Interviews

#da12social‬ Is Europe ready to strategically leverage Social Media for business? Interview with Axel Schultze @AxelS

June 12, 2012 By admin 1 Comment

In 4 weeks time, 30 strategists, 250 volunteers created 1,000+ pages of crowd sourced research and 1 strategy proposal for the Digital Agenda Assembly 2012 of the EU Commission. Yesterday I had the privilege to talk to the man that initiated this group of highly qualified volunteers; Axel Schultze.

Axel Schultze, CEO of Social Media Software company XeeMe, Palo Alto, California - Chairman of the Social Media Academy, Palo Alto and active social media practitioner since 2003.

As part of the Digital Agenda Assembly 2012 of the EU Commission, you created a Digital Agenda Strategy Team. Can you tell me more about your motives to create this team? When and how did you come up with this idea?

The EU commission invited me to do an opening keynote at the Digital Agenda Assembly conference at the 21st of June in Brussels. I reviewed the European situation and realized not only is Europe 4 years behind the US but also not ready to strategically leverage Social Media for business. I proposed to the EU Commission to develop an open strategy to stimulate small and medium business to create growth and to compete on a global market. The scope is huge, so we need a clearly defined strategy to go after that objective. But as an experienced strategist I know it is possible. My motive is to make Europe a more stable and better place to live and work.

Very high goals: sustainable growth, additional jobs and being able to compete in a global market. In the meanwhile we see the news that Europe is struggling to keep their (financial) heads above the water. Do you think Social Media can ‘save’ Europe business wise?

If you look at the struggle Europe is in, there is a difference in what the press is saying and global reality. A large part of the EU, northern countries are economically very strong compared to US and Latin American countries. All in all, we see a rather strong Europe. We are always challenged around the globe. Even when disaster strikes there will be a way to create business.

There are various aspects of growth. If you look at the shoe industry, in Italy and Spain, the leather industry is big. However, both Italy and Spain are struggling. On a global scope, DC Shoes in California, has 8 million fans talking about their shoes on Facebook only. Falco is an Italian shoe factory which is not present on social media at all. Both companies target young people – but the US one is clearly ahead of the European one. If we can stimulate the Italian and Spanish shoe industry online, people don’t need to order shoes from the US.

Then there is the Fascino Group Guangzhou Shoes Manufacturer from China who is a very potential competitive risk. These shoes are not known in Europe because Chinese companies don’t allow Facebook in their marketing strategy. Renren.com is a chinese social network and they are present there. As soon as Fascino is able to deal with western social media platforms, they will come to Europe over-night. Whilst Falco is still not present at all and doesn’t even know how to deal with it. We need to prepare our local businesses. If businesses like Falco are not present other than through old fashioned business concepts, they will not be competitive. And the shoe industry is only one example.

The US and China are big countries with a lot of people speaking the same language. In Italy and Germany almost all television broadcasts are synchronised into their respective languages. Young people can only learn English from music channels, online and a bit from school. What about this language barrier?

Look at the kids in Europe. There are 230 million Facebook users who talk to friends in their native language but also to friends around the world in English. The common language has become English. As such we are initially focusing on those groups of people and businesses who are open minded, have typically a better financial position, and thus are more able to buy the products. They will lead the track and the slow mover will follow.

What if the Euro falls, what strategy will be needed for Social Media and business?

Companies who feel they have no time for Social Media need to learn that it is not a nice-to-have or fancy marketing play but a strategic tool to grow the business. The whole focus of our particular social media initiative is to help grow a business through widening the potential market – which today means more export. Whether the euro falls or not, business will need to continue selling their wares. And if they can’t locally right now, they can find consumers in other parts of Europe or the world.

The US economy almost collapsed 4 years ago. The US grocery brand Whole Foods was known as expensive. In that crisis even rich people saved money but Whole Foods grew. They understood they had to be as human as possible. Albertsons groceries was 10 times bigger at that time but closed more than half of their operation and almost vanished away, others even went out of business because they did not act on the opportunities to get closer to their respective markets which is one of the key advantages of social media. (read more about Whole Foods Social Media strategy on Mashable).

Zappos is an online shoe dealer. They had a hard time selling shoes online because people want to try shoes on. They started to send 10 pairs of shoes to fit on and let customers send the ones back that didn’t fit. In a few years time Zappos grew to a 1 billion business. They recognized that social media is not about fancy, but about building relationships with as much consumers as possible. The prejudice that you can only talk to a few customers in so much time is not true when you apply social media as a business relation tool and not as a spam tool.

What is it exactly that your group is working on, what the European Digital Strategy is in need of? What is this groups added value?

This group has worked through thousands of pages of research. The real work is to make sense out of this information, to distill it. We focus on the 3 biggest industries in the countries. We look at the perception of social media in European countries, at obstacles, rules & regulations and what business owners think of social media. We need to know where they are and identify the opportunities. If we would be pure data junkies, we would see construction work is important because it is big in all countries. But knowing construction is very local, we rather focus on industry segments with a sustainable impact on a country’s economy. The most notable effect for businesses in this situation in Europe is to grow outside their country. We won’t be able to come up with that objective without knowing what is going on in the respective countries. Now, going forward, we cannot continue doing this for the next 4 years for free. We need to find funds and hope to get funding from various sources. And we will look for resources to execute this project in the next couple of years.

What outcome do you hope to present in Brussels.

We developed an execution plan where we hope to assemble a team for the entire project. We would like to see country specific teams and funding to get them going. We build a 3 tier engagement model, where we conduct an awareness campaign with sponsoring from industry leaders to fund this campaign. We recognized the need for profound education for business leaders, business teams as well as consultants and that will be the first problem we need to solve.

On the 20th of June we will reconvene with the team on how we will go forward. We will install more country teams where we get educated resources. We hope to reach 7-10 countries for the remainder of the DA 12. Cutting through the noise is the biggest challenge for all groups on the Agenda. I believe our group demonstrated that we are well able to cut through that noise.

Empire Avenue as the champions league of social media

September 14, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Interview with Tim Gorree, IT solution architect for Nokia, about NOKIA on Empire Avenue

What is your role at Nokia?

Tim Gorree, managing NOKIA on Empire Avenue

My job title is IT Solution Architect, End User Solution Architecture. I have been responsible for Nokia’s presence in Second Life and am now also looking after Nokia’s presence on Empire Avenue. I work on other projects as well, like our internal social media engagement tools and http://www.ideasproject.com.
I have been a leading advocate for virtual worlds in Nokia and virtual currencies are part of that. The virtual currency that is used on Empire Avenue, the Eaves is interesting, because companies have found it difficult in the past to measure their Return on Investment on their social media activities, efforts and investments. A lot of companies are embracing social media, but how do they measure up in their various engagements? There is Klout, but Empire Avenue is a very exciting alternative. You can see how you measure up to others.

Why is Nokia playing on Empire Avenue?

We are there because everyone else is there. Microsoft with Xbox, Intell, BMW, Ford, etc. When Justin Boverton, CEO of Rivers Run Red, posted about Empire Avenue I signed up for a personal account. I noticed a person had registered the Nokia ticker and asked him if he was willing to hand it over to Nokia. From that moment on people started to buy Nokia like crazy. I went to Nokia’s marketing department to have the Nokia social media accounts connected. Already during the first week we saw a large amount of people connecting with our LinkedIn groups which we use to recruit people. This demonstrates that Empire Avenue is a good resource to find social media talent. I call it the champions league of social media.

On Empire Avenue it is very transparent what people and companies are doing with social media. When you sign up on EAv you see that there is more to social media then just Twitter and Facebook.

Nokia is performing well on EAv, is Nokia is inspring other companies to join?

I would hope so, companies who are engaging actively are doing better. We use it to amplify our other social media presences on Empire Avenue, and that does seem to work well. If companies are serious about their social media activity, they should be interested in learning more about how well they are doing across the social media landscape.

What is more important for Nokia, ‘winning’ the game or making connections? In other words, is it easy to sell stocks of people that don’t perform well?

To perform well we have to sell sometimes because we have to look after the interest of our shareholders. If you want to keep the interest of the shareholders in mind you have to sometimes make tough decisions and sell somebody we have invested in. On the other hand, when we buy somebody, the person is really happy with Nokia on Empire Avenue. The point is to not take it personal when somebody sells you. When somebody sells you, you might have to improve in one of your areas.

My mission is to amplify the social media presense of Nokia. It is about what we do on Foursquare, on Facebook, on Youtube …. Empire Avenue is a platform that helps to amplify this presence and allows us to connect with and discover new people. The metrics of how well we do compared to other companies on each of the different social media platforms are valuable to us and help to monitor progress.

More about Tim Gorree on Tim Gorree’s Nokia page, on Twitter
Visit Nokia on Empire Avenue

Written by Elza van Swieten, (e)CONFLUENCE on Empire Avenue

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, Interviews, Social Media Tagged With: Empire Avenue, NOKIA, social media

Tips from Berrie Pelser – #1 business on Empire Avenue (@Berriepelser)

August 24, 2011 By admin 4 Comments

Berrie Pelser

Interview with Berrie Pelser, owner of Ber|Art – a WordPress Hosting and Social Media / SEO Company in The Netherlands, and player on Empire Avenue.

How long have you been playing on Empire Avenue (EAv)?

For 4 months now. I started on Queens day, April 30 2011. I received an invite from somebody and thought: this looks promising so I started right away. The first couple of hours I compared it with Klout, but then I figured that EAv does much more. Klout indicates how much somebody is engaged in social media. If you see a tweet from somebody with Klout score 8, it probably is spam. But if somebody has a Klout score of 80, it most likely is good content. It says something about the credibility of the person that tweets. This is also the case in EAv, but here it is more about engaging and sharing. If you compare shareholders to Linked-In connections, Facebook friends and Twitter followers, shareholders are much more. Buying shares in a person means you want to engage.

Could you describe to my mother what EAv is?

It is a game. A game is about sharing information and engaging with people. What is there to win? That depends… for some there are friends to win. EAv allows you to play as a private persons or as a branded person (people vs companies). Companies like Dell, Nokia and Intel are not there to make friends, they are there to promote their products and brand. It will be possible for them to (virtually) sell Branded Luxury Items. For example Nokia can ‘sell’ their new Nokia N8. They will also tweet about this product on Twitter, post it on Facebook but they can also virtually sell it on EAv. EAv for them, is a very serious game. For private persons it is a fun game to meet friends and promote your social accounts.

What is your benefit in playing EAv?

I am a business owner. I run an Internet business which offers services in Social media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If I can add a link to my website where I can show people what I do, it is beneficiary for me. And social media is one of the services I offer. If I want to offer EAv services to EAv players, I have to know the tool just like I learned Twitter and Facebook. I offer fully managed and fully hosted WordPress sites including SEO and integration and branding in social media. Just running a website is not enough in 2011. In my opinion you have to have at least Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and EAv. My reason to be on EAv is business-wise, to let people know what I have to offer, and I can do that better if I try to be ranked #1 on EAv.

You are ranked as #1 in the Top Business Stocks with share-price above leaders like Mashable, Nokia, Intell, AT&T and more.What would your advice to companies be if they are thinking about joining EAv?

Call me. They “should” not start before talking to me. You can do a lot of things before you enter the game. If you want to start, DO NOT ENTER YET. If you do things beforehand you have a better start and focus. The first 7 days are most important. On the seventh day a new account will ‘open up’ to investors to buy more than the limited 200 shares. On day 7 it becomes possible to buy (virtual) Luxury Items, and a Bigger Piece of the pie which enables investors to buy more. Day 7 is a crucial day. Shares of most of the newcomers will go down after day 6 or 7. There are more than 1000 EAv players that buy newcomers every day, and sell them after 7 days if they are not performing in the game. You have to go through that day 7. I get 200-300 unique visitors per day from EAv only. This is important for Google ranking, especially now EAv is growing fast. It will get more value fast.

How much time do you spend on EAv?

Not much, the only thing I do is buying and selling. In the beginning you have to do more work. You have to build your account, let people know who you are and what you do. Just like Facebook and Twitter, setting up an account and get it going takes time. If your profile is up and running, it can become a routine. I am on EAv less than one hour daily. EAv counts everything you do online in social media. A tweet is a point, a Facebook post is a point. EAv is all about sharing and engaging. If you have something to say, share it everywhere so that everybody can see it in their own social tool of preference. During my vacation I shot a lot photos because I am a amateur photographer. I uploaded the photo’s to Flicker, and because of that my dividends grew. It is all about social media to get your dividend up.

Airplanes, virtual Luxury Items to buy with the virtual currency 'eaves' on Empire Avenue

It is optional to buy certain upgrades on EAv with ‘real’ money, like a ‘bigger piece of the pie’ with which you can buy more shares of any given person, or Luxury Items that pay out in ‘eaves’ (the currency of the game). What is your point of view on buying with real money?

If you just want to have fun, don’t buy. The only reason to buy something when you just want to play, is to do it for EAv itself because they deserve it. Just to say thanks to EAv for playing the game. If you are serious, you have to buy as much as you can on day 7. After that, luxury items (virtual items you can purchase on EAv) are not interesting for new players until their portfolio value will go over 15,000,000 eaves. Look at Chris Pirillo (ranked #1 private person on EAv), for two weeks he has been buying all the airplanes (virtual Luxury Items you can buy on EAv). And recently I started to understand why and bought planes too. If you invest all the dividend earnings in new people, that means they will buy you too. With that your share price will rise. If your share price is rising but your dividend is stable, your ROI (Return on Investment) will drop. You don’t want to have ROI dropping, because that is the most important number in your EAv account. How do you calculate your ROI? Divide your dividend per share by your share price, times 100. So to make sure your share price is NOT rising that fast, buy luxury items.

And the list of tips goes on and on when you talk with Berrie

Berrie shares tips on Facebook groups (Dutch language) https://www.facebook.com/groups/empirelaan

Find Berrie Pelser on Empire Avenue http://empireavenue.com/BERRIEPELSER

Visit Ber-Art WordPress SEO Hosting

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, Interviews, Social Media Tagged With: Berrie Pelser, EAv, Empire Avenue, shares, social media

Social Media? Don’t give up! Interview with @mqtodd

August 20, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

Interview with Micheal Q. Todd

Michael Q. Todd

In your Facebook profile it says you are living the dream, what does living the dream mean to you?

For me living the dream is not having a boss, not having clients and that I can control what I do every day and control time. There is no limit on the hours of the day. You can create hundreds of hours a day. My philosophy about Internet is know – like – follow – promote me. When people are promoting me more every day, I create hundreds of hours a day. When I write a blog post and a lot of twitter friends share it, they promote me. I don’t need to promote my blog, I got 1000 of people doing that for me. Every day is big fun for me.

You wrote The more I learn the more I realise that we are all connected, can you tell me about that?

We are not far away from being all connected. The more you trust and believe this is the case the more it will happen. Things are happening really fast. We build relationships with people, channeling people. If I think about somebody they pop up on my twitter account, this keeps happening to me more and more. We are very close to being connected totally. This is what the Mayan prophecy was 2600 years ago, that in 1999 we would start connecting. This was the year when LinkedIn and Friendster started. The Mayans said this was going to take 12 years. A wave of consciousness is starting in 2012. We are in the final stages of everybody connecting and then the wisdom is going to spread really fast.

You seem to have a lot of life experience. Did you ever consider the fact that this could make you an old soul, somebody with a lot of responsibility…?

I have seen my past lifes. I have been hypnotised a few times. In one of those sessions I was in an ancient country, 200-400 years ago where I was speaking to a crowd of people protesting against a government. Then guys in uniform came with big swords and killed me. I feel like I am dong now what I did before. When I was 12 years old I have been speaking to an audience about the environment. When social media came along, I saw the huge potential to have a voice here. Maybe I am an old soul, yes. I feel I enjoy being in the center of it.

You are helping people on Twitter and Facebook. If there would be a # 1 tip for a Twitter user wanting to be successful, what would that be?

In 3 words: don’t give up. 96% Of twitter users give up within 1 month. People give up all the time. It is not so easy to get started when you are not a celebrity, but you have to keep going. You have to trust Twitter and trust your friends that are successful with it. A lot of people use only 2 or 3 kinds of tweets. They don’t get the right balance, not using different kind of tweets. That is my main advice; to study different kind of tweets. I wrote a blog story about 6 different kinds of tweets. Twitter is about knowing why you are on there, and you have to be there for a long time. I am there to teach about twitter and social media and to promote and connect good people. If I put out good material about social media, people start to like me and read about the environment at the same time. If I would speak about the environment all the time people would stop following me.

And Facebook?

Facebook is not a whole lot different. Facebook has threads of conversation. Also here it applies: remenber who you are and why you are there. I am about Social Media, Environment and Japan. You have to have a place where you are from. Say thank you a lot on Facebook and Twitter and be fun! Give information on what you know about and ask questions. When you make a comment in a blog, you should say thank you, give information, have fun and ask good questions. That is the big tip about being successful on Facebook. And get a lot of friends.

And last: quoting you: “What if we are the ones we have been waiting for?”

What if we were. We can all wait for somebody to come. Maybe Jesus is coming or somebody else to save us. But what if it is us. We are here for a reason. There have never been times like this. There must be a reason. A lot of things are happening and we are here. Maybe it is time for me to do something quite special. I am just asking people: look at yourself, what could you do? What is your potential. What if you are that prophet that stops everybody form fighting? People have unlimited potential if they decide who they want to be. There are new things everyday on the internet. Now Skype and Facebook are hooking up and there is talk about Foursquare joining Facebook. Every day there are new apps to share information. If people can just try 1 thing every day, then they will keep up with everything. And when they try 2 things a day they move ahead of everybody else. Do things for the first time, make a Youtube video for the first time. Try something new every day. Only good things will happen out of that.

Follow Michael on Twitter: @mqtodd
Visit www.michaelqtodd.com

Filed Under: Facebook, Interviews, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: facebook, foursquare, Japan, social media, Twitter

Drishti opened my eyes

June 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Interview John E.M. Muller, Raja Yogi

I see you are very involved with spirituality. How did you find your way in this?

I was brought up by a mother who was very charismatic and religious. Spirituality was always with – and part of me. My mother passed away when I was 15 years old. After she left her body, I started my search on who I was. I went to every ‘spiritual supermarket’ I could find.

In 1999 I attended a positive thinking course at the Brahma Kumaris yoga institute of which I had found a little ad in the local newspaper. Each lesson given weekly just touched me. I felt myself very much at ease and as the course evolved there was a meditation at the end of the lessons. It was a meditation with eyes open. I saw and experienced a lot of light, both at the screen of my mind as well as with my physical eyes.

Meditation with open eyes

During that time I worked at the Royal Navy and we had a routine port visit in Kiel, Germany, at a military navy base. At a little building for navy people, there was a carousel with little add booklets about upcoming events in Kiel, you know, those add carousels for tourists. I found this little booklet that said, “Der kraft deiner Gedanken”, with just this text and a phone number. It appeared to be the same Brahma Kumaris institute as where I did the positive thinking course in Den Helder (Netherlands). Just like in Den Helder, I felt at home, like being with family. Soon after, the German ‘family’ invited me for a weekend out into the country side. There was a an older lady named Charlotte, who ‘gave me drishti’. Drishti means “vision” or “insight” in Sanskrit and is like a soul to soul contact. It is where you don’t look at somebodies outer appearance, but straight at somebodies soul, which is situated in the middle of the forehead, right between the eyebrows.

Did these experiences change your life?

The ongoing beautiful personal experiences I have from this knowledge touches me very deep inside. In the beginning it was something I couldn’t touch, but it was there, like a deeper knowing. It didn’t change my life immediately except for the recognition in myself. Being in the Navy, I was away from home a lot. The moments I wasn’t offshore, I attended classes in my home town Den Helder. When I was at sea, I took with me guided meditations on tape and books published by the Brahma Kumaris, which gave me lot of strength and insight. As I continue learning I see a lot of changes in my life. For me God is very important and was always part of my life. I discovered that when you are searching on the spiritual path, you are not searching only for God but actually on a deeper level, you are searching for your self. The ‘drishti’ experience to me, was a meeting person to person with God or Supreme One, whatever name tag you give it.

How do you see changes at our current time

Changes are ongoing for a while now. I don’t believe that 2012 is the end of something. Life will never end. Only the world as it is now, as we know it, with all its negativities will change very fast. But I do not believe in predictions on that level, while nobody knows time. I am very cautious in giving advice to other people. If something is in your path, it will come to you naturally. Along my path I met a lot of special people who always gave me something that I could use to go along with myself. It is recognition, to look within yourself, introspection, going within, which is and has always been a big part of me. My experience on a spiritual level, is that I seem to know everyone I meet in this life, in essence. If there is something I would like to say? In front of all people, not really, I just look at them without saying a word but giving ‘dristi’. It is about every one of us, individually & collectively, including the self that everyone has to write their own book, whether we are conscious about it or not.

Visit John on Facebook

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Brahma Kumaris, dristhi, meditation, raja yoga, spiritual

Four key corner stones for conscious evolution

June 11, 2011 By admin 1 Comment

Interview with Nicolya Christi, author, writer and founder of WorldShift Movement

I see a lot of winter images on your website,
what can you tell me about that?

Nicolya Christi

I did the shoot for the website in the middle of the winter in the French Pyrenees. The imagery is to represent Purity and Light.
I wanted a very strong sense of an uplifting energy, and for the website to be a ‘transmission’ for visitors. The Kahuna in Hawaii talk about ‘Mana’, a very special energy embodied by one who has an intensely powerful Light, vibration and frequency, who is able to transmit this ‘Mana’ to another human being so they may feel energized, healed, uplifted, and experience an extraordinary shift within, as is often the case. This was the ‘instruction’ I received for the website, for it to be a transmission, to convey ’Mana’ and a great sense of Light and Purity, for it to feel clean, clear and evoke the aspiration of Pristine Truth.

The mountains are symbolic and their presence all important because I feel we are moving, shifting from our current reality of ‘inspiration’ to the new paradigm influence of ‘aspiration’; from inspirational to aspirational. I live in the French Pyrenees and became aware of myself looking upwards all the time. When you are in the mountains, your gaze is upwards, aspiring. Many people look down or look ahead, but very few look up. There is a vast difference between looking up at the skyscrapers in New York City or mountains covered in snow! Time specific to 2012 Higher-Dimensional Light Codes have been downloading on to Earth since the late 1930’s and have been stored in the mountains, we are in the window of time where the dormant Codes held within the mountains have become active.

We are in a process of great change, a momentous, transformational moment in human history. These Light Codes contain highly advanced information, frequencies and codes which are not only downloading into the Earth’s grids, but also permeating human consciousness and activating dormant Codes within the individual psyche. These catalytic Codes are also imprinting into the collective consciousness and in that, humans are experiencing great waves of awakening and awareness of the pending Shift of Ages. Many are sensing this shift, and that we stand on a threshold between the old and a new paradigm.

How can we prepare for 2012?

It is not about how we prepare; we are already in it. We are part of the shift, whether we realise it or not. It is beneficial beyond words to be conscious of the change we are all part of. In answer to your specific question, we can each choose to be aware of our actions, our patterns, our choices, our inner world, and our connection with Nature and Spirit. When we really begin to pause in our lives, as the busy people we are with all of life’s distractions, we can view our lives differently and strengthen our connection with Nature and Spirit. We need to prioritise, sit with interested curiosity at our own behaviour, and commit to Self-Refinement and Self Mastery, this is what we can each do.

Secondly, we can align with ‘better-world initiatives’. There are hundreds of initiatives working for a better world, like WorldShift Movement, Pachamama Alliance and the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Join one or offer your support, this is another practical (and crucial) thing we can do. When we work on strengthening our relationship with nature, aligning our consciousness with the Higher-Realms, self-refining and self-mastery and join or become part of a better-world initiative like WorldShift Movement, we begin to dramatically enhance and amplify our personal vibration and frequency, upgrading the energy field that surrounds us, and activating our energetic signature, which aligns us with our Soul’s Higher Purpose, (see my book ‘2012: A Clarion Call – Your Soul’s Purpose in Conscious Evolution‘), – this positively impacts everything around us. If all human beings were to strengthen their relationship with Spirit and Nature, look within and become actively involved with a better-world initiative, we would raise the consciousness of the world, and this has the potential to catapult us into the prophesied “Golden Age”. Think of a dimmer switch as we refine our consciousness; the internal dial turns up amplying our personal inner light, and, on a mass scale, amplifying the Light in the world. Imagine if just one billion out of seven billion people were do this, planetary consciousness would rapidly evolve and the world could transform.

How can we ‘turn within’, align with our ‘Spirit’?
What is your method?

There are many methods. However, I don’t have a method. For me, it just is. I had this awareness of Spirit as a young child. For me it is natural. As a teenager I became more curious about Spirit, the Universe, and Higher-Dimensional reality, and the reality of Nature and life on Earth. In my twenties my world was very spiritual. And in my thirties, I discovered the psychological world. Before that, I was like a balloon up in the heavens without weight – very spiritual, but ungrounded. When discovering the psychological world I started to know myself and that changed everything for me. It gave me great grounding, a different lens through which to view the world, to me this transpired to be an incredible opening.

I encourage everybody to know thy self, to cultivate psychological awareness. You can work with transpersonal and humanistic therapy, or groups in the humanistic, transpersonal psychological fields. By knowing ourselves, and our patterns and the source of these patterns, especially the dysfunctional ones, we can break them and cultivate a healthy relationship with ourselves. Only then we can be in a healthy relationship with others and the world. The world has the potential to become healthy and functional, balanced and whole, however, we must master this firstly within if we are to have a chance of the world becoming so. The world is but a macrocosmic mirror of the microcosmic inner-world of the individual. Everything we see happening in the world is but a projection of the inner landscape of human beings. Knowing thy self, is crucial if we are to ensure that the Great World Shift can occur and establish as irreversible.

What is your link to WorldShift Movement?

I am the Founder of WorldShift Movement. In 2009, I saw a photo of Ervin Laszlo who has written many books, including WorldShift 2012, the inspiration behind WorldShift. However, I am unable to read books. I read people. And when I saw Ervin’s photo I instantly knew him, and knew there was a purpose I was to fulfil with him. It was a powerful and undeniable gnosis. Ervin was the inspiration for me to found WorldShift Movement, and continues to be the inspiration for all I am and all I do in the arena of WorldShift.

Is there anything you would like to add as an inspiration?

Yes, I would like to encourage and invite people to focus on the four key corner stones for conscious evolution which I promote as essential to conscious evolution; Nature, Self, Spirit and ‘Better World Initiatives’. I offer myself in support of anyone who wishes to explore strengthening their connection with nature, wishes to refine and master the Self, and align with the spiritual reality of who they are. I, along with the team at WorldShift Movement and Ervin Laszlo, also offer an open invitation to come on board and join us in the work of WorldShift and WorldShift Movement. Please join us so that together we may support the co-creation of an irreversible and positive worldshift.

Visit Nicolya Christi’s website
Visit the website of WorldShift Movement
Follow Nicolya Christi on Twitter

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: 2012, consciousness, evolution, Spirit, worldshift

Healing PTSD through poetry

June 10, 2011 By admin 1 Comment

Interview with Risa Ruse, healing poet

What is PTSD ?

Risa Ruse

PTSD is acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a Mental Health disorder that effects any race or color and can effect both child and adult. It is an equal opportunity disease, a “dis-ease” of the body, mind and soul as termed by Louise Hay in her book, You Can Heal Your Life. Trauma can effect anyone at any time in any culture. The severity of the trauma and the way the person is able to handle it determines if a trauma develops into PTSD.

How does poetry heal?

There is a difference in conventional therapy versus healing rhyme that connects a person to the Divine. I worked with homeless Veterans (that were in conventional therapy for PTSD) for 10 years and they complained about their therapy. They call it “flight-deck” where at the hospital they wait until nighttime and simulate, as a group, the guns and firing from the war-zone. With that the Veterans are not healing but reliving their fears and self-medicating. They are re-instating their whole mind mess. Reliving is hurting, it is like keeping a wound open. Another way to overcome sorrow is to get to know ones sore and pain (Isaiah 1:6 in scripture and my book, “PTSD Poetry Healing Restores Joy and Prosperity” poem.)

THE SORE, by Risa Ruse

My dream tells me to look closer as I see the sore in my own eye.
My teacher appears wearing eyeglasses hinting to the meaning of the sty.

As sleep eludes me my mind starts to soar.
Then the symbol starts to roar!

At last, I got it, I understand.
I have been painfully labeling my 3 hurts with a brand.

I need to stop fixating on the crimes against my heart.
It only keeps me and my destiny apart.

I vow now to let it all go.
It is the Almighty’s essence to know.

The surrendering prayer SOUNDS to me.
Please, God take this away and let it be.

The Comforter sends an internal message that it has already begun.
Rest assured– it is done!

Each of my poems represents a sore or two. If you relieve just 1 or 2 emotions at a time the disorder looses its power until you’re healed. It is also safer that way because the disease of the mind is broken down bit by bit rather than combating the “whole” disorder. An illustration of this is in my poem entitled,

Contemplate PTSD as a Viperfish Then Conquer and Dissect It, by Risa Ruse

The very first time you look on a Viperfish it invokes fear.
That actually is one of the main components of the fish and PTSD that is clear.

The ugliness and realization that such creatures are real brings terror.
Not knowing about how each one exists and attacks is a dangerous error.

When they are encountered initially their image sticks in your head.
Negative thoughts and aloneness will trigger remembrance of their dread.

The mind’s reflection of trepidation creeps into our nightmares.
The perilous fish likened also patrols the deep dark water as it stares.

Beware for the person who becomes a recurring victim in the night.
Each terror breaks off a piece of sanctuary given into fright.

Here is a strategy to defeat and not repeat old visions that stay.
Look deeply at the photo of the Viperfish to make fear go away.

Scrutinize how the predator sneaks up on its prey.
Contemplate what makes your fear appear and then just pray!

Christ’s strength and protection will come as you face fear’s physiology.
This kind of power heals like no other psychology!

Knowing your enemy and its tactics is half of the cure.
Examine how the treacherous fish uses its lure.

Look on the monster waiting to tear at the heart’s flesh.
Contemplate Our Lady of Sorrows embrace to make your mind refreshed.

No harm may come to her child we have been told.
Saying her Rosary will make the answers unfold.

Here is a tip to keep the mental fish not to collide.
The battle is won with praise and thanksgiving for Christ and His Mother at our side.

Fear is conquered when the predator is in the light.
Positive affirmations will bring joy to distinguish fright.

Christ is the tool to break down every terrible memory of fear.
The strategy is for daily prayer and meditation to keep the mind clear.

At this point the consuming fish can only be safely seen behind the glass.
Christ is our shield and amour that wards off ability of the past.

3D painting of the Viperfish displayed at www.RisaRuseArtist.com depicting the Viperfish now that represents a “whimsical” form instead of fear after conquering it!

Will I know what emotion goes with what pain?

You can recognize the emotions, they are universal like anger, fear, self-loathing. No matter if it is combat or sex-abuse, the emotions are the same. You don’t realise the anger you carry with you until you make a connection with your inner spirit and realise that there is more in life than what you see with your five senses. If you don’t know what is inside of you, your heart grows cold, you loose all your emotions and you block the trauma. Your life can go on like that for 10 years until there is a trigger and you feel “safe”. Then all the bottled-up emotions spill out in repression being released. That is what happens with our Veterans, who are exhibiting this released repression from their own trauma in a more rapid period of time because of the extensive horrors they had to experience defending our country. This will affect their health, relationships in family, friends, and employment. That’s why it is so important to get a safe way to heal through inspired poetry that will not make them relive their experience, but relieve the negative emotions one at a time.

How do you write the poems?

My poems come up with different things that happen. Recently our cat is missing. That stimulated 2 poems to talk about healing from grief and the need for compassion. The cat became a microcosm for the story of humanity’s call for compassion. “PTSD Healed Without Compassion Brings Only Sorrow, Then Death” and “PTSD Revived With Grief and Destroyed by Renewed Faith”

The technical way of writing a poem is that I sit down at the computer. I pray and ask for the Lord’s blessing and ask to create what He wants me to create and then I start typing. The poem will be ready in about 45 minutes and completely done with only a minor spelling correction or so. It is God working through my heart and hands that heal my own twice PTSD and can help other people also. Always I give thanks and praise to Eternal Spirit for the finished poem.

Visit Risa Rise’s website on art and poetry

Follow Risa Rise on Twitter

Filed Under: Interviews

The WorldShift Movement

June 7, 2011 By admin 1 Comment

Interview with Kingsley Dennis, Co-Initiator of The WorldShift Movement

What is The WorldShift Movement?

Kingsley Dennis

The WorldShift Movement (WS M) was inspired by the work and vision of Ervin Laszlo. WS M was formed in November 2010 by Nicolya Christi as a volunteer, people-focused global initiative. One of the key objectives of WS M is to represent the people, to work with and through people, to empower them to make a shift in their lives, both external and internal. There are six core values represented by WS M:

Peace
Restorative Justice
Sustainability
Compassionate Action
Conscious Communication
Conscious Evolution

WS M is focused upon inspiring and empowering people to be the change for themselves and the world around them.

… there are so many movements. How does The WorldShift Movement stand out?

My personal view is that I consider this as the blotting paper metaphor: you put an ink drop on the paper, the ink starts to spread; you put another drop of ink and more ink spreads – and if you put enough drops it changes the colour of the paper. Different movements are for different people, and not everybody is drawn to the same movements. Different movements cater for different peoples needs and together we can all work towards changing the colour of the blotting paper. There are many movements out there; and WS M does not consider itself to be in competition with any of them – competition is an old paradigm state of thinking. We just have the focus and intention on what we are doing and don’t compare ourselves with others. The change of colour we can all achieve together represents, for me, the shift in peoples consciousness.

Blotting paper with drops of ink. Will all movements be one big drop of ink at the end?

What is your background and how did you get involved
with the WS M?

I’ve worked as an academic for most of my life; my last post was working as a Lecturer and researcher in Sociology at Lancaster University (UK) and I taught/published on global communications, looking at how people use communication to connect and empower themselves, through blogging, social media, and mobile phones, for example. I then later researched global resources and our sustainable futures. My first book was ‘After the Car’, which investigated more about a post ‘peak-oil’ world and our resource futures. After this research I moved to southern Spain to live a more sustainable lifestyle and to write further on these subjects. As a part of this I became involved with Ervin Laszlo and heard about The Worldshift Movement and the work of Nicolya Christi. In December 2010 I made contact with Nicolya and she asked me to come on board. And it’s been full-steam ahead ever since!

What can any individual do to participate?

For direct involvement with WS M we have a list of skills/attributes on our ‘Join Us’ page we are looking for to help support us. A person who feels that she or he can contribute, please get in touch with us through our website. A second way is that you can subscribe to our newsletter from our homepage and keep up to date with our information and then get in touch when/if you feel inspired. And a third way is that we are hoping to make our website a resource center to supply information for people to educate themselves and to promote world shifting campaigns. We often call our movement a HUB to help people empower themselves with information. Nobody can change themselves unless it is through their own efforts.

What is your personal view for this year and the coming years to come?

I feel these are very significant times. Not only because change is happening in our world, but more importantly that people are now recognising and acknowledging this change within themselves. This wasn’t the case in past years, and this for me tells me that there already has been a change in awareness. Two decades ago these ideas of a changing world were not general currency in our vocabulary, but this has changed tremendously in the past few years. It is now clear to many people the incompatibility of many of our current systems, be they social, political, financial, ecological etc. People are waking up to personal awareness that things cannot go on as they have been going on. The next twenty years will be very different from the last twenty years. Physical change is happening at the very same time as changes in the human psyche is occurring. These two impacts together create a very powerful catalyst for a world shift. I feel we are going to see some very necessary changes ahead as we re-prioritize our needs for a more harmonious and sustainable world future.

More about The WS M:

http://www.worldshiftmovement.org

More about Kingsley Dennis:

Weblog: http://kingsleydennis.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/kingsleydennis

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: 2012, change, Ervin Laszlo, movement, shift, world, worldshift

Immortality is responsibility

May 25, 2011 By admin 1 Comment

Interview with John F. Harrigan, Author, Speaker, Qi Gong Master: Personal Development, Self-healing, Immortality

When was your first experience with being immortal?

John F. Harrigan

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I had a strong awareness of what I was and who I was and I was looking over past life times. Later, at the age of 16 – my mom was reading metaphysics, Yoga masters, Christianity – I started reading and meditating. Around that time I met a woman who was working at her immortality process. She told me about this, and I started listening at her experiences and strongly felt: this is for me, this is what I was born to do.

Immortality is not about me, it is the idea that collectively we are all moving towards to, suggesting to humanity that we are all immortal. Over thousands of years we harmed ourselves and sculpted this in the law of physics. By behaving badly we created a world that does not sustain life very long. The Creation itself repeats the depths that we act out. What I experience and see, is that there is no difference between the world and our self, we are the same being and the same creature. When we harm an other person, we both hurt our self inside and them and we give The Creation instructions to destroy life. We are the ones that teach the creations. We are the Gods that give creation instructions to destroy us and to destroy ourselves. We created all the world and the universe. There is a law theory in physics stating ‘life itself creates the universe’. My personal background is in science. My interest is in human suffering, how we create and how do we end human suffering. How do we return to the world like the garden of Eden. How do we turn this world into heaven.

We always want to blame somebody else, but we ourselves are the source of our happiness and our sorrow. When we change the world it will change around us. It make take all your life, but the change will never come if you don’t change now.

By knowing we are immortal, what other ways can we look at life?

The true design of people is true immortality. Immortality is not a goal. I don’t even think about immortality, but speak to the masses telling them that we have more control over our body, minds and physical worlds than we can imagine. We are like foolish people that control the universe but sit on the floor and say “everything is hopeless, I am suffering and in pain”. What if you found out that we are dying because we don’t eat nutrients. Love is essential for life, if there is not enough love, life is not sustained. My working background is relationships. When we have to work on loving somebody really difficult in live, we can really open up. Always love your self and be calm. The more we practise deep love, not victim love, but love from the power of the soul, the more we experience the world is loving with us. We can love even those we don’t like.

In the sciences of the brain it is known that if we actively change our brain, our brain will change. We are sculpting our brain every second of the day, we feed life instructions on what we want. Over thousands of years we sculpted ourselves a very difficult life. But this is our doing, not a satanic force. That challenge of live is what allows us to develop. Immortality is responsibility. For the creation for your life, who you are and all of creation.

By knowing we are immortal, what does time look like?

To understand time you have to focus on the present moment. If you sit in meditation, you may notice there is no time, time falls away. Meditate on it – sit in a quiet place, observe your breath, be in a human state of existence – and practise this 2, 3 times a day. My suggestion is: find your own answer. You will find your own endless Self in meditation. Experience the beauty of your Self and you will know what to do. If you can’t experience your Self, it is hard to find answers. Focus at the present moment to be at your best. The present is where you have all the power. Find the peace in yourself and all things happening in the world will fall into place. When there is no diffusion there is no fear.

More about Immortality on www.ImmortalNow.com

Follow John on Twitter: Immortal_Now

Filed Under: Interviews

Getting inspired by EsoGuru

May 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Interview with Ibolya Kapta, International Advisor at EsoGuru

Yesterday I attended an online broadcast at EsoGuru. It seems all so well set up and organised. Can you tell me something about the organisation behind EsoGuru?

Ibolya Kapta

EsoGuru is based in Hungary and we provide the most influential personalities in esoterics, spirituality and self-help for our growing number global audience live to anybody’s computer screen. Spiritual leaders like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Masuru Emoto and Mayan Elder Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj are just some of the great teachers we have featured in some truly inspirational online broadcasts. The company behind EsoGuru is one of the biggest Interactive Media companies in the world. We started this service because we realised, that there are so many people all over the world crying out for help on their personal spiritual journeys. This is the only web portal that provides complex services for its audience and for the speakers as well. Our events are live, interactive and the most exciting thing is that we offer simultaneous translation for our audience, which really gives the opportunity for our speakers to reach out globally to anyone, without language barriers. We also keep in mind that not everybody is able to follow the live events at the given time, so we offer the opportunity to watch the lectures again.

How does EsuGuru selects its speakers?

We have a close relationship with our audience and we keep asking them whom they would like to see. That is our purpose; to collaborate and share with our audience and with our speakers. We have a research team that is continuously looking for interesting material. We are looking for the most inspiring speakers. There is always an urgent need for messages like the Mystery of 2012. We already had a number of lectures in this subject and we hope for the big impact on the people whom are watching these events. Our aim is to help and prepare the global community for the new world, which is already on the Horizon, but sometimes it seems to be misty. We also like to introduce scientists like Carl Johan Calleman, who is a biologist who turned his attention to the spiritual awakening, as an expert of the Mayan Calendar. Our speakers benefit from our system, because it is more than just an online service. We share similar values and we are delighted to have the technical background to co-create a more conscious future for all. Our speakers are happy with our service and they come back again if their time-schedule provides.

What is your role at EsoGuru?

I am a tiny part in a great company, where I am an International Advisor. I build bridges between the possible speakers and EsoGuru. I am working mainly online, so this role is very flexible, but I keep in touch with the rest of the team in Hungary and abroad. I support our events with social media promotion as well. It is great to work for a company which aim is to give inspiration to people all around the world. My life is also about seeking knowledge, truth and enlightenment. I am happy to have this opportunity to connect my soul via my working environment with similar minded people. I enjoy learning from our speakers. I feel overwhelmed when I see and read the comments from different people from different countries. It is beautiful to share this knowledge, which comes from the biggest minds of our time. I feel privileged to be able to balance my work and life on a higher level. EsoGuru is a great place for me to fulfill my soul.

What is your personal vision of the world as it is right now?

I could sometimes cry, but I tend to be more happy. I can sense that we are shifting to a new world. We are at a tipping point of a global crisis and I believe the World is heading in two directions at the moment. One direction is what so many people are afraid of, the other direction is a much greater possibility. It is even more exciting, I believe, that we can create a better future together, because we have so many resources, information and equipments to do it. I am very excited to see lots of opportunities at this moment. If we are able to look beyond the fear, that is so significant today, we can realise that we can also make a decision right now to be responsible for our own thoughts and acts. We can stop harming ourselves and our environment. Imagine if only one person thinks like that at this moment. I am positive that we can influence our future with our conscious presence in the now. There is so much to do everywhere, we have no time now for wasting our children’s future. The first thing we could do is to make a click in our mind and start believing we can do it.

More about EsoGuru
Follow Ibolya on Twitter

Filed Under: Interviews, Social Media Tagged With: broadcast, EsoGuru, inspiration, online, speakers

Drishti opened my eyes