[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #6 – London Ladd

Earbud_U Episode #6- London Ladd Children’s Book Illustrator, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Man of Many Colors, Valiant Warrior in the War on Art

[powerpress]

Illustration and the arts are not hard to understand. But we have fetishized the artist and his work process, when, in reality, most artists are just as normal as everyone else. They have conflicts, disputes and experience frustrations in working with clients.

London Ladd is an illustrator, entrepreneur, speaker and much, much more. We met this man on a missions trip to Oklahoma in 2013 and we have kept track of his changing career as he has morphed and changed his approach to art, life and business.

The author, Steven Pressfield was right, there is a war on art, but it’s not fought in the way that we think it is.

I think that London is trying to mount a forward action in the war on art….

But let’s be clear…

The war on art begins with the distractions and interruptions of everyday life that cause people to avoid doing their best work and serve as excuses for not getting ahead.

The war on art begins when artists, creative people, engineers, supervisors and others begin to believe that inspiration comes only at special times, rather than when the butt hits the seat.

The war on art begins when anybody stops following their long-term guiding principles, in favor of a short term payday.

But London is winning his own war on art, but in his own way, with his own tools and in his own time.

A man of many colors, indeed…

Connect with London Ladd via his website: http://www.londonladd.com

Follow London Ladd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LondonLLadd

London Ladd’s Agency on Twitter: https://twitter.com/painted_words

London Ladd’s Work Process: Man of Many Colors Video

London Ladd’s Painted Words Blog + Portfolio: http://painted-words.com/portfolio/london-ladd/

And

Check out his images on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaintedWordsNYC

Check out the interview below the blue panel, or download it via Soundcloud, coming soon ->

Download the Latest Episode of Earbud_U!

[Opinion] The Voice

Before there was ever the written word, there was the voice that was heard.

The oral tradition of storytelling has along and ancient pedigree, dating back to the dawn of humanity and continuing on through this day.

We have invented tools to record or musings, our hopes, our dreams, our poetry, our songs, our defiance and our place.

The human voice carries meaning with which the written word can never fully compete.

And in the new world of podcasting, the technology for recording the spoken word and transmitting it to hundreds and thousands of people has never been less expensive.

We are living through a Renaissance of podcasting as the field expands (11 million podcasts at last count) and as the field does so, more and more people looking to find an audience, gather a tribe, and make some noise, are going to get on the bandwagon.

We’ve been diligently working on Season Two of Earbud_U, the conflict engagement podcast, bringing together interviews with people from various backgrounds and with various experiences, and asking them the ultimate questions, ultimately.

But, Season One is about halfway through and your can hear all of the episodes, featuring all of our guests, by clicking on the links below:

Earbud_U, Episode #1 – Darren MacDonald

Earbud_U, Episode #2 – Jared Campbell

Earbud_U, Episode #3 – Brad Heckman

Earbud_U, Episode #4 – Elin Barton

Earbud_U, Episode #5 – Diane Lange

Earbud_U, Episode #6 – London Ladd

And…

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

[Advice] The Janitor and the CEO

In every organization, no matter how great or small, there is a person who is in charge of doing the things that no one else wants to do.

Sometimes, the organization imposes the title of “secretary” or “administrative assistant” on the person occupying this position and being accountable and responsible in it.

But in reality, the person who does the things that no one else wants to do, has the most power in an organization.

There are two positions in any organization that have power: The janitor and the CEO.

Both are invaluable and require that the person occupying those roles be a faithful steward of the position.

But no one else in the organization wants to change places with either one of those people.

This is probably why there is so much conflict over so little mediocrity stacked so deep in the middle.

[T/Y to Darren MacDonald for bringing this to our attention.]

-Peace Be With You All-

[Opinion] Build Your Own House

When living in a house that someone else has built, there is always a sense of something that could be better, roiling around underneath the veneer of “being comfortable.”

Walking around in that house, the renter (or person paying the mortgage) always notices nails sticking out, annoying rough edges and corners of door jambs and knobs, cabinets that are the wrong height and colors of the walls that are “off.”

But, most people put up with those irritations in a house, because…well…it takes a lot of technical—and emotional—knowledge, to design your own house, to your own specifications, that’s comfortable for you.

It’s the same thing with the houses that we have built on top of the virtually property space of the web: social media platforms, apps, websites and many, many other items.

Too many clever people in the web space complain too much and too loudly, about the houses they are paying rent to live in. And as clever as they are, they are not picking up a pen, a ruler and sitting at a slanted desk, to design and build something of their own.

In order to develop the web past where it is now, we need more clever people building houses, versus renting houses.

And the amount of real estate is always expanding…

-Peace Be With You All-

[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #5 – Diane Lange

Earbud_U Episode #5- Diane Lange Owner & Founder, Proclivity, LLC., Entrepreneur,Organizational Development Consultant, Corporate Trainer, Author & Blogger

[powerpress]

There are times that I talk with people in fields associated with mine, who are doing things in a different way than I am doing them but are getting the same—or even better—results than I am.

I think that this interest comes about because I am inherently a generalist in a world of specialists. I think that my interest also stems from being deeply ensconced in the interdisciplinary aspects of conflict resolution and reconciliation.

As human beings in an economic and social world, only beginning to recover from the hangover of the Industrial Revolution, our responsibility is to be interdisciplinary.

We can’t know everything, that’s the point of the social web; but we also have a responsibility to make as many connections between disparate pieces of information as is humanely possible.

That’s where organizational development and conflict resolution practitioners can really shine, because in a world of specialists, sometimes it takes a broad thinking generalist to make the connections that many organizations can’t—and won’t—make.

Diane Lange has taken some time away from Proclivity, LLC, but she is always going to be an entrepreneur, a founder and an active thinker. You should get her into your organization.

Here’s all the ways to connect with her:

Diane Lange & Proclivity, LLC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProclivitlLlc?sk=info&tab=overview

Diane Lange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/prodiane

Diane Lange on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianelange

Proclivity, LLC Website & Blog: http://proclivityllc.com/

Self-Directed Leadership: http://proclivityllc.com/self-directed-leadership/

Download the Latest Episode of Earbud_U!

HIT Piece 03.03.2015

I am ready.

It’s time to start building something bigger than myself.

The first e-book is coming along, as is the first traditional book, the first leadership program and the first systems design program for organizations.

The first season of the podcast is here, the second season is coming along and the first presentation to a room of over 100 people is coming in the summer.

The first webinar project is coming, the first multiparty project is coming.

And yet…

I have been insecure and lethargic since October. I have been struggling to identify if any of this is working. I don’t know if I am running to avoid failure…or running to embrace it.

What do you think?

-Peace Be With You All-

[Advice] The Struggle is Real

As Christians, we struggle with two competing forces: The World and The Word of God.

The world celebrates “getting ahead” by ignoring, discounting or even overthrowing earthly authorities that have been set-up in high places, who are gambling with our money and our livelihoods, and then shrug off the consequences of those decision as corporate, governmental and nonprofit “best practices.”

The Word of God celebrates “getting ahead” by acknowledging that an omniscient, omnipresent, God can’t be placed in a box, that authority is endowed upon men–not by or through men, but by and through that all knowing God–and that faithful service—particularly to people, and institutions, we do not agree with (or even personally like) is the way ahead.

Now, this last part of the Word of God, is demonstrated throughout the Old Testament in multiple books, but most prominently in the book of Daniel. Daniel served four kings (Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus) as well as he could; but, he never abandoned his faithfulness to God, nor did he abandon telling any of the kings the truth about their rule, even when it lead to uncomfortable and life threatening consequences.

This last part is important.

In a conflict, or dispute, in the Church and elsewhere, Christians often begin any conversation with us around conflict resolution or engagement with, “How do we tell the Truth to each other in love?” This is the wrong question for many reasons, but the primary reason is that the question assumes that Christian love and Biblical Truth are somehow mutually exclusive. It also presumes that faithful service can either be rendered with one, but not the other.

Most conflicts in the church won’t result in Believers being thrown into the lion’s den, threatened with death, separated from their families, or even being outright killed. Most unresolved contemporary church conflicts, will result in loss of position, hurt feelings, loss of face and general uncomfortability.

But, this is far below the cost of telling the Truth in love. But this cost can only be paid, if the truth teller is operating in the Holy Spirit and is serving with faithfulness, with their focus on God, rather than having their focus on earthly representation of that authority.

And by the way, if the Christian is serving a secular authority, in an organization, or business, this goes double for them.

The Truth is the Truth. But let’s not mix up the truth of the world around “getting ahead” with the Truth of God’s Word, around being in service to authority.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

[Strategy] Change Frames

When two parties negotiate around things that matter, changing frames is the ultimate collaborative goal.

People are stimulated by various outside forces, and then parties go ahead and begin to construct impenetrable frames.

In a negotiation, those frames are subjective, particularly when based on stimuli that come from their emotions. And emotions can distort parties’ predispositions based upon needs, desires, motivations and personal experiences.

The hard work between two parties comes in holding hands across the negotiation table, with parties that we don’t like, and breaking frames focused around:

Objectives
Expectations and
Preferences

Because remember, in a negotiation the problem will always be there tomorrow, but the relationship with the other party, may not be.

-Peace Be With You All-

[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #4 – Elin Barton

[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #4-Elin Barton, Owner & President, White Knight Productions, LLC., Bootstrapper, Social Media Video Marketer

[powerpress]

Oh my, the trouble with bootstrapping, right?

Elin Barton is the owner, founder and President of White Knight Productions, based out of Vestal, New York.

Elin has an incredible background in film and video work. She is also a marketer who understands, at an instinctive level, the power of the moving image and how it can impact how we buy, try and even follow.

The team at White Knight Productions is amazingly talented and they have developed a unique vision and approach to addressing the needs of their clients. Where video marketing is the future, the team at White Knight is blazing a trail there as fast as they possibly can.

And Elin did all of this through bootstrapping. Not taking a dime of VC funding to build your own project is about as brave as it comes, particularly when you have a family and other responsibilities, yet many, many women are becoming entrepreneurs and are making the move to do this. They are truly pioneers and showing the way forward.

And, Loddy Doddy is pretty friggin’ funny as well…

I was very excited to talk with Elin and I look forward to talking with her more in the future.

Check out the links below and book Elin and her crew at White Knight today:

White Knight Productions: http://whiteknightpro.com/

WKP on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhiteKnightVid

WKP Blog: http://whiteknightpro.com/blog.html

WKP on Google +: https://plus.google.com/+WhiteKnightProductionsVestal/about

WKP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whiteknightpro

Elin Barton on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elinbarton

Check it out here on Soundcloud–> https://soundcloud.com/jesan-sorrells/elinbartonsavestheday

Download the Latest Episode of Earbud_U!

[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #3 – Brad Heckman

[Podcast] Earbud_U Episode #3 – Brad Heckman, CEO New York Peace Institute, Twitter Guerrilla, Blogger

[powerpress]

This is not your typical podcast around conflict resolution and peace building, but my background is as a divorce and family mediator.

As such, I am fascinated by people who do this work, but I am also interested in how all of this intersects with entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is hard. Just as hard as building peace between people.

Brad Heckman, the CEO of the New York Peace Institute, is doing great work in combining the two together and my talk with him was unique.

We focused on a lot of areas, but the big thing that we focused on was his background, perspective and approach to peace.

Look, the New York Peace Institute and Brad Heckman are doing great stuff in the marketing space as well and is expanding his footprint all over the Interwebs, including Twitter, where he is a grandmaster of Tweeting.

Check out the links below and look into his work.

The New York Peace Institute: http://nypeace.org/

Brad on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hecksign

NYPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/newyorkpeace

Brad’s Blog, The Hecklist: http://thehecklist.wordpress.com/

Check out Brad’s Interview on Soundcloud here–>http://www.soundcloud.com/jesan-sorrells/episode-3-brad-heckman-final

Download the Latest Episode of Earbud_U!