Make Cool Stuff

We need more doing these days. Dreaming is great, talking can get us there, but doing is where it’s at. I don’t want to contribute more noise. I want to contribute more cool stuff.

Here’s what I’ve been doing in the past few months:

CreativeMornings/Minneapolis
It’s a free monthly event with coffee, a great speaker, and creative people from around Minneapolis and St. Paul. A few of our speakers this year include Mark Wheat from the Current, Brother Ali, and Kieran Folliard of 2 Gingers. In October, I got to hang out in Brooklyn at the CM Summit with other CreativeMornings teams from all over the world. 2015 will be a big year. Check us out here and come to our next event: www.creativemornings.com/msp

What I’m learning: I’m so lucky to be part of this team. Good things happen when you work together. Everyone should build stuff that’s more about what you can give rather than take. Everyone is creative.

Co-taught a Social Media Strategy course at the University of Northwestern-St Paul
For one month, I helped teach a class on social strategy at the college I attended and graduated from. We had students write a social strategy, and build a WordPress site, Facebook Page, and Twitter profile. It was a great exercise for me in clearly communicating what I do every day. Huge thanks to some of my social media friends (Haley, Clark, Carrie, and Rena) for guest speaking as well!

What I’m learning: Teaching needs to be about listening. I want to keep doing things that seem scary at first.

Packing meals in Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta
During the past year, Feed My Starving Children has hosted many very large meal packing events across the country. Our volunteer experience is all about doing, action, and teamwork. Thousands of volunteers participated to pack millions of life-giving meals. I traveled to events in Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta to meet with our volunteers, take pictures, do social, and run some video and audio.

What I’m learning: People want to be part of something bigger.

I bet you have a dream you should be turning into a project. Adding a person or two can really give the thing life. Make cool stuff with cool people and pour yourself into it.