Fake Snow Clusterf*ck

I visited Seattle for the first time recently.  Quite lovely!  Their coffeehouses really ARE cool.  I thought the Chicago java-scene was pretty good.  Oh man, we have a lot of catching up to do.  The variety, the natural wood, the hanging art, the mismatched furniture, the sleek yet comfortable design, the walls of colorful books, the quaintness.  We do that.  But they do that better.

This is a Starbucks that serves beer on tap and is trying out the bar/coffeehouse vibe.  That patio come summer is going to be people-watching central.  Boyfriend complained that they served beer in a chilled glass, I guess that’s a no-no?  But the important part of the photo is the snow.  Or the lack there of.  Starbucks baristas were jumping up and down, squealing, and snapping photos of the “snow.”  There was half an inch.  I chuckled to myself.  Cute Seattle-ites.

Then Boyfriend and I tried to find a watering hole later in the day.  Business after business, block after block, everything was dark and shut down.  At first, we thought they just really loved Martin Luther King (it was MLK Day).  But then we saw –

On door after door after door.  It stopped being cute.  More than one sign said, “For the safety of our staff…”  Oh Seattle.  You don’t know snow.  This?  This is someone with a mild case of dandruff sneezing lightly.  But the city quickly became a deserted madhouse, with closed streets, illegal sledding, and pig-noise baristas.

Made me appreciate snow plows, salt, and hearty Midwesterners.

Real Snow Clusterf*ck 

Heavy backpack, sleep in an unfamiliar Starbucks corporate housing bed, slushy, steep hill walks, and an 11:35pm flight back to Chicago led to a re-aggravation of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.  I lay in bed my first couple of days back from Seattle with back spasms of an eighty-three year old.  While I wanted nothing more than to indulge in a Daily Show marathon, I had so many projects to catch up with.  One was a presentation that I was giving at Lean StartUp later in the week.

I pushed aside all of the “Must do this now!” items on my To Do List and diligently crafted my How To Make A Living Doing What You Love story.  Creating a Prezi is not easy when groaning, horizontal, and typing on a laptop propped up by pillows.  But I finished just in time.  And then it started snowing.

The thought of trudging downtown through the wintery mess 6pm on a Friday night with a screeching back was not appealing in the least.  I hadn’t showered or been out of pajamas in two days.  Maybe I should back out?  But as a constant host and event planner, I know how frustrating it is when people cancel last minute, either as participants or as audience members.  So a few hours after I got the 2:48pm email telling us the event was still on as scheduled, I winced, slowly cocooned myself in outerwear and an I feel great! smile, and headed out.

A thirty-minute train ride and a twenty-minute frustrating IKEA moment — you can see the huge blue and yellow store right there but can’t get to it due to a maze of confusing driveways and highway exits; construction had the building where I was going completely blocked off save for a ridiculously hard to get to unmarked entrance — I arrived.  Weird-sweaty (hot in freezing weather), I signed in, got a badge, rode up to the seventeenth floor, and introduced myself to the hosts.

“I’m sorry.  Due to the weather, we only have time for Kevin to speak.”

I didn’t know who Kevin was but I immediately hated him.  I leaked my best That’s ok, I know it’s not your fault, what good is it going to do anyone for me to be annoyed? sentiments and trudged back into the snow.  Two-hour, $4.50 trip that took me from my house to my house.  Awesome.

I arrived home to find Boyfriend.  Decided to let go of my annoyance and view the situation from a “Now I get to hang out with someone I really like!” stance.  We playfully walked a few blocks to Riverview Tavern (thank you Chicago businesses for remaining sane and open during snow!), hand-holding and climbing snow drifts, and talked about how to world dominate via entrepreneurism over burgers and fries.

What Happens When People Are Open to Scary Yet Fun Clusterf*ck 

The new Fear Experiment class started.  (Recently featured on Gapers Block!)

Twenty non-dancers and eighteen non-improvisers sign up alone to work with a group of folk they don’t know and a teacher for three months learning their non-craft in preparation for performing in front of what last year was a sold-out 700 member Park West audience; gaining a few more seats due to not building out the stage, 750 are expected this year.

Would you have guessed that these people met just ninety-minutes before this photo was taken?  Positivity, energy, and laughter has been radiating since Day 1.  Incredibly uplifting to witness.

Public Radio Clusterf*ck

WBEZ had a wonderful idea to host a free Make Your Own Job event, where you could pick up some tax, legal, and funding tips along with a helping of inspiration.

WBEZ had a not-thought out idea of no registration required.  I biked up to Catalyst Ranch and saw a line about sixty deep hopping from foot to foot outside the front door.  After about twenty minutes, I made it inside the lobby and was greeted with “We’re at capacity upstairs.  You can put your name on the wait-list.  There are about eighty people ahead of you.”

I hung out in the lobby for another twenty minutes or so.  All of the work I had to get done weighed heavily on my mind; I decided to go home.

Another wasted two-hours.  I pedaled steeped in annoyance.

As I diagonal’ed it up Elston, I recalled the numerous people in line holding leather-portfolios of resumes and dressed in obvious I’m trying to make a good impression; please hire me! suits.  I went to the event to take a break from work.  To have fun.

I thanked the universe I wasn’t one of the suits and continued pedaling the rest of the way home steeped in gratitude.

This image resulted in a head nod and an aloud “Amen” from me this morning.

Which resulted in a recollection of a David Sedaris quote I stumbled upon around Thanksgiving — “I just looked at the pattern of my life, decided I didn’t like it, and changed.”

Which resulted in me questioning, So many people are unhappy in some area of their life – social, professional, romantic, physical, spiritual… – why can’t it be as simple as them making a change to bring themselves happiness?  What’s the roadblock?  What do people need to take that seemingly simple, yet obviously not, step?  Though perhaps fuzzy to see through my gripes about skinny jeans or people thinking me giving them my business card is permission to add me to their mailing list, I’m ridiculously happy.  In every aspect of my life.  Things pop up that cause me stress, pain or disappointment.  I’ve got flaws, vices, and annoying traits.  I don’t have everything I want.  But somehow I continually navigate past negativity and unattained-desires and end up in Life is Greatville.  Why is that?

Thanks to Sedaris, my turkey-consuming family was consequently subjected to a trip-over-words excited “I have no idea what I’m doing and am making things up as I go but it feels right” brain dump of ideas centered around stupidly scarily moving away from what’s been my self-employment bread and butter over the past seven years, video production and teaching, towards focusing on using my own path to help folk live fuller lives.

I spent the post-Thanksgiving Friday revamping my website to reflect this lightbulb moment.  Throw something up there, take the next few months to hash out what exactly you’ll offer, maybe then convince a friend to let you guinea pig the new service on him/her…  That was the plan.  Two days later, I had my first sign-up.  And then another.  And another.  And another.

Life is wonderfully, oddly, randomly amazing.  You just need to participate in it.  And not worry about the What ifs.

Do something out of your proverbial comfort zone.  Do something you’re not “qualified” to do.  Do something that scares you.  Do something.  Just Do It.

Fantastically, there are vehicles out there to help you Nike life in the face.  Like The Leap Year Project.  Like Fear Experiment [starts in seventeen days!  Sign up for the wait list today!].  Like _______.  What other vehicles exist that encourage people to live full and engaged lives?  I’m ready for more leaps and more fear.

I just returned from my second trip “down South.”  Last year provided an eye-opening week of foreign customs, some which I quickly ran, er drove (you must travel by car down South) from and some which I’d like Chicago to adopt.

This year was to be less-stressful, less “must impress mom, dad, nieces, nephews, brothers, step-brothers, college friends, high school friends, church friends, the entire town.”  I knew to expect deer sausage, deer heads and a gun safe.  I knew there was no kneeling or rosaries at Mass church (am I the only one who didn’t know Baptists don’t call it Mass?).  I knew where to find my bedroom, Coke Zero, and the toothpaste.  I knew we’d play Trivial Pursuit, I’d feel like an idiot and not get any pie slices.  I knew there’d be times people around me would be speaking English and I wouldn’t understand what they were saying.  I knew activities would be worked around football and that the TV on all the time and at max volume wasn’t rude.  I knew how to work the shower.  I knew that the Christmas sweaters worn were not ironic, hipster, going to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party outfits but I’m going to genuinely celebrate the season with this bedazzled reindeer emerald green knit-top.

I knew all this and still managed to almost have possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life.

Christmas Day in Louisiana.

Menu

• Biscuits
• Green-bean bundles
• Mac ‘n cheese
• Squash
• Brisket
• Sweet tea
• Sugar cookies with orange icing and cranberries
• Spice cake

Roster

• Me
• Boyfriend
• Boyfriend’s mom and step-dad
• Step-brother #1
• Step-brother #2, wife, nine-year old daughter and seven-year old son

Two things you must know -

1. Step-brother #2 is the last person on earth you’d want to do something blush-inducing in front of.  There’d be no “she’s a guest” mercy.  There’d be retelling of the story for the rest of my life.
2. When my stomach started grumbling from indulging in too much Southern goodness, everyone was at the table.  I knew it was just a short while until the group moved to the couch and la-z-boys, which so happen to be directly across from the bathroom.  Dumb architect.

Stuff happened in the bathroom.  But I blame the toilet paper not the stuff for the heart-attack inducing, lose all ability to have a rational-thought scenario that ensued.

I buy Scott because it’s cheap.  It also happens to be very thin.  Boyfriend’s mother buys Charmin, probably because she’s very sweet and likes her guests to experience comfort from head to toe.  It also happens to be very thick and quilted.  Without thought for where I was or what resources were at my disposal, I grabbed the usual amount of TP that I use and flushed.  Swirl, swirl, stay in bowl.  I stared.  Sometimes the Toilet Gods just take an extra few seconds.  I stared.  No movement.  Bowl halfway filled.  No worries, just get the plunger from next to the toilet.  Not there.  No worries, just get the plunger from under the sink.  Not there.  Teeney panic.

Use toilet brush to move stuff around.  Use it irrationally like a plunger.  No movement.  Medium panic.

The big decision.  Do I flush again in hopes that equipment-powered movement will unclog the clog?  We all know what will happen if it doesn’t unclog.  Overflow.  Which basically would mean I’d need to breakup with Boyfriend, hitchhike back to Chicago, never again cross the Mason-Dixon line, and join a convent in the secluded White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Life has been good to me lately.  Everything is falling into place.  The Toilet Gods will take care of me.  Flush.

Rise, rise, rise.  Oh shit.  Literally.  Rise, rise.  Rise.  I start to open the bathroom window so I can climb out; it’s too bad I have to leave my macbook behind, I’ve got some big client projects on there.  And Boyfriend is really nice, I’ll miss him.  Rise.  I irrationally position my hands next to the rim to catch the horribleness.  A millimeter from utter disaster, the liquid stops.

I stare.  I wring my hands.  I sweat.  I hear everyone chatting and laughing just feet from the door.  I send Boyfriend a mental message of Help!  He doesn’t get it.  I look at the silver knobs on the pipes.  I take off the tank cover and stare.  I wish I had read a DIY plumbing book on the flight down instead of a book on how to be a more effective leader; motivate people my a**, I need an empty bowl!  Staring and almost-crying surprisingly accomplishes nothing.

I open the door.  There everyone is.  Save for Boyfriend’s mom!  While this will be mortifying, it’ll be less so if it’s just her.  I find her in the kitchen and utter words you never want to say to your pseudo-mother-in-law.  “Hey Carol, do you have a plunger I can use?”

I could feel her embarrassment for me.  She went in the back bathroom, retrieved The Savior for me, and said to my quickly retreating back, “If you need any help in there, just let me know.”  Pray to God it doesn’t come to that.

For once, I was happy to be chunky as I walked through the living room; perhaps my extra rolls would shield the plunger from all those eyes.  For once, I was happy the TV was on and everyone was zoned in.  I wasn’t sure, and am still not sure, if I made it through undetected.  Boyfriend said he saw me pass through but didn’t know I had a plunger in hand.  I can only hope the same for the rest of the family.  And thank Baby Jesus no one got up to go to the bathroom while I was on the plunger hunt.

I slipped back into the Room of Horror.  You may not know that delicate plunging is a thing, but I mastered that skill.  With only a millimeter to play with, this was the ultimate test.  Soft plunge, soft plunge.  Nothing.  Soft plunge and a promise to be a better person.  Nothing.  Soft plunge and the hardest wish I’ve ever wished.  Gurgle, gurgle, swirl, swirl, glurg.  OH MY GOD, THANK YOU.

I make this promise to you today, America — I will never have a plungerless bathroom.  AND if my dream of building my own house is one day realized, the bathroom will be nowhere near the main entertaining area and in fact, might have a secret “avoid embarrassing moments” tunnel to the outside.

Happy holidays all -

You know, the questions one inevitably gets asked over the course of his/her single-dom.  From relatives, friends, coworkers, your hair stylist, the CTA booth guy at the Addison El stop –

• Have you kissed yet?
• Have you had the “I’m not seeing anyone else, are you?” discussion?
• Have you made it past the three month mark?
• Have you said “I love you”?  Who said it first?
• Have you slept over?
• Have you slept together?
• Have you met his family?  Has he met yours?
• Have you farted in front of him?
• Have you cried in front of him?
• Have you gone on vacation together?
• Are you going to move in together?

Financial Planner: You’re dating someone?

Me: Mm hmm.

So, how’s that going?

Great, really good.

Yea?  How long has it been?

Almost two years.

Ya think… Are you heading…  So… [raised eyebrows]  Do you think you’ll get married?

[squeak][squeak]

[chuckle] Ok.  What’s your housing status?  Rent?  Own?

Rent.  Neither of us have an urge to buy. [bracing self for rent vs. own lecture]

Good, good.  I rent too.  [surprise!] I think that’s a good decision.  For metropolitan dwellers, just makes sense. [listed cons of owning]  And kids, what about kids?

Ick. [squeak] [oops - reminded myself that not everyone shudders upon seeing couples with babies.  and toddlers.  and tweens.  and teens.]  I mean, not any time soon.  I’m selfish with my time and money, I just want to spend it on us.  [almost referred him to this blog post on how I think my womb? my eggs? my ovaries? are on indefinite vacation in Nigeria or Brooklyn or Schaumburg, but the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his two year old, the way he tried to convince me that parenthood is "the best thing ever," I just smiled.]  Maybe.  Down the road.

That’s it.  I have no poetic wrap-up or insightful insight.  Just caught me off-guard.  I’m not a nervous-squeaker, so the number of high-pitched noises that escaped my body today has me a bit unnerved.

I’ve wanted to strangle many people recently.  I actually researched sun ‘n sand get-away deals, because as I told Boyfriend, “I need to be in a different country than ______,” and if I had found a “too good to pass up” deal, I might’ve been typing this from a Costa Rican beach.

But Responsible Saya won out over Spontaneous Saya, and so I type from exotic Chicago.

Usually this is where I’d list all of the sufferings suffered by me.  The reason my last post was on September 11th is because I’ve been nutty-busy.  Most of it has been nutty-good.  But too often, what’s stressful and frustrating clouds all things lovely and requires an expenditure of energy that just isn’t worth it.

So I’m trying a new tactic – Positive Venting.  Focus not on my clenched fists but on the awesomeness that has sprinkled my life as of late, in hopes that recognizing why life is glorious, no matter the size of the glories, will dissipate all negativity –

Why I love life!

• Sticking it to the IRS
• Learned that if you use Paypal or a similar type of payment site for your business, you can write off those annoying convenience fees
• Sticking it to Jesse White
• For the first time in eleven years, I got to ignore my license plate sticker renewal form because when Boyfriend moved in, we decided we didn’t need to be a two-car household and so I sold Rosita last Spring
• $99 to buy more must-have bags and fake-diamond jewelry
• Helloooo Financial Planner!
• While I’m financially-proud in some ways in regards to my seven-years of self-employment – I don’t live with mom, have no debt, and am able to occasionally supersize a meal – I’m not proud that ATM withdrawals and random checking deposits are about the extent of my financial planning
• I’ve taken small steps: opened a health savings account, reopened a savings account, hired a tax-guy
• But my 401K is covered in dust, I have a feeling I should be IRA’ing, CD’ing, or NASDAQ’ing it, and I throw my statements into the file cabinet without unfolding the tri-folded paper
• So I made an appointment with a financial planner.  And wow!  The Taking Charge of My Future Crown sat atop my head instantaneously, and felt fantastic.
• And it was studded with rubies no less because Financial Planner focuses on sustainable and responsible investing, and 10% of his profits are donated to local community non-profits
• Dining with strangers
• I attended a Grubwithus meal, where you choose to attend a meal based on the restaurant, the date/time, or the other people attending
• It’s a fun way to explore the city and restaurants, as well an interesting way to meet others
• I spent a Tuesday night at Logan Square’s Gosu with five guys and two girls
• Lots of yummy food at a reasonable $27 price (taken care of pre-meal, so no dealing with cash night-of)
• And folk say nice things about you on the website: Saya is definitely the hostess with the mostess! She took charge of the table introductions and kept the conversations flying, all while making it look easy and effortless! Its one of the few times I’ve seen where the far ends of the table were sharing stories and laughs. Don’t hesitate, if you get the chance to grub with Saya, do it!
• I was one of five finalists in CRAIN Chicago’s “Day in the life of an entrepreneur” contest
• My high-school students claimed the person who won won because of his “tug at the heart-strings” music
• Noted.  Need more Yanni.
• In my after-school program, I’m teaching entrepreneurship to 5th and 6th graders
• Choose a business, name your business, research your competitors, write a business plan, create a logo, create a commercial, meet with funders, etc.
• In our ninety-minute “board meeting” on Monday, the kids diligently wrote in their journals, discussed what makes a business successful, and did mock pitches (practiced eye-contact, firm hand-shakes, articulate speaking, professional body-language)
• Darius, who plans on opening a restaurant, replied to “Who is your target clientele?” with “I won’t let people in whose clothes don’t match.”  Be warned Chicago.
• Fear Experiment
• Selection of the next round of Fear Experiment’ers occurred and what a group!  A rapper, a lawyer, a social worker, a biologist, an interior designer…
• New crop of non-dancers and non-improvisers will rehearse January – March and perform at the Park West April 28th
• Can’t wait to a) introduce them to each other and b) introduce them to the rest of the FE-family, now at sixty-three alum
• If you think you might want to meet new folk and/or challenge yourself come the new year, it’s not too late to sign up for the wait list
• Can’t believe how in two years a desire to “dance a hip-hop routine on stage” has turned into a two-times a year extravaganza at the Park West
• Boyfriend and I were asked to co-present at one of Chicago’s premier events to help celebrate a big milestone for the organization (being mum on the details as it’s ridiculously soon and we have next to nothing prepared; worried about sucking — me not him.  The downfall of dating an improv guy, he’s ALWAYS funny and on-point)
• TEDxMidwest
• I attended this two-day gathering of folk who’ve climbed Mt. Everest, won MacArthur awards, invented stuff, and convicted klansman, and included random celebrities like Kevin Bacon, the “I’m a PC” guy, and Wes Craven
• TEDxMidwest brings together a remarkable line-up of fascinating, innovative and influential speakers whose talks challenge, move and inspire.  TEDxMidwest brings together some of the most amazing people working across of a variety of disciplines, who all share a common bond of curiosity and strong desire to make a difference.
  
• Though it was pricey, $100+, it was worth it
• They had an open SWEETS-bar!  Cookies, the good kind of trail mix with M & Ms, movie theater boxes of candy..
• Learned how UGGs became so popular via Kevin Bacon – actresses needed easy on and off shoe-ware when going from their trailers to movie sets, so they’d put on UGGs; when photos of them appeared in the press wearing these silly boots, the rest of the world had to have them.  A weather and efficiency statement turned into a fashion statement.
• Disclaimer: I took away much more than candy and the history of UGGs, it really was an eye-opening experience
• Discliamer #2: I love my UGGs
• A happy Mac ‘n Cheese client
• I wanted you to be one of the first to know.  I had my first paying client for travelightly!  The company was a random idea last December and I only had the guts to do something about it after going to your Coffee session and listening to you encourage others to start their own business.  I can’t thank you enough for always being supportive of people with crazy, random ideas and telling people that it’s okay to take a chance.  Without you, and Dance Experiment, I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now, and I have to say, I’m extremely happy where I am.  Thank you thank you thank you.
• Note: Dance Experiment was the predecessor to Fear Experiment
• One of my life highlights was being awarded the Martin Luther King Scholarship in college, which paid for 75% of my tuition senior year and put me in a group of people with whom I’m humbled to be connected
• I was just asked to participate in celebrating thirty years of the award which brought back tons of great memories
• Birthday celebration
• I meant to have an intimate, hanging out on couches evening in honor of turning thirty-three, but “Oh this person should meet that person!” after “This person should meet that person!” resulted in twenty-two lovelies sharing pizza, wine and pumpkin ice cream at our place
• Boyfriend gave me a pair of Boston College yoga pants I eyed back in April when we visited BC, a set of Lock ‘n Lock tupperware, and a premium subscription to Pandora (no ads!  unlimited playtime!).  A frugal, type A, efficiency-loving trove of treasures.
• Friend from college sent a box that reminded me of those awesome summer camp carepackages -
• candle
• magazines (Entrepreneur, Inc., and Ode: intelligent optimist)
• silicon oven mitt
• baking pans
• a pumpkin bread recipe that her husband made and brought to my dorm in college when I was sick (he even went as far as to bring it warm out of the oven, with butter and a knife, and then proceeded to fix my futon couch)
• note to have Boyfriend bake the bread while I relax on the couch reading the magazines
• Chicago Ideas Week (CIW)

• Inaugural year of this gathering of speakers and innovators, at venues all over the city
• I attended sessions on Social Entrepreneurship and Creativity, as well as Ignite, a platform where folk get five minutes to talk about whatever they want
• Wonderfully executed, fantastic range of topics, and an accessible price-point for most of the events
• The infectiousness of fear is catching on!
• If you’ve followed Mac ‘n Cheese over the years, you know I’m a huge proponent of doing things that scare you and that push you out of your comfort zone, a la doing things solo (The Solo Life/Mac ‘n Cheese Minglers) and doing things you’re not great at in front of an audience (Fear Experiment)
• Just learned of The Leapyear Project which asks, “What risk will you take to change your life, your community, or your world for the better?” and encourages people to document that risk in 2012 (a leap year)
• Women’s Innovation Network (WIN) event
• I biked down to the Fairmont Hotel for my first WIN Spa ‘n Cupcakes, a nice 2pm break in the day
• Mingled with about forty others, mostly women, mostly business-owners
• Regina Taylor, actress from I’ll Fly Away, Law & Order, and Lean on Me, spoke about her career and offered advice

• What I do is dream and make my dreams concrete
• You have the power to name yourself
• Be both teacher and student
• Expand yourself through creativity
• There are 10,000 people in this room, via the circles within our circles; connect with one another
• Favorite takeaway: new friendship with an uber-positive gal name Dawgelene Sangster, who is the founder of Think Royally, a non-profit that supports women in leading positive lives.  Quite a mission from a survivor of domestic violence, molestation, and rape.  I was so impressed with Dr. Dawj, as she’s called, that I selected her to be in CRAVE Chicago, a book featuring our city’s need-to-know female entrepreneurs due out soon!, and asked her to present at Potluck! 2.0, an evening of Chicago’s finest talking for six-minutes each on whatever they want
• Self-Starter Supper Club
• Hosting an evening of food, drink, and entrepreneurial-folk as we get inspired by speakers Mari Luangrath of Foiled Cupcakes and Paul Lee of Lightbank
• Guests are encouraged to come solo
• Meeting new people surrounded by couches, inspiration, and the Avett Brothers, yes please!

Strangle who?

Thought

If iTunes spent as much time and money releasing a cure for _____ as it does releasing new versions of iTunes, there would be no more _____.

Rant

I have tired of people needing a “click here” after a brightly colored underlined phrase.  Color underlines = “this is a link, click on me if you want more info.”

Thought #2

AOL/yahoo/hotmail accounts are to gmail as powerpoint is to prezi.  Old school vs. welcome to 2011; stop listening to your discman!  Gave my first prezi last week, so fun to create, hopefully fun to watch.

Lessons Learned After Seeing Seven Presentations in a Week

You think that by talking fast you’re doing the audience a favor, that you’re communicating “I know your time is precious, I’ll get through this quickly so you can go on with life.”  But all you’re communicating is that your words aren’t worth the audience’s time, which makes the audience feel like you’re wasting its time.

Not only do you get winded by fast-talking, the audience gets winded by it as well.

You think by saying “Please interrupt me, ask questions” that it’s ok to speed-talk, but no one does or feels they can.

Don’t apologize.  It makes you sound unprofessional and like you’re not an expert.  You are skilled and wonderful and full of goodness, that’s why you’re up there.  Own it.

Why has talking during presentations become so prevalent!?!?!  People were talking during an instructor trying to teach a class and during a facilitator trying to lead a discussion.  Whispering doesn’t make it ok.  Leaning in close to the person you’re talking to doesn’t make it ok.  Jot down the amazing thought! you had so you can communicate it at an appropriate time.

Phones on vibrate are as disruptive as phones that ring.

I need to take heed of these lessons learned, especially that of the fast-talker.

Business Tip

I’ve noticed an interesting yet random yet I’ll take it! business trend sweeping Chicagoland.  Regardless of what type of business your business is, place a Dutch bike [aka a cruiser or an upright] in a prominent position [aka the front window].  I first noticed it with Homemade Pizza a few years ago and since then, various others in the city.  Folk are catching on to how awesome the Netherlands are.  Let’s be honest — I’d definitely pick the tax-attorney with a Dutch bike in his lobby than the one without.

Laugh-Filled Info Session = Laugh-Filled Thing the Info Session Was Giving You Info On

If the information sessions about a service you offer look this fun, that service has GOT to be pretty amazing.  I’m pretty stoked to be offering a ridiculously fun and unique way for strangers to meet others, challenge themselves, perform at the Park West in front of 700, and make genuine, life-lasting relationships.  Fear Experiment [FE] info sessions this week and next week [attendance at one is mandatory to participate].

FE Participant: “I’d probably rank my experience in FE as one of the top 5 best experiences of my life.  It’s very rare to meet so many amazing, adventurous, open-minded, and accepting people when you’re an adult.”  Amen sister.

Two Jobs I Would Like

Live-tweeter and live-artist.

The former, you get paid to go to an event and tweet about it as it’s happening.

The latter, you get paid to go to an event and sketch about it as it’s happening.  The above was created by an attendee of Potluck 1.0, an event Boyfriend and I threw a couple of weeks ago.  Smashing success!  Keep an eye out for 2.0.

The crazy thing is these ARE real jobs.

Have a lovely week friends!

Two very different events this weekend but both with the same outcome – increased love of humanity and this city!

Someone compared me to a virus, infecting folk with the entrepreneurial-strain.  Some websites resulting from my pricks - Little Piggy: Sweets by CC, TeamPete, Debbie Hillman: food consultant.  More coming!  [Hmm... wonder if About.me would send me to an entrepreneur conference or send me a Starbucks gift card for every referral?]

Nothing pleases me more than people getting paid to do what they love and I got to experience this live! this weekend.

As one of my dreams is for Boyfriend and I to workshift, taking our offerings to Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, I’ve been encouraging him to take a stab at making a business out of his passions and skills.  And guess what?!  You can create a successful business plan out of a love of  bikes, beer, and improv!

Ways To Turn Your Love of Bikes, Beer, and Improv Into A Business

1. Some of the Fear Experiment participants [FE] hired Boyfriend to continue as their improv teacher post-adventure; two and half hour class once a week, going on three months

2. He was such a wonderful FE1 instructor, I hired him back for FE2.  [Info sessions in September!  Come learn how you can be a part of an adventure of a lifetime]

3. He’s been accepted as an improv instructor for Dabble, one of the hottest startups in Chicago  [Upcoming class!  Good for those who don't want to commit to a full program/just want to stick toe in improv water]

4. At the companies requests, he’s submitted various proposals for workplace improv — inject fun and hands-on’ness to staff development!

5. We co-curated a Brew Mingler, where folk learned how to brew beer via Brew Camp and board game’d it with strangers

6. On the heels of successful “just for fun” forty-mile rides to Three Floyds in Munster, Indiana, and Two Brothers in Warrenville, his first TeamPete bike excursion was Saturday — huge hit!

Saturday Morning – Bike Tour of Chicago

1. 10AM – homebrew class at Brew Camp.  Bonus!  Homemade just out of the oven cookies made with beer ingredients!

2. 10:43AM – detour to our place to get our extra bike for a girl whose bike got backed over by a car that AM.  Yay for strangers helping strangers!

3. 10:53AM – eleven-mile ride to The Plant, a nonprofit dedicated to promote sustainable food production, entrepreneurship, and building reuse through education, research and development.  All of its power and heat needs will be met via food waste from landfills!  Home to the New Chicago Brewing Company.  What a way to see Chicago, going from Irving/Damen/Lincoln to 47th and Racine.

4. 12:15AM – as the crew starts a tour of The Plant, I hop on my Dutch baby and ride up to Lincoln Park for the second event that made me want to sing Kumbayah

5. 2PM – TeamPete meandered Back of the Yards, Bridgeport and Greek Town, then onto Haymarket Brewery for lunch

6. 5:30PM – Final destination!  Local Option, a good beer bar, to enjoy new friendships, new experiences, and tired quads

Saturday and Sunday Afternoon – Social Dev Camp[SDC]

I attended SDC last year for the first time, having little clue what it was but intrigued by the idea of learning amongst creative strangers.  And by the word “camp.”  Though they talked in a foreign language most of the time - cloud, API, CMS – it was a wonderful experience, so it was a no-brainer that I return this year.

SDC Loveliness

1. Something for Everyone – Lectures in a huge auditorium.  Unconferences in intimate classrooms.  Panels.  Q & As.  All-night Hackathons.  Hanging out on couches and armchairs.  Diet and regular Pepsi.  Uber-geeky, techy topics [HTML5 and Beyond] to big picture, flowery topics [The Importance of Being Awesome].

2. Caliber of Speakers – from the founder of Reddit to a guy who had a NY Times best-seller within two days of launch to local must-knows, they knew their stuff and wanted to share their knowledge

3. Smooth Operation – mics, clickers, projectors, and wireless internet that worked.  Central location, easily accessible by CTA.  Easy registration.  Snacks and lunch.  Effective moderators.  After-party a few blocks away.  Not even Hurricane Irene could bring SDC to its knees!  Keynote speaker Alexis Ohanian’s flight was cancelled, but thank to Skype and tireless organizer efforts, we still got to enjoy the message of and interact with someone who is now my new fave!  [Alexis, just sent Mr/Mrs. agent a request for you to be an underground supper club speaker cause you rock it hard!]

4. The People – from the organizers to the attendees to the speakers to the volunteers, this is why I love going to events like SDC!  Familiar faces from last year, familiar faces from an event the day previous, new faces introduced to me by the Queen of Connecting Heidi Massey [check out I.C. Stars, the amazing organization she works for!], new faces introduced to me by virtue of sharing a power-strip.  Common thread amongst them was friendliness and a desire to help one another.

5. What I Heard/Learned [thanks to  Jeff Cohen, Chris Courtney,  Jonthan Ozeran, Julien Smith, Sundeep Kapur, Emile Cambry, Alexis Ohanian]

• When you can take your own ideas and bring them to life, it’s empowering
• If you want to join a community that is the epitome of community, Ruby on Rails! [if you don't know what ROR is, neither did/do I, really; but jump in anyway!]
• Development can be funny
• Red Eye’s traffic to its Missed Connections app is rivaling the traffic of “when is the next train coming” app; yea priorities!

[Tangent: check out this Chicago Reader Missed Connection -- guess who it was for?!?  Always wished that relationship had worked out, what a great How We Met story]

• We’re the 1^st generation of folk who consume/create/own media at same time
• Give value that no one else can deliver
• Your audience is your best asset; make them work for you, which they’ll do if you do above
• People need more connections and unity, not more advertising and technology
• Want venture capitalist help?  Get someone else to tell a VC about you.
• Purposefully insert a mistake into internal communication and give a $5 gift card to first employee who finds it; they’ll find other mistakes too
• Be willing to disrupt yourself
• Social Entrepreneurship – get on this train!
• Social Change film festival coming to Chicago
• Turn regular joe’s into fans by giving them nuggets [this is the foundation of my e-newsletter!]
• Write actionable subject lines in your email [story of how someone accidentally left a note to himself of "insert witty subject line here" on an email he sent to his network, and that ended up getting a gazillion helpful responses]
• You don’t have to spend a lot on advertising to be successful.  Reddit total advertising budget = $500.
• People will not love crap.  So don’t make crap.  Start with a product people actually want.
• Great user experience = great [free] marketing
• Website buttons with amusing names work well
• Your product should feel like it was made by human beings [the design, the copy, etc.]
• Whatever you create, create it around community
• Don’t only drink the start-up kool-aid, spill it!!

Random Musings Post-SDC

1. It took me a year to “get” Twitter.  SDC last year was my first experience with live-tweeting, where you tweet about what you’re experiencing in the moment.  At first I was appalled that people were laptop’ing and iphon-ing during talks; how rude!  But I realized, no, that’s not rudeness anymore, that’s reality.  Most of us can handle doing multiple things at once and ironically, while it looks like you’re totally disengaging, in some ways, it makes engaging with others that much easier.  And fun!

And now I would like to be paid to be a live-tweeter.  Anyone want to hire me to live-tweet their wedding?  Bat mitzvah?  Family reunion?

2. If you still use Internet Explorer, don’t admit it.  People will snicker.

3. You’re at something good when you need to clone yourself to be in two places at once.  Where to go,where to go, Social Media unconference or Thick Value for meaningful, ethical enterprises!?!?  Oy!  Which child do you love more?

4. It’s lovely to see folk who are so proud of their love of dungeons and dragons.  Arms shot straight up when asked who had the D & D love!

4. I would like to be paid to be a speaker.  Even if payment was just airfare, hotel, and a nutter butter.

Anyone want to hire me to talk about things that really matter, like why your bed shouldn’t be in the corner if you’re over twenty-five, how to transform your inability to dance into cash and laughter, and the best ways to find that someone you want to wake up with for the rest of your life?

Meeting Instructions: Please arrive no later than 8:30 a.m.

Left a bunch of must-do! work to rush to meeting on opposite side of the city.  Nothing was set up.  Lights off.  We arranged the tables and chairs.  Sitting around.  Meeting did not start until 9:20.  One of the main reasons seven years ago I decided self-employment was for me.

Will bypass all the other not-greatness that occurred between 8:30am and 6pm because who wants to dwell on bleh!.  The point is, if you asked me this morning about yesterday, I would say it rocked.

Last night was the inaugural Potluck!, curated and hosted by Boyfriend and I -

Potluck! brings together several of Chicago’s best and brightest, funniest and handsomest, wittiest and engaging-est for an evening of rapid fire musings on whatever they choose to muse upon.  In the vein of Pecha Kucha, Ignite, and TED Talks, each presenter will stuff 10 pounds of awesome into a 5 pound bag…er, into a six minute talk.

When you’ve had a bad day, the last thing you want is forty-seven people over.  Or so I felt at 6:53pm.  And then they started to trickle in.

Remedies for Bleh!

• Strangers and your friends meeting, liking one another, and exchanging info to keep in touch
• Learning new things [i.e. internet dating is a great source of inspiration for launching a start-up and an auger is a drilling device used in farming]
• Jock Jams a la Pump Up the Jam
• Photos of men in suits doing the splits
• Folk being introduced to a fun new presentation tool and collectively whispering “Prezi” every time it did something cool
• Seeing a couple that met via her and Boyfriend
• The name “Bliss Brown”
• Do something for the first time, worry it may crash and burn, and it not only going great, but exceeding all expectations
• No tech issues
• A BYO event where folks share their goodies with strangers
• An audience filled with people who came solo, with friends, with significant others
• Presenters who are calm, cool and collected
• Presenters who are nervous
• Presenters who are sick and dealing with serious family stuff, yet still manage to not only participate but to knock it out of the park
• Presenters who change their topic hours before go-time and still rock it
• A woman filling a sketch book with things inspired by what she was experiencing
• Live tweeting at an event of yours for the first time and ensuing tweets -
• @iLive40: I found inspiration and had some good laughs at #potluck 
• @mjwex : New people, new ideas, contagious energy! 
• @sarahjindra: Thanks to @sayahillman and @goteampete for organizing a fun and inspiring night of talks!! Awesome #Potluck
• @brandon_weiss: No guest towels in the bathroom? Wtf? #potluck 
• Twitter lesson learned – make your hashtag specific unless you want to be reading about stuff that has nothing to do with your stuff, i.e. #potluck1.0 instead of #potluck
• A tweeter sitting next to a sketcher
• A room full of laughter, engagement, friendliness, diversity, and comfort

So thank you to Megan, Arnie, Sarah, Griffin, Marcy, Heather, and Drex for setting the Potluck! bar so high.

Thank you Boyfriend for being the bestest collaborator.

And thank you Audience for being so fun, nice, and not storming out when you had to use toilet paper to dry your hands because we forgot to put guest towels out.

Nights like last night makes you shrug at musings like “Not a fan of how Saya does business so I won’t be attending any of these events,” part of a reflection on my life from someone commenting on my last post.

Onwards and upwards!  I love my life.

See more Potluck! 1.0 Photos

I received this in my inbox this morning:

Wait!  ”Have Coffee with Jill”?!?!  That sounds exactly what I’ve been offering for a year now!  She stole my idea!  Her webpage is almost word for word my webpage!

I’m so mad, so incredulous, so about to go all Johnny Cochran on her…

Except that I’m not.  Any of those.  In fact, I was the one who not only convinced her to do it, I’ve been helping her along the way –

Jill: “Do you paypal invoice each person individually when you are ready to invoice for coffee?”  Ensuing instructions from me to her on my process.

Our first conversation, at Schuba’s a few months ago, was Jill being incredulous that I charge people to have coffee with me.  People seem to think “Let me buy you a beer” makes it worth it to me to give up time I could be working on a paying-project.  Change that to “Let me pay your health insurance for the month,” you’ve got my ears.

“Don’t people get offended when you respond to ‘Can we grab a drink?’ with ‘Sure, sign up here and pay me $12′?”

I’ve never had any blow-back, so to speak.  Most people sign up.  As soon as I put it on my website, touted it as a service I offer, made it official, any weirdness I felt dissipated.  I used to say yes to every request.  I just don’t have the time any more.  I need to make a living.

So, why aren’t I hopping mad that now someone is making money off of my idea?

Number one, I like Jill.  She and I are similar in that we both cobble together random ventures that oddly and wonderfully provide us a salary.  We’re planning a joint event come October.  I already have, and will continue to, benefit from having her in my life, benefits that far outweigh the money that may go to her instead of me on the off-chance that a person only has $12 to spend, has to choose between the two of us, and ends up in a coffeehouse sitting across from Jill instead of from me.

Number two, my response to all the inquiries I get about expanding, partnering, franchising Coffee, the Minglers, Fear Experiment, is “Go for it!”  I don’t own the ideas.  And the world would be a better place if there were more fun, challenging, affordable, unique offerings.  Enough with the guarding of goodness!

Number three, a major part of most of the services I offer is the man behind the curtain — me.  While I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, many people seem to enjoy sipping me.  The personality of the curator is key in “experience-based” services.  And I don’t think everyone is cut out to play that role.  I’m pretty confident that a good portion of society couldn’t have sold seven-hundred $24 tickets to the Park West last April to see bad dance and bad improv from a bunch of amateurs, nor have twenty-five people pay $15 to bring food and drink to her house tomorrow to play board games.

I must say, seeing my baby touted so in a prettily designed email that went out to hundreds, thousands?, makes me feel all MBA’y and LLC this and VC that, even though I’m just an English/Socoiolgy BA with no business plan, no power-suit, and a savings account a week-old.

So world, take my Coffee idea and have your way with it.  No revenge will be administered.  If you become a millionaire off  it, maybe offer to buy me dinner.

The Chicago Innovations Awards [CIAs] shines a bright light on the creative spirit of Chicago. We focus attention on the most significant new products and services, regardless of sector or industry, introduced in the region.  A bunch of local folk doing awesome things are nominated, i.e. the CTA bus tracker and Groupon, and a group of judges selects ten winners.

Media Day resulted from the CIA asking last year’s nominees “What are your three biggest challenges today?”  They expected the answer to be money; it was awareness.

Not only did the CIAs listen to their constituents but they offered up a solution that was:

a) free of charge (and thus accessible to all; as a little fish with not a lot of cash to spend, I really appreciated this!)

b) well-organized (welcome table, name tags, printed program, breakfast/snacks/lunch, appropriate AV accoutrements/set-ups, signs, schedule that was adhered to)

c) fun (held at the not-yet-opened Museum of Broadcast Communications, a very cool space!  And they were very open to folk poking about.  I rode down in the elevator with the President, who gave me his card and seemed very interested in engaging with the community.)

d) informative

e) diverse both in formats and in speakers

Media Day was billed as a way to educate Chicago ’s top innovators about how to gain visibility in the marketplace, and will feature panel discussions, talks, and interactive seminars with media experts who represent a cross-section of today’s ever-changing media landscape.

And it did just that.

Here are some of my take-aways -

Moderator

Dan Miller, Co-Founder, Chicago Innovation Awards, former Business Editor, Chicago Sun-Times

• nothing is more annoying than getting a story pitch that’s not appropriate for your medium/outfit
• nothing is going to happen if you keep your ideas in your computer/in your desk drawer >> make the ask!!!
• marketing/advertising can be affordable