An eternity ago I preordered Seth Godin’s Linchpin and at the same time donated to the Acumen Fund. I received my advance copy of Linchpin as did several of you. Well, I patted myself on the back, am enjoying the book and put that event behind me.

I shouldn’t have.

Surprise, I received a surprise extra copy of Linchpin with a letter from Seth. It reads:

Generosity is a key piece of being an artist. It gives each of us a chance to connect, to make a difference, and to do indispensable work.

You were generous enough to make a donation to Acumen Fund, an organization that focuses on trade, not aid, building communities that work because each member contributes more than they get.

A few weeks ago I sent you a preview copy of Linchpin, as promised. Now, in recognition of your generosity, I’m giving you another. I hope you’ll share this one with someone you care about.

Thanks for the art you bring to your work every day.

Seth

Seth, you’re still a hero. You create; you think; you share.

Seth says share so I’m sharing.

The question for me wasn’t whether to share or not, but how to share it.  So I asked my Twitter buds.

They gave me the answer, MuseCrossing aka Christine Lacombe. Christine is one of my earliest connections on Twitter. Cheering me on, keeping an eye and ear out for me, sharing her joys, including me on her struggles, Christine is a friend.

Borders don’t exist online except in our minds. People like her, Glenda Watson, Liz Strauss, and more, they don’t see us versus them. They pour their energy out to those around them without regard to profit or cost.

Thank you Christine. You are a Linchpin!

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Christine is MuseCrossing on Twitter. She has a personal blog. Be warned; you will feel something when you visit.

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You can buy Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?.

Glenda Watson Hyatt is The One Thumbed Blogger and she’s bringing in the new year with another Accessibility 100 series.  Kicking it off, Glenda has a project for us.

In launching the 2010 edition of Accessibility 100 – a series of 100 easy-to-implement, free and inexpensive tips for improving accessibility for people with disabilities, I am borrowing a powerful idea from blogger extraordinaire Liz Strauss.

You are invited to share exactly 25 words on:

What does accessibility means to you?

I encourage you to give this a try.  Glenda shares the rules on her post. Here’s my stab at at.

Accessibility, more than a ramp or wide door, is a thoughtfulness in approaching design, considering people not wheelchairs, souls over boundaries, and vision beyond blindness.

It’s rough but I’m thinking I’m going to be dreaming up more of these.

What’s your 25 words?

04.28.2009 – Chicago, IL — April 28, 2009 – The buzz on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media is getting louder every day, with Oprah Winfrey’s debut on Twitter last week the latest hit in the extraordinarily active online world. More than 112 million blogs are active now, spurring small and medium-size businesses as well as non-profit organizations to explore how to grab the eyes and ears of their publics on this powerful new medium. At Chicago’s SOBcon’09 May 1-3, an elite event for business bloggers and social media practitioners, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the Web’s most influential experts. The presenters are established social media stars, reaching a combined total of 8 million people weekly.

This event was a turning point in my life in Web 2.0. Not only did we talk about blogging last year, but the real meat of the event was business online. Attending this event really put me in the spirit of networking, sharing, and being a contributor online and off.

SOBCon08 brought wonderful folks into my life who I still meet regularly with. Five of us formed a SOB group. Our mentoring group provides us encouragement, feedback and connections.

Beyond that, SOBCon introduced me to other bloggers and has created lasting relationships. These relationships have turned into friendships as well as people I can trust for advice, inspiration, and learning a thing or two.

This year’s SOBCon is being attended by some of my friends and partners. Some of them will be attending for the first time. I’ll take credit for bringing several of these folks to commit to this event. It meant that much to me that I see the cost as an investment for anyone serious about blogging and business online.

Liz Strauss is the mastermind behind it. I encourage you to get to know her at Successful Blog even if you aren’t attending SOBCon.

It may sound like I’m gushing, but this event will change some lives. But it’s a winnowing exercise as well. Some attendees will find they’ve been mislead before now. They’ve been told about get rich quick systems, and how to get thousands of followers and fans. SOBCon will be a big debunking for them. A handful of folks there will drop off and give up. The rest though will be energized and enriched. They’ll form new bonds, go forward with new vigor, and join the ranks of the likes of Darren Rowse and Chris Brogan and Denise Wakeman.

To share one memory from last year, Denise just reminded me of our dinner at Ving’s. That experience is the type of bonding you don’t often get with people. And like I always say, there’s no better way to get to know someone than to break bread together.

Please visit the SOBCon site and consider it for your list of events to attend in the future. It will change the way you blog and do business online.

Inside the SEARS Wishbook — A $500 Grant a Wish Giveaway! – Liz Strauss at Successful Blog.: “Every year when I was a kid, my mom would sit us down with the Wishbook from Sears. She’d have us make list of what we wanted for Christmas…. The tradition came with a solid promise that at least one item on each list would end up under our tree. My list kept me busy for hours — busy dreaming, and wishing, and learning the life skill of filling out order forms.”

The above reminds me so much of being a kid. When my sister and I were young our parents would bring home the catalogs from the big department stores like Sears. Traci and I would sit in the middle of the living room reading through the catalogs dreaming of the wonderful things within.

As a grown man, I still love to browse a catalog when it’s gift giving time. Just now I do it online. Sears has long been online and offering even more choices there than can be found in their corner store.

This year Sears is out to share that joy through offering gift cards through a simple bit of blog magic. They’ve asked a few bloggers to share the wealth by doing a simple contest on their blogs.

Each blogger had to go exploring at Sears and get their own wishes granted, then write about it on their blog. The bloggers then get to offer some prize packages worth $500 to the lucky winner.

One way to enter is to write a blog post about the contest and link back to the post. I’ve chosen Liz Strauss to show some love to as her article really brought back memories for me.

I’m especially fond of the Images, Music, and Words package.

Hats off to Liz and Sears. May they spread much joy this holiday season.

     Today I’m in the middle of what seems to be a never ending bit of frustration at work.  Today the struggle though is as much inside as it is outside.  It’s taken some talking to though to make me realize that in what I’ve seen as an ongoing struggle that there’s an opportunity to live what I preach about.  There’s a chance to be playing the game for real and for keeps.

     The first person to speak with me really started our conversation on Saturday with a surprise call.  She spoke to me about visible authenticity. It’s a calling to walk the talk out loud and in public.  But the conversation didn’t stop there, today she came with full force about playing for keeps; that would be Liz Strauss for you.

     The second person to speak with me was someone that came as a total surprise, an upper level manager at work.  This person took time to not only listen to me grumble but responded with transparency and visibility.  They provided me with proof of their actions and intentions and explain why those didn’t happen.  This lead to how come my current situation seems so bad.  

     The manager chose to go beyond that though and talk with me about what was driving the frustration I’m having and help me see something about myself.  It became clear they saw my talk was that I want to be able to take better charge of my life and my situation, but they pointed out that I might be too busy focusing on what’s not right that I’m missing the opportunity to take the reigns more and walk like a leader instead of just talking about it.

     Talk about a message being received loud and clear. BAM! Right between the eyes with the hits. Both Liz and the manager spoke words that aren’t just random bits in the life stream. 

     Because of that, the truth comes out that I’ve been saying that leaders lead, they don’t wait for things to line up for them, but that’s just the opposite of what I’ve been doing.  I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunities at my day job and in my life.  There won’t be better times if I’m not willing to work towards those times with my own two hands and my own spirit.

     Are you just talking? Are you really in the game for real and for keeps?  Are you waiting for something magic to happen? Perhaps your own personal fixit fairy?  BAM! There you go. The wait’s over. Now is the time to authentic and move forward from there.

     The 25 Words That Connect Us project has wrapped and the final results are out.  Liz Strauss has compiled, and combined each submission into a beautiful slide show.  The show and final words can be found at Pass It On!. I’ve also embedded it below.

     Each of the bloggers contributed their personal take on connections.  The key was to put it in a 25 word thought and share it.  

The original 25 Words That Connect Us post.  

My 25 words.

The final product:

The contributors:

Amy Derby
Stacy Lang
Karin H
schizo
Chris Brogan
Luke Gedeon
Kara
Robert Hruzek
Todd Jordan
Avital
Todd Smith
Bob Whaley
Karl Edwards
Davina
Mark Salinas
Joanna Young
David Taboada
78% water, 12% caffeine
SpageAgeSage – Lori
Michael VanDervort
VanillaCokehead
Wonderwebby
Heather Rast
Kelly Erickson
Work Happy Now!
Connected Creativity
Giovanna Garcia
Shadows Edge
Make or Break Moments
Damien Franco

(From Writing Project: 25 Words that Connect Us – Liz Strauss at Successful Blog – Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.
Another great project from Liz Strauss at Successful Blog.)

Will you accept my invitation to put 25 words about how we’re connected into a blog post? Here’s how you might go about it.
Think about connections, connectedness, being linked together, synchronicity, serendipity, community, oneness.

• Write a sentence about it.
• Count the words you have written.
• Edit the sentence until you have 25 words exactly.

Notice how your idea changes as you edit and how your feelings change with each rewrite.

Add a picture if you can.
Post your 25 words on your blog by October 16th.
Are you in? Surely you have 25 words to spare for this one.
Have your link here by 1:00a.m. October 17th, 2008 on the clock in the sidebar on this blog. That’s Chicago time.

Well of course Liz! I’ll take that challenge.

Liz brought us a similar project back in July with 25 Words of Work/Life Wisdom. So it’s with excitement that I looked forward to doing this one.

I’m contributing my first two cents here, but can’t wait to see if you’ve got 25 words about connections to share as well. If so, be sure to get them in your blog and share them on Liz’s 25 Words That Connect Us challenge post.

Connections aren’t about how close you can get, how far you travel, or how long you known someone; it’s about reaching across to their heart.

It’s a first impression, and already much refined. But can you just stop at one?

I dare you to share 25 words. And if you aren’t a blogger, then feel free to share them here or on Liz’s comments. Anonymous contributors welcome.

Bloggers goes to lots of events. We do meet ups, conferences, breakfasts and bar crawls. I’ve traveled cross town, across the state, and across the border to hook up with my contacts, share ideas, and talk in person. If you blog, you’ve done it as well.

We come away from those events on natural highs. We promise ourselves we’ll do some things. Perhaps for you it was simply to stay in touch. Other folks will promise to change their blog, some will say they’ll change their life. Some people even offer business opportunities. It’s a very exciting time in our lives.

Now months have gone by. The emails have dropped off. The blog is stagnant. Your business plan isn’t even started. What happened?

It isn’t just you, it’s a lot of folks. And it isn’t all on you to blame. You might be disagreeing about now, and maybe you’re right. I want to challenge that a bit though and tell you something that made SOBCon different than other gatherings you might have attended.

What I’m willing to wager is that most meet ups, conferences, and such you aren’t just running into a few like minded folks, you’re running into a whole slew of them. These are people you’ve corresponded with before. You and them share social networks and perhaps dozens if not hundreds of contacts. And those contacts will be there as well. Heck, you probably have dinners out with some of your fellow bloggers that you see at conferences and such.

Diversity is the first thing that made SOBCon stand out. This wasn’t a group of the top bloggerati coming together for the fourth time that year. You wouldn’t find a whole mess of successful online businesses. Not even everyone there could hear.

Old and common ground was shared by few, as business owners with no blogs worked side by side with professional bloggers. At the same table were folks like me, small time bloggers and working professionals looking to move into other areas.

Differences in goals wasn’t the only diversity. Australia, Great Britain, and Canada were represented, as well as men and women from all across the US. Layered on that were individuals with disabilities, most notably Stephen J. Hopson, and Karen Putz, both deaf.

This mix of personalities, desires, and backgrounds, rather than being a stumbling block, became a catalyst. We were each positively challenged from the boat ride on Friday evening until our departure on Sunday afternoon.

SOBCon had a lot more to offer than diversity. Keep your eyes open for the next part of how SOBCon Lives On.

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Brought to us by Liz Strauss of Successful Blog, and many other contributors.

You’ll find my 25 words of wisdom in there as well.

Writing Project: 25 Words of Work / Life Wisdom – Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

The project above by Liz Strauss is one that sure got folks thinking. What can I say in 25 words that will have meaning and impact? She provided a few great examples and many folks have responded already. The deadline is today though; this is a barely under the wire post.

All said, here’s my take:

No person an island they say. Then why do we work so hard to keep folks on their own islands. Consider inviting them to yours.