“My life has been full of challenges and I often feel like I’m in the middle of a shipwreck. And today I’d like to share with you 5 important lessons I have learned through the ups and downs my journey.”

1. Believe in Miracles
2. Live in the Moment
3. Find Opportunities in Difficulties
4. Never Forget to Dream
5. Pets are the Best Medicine

Bravo, young lady! Bravo!

About INKTalks
“Think of INK as a curator of contemporary oral history. We do an extensive global search to find the best ideas to invite to our events. Our cornerstone event is the annual INK Conference in association with TED, which brings together the world’s movers and shakers who then share ideas. The exchange of stories, ideas and dreams does not start nor stop at the conference; it is merely one of the many methods that facilitate the open exchange. In addition to our annual conference, INK also hosts KIDSInk and INK salons, mini conferences, across the globe. If you are interested in hosting an INK salon in your community or campus, please contact us.”

- excerpt from InkTalks.com

You Must ‘Know Thy Audience’

MBA’s are busy people. I remember this old adage well when I was in the midst of earning mine: “Work, Sleep, Play– pick two.” It’s no joke. You are constantly working, so when does a MBA have time to fill out an online profile and start blogging? They don’t. So I needed to meet them where they were at. To do this I held multiple lunchtime workshops, provided support, and made the network as easy to use as possible, and as of now it has a 90% membership rate.

Provide a Benefit, and Identify Common Goals

Community is formed when there are common goals and benefits of joining with others. The common goals in the MBA included support for projects,career & job search help, along with seeing the community in action– via pictures and video. The benefits of joining included access to program information such as documents, special Amazon booklists and archive, and student based forums and wikis. Identifying the benefits and common goals will drive your content production and ensure that your community is tightly knit.

“Interaction” doesn’t matter, too much

Sure, it makes it easier to measure and report on, but that doesn’t mean that you should base success on whether somebody interacts with the content being produced (ie. a comment or a share). I was always surprised to hear stories from people who used the network as a “spectator;” even though many of the blog and forum posts didn’t have comments, I would hear from people who had read and used the resources provided, or who had connected with someone because they read their profile.

Know when to fold em

The reality is– the network served it’s purpose. It created a bridge while the MBA was in transition. It was a common place for people to gather and see who else was in the program, what backgrounds they have, and what they are doing. In recent years, Linkedin has completely taken over this space and is a powerful tool for MBA’s to stay connected and expand their network. While the private network had benefits such as a private forum and blog, everything can pretty much be done on Linkedin and Facebook. Eliminating the network allows for the MBA to focus their social media strategy, and eliminate any confusion on where people should go for what.

Since the book is fairly complicated as much as it is simple and by that I mean you can pick out the parts and customize your experience, I’ll try to boil my diet down for you. The Slow-carb diet is the basis for whether you want to loose 10 pounds in a month, or if you want to gain 10 pounds of muscle in a month (just have to add a bit more protein and some fats like milk; plus different exercise).

Basically, I’m following these rules when it comes to eating:

• Avoid “white” carbs (bread, pasta, rice, chips).
• Eat the same meals over and over again.
• Don’t drink calories.
• Don’t eat fruit.
• Take one day off per week and go nuts.

The Dark Horse

Okay, so why would I follow a diet by someone who is not a physician, published academic, trainer, or nutritionist? Ferriss, author of 4-Hour Work Week, doesn’t hold the medical credentials, but he has been a hard-core experimenter and fitness enthusiast his entire life; demonstrated by his journaled workouts, testing theories, and experimenting with calculated precision and analysis.

Perhaps, one of the more important reasons to listen to Ferriss is because he is outside the system. As “one MD from a well-known Ivy League university” told Ferriss:

“We’ve trained for 20 years to be risk-adverse. I’d like to do the experimentation, but I’d risk everything I’ve built over two decades of schooling and training by doing so. I’d need an immunity necklace. The university would never tolerate it.”

And from a surgeon at UCSF:

“Kaiser can’t talk to UCSF, who can’t talk to Blue Shield. You are the arbiter of your health information.”

By being the “dark horse,” Ferriss is able to break industry silos and present “findings of more than 100 PhDs, NASA scientists, medical doctors, Olympic athletes, professional sports trainers, world record holders, Super Bowl rehabilitation specialists, and even former Eastern Bloc coaches!”

Back to the Diet

My meals go something like this: 4 meals a day and each meal includes protein, beans, and veggies. Wow, so radical! Not really, but you do get kinda tired of eating the same stuff over and over again. Fortunately, I love to cook and I think I’ll start posting my recipes here too.

Here was my first shopping trip bounty:

• organic whole chicken
• package of natural ground beef
• eggs
• saurkraut
• Kimchi
• spinach
• green beans
• peas
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• black beans
• pinto beans
• lentils
• asparagus

Additional crazy things I’m doing

• Cod-liver oil (omega fatty acid)
• Alpha Liphoic Acid (antioxident)
• Cold showers and cold house
• Exercise 3 days a week
• Giving up beer, for the most part

So far, I feel great and I’m definitely noticing my body feels different. I haven’t had a chance to measure my BMI but I will next week. I’m doing this for my overall health and fitness, and as long as I look and feel great, then it’s all good! I’m already looking forward to my first “anything goes” day!

Photos like this one available in my Etsy Shop

I have a friend who is suffering from Lyme disease. You’ve probably heard of it, because nobody likes ticks. Lyme sucks. It’s chronic, debilitating, and there is very little financial support for those who suffer. So I’m using my photography to donate Kat’s way. Plus, I hope to spread some awareness of Lyme Disease and Chronic Fatigue.

The popular craft and artisan marketplace, Etsy, made setting up my print shop pretty easy. I have plenty of photographs to feature. For a relatively small price you can own a photograph like the one to the right here. For now, prints will be professionally printed on satin photo paper.

So if you are on Etsy, add me to your circle!

Here is a little about Kat’s and her condition:

“Unfortunately so much time had passed between transmission and diagnosis, the bacteria had disseminated and crossed into my brain. I now have late stage (also known as Chronic) Lyme Disease. I would also soon find that Lyme Disease is incredibly controversial and despite strong medical and scientific evidence to the contrary, the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) denies the existence of Lyme disease that persists after 28 days of antibiotic treatment. The IDSA is who insurance companies listen to when it comes to covering treatment. The Social Security Administration also follows their guidelines when reviewing applications for disability.”

You can also be a hero and donate to Kat!

If you want to learn more about Lyme disease, check out Lyme Disease 101, and the movie Under Our Skin.

The next day, we hit up Pebble Beach and Big Sur’s Pfeiffer Beach. We actually had decent weather for January. On Monday we scored some passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you have never been, this is a must go place if you are anywhere near San Francisco visiting. It’s a great aquarium. I took over 250 photos that day – yikes! I only posted a handful of the best ones over on my Canon s95 Photo Blog.

It was a great weekend!