Association Chat On Camera! What's Happening to #assnchat?

For the past few weeks Association Chat has been quietly testing a new platform for the weekly Tuesday chats.

Blab is a livestreaming platform that enables a public video chat among four participants at a time. Viewers come in to watch the livestream and they can participate by leaving comments on the desktop application or below on the mobile version. Participants can ask for a seat on camera or respond to the video chat via text. If you are familiar with the likes of Periscope, Meerkat and Google Hangouts, it basically combines all three.

Blab was just launched in April of this year and it is still very much in Beta, though early power users like Joel Comm and Chris Brogan are hosting regular chats and even "Blab Ups" at this point. 

Association Chat has been a regular weekly chat, hosted mostly on Twitter, for the past six years. The chat, created by association legend Jeff De Cagna, was the basis for the popular (and sometimes provocative) hashtag #assnchat. Association Chat has had meetups, tweetups, a book club, and also comes with its own Association Chat group on Facebook.

So far the tests with using Blab for the weekly chats have shown promise. The chats are recorded (you can see replays of past Association Chats on Blab) and the engagement and quality of conversation seems high. My hope is that more voices from the industry will choose to jump in to the available seats on camera each week and share their expertise and opinions on the industry topics du jour. As always, it's the added insights from the participants that creates the value for these chats.

Kait Soloman is a regular Association Chat participant who brings value with every conversation. You can follow her on Twitter: @KaitlinSolomon3

This Tuesday's chat will focus on a more general topic, "What Keeps You up at Night?" We'll also be discussing, "what gets you up in the morning" as suggested by the wildly creative and fun Randi Sumner (follow her on Twitter!). 

Please join the conversation and community live on Tuesday at 2 pm EDT, keep up to date with the Association Chat Facebook Group, and feel free to contact me if you'd like to guest host or have ideas for topics that we should cover in a future chat (a list of planned topics are posted here, but we can always change the schedule around for hot topics!). 

People are always posting interesting articles, links, and thoughts to the Association Chat hashtag, #assnchat, throughout the week on Twitter, so you can always jump in and join the conversation that way, as well. 

See you online!

Weekly Inspiration - My 10 Picks

We've made it to Friday and if you're anything like me, you like to recap what you've learned or been inspired by over the week.

What has captured your imagination? What is fascinating to you?

Here's what's inspiring me this week:

1. The Art of Selfishness by David Seabury - This is an older book that I found on Amazon.com after listening to an interview between John Morgan and Chris Brogan. Their interview was compelling enough that I wanted to read this little gem of a book.

2. Awesomely Simple by John Spence - Amazing book I was sent as a gift when I started Amplified Growth. I'm rereading it after being reminded of it recently in a PowerPoint presentation I reviewed. Good stuff on business management in there.

3. The Tim Ferriss article in the April 2013 edition of Inc. magazine (page 72) - I cut out the "Stop Doing That" portion to keep as a reminder. One thing he says to stop doing is instant messaging. I went "invisible"on G-chat this week and haven't looked back. I might be brave enough to try some of his other suggestions...like only checking my email twice a day...eventually.

4. Tumblr. - I'm only subscribed to inspirational stuff on there and it is probably the most fun online site for me to visit each day. I'm following tumblr blogs about fitness inspiration, cute animals (I hear that looking at them is good for memory - no joke), and futurist ideas. Just fun.

5. My neighbors' flowers - The beautiful blooms are so alluring...check out MemberClicks blog for their great response to my ethical dilemma.

6. Pukka Refresh organic peppermint, fennel, and rose tea

7. Liz King's Power Branding Online Class Series. This thing is free, but she could be making thousands off of it, easily. I recommend it highly!

8. Writer's Almanac and poetry - April is National Poetry Month and it always makes me appreciate poetry's place in my life and usually leads to me writing my fair share of poems, too. I won the Langston Hughes Award for Creative Writing in college and used to compete in poetry slams, so I'm a little bit of a nut when it comes to poetry. Every day Garrison Keillor shares information on the date in literature's history and a poem to share on his show, The Writer's Almanac. It's a positive show that always makes me think and puts a smile on my face.

9. Blog post by Corey Eridon at HubSpot on How To Deliver Presentations That Are Awe-Inspiring, Not Yawn Inducing. I love blog posts about presenting, but this one was especially well put-together and linked to another great blog post with a slidedeck I checked out. A good one for presenters. (We also had a dynamic chat about speaking on the week's Association Chat (#assnchat), held every week at 2 pm ET.)

10. Spring - Springtime always makes me feel like it's another chance to improve, do better, clean up, and start fresh. I'm doing some spring cleaning around the house and I've started spending more time outside as the natural world around me begins to bloom and unfold itself in the sun. 

What inspired you this week? Any suggestions I should check out for next week? I'm always on the lookout for new teas, so there's that...

One Foot In Front of The Other

I've lost six pounds.

After allowing the excuses to pile up (stress, knee injury, time, motherhood, travel), I joined Weight Watchers with a good friend of mine and started following the plan. Happily, I can report I've lost six pounds over the last two weeks.

Just like blog posts or any other kind of work we do, following the plan and putting one foot in front of the other is what leads to success. Do I look at pictures of clothes I want to wear or things I want to do when I achieve my goal? Yes. But for me, concentrating on that huge goal can seem overwhelming. I've learned that focusing on just doing the right things right now are the tiny steps that will help me to attain greater success.

Breakfast: 2 eggs and heirloom tomatoes

The movies lie. In them, all the hard work is condensed into a montage with inspirational music and fast results. We don't live in the movies.

Today, think about what it is you want to achieve and put one foot in front of the other to get closer to your goal. If the word "discipline" is too scary, just focus on making the next decision the right one.

Have a great week!

Feed Your Head (Five For the Ladies)

Inspiration comes in many forms. In today's post I want to share some of the people, blogs, books, and music inspiring me lately. From PR to Pop!, this is what's feeding my head and what you just might want to feed yours.

I also wanted to target this post for women specifically because a lot of what I'm reading, learning, and investing time in happens to be female-focused right now. Once you take a look-see through my list, I think you'll figure out what I mean...

1. Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts - Look, I know it's a kinky name with all its implications, but after every woman seems to have read Fifty Shades this year, I feel I can share this book suggestion with you. Truth is, another inspiration on my list this week first told me about this book and as a result I have been embracing my pride and power as a woman more and more every day.

But Mama Gena is the focus here - not the book. The book is your primer to what Mama Gena is all about and a lesson in how to take back your power. It's an invigorating reminder to embrace life and bring everyone along with you as you live your life with passion!

Her blog is fun. There is a lot of talk about vulvas and vaginas (you'll adapt after blushing) and I signed up for her newsletter and daily messages she calls, "The Daily Fluff."

Fun. Positive. Powerful.

Check it out.

2. FitCyn - Cynthia D'Amour has been a longtime friend, mentor, and inspiration for me. She's creative and smart and driven and not a soul who knows her would dare disagree. I first met her when I joined the association community and became more involved with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

Over the past couple of years she's evolved from pursuing a healthier life for herself to sharing her weight loss journey with everyone online and people are eating it up! (Hey, no calories in brain food, right?) And her success is not only physically visible, but you can feel her positive energy radiating out...that's the kind of thing that just invites success to your life.

She's posting regular videos to her blog, many times without wearing a stitch of makeup after her workout (did I mention she's daring, too?), and she's developing a devoted community on her FitCyn Facebook Group. I watch her videos and love this woman for sharing so much of her life - struggles and success - and her willingness to reach down and pull the next person up the mountain with her.

3. Real Jazz station on Sirius XM - What does one listen to when she's busy being happy and making a purposeful decision to transform her life into what she wants it to be?

I was struggling with finding the right kind of music to allow for my happy thoughts and my creative thinking while writing and working throughout the day.

It needed to be upbeat. It needed to be mostly instrumental. It needed to inspire the kind of thoughts and activity that I was aiming for.

Enter: Real Jazz.

As a longtime lover of jazz, finding a place for jazz in my life on a regular basis shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was! I'd been listening to a lot of alternative and chill music...not so  much jazz.

Finding the right kind of soundtrack might just be what you need to do to put a little extra spring in your step!

4. Adele Cehrs - One of the most fun, authentic, beautiful people I've ever met; Adele is blessed with business acumen and a power in PR. In fact, she owns Epic PR and is regularly paid to speak on public relations topics with a natural talent for being in front of people.

She gave me invaluable business advice after starting my own company, Amplified Growth, and told me about the awesome show, The Pitch.

We are speaking together at the upcoming ASAE Great Ideas Conference next spring on the topic of big ideas and how to know if you've got a dud or a winner...yes, we are going to make this a really special session and I can't wait! You can follow Adele on Twitter @EpicPRGroupDC.

5. Sam Horn and Pop! - Strong women will introduce you to other strong women. After I missed the chance to see Sam Horn in person at ASAE Annual this year, Adele (see #4 above) suggested I pick up Sam's book, Pop. Adele and I now practically have our own little Sam Horn book club and I've purchased more of her titles.

Sam's advice stands out because she makes it actionable. Super actionable. It's almost as good as if she did it all for you.


There you go! I have more stuff that's lighting my fire lately, but those are the top five for this week. What about you? What's working for you? Got any suggestions for me to check out? Let me know in the comments!