(that’s a funny play on words if you look at it from a director’s stand point – I humor myself)

OK, back on topic.

I love business. I eat it, sleep it, and dream it. I love being able to create a product from nothing, and sit down with big corporations representing my small company as if I was equal footing. (PS read “The World is Flat” if you haven’t already).

I took action. I’m a member of the Morgan Hill Access Television (MHAT) and the Community Media Access Program CMAP for Gilroy/Hollister/San Juan. I’m producing my own show for the community TV, and of course, the Internet. It’s called Bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping is a monthly magazine style show (magazine style means it’s like 20/20 format) that celebrates the business approach of bootstrapping – internally funded, cost conscious, and self sustaining.

The Silicon Valley became used to the availability of finance. Businesses were funded by Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and even the easy equity in homes made money available by the mortgage market. Today, funding sources are drying up, businesses need to cut costs, but they still need to continue operations and grow. Bootstrapping takes a look at local businesses and highlights their attempts bootstrapping efforts.

I need crew. If you live near Morgan Hill, CA and you’ve ever thought it would be cool to participate in a production of a TV show, join in. Here are some examples of roles:

Talent (business to be interview, or the interviewer)
Camera Crew (absolutely no experience necessary)
Editing Crew (I’m learning as I go)
Audio Crew (again, no experience necessary)
Voice Over Talent
Fans

Pass the word on if you know someone that would find this fun.

Oops – one more thing. THIS IS NOT A MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITY! I’m not paying anything, and I don’t expect to get paid myself. It’s purely recreational and in an area that I really find interesting.

Hasta.

Jim

Stay away from the design templates!  Most of the templates are way too graphic intensive, and while they look impressive on your computer screen, they can be distracting to audiences.  The simplest presentation can actually put the attention on your content, not your PowerPoint skills.

To see some great examples of how others implement Less to create More, take a look at Prezi. This company has created an alternate to PowerPoint that will blow your mind with the  simple-ness. CommonCraft has made a complete business by eliminating the bells and whistles from their presentations.  Don’t be tempted by your applications special features. Spinning text never sold anything!

I’ve been helping people for the past year with this system.  I was a speaker at BizTech Day last weekend, and during one of the breaks, a lady asked me if I was serious about building a website easily.  I sat her down, opened my laptop, and in 10 minutes, we created a brand new website for her.  She’s had one of those “under construction” pages up for over a year, and in 10 minutes, we changed her situation.

I feel empowered when I help people achieve something they thought was out of their reach.  Watch a recorded version of this event, and learn how you can apply this new system to your family, community, or business.

Click to Watch a Recorded version of the Seminar

.

by Richard Waldman – Life and Leadership Coach
www.coachmerich.com

Have you ever really wanted something that was attainable, and yet, felt powerless to obtain it? For example, a person who wants to be debt free and has a love affair with their credit card, might feel powerless. The entrepreneur, who wants to promote their new business, but is afraid of rejection, might feel powerless. The person who longs for a relationship, but can’t get along with others, might feel powerless.

What keeps our mind glued to positions that deny us from what we say we really want? It’s the notion, for example, that we may be lacking; don’t have the ability or that others may judge us. Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective of storybook fame, said in one of his episodes, “There is nothing more illusive than an obvious clue,” and what we may be missing is the understanding of how the chatter in our head and its judgments hold us back. Judgments are up close, in your face and personal and occur when our chatter sounds the alarm that reality is out of sync with what we think reality should be, thus creating distance between what we’re judging and what we want.

This self-talk, however, is not always negative. We also hear a positive side that is energetic and filled with ideas that is often silenced by the judgmental side that wants to keep us where we are. But why does our chatter appear to have more power then our hopes and desires?

Here’s a clue. Our chatter has our ear; because it loves to tell us about our fears. For example, if we fear rejection, our chatter will gather up and present the evidence, all the ways we can be rejected, which scares the hell out of us.

So, how do we free our self from our self? There is really only one way, stop judging, which stops the chatter, the collecting of evidence and the need to react. Let’s use our fear of rejection, as example, to see how this works. Our judging that we can be “hurt” ignites the chatter in our head that show us the evidence, all the reasons why we will be rejected in hope that we will react. And react we do, with inaction, but no more. Being aware of what our chatter is doing and saying enables us to decipher those thoughts that move us forward, and those that hold us back. Being present keeps us out of the future where fear resides, and out of the past where regret is alive, so we may concentrate on making conscious choices. Conscious choice invites peace into the process by embracing perspectives and possibilities that move us forward.

For thousand of years, metaphors such as the tree of life and the tree of good and evil, the true and false self, the yin and the yang suggest that a duality of consequence exists within all of us. In the 1960’s, artist Lou Christie sang a song entitled, “Two Faces Have I,” one that laughs, and one that cries.

These two faces present a dilemma that has plagued our consciousness ever since man became aware of himself, for we have not yet learned that when we fail to choose the self we want to live through, the chatter in our head will choose for us. And what it chooses will not give us what we really, really, want!