thesunRISING

In early 2006 I started a blog called Change Your World, with the sub-title “Little, everyday things you can do to make your world a better place”. I then wrote a whopping six posts before running out to things to talk about (read: getting lazy). The goal of the blog was not to be another (annoying) voice cheerleading “Yeeeay recycling! Yeeeay organic!” to “save the world”, but to point out that doing things like recycling and eating organic is better for YOU; believe it or not, it’s usually the selfish thing to do.

Further, it was an effort to get folks (including myself) thinking about the “net impact” of a product/service; about all the externalities associated with production, raw materials, transport, and so on. My opening post argued that buying recycled, eco-friendly toilet paper reduced cancer risk (possible dioxins and formaldehyde in regular tp!) while improving children’s health, preserving the environment, and saving water. It’s a bold call (I was unemployed at the time if that explains anything), but these days a growing number of folks are talking about the “total cost” of a product; for example, here’s a NYT article that talks about “food miles”, or how far food has traveled before you buy it.

To that end, though resolutions come and go I intend to make an effort this year to be (even more) conscious about how I “vote with my dollar“. Each time I spend money, I voice support for what I buy (these days, I really, really support San Francisco’s bars/clubs). Buying recycled toilet paper is not only better for me and better for my world, but it also sends a (small) message to the folks over at Charmin that I care about me and my world — and that they should too if they care about their profits (or the profits from a  Ultra-Soft 16-roll pack, anyways).

This year, I’m going to make more of an effort to vote organic and free-range (over processed and themeatrix). And to vote local (over food transported from across the globe). And to vote fair-trade (over, um, unfair-trade).

You get the idea.

For anyone interested in everyday impact, here were the six posts I made to my “change your world” blog:
Volunteer your PC through the World Community Grid
Reach for the Nalgene instead of the Evian
Don’t just search…GoodSearch!
Changing the world is as simple as changing your homepage
Loan $25 (or more) to change lives through Kiva
Wash your hands

When several of your closest friends (whom you also happen to deeply admire as people, not the drinking buddies) (no offense dudes!) get involved with a non-profit (I hate the word ‘charity’), it says something powerful about the organization. Two of these friends, Seema Patel and Premal Shah, actually went to India at recent points in their lives and spent several months on location working with the organization, Manav Sadhna, which “is comprised of a young group of dedicated individuals working for the upliftment of poor and needy children.”

Last week, Seema and my buddy Dev hosted a fundraiser for Manav Sadhna in LA and were able to raise over $3,500. Here was the reply from the Uncle that Dev sent the check to (for my non-Indian peeps, ‘Uncle’ is a word used in respect for older fathers…call a younger father an Uncle at your own risk):

For sure this funds will go long ways and help many kids and mothers for our 32 on going projects…For example Shanta ba and her blind son slept hungry for 2 days last year because she couldn’t see any more and not work at age of 78! She came to MS community center for help. $42 gave her an eye operaton in govt hospital and $4 gave her the glasses she required after that. In two weeks she was all smiles and actually work and see the face of her widow daughter’s daughter!

Yeah.

They don’t accept donations on their site yet, but if you’d like to donate you can send money to Dev via PayPal and he’ll pass it along; his email addy is dev@devdugal.com.

(mp3 audio of this blog post)

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but at some point in the last few years it became cool to be what is now (affectionately) called “socially conscious”. Folks being conscious of their social impact is nothing new, but buying organic/fair trade/green used to get me branded as a treehugging, free-love-loving, ganja-smoking hippie (which, umm, may or may not be true) — yes I live at Haight/Ashbury, but c’mon people, I own an SUV*!

Marketers have given this raaapidly growing segment of our population a nice name. We are the LOHAS market, which according to the Wiki is an acronym for “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability that…in year 2006 was estimated at $300 billion…market [domestic].” Did you catch that? Let me repeat: $300 BILLION. A few weeks ago at GreenFestSF I got a glimpse of alll the different things people are doing to get your dollars and grow that market, including everything from “green” mattresses to anti-oxidant wonder juices to ethical investment funds. But unlike other market opportunities (like, say, oil) this market is all good because it’s all GREEN, right? Psh.

Home over Thanksgiving I picked up my wonderful hometown publication, The Sacramento Bee, to read the following unsurprising headline: Many ‘green’ claims may be shady. Umm…you think? And many claims, even if they’re true, are waaay over-hyped as the most AmAzInG thing when in fact they’re quite mediocre; not to name names but one bottled water company (Ethos) donates a nickel a bottle towards international water development projects, and they charge $1.80 a bottle…you do the math. Clearly, there needs to be a way to figure out what’s really good, and what’s not so good.

Enter PROJECT GOOD.

It’s not here yet, but Project Good will be a marketplace where you can see how legit — or good, if you will — products really are. You know a rug is Fair Trade if you can trace that rug back to the smiling rug maker in Afghanistan who made it. You know how much of your money is going where you want it and how much is going to line the pockets of sharks trying to play you a FOOL (sorry, got a bit carried away) if there is transparency. You know you want something like this…well, Project Good is coming.

You can learn a bit more about Project Good at projectgood.com, a placeholder site for the marketplace which will be launching soon.  Project Good is a collaboration of eBay and World of Good, and the product of years of work; I highly encourage you to sign-up …

[alright, I think it’s time for full disclosure…I’m consulting for Project Good on marketing, specifically to help drive sign-ups and interest pre-launch — so yes, by signing up you’re doing me a favor : ), but no, I’m not misleading you about the potential of this marketplace. It is the brainchild of some close friends who are truly building something amazing (guys, don’t let me down here!)].

So sign-up and stay tuned….

* Which I never drive…and even still, it’s carbon neutral : )

First off, I want to make a plug for Good Magazine. Great content, wonderful community, and the best part is that when you subscribe 100% of your money goes to one of 12 non-profits (Kiva just recently became an option!). Plus, you’ve gotta love their tag-line: A magazine for people that give a damn.

The reason for this post is to highlight a section they have called “Steal This Idea”, which I love. Folks with ideas for something / anything that’ll somehow make the world a better place can write in with those ideas, and then the editors pick the ones they like and profile one per issue. What I wish they’d do different is make it more of a democratic process and allow readers to vote on the ideas. An open flow of innovation between Good Magazine’s self-selected readership could spark some really big things, and help GOOD ideas become GREAT ideas. Yeah? You with me?

Oh fine…I’ll be honest. I submitted an idea and it didn’t make the cut : (
Luckily I have a blog and can self-publish! : ) Ready? Here it is:

Everyone has stuff lying around they want to sell but don’t have time to, right? So this is what I propose: A win-win-win for (1) people with stuff they want to get rid of, (2) the Salvation Army, and (3) local non-profits.

Step 1: Someone with stuff he/she wants to get rid of takes 5 minutes to list what he/she has and the condition that it’s all in on a simple website, and indicate which of the participating local non-profits he/she wants to benefit (minimum $100 value per item).
Step 2: The Salvation Army comes by and picks up the stuff.
Step 3: While the stuff is in the Salvation Army warehouse, the non-profit specified lists the items on eBay and tries to sell it.

If the stuff sells, the Salvation Army sends the goods out, the non-profit gets the proceeds of the sale, and the person gets a tax write-off for the selling price of the goods. If the stuff doesn’t sell, the Salvation Army gets the stuff and the person gets a much smaller, but still better than zero, tax write off. Yes, I know the Salvation Army has some very particular beliefs which I don’t necessarily agree with, but my understanding is they do a good job of taking donated items and giving them to those in need, and I’ll bet a lot of people hold on to higher-value stuff — and this might incentivize them to move those items as well. Ideally the stuff sells and local non-profits have a new, high-value revenue stream : )

I (sorta) tried to start this back in 2003, but (very) quickly realized it was more work that I was willing to do. Sad, I know. Have an idea you’re not going to make happen, and don’t have a blog to publish it so you can show off how clever you (think you) are? Send ‘em into Good: stealthisidea[at]goodmagazine.com

Like many people, I think I can write. Like most people, I really can’t. Still, that small fact will not stop me from publishing a movie script (page by page) that my friend Jaspaul and I started (and stopped) waaay back in 2003. We started the script with the intention to share some of our stories with the world (starring us, of course). We stopped working on the script when we realized we had no idea what we were doing. We wanted to pick it up again someday but more than 4 years later fusion rots away on my hard drive.

Until now : )

It’s (supposed to be) Good Will Hunting meets Save the Last Dance meets School Ties meets Spaceballs. Please note that the script is Rated R for language, adult situations, and poor attempts at humor (like that Spaceballs mention).

Forgive me: http://feelthefusion.wordpress.com/

I’m speaking on a panel tomorrow (Saturday) about how social causes can leverage social networking platforms (last week I spoke about the future of social networking — as if anyone knows). Premal was supposed to speak but now he can’t make it, so I’m speaking in his stead (sweet, huh?). Anyways, the organizer asked for a short blog post on the organization’s blog, which I figured I’d re-post here since I’m all about leverage.

Hey folks. Just wanted to write a quick post to encourage everyone attending >play this weekend to try and make the “Beyond the Poke” panel. No, it’s not about how to ask for a real date after poking someone (which is a weird thing to do, btw), but about “The Social Impact of Social Networking”. The panel description asks: “Does Web 2.0 provide the necessary platform for…causes to continue to develop and grow well into the future?”. Well, having spent time as a Product Manager at MySpace (a social-networking site still popular outside of the Valley), as Director of Marketing for Kiva.org (Bill Clinton’s favorite non-profit*), and as an advisor to / team member of a few other causes, I can tell you the answer is [omitted…sorry, you’ll have to attend the panel to find out]. In all seriousness, social networks are a powerful platform for causes to organize, involve and empower; beyond awareness lies action, and it’s my personal belief that social causes that can effectively leverage the social graph stand to accelerate their mission of changing the world (for the better!). See you tomorrow.

(*Okay, it’s probably not his favorite non-profit, but he’s definitely a big fan)

As in Japan. Last week I went to Tokyo and Kyoto (the better city, btw) for a little vacay with my buddy Prashanth, and loved it. Rich history, wickedly tasty cuisine, humble people, ridic nightlife (in my pictures I look like I was having a greeaat time), fascinating nuances…I can go on and on. All in the trip was amazing and I highly recommend visiting. Immediately. Below are a couple of random things that particularly struck me:

1) R-E-S-P-E-C-T. You know those masks you sometimes see Japanese folks wearing? Those people are not trying to avoid infection, they’re trying to avoid infecting others. || Every time you interface with someone they always greet you, and no matter what the interaction they thank you, bow, wish you a great day and bow again. || Before exiting a rail car, a ticketmaster will turn around and bow to passengers. || If you ask someone for help they’ll try really (really) hard to help (to the point where we felt guilty asking). Sometimes all you have to do is look lost and you’ll get offers of “can I help you” in broken English (look lost in some other countries and you’ll still hear broken English, but they’ll be asking you to help them…with all your money thankyouverymuch).

2) ALARMS. Alarms in Japan are loud. The ones at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto near the South Wall are imperially loud. Yeah. All I’m going to say is don’t lean up against the palace walls for a picture. (And if you do, walk away quickly, snapping pictures anything/everything while ignoring the squad car that pulls up…that worked for a, uh, friend of mine).

3) TRAINS. They’re everywhere. And despite the massive crowds, they’re *clean*. And, shockingly, on time (another word of advice…when the doors are closing, they’re not suggesting you step back…it’s more of an order). (Not that I was hit by closing doors). (Twice).

4) There’s so much more, but I’ll stop typing and instead just point you to some photos I snapped; hope you like (for anyone curious, most pics were taken with a Canon Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR).

Book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Summary: When marketing anything, keep these six concepts in mind if you want your message to shtick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories; yes, my friends, that spells SUCCESs. If it sounds like too much work, these two concepts also work: Free, Sex (noooo, that’s not in the book…but it works I tell you!).

Recommended? Si. It’s a quick, fun read full of interesting anecdotes and examples that make the book’s message more *concrete* (a-hem). If you’re never going to pick it up, at least read a breakdown of the six principles on the book’s website.

One(ish)-liners for each of the six principles:

• Simplicity - boil it all down to the core message you want people to walk away with….the one thing they should know/do…the key takeaway….the essence of your point…the singular (okay, I’ll stop).
• Unexpectedness - generate interest and curiosity by being counter-intuitive or using surprise/some other technique. Oh, and you should send me money (see? that’s called “surprise”).
• Concreteness - explain ideas “in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information”; people think in pictures, so paint a picture. For example, I’m sitting at my desk in my room typing this on my Dell laptop, sipping water and eating green curry chicken over rice. If you make it to the end of this post, I bet you’ll remember what I ate, but you won’t remember all six principles.
• Credibility - it’s only what is said because of who says it; make sense? If you can’t get a spokesperson (Oprah), be vividly detailed; “sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials”.
• Emotions - get people to care about your idea by evoking a feeling around your idea, and keep in mind that “we are wired to feel things for people, not for abstraction.” You make me happy by reading this blog post. (Don’t you feel happier knowing that, mom?)
• Stories - wrap the idea with context and it’ll be remembered as associated with that context; sometimes, analogies work great here as they ground the idea in a story or context folks are familiar with (analogies also allow you to check off “simple” and “concrete”; for example, “my blog is the Pinto of the blogosphere” says a lot about my blog. And me, unfortunately.)

Key takeaways:

• Think about what YOU would respond to if YOU were your target audience (make sense?). First this means understanding the frame of mind/perspective of your target audience (note: this is HARD). Then, it’s asking questions like “what would make me take notice?” Throw off what the authors affectionately refer to as the “Curse of Knowledge” (corny, but true) and go from there. How does your target audience views the world? What’s important to them? (Which raises some good questions…who are you people? And what’s important to you?)
• Make ideas interesting in some way/shape/form. Sounds incredibly obvious but it’s in fact hard to do (think of all the crap advertising you see these days…clearly, if it were interesting it wouldn’t be crap…I’ll bet you had a hard time remembering explicit crap ads precisely because they were crap). Playing into people’s curiosity can be a powerful way to make things interesting (guess what color boxers I’m wearing).
• When pitching something, emphasize benefits, not features; people want to know what’s in it for them (self-interest), or how what you’re offering supports something they believe in (identity). If you can nail both, you’ve got a winner (this whole “organic” craze, for example).
• Final excerpt from the book. “For an idea to stick, for it to be useful and lasting, it’s got to make the audience:

1. Pay attention
2. Understand and remember it
3. Agree/Believe
4. Care
5. Be able to act on it”
6. Think free. Or sex. Or both.

Okay, without looking, what are the six principles? And what did I eat? And how much money are you sending me?

I’ve been wanting to write full posts for each of the items below for weeks but haven’t. I just realized that is because I have no idea what I’m talking about. Accordingly, I’m publishing them as half-baked, random rants; enjoy : )

Perceived scarcity creates perceived demand, and thus, perceived value
I wonder, how much of value is perceived versus real? Diamonds. Home prices. “Premium” items. Dating. Heck, even in interactions with friends, I sometimes feel like the less available I am (to a point), the more demand there is for my time (or, at least, the higher the perceived value for my time). On a daily basis, I find that many things have mostly implied value, not real value. This is reinforced by something else I often find: demand creates demand. I often (unfortunately) forget how much the concepts of supply and demand factor into many aspects of my daily life — and how much they are shaped by perception.

Inertia is the strongest force in my universe (yes I know it’s not technically a force)
It’s crazy how if I don’t work out for a day, the next day I find an excuse, and the day after that, until it’s been weeks since I’ve hit the gym. On the flip side, if (huge if) I can break that cycle, it becomes progressively so much easier to hit the gym. Same thing with my eating habits (I already had the cookie, may as well eat the ice cream) and my drinking habits (although, I do blame some of you for being that “net external force” that throws me off there). Though in public I might mock folks who have personal coaches, privately I’m quite jealous; if I had someone whose job it was to make sure that I stayed on track — that inertia worked for me, not against me — I wonder where’d I be?

Everything is relational (right?)
A web search on the term “relational thought” brings up links to esoteric papers and some very random sites/blogs. This is curious to me…why isn’t this studied more? Doesn’t our mind operate relationally? In my life, anyways, it’s “this note reminds me of this song”, or “this perfume reminds me of”…eh, you know what I mean. A couple of years ago I found this cool site that gave you book/music/movie recos based upon an input favorite in a relational way (check it out here); I swore I was looking at the future. Soon thereafter a buddy of mine started drawing mind maps of his thoughts, a way to format output similar to the relational way in which we think; I think he got smarter over the course of just a few weeks (I’m not kidding). I’ve been sitting here waiting for the “relational revolution”, but instead, I feel we’re conforming to the way (current) computers force us to interface with them, which is very “singular input, singular output”. Okay, now I officially don’t what I’m saying so I’m going to stop.

Got some free time this weekend? Access to a videocamera (even on your phone or as part of your dig cam)? Consider entering the Current TV Ecospot Contest.

“Make a :15, :30 or :60 second ecospot about
TAKING ACTION: Showcase how you, or someone you know, is taking action to alleviate the climate crisis in their own small or big way
OR…
MOTIVATING CHANGE: Create an original, persuasive message that will open eyes, inspire change and empower your audience”

Videos aren’t due until 9/12; for details, here’s the link: http://www.current.tv/ecospotcontest

I had fully intended on entering…in fact I even wrote a script (below); just realized, though, I need to focus a bit (for those who know me, please, stop laughing…please?).

Oh, forgot to mention another reason I decided not to enter the contest; my script is weeaaaaak:
0:00 [A few flowers on a ridge wafting in the wind]
0:03 [From camera left, a knee-down shot of a guy wearing dress pants and dress shoes (#1) walking, stepping on the flower, and walking on]
0:06 [From camera right, before #1 exits, a knee-down shot of a girl wearing jeans and tennis shoes (#2) walking, stepping on the flower, and walking on]
0:08 [From camera right, before #2 exits, a knee-down shot of someone wearing shorts and flip flops walking, about to step on the flower, but stops and moves his foot towards camera]
0:11 [Cut to black; fade in/out with the following text: “it’s not too late”]
0:12 [Cut to black; fade in/out the following text: “to see what we have” ]
0:13 [Cut to black; fade in/out the following text: “to save what we have left”]