Last month I was invited to speak at the People Report Summer Camp conference down in Dallas, where I got the chance to talk to a lot of cool companies about new and innovative ways to mobilize their people to give back and make a meaningful difference in the lives of those they serve.

The bulk of my time since this event has been spent in two ways: expanding the Love Bomb idea (with the help of the amazing Lauren Lankford) and building out the business applications of ItStartsWith.Us. I’ll talk more about the business stuff soon, but for today I thought you might like to see the 5-minute introduction to my talk/workshop at the conference.

It’s in Pecha Kucha / Ignite style, which means there are 20 slides at 15 seconds each – and I can’t control them. They start, and I talk.

Enjoy.

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I’m enjoying doing these little videos. Five minutes, one take, all said and done. And I just get to talk about stuff, instead of sitting there trying to come up with the perfect way to say it.

Good stuff.

If you want to learn more about the “Life in a Day” project, you can check it out here. Thanks to all of you for enabling me to do something I love each and every day – I truly appreciate it.Similar Posts:

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Last week we dropped a Love Bomb on Laura. She is an art journalism student and an oil painter, and she is slowly going blind. I am still choked up about this. Maybe it’s that she’s dealing with my greatest fear, maybe that she’s an art student like me, maybe it’s simply that she’s an absolutely gorgeous young woman losing her ability to see beautiful things. Maybe I’m still stumbling over her gracious humility in having to take the bus, and shower with her eyes closed.

Regardless, reading Laura’s blog reminded me how temporary this world is, and called me out on the unworthy weight I give to what I see.

Laura, this is a thank you for being faithful. You get it. You understand the world, your Maker, your purpose. It takes most of us a lifetime to come to this place, and I would argue that you see things more clearly than we do.

Our Love Bomb team left over 160 comments on Laura’s blog last week, and left her overwhelmed. In her words, “I had a truly difficult night last night, mostly due to family stuff  and an especially emotionally trying day dealing with eye stuff. Those come up infrequently now, but yesterday happened to be such a day. I was shocked, and then incredibly loved and touched, reading all the comments… many of which brought tears to my eyes. It could not have been done on a more perfect day. I will be reaping the blessings of this love bomb for a long, long time to come.”

- – -

To the rest of you, the world needs you. I have a challenge. Who are you leading? Who is behind you? Who has acted out this week because you challenged them? There are hundreds of thousands more people like Laura that are in desperate need of encouragement and the strength of a community behind them.

Today, I ask you to find a project to expand. Be responsible for growing an established movement. Love Bomb is one of these movements, and there are others. Operation Beautiful is one that we will be partnering with for this week’s Love Bomb Mission. Operation Beautiful is a collection of thousands of people on a mission to end self-negativity. They leave post-it’s in various places with encouraging notes reminding whoever stumbles upon them that they are beautiful. I am thrilled for our joint mission with them as we combine our efforts to remind a girl this week that she is truly loved and beautiful.

If you want to help grow Love Bomb, comment here or get a hold of me on Twitter (@laurenlankford). There are easy, easy ways to go one step further and drastically expand the reach of our Love Bombs within minutes. I am more than happy to give you the suggestions and tools.

Please, don’t be passive. When something tugs at your heartstrings, re-blog it. Re-tweet it. Share the fan page on Facebook with your friends. Forward an email. Tell someone. 2010 has made it easy for you.

I love you all – thank you again, Love Bomb team, for all that you’ve done.

LaurenSimilar Posts:

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The Love Bomb team

I’ve been super quiet on the blog front lately, and I want you to know that I’m working on that problem. I now have five or six people who will be writing articles for ISWU, so watch for those as they come up. Right underneath the title of the post you’ll see the date and the author, in case you’re wondering who wrote a certain piece.

On Saturday I hopped in the car and drove down to Ohio/Kentucky for a week of project launches, big ideas, and no sleep. Here’s what went down:

Saturday I arrived in Columbus, Ohio to meet Lauren Lankford in person for the first time. This is her main site. But if you want to get a little better feel for who she is, check out her latest blog post.

That’s how cool she is. So is it any wonder that I chose her to lead the first ISWU spinoff project, Love Bomb? Yeah, that launched this week. The two of us spent the weekend working on it together (that’s us in the pic up top). With Love Bomb up and running and safely in Lauren’s hands, I left Columbus for my next stop: Dayton, OH.

Dayton was just a quick afternoon pit stop in order to say hi to someone who’s been a friend and member of ISWU from the very beginning: Krista Sheehan. That drive was so nice, guys. When I drove the 9 hours down to Columbus, it was 93 degrees and humid as all get-out. My car has 200,000 miles, no AC, no cruise control, and a radio that works . . . sometimes. It was pretty gross. The drive to Dayton was only 1.5 hours, though, and it had cooled down to about 80. Gorgeous driving weather.

So I hung out with Krista and her husband Will for the afternoon, and got a chance to connect in person with someone who’s meant a lot to me over the last year. I love doing that . . . it’s the whole reason I extend my business trips by a day or two each time, and a big reason why I drive instead of fly. Making those personal connections, not just online, is really important to me. Oh, want a picture of that too? Here you go.

I left Dayton after we ate supper (yes, supper) and hit the road on down to Lexington, KY. That’s where I met up with my girl Amanda Hite and the Talent Revolution team for three days of work, planning and fun. You may have noticed that we kicked it off with the fun Random Acts of Awesomeness Day, where we spent some time sending meaningful messages to the important people in our lives. I shot so many videos, I got tired of hearing myself talk. But yeah, it was great. Oh, want a picture of that too? Here’s command central.

Amanda and I are talking through a number of topics, not the least of which include building clarity around the purpose and principles of our respective endeavors, architecting the brand and business models behind them, and working up our strategic plans for growth.

Oh! Almost forgot – I finally got the new ISWU team platform launched this week as well. We had a slight delay, which I apologize for, but now we’re good to go. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting close to the vision I’ve had for a long time with this project. It’s a place for all of us to come together and get connected with each other, keep track of our weekly missions, and build meaningful relationships centered around the concept of micro-giving and making a difference.

If you’re already a team member and want to jump in, check your email for a link. If you’re not on the team yet, you can sign up here.

I’ve also been working with an awesome company in Chicago over the past week to form a cool partnership and launch our biggest “Change the World” mission yet. Stay tuned for more info on that, hopefully next week sometime.

Um, I think that’s all for now. It’s a busy week, but much good is being done here. Pretty soon I’ll start telling you guys about some of the plans for this project in the near term – I really think you’ll like them.

I’m around and working today; feel free to drop a line or two in the comments. I love hearing from you guys.Similar Posts:

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Alright, everyone. The time has come. 

For the last several months I have been (somewhat) holding my tongue about a new project I am very, very excited to be a part of. And I want ALL of you guys to participate.

I have been working with Nate at ItStartsWith.Us on the Love Bomb project, and this week is the big release. The concept is simple. We change the lives of those desperately needing hope, love, care, & encouragement – together, once a week, for five minutes.

We are all busy, I know this. But the next time someone asks you what you’re doing with your life, I bet your answer isn’t “cleaning up,” “going grocery shopping” or “sitting at a desk.” I know that all of you want something More.

A homeless man asked me a couple days ago what my life objective was, and without hesitation I replied, “to love people.” It’s taken me a long time to get here. To the place where that is my default answer, where it comes naturally. Yes I want to get married, yes I want to live where I want to live, there are activities and careers that I dream about. But what do I want to do with my life? Love people.

And it’s a genuine fight to fit what you’re doing with your life into your daily routine.

This is why I’m pouring a good chunk of every day into Love Bomb, and why I am the new Team Leader for the project. I want to help you fit what you truly care about into your daily or weekly routine. So please, put your name and email into the little box below, and every week when you get the email linking you to someone who desperately needs to be reminded that that love is real, take 5 minutes to do something about it. I want to see all of you grow into the place where you are content to simply respond, “I want to love people” when you are asked what you’re doing with your life.

Come on guys, you are bloggers. This is what we do. We comment to show our love.

website | @dropalovebomb

Follow us on Tumblr, on Twitter, and subscribe below to the once-a-week mission emails.

And welcome to the Love Bomb Team.

- Lauren
@laurenlankford

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I’ve been putting a lot of time recently into making the ItStartsWith.Us idea work for more people than it currently does. What that means is, I’m building out tools and a solid process that will enable anyone to run a group like ours. My goal with this project has always been to change the world. And just as I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and so needed a team around me, I also knew that this team should not be one homogeneous unit, but should have many branches, each with its own specific mission and group of dedicated members.

With that in mind, I’ve been working very hard behind the scenes to make it easy for large organizations to mobilize their people to give back, using the ISWU micro-giving concept as a platform. I’m kicking off the introduction to this idea today in Dallas. I’ll be down there all week, speaking and running a workshop at the People Report Summer Camp conference. The goal is to build large, independent ISWU teams from all different walks of life, yet keep them all connected together as one gigantic team that comes together regularly to accomplish incredible things that the world has never seen before.

I’ll talk more about what that looks like a little bit later. Today I wanted to share something very cool with you.

As I was preparing my material for the talks I’ll be giving, I realized that I didn’t have any testimonials or anything like that from team members, and I figured that maybe I should. So yesterday I sent out an email to our team members to let them know that if they felt like telling people why they enjoy being a part of the group, I’d love to hear it.

I got a ton of responses . . . it was incredible. Hearing from so many ISWU team members about the value they see in this project really touched my heart and reminded me of why I do this in the first place. I love that we can make such a big difference through small, simple actions.

But I won’t ramble on about it forever. Instead, I’d like to leave you with a few quotes from the team.

Enjoy.

I enjoy being a part of the ItStartsWith.Us team because of the fantastic people who make up the group. Speaking to ItStartsWith.Us members, you’ll notice their unfailing love for others. Diversity, friendship, and coming together for common good are all values maintained by members. They respond to need not only in their family and friends but also in strangers. They go the extra mile to write words of encouragement to those who are suffering far away from them and also within the group. And they show this kindess all in a quiet manner, without seeking great recognition. In this collection of inspiring leaders, you’ll find an accepting community who will aid you in your journey to help others.

In my signature box, on my art room wall, occasionally as a screen saver, and quite possibly a soon to be tattoo, you will see a quote by Martin Buber that motivates me to be thoughtful and considerate in my day to day.
Buber’s quote reads, “I think no human being can give more than this. Making life possible for the other, if only for a moment” and for me It Starts With Us works just as this quote does.

ISWU is a reminder to put into practice the love and compassion I want to live. It is a 15 minute task that bleeds into the whole week and inspires me to go beyond those 15 minutes. I have my ugly moments, I have said and done things I am not proud of and need to work at keeping my heart open and compassion flowing. It Starts With Us is a genius way to remind ourselves, through ACTION, of what the smallest act of love can do for ourselves and the world around us.

I am also motivated by how it can spread. It’s Wildfire baby! Many thanks to Nate who put the energy behind the spark. Incredible, innovative, heartwarming… and just plain awesome.

It Starts With Us has offered me a structured yet completely individual
opportunity to give back to others. When you join the community and read
the forums and talk to the people who are part of this amazing group, you
realise the huge effect it has on your own life and the lives of others.
It Starts With Us has given me the opportunity to give back in short sharp
bursts not only fulfilling my own daily dose of that ‘warm and fuzzy
feeling’ but in the process I have been able to satisfy the needs of
others; whether that be in the shape of a heartfelt note on someone’s blog
or sending a simple ‘I Love You’ to a friend.

The idea behind this is genuine. I have never been a part of something so sincere and sweet in my life. I read the blog of the person we are “bombing” and my heart goes out to them. I then read what everyone responds to and my faith in humanity is restored. So many giving people are willing to give their time to someone who they dont know. the overwhelming feeling of love that these people must be feeling after their bomb is amazing. I can not even accurately express how phenomenal this experience is.

I am the recipient of a Love Bomb. My older sister had committed suicide and the day that I found out I wrote every feeling that came to mind on my blog. I was struggling. I felt very alone in my thoughts. Nate and his team found my blog and then flooded it with over 400 comments from people all over the world. They understood my grief and left so many positive comments. I was floored. Here were people I have never met offering me such support and an outpooring of compassion. It made my journey through my grief just a bit easier. I will forever be grateful to Nate and It Starts With Us for taking the time to show me that the world still cares.

I love being a part of It Starts With Us. This community opens up so many opprotunities to help people in the smallest ways. I would never have thought that in just fifteen minutes I could change someone’s day for the better. ISWU has really given me a chance to think about others before myself and come up with ways – big and small – to better my community. I love how open everyone is to new ideas and how creative everyone is. We really all are part of something bigger than ourselves in ISWU and I’m proud to be a part of it.

I love bomb people because once upon a time I was suicidal and was saved by the kind words of one person. If one person can do that, think of what hundreds could do.

You know that moment, when you’re crushed in your own life, everything is at risk, and you look to the side of you and see that 14 year old girl who has lost her best friend to drugs, or that military wife who couldn’t take one more day of the PTSD of her beloved husband, or you find that single dad who feels beaten about the head by the challenges of raising his kids alone. And you find that your hand reaches out to their hand, you find your heart fill up with a deep love and you share words with them, listen, hug them, staying that extra ten seconds that change you from broken to human, and you go back into your world knowing you’ve given them peace, and love and they know they’re not alone in their struggles. THAT is why I am involved with Nate and ItStartsWithUs. Because my life is reeling from traumas and challenges, but I am grateful to be alive and I’m grateful to have the strength to share sorrow or laughter with someone who is also in the dregs of life’s challenges.

For me, I want to see a change in the world, and I want to be a part of that change by the way I live my life. ISWU challenges me to do things I might not normally do that really do make a difference in the lives of people everywhere. It provides small but important ways to show love to others, and that is something that I want my life to always be about.

Margaret Mead is quoted as saying “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” As a girl obsessed with the contagious spread of positive emotion, I have always believed this but saw it firsthand when I dropped my first Love Bomb. A few mouseclicks and heartfelt words from around the globe have restored hope, offered comfort, and changed lives. I’ve seen it. The ItStartsWith.Us team is exactly the kind of “group of thoughtful, committed citizens” Ms. Mead was hoping for.

10 years ago, I wanted to die. I didn’t want to actually kill myself, but
I would hope that while driving I would lose control of the car and be in
fatal accident.

Now I know that I was suffering from severe undiagnosed depression. At the
time, the thought never occurred to me. All I knew is that I was
constantly unhappy, I didn’t want to be around people and all I did want
was to sleep and play online.

Unfortunately, it never occurred to my friends or family either. My
parents decided I was lazy and sponging off them and constantly nagged me
to get a job. My friends decided I was lazy and enjoying living off my
parents money too much to bother joining them in the real world.

It was a group of girls, then a man who has now become my fiancée who
pulled me through this. It was the kind words of strangers who lived on
the other side of the world that did what my friends and family could not.

I joined ISWU to help those in situations like the one I was in. Never
underestimate the power of a few kind and understanding words, even those
from total strangers to help lift a mood. It’s a relief to me to see that
there is something out there to give a boost to others who are suffering.

I know this isn’t a cure and the affects may last as little a few hours,
but I know from experience that could be the difference between another
miserable day with dreams of dying to finally end the pain and deciding to
get help or that death is not the answer.

I have recently joined ISWU team and the whole ISWU community. Pre-ISWU I had the notion that there is no one good left on this earth. I felt like we were all in this purely for ourselves, who cares how others are feeling. Yes, someone has to change that, but who will? Who will take the role of the savor of our dying race? Someone, anyone, but not me. I don’t have the power. A 14 year old can’t change the world. All we’re good for is sitting on the couch complaining about the poor state of it. The change comes from the grownups.
But through this, I was shown how wrong I was. Somehow, by some random act of fate, I stumbled upon this website. I subscribed, thinking it was a waste of time, but hey, I was bored. When I read the first ATeam mission, I felt power. I felt the power that I could change someone’s life, for the better. Like even if no one else does, I can be the one person who at least attempts to brighten others day.
I have had few and far between nice things done for me, so I know how it fills your heart up with a sense of well being, a sense of happiness. I wanted to pass that on. I wanted more people to experience this feeling. Through this, I found even minor things, like 2 dollars a day, or telling your family you love them, or even opening up to someone new gives them that heart-in-the-clouds feeling. I could all of a sudden change the world. Who cares if I’m not yet 18? I am powerful. I can change the world through small actions. Yes, once I get a job, it will be easier to make a difference, but until then, I still can.
I have a renewed sense of worth, a renewed sense in faith for the human race. Everyday, I will make a difference in someone’s world. I will complain less and act more. No longer will I sit idle. I want to thank ISWU for giving me that kick in the rear. For telling me it wasn’t impossible.

I love being part of this team because it has made me learn more about myself as a person. I also love being part of the ISWU team because it has shown me how truly good people are, and basically restored my faith in humanity. When I joined ISWU I was, sadly, suicidal. I figured that I might do any little thing to help people before I died. ISWU showed me how much people care and that hope is not lost. So, thank you for allowing me to be part of this.

ISWU has been a huge morale booster for me, it has given me the means to help people with such little effort and so much in return. I have and will continue recommending this to people as I feel it is a brilliant project.
Only 15 minutes out of your week at most and you help someone else as well as helping yourself, whats not to like about it? So what if you aren’t noticed? The lack of being noticed is out-weighed tenfold by the gratitude you give to others, in turn reflecting on yourself.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” – Mother Teresa

I immediately knew when I read about ISWU that I wanted to be a part of it because it HAS to start with us. With one person. One act, one smile is contagious. As Nate has proven over these past months. I’m glad to chip in a bread crumb here and there to make something happen.

There are many, many more messages, and I’m sorry I can’t include them all. But I would like to thank each and every one of you for being a part of this team and working together to change the world . . . in just 15 minutes a week.

If you would like to join the ItStartsWith.Us team, just put your name and email in the box below. No spam, no cost. Just one email a week notifying you of what we’ll be doing together.

If you want to sign up for the Love Bomb team specifically, you can do so here.

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Yesterday Lance from “The Jungle of Life” ran an interview he did with me a while ago. Today instead of writing a blog post, I figured I’d just direct y’all over there for a bit.

Read “What Does It Start With?”

Lance is a great guy, full of joy and happiness. Seriously – I’ve met him. He’ll take good care of you today. Enjoy. Similar Posts:

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I took my kids to the beach this weekend. It was 50 degrees and sunny, and up here in Wisconsin we count that as a win. We spent about an hour there, running around, taking pictures, looking for shells, skimming stones, etc. The last 20 minutes of our time there was of special significance to me. I got to witness a life lesson vividly illustrated under the guise of simply having a little fun.

As I walk through life, I see myself or others engaging in any number of small activities throughout the day. Every once in a while I like to take one of those little things and blow it up in my mind to epic proportions. For instance, if I see my little one struggling up a steep hill, I’ll magnify his every tiny step and start imagining that he’s climbing Mt. Everest, on a quest to reach the pinnacle of the world. In my mind I start cheering him on, rooting for him to succeed, and when he finally reaches the top and turns to look at me with that happy, confident smile, my praise, high-fives and hugs for him are as honest and sincere as if he really had just conquered Everest.

So at the end of our day at the beach this weekend, the little guy was off to the side doing his own thing, and the two older kids were alternating between skimming stones and just throwing them out as far as they could into the surf. Blue skies, a light breeze, rays of sunshine bouncing off the waves, kids playing . . . it was quite peaceful. Then my oldest decided to make a tiny sandcastle – more like a little fort – in the wet sand right at the edge of the waterline. At first everything was calm and peaceful as he built up the sand and patted it into shape, but after a minute or so a big wave came up and knocked down his fort. Undaunted, he built it right back up again. A minute later, it was destroyed.

He built it up yet again, but this time he worked faster, and added rocks into the sand at the base to make it stronger. The next time a big wave came, he jumped out of the way and watched it demolish only half of his fort. He jumped back in, rebuilt, and continued to build fortifications – a small wall of rock in front of the fort, like a levee or breakers to keep out the big waves. It was at this point that my mind transformed this small moment of playtime into something much bigger – my son was creating something, and the world was trying to knock it down and take it away. I jumped in and started helping him fortify his creation. He thanked me for the help and got even more excited about building quickly. Every time a big wave came in, we’d both jump back, take note of what it had broken, then get right back into it to clean up the mess and keep working.

At this point my son was on a mission, and recruited his sister to start helping as well. And so the three of us spent the next 15 minutes frantically working against the incoming tide and the waves that constantly beat upon our little fort. Gather sand, slap it on, pat it down, fortify with rocks, build the breakers, dodge the waves, assess the damage, repair the breaks, build again, rinse and repeat.

I realized that at some point during this exercise, I switched from viewing this creation as my son’s, and instead started thinking of it as ours. It belonged to him, my daughter, and me. All of us. And each of us were working so hard to build something out of nothing – to bring an idea to life against all odds and all the natural forces that set against it. We were toiling against the raging of the sea that day, and for a brief time we prevailed.

In the end, however, the tide came in, and our little fort eventually got swallowed up, just as we knew it would. We walked away happy – satisfied and content that we had done the very best we could, and in that sense come away victorious.

But deep down we all know that the works of man do not last forever, don’t we? Just as the kids and I walked away from the broken-down fort, so do we all walk away from situations in our lives where we’ve struggled to build something of our own making against all the natural forces that come against it.

That’s pretty much how life is, right? We work, we struggle, we give everything of ourselves to build something from nothing – to bring something to life that previously existed only in our mind’s eye. Relationships, businesses, achievements, structures . . . these are the kinds of things we build. And in the end, in the very end, they will all fall apart, in one way or another. Relationships will end, whether by irreconcilable differences or by death. Businesses have a lifecycle, just as civilizations and empires do. They begin, rise, peak, decline, and end. Achievements are forgotten as soon as something better comes along, and even the biggest ones will come to nothing when there’s no one around to remember them. As for structures? Physical structures and organizational structures begin to decay from the moment they’re formed. Every natural force in this world pushes them to become a broken-down pile of scattered pieces, individually capable of very little. As demonstrated by our tiny fort, the only way to maintain structure is to work constantly, and work hard. And you know what? In the end, one way or another, it’s all going to fall apart. It always does.

And we know this.

So the real question is this: Will we let that stop us? Will the knowledge that it’s all going to end prevent us from even beginning? For some of us, the answer is “Yes.” It’s hard to work at something that you know won’t last. But I believe that for most of us, the answer is a resounding “No.” That’s what I love about the human spirit. I’m the first to admit that humans are capable of great evil, but we’re also capable of tremendous good. We know that the odds are against us, and that someday all we do will fall to ruin, but still we persevere. We always strive to be the best we can be. We think. We create. We hope. And, strongest of all, we love.

ItStartsWith.Us is one year old today. I can remember sitting on the same couch where I am now writing this post, legal pad in hand, sketching out some initial ideas. It was nothing more than a dream then . . . just something I could see in my mind. And today, just one year later, we have a global team of thousands of people who join together each and every week to make a difference in this world. We have a Love Bomb team who provide hundreds of notes of love and encouragement to hurting people every week. We’re developing a Love Drop team who are beginning to give back financially to families who need a little help. I’m now starting to work with large organizations to show them how they can use this concept of microgiving among digitally connected people to make a huge difference in their community.

All of this in just one year, with much bigger things still to come.

Wow.

Right now I want to give credit where credit is due, and say that it’s all happened because of you. Because you and I believe that small actions do make a big difference, and when you combine the efforts of thousands of us doing those small actions, it adds up to something huge – something this planet has never seen before. We believe that people are fundamentally good, and they care about others. We know that sometimes all it takes is a kind gesture from a group of strangers to change a person’s life forever. We’ve seen it happen. We’ve been a part of it. And we will persevere.

One year ago I wrote the first blog post for ItStartsWith.Us. It was called, appropriately, The Point Of All This. I wanted to use this site as a platform to change the world, and I wanted to make sure that love was the driving force behind everything we do. I believe that we’re well on our way, friends. I’ve been so incredibly humbled by the response to this message, and I am honored to lead a group of people like you – people who care so much about others that you’re willing to spend your precious time working together to make a difference. I know it’s hard, but I also know that when you work hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

This project is my little fort in the sand. I know that one day everything I’ve done will fade to nothing, but in spite of that fact I will give everything I have to use this platform to touch hearts and change lives all over the world. I only hope that I can continue to do it with the kind of joy and passion my kids demonstrated to me this weekend. I promise I’ll do my best, and with that I will be content. I hope you will be too.

Here’s to many more years of working together, changing the world, and having fun.

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I’ve only talked about our Love Bomb group once on this blog, but we’ve been doing them weekly for a couple months now, and I just wanted to share a quick update on how it’s been going.

In a nutshell, the Love Bomb group works like this: hundreds of people are on the mailing list, and once per week I’ll send an email to that group asking for recommendations for someone they know who’s going through a tough time at the moment, and has written about it on their blog. After reviewing the responses, I’ll choose one, and then the next day I rebroadcast that mission out to the rest of the group. On that day hundreds of us will visit the person’s blog and leave a positive, encouraging comment to help them get through whatever’s going on in their life. The comments range from simple messages of kindness to deep personal stories about going through a similar struggle.

When each of us spend just five minutes to read a blog post and respond with an authentic, heartfelt comment, we can make a profound impact on people’s lives, and give them a gift they will remember forever.

One of our team members went back to look at the blog of someone we bombed a couple weeks ago, and shared the following response with me (from the person we wrote to):

I got a surprising text this morning from my best friend Whitney telling me a I should look at my blog, that my comments had exploded. Surprised is not even the word to describe seeing over 30 comments on my last post. And as I read through them all I was amazed. Amazed at how great people are. So to everyone who offered their support I say Thank you. As I read through all the comments and the ones throughout the day I smiled, laughed, and cried. It was so touching for so many people to say just a kind word, or offer support, or even virtual hugs & cupcakes! (I love cupcakes) It made me feel a 1,000 times better just to read through it all. I even woke my husband and made him read through it all, by the end he had a huge smile on his face. We never imagined by me writing about all of this we would find so much support from strangers. I mean I’ve had strangers tell me they are sorry for our lose, but that’s usually at the doctor’s office and such, people I’ve spoken with and talked to face to face. But all these people I have never met, seen, or know sent me so much love, caring, and support! It’s just amazes me how great people are. One thing alot of people commented was they thought I was a strong person, well I don’t feel that way but after reading those words I felt so much stronger. So if any of those people are reading this now, Thank you, from the bottom of mine and Luke’s heart, Thank you. You have no idea how happy and what joy you sent to us.

Seeing messages like this from the people we touch is one of the best parts of my job. I sometimes lament the fact that I get to see so many of these, and many of our team members don’t always get the chance. So today I wanted to share it with the rest of you. Thank you all so much for helping us make a difference, one person at a time.

If you’d like to become a part of the Love Bomb team, you can sign up below. We do this once a week.

Similar Posts:

• Dropping Love Bombs
• Love Bomb Update, And A Challenge.
• A New ItStartsWith.Us Project: Love Drop
• Join the Love Bomb Team. NOW.
• Why I Do What I Do

Here at ItStartsWith.Us we’ve gotten very good at bringing people together around the concept of micro-giving, specifically as it relates to giving of our time and energy to accomplish big things in just 15 minutes a week.

But sometimes time and energy aren’t exactly what people need. Sometimes what they really need is a bit of a financial helping hand. I’ve never asked our main group to donate money to a person or a cause, and I want to keep it that way. I love that this group is all about touching people’s lives without spending a dime.

With that being said, however, I’ve been thinking for a long time about how we could use our micro-giving concept in the financial realm to produce similar amazing results. I’m happy to announce that I’ve been working with my boy J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy, and we’ve come up with a way to do it.

The concept is simple – it’s the same one we use with the other ItStartsWith.Us initiatives:

• 500 people participate in a Weekly Mission = 125 hours of community service are pumped into the world
• 500 people participate in a Love Bomb = 1 person gets 500 comments on their blog, and is touched for life
• 500 people participate in a Love Drop = 1 family gets $1,000 to help out during a tough time

The first two we’ve been doing for a long time – you’re already part of it, and you’ve seen the awesome results. The last one is what J. and I are launching right now. We’re still in the startup phase, so we don’t have all the details nailed down yet, but here’s the basic idea: We’re going to build a community of people who will give either $1 or $5 a month in order to help someone out. Same concept as everything else we’ve done here . . . giving just one dollar a month is an incredibly tiny amount, but when you combine that with thousands of people doing the same thing, think of the impact you’ll be able to make on one person, or one family.

We’ll be taking suggestions from team members, just like we do with the Love Bomb project. In just a few months, when this group grows to be a good size, imagine being able to recommend a family you know to receive a Love Drop, and we simply give them, with no strings attached, a check for $10,000 to help them get through a tough situation. Or maybe we buy them the new car they desperately need to be able to commute to a new job and become financially stable again. As with everything else we do here, the possibilities are limited only by our imagination.

To kick off our new project, J. and I were trying to think of people in our lives who could use a little bit of extra cash, and I mentioned a friend of mine whose family experienced a huge house fire a couple weeks ago. My friend, her husband and their two little boys escaped unharmed (thanks to a functioning smoke detector), but they lost almost all of their possessions, and they’ll be living out of a hotel for the next five months while the house situation gets sorted out.

We want to help this family out, so we’ve set up a little ChipIn widget on J.’s blog post here: “Announcing Our Very First Love Drop“. It will allow anyone to give through PayPal, and next week we will cut a check to the family with 100% of the proceeds.

As I said, this isn’t something that the main ItStartsWith.Us group is going to focus on – we’re going to keep doing what we do best. But if you’re interested in the possibilities of this new project, and it sounds like something you would like to learn more about, you can get on the Love Drop mailing list below. Getting on this list doesn’t take money from your account or commit you to any contribution amount; it will simply allow you to hear more details about this project as we get it going, and you can decide from there if you’d like to participate or not.

This is one more way that we’re going to use the micro-giving concept to change the world. Thanks for helping us!

Similar Posts:

• Join the Love Bomb Team. NOW.
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