A Bigger Voice

Encore Webinar on January 18

I'm moderating a webinar on Encore Careers for the Northwestern University Club of Colorado on January 18 at 5pm Mountain Time. This event is open to the public.  Registration closes the morning of Jan 18. See below for more information:

U.S. Census statistics indicate a talent shortage by the year 2018.

Yet, 78 million Baby Boomers make up the largest, healthiest, and best-educated population segment. They have the potential to help solve serious social problems and to bridge critical labor gaps in education, health care and the green economy. This adds up to a tremendous social impact called the Encore Career. Photo by vastateparkstaff

What is an Encore Career?   As defined by Civic Ventures, an organization leading the way on creating meaning in the second half of one's life:

An Encore Career consists of work after a primary career that combines continued income with personal meaning and social impact.

So if you are wondering what's next for you, join us. Here are some of the questions we'll address:

1. What does job competitiveness look like for the experienced worker?
2. How can I turn volunteering into a job?
3. Where are the encore career opportunities - now and future?
4. What need in the world aligns with my passions, gifts, educational background and experience?
5. How do I make the transition from corporate to nonprofit?

In addition to a speaker, we'll also have three panelists who are in different stages of an encore career--from planning an encore career to being one of a select few nationally recognized for the impact of their encore career on society. 

Many wisdom entrepreneurs are playing out an encore career in doing their work.   Join us next Tues, Jan 18 and get inspired!

A Workshop For Digital Immigrants

It was through my work with A Bigger Voice that I came to understand the world of the "digital immigrant", those individuals 30 years and older who had to move into the Internet age.  In contrast, "digital natives," like my sons, have only known life with the Internet.

For those digital immigrants in the Denver area, don't miss this opportunity to understand the implications of being in a social media-enabled world. I will be co-presenting with Walter Akana, a social media insider and coach from Atlanta, GA.

What: In-person workshop,  "Reclaim Your Career: Professional Presence In a Social Media World"

When: Thurs, June 17, 8am-5pm

Where: Boulder, CO on the University of Colorado campus

Cost: $25. The affordability of this workshop is due to the sponsorship of the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business. Leeds decided to open up registration to the public yesterday, given that the class is not yet filled.

To Register: Click here. Deadline to register is Tues, June 15. Space is limited.

 

Enjoy this video of yours truly talking about the workshop:

Enabling Social Change Through Social Media: Learning From Each Other

What happens when you put an Internet icon (Dave Taylor), a marketing expert at the crossroads of new media and old media (Dave Webb), and a digital immigrant who bridges top down with bottom up approaches (Kim Dority) on a panel and mix with an enthusiastic group of students, professors, and activists? I wish I could thoroughly convey the energy at Regis University last night, as we explored the nuances of social media, marketing, leadership, and social causes. A lot of wheels were turning as we learned from each other.

I started off the evening describing the three phases of A Bigger Voice--Crystallize, Build Community, and Sustain--and was followed by the knowledgeable and ever entertaining Dave Taylor. Dave talked about the "burning desire" for humans to express themselves and gave us a great perspective on how technology has helped us meet that need. His talk was similar to one he gave last November at the Thin Air Summit, which I reported on for this blog. What struck me this time around was his theme of "You have a voice. Use it." Amen!

The real juice of the evening came with our panelists providing stories and viewpoints from the field and interacting with the audience. Questions ranged from how to get digital immigrants to see the value of social media (answer: mutual respect of what digital immigrants and digital natives already know, point digital immigrants to Facebook and have them look for fellow alums), to how to publicize a local event through social media (answer: find and contact the influencers in your field and geographical area, make use of the social networks that the organizers are already on), to how to build a business using social media (answer: create trust, give away something of value, contribute to others' goals.)

Themes that emerged:

• Passion. Social media allows people who are passionate in niche areas (e.g., Kurasawa films, breeding English settler dogs) to connect with each other. Find what you are passionate about and participate in that community (or create a community of your own.)
• Ease into the conversation and become a part of the community. Contribute, build trust, develop relationships online, just like you would in the offline world. Dave Taylor gave a wonderful metaphor of being at a party and how different behaviors either alienate people or draw them to you. (You had to be there for the full effect.) Contribute to conversations where there are already like-minded thinkers and add value.
• Start with consuming before creating. Build your expertise by reading and researching online, observing the conversation and then get ready to contribute/create, either in small bits with comments and tweets or in larger chunks with blogging. 
• We need both "old media" and "new media." The panel discussed the demise of the newspaper industry and the dangers of losing that "voice" in the mix of today's landscape, where citizen journalism is on the rise. In addition, old media still contains major influencers in different areas (e.g. Walt Mossberg with the Wall Street Journal on technology.) Dave Taylor gave some tips on how to create a relationship with old media (e.g., email reporters with additional thoughts on something they've written and offer to be a possible source of information when they are working under tight deadlines.)
• Move into action. Social media has the power to connect individuals more broadly, deeply, and quickly. It also can and should be a means for inspiring others to act. Passion and vision are great but without action, it doesn't mean anything. Dave Webb said after the panel that he didn't have the chance to talk about Twestival but wished he could have. Twestival was an event organized by Twitter users that took place on Feb 12, in over 200 cities around the world, to raise money for a non-profit that digs wells in places that don't have access clean water. 
• Learn from Obama's election campaign. We talked about this as great case study on how to use social media to create a grassroots movement. Kim Dority gave us a specific example of Obama's campaign reaching out to her company, disaboom.com, as the voice of the disabled population, to create a win-win. An extensive analysis of the Obama campaign's use of social media was just released by Edelman, the PR firm.
• Social media is everywhere. From Club Penguin to World of Warcraft to Facebook (where the greatest growth is with women over 50 years old.) You can start using it or be left behind.

One of my big take-aways is it is easy to get wrapped into the social media bubble, thinking that individuals are knowledgeable about tools and lingo and comfortable with it all. For example, out of more than 70 people, only one or two were on Twitter and only a small percentage were bloggers.  If we are to bring the power of social media to both digital immigrants and digital natives, we must meet them where they are at and help them find ways to move forward. My hope is that last night's presentation made a small contribution to that end.

My thanks all the panelists, Kim Dority, Dave Taylor and Dave Webb. Special thanks to Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, director of the leadership development program at Regis, for sponsoring this event. (That's her on the left, with the two Daves.) Judging from comments from panelists and audience members, I'm not alone when I say that the evening was inspiring and energizing and I walked out feeling smarter than when I came in. Check out the following interviews with  panelists and audience members.

Interview with Dave Taylor and Dave Webb:

Interview with Kim Dority. UPDATE: Please note that Kim mentions having "Obama's adminstration on staff." Kim later listened to the interview and informed me this should have been "Obama's campaign on the site."  Interestingly enough, the Obama staff has continued to reach out to disaboom.com, this time soliciting stories of people with disabilities who've gone back to work because of the stimulus plan. Yet another example of Obama's adeptness at using social media to engage, create conversation, and build community.

Interview with Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas:

Interview with Dan "The Can Man":

Interview with Janice, Social Marketing professor:

Power Chicks in Houston

I was in Houston last week to work with a group of budding wisdom entrepreneurs--members of a women's networking group, lovingly known as the Power Chicks. (There was also one Power Dude, as you'll see from the following videos.)

At the end of the three hours, all of the participants had identified a next step that got them into action and moved them towards doing well and doing good in the world--from supporting caregivers to youth at risk to parents of kids with juvenile arthritis. See this quick video to get a feel for the energy in the room:

Houston, Feb 2009, A Bigger Voice seminar from Carol Ross on Vimeo.

What this means is that you can start from anywhere and make progress on transforming an idea into a movement. The concepts and principles of A Bigger Voice are sound. Well, I guess I knew that already but it's always good to confirm it in the field with a diverse group.

My thanks to the fabulous Laura Bellomy, the alpha Chick, who hosted this event. You'll be seeing more of Laura in the future, as I've lined her up as one the wisdom entrepreneurs I want to interview.

An offer for 2009:  Want to get some help transforming an idea into a movement? I'll do a four-hour seminar on A Bigger Voice, with up to 25 participants, anywhere in the US, for free. You'll need to pay my expenses, airfare from Denver, and do the marketing.  So start thinking about the budding wisdom entrepreneurs in your community who are ready to move into action. I can't wait to see what happens. Contact me through Twitter (@carolross) or via email: carol [at] abiggervoice [dot] com.

Creating Community Through Blogs, Part 3

Some tips I gathered from the Thin Air Summit:

Photo by Gavin Andrew Stewart

1. A first step to creating a community is to be a part of a community. It's easier to join a conversation than to start one. Participate by leaving comments on other blogs. Rather than being an island by focusing solely on your own blog, exercise your voice in the larger conversation of the blogosphere. (My thanks to Amy Gahran and Dave Taylor for driving home this point. I've been particularly bad on this.)
2. With transparency comes credibility. Declare your biases up front. Chris Menning, provides a nice commentary on this point, in reporting on a presentation,  Traditional vs. Social Media: New Ways to Report What We See on Day 2 of the conference.
3. Creating a community is a journey.  I learned a new term from one of the presenters, Mark Linder, who has been podcasting for over four years: podfading. It refers to what happens to lots of blogs and podcasts--excitement and lots of activity at the beginning, only to be followed by a fading away of posts.  I'm guilty of this with my efforts to build a community around whole brain thinking and boundary crossing.  Make sure that whatever means you use to build your community (e.g., blogging, in-person meetings, regular teleconferences), you pick something that's sustainable.
4. Your community is wherever they are, not where you are.

   

   Photo by Kimba

   As you build your eco-system, add "outposts" to your blog where kindred spirits can find you (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Plurk.)  Online presence means making it easy for others to find you and engage in a conversation, whether it's on your site or someone else's.
5. Corollary to Tip #4: Meet your audience where they are, not just literally, but figuratively. After Dave Taylor's keynote, a blogger in the audience commented that, "My readers wonder about these buttons--StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit." The person was asking what to do with readers who don't understand how to use technology found on blogs, like social bookmarking tools. Dave's response: Pick one or two of these tools and explain them well. You don't need three versions of a social bookmarking tool. You just need one that is well-understood.  I love this quote from Dave: "How accessible are you making your voice?"

This last point is probably best directed to me, and the rest of the A Bigger Voice team. During the Thin Air Summit, I noticed that it's easy to get comfortable in a bubble of early adopters who "get you." Likewise, after working for months with consultants who understand the concepts around A Bigger Voice, it's seductive to believe that everyone speaks the same language, including readers of this blog.

Call me on it, would you please? Let me know when my voice is no longer accessible, when I've gone off the deep end, fascinated by the new concept or idea but not very useful to you, the reader. 

Interview on Wisdom Entrepreneurs

Photo by Larry Nelson of W3W3.com

For those of you who learn best by listening, I was recently interviewed about wisdom entrepreneurs by W3W3, Internet talk radio, billed as "Colorado's Voice of the Technology Community."  Click here for more info on the interview and here to jump right into listening. 

A quick backstory: Terry Morreale is the interviewer and a one-time colleague of mine, when I was an engineer at U S WEST, over a decade ago.  I was thirtysomething and Terry was just out of college. Even though we live in the same town, we lost touch with each other. We reconnected this year, when a friend and former colleague of mine from Lucent Technologies sent me the link for an interview she had done for W3W3.  As I was listening for my friend's voice, I was surprised to hear not just one, but two familiar voices.

I contacted Terry, invited her to coffee and we caught up on each other's lives. While I left engineering several years ago, Terry is still an engineer. And since our days of being cubicle neighbors, she's developed a passion for helping women in technology. Thus, her current role as an interviewer for the Women in Information Technology series of W3W3. Terry was intrigued when I told her about A Bigger Voice and how we are using technology as a tool for building a community. She suggested we do an interview.

The moral of the story for those interested in A Bigger Voice: It's a small world and networking opportunities are always present, if you keep your eyes open.

My thanks to Terry and the co-founder of W3W3, Larry Nelson, for helping to spread the word about A Bigger Voice and wisdom entrepreneurs.

Jeremiah Owyang's Keynote at Thin Air Summit

It's one thing to read someone's blog over time. It's another thing to see them speak in person.

Jeremiah Owyang gave the keynote yesterday on the second (and last) day of the Thin Air Summit,
with a talk titled, "The Future of Media....in the Social Era."

When I heard about the conference last month, it was the fact that Jeremiah was speaking that caught my attention. I've been reading his blog since January and it's become one of my top resources for understanding social media, where it's headed, and the role it can play in building a community. Key points from his talk:

• Allow content to take many forms. It's no longer enough to post something on a website. You've got to provide other distribution channels for your stuff to be found, where your audience is, instead of expecting them to come to you. Example: A blog posting is automatically fed to my Facebook account and then becomes a tweet (a posting of 140 characters or less, using the Twitter micro-blogging service). With each successive form, users can add their own commentary, thereby modifying your original intent. I may have posted about my vacation to Maui and someone links to it to talk about how the middle class has become more affluent. 
• Provide content in bite-sized chunks. Jeremiah talked about long-form and short-form and media snacking. Digital immigrants are used to reading newspapers and research reports. Digital natives are used to texting and scanning RSS feeds. Attention span, even for the over 30 crowd, has gone way down while information overload is a permanent condition. When I asked about the dangers of too much media snacking, Jeremiah replied that we might miss what's really important. In-depth analysis goes by the wayside. Speed and volume can't make up for good thinking.
• If information is power, media is currency. The world used to be about broadcast--television, radio--where one centralized body decided what the masses would hear. Think of the the top down, command and control hierarchy of our major corporations up until the last 10 years. Now think about the world today, where anybody can create an online video, upload it to a free site like YouTube, link to it, and modify it by adding in their own content. And then have it go viral.  This is the bottom-up change scenario that is becoming more possible and more probable. There is a shift in power from the top of the heap to the bottom of the food chain.

For people who love to see data to understand broad conclusions (like me), check out slides 47 and 49 of Jeremiah's presentation. Fascinating stuff with lots of implications.

What this means for creating a bigger voice:

• With short attention spans, you don't just need bite-sized chunks in the Crystallize phase. You need a clear message--what your wisdom is, what's the stunning result you want to create, how your life story connects with your passion.
• If you are attracting kindred spirits who are digital natives, you'll need to show up in a variety of places online. As time goes on, more of anyone's audience will be digital natives.
• Dream big, because bottom-up change is becoming more and more possible. One individual can have more impact than a thousand could a hundred years ago.

Besides Jeremiah's depth of expertise and ability to synthesize large amounts of input on the spot (he's an analyst for Forrester on social computing, after all), I was struck by two things during his presentation:

• He uses both sides of the brain, the creative right brain and the analytical left brain, in presenting ideas. A whole-brain thinker after my own heart. (I later found out by re-reading his bio that he was a jazz performance major in college--a boundary crosser in addition to being a whole brain thinker.) Throughout the presentation, Jeremiah used metaphors (jello, shish ka bob, and currency) and stories to drive home his points and then backed it up with data. A quick scan of his slides will give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

• He leads by example in building a community. Communities have power and wisdom. Two examples:
  • Jeremiah opened the talk by holding a controller to advance his slide presentation in one hand and a cell phone receiving Twitter messages in the other hand.  He acknowledged that the real power is not in the slide controller, but in the cell phone. Why? Through Twitter, audience members can now give real-time feedback on what they are hearing in a presentation and have a parallel, digital conversation, delivered in a web browser or via a mobile device. In a tech-savvy crowd, conference speakers can get the thumbs down very quickly and see their audience literally disappear. 
  • Jeremiah made a point of asking for the audience's experiences, in response to the main messages of his presentation (see slides titled "Community Examples.") With a crowd of social media early adopters, he knew this community had much to offer up with their own anecdotes. Community-builders know that they are the catalyst for conversation, but they are not the conversation itself. The more of an expert you are, the harder it is to open the space for others to join in, which makes Jeremiah's invitation for input all the more remarkable. (In a similar, but slightly different vein, Dave Taylor gave an example in his keynote, showing a photo of a sign with the words, "Don't think" painted on it. Underneath, someone else had written, "about her." A nice riff off of a serious message.)

How does this relate to having a bigger voice? If you are serious about communicating your wisdom, your cause, your passion, don't relegate it to one side of your brain. Crystallize using both sides. It's a whole lot more effective. And when you are ready to build community, you've got to walk your talk. Your attitude about what the crowd knows and your respect for the power at the bottom will make all the difference in how quickly a community will coalesce around your ideas.

My thanks to the co-organizers of Thin Air Summit, Goldie Katsu and Kit Seeborg for putting on a terrific conference. I'll be back next year.

Dave Taylor's Keynote at Thin Air Summit

Dave Taylor gave the keynote at the opening of the Thin Air Summit. And what an opening!

He's a pioneer in the use of the Internet, going back to the '80s. With that experience comes a wise perspective. I found Dave's keynote to be smart, compassionate, and best of all, a much needed viewpoint about how technology is impacting us as a society and a culture. You don't get that from the average geek.

Some key points from his talk, "Finding a Voice: The Evolution of Personal Media Through History":

• All of us are publishers. Dave asked the room how many were bloggers, podcasters, vloggers (video podcasters), on Twitter, on Facebook. Lots of hands raised, which you would expect in this kind of crowd. The point is that there are multiple avenues for getting your point of view out in the world. This is one of the underpinnings of A Bigger Voice--you don't need to go through gatekeepers (e.g., publishers, programmers for radio or television shows) to have a bigger voice in the world.
• We are story-tellers. Dave talked about how human beings have the desire to tell stories. His presentation was a great example of this, telling us about graffiti from 79AD in Pompeii and bloggers jailed in oppressive regimes, to illustrate his points about the drive and dangers of having a voice. Stories stick. Stories capture our imagination. It's why A Bigger Voice emphasizes telling your story of why you are passionate about your cause, how you've come to do the work that you doing.
• Each of us represents more people with similar ideas. We not only have the ability to have a voice, we can influence others as well. I loved this point from Dave as it goes to the core of a principle from A Bigger Voice: One individual can start a community.
• The human desire for expression is strong. People are willing to risk being jailed, tortured, and killed to be heard.  Citing examples like Anne Frank, Thomas Paine and places where freedom of speech is non-existent, Dave made the case for why so many of us are lucky to have open disagreement and heated discussions, publicly.
• Divergent voices are the sign of a healthy system. Yes! Yes! and Yes!  It's the secret to what A Bigger Voice calls a "vibrant community." Corollary point: One person starts the conversation and then someone else riffs off of it. You can't control this, nor do you want to. Any blogger who has written a provocative post and seen comments come pouring in knows this, in spades.
  Dave summed this up nicely:
  • More Voices = Less Control
  • Less Voices = Death of Democracy
• Everyone's a media channel. We are the new citizen journalist. This goes to points made in the Long Tail. And the idea that bottom-up change is possible, now more than ever.
• With power comes responsibility. Think before talking. I think often at the root of flaming, talking without thinking about the ramifications, and just silly stuff is self-righteousness. It's why the personal development part of this journey is so important. We need to be in service to something other than our ego.

I'm usually much more measured in blogging about my experiences--waiting a few days after I've had a chance to digest and process. And I think I'm getting into the spirit of social media--which is about connecting to many and sharing in real time.

Jeremiah Owyang will give a keynote this morning, in less than an hour. I'll try to blog about what I learn from his talk soon....

Thin Air Summit

Simon just told about an event in Denver, Nov 7-9 to learn about social media, the Thin Air Summit, billed as "A New Media Conference in the Mile High City."  The keynote speakers are Dave Taylor and Jeremiah Owyang, who I've mentioned several times on this blog. (Faithful readership of Jeremiah's blog is akin to getting a master's degree in social media. His day job is as a social media analyst for Forrester Research.) They only take 100 attendees, with twenty speakers over two days. It should be a great learning event.

If you think you can't afford the time or fees, think again. It's $97 for two days, on a weekend in November. Too early for skiing, too late for enjoying the fall colors, and the holidays are still a few weeks away.

The conference organizers have even thought about the intimidation factor. There's a pre-conference evening workshop for $47, “Everything You Wanted to Know About New Media But Were Afraid to Ask,” which should help ease you into the world of social media.

There's no excuse not to attend. (Okay, maybe Simon won't be attending. Only because he lives in New Zealand. Just noticed that it took someone half-way around the world to tell me about an event in my own backyard. And he found out about it from two podcasters in the Denver area. That's what you call boomerang marketing.)

Let me know if you will be there so that we can connect....

Lessons from Traverse City

It's been over a week since I had a conversation about social entrepreneurship with twenty like-minded individuals in Traverse City, Michigan--people who believe in the idea of "doing well and doing good."

What I took away from that experience:

Lesson One: Dive in, the water's fine. A Bigger Voice sometimes requires that we act in order to further our thinking. When faced with the idea of presenting to a group of strangers, I found myself clarifying what A Bigger Voice is, in a way I hadn't before. For months, I had been working on the Crystallize phase of A Bigger Voice Model (formerly referred to as Full Expression.) This includes understanding how my life story has led me to this work, word-smithing what the outcome is when A Bigger Voice is as big as it can be (the answer to the question, "So, what?"), finding the nuggets to hit upon when explaining what A Bigger Voice is and is not, and honing the wisdom of A Bigger Voice (e.g., what makes it distinct and innovative.) These are not small questions. And yet, knowing that I had a deadline moved me into a creative space that helped synthesize all the discussions and emails and message threads and musings over the last 9 months.  On the plane, I wrote down these principles of A Bigger Voice:

•  Do well and do good. A Bigger Voice is about profitability + social good.
• One voice can start a community. A Bigger Voice is intended to serve the innovator with remarkable wisdom. Like any good jazz combo, one individual provides an idea that others can riff off of for a many-to-many conversation.
• Community creates stunning results. The tapestry that's woven from conversations with others is where the big payoff occurs. What we can create alone is miniscule compared to what we can create together.
• Sustainability requires monetization.  Monetization comes from creating value in the free marketplace. Without this, all the work of A Bigger Voice is for naught--the community, the innovator, the cause is not sustainable.

Lesson Two: Creating a community requires knowing one another. My goal in going to Traverse City was to plant the seed for a community--one that resonated with the ideas of A Bigger Voice. Over half the time spent at the gathering was in getting to know who was in the room--the depth of participants' passions and their experiences in pursuing those passions. Individuals talked about three decades of building communities, about speaking around the world on the importance of fresh water, about using mentors to lift the poor out of poverty, about exploring belief vs. truth, about changing the ways in which we learn as adults. Can you feel the excitement of being in a room full of people like this?  That's where community starts. By knowing each other more deeply.

Lesson Three: Communities will naturally shape their experience. During the two hours of our time together, the participants added in pieces to the experience that I hadn't thought of--as small as standing up while introducing fellow participants, as big as deciding that they wanted to meet again as a group in the near future, as innovative as creating a book club flavor by reading a recommended book before meeting again. It was thrilling to see this unfold before my eyes.   

Lesson Four: By focusing on community-building, ideas for monetization naturally emerge. It was not my intention to make money from this gathering. Yet I came away with a clearer understanding of how A Bigger Voice, when launched as a business, can provide value in the marketplace. I could see where participants struggled, where things felt fuzzy or frustrating, where they were hungry to learn more. These are all clues for monetization. I came back home with a clearer place of where to start creating a revenue stream, and the pieces that would build off of that starting point.

I have a belief that the strongest communities have both in-person and virtual gatherings. It's my hope that the community for A Bigger Voice will follow this model. Traverse City was my first experiment and I plan to do more. I'm planning on visiting Houston in November, for a similar type of gathering.

Why Houston? The answer goes back to why Traverse City and points to one of the tools used in the Build Community phase of A Bigger Voice--networking. I went to Traverse City because of Dave Murphy, who knew other connectors in the area, like Marguerite Cotto and Elaine Wood, my hosts for the gathering. The three of them tapped into their networks to get the word out about the gathering. In Houston, I'll be tapping into a friend who I met just last year, a fellow panelist at the Texas Conference for Women, Laura Bellomy.  She's an uber connector of strong, creative women in the Houston area as well as a blogger.  Laura has been running a tight group, aptly named the Power Chicks, for many years.

Which brings me to Lesson Five: Use your network to kickstart a community. It's so much easier and more enjoyable.

My thanks to Dave, Marguerite, and Elaine for hosting me and continuing to dream with me. (That's me with Dave in Traverse City.)

My thanks in advance to Laura for helping me further my dream in Houston.