Expanding Horizons - Writing for Successful-Blog

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Last Wednesday evening at this time I was sitting across a table in a little neighborhood restaurant eating some of the best Mexican food I’d had in a long time.

Outside there was a light snow falling, shimmering in the streetlights, just enough to make it look like one of those snow globes had just been shaken up. And it was so cold the weather guys said they were running out of adjectives to describe it.

But inside we were nice and toasty over our dinner.

I’d driven nearly an hour through the Chicago evening commute traffic for the opportunity to meet Liz Strauss face to face.

It was well worth the trip.

On her Blogger profile, Liz says this about herself:

I walk. I talk. I trip every now and then. Occasionally I fall down.
I dance in elevators when no one is looking, but I will not run for a bus.

Our conversation was wide ranging from silly stories from our school days to serious contemplating questions about the nature of the universe. We laughed about folks telling her that she has a “900 number” voice and telling me I have a “radio” voice.

We talked about what our parents were like and told stories about our brothers and sisters. We shared anecdotes from our careers, Liz from the publishing industry and strategic planning in Chicago office buildings and me from the maritime industry and planning cargo operations on the docks in Jacksonville and Savannah.

Eventually we talked about blogging and bloggers. And we talked. And talked.

Sometimes it is easy to get the feeling that Liz knows just about everybody in the blogging world. Technorati currently says they are tracking 62.5 million blogs (yes we talked about them too) and talking to Liz I get the distinct impression that, even though she might not know all those folks yet, she’d probably like to.

After all she is the nice one.

And with something like 368 blogs (I may have miscounted with that many!) linked in her SOB A-Z Directory so far she is definitely off to a good start.

Feeling Like Family

Liz has the ability to help folks feel at ease. She’s an incredibly smart lady, but there is no trace of any kind of airs as she totes that sharp mind of hers around. And as we talked it felt a little like I was talking with the big sister I never had.

We even look vaguely similar as we are both fairly tall and blond.

And like family we’d been kicking around some ideas over the past little while. Face to face we were able to kick a couple of those ideas into submission.

So, as of this past weekend Liz has officially taken me aboard that grand ship that is Successful-Blog as a contributing author.

One time not to long ago Liz had this to say about what she’s trying to achieve at Successful-Blog:

I learned a lot growing up from my father, watching him at his saloon. Treat everyone as if they are the only one. Talk to everyone on their level - never be above anyone. Always let folks know when you value them. Don’t be a fool, but don’t worry about looking foolish. Always leave the other guy a place to stand…

I’ll be striving to live up to Liz’s high standard in my little contribution to S-B with One Way to CC it. The idea initially is to post over there a couple times a week. I’ll bring my own flavor to my pieces, because, well, I wouldn’t know any other way to do it.

We’ll see where it all goes over time.

So here’s to expanding horizons and many more years of Successful-Blog!