The Mindful Use of Technology for Authentic Human Connection: Wisdom 2.0 Conference Reflections

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A really important conversation began this weekend.

It’s a conversation that we all, on some level, know has to happen. It’s one that’s happening in many of our hearts and minds as well as in our families, marriages, within our friendships – maybe even with work colleagues. Those personal conversations have been intense, conflicted, and even frustrating for many of us… because the answers and next steps aren’t really clear.

I’m talking about How to stay connected spiritually, in a heart and soul-centered way, as human beings while taking bold and brilliant advantage of the exciting technological advances in communication that we have available to us today.

The Question is:

How do we make mindful use of technology that has the power to bring us meaningfully closer to more people than ever before, while maintaining a real connection both inside ourselves and in our face-to-face interactions?

For those of us who love the different kinds of connection that technology facilitates, it can be tricky to find the best ways to keep that virtual connection strong and useful… and give ourselves the “unplugged” time required to be truly present in heart, mind and spirit in our face-to-face connections as well. After the Wisdom 2.0 Conference this weekend, I understand even more fully why this struggle is so real for me and others like me. I’ll tell you more about that later but let me just say for now, it’s not entirely our lack of willpower (whew!)

A zillion little sound bites were shared that caused spikes in my brain, heart and gut energy.

I’ll share just the few that sit with me today, as I re-enter into my work life two days post-Wisdom 2.0:

Possibly the most striking discussion I heard the whole weekend happened in the second half of the first day when Tami Simon, founder and owner of Sounds True (multi-media publisher of many best-selling soulful audiobooks and videos), described her experience of checking email. She talked about that rush that happens sometimes when she checks email and watches that long list of emails flood her inbox. The incongruency between the overwhelm that email so often causes for our “to-do” list and that strange attraction (compulsion…? ….addiction?) to receiving new emails. Tami’s not alone. Knowing laughs and head-nodding filled the room immediately (my own laugh & head-bobbing included.) This happened even as we were all mid-stride in a conversation about how overwhelming email can be and that it also plays an unwanted negative role in so many of our days. Tami cited brain research on the rush of dopamine that floods just the right part of our brain as those emails fill our inbox and I felt suddenly vindicated somehow… like my own attraction to checking email at least wasn’t just about a lack of willpower on my part.

The brilliance in conversation that came from the stage was really staggering. We heard about how one of the founders of Twitter – Greg Pass – Tweets to push the edges of his own creativity and exploration (my words.)

Philippe Goldin, a hard-core brain researcher/neuroscientist from Stanford showed us in graphics and enthusiastic narrative the ways in which research indicates that meditation is better for our mind, body and spirit than just about anything we could possibly do, period (including exercise.) High-ups from Google in a number of departments told us about how they integrate mindfulness practices like yoga, Qi Gong and meditation into their daily lives – and the programs they bring to Google employees in an effort to help their employees stay healthy in all aspects of their lives as much as possible, even in the midst of a truly uber-connected work world.

The description that Linda Stone gave of how to know if you have email apnea (a shortage of breathing while using email) felt  like she had been secretly looking into my office window and watching me: sitting at computer, shoulders slumped forward, hands turned inward on keyboard, staring blurry-eyed at the screen, shallowly breathing (and sometimes even holding my breath, when I think about it!) As Linda requested that we practice this familiar position in our chairs, she asked us to take a deep breath in – an almost impossible task from that position. Point made. Not a lot of deep breathing going on from this position. We simply can’t get in an optimum amount of air in this body configuration.

The speakers were really fabulous: brilliant, interesting, and truly mindful human beings (far as I could tell.) But really, the major coup of the whole weekend for me, was getting to hang out in a room full of my kin. The energy in the room was palpable – people were clearly very very excited to have this conversation. We were excited for ourselves and we were excited for what this means for humanity and technology. The possibilities for mindful, conscious, beautifully human business felt greater than most of us had experienced before. All that and it felt like we didn’t have to turn in our smartphones and computers to make it happen. There’s a middle way, it feels – and it’s awesome to be in a roomful of really smart, mindful people searching for that middle way with us.

For me – and I have struggled both with being “too connected” and with not feeling like I know how to virtually connect “well enough” – this conversation was totally riveting, enlightening and thought-provoking. If you check out the Twitter stream (#wisdom2conf) you’ll see that I am most definitely not alone in those feelings. You won’t find the answers there, necessarily, but you will find a lot of people committed to that goal.

People are already doing very cool things to help make the online experience more human, transparent and soulful. More businesses are being Visioned and launched right now by people in that Wisdom 2.0 conference toward that end. It’s exciting.  We absolutely cannot ever replace human touch, eye-to-eye contact, the energetic exchange that happens when two or more people sit together in a room in conversation, in meditation, or in solidarity on an issue. I don’t think any of us want to replace those lovely human experiences. It’s about expansion… opening… growth… different kinds of connection that enrich our lives in new and unexpected ways. I don’t think we’ve found the perfect way to use technology to enhance our human connections (doubt we ever will) but I am optimistic that we are having the right conversations to help us get closer to that goal. Go check out the #wisdom2conf Twitter stream – and read the blog posts being shared about the experience – and you’ll see.

This was just the beginning. You are invited to join the conversation right now. I’d certainly LOVE to hear your thoughts & ideas on how we can mindfully take advantage of the technologies available to us and use them in service of a more authentically connected world.

Filed Under: Contribution, entrepeneurialism, life overall, social media, technology

How to Create a New Website with Less Angst

March 2, 2010 By 1 Comment

It took about five months to design and launch the new The Brazen Soul website. I thought for SURE I could get it done way faster – after all, I am a workhorse, willing to keep at it hours upon hours until the thing gets DONE.

But that’s not how creative, collaborative project go. You can’t rush brilliance. And you certainly can’t convince everyone else involved in the project to take on your ridiculous workhorse ways.

Creative endeavors take t-i-m-e. Time. TIME.

And patience, which I’m constantly trying to cultivate but wondering if it’s just too far outside of my strengths.

That said, looking back I realize there are a number of things I could have done differently when creating The Brazen Soul website. I hope sharing them will make your next website project – or any creative collaboration – less anxiety-provoking and more streamlined.

Here are the five biggest takeaways I’ve had from my website redesign process:

  1. Direct communication with the Designer/Design team is critical. The Brazen Soul rebrand was really an offshoot of a plan to create a new website. I was working with a coach at the time and the further we got into the business details of a new website, the more clear it was that I really needed a whole new brand (actually, a new business name, too!). My coach was an excellent co-thinking partner and brilliant at helping me navigate the rebranding process. Handily, she had a design branch of her business that handled logos and websites. I like and trust my coach, so I hired her team on for this project. Turns out, her “team” was housed somewhere far far away, with a 9-hour time difference, and every single tweak or revision took from three to FIVE days. The process was excruciating. I did get a gorgeous logo out of the process, though it took something like 40 original concepts to get there (note: if you are anywhere past 5 or so original concepts, there is a serious communication problem/design skill situation.) The website creation process began to show the same patterns, so I bailed out of that arrangement relatively early. The lesson: Have direct communication with the creative team to ensure that your design wishes are heard and understood – as are deadlines and revision timeframes.
  2. Relationships make a big difference. I have a number friends who are designers. Most of them actually don’t like to work with solo entrepreneurs and small business owners. We are notoriously undecided and slim-budgeted, I hear. So, even if they would make an exception and work with me because we are friends, I didn’t want to be the one to affirm their preconceptions about entrepreneurs. The website developer I ended up hiring, Lynn, and I have worked on client projects together before as well as co-facilitated workshops and presentations together. She designed my previous website as well. As soon as I realized the error of my ways in my new website process, I called her. She hopped on my project immediately (with nary a sarcastic told-you-so comment, the lovely soul) and put me directly in touch with her favorite designer, Asha Hossain. Through lots of conversation with me, Asha (who is definitely working in the sweet spot of her strengths – she’s so good) designed a site I love. The difference in angst was night and day with these mutually respectful, collaborative relationships driving my website project. The lesson here: If you know that someone is really good and you have had great experiences working with them in the past, use them again. Don’t start anew with the unknown when the known is already great. (Jeez – this seems so obvious when I put it there like that. hmph.)
  3. A self-created wordpress blog can bridge the gap nicely. Designing and building a website takes a while, even when the whole team jumps on board immediately and everyone’s plates are empty enough to concentrate a lot on your project (which wasn’t entirely the process with mine, but damn close.) In my case, it didn’t make sense to use my old website since I had a very different new brand and business name. So, I took my amateur wordpress blog skill to the task. I went to www.wordpress.com (not www.wordpress.org, which requires your own hosting and a bit more technical skill) and chose a theme with a customizable header. After some frustration (required of most new technological ventures, in my experience) lasting a very short time, I had a temporary home for The Brazen Soul. It wasn’t fancy – but really, it worked beautifully. I made new connections every single day via that website – in all of it’s simplicity – and for me, that’s what it was all about – getting the new brand out there and creating meaningful relationships. The lesson here: Doing something now is way better than doing nothing and waiting for the perfect something (sometimes. In this case.)
  4. Let expertise drive the task while you joy ride in the backseat. Once the designer was on the task, it was all a lovely, awe-inspiring experience. We exchanged a bunch of emails about my business, the purpose of my website and details of my Brand Elan and Asha brought on her brilliance in design. Then the same process was repeated in functionality planning with Lynn of webprodigy.com. The more I let them bring the solutions and let go of controlling every detail, the more often I was happily surprised by their remarkable ideas and outcomes. The lesson here: Let go and your collaborators will bring exceptional brilliance from their strengths and Contribution.
  5. Pad the budget – time and money. Even with my workhorse ways and a ton of flexibility and commitment from my web team, the project took way longer than I hoped or planned. It just does. I changed my mind a few times. We had all these holidays in there like Christmas and New Years (annoying!). The copy wasn’t flowing as easily as I hoped it would when it came time for me to write some of the pages. We had all of those final itty bitty fixes that happen on any project of this kind. Of course, all of that mind-changing and great new ideas added design and development costs. I don’t regret a single one of those changes or additions in functionality – but I hadn’t planned for them either. The lesson here: Add at least 20% (I’m making that number up – but it’s about right for my project) to the time and budget for your web project so you have room to produce the most remarkable project possible.

I wish you great success on your website or other collaborative project. I beam happily every time I open up The Brazen Soul website so I know all of the time, energy and resources are worth it. Well, that and the fact that community is building beautifully through The Brazen Soul brand, just as I hoped. Let me know if I can be of service to you in any way as you venture into your project. I have a checklist for choosing a web team and a Website Planning Worksheet that walks you through the many planning details of creating a new website. I’d be happy to send them over to you if you send me an email with the request.

Thank you Martin Kingsley for the angsty guy image.

Filed Under: branding, design, launch, marketing, small business marketing, technology

How to Use Twitter When You're Not That Funny

February 5, 2010 By 1 Comment

When I first started using Twitter about a year ago (or whenever), I was perplexed about it. Who isn’t, really?

Actually, there’s a good chance that you may not even be on Twitter, maybe for the same reasons I almost jumped the Twitter ship. (I thought about combining Twitter and Ship there for a minute, like lots of Twitter Tweeps do, but then I realized that could turn out pretty vulgar… )

Anyway, back to my reason for considering jumping the Twitter Ship…  I just didn’t really get it. Hell, it’s been a year now (or however long) and I’m still not entirely sure I get it. But I’ve learned some stuff that’s caused me to stick around. Maybe it will help you work through your own conflicted Twitter feelings, if you’ve got them.

Not Everyone Can Be Awesome at Twitter

My general read on Twitter, after having spent a good amount of time “listening” plus a moderate amount of time sharing and participating, is that Twitter works best under three conditions:

  1. You are already famous/well-known
  2. You are on there a lot – all day – and you provide smart, valuable insight and resources for people (sometimes this gets you up into category #1)
  3. You are supernaturally witty and smart and a brilliant online conversationalist – plus you are on there all day, pretty much

I have spent a lot of time studying this because, frankly, I don’t fit into any of those categories. And I want to be cool and use Twitter well. I want be be technologically cutting-edge. Most importantly, I want Twitter to be the productive and useful business tool I keep hearing it is from other people.

Twitter Can Be Productive & Pleasant, Even If You’re Not Great At It

I found that traditionally “successful” use of Twitter doesn’t come readily, even when you do all the stuff the “Twitter experts” suggest that you do. Even when you just try to be “natural” and “yourself” on Twitter. It’s just not an intuitive space, the Twitter stream. So, as I saw these “how to be successful on Twitter” categories emerging, I kept trying to find other ways to use Twitter productively, for the benefit of my business, and in a way that is personally pleasant.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Twitter is not going to work for me that way I keep hearing it works.

Smart & Nice People Are on Twitter – Plus TONS of Useful Information

Once I realized that Twitter didn’t have to work the way I kept hearing it was supposed to, I actually started enjoying Twitter. I have met lovely people on Twitter – generous, smart, and, well, witty people (of course). But also people, like me, who just really want to step into conversations meaningfully. People who want to share cool stuff they’ve experienced and done so that others can have that same goodness in their lives. I dig those conversations and I would be bummed if Twitter was taken away at this point, because it’s a reliable place to find interesting people and information.

Maybe A New Angle On the Whole Twitter Thing Will Help

So, just in case you are like me and are feeling like you maybe aren’t cut out for the cool Twitter witty banter crowd – or you have been too intimidated to get on Twitter at all because you can’t figure out where you’d fit in, I offer you a few ways to use Twitter even when you’re not whip-funny, famous or able to hang out and make friends there all day long:

  1. Follow some of those famous people who are whip-smart and witty and enjoy their tweets. They are often inspiring and thought-provoking. If you take the pressure off of your own ability to create that kind of tweet yourself (with its heady resultant engagement from other tweeters) you get the benefit of some great insights.
  2. Don’t take the silence personally (not everyone follows the ideal Twitter ettiquette and I suppose it can make sense.) When I first started on Twitter I @-d at few people very directly and didn’t get any response. They weren’t even famous or anything (some of them were even in my own smallish town!). When they didn’t reply to a couple of my initiated conversations, I felt like I did in high school when the cool kids standing at “the wall” didn’t even acknowledge my existence at lunch break. While I eventually figured out how to side-up to a few of the kids at “the wall” at school, breaking into the cool crowd on Twitter felt impossible and deflating. Now, after being around a while, I get it that it is tough to stay on top of all of the conversations on Twitter and those deafening silences as I awaited the much-touted Twitter conversation were less about rejection of me and more of a time-management technique on the other person’s part (I’m going with that story anyway.)
  3. Find a few of your kin and genuinely get to know them. Read the links in their tweets, respond to them when you are inspired, and consider taking the conversation beyond Twitter. I have enjoyed lovely expansions of Twitter-born connections with both @elasticmind and @ealvarezgibson (both of whom happen to also be whip-smart and witty) and continue to appreciate my connections with them on and off the live Twitter stream.
  4. Seek the latest and greatest on products, news and events in your areas of interest. Nowhere is easier than Twitter to get this information real-time. I learned about the very fine Lateral Action Course from @chrisbrogan on Twitter. An excellent find. Through some crazy Twitter click-through journey, I learned about a cool Crave Business event I went to last year. Both of these experience very positively impacted my business with valuable information I have integrated into my systems and processes. There’s a ton of that kind of thing on Twitter.

See You On Twitter

So, I’m staying on Twitter – but I don’t use it the way I thought I would. I don’t use it the way I read about other people using it. Often, those writing about using Twitter as this great relationship-building and conversational tool fit into those three categories above (famous, uber-witty-banter-style, or on-all-day) and therefore, the outcomes flow to them differently than they do for me. And maybe for you.

I hope to see you on Twitter. Say hello, would you? I’m @michellebfranco. I may or may not reply that day, but I will respond, even if I can’t think of anything especially clever to say.

Filed Under: networking, small business marketing, social media, technology, Twitter

Almost Like A Real Coffee Date

January 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sometimes living in a rural(ish) area – as stunningly gorgeous as my town of Bend, Oregon is – can feel so isolated.

We have really smart people here and passion abounds. But, for the most part, people don’t move here to start a business. They move here to live amidst crystal blue skies (300+ days of sunshine here, is what they say), towering Ponderosa Pines and to gaze at snowcapped mountaintops out their windows. Lots of them come here expressly to ski and fish, but since I don’t do either of those things I forget how much that’s a big deal here, too. Anyway, my point is – people are too busy living the lovely outdoor life to stay indoors and build big business.

I’m good with that. I dig this area very much. The thing is, I’m also a passion-driven Entrepreneur. While we have many business owners here (I recently heard that 60% of the adults in our area were self-employed), there aren’t all that many who want to talk hard-core business for long periods of time. I like to do that – so I miss this element a bit ’round here.

Enter Skype Video!

To stay connected with other passion-driven entrepreneurs, I Tweet (a bit), blog (obviously) and use Facebook (off and on). Sometimes I use LinkedIn, but not that much right now. It’s nice – I have met some very cool people through these interactions. And while I have very mixed emotions about Twitter (more on that later), I must say that I have made the coolest connections through that crazy platform. Like my new friend, Tara Joyce.

Tara Joyce is a leading-authority on the Innerpreneur. She writes a really cool blog where she shares statistics from her own data gathering, shares stories and ideas and – my favorite – she talks brazenly about her own innerpreneur journey. I’m an innerpreneur! So, I really like reading Tara’s blog. Somehow, we connected on Twitter (who ever knows how?) then we had a few exchanges. We moved to email a bit then Tara suggested we Skype.

Skype for Networking?!

I would totally have gone to coffee with Tara by now if we lived locally. Our businesses are so compatible and our interests so very similar, I knew we’d have some excellent conversation. I Skype with clients, and my brother (and our kiddos show each other their latest art projects and costumes there, too) and my very good friend Nancy and I get on Skype regularly to catch up.  It simply hadn’t occurred to me to use Skype as a networking tool.

It was so awesome. It was almost like a real coffee date!

I’d just like to put it out there to you as a possible network/friendship expanding opportunity. Next time you are wishing you could have a cup of coffee and get to know someone a bit better under more personal-style, face-to-face circumstances but a plane ticket would be a bit overkill, consider grabbing a cup of coffee and sitting in front of your Webcam. I made a meaningful connection that way today. I bet you would, too.

Thank you to Chichacha for the cute little duo coffee mug photo.

Filed Under: entrepeneurialism, networking, social media, technology