(February 26, 2010 UPDATE:  The “Blog It, Earn It” discount has been extended to April 1, 2010. See the instructions below on how to get $250 off a ticket to SOBCon2010!)

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of the Internet …

• to focus entirely on your business
• to work with the support of a mastermind team
• to get quality time to interact with the top people in social media
• to get the best information AND time to discuss how you’ll apply it
• to work with sponsors who are doing the same thing
• in a room limited to 150 people — all focused in the same direction
• without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

Imagine a weekend work retreat with these people totally invested.

Would you write a blog post to get a chance to win a FREE SOBCon Weekend?

An All-Expense Paid Ticket!! AND the Return of The “Blog It, Earn It”  Discount

As a co-founder of SOBCon (now in our fourth year), I’m delighted to announce with my partner Liz Strauss this great offer …

We had such fun last year with the SOBCon “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’re bringing it back again. Again this year, we’d like to hear from you — this time about what “The Virtual Meets the Concrete” means to you. We want to celebrate how our relationships online help our lives and businesses online and off.

Tell us why online and offline relationships and strategies matter.

Here’s how to qualify for the discount and enter to win:

1. Write a blog post about a person (or people) online who has (or have) made a difference in your life. Celebrate how they have made your life easier, better, smarter, more productive, more meaningful.

2. Then let us know by tagging your post #SOBCon2010 and leaving a comment on this post. Include a working e-mail with your comment and as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate - that’s over a 25% savings! (We won’t use your email to spam you.)

We’ll also tweet your blog post so that we can celebrate the folks we all think make us stronger.

Get your posts up before Noon EST on February 14th, 2010, and noon EST pm the next day (February 15th), to kick off a special SOBCobn2010 Webinar with Chris Garrett,  Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund and Liz Strauss (details coming soon), we’ll put all of the entries in a random drawing and choose one lucky winner who will receive:

1. a free ticket to SOBCon2010 – $895.00 value
2. airfare and three nights at Hotel 71 – up to $1105 in hotel and airfare

A total package value worth as much as $2000 – nontransferable, nonrefundable.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also encourage you to link to the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And remember as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate - that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon2010, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2010.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

We’re all coming for the same reasons.

Update 2/15: And the winner is…….Hollie Pollard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  (@commoncentsmom on Twitter).  She submitted a great post entitled “They Don’t Even Know“.  Congratulations Hollie, and see you in Chicago!

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Amen to that, Brian! Keep learning, teaching – and making us all better. For in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “the maker of the sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into chaos and old night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight”.

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(photo by Chris Garrett, from SOBCon09)

SOBCon09 is now history, and all the “digiloggers” have returned to the blogosphere, blending the analog with the digital and keeping the human ahead of the platform.

With this wind at our backs Liz Strauss and I have forged ahead with planning for SOBCon2010, and we’re pleased to report that we have a date and a place:

April 30- May 2, 2010

Summit Executive Center

Chicago, Illinois

That’s right, we’ll be gathering again at the same great facility where we’ve held the last two SOBCons-

We also have a theme for 2010 – “Where the Virtual Meets the Concrete“.

Or as I like to call it – “The Return of the Digiloggers, Part 2“

But there’s a catch.

We can only accommodate 150 people, max.

This is a gathering where size does matter, and we really want to keep the numbers at a level where we maximize the value of the learning and interactions.

So that’s why we’ve already opened up registration, so those who would like to get a head start on reserving a seat to this event can do so, right now.

Because I know you don’t want to miss it.

But we also know that plucking down cash so far in advance is a lot to ask.

Therefore, we are announcing the “Reserve Now, Pay Later” program. It’s a “three-fer”:

1. You get a seat early, and rest easy – your there
2. You get a deeply discounted rate – $300 off the “at the door” price
3. You only have to put down a $95 deposit now – and just pay the rest by December 31, 2009

Here’s what you need to do:

• Go to the SOBCon2010 Registration site
• Click “Enter Discount Code“
• Put in this code: paylater10, then click “apply discount“
• Buy your tickets at $95
• Pay the remaining $500 per ticket to us by 12/31/09 to keep your seats (I”ll let you know how to do that)

To take advantage of this program you need to act quickly – the $595 rate, and thus this program,  expires on July 3, 2009

Note once again: If you do not pay the remaining balance due by 12/31/09, you will forfeit the $95 deposit and lose your seat to the event.

While you’re visiting the registration site, also take a minute to look at the video highlights of SOBCon09 (by Ramsey Mohsen).

(Note: edited on 6/15 to get Ramsey’s name correct)

Liz and I hope you can join us at the 2010 event, and even better, we hope you can take advantage of this program.

We’re counting the days! Already.

Many thanks.

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I find it fascinating that I can have a conversation with certain people and I always know I’ll walk away from it with some kind of useful insight.  One of those people is Chris Garrett, blogger extraordinaire and co-author of what I consider to be one of seminal books on our craft, “ProBlogger“.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of chances to talk at the recent SOBCon conference in Chicago, but when we did, it didn’t take long for us to dive into the philosophical pool.

Even when we weren’t trying.

It was a light discussion about singing and dancing and our feelings about participating in such activities.  I told Chris I didn’t have any problem cutting a rug or belting out a tune, even in a crowded room (or at a podium at a bloggers conference).   He, on the other hand, didn’t have the same inclinations- particularly in the dancing category.

He quickly added, with more than a tint of admiration, that for some in his family, dancing was “like breathing“.

Like breathing……………..”Kerplunk“

We were now once again in the pool.

After absorbing that comment I then replied – “So what’s like breathing to you?”

I leave that for Chris to answer in a blog post of his own, but what this little exchange did for me was set off alarms in my own head.

What’s like breathing to me?  What are those things that help define who I am but are yet rarely thought about, because they come so naturally?

Chances are, if I give this more than casual thought, I can gain some valuable clarity about the state of my life and what should be the focus of my work, my play, my relationships, and everything in between.

Problem is, just like we rarely stop to ponder something so essential to our lives as breathing, there is often no reason for us to stop and try to figure out the “why” in our lives.

Why do I love to sing? Why does music move me?  Why does making a friend smile with wry humor so meaningful? Why do I feel so good around mountains? Why can I make a speech or presentation without having a panic attack?  Why is my leadership instinct to guide and nurture, instead of control? Why is my intellectual “default” to pick something up and read it, even if it’s a cookbook sitting in the kitchen (and I don’t even like to cook)?  Why do I practice yoga at 5:30 in the morning, even though I know it’s 5:30 in the morning?

That’s all like breathing to me, but it may be a good time to dive into those “whys” a little deeper, since Chris already pushed me into the pool.  So that I will do – and we’ll see what happens.

Thanks Chris for the help, and I look forward to your take on this.

How about you?  What’s like breathing in your life?  And more importantly, why?

C’mon in, the water’s fine!

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Terry, Liz & Phil Gerbyshak (1st SOBCon07 speaker)

I’ve just returned home from SOBCon09 in Chicago – a weekend gathering of 130 friends and social media practitioners with open minds, big hearts and tons of ideas.

This is the third time Liz Strauss and I have hosted this event, and just as the first two, I was totally blown away by the positive energy and “can-do” spirit of every single person who attended.

It was a perfect environment for valuable and focused  learning – and learn we did.

For nearly three days we had an ongoing conversation about the value of this medium as it relates to our business and personal goals and objectives – from seemingly a million different directions.

We talked about building trust, shaping personalities, defining personas, staying true to ourselves – and that was just the first two hours.

After we “gut-checked” ourselves with statements like  “free doesn’t pay the rent”, we dug deeper, looking at the nuts and bolts and the blocking and tackling of our businesses, from the “thing itself” to all the discipline, focus and preparation that is needed behind the scenes to fully flower our ideas and passions – and oh yes, make some money.

We realized that our “audience” can extend well beyond what we might have thought before, and we would be well served to make the changes necessary to make us accessable to all who would want to reach us.

And then, day two.

Are we hitting our social media targets?  Can we really market on Twitter? How valuable are those conversations?  Do we have our analog act together as well as our digital?  (Don’t you love panels!)

We learned that how we look and how we act as  “in the flesh” humans is more directly linked to our online sucess than we think.

We realized that warhorse axiom “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”  HAS to apply in our digital world too, and we got some pretty darn good tools to figure it out.

We tossed around (with great vigor) the notion that social media can and should only be a part, and oftentimes just a small part, of an integrated whole.    It’s not the be all and end all.    And beware of those  “experts” who say otherwise.

And finally, the person who stared this whole thing put it all into perspective, in the form of a simple little house.  One with a great big heart in the middle of it.

Then, the next day, we got a chance to apply what we learned for the benefit of our wonderful sponsors.

What SOBCon is creating, in my view, is a new breed of businessperson – the “Digilogger“.

A Digilogger is someone, or a company,  who can successfully synthesize what has and always will work on the “analog” side of the fence and blend it seamlessly with the digital tools we now have at our disposal.

Put even more simply, it’s making sure the platform is the extension of the human, instead of the other way around.

It’s old school merging with new school, into something meaningful, vital, vibrant and better still,  successful.

And that’s what the “S” in SOBCon is all about.

Yes, I’m a Digilogger.  And now, after three years, those ranks have grown by leaps and bounds.

Are you next? If you haven’t already, join the SOBCon family and find out.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended, supported, and sponsored this event.

And Liz, I dedicate this post to you.

(Oh, and mark your calendars – SOBCON2010 is April 30- May 2)

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There’s hundreds of reasons why you go to conferences: the speakers, the sessions, the lessons and learnings. But when you go home with a full brain, you take with you something of true lasting value: the relationships you build with those sharing that experience with you.

As many previous attendees in 2007 and 2008 have told us, SOBCon is a truly special gathering. Connecting and conversing are at the heart of the event, and that’s why our theme for SOBCon09, once again being held in Chicago from May 1-3, is The “ROI of Relationships”.

Check out the details and the incredible list of guest speakers here.

We know that you’ll learn a ton about how to bring your blogging and social media to a new level, but you’ll be forging friendships too. Social media is all about the community. We want that to be central to your experience at SOBCon09.

We also know that getting to conferences isn’t always easy, especially this year.

So we are announcing today the opportunity for you to significantly reduce your registration cost for the event.

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

We recently posted a great example of this on the SOBCon blog, written by one of our previous attendees David Sherbow.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit).  We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate - that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make it, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends.

Please act quickly because there are only a limited number of these discounted registrations available. All blog entries must be posted no later than March 7, and the discounts must be redeemed by March 14.

Now, more than ever, relationships and connections matter. So c’mon, “Blog It, Earn It”, and then join us in Chicago in May. See you there!

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About six weeks ago I wrote a poem dedicated to “all who I’ve come to know on this medium in my three years of blogging”, entitled “Dog Years Are Like Blog Years“.

Not long after that post went up, Amy Derby and I were bantering on Twitter about how I should find someone to write music to it. Amy suggested I chat with John Haydon.

I looked up John’s MySpace music site and gave his original tunes a listen. He was good. Darn good. On top of that he writes an excellent blog about Social Media for non-profits, CorporateDollar.org. (Oh, and he had already signed up to come to SOBCon09).

We started cyber-chatting ourselves and the next thing you know he volunteered to write the music to “Blog Years are Like Dog Years“, with the goal of having it ready by SOBCon09, so we could perform it live then.

Well, I got the finished product yesterday from John, and I quickly decided I couldn’t wait for SOBCon to share it with everyone.

So, John and I present to you for your downloading pleasure, the world premiere of our “new single” (right click and do “save as”):

Blog Years Are Like Dog Years

(Music performed, written and sung by John Haydon, lyrics by Starbucker).

Here are the revised lyrics so you can follow along:

(Copyright 2009, John Haydon & Terry Starbucker)

You start like a child, eyes open wide
To possibility, of what lies outside
Guided by teachers, showing the biz
Tom, Phil & Rosa, Trevor and Liz

Thoughts on a page, feeling your way
Wondering if folks want to hear what you say
Before too long, you begin to be seen
By Mike, Ben & Lisa, Chris & Christine

You put names to faces, as SOBs
Fast moving forward, like a steady breeze

Then you blossom – a child of thirteen
Still not assured, trying not be mean
But more friends arrive, and things start to click
Thanks Mary, Maria, Jodee and Rick

You grow strong, a young blogging adult
Independent and tough, with cause to exult
And those who raised you, begin to lay low
Like Easton, Tim, Ellen, Kammie and Joe

All these good people, sharing their views
Too many to count, too many to choose

Blog years are like dog years
Flying through posts like a bat out of hell
Leaving mentors to rush ahead
The lure of bigger numbers always in your head

But I shall never forget, those who held my hand
In those childlike days of this new land
But now I’m an old man of the blogosphere
And you will always be welcome here

You put names to faces, as SOBs
Fast moving forward, like a steady breeze

Thank you John, for taking the time to do this – I am so grateful. It just makes the sentiment I meant to convey that much more meaningful.

Friends, download and enjoy – and see us perform it live at SOBCon09!

Don’t forget to check out John’s other musical treats at his MySpace page.

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One of the real pleasures of being a fellow citizen of the blogosphere is getting a chance to meet the wonderful folks that I correspond with on this medium (and through my addiction to Twitter).

I’m going to be lucky enough to have several opportunities to do this in the coming weeks and months, and I thought I’d pass them along in case you will be in any of these neighborhoods.

• On November 10, 2008 (a week from tomorrow), my SOBCon partner Liz Strauss and I will be hosting a meet-up in Chicago at 7PM at the Emerald Loop restaurant (216 N. Wabash). For those who attended SOBCon08 you will certainly remember this place – it was our “unofficial barroom”, as Liz affectionately called it. Please stop by and see us – we’ll be undoubtedly be leaking details of SOBCon09 as the night wears on (I’ll say this right now – the lineup of speakers is going to be even better than last year!). Drop us a note or a DM to let us know you are coming (so we can give the Emerald fair warning).
• On December 4-5, 2008, I’ll be in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX area, helping Lisa Haneberg as she leads a Developing Great Managers Conference hosted by the ASTD. My role will be to be what she calls a “provocateur” – talking to attendees about “The new management skills and requirements – the emerging management topics that ought to be a part of your training programs but probably are not yet”. I’ll be drawing on my 26 years of business and leadership experience in “stirring the pot” as to what we really ought to be teaching the new leaders of today. Lisa makes a great case for attending these sessions on one of her recent blog posts.
• In early April 2009, look for another edition of CK and Drew Mclellan’s “Blogger Social”. Here’s hoping it will take place in New York, New York as it did in 2008. If you really, really want to meet a great group of marketing (and other) bloggers and talk about our craft (and all the cool tools of the trade), you shouldn’t miss this. I’ll be there, wherever and whenever it is. I’ll be sure to post details on this space as soon as I get them.
• And then, there’s SOBCon09. May 1-3, 2009, at the Summit Executive Center in Chicago, Illinois. Here’s another “leaked” tidbit on this one – we are limiting the attendees to 150. We will be posting more details on our SOBCon site, including the tentative schedule and registration information, very soon. If you are unfamiliar with SOBCon and would like to get a better idea of what it’s all about, I invite you to read my posts “Why SOBCon Matters to Me” and “We’ve Got the Dreamers Disease: Reflections on SOBCon08“. I will once again have the privilege of being the emcee for the event – I can’t wait.

There you have it – I hope I get a chance to meet you at one of these events. In the meantime, keep that glass half-full and all the best!

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In the wake of SOBCon08, I’ve been exposed to many more great writers, and many more viewpoints on the craft of blogging. Even though I’ve been at this for over two and a half years, I was amazed by what I still didn’t know, or understand, when it came to putting content out there that was readable, compelling, and engaging.

Reading posts and advice from those who have “cracked the code” has led me to step back and reevaluate the three fundamental questions that I believe confronts everyone before they write their first post:

• Why am I doing this?
• And for whom am I doing it?
• How will I gain satisfaction from it?

Back in December 2005, when I set up Ramblings From a Glass Half Full as a lark, my answers to these questions were:

• For the fun of it
• Myself
• Getting things “on paper” that just needed to get out

That rationale served me well the first year or so, because I was essentially putting a hodgepodge of stuff out there about things that interested me and not necessarily needing much of an audience to read it.

I also was very curious about what others were doing with this medium, so I started reading a lot of other blogs, and commenting on them.

Then I discovered Technorati. And links. And “ranking”. The competitive spirit in me started to rise up, and the answers to the fundamental questions came dangerously close to changing to this:

• For a high ranking
• The people that will link to me
• From a high ranking

Fortunately, I never quite got to that point, but it did put what I was doing in a much broader context, and so I thought more about things like RSS feeds, blogging platforms and presentation, SEO, and social networking sites.

Once I corralled my competitiveness and vanity I made an important promise – that I would never post something because I felt I “had to”. And, more importantly, I got involved with Liz Strauss and SOBCon07, which put the relationship side of this form of communication front and center.

That put me about two years on, and the answers to the fundamental questions now looked like this:

• To share my learning and life experiences with other people
• Myself (and those who may be able to use it for their own benefit)
• Getting back what I give from my readers, and forming lasting friendships

I then changed my platform to WordPress, changed my look, and kept writing with my latest answers in mind. With my posting I was now much more focused on drawing responses and engaging in conversation, but I still was writing about a wide variety of topics (take a look at my categories and you’ll see what I mean).

Then came SOBCon08. This time around, I spent a lot more time with folks who did this for a living or as a centerpiece to a business, and did it very, very well. While I differed greatly from them in my current objectives , I couldn’t help but be mindful of the advice they were dispensing, particularly about maximizing a blog’s “reach”.

Which brought me back once again to those three fundamental questions. Now that I’ve experienced a great deal of the personal satisfaction that comes from the “getting back” and the many friends I have made, I find that I want more. I want to change “other people” in my “Why” answer to “as many people as possible”.

I feel like I’m at a crossroads. This blog has taken on a life of its own, and now I want to nurture it, feed it, and grow it even more – but I sense may I need to make an adjustment.

Since a lot of the advice I’ve seen suggests that a blog’s ultimate “reach” is tied to sticking to a specific niche or a theme, I’m debating whether I should tighten up my writing focus – just Personal Development? Just Business Commentary? Just Leadership Principles? Only Discourses on Half-Fullism? Eliminate the one-offs on my musical tastes? Or have more than one blog?

As my internal deliberations began I found one more piece of advice that suggested that if a blog really wanted to find out what was engaging its readers, then it would be well served to just go ahead and ask them. Now that initially spooked me – do I really want to find that out? But the more I thought about it (and “road tested” the idea with my Twitter friends – yet another interesting use for this service), the more I wanted to do it.

So, I’m going to take that advice, and turn to all of you. Join my debate. What content is bringing you here? What content would bring you back? Should I tighten my focus? Or keep doing what I’m doing?

Because I want to give you the best of what’s inside my head and my heart, knowing that the greatest rewards are in what you’ll give me back.

Let the conversation begin!

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One of the more fascinating discussions I had during SOBCon08 was with Chris Garrett on our way back to the airport (it’s amazing the conversations you can strike up when you are stuck in Chicago traffic!).

We were talking about favorite foods and the discussion led to Indian cuisine, and our favorite types of Indian food. One of those was a dish called Chicken Tikka Masala. It consists of chicken, cooked in a tomato and yogurt based curry. Very good stuff.

Chris then relayed the “legend” of of how this dish came about. It didn’t originate in India, the legend says -it was in Glasgow, in the late 1960s.

Apparently a restaurant patron thought the Chicken Tikka was too dry and asked for more “gravy” (only Chris could do this description justice, so you should ask him to tell this story sometime!). The chef, duly challenged, came up with the Masala we know and love today – in fact, in 2001 it was declared Britian’s “true national dish”.

Why do I bring up this story today? No, I’m not veering this blog into a food and cooking direction (it’s hard for me to boil water so that’s a really bad direction for me).

I recount this conversation because I believe it illustrates so well the power of individual initiative. How a seemingly insignificant idea or request could turn into something with such a profound impact is a great lesson for us all.

The lesson: We CAN make a difference, not only for ourselves, our families, our fellow business associates, or fellow bloggers, but for the world too !

This reminds me of what my friend Lisa Haneberg talks about in her book, “2 Weeks to a Breakthrough” . She writes about “the butterfly effect” – how a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can trigger a tornado in Texas. One little “flap” can cause a chain reaction. She encourages us to “flap” our wings and make things happen – the more “flaps” the better.

That man in the restaurant in Glasgow flapped his wings, by saying he wanted gravy. The chef flapped his when he whipped up the Masala. Then one of the other patrons tried it, and spread the word. Flap, flap, flap…….

We all have that power, the power to make huge changes happen – the question is, can we use it? WILL we use it? Are we brave enough to think that BIG? Can we really change the world?

The key is to not let our ideas, dreams and desires be held captive by fear, or be discouraged by outside influences.

If you want gravy, you gotta ask for it!

Put some gravy in your life – and believe in the power of you!

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