The 4 Things We Need to Be Happy?

The 4 Things We Need to Be Happy?

I watched a video today, from “Stories from the Near Future,” the 2008 New Yorker Conference, that spoke of happiness and how it is created by humans being involved in an economy of engagement.

Day 108/365 [Year 2]
photo credit: thp365

The presenter argued that many people today, because we have become so good at surviving, feel not good at life.

They feel that there is nothing left to conquer or solve, nothing left to engage them or give them purpose. She went on to argue that games and alternate realities are so popular today because they create an economy of engagement and exercise our need to survive.

The speaker argued that happiness is derived from four engagement principles:
  1. having satisfying work to do
  2. the experience of being good at something
  3. time spent with people we like
  4. the chance to be part of something bigger

Could it really be so simple? Is feeling engaged all humans need in order to feel happy?

Excitingly, the speaker also argues that as we evolve, games will be used more and more to engage people in actively creating social change. The website and interactive game World Without Oil is a current example of this idea in action.

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour. photo credit: Chris Jordan

I just learned of photographer/artist Chris Jordan’s brilliant exhibition, Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait. Chris combines specific quantities of something (such as plastic cups), statistics (one million plastic cups are used on airline flights in the US every six hours) and photographic inventiveness to present viewers with a real and stark understanding of America’s outrageous consumption patterns.

Depicts one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours. photo credit: Chris Jordan

You can view the complete Running the Numbers series on Chris Jordan’s website.

Keep in mind: The images are not Photoshop creations. You are viewing the actual number of items such as toothpicks, plastic bottles, etc. as enumerated in the captions.

Charter for Compassion

The Charter for Compassion is an inspired idea to create a charter to celebrate compassion and to promote a new collaboration between the world’s major religions. Here is a short video about it. Karen Armstrong, an insightful writer on comparative religion dreamed up this idea and TED has helped her to make it a reality.


photo credit: alicepopkorn

This week millions of Muslims, Christians, and Jews will be sent an email inviting them to visit the site and offer their words for inspiring the world to focus on what the great religions share, as opposed to what divides them.

The Charter will accumulate world-wide input for next four weeks, select the best contributions with the help of a council of sages, made up of religious thinkers and leaders, and craft the world’s words into the final version of the Charter.

The document will not only speak to the core ideas of compassion but will also address the actions each of us can take to bring these ideas into the world more fully.

The Charter’s hope is to:

“show that the voice of negativity and violence so often associated with religion is the minority and that the voice of compassion is the majority. Through the participation of the grassroots, people around the world will expect more out of religious leaders and one another. In doing so, the Charter will shift conceptions of religion for all people.”

Help create the Charter for Compassion and aid the world in thinking differently about religion.

Design Thinking in Plain English

I’ve been writing about design thinking for a few weeks now. I’ve spoke of Western culture’s growing emphasis on creativity and knowledge in business and the increasing importance of design thinking.

As Cultural Creatives we use design thinking naturally. Yay!

Below is a video, created by Standford University students, explaining what design thinking is and how to apply it.

This is a great video to watch if you aren’t 100% clear on the concept of design thinking or if you’d like a better understanding of how your mind goes about solving problems.

Marketing to Innerpreneurs & Cultural Creatives

Marketing to Innerpreneurs & Cultural Creatives

What I Mean by “Marketing”

The word “marketing” can often be seen as a soulless one and one without any true meaning. In my career, I have heard people define it as many things, from “making things pretty” to “trying to sell people crap that they don’t need”. My Mac dictionary defines it: “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”

None of these definitions jive with me. They are too simplistic and reductionist. They don’t say a thing about the most important consideration in marketing—your client. Marketing is a big waste of time if you never bother to understand and connect with your target market. Marketing isn’t about you, it is about understanding and solving the pains (problems) of your clients.

To me, marketing is:

  • connecting with your ideal client
  • generating business
  • creating loyalty through client experience

To put it simply, it is Mindful Marketing. It is looking at marketing from a more holistic point-of-view.

We Are All Marketing to Each Other

Each of us believes that consciousness should be present in all aspects of our lives, including our business practices. As such, our business activities invariably end up appealing to clients of a similar mindset. We are all marketing to people just like us, to Cultural Creatives. We have created a new type of business, conscious commerce. Businesses created by Cultural Creatives for Cultural Creatives.

‘Modern’ techniques of marketing don’t work on us. We aren’t looking to buy “stuff” instead we are looking for things that will make our lives work better. We are looking for experiences, not products and services. We want to build businesses that will uplift spirits, educate, soothe, inspire and enlighten.

How to Market to Innerpreneurs and Cultural Creatives

  1. Be Authentic
    Innerpreneurs remaining authentic may be a growing concern as conscious commerce grows in popularity; as it may be difficult for us to connect with and hire marketing experts that practice the type of marketing we believe in. As you may already experience, finding mindful experts for all of our innerpreneurial business activities, e.g., accounting, can be difficult. This is why I feel it is important for us to begin connecting. Lets make it easier on all of us to find and work with each other.
  2. Appeal to Your Clients’ Head and Heart
    Provide your clients with all the information they need to make a decision (CC’s shop with their heads) but provide it in a way that makes them feel connected to your offering (CC’s buy with their hearts).
  3. Don’t Be Afraid to Challenge Convention
    Take your own road. Your clients will be attracted to it.
  4. Be Transparent
    Simply tell the truth. Your clients will see right through gimmicks or tricks and may quickly discount you because of it.
  5. Connect With and Challenge Your Clients’ Mind
    Cultural Creatives like to dig into the layers of ideas. Use that concept in your advertising messages. Layer them. Make them curious about you.
  6. Get Involved
    It’s been coined cause marketing. Get your business involved in causes. It could be as simple as volunteering your professional help to a non-for-profit or powering your office with renewable energy. Either way, show your clients that you walk the walk, as well as talk the talk.
  7. Get Personal
    We love hearing people’s stories. Make your personal and business story be available to your clients.
  8. Help Your Clients with Word-of-Mouth
    Make it easy for them to educate others on your offerings. Cultural Creatives love spreading good ideas. The internet is the best tool for this. To encourage word-of-mouth, make sure you have a website at the very least.

Are there other marketing strategies that connect with you?