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
save the date #SF peeps! #globalniche meet up on april 24, hosted by @lifunfe pic.twitter.com/y3gx5gcLbV
— GlobalNiche (@globalniche) March 20, 2014
The latest of many F2F gatherings of GlobalNiche people and their friends, around the world! Reading this and want to do your own? Do it!! We'll help you get the word out. Special thanks to Amit Raikar, Shirley Rivera and Tanya Monsef Bunger for event production, transportation, and inspiration and a lot of other wonderful things that made this evening happen. It was a blur of wine, and excitement and twinkling lights, and silver and raspberry and houndstooth, and happy faces and surprise meetings and balloons and cherry pie. There was a lot of hugging and huddling, and we really didn't need the crackling fireplace because we were all on FIRE!
— GlobalNiche (@globalniche) April 25, 2014
Looking forward to the video interviews that Amit Raikar directed and shot along with his full production crew of Jeri Neves, James Pendziszewski, Mike Montoya and Ryan Munevar. Amit asked each of the attendees to share what GlobalNiche is to them, and where it's taking them (and where they're taking GlobalNiche!).
...what this expat, Third Culture, creative entrepreneur, content creator, location independence community and curriculum and study group setting and online presence building and global network tapping and personal culture creating, hybrid life design movement means to each of us.
Great to see Silvana Vukadin-Hoitt, in from Denver, just for this occasion! From the South Bay and beyond, we were excited to welcome Loreen Huddleston, Bertita Graebner, Bonita Banducci, Karen Jaw-Madson, Trish Sewe, Evelyne Michaut and Siddartha and new friends including Heather Franzese.
"I felt truly blessed to be among a group of such strong, smart, interesting women (and men)," says Loreen.
with @TMonsefBunger and @SilvanaMondo at the #globalniche Bay Area meetup... #expats #community pic.twitter.com/pjGuVQcXYl — Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) April 25, 2014
....this video production crew, led by @lifunfe! #globalniche pic.twitter.com/LC98pjCXhj
— GlobalNiche (@globalniche) April 25, 2014
"I'd like to see #globalniche become a life philosophy" ~ @anthrocubeology pic.twitter.com/1vSL4t2nne
— Anastasia Ashman (@AnastasiaAshman) April 25, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/technology/personaltech/twitter-illiterate-mastering-the-bcs.html?ref=business&_r=0
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/twitter-quitters-go-mainstream_n_4131459.html?utm_content=buffer63fb0&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
People who have given up on Twitter cite a variety of reasons, from lack of friends on the service to difficulty understanding how to use it. Convincing ordinary people to think of Twitter as an indispensable part of their lives is key to the company's ability to attract advertisers and generate a profit.
an able bridge goes both ways "@LadyBits: #Twitter's new media evangelist should actually use Twitter ~ @baznet dld.bz/cTeCt"
The 40-over-40 Women To Watch celebrates women over 40 who are disruptors, role models and makers...creating momentum and changing the world. It's an initiative by Dare, Dream, Do author Whitney Johnson and 40:20 Vision founder Christina Vuleta. Excerpt from my application.
Are you creating growth, jobs or new products, ideas or services?
My startup GlobalNiche works to train women to use the social web and mobile technology (what we call digital literacy) in alignment with their vision for the world they want to live in order to make that vision a reality both through their own work and through the connections and collaborations they make with others through their web platform. We show them how to do this.
In showing people how to build an effective online presence to connect with broader networks and opportunities, and build social capital, I help people appreciate and tap their own assets and the potential of online spaces to find or make their own jobs.
Along with my cofounder Tara Agacayak, I created a 6-step multimedia program and training system that shows women how to lay a foundation on the web for the work they want to do and the life they want to live.
In our experience, even with the availability of technology, extremely capable women stumble when it comes to sharing their expertise, knowledge, ideas, cause, or voice on the web because they feel uncomfortable using the technology or they feel vulnerable calling attention to themselves or joining a public conversation or taking credit for their ideas. We address these issues by bringing them together in a virtual environment that allows them to interact with one another, learn digital literacy skills and test them out in a supportive community, and encourage them to take the steps toward realizing their vision.
When offered to individuals, our program works to empower their vision for their own life. When offered in community, our program supports the community’s shared goals.
What would suggest your greatest achievements are ahead of, not behind, you?
Are you innovating around work/life issues; promoting women in leadership, or simply willing to make tough choices?
Younger women share that I have validated their instincts, helped them contemplate their own possibilities, and provided them much needed support & structure to operate.
I wouldn’t say I’m a positive role model to just younger women. I work with women older than I am and they tell me
How are you personally reinventing or creating a new path? Are you applying your prior experiences in new ways?
My current town of San Francisco may be a tech-forward location but that’s not why I’ve increasingly been turning to technology to help me be where and who I am today. Since living in 30 homes in 4 countries -- talk about personal disruption, try serial personal disruption as a lifestyle -- I’m a globally mobile individual and rely on social & mobile tech for my total, global operation.
My custom life-work solution seems torn from today’s headlines and bestseller lists on the topics of future work skills and work-life fit solutions.
Along with Tara Agacayak, I run a private mastermind group on LinkedIn (it’s a subgroup of my Creative Entrepreneurs & Social Media group). Once a week someone steps into the center with a case study and asks for feedback and suggestions on their next steps. Here are my thoughts on building out a writing and artist platform:
I use Wordpress and Tumblr (simply as a feed of my blog, microblog and Delicious activities). It seems moving to Tumblr or Posterous might make things much simpler for you as a blogger-- they seem easy/breezy as blogging platforms -- whereas Wordpress's wider capabilities will encourage building a bigger site with more going on. So, since you're talking growth and not just 'make it easier' then I'd say Wordpress.
As for platform building, where are you meeting and engaging with potential readers of your novel (besides Twitter, SheWrites, Facebook, LI, your blog)? Any communities out there specific to the topics in your novel? Taking part in reader-based litchats on Twitter would be another way to start being known as the woman behind the voice that people will be able to read when your book comes out. (Consider posting small excerpts of the book so we know what it's about and grow connected to it?)
Maybe someone here can share leads to artists, writers, cultural curators that you are aware of online -- if you know of them, they're doing something right to get your attention.
As for making the hybrid nature of your work clearer through your platform, I'm reminded of the blog convention of another multifaceted woman: Ruth Harnisch. She breaks down the different channels of her being and lets that be the structure of her site. "The Maker of Mistakes". "The Philanthropist". "The Catalyst". "The Recovering Journalist". Perhaps something like this might allow you to indulge your interests and help a visitor to your site/blog comprehend your better?
The expatharem site has sold books through its Amazon link -- in the first couple of years of the site. The #s since I relaunched the blog are too tiny to count for anything and that may be a result of the maturity of the book or the fact that I don't push it much on the site, and/or people aren't coming to the blog to buy the book or learn more about it. However, yes, making things available to our interested parties is part of making what we do a business. We have to make the offer. It's relevant. However, I also know being on twitter has sold books. People I met there, people who found out about the book on twitter (like during #litchat on expat lit).
Also: here's a great interview with a 'unmarketing' book author about how he built both a support system and a target audience on Twitter and presold 3,000 copies of his book. Good lessons there about how to engage and when to sell.
In response to your question about using your own name as a brand, an SEO specialist I know from ThirdTribe (@CraigFifield) just offered an impromptu SEO consult on Twitter before the end of his workday/workweek. I took the liberty to ask him for an opinion on this, in general terms. Here’re the tweets (which overlap, as Twitter does)....
CF: i have 15min before I quit for the day -- how can I help you with SEO or your Blog?
AA: wd someone's name be a better blog name for SEO than tagline about art and the creative life?
CF: in terms of SEO I would use a keyword that people are searching for. Or, I would go for branding and ignore SEO
AA: that is, are proper names SEO at all? and generally used words and phrases amount to very little in SEO world?
AA: so in researching keywords "creative life" what result would prompt good use of that phrase in blog title?
CF: depends how your audience uses those words. I would do some keyword research to decide. do you have an example?
AA: ok think i got it! (branding with a proper name means SEO considerations unnecessary)
CF: well, unless your brand will eventually be big enough to be searched on :) make your brand name unique to win there
So much fun this month name-calling and finding our true neighborhood in supraculture. Dropping hints for your soundtrack of placelessness. Announcing the emergence of a great new voice with whom we're exploring the existential anxiety of being people like us.
Lots of things to do: besides sharing your thoughts on tipping points and tour groups, you're invited to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime creative project on 11/11/11 with people from 196 countries, in 2,000 languages. It promises to be "the greatest story ever told."
+++++ YOUR THOUGHTS
Let us know what you'd ask the expat+HAREM community.
We asked for the names you give our global nichery --
is it a subculture like nudists and skateboarders and Burning Man (which sound like the same thing, snarf!), or is this diverse life we lead a transcendent supraculture above and beyond it all?
Some replies (keep them coming): Homeless. Geoagnostic. Nomadology.
"Worldburgers is what I call people like us," offers Judith van Praag, a Dutch writer/designer in Seattle and a Dialogue2010 cultural innovator.
+++++ AT expat+HAREM
This month we discussed the tipping point of cultural assimilation and its confusions (can a soapy television show trigger a shift in your identity?). We also confided what the ancient history of a place has made us do (like fall down a Turkish mountain when the past won't meet us in a more convenient spot, or innovate new business based on heritage techniques). Being contradictory types, we continue to debate whether our travel styles -- ultraspecialized tour group, herdlike mass transport, or loner on a new landscape -- reflect larger life choices or simply what it takes to get us somewhere else on the planet.
Our Facebook page wall is a perfect place to highlight your latest identity adventure: friends and fans are invited to post your blog/site link, and tell us all what awesomeness you've been up to.
+++++ AROUND THE WORLD & AROUND THE WEB
We're not alone. In fact, here's another vote for supraculture: we're thrilled to witness a like-minded movement building online in the inaugural hybridology conference call by Amna Ahmad of The Pragmatic Hybrid. Addressing "the existential anxiety of our hybrid lives," she says we're looking for models of courage/integrity in smart/fascinating people "who do eleven things that don't seem to have anything in common." Sound familiar?
Good guide to creating an earthy soundscape: the world music reviews at Perceptive Travel, the online magazine by book authors on the move. Personally, they had us at "remixed desert blues" Tuareg-style, and "placeless internationalism".
Among the luminaries we met at TEDGlobal last month: the founder of 11ElevenProject, a day-long time capsule which aims to be the biggest creative project in human history -- bringing the world together through film, photography, art, sound and music -- to celebrate our individuality, and honor our common humanity. Plan to participate.
We've got some cool stuff for the heat of midsummer. How we imagine our global viewpoint is created. New discussions highlight the continuity (or ooh, disconnect!) of the way we behave vs. our original culture.
Plus, tips on easy-breezy ways to track next week's international conference of game-changing rock star brainiacs.
+++++
YOUR THOUGHTS
Let us know what you'd ask the expat+HAREM community.
What kind of global citizen are you? Most of us (35%) are "all the above", apparently.
Answers to our poll at the site and LinkedIn reveal that besides travel and interest in a wider world, we're global from birth (26%), plus we've been schooled abroad+lived overseas+worked in various nations (23%).
[August2010 update: "All of the above" (43%). Schooled, lived, worked abroad (21%). Travel and wider interest (15%). Born global (14%).]
+++++
AT expat+HAREM
In the past month we've debated some ticklish topics: how risky behavior defines our world, the right time and place for flesh (it's not as clear-cut as you'd think), and a proud alternative to boo-yah culture.
Everyone wants to know more about our guest posters so we're happy to introduce a page of blogger bios...see what they look like, where they're from, where they've been and where they're headed now.
You probably noticed we've started using Disqus to integrate our comments across the web. Why's that cool? Lots of reasons for the commenter, but our favorite is what it does for the rest of us who like to follow your thinking: it creates a feed -- say, your voice at the sites you care most about -- that we all can subscribe to!
+++++
AROUND THE WORLD & AROUND THE WEB
There's nothing bigger than next week's TEDGlobal, the international conference of ideas worth spreading, in Oxford.
This year's gathering of 700 aims to uplift. "And Now the Good News" brings together activists (like the guy who swam a *chilly* meltwater lake on Mt. Everest in a Speedo for heaven's sake), scientists, and artists (like the "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" uberdiva Annie Lennox) to discuss their work to make this planet a better place.
There will even be a time-traveling retronaut. Dude says "if the past is a foreign country, this is your passport." See how he does it, you can too!
The potent 18-minute talks from this summer's program will be viewable eventually at TED.com but to track the happenings real-time through people on the ground, try my Twitter feed, peek at my list of 80+ Tweeting attendees, and search the conference's hashtag.
+++++
Stay cool,
+++++
MISS LAST MONTH?
Check out June's "Solstice reading"
+++++
Welcome to the 2007 edition of getting to know your friends. What you are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto e-mail that you'll send. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends which you might not have known!
ANASTASIA ANSWERS:
1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:00, my goal buddy calls to discuss yesterday’s results and what today’s plan is.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls, having to do with past lives in the South Sea and all that. Diamonds are fun too, and sturdier.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Elizabeth, the Golden Age (big disappointment, I should have chosen Beowulf instead).
4. What is your favorite TV show? Punk’d -- just kidding. The Office.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? A green drink and tea.
6. Favorite cuisine? Most Asian cuisines.
7. What is your middle name? Marie, a good Catholic schoolgirl name.
8. What food do you dislike? Overboiled, oversalted, overgreasy anything.
9. What is your Favorite CD at the moment? Angelique Kidjo, the Beninese Afro-pop singer.
10. What kind of car do you drive? I don’t drive but Burc just got a Hybrid Honda Civic.
11. Favorite sandwich? In Turkey, the pide doner (like a Greek gyro without the sloppy yogurt sauce).
12. What characteristics do you despise? A. The inability to be happy about others’ success. B. The need to spread bad energy.
13. Favorite item of clothing? Whatever fits, is comfortable and looks great all at once.
14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Morocco. Who wants to go on a group trip?
16. Favorite brand of clothing? I’m not brand loyal with clothing but Aerosoles always fit and keep things in the shoe department simple.
17. Where would you retire to? A vineyard in Oregon.
18. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Trying to find some Romans in Rome on my 40th.
19. Favorite sport to watch? Grand Slam Tennis, Badminton World Championships.
20. Furthest place you are sending this? Could be Buenos Aires, the West Coast, Singapore, South Africa.
21. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? The ones with three or more children.
22. Person you expect to send it back first? Dianne the African Princess.
23. Favorite saying? Various quotes as the situation arises.
24. When is your birthday? August 8
25 Are you a morning person or a night person? Afternoon person. I like to sleep in the morning and at night.
26. What is your shoe size? 7.5-8
27. Pets? Bunny (see his Kittenwar stats here http://kittenwar.com/kittens/85765/ )
28. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I’m sure you’ll agree I share plenty of news.
29. What did you want to be when you were little? A career girl with a car and an office.
30. How are you today? Sliding early into the weekend and the holiday season.
31. What is your Favorite candy? I could fill a whole questionnaire on this topic alone. Answer for the laypeople out there: licorice, chocolate, Turkish delight.
32. What is your Favorite flower? Nightblooming jasmine for its ability to perfume a neighborhood
34. What are you listening to right now? School children chanting something into a microphone – the bayram is coming!
35. What was the last thing you ate? Leftovers from last night’s dinner: Aduki bean dhal, bulghur and collard greens – delicious pan-soul-food!
37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Maroon.
38. How is the weather right now? Clear but wanting to snow.
40. Do you like the person who sent this to you? He is a family friend from my husband’s childhood who lives in Switzerland, which makes it doubly wonderful he is a warm and regular presence in our lives today.
41. Favorite restaurant? Lades off Istiklal for the menemen, a scrambled egg dish with feta cheese, tomatoes, and ground lamb.
42. Hair color? The box says “Acik Kestane -- Light Chestnut”.
43. Siblings? Two sisters.
44. Favorite day of the year? Halloween.
45. What was your favorite toy as a child? The mailboxes we sisters had attached to our offices – I was a big correspondent.
46. Summer or winter? I am a summer child!
47. Chocolate or Vanilla? Both, but has to be good quality.
48. Do you want your friends to email you back? That is the point but I realize it’s the holiday season and we all have something else going on.
49. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday, watching the Bachelorette Season Finale Part II – Meredith picked the guy she liked the idea of instead of the guy that was everything she claimed she wanted. Big mistake!
50. What is under your bed? Tons of luggage, regularly dusted.
51. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Julie, since we were 6 months old.
52. What did you do last night? Nice dinner at home with Burc and then he read Shalom Auslander’s memoir “Foreskin’s Lament” to me (had to, since he kept laughing out loud).
53. Favorite smell? Lavender, Sandalwood, Bergamot.
54. What are you afraid of? Wasting time. And yet, here I am, filling out this questionnaire which may or may not be viewed as spam somewhere down the line…
56. Plain, buttered, or salted popcorn? Plain.
57. How many keys on your key ring? I have pared my life down to 1!
58. How many years at your current job? If I imagine I am doing now what I have been training my whole life to do, then pretty much my whole life.
59. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday, when I delusionally exclaim to my husband “It’s the weekend!”
60. How many towns have you lived in? 11 -- Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Davis, Teaneck, Brooklyn, Istanbul.
61. Do you make friends easily? Somewhat, but that doesn’t diminish the meaning my friends hold for me.
62. How many people will you be sending this to? Maybe about 40.
Until recently, health has seemed a lot like a roller coaster. When I feel well, it is easy to make supportive choices. I can treat myself gently, taking life’s turns without losing balance, fielding the track ahead with broccoli and brown rice, yoga and warm baths. But times of extreme stress or sudden ill-health become a scary carnival ride. I lose my composure, and my wholesome route swiftly plunges into chocolate and white flour, inactivity and anger. Tense and fueled with irritants, the turns come too fast to prepare. I am reactive. From such discombobulated depths, the future and everything it holds seems to be an uphill challenge.
Until recently. As a resident of New York City’s Ground Zero, in the weeks and months after the 2001 attacks, I swooped to new lows. A vivacious summer newlywed of 36, by winter I was fifteen pounds heavier; plagued by back pain; my vision clouded with conjunctivitis; and clinically depressed. To get back on the path to health, I needed professional nurturing. Determined to address why my actions become a health liability in bad times, I contacted holistic nutritionist Janet Walker, a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
Enrolling in Janet’s six month personalized healing program I embarked on a subtle and cumulative journey toward balance. Switching from the freewheeling carnival ride I was on to a more thoughtful approach, the six months were punctuated by struggles with my weight and food choices, lessons in primary and secondary nutrition, and revelations about my chances for sustaining health.
A graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City which integrates Eastern and Western health systems, Janet’s program adhered to the school’s tenets of no rules and no dogma. We set out to find what worked for me. Although we aimed to strike a balance between carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, protein and fats, and focused on adding beneficial foods while minimizing less desirable ones, we acknowledged that food was just a small part of how I nourish myself.
Food, the nutritionist told me, is secondary.
Primary nutrition is that which feeds the soul. We determined that my lust for life required a diet of focusing on the writing career I care about; prioritizing the people and things I love; and cherishing the time and effort it takes to relax and recharge my fiery disposition.
Meeting twice a month for an hour-long evaluation, we inventoried my nutritional choices, mood and energy levels, weight and digestive function. I repeatedly complained about my sugar addiction, so we analyzed what sugar has meant to me since childhood to identify the chain reaction its use and abuse causes. Janet promoted a compassionate approach to the ingrained behavior, explaining that my body physically needed it, and it was okay to select it. By brutalizing myself with guilt at eating sugar, I was making the ingestion of it poisonous.
But my healer also provided food suggestions to squelch sugar cravings, like root vegetables and whole grains, and maple syrup in a pinch. To detoxify and tone the liver after a meat-laden diet, she prescribed astringent greens like dandelion and warm lemon water every morning. When my digestion was upset by the changing diet, she offered white rice to settle my stomach and biotic supplements like acidophilus. Her gift of The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner augmented my understanding of relationships between food, mood and cravings.
We explored manifestations of my health in my work and my relationships and my presentation, with interconnections becoming apparent. I began to lighten my intensity by stripping the black dye out of my hair, which resulted in a more natural look according with my desire to be naturally healthy. I recognized a link between a congested relationship with my mother and certain writing pieces too leaden to take flight. We pinpointed troubles with time and people management and brainstormed healthful ways to calm me (yogic breathing), perk me up (green tea in the afternoons), and help me focus (eliminating external distractions like TV and telephones).
After meeting Janet, I indulged my renewed enthusiasm for health by visiting a natural food store and stocking up on whole grains like quinoa and millet and buckwheat, which I slowly inserted into a diet completely lacking them during months on the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet. I roasted and cooked the grains in quantities large enough to serve several times in the coming days.
The lessons of the holistic program slowly seeped into my life and the one I share with my Turkish husband. One day he announced that he might eat brown rice if I could find brown basmati, a surprise after his earlier resistance to the hardy grain. We’ve been preparing less red meat and more fish by making special arrangements to get to local seafood markets. I walk as much as possible and have started practicing yoga again, although I still need more exercise. I’ve also instituted a new habit of meeting a friend at a greenmarket every week rather than socializing at a restaurant where I don’t want to eat in order to see her. This friend, an expectant mother, told me she feels very well cared for by me. The compliment resonated. I desire to be happily of comfort to friends and relatives in need. To succeed illustrates that I feel whole enough to share.
These days I’m not a runaway amusement park train headed toward the candy aisle at the grocery store as if I have no choice in the matter. Physical ailments and weight have improved, and optimum fitness no longer seems a steep uphill climb. Mood swings and energy levels have been regulated. When life throws me an unexpected curve, I know what my options are, and in lovingly choosing, I know I can take care of myself.
In the final analysis, my major struggle during the program was also the biggest lesson and the ultimate revelation. I want to be healthy but intentions must be complemented by mindfulness. The more choices I make to treat myself with care and respect, the better chance I have of staying on my chosen track. Living life from a place of less confusion, now I start the day by making one good decision and following it with another.
Turner, Kristina. The Self-Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods with Whole, Natural Foods. Earthtones Press. 2002. Northrup, Christiane. Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing. Bantam Books. 1998. Payne, Niravi and Richardson, Brenda Lane. The Whole Person Fertility Program: A Revolutionary Mind-Body Process to Help You Conceive. Three Rivers Press. 1997. Workman, Jennifer. Stop Your Cravings: A Balanced Approach to Burning Fat, Increasing Energy, and Reducing Stress. Free Press. 2001. Lad, Vasant. Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing. Lotus Press. 1984.
Institute for Integrative Nutrition, www.integrativenutrition.com, 212-730-5433 Janet Walker, Certified Holistic Health Counselor, www.innergrain.com, 718-768-1721 American Association of Drugless Practitioners, www.aadp.net, 903-843-6401.
This appeared in a variety of publications.
Anastasia Ashman @AnastasiaAshman