Debbie Weil's BlogWrite for CEOs

Registration for 3/10 Sweets and Tweets With Anil Dash Is Now Open

2010-02-05T21:48:14+00:00

Attn: Cupcake Lovers. A quick update to let you know that registration
for the next edition of Sweets and Tweets is now open at
http://sweetsandtweets4.eventbrite.com/. The event will be held
Wednesday March 10th at 7 PM sharp at the very cool Baked and Wired
cupcake cafe in DC’s Georgetown. Tech celeb Anil Dash, founder of the
new DC-based incubator Expert Labs, is our speaker.
http://dashes.com/anil/about.html Microsoft’s U.S. Public Sector
division is the sponsor. Sweets and Tweets features leading voices
from DC’s diverse technology community on the use of social media by
the public and private sector, from the White House and federal
agencies to local startups. I host it every few months when the stars
are in alignment for the right speaker and sponsor. More info about
the next Sweets and Tweets here: http://bit.ly/64zVg0

Do register soon if you’re interested. Tickets tend to go fast:
http://sweetsandtweets4.eventbrite.com/

This is cross posted at http://www.debbieweil.com.

Posted via email from Debbie Weil

Just Kiss Me and Other Words of Advice

2010-02-02T13:12:30+00:00

Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void genius has started sending a daily cartoon to his email list. He’s giving it away, right? Yes and no. He is in fact giving away a JPEG of a cartoon. Like today’s, which is a warm up for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14th. But he’s also teasing us and goading us to think of his JPEG image as something much more valuable. It’s a taste of what he’s really got on offer: a 11 by 14 inch handsigned print that he’s selling (you heard that right, SELLING) for $125. His message is the same everyday: "Buy The Print Here - Forward this email to a friend." And then he customizes the copy for the particular cartoon. Today’s says: "Hundreds of Love Birds have committed to say "IT" with a gapingvoid fine art print this Valentine’s Day. Let me be your mouthpiece: I know how to deliver the goods!"

This is CONTENT MARKETING at its finest and most literal. Hugh calls it selling by giving or gift economics. And he’s not the only one who does it. Give away a piece of content. Show rather than tell. Instead of saying, "I’m a cool cartoonist. Buy my cartoons," Hugh attaches the cartoon to the message. It’s interesting that this approach to marketing (one that David Meerman Scott articulately addresses in his books) is still both misunderstood and underestimated.

It makes so much sense. It’s why so many knowledgepreneurs write a blog. It’s why we send out an e-newsletter. To illustrate what we know with a provocative turn of phrase. And get it right in your face, as often as possible. And yet not be obnoxious about it. You have to keep doing it. Day after day, week after week. I’m curious to know if Hugh is selling more of his prints now that he’s started this daily, drip drip drip approach to marketing.

Cross posted via email from Debbie Weil’s Posterous

Linchpins, Lizard Brains and Lying to Yourself

2010-01-26T23:10:29+00:00

It’s one thing to be Tweeting and obsessively checking your email in order to procrastinate about a writing project. It’s yet another to find yourself cleaning the toilet. The lizard brain, as Seth Godin calls it in his new book, LINCHPIN, will always win. Unless. Unless you identify the cunning excuses. And push through what Seth calls the resistance. Gitoutahere lizard brain. The toilet is looking good. Freewriting works. It breaks through writer’s "perfection anxiety." And I’m on a roll.

Thank you, Seth.

Congrats again to Seth for today’s hugely successful launch of LINCHPIN. It’s a stunningly provocative book. He asked a bunch of "big thinkers" to write reviews: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/the-20-media-tour.html. LINCHPIN is currently #8 in bestselling books on Amazon. Buy it and read it if you haven’t already: http://bit.ly/SethLinchpin

Lizard brain image courtesy of http://lizardbrainz.com/index.htm

Posted via email from Debbie Weil

Shut Up Lizard Brain: I Am Not Procrastinating Today

2010-01-19T15:19:34+00:00

I am writing today. I am updating THE CORPORATE BLOGGING BOOK for a Kindle edition. First, I cracked open the procrastination nut with 20 minutes of freewriting. This really works. Mark Levy, author of ACCIDENTAL GENIUS, turned me onto freewriting. Check out his book at http://www.levyinnovation.com/books.html. He just finished revising it and I believe a new edition will be coming out soon. Essentially, freewriting means just what it sounds like. You sit down at the computer, apply your fingers to the keyboard and type, er, write, without stopping for a period of time.

I've discovered I can write over 1,000 words in 25 minutes if my wrists are feeling limber. And no, it's not all gibberish. Mark has amazing tips in his book about how to freewrite effectively. They are all about shutting up the lizard brain, a term you may have heard of. The lizard brain is the primitive, limbic system that overrides everything else in our brain: it is fear, sex, hunger, etc. Especially fear. And for many of us, myself included, it's what prevents us from blogging more, writing a new preface, updating a book, crafting a new presentation, etc.

Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com uses the lizard brain as a linchpin concept in his new book, LINCHPIN. Think of your lizard brain as resistance, Godin says. You have to mindfully push through the resistance. Pretend everything you are writing is a draft. Ship (or publish or present) whatever you've set as your end goal EVEN IF it's not perfect. He writes page after page to articulate this idea, prodding us to give up all our excuses. He's uncannily good at enumerating the excuses. I use so many of them: the idea isn't good enough, I'll wait until tomorrow, I'll check what's happening on Twitter, etc.

But here's what stopped me cold this morning: page 131.

He writes: "I stopped writing this book a dozen times. Each time, the force that got me to pick it up again was the resistance. I realized that my lizard brain was afraid of this book, which is the best reason I can think of to write it."

Now there's an admission I haven't heard before from Seth Godin. Writing a damned book is hard. Seth has pumped out so many he makes it look effortless. It's not. Somehow that admission gives me huge courage. Enough blogging for today. It's another form of writing warm up and, as such, a good thing. Back to the new preface.

Make Art, Not Work Says Seth Godin in #Linchpin

2010-01-15T16:56:55+00:00

I’m sitting in Haft Auditorium on W. 27th street in NYC, listening to Seth Godin talk about his new book. He’s great today. One of the best presentations I’ve seen him do. He’s very focused, driven, so eager to convey his message to us. Which is that it’s OK to go forth and make art, not work. Again, make ART, not work. Making art means being a LINCHPIN who creates change, makes things happen, makes a difference, is generous - and does all this WITHOUT PERMISSION from the boss. You don’t need permission to work in this new way. It’s OK to silence your (fearful) lizard brain and draw your own map.

Really?! This is great news for those of us who aren’t good at following the rules. Those of us who have, in fact, been fired because we didn’t fit in. Count me in that group. I’ve been fired at least twice - a source of shame for years. Well guess what: I’m now declaring BEING FIRED as a badge of honor. If you’ve been fired (David Meerman Scott cheerfully admits to it) then you belong in this new tribe, as Seth calls it. Thanks Seth for reminding us that it’s OK to think different - as long as you make good things happen. It’s ironic that you’ve given us *permission* to feel good about working in this new way. Because key to being a linchpin is that you don’t ask for permission. Sigh: my lizard brain is still winning most of the time. But with Seth’s prodding I feel braver. OK he just finished. "Are you a genius?" he asks us. Everyone stands up. 500 peeps applaud.

Posted via email from Debbie Weil

Seth Godin’s LINCHPIN Offers Jolts of Insight That Are, Er, Indispensable

2010-01-14T19:19:04+00:00

My first reaction to Seth Godin’s new book - LINCHPIN: Are You Indispensable - was yadda yadda more of the same. His riffs have a singular DNA. We recognize them from his daily blog posts to http://sethgodin.typepad.com and from his previous ten or so books. Nothing wrong with that. Seth is almost always provocative. He writes about everyday things (customer service, lemonade stands, mediocrity) and draws lessons that make us sit up and say, “Yeah, that’s a better way to think about that.”

I want more from his books. I’m looking for a BIG IDEA that is systematically unpacked so that I can follow along and know where I’m going. Seth would probably say that’s boring and unimaginative of me but hey I’m the one reading the book. I’m on page 73 of LINCHPIN and I’m frustrated by the lack of structure (you could also call it “organization”).

BUT and the but is key here I’m starting to feel prickles of excitement. He’s riffing along in little sections and I’m starting to accumulate a number of insights.

A sampling:

- The nut of the book (page 9): a Purple Cow is a remarkable product worth talking about. A Linchpin is an indispensable employee worth finding and keeping (and no doubt talking about).

- Chris Anderson’s Long Tail applies to people as well as products (“there’s room for everyone who wants to make a difference”).

- There’s a difference between being fearless and reckless in your job (guess which one is the better attribute).

- What separates a Linchpin from an ordinary employee is that she doesn’t seem to feel THE FEAR (i.e. she hides it just long a longdistance runner hides the tiredness).

- Google’s Marissa Mayer is the perfect example of a Linchpin (she intuitively knew that Google’s home page had to be spare and she fights to keep it that way).

- David, who works at the midtown Dean & Deluca, has a never ending supply of “emotional labor” to offer. It’s not part of his job description yet he helps people without asking, cleans off tables, tidies, points out the upstairs restroom He’s a Linchpin. (I recently met a doorman like this at a small hotel I was staying at. He made me feel special everytime I went in or out).

- Draw your own map (love this phrase).

- A Linchpin always finds a way to say “Yes, it can be done.”

And more, many more.

Aha. So maybe Seth does have a method. He’s building his argument drip by drip (like an artist with a paint brush) and I need to be more patient. Not one of my notable attributes.

He’s got me hooked. Back to the book. And looking forward to tomorrow’s live launch for LINCHPIN in NYC with Seth.

P.S. It has occurred to me more than once that LINCHPIN needs to be read alongside Daniel Pink’s just released DRIVE. I’ve read through Drive and Dan touches on many of the same themes.

Posted via email from Debbie Weil

Is a Blog the Hub of Social Media Marketing?

2010-01-12T19:11:21+00:00

As part of launching the updated Kindle edition of The Corporate Blogging Book I'm putting together a free e-book that answers the question: Is Your Blog the Hub of Social Media Marketing? I'm asking a dozen or so high-profile blogging and social media experts, including corporate, nonprofit and governmental blog editors, to weigh in but I am eager to hear from anyone who has an answer.

You can guess what I'm driving at. I'm asking whether Twitter supplants a corporate or organizational blog because it's so much easier and faster. I'm asking whether you need a corporate blog if you have a Facebook fan page. I'm asking whether it's worth the effort for organizations large and small to devote the time and resources to maintaining an effective blog.

I'm asking whether the word blog isn't outdated. A blog can be defined as a next-generation, interactive Web site. Maybe we're just talking about a new kind of social corporate site. Thoughts?

Of course, you can be as contrarian as you wish in answering the question.

Posted via email from Debbie Weil's Posterous

Setting 2010 Challenges Instead of Resolutions (But No Sky Diving)

2010-01-08T17:09:29+00:00

I've been studying everyone else's New Year's Resolutions for days now, daring myself to THINK BIGGER. To try some new things that will stretch beyond my comfort zone, be uncomfortable and maybe even scary. I've been inspired by Gretchen Rubin's new book, The Happiness Project. Just released, it's already hit the New York Times bestseller list. Kudos, Gretchen. She's clearly tapped into something - namely, everyone's desire to improve themselves and thus become happier.

Ten Challenges for 2010

Here's the list I've come up with so far. If you want to make suggestions, please feel free. Just don't suggest sky diving (agh!) or snake handling (phobic fear - never):

Take a nonfiction writing class (am checking out the terrific Bethesda Writer's Center)
Take an improv acting class (found one at DC's Shakespeare Theatre. Hat tip to Justin Thorp for this idea)
Write EVERY DAY (freewriting and blog posts count)
Join the sports club a 10-minute walk from my office and do weights every other day, even if for only 20 - 30 minutes
Take 3 yoga classes a week (means getting up at 6 AM some mornings)
Stop procrastinating and start to tick down my list of BIG TO DO's (launch the updated Kindle edition of my book is #1)
Write more for Mashable and other blogs
Think positive everyday (i.e. silence the inner critic and be thankful for)
"Make meaning, not money" (courtesy Guy Kawasaki)
Put to rest some energy and morale-sucking family issues (in the "life is short" department)

I suppose these do sound like resolutions, but I'm finding it more motivating to think of them as challenges. More later. Rather than, er, procrastinate, I'll post now.

There Has Always Been a River of Information

2010-01-08T13:00:25+00:00

We’ve always struggled with too much information and news to absorb, someone pointed out to me today. Those Newsweeks and TIMEs and Fortunes and (remember?) LIFE magazines used to stack up, not to mention daily newspapers. It’s always been hard to keep up. Funny, if you think about it. Because one of the biggest criticisms of social media is that "it takes too much time." "I can’t be on Twitter all day long." "Blogging, are you kidding??" "How do I know what to believe?" And so on.

But really, only two things are different now. First, the Web and Internet have turned the running river into a fire hose of information. Granted, much of what comes out of this fire hose is either crap or useless. Much of it is "opinion." For old-timers who have yet to embrace the online world, that’s code for "Well, if an editor at The New York Times didn’t review this, then it’s not worth my time to read." So I’ll grant that a lot more information is not necessarily a good thing.

Second, however, we now have a number of ways to edit and cull and curate what comes out of the fire hose. That’s significant. Whether you use an RSS reader to subscribe to key resources, or Google News Alerts to hunt them down, or more sophisticated monitoring services like Radian6 or ScoutLabs, or Guy Kawasaki’s AllTop.com you have the ability to intelligently select what you want to hear.

The argument that today people only listen to the points of view they want to hear is also specious. People have always chosen what they wanted to read, listen to and subscribe to.

Just sayin’. Other thoughts?

Posted via email from Debbie Weil

A Procrastinator’s Guide to Writing

2010-01-05T14:07:34+00:00

Ha! Coming soon... Seriously, I've got more to say about this. Stay tuned. ProcrastinatorsGuidetoWriting.com