LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Social Responsibility In Business And In The Arts

Lasting Impressions with Sian Lindemann

The “Power of Beauty”

I have often written about the topic of Social Responsibility. The theme is, obviously, a recurring one. Artists discern a profound reason to create their works, around one topic, around one theme, around an internally driven vision, that culminates quite similarly among creative individuals… the need to define the quintessential “connection between man and nature.”

Dyann Lyon Photo

Dale Chihuly Glass Art, Exhibition, Tacoma, Washington

“The photo posted here is from a recent exhibition of Dale Chihuly, renowned glass artist from the Pacific Northwest, where he has placed innumerable sculptural works in and among the exotic plants of The Conservatory in Tacoma, Washington

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Man – made creations interspersed with the exotic plant life cultivated here makes for a “wonderland,” a surreal expression of color, form and exquisite perfection.” Man and nature interacting, in harmony.

A creative business network is forming around this topic.

The “team” at Social Traffic has gathered and formed in an extraordinary way. An Australian visionary, business man, and social marketing guru, Simon U Ford, inspired a group of people, including myself, to go beyond the norm.

Providing a platform, not unlike the Reality Show and “game,” Survivor, a company has formed around a common vision. A common desire to learn to navigate and utilize the internet in a more effective manner, and has inspired hundreds and now thousands of people to play this game.

The prize, coveted shareholder positions in a new marketing and promotions company, aptly titled, Social Traffic Inc.

A sister company, Events Listed, www.eventslisted.com, is an additional platform where events, live or virtual, may be listed and subsequently promoted by Social Traffic Inc., by applying this newly absorbed educational program. 70+ Videos from the Events Listed Learning Center allow each of the participants to gather around the listing and promotion of thousands of events, world wide, that promote a common theme. This incredible training, a value of several thousand dollars is being provided to each one of us on the team, free of charge.

The initial celebration and global promotion is in support of Earth Day Birthday, 2009. It is an incredible demonstration of “will” and “action” to create a company from nothing, using only “human capital,” and grows to implement a plan to support Earth Day Events from around the world.

Sian Lindemann Photo

“The Badlands, South Dakota”

“The Power of Creation,

Thriving in the most challenging of environments”

These photos, clearly define, the vision I’ve held and acted upon for 30 years. Art in public places, and the ability to create “from nothing” provides a view into the NEW paradigm where man and nature can function and interact in harmony. One event, one photo can change a life, “for the good,” forever.

Art has an impact that is illuminating, thought provoking and ultimately is inspiring to the human soul and causes us to take action, in extraordinary ways.

Timely, that in our financial climate, it would not appear the public would be supportive of an extravagant art installation in Tacoma, Washington, yet it has occurred, now. It was funded, well attended, and made available to the public free of charge.

It tells me that I am not alone in my thinking, the need to share the beauty of our earth, and to share the beauty of the impact man can have on it. We, as a species, can evolve, can lessen our footprint, and create inspired thoughts and actions, as demonstrated with the Chihuly Exhibition.

A “renaissance” if you will, is upon us, and the business of art and the business of “networking” will never be the same.

Earth Day, 2009

Rarely in our daily lives, do we think about Earth Day, Mother Earth, and how each one of our routines impacts the very existence our planet. Social Traffic, INC, the company, and especially, Social Traffic, the people, who comprise this company, are thinking about these things, and are acting upon them.

Thousands of people from around the world have gathered around a common cause, the likes of which I have only seen in the movies, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Independence Day,” and others, where in a flash, we became a united race, acting and operating in unison and harmony.

From around the world, the participants in Social Traffic are speaking up, speaking out, creating articles, videos, and other medium to share what they will personally do, to live less impactfully upon our planet…and the voice is loud, passionate, humorous and touching.

I am honored to be a part of it and it brings pride to each one of us involved with the organization, and the reminder that business can be:

1) Fun

2) Profitable

3) Inspired

Lastly, the One World, One Gift, campaign is a call to action, in regard to what each one of can do, to “save money” to eliminate our wastefulness, as in excessive use of paper towels, car trips to the store, drinking purified water from an installed system, versus plastic bottled water. Very simple things, each one of us can do, to save $10.00 or more.

Inspiring thousands or hundreds of thousands of people to do the same, we can collect those “savings” to support alternative businesses, like Tree Banking Inc, or Water Logic International who are devoted to profitability by replanting rainforest, or by water purification systems that exist and are being implemented to purify tainted water from agricultural or industrial runoff.

I welcome those who want to know more about what we are doing. I welcome those who want to be a part. I welcome those who are willing to drop their ego at the door and become a part of history.

For more information,

Contact

Sian Lindemann

Social Traffic / Events Coordinator

Sian.lindemann@socialtraffic.biz

www.socialtraffic.biz/oneworldonegift

www.socialtraffic.biz

www.eventslisted.com

www.twitter.com/Earthdaybday

FaceBook – Social Traffic, “Getting any lately”

Utube / Social Traffic Inc Channel

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Social Responsibility In Business And In The Arts

THE STRESS OF SUCCESS: What's Stopping You?

The Stress of Success with Cifu Cinda Hocking

When you know what you are supposed to do for your business and think it should be done, yet it doesn’t get done, what is going on?

The number one reason we don’t do things is Low Desire. You may have great passion for the big picture mission of your business. You can envision it and see it in operation. However some of the day-to-day necessary, practical, and repetitive steps that are taken to get you there are decidedly not your passion. You may understand that these daily increments are important factors in building and maintaining business, but understanding alone does not make them happen. If you don’t like the activities and don’t want to do them, it is very easy to find reasons not to. Without motivation, it is easier to procrastinate, creatively avoid them and generally try to find ways to do everything else but give time and attention to daily maintenance and operations tasks.

In order to move forward and integrate these tasks into your business, you need to drill down to the essence of WHY you don’t like to do them. We all have loads of excuses, and we all have our share of laziness, but the core issue most often is that we don’t like doing something because it either make us uncomfortable or we find it boring. If you sit for a moment honestly looking at feelings of discomfort or boredom, what do you find? We don’t tend to do things unless we believe they are important AND we feel we have the ability to do (or learn to do) them. So, if the thought of a task makes you feel heavy, weighted down, or anxious – these are clues that you don’t find them important enough or don’t feel confident enough in your ability to perform them adequately.

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Not Sure It Is Important – when we think a business task isn’t important this can be because we are experiencing conflicting priorities. We see there is so much to do, so we take the most urgent and emergent and save the daily tasks…until they become urgent and emergent! Also, very creative or idea-based business owners can lose sight of the importance of operations and maintenance tasks because they often have more global and fewer linear/sequential skills.

Lack of Confidence in Skills – when we are better at the other tasks in our business, or doing the other tasks provides more immediate feedback/results that boost our self-esteem, that’s where we are going to focus our energy. If we are not sure we really understand the daily tasks, we may have a hard time asking for help, or feel that we should know how - and the fact that we don’t is embarrassing.

In order to truly get a handle on our business, we need to step away from rebelling against, withdrawing from or getting out of control towards the things that make us uncomfortable or bored. Instead, we need to spend time face-to-face with the feelings that the tasks bring up in us. This is challenging because we would rather not feel them! There may be better methods and formats to complete the dreaded tasks, better times of day for us, and better skills we could develop to tackle them. However, we won’t truly be able to embrace those unless we examine our true reasons for not doing the tasks in the first place.

Cinda Hocking, LMSW
Internal Energy Plus Consultant and Lifestyle Counselor
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THE STRESS OF SUCCESS: What's Stopping You?

BEYOND NETWORKING: BEING: Strategy Ten

Beyond Networking: Being with Ron Sukenick

Ron's section is sponsored by SmallBizAmerica.com

Strategy Ten
Shorten Learning Curves: Move Into Dream Fulfillment

As you might guess, from reading my column over the years, my book project with Jane surges has provided numerous opportunities for Jane and me to apply each of these strategies to our partnership. This strategy, shortening learning curves, has proven to be a particular catalyst to fuel us forward.

We realized over lunch after a racquetball game that we both were passionate about relationships and relationship success. My writings about networking and my passion about another level beyond what is happening in the mainstream complemented well with Jane’s writings and passion around helping people hold a relationship vision that opens the possibility of co-creation and partnership. Within 30 minutes, we identified an overlapping purpose and this book partnership was launched. Within a short eight months, it was finished. How do two people who do not know each other very well come together and join forces toward this kind of project or any other? We would like to say, from our experience—not just this one but many others, it is through shortening the learning curve. Following are two graphics. One illustrates a long learning curve where side roads are taken as individuals lose track of the project vision.

This is contrasted to a shortened learning curve that focuses on finding common ground. When we focus on common ground and what is most important in a given moment, we keep the bigger picture of our purpose and intentions before us. We work straight ahead—using direct communication and staying mindful of the context. Trusting that the other has our best interest in mind, we move ahead at a pace fueled with positive energy. See if you can picture this for yourself.

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Long Learning Curve:

Short Learning Curve:

To help shorten the learning curve, there may be issues you are facing. Following are questions for your consideration. Think about one of your personal or business partners. Respond to the following questions:

What project emerged between the two of you?
What problems, issues, needs or opportunities can the two of you respond to and address together?
What resources, information, time frame will support your project?
Who will be impacted by this project, and how will they be affected? How might they be involved in the project?
How will you know if you are individually and jointly successful?
What adjustments need to be made as you move forward toward project completion (dream fulfillment)?
How do your channels of communication support your project and shorten the learning curve? (i.e. email, voice mail, direct communication, talking about prior experiences or learning curves.)
Are you looking out for each other as well as your joint interests throughout this process? If not, what improvements need to be made?
What challenges are you currently facing (financial, communication, resources, etc.?)


What steps taken together would move you more expediently and more closely to project completion?

Scenario Planning

There are times for extensive market studies and long term plans. During those times, by all means incorporate a longer approach to moving toward a joint collaborative effort.

Scenario planning will help you move much more quickly and may be just what you need for the joint project at hand. Write a brief case study with the objective and with as many variables that you can think of. Balance your optimistic thoughts with opposite possibilities to make sure that you are encompassing all possible contingencies. Include as much of the “unpredictable” as possible—again include what can go right, and what can go wrong. Then discuss the scenario and how you might deal with challenges that might arise.


What action steps will you take? Add these steps to your calendar right now.

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Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free, continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/. You are also invited to click our buttons:

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BEYOND NETWORKING: BEING: Strategy Ten