Are You Actually a Community? – Team Awesome #50Meetups
The name of the Meetup alone, Team Awesome, got me excited about the potential of meeting some really cool people. With 67 people RSVPed, I was ready to mix and mingle with NYC’s most awesome. The location of the Meetup, Barcade, was just the icing on the cake. When I arrived at Barcade, the place […]
The Value of a Community Door Greeter #50Meetups
The whole point of a community is to have a shared affinity around a passion or topic. I knew I was going to like the Meetup F*ckup Nights NYC** because the topic of failed entrepreneurial moments is right up my alley. The Meetup took place at the top floor of a co-working space in Brooklyn. After I […]
Passionate Leadership at Taco Tuesday – #50Meetups
We arrived early at La Palapa to meet with the Meetup host, Derm. With only his profile picture to work from, we quietly questioned each other about every person who entered the restaurant, until finally the unmistakable real Derm walked in. With a big smile, Derm welcomed us to his Taco Tuesday Night Meetup. As […]
Orientation Leaders Should Be Modeling Success at Orientation
Being an orientation leader isn’t easy. It’s early mornings, late nights, and long days. I know, I was one in college. Despite the massive amount of energy needed to be an OL, OLs should never stop modeling the best type of behavior at any moment throughout orientation and beyond, for several reasons: 1) Freshman are […]
See That Student Sitting Alone at Lunch?
During a Florida State University football team tour of a local middle school, wide receiver Travis Rudolph created a selfless moment of kindness that we should all inspire our campus leaders to do on a daily basis. Travis saw 11-year-old Bo Peske sitting by himself in the cafeteria during lunch. It’s reported that Bo, who […]
People Talking Too Long in Meetings? Here’s a Simple Solution
I spend a lot of my time facilitating small group discussions around a wide range of topics. Over the past 15 years, I’ve easily interacted with over 400,000 different types of people. Each person has their own style of communication. One particularly challenging communication style is the looper. By looper, I mean that they say what […]
What does your personality mean to you and your community?
My sisters and I were recently sitting in a cafe, and I was discussing potential educational icebreakers that I could organize for the group of resident assistants that I will supervise this upcoming year. A bunch of different icebreakers were brought up, but the two that stood out to me involved discovering the different personalities […]
Team Bonding with a Book Club
My Kindle noted that I was 17% done reading Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin. The main thought running through my head was how freakin’ long of a build-up Seth was taking just to get to anything actionable in the book. He kept looping thoughts and popping into odd side tangents. Was I being too harsh on […]
When the Team Leader Lets Go
The hallway was dark and narrow as we wound around the inside of a restaurant towards our table. At any given moment, I expected a Ninja to pop out and scare us…after all, we were having dinner at Ninja New York. My dinner experience was one of many unknown moments I had through the day […]
Swift Kick Wins a Record Breaking Fifth National College Speaking Award
Fourteen years ago, I attended my first APCA conference to pursue my dream of being a professional speaker. Because I was still a senior in college, I had to leave after my evening class and drove ten hours through the night from Chicago to Atlanta. Despite high hopes of crushing it, my first ed session […]