Every week, I open a new Basket. I call it the Brag Basket, but it’s not really about bragging. It’s about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.
This particular basket is open from Feb. 19-21, 2010. This will be our first Brag Basket that gets cross-posted to our new Small Biz Survival Facebook Fan community. (Hey, I think that was a brag in itself!)
Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others’ stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.
How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on this note on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure, because that’s part of life, too.
This is not an ad; it’s a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.
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The rural small business blog. We talk about small town business, with how-to articles, especially on social media marketing and making your community a better place. We use this “author” for announcements and other things you’ll want to know.
We had a great week at Downtown Custom Printwear. We found a great supplier of big & tall apparel that helps us meet the needs of a market segment we had previously neglected.
In addition, we began working with Liz at Brayton Graphics and she has been a phenomenal wealth of knowledge. We look forward to working with her in the future! Have a great weekend everybody!
Congratulations, Dan! Always feels good to reach into a new market. And cheers to Liz, for sharing her knowledge with you.
Becky –
We launched http://www.smallbizsocialmediasummit.com officially — and are looking forward the hard launch in March. Not only do we have killer speakers, but we’ve got an amazing small business panel too.
I got my first flip phone today — and have already been making movies for the Simon Estes Residency here in Hampton March 4 and March 5. I also interviewed, live in person, Simon Estes – and was blown away by the man. My article will be published next week in the Hampton Chronicle. I also arranged an interview on the Van and Bonnie show (WHO 1040 am) with Dr. Estes. That’s Tuesday at 8:10 a.m.
Finally – the Old Stone House is getting ductwork to complete the geothermal installation.
I told you it was a busy week!
Deb, it has been a busy week for you! You and that Flip camera are going places!! Congratulations on all you do.
Well, Becky I’m glad you said I could write about failure.
I awoke to rain dripping in the skylight in the bedroom. OK, I already knew I need it fixed but can’t really do anything till it’s warmer. I feed all the animals and let the dogs out and fix a cup of coffee.
I sit down to start my morning, write an incredible blog post and spent over an hour editing it, adding a picture, and some links. Checked my grammar. Poof it’s gone. Yes I should have hit save before preview.
I decided get up walk away and take break. A glass of juice sounds good. However someone (who will remain nameless) didn’t screw the lid on tight so when I grabbed it and started shaking it vigorously with both hands the next thing I know I’m cleaning it up off the floor.
The rain proceeds to switch to snow. All of this before noon. I share this with you having processed that today was pretty much a waste so far. I also know that tomorrow is a new day. I will start again. I will succeed more than I will fail.
These are all just minor setbacks. And luckily I have two Golden Retrievers who not only love me but also love spilled juice.
Sometimes you have to look for the good a little harder. But if you keep looking it just gets easier and easier to see.
Chuck, what you’ve recited here is not what I would call failure. It is frustration. We all have days that don’t go well. Heck, I have whole months I could write off. I’m glad you say you are looking for the good. I hope you will spend more time on that, not on re-telling tales.
What I mean by failure is something you try, preferably something big and audacious, that does not succeed. That’s the kind of failure that is worth celebrating, because it’s the kind of thing that moves us forward.
Chuck, I hope you find what you are passionate about. Passion is what carries us through the frustration, the errors, the problems. You can’t focus on the bad things if you are focused on what you are passionate about.
Hi Chuck,
In addition to what Becky said, I definitely recommend the Lazarus form recovery add-on for Firefox. It is free and has saved my butt numerous times. ;)
-Erica
Erica, thanks for the tool recommendation. I’m off to check that out right now.
The Twitter for Brick & Mortar Businesses eCourse is off and running! I’ve gotten some great feedback – everyone seems to love it. It’s a free PDF download; no sign-up required, and I would like to encourage everyone to share it with their local independent brick & mortar businesses that they’d like to see stick around.
I’m in the process of creating a worksheet to accompany the PDF to make it even easier to get started with Twitter – hopefully I can share that in next week’s basket!
And a note to DowntownDan: When we were running our restaurant we had a heck of a time getting shirts for some of the guys. That’s awesome that you’ve found a supplier you can work with and I’m sure you’ll find a pretty significant demand!
Mary, congratulations on launching your eCourse! I hope many small businesses will take advantage of it.
The Pine Ridge Reservation receives a lot of bad publicity. Today, however, I’d like to brag about the Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school in Porcupine. I had a chance to visit the school last week and saw some incredibly dedicated educators and loving parents. It’s a great school and their student success rate proves it.
Mike, that is a terrific thing to brag about. Congratulations to the team at Our Lady of Lourdes!
Brag on Chris Cree. He reached out to me out of the blue and lined up a great phone call. His call framed my day.
Todd @tojosan Jordan
Great brag, Todd! Applause to Chris!
Bragging on St. Louis folks this past couple of weeks for breaking out and holding their first tweetups. Way to rock it!
Huzzah, St. Louis!
…and I thought you were going to link that Facebook page to /bragbasket, not /smallbizsurvival, but that’s how my brain ticks. ;)
No bragging my way, unless you include my spearheading a local government initiative to lure Google to Newburyport to select us from dozens of other communities around the country to set up its experimental fiber optic network. See http://twitter.com/googlefibernbpt and the links connected therein.
Ari, maybe I need to start another FB Page, just for the Brag Basket. I’ll count trying to lure Google for a brag, especially if you succeed! Cheers!
My business is the result of failure…now, that’s a switch, isn’t it. I’m 57 years old, have a four year degree, have had a teaching certificate, am an ordained minister, yet…I submitted over 35 resumes to our local university seeking a position, with no results whatever (even an interview). Rather than beat myself up over it, several months ago, I told my wife that I think what is happening here is that God is telling me to use the skills and talents he had already given me, and quit whining about why other people didn’t want to hire me.
So, Pierian Management Group was born. If you check out my website (www.pierianmanages.com), you will see that we offer three distinct services, not related to each other in any way. Yet, all three of these are skills that I have. Starting a business is just like investing….go to your strength. The income isn’t there yet, but at least now I know where I can find my destination, and in the type of economy we’re facing these days, that is MORE than half the battle.