Blogalicious is one of my favorite communities and conferences because it celebrates diversity in the blogosphere. It embodies the spirit of Digital Sisterhood and Digital Brotherhood! I have been a fan since the first conference in 2009 (have attended all four conferences too).
Photo Credit: Blogalicious
This year, I am excited about celebrating the fifth anniversary of Blogalicious. Why? First, I adore the theme which is “Create. Build. Fund.” Second, Stacey “Justice Fergie” Ferguson, Blogalicious co-founder and chief curator, and her Blogalicious team (Jazzy Jones, Xina Eiland, Thien-Kim Lam, Jana Pauldin, Terence Gaines, and Joe Ferguson) know how to plan and host signature conferences and events that leave me with an abundance of information, inspiration, and Instagram moments filled with deep connection and friendship that remain etched on my heart for years.
Identifying, understanding, and embracing their inner critics, the inner voice that tells them they cannot or don’t have what it takes to create, build, or fund their dreams, ideas, and endeavors.
Confronting and overcoming their fears, doubts, and obstacles that prevent them from creating, building, and funding their dreams, ideas, and endeavors.
Mapping out their goals and timelines.
Developing a strategic plan to accomplish their goals.
Click here to learn more about my creativity coaching practice.
For book lovers, my book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (my original artwork is on the cover and featured throughout the book), gives an inside look at my creative journey through artwork, poetry, and reflections. It’s a great summer read (available on Kindle too)!
This month, I am using my Internet Geek Tuesday blog posts to share my BlogHer 13 conference recaps. Just in case you didn’t know BlogHer is the Web’s largest community, conference, and leading guide to the hottest news and trends among women in social media. It is also one of my favorite online communities and conferences!
Today’s blog post features my reflections on the second annual BlogHer Fashion Show (one of my favorite conference events). The theme was “Half Woman. Half Amazing.” I think it should have been “Amazing Women Owning Their Beauty” because the women who walked the runway gave the audience the gift of seeing what happens when a group of sixteen sassy, soulful, and stunning stars shine their beauty from the inside out as they strut what the universe gave them in fabulous clothing and make up.
Audrey Hepburn
They reminded me of actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn’s beauty wisdom: “The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows.” Check out some of their photos below.
Disclaimer: All photos are from BlogHer.com.
Afrobella, co-hostess of the BlogHer fashion show (photo from Blogher.com)Luvvie Ajayi, co-hostess of the BlogHer fashion show (photo from Blogher.com)Grace Hwang Lynch (photo from Blogher.com)Vikki Reich (photo from Blogher.com)Isra Hasmi (photo from Blogher.com)Lianne Farbes (BlogHer.com photo)Meseidy Rivera (photo from Blogher.com)Katherine Stone (photo from Blogher.com)Kareisha Questel (photo from Blogher.com)Natasha Taylor Nicholes (photo from Blogher.com)
Aren’t these women owing their beauty? To learn more about them, see the list below.
My greatest takeaway from the fashion show is that all women have the power and right to define and express what beautiful means to them. And that’s exactly what I did after the show when I asked my dear digital brother Tyrone Farley, founder of TrueFashionistaNow.com to style me. With one small touch of moving my hair to one side, I got a new summer look that truly reflected how I felt: simply beautiful and grateful for a wonderful BlogHer conference experience!
My yoga practice has helped me focus my creative energy and anchored me during my writing process for several books over the past 16 years. I have even wrote poetry about the connection between two of my favorite practices. See my poem below.
When I practice yoga, my ego disappears.
I merge into the Infinite.
We become one.
One Love.
One Creation.
One Vessel.
Messages pass through me.
They become stories, essays, poems, truisms, quotes, prayers, affirmations, letters, e-mail messages, blog posts, and journal entries.
#2
I inhale and raise my hands above my head, pressing the palms of my hands together.
My gaze is focused on my thumbs.
My head is balanced on my shoulders.
My shoulders are rolled back.
My heart shines forth.
My spine is long and strong.
My belly is soft but tucked in.
My arms hang gracefully with splayed fingers.
My legs support my core as my feet ground themselves to Mother Earth.
In this space, I breathe in and out five times.
On my next inhalation, I come into a forward fold.
The blood rushes down from my head.
I get a buzz.
It feels like nirvana.
I take a deep breath and raise myself up one vertebrae at a time.
As I exhale, my arms find comfort by my side.
I stand in place for several moments, feeling the benefits of my short practice.
The next moment encourages me to inhale and bring my hands into prayer against my heart.
I close my practice chanting seven Oms.
Om in my spirit.
Om in my heart.
Om in my breath.
Om in my mind.
Om in my body.
Om in my thoughts.
Om in my writing.
I have also taken yoga and writing workshops taught by my yoga teachers, Yael Flusberg and Kimberly Wilson. Their workshops offered me a chance to explore how different yoga poses and breathing exercises can stretch and energize my body, open my heart to new ideas, quiet my mind and clear emotional space so I can hear my inner wisdom, and focus my energy to meet deadlines for writing projects. They also gave me an opportunity to complete writing exercises after doing yoga poses and to share my reflections with a supportive community of fellow yoga students and writers.
Do you use yoga to support your creative work? How has it helped?
Have you ever taken a yoga and writing workshop? What did you learn?
If you are looking for yoga and writing resources, check out the list below.
Connecting with new friends Pauline Campos and Sherri Good at the BlogHer 13 Expo Hall on July 25 at the McCormick Place in Chicago, IL
Happy August! Happy Friday!
Last week, I attended the 9th Annual BlogHer Conference held at the McCormick Place and Sheraton Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. What a time I had! It was intense, inspiring, and informative. That’s why I decided to write several blog recaps.
Today’s blog recap is about my “Lean In Moment.” The theme is based on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and the impact of her BlogHer Conference interview with Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-Founder and COO, on July 27. For more information, watch part one and part two of Tracy Baim’s video of the interview.
I read Sandberg’s book earlier this year. It took me a full weekend to inhale her words and wisdom. Her book was filled with many golden nuggets I have used in my life and shared with other women. It also inspired me to write and submit a case study entitled “Lean In and Listen to Yourself” for the Hot Mommas Project. As a result, I was recently named a 2012-2013 author for the Hot Mommas Project case study library.
Sheryl Sandberg and Lisa Stone
When I learned Sandberg would be a BlogHer keynote, I was thrilled! Here are the key takeaways I received from her interview with Stone.
Believe in yourself.
I am unapologetically a feminist (inspired by Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments and one of my virtual mentors from the 1990s).
Reach for any ambition.
Ask yourself what would you do if you weren’t afraid, and then reach for those ambitions.
At the end of her interview, she challenged audience members to write what they would do if they weren’t afraid on paper signs her LeanIn.org provided, take photos with the signs, and tweet and post the photos on LeanIn.org Tumblr. I loved the challenge. Check out the statements I wrote below.
My “Lean In” Statement
Writing these statements helped me get clearer on what I really want to do with my passion, gifts, energy, and time. My next step is to lean in and publish my Digital Sisterhood book (you know the one I have been writing since 2009 — what a journey!), create space in my life to write more books and create art, and plan when I will cut my locs and grow my Angela Davis afro (will probably happen during my 50th year on earth which is fast approaching in 2014 — maybe even 2015).
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
What are you leaning into?
UPDATE: BlogHer posted a full video of Sheryl Sandberg’s interview. Click here to watch it. Also, check out a video of BlogHer’s Lean In Circles session held at the 2013 conference. Enjoy!
A few weeks ago, I read an article about CreativeMornings DC, a free monthly breakfast monthly lecture series for creative folks that includes a 20 minute talk and coffee, in the July 19th edition of the Washington Post Express. I got really excited because I am always looking for ways to connect with creative folks in my city.
Photo Credit: Creative Mornings DC
CreativeMornings DC is hosted by Joel Daly. Since January 2013, Daly has organized a great lineup of speakers over the past months. In July, Dr. Amber Straughn, an Astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was the featured speaker. The event was held from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at 1776. Click here to watch speaker talks from previous events.
In 2009, Eisenberg launched CreativeMornings because she wanted to create an accessible, inspiring morning event for people to meet. Since then, CreativeMornings has grown to 51 chapters located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, India, Korea, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Click here to read the latest news posted on the CreativeMornings blog.
Where do you go to have creative conversations in your local community?
Technology, the Internet, and social media are amazing. They have empowered people with information, a global space, and a portfolio of tools to communicate, to promote, and to debate their ideas and experiences. They have also presented challenges in how people communicate and engage with each other as they exercise their freedom of speech on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites in cyberspace. Some of these challenges include speech that causes fear or creates a threat of being the target of unwarranted abuse, harassment, or lies. Thanks to organizations like CiviliNation, an education and research nonprofit that focuses on advancing the full capability of individuals to communicate and to engage in cyberspace in a responsible and accountable way, work is being done to educate people about these challenges.
Shashi Bellamkonda, Andrea Weckerle, and Ananda Leeke at Weckerle’s March 2013 book signing – Photo Credit: Shashi Bellamkonda
I had a chance to reconnect with Weckerle during her March book reading for Civility in the Digital Age at Georgetown University in March. Her book educates readers in great detail about the depth of online hostility and reputational attacks against people and organizations. It also offers solutions on how to transform the current digital space into a place that honors and respects each person’s voice. It’s definitiely one of my favorite books of 2013!
CiviliNation recently launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to create the CiviliNation Academy for Online Conflict Management. The CiviliNation Academy plans to build a worldwide community and resource library that will become the go-to source for real-world information and expert advice people and organizations can use to cope with misunderstandings, clashes, and reputational hits in the digital space. Please support this campaign (ends on August 7). Any amount you can give will help! I gave $10.
Her vital energy rises like a coiled serpent up my spine through my body’s seven energy centers.
She sends
Muladhara red light to my root in my spine to support my survival.
Svadhisthana orange light to my sacral in my womb, abdomen, lower back, and hips to enhance my joy, healing capacity, creativity, sexuality, and financial abundance.
Manipura yellow light to my solar plexus to strengthen my sense of self, purpose, will power, determination, and courage.
Anahata pink and green light to my heart to increase my ability to love unconditionally, forgive, and empathize.
Visshudha turquoise light to my throat to purify my communication so it reflects the truth and is expressed with integrity.
Ajna indigo light to my third eye in the middle of my forehead to help me perceive my intuition and follow divine wisdom.
Sahasrara violet light to my crown in my head to transform my consciousness.
The vibrational pattern of her energy movement leaves me in a state of ecstasy.
Sweet sensations permeate the core of my being.
I am the beneficiary of her elixir of immortality.
She has come to awaken me.
So I may know the truth of my being.
The truth that I am a temple of the Divine.
She is Shaktipat.
Descent of Grace.
Aadhya Shakti.
Power of the Divine.
I humbly bow to her with the deepest gratitude.
I chant OM Kundalini OM until the silence of my breath communes with her infinite presence within.
When I need creative inspiration, I turn to the many creative women and men that I admire. Two weeks ago, I needed some creative inspiration so I visited author and activist Alice Walker’s web site. Walker has been one of my favorite authors since I started reading her work in the early 1990s. I adore her books. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Warrior Marks, Overcoming Speechlessness, Anything We Love cCn Be Saved, Sent by Earth, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Color Purple are some of my favorites.
While visiting her web site, I read her March blog post about Director Pratibha Parmar’s newest film, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth. My excitement led me to YouTube. Guess what I found? The entire film. I watched it and gained so much insight into her early life, deep connection to nature, marriage, life as a mother, literary achievements, meditation practice, and activist work. It was medicine for my creative heart and soul.
As you may know, I am talking about social media leadership at the BlogHer conference on July 26 and July 27 in Chicago. Just in case you miss my talk on “What Type of Social Media Leader Are You?”, I have included my handout and the key takeaways from my talk below. Enjoy!
1) Michael McKinney’s Leading Blog. McKinney writes, “Leaders are ordinary people that understand that they make a difference and have made the decision to determine the kind of difference they will make. Leadership is intentional influence.” www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog
2) You are social media leader because you have two things: Digital Power and a Digital Platform of Influence. Digital Power consists of your digital footprint (blog, online business, web site, and social media), communities, and efforts. A Digital Platform of Influence is derived from the impact you have on your blog readers and social media followers and friends when you advocate causes. build communities; create mobile applications, art, books, businesses, products, publications, services, tools, and webisodes; curate content; educate and inform; give voice to your thoughts as subject matter experts, thought leaders, and brand ambassadors; share information and experiences; explore and experiment with new technologies as early adopters and trendsetters; participate in social good campaigns; inspire and motivate; mentor; network; tell your personal stories; and promote and celebrate the expertise, gifts, and talents of others.
3) As you engage in these activities, your blog readers and social media followers and friends are watching what you say and do online. They are learning from your example. Whether you know it or not, you are leading them.
4) You have the power to decide what type of social media leader you will be. I am here to share what I have been watching ordinary people like you and me do as they lead in the digital space.
5) The Digital Sisterhood Leadership Project has identified 12 key leadership roles that women in social media are currently playing. They include the roles of:
Advocate
Community builder
Content creator
Content curator
Educator
Influencer
Mentor
Motivator
Promoter
Social do gooder
Storyteller
Thought leader
6) You can use the seven Digital Sisterhood Leadership Archetypes to identify, understand, and manage the leadership roles you play in blogging and social media. Archetypes are various personalities that live inside of us. You can use them as windows of self-discovery. They can help you explore, embrace, and accept yourself. Treat them as team players who help you express your strengths and share your gifts. The seven Digital Sisterhood Leadership Archetypes include:
Creativista is a woman who gives birth to creativity (art, books, films, products, services, and webisodes).
Empirista is a woman who thinks of herself as CEO of her own corporation, ME, Inc.; maintains an entrepreneurial mindset; and gives birth to ideas and transforms them into businesses, economies, institutions, networks, and organizations that add value to people’s lives.
Empowerista is a woman who creates and curates content, shares information and experiences, connects with others and establishes positive relationships, and builds and participates in communities that empower her and others.
Enchantista is a woman who taps into the magic of her spirit as she focuses her energy, opens her heart, trusts her intuition, embraces her fears, and shares her gifts in service to others.
Evangelista is a woman who supports and advocates a philosophy, a values system, a lifestyle, a cause, or a campaign that improves her life and others’ lives.
Flowista is a woman who unplugs from her digital life and tech devices for periods of time so she can recharge and take care of herself; and encourages women to unplug from their digital lives by incorporating mindfulness and self-care practices
Lifestylista is a woman who lives her life as a work of art; expresses it through her passion for beauty, entertaining, fashion, food, home décor, personal style, and travel; and inspires others to live their lives as works of art.
7) While you are here at BlogHer, you are surrounded by a cadre of amazing social media leaders. Some are speakers, sponsors, fellow attendees, party hosts, PR and marketing professionals, volunteers, and BlogHer staff. Keep your eyes open for people who represent your social media leadership style. Find out who they are. If you can, have a brief conversation with them. Make a point of following up with them when you get home. That follow up could be connecting with them via their blog or social media accounts. You can learn a lot by reading about someone and watching what they do. You can also send an email to the person just to keep in touch. If you are not able to reach out to the person at this conference, find the person online. Google them and start watching what they say and do online for information and inspiration. Now everyone that you may identify as a virtual leadership mentor may not be able to connect with you one-on-one.
9) Homework Assignment: Write a six-word about your social media leadership style. Six-word memoirs are six words you use to describe yourself, a state of being or an experience. Tweet Ananda @anandaleeke your six-word memoirs using the hashtag #BH13SMLeader.
John Leeke volunteering at Obama Phone Bank in PG County, MD, 2012
Happy Internet Tuesday!
Today, I am paying a special tribute to my father, Dr. John F. Leeke, an entrepreneur, organizational development consultant, social justice activist, over 70 cyber-citizen, husband, and father. I call him “J” for short.
J joined Facebook on the evening of January 20, 2009, the day President Barack H. Obama was sworn into his first term in office. Since 2009, J has used his digital presence on Facebook and Twitter to support President Obama. He has attended several D.C. social media events including the Blogalicious Weekend Conference in 2011. He also started live tweeting and Facebook posting while watching many of the political news programs on MSNBC and any late breaking news programs.
Dr. John: Change Agent l Change Advocate l Change Influencer blog
Last year, he launched his blog, Dr. John: Change Agent l Change Advocate l Change Influencer. Initially, his blog was dedicated to supporting President Obama’s re-election campaign. Earlier this year, he decided to devote his blog to sharing thoughts, opinions, and information, and raising questions about issues of race, diversity, and differences. As a cyber-citizen blogger, “J” hopes to serve as a motivator, stimulator, agitator, questioner, and hopefully an advocate for improving the quality of life for all regardless of who they are. One of his most recent blog posts discussed the Trayvon Martin case. Click here to read it. This week, he wrote a blog post that offers tips on how to have discussions about race in your local community. I encourage you to check it out. J knows what he’s talking about (yeah I am bit biased …. he’s my father, but he is the real deal when it comes to race and diversity work)!
Are your parents active online? What tools do they use the most?
Ananda Leeke 