#projectsocial

Project: Post-It - Part One

As we go through our days - sometimes the smallest things can pick us up, make us smile - and in turn create a positive ripple effect through those we come to encounter through the day.

What if we created positive social connections and without agenda. What if we did things for the sake of doing them and leaving the place a little happier. 

#randomhappynotes are all over Vancouver. Who knows where and when you might find one. If you do, share the happy.

Project: The Selfie Disaster Project

The Selfie Disaster Project is about trying to share a real story. What happens when you take something from the first world - a social evolution that’s woven into our sociocultural fabric - and re-contextualize it in the third world?

How do you explain something that was deemed “word of the year”, a concept riddled in vanity, ego, and a lack of modesty and explain it to people where everyday priorities revolve around subsistence and survival?

Why not use it to tell a story. 

A social experiment to tell a story. Multiple stories. The real stories on the ground of natural disasters around the world. 

Project Social is about doing social without an ulterior motive or an alternate agenda. It’s doing social for the sake of sharing without receiving in return.

Who knows where other #randomnotesofhappiness might be, but this one made my day. I found this one in the mirror of a car2go in Vancouver. I would love to buy the person who put it there a beer. I think that would lead to an awesome conversation.

The way in which we network today is so contrived and in many ways that it defeats the purpose of doing so. Does this look familiar:

You: Hey, great to meet you - here's what I do, here's my business card, I really think we could collaborate!

Person X: What you're doing sounds great, lets definitely connect, here's my card, lets make the magic happen!

You: Awesome, lets grab coffee this week and go from there!

Person X: Sounds great. I just tweeted you - let's continue the conversation online!

Now first things first - I love meeting people. I really do. There's nothing more important to me than the relationships around me and I cannot stand to see people waste their time with superficial interactions. 

I also love to stay fit - so why not throw some passions together? A year ago, I did exactly that.

Fitness + networking = crowd sourced training partners!

I called it 30 Grinds in 30 Days.

In essence, I wanted to put people in a situation they weren't familiar with where there were no preconceived rules of engagement. We didn't swap business cards, we swapped stories. We didn't shake hands and talk for five minutes, we hiked three kilometres up a mountain vertically and shared life stories. We didn't walk away from the conversation with no intention of following up, we kept in touch and actually built on those relationships. 

By creating this fully organic experience, I got an hour of people's time every day for 30 days and met over 40 people so closely that over two thirds of those interactions led to a more substantial longterm relationship. You don't believe me do you?

When you spend an hour with someone, you get to the root of their motivations, inhibitions and by thrusting them into an unfamiliar situation where there are no rules you get to create the rules. The success of it as a social experiment speaks for itself. Of the people I did the Grind with, those opportunities and genuine connections led to my first TED talk, an attempted political campaign, passionate additions to the Five Hole for Food team, a new squash partner, countless stories, new client work - the list goes on.

When I started using social media, I fell into the trap that everyone else does. I followed the suggested users, regurgitated how they thought everyone else should use various platforms and found myself wondering exactly what I was doing after having done "it" for a year. 

People talk about the unique potential in platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. to create a unique voice and do something unparalleled. 

They call it social media, and yet with every passing day the medium in itself becomes less "social". So why don't we change that? I love being creative. I love doing things people don't feel comfortable trying. I love pushing the limits and capacities that people define for us. We each have the ability to define our own capacities and reshape the capacities of the platforms we use - so lets do it! Join me as I have fun putting the "social" back in social media. 

It's going to be different.

It's going to be guerilla.