Next week starts off the 3rd Edition of The ReinventingErica.com Project. I’ve learned from past failures, and this time around I’m enlisting the help of an entire team of the most talented and awesome people I know.  All with one goal – to help totally transform my life in the next 90 Days.

• Dr. Shel – Health & Wellness/Mind, Body, Spirit
• Dr. Vik – Personal Development
• Hank Wasiak – Wisdom Farmer
• Seth Blank – Business Development
• Erica Douglass – Accountability Buddy
• Jenny Lawson – Comic Relief
• Joe Litzinger – Video Production

I invite you to visit the Team Page to learn more.

What’s This All About?

Over the next 90 Days I’ll be working on a series of Personal and Professional Goals.  Each week I’ll be sharing my progress with you.  The weekly schedule looks roughly like this:

• Monday
  • Introduce Goals for the Week
  • Introduce the Theme for the Week
  • Introduce the Book of the Week
  • Goal Setting & Accountability Session with Erica Douglass
• Tuesday
  • Fitness & Nutrition Segment
• Wednesday
  • Business Development with Seth Blank
  • Mid-week Comic Relief with Jenny Lawson
• Thursday
  • Personal Development with Dr. Vik
  • Moment of Bliss with Scott Porad
• Friday
  • BHRT/Adrenal Fatigue/Aesthetic Services/Mind, Body & Spirit with Dr. Shel
• Saturday & Sunday
  • Week in Review

I’ll be sharing my story here on ReinventingErica.com using photos, videos, podcasts, and short daily blog entries.

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The purposes of rituals are varied; they include compliance with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one’s affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.  ~Wikipedia

I have a yearly ritual.  Each year I pick a Life Theme Song.  I adopted this ritual from the sitcom Ally McBeal, where Ally’s therapist suggests she pick a theme song - “Something she can play in her head to make her feel better in tough situations”.

I never choose my Life Theme Song, it always chooses me.  Here is a list of my Life Theme Songs from past years, starting in 2005 (the first year I had an “Official” Life Theme Song).

1. 2005 – Chumbawamba by Tubthumping
2. 2006 – Searching My Soul by Vonda Shepard
3. 2007 – Uptown Girl by Billie Joel
4. 2008 – Bad Day by Daniel Powter

This year I’ve struggled with finding my song.  But that all changed on my drive back from Dallas yesterday.  A song that I’ve known and loved forever started playing on my iPod, and I instantly knew this was my song.  So here it is – my 2009 Life Theme Song – Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying

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I was just reading a conversation between a Business Week reporter and The Dalai Lama on the Economic Crisis.  When asked his opinion on what caused the collapse of the economy, The Dalai Lama says:

“I’m telling people, including some businessmen who are my friends, what this global economic crisis was caused by:  One, too much greed.  Second, speculation.  Third, not being transparent.

I think he’s absolutely right. But I’d take it a step further, and even interject a little Dr. Phil into the equation and say the real problem was that we as a community, nation, world – didn’t “Get Real”. We bought into our own hype the same way we buy into “Self-Empowerment Programs”. Most of which are, as Dr. Phil says: “unfocused, lazy, gimmicky, politically correct, and above all, marketable, often at the expense of truth.” So we built a Castle in the Clouds and then we were surprised to find that the Foundation didn’t exist.  In fact, had never existed.

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For me, like most years, SXSWi started long before March.  I had the awesome opportunity to serve on the SXSW Advisory Board for a brand new program called the SXSW Accelerator.  This is Southby’s version of Demo or TechCrunch50 (40, etc).  In fact, one of my client companies ended up as a runner-up in the program.  Congrats to Blellow, and thanks to Chris Valentine & Hugh Forrest for asking me to be on the board.

I also had a Pre-SXSW/Some Other Pre-Conference dinner with Mandi Leman, Veronica Jordan, Chris Brogan & Jay Berkowitz

I got to Austin on Thursday night, and was rooming with Tara Hunt & Jen Myronuk across from The Austin Convention Center.  As expected, I couldn’t go 2 feet without running into someone I knew.  But that’s the power of SXSW   It’s like one huge High School Reunion – only you actually like all the people in attendance.

Friday was my Un-Birthday Party.  What’s an Un-Birthday Party…well it’s when you turn 30 in January but decide not to have your party until March so all your friends from all over the world can come!  I hired a company called The Go Game to host an adventure with me and my friends.  Think part Scavenger Hunt, part Mission Impossible, and part Comedy Improv – The Go Game Has it All!  MORE PHOTOS HERE

Thanks to everyone for coming out and celebrating my birthday with me.  I love you all!  Especially those of you who flew in early just to come and then slept in and missed it (I’m looking at you Pete & Michelle…hehe).

After my Big 3-0 Birthday Bash, I had lunch with some dear friends including Paige Craig, Joanna Lord, Pete Cashmore, Michelle DeForest, and I met Sarah Townsend.  Definitely a great pre-start to SXSWi.

Friday night I decided to stay in and conserve my energy for the next day.  Oh and I almost forgot – I also caught Chris Heuer in a Skirt!

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So I decided to login to Facebook to see if maybe the conversations had moved over there.  I also logged into Plurk.  And sure enough both sites were lively with discussions about how Twitter was down.  Below are a few screenshots I took in the last few minutes.

The funniest part was that suddenly my Facebook comments went through the roof – here’s a small snapshot of my current inbox:

Houston – We Might Have A Problem?

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Petty disputes between the #TCOT ¹ co-founders are leaving a black eye on Conservatives this week. I think it’s just a matter of less ego, and more big picture thinking. As we say here in Houston, “Credit is Infinitely Divisible”.

On today’s Social Media Hour w/Chris Heuer, I called in and asked Jackie Peters and Nicole Jordan to tell me the biggest problem they’ve had when dealing with their Social Communications* clients. Nicole said that organizations don’t understand Social Media Etiquette or why they’re doing it in the first place. While Jackie said that clients are scared to give up control of their message and terrified of losing the starring role in their own organizations. They don’t want feedback or transperancy. They want to play in the Social Media Space, but they don’t want to get their jeans muddy.

This reaction is typical of individuals and organizations who don’t understand the Social Landscape. For them, it’s more important to have control and ownership over their ideas, then to see those ideas spread.

Which brings me back to the #TCOT Scandal (Yes Scandal is an Exaggeration). #TCOT stands for Top Conservatives on Twitter. And to most of the world it’s just a HashTag. But apparently there is also an accompanying website. So I’ve traced back the tweets, and as far as I can tell (feel free to correct me if you believe I’m wrong), this is where it all began:

This was accompanied by the following letter describing the conflict:

http://kithbridge.com/tcot/index.php/tcot-feed

The backlash from the Twitter community was immediate and harsh. Here’s are just some of the sentiments expressed.

As the bickering wore on and tempers continued to flare, some of the more liberal twitterati decided to grab a bowl of popcorn and watch the cat fight.

And of course, the Techies & Open Source folks had to voice an opinion too.

There is much more, and you can read all the tweets and replies by going here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=tcot+rneppell or here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=tcot+michaelpleahy

One of the original founders of the #TCOT hashtag (and subsequent website) stated that the reason he was fighting so hard for this issue was that it was his work. And he wanted credit for it. Fine. Except. It’s just a Hashtag. And one person didn’t single-handedly make it popular. Lots of people were responsible for it’s adoption and popularity.

Let’s contrast this with #FollowFriday. #FollowFriday was originally created by Micah Baldwin. And to date I haven’t seen him ever attempt to issue guidelines or control over how #FollowFriday is used or spread. It could be argued that #FollowFriday is much more popular than #TCOT, and yet we don’t see Micah claiming to be the reason for it’s success. We see just the opposite.

I’m one of the biggest capitalists around. I believe in making lots of money and being paid what I’m worth. But what this #TCOT co-founder was talking about was not Capitalism. Whatever the original intentions of #TCOT might have been on the part of the founders, they were not responsible for it’s success. If you did all the work, then you can take all the credit, but #TCOT was a combination of luck and passion on behalf of all the conservatives who finally had a flag to wave on Twitter. Lots of popular politicians and twitterati adopted and spread this meme. I don’t think they would have been so quick to spread the good word, if they thought the intentions of these founders was to capitalize and attempt to cash-out on #TCOT. And if that was the intention – maybe they should have stated it more clearly.

As Laura Fitton so brilliantly expressed in a chat we had earlier about this issue: “Human Nature tells us to dominate others to prove our own value.” It looks like the people on Twitter aren’t interested in being dominated or controlled. #TCOT is DEAD. LONG LIVE #TCOT.

Note: *Social Communications – An alternative to Social Media, New Media, and New Media Relations.

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I bet you’re saying huh?  What in the world does that stand for?  Hold that thought.

Books That Move You to Action

A little over a year ago I was browsing through Barnes & Noble when I came across a book that would forever change the way I see the world (yes this is a recurring theme on the blog).

It was the cover.   The cover of the book was made out of beige and red material.  It stood apart from the other books because of it’s quality.  Someone had taken great care to produce this book.  It said, “Buy Me”.

I pulled the book off the shelf, and found a corner to sit down and flip through it.  But instead, I read it.  Cover to cover.  I read the entire book and then I started over again from the beginning.  I loved everything about this book from the cover, to the glossy pages filled with meaningful and moving photographs, to the carefully selected quotes.  But what I loved most was the message.

It wasn’t a radically new message, but it did give me a new language to describe something that I already believed, that we get what we focus on in life.  That “just by shifting ever so slightly the way we see things” we can get more of what we want in life and less of what we don’t want.  It was like Law of Attraction but based in Science.  And that Science had a name, Asset-Based Thinking.

What is ABT?

ABT is the opposite of DBT.  And DBT is how most of us currently face the world.  DBT stands for Deficit-Based Thinking.

Let’s use a story from another book to illustrate the difference.  In Soar With Your Strengths by Donald Clifton, the book opens with a parable about a school for animals.  At this school, animals would learn how to Run, Jump, Swim, Climb and Fly.  On the first day of school Rabbit was top of his class in both running and jumping, but when it came time for his swimming Rabbit didn’t even want to get in the water – and flying terrified him.  That night Rabbit went home and told his parents that he didn’t think school was for him, but his parents just shook their heads and said: “That’s too bad, you’re going back tomorrow and you’re going to get a diploma”.  The next day Rabbit went to see his school Counselor.  He explained to the Counselor that he was struggling with Swimming and wanted to see if he could drop the class.  The Counselor said, “well it looks like you’re doing great in Running.  How about we take you out of running and put you into two period of swimming so that you can work on that instead?” Rabbit just groaned.  That night Rabbit dreamed of a school where Rabbits did nothing but run, Birds did nothing but fly, Squirrels did nothing but climb trees, and Fish did nothing but swim.  A place where you could spend every day concentrating on what you love and do best, instead of on your weaknesses.  That’s ABT.

DBT puts the focus on improving weaknesses, and focuses on what’s not working.  ABT, by contrast, let’s you focus on what you do best.  It gives you a new set of tools for dealing with setbacks, disappointments, and anxieties.  ABT focuses on what’s working, “it favors inspiration and aspiration over desperation”.

And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in Change The Way You See Everything Through Asset-Based Thinking.  This book takes about 45 minutes to read cover to cover, but the ideas and applications could take a lifetime.

As a side note, one of the authors of CTWYSETABT is now on Twitter, Follow Hank Wasiak here.  And watch Hank and Kathy describe ABT vs. DBT in the video to the right.

Have you read Change The Way You See Everything or Change The Way You See Yourself?  I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions below.

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