Dr. Seuss had a way of putting things just so. He said, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

He was absolutely right.

You have expertise, experience and a desire to make a difference. This makes you completely unique and uniquely important. If you don't put that powerful combination to use, things won't get better. They just won't.

Volunteering your time and talents in the service of others has many rewards. There are the tangible benefits of a completed volunteer project or effort, but there are also the more subtle rewards, like personal and professional growth, new connections and so on. Then there are benefits that are unique to a particular project. A community garden, for example, has been shown to reduce crime, educate urban youth about food production and generally increase quality of life for nearby residents. All in a day's work for a handful of humble vegetable seeds.

Here are some of the benefits of volunteering your time, expertise and passion:

• Professional Benefits
• Health Benefits
• General Benefits
• Surprising Benefits

For many people, choosing whether to work for a company has a lot to do with the company's policies towards community giving and volunteering efforts. Prioritizing a better world alongside business is right up there with salary, work-life flexibility and healthcare.

But what if you are a project-based contractor? You do the work, get paid and move on. The corporate community-giving opportunities aren't within the scope of your relationship. That just means you've got a little extra work to do.

When it comes to volunteering, I know my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I would never, ever volunteer to cook or bake - not just because I enjoy those activities about as much as a root canal but also because I wouldn't want to be responsible for a widespread health crisis. I also wouldn't volunteer to climb higher than 5 feet on a ladder. Or drive a large truck. But when there's an idea to flesh out or a story to get down on paper, my hand flies in the air.

As a writer, my volunteer workload often includes drafting letters for campaigns, composing articles and contributing to marketing efforts. Occasionally I customize writing workshops for community groups. But I'm also adept at digging in the dirt.

Digging in the dirt, as it turns out, can be useful in community development. I've been privileged to serve on the steering committee of a community garden startup - and mind you, this is no ordinary community garden. An empty swath of land now holds 24 raised garden beds, a large berry patch for community picking and 2 perennial gardens. The space has already served as an enticing backdrop for yoga workshops, garden tours, harvest dinners and one theatrical production.

If it sounds like I'm a proud mama of this project, it's because I am. It represents years of hard work from many committed volunteers, and I've given it some of my best ideas and expertise. I've also learned a number of valuable lessons that easily apply to other parts of my life - including my professional life. I helped make something out of nothing, and that feels good.

Where do you invest yourself and balance your time?

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

The great thing about being a workshifter is that I'm unencumbered by the formal trappings of the corporate office. Well, I don't actually have a corporate office, but you get the idea.

The downside, of course, is that I don't have the infrastructure either. And phone lines never go down and hard drives never crash when it's convenient.

My old, hulking, color laser printer died the other day. To be more precise, it stopped working in the middle of printing out materials for a meeting I had to leave for 30 minutes later. Not optimal.

My community saved me. I called my friend Sheila Butler, who's also the assistant manager for my building, and asked if I could bring her a thumb drive and some paper and print out the copies on her printer. Ten minutes later I was back in business. (Five minutes after that I did a quick product review and had a new laser jet printer on order from Staples.)

We think about community in many ways. Our family and friends. Our colleagues. Our online circles. But there's also our workshifting community (and not just this one), the network of small business owners, independents, home office denizens, and others in our proximity with resources and know-how who can help us out in a pinch. And don't discount the ones among us who do have corporate tech support on speed dial. They're possibly most valuable of all.

Photo Credit: queefette

Workshifting requires regular doses of inspiration. This year, I was fortunate to find great inspiration. I thought it would be nice to share some of the names of the people that made me better. A better writer, a better listener, better wine drinker, better father, more patient, more giving, more focused, less inhibited, and just plain made me stand up and pay attention. My hope is that they will do the same for you.

This list isn't exhaustive, and they aren't in any particular order, but I wanted to pass their names along simply to shine a light on some people that deserve to be recognized. Some I know personally, some I don't know at all. Some are recognizable, some are not. People tend to think that the recognizable don't need more recognition. To that, I say we all need to be inspired, and sometimes, a simple thank you may be all the inspiration that's needed.

Phil Terry

Alex Beauchamp

Youngme Moon

Amanda Rose

AJ Leon

Melissa Leon

Scott Harrison

Lynn Koves

Chris Brogan

Georges-Edouard Dias

Terri Holley

Tony Porter

Keith Saarloos

Amber Naslund

Dad-O-Matic

TED Blog

Justin Levy

Budi Kazali

Tim Hayden

Jessica Randazza

Jim Long

Salman Khan

All the best in 2011!

Photo credit: Kicki

"Hi. My name is Heather. I'm a marketing consultant, and I'm self-employed."

You're familiar with the scene, the one with anxious-looking people sitting in chairs cast in a circle. They each take turns introducing themselves, then follow with the statement that balances any socio-economic inequity and forces attention on the common thread tying them all together. Each person's individual story will vary - how they came to be in the room - but the fact remains, they all need support and an outlet in order to be successful.

I have the support of a great tribe of people, and my work is both my creative outlet and my means of earning a living.

But I'm new to self-employment. As in, still-rubbing-grit-out-of-my-eyes type new. I may be a veteran in my field - 18 years now - but am a rookie at running the entire show myself. All the talent and skills in the world won't help me if I can't establish an operational foundation and a recursive loop of lead development.

So what does one do when they need to hit the ground running? When they have the skills but are lost in a new environment? They call on their network, of course.

Everyone has a network of friends and acquaintances, previous co-workers and friends-of-a-friend and even family. When you're shingle is so new it shines, it's crucial to tap into the tribe of who you know to find out what you need to learn. And there's sure to be a lot to learn.

The Trailblazer

One of the first things I did was have lunch with someone who's "been there, done that." This good friend leads an agency of 10 since striking out on her own 5 years ago, shirking the protective cloak provided by a larger, well-steeped institution. She passed along valuable nuggets of advice about finding the right sized CPA firm and how to handle the client who haggles. Her experiences will be invaluable, saving me both time and potential missteps.

The Inside Man

I spent an hour with a well-connected friend, one who recruits talent and advises businesses on training issues. She helped me learn a bit about the mindset of businesses today to help formulate my approach to fresh prospects. She also passed along the contact info for a great resource at the local small business development center. It seems the center has the means to support entrepreneurs like me get set up with an attorney at little to no cost.

The Coach

For a few years, I've had the privilege of meeting with a fantastic professional coach in an on-again, off-again fashion. She's counseled me through some challenging interpersonal issues and helped me learn more about myself through some strengths testing. It can be difficult to explain the benefits a coach can offer because in many ways they're intangible until the individual begins to apply the lessons and practice them each day. Trust me when I say that an objective, professional opinion and advice will be the best money you ever spend provided you're committed to learning how to be the best you can be.

The Posse

Ahhh, the people who love you. Like a cup of hot chocolate, there's comfort in reconnecting with those who want to see you succeed. In my group, there's a designer and photographer, some web developers, copywriters, and an SEO or two. I've found that they're each happy to pitch in their talents to see that I have nicely designed collateral, a few custom hacks to my web site, and more. I'm conscientious of the time they spend and try to give very clear requests at the start to minimize any revisions. Also, I'm trying to feed paying freelance work their way to help offset the time they spend on my own stuff.

These and many more generous, talented people are helping me navigate the early stages of entrepreneurship, for which I'm very thankful. What types would you add to the list? The Voice Of Reason, The Cheerleader, The Little Engine? Let us know who you'd add and why.

Photo Credit: jimmediaart

If you live in a town with more than 50,000 people, you may want to skip this post.  However, if you're like me and live in a town with less than 5,000 people, read on. 

I always get a tinge of jealousy when I read about all the great conferences, meetups, tweetups, and just general thought power that permeates from cities like LA, SF, NY, Boston and Chicago.  The sheer mass of people, technology and geography stokes the flames of connectedness in the Big 5.

My world is quite the opposite.  A little background will help paint the picture.  I moved from LA to the wine country, just outside Santa Barbara, about seven years ago.  I went from uber networked, to network anemia.  In LA I was emerged in the startup culture and tech scene of the late 90's early 00's.  Don't get me wrong, moving here has been fantastic, but I've had to re-learn how to connect.

The wine country is an interesting mix of vintners, cattle and horse ranchers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, cowboys and me.  In my town the word tweetup and meetup are not part of the vocabulary.  The first time I mentioned Foursquare it was repeated back to me as "fourplay."  In fact only recently have I been able to convince a few vintners to get on Foursquare.  I was Mayor of literally every establishment I went to.  I posted to Facebook encouraging a little competition, and it worked.

My friend Paul Warson is the wine maker at Firestone Vineyard.  He really embraced the social web and is making the most of it, both for his personal brand and for Firestone. He also dethroned me as Mayor in just about every establishment on Foursquare.  One person that needed no instruction was Keith Saarloos.  He's a winemaker, tasting room proprietor, great guy and a damn good marketer.

I put my social chops to the test and called out for a tweetup at the Saarloos wine tasting room.  To my amazement, it fell flat.  Keith was broadcasting from the event, so he really didn't need help from me anyway.  I knew all along that my network was mostly outside of my town, but what the hell, I had to try.

So where does this leave the digital nomad that roams the small town?  It requires you to meet people the old fashioned way, one at a time.  I didn't meet Paul or Keith because of my marketing skills.  I met them through other people, which is very typical for a small town.

I make sure I get to know the people behind the counter at my favorite workshifting spot.  I met the local vintners and restaurant owners by attending local events.  When appropriate, I give my digital I.D. and we continue to engage online.  It's been slow, but very rewarding.  I met some amazing people and I get the opportunity to have relationships that extend beyond my digital confines.

Living in a small town requires a mix of in-person and digital connections.  I still need to travel outside of my circle to stay engaged, meet new people, and get a fresh perspective.  I recently had the opportunity to speak at New Marketing Experience in Chicago.  The conference was well attended and I walked away making some new friends and learning a great deal about how companies are using the social web to connect with their customers and build trust.

5 Tips for Workshifting and Connecting in a Small Town

1. Attend local events and fundraisers.
2. Make a point to meet the owners of the local businesses that you frequent.
3. Help them cross the digital divide.  Usually they are very interested, but don't know where to start.
4. Make a real connection.  By that I mean, make a real friend or acquaintance.  Don't start with an agenda, just connect.
5. Attend events outside of your area and share the knowledge

Now it's your turn to give it up!  How do you workshift and connect in your small town?

Photo Credit: {Wes}

When the student is ready, the teacher appears-- Buddhist Proverb

I consider myself a life-long  learner. I TRULY enjoy the process of learning about new   ideas, concepts, recipes, languages, cultures, and ways of being. As a person with a portfolio career, who has worked/continues to work in different arenas, I have learned the power of informal and formal education.

My father often says, that he received his degrees from  U.C.L.A > The University of the Corner of Lenox Avenue in Harlem.  A great deal of his education came from growing up in Harlem.  The "lesson plans" were not always structured, planned, or even safe, but they were life lessons taught by people, situations, and life experiences. They were lessons that have shaped my father, and in turn me and my sisters.  The important early childhood message of valuing informal education is one for which I am very grateful.

I have been fortunate to experience a very good "formal education." I also have been able to be a participant in wonderful professional development sessions that have spanned topics areas including coaching, "difficult conversations," educational reform, human trafficking, project management, the art of Zen cooking, among others.  I attend film festivals, university lectures, and discussion groups. These structured programs and workshops have truly enriched my personal and professional life.

And yet, I am a firm believer in the teachers and teaching situations that present themselves to us on a daily basis as we life or mobile lives on planes, trains, in coffee shops, in the nail salons, and on the "corners" of streets around the world.

The skill for many of us, involves being open to hearing "life lessons" from people who may look and sound different, and as my father says "may not have a lot of letters after their name." 
 
We can go many places with this conversation. We can focus on organizational structures that may only value certain voices; we can acknowledge that many of us have been taught to value specific social capital; we might even be able to venture into the area of multi-tasking, where we are often texting, tweeting, updating our status, or talking on our mobile  phones - -keeping ourselves busy, and not available to connect with people. Or, we can focus on gratitude, and being grateful for the opportunity to meet so many different people who in their different lives bring richness to our learning and day-to-day living.

It has happened more than once, that I have been going about my day, and have come in contact with someone who has helped me see something differently, shared their story with me, or simply showed a sense of warmth and sincerity that can be a treasure in our fast paced world.

I once titled a piece that I wrote "the Sheroes and Heroes Among Us."  I think many of us have heard of stories from people that are our neighbors, colleagues, etc. that are powerful.  Sometimes, the stories are not BIG, or even about heroism.  Sometimes, the stories are very simple, and the learning just as important.

Some recent stories and teachers for me:

• Engaging in conversations and learning from the taxi driver in Washington, D.C. who has been driving in a city for over 30 years, who has experienced the issues of gentrification, race relations, and the changing of political parties as an insider;

• Learning about the current substance abuse counseling work of the car service driver that worked in the fire department in downtown Manhattan on September 11th;

• Hearing the fascinating story of the woman in the nail salon that came to the U.S. for a better life, and took the dangerous journey familiar to many immigrants;

It can mean reflecting on the life of the young soldier on the plane, who was heading back to base, after coming home to bury a friend.

Their stories, sense of humor, and commitment to what they do, are part of my ongoing learning.

Questions to ponder:
-    How do you value our informal education?
-    Where are your "corners" of learning in the world?
-    Do we value some voices over others?


Photo Credit: Jeff

A couple weeks ago, while workshifting from a Starbucks in New York City, I decided to take the plunge and try a Hoffacino. You're probably wondering what the heck a Hoffacino is all about, so I'll take a second to fill you in. Chris Hoff, security and cloud guru, came up with this custom Starbucks drink and it's slowly started to develop a following (at least it seems like it according to my twitter timeline).
Here's how you order it:
    Venti Starbucks Doubleshot on ice
    6 shots (espresso)
    3 Splenda
    No classic (syrup)
    Breve
So, what do you think? It sounds a little crazy, right? Well, I can assure you it's not just crazy, but also very delicious. It's not for the faint of heart (ba-dum-cha!) but if you like espresso and a caffeine rush I sincerely recommend you give it a whirl.

The thought had crossed my mind to write a personal blog post about the ordering/drinking experience (like these), but while mulling it over I decided it would be even better to share it with the workshifting community. You guys and gals spend your days at home, in coffee shops, at hotels and countless other places, and I bet you enjoy a higher than average beverage quotient, I know I do.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite drinks (in no particular order):

-    Water (<10 cals):Sometimes there's nothing better than an ice cold glass of water to quench your thirst, especially in this summer heat. If you're not a big fan of water you can try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice or get those powder add-ins to give it a little splash of flavor. You should never forget this fundamental fluid of life; it does wonders for my productivity.

-    Smoothie (400ish cals, varies by ingredients): You might be surprised by how easy it is to make healthy shakes on a regular basis. I've been experimenting with Alton Brown's Buff Smoothie recipe and choosing different fruit combinations with quite pleasant results. I even shared my own Red Bull themed incarnation a few months ago. What's great about the recipe is you prep the night before and just do a quick blend in the morning. I take it on the road with me as a healthy breakfast and it sure beats a donut or bagel.

-    Toffee Nut Java Chip Frappuccino (350-600 cals): Sometimes when I'm on the go and get a craving for a dessert/coffee/chocolate fix, this is the drink I reach for. As with most Frappuccinos, it's high in calories, but you could order it as a Frappuccino Light to make it healthier. The toffee nut syrup is the perfect complement to the chocolate chips and coffee. Once you try it, you'll be hooked.

-    Iced Green Tea (90 cals): It's hard to resist the lure of the Free Wi-Fi at your local Panera and when I'm not in the coffee/soda mood I usually grab for their Iced Green Tea. It's definitely on the sweet side and is more akin to soda (minus the carbonation), but is a nice change of pace.

I'm always interested in new locales and new drinks, so I'd love to hear about your go to drinks.


Photo Credit: John Flinchbaugh

I recently wrote about a friend of mine who hosts a successful, productive workshifting collective from his home office. I'm a veteran workshifter, and to be honest, I really like working all by my lonesome in my office or studio. So I was especially curious to see how and why a group of workshifters had created a cooperative work environment. Here's what I learned during a visit to the team's HQ.

The Team
There are currently five people on the workshifting team -- four are founding members who adhere to regular work schedules and one member is a PhD candidate who occasionally uses the space to work on her dissertation. The regulars work in IT support, software programming and Web communications. Most of the gang boasts a comfortable level of technical proficiency, which is an advantage for troubleshooting glitches as a group and never leaves any one person with the responsibility of being onsite tech support.

The Scene
The group works in the master suite on the second floor of my friend's house. Garfunkel, the housecat, perches in a handmade cat tree steeped in southern exposure. Boxes of tea collect dust atop a side table (this is a group of coffee drinkers, mostly), and a Britta pitcher sits in the center of the large, multi-person worktable. The walls are painted a fresh shade of Mediterranean blue, and a red exercise ball rests in the center of the room.

Origin
With one member of the workshifting collective hailing from the UK, I wanted to know how all these remote paths had crossed. It turns out that the founding members of the group all attended the same church and had been working off and on in pairs at local coffee shops. My friend proposed that they officially set up shop in his house and see how things took from there. They've kept to a regular schedule ever since.

Balance
Opening up your house - and your work rhythm - to other workshifters certainly comes with the risk of personal and professional disruptions. Even the closest of friends may have radically different expectations and behaviors in the workplace. It shouldn't come as any surprise that workshifters absolutely must have compatible working styles to successfully share professional space. And they also need solid, straightforward communication skills to be able to say, "Hey, I'm taking an important call. Can you please turn the music down?"

Food
These folks may work outside of the traditional office, but that doesn't mean that the traditional office food culture doesn't factor in. One regular told me, "This is where I consume the best food of the day." The gang tends to eat en masse -- either cooking in the house kitchen, eating out together or bringing carryout back to the workplace. On the day I visited the group, I arrived during a lunchtime break. Food that day had been delivered courtesy of a workshifter's husband.

Benefits
According to the group, a significant advantage of workshifting as a team is being able to leverage the synergy of working together to increase personal productivity. Another biggie is creating a strong sense of community and supportive social network. For the mother in the group, having a greater work/life balance is key. Across the board, creating a space that has fewer "home" distractions (like responding to a stack of dirty dishes) is a perk of working with other workshifters in an office environment. And being able to leave workspaces intact at the end of the day without packing up every last office artifact (as one must do at a coffee shop, for example) is a huge benefit.

Recommendations
If you're considering hosting or joining a workshifting team, keep in mind the following:

•    Individual job types have a direct impact on the team. For example, if a workshifter's job requires her to spend the majority of the workday on the phone, she may not be a good fit for a group of folks who spend the majority of their time concentrating on writing code or copy.

•    Work styles must mesh well, period. Music in the background could be a delight for some and a distraction for others.

•    Create a designated workspace that doesn't interrupt the flow of the underlying household. The flipside is that a messy house won't negatively impact a designated workspace.

•    Build a workshifting community that feeds your own productivity and reduces any feelings of isolation that you might have.

•    Be wary of (and quick to weed out) candidates who treat the occasional remote workday as a day off. This type of energy can easily erode the productivity of the entire group.

When I asked if the group had a disaster plan - we live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 types of weather - my question was met with uproarious laughter. OK, no disaster plan. Obviously not a deal breaker. But it's clear that this team of consummate professionals has discovered and implemented a healthy, productive workshifting cooperative. I'll leave you with the wise words of one of the regulars: Workshifting allows you to fit "work into life, not life into work."

What do you think?

If you go back and look at how Google started as a company, it's really amazing to see how much they have grown. Starting out with search, they have grown into many areas including collaboration, mobile, and productivity. While at times I wish that Google would focus, it's hard to argue against their strategy as they are leaders in the search market and challengers in many other areas.

So when they announced Google Wave there was a ton of hype because everyone was waiting for that next killer application from Google. Let's face it, these are the guys who did Google Search, Gmail, Adwords. All game changers in their categories, so expectations were pretty high.

But something happened along the way.. No one really knew what to do with it.

I am like a lot of people when I say that I honestly haven't used Wave a whole lot. When Google first announced it I rushed out and got an invitation, started a few Wave's with some buddies, but the interest quickly faded. That doesn't mean that Wave couldn't be a great tool for workshifting and after I revisited it some benefits bubbled up to the surface:

•    For team collaboration it quickly beats trading information back and forth via email. We have all been on those long email strings, soon you lose track of what came first, that important attachment that everyone else is referencing has been misplaced in your inbox. With Wave all of this information is contained within the Wave for everyone to see. One version of the truth.

•    Get new teammates up to speed quickly. As you add new people to your team you can quickly get them up to speed by using the playback feature found in every wave. The playback starts over at the beginning of the wave and you can quickly see the content and people who where added to wave as they happened.

•    Wave brings conversation into your project. How many times have you been working remotely on a project, needed some additional information from a team member, and you then had to use other tools to start these offline conversations. With Wave, all of these conversations can happen within the project where they are then stored for the whole team to see.

I decided to take another run at really using Wave to see if it fits into my workshifting toolbox and I need your help. A few weeks back I posted five reasons why your boss won't let you workshift and now I want to come up with a post that focuses on the reasons why you can.

I have started a wave so that we can collaborate on the responses. This will help me out by getting some feedback on my post and it will allow us to kick the tires on Google Wave to see the good and the bad. I will put out a follow up post on how Wave worked and if it meets the mark for workshifting use.

If you are interested in joining, make sure you have a Google Wave account, and shoot me an email at wave@itkgroup.com and I will email you the invite. Hopefully we will get a new post put together and we will see if Google Wave is a workshifting treasure or tease.

Have you found any workshifting benefits of Google Wave?


Photo Credit: Rafa Garces

We started this blog with the goal of building a community by providing content and resource material that was tailored for workshifters. The community was not built based on promoting products or services, although the occasional promotion is ok (just don't be "that guy"), it's based on fulfilling the need for information and the desire of sharing a common interest.

Over the past year I've watched as solo-preneurs chat with large enterprise companies about a wide range of topics.  It's less about what they are talking about, and more about the fact that they are talking, discovering and to enabling. Many of the questions and conversations are fielded and managed by the community.  One of the biggest lessons learned, is that once the community takes off, the community is in control. However, their desire for a consistent diet of rich and tasty content only grows with the community. So stay on it.

Another lesson learned is that your services are talked about alongside competing services.  Gasp!  I know it's hard to swallow, but your services are not right for everyone.  At my company, we absolutely love our products, but we know one size does not fit all.  We hope we attract customers that are a perfect fit.  Sometimes we don't and we definitely hear about it.  If you're going to build a community you need to be ok with that, because much of the conversation extends beyond the blog and takes place on Twitter, Facebook and other community blogs.  

What's really fun is watching the conversations that have little or nothing to do with technology. Common topics include comfortable office chairs, pets, marriage, diet, travel and about everything in-between. This is a nice lead in to one of, what seems to be, the hardest areas in managing a community and that's being REAL.

You could also replace REAL with HUMAN, HONEST, TRANSPARENT, etc. The point is it must come from the heart. You really and truly need to care. The community has low tolerance for corporate speak and canned responses. If you do more listening than talking, it will start to come naturally.

Online communities are not the exclusive domain of companies. We all belong to communities, online and in the real world. There is your Facebook community which you maintain, monitor and contribute to. In this day and age, it will become most people's first experience with a community. Then you may be belong to a car club, or cooking group and neither of which are online.  

As workshifters we often build a community around our co-working locations. You probably know the person that works the espresso machine, a few of the regulars, etc. This real world community probably extends to the web in the form of check-ins on Foursquare (who doesn't want to by mayor of their joint?), photo uploads to Flickr and messages in Twitter. If you're thinking about starting an online community blog, take that same casual demeanor and move it online. Be consistent, be transparent, be real.

My top 7 lessons:

1.  The community is in control
2.  Be the best electronic version of yourself
3.  Listen more than you talk
4.  Keep it really interesting
5.  Monitor and contribute daily
6.  Don't let questions or comments go unanswered for more than 24 hours
7.  If you don't genuinely care, don't do it

These lessons aren't particularly earth shattering, and you may read similar advice on other blogs. What's important is the application of the lessons. Much like when you read a book on a topic that's important to you. The reading of the book is not the measurement of success.  You are not striving to be an excellent book buyer. What matters is the practical application of the advice.  

That's my opinion, what's yours?


Photo Credit: Niall Kennedy