Wonderosity

To you faithful blog readers, sorry I’ve been behind on my Biznik Live updates. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to the Van Jones Biznik Live show, I’d suggest you do it now or download it to iTunes for later. This interview is full of helpful suggestions about how to both green your business as well as how to increase your business during these economically rocky times.After a short discussion with Seattle Greendrinks founder Gabriel Scheer about an exciting upcoming project (Re-Vision Lab -site just barely up) aimed at gathering and supporting local green entrepreneurs, we jump into issues like:

• How Van’s amazing grass roots social marketing campaign launched his book to #12 in the NY Times. How can we do the same?
• A summary of his book ‘The Green Collar Economy‘
• What are the upcoming green entrepreneurial opportunities?
• What can you do to speed up sustainability policies in your local gov. and schools?
• Much more…

[display_podcast] A little message from Van on Youtube…TRANSCRIPT OF SHOW (after

I had a great time interviewing this fellow Dane (though I speak not a word of Danish and have not yet made it to Denmark myself!). Martin is a dynamic and passionate speaker who shared with us the results of the largest neuromarketing research ever -$7 million dollars and 2000 volunteers from all over the world who let Martin’s research team peer into their brains as they were exposed to various brand-related images and words. Curious what they found out?In this Biznik Live, we touch on:

• Some of Martin’s core findings in the neuromarketing study
• The role of fear in our decision processes
• Key advantages to being a small business (easier to take big risks, innovate!)
• The story of the pizza company on a low-budget that dominated the market in his area in a really unique way…
• Does your website have a jingle, your biz card a smell, why not?
• Hottest tips for indie biz agents during the current economic conditions
• Much more…

I hope you enjoy the show!TRANSCRIPTION OF THE

Hello friends. Well, I’m finally catching up from traveling to two excellent conferences this past couple of weeks (AIN & NASAGA). During the past two and half weeks we’ve conducted three more Biznik Live shows focused on “Surviving & Thriving Amidst Economic Uncertainty”. In this and the next few blog posts, I’m going to share a little about each show. I hope the following summaries tempt you into listening if you haven’t already! The audio in this 2nd show was somewhat poor, but there was some great content -enjoy!What did Tim & our audience cover in this second Biznik Live show?

• A summary of the Four Hour Work Week DEAL (Define->Eliminate->Automate->Liberate)
• Clarification on the somewhat controversial chapter on Automation
• The importance of testing, testing, testing (before investing $, time, effort)
• Should you hold onto your assets during the current economic uncertainty?
• Taking advantage of the likely drop in offline marketing prices during this recession (Radio & TV spots)
• Ruthlessly applying the 80/20 Pareto Principle to your business
• Learning how to say “No”, and facing the ‘difficult conversations’
• Which businesses are likely to do well during a recession?
• Clarification and advice on outsourcing

[display_podcast]Transcription of show:

(In a hurry? Skip down to the bullets for links!)

{1st Biznik Live show with Michelle GoodMan)

I’m starting a new show today called "Biznik Live". Its a call-in internet radio weekly series for the month of October and possibly beyond. I’m going to be interviewing nationally recognized authors whose powerful ideas can help us make successful choices for our businesses.

This first series is focused around the theme "Surviving & Thriving Amidst Economic Uncertainty". Our pilot show is Wed Oct 8th at 10:00am PST with Michelle Goodman (see below for her bio).

I know that many of us are feeling nervous about being self-employed ‘free agents’ during this time, so the content will be directly applicable to many of you.

• Biznik Live’s channel on BlogTalkRadio or first specific show page
• Call in number in US (347) 884-8009 (taking calls or text chats at 10:15 PST)
• More information on Biznik (basic or detailed discussion)

I’d love to have some of you there in support, as well as to gain some great insights from Michelle Goodman. If you can’t listen live, please do still download and listen to the show at the above link as it will help as well.

1st Show Summary
In this first Biznik Live show, we’ll be interviewing author Michelle Goodman on how ‘free agents’ can survive and thrive as business owners amidst economic uncertainty.

Author Bio
In addition to her recently released "My so-called freelance life", Michelle Goodman is author of the nationally acclaimed "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube", an irreverent handbook for aspiring cubicle expats. Her articles and essays about alternative careers, human mating rituals, and cultural trends have graced media outlets such as ABCNews.com, CNN.com, Salon.com, The Seattle Times, BUST, Bitch, and The Bark, and have appeared in the anthologies Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness and The Moment of Truth: Women’s Funniest Romantic Catastrophes. In her fifteen years as a full-time freelancer, she’s had the opportunity to wrangle text on computer games, marital aids, dog pajamas, home colonics, and just about anything else that can be sold. She lives in Seattle with her eighty-pound lapdog, Buddy. For more scoop on the so-called freelance life, visit her blog at Anti9to5Guide.com.

This podcast is our second in the series of interviews with presenters for the upcoming applied improv network conference in Chicago.  I had a blast interviewing “Dr. Thiagi“, he was so easy and enjoyable to speak with. In the interview we cover all kinds of topics, including:

• The difference between ‘engagement’ and ‘fun’ when teaching/facilitating groups
• How to keep authentic/engaged as a leader when, frankly, you’re having a crap day
• How to not take oneself too seriously
• The dangers of Exptertism
• Seeing the genius in others
• Work that Thiagi is currently doing and passionate about
• I challenge the term ‘performance technologist’ and Thiagi explains

Here’s a basic bio of Thiagi from his website:

Dr. Sivasailam “Thiagi”Thiagarajan is the Resident Mad Scientist at The ThiagiGroup, an organization with the mission of helping people improvetheir performance effectively and enjoyably.Thiagi’s long-term clients include AT&T, Arthur Andersen,Bank of Montreal, Cadence Design Systems, Chevron, IBM, Intel,Intelsat, United Airlines, and Liberty Mutual. On a short-termbasis, Thiagi has worked with more than 50 differentorganizations in high-tech, financial services, and managementconsulting areas. For these clients, Thiagi has consulted andconducted training in such areas as rightsizing, diversity,creativity, teamwork, customer satisfaction, human performancetechnology, and organizational learning.Thiagi has published 40 books, 120 games and simulations, andmore than 200 articles. He wrote the definitive chapters onsimulations and games for ISPI’s Handbook of HumanPerformance Technology, ASTD’s Training &Development Handbook, and the American ManagementAssociation’s Human Resources Management and DevelopmentHandbook.Thiagi currently writes a monthly online newsletter,Thiagi GameLetter. This newsletter, now in itsfifth year, features Thiagi’s training games and other creativeinterventions that deliver results quickly and effectively. Heserved as the editor of NSPI Journal andPerformance & Improvement for more than 10years. He currently edits the simulation/game section in SagePublication’s journal, Simulation & Gaming. Heis also a contributing editor of the monthly journal,Educational Technology.Thiagi has made hundreds of presentations and keynote speechesat professional conferences. At ISPI, Thiagi holds the “records”for making the most presentations, conducting the mostpreconference workshops, and being invited to make the mostEncore presentations. Thiagi is also a regular presenter atLakewood’s TRAINING Conferences and the annualconferences of American Society for Training and Development(ASTD) and North American Simulation and Gaming Association(NASAGA).Thiagi has been the president of the North American Simulationand Gaming Associating (NASAGA), International Society forPerformance Improvement (ISPI), and Association for SpecialEducation Technology (ASET). He has received 17 different awardsand Presidential Citations from ISPI, including the society’shighest award, Honorary Life Member. He alsoreceived an Honorary Life Member award fromNASAGA as well as its highest award, Ifill-RaynoldsAward.Internationally recognized as an expert in multinationalcollaboration and active learning in organizations, Thiagi haslived in three different countries and has consulted in 21others.

As part of the previously announced series of interviews with speakers for the upcoming Chicago Applied Improv Conference, I interviewed Charna Halpern of the Improv Olympics theater. Unfortunately, within weeks of our interview, Charna found she had a schedule conflict and had to cancel as a preconference speaker. However, I’ve decided to still post the interview as the content is just as interesting and relevant, and I’m sure many of you will enjoy it. I apologize in advance for some of the audio levels.

For those of you unfamiliar with Charna, here is her Wikipedia entry:
Charna Halpern was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. She is a co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as The iO. The theater has locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and (the now defunct iO South) in North Carolina. In 1981 iO Chicago opened and then in 1984 with partner Del Close she began teaching The Harold to many students in the Chicago theatre community. She and Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy:The Manual of Improvisation with editor Kim “Howard” Johnson in 1994. In 1996 the iO Celebrated it’s 15th Anniversary at the Vic Theater. iO West Opened in 1997 and is now under the direction of James Grace. Close passed away in 1999 and had Halpern bequeath his skull to the Goodman Theater. 2005 saw the iO 25th anniversary at The Chicago Theater. She also penned Art by Committee in that year and later in 2006 it was revealed that the skull purchased on line due to a Mortician’s refusal to remove Close’s head. Halpern studied acting and worked in radio before propelling long form and improvisational theater forward, making it in to the art form it is recognized as today. Variety Magazine called her one of the top ten women to watch in entertainment. Mike Myers named her the Uta Hagen of Comedy.

Enjoy the show, and look for an interview with the amazing ‘Thiagi‘ within the week! (I’ve already interviewed Thiagi, which was one of the best conversations I’ve had in a while, I just need to find time for some editing.)

Hi folks. I hope to get a more detailed post and/or ‘life-cast’ out sometime soon, but here are some quick updates of things happening in my life right now:

• I’m excited to say that I’ve started working for Biznik part time. You’ve heard me talk a lot about them out of genuine fandom, now I get to work for Biznik as their “Community Catalyst”. You can read an interview about it on the Biznik Blog, or checkout my biznik thread for more details.
• We’re scheduled to facilitate another ‘Soul Tech’ workshop in Vancouver BC on October 4th. If you missed the Seattle Soul Tech workshop, covered by the Today Show, and you have a goal of having a more balanced life with technology, then come join us!
• My daughter Zinnia is starting Kindergarten and I’m just so dang proud of her. She says she “love love love love loves it.” I wish I could constantly walk in rememberance and thankfulness for what an amazing daughter and wife I have. Anna & Zinnia, I love you!
• I’ll be traveling out east much of this October for a couple of trainings -the Applied Improv conference in Chicago(10/23-10/26), and the NASAGA conference in Indianapolis (10/15-10/18). They are both going to be amazing conferences, so if you’re interested in the world of experiential education, interactive/engaging training and facilitation, etc. then come and join me!
• Attached, and in your wonderosity podcast feed, is a little audio experiment called “Fly” –it’s my first ‘techno mix’ song. The idea came while I was jogging at the Y recently, and wishing I had music that had a few ‘life keys’ that are important to me woven into the song. Hope you like it
• Speaking of podcasts, I will finally be getting back into podcasting -yay! The first few, which you should seen in 1-3 days, will be a serious of interviews with international recognized facilitators, trainers and artists –each who has some connection to the world of ‘applied improvisation’ and who will be speaking at the aforementioned conference. So stay tuned!
• I’m this week in Banff, Alberta at the Banff centre. I was flown up last minute to perform in a preconference play called “Death by Powerpoint” by Paul Levy, for the ‘Art of Management’ conference. It’s a conf that is right up my alley but that, unfortunately, I’ll only get to attend the first day of.
• Speaking of that play, I need to get back to rehearsal –bye!

Well, Biznik’s Seattle Bizjam starts tomorrow (July 9th-10th, 2008) and I’m getting excited. I’m also getting prepared as I’ll be presenting on the topic of “Raving Fans: Building Rich Online Community for Your Business“. Here’s a link to my short video introduction of BizJam and to the bizjam conference itself. Here’s the blurb on my workshop:

“Believe it or not, amidst the diverse masses of the internet are multitudes of people who are as passionate about your products or services as you are. They have great ideas and they want to see your business thrive. Why not create an online community that helps them connect to you, build trust in you, find your products and services, and connect to and refer each other? The results will be growth and satisfaction for all parties. Biznik is a perfect example. Come learn from Leif how to get started…”

For those who are coming, or who are simply curious, here’s more detail on what I’l be covering:

My basic outline:

1. A short intro (2 min)
2. Jump into some thought-provoking interactivities that demonstrate the upcoming ideas (10 mins)
3. Presentation: (20-30)
   • What are the dimensions and qualities of community?
   • Can true community happen online? Where is it already happening?
   • How does online community benefit business?
   • Case Studies, Stats & Quotes
   • Upcoming Trends: Rich Media, Live Media, Status & Location
   • Potential Pitfalls in the Social Media Future
   • Best Practices & Strategies for Building Community around your biz.
   • A Few Sample Platforms
4. Small group brainstorm and strategy sessions (15-20)

Another note. I’m excited to say that I’ll finally be getting to carve out some time for podcasting again. My first will be a life/work update, but then I’ll be doing monthly interviews with some really amazing ‘applied improv’ teachers, trainers and facilitators who will be presenting at this year’s Applied Improv Network conference in Chicago. I think you’ll really enjoy hearing from the game-changing people I’lll be interviewing.

Lastly, in additional to Bizjam this week, I’ll be at the Woodsong Music Festival on Orcas Island most of next week (July 17-20), so I’ll be pretty busy for a while.

Warmly,
Leif

It’s looking like a geeky week. First I watch the iphone 2.0 drama unfold (not much drama, more let down really…gotta wait 3 weeks for the really good stuff.)

Then last night (Tuesday) for ‘Tertullia’ (a Seattle guy’s group I’ve been a part of for a couple years now) Buzz brought in Scoble for ‘the Scoble show’. Here’s a Qik video that Robert took during that evening, I’m in a blue shirt and ask a question about Qik.

Though most of the content of the evening was a rehash of things I was already aware of, it was good to see how the rest of the group reacted to Scoble’s view on the meaning of the media shift. It was also great to meet him face to face and see that he really does seem to be a nice guy who is having genuine fun following his geeky passion.Though I’d love to hear more details about where he thinks technology should have its limits, I got him to twitter back to me the day before an answer to my tweet “@scobleizer I’m curious. Seems like you are constantly wired. Do you have any personal/family boundaries for unplugging? What are they?” To which he answered:

Then for this weekend, I’m hoping to make it to thingamajiggr (part of Ignite Seattle) for some good innovative geeky fun. Finally, I’ll be attending the first Barcamp Seattle for more geeking out loud. Below is my pathable profile for the event (Pathable is a cool Seattle company that connects people using metadata, then provides physical name tags with valuable info for the live event.)

Then its a father’s day at the in-laws for a ‘tech-sabbath’ rest

It’s funny, well, sad actually: I really used to love blogging and podcasting. I enjoyed the creative act, the experiments I conducted, the excitement of being heard by others, and the pleasure of getting feedback on my thoughts and creations. Then something happened. Certain factors crept in and killed the joy. And now I’m wondering out loud what they are for me:

• By far the main culprit: When I started doing ’social media stuff’ professionally, my fear of ‘looking unprofessional’ increased dramatically -the inner censor (”Grammar!”, “Stupid, unoriginal idea”, etc) got loud.
• The #2 reason is that somewhere I lost my soul, my passion, my freedom to express myself honestly. Partly this is just practical –life got busy and took on priorities. But the other reasons, having to do with deeper issues of spirituality and idenitity, are things I need to deal wi th.
• After leaving my last job, and starting two different businesses, life got really busy. But I don’t really believe that’s true as I spend plenty of time ‘consuming’ others’ media.
• Comparing myself to other bloggers and podcasters, which I now consume more of, contributes to that #1 issue big time
• For podcasting, production time can be a bitch.
• Endless experimenting with and indecision between various tools and platforms.

I could list more (what about you?), but I think those are the main reasons and its time to change. So, to all those inner and outer critics: screw you, perfection and people pleasing is not what social media is about.

I just gotta be me, like it or not, buy it or not, ‘digg me’ or not.

Twitter in Business Week today. Article and my response here: http://tinyurl.com/69u3l3

Follow LeifHansen on twitter.

I recently made this list and posted it on my wall to remind me of things that really Spark life for me.
What about you?

1. Personal daily experimental living/learning
2. Playing improv games with a group of people
3. Playing Soccer, Racquet sports and Ultimate Frisbee
4. Stimulating, respectful, deep conversations, especially with my wife and close friends
5. Thinking of new ideas, possibilities
6. Having ‘spiritual experiences’ (sense of transcendence, gratefulness, connectedness, being loved by the Source, stillness, etc)
7. Improvised singing and jamming
8. Being totally goofy and/or laughing long and hard with friends
9. Finding and playing/testing out the newest and latest technologies
10. Snuggling with my wife and daughter
11. Leaning from and playing with my wife and daughter
12. Asking and being asked good, challenging, thought-provoking questions
13. Seeing/understanding how things fit together, and then sharing/presenting that information
14. Imagining/talking/reading/projecting/planning about the future
15. Walking in, exploring and communing with nature
16. Reading, hearing, watching a good story (thus book, play, movie, storyteller, etc)
17. Experiencing other’s artistic creativity, particularly when its really innovative
18. Being creative myself (writing a song, story or paper; creating a beneficial social site or podcast, etc)
19. Accomplishing things that have a dramatic and wide reaching effect for changing things for the good
20. Working with, or even just being a part of, almost any group
21. I love challenging, provoking, encouraging and motivating people
22. Gathering with a group of friends for a tasty meal and some wine
23. Organizing, creating order from chaos (once I’m actually DOING it, not before)
24. Traveling to new places, with either a total focus or a total non-focus

The Background

I love remembering that I can live differently, do normal routines differently, experiment/play with my ‘everyday life’. I know that part of this is out of a fear of being ‘normal’ or boring, but it is also genuinely from a passion and excitement about exploring, experiencing new things, seeing things differently, etc. Throughout the years I’ve been known to tweak my life (go blind or mute an entire day while at college; try to only think hopeful/optimistic thoughts; etc.).

I’ve fantasized about the idea of doing a daily ‘life hack’ or ‘daily quest’ that I share with others. Well, instead of doing what I usually do, which is to state some grand plan/commitment and then gradually giving up or forgetting about it, I’ve decided to commit to doing this –but to do it intermittently. One thing I’ve found is that, while it is usually fun and I learn a ton, it’s harder than I thought (I’m already experiencing left-handed mouse use fatigue).

The Plan:

1. Decide on the day’s real-life hack (name subject to change). I’ll probably keep an idealist somewhere, so if you have one, please feel free to share it in the comments or email me.
2. Write a short blog post here at Wonderosity in the Spark Life / Everyday Living category (possibly with an Eyejot Intro)
3. Live it out, play the game.

Today’s Real-Life Hack:
I’m going to switch use of my primary hand (right) to my left hand. Why? Primarily, like usual, I’m just curious (hey, this is the wonderosity blog). I’ve also heard research that this can be good for the ol’ noggin, get the other side of my brain activated more. We’ll see…please join me if you feel so inclined and able to do so.

Tomorrow is International ShutDown Day and, as many of you know, this is not an insignificant topic to me. I’m excited to see that the concept of dethroning technology’s dominant role in our life, even for one day, is getting so much attention. The stated purpose of the Canadian organization who is sponsoring this event is:

“The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple — just shutdown your
computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some
other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and
family — whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a
world outside your monitor screen.”

Because this is falling on a Saturday, and my normal ’shut down day’ (my tech sabbath) is on Sunday, I’m going to go the whole weekend as low tech as possible. This is still really hard for me and I know that the One Ring, I mean my iPhone, is going to be itchy in my pocket.

I have so many conflicted feelings right now as I write, that the only way to get them out is a quick brainstorm (I also really need to get to bed, but wanted to say something before this weekend.) I’m feeling:

• Excitement that people are thinking more and more about these things, and taking steps like this day, taking our Soul Tech workshops, or joining efforts like Ariel’s 52 Nights Unplugged (though I haven’t seen a blog from her about this for quite some time now -is she still unplugging one night a week?)
• Feeling stupid for feeling jealous that I’m not getting as much attention/press I’ve gotten in pasts months for our Soul Tech workshop (which, if you didn’t know, was featured in many national and international papers, and then eventually on the Today Show -see the link before for more info including a video from NBC.)
• Feeling guilty that I still struggle with this issue so much
• Feeling concerned that people don’t really ‘get’ how serious this issue of increasing technocentricity is and could become
• Feeling anxious to finish my book on this topic
• Feeling, well, its time for bed…

Good luck to those of you doing it, and hope it turns into more of a habit.

I hope you enjoy this fun, power-packed interview by the wonderful ladies (Wendy Garrett and Sandy Jorgensen) over at a new Talkshoe.com show called “Conscious Living“. While we (mostly me, caffeinated ) talked about many things, we focused on:

• How Soul Tech received so much press and what the workshop is about
• The various projects and businesses I’m involved in
• My soon-to-launch www.SparkSocialMedia.com site
• The pros and cons of technology/Social Media and where I think things may be heading

To those of you visiting wonderosity from this show, you can follow this link to receive the free eworkbook we talked about.  And you can follow this link if you are interested in seeing how you can use social media (blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, etc) to enhance your business, organization or other passion project.

Thanks Wendy & Sandy!

-Leif

Well, I’m almost ready to let this site go public. There are a number of important additions I need to take care of (as mentioned in the forum), but I think that the Spark Social Media site will be ready to launch within a few days.

Our site will be featuring:
A collection of social media tutorial videos
Relevant and hot news from our collection of aggregated social media blogs
Meet other members and participate in the