja Vu?)

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Are You Talking Write? #TalkWrite

By on June 14, 2011 in Blog Coach, Books, Marketing with 0 Comments

Talkwrite A few years ago, The Age of Conversation launched its first edition. I was fortunate to be part of the league of contributing authors.

My piece pointed towards how writing for the conversational reader was changing. While much of this style of writing includes what I call Eye Rests, my thinking is we need to write conversationally, not compostionally, dig?

The writing is easier. The reading is easier. And by the similarity, you will be more easily recognized in both your talking and your writing.  Here's the piece that appeared in AOC I a few years ago:

Do You Talk Write?

Don't be nervous. It's okay. You don't even have to imagine your audience in underwear. It's not so bad, ya'know.  Just put both hands on the keyboard and start talking…with your fingers. Write like you talk and more people will hear what you're writing.

If you're hung up on the advice of your English teacher, get over it. Either he didn't explain right…or he was wrong.  Top Journalism professors have been singing the "write like you talk" mantra for decades. A few reasons why:

  • People are more likely to remember what you've written.
  • Because they remember it, they are more likely to share your thoughts with others.
  • We live in the McNews generation. We scan. Lectures don't sustain our attention – neither do long sentences.

Writing like you talk can also be a freeing feeling to those who think they are poor writers. Of course, writing is a muscle that improves with consistent use. Here are a few exercises to build up those muscles.

Get to the Point: You can always elaborate as you get into the story, but unless you want to lose readers…get to the point likkety-split.

Pause on Purpose: How do you punctuate a pause when you're talking? With a sigh? Maybe a single word. Hmmm…how can we put this in written form? Oh…we just did, yes?

Read Out Loud: We've all seen this exercise, but do we practice it? If you do, one of two things will happen. Either you'll write like you talk – or talk like you write. For the love of Shakespeare, let's hope it's the former.

Keep 'em Moving: Your words. Your readers eyes. Like they're standing in line at Starbucks waiting for morning coffee. Keep them moving forward or lose 'em.

Listen, when your readers tell you they can hear your voice in the words – you've hit the target.

Still nervous? Don't be. Remember, you can always imagine your audience wearing a clown nose or something.

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Writing With FastPencil

By on April 6, 2011 in Books, Cool Tools with 0 Comments

Inspired by Doug Mitchell's book The MultiThread Marketer (review coming soon), I started putting together archives of ConverStations into book form on FastPencil a few nights ago. Not all of the posts, just the best of them.

FastPencil makes it very easy to organize and publish your book to Amazon as Doug has done with his book. So I'm doing likewise.

At 22,000 words  and two years of archives still to go through, I might break things up into two volumes (one talk, one tech).

It's been so easy, Angela and I are beginning to work on a book together ("Extravagant Love: With Christ as Our Example") with plans for a late-summer publishing date.

More to come.

Maybe you should start working on your book, too.

 

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Ideas from Walking the Stacks

By on November 29, 2010 in Blogging, Books, Brain Stew with 0 Comments

2769705905_bcb5037345_m I love walking through bookstores and libraries.  Watching people browse titles, sitting and reading, or (ssshhh?) conversing over their favorite reads is always fun.

Yet, some of the best moments "walking the stacks" are getting ideas. And I do travel through every section.

Ideas jump out in so many forms

  • Book Titles
  • Magazine Headlines
  • Music covers and song titles
  • Tabletop games
  • Tables of Contents of all the publications
  • and new discoveries almost every visit

It's one reason why The Bookstore Lesson is among my favorite lessons.

What do you like best about "walking the stacks?"

Photos on Flickr by me

 

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Personality Poker: Innovating, Identifying & Improving Performance

By on October 28, 2010 in Books, Cool Tools with 0 Comments

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Add a third book to my "must-reads" for 2010.

Personality Poker by Stephen M. Shapiro is a combination text/tool that I've quickly embraced in several ways (more on that in a bit).

The book guides your way through using the deck of cards for team-building or self-awareness exercises. Like road signs on your networking highway, the text helps navigate the many people we meet and interact with. You'll find for each personality the potential pitfalls, potholes, engagement guides, and motivation possibilities for each suit.

The card deck though, I'm going to put those to work right away in three four ways:

  • Self-Awareness – Look, any tool that pegs me as an "introvert" … is spot-on. I love to work in smaller groups or one-on-one (and sometimes solo). I can do crowds (and have), but my wheelhouse is a smaller group. Here's the online version of my "hand."  (Deal 'em for yourself)
  • Coaching sessions – I've always believed that unequal situations/persons shouldn't be treated equally. These cards will allow both coach (me) and student (them) to build and work towards their strengths.
  • Connecting – If you've seen me work rooms or events, you know I'm a connector (conductor?). The best connections are ones that make sense and benefit both. I'd love to help everyone build a 'full-deck" network for themselves.
  • Prospecting – The text will especially help here. There are certain people I work really well with, and others that present a challenge. Heck, I've even had a few that had multiple personalities — in  the same day. 

Part of the core purpose of Personality Poker is to determine each person's strengths and play to a full deck (too many times we surround ourselves without regards to diversity of style or strength)

This book/game is great for any team-leader (HR, Managers, Small Biz Owner), teacher or coach, and consultants. I could even see writers using Personality Poker as a character-building tool for their fiction.

If you liked Ten Faces of Innovation or Vital Friends, you'll dig the two-part tool that is Personality Poker (@perspokerbook). The tool launches today, so whether online or at the book store – go pick it up and deal 'em out.

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Perfectionism < Perfectionish

By on October 23, 2010 in Books with 1 Comment

Ish1-300x279
I misspelled perfectionism in haste the other day. The "m" looked like an "h"

And everything got better because of the mistake!

Everything-ish anyway…

I like "perfectionish" a lot better than "perfectionism" Great read – Ish by Peter Reynolds. Should be on the Business Bestseller Lists every year

Related:

(Much of this post was originally published in I Dunno Let's Find Out in March '10)

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Blog Action Day & Age of Conversation: Like H2O

By on October 15, 2010 in Blogging, Books with 0 Comments

 
3537416578_8668e1463b For the last few years, I've been able to take part in two important projects:

The collaborative storytelling of Age of Conversation and the cooperative Blog Action Day.  This year, they converge and combine together like…well…like H2O.

Both projects combine efforts of community conversation in hopes to affect great change.  And this year, the focus is on water.

In particular, The Age of Conversation 3: It's Time to Get Busy, is putting its proceeds to charity:water this edition.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water is calling on bloggers to focus on the topic of water today. And you can use any social media outlet to create awareness.

Here's three things you can do:

  1. Buy a copy (or 27) of Age of Conversation 3 to support charity:water. The book is written by 171 marketers, educators, leaders, and social media-olgists aound and about the conversation landscape. Good stuff.
  2. Register your site at Blog Action Day and then go create or curate content that will create awareness about how important a discussion this is – in our nation and around the world. (You can even get ideas of what to write)
  3. Use Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and your imagination to spread the word (and point to what other folks are saying).

It's a great day and opportunity to make an impact, create relationships, and show the power of community conversation. The converstion flow and the ripples spread far and wide.

Flashback:

Me at age 7: "Dad, can I have a glass of milk?"
Dad (he was old then too):  "No, it's late."
Me: "Pleeeeeze?"
Dad: "Have a glass of water — it's free."

My how times change, hmm?

Photo on Flickr by Dylan Parker

 

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0-60 Series: Day 12 – The Bookstore Lesson

By on October 14, 2010 in Blog Coach, Books, Marketing, Social Media with 0 Comments

0to60In this series, we will cover some of the first 60 days of integrating social media into your overall business and marketing strategy. These trainings are designed to be completed in an hour (after all we have businesses to run).

This seems to be the favorite lesson of many – and count me among them. The bookstore lesson.

In some ways, the bookstore is like the conversphere itself:

  • Many genres of books
  • Different types of publications (books, magazines, pop-ups, blank journals)
  • Multi-media (music, movies, print, mini-books, giftss & accessories)
  • And if we're lucky…coffee!

Before we take a step into the store, let's be aware of some of the background sound – the conversation that will take place – and recognize that its conversation about content. People talking about the books or music or even the coffee. Content is a conversation starter.

Let's start with the Magazine section:

2745001060_3e49730d64_m Which magazines do you subscribe to? Or which are your favorites? Why? Are there any things (picture size or style; length of copy; white space) you might do simlarly on your blog or other social media sites?

As we look through a few of the magazines, we notice almost all of them have a set of regular departments or features. Included in every issue. In blogging, these are like a series or even a category on your blog.

As we take a few steps back, notice anything going on with the headlines?  Any commonalities?

  • Numbered lists
  • Questions
  • Word: Followed by Short Sub Title
  • Alliteration Allowing Alpha Adroitness

There are tons of different types of posts you can write, and you'll get great headline ideas from the magazine rack.

A lot of money goes into the research of what sells and to pay the writers of these headlines. So let's start thinking likewise. 

Another great source of headline ideas are those…publications…at the grocery aisle like the Star Magazine or National Enquirer.

Let's go over to the Business Books:

First, let's look at the marketing section. Holy cow!  look at all the books.  There's Internet Marketing, Sales, Lovemarks, Branding, No BS, and lots of Gitomer.  And there are more coming — always will be.

Want to know something? Many in the profession of sales or marketing are going to buy a bunch of those titles — not just one.  I say that to say this: Differentiation is important, sometimes your take on a matter is differntiation enough.

So let's take a look at a couple of similarities between books and blogs

Books have a Table of Contents and an Index.  Blogs have Categories and Tags.

As a Table of Contents give a high-level overview of what the book might be about, so does the Category listing for a blog. And while an index scopes down a bit further into the keywords and phrases in a book, so does Tags do so with a blog.

While we're roaming the stacks of the bookstore, know that many of today's best sellers are writting by authors who also blog – and in some cases, the genesis of some books were a blog site blog post.

If you want some great examples of length, layout, and linking of big ideas a page at a time - check out authors like Tom Peters, Karen Salmohnson, David Meerman Scott, and books like Exploiting Chaos and Radical Careering.

As we continue to travel through the tracts and tiers, we see SCAMPERings from James Patterson's Alex Cross series (Roses Are Red, Along Came a Spider, Four Blind Mice) and Gregory MacGuire (Wicked, Mirror Mirror, and Lost).

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We'll also find anthologies and lists in abundance in the Sports; procedural texts and how-to books in Cooking; and tips and technique in Writing or Music.

Also notice, if you have time, that Democrats buy Al Franken and Republicans buy Bill O'Reilly (aka "we read what we already agree with"). This part suggests that some of your most avid readers and conversations will be amongst your peers (and competition).

So many other media is available. Blank books, comic books, coffee table books, photo books, discount books, "twitter" books (those mini hand-helds thingies), bookmarks, games, pens, maps, music, video…

I'm tellin' ya – I love the bookstore lesson.  Ideally, we'll go together – but if geography is against us at this time, get there and stay aware.

The Series

You can get the 0-60 Series emailed to you in a gradual release format (one-a-day) for only $150 $89

Note that during these 60 days, I would have about 20 face-to-face or live conversations (Skype or other form of video/screen sharing). The other days are self-paced — though plenty of homework

Photos on Flickr by stevegarfield (top); and Travelin' Librarian (bottom)

Your Transformation Playbook: You Already Know How to Be Great

By on October 14, 2010 in Books, Education with 0 Comments

51TNjjE4R6L._SL500_AA300_ There are some fantastic business books that transcend business and also work well in sports, education, parenting, and just about any discipline.

Add You Already Know How to Be Great to that mix. 

Author Alan Fine, who himself has coached business leaders, organizations and pro athletes, has put together a handbook to guide his readers to breakthrough for themselves, and practices that will allow them to inspire others to do likewise.

The book uses several frameworks that allow us to reflect and remember the practices with ease. The techniques toward transformation will ignite immediate change and growth.

There are three sections that make up the book:

  • Paradigm and Principle
  • Process
  • Practice

With something for everyone, the book is chock full of great quotes, transcripted coaching sessions, and graphic organizers to help the visual learner.

There are even homework assignments at the end of each chapter (I love it!).

Here’s a short video of Alan Fine giving an overview of the book (includes many of the visuals in the book):

Also check out Alan Fine’s Change This manifesto of the same title.

Buy it? Borrow it? Bury it?  I’d would recommend Buy It. For coaches, parents, teachers and anyone in a position to have conversations that could inspire growth (including self-talk)

 

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The NEW Social Learning – A Guide to Collaborative & Collective Intelligence

By on September 13, 2010 in Books, Conversations, Education with 0 Comments

The NEW Social Learning - Amazon link (affiliate) I’ve had the privilege of working with online learning communities for over a decade.

Starting in the mid-90s with the AOL Greenhouse’d Real Fans, onto AOL Community Program Manager (overseeing People Connection and several channel communities) and continuing with my work here at ConverStations, I’ve always tried to look for ways to help create communities of fans and of learners.

That’s why the title “The NEW Social Learning – A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media” had me a bit excited. At times, these types of books are theory sans practice.  This one is on the money! 

The NEW Social Learning (@newsociallearn) is a guide to creating your own “community of learners” by embracing and integrating social and mobile tools in the training and learning process.

Written by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner, this book offers real examples and guidelines in how to implement engagement, listening skills, and most importantly, how to build collective intelligence from within and outside of your organization’s silo.

Some professions are ahead of the curve (marketing pros and educators come to mind), but there are many cubicle centers and manufacturing mobs, retailers and customer service sectors who are keeping their blinders on tight, doing training like it’s still 1989.

The NEW Social Learning can assist in a transformation that makes sense and creates a learning environment that makes meaning.

Whether the boardroom or the classroom, this book should be in your hands and under your yellow highlighter – and definitely part of your organizations training & development curriculum.

Here’s a video look at what some learning execs are talking about:

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In two words: Buy It (already available on Kindle!)

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