Bringing People Together on the Community Couch
In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we often forget the people around us. How often do you strike up a conversation with someone in line at the grocery store, or say hello to someone you pass on the street? The people around us might be strangers, but they all have stories to tell […]
Do You Know Who Your Real Friends Are?
This past weekend, I was fortunate to spend time with a bunch of friends – some new, some old, and all wonderful. All real. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I have become much better at picking my friends. I no longer have time for toxic or negative people, and I’m usually able to […]
The Long Road to Building a Community
Community. It’s the buzzword du jour of many a social media guru. Like many other things in the online world, community has become commoditized. There are myriad posts on how to acquire, grow, and influence a community online. “Community Management” is a profession that didn’t even exist 5 years ago. I feel as if we’ve […]
Taking Back Community
Community. It’s become the buzzword of the 21st century, hasn’t it? I find that these days, people use it haphazardly. It’s thrown into PowerPoint decks to give a “cutting edge” impression, and tossed about in Twitter streams because all the cool kids are doing it. It’s become the theme of many a social media conference, […]
A Simple Reminder About Real Life
I am not fond of the term “In Real Life (IRL)”. As far as I’m concerned, everything I do is my real life. Some people that I consider good friends are people I’ve never met in person – amazing people like Becky McCray, Jason Falls, Jason’s Dad Chillie, Deb Brown – aw, heck, I could […]
How to Change the Awareness Game
Stay tuned – at the end of this post I’m giving away two tickets to a fabulous event being held in Ottawa on November 14th! I’ve been involved in charity work pretty much my whole life. My parents set the example when I was just a kid. We lived in a very small, isolated community […]
How to Build a Community Web Site
Cheryl and I have been friends for 20 years. We met way back when we were practically kids – just out of college, wide eyed and hopeful about what our careers is TV would hold for us. She was a video editor, and volunteered on Soundtrack, the music show I produced. We were fast friends…mostly […]
Community and Competition: Strange Bedfellows
Last night, I got a message from Keith Burtis. Keith often pings me just to say hi or chat. We sometimes talk on Skype. He’s a person I know I can turn to to celebrate my successes, and who I can lean on when things go bad. We’ve collaborated on a bunch of things to […]
The Secret of Successful Communities
This morning I sat down over tea and cookies with two of the most interesting, creative and smart people I know. We’ve all been friends for years and years – since I was just a wide-eyed kid embarking on my first real TV job. My friend’s basement office was like some sort of secret lair, […]
The Art of Saying Yes
Back in December I wrote a post on The Art of Saying No. It was in response to an overwhelming number of demands and requests I’d been receiving for me to help with this, retweet that, and come to this event, and so on. It helped me set my mind straight on how to make […]