Read this article and find out how!
Go to YouTube and watch Robert McCammon addressing the school board about his banned books. Very inspiring.
McCammon used to be an advertising copywriter by the way. Hmm. He, Salman Rushdie and how many countless others learned how to write by first writing ad copy – so don’t give up!
In light of the fact that in our country there is still a ridiculously high amount of “banned books” in school libraries, this is an interesting debate currently ensuing in Sweden.
By the way, one of my most favorite (still on some banned book lists)is Robert McCammon’s “Boy’s Life” and if you follow the hyperlinked title you can see how Mr. McCammon reacted to his book banning and what he did about it. Brilliant.
I would love to sit on a porch with Mr. McCammon and just listen to him talk about writing and books. Get the book if you’ve never read it. Read it with your kids. It’s like reading Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine” for the first time and by the end you will weep because the book is done.
McCammon is a fantastic storyteller.
I’m so humbled to be part of this amazing conversation, “Age of Conversation”, which will be coming soon!
Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise
Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem
Look for the book soon right after Labor Day!
Love this book and the new YouTube vid here.
A new search engine has launched today and my prediction is that it just might rival Google’s in a couple of years time. The search engine was created by Anna Patterson.
Here’s an excerpt from the article, “Anna Patterson’s last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.
She believes her latest invention is even more valuable – only this time it’s not for sale.
Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.”
I had to laugh at the quote from a Gartner analyst, “Search has become as much about branding as anything else,” Weiner said. “I doubt [Cuil] will be keeping anyone at Google awake at night.”
While search is about branding, it’s also about users wanting improved search capabilities, and if Cuil ends up giving users a better way to search and retrieve then it might just keep those Google guys up a night too.
Anna worked for Google so it will really be exciting to see long-term how this plays out.
I tried it this morning and I like how it presents the searches in more of a magazine/newspaper layout as noted by the article as well.
So you’ve started a blog, and automatically (according to some of the folks doing blog webinars, social media webinars) your blog is going to be instantly visited by droves of people simply because you’ve now got a blog. You’re going to be famous, you’re going to have thousands of followers, you’re going to immediately be able to monetize your blog. Your blog is the only one anyone will read!
NOPE.
A blog is just the start of the conversation, a blog is like buying a new house in a very connected neighborhood of thousands, thousands, thousands of other blogs already out there.
There is no “instant gratification” tool or payoff for you with blogging and if that’s your focus – blogging is not for you. Blogging and connecting with other bloggers and raising the visibility of your blog takes time, patience and authenticity.
It’s not just another selling tool for you and don’t view it that way. It’s a way to connect with like-minded bloggers in an already thriving community, but don’t expect to be hosting your “blog ice cream social” overnight with all those other bloggers. That’s not how it works. And frankly, it’s not even fun to blog if that’s the only reason you’re doing it.
So why should you even have a blog then? Because if you don’t you’re missing out on making those connections at all.
Blogging is building community, community, community. Being part of a community takes time and participation and trust. And just a quick note on Facebook, I find it disturbing that there are so many “PR consultants” doing webinars around Facebook and how you too can sell your books on Facebook and make millions. Be careful of what you do on Facebook, be conscious not to only view all these tools as strictly sales tools for your product. Don’t become Ron Popeii.
You should have a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter but you need to be patient, authentic and view them as long-term initiatives to connect honestly with folks.
By the way, I really like this blog as a great example of blogging long-term for the greater good of readers.
And happy late birthday to my friend Lissa Bergin-Boles, a fellow blogger and brilliant woman. Lissa is truly wondrous, giving and always authentic.
Dr. Randy Pausch passed away today.
If you have not yet read, “The Last Lecture” please do.
If you’ve not yet seen this remarkable person’s “last lecture” please do. Last month I wrote a case study about Carnegie Mellon and its Web 2.0 initiatives including its own channel and vids on YouTube and sad to say, one of the best anecdotal pieces was edited out for brevity.
The part of the case study edited out is below, and i think it speaks volumes to the idea that no matter who you are (even Bill Gates), no matter what your fame, what really matters is how well your express your life and how you inspire people to be more. Pausch did that and is a beacon for all of us.
“Bill Gates’ lecture also in the series, gathered 36,327 views and runs in length at forty-eight minutes. In contrast, Dr. Pausch’s lecture has now generated 2,183,396 million views despite its length of one hour and sixteen minutes.”
Note that the case study was written in June and Pausch’s vid as of today on YouTube is over 3,500,000 million and counting views.
And note that John McCain’s speech at Carnegie on YouTube added 3 months ago has only had 5,538 views.
Barack Obama’s speech at Carnegie on YouTube added 4 weeks ago has only had 5,989 views.
Interesting.
God Bless Dr. Pausch.
Today I had the amazing pleasure of listening to a dedicated, fantastic, inspiring teacher talk about his love of teaching. He showed a “Three Words” vid that he did with his kids that was just stunning. I can’t find it on YouTube – but I did find a link to some others and encourage you to view them.
I also wanted to put a shout out to the W Magical List of Women bloggers of which I’m proudly one! So please hit that link too.
I was particularly happy today as well to see one of my favorite clients and author Beth Kephart’s “House of Dance” reviewed on YouTube. What a great idea and wonderful review!
On such a rainy day after seeing such an inspiring teacher speak and thinking of my Mom who has taught for over 25 years, I wanted to post this quote, “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” ~Author Unknown
It is also for my husband, who as all my clients are told, left a very successful career in technology software to become an elementary school P.E. teacher. You’ve not lived until you’ve seen 35 first graders pull out their Pilates mats when Coach “Heart Sauce” starts class. And his song “Gingerbread Man” is still a school favorite!
Remember, all of us, whether famous or not famous can be those candles for others.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this social media buzz don’t let it stop you from taking “one Web step at a time” toward higher visibility on the Web. Take advantage of the tools you can and don’t get addicted to any one of them. They work for the greater good in tandem with your offline initiatives, so don’t neglect those.
I think e-newsletters are still a terrific way of reaching out to folks and highlighting all you’re doing. So start with one of those! Then move on to putting up a simple profile on Facebook.com, then add one to LinkedIn.com and definitely claim your name on Twitter.com. Twitter is really fun and you can connect with some pretty amazing folks on that site.
But don’t let any of the Web 2.0 stuff paralyze you. Keep in mind, espescially if you’re a creative person that these tools can serve their purpose without making you less purposeful around your number one priority which is to create art, music, books for the rest of us!
Keep Bob Dylan’s quote on your desk, “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
To that quote I would add that waking up in the morning and being kind, empowering and inspiring to others around you is a great way to live!
I’m absolutely loving this Peter Gabriel song from “Wall-E” - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
And let these lyrics below inspire you to remember there’s much more to life than just the digital world!
Go outside, stand in the rain, howl at the moon and smell the fresh air. Re-engage your real life outside your virtual life.
“We’re coming down to the ground
There’s no better place to go
We’ve got snow up on the mountains
We’ve got rivers down below
We’re coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze”
I’m waiting for this memoir to happen. Where’s the book? There probably won’t be one, because thankfully Olga Murray is too busy changing the world to stop and write her own life story.
Olga Murray is inspiring, powerful and amazing. Read what she’s done for Nepal.
Roger Fransecky is the Founder and President of the Apogee Group. Dig this post he penned for Huffington Post on Happiness.
His writing stye is conversant and engaging. Great proof that even if you’re the head of a deeply respected corporate firm, you can still write (or blog) from the heart. That’s the only way to do it.
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