Extended Follow Friday for February 26, 2010 @_elan_ #ff #followfriday

I just finished writing an interview/article about Elán for Beatweek Magazine, BUT I still had some things to say, about this artist, so I’m adding a bit more here! (FYI that article is not published yet, but will be very soon!) 

I’m not going to tell you too much about Elán’s latest record or about her prior records or about any publicity tour or anything like that. I share Elán with you because I think she’s a really awesome human being.

My favorite things about Elán:

In random order :)

Her commitment to continuing to participate in the conversation with her fans and friends via social media.

She is genuine and truly grateful for the relationships. She is accessible and honest. She not only responds to folks but adds to the dialogue. She is at times blunt, other times funny and always honest and courteous.

Her honor for herself.

In the music business, or I venture to say in the entertainment business as a whole, this is a very tough thing to do. Particularly if you happen to be a stunning blonde. It is sooo easy to pull the beauty sex card. It is easy because it’s basically expected. Elán could have very easily just stepped into it, just as hundreds of other physically blessed people have done. Elán is doing it her way. Her image is her own. She chooses what she wants to put out onto the world. At times she is sexy (but seriously, how could she NOT be, she just is) but she doesn’t push it out there. At times she is rough and hard, other times playful and light. I absolutely enjoy seeing this woman enjoy being in her own skin.

Her love for her family.

I dare you to find and interview with Elán where she doesn’t in some way mention some member of her family. While doing research for my interview with her, the greatest thing that stuck out at me was how much she loved and respected her family. Her father and mother have been a major influence on this woman’s life, in a good way. What’s lovely to see is that she is NOT her parents or her family. She is herself, and that is the greatest gift that she gives back to them. She honors them by being herself. Her brother has been by her side from the beginning. From what I can see, he is her friend, confidant, producer, band member, advisor all rolled up into one!

It’s simply lovely to see a woman in the entertainment business that chooses to empower herself in such life affirming and auspicious ways.

So my pick for this Extended Follow Friday is @_elan_

Consider checking out her music as the majority is in English, although her latest is in Spanish (iTunes Link). And if you’re not up for the music, follow her Tumblr blog. It rocks

Oh yea...and stayed tuned for more about Elán coming up next week for Beatweek Magazine!

Extended Follow Friday for February 12, 2010 @HillaryRubin #ff #followfriday

I was attending a yoga class with my beloved teacher Naime Jezzeny while doing my first Anusara Teacher Training over at City Yoga (waaaaay back in the day ;) ), when it was time to do handstands. That day I partnered with a woman that I’ve never met before, I’d seen her around in class, but never engaged personally with her. As we worked on our handstands she began to ‘teach’ handstand to me. I initially was like “who do she think she is?”, but then after I softened my ego, I recognized that all the teaching that she was offering was right on! In fact I believe that was the first time that I found strong and full balance in that pose.

That woman was Hillary Rubin.

From that day on I was intrigued by Hillary. I watched her learn. I watched her grow. I watched her daily become more of the power house that she is today. We also became great friends and collaborators.

Hillary has taught me so much about life and living your yoga as yourself. She’s never stopped choosing for herself. Whatever she puts her mind to she’s on it, and believe me does she make things happen! I’ve also observed her develop into one of the most genuine and open teachers with whom I’ve had the blessing to practice. One of the best things about Hillary both as a teacher and a human being is that she is willing to fail. She is willing to take risks. She is willing to fall. She recognizes mistakes, misalignments, misadventures, becomes responsible for them and chooses again, refining her process daily. She does this quite openly, and it’s truly inspiring to watch.

So, Hillary Rubin is my pick for #FF this week, not only because she’s my friend, but also because she is truly worth following. This woman is cultivating great things and watch out world, I believe she can shift the planet! :D

Other than following her on twitter @hillaryrubin, you can find her at her blog http://hillaryrubinblog.com, where she posts wonderful videos that focus on cultivating your self in a very grounded and transparent way. They are ‘life teachings’ that you can apply to your life, whether you practice yoga or not. You can also check out http://hillaryrubin.com, where you can see her in a more business sense ;) Plus, you can get her DVD!!! Which I have to say is one of THE BEST yoga dvd’s out there. You must get it!

If you would like to experience Hillary’s teachings virtually you can via her audio podcast Hillary’s Yoga Practice! So much to choose from!

So get to it! follow @hillaryrubin and say hello for me :D

Wanna learn a bit more about the why behind my extended #FF #followfriday? Check out my prior post please :)

PS

Ooooooh, I almost forgot! Hillary will be participating in a pretty extraordinary event called The Virtual World Yoga Conference! Sounds pretty darn fancy! I'm so very thankful that she gifted me with a ticket to attend :D You can find the details of what she will be teaching HERE The entire conference (with a lot more presenters and opportunities for self growth and learning) is $197 BUT Hillary is offering a promo code that takes $100 off

I KNOW! $100 off! It’s HLR219

Extended Follow Friday for September 25, 2009: @traceesioux #ff #followfriday

The Girl Revolution Has Begun and Is Getting Stronger Every Day

One of the many gifts that my yoga podcast and corresponding blog have given me is the opportunity to 'meet' some incredible people. This week's extended #followfriday is one of these amazing folks. The mighty Tracee Sioux commented on my blog for the first time at the end of June 2008. Whenever anyone comments on my yoga podcast blog, I do my best to at minimum respond on the site, often times I send and email and if they have submitted their own Web site, I go check it out, as I believe strongly as a yoga teacher in getting to know my students as best as I can, whether virtual students or not :)

Imagine my surprise when I checked out Tracee's site! At that time, her main blog was called Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me, but as of January this year she re-launched, refined and re-branded her content on a new site: The Girl Revolution!

designed to help parents raise powerful daughters. The Girl Revolution’s sole mission is to revolutionize the way we think about, treat, and raise girls.

Now tell me if that is not a powerful, necessary and VALUABLE site to have out in the world!

I think about raising a powerful daughter daily. I have all the concerns that any parent has, and at the same time I also meditate a lot on the optimal ways in which to raise my daughter, especially how to instill in her, her own recognition of how absolutely valuable and sacred she is, her entire self, from the inside out. I know how hard it was for me, and the many, MANY, mistakes that I made which did not honor that sacredness in myself, and I was raised within a very solid family full of love, support and faith, so I know the challenge of it!

The Girl Revolution is not only chock full of informative and thought provoking blog posts ranging from hilarious videos that deepen the conversation to important issues regarding education and girls but it's also available for syndication! Now what does that mean? Well, if you happen to read the blog, find it's content something that you wish your magazine, organization, school, etc. would benefit from reading, you can do it! Tracee gives you all sorts of info on her site :)

Making meaningful connections with advertisers and sponsors is essential

I'm a huge believer in supporting businesses, and organizations that are valuable and life affirming. If I had a product launch of some type or if I was looking to increase my business by increasing my client base with thinking, motivated, and passionate individuals I wouldn't think twice about advertising on The Girl Revolution. There were times when I was turned off by advertising or sponsorships, but I have shifted my perspective. What bothers me the most about advertising and sponsorship is when these don't add value to the content nor me (the consumer). Joining forces with like minded and like hearted individuals and/or organizations and businesses to mutually enhance life, both economically and socially is absolutely necessary so we can truly evolve.

What's so beautiful about independent content creators, is that we get an opportunity to discern what kinds of relationships we want to make and support so we can increase goodness and uphold integrity in our own work and the world. Those mindful relationships have the potential to completely change advertising and sponsorship as we know them.

All right, off the soap box already ;)

If you have a daughter, niece, granddaughter, younger cousin/sibling, etc. you must read and subscribe to The Girl Revolution. Tracee is a magnificent writer, full of passion of the loveliest kind, one that is grounded in love, especially love for her family. This keeps her voice genuine and forthright, and wonderfully 'everyday' which makes it really accessible reading for all. #followfriday @traceesioux :D

Oh yea, and Tracee is a fantastic yoga podcast student :)

If you're wondering what in the world is this whole extended #followfriday thing. Please refer to this post!

Extended Follow Friday for September 18, 2009: @victorcajiao #ff #followfriday

Victor, his wife Mary and I

A Typical and Worthy Expert

The story goes like this:

In 2006 I fell in love with podcasting due to the acquisition of an 5G iPod for Christmas '05. In a way, the iPod was the catalyst for the discovery of my inner tech geek, (as I had already found my yoga geek.) I gobbled as many podcasts as I could, plus nurtured dreams of podcasting. As I watered the seeds of my podcasting dreams I began to see that the soil that I was using was not optimal: it was a Gateway Laptop.

Like a good gardener, I searched for ways in which I could fertilize the soil in an organic way, for me it was by subscribing to beginner how-to PC podcasts. This is how I came to meet this weeks #followfriday subject, my dear friend and podcasting guru Victor Cajiao. Back in 2006 Victor was still producing The Typical PC Podcast, which I came to LOVE, as he taught me so many things about my PC that I had no idea about. I often wrote him emails with questions...um...a euphemism for problems, that I had with my PC. Three wonderful things happened in these first exchanges with him: he encouraged me to podcast, he instilled in me a love for Macs and I got the blessing to gain the friendship of a truly wonderful human being.

I heard of Twitter and got an account because of Victor, plus he was the first person I followed on Twitter.

Currently Victor has two wonderful podcasts: The Typical Mac User Podcast and the Typical Shutterbug Podcast. He also makes appearances in many other Mac podcasts such as The Mac Round Table Podcast and The MacCast. No matter in which podcast you hear his voice, you have the opportunity to learn from someone who truly cares about teaching and reaching his audience. He loves what he does and he does it well. He cares about his community and any exchange that you have with him is genuine and honest. I absolutely appreciate his honesty and his willingness to always tell it like it is. His guidance has been, either one on one or simply through my ears, invaluable. I have lost count how many times I have gone to Victor with some crazy tech problem (now mainly other devices NOT my Mac :) ) and he has immediately lend a helping hand.

Expert Typical know-how

In conclusion, Victor Cajiao is a must follow on Twitter (or any other platform, most importantly his podcasts) if you are a Mac lover, a photography lover or even simply a very new enthusiast of the Mac platform or photography, as his podcasts are great for the "typical" person looking to dive into their passions.His voice is down to earth and full of integrity.

Oh yea, sometimes no matter how much you fertilize the soil, it's just not going to give you the results that you want, so since November 2006 I have been a Mac Girl and love every minute of it! Thanks to Victor!

By the way if you're wondering about this extended #followfriday, refer to my post explaining all about it :)

Twitter's Follow Friday and the Quest for the Why?

What Does Follow Friday Mean To You?

I started with that question.

Actually the question was "what does #followfriday mean to me?" brought about by this interesting twitter practice, that uses either the #followfriday or #ff hashtags to recommend people to follow on twitter (on Fridays of course ;) ). At first I found it very helpful, especially when I saw the recommendations of other folks. I loved to see who people were talking about and often did just that: followed new people. 

Here is a great article about Follow Friday, if you'd like to know more :)

As the practice evolved and Twitter grew, I began to see that on Fridays people who were recommending people were adding as many twitter handles as they could within 140 characters and often times not just with one tweet but using up to three or more tweets recommending quite a bit of people. Those meant nothing to me. I just started to see a bunch of names scrolling down my twitter timeline, with no value to me. I rarely got an insight into who these folks were that were being recommended. A lot of the time they weren't even recommended by the person I was following but the person was simply retweeting someone else's #followfriday recommendations. Any insight that I would have gleaned from the recommendation was lost, as often times I gained insight not only from the recommendations but from the person doing the recommending. There was some sort of exchange of something more than just twitter handles. That was now lost to me. 

It was the lack of meaning and value that made me question #followfriday as a whole. I questioned whether or not I wanted to participate. I questioned if this whole #followfriday thing was worth anything? I do think that it's worth it. I came to that conclusion by simply asking what it meant to me, beyond just Twitter, and hashtagging. What I loved about this practice from the beginning was a deeper knowing of other people. I was missing the Why?

Meaning comes from you

So, I've decided to share, on Fridays a person, organization, company, or product that I find valuable on Twitter with more than 140 characters. I'll either write a blog post, share a picture or even some audio about the chosen subject and then twitter about it. There are so many incredible folks on Twitter, some that I know personally, some that I know virtually through Twitter, and some that I don't know at all, but admire from afar. It's in the sharing of these wonderful people or organizations in a deeper way that holds meaning to me. Follow Friday is about asking what holds meaning to me and how am I going to share this to add value for others. 

It is in your own individual expression that the gift of social media becomes unraveled. 

What are your thoughts about Follow Friday?

What does Follow Friday mean to you?

I'd love to know your thoughts!

Oh, and stay tuned for the special Friday posts :) Starting next week? Or maybe later on this beautiful Friday :)