Content & community is how people find and connect today

https://twitter.com/rotanarotana/status/617205473125732352 Music to my ears...yes, and thank you Gautam Ghosh and Rotana Ty!

Community needs its own CxO level representation at social tool companies

https://twitter.com/AnastasiaAshman/status/617350986508558336 https://twitter.com/_danilo/status/617131584349560832

https://twitter.com/_danilo/status/617132655025393665 https://twitter.com/AnastasiaAshman/status/617365827243765760 https://twitter.com/sarahjeong/status/616483621495554048

https://twitter.com/_danilo/status/617041935044247552

Speed Advice Clinic for Female Founders

This was a fun day, meeting female founders and hearing what you're up to, like

• Dreamers & Doers, a grassroots movement for trailblazing women (Gesche Haas)
• International Career Compass, a bingeable book on international careers (Leslie Forman)
• ObjectiveFS, a Dropbox for your website (Grace Nordin)
• What It's Like, for crowd-sourced seasonal travel recommendations (Marina Janeiko)
• Savon Box, a natural bath & spa subscription box (Chloe Alpert)
• Toast.world, pioneering a new business model for home goods manufacturers (Jenny Hardy)

and what you're up against, for instance

• product/market fit
• VC or no C
• marketing technology in human terms
• CRM
• how to be a better boss to yourself
• finding the next platform for your market

Some notable quotes:

"Give people tools to reach their own goals."

"I want to bridge the gap between science and art."

"Charge. With a new venture, there's no precedence for getting it free. Make money as soon as you can. Everything costs."

"Roadmaps are a symptom of distrust."

"Survey your existing customers to get a description of your product in human terms other customers will recognize. Outsource the writing of case studies in an authentic voice."

"By 2020 50% of the population will identify as freelancers."

"Get champions for your community, beach heads that bring in others."

Thanks for coming out, and here's to your next steps!

https://twitter.com/shefaly/status/606532214470361088 https://twitter.com/AnastasiaAshman/status/606594832102916097 https://twitter.com/gracenordin/status/606553394879160320 https://twitter.com/leslieforman/status/606655705660059648 https://twitter.com/AnastasiaAshman/status/606663455748300800

Female Startup Founders in SF 6/4: Free Speed Advice Clinic

Hi there, female founders of San Francisco-area startups -- and their friends!

Got a micro question holding up your progress? 

Here’s an answer to get you on your way.

My fellow startup veteran Shefaly Yogendra and are offering a free speed advice clinic for startup up founders when Shefaly’s in town from London next month.

OPPORTUNITY DETAILS

• What: Speed Advice Clinic for Female Founders
• How: In 20 minute slots, the two of us will listen deeply to your problem and offer possible implementable steps
• When: Thursday June 4, from 11am to 3pm
• Where: A central spot in SOMA-SF

As you probably know, I just spent a year leading early growth, product strategy, community building and operations at a visual story app in SF. I also bring extensive global media and content experience including NYC tech journalism and Hollywood entertainment.

Shefaly recently exited her fine jewelry venture, and has 2 decades of international business building and CXO advisory experience. She's been named a top writer at Quora for the past three years.

ASK US ABOUT THESE TOPICS

• product strategy
• content and community building
• branding
• market outreach
• governance
• global growth

HOW TO JOIN US

In the comments below or by private message, let me know you want to come. We’ll get you a spot, and tell you exactly where we’ll be. We’ll also take walk ins, so even if you're not sure you can make it, reach out now to get the address.

CAN'T COME? TWEET US

Time permitting during the clinic, we’ll also reply on the #founderclinic tag to your tweets directed in advance to @anastasiaashman or @shefaly. Try that right now!

Let’s do this. Share this with someone you think will like it.

Listening deeply: getting to know you, developing products, advising startups

This is my last week at the Storia App by Selfish Inc's headquarters in San Francisco. After more than a year leading early growth, product strategy, community building and operations management of this visual story sharing app at RocketSpace, I’m moving on…

I’ve really enjoyed exploring a new realm of expression with everyone in the Storia development, design and product management team and the Storia user community, the gift of getting to know creative thoughtful people better through your creations in the app, sharing stories with hundreds of people around the world, and all the candid discussions we've had about our life and passions.

I also admire the vision of so many beta testers and content creators for this new storytelling service and its budding community. The feedback shared with me about shaping Storia as a technology that supports your life and most important relationships and pursuits has been insightful, and generous.

To everyone I've talked with in the past 16 months -- whether you used the app or not, whether you're on Android or iOS or only the web, whether we've known each other for ages or just met on the side of the road for a few minutes, believe me, we talked about it -- I thank you for your contributions to the development of this story sharing social network and want you to know that I was listening deeply.

Even as I move on, I'm looking forward to what Storia has planned, and what people everywhere are going to do with Storia in the future.

What's next for me? I'll be around, and engaging with you about where we're headed with content, community, visual storytelling, and all things digital media and startup.

I'll also be talking with startups about chief product or chief community builder roles, and consulting on product, operations, marketing, growth.

On June 4, I'll be holding a speed advice clinic for startup founders in San Francisco.

With CXO advisor visiting from London Shefaly Yogendra -- who recently exited her fine jewellery venture and has two decades of international business building, and has been named a top writer at Quora for the past three years -- in 20 minute slots, we'll listen deeply to your problem and offer possible implementable steps.

Let me know if you want to come that day with a question related to product strategy, content and community building, branding, market outreach, governance, global growth. We'll get you a spot, and tell you where we'll be.

Can A Visual Story Become A Book Proposal?

That's what Toronto celebrity chef Zane Caplansky and I are going to find out, and you're invited to join us.

We're collaborating at Storia.me (formerly named Selfish), the new visual storytelling service where I've been heading content and community for the past year, to create the foundation of a book about his adventures building a deli empire.

Zane's a great storyteller, and his quest for the perfect smoked meat sandwich has taken him on a personal and professional journey around the world, from dive bars and divorce into foodie business ventures on wheels and construction lots, and onto the shelves of Whole Foods and television shows judging donuts and national radio airwaves talking about what makes Canadian food uniquely Canadian.

He's changed his name and returned to his roots and now he's serving handmade, homemade Jewish deli food the way his mother and grandmother taught him, and sharing his biggest lessons about life and how what we crave -- yes, it could be a sandwich -- holds the key to our future.

It's a story we can all enjoy.

In fact, a major Canadian literary agent requested Zane's book proposal.

Two years ago.

Does that sound familiar?

It's a common story and nightmare of many promising writers. You're busy. It's a lot of material to get your arms around. It's overwhelming! It takes time to pick out a narrative, pin down the content you want to draw from when you start writing. It also takes time to compare and contrast other related titles.

So here's what Zane and I are going to try at Storia.me, with its topic-specific, ongoing stories and its moments of photo, video and text:

We'll start capturing chapter ideas for his memoir in an exclusive story, and in this collaborative story Proposing Deli Man we'll walk you through what we’re doing together. Kind of like a blueprint for how we're doing it.

If you're a writer you'll probably find it interesting in a behind-the-scenes-in-publishing kind of way (and you might want to try it yourself, right along with us).

If you're a fan of Zane's food and his life stories, you might like to see him put together this book like he puts together his lovingly made smoked meat sandwiches.

He'll also be sharing about this project on all his platforms -- like a media- and audience-savvy book author needs to -- and inviting people to come peek in and comment. That includes you. We want to hear your thoughts every step of the way.

"It's a good example of collaboration, as well as a brilliant idea and useful for me," Zane says.

We can't wait to get started. So subscribe right now to our behind-the-scenes story Proposing Deli Man, and Zane Caplansky's Storywhere we'll be capturing all the delicious material representing his story, and be sure you're following Zane too so you don't miss any new stories he starts.

If you know anyone who would like to watch this unfold, or take part themselves, share this right now.

See you in the story!

Are You On Flipboard?

Are you on Flipboard? I'm testing it out as a curation platform. Here are my magazines on social justice, "SJW: There's nothing wrong with wanting to right the world", and forward thinking in culture, media, tech & digital life. See what you think!

I'm doing an AMA on Reddit. Come ask me a question.

EDIT: Here's where you can see my completed AMA.

Wut.

I'm doing an AMA on Reddit this Thursday February 5 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern.

AMA stands for "Ask Me Anything", an interview where everyone can participate.

Come ask me some questions?

My topic is "What's so wrong about being Selfish?" and in true AMA fashion, that's just a starting point for what we'll be talking about. I'll be joined by Brock McLaughlin, manager of the Luke Austin Band and a Canadian Selfish brand ambassador who racks up karma points with his obsession of dressing up his pug Sidney Vicious, and Selfish's iOS project manager Marat Kinyabulatov checking in from the Ural Mountains.

Here's one of my favorite questions from the day: "Do you think the name "Selfish" might turn people off from joining the network?"

My answer:

"Yes, it's a hurdle because our associations with the word are so one-sided. Since childhood we've been admonished "don't be selfish." When someone's breaking up with us, we dread hearing the reason "you're selfish." But we have to put the oxygen mask on ourselves before we can help anyone else, right? And there's also a growing trend that we need to take care of ourselves, and nourish what we care about.

"We have an assortment of interests and relationships and ways of being. Social networking and mobile apps and visual capture tools should be able to map to those realities, and give us the control and power we desire."

Tending Relationships In The Technological Age: Multiminding

"relationships are the basis of our productivity" ~ @estee of #mmindding — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) December 5, 2014

My worlds colliding -- no, integrating! -- at Estee Solomon Gray's Mmindding Symposium on what she calls agile attention management. It's a movement toward our reality as relational beings, supported by the technologies of today. We can do this. We want to do this. We are doing this. The talks were by academics who study things like proxemics and chronemics. The audience was filled with people who are carving out lives and work in just this post-industrial age reality. We're returning to our natural rhythms.

Pictured and not pictured, friends and colleagues and acquaintances from GlobalNiche, future of work thinkers, expat entrepreneurs, TEDxBayArea, Wisdom 2.o conference, Exceptional Women in Publishing, Bryn Mawr College alumnae, Women's Startup Lab.

'Humans are not machines'. #mmindding @mminddlabs pic.twitter.com/l1YrKKWcnL — Pamela Day (@ZibbyZ) December 5, 2014

Held at Rodan-Fields HQ, pictured: Leslie Forman, Pamela Day, Karen Jaw-Madson, Tanya Monsef Bunger, Maria Judice, Monika Ashman, Shirley Rivera. Also seen at this afternoon of theory and practice of "multi minding", relational thinking and acting for a qualitative life: journalist Liza Dowd, Kevin Marks, creativity expert Austin Hill Shaw, Bonita Banducci, Minda Aguhob of Peak Foqus, salonista Betsy Burroughs.

Identity and attention map visually displays what #mmindding looks like pic.twitter.com/NFgJPHBYUF — Tanya Monsef Bunger (@TMonsefBunger) December 6, 2014

"we're enabled to multimind by virtue of today's technology, it's not rewiring us" ~ @estee #mmindding — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) December 5, 2014

A visual representation of what's on @CorSher 's work mind #mmindding pic.twitter.com/kdVHlnUKdb — Karen Jaw-Madson (@KarenJaw) December 6, 2014

. @BonitaBanducci outlines distinctions between individualistic and relational competencies at #mmindding pic.twitter.com/U3tdIrqh8Y — Leslie Forman (@leslieforman) December 5, 2014

.@BonitaBanducci speaking about how understanding competency differences empowers everyone. #mmindding pic.twitter.com/e5Iv6ACwmn — GlobalNiche (@globalniche) December 5, 2014

How relational thinkers operate. Same idea as improv. Don't judge--build. Say "yes, and." #mmindding pic.twitter.com/5jX5k67PnY — Leah Hunter (@leahthehunter) December 5, 2014

At #mmindding learning new ways to stop tasking and start minding. My notes so far. pic.twitter.com/1HocbNQtYF — Leslie Forman (@leslieforman) December 5, 2014

with respect - first step of multiminding: shedding remnants of GTD mentality "tasking" is so last century #mmindding — debs (@debs) December 5, 2014

"Your life is beautifully complicated" intriguing theme for #mmindding symposium @mminddlabs — YY (@thisisyy) December 5, 2014

Our spheres are not separate - you're at home but your mind is at work. #mmindding works across space and time — Tanya Monsef Bunger (@TMonsefBunger) December 5, 2014

.@rotanarotana my takeaways: we practice what academia theorizes + tech enables us to do today better what humans long have done #mmindding — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) December 8, 2014

(I just grabbed Castell's link. His premise: we live in a global city.) Time and space sharing! Yes! http://t.co/V5ZvtypXNW #mmindding — Leah Hunter (@leahthehunter) December 5, 2014

This is why we feel stressed - no more tasking apps please. hah! #mmindding pic.twitter.com/oellTuYPNG — debs (@debs) December 5, 2014

Make A Living Holiday Letter With This Collaborative Visual Story App

Note: This free tool is so new it's not in the app store yet. But I'm giving you a special link to download it on your iPhone, and make this story your whole family can enjoy and participate in. +++

Every year you send out a newsletter with holiday greetings, recapping the year's events, and spreading good wishes for the year ahead.

You craft it (at the last minute, just another thing on the to-do list), you scrounge for the right photos and agonize over the fonts and the formatting and the text, and you send it all the email addresses you can think of. It's done and gone.

This year, why not give yourself some breathing room and try a living Selfish story to recap 2014's most memorable moments in images and text and your hopes for 2015 -- and have fun with your friends and family while you do it?

It's quick and informal. You can start a Selfish story in 1 minute. Pick a cover image, a title, and your first moment wishing everyone a happy holiday. Anything you might decide to add after that is a bonus!

It's interactive: your friends and family everywhere can comment right in your holiday letter from their desktops, laptops, and mobile phones.

It's ongoing. You can start now, today, with that first moment, and share the link. Then you can keep adding highlights and chatting with your loved ones in the comments.

Download Selfish, a brand-spanking-new visual story app on your iPhone.  It's not even in the app store yet, so you're looking at the public beta before everyone else gets it!

It's free, as always.

Here's what you'll get when you start your holiday letter as a Selfish story:

• one easy link you can start sharing today
• one easy link you can send or post everywhere including Facebook, Twitter, email, Pinterest
• a gorgeous display of images and text all viewable on the web, or in mobile phones
• if you add more than one image to a moment, it shows on the web as a slideshow!
• just one simple seasonal greeting moment will work great, or
• you can add all the moments of your year if you're a detail person, at any time -- hours, days, weeks -- after you start your story. The link you share doesn't change!
• invites everyone on your mailing list to comment and talk to each other so your holiday letter comes alive

Get started right now

• Do a 12-days of Christmas or Hanukah or Kwanza or New Year's story, or
• Top 10 fun times in 2014
• Best image and happenings of each month of the year
• A moment for each family member -- add as many images and captions as you want. Don't forget Fido. He had a big 2014 too.
• Or, start capturing real-time just what you're doing this holiday: running errands, gazing at decorations, digging out ornaments in the attic, preparing special meals, enjoying the store windows, the snow on the ground, the lights, the trees, the presents, the crowds. What the season means to you. You may find you want to share your real-time holiday letter more widely by the end of the month!
• If you'd like the rest of us to enjoy your holiday letter too, add a hashtag in the text or comments on one of the moments: #holidayletter

Open the app on your iPhone and get started. Happy holidays!

On the road to Slush, the startup conference in Helsinki

In an ongoing, collaborative Selfish visual story, here's what happened this week at Slush, the massive startup conference in Helsinki, which I attended with the founders of Selfish Inc, Rostem Hairedin and Moody Fayed.

Pitching contests, Vegas-worthy light shows, avant garde gentlemen's grooming, Marimekko prints, exhibits and panels by Finns you've heard of, Finnish humor, a sauna in the sky, SuperCell's blowout after party, human androids and oculus rifts, meetings about user feedback analysis, bean bags, Estonian tech sisters, Facetimes home, spontaneous ice cream picnic with Istanbul Teknokent Turks, a party in a casino with RocketSpace mobile ad regulars Fiksu, Tune and Ad Colony.

View the story "On The Road To Slush" to see the details.

Lecturing at SCU: online social networking as a contemporary business practice

Name a company, professional person, business or brand that you follow on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or get email newsletters from. How did you come to follow that source and what do you like about being in touch? How do you interact (customer service, community, feedback on product, promos, education, entertainment)? What brand or business are you aware of on social media not doing it well or otherwise making big mistakes? These are some of the questions I asked two business classes at Santa Clara recently.

Had a great time lecturing on #socialnetworking & #digitalmarketing to 2 biz classes at @santaclarauniv https://t.co/DuetiZyOji — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) October 13, 2014

Great to have @AnastasiaAshman at SCU today in my business class as guest lecturer on #digitalmarketing -real world expertise #SiliconValley — Tanya Monsef Bunger (@TMonsefBunger) October 2, 2014

enterprising women surfers in the front row! MT @TMonsefBunger: Great to have @AnastasiaAshman at #SCU guest lecture on #digitalmarketing — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) October 2, 2014

Looking forward to lecturing on #digitalmarketing & #socialnetworking to Contempo American Biz Issues classes at Santa Clara Univ this week! — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) September 28, 2014

 In fun, interactive hour and a half sessions, I encouraged the students to become independent scholars on the topic of digital marketing and social networking since it's a topic moving at the speed of light and will never be able to be covered properly at the pace of traditional textbook publishing.

To supplement the student's rudimentary and out of date textbook chapter on this subject -- MySpace was listed first in section about social networks -- I shared my favorite cutting-edge sources for all things social networking and digital marketing:

• tools like Slideshare and Twitter chats like @MarketingNut Pam Moore's #mktgchat,
• relevant ters like content marketing, social curation, social discovery and double opt-in, and
• thought leaders in the space who produce free newsletters, webinars and other content that the students can subscribe to and learn as it happens: Brian Solis, Bryan Kramer,  Jay Baer's ConvinceandConvert, Chris Brogan, Derek Halpern's Social Triggers, Shelly Kramer, ConversationAgent, Chris Garrett, Sonia Simone, Olivier Blanchard, Tara Gentile, Meghan Biro and Brian Clark.

I suggested the students can also make a Twitter list of digital marketing leaders and easily dip into what these players are discussing and with whom.

Thanks for the invitation to lead the digital marketing discussion for two of your business classes, Tanya Monsef Bunger! Your students are inspiring. Several have fledgling businesses, and many are aware consumers watching closely which businesses engage them online in meaningful ways, and which companies are failing to use digital tools to foster closer connection with their market.

Was pleased to be able to award a very participatory student, John, with a signed copy of Porter Gale's Your Network is Your Net Worth. Enjoy it!

And extra thanks to all the students of Contemporary American Business Issues for your participation and feedback, including Cindy, Armand, Jerica, Liv, Anabel, Brynn, Mariam, Meaghan, Alex, Marc, Paulina, Alec, Nicholas, Josalvin, and Ashley.

How To Become Your Own North Star On The Internet

If you aren’t thinking deeply about how and where and w/whom you appear and interact on the web, you need to start. http://t.co/t5ncPjzIUV — ken_homer (@ken_homer) October 15, 2014

We're all digital strategists now.

In fact, if you aren't thinking deeply about how and where and with whom you appear and interact on the web, you need to start.

Today. You can and should be using your online presence as a 21st century life & work skill to connect with relevant people, information you need and enriching opportunities. I'm going to help, so you can get started today. (And the resources I'm sharing with you are completely free, so if you want to buy something you'll have to go find a different post.) I've been saying all of this for years. Doing it for years. As a content and digital publishing specialist, I've been showing people how to use their own content to connect purpose and action in digital spaces, for 5 years, both in private and group coaching environments. Along with Tara Agacayak and Tanya Monsef Bunger, I built a curriculum at GlobalNiche, a social web training company that's now shifting into an empowered digital life movement, so you can do it on your own, or in groups, wherever you are and whoever you are and whatever you do. If you are a person active online, this training will ask you the strategic questions you need to be thinking about. If you're not yet active or don't love being online, this will help you figure out what makes sense for you. Our combined 25 years of experience, including major expatriate life and work challenges, forced us to tap our backgrounds in culture, info tech, media & psychology to create this network-activating system using the backbone of the social web. We've used this method to survive. No matter who or where you are, you can use it to thrive.

I'm now making that training perfectly free, so you can take advantage of all our guidance immediately.

Want to learn how? It's my gift to you! Start by downloading the handbook

  When you download this powerful free handbook you're going to start to transform what you do, how you do it and with whom. This repeatable, dynamic six-step method will help you become your own North Star on the Internet and bring you closer to the people and things you care about. You'll emerge with inspiration, direction and confidence:

• a vision that lights you up and goals you can measure

• a do-able plan and digital skills you need

• and a practice and peer group you can rely on to keep going

Here's what people who've done it say:

• "I felt I couldn’t catch up. The way GlobalNiche describes social media – it’s about using technology to communicate naturally – clicked for me." ~ paralegal

• “Opened my eyes to my own assets. It has given me the confidence to bet on myself.” ~ work-at-home parent

• “I doubled my Twitter presence just by learning about good Twitter etiquette.” ~ scriptwriter

• “I’m blown away by the possibilities. I now have an action plan. I feel a huge shift in my life." ~ academic

• "For people who are wondering if what they have to say is valuable.” ~ financial officer

• "Helped me to recognize and own how I am being virtually “seen” and make positive and educated changes." ~ landscape contractor

With this non-dogmatic foundational method you'll:

• uncover the real value you've already created: by taking inventory of what you've been doing, detecting the patterns in your activities, gaining insight into what you're drawn to

• put your mountain of natural resources to work for you: by acknowledging all that you’ve created and use it to gain insight into who you are and who you want to be

• show the world how you make sense: by linking what you've done in the past & are doing today with your wider goals

• recognize that you need to become visible to meet people you want to collaborate with, work for, hire

• combine who you are and where you want to go with the tools available to express yourself

• make empowered, focused decisions about how to operate online

• go beyond managing your reputation online to using social media to represent your best self

• meet and enter conversations with your peers, mentors and customers on the web

• get recognized by authorities & peers in your field, recruiters, the media

• identify how to use existing materials as building blocks for future projects

• identify new ways to use social media, which platforms work for you (and which do not), and how to use those platforms to your advantage

• express yourself with the best social web tools available, including how to use Google+, Quora, ScoopIt and Storify to your benefit

• gain a new understanding of the best social media and content management and strategy tools, formats, methods to try

• establish an interactive calling card at a site like About.me

• learn best practices for blogging frameworks like WordPress and Thesis, blogging services like Twitter and Tumblr, social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram

• learn best uses of video and slideshow sites like Animoto, YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare, email service providers

• grasp a new perspective on yourself as a content creator, realize the energy you generate around your interests IS content

• publish, record, remix, repackage, reformat your content

• design and implement a do-able plan with small steps to get your creations into global circulation in alignment with your larger goals

We're all digital strategists now. Here's what you, personally, need to do to win the Internet. https://t.co/EBxi9xPJhs by @AnastasiaAshman

— E.B. Boyd (Liza) (@ebboyd) October 16, 2014

Want more?

If you want more guidance, get the free multimedia curriculum which expands on the handbook with video coaching and other materials. You'll have lifetime access to the self-paced course, 24/7, on all your devices. I'm making that entire program perfectly free for you, so join with a friend and do it together! 4,700 people already cashed in this free coupon to get connected & effective. Did you? Let me know how you're liking it!

Sarah Granger's The Digital Mystique

So pleased to support digital life thinker and my fellow Seal Press author Sarah Granger's launch of The Digital Mystique. In The Digital Mystique: How the Culture of Connectivity Can Empower Your Life – Online and Off, Granger shows us how digital media is shaping our lives in real time.

Long before I moved to SF and met her at TEDx Bay Area's Global Women Entrepreneurs, I was following Sarah on Twitter  (since 2008!) where she was virtually taking me to the conferences and into the conversations I love about how digital life is shaping the way we learn, grow, and thrive. 

Sarah's shared her path to publishing this book and along the way I've been thrilled to share with Sarah my own experiences with the empowerment digital life can bring.

I really appreciate the enriching role she plays in her community, and thank her for recommending me as a speaker for the Exceptional Women in Publishing conference.

The book launch is September 9 in San Francisco at AppDynamics and will feature the viewing of an Emmy-nominated six minute video by Tiffany Shlain, an introduction by BlogHer cofounder Elisa Camahort Page, and remarks by the author.

Check out the book no matter where you are!

Storytellers with iPhones! Want to be a pioneer?

  I'm heading community and content in a new semi-private social networking tool for visual storytelling called Selfish. We're about to launch our beta iOS apps in Russia and Canada, then in the US and Android a little later, along with our desktop component. Big, global stuff for socially savvy publishers!

We're looking for digital media pioneers and adventurous, creative people to work with us as we get the kinks out of the technology, and gear up for a public  launch. We're a work-in-progress, and we want to pay you for your own works-in-progress.

I'm pleased to announce the Selfish Content Creator Program.

Our paid content creator program runs from August 25-October 25. Those dates may shift, so check it out no matter what. (See full details here, and get the link to download the app on your iPhone. You'll need iOS7 or iOS8 to use the app.)

You'll be using the tool to fashion a short, connected string of posts with photos and brief text on a topic, either alone or with other co-authors.

• You can do this with your friends or family, in fact, we prefer you do it with other people since this is a collaborative tool.
• Use informal language and conversational tone.
• Ideal topics are a weekend road trip; details about your obsessions, hobbies or work or sports you play; attending a special occasion, an event like a concert or a wedding or a conference; events in an interest group you belong to.
• You can repurpose previously published material.
• You can use personal content.

The aim of this program for North American/English language creative communities is to attract diverse content into the app that reflects best uses of the tool.

I'd like to encourage creatives and bloggers out there to try the app and test its capabilities in telling a story that comes naturally to you, including stories that are happening in your life right now. Capturing real time, ongoing adventures is something this app supports well.

Also, we're going to pay you to start a story but you can always continue your Selfish stories after you reach the pay mark. We imagine you'll want to as you realize the value you've created and the new ways you discover to share your life and interests with the people who matter to you.

What are we looking for? The basics of a winning Selfish story in this program are:

• has a good cover/title/story description,
• with coauthors,
• a minimum of 10 moments total of photos and text,
• uses hashtags and geotags and @ mentions,
• with active comments, and
• social shares throughout the creation process.

Presenting our content creator program in a Selfish story (see it here) is an experiment to show you how a Selfish story works, how it's an ongoing thread of small moments, how it's different than a blog post, how it's different than a tweet or a Facebook status or a Facebook photo album, or a Pinterest pin, or an Instagram photo.

As my fellow content creator, communicator, publisher, writer, transmedia storyteller, as my fellow friend, family member, and member of other interest communities, I think you might want to know about this new mobile, social, online option for connecting what you care about with how and what you capture and share, and with whom you choose to share it. If you have questions, just ask me. I'd love to try to answer.

This story about the program shows you sample screens of existing content and creation flows while you consider the guidelines. It also demonstrates what kind of Selfish powers you can expect to harness for your own storytelling goals:

• a Selfish story has one link and is shareable everywhere;
• a Selfish story can have multiple coauthors, all posting into the ongoing story;
• a Selfish story is made of multiple moments of photos and text all linked together;
• a Selfish story is created in the mobile app and displayed on the web;
• a Selfish story on the web is displayed in animated moments with rotating images and blocks of text;
• a Selfish story is interactive, with comments and likes on each moment;
• if you’re a registered user, you can subscribe to any public Selfish story so you get all the moments in your feed;
• and, Selfish is free;
• there's more, because Selfish is all about user controls, but hey this post has to end some time.

Check out the content creator program, or send this link to someone you know who might like to try it: http://bit.ly/SelfishApp

Video Director Amit Raikar's GlobalNiche Interviews

"It's a community about possibility. I'd like to see this become a life philosophy." ~ Tiny Habits coach and environmental engineer Shirley Rivera

Just saw the rough cut of director Amit Raikar's video about the GlobalNiche movement shot this spring. Such great questions, and so many distinctive perspectives to fill in the mosaic of what GlobalNiche is, what it means, where it's going, how it works in our lives. I can't wait to be able to share it more widely! Here are some stills from the video (Shirley Rivera, Tanya Monsef Bunger, Loreen Huddleston, Bertita Graebner, me, and Evelyne Michaut), and a few juicy quotes. More to come...Thanks everyone, and Amit and crew for the wonderful work.

"This allows me to build the platform to be very consistently me in the world." ~ transpersonal psychologist and life transitions coach Bertita Graebner

My Complete Handbook On Slideshare

Your Entrepreneurship Goals Are Your Online Presence Goals

Your entrepreneurship goals are your online presence goals and community is how you get things done.

These are the slides from last month's workshop for startup founders that Tanya Monsef Bunger and I conducted at the Women's Startup Lab in Menlo Park.

Founders Have Vision & Goals, Need Community To Get Things Done

Click here for the slideshow. Last month we had a great day at the Women's Startup Lab in Menlo Park, workshopping online community building for founders. (See details here.) The questions these entrepreneurs asked got us off to a good start:

• "How do I reach people I don't know?"
• "Which tool can I use to bring together two communities and get them communicating?"
• "My community lives on Twitter but what if my end users are on Facebook?"
• "How do I combine my posts in two different languages?"
• "How do I maximize social networks to grow community, and where I do find the time for content creation?"

#Startup founders @wslab building community online through #socialmedia @AnastasiaAshman pic.twitter.com/WeeHkNwtFb — Tanya Monsef Bunger (@TMonsefBunger) May 13, 2014

idea from today's workshop: #community starts with you. #globalniche — GlobalNiche (@globalniche) May 13, 2014

It was wonderful to meet and get a peek into the businesses of founders Dedra Chamberlin (Cirrus Identity, for social identity management in the higher education space), Cynthia Litchi (she's launching Tejul, a social learning site for Latin American female artisans to teach each other), and Vicky Zhang of Fledgg (a company to connect young entrepreneurs and mentors globally).

#startup #entrepreneurs at @wslab building online #community! pic.twitter.com/ySd8TflyOl — GlobalNiche (@globalniche) May 13, 2014

@chelit @dedrachamberlin @TMonsefBunger great morning at @wslab work shopping online community to grow your #startup — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) May 13, 2014

Cultural and personal sensitivity issues we covered in this workshop included how to strike a balance between one's CEO presence and personal presence online since "it's risky!" We also talked about optimizing your profiles at all the social media services and sites you're a member of. Cynthia Litchi mentioned that in Mexico, where she's from, professionals don't use LinkedIn because of security issues -- so if you want to connect with Mexican pro counterparts online, more closed settings are where you're going to find them. Thanks to Tanya Monsef Bunger, a coach at the Women's Startup Lab, for coleading this workshop and Ari Horie and everyone at the Innovation Lab for hosting.

I want to do more workshops with entrepreneurs about how they can use social media, online presence building, content creation, curation and content marketing and personal branding to grow community...

because entrepreneurs come to the table uniquely prepared to use their online presence to meet their goals.

They have a huge vision, they have distinct goals, they have content, they have a platform of some kind. And they are driven to make the most of their resources. And that's exactly what they need to combine in order to connect with their peers, their customers, mentors, advisors, investors.

Speaking At The Innovation Lab For Silicon Valley Startup Founders

Looking forward to speaking about social media for entrepreneurs along with Tanya Monsef Bunger at the Women's Startup Lab's Innovation Lab on May 13th. Innovation Lab is an intensive and interactive learning lab for startup founders "to develop the skills and competencies needed to be effective leaders/founders."

Tanya and I will be leading a 3 hour workshop in the ‘Grow your Startup’ section of the lab.

To complement six other ’how to’ subjects offered in this series, such as essential sales techniques to close deals, lean marketing strategy, lean startup training, UI/UX design, IP Strategy and Valuation/Financial modeling, we will be instructing the group on using social media to build an online community.

Tanya is my GlobalNiche team member, and for the past year has been a business coach at the Women's Startup Lab founded by Allison Chapman and Ari Horie, who's pictured below.