I’m on a new adventure, and I’d love for you to come along. This year I’ve been thinking about how to offer my readers something juicier and more meaningful, and at the same time, weave my writing and blogging together as my core work in life. (Which it is.) How can I do that?

I founded Bay Area Bloggers Society in 2008 to bring community members together for sharing the learning curves of everything about modern communication. Now, BABS is sponsored by O’Reilly Media as an official User Group, which provides many more benefits to our members. Please join us! Here’s the link to the Meet Up where you can hop on board:

Bay Area Bloggers Society

Come over to my new site, This Extra Day. Here, I show up several times a week (which is more often than I have posted in the past), and talk about writing and publishing, alongside life-as-it-is. This means I make space for more of the tough stuff: being a cancer veteran, for example. Living in a radically changed world and making sense of it. Being in the moment. I think this is the best kind of support I can offer my readers, and I know it is a lot more compelling for me. It’s scary, it’s real, and it’s something I want to do.

This site, Great Adaptations, will change a little bit too. I’m going to keep it for the foreseeable future (whatever that is!) and probably write more about technology here. We’ll see how it evolves.

Thank you for being my reader. You (and the hokey pokey) are what it’s really all about.

Love and blessings

Suzanna Stinnett

First rate content is essential if your goal is to attract a loyal and active readership. I’m offering a series of content classes in the San Francisco Bay area. If you’d like to learn how to sharpen your focus and eliminate the problems which make your readers leave your website, this class is for you.

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Writing First Rate Content
#1 in the Creative Assets Series
March 2nd, 6:30 – 9:00
Class Fee $35.00
Classes held at BZHive Coworking space
80 Mark Drive
San Rafael, CA

What’s so important about first rate content?
Let’s look at Stacy’s problem to understand what happens when readers encounter poorly formatted and poorly proofed copy.

Stacy has a blog about restoring historic homes. Her niche is well-defined, which is a very good starting point for a successful blog. She grew up in a historic area of Boston, has restored three homes herself, and she’s enthusiastic and knowledgeable about architecture, restoration, and the challenges restorers face. She’s the perfect person to write this blog.

But we’ve got some problems. Like almost every blogger out there, Stacy is an average writer and, worse, she is an average proofreader. Besides those issues, Stacy does not know how to format her posts for web readability.

She writes carefully and lovingly, about interesting topics relevant to her audience. But she is producing second-rate content.

Her poor readers are subjected to spelling errors, grammar errors, and long lines of type with no white space. Even the most devoted reader is repelled by these readability issues. The question in the reader’s mind is “Why doesn’t she care enough to proofread?” Trust is eroded.

No matter how great your content is, if it is not brain-friendly, it will not produce the results you want. Your reader’s finger is on the click-trigger, just itching to go to the next place. Don’t give them a reason to leave your site.

Publish first-rate content – or lose your audience.

Class #1 in the Creative Assets Series includes tools and resources which help you develop first rate content for your blog or other project.

To pre-register, go to the registration page.

If you have any questions about the class or upcoming classes, feel free to email Suzanna:
suzannastinnett@gmail.com
Happy blogging!

People who work with Suzanna say:
“Suzanna explains everything in such a personal, easy to understand way. In the middle of her live workshop, I suddenly realized I was feeling excited rather than overwhelmed, and I left feeling empowered to begin my blog!” Abba Anderson, LAc, CCHT, MSOM

“I thought I had great content for my upcoming blog. I am so glad I turned it over to Suzanna before I went any further — she helped me see how to work with blog formats, which actually make my writing much more clear and give me a structure to work with. She’s a creative and focused professional, and her contribution to my process was priceless.” Barbara V.M., Santa Rosa

Suzanna Stinnett is a gifted proofreader with over 25 years of copy proofing under her belt. She has studied web readability for the past decade. Her other accomplishments include her book, “Little Shifts,” published by Sourcebooks, and over 400 articles currently on the web. She teaches workshops on collaborative marketing and web tools, consults privately, travels and speaks on the new culture of creatives, and is working on her next book, “Cloud Alchemy,” based on her manifesto for the conscious web citizen.

Well heck yeah, that’s me! I’m happy to tell you that I now have a site up for my web content services. Come on over and say hey.

On SuzannaStinnett.com, you’ll find descriptions of my services, blog posts relevant to business owners and managers, resources, and links to blogs which are serving us all with great educational content.

I’ll see you here — and there — as we journey on through the changes of 2010.

Cheers,

Suzanna

The Year of Living Exponentially

I’m a collage artist. I enjoy scissors, paper and glue. Always, I am trying to communicate something through my collage pieces.

Not all of my collages have a name, but this one does: It is “The Year of Living Exponentially.” It illustrates my tribute to nine notable innovators.

It’s a valentine, a winter bouquet, a gift for my readers and a tribute to my muses, leaders, and mentors. For me, it was a winter meditation.

I also practice another art: Cloud Alchemy. It is described in my manifesto by that name. The alchemy is putting people together in dynamic ways, talking about them with my readership, juxtaposing different energies in the “global brain.” In this collage, I’ve taken the nine notables and put them together as an art piece along with the stories I’ll tell about them.

The Nine Notables

The following are nine among many who have lit my path:

Janet Tokerud:

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A web professional since the early 80s, Janet continues to inform her audience in a multitude of ways. I enjoy her intelligent reviews of new products, her enthusiasm about the culture of the web, and her grounded support of my own projects. Janet attended the first meeting of B.A.B.S. (Bay Area Bloggers Society) and is one of the reasons I went forward with it. Follow her on Twitter as @tokerud, and her blog on http://tokerud.com.
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Dr. Ellen F. Weber

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Dr. Weber is a neuroscientist I have come to know on Twitter. She shares amazingly useful concepts about the brain and how to create leadership and learning environments which are most productive and human. Ellen contributes so much love and wisdom to the global brain through her continual high-level communication, she is like a one-person web of connective tissue. Everyone should follow Ellen. Find her on Twitter as @ellenfweber, and see her blog at http://BrainLeadersandLearners.com.
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Barbara Bonardi

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Barbara was one of my students in a new media class in early 2009. She has progressed at an astonishing rate, while continuing with her own art, journaling, and the process of earning a green MBA. Barbara is just getting her blog started and I am so curious to see how she will inform us all. She’s a superb example of a mature mind grabbing these tech tools and running with it. Barbara is an original member of B.A.B.S. Follow her on Twitter as @barbarabonardi.
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Michael Phillips

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Michael is one of my early influences. I read his book, “The 7 Laws of Money,” in the late 70s. His classic, “Marketing Without Advertising,” (now being revised for the 7th edition), taught us the culture of marketing at the deepest human level. It stands today as the best guide for marketing and led the culture of “the conversation” long before we had the tools to converse. Among his unique qualities is the ability to trigger the brain to think in a new direction. He does this on his blog, http://phillips.blogs.com/. Put your thinking cap on and take a look! Follow Michael on Twitter as @phillips1938.
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Valeria Maltoni

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Valeria Maltoni is another communication professional I met online. I think I was reading her vastly informative blog, Conversation Agent, before I knew her on Twitter. Every time I read something on her blog I think I should just drop everything and spend the next month reading everything she’s written. Valeria carries “the conversation” with elegance and a deep understanding of what is productive and true. You can find her on Twitter as @conversationage, and see her blog at http://conversationagent.com.
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Catherine Grison

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Catherine is one of the new friends I’ve made through interacting on Twitter. She has a warmth and style you just have to experience. A Parisian ex-pat, she is a Feng Shui artist who embraces the Twitter community with humor and humanity. When I need an uplifting moment, I just go look at her website. It’s a tonic for the soul, in living color. You can follow her on Twitter as @catherinegrison, and see her website at http://YourFrenchAccent.com.
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Mark McGuinness

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Mark is one of the creators of Lateral Action, which began as a great animated series about the role of creativity and innovation in successful business today. Before Lateral Action, I read his work on Copyblogger. Mark speaks the language of creativity and business, which makes him a potent contributor to the global brain. His art and his writing convey concepts in a simple, straightforward way that I find as reassuring as it is informative. You can follow him on Twitter as @MarkMcGuinness, and see more of his work on http://LateralAction.com.
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Chris Brogan

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Chris Brogan knows at least as much as anyone on the planet about how to live in a social media world with fairness and integrity. He talks about this openly in all of his material. If you want to see something really refreshing, look at his Disclosures and Relationships on the About tab of his website. When someone talks to me about values in leadership today (usually complaining that there are no values in leadership today), I point them to Chris Brogan. Chris is one of the reasons I believe we are creating a more civilized world through the employment of online communication tools. You can follow him on Twitter as @ChrisBrogan, and see his website at http://ChrisBrogan.com.
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Liz Strauss

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It makes me smile just to type her name. To me, Liz is a mastermind of the giant hive of minds contributing their best to “the conversation.” She created a system to honor others for their work with her Successful and Outstanding Blogger site (SOB). That’s the best kind of announcing. Liz is a model for anyone who wants to get their mind around how helping other people keeps you on the track to personal success. She’s funny, too. You can follow her on Twitter as @LizStrauss, and see her website at http://successful-blog.com.
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I hope you will explore these fine contributors to the innovative online community. Our world is more sane, more civilized, more viable, and just better at everything because of them.

Suzanna Stinnett

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Dr. Roberta Lee wrote The SuperStress Solution, a book full of excellent techniques to steer people out of what she calls “SuperStress” and back to a healthy mind and body. This article by Dr. Lee explains the benefits of some of my favorite foods. While she is talking about our needs around the holidays, her suggestions for reducing stress are high-value for kicking off the new year as well. Grab that dark chocolate and find out exactly why it works. Yum.

Reduce SuperStress with Super Foods

By Roberta Lee M.D.,
 Author of The SuperStress Solution

The holidays deliver the promise of festivities, feasts . . . and fat! But our ballooning girth will do more than stress our belt buckles. Most of us will feel the literal stress of over-eating and also suffer more from the guilt of gluttony than we would care to admit. It doesn’t have to be this way.

In addition to trying to keep up with your exercise routine, getting enough sleep, and having a snack before you head to a party (you won’t overeat if you’re already a little full!), try to avoid junk food/fast food, sugar-laden foods, too much caffeine and alcohol, and excessive amounts of high fat red meat.

These foods and beverages tax your system and will actually make you feel more stressed, more lethargic, and less able to cope with the stresses of daily life causing SuperStress.

But holidays and parties shouldn’t be about deprivation! Consider this: there are actually a handful of foods that can help reduce stress (and help you stay trim, too). Aim to keep these five easy to find and delicious foods in your diet through the holiday season, and beyond:

Dark chocolate. Chocolate has a lot going for it in addition to its divine taste. It is plump full of flavanoids — a powerful class of antioxidants — which have been shown to lower high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. Other compounds found in chocolate seem to lower the “bad” component of cholesterol (LDL) while leaving the “good” (HDL) component unchanged. Dark chocolate also contains several psychoactive chemicals that promote alertness and even euphoria. The latest scientific literature even shows it has some blood pressure lowering properties.

To me, though, that’s not what’s so beautiful about chocolate.

What I think is beautiful about chocolate is its ability to enhance sensory recruitment in every way. It’s so inexpensive to have a piece of chocolate and it’s so pleasurable, that if that’s something you like and that’s part of what living well is about, I say: go for it. Once a day, treat yourself to a guilt-free serving of one-third of a typical dark chocolate bar or 1 ounce of chocolate roughly the size of the palm of a woman’s hand. Doctor’s orders!

Tea. Although caffeine has been shown to lead to a more positive mood and improved performance, there’s a fine line between just enough and too much. Too much caffeine can make you dependent and make you nervous, irritable, and hypersensitive or bring on headaches. Because brewed tea is lower in caffeine per cup than coffee, you can drink more tea than coffee before experiencing these effects.

Tea also provides a little L-theanine, a calming amino acid.

Magnesium rich foods. Magnesium is an essential mineral for human nutrition. Magnesium in the body serves several important metabolic functions. It plays a role in the production and transport of energy. It is also important for the contraction and relaxation of muscles and has been shown to reduce blood pressure. Green vegetables such as spinach are good sources of magnesium, as are black beans, peas, nuts (peanuts), seeds (pumpkin and squash), tofu, broccoli and whole, unrefined grains.

Berries. Under stress we naturally crave sweet things but the problem is that nine out of ten times, the sweets we’re craving are calorie laden. Berries are naturally sweet and they have vitamin C which tends to be helpful in combating stress. Furthermore, berries have some fiber — which will decrease cravings by building up bulk in your GI track.

Avocados. When you’re under stress, your body tends to use B vitamins at a faster than normal rate. In order to replenish that supply, eat ¼ of an avocado when you’re stressed — on a sandwich, in a salad, or all by itself — to boost B vitamin levels. In addition to B, avocados are also rich in vitamin K, vitamin C, potassium and a fatty acid known as oleic acid — this fat has been shown to have a mild influence in lowering cholesterol.

To reduce stress, and avoid SuperStress, try this today:

Simple as it sounds; focused breathing — during which you think about your breath as you inhale and exhale — is a very effective stress-management technique. A slow, full breath triggers physical and cognitive changes that promote relaxation. Deep breathing helps release tension and anxiety and is a great energizer because the deeper the breath, the more your body is flooded with life-fueling oxygen. A full breath begins with the diaphragm pushing downward so that the stomach extends out. As your lungs fill with air, your chest expands. When you exhale, the reverse occurs — your chest settles first and then your stomach.
•    When anxiety strikes or you find yourself focusing on negative thoughts, immediately exhale through your mouth.
•    Now, open your lungs, and breathe in through your nose, drawing in a fresh, cleansing air to the count of four.
•    Exhale again slowly to the count of five.
•    Repeat four times.

Copyright © 2009 Roberta Lee M.D., author of The SuperStress Solution
For more information please visit www.superstresssolution.com

Some call them power words. My sister says “touchstone.” I think it’s a great idea. In the newsletter from Chris Brogan, he said one of his was “ecosystem.” All his words got me thinking, and I have been working on my own set of words for a couple of weeks. So here we go.

Nature
The first word I settled on is “nature.” I talked about this in a previous blog. It means two important things to me. Being in nature, away from concrete and amplification of all sorts is mandatory for me to have balance and any shred of sanity. I have neglected this for a couple of years and it shows. I am also thinking of my own nature and what aspects of daily living spring from “my nature.” This leads me to think about my habits, my tendencies, my desires and many kinds of relationships.

Tools
Since I am deeply enmeshed in learning and teaching modern communication tools, I like using this as a focus word that simply adds validation to my daily activities. Seeing it up on my wall over my desk will remind me to continue to evaluate tools, write reviews, and create more pathways for my workshop participants to embrace them.

Play
Ahh. Now to the meat of it. My ongoing exploration of the workings of the human brain, especially in relation to helping people learn new things like how to create a viable blog, makes “play” a high priority focus word. Like “nature,” there’s a mandate woven into it. I’m enjoying Stuart Brown’s book, “Play,” and I’m grateful for the reminder that play is the answer to our questions about innovation, relationships, community, and healthy brains.

So about you, dear reader. Are you using playful tools to manifest your nature?

What are your focus words?

Suzanna Stinnett

The public gazes through a window of possibility

Are you a media-based leader, a media-aware leader, or both?

Media-aware leadership means that the leader understands what is available to her public, and understands how her core demographic is engaging new media. This awareness helps the leader listen. Even if a leader does not personally spread messages through modern media, she must be able to use the tools to listen to her public.

It’s possible to be a media-based leader, that is, able to engage the tools of new media, yet still function at a low level of media-awareness. Again, it is a matter of listening. It’s not enough to “get on Twitter and Facebook.” Leaders have to care enough to keep building their listening skills and grow that brain area to the level they can participate in thought leadership.

If you care, it shows

This profoundly positive shift in marketing is worth embracing as a daily practice. Modern leaders including corporate executives must realize that listening to their public is the cost-effective way to set their compass points. The level of listening now available gives business a whole new playground of connection to their customers. It streamlines everything – once a leader or company acquires the skills (or hires a modern media professional).

MODERN MEDIA IS MESSAGE-GENERATIVE. Topics, outcomes, urgencies, fears, advice, discoveries, and desires are a few of the messages which proliferate, generate and infiltrate the public conversation.

Sort through the noise and listen

When leaders begin to enter modern media, all that proliferation is quite a din. It’s noisy, busy, distracting and confusing. That’s normal. Think of any experience of learning a new language. You can learn hello, goodbye, thank you, and where’s the bathroom, but after that you enter a brain-confused state for a phase of deepening into the language.

If you’re groping your way into modern media right now, I recommend starting with search tools. Play with searches on Twitter, for example, to see how people talk to each other in that universe. Raise your tolerance for seeing incomprehensible characters in your search results. Look for meaning. Relax, drink water, and let your brain grow into it with playful curiosity.

Suzanna Stinnett

Thank you to Valeria Maltoni of ConversationAgent.com (@conversationage), for juicing up my mind on these ideas.

The posts of 2010 often relate to my focus words and/or my manifesto, Cloud Alchemy. This post relates to my focus word “nature,” as the organic nature of leadership deepens in meaning. It relates to Points #5 and #8 in Cloud Alchemy.

Focus Words Post: In progress

Cloud Alchemy: See on Scribd.com

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Photo Stinnett Archives_________________________________________________________________

Focus words
Thanks to Chris Brogan for bringing this good idea to my frontal cortex. It’s been a long time since I gathered my focus around “power words,” or concepts I want to keep in front as guiding forces throughout the year. It can be super productive. Chris talked about his three words in his subscriber newsletter. (Which you should definitely consider joining – chrisbrogan.com, and it’s the newsletter.)

My words won’t gel until January 6th, which is when I get my feet on the ground of the new year. But I can tell you one I’ve decided on: Nature.

Noodling around the meaning
The surface layer of meaning on this word, for me, sprawls out in two directions. One is my constitutional need for many more moments and hours surrounded by organic form. That can be beach, bay, woods, or even back-back roads. Also beasts. Any of those, just more. The other meaning is less definable (but I’ll work on that), it has to do with “my nature.” For now, my nature is Nature and that’s guidance.

This morning, on the way to Kathy’s office, as we pulled into the long, snowy driveway, a red fox ran out, and loped along the snow with a light, playful gait. We were treated to a good long look at this gorgeous beast.

The incident solidified this one word for me for 2010. Nature is. Nature does. And nature will.

I invite you to think about three deeply informing words for your new year. You might enjoy this very lovely gift from Christine Kane. She’s created a “Word of the Year Worksheet” and a sweet video to help you discover and work with those words.

Resolution Shmesolution
Meanwhile, the idea that we can create the life we prefer through New Year’s Resolutions has serious holes in it. This post by Jonah Lehrer in the digital Wall Street Journal finishes that idea off, and will help you understand how to work with the realities of your own brain to feel better and be happier with yourself as you navigate the promise of 2010.
Blame it on the Brain

Starry, shiny, surprising blessings to you all,

Suzanna Stinnett

Today, though, as the shiny new year beckons, I’m struck by the long trails of digital debris on many websites.

I’m talking about sites that offer many resources, blog rolls, links and freebies to their readers. While it’s a plan with a heart, all those beautiful topics and all their lively links to help each other through the obstacle of the moment, we’d do well to remember that it takes MAINTENANCE.

The high cost of generosity

One site I’m still wading through has the ambitious goal of offering its readership 1,000 free downloads. They have put them in categories. I’m evaluating this site for a place for my client to increase her own exposure, which is also part of this offering on the site. They encourage the contributors to use an opt-in page so the reader will become part of their list. That’s fine.

What’s not fine is that more than 50% of the links I’ve clicked are bringing up error pages. Others are going to the website of the contributor but to a dead page. And one even went to a smarmy miles-long sales page. Very disappointing.

We all could do some tracking and mopping up

The issue is two-fold. At least. On the one hand is the website owner with all the offerings to be organized and maintained. Maintain ‘em. Please. On the other hand, the contributor needs to be tracking where all their offerings are showing up and making sure the links are good.

Just start where you are

Sound like a lot of work? It is. That’s why, today, I am streamlining my own plan for 2010. Engaging the exponential can be done in a manageable way. I’m starting a spreadsheet for every place my current work can be seen (all the things I’ve initiated, that’s all I can do, of course). If it starts to get out of control, I will go back and eliminate the ones that are low performers.

ACTION PLAN:
*For starters, let website owners know when they have a lot of broken links. This is the only way we will clean up past linkage we didn’t track.
*While it might be too late to find older links from years past, begin now to track your posted links. Create a plan for the future. Decide how much you can manage and act accordingly.

The web is a chaotic mess, as it should be. But individuals can and must maintain workable threads through their own offerings.

Otherwise, our precious readers have no option but to click away, click away, like a bunch of reindeer on the loose!

Blessings,
Suzanna Stinnett