Don’t Buy Seth Godin’s New Book Tribes
October 27th, 2008
Here’s the thing: I have never done a book review on this site before and probably won’t do another, however, as someone who has lived amongst, and worked with, actual tribes in Papua New Guinea who up until about twenty years ago were still practicing cannibalism, I had a lot of hesitancy when I first heard the title of the new book.
image: Village Big Man and Tribal Leader Erukai and family; Kakoro, Papua New Guinea
What could this marketing guy from New York possibly know about tribes? Does he know that in Papua New Guinea the tribal leaders are known as ‘Big Men’ or that in Samoa they call elders ‘Matai’ and they have different designations whether they are a village orator or in charge of land resources.
I have been a reader of Seth’s blog for quite some time now, and he has even been kind enough to answer simple business questions for me from time to time. But, for this book, “TRIBES,” I was not prepared to drink the Kool AId just because Mr. Godin wrote it.
Quite possibly, because the tribes I am most familiar with (literally) rely on each other for survival. Promoting products or trying to increase brand awareness could quite possibly be the furthest thing from their minds. If the tribes I know stop functioning or have a leadership breakdown, the reality is, they face life-threatening circumstances.
97 Remarkable Ways to Diversify Your Network in a Down Economy
October 15th, 2008
Are you looking to expand your network? Or, perhaps create some new connections to make yourself even more recession proof…?
image source: 24oranges.nl
If I hear the words “down” and “economy” in the same sentence one more time I might just hurl my laptop out the window!! And, to be honest, this post could actually be titled, “97 Ways to Diversify Your Network in ANY Economy.”
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the value of using your indirect network and how you can capitalize on its potential to expand your business, or grow your ideas, by engaging the followers of your followers (who can be just as valuable).
Case in point, I came to know Sean Bohan of Core Performance via a Twitter message sent out by Chris Brogan and to date, Sean has been one of the most ardent supports of Train for Humanity.
Whether you are looking to start a small business, travel the globe, gain some traction with social media, or even maintain your current existence…creating a network of like-minded individuals can help to keep you focused, informed, and on task. As a small business owner myself, and someone who is attempting to launch a humanitarian initiative, I think it is paramount that we all assist each other in these times of uncertainty.
What I thought I would do today is list out 97 people that I follow on Twitter and whose blogs I happen to read. To help you to identify whom you might be interested in following or reading I have included everyone’s Twitter profile, blog link, and brief bio.
Under the various topic headings I have not listed people in any particular order…just how they happened to fall while I was researching this post.
Please NOTE - this is NOT a popularity contest! These are people that I happen to follow. I am not stating that they are the most popular, but to me they add value to what I am trying to accomplish.
This is how we help each other…we meet, we connect, and we exchange ideas! Some folks below you will recognize and others you won’t. Truthfully, I don’t want to see ANYBODY fail, sink, or go down with the ship!! (Myself included.) So, let’s expand our networks, join forces, be proactive, and kick some ass.
Happy connection making!
image source: www.FinancialAidPodcast.com and www.ChristopherSPenn.com
Where are you? Why I am on BLOGCATION!
August 6th, 2008
Greetings - someone recently emailed and asked if I was going to be posting anything soon. That made me feel good because I thought only my mother read this site.
It has been a VERY long but good year since we bought our business here in the Caribbean. Unbeknownst to me my drive for writing, which is minimal to begin with (remember - I am an idea person!) decided to take a holiday.
So, being that I am going on a real vacation to Nicaragua next week, I decided to declare myself on blog + not writing + vacation = blogcation
When I get back some friends of mine and I are going to launch a pretty cool humanitarian project that we have been working on putting together for the past couple of months. I think eventually we will have the ability to help some people that don’t necessarily need our pity, but they need our ACTION. Some of you already know what the premise is and for the rest I look forward to your feedback once we go live.
What a nice surprise to be featured in Islands Magazine this month in their “Ten Best Islands to Live On” article. Almost exactly one year ago Terrie and I purchased the Palmetto Guesthouse after living overseas for many years.
We are both originally from Massachusetts and we had the dream of owning our own business for many years and finally saw that goal come to fruition with the purchase of the Palmetto here on Culebra.
Our travels have taken us to Europe, Central and South America, the South Pacific, and of course, the Caribbean.
The Importance of NonVerbal Communication Ten Things Your Handshake Says About You
November 26th, 2007
Nonverbal communication is one of the key components when it comes to conveying confidence and self-assuredness when meeting other people. This post regarding handshakes is the start of an ongoing series to help you project poise in any situation.
Zen Habits
October 3rd, 2007
Today, I was supposed to put up a post on Reverse Culture Shock but that is going to be preempted by some really GREAT news! I have just had an article published at ZenHabits:
Escaping The Cubicle And Getting Off the Corporate Treadmill
Zen Habits is a fantastic website that was started by Leo Babauta and he covers topics such as, achieving goals, productivity, being organized, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits. Leo has done a tremendous job with his website in a very short time and he now has close to 20,000 subscribers. In fact, Leo’s site is so popular that it got me to thinking, maybe we need to hold a ZenHabits week down here in Culebra …
BVI Investment in China
September 17th, 2007
A while back I read a story that stated, “the BVI is the number two investor in China for new infrastructure.” For an island nation of approximately 25,000 people I find that completely overwhelming. Well, today I did a little further research because I find the topic fascinating and discovered that for the first eight months of 2007 $9.91 billion dollars from the British Virgin Islands was invested in China. If you would like to read the whole article you can have a look at the British Virgin Islands Business News.
Palmetto Guesthouse Internet and Organic Coffee
September 10th, 2007
Our Culebra internet access should be improving very soon! Through a small miracle, and help from a friend on Puerto Rico, we finally managed to get a DSL router. That is half the battle… and our next step is to get the DSL service enabled at the Palmetto Guesthouse (once online I can write more in depth about this). Hopefully, the connection will be done by the end of this week and then Terrie and I, plus our guests, will have high-speed internet access.
Another quick update, we just picked up our first shipment of organic, fair trade coffee from Sweetwater Organic Coffee roasters in Florida. So, if you are a coffee fanatic coming to Culebra we can take care of your morning caffeine needs.
