2012 – Writing, Destination Coworking & Entrepreneurship

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Chelsea

Sometimes an entire year can fly by without warning and it can seem like nothing major happened even though there were many great adventures, learnings and successes. My friend @tronathan challenged me to tell the story of 2012 with the deep details and outcomes included…

The year started with writing the book It’s a Shareable Life – a book that came from being at the intersection of the new sharing economy and technology at a time when there were only inklings of what was to come next. Through my experiences with coworking, Couchsurfing, Airbnb, GetAround and many others, I could see where things were headed and my intent was to help the movement grow – faster and to areas of the U.S. an beyond that might not have direct access to the boom that is the Silicon Valley.

There were a few major things I wanted to accomplish last year – one was to put a footprint into the future of work and the other to create a build community around the concept of sharing time, space, transportation and resources. Both of these things required being on the talking to thought leaders, founders and attending leading edge conferences. And both required a great deal of communication, planning, sales and branding.

The conferences I attended/was a part of in 2012:

- World Economic Forum 2012 in Davos
- DLD 2012 in Munich and Moscow
- GigaOM Roadmap in San Francisco
- World Domination Summit in Portland
- Startup Weekend in SF, Mountain View and Copenhagen
- BIL Conference in Long Beach
- SXSW in Austin
- Reinvent Business in  San Francisco
- CrowdConf in San Francisco
- Unmoney Convergence in San Francisco
- Digital Detox in Orr Springs
- Startup Abroad in Ubud

These conferences vary from small and indie with thought provoking, open dialogue to swanky affairs with top-tier speakers on perfectly lit stages. I learned a great deal about human relationships, building real connections, keeping on abreast of the latest thought currents, technologies and possibilities. Conferences are the new wave of education for entrepreneurs. If you go with a mind to participate and contribue somehow, the whole experience takes on a new meaning. Through all of these experiences of being surrounded by brilliant, thoughtful, enterprising people – I picked up on what the future was to look like through their eyes and then through my own, looking through a variety of their lenses.

My first goal was to take everything I’ve learned about coliving, coworking and being location-independent to a remote destination for entrepreneurs. Enter Startup Abroad – the brainchild of myself and @geeosh in 2011. We tried to do this in Berlin in the summer of 2011, but some things fell through and I think I was a bit too optimistic about how long it would take to put an international event together. At the very beginning of 2012 I heard about something called the Glint and decided to show up and see how I could help. I knew that the Glint was similar in sentiment and execution to the vision I had for Startup Abroad. So after DLD in Munich and the World Economic Forum in Davos, I showed up with my stuff to live in a bunk for an indeterminate period of time in Twin Peaks at the Glint. My apartment was rented on Airbnb and I was good to go… In the two months that I was actually at the Glint, I met a lot of the Theil Fellows, interacted with many international entrepreneurs who came to stay and attempted to help build the community in the house itself. Since it was just beginning and full of angst for a variety of reasons, I had my job cut out for me. I did, however, make some new friends that I hope are lifelong. After SXSW Interactive, I moved out of the Glint and back into my apartment in the city.

As soon as I got home, I hired a business coach and got on my way to execute the visions I had for 2012. He gave me a really great framework to work with and inspired me to read the Willpower Instinct, which made me understand how powerful routines are, especially for entrepreneurs. He also spoke about daily goals as promises and we worked at chunking off small stuff daily, leading to big results in the long run. I did a version of this that was similar years ago called RPM, but whatever you want to call it – it’s very mastermindish and works!

I just knew I had to pull of Startup Abroad in 2012. And trust me, I know getting a bunch of people to take a vacation to work together in a foreign country doesn’t seem like a big deal… but it is! Convincing people you don’t know or barely know to spend $2,500+ to follow you across the world because you think it’s a good idea is anything, but easy. @geeosh started working on another project and no longer wanted to be a part of the direct mission, so I was back on my own. I decided that without a shadow of a doubt, I was going to build this vision and if no one came – so be it – at least I tried. In April I booked a huge house amongst the rice fields in Ubud, Bali – one of the most spiritual places I’ve ever been. Once I had team Startup Abroad secured, I wrote a post for Shareable.net outlining our plans for Destination Coworking in Bali with 10 Entrepreneurs.

In August of 2012, we had the inaugural Startup Abroad and it was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done, but only in retrospect. Until I was in new frame of mind in a different time and space, I didn’t really see what was accomplished. Now I understand that Startup Abroad is a melding of sharing, travel, work and collaboration – but it was also an opportunity to have enough distance from distractions to truly connect. Almost every participant reported to me later what a highlight Startup Abroad was in their year and how close they felt to one another, almost like family. I can’t wait until work environments meld more with the rest of our lives and include travel, child care, housing, transportation, etc. We’re truly building a new economy!

My second goal of the year was to write a book to promote sharing. I’ve never written a book before – only built and marketed websites, blogs, products and software. I now feel that building a startup is easier and in many ways more externally rewarding than writing a book.

There are so many things to figure out – especially when collaborating with two other authors, a few editors and many interviewees. Much of my days in 2012 were filled up with listening to people talk about their hopes for the future, the economic liberation they got from sharing, speaking to the founders creating a new, extensible framework for transacting with one another and of course researching and writing, writing, writing. And because so much of this was still so new, I attended any conference that seemed to have relevance or a theme that would include people who could share their topical insights.

By the end of 2012, we’d co-written a 240 page manuscript, hired an editor, erected a website and put ourselves on the map in the new sharing economy with press everywhere from the New Yorker to Time Magazine.

Though my countless meetings and attendance at sharing economy related events in San Francisco, I discovered that there was a piece missing. I really thought the people of these companies as well as the users of these peer-to-peer services should be getting together at events where they could be social and informal in their interactions. Thus, I created the Sharers of SF and held 11 meetups in 2012, including a Collaborative Happy Hour on an Icelandic Cargo ship next to AT&T stadium in San Francisco with over 150 people in attendance. There are now more than 500 members and growing, making the Sharers of SF one of the largest event series for the new sharing economy in the U.S. All of these events were put on free of charge and I was able to acquire sponsors for a handful of the get togethers, which made them more lavish and fun.

Before we built the website for It’s a Shareable Life, I felt all pent up not having a great place to store all of my thoughts about this new revolution, so I created ShareandSave.net, which included an interactive directory to help people access and understand all of the areas they could share in their lives. Today, ShareandSave.net ranks #1 for sharing economy directory and has had a number of widely shared posts (I Don’t Need a Car and Neither Do You, SideCar a Cheaper Peer-to-Peer Alternative to Uber, and Philip Rosendale of the Future of Work. I even created the potential for people to tell their “share story” by submitting a drafted blog post right on the website. I did most everything myself on this website, contracting out only small bits and pieces.

My third goal of the year was to be able to afford to do all of these creative projects without going under. Luckily, I started Free Mania in 1997, which has afforded me the potential to make thousands of dollars per month for years. I have to admit, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted to on Free Mania, but I did contract a very talented graphic designer to give the website a facelift for rebranding. I think the results were pretty decent. I also hired a new blogger who has worked out very well. The last thing I did in 2013 along with the rebranding effort was to create a new strategy whereby I created an email list for “daily freebies.” The reality is, free stuff offers usually don’t last longer than a day or two and sometimes they are done within hours – so this strategy is to adapt to the ever-changing landscape and also to get people interacting daily for higher touch marketing.

If any of my goals were slighted in 2012, it was Free Mania – which is why I’m planning on putting the website to rest for any major involvement of mine in 2013. I’d really like to hire my blogger full-time to take care of daily and weekly email marketing and updates.

The last thing I did, which was not a goal but definitely a by-product of everything else I did was to develop a social media presence online. Today, I have 2,286 followers on Twitter, over 1,000 friends and a whole lot of love in my life. The funny thing is that I cared much more in the past about being boastful about who I knew or had worked with. Now I realize that it’s not who you know, but how they know you and more importantly how they feel about you. You can “know” plenty of people, but to have true relationships takes time and experience together. Toward the end of 2012 – after Digital Detox had sunk in and I’d returned from Startup Abroad in August – I had this deep sense of meaning that can’t be created by running around San Francisco hopping from event to event, hoping to meet someone interesting.

I guess what I really learned is how to truly connect to people without technology, without having to capture every moment and share it and without feeling like I was missing out becoming obsolete if I didn’t do these things. The person in front of you should be the most important person – not whoever is behind a screen that follows you where ever you go. It’s so much more valuable to have 10 people who would do anything for you than 800 “friends” that are largely loose connections.

Recap of 2012 accomplishments:
- Startup Abroad - founded an executed first-ever Startup Abroad in August in Ubud, Indonesia with 10 participants who are now alumni that would like to run the next one
- It’s a Shareable Life – co-wrote and researched 240 page manuscript, got website up, built reputation in the community, attended 12 fascinating conferences worldwide
- Sharers of SF – founded group that had 11 events and now has 500 active members with several major sponsors
- Share and Save – ranks #1 for “sharing economy directory” and has many well shared posts, an interactive directory and the ability for anyone to submit blog posts
- Free Mania – rebranded website, developed new strategy and hired and trained new blogger

Posted in Age of Sharing, Events, Inspiration, Passions, People, Travel & Mobility, Work | Leave a comment

The Goal Behind the Goal

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Chelsea

What do you stand for?
What matters?
Why do you get up in the morning?

To survive
To get to the next step
To make money
To provide for others
To help others
To contribute
To connect to your purpose

Two examples:
1.) My goal is to sell wine
2.) I feel inspired to make a billion dollar company

Neither of those represents the why, while it might be a milestone or a result along the way.

Purpose comes from the heart.
Purpose resonates with your soul.
Purpose provides relentless focus.
Purpose is the pathway to real success.

Posted in Inspiration, People, Work | Leave a comment

Leaving a Human Imprint

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Chelsea

I am a human imprint, not a brand nor a reporter.

I used to classify myself in business terminology and now I see more clearly without the blinders of so much ego on.

I am a creationist, a contributor and an interconnected syllable of the universe. My brand is nothing more than what I leave with people, on people and through people.

It is my human imprint, the intangible self that creates connections. Body language and the spoken word don’t even begin to realize what happens when humans converge.

We feel eachother, sense on another and form beliefs and judgements based on what we see. And seeing isn’t limited to vision or what’s in front of us, but rather what’s within us.

We may not fully understand the brain or the human experience and that’s ok… But I know what I experience daily through every interaction.

Our impact on one another is tremendous, especially when we consider how much we imprint one another with mood, motivation and understanding. We leave trails, memories and interconnected sentiments which supercede conversation and even topicality.

These trails leave us imprinted for our next experiences. It’s as if we literally rub off on one another, becoming one living, breathing organism.

This is why it matters who you spend time with, how you spend your time and what you present in the moment you both occupy.

Be present not only in your physical body and senses, but also bring in your heart — show it as if it’s the only thing that matters and imprint others with the ability to do the same.

This is how we create a shift in empathy and collective consciousness. When we can be spiritually vulnerable to not knowing, simply experiencing through the field we cannot explain, we give the greatest gift.

Imprint with love.

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A Choice to Be Awake

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Chelsea

Last evening, I watched an advance screening of Linda Lovelace, the story of a porn star.

This was the directors cut and the story of a women who was regularly assaulted by her mother, ignored by her father and offered very little affection, love or compassion by anyone.

An older man swept her off her feet, quickly married her and then he started raping her, strangling her and began locking in her in hotel rooms with men that had paid to have sex with her. This groomed her for pornography where this man used her for his own selfish desire for money and fame. This is based on a true story… more here.

My heart raced throughout the movie. When it was over, I felt the burning injustice of the hand of cards we each get dealt. Why are some born into extreme poverty, others abuse and yet others… love and stability?

Right as I stepped outside the movie theatre and into a new reality, a beautiful older man with a dark tan, a long beard and dirty clothing approached me for money.

As I unconsciously looked away, I felt my heart strings tug.  I looked directly at him, into his humanity.

He had this lucid, sad look on this face as he beckoned:

“Could you just buy me some soup or something up at Mel’s?” and pointed a block up the street.

There was something very sweet and honest about this man.

I couldn’t say no.

So we walked toward Mel’s when we arrived, I motioned for him to come inside. I thought it would be nice to share a meal together.

When we entered Mel’s, there was a male host at the host counter and I asked for a table for two. The man looked at me and past my new friend. “For you” he said? And I’m sure I looked confused and slightly annoyed when I said, “No, for both of us.”

The host lowered his voice and continued “Well, we can only serve you. We can’t serve him.”

“What!? That has to be illegal or something.” I pleaded.

“We can’t serve them” and this time he looked past me, robotically repeating himself. He then pointed to a sign on the wall, which I sure was some rendition of ‘We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone regardless of…’

No emotion registered on this mans face.

Instead of being angry, I felt my heart beat faster and knew I had to reach this man – remind him of his own heart, to wake him into compassion. I didn’t expect the situation to change, but I wanted him to feel something… to care.

I looked directly into him with an expressive face and kindly asked, “What about your humanity? This is another human being?”

The host looked past us, so I repeated myself so that he could see the higher truth of the scenario, “What about being human?”

There was a point at which I felt his heart soften and saw his inner struggle to blindly follow out of his own desperation.

He diverted his eyes, looked down and I could almost see tears coming on as begged me to see that he didn’t have a choice, “This is my job… this issss my jooooob” his voice cracked, he looked down and couldn’t bear to be look at me any longer, nor be a part of the situation himself.

Although I was looking forward to a spontaneous meal with my friend, more intense emotions were at the surface.

We were rejected. All of us. I think we all felt this melancholy of inequality of being human, of choice… and quite frankly, I think we all felt misunderstood.

So we walked out.

“I’m not surprised” my new friend relayed almost compassionately in a wise tone.

I then pointed to a BBQ place across the street.

“Do you mind if I wait outside? Lots of fancy people in there.”

I nodded in agreement and asked him what he wanted.

When I was standing in line to order food, tears fell as the room spun. I felt so confused, yet open — so pained, yet connected.

When I walked out the door and handed him a bag of goodies including a full turkey dinner, he offered a sincere “Thank you” with that deep tone and honest eyes.

As I turned to walk a a different direction home, he continued “Take care.”

I instantly felt as if my care for him bonded a mutual compassion for the well being of one another.

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Accelerating Serendipity

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Chelsea


Serendipity, such a beautiful experience. I’d say some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know, follow the practice of accelerating serendipity – through chance, proximity, gut and technology.

So many interconnected interactions happen to me regularly… leaving me with only chills and questions. Why does this happen? How does this happen and what am I doing to amplify serendipity?

A friend of mine, @JessicaRichman also recently pointed out the inherent nature of social clustering and the fact that maybe these connections aren’t random at all, we’re just all hyper connected and where we hang out (no matter where we are in the world) exposes us to people we share more than interests with. We share patterns, common friends, associations and oftentimes beliefs.

And perhaps the social graph can and will tell us who we should meet with astonishing precision.

But, will technology kill serendipity?

If Facebook predict your new friends with 40% accuracy, who knows who your new friends are better… you or Facebook? Creepy, huh? I got that stat from Jure Leskovec at the DLD Conference this year in Munich.

Here is the Facebook friend recommendation engine algorithm:
facebook recommendation engine algorithm

Start the video at about 52 minutes into the session to watch @Jure.

Previous to the conversation I had with Jessica, I met Lenny Rachitsky, founder of LocalMind.com through a random connection I made on @twitter with @oveyyeung from NYC.

After meeting @lennysan, I googled him and found him on TEDx Concordia TV talking about technology and the loss of natural serendipity. His talk inspired me to distill down the ways that I accelerate serendipity…

And my new friend @SteffanAntonas (whom I’ve never met or spoken to) agrees:

“I’m a big believer in the power of  engineering randomness into my life – it’s one of the main reasons I blog and use social media.“

And then there is Jonathan Harris who has some interesting views he’s been expressing since 2007 regarding telling the stories of peoples emotions and self expression online

Anyway, if I were to trace serendipity back to actionable endeavors, here are a few examples of things I think help accelerate serendipity:

I enjoy getting lost
I welcome interruption
I tweet
I talk to strangers
I google everyone who sparks my interest
I connect people who need to be connected
I try new services online before they are popular
I share my stuff through Airbnb, GetAround and SnapGoods
I cowork regularly
I lead with feeling
I use planely
I work from coffee shops and cafes
I’m open to online dating
I’m truly interested in other people
I pick up on energy and pay attention to attraction
I am a Couchsurfer
I live in a community cowork/live house
I attend interesting conferences internationally
I often trust my gut over logic
I pay attention to body language
I use social media to discover new ideas & people

So what’s the point of all of this? Serendipity rocks. Let’s not kill serendipity with overbearing technology, but rather enhance our ability to relate in the world through meaningful interactions that rely not only on our own gut, instincts and humanness, but also utilize the power of these recommendation engines to make insightful suggestions.

I think that’s going to have to be a conscious endeavor. If we don’t build technology that relies on our natural tendencies, I fear it will create a more an more elite system of interaction that limits the potential for people to bridge gaps and meet in natural settings without a full set of details on who they are talking to and relating with, which could be divisive.

Posted in Geeking for Good, Inspiration, Passions | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Future Internet

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Chelsea

I had a dream the future internet when I was 15 (more on that in a minute). Yes, that was 1998. I’d been building websites for a few years and had some relative success with freemania.com a portal for consumers to discover new products and services. All I did at that point was eat, sleep and dream about the interwebs. I spent so much time in front of the computer that my parents had to ration my time online.

I was utterly fascinated by the ability to connect nations, oceans, economies, cultures… I knew this new system of sharing documents, pictures and information was about to change the the world. I just knew it.

That was 15 YEARS ago!

Through all of the progressions and evolutions of the web, I’ve remained in the flow of what’s next. But, I’ll NEVER forget that dream… it was so vivid. Sort of like a dream I had when I was 11 years old.

I’ll relay my other dream first since these stories bleed into one another.

Dream #1 – Future Shopping Experience: I was in the grocery store with my mom and instead of going through the line, we just walked out with our cart. There was no cashier, no receipt, no checker — no nothing. But everyone understood that groceries had been accounted for and paid. On the way out the door, a price flashed and that’s how much the entire cart of groceries cost.

Upon waking, I asked my mom why this wasn’t possible. I remember my mom looking at me quizzically and pondering for a moment. We had a discussion about how this might be possible in the future.

In college, I learned about something called an RFID code. So I guess I still don’t understand why we can’t just walk out the door. I can bag my own damn groceries when I get to the car. And then I never have cart those silly eco bags around the store again. Of course, that’s assuming we have cars by the time they figure out how to make this a cost effective means of operation.

Dream #2 – The Future Internet: When you shop, you shop in a virtual 3D world using holographic representations of yourself. You can try clothes on, go grocery shopping and have sex without ever interacting with another human being in real life. In my dream, we all had our own world with friends we’d allow to visit us, social areas where we could meet new people and all of the comforts of real life through a virtual interface guided by arms movements, sight and voice.

When you move your face, the representation of you moves with your movements and directly mimics your expressions in real time. When you touch something, you feel it… just as you would in the material world.

Everything that you are in real life, you are in this virtual world, you just aren’t physically present to anyone else. When you walk out of a store with a new outfit on (which by the way, you try on using a body that’s exactly the same size as yours), you’re charged for it. And a day later a package arrives with your new outfit. In my dream, the internet was an experience unlike any other… a reality within a reality.

The dream blew my mind. I tried to explain it to my parents and anyone who would listen, but quickly realized that pretty much everyone thought I was completely off my rocker. I shut up and never mentioned it again.

Now, when I relive this dream, I get a little sad. The world is so connected through technology that we forget our own humanness in the complexity of an attempt to connect and make our existence more efficient. We forget how to interact and the world becomes increasingly selfish and uninspired by genuine emotion, touch… real connection.

In this dream, we don’t live on the internet all the time… but worlds do begin to collide and lines blur.

I don’t think any of this stuff is coming over night, but as technology changes… so will the internet. Currently the internet is flat. Once everything is in 3D, we’ll have a whole new set of moral questions to ask ourselves.

All of these thoughts were unearthed during a conversation I had last night with @NikkiEzelle AKA: Fembot, a guest at the Glint (where I’m currently helping develop the community). She is unlike most people I’ve ever met… in touch with herself with a pulse on technology. I was telling her about my dream and she took it a step further.

Nikki started talking about the possibility of becoming so overridden with technology that we don’t need our bodies, only our consciousness. And not only that, we never die. As we went through the story of how this could happen, I found myself questioning everything… including realities within realities. Are we really going to become robotic souls?

I think it’s up to all of us create a future where we’re conscious of what we are as physical and spiritual beings. Let’s hope we use technology to make us more of what we are and not less!

That’s one of the reasons I love the sharing economy so much. Businesses in the new sharing economy gives people an outlet to connect with their neighbors, consume less and save money… all the while using technology and the social graph to do it. I see this as an example of how technology can benefit our culture for the better.

The future internet isn’t going to happen overnight, but I think a great deal of it will happen in our lifetimes. Heck, we still don’t have internet everywhere and the SuperBowl was live streamed for the first time ever this afternoon!

What do you think? How would you describe the future of the internet — the future of technology? How do you want to see the future of the internet?

Posted in Age of Sharing, Inspiration, Passions | Leave a comment

@Jack – 1 Part Zen Philosopher: 1 Part Serial Entrepreneur

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Chelsea

I attended the GigaOM Roadmap Conference this November. The line up was ridiculous. I gleaned so much knowledge and insight about where things are going to go and current trends from the minds of industry leaders, futurists, philosophers, doctors and entrepreneurs. I was lucky enough to get a press pass since I’m co-authoring a book on the age of sharing and collaborative consumption.

Besides the Telsa S electric luxury car, which doesn’t compare to a human being… @jack the founder of @twitter and now @square captured the entire room. The hearts and minds of the conference converged. @jack spoke about technology making us more human, more humane, more connected. And the melody by which he spoke made me all the more grateful I was recording the talk.

The phrase that keeps running over and and over in my head is at the beginning of the video below:

“The arc of the Internet I’m most fascinated by is the arc where technology reminds us if of our own humanness, where it encourages us to use what we already have.”

- Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter

Since GigaOM, I’ve listened to his talk at least 5 times. Every time I learn something new and I get amped for tomorrow. The future Jack speaks of is glorious. It’s one where human beings harness technology to utilize more, be more, empathize and connect on a higher level. Never has someone so eloquently described @twitter… and why shouldn’t he? He was the visionary for the platform that gives everyone and anyone a voice.

You can see his full talk below:

Besides @jack and the Telsa S (which I may or may not have gotten in line for)… I picked up a few other gems that I’ll share:
* TV audiences have increased, not decreased with increased consumption of online video (so far online TV really competes with DVR) – People are finding more and more time to spend in front of their screens, often multitasking. Where are people finding all of this time?
* We need to build machines that respond to humans, not the opposite The future connectedness to our devices will become more human. Natural gesturing and voice activation will help people carry out everyday tasks.
* “Computers are not outside of us, we’re inside the machine”
* Drivers for innovation and creativity are often stirred by limited resources
* International markets will provide formidable competition – basically, the Silicon Valley will no longer have the corner of the market on innovation
* Consumers want to purchase bite size pieces of digital goods (songs not albums, chapters not books)
* App stores are the new internet — you now see apps within apps (see inkling, professional chef or fitnessclass in Apple Apps Store)
* The future of work is anywhere, everywhere. Within the next 10-15 years 80% of the workforce will be remote
* Cars will be more like iPhones/iPads with touchscreens, electronics and software that updates itself wirelessly

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Distraction Detox – Freeing Life of Quick Fixes

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Chelsea

Burning Man gave me a lot of time to think. I was supposed to meet up with some well intending friends. Instead, I wound up spending a lot of time alone and in a state of introversion. Sure, I had bouts of typical, social Chelsea, but I needed time away from technology, free of stuff in an environment so that could nurture my soul. Burning Man is like the Las Vegas of spirituality. You feel like you’re on an adult playground, only the sentiment is a little less sleazy.

In my inward state, I read Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves of Old Habits and Fears. I’d been exposed to almost everything in the book before, except this time I was receptive.

From Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron:
“Each of us can be an active participant in creating a nonviolent future simply by how we work with shenpa when it arises. How individuals like you and I relate to being hooked, these days, has global implications.”

Shenpa is the state of feeling uneasy.

I was reminded that when I feel insecure, vulnerable, anxious or exposed, I can sit with that. I don’t have to distract the uneasiness away. I can meditate into the space where I feel the pain or discomfort in my body, become conscious of it and let it move through me.

This is when I realized my typical pattern: I feel, distract… feel, distract.

Upon conclusion of the last chapter, I decided that the distractions and numbing agents have to go. If I’m going to lead a conscious life, I can’t drink a glass of wine to change my emotional state. Likewise, hopping on Facebook and mindlessly clicking around won’t lead me where I want to go. Unfortunately, one distraction seems to  lead to another. The rollercoaster of quick fixes easily becomes a way of life.

Perhaps the point isn’t to get rid of ups and downs, disappointments and frustrations, but rather to flow with feelings until they dissipate. That way, decisions can be made by choice rather than by default or knee jerk reaction.

Here’s my new plan:

When I’m feeling down, I’ll do something healthy that will improve my physical and mental well being that will benefit me in the long run. I will breath into my thoughts, filling the spaces of the lungs that crave oxygen when the body reverts to a defeated posture. I’ll exercise, meditate, drink herbal tea, paint and write when the mood strikes. Yes…. I’ll be creative, honest and let my imagination run wild.

Want to do a distraction detox with me? Let yourself feel what you feel without naming, judging or distracting your thoughts and physical sensations. Become aware.

Make a list of what you do when you’re feeling lonely, separate or fearful. Then make another list to replace your patterns with new ones that will bring you back to your body and mind in a healthy way.

Distractions & numbing agents in my life:
- Drinking a glass of wine or a beer
- Gossiping
- Going to a bar
- Cyber stalking
- Buying new clothes
- Browsing the internet for answers
- Eating junk food
- Mindlessly clicking around on facebook
- Taking a hot baths
- Searching for plane tickets

Replacements:
- Writing in my journal
- Going to Bikram yoga
- Painting anything
- Thinking of 3 things that I’m grateful for that day
- Meditating
- Learning something new
- Eating a salad with all kinds of fun toppings
- Drinking kombucha tea out of a wine glass

So, the truth is… I’m not going to stop taking hot baths or searching for ways to escape to Thailand. But, I’m not going to drink as a default or facebook stalk my way into oblivion anymore. I will attempt to make my actions align with my goals, aspirations and energy.

By exercising more, eating healthy and making choices consciously, I’ll magnify all that’s great instead of squelching my soul with quick fixes that lead down a road I don’t want to go.

I’ll have more time and energy to contribute to the world, to give to others and to lead with purpose. And in the process, I’ll be more true to myself.

Will you join me?

Posted in Events, Geeking for Good, Inspiration, Passions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time to Declare Interdependence

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Chelsea

Since I have allowed my life to be dictated not only by choice, but also by conscious intention, miracles have shown up all over the place. I have become increasingly aware and sensitive to the fact that we are a global network of thoughts and ideas.

It’s as if our thoughts occur at energetic packets that rain on certain individuals until the are picked up and downloaded. When the ideas are picked up, they gain momentum. This momentum, this force is now more evident than ever. The internet gave birth to a networked map of thoughts and people.

Once I started paying attention and listening to my own voice, I realized there are other voices and other people that hear the same call. We are vibrationally connected and now there’s there’s a tunnel where we can connect; the internet.

Many friends and colleagues have quizzed me on my love for Twitter. I try to explain that the interconnectedness exceeds the 140 characters, but that always comes out sounding like some new age, hippie explanation.

Twitter is snippets of mind share that are not only open for reading and consumption, but also for connection. Twitter is a place where the swarming of ideas is captured. If you’re able to listen to the whispers and follow those who follow those who you find inspiring, a whole new world of possibility opens up. Your passions find a tribe, a community for expansion, a vessel for creation.

This afternoon, I watched Connected, a documentary that questions technology, progress and the future of our civilization. The film also touches on love, mortality and the meaning of family. I can definitely relate to the film makers quandary and exploration of interconnectedness. The film starts and ends with a hacked version of a John Muir quote:

“Tug on anything at all and you’ll find it connected to everything else in the universe.”

I experience the feeling of interconnectedness every moment of every day. I have often tried to ignore these feelings as they don’t seem logical. The more I accept this interconnectedness, the more compassion I feel and the more I want to contribute. So, I’m pretty sure there is something to listening to oneself.

We’re experiencing a shift. I know it. The internet has arrived. Commerce exists on a new platform. Information is expanding every second. And now, everyone has the opportunity to have a voice, to connect in the way they desire, breaking down barriers, encouraging a whole new world of sharing.

Online is one world. Offline yet another. And the worlds are merging. Sometimes we forget that we don’t need computers, cell phones and social networks. Technology was born out of a need to protect against scarcity. Now, Facebook is a drug based on our need for human connection. We’re addicted to connecting, but the connections are currently shallow.

What if our worlds can artfully unfold into one another? What if we can use technology to connect our cloud based social reality with the physical plane in our everyday lives?

Our greed and hunger for consumption is coming to an interesting intersection. At the rate we’re going, we can’t keep going. And quite frankly, going going going isn’t all that fulfilling anyway. Financial success is not correlated to happiness beyond a survival. If owning more and more stuff isn’t fulfilling, what is?

Enter stage II of the internet, the stage and age of sharing. I firmly believe sharing is a vital ingredient to our planets future and to the future of humankind. When we’re conscious and living through love and gratitude, openheartedness has the opportunity to shine through all of us.

Sharing can happen in so many ways. Ideas. Information. Money. Pooled resources. Space. Time. Skills. Stuff. We all have so much to give and share.

One of the reasons I am so deeply moved by the age of sharing is that through sharing, strangers can quickly become friends, walls are dropped and collective trust is healed. Sharing will not only help people save money and lead more efficient lives, but also revive what it means to be human, what it means to be humane.

America declared independence over 200 years ago. Now it’s time to claim interdependence — to economically and sociologically connect resources. The internet makes this possible. The web is a hyper universe of connectedness that will help us consume less, share more and create a more sustainable world.

This isn’t all airy fairy fluff. The truth is, the recession, our national debt and the increasing cost of fossil fuels will push the population toward sharing out of necessity and convenience. People won’t hop on the bandwagon altruistically. Yet, there is something going on behind the scenes. The reason people will continue to share is the same reason people keep coming back to Facebook; it feels good.

There are far reaching implications of using what we already have to maximize our potential as a species. Sharing will compete with big business. Sharing will threaten capitalism. And ultimately, sharing will put the power back in the hands of the people, only this time as a collective.

What does this culture of sharing look like?

Cars are shared. Rides are shared. Ideas are open source. Skills are shared. Strangers can share breakfast spontaneously. You can sleep on a random persons couch or in their spare room when you are away from home. There are fewer cubicles in the workplace and less separation. Fences come down and neighbors meet by sharing their tools. Clothes are swapped amongst groups. Strangers meet based on proximity. Freelancers collaborate on projects. Groups buy together to obtain large discounts. Bikes line the streets of major cities, free to be used. Communal potlucks happen based on shared interests. Transit tickets are handed off instead of wasted. Brands don’t market to you, they offer you incentives based on who you are. Children learn new languages by interacting with others kids in other countries. Neighborhood fruit trees are harvested to feed the hungry. A printer can be shared with someone two floors below you. Internet connectivity can be shared is shared with your neighbor next door. You can even share a bathroom in your home. How about neighborhood growing cooperatives? Or a local network of moms who take all the kids one night a week to give the other parents a break? Investments? Let’s share the experience of contributing to something we believe in and make dreams come true.

All of these things are happening right now. And this is just the beginning.

Is there a limit to what we can share? When you think about life in the context of location based, on the fly connections based on necessity, what do you envision? Imagine a life where anything you need is a few mouse clicks away. Only this time, you get to connect meaningfully in real life. You’ll experience more of what it means to be human through offline social interactions and mutual exchange.

Let’s declare interdepence. Let’s declare our need for one another. And let’s build a sustainable world we can all be proud of.

Posted in Age of Sharing, Future of Work, Inspiration, Passions, Travel & Mobility | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rise of the Collaborative Coffee Shop

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Chelsea

I’m noticing a trend. Let me first say….Coworking rocks! In fact, I wear my “Cowork” (see below) shirt from the 2011 Coworking Unconference put on by Loosecubes at least once a week.

Yet, I feel like there’s a swell moving toward the same goal in another direction. Hot desks typically sold by coworking spaces (where you pay a subscription to use any free desk without ever having permanent space) seem to cost between $200-350 per month no matter where they are located in the world. That’s $10-16 a day if you used the facility on every workday of the month.

coworking in Berlin

As an entrepreneur, I like the freedom of working from where I want, experiencing different environments dependent on my mood and daily goals. I am not alone in wanting this.

We’re truly becoming a mobile world – devices, location, work styles, remote employees, freelancers…

This brings me to what I call a collaborative coffee shop. I don’t even think the owners of these coffee shops know what business they are getting into; they just know it works. People love being there and they make money.

I’ve found several examples of collaborative coffee shops recently. Last week, however, I found the ultimate spot – Kreutzberg California.

On my way to a friends wedding, I had to find a pair of bronze shoes. While I was running around all of downtown San Luis Obispo, I stumbled upon Kreutzberg CA. Since I’ve been to Kreutzberg, Berlin and feel a special connection there anyway, the sign caught my attention. I walked in and was astounded. Right then and there I decided to delay my trip back to San Francisco for 4 days to work out of this space while crashing at a hostel I  lived and worked at when I was 20.

Kreutzberg is part coffee shop, part cafe, part used bookstore ($4 for any book) and even part event hall. The decor is grungy, yet hip. The furniture is chic, yet functional. The space has a ton of light, an open feel and a creative tone that’s inspiring. There is a bar, table service, coffee, boutique teas, microbrews, local wines and the soft hum of relaxing, moody, energetic music.

Apparently, the owners bought all the decor at garage sales. You’d think they spent a fortune furnishing the place. Nothing goes together, but the flow works perfectly all the same.

There are two stories, intimate spaces, movable tables, outlets everywhere… the wifi is flowing. And you know what they have? A conference room with seating for 15 people. Yep. That’s right. And the hours? 7am to 12 midnight. I’ve been here for 3 days now and this place is especially busy at night. Although, the during the daytime all you hear is typing and the idle chatter of meetings. Whereas, the even brings college students on first dates, awkwardly playing checkers and drinking coffee.

I digress…

If coworking works on the model of spinning real estate costs in another direction by building a community, then a collaborative coffee shop adds the profitability of fancy lattes, happy hour and full service food. The vibe is set and the people flow in and out at their own pace. The owner said they did 800 transactions the other day (I’ll omit the average transaction price to protect their privacy). Wow. Do the numbers.

So that’s the business side. What about the other side? As a consumer, I want to go somewhere I can spend $15-20 a day to feed myself and get awesome space to use. I want to be around other people who are working. And, I don’t always want to be in the same physical or geographic location. And I’m only one use case. There are plenty of students, tourists and artists that frequent Kreutzberg as well.

Starbucks noticed this trend years ago. A lot of Starbucks even have full on desk with outlets built in. And, Starbucks works with AT&T to make sure the internet is a constant. If Starbucks is moving to this model, will we start a movement into other types of hybrids?

How will these collaborative coffee shops police spending vs. time and resources used up just by being there? There’s a new model emerging. I see it. And I think it has the opportunity to be highly lucrative and scalable.

This is where coworking meets coffee shop, not coffee shop meets cubicle. Rad. Stoked to see this model work and have new spaces to call home in different parts of the world.

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