INKtalks

Simon Lewis: One Year Post-INK

Feb 29th, 2012 4 Comments

To quote from my Introduction to Rise and Shine, I wrote it, “…with the information I used to achieve my recovery, in order to share the knowledge that I wish someone had given me.”

But after publication of my inspirational memoir, and as is true with most new books, there was almost no publicity for it. Connie Martinson, member of the National Book Critics Circle and host of Connie Martinson Talks Books on local public television, recognized its merit and interviewed me. There was praise on a couple of blogs and newspaper websites. But my goal for Rise and Shine—to reach and inspire people with the possibilities of our minds, bodies and souls—fast faded before the reality that I had little access to media or the Internet, beyond websites I might create but few would find. The barriers seemed insurmountable, my book and its message of hope destined for obscurity.

Then, Lakshmi Pratury read my book, and came to LA to meet me for a lunch I’ll never forget. She enthusiastically invited me to the INK Conference, to talk about the role that technology played in my recovery, to show science-based treatments designed to yield measurable and repeatable results, that are not widely known or available.

With Lakshmi’s invitation, everything changes, bringing my ideas to a world forum for the first time. TED honors my INK talk with upload to TED.com, and Deepak Chopra invites me to his Foundation’s Sages and Scientists Symposium, with first reactions from children:

Dear Simon, I really enjoyed your talk! I am really inspired. I learned so much. Thank you so much! K. (Age 13)

And adults alike:

Please keep telling your story. It transforms all of us! T.

Almost two hundred comments post from the TED Community, with volunteers translating my talk into many languages, and hundreds of thousands finding it at TED.com, the INK Community, and Internet sites around the world.

Because knowledge in the medical world tends not to flow but instead pools around centers of excellence, and because I wrote Rise and Shine to release some of that information, INK and TED’s online audience inspire me to create a unique book website to illustrate some of its technologies and ideas: to add to the information in my talk and my book.

To build the site, I work with clinicians and others, who generously provide annotated 3-D reconstructions and PowerPoint presentations about our brains, our teeth and jaws, our pelvis and feet, to show the power and beauty of technology to those in search of the hidden path to self-knowledge.

It’s because of INK and TED that people can find my website, and thousands now browse it from every continent, and state in the USA.

More support, and a chance to interact directly with people with questions about my ideas, comes when TED enables me to offer an online Conversation on my topic, How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

This is scheduled for two hours and extends for two days because so many participate, from countries including India, the USA, South Korea and China. A TED viewer and reader of Rise and Shine is inspired to rise at 2:00 AM in Singapore to participate.

Another viewer and reader recommends my book to a journalist, to whom I give more materials and interviews for The Atavist, so I can use that online magazine’s multimedia capabilities in combination with my talk and book, to communicate aspects of consciousness from multiple perspectives.

Following this, I’m interviewed on National Public Radio’s Snap Judgment and KCRW’s Unfictional and The Business, available on SoundCloud or my website.

Simon Lewis with a fan from Malaysia

Simon Lewis in a handmade, pure silk batik shirt from Malaysia

Word continues to spread. A viewer of my INK talk on TED, and then reader of Rise and Shine, flies from his home in Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles to ask questions about my book and discuss a speaking tour in the Far East, for he feels its ideas are so relevant in Malaysia.

Another reader in Switzerland who found Rise and Shine only because of my talk at INK and TED is so interested by my book’s ideas that he just posted seven chosen paragraphs from it to a support forum of which he’s a member for their discussion, and wishes I would visit to speak and answer questions.

In another INK and TED connection, LA Philharmonic first violin and TED Senior Fellow Robert Vijay Gupta who presented at INK2011, feels so passionately about Rise and Shine and its message of hope about music and the mind that he donates a beautiful performance at my most recent Book Talk at Westwood Library.

Simon Lewis with a reader at the Westwood Library (photo: Maya Dinan)

INK2011 Speaker Robert Gupta plays at the book talk in Westwood (photo: Maya Dinan)

I’ve come to understand that we have the tools to develop a coherent program that optimizes learning from infancy to old age, and at this Book Talk I shared my goal to start a nonprofit to conduct a long-term international study, to explore new approaches to the processes of learning, to see how many in society may benefit from treatments and protocols I describe in Rise and Shine, that changed my mind and changed my life.

It’s been a busy first year since INK. My quest to give people more ideas beyond my talk continues. It’s a challenge each day to find advocates to continue my efforts to reach people, and the support of the INK and TED Community over the last year—including this blog—makes a world of difference. I feel so very fortunate to be offered these chances, on this journey that began with my book about a single shared moment in my life, and that continues through the INK and TED Community around the world.

Thank you all.

By Simon Lewis, INK2010 Speaker and author of Rise and Shine

Los Angeles

To share comments about Rise and Shine, please visit its Amazon page or Barnes & Noble page.

Please “Like” Rise and Shine on its Facebook page if you would like updates.

How do you get teens to Give a Spit?

Feb 28th, 2012 Leave a comment

How do you make a 12 year-old care about the world around them?

No, I’m not talking about the Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift world concert tours. I’m talking about the REAL world. The complicated, unfair one.

DoSomething, the organization that partnered with INK2011 Speaker Vineet Singal to promote his 100k Cheeks campaign, thinks they know the answer to that question. Their raison d’être is to make volunteering as easy for teens as joining a soccer team, and their goal is to recruit youth under age 25 to become proactive social changemakers. Their statistics attest that they’re on to something big—they’re getting 1 million unique visitors each month to their website, they’re the fifth largest charity on twitter, they had 2 million people participate in their campaigns last year, plus, they’ve got the ears of teen celebrities like Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato to plug them.

So how did they do it? How did they gain a following amongst the demographic group all the rest of us thought it was impossible to recruit? After all, word on the street is that teens are notoriously apathetic about the world around them.

Here’s a quick DoSomething How-To-Create-Massive-Action Top 5 List, compiled from my conversation with DoSomething’s Director of Business Development, Melanie Stevenson.

1. Young people want to make the world a better place, but they don’t know where to start. DoSomething takes care of all the complicated logistics that are roadblocks to activism, and makes it easy for youth to turn their passion into action.

2. Talk to teens the way they talk to each other. DoSomething alerts its users about new campaigns by text messaging.

3. Don’t ask your users to change, adapt to work within the constraints of their resources and lifestyles. All DoSomething campaigns require no money, no car, and no adult.

4. Don’t try to reach everyone. DoSomething categorizes teens into four groups: the Presidents, the Vice Presidents, the Followers and the Slackers. Their target is the Vice Presidents and the Followers. Why? These are the people who want to take action (unlike the Slackers) but don’t know where or how to start (unlike the Presidents). DoSomething gives them the motivation and the tools to…do something.

5. Make a clear and specific call to action—and then get somebody exciting to say it for you. DoSomething gets celebrities that teens already care about to be spokespeople for their campaigns. It’s powerfully persuasive—just check out this 100k Cheeks – “Give a Spit” public service announcement.

DoSomething has been around for almost 20 years, but only in the past 8 years have they refined their call to action, and only in the past 3 years has their organization really taken off. So take a hint from them, and make sure you’ve got a clear and strategic plan to capture the attention of your audience and utilize them to build momentum for your cause.

By Nina Gannes, INK Program Manager

February 27, 2012

Talking to Jennifer Aaker

Feb 16th, 2012 Leave a comment

When watching Jennifer Aaker’s talk, I bet your first reaction was similar to mine. In essence, I pretty much immediately concluded that Aaker is the $#!+. She’s demystifying happiness. She’s re-imagining marketing to make it a social good. And, she’s saving thousands of Southeast Asians by revolutionizing the concept of bone marrow drives? It sounds too good to be true. When I was a five-year old girl, I wanted to wear pink princess dresses and save the ponies. Aaker is pretty much doing the grown-up version of that—and it’s her job!

So on Monday I spent some time talking to Aaker on the phone. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but I think I was subconsciously hoping she would drop me some tips that would enable me to become some sort of adult version of a pony crusader. And my time was well spent. Let me tell you just one of the things I learned.

First of all, here’s a problem in my life. I bet a lot of you feel this way, too. I care about lots of things in this world. I like animals, the environment, social justice, political empowerment, rainbows, cupcakes and sugarplum fairies. I want to help ALL of these causes—but I simply don’t have the cash or attention span to contribute to each and every campaign.

I asked Aaker about this. How can the Environmental Justice Group—or whomever you are—make it easier for someone like me to pay attention and act?

Aaker explained that it’s not so much money—20 bucks, lets say—that organizations should really be striving to compel their donors to give. Instead it’s time. Why? When you contribute time, you get an experience. That hour I spent picking up trash from the park enabled me to personally relate to the Environmental Justice Group, forging a connection between the organization and me. That connection and that experience made me happy. The peaceful, contentment kind of happy. The enduring kind.

Contrast that to the experience of donating 20 bucks on paypal. The process might take 3 minutes, and I have no visceral experience to reward me for my good deed. At best, I’ll get a video in my thank you letter that helps me imagine all the good my money is doing for the environment. That’s just not as satisfying as having the personal experience myself. It’s disconnected enough that it makes me wonder how many lattes I could have bought with the 20 bucks instead. Do I care about lattes or the environment more? Well, obviously I’m going to answer the environment, but…you have to admit, a latte is a more tangible experience in the moment.

Aaker advocates designing moments, experiences, connections, something REAL to encourage people to take action for your org. If you’re not convinced already, she’s shown that once people have had a positive experience, they’re more likely to give money, which makes them want to have another experience, which makes them give money again…and so on and so forth. Aaker calls this the “ripple effect,” and she believes this is a powerful component to the success of any advocacy campaign—or marketing campaign in general, for that matter. As she talks about the 100k cheeks bone marrow drive in her INKtalk, it’s easy to understand what she means.

So how does all this relate to my life? On the one hand, it makes me feel good that I don’t have to blame myself for being an apathetic social justicer anymore. After all, it’s the organizations fault for not creating experiences that make it easy for me to get involved, not my fault for not wanting to give up my lattes! On the other hand, though, next time I think about contributing to a cause, I’m going to search out experiences. Not just because it’s easier on my wallet, but because I know I’m going to be more emotionally fulfilled because of it. And lastly, when I finally get around to my “save the ponies” campaign, you can be sure that the first thing I’m going to do is make a list of 10 easy things you can do to help our cause, and the last thing I’m going to do is outright ask you for your money.

 

By Nina Gannes, INK Program Manager

February 15, 2012

To watch Jennifer Aaker’s INKtalk, click here, or check it out below.

 

 

Fellows Insights: Selene Biffi and the Village Changemakers

Feb 6th, 2012 Leave a comment

Four days full of inspiration, innovation and a renewed sense of purpose. But also four days of fun, friendship and hope.

This – and much more – were my days at the INK Conference in Jaipur, this past December.

I arrived in Jaipur excited, curious and yes, a bit anxious too. It’s not every day that you get selected to become an INK Fellow out of a pool of hundreds of applications; much less so if what you do is comics.

The inspiration for Plain Ink, my non-profit, came from my participation in the UN mission to Afghanistan. In 2009 I spent six months writing a textbook for Afghan children, which soon turned into a comic book. In a country where the literacy rate is approximately 23%, comics seemed a more promising choice than a standard textbook for communicating vital public information. I wanted to use comics to circumnavigate the stumbling blocks of poverty – illiteracy, failing public health, poor livelihoods and the like.

After avoiding a Taliban attack due to sheer luck, an evacuation, and five more months of work in Afghanistan, my UN contract came to an end. What came next? I decided to invest everything that I had in creating Plain Ink, a non-profit storytelling organisation that produces educational comics for children in emerging countries, such as Afghanistan and India.

After one year in the making and several rounds of piloting in Jalilpur – a slum of 10,000 people on the outskirts of Varanasi – I was proud to show my comics for Indian children at INK. ‘The Village Changemakers’ – that’s the title of the first book – received a lot of interest and curiosity after my talk, and many people in the audience approached me to find out more and browse the sample copies that I had.

Plain Ink managed to print and distribute the first 2,000 comic books a few days after leaving INK, involving schools, clinics and children in Jalilpur as much as sorrounding areas. Educational activities involving songs, readings and demonstrations were also carried out at various locales in order to show children and their families that comics can be a lot of fun, but also very useful in teaching basic notions of communicable diseases prevention, food security and clean water access.

Plain Ink is now getting into its second reprint, and I have been in touch with all those that showed interest at the INK conference. But Plain Ink is also looking forward to broadening its reach thanks to the opportunity and visibility that INK – before anyone else – gave us to showcase our work.

What is more, Plain Ink is also hard at work on some ideas generated by our participation at INK, including children dramas, an education/livelihood program and further stories now being developed.

Being selected as an INK Fellow made a whole world of difference for me and Plain Ink and, I am sure, for many others. May this momentum keep growing, and show that another way – of living, acting and dreaming – is indeed possible.

By INK2011 Fellow Selene Biffi
February 6, 2012
You can reach Biffi at info@plainink.org
Biffi’s talk from INK2011 will be uploaded to www.INKtalks.com soon.
Check out the Village Changemakers at http://issuu.com/plaininkbooks/docs/the_village_changemakers

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