Highlights from September 2012 on Vantage Points

Sunset Busse Woods

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Chicago Cultural Center Entrance

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Hanging Kitchen Ornament

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CLUB VYBE Event at John Barleycorn

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Yesterday I published an article over at NEW VYBE on Five Healthy Fall Food Choices.

Although the weather might have it seem as though we’ve been in the fall season for a while, we only just passed the “official” start date of autumn this past Saturday. As the seasons change, so do our food and menu options. Here are five healthy food choices to help complement and carry your fitness regimen through the rest of the year.

The five foods are:

• Sweet potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Squash
• Chestnuts
• Apples

Read the Full Article

Today we posted a call to action to save the house of iconic American composer Charles Ives.

The house of iconic American composer Charles Ives is under threat! Located in Redding, Connecticut, Ives’ house was built in the early 1900s and is where he and his wife lived until his death in 1954. Subsequent generations of Ives have resided there since then.

However, now investors and developers are lined up to purchase this prime real estate and demolish the house in order to make way for something else… with little to no regard for its historical and cultural significance.

To learn more, read the full article at String Visions. You can take action today!

Earlier this month on August 18, NEW VYBE had the opportunity to open for Tae-Bo creator and fitness legend Billy Blanks at the Lifetime Fitness in Schaumburg. It was a jam-packed and intense workout event, but the greatest part of it was being able to sit down and talk with Billy afterwards.

Here is the opening excerpt from my follow-up article to this event:

I’ve been reflecting on some of the ideas that we as a team discussed following the Billy Blanks Fitness Challenge held in Schaumburg earlier this month on the 18th. Following the event, Nnanna, Chris, myself, and a few other vyberz had the opportunity to sit down with Billy at a luncheon where he shared words of wisdom derived from many years of his experience impacting lives across the globe. One of these was centered not around fitness specifically, but rather around a general principle of success: the “power of IF.”

Read the Full Article

Last Wednesday I attended the Taste of the Nation at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The event was packed with hundreds of vendors from Chicago – everything from beer, wine, spirits, and concoctions from award-winning mixologists to sushi, grilled steak, wrapped pork belly, gumbo, and the largest assortment of delectable pastries and other baked goods I’ve ever seen. Over 1,500 were in attendance and brushing shoulders with some of the great masters of today – including local luminaries Bridget Albert (Southern Wine and Spirits) and Goose Island Beer Co.’s John Hall – in a celebration of Chicago’s contribution to the world of food and beverage.

The event also featured a silent auction presenting one-of-a-kind experiences and items, many of them hotly in-demand offerings from booth vendors present on the floor. Someone bidded $1,600 for a private dinner for four at Paris Club!.

My girlfriend was there, representing her work the Pump Room (based in Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel in Chicago’s Gold Coast area).

There were so many vendors there that I was almost immediately overwhelmed upon entering the Grand Ballroom at the end of Navy Pier. Luckily, a glass of red was waiting right at the entrance which helped me settle right into things. Over the course of 4 hours I sampled almost every single item available. At first I tried to keep track of what I was eating from where, but eventually it got to be too overwhelming for me to remember. Here are only a few highlights of many from the evening.

• The Pump Room was a given – see below for delicious bittersweet chocolate pudding, chocolate shortbread, and market Raspberries
• Embeya’s cut of beef short ribs
• Fantastic squid ink pasta from Nellcôte
• An awesome panna cotta from the Angel Food Bakery
• And always a favorite: the many incredible pies from the Hoosier Mama Pie Company

The event wasn’t all about stuffing ourselves with food and drink (though that certainly comprised most of it). Taste of the Nation is an annual event held in cities across the US that is united by a single cause – working to end childhood hunger and empower the lives of others. Last Wednesday alone the event raised over $300,000 towards that end, and it was estimated that nationwide Taste of the Nation had raised upwards of $3 million.

It was also nice to see a former client there as a sponsor.

For more awesome photos, check out Grub Street Chicago

As some of you know, digital photography is a big hobby of mine. I recently wrote piece on my photography / media site Vantage Points comparing the primary Canon DSLRs using the Magic Lantern firmware.

If you’ve read my camera page, you know that I shoot primarily with a Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i DSLR Camera. Although the 550D is an older camera (released in early 2010), it remains one of the best value options in the consumer-grade entry-level DSLR market, particularly for those who focus more on still photography over video. And with the Magic Lantern firmware, it gains a range of incredible options for video (and photo) that allows it to match and even exceed many higher-end camera bodies. See the link above and the Magic Lantern website for more information on the advantages of using this firmware…

…As the cheapest DSLR option in this review, the 550D will already appeal to the budget-conscious buyer.

However, the 550D (especially when enhanced with Magic Lantern) compares competitively in many other ways to the other cameras discussed here:

• Canon 600D / Rebel T3i
• Canon 650D / Rebel T4i
• Canon 60D
• Canon 7D
• Canon 5D Mark II / III

Read the Full Review

If you are interested in seeing more of my photography be sure to check out Vantage Points

One of my favorite poems, by the brilliant and inspiring Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

Unleash Your Power!

Entrepreneurship as a social enterprise… today it’s my catchphrase, but it took me time – and a level of maturity – to truly understand the idea of social entrepreneurship.

‘Social’ Entrepreneurship vs. ‘Business’ Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs are usually most immediately associated with business and financial acumen, as well as the ability to harness those energies in helping to foster innovation to provide valuable goods and services to people.

Social entrepreneurs are in many ways no different. Inherently and semantically, these people join social missions with entrepreneurial spirit. Social entrepreneurship distinguishes itself with the relatively higher priority placed on promoting social, rather than economic, value and development. Social entrepreneurs look for the most effective methods of serving their social missions.

Social Entrepreneurs Lead by Serving…

…something else I didn’t understand when I first heard it, though I quickly learned that servant leadership doesn’t mean you blindly offer yourself to everyone for everything. What it does mean is that you cultivate a desire to earnestly put others needs before yours (acknowledging that there MIGHT be benefit to you in some way) and the ability to discern when it is appropriate to do so.

Time and time again, I’ve seen it demonstrated that the most influential and impactful people are also the greatest servers.

It is important to remember that you do not lead businesses, companies, or organizations. You lead PEOPLE. When you learn how to humble yourself and be a servant, you are forced to listen, understand, and connect with people. It is then that you can start learning how to lead those people. Until you understand those who are to follow you, you cannot lead them effectively.

Social entrepreneurship is about the people involved… not only impacting the world via people, but also depending and drawing on people to foster transformation. Social entrepreneurs, as those who focus on people, are naturally suited to lead people.

Are you a Social Entrepreneur at Heart?

Learn more about social entrepreneurship:

Social entrepreneurship, though a term that is becoming widely known, still means different things to different people. In that sense, it is a term with a relative rather than absolute meaning. Moreover, the idea is constantly under revision and evolution. The concept can be as malleable as social entrepreneurs often wish the world was.

Along those lines, it is we who define the idea of social entrepreneurship. By writing about, discussing, testing, failing, retrying, and continuing to engage in socially entrepreneurial pursuits, we shape (and reshape) what it means.

What does it take to be a social entrepreneur? What are the responsibilities involved in assuming the title of social entrepreneur. What will social entrepreneurship look like in the future?

These are issues to be explored here on this site, and elsewhere throughout life. Join me on this journey!

Social Entrepreneurship Articles

Last Sunday I was at a photoshoot for the fitness company New Vybe when the founder send something impactful: “This isn’t about me, this is about the team.”

You’ve all heard that cliche: “There’s no I in team.” I’m sure you’ve also heard the counter to that: “But there’s a me.” Unfortunately, a team with too much me often falls apart.

The thing is, there has to be a “me” in team. In great teams, each member is unique in some way. Each member has something of value to bring to the table that no one else does. The purpose of a team is not to suppress that but enhance it. Great teams draw upon the power of their individuals.

But go too far in that direction of individualism, and you not only lose the team element, you can destroy the creativity and productivity that each member is capable of producing on his or her own.

Learn how to be yourself in a team. If you can’t, it’s probably not a good team for you to be on.

With the record-breaking and news-worthy success of Seth Godin’s recent kickstarter campaign, which I donated to, I decided that I wanted to write a piece about crowdfunding in classical music. Yesterday I published that work over at Ovation Press String Visions.

In an ever-present search for funding in the modern world of classical music, musicians, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs look towards new models of raising capital to see if any of these methods can be appropriated to benefit the arts. One of these models iscrowdfunding.

Crowdfunding (also known as crowd financing, equity crowdfunding, or hyper funding) refers to a method of gathering financial resources via a distributed network of people who pool their money. This has traditionally be done via the Internet (for example: websites such as Kickstarter).

…

The question is: does crowdfunding actually work? History shows that it can.

About a month back I had a chance to speak with prolific and critically acclaimed violinist Colin Jacobsen – co-founder of The Knights and Brooklyn Rider – about a variety of topics in classical music. Jacobsen shared some of his experience in building classical ensembles, including the logistics behind making such groups work in today’s world.

With Brooklyn Rider we’ve had to raise money ourselves and actually did a Kickstarter campaign for our last album Seven Steps, which enabled us to fully fund it.

And Colin Jacobsen’s success story certainly isn’t the only one. In fact, Mashable recently ran a story on Seth Godin’s Kickstarter project for his new book The Icarus Deception, which was funded (perhaps in record time) in under 3 hours for a goal of $40,000.

Obviously, Mr. Godin has a huge following which few people can match. But, crowdfunding doesn’t necessarily discriminate against us “regular” people, and in fact these resources can be very valuable when proper and creative planning is put behind them. Maya Jensen, the daughter of Ovation Press co-founder Hans Jensen, recently launched her own fundraising campaign on indiegogo and successfully met and exceeded her goal of $10,000. These funds are being used in final touches and mass production of her completed documentary Solidarity in Saya, which explores how Afro-Bolivian Saya music is used as a form of socio-economic struggle.

While Colin Jacobsen admits that this might not be a fully-sustainable model for funding in all cases, it does highlight one of the important ways in which passion can be harnessed for productive ends. Crowdfunding often relies on the willingness of friends, friends of friends, etc. to band together and pool their efforts to make something work. In the case of Brooklyn Rider, a Kickstarter project was enough to accomplish their funding goals. And with the Knights, a large portion of their support (especially initially) has been private funding through friends and their networks.

Read the complete article – Crowdfunding Classical Music, at String Visions