ItStartsWith.Us » People

A Love Bomb for Lauren

Nate — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:18:25 +0000

Hey Lauren, it’s February 10th, 2011. Well, technically it’s February 11th, but I say the date ends not at midnight, but when you go to sleep. And I haven’t gone to sleep yet . . . you know how that goes. Anyway, it’s February 10th – your one-year anniversary of being on the Love Bomb team. You were one of the very first ones, my friend. And seven months ago you took over leadership of the team. You’ve now officially been running it longer than I have. Congratulations . . . and thank you.

I remember the very first time I ever noticed you, when someone pointed me to a piece of writing you had done. It was really, really good, so I went to your blog to read more. And what I found there was even better. After reading for 30 minutes, I remember tweeting something like, “This is what a blog should be. Raw, real, vulnerable, beautiful.” And that’s just your writing! Your photography is gorgeous. Intelligence is crazy. Personality is fun. You look like a model. And your heart . . . that’s the best of all. Do you know why I asked you to take over the team so long ago? Not because of anything listed above. That stuff helps, of course, but your heart, Lauren – you just straight-up LOVE people, in a way that I knew I never could.

Every week you lead the Love Bomb team in reaching out to a person who’s struggling, and you lead by example. When I read what you write to each person, the sincerity and empathy in your words are striking. And not many people know this, but you follow up with the people we help. You keep in touch with them. You become friends. You take a vested interest in their lives. Wow. That’s what people in this world need so much more of, and you’re always willing to give.

So today, on your anniversary, I wanted the rest of our team to give a little something back to you. Everyone goes through personal struggle, and you’re no different. I understand that you’re in the middle of a rough time right now, and so do some of our team members.

But know this, Lauren:

You.
Are.
Loved.

I tell you that a lot. I know you know it. But what I don’t tell you nearly often enough is that you changed my life. You brought joy back into it when I was in a very dark place. I finally started laughing again, and 9 times out of 10 when I laughed, it was with you. That did so much for my soul last year. So, so much.

You were surprised the other day when I agreed with someone about how talented you were. That made me realize that I’ve been pretty quiet with my praise for you. Now that we’ve been friends for so long, and you’ve worked for/with me for so many months, I totally understand that you’re brilliant. Because I know how much you’re capable of, I also expect a lot from you. And while I think that being demanding drives you to become better in certain aspects, I never want you to feel that I take you for granted.

I don’t know if you know this, but I still read almost everything you write. I look at all your pictures. I talk about you to everyone. In fact, often when my family members ask how I’m doing, they ask how you’re doing as well. Because you are family to me. You’re my sister, Lauren, and I want nothing but the best for you in this life, whether you continue working with me or go far off into the world to do whatever is next on your list.

Thank you for always being one of my best friends.
Thank you for leading this team by example.
Thank you for loving unconditionally.
Thank you for being you.
You are enough.
You are loved.
I love you.

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When You’re In Over Your Head

Nate — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 04:44:00 +0000

I feel like I just took a happy, laughing, running leap into the deep end. And only now that I’m here do I realize why this part of the pool is such a challenge. So what do you do when you’re in over your head? You reach out for help, of course.

Many of you know that my business partner (J. Money) and I launched a new project on January 1st: Love Drop. Each month we work to change the lives of one family or individual by bringing community together around the concept of micro-giving. Last month we were able to do some amazing things for Jill, a single mom in Chicago whose family had become homeless for the second time. If you’d like to learn more about that story, you can find it here.

Love Drop can be labeled as social entrepreneurship, which means it’s a (barely) for-profit business – we take out just enough from the contributions to pay taxes and run operations. It makes enough to be sustainable so we can continue to do it without going into debt. We love what we do, and we are honored to be a part of these families’ lives each month.

In January we brought in around $5,000, of which we gave Jill around $2,500, as well as many other gifts of goods and services from team members all over the world. For this month, February, we chose a recipient family that really, really touched our hearts, and in doing so we took on a challenge that is well beyond the strength of our team at the moment.

This family lives in my own city of Milwaukee, which I’m really excited about. Here’s the story in a nutshell: The Rewolinski family consists of a mom, a dad, and three children. The two older boys (Ethan, 7 and Alex, 6) are autistic and need constant attention. The family has been trying to obtain a specially trained service dog to help with the boys . . . especially to stay near Alex, who will attempt to run away at any time. They’re all ready to have a dog placed in their home by a wonderful organization called 4 Paws for Ability. I know it’s a fantastic organization because J. and I took a trip down to Ohio to inspect the facility and make sure it was awesome (which it was).

4 Paws works with the family to place a dog in their home, free of charge and with no waiting list. The one thing the family must agree to do is provide $13,000 worth of fundraising for 4 Paws, which is a non-profit organization.

And that’s where Love Drop comes in.

We made it our goal this month to help them raise the $13,000 necessary to get them started training with their dog and get it placed in their home as soon as possible. Great goal, powerful story, amazing thing our community can help out with this month, right? Right. Except with our business model, we’d have to bring in double that revenue in the form of contributions to make it happen. And we’re simply not there yet – we just launched this project a month ago, and our membership is still small.

Also, neither J. nor I have ever done any kind of fundraising before. Ever. You see, usually we keep it simple, and choose to work with those that we can easily help within the framework of our project. Bringing in $5,000 – not too hard. Bringing in 5 times that – ridiculously tough.

And since we help a new family each month, we have very little time to bring in the money. In this case, it means that we only have until February 28th to raise enough money to get this done. I think we’ve brought in close to $2,000 in the first week, which is good, but not nearly enough.

Before I tell you what we’ve decided to do about this situation, I want you to meet the family, and especially the two boys we’ll be helping. Alex is in the black shirt, and Ethan is the one with the full head of hair. Check out the video below to take a peek into their home. If you don’t have much time, skip to the last two minutes or so.

Just so you know, the way Love Drop works is that at the end of every month, J. and I literally go visit the family at their home and present them with everything that the community came together to help out with for the month. The Rewolinski’s live in my hometown of Milwaukee, just a few miles from me, and I don’t want to go to their house on February 26th and tell them that our community and our city could not do enough to help them get their dog. I want to go in there happy and confident, knowing that this city and our national network came together to do something incredible this month, something that will quite literally change their lives.

J. and I talked about it, and we realized that we aren’t going to be able to get this dog if we do things the normal way. But we do think there’s a way to bring in $13,000 if we work our tails off and have a lot of help from individuals and small businesses, especially those in the local (Milwaukee) community.

So here’s what we’re doing about it: We’re not going to take any money for taxes or operations for Love Drop this month – we’re going to funnel all of that money directly towards fundraising for 4 Paws so we can help this family get their dog. Every penny that we get this month will go towards the $13,000 needed for the service dog. Love Drop can take a hit in February . . . Ethan and Alex can’t.

There’s no way we can do this alone, though. We really, really need your help to get it done in such a short timeframe. So we’re asking you to pitch in however you can for Ethan and Alex. Here’s what you can do:

1) Give money through Love Drop
You can do this quickly and easily on our site here: http://www.lovedrop.us/get-involved. There are directions provided to subscribe monthly via PayPal, to do a one-time donation via PayPal, or give by credit card or physical check. We will make sure that everything we get this month (up to $13,000) goes straight over to 4 Paws and is accounted for correctly. If you’re an individual or business that gives a significant amount, we will include your information on our “Friends of Ethan and Alex” page here.

2) Give money directly to 4 Paws
If you want to make a larger, tax-deductible donation directly to 4 Paws, you can do so here: http://www.4pawsforability.org/donation.html. (Just make very sure to note that the money goes toward the Alex Rewolinski account.)

3) Spread the word
If you can’t help out financially, please help us spread the word this month by sharing this blog post with your network, or by sharing the story on Facebook or Twitter using the buttons at the top of the Love Drop homepage. If you have a blog, you can also join our Blogger Network, and we’ll send you an email with free content that you can copy/paste to share this story with your readers.

So that’s what I’m focusing all my energy on this month, guys. I’m not gonna lie – it feels really weird to write all this and ask for money and help from you. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it puts me in a really new and uncertain situation. But the fact of the matter is, my discomfort this month is nothing compared to what this family deals with on an daily basis, and if I can spend all my time in February making sure we come together to help change their lives, then I’m happy to do it. Yes, I’m in over my head – but I wouldn’t have it any other way right now.

I know this was a really long post, and I thank you all for reading and being a part of such a large group of caring people.

J. and I really want to make this happen for the Rewolinski’s this month. Thank you for helping us out – we truly appreciate it.

Much love,
Nate

Photo Credit: Jef Harris

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You Can’t Outsource Yourself

Nate — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:54:09 +0000

I used to write a blog. Then, as I began to build and grow all my projects, I realized that I didn’t have the time to write on a consistent basis. So I outsourced writing duties on the ItStartsWith.Us blog to other people. And now here I find myself, three months later, realizing that I am no longer a blogger.

To be fair, I never really considered myself primarily a blogger – I’ve always been a more project-oriented guy who just happens to write adequately and often enough to be viewed as one. But still, I was proud of my writing. And now I am not.

Back in October I brought on someone to manage all the writing on the site, including contributions by a small group of staff writers – not professional writers, but people pulled from our team who were interested in writing, gaining experience, getting their voices heard, etc. At that time I wrote my last “real” blog post, “Your Best Friend.” Other than that my only contribution to the blog has pretty much consisted of updates on the various projects I’m working on, except for one small bulleted list that I wrote in 30 seconds as a note to myself, but decided to publish. Ironically (or appropriately), that one tiny post generated more traffic than any of the other articles in the past three months.

Please understand that I’m not taking anything away from the people I brought on to help me with this. They did exactly what they were asked to do, and I really like some of the stuff that came out of it. The simple fact of the matter, however, is that they’re not me. And I hope you understand that’s not meant to sound prideful . I’ve simply realized that when you have a blog that’s built on personal experience and a familiar voice, you can’t just up and quit and give the job to someone else. It doesn’t work like that. I’ve felt this in my heart for a while now, but after trying it for three months, I also have the numbers to back it up. Every single applicable statistic on reader engagement is down (and down big) over the last three months. Across the board, folks.

I know in my heart what I want to do: I want to be proud of my blog again. And it’s so very difficult to say to those who have been helping out “Sorry, I don’t need you anymore,” but it’s what I’m going to do. Because at the end of the day I need to be 100% satisfied with the caliber of my work, and this is the way to do it. I’m taking back my blog, starting now.

I’d like to thank all the good people at BlissDom for reminding me to take another look at what I’m doing with my online voice. I’ll write more about that experience later (now that I write again, ha), but for now I’ll leave you with something that Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) said in his keynote that really hit me. He was answering the question: How often should you write?

“You should write when you have something to say.”

And that’s what I intend to do from now on.

Photo Credit: Rob Warde

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Love Bomb + Love Drop for Jill!

Lauren — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:53:37 +0000

Just wanted to throw up a quick video update for you guys on this week’s Love Bomb mission as we partner with Love Drop for Jill, our very first Love Drop recipient! Check it out.

Love you guys!

You can read more about Jill here on the Love Bomb website, or go directly to the blog post to leave her a comment. Similar Posts:

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Mastering Life In 2011: The New, Sexy 1950’s Culture

Lauren — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:04:12 +0000

Today I have something very short and sweet to say:

The secret to just about everything is getting outside of yourself.

What do I mean by ‘getting outside of yourself?’ I just mean slowing down your brain and paying attention to the people around you. Putting a hold on your personal goals, and asking who needs help with theirs. Making a sacrifice so that someone else can get what they’ve been waiting for. Going over to your Mom’s house instead of sending her a message on Facebook.

Over the last couple of decades, we’ve become a very individualized society. Words like ‘family’ and ‘community’ aren’t dropped too much anymore when discussing life decisions. The idea of still being friends at 25 or 30 with the kid you met on the playground when you were 5? That’s obsolete for 9 out of 10 people. With the traditional media explosion (radio, television, and eventually the Internet), culture shifted from what immediately surrounded you in your daily life to something that’s worldwide, and people then had their pick of what culture they wanted to adhere to. Through traditional media, we all got grouped into the humanity movement. And, true to human nature, we rebelled by ’standing out,’ ‘being unique,’ ‘embracing diversity’ and ‘doing me.’ (I could elaborate much more on the symptoms of individualism, but that’s for later, and not quite the point of this.)

Then came what I lovingly refer to as Teh Soshal Mediaz. Thanks to social media, we’ve suddenly become a relational generation again. Sure, it looks wildly different from the 1950’s, but I think we’re finally realizing that we might have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when we raced to put our careers first, let go of some pretty significant family values, and when “doing me” became the epitome of Cool.

Even if you don’t use social media, that’s okay. It’s changing your world for you, and you didn’t even have to Like any Facebook fan pages. There’s been an outrageous rush in even the last 365 days to raise awareness, build online communities, use Twitter to strengthen local non-profits, bring philanthrophy to the corporate world, interact personally with customer groups, and elevate the importance of sincere relationships.

We’ve even gotten so far as to have a man we call Doctor Love (Paul Zak) do extensive studies to prove that Oxytocin, the cuddle chemical, is triggered by things like a positive Facebook status comment. In the same way a bearhug from your best friend does. The significance? The corporate world is now anticipating that in the near future, their worth will be primarily measured not by their profit margins, but in customer relationships and their trust factor. Yes, people. Social capital is more valuable than money in the bank.

This has left us scrambling to figure out how to best gain this social capital. And it’s so, so easy. The secret is getting outside of yourself.

What does this mean for you? It means that we finally have proof that putting others first is the best way for the world to work. It means that engaging in a sincerely interested manner with the person at the drive-thru gives you an amazingly good return on your 5 minute investment. It means that putting a sticky note on your dashboard reminding you to focus on others, and not yourself, will actually increase your standard of living. It means that the whole purpose of social media is to be social: “marked by friendly companionship with others.”

But, there’s a catch. Being driven by love isn’t something you can fake. Even behind a creative Twitter handle, intricate philanthropic blog network, or super cute profile photo, people can tell fairly quickly what your motive is. Most people who are paying attention can skim a blog, and after 10 minutes, give you a fairly educated guess on what that blogger’s definition of success is.

I want this to be a challenge to you. Make a conscious decision to put other people’s interests above your own. When you go through the drive-thru, stop thinking about your next destination long enough to realize that a real human being is serving you. And when you jump on Twitter and half-skim a couple hundred tweets as your type yours up, pay attention to who needs a little extra love that day.

Success isn’t complicated, you guys. Fight the urge to be ruled by the numbers game and to be ‘doing me’, and let’s go back to our 1950’s roots – where family and community take priority in our lives. While still crushing on our sexy MacBook Pros.

Lauren (@laurenlankford)

Note: Lauren is the Team Leader for our sister project, Love Bomb. You can check out her own blog here, and follow Love Bomb on Twitter here. Similar Posts:

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…You Are So Beautiful, Can’t You See It?

Susi — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:01:35 +0000

Following is a second article from our blog series highlighting young ISWU members.

“Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?” This was sent by Opperation Hope [misspelling intended], a website where anyone can enter a recipient and a message, and the email will be sent anonymously for you (which is really handy for people you don’t normally talk to, like your estranged brother-in-law or the lonely shy girl at school). Opperation Hope was created by Aly and Mebediel [not their real names], two teenage girls in California, US that, one day, decided to send an anonymous email to a lonely sophomore at their school. That was their first Opperation Hope email, and their first step to changing the world. One sender told Aly and Mebediel that the boy she wrote to had changed the way he acted, becoming more outgoing, less restrained, and making more friends. Each message they send is just as amazing, and offer advice we all deserve to hear, but often forget: “You are awesome, so I just wanted to tell you this: Be yourself; everyone else is taken,” and “… A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.” So far, the girls have filled 17 hearts with hope.

You can share some hope at http://opperationhope.weebly.com/

——

The Entire Interview with Mebediel And Aly

Q: How many people have used Opperation Hope?
M: So far there have been 17 messages that were sent through us, and one person has asked us for advice.

Q: Have you had any feedback from people about it?
A: Yes, I believe so, and we’re always very excited whenever we receive one.
M: We have had a couple of suggestions for improvement on our site such as the “Other acts of hope” section, the “Ask for hope” section, and a suggestion that we might forward any replies from the “victim” (I have no better words for the person we send the email to) back to the original sender.

Q: Has anyone told you an inspirational story about their experiences with it?
M: So far, no one has shared any inspirational stories with us, but there was on boy who kept communicating with us; we knew the hope-sender personally, and she told us that she had seen a change in how he acted–that he was more outgoing and less restrained after that, and that helped him make more friends at school.

Q: The boy that inspired you to start it – did you ever see any change in him?
M: If I remember rightly, the biggest change we saw in him was that he found some friends later on…that may or may not have had anything to do with our email.
A: Well, in general, yes, although it probably wasn’t because of our email. He found a few new friends and I think, he recently reunited with his old friends, so we’re glad that he’s not all alone anymore!

Q: Do you read the messages – (i assume you have to since you have to rewrite them, and you might want to make sure they aren’t mean?) and if so, what was your favorite one?
M: Yes, we read the messages, and so far we haven’t had any mean ones. One of my favorites is, “People can be so hurtful but people can be so healing. So don’t give up on people. You’re a wonderful guy. A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.”
A: I guess my favorite one has to be, “Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?”. It just sounds so honest and sincere, I love it!

Q: Are there any others that really stand out to you?
M: All of the Opperation Hope messages are amazing, but two more that stood out to me are: “Hey now, you are not ugly, you are so beautiful. Can’t you see it?” and “You are awesome So I just wanted to tell you this: Be yourself; everyone else is taken. =D”
A: Other than my favorite, one that stands out to me is “People can be so hurtful but people can be so healing. So don’t give up on people. You’re a wonderful guy. A lot of people appreciate you and what you do. Never doubt that.”Similar Posts:

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Our First Love Drop

Nate — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:10:12 +0000

As most of you know, ItStartsWith.Us likes to spin off side projects every year. And this year I’m really excited to announce the launch of another project designed to utilize the power of micro-giving to change lives: Love Drop.

From the site:

“Love Drop is a micro-giving network of people who unite as a community
to help one person or family a month. By subscribing to the team for as
low as $1, we make it easy for our members to change lives in a fun and
tangible way. Each month Love Drop delivers a unique combination of
unexpected financial gifts, personal encouragement and the support of
local and online communities.”

This one is gonna be a lot of fun, guys. Seriously, how amazing will it be to travel around the country helping out people who are going through tough times, but are still finding ways to give back to others? And the point is not to just give money, but to get our entire community involved in giving anything they want that could improve our recipients’ lives. The creativity on this one will be off the charts – I can’t wait to see what we all come up with.

This month we’re working to help Jill, a single mom in Chicago who just lost everything in a house fire and is now homeless . . . for the second time. But wait ’til you see her attitude and the ways she continues to reach out to help others. Head on over to LoveDrop.us and check it out!Similar Posts:

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Wanted: Smiles, Smiles and More Smiles

Deb — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:17:02 +0000

Following is a guest post from ISWU member Deb Chitwood who is on a mission to bring more smiles to the world. Read below to find out more about Project Smile.

I’m on a crusade. All of us participating in Project Smile are on a crusade … “Making the world brighter one smile at a time.” Project Smile is the brainchild of Alicia at A Beautiful Mess. Alicia lives in Iowa and thought of Project Smile at the end of August as a way to make life a little brighter during the upcoming fall and winter months.

Now there’s a Project Smile link-up on the last day of each month and through the following week where everyone participating shares their Project Smile posts. Bloggers share things they’re grateful for, inspirations … simply, things that make them smile. Bloggers can share in the form of lists, poems, stories, photos, quotes, videos … whatever inspires their gratitude and smiles that month.

At Raising Figure Skaters, I publish my Project Smile post on the last Friday of the month and link up the last day of the month. I like to share quotes, videos, and other inspiration I find online that make me smile. I typically create a word-art freebie from a quote in my other post that week to go along with my Project Smile post.

In my September Project Smile post, I quoted a study that found happiness (and unhappiness) spreads through networks of people. So Project Smile can make a real difference if enough of us work together to spread happiness.

In my October post, I shared an awesome short film called Validation, which truly captures the spirit of Project Smile. In my November post, I shared two flash mob videos that made me smile and gave me inspiration at the beginning of the holiday season. Both months I succeeded in making people smile with the videos. But what can I say … just as often, I heard the videos made people cry (but happy tears … I know, I was teary-eyed too)!

For myself and others, Project Smile is more than a post and link-up. It’s a reminder that we have much to be grateful for, that we can make a difference simply by making the world a happier place. Please join us in our crusade.

Word-Art Freebie

Deb’s Video Bio

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Epic Thanks

Nate — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:00:22 +0000

There will be more to come later (officially) about what Epic Thanks is about, but for now here’s a link to Epic Change, the organization responsible for it all.

Estrella Rosenberg saves lives every week. This is how she does it: Big Love little hearts.

Much love to all our friends, teammates and supporters, and biggest thanks of all to the Love Bomb team. You guys are awesome!Similar Posts:

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Mysterious Letters Update

AliciaB — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:49:15 +0000

First of all, big thanks to everyone who has e-mailed me, expressing interest in our Mysterious Letters project. Our leadership team of 20 has selected a secret town we can really impact, and we’re looking forward to getting the ball rolling on this.

We would love to share the name of the town with you all, but we want to keep this what it is — mysterious. If a resident were to Google their town name, that element of mystery could be potentially ruined (especially since the town we’re writing to has a population of about 300; word can spread fast in a town of that size!). Just think of the joy of opening your mailbox to find a surprise letter of inspiration; it’s always exciting to receive anything other than that mundane piece of junk mail or that dreaded, monthly bill.

Our goal is to have the handwritten letters sent out to our mysterious town by the first week of December.

What you can do: Start brainstorming ideas, begin composing a message you’d like to share and most importantly, get creative. The handwritten letter is becoming a lost art form; let’s bring it back!

Just a few ideas:

Postcards

Poems about communities

Inspirational quotes

Simple “thinking of you” cards (provided they aren’t of the, “thinking of you while you’re in the hospital,” or, “so sorry your significant other of two years broke up with you,” variety)

Letters written on handmade stationary

Any other creative, community-related ideas you might have!

A few examples of what is NOT okay:

Since we’re sending our letters out in December, many of us might find ourselves in the “holiday spirit.” However, this is about connecting a community. We will discard anything holiday-themed (e.g. Christmas cards) and will NOT send them to the secret town.

Steer away from anything political or religious. Remember, this is about them. Again, we’re trying to connect a community. We are not in the business of pushing our own agendas.

Stay Updated:
We will have a P.O. Box for you to send your letters to, as well as additional instructions on composing and sending the letters, in a blog post to come. We will also be accepting messages that you would like to share with the “secret community” via e-mail, if you’re not the artsy-craftsy type (our team of letter-writers are more than happy to, and will make sure, that your message is handwritten and sent to a resident or small business in the mysterious town).

If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to e-mail alicia.ISWU.letters@gmail.com.

Thanks again to the wonderful Mysterious Letters leadership team — and most of all, thanks so much to all of YOU for being a part of this!

-AliciaSimilar Posts:

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