Month: February 2020

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Read This: Everything is Figuroutable by Marie Forleo

Everything IS Figuroutable by Marie Forleo

I’ve been a fan of Marie Forleo for a bunch of years and always loved her whole perky vibe and the advanced principles of her B-school. But, to be honest, I kind of stopped reading her emails a few years ago after one where she mentioned what a horrible failure she had once (trying to be relatable to those of us who have had a few of those ourselves, I’m assuming) when she had her team send out an email before it was finished! THE HORROR! 

Needless to say, if that was the extent of her “failures” then how could she possibly understand me with – well, let’s just say more interesting failures than that under my belt. Now, give me a huge meaty epic failure that you learned and grew from, like when Elvis Presley bombed his first performance at the Grand Ole Opry so badly the talent manager told him “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck”. That’s life telling you something!

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

JK Rowling

So it was with a little hemming and hawing that I decided to take a chance on Everything is Figuroutable. I’m glad I did. 

Maria Forleo is a branding maven, inspiration to people around the globe and social media magician. With her successful MarieTV,  website and 8-week interactive B-School for people looking to grow their business, she has a lot to say and it’s all for your benefit.

Knowing she has also been involved with the likes of Richard Branson, Oprah, and Arianna Huffington just adds more credit to her list of amazing accomplishments. But can she really get what it’s like to be in my skin, I kept wondering to myself. Her life seems so “silver spoon”.

Well, I took a chance and began the book and…. couldn’t stop listening. Needless to say, she went deeper into her stories and it really made a difference. I felt she did get my “it” and she did have some pretty valuable insight to give. 

Marie narrated the Audible version herself, and it really works. A bit milder and a bit self-back-pat-y than some other books in the genre that I love, it’s still chock full of great suggestions, optimism and actionable suggestions to make you unstoppable in life and career. As she calls it on the website, it’s a mindset, a mantra, and a conviction.

And it really is all three.

After you close the pages or take off the headphones, if you are like me, you will walk away really feeling like Everything really is Figureoutable. 

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Just One Step: The Power of Momentum

Whenever you feel like things are insurmountable, just take one step. That’s all you need to do. One step… then take a breath… then take another step. Next thing you know, you are moving along with the momentum of your action – and there is no stopping you.

Remember Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

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On Change

If nothing changed, there'd be no butterflies - Unknown Quote

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

Barack Obama
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Google Street View: Bringing Life to Business and the World

Google Summit 2018 Home Office Mountain View

How Google 360 Street View is so much more than just a way to see what your driving destination looks like.

I went to the Google Streetview Summit in London in September and experienced yet another incredible year of learning all about the latest Google Street View, maps, Earth and business programs as well as having had an opportunity to meet some of the most incredibly interesting and brilliant people that are literally changing the way we view and live in the world.

A huge takeaway from these summits continues to be how these programs that we all somewhat take for granted today as being the “how we get around” and “how we find places we are looking for” are really doorways to so much more. As important and incredibly useful the former reasons are to our day to day lives, the later are actually even more useful to other aspects of our lives that we typically are never even aware of.

So you know, Street View is not all just about finding the front door to a place you’ve never been anymore. It’s being used by businesses and governments all over the world for a huge variety of reasons, from promoting destinations to saving children’s lives from dangerous street crossings.

South Africa Streetview 360 mapping project in 2018
South Africa Street View 360 mapping project in 2018

Some ways Street View is changing the game that you may not know:

  • Conservation
  • Heritage and culture
  • Safety and health
  • Industry
  • Travel
  • Scientific study

I’m going to break these up into multiple posts because each topic really deserves as much airtime as it can get – and to be fair, I’m completely fascinated with how they are all changing the world as we know it. 

Suffice it to say, as I do for my own ventures, I’m going to ask you to think about your own organization specifically as we traverse these opportunities. I think you may just find there is something of value you never thought of that Street View or one of these other free Google programs can do for you as well.