Rose Frances Rettew was born on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:22am…She Rocks!
Yes…I am getting organized and bringing more focus to my writing. I have been really working on the future of my company and the future of my family. As you know, I am having a little girl this coming Fall. With this new addition, I am going to be witnessing some evolution to my business as well. With all these changes and growth in my family, my writing is evolving.
So this is what I am doing. I have three main areas that I am writing:
1) My business blog, which is here. This blog is going to help me tackle and articulate the business and stories of both my clients and the climate my business represents. I will continue to tackle new media, video, storytelling, and emerging technologies as topics in this blog. I will also use this platform to tell the stories of my clients and the surrounding context. It is my belief that I want to reinforce the idea of storytelling and how we can use this practice, and the technology that supports it, to generate natural movements of change.
2) My personal blog, which is located at https://rettewcreative.com/personal-blog/. This blog will be tackling personal issues from my family, becoming a father, and also political/human advocacy issues that are the foundation of my belief system and moral ethic. As a former journalist, documentary storyteller, educator, and as an advocate, I have found myself voicing my opinions and beliefs that necessarily do not fit congruently with my business blog. So I found creating a new space to allow my writing to naturally grow, separating it from my business practices. Sometimes you will see me writing about similar topics in both places, but only when they naturally find a match.
3) A personal journal, which is private place. This is where I am tackling personal struggles and issue that have plagued me from growing up in a divorced family, the death of my mother-in-law, and the miscarriages for three little ones. These were tough times in my life, so finding a place to write privately will be a true platform for reflection, healing, and growth.
These areas of writing are going to help me with a few long term goals that I have on the horizon. I have always wanted to complete a PhD and write a few books. I am going to use these various platforms as places to write and research topics that I find interesting and could potentially bring deeper exploration for academic growth and intellectual stimulation. There are also some documentary ideas in the works that I will be using these platforms to flush out various ideas while generating business plans based on community interest.
Today’s business world has taught me to become organized, especially when it comes to our writing and how we articulate our ideas. This separation is also a test. I am interested in testing some validity in the dichotomy between a blog meant to generate revenue/business development and a blog for creative and passionate inquiry. As my writing has grown, so have my interests. This shall be a fun test!
Have you ever attended an event or a conference and been overwhelmed with the personalities in the room? Have you walked into a new place or situation, and been in a place where there are a lot of smart people talking, exchanging ideas, and not know where to fit in? I found myself in those situations more times than not.
I am an opinionated person, passionate about what I believe. I am also a person that has to understand and assess the audience before engaging in the conversation. Sometimes I need to remind myself to just listen and learn.
Recently I have walked out of meetings and thought to myself, I need to keep my big mouth shut. My passion can get the best of me, engaging in a conversation where I will debate a point because it is hard for me to see past my point-of-view. I am human, I think we all do this from time to time.
Listening is key. Really listening to the people we want to have healthy conversations with, regardless if it is a meeting, conference, group, dinner, or a public setting. Sometimes we have to learn how to pull out the big black clip and use it to shut our lips together. Then take time to listen and learn from others. I am the biggest victim of this issue…speaking when I should be listening.
We are surrounded by smart people. Our friends, family, clients, customers, colleagues, students…they are all smart people. We could learn a thing or two sometimes. We should learn to stop trying to interject into a conversation that does not need our noise anymore. I know my big ole lips can flap a conversation into complete bordum.
Why do we do this? Well, we want to be heard. Whether it is the fact we are control freaks, or we have a good idea…we want our ideas to resonate with others. We want to be perceived to be smart and innovative. Sometimes it is fear or insecurity that drives us to fill the void…driving a conversation to the painful point of no return.
We should just shut our mouth and just listen. It is ok. We will be heard at some point.
I noticed the last few days my mouth has communicated my passion a bit much. I am passionate…but maybe I should use my passion just to listen. I might learn a thing or two!
Have you felt this way before? Do you think listening is a better form of communication than talking?
So I met Greg Hartle in Chicago at SOBCON2011 and his story is one of inspiration and somewhat crazy. Who would be willing to give up a great career, great house, great financial resources to travel the country with only $10 and a laptop. Some people think he is crazy. Some find it inspiring. Some think, he will fail. Some think, there is no way I would not be able not to use my previous resources to travel the country. I know I would struggle with this since I am married with a kid on the way.
So I decided to conduct a series of interviews with Greg to learn more about his story, his passion, and his mission to travel the country. His goal is to stop in all 50 states, interview an entrepreneur in each state, and create a new business to sustain the “new life.” He started with only $10 and a laptop, hence his website (http://tendollarsandalaptop.com), and to generate income along the way to sustain life including fulfilling his mission.
Why do you ask? Well…I hope to learn more during these short little interviews! This is part one in a seven part series of interviews to learn more about Greg Hartle!
A few years ago, I was chatting with John Warner and he was describing the InnoVenture experience to a group of people. As he described this conversation, this conference, this experience…he explained that “Sparks will fly!” I was wondering what the heck he was talking about…and it was not until today that I fully grasped this statement.
InnoVenture Southeast 2011 Day One…and it all started with watching my friend and client Lonnie Emard of IT-oLogy present in front of close to 200 people. As I sat and listened, more and more folks became recognizable. More and more of my close friends, colleagues, and clients began to walk through the door.
As I was walking around the follow-up conversation in the center of the room, I walked into a conversation of my own. Yes…a colleague from Clemson. This led to a conversation that led to an idea. As we were brainstorming this idea, another friend walked up and joined the conversation. This idea was growing…three minds are better than one. For some reason, something caused us to stop chatting and walk away.
A few minutes later, as I was standing in-front of IT-oLogy’s booth chatting, those two people who were brainstorming with me a few minutes ago walked over and said, “hey, remember what we were talking about…how can we make it happen?” Then it started right back up again. The brainstorming continued and before you know it…we set up a meeting for next steps and action items.
THEN…and only THEN…another friend walked up. I made introductions and after the exchange of business cards, my friend said, “I have an idea.” This sparked a whole new conversation, a whole new set of ideas, a whole new brainstorming session. This session could only happen if the right people are present and the right innovative thinking was in progress. Sparks were flying.
What you do not know, each of these people were decision makers in their organization. They had the ability to use their entrepreneurial spirit and engage in a conversation around a common theme…innovation. These were two conversations that I was a part of during day one of InnoVenture Southeast 2011. Imagine the numerous other conversations happening that led to exchange of ideas, ideas of innovation, contact information, and follow-up emails that night.
I was so excited, so struck by these ideas…I could not wait to get back to the office to send follow-up emails. We were already emailing ideas back and forth…Sparks were flying! Innovation is a funny thing…all it takes, get like minded people together and a open forum of conversation and innovative exchange. I walked away inspired!
From Left to Right: My Nana, me, Sarah (with Rose), and Mom!
Happy Mothers Day!
How do we measure success in the classroom? Well, here is a little moment for me that made it all worth it! Wednesday of last week, it all came together. I teach Hybrid Entrepreneurship at Clemson…I also teach a business writing class, both classes are wrapped around entrepreneurship. Wednesday was the day of success.
I teach both of these classes back to back. The Business Writing class at 2:30pm and the Hybrid Entrepreneurship class at 4pm. When I walked into the Business Writing class, one of my students had a huge smile on her face. It was a smile of passion. This semester, they are writing about their passion, their business idea, and putting it in a business plan. Each class, a new piece of the puzzle is due then inserted into their business plan notebook. She had an idea.
As I made my way to the front of the class, she began pitching her idea. She explained the vision, the customers, the market, and how much it would cost. She had the entrepreneurial spirit and looked at me and asked, “Do you think I can do it?” I said…”What is stopping you?” She sat and thought…she said…”The money and the time.” The more we talked, the more I realized the idea was great and expensive. I told her to take what we learned in this class and write the plan. You could see she could not wait to get out the door and put her thoughts on paper. The spirit was alive.
As class ended, I made my way to Sirrine Hall for Hybrid Entrepreneurship. This class has to create a business idea that would solve a social problem yet generate profit. We are almost done with the project and I have been encouraging each group to not stop at the end of the semester. Each of the five groups have viable business ideas solving real social problems. Each could start a business immediately.
Two members of a group came to class early to find me. They had a question, “How do we actually make this a business?” They wanted to know about creating a LLC and they also wanted to know about how to manage the finances. They wanted to know about partner agreements. They were serious. They have a great business idea and they were ready to make the leap of faith into the world of entrepreneurship.
My goal with these classes, to teach the culture of entrepreneurship. I wanted to find and unlock the hidden passion and potential. These bright students are the leaders and innovators of tomorrow, they are the creative class. This day was a day of success, they are beginning to think beyond the A’s and B’s…and how to convert ideas into viable business ideas. Regardless if they succeed, they wanted to get up to the plate and take a swing at that fast ball.
This big ole movement for open source development is great…yeah. But really what is this movement? I was exposed to the idea of open source development about 4 years ago. It was when I joined a start-up company and every dollar was important. We were distributing video messages via email and needed a cost effective solution to manage the email distribution. So PHPlist was used as an open source solution. It was available to download, tailor to our needs, and provided the framework for the core part of the business. As a part of the GPL license, we had to “give back” to the community to make this community based software solution a richer offering. What do I mean by giving back, well offer findings, new code, ideas for updates, etc. that would allow others to adapt and improve this software.
So…from this software, I was exposed to other pieces of open source, web-based platforms like Joomla, WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, PHPlist, and the list goes on. All available to download and install in our server based environments to use. Numerous projects, numerous solutions, free software, open source software…maybe?
So…how many of us that download this open source software give back to the community. How many of us are takers and not givers?
I hear all the time, large companies trying to find new ways to save dollars…tired of paying large dollars for word processing and other office-based solutions. Oh yeah, there is Open Office by Sun Microsystems. Free to download, free to install, free to use, open-source software? But is it open and are we giving back to keep the community alive?
So does open source mean community?
Many people are touting the Android mobile market because of the open-source offering. What they mean is they want the flexibility to alter the source code to fit their needs. Maybe people interpret open source software as the means to alter the source code to fit their needs. But I thought the idea was to alter the source code and share this with the community. Are people sharing in this movement to make the community better or is it just leverage free software…to hack Motorola products in order to avoid paying fees for access. It is happening on Apple products as well, accessing and altering the base code to fit our wants. But what is the point? Oh yeah, for personal gain.
OK…I am not getting on a soap box, I speak from experience. But how many of us are just downloading this open-source software and not adding the the community project?
So is this open source movement really an open source movement? Are we really educated about the open source movement, the benefits, the burden, and the commitment to further the movement. Well, education is key. The point of this little post, there are places out there talking about open source software, talking about the community. Interested in learning more? POSSCON 2011 is in Columbia, SC on March 23, 24, and 25 and you can register here: http://posscon.org/register/
If you want a discount code, read this blog post and request a discount code. Yes…I did not mean to try to sell you a conference…but to raise your awareness about my thoughts and offer a logical solution. I will be there learning more about this community of open source.
So yes…the big announcement. The anticipation to speak freely about this announcement comes with the anxiousness of talking too freely. Yes…we are pregnant, as you can see in the little video above. We are 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant and we are so scared to get excited, fearful that something might happen to take this little bundle of joy away. But this anxious is soon to move to relief…it is finally our turn.
After 3 years and 3 miscarriages, Z4 has overcome all the odds. This is the furthest along we have ever made it. The 4 in Z4 stands for number four. Well…the Z comes from starting out as what clinical terms would call the little bundle of joy a Zygote. We are past the Zygote stage…but Z4 kind of has a ring to it. Ole Z4 is just keeps on growing, giving us more reasons each day to have faith…faith to see this little bundle of happiness bless us with his/her presence on September 13th. Yes…we have a due date.
Where did it all begin, well on our way home from our Christmas Vacation…January 1st to be exact, Sarah peed on the stick. For some crazy reason, Sarah has been peeing on sticks for three months previous like a mad woman. We could now invest in this technology. Do you know how expensive those little jokers are? She just happened to have one, and when we stopped on the way through Atlanta…the McDonalds bathroom provided the perfect venue to let us know that 2011 is going to be a good one.
For the next two months, we have been visiting a Reproductive Endocrinologist every two weeks, watching ultrasound after ultrasound. The little booger was growing and I recorded each one on my iPhone, sharing the video with close family. I missed the first one because the doc was so efficient, he did not give me time to get the phone out and capture the moment. He had us mesmerized with ultrasound technology and the thumping of a little heart. Sarah made me swear to never miss a video capture opportunity again. My close friend Patti wrote me after watching one of the videos stating that this little one will be the most video’d child she has ever seen.
So here we are…and we finally want to share. We are still a bit anxious, praying nothing happens. The little one has us attached, excited…it is our hope that you will share in our excitement. Z4’s heart rate is 154 b/m…my brother-in-law is making fun of me…saying it will be a girl. “Ole Wives Tales”…who believes in them. Especially since a fast heart rate by 12 weeks indicating a girl cannot be an “Old Wives Tale.” Why? Well, ultrasound technology has only been around scanning pregnancies since 1987. That is not old!
Anyways…not that I am opposed to a girl, but Sarah is one of three girls and her sister has two girls herself. Five women in this family, other than me and my brother-in-law…we need some testosterone in this family. But, if Z4 proves to be a stubborn little lady…well, I am just fine with her being daddy’s little girl.
So life is changing. Here I am…37 years old. My first child on the way. Self employed, entrepreneur, getting ready to be a sole supporter. Life is crazy, fun, exciting, and I love it. To my clients, get ready…might have a business meeting with my little one. Z4 is proving to be a college football child…gonna be born in the heart of Clemson Football season. Happy Birthday to myself…today is my birthday, and this day marks the beginning of the 2nd trimester. Apparently for couples like Sarah and I, that is a big step.
For many young bloggers and writers, the discovery phase of writing online is so new and confusing. There is a huge perception that what we write is going to be viewed as the gospel, and those comments can negatively impact our message. It is my humble opinion in that discovery phase of writing and blogging, that content is king.
It is important to create a focus for the content; learning how to communicate the message clearly. As bloggers/writers begin to find their niche, writing with a community takes it’s focus. It is this discovery phase that allows our internal engines to see what responses we receive and allow community driven content to naturally take shape. Obviously the joy is that we are using analytics to see where we engage certain audiences.
Here is what concerns me, so many times we read there is a heuristic or model to become a successful blogger/writer. Evverywhere we look, there is the “five steps” for this or that. To me, blogging is like an entrepreneurial experience.
I have two friends that have very good definitions of entrepreneurship:
- “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” – John Warner quoting Peter F. Drucker
- “Entrepreneurship is an activity that involves the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new goods and services, ways of organizing markets, processes, and raw materials through organizing efforts that previously had not existed.” Sean Williams, Ph.D
If you read these two viewpoints, this to me parallels the blogging world. Bloggers specifically can become innovators with a capacity to create wealth. Bloggers find a need in the market place and focus their writing. This discovery engages that market place.
But…with writing and entrepreneurship, there is not always a clear path to the end and so we have to leverage our communities, and focus on our content. We also have to be passionate about our “product” and write about that passion. Even if the community is going in one direction, we have to be willing to explore new avenues to write about passionately…which engages thought leadership.
I think that there is more than a one stop model for each person in the writing process. Yes, if we a blogging for business…we need focus. But I do think we have look beyond reach, action items, and engagement; and allow ourselves to write in way that allows more of that discovery phase to shine. Writing and blogging can be a place to explore new ideas, new strategies, and empower people to find the voice they never knew they had.
This post was inspired by Mack Collier’s Post: The 3 Critical Content Creation Questions You Must Ask (And Answer!).