More positive press for my wine blogging: Jo Diaz listed me recently (and again) as an influential and important wine blogger and Michael Wangbickler included me in his list of 6 wine bloggers he reads!
Last year, following the publication of a similar list and various online discussions about it and the fact that it too was a list of male wine bloggers, Jo Diaz posted her list of women bloggers. (If you need a refresher about this, you can do so here.)
This year, two bloggers responded with their own lists–and I made both of them!
To illustrate his point, he showed a video interview with Talia Leman. Leman, 15, is the founder of RandomKid http://www.randomkid.org. This video is from her talk at TEDxYSE: Unleashing Young Social Entrepreneurs on November 13th, 2010.
Key to moving or shifting from a network to a community is making a connection and elevating values. How? Brenegar starts with a story about the six lessons from Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink:
1) there is no plan
2) think strengths not weaknesses
3) it’s not about you
4) persistence trumps talent
5) make excellent mistakes
6) leave an impact
In a contest, Brenegar offered that the 7th lesson be “Say thanks everyday.” He lost out to “Stay hungry” by Becky Blanton, thanks to support by Seth Godin who motivated his community to vote for her.
But Ed won too–he ended up with a transformation strategy he calls the 5 actions of gratitude; he posted this chart on his site:
1) Say Thanks–tangibly!– Everyday
Use notecards and send them out all the time. If in doubt, send one! This connects you with the person.
2) Give Back
It’s more than money, it’s time.
3) Be welcoming
4) Honor Others
5) Create Goodness
Some questions to consider…
Who are we impacting?
You do what you can do the best you can and invite others to do the same. The more we learn about how to do that the better we will all be.
What opportunities do we have?
What keeps our community from creating the impact we desire?
Dr. Al-Ali starts with the foundation of how to form an organization that can change the world: you need good people, open mindshare, mutual collaboration, and positive impact.
Which begs the question: who are good people? how do we find them and bring them together? You build a magnet using these principles:
1) make it simple
2) place trust and loyalty first
3) give before you take—nothing can be placed in a closed hand
4) honor the mentor/apprentice tradition
5) seek collaborative community
—without this, your employees will see you as a paycheck
6) apply social norms
7) favor wealth creation over wealth collection
8) be a positive change agent
An organization needs structures supporting people instead of people serving structures (the brand etc, the people behind the logo).
People who want to be more involved with this organization can apply to be a fellow.
Now stone sculptor Michele Chapin of Stoneworks Studio is asking Seth about how to approach art sales now that people can see it all on the internet but what they buy is the story.
What is worth more is famous, says Seth to Michele.
What he finishes the manifesto with his not changing it from the top down but from the parent, child, and activist level–the community level. It’s a grass-roots movement that’s happening more and more. We need to stop handing over authority to the institution, he advises.
When I go up, I tell him a little about myself and my college students, and I ask him what he would do with my summer school classes. He suggests I get them blogging which is what I have done in the past. But what is key or different that clicks is getting them blogging EVERY DAY. He suggests that I contact Cathy Davidson who is doing something similar.
Last words: If you can’t connect with people, change the message.
Thanks to business coach and WEV instructor Gloria Miele for taking this photo and sharing it on facebook.
He proposes we take on a life of leadership by learning on how and where we are leaders arlready and strengthen that and build on that, and form a community to support each other.
Leadership is about taking initiative. It’s not about being an authority, or being in charge but taking charge.
What do you bring to the table to contribute? Be confident! Don’t be afraid!
Members of Seth Godin’s invite only Triiibes ning have invaded Ventura’s beachfront Crowne Plaza Hotel for a weekend of conviviality and transformation entitled “Flow Ventura 2012”. Activities range from surf lessons to more traditional business and success related talks–see schedule below.
While the events are limited to members of Triibes (and the occasional local Linchpin), it is being video-taped; when the material gets up, I will link to it here.
Many websites are blacked out today Weds. January 18, 2012 to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
From personal blogs to giants like WordPress and Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. Learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom and please take action.
So what is SOPA? or PIPA? At first, it sounds like a good idea–it is supposed to protect content providers. But Gizmodo argues that “SOPA is an anti-piracy bill working its way through Congress that would grant content creators extraordinary power over the internet which would go almost comedically unchecked to the point of potentially creating an “Internet Blacklist” while exacting a huge cost from nearly every site you use daily and potentially disappearing your entire digital life while still managing to be both unnecessary and ineffective but stands a shockingly good chance of passing unless we do something about it.”
After I post this and publicize this, by 9am I am planning on joining in as well and staying off the internet today. This site will be “dark” from 8am-8pm and post a flag about the issue until January 24, 2012.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for my blog, The Write Alley.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
I am so busy right now that I am not taking on any new projects or clients until May. However, I would be happy to meet at our earliest mutual convenience to discuss working together during May through August on your writing project whether it be a manuscript, book, blogging, family history or for business!
I hope to continue posting valuable content on a weekly basis here; for more regular updates and links about writing and social media, subscribe to my Twitter feed and “like” my page on Facebook. And of course, if you are not already, please subscribe to this blog!
I also plan to post weekly on my other blogs: Compassionate Rebel, Bikergogal, Wine Predator, and Art Predator. With my teaching load, my PhD classes, my family, and my writing projects, 2012 looks to be an exciting and busy year!
How was 2011 for you? What are looking forward to in 2012?
I’m at the International Food Bloggers Conference where I spoke yesterday on creating compelling content about wine for food bloggers. (It went well! Lots of people have come up to me to say how inspiring it was!)
This morning I had a choice of these two sessions
Session Option 1: Eating on a Budget with Kimberly Morales (Food)
It’s a common goal to save and spend money more wisely. And as a food blogger, it’s natural to want to try all the latest products and prepare a slew of different and expensive dinners. Hear from savvy, budget-conscious bloggers about how they mastered clipping coupons and embraced canning, preserving, and buying in bulk. You’ll learn how to feed your family and yourself while spending less, and how to keep food blogging from breaking your bank account.
Session Option 2: Monetizing Your Blog with Barnaby Dorfman, Melissa Lanz, and Andie Mitchell (Writing & Technology)
Here you’ll learn the ins and outs of monetization- everything from partnering with ad networks and affiliate programs to publishing your work in print and online media.
I’m sitting in on the second session where I posted the following nuggets on twitter (this is reverse chronological order–ie, the tweet at the end is the first one on the topic, the tweet at the top is the last one). You can check out what others had to say by checking out the hashtag on twitter #ifbc:
@melissalanz last word of advice: get reader emails to add to your list.
Control yr message, offer online & live events, consider charity partnerships to build yr brand, be good for business. Think globally! #ifbc
consult, coach, teach, speak are all ways you can grow your brand, get more valuable, turn into $$ says @melissalanz#ifbc
be honest about your affiliate partners & talk about their products that you use & love in an authentic way says @melisslanz#ifbc
what do you know? what can you teach? you can teach & sell classes online building from your online content #ifbc
you can make a simple app w/o spending thousands of $$ & get it up & running in your blog #ifbc (really? how? cool!)
Kindle feed your blog on amazon –love that as a passive way to monetize your blog & let your readers support what you give online #ifbc
Melissa Lanz has promised to share her slides with us –with the joke that this will be the one and only time she ever offers something of this much value for free!
Speaking of free and of value, yesterday I attended Rand Fishkin’s session that focused on SEO for Food Bloggers and you can check out his slideshow “SEO for Food Bloggers” for yourself.
This afternoon I am speaking at the International Food Blogger’s Conference in Santa Monica; I’m on a panel about integrating wine into a food blog and my specific topic is to share some ideas on how to create compelling content about wine and food. I was invited because I am considered an influential wine blogger who frequently includes food in my wine reviews and because I am a writing teacher and coach.
As I reflected on what I wanted to share, I realized that creating compelling content is the same no matter what the topic. This seems obvious now and it took me down a much more productive path in terms of my preparing to contribute to what I think will be a valuable session.
The key points I will be offering are:
1) Go for the jugular.
2) Tell stories.
3) Be specific.
4) Experiment.
You can read more about it over at my Wine Predator blog. I’ll be posting notes from my presentation there as well as here.
PS Today is my son’s birthday! He is 8 years old today.
Following Vintank’s blog post last week listing the 9 most influential wine bloggers, several commenters observed the list was limited to one gender–male. The comments section has quite a ruckus going on–some of it insightful and provocative.
The Write Alley 