The first time I recall being freaked the frak out was back in grade school and I was to recite “In Flanders Fields’. The night before my presentation, I was beside myself. My mom wasn’t able to console me and I sobbed, barfed, shook and gasped my way through the night, with visions of failure, mass-laughter and my untimely death rattling around my head like gunshot. Morning came. I stood in front of the school, delivered a pitch-perfect recitation of the poem and then rushed off the stage to gulp mouthfuls of metallic-tasting water from the larger than life water fountain. And it was over.

It was hardly worth the amount of torture I put myself through and I remember my mom trying to soothe me by saying ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen?’ For a child’s imagination, that opened up a whole treasure trove of possibilities involving rabid rogue muppets and a front row of Bic-sponsored peashooters.

I’ve grown better with public speaking, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a pro by any stretch of the imagination. I think I’ll always be that self-conscious kid who fears the worst and thinks that they could always do better. To get me primed, I picked up Scott Berkun’s book “Confessions of a Public Speaker”. I’m already a ‘Berkun-fangirl’ due to my love of his book “The Art of Project Management” which was my bible during my digital web project management days.

Here’s a video that summarizes why Scott wrote the book, why he’s qualified to give advice on this topic and his wish for how folks will use the information that he provides.

I’ll be posting a review of the book shortly but suffice to say, I’m already loving it. Oh and this fangirl let out a squee when she received this Tweet yesterday…

Rock on Scott!

- Shunryu Suzuki

courtesy of Sweep the Dust, Push the Dirt

I was so pleased to hear that Montreal tech reporter (and all-around great guy) Roberto Rocha is embarking on a new adventure and taking to the road. He and his fiancee Bianca are taking a year to travel around the globe, reporting on whatever comes their way. They’ve created a site called Mojotrotters (mo=mobile / jo= journalist) in which they explain :

Our goal, as trained journalists, is to bring places to life through the lens of our experience, using words, videos, sounds, and photos.

Sounds like a dream huh? Roberto announced this new adventure today and was met with a flurry of tweets telling him how lucky he was to have this opportunity. It’s interesting to read his philosophy on how anyone can do this if they just make the necessary sacrifices. It really is that simple. By assigning priority to the goal, you can make it happen. All of that self-doubt that creeps in can really be eliminated just by planning and setting your eye on the prize.

Look at travelhacker Chris Guillebeau and his quest to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. As of this date he’s at 122 of 192 countries and is offering up details via his blog as a way for readers to learn tips and techniques for becoming travelhackers themselves.

You up for jumping in feet-first and making travel your #1 priority? I’d love to hear your stories. I’m charged by these empowering tales as I embark on my armchair adventure of goal-setting and life mapping here in freezing cold Montreal.

So this time around, Gwen hits a bullseye with a post titled “3 Stories of Mindfulness: What we give our attention to is who we become” which introduces her latest project. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my participation online as I’m doing quite a bit of soul searching around what I’m doing in my life, the footprint I’m leaving behind and the desire to find my life’s passion. All the hokey, mid-life crisis stuff that I thought I’d escape because I had my life all figured out has caught up with me at last.

Gwen’s post hit me because I’m a Buddhist. For so long I’ve kept a public dual identity: the one of the digital, tech-savvy, girl geek organizing, community managing, project managing, strategy-gal and that of the practicing Buddhist. They co-existed in the sense that Buddhism has been ingrained in me for so long and is how I conduct my life – but only until recently have I grown comfortable with linking the two. I feel like I’ve cut off my twin for so long and only now am I seeing that I need to give her a big hug and embrace the big old Buddhist Girl Geek and cultivate a 9-5 that helps me recognize my specific goals to live a positive life- both personally and professionally.

Hangin' with my posse

When I see how Gwen has wholeheartedly and brazenly been able to sync her practice with her livelihood, it gives me so much hope. The Mindfulist project came at a perfect time for me. We Buddhists call it ‘auspicious coincidence’.

The purpose of The Mindfulist is to cultivate awareness. To put yourself in the present moment and break away from getting caught up in all of the bla-bla that usually takes us away from who we really are. It could be negative self-talk. It could be gossip. It could be just losing touch with what’s really important in our lives.

Daily a prompt will be posted on the website in which you’ll be asked to meditate on. Meditate is a loose term in that you shouldn’t be scared that you’ll need to don a white robe and chant for 90 minutes. You can go as simple as just taking a time out to notice what is going on in your mind and body, or you can get some great meditation instruction from this video from Patrick, the Chief Mischief Maker at The Mindfulist.

If you are interested in joining in, please visit The Mindfulist Here you’ll be able to find out more information about how to get involved.

Chris Brogan

The book lays out advice for those both novice and pro as to how they can cultivate genuine relationships that matter without being a jerk and without focusing on an immediate return. We’ve all encountered those people in our lives that were more interested in out rolodexes or referrals than in making a true connection with us. There’s a reason why these folks stand out and it’s because things just don’t work this way anymore.

I remember an exchange with someone who had this slant to their personality and noticed the reaction in the room that this person received when they thrust out their paper flyer promoting their seminar to the room. No introduction. No “Hi. How are you?” Just a silent exchange promoting their seminar ON HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS SKILLS!!! Oh the irony.

Back to the book. There’s something for everyone within the pages of “Trust Agents” – a bit of game theory, discussions of businesses that either get it or those who display old views of how to interact with their customers, lots of social psychology and mention of many web 2.0 tools and many references to community. The recommendations that the authors make are solid and really cut through the plethora of messages guaranteeing huge numbers of followers on Twitter.

Ultimately, this book is a reality check and could also be used as a vaccine preventing you from becoming a social media snake oil salesperson.

I’ll let this reading from “Marketing Masterpiece Theatre” give you a sample of what is between the covers of “Trust Agents” albeit in a very dramatic “Oh the Humanity” kind of way!

It’s great to think of yourself and where you’re headed in your career/life, but I think it’s essential to mentor the people around you in any way that you can. In thinking back to the folks who helped me along the way, I’m grateful to those folks who took the time to help me out in sharing their knowledge and who spent time with me in providing advice, lending an ear and empowering me to discover my still-evolving potential.

I’d love to hear your stories of mentoring or being mentored.

The old man in this photo isn’t a political prisoner, murderer or lost grampy. He’s Won Ton ‘Animal’ Chin, the mythical character from “The Search for Animal Chin”, a famous skateboard video from the late 80′s that featured so many skate heroes from my youth. Growing disillusioned with the focus on dollars and the marketers clamoring to deliver cool products with all flash but no substance, this crew goes on search of the man who was the originator of skate and in the process, has fun shredding along the way.

Watch the intro here and tell me this doesn’t ring true for social media and product marketing today? (oh and watch for Tony Hawk while you’re at it!)

Now this brings me to the need for authenticity and for steering in the direction you want to be traveling. Without a clear path on where you want to be headed with your brand, life or board, you are certainly going to bail. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and jump on the bandwagon or ramp that you think will take you to success (ie: more followers, more traffic or more readers) but at the end of the day, those routes may not be the best ones to pursue over the long term.

Who needs a nasty fall like this one to learn that lesson?

In this post, Powazek advocates that for online crowds to be wise, they need the following elements: simplicity, clear interfaces, aggregation, participation, selfishness (yes, selfishness!), scores, leaderboards,  explicit vs. implicit feedback and savvy voting systems.

It’s well worth investigating this post in detail as it does take Surowiecki’s initial thesis and offers up suggestions on how to empower the energy of community with tools to allow it to become effective and truly – wise.

Photo of some wise people at a Montreal Tech Entrepreneur’s Breakfast by Montreal Tech Watch