We believe strong communities accomplish more. When a community is actively engaged in one another’s lives and projects, there is a concern and commitment to help accomplish one another’s goals. Think back on something you’re really proud of having accomplished. Were you able to do it completely on your own?

If you were able to accomplish the goal on your own, do you think the impact could have been greater if you’d have had help in the process?

If you weren’t able to accomplish your goals on your own, what was most valuable about what your community added to the process?

When cultivating a strong and engaged community it’s important to consider a few things. As always, our list is not exhaustive. There are lots of other tips we could include, but these might be a few helpful things to think about as you’re building an engaged community around you.

1. How am I serving the people I’m hoping to cultivate community with? The times I’ve found to be most successful in working with my community and relationships are the times I’ve been most willing to serve them. My goal in serving is not to get something back. It can’t be, or my expectations will go through the roof. Serving gives opportunities to show those around me that we need each other. There’s a humility involved in serving that changes me and changes those I’m serving.

2. What are my expectations? In relationships, I get to control 1 part of the process: Myself. Community consists of me and a whole bunch of other people, but I only get to manage expectations of myself. I don’t get to place expectations on my community on how they will engage with me. If I have high expectations of those around me, chances are I’m going to be disappointed when they can’t live up to them. However, if I’m constantly asking what my expectations are, and keeping them in check I’ll be able to more realistically understand how they can engage with me.

3. Am I seeing the good? I’ve been harping on this a lot lately. For some reason it seems to be overly easy to focus on the faults of those around me. What if I begin flipping that on its’ head and start  looking for  and mentioning the good I see instead? If instead of reinforcing the bad, I begin calling out the good in others they MIGHT start living up to the good.

4. Am I listening AND talking? Sometimes we tend toward one extreme or the other. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in what’s going on with myself that I forget to listen to others. This leads potentially to selfishness, and to insensitivity to those around me. Other times I am so busy taking in what those around me are going through that I forget to be vulnerable and honest with what is going on in my own life. We HAVE to do both. It might not be perfectly balanced. What matters is that there is time and space for both talking and listening.

5. Who’s missing? We need a variety of people in our lives to help us grow. We need those who are easy to be with, we need people who challenge us, we need those a few steps ahead who can share their wisdom, people we can serve, people we can have fun with, people who we can be vulnerable with, people we can just BE with… Think about your community. Who is missing? Do you have only people who say YES to you? People who only say NO to you? Are you serving anyone? Are you being served by anyone? Make sure you have people in your life who both challenge and encourage you. What does your community look like?

Our friend Aaron Fortner shares that you can’t BUILD community. Community is living and breathing. You can’t build a tree: things that are living and breathing can’t be built, they must be cultivated. How are you cultivating your community?

By Brian Yee PT, MPhty, OCS, FAAOMPT Owner/Physical Therapist – Motion Stability, LLC and Movement Sports Physical Therapy, LLC

Did you know that 8 out of 10 people experience back pain sometime in their life?

Unresolved back pain leaves people feeling stuck, perhaps even losing hope with the belief that they may have to live the rest of their lives in pain, which often significantly impacts every aspect of their lives.

I can usually pick out the entrepreneurs as they walk through my door, even before I actually talk to them. You are a highly motivated, self-driven, and goal-oriented group. As an entrepreneur, you do not conform to the 40-hour workweek. Instead, entrepreneurs are obsessively focused on creating that one big thing. So you go through periods where you’re stuck on the computer for hours writing a business plan, or finding yourself traveling from city to city to make business happen, or eating a meal at odd hours of the night as you’ve lost track of time. What becomes of you is a person who puts a huge amount of stress on your body while you try to do what your entrepreneurial spirit drives you to do.

Ultimately your back pain occurs not only once, but starts to happen more often. Simple rest does not alleviate it anymore, and even injections or medications do not make a difference. Guess what? You now have unresolved back problems due to the lifestyle you live.

What’s different about the entrepreneur’s back pain than others is that it’s driven more by the mindset within you than a simple herniated disc that came from nowhere. The countless hours where you sit slouched on your sofa typing away on your laptop creates a physiological pathology called ‘creep phenomenon’. Think of a cold piece of salt-water taffy. If you were to warm it up in your hands and slowly mead it and pull it, slowly the taffy would stretch out. Essentially the same thing can happen to your back. As you sit there for hours upon hours, a slow ‘creep’ stretch of the ligaments and muscles of your back get stretched out. Over years they lose their inherent capacity to hold your back up. And just like a bending a paper clip back and forth, eventually something breaks and back pain occurs.

The entrepreneur in you also wants to exercise either for an outlet of stress or simply because you are goal oriented by nature. What ends up happening is that you perform at levels or distances that eventually your physical body may not be able to handle. There is nothing wrong with striving to achieve a goal, but many times the entrepreneur’s mind will tell them “do it anyways, even though I did not have the time to train” or “just keep going, like I always have.” Over time, your brain ends up outlasting your body, especially the structures in your back. Eventually too much compressive or shearing force happens and back pain occurs. Most importantly, your entrepreneurial spirit tends to have an all-or-none persona. Your mentality weighs more on the side of “it’s on me and no one else.” What becomes of it is an affective component that tells you to keep going, even if it hurts.

For a non-motivated patient the strategy is to encourage them to get moving. The opposite is true for you, the entrepreneur. For you, the goal-driven person you are, the best strategy is to stay active but take it easy so your body can heal. As simple as it may sound to tell someone to stop running too far or not sit too long in practice, it becomes very difficult as the entrepreneur commonly has difficulty letting things go.

You are driven by something different than what is logical or what makes sense to take stress off your back. I hate to say it, but to preach preventative care to an entrepreneur with back pain sometimes may not be the most effective approach. Sometimes, you need to hit a failure point that your body can no longer do what it could do before. Whether it be sitting for fourteen hour days, or overtraining for a triathlon, sometimes you may need to face debilitating back pain to remind you that you can no longer run at the pace you have been.

There is hope in all of this, especially for those who feel like your back pain is robbing you of your potential. I have had the joy of working with such patients in physical therapy who have had to get through that trough so they feel like their pain has been finally resolved and not just symptomatically controlled. It may take a skilled team of health practitioners to help you address the multitude of factors that affect your unresolved back pain rather than just a pill or a quick fix.

Most importantly, you will have to start by addressing your entrepreneurial mindset and how you balance it with the rest of your life in family, spirituality, and community. Fixing unresolved back pain is not just about what exercise to do or medication to take, it is about addressing the factors of your whole body that may be contributing to your back pain…even your mind as an entrepreneur.

We’ve been collecting gift cards as well as requests from people in need who can put those unused dollars and cents to good use for the past 6 months and we are so excited for the fun part that is about to happen.  On June 1st  from 10am-3pm we’ll be hosting a Giving Day.  

We’ll call on balances and inventory all the cards that we have and then piece them together to fill the needs of the people who have reached out to us with requests for cards to solve the problems they are facing.

What could be more fun than giving away money!?

Here’s where you come in… 

If you have cards you’ve been meaning to send, get them in the mail now!  Tell your friends and family to do the same.  The address to send the cards is Gift Card Giver PO box 17920 Atlanta, GA 30316.

If you are in the ATL area and want to see the giving first hand, join us! We have room for 10 friends to help us grant these cards to people in need.  Email Marisa@plywoodpeople.com for more details.

And finally, if you know of someone in need and you want us to consider them to be recipients of cards please visit this page to complete the application questions.  We need all requests for cards to be in by May 26th, 2013.  Any requests made after that date will be considered at our next Giving Day in December 2013.

Kaylee Page:  Organizer and Planner. Dependent on caffeine – sadly. Favorite words: joy, peace, community, embrace. Devoted Wife. Proud Mother. Finds the best in everything.

WHEN STARTING,

It’s as simple as this:

 For-profits are for profiting and –
non-profits are non-required to profit.

Or is it this simple?

Put aside some of the distinct differences and I’m not sure non-profits should run much different than for-profits; particularly, when just getting started.

A few things for folks starting….

Solve The Problem Like Never Before.

In both worlds, a problem is observed and a solution is created. But if you’re going to solve a problem solve it in a way that is revolutionary.  People are pretty creative by nature, but it is those who really dive deep into the problem solving — thinking of more than one solution and analyzing the impact and value of the solution — who cause disruption.

Think Lean.

The  “lean start up” methodology and its principles are just as applicable to a non-profit as it is for a for-profit

Dream big, no doubt.
But take baby steps to get there.

Remember, we’re not asking if there is a problem – we’re asking if the solution you’re suggesting is the right solution and can you make this profitable or sustainable.

Research what else exists out there.
Know why you’re idea or the way you want to tackle the problem is different.
Start lean and make a fat impact on the world.

Be Open; Not Defensive

When you have an idea — it’s your baby!
We all know this.
You are excited about it and you believe in it (just like doting parents!)

Thing is. When you love something so much it most definitely can make it hard to see any flaw in it —- it’s perfect, people love it!

You may have a very real problem that all people would agree is a problem, but even good things have to be tweaked now and again in order to be their best.  Don’t be afraid to pivot as you envision your idea turning into something more tangible.

And be a good listener. Feedback, no matter how odd, weird, offensive (or genius) is always valuable.
Be “quick to listen, slow to speak.”

Manage the Passion.

I used to think “passion” could only be found in the non-profit world. Turns out, there are a lot of passionate folks in the for-profit world.

However, passion can sometimes lead to quick irrational decisions and can sometimes cloud the mind from creating next, clear practical steps.

Take lots of deep breaths when you start something up.
Take walks. Sip tea.

Remember to let the passion drive you but not overcome you.

Hi. I’m Mike Zserdin, builder, writer, idealist & cyclist. I value Respect. Action & Generosity. I’m learning to rest with friends and family. I recharge with books. Good conversation and time alone on my bike. I share thoguhts and ideas at anthropy.us, blog.whynotme.me and am working on giving away a few billion dollars with me and 20 million friends at whynotme.me. By way of a professional dossier I’ve held various executive and equity positions such as director, COO, Board positions, partner and CEO in various businesses including finance, risk management, and mobile technology. A lot of those companies were successful to some degree or another. I have 1 wife of 23 years. She’s the shiniest person I know. We’re raising to boys of above average intelligence and their crafty sidekicks, Harley the jack russell terrier and Bogie, mystery dog.

Plywood People: You’re starting a new way for friends to give to causes they believe in. Would you share about your app?

Mike Zserdin: The “new way” is all about groups of people and friends giving new, modest, recurring gifts together to causes they respectively believe and quantifying their impact. It’s not so much about friends raising money from friends. There’s already so many good tools for that. And, I think people are a little weary of it.

It’s really more of a big idea powered by an online app.

In the past, Colorado had 27,000  folks give $13 million in a day. 48,000 people in Wisconsin gave $13 million or so together. I figured if CO and WI could do this why not here? and why not everywhere?

So, the original big idea was to invite 100,000 Oklahomans to give an extra $10 a month to causes each respectively believes in. It may sound crazy, but not really. That’s only about $12 million a year.

I then realized I wasn’t thinking big enough. This idea of generosity and giving intentionally fits into a bigger story. A story of convening every group and every type of group to engage in funding solutions in their own backyard. And, as Steve Nygren said at our plywood retreat, all of our backyards touch.

After kicking around the vision and screen shots of the app with friends and causes and companies we discovered that groups want to come together and give together. It’s powerful to think of making communities better with friends. So, teams, public companies, main street businesses, a university, clubs and even causes and other community groups said they’d join us if we built the solution that helped their group give together, invite people and understand the impact of the group’s combined gifts.

So, that’s what we’re doing. Building tools that make it easy for groups to give together and see the impact of their combined, recurring donations in a linkedin type fashion.

We’re making it easy for big and small groups alike to create their own “giving circle.”

Plywood People: What inspired you to start?

Mike:  Ha. That’s a deep question with so many layers to the answer. It’s like an onion. Or a parfait.

Much of the inspiration came from my mistakes, regret, pain in my family and on an optimistic note, hope in the fact that me, my family and my friends can make a difference and that messy, broken communities can be redeemed–but, only with a intentionality.  I want to make the most of the balance of my life. Call this a midlife crisis without the fast car or new wife.

I shared some of that motivation and pain in a little ebook titled The Generosity Manifesto. Which pre dated this project (generositymanifesto.com)

Here’s some tangible points.

I have a business background and have observed that any successful endeavor whether it be a business or social impact initiative requires resources. These resources include time, people with passion and money. There’s no real away around it. Money moves things. The direction of that movement, whether positive or negative determines is determined by its allocated.

I see people with passion that are willing to invest their time. But, they’re always asking for money to expand their impact.

I was inspired because giving a few billion dollars has nothing to do with a lack of money–we have it. We unintentionally drop $80 billion a year on soda $1.50 at a time. We can invite a few friends to intentionally give an extra $10 a month.

I was inspired by the compilation of essays by Seth Godin and others titled, What Matters Now and the TED theme, What the world needs now.

The idea that people must fund solutions to our own problems and not expect programs or politicians or priests to discover and do the work and fund solutions.

A conviction that doing good is good but, we can do better. The overwhelming majority of us can give a little more of our money to fund the better community and world we’re all after.

A belief that funding solutions comes from inherant, intentional generosity. Not progromatic fundraising.

Finally, my faith inspired me. It tells me that were are created to do more than consume but cultivate, curate and create better communities and better culture. This idea goes back to the garden of eden I think. Andy Crouch’s writing in Culture Making inspired me to help create a culture of generosity.

And, my family believes in this vision of intentional generosity.

Plywood People: So far, what has been the most challenging part of the process for you?

Mike: Articulating the vision for sure. And coming up with a story that succinctly shares the vision and inspires action.

We’re overcoming so much established dialogue around fundraising.

We’re creating a donor centric approach that people aren’t accustomed to.

Plywood People: What’s your next stop moving forward?

Mike: Digging deep to come up with the best ways to share the vision and story with you and everyone. A story that helps people understand that giving intentionally with friends will make a difference in their life and their world.

This involves redoing the name to reflect our heart and vision and what the app does for the user.

Also, inviting 20 million other most generous peers to give a new, recurring gift to their thing.

Other than that, we’re all set.

Actually, we’re retooling the app based on the things we’ve learned from our early stage adopters.

Plywood People: What are your top 5 pieces of advice in app development?

Mike: 1. Start. an application usually spawns from an idea. And the idea is usually full of holes. But, you don’t know what you don’t know until you start.

2. But, start small, move fast and test the idea and message with the market often before you write a line of code. Typically only a small fraction of your original idea is valuable to the public. Along those lines, you don’t have to build your app to discover the app’s value. I don’t know Cameron Koczon but he shared a valuable piece of advice at Greenville grok “Unless pixels help you hone it, iterate goals and your message before you begin development.” Thanks to Joshua Blankenship for posting that quote (http://joshuablankenship.com/blog/2011/03/20/what-i-learned-at-greenville-grok/). As an aside, we had commitments from a couple public companies and lots of other groups to join us before we wrote a line of code.

3. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Have a plan to promote your application. But, most importantly have other people, the right people, promote your application.

4. It will likely take a team to deploy a successul software solution. The best builders are typically not the best promoters. And the best promoters are not the best builders. Read Job’s bio. Lots of stories about the inter-workings of a software company.

5. Have fun. It’s a process that never ends. I call it the technology treadmill. Once you get on and have a degree of success you don’t stop. So, learn to enjoy the process the moments of runners high and expect your legs to burn on occasion. Just like life I guess.

[Photo Credit: Shannon Blackwell of August & Jean]

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How we started: All of us at G*H share a love of gardening, but we all come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, which means we each bring different interests and experiences to our work.

Five Words: creativity, inspiration, education & amazing plants

Who inspires you?: We often find the most profound inspiration in the gardens of our customers – whether they are avid gardening enthusiasts or beginners, it’s always eye-opening to see how other people design the natural spaces around them.

What do you love?: Some of us run, some of us play video games, some of us cuddle with our dogs, some of us perform in drag shows, some of us teach judo, and some of us don’t have hobbies outside of G*H yet.

Contact: info@gardenhoodatlanta.com

Book your stay in Atlanta for Plywood Presents at the Intercontinental in Buckhead. It’s within walking distance to the theatre, less than a mile.

If you let them know that you’re in town for Plywood Presents on August 14-15, they will give you a $119 rate.
The rate is usually $270 a night.

Be sure to reference Plywood People and Plywood Presents, and ask for the special rate.

Buckhead Atlanta
3315 Peachtree Rd. Ne,
Atlanta, Georgia 30326
1-404-946-9000

Indie musicians Jon Peter Lewis and Ryan Hayes met in 2010 during a college open mic and immediately began to collaborate. Their first project together was producing an original stage production in Idaho titled “Deep Love: A Ghostly Folk Opera. The folk-rock opera started with very humble beginnings, growing from Jon’s living room performances to large concert halls.

Following the success of Deep Love, Jon and Ryan began looking for more opportunities to perform together. After Jon learned the NBC hit program The Voice accepted duos for auditions, he thought some exposure on national television could be a good thing. So, when Jon asked Ryan, “Wanna form a band and be on TV?” Ryan responded with a “Might as well.” Hence, Midas Whale was born.

The duo received the coveted 4-chair turn by coaches Usher, Adam Levine, Shakira, and Blake Shelton. Midas Whale eventually advanced to the knockout rounds of the show starting with a high-energy folk version of “Folsom Prison Blues.” Adam praised them as “brilliantly talented vocalists” and following their performance of “Burning Love”, went on to say “They are one of the more charming talented duos I’ve ever seen perform. That’s the Truth.” Usher called them “hilarious, but equally talented.” Shakira praised them for the “intelligence” of the act and their harmonies. Blake was equally impressed with their talent and “surprised as hell” when they hit those high notes during a rousing performance of “Higher Ground.”

Lincoln, Nebraska born Jon Peter Lewis is a celebrated musician who is also known as a top ten finalist in season three of American Idol. The singer released two independent albums and an EP, Stories from Hollywood in 2006, Break the Silence in 2008, and a self-titled EP in 2010. The records received widespread praise, including Billboard’s ‘Critical Choice’ review for Break The Silence. Jon guest-blogged on columns for Rolling Stone, MTV, Entertainment Weekly, and went on to create and host an Internet show, American Nobody. The web series was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brilliant satire. ”

Ryan Hayes, a Salt Lake City, Utah native and professional geologist, has been writing songs since his early teenage years. In 2010, he poured himself into penning the rock opera Deep Love with musician Garrett Sherwood. Jon was “blown away” after listening to the music and first draft. The three immediately began collaborating and brought the theatrical event to the stage in 2011. The rock opera opened in Idaho to packed theaters and rave reviews. The stage show remains an annual tradition for many theatergoers during the fall season. Plans are in the works to bring Deep Love nationwide.

Midas Whale is scheduled to release an album in late 2013, with the help of Kickstarter. The well-received funding campaign was launched on May 6, 2013 and will continue through June 5, 2013. The duo will be performing throughout country beginning June 13, 2013.

Facebook
@MidasWhale 
MidasWhale.com