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You getting ready to throw up in your mouth the next time someone tries to sell you a “How to use twitter Book“?? I know I am! I am a passionate guy! I love my job, I love my Family, and I love to share! Every once and a while I am going to share a passion of mine as well as those that I have found to be mentors or just folks with the same kind of passion!

Photography

I am really passionate about photography. My father was a photographer and I seem to have been bitten with the bug in the last year. One of the things that I find alluring about photography is that I will never stop learning! That excites me. Here is a picture I took at the 2009 Lockport Relay for Life. They had a release of butterflies to signify Life.

As I said, I love to promote, facilitate and encourage passion. Here are some photo works by some friends and Mentors:

John Piercy (@JohnCPiercy) – An amazing image processed in photomatix pro.

Larger Image Here

CC Chapman (@CC_Chapman) – It’s all about texture baby!

Large Photo Here

Todd Jordan (@Tojosan) – Not sure exactly what it is. I just know it’s cool! Great Shot!

Large Photo Here

Damon Cortese (@dacort) – The space needle over Seattle. Beautiful!

Large Photo Here

Some great Photography Resources:

Digital Photography School
This Week in Photography
Scott Bourne & Photo Focus

What’s your Passion? And how are you integrating it in your life and work? Do you live every day with passion?

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I believe creativity is just as intrinsic as eating, breathing, and procreating. When I hear people say, “Oh, I’m not creative.” I passionately reply, “Yes you are.” Creativity is innate, otherwise as a higher level species, we wouldn’t be here today. Creativity is the ability to continuously make decisions on the fly while in the moment. Whether I volley ideas back and forth with Andrew during a project, en route to the grocery store, or over a glass of wine, it’s a cerebral tickle that needs to be fed.

Curiosity

My natural curiosity leads me to open myself to other cultures. When I expose myself to a variety of experiences (academic, corporate USA, freelancing, galleries, museums, non-profits, travelling, volunteering), I try to remain objective, shaking off any preconceived ideas or influences in order to understand the authentic core.

4 Stages of Creativity Augmented by my personal philosophy:

Preparation/Investigation – Natural curiosity coupled with the importance of research aids in me this stage.
Design/Illustrate – Applying different perspectives (ant’s eye view, birds’ eye view, underwater, straight on), color, defining purpose, all provide me the fundamentals for exploring opportunities and solutions.
Incubation/Illumination – Walk away. Take a shower. Play a round of golf. Do something extremely different that exercises a different part of your brain. As soon as I shower, I realize that I’m more concerned about rinsing the soap out of my hair than I am about whether the color blue
I’ve chosen for my painting is the right shade. At this point, usually the ‘Aha’ moment hits
and I am able to return to adjust the design components to make a better product. Design and Incubation cycle back and forth until I have achieved a point of confidence in the solution.
Verification/Finalize – This is where the final stage of design and output happen for presentation.

Sharing Creative Process

Sharing allows me to dissolve the myth that creativity isn’t about alchemy “Creativity is a process” With every process there’s a if/then clause. Replacing the perceived alchemy of creativity with process doesnʼt seem so scary. The ability to reduce the process of creativity into bite-sized tasks takes the pressure off and allows me to check my ego at the door. Sharing makes good ideas better. I’ve learned not to fall in love with my own work or my own ideas. I have fallen madly, deeply, and passionately in love with the process of sharing. The pure act of sharing idea volley is electric to me. Kinetic. There are very few people with whom I am able to do this and constantly seek others who really dig the same act of back and forth.

Sharing the creative process, say, with something that I’m meeting on for the first time (tile ceramic class), I take the liberty of infusing my progress with ultimately raw perspective. I’ll unabashedly show you the shaky hand result that is the antithesis of my final work because I’m learning to work with a new material. I’m confident of my learning and know that my work will only get better, so I’m not filled with trepidation when revealing some of the most shocking and humorous results of my first attempts.

Physical Manifestation of Creativity & Sharing

It’s not uncommon for me to get physically excited about possibility; I start shouting out ideas like a Jeopardy contestant. Fellow students in my ceramics class witnessed this last Saturday. When I get stymied on a project, I get physically active. I dance in place to dislodge any idea wedgies hampering me.

Sharing is a natural part of who I am. I believe sharing is another word for complement. I say, “This is what I know, I think you should know it, too. Hear it, consider it, implement it if you want.”After years of learning my craft and all the supporting tasks as a entrepreneur, I feel confident in my ability because of the mistakes I’ve made. My ability to redesign my outlook if one solution doesn’t work makes me a better problem solver. This is why I’ve learned to develop at least 3 solutions to one challenge and continue to solve in the background while working if the first 3 don’t hit the mark. I want to share my knowledge because I want to see people succeed. The reason I continue to feed people w/tips, how-tos, and you-shoulds, is because I see that they’re about to learn it anyway (the hardway) and I just want to save them some steps, or they may be stymied by inertia caused by lack of resources. I know what works for me and what doesn’t and keeping a myriad of alternatives in my back pocket helps when life throws wildcards my way. Someone may not implement my methods or processes, but at least this gives them a
springboard from which to jump into their own pool of ideas. If that begins a discussion,
I’m all for it because then I can continue learning and generate more ideas that lurk in
the dark recesses which need to get out.

Paradigm Shift

On one of my first dates with Andrew, we went to a Staton McDonald-Wright exhibit. As
we were walking thru, allowing our eyes to absorb the melody of color, we overtly had
what I call, “A simultaneous paradigm shift.” We both stopped, straightened up,
abandoning our public flirting, and concurrently cood, “Wooooooow! I see it! What an
awesome composition of undulating and pulsating color and rhythm.”
Moving from physical manifestation to emotional manifestation is not uncommon for me.
If you ever see me in public, you may just see a creativity jig happen before your very
eyes.
Creativity Happens!

You can see Lisa “EC” Stewarts work on her website. Please leave comments here or feel free to get in direct contact with Lisa or myself if you have any thoughts or questions. Stay tuned or subscribe to the blog for Part 2

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Welcome back. Chris always has a ton of value to add to the community and it’s the very reason I link to him a lot. (good strategy on his part ..huh)

As many of you may know I am passionate about the arts, social media and community. I have utilized the drive of my passion to get me to where I am today working for one of the largest most successful retailers in the world. Here is an anecdotal story from my online woodturning business Magic Woodworks. You will see the progression I took to capitalize in a completely genuine way on the attention I had gained through social media tools.

Awareness & Attention

It was early the early days of twitter and I was relatively new to the service. I had been blogging and sharing my woodturned art out of Magic Woodworks for approximately six months. It would be valuable for you to know that my intention at the time was to be able to leave my job in a cabinet shop to do my woodworking full time. I had a long way to go, but one thing that I noticed was that as I shared my creative process, and used social media tools like flickr to post pictures of my work in progress that people were really starting to take notice of what I was doing with my woodturning. In fact my twitter follower number was rising quite rapidly and people were starting to write about my use of social media to create awareness around an art form many had never even heard of. Seth Godin talks about being a purple cow, well I turned into the purple woodturner gaining attention and awareness with each passing day.

Engagement

As I spent more and more time in front of the lathe (my power tool for creating the art) because of increased business or prepping for an art show, I found myself getting a bit lonely. I turned to twitter! I brought my computer out to my shop, draped some plastic wrap over it to keep the dust out and started tweeting about the things I was making. People were intrigued and interested. I noticed one day that my twitter follower count was at 499 followers so I decided to try and make an event out of number 500. I told my followers that I was at number 499 and that I would send a hand made wine bottle stopper to the 500th follower as well as to whoever referred that follower to me. The twitter-sphere was a buzz very quickly and in no time I had not only added that one follower needed but easily 60 more folks who were interested in the process. At this point I could have dropped the whole thing, sent the wine stoppers to the winning parties and called it a successful passionate awareness campaign ~ But I didn’t

Execution

I decided a few hours after the twitter buzz that I would contact the two folks getting the wine stoppers and tell them that not only would I send them the stoppers, but if they could come up with a good time; I would create the stoppers live for them using Ustream. I was about to create a live streaming event from an event on twitter and I knew people would be engaged. We chose the next saturday morning to run the live event and I told people that not only would I be making the two free stoppers, but I would also take requests and would turn wood the entire weekend live on-line! When I flipped the switch to go live saturday morning I was greeted by at least fifteen people in my chat room eagerly awaiting the live show to start and I was having a ball! Without getting into the details of the entire weekend, I did 7 live shows and pulled in enough orders and sales to purchase a brand new lathe that would serve me really well in my business moving forward. Until then I had been working on a lathe that was not built for the amount of use and torture that I was putting it through.

Extended Execution

During the weekend of live streaming I had many, many visitors to the chat room. Many of them content producers and bloggers. They were interested in how I was using social tools to create awareness and sales for my small woodturning business. People were fascinated by the process of the art and I did many interviews in the coming days and weeks. This really kept the buzz high and introduced many hundreds or even thousands of others to what I was doing, including a story in the local Buffalo Newspaper.

Takeaways for Social Media

1. Engage people with what you are passionate about
2. Create awareness and attention with methods (tools) that suit your audience and product (Mine were photos, text and video)
3. Be creative with your engagement. Think outside the box and create events for people to gather around.
4. Everyone has to eat. Figure out a way to leverage your passion so that people will value and pay for your product or service. You shouldn’t have to shove it down their throat. People understand that their is an exchange of value for value.
5. Finally, go back to Number 1. If your not passionate about what your doing. Don’t do it! You’ll be better off following your heart and your passion than you will be struggling against the tide.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Does this teach you anything about the ways that you can implement social media tools for your business?

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Social Media + The Arts = A perfect fit. This topic could easily be a book. The ability for me to cover it in one blog post or even a series of blog posts is not really possible. Ok, so I tipped my hand here. Yup, I’m writing an e-book on integrating social media with the arts and creative endeavors. In fact, I have 90% of it done, but I am having a hard time wrapping up all of my thoughts and tying it all together. It will be done soon. That is a promise.

Sharing is Key, Sharing is fun.

How much fun s it to get involved in communities like twitter? I say it’s a hoot! For artists, twitter is a great place to share your creative process, but that not my point. Tonight, I asked some folks on twitter why they followed me and what do you know! I found a new friend. her name is Sarah and she can be found on twitter @NmymindCarolina She told me that she followed me because I am passionate about new media and the arts. She asked if any of my live presentations were on my blog:

I realized that this blog did not have any of the video embeds of any of my live speaking sessions. maybe it’s a bit of self-conscious (I hate hearing myself speak) but I decided this blog post would be a custom post for Sarah.

Session #1 – Podcamp Boston 3 at Harvard

Biggest Takeaway – Be Passionate and be Human!

Session #2 – Podcamp Toronto 3 at Ryerson University. (This session was done with Steve Saylor and Julianna Yau)

Biggest Takeaway – Be Passionate and be Human!

More Coming

If you spent the time to watch all of these videos, I applaud you and pity you. hahaha
There will be more coming on social media and the arts integration. Do you have any questions for me? Anything that I can cover? Let me know. It just might make the e-book.

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If you don’t have a chance to listen to the podcast before this evening I am going to be leading the charge on twitter to help support Tim. I am going to be gathering a bunch of friends and folks in the twitter community to live blog Tim’s Chuck appearance as one of the bad ass Fulcrum Agents! We will be meeting on twitter and using hashtag #ChuckTV. Be sure to tell your friends and lets show our support for Tim.

Enjoy the episode! I know I had fun chatting with another brilliant creative mind. Tomorrow, I will embed this post with the new episode of Chuck from Hulu.

Creatives & Community Podcast #2 – Tim Coyne Interview
Download:MP3

Links to Note:
Tim featured in iProng Magazine (PDF Download of the Magazine)

Thank you to John Meadows for the audio work on Podcast #2.

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Etsy, is the marketplace for all things handmade and handcrafted. In theory, Etsy is a great marketplace to sell your handmade or handcrafted items. I have been selling there for about six months, but I am hesitant to continue listing items there. The situation is a real catch 22. As a person who sells handmade pieces mainly to the online community I feel that I should have a presence on etsy. In fact, Not only should I have a presence there, but I should be able to effectively market my online store.

Statistics Fail!

This is where we run into problems. Etsy Provides zilch in the statistics department! If I sell an item I have no clue where that person found me from unless I ask. If I am not selling anything, I have no clue if anyone has even visited my storefront. If particular items are not selling, I have no idea the number of views an item has recieved. C’mon, here Esty! These things are basic essentials to any business and there are thousands of Etsy sellers paying your bills every month. Etsy knows these stats and it’s time to make them available to the sellers!

Web 2.0 or No?

In this world of interactivity, web 2.0, and online selling the fact that etsy does not provide stats to it’s sellers is ludicrous. I have tried to contact etsy by sending very polite emails asking if they had any type of stats service and these went unanswered! I follow Etsy on twitter and they follow me. I have sent direct messages to them and these have gone unanswered. I have put messages out in the public timeline on twitter and these too have gone unanswered. What the heck is going on here? Etsy claims to be a web 2.0 company that interacts with it’s sellers and buyers. As far as I can see they do no such thing.

Not one to rock the boat

I am not a complainer, and anyone that knows me will tell you that it takes a lot to get me upset. However, Etsy does not seem to value me as a paying customer. They wont even answer simply stated questions. I have never been rude, and I have never put them down….until now! My questions and suggestions have fallen on deaf ears and frankly I’m pissed. If they don’t offer, and never plan to offer statistics to their sellers all they had to do was tell me that and this article would never have been written. I would have made my decision to sell there based on the facts; for better of for worse.

I’m not the only one!

I am not the only person who has concerns about the lack of information that etsy provides to it’s sellers. Here are a few snippets from the etsy forums. By the way, as far as I can see no one from etsy has ever addressed anyone on the forums to absolve concerns, offer suggestions, or simply inform. The sellers on etsy are left to speculate.

vintagecallgirl says:
“People have been begging for stats since the beginning of Etsy.

We’re still begging.”

Web Business Rule #1 Listen to your Customers and Users – FAIL

cathysavelspaintings says:
“Do they exist here? I have the little mini Etsy in several places but I’d love to know if they’re actually working. I have no idea who is clicking and where they come from. I think this is vital information we all should know to help us with advertising/marketing.”

Etsy forces it’s sellers to operate in the dark!

cathysavelspaintings says:
“Thanks but craftcult (or majaba as was) doesn’t give me anywhere near what I need. It’s very difficult to know where to spend money on advertising if you can’t have a clue about where people are coming from and what is working. I really think Etsy should consider this as it would help everyone (including them!). Admin?”

No Admin response – FAIL

ButtonsByLouLou says:
“It would make a huge difference and save us all a lot of wasted energy I’m sure. We might be surprised where we are getting customers from.

“

Who are our customers?????

MyWiredImagination says:
“What I don’t understand is Artfire still in beta, and not drawing serious revenue (YET) has very comprehensive stats. But Etsy, drawing better than 2.5 MILLION a MONTH in revenue can’t be bothered with providing stats… what’s up with that??????”

Lesson? Go to ARTFIRE???

ArtmakersWorlds says:
“No stats here. NO ability to put a TINY bit of code and use free stats here.

I have been BEGGING for stats since I first joined and realized there is nothing but a stupid useless counter.

Etsy claims it’s one of their top three on the to do list. And later, they say it won’t happen for months if at all.

So stupid if you ask me! If we had a clue what worked and what didn’t, we could all help our own sales. Which in turn would increase etsys profit.

I would have four times the stuff in my shop if I had stats.

But no. KICK the dead horse again!
Never helps.

So… this is just a hobby for me. Etsy won’t take us seriously? I won’t take this site as a business seriously either.”

Another satisfied customer! Way to go.

phippsart says:
“Having stats on Etsy is more important to me than ANY other feature they could possibly implement. The fact it’s on the back-burner causes me physical pain.”

These are some of the more tame forum comments that I was able to find very quickly. I went through pages and pages of comments very similar to these and never saw a post from a community manager or forum administrator. My feeling is; “If there are other galleries and venues out there to sell your handmade wares, Do it!” Etsy, is not marketing individual sellers they market etsy. Without any statistics in your store there is no way to know conversion ratios or even if anyone shows up!

So what are your thoughts on this situation? Is etsy in the right? Are they doing the right thing by ignoring the requests of their community? Do you see it a different way? I’d love to know.

And hey – ETSY, IF YOUR NOT TO HIGH UP ON YOUR CLOUD MAYBE YOU COULD RESPOND TO THIS!!!

That’s doubtful, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Elastic Lab Using the Power of Social Media for Professional Content Creation

Approximately six months ago I was contacted by my good friend Marina Martin about a new company that she had the the privilege to be working with. Elastic Lab, a professional video production house was to be entering the social media space and she was going to help in the community building process.

The unique thing about Elastic Lab is that they are utilizing social networking and new media for it’s strengths. Using the power of community, the strength of their network and crowd sourcing they are recruiting filmmakers of all levels from all over the U.S.

Who do they Hire and Why?

Elastic Lab Hires amateur video creators, vloggers, and professionals alike to create amazing collaborative videos. Often times there are many different contractors working on the same project, and can come from all over the country. Elastic Lab gives their filmmakers a theme and some specifics to follow for their video project. The filmmaker shoots video based on the specific topics that are asked to be covered. After the video is shot, logged and noted the filmmakers send the videos in to be edited into what amounts to a cross between consumer generated content and a TV quality video or commercial.

Elastic Lab is only about a year old now and they have had many successes producing video for clients like vehix. Glen Morey, CEO of Elastic Lab Says;

“Elastic Lab is able to deliver the authenticity of consumer influencers and user-generated content with professional production values. And we do it with the economic efficiency required for ad-supported, digital media properties.”

Check out some of Elastic Labs videos here in their new screening room. It looks like they will soon be adding video to sites like Vimeo and YouTube to help in their community outreach and awareness. If you are a recreational videographer or a well seasoned filmmaker give Elastic Lab a try. You can contact them by going to their website, or you can get in contact with their Community Strategist Marina Martin and she will help you get started.

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Speaking at Niagara on the Lake Meetup

For the past two years I have been immersed in the interactive web space some of us call web 2.0. I have learned a lot of things and made many great friends. I have spoken on technology for arts organizations and brought my knowledge to Podcamps. This blog hopes to be an extension of my community and anyone that is looking to use new media tools as a way to help extend their reach. This can be for personal, for business or whatever reason you give yourself.

I invite you to feel free and open to discuss anything that you are passionate about! If your looking for a forum to blog I will gladly bring on the occasional guest post. Mainly, however this blog will revolve around the things I am passionate about! I hope you decide to subscribe, and join me in what hopes to be a journal of passion, success, and sharing.

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