efozzie

I've been super busy the last few weeks because of:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Good Lord! I finished reading the last installment of the Harry Potter books, and was so impressed by the artistically written action-packed sequences. This book is pretty close to being my favorite Harry Potter book (next to the Prisoner of Azkaban). And with that I was kind of sad to read the last few pages.


2. BUILD Business Boot Camps
I facilitated two at my site and supported two others (in Oakland and East Palo Alto). Basically I've been in "Boot Camp mode" for over three weeks.

Man. I am tired.

Good Lord. Kids are tiring!

But I would not trade it for anything, and this year, I had no "Boot Camp Breakdowns." If you remember from my posts from last year where I literally was sobbing on the drive home. This year's Boot Camps were so successful and reminded me of why I am doing the work that I am doing. The students come back in about a week and a half, and I can't wait!

Did I mention that I went to Boston in May with four of my superstar students? Well here's some proof:

Me: hey i have a new idea
Me: i want to create a speakers bureau
Me: or like a club
Karla: cool, with who
Me: nonprofits and education-related people are always looking for good people to facilitate workshops or give some sort of speech
Me: but we are always so reticent because we don’t know who to trust, we don’t know what they'll say, etc, esp if we haven’t heard them before
Karla: ya, thats totally true
Me: professionals are so busy that they can only speak a couple times a year or so
Karla: so create one reliable vehicle for all
Me: but they WANT to be involved
Me: and want to give back
Karla: that’s very true
Me: but its hard for them to stay involved in a ... regular fashion
Me: Enter speakers bureau... kind of like a broker between excellent speakers/workshop facilitators and the orgs that need them
Karla: nice
Karla: how would you do quality control?
Me: professionals sign up like a club to be part of this bureau. the bureau makes sure they are quality by having the orgs who have them speak do evals of them, and by doing workshops/conferences/trainings on the subject, and they have to do a minimum # of engagements per year (like maybe 2)
Karla: that’s neat
Karla: I like the idea
Me: and with the built up reputation, orgs can sign up to get their needs filled and know that the ppl are quality
Karla: but I feel like you need some kind of quality control up front too
Me: yea maybe some sort of interview
Me: or video presentation
Me: like they have to submit a video
Karla: that’s cool
Me: man i am too full of the good ideas
Me: and it can be this kind of special exclusive thing that ppl can get into
Me: but it does good work
Me: and then ppl can network
Karla: ya, totally
Karla: you and the good ideas
Karla: lol
Me: cuz as ppl grow older, its harder for them to practice their thing
Me: unless they do it for a living

Who wants to help me set this up?

Setup: It's the morning of one of the biggest events of the year for BUILD. This is a convo I had with Leslie about day 1 of Business Boot Camp...

Me (10:51:08 PM): this morning at 645 am
Me (10:51:11 PM): i slipped and fell
Me (10:51:20 PM): and completely hurt my right shoulder, elbow and wrist
Me (10:51:26 PM): its in a lot of pain
Me (10:51:32 PM): im tryin not to be a baby about it
Leslie (10:52:12 PM): oh no
Leslie (10:52:16 PM): slipped and fell during yoga?
Me (10:52:25 PM): um no. i was in the shower
Leslie (10:52:29 PM): oh no
Leslie (10:52:30 PM): dear
Me (10:52:31 PM): and i heard this BLARING loud music
Leslie (10:52:31 PM): how'd you do that
Leslie (10:52:33 PM): are you ok
Me (10:52:52 PM): ... and realized it was my alarm clock attached to my stereo and it was playing at CLUB sound level
Me (10:53:01 PM): (my roommate woke up and im SURE my neighbors were pissed)
Me (10:53:11 PM): . so i put on a towel quickly, and ran to turn it off.
Me (10:53:22 PM): i slipped on the hard wood floor. my legs flew up into the air and landed on my right side. it was not cute
Me (10:53:40 PM): but all i could do was laugh.
Me (10:53:41 PM): and wince.
Me (10:53:43 PM): and then laugh again
Leslie (10:53:54 PM): awe now i'm laughing
Me (10:53:56 PM): and then wince as i was driving and trying to pick up my tea cup at the same time
Leslie (10:54:08 PM): are you saying you were naked on your kitchen floor today
Me (10:54:25 PM): if u are clever and read between the lines
Me (10:54:35 PM): which u seem to be
Leslie (10:54:51 PM): :-)

It's days like today that make me love what I do.



I (along with Randy and Amber) facilitated our second annual training for the Executive Leadership Circle (ELC), which is basically the leaders of all of our students leaders. And I really feel like they understood the gravity and responsibility of being a leader and a role model. We spent the morning at Parnassus Investments, an SF company. A friend of mine from the Chorus hooked us up with a board room that overlooks SF Bay... you can see all the way from Alcatraz to the San Mateo Bridge. It was GORGEOUS. Right before we left the board room, I had the students line up against the window. I told them to look out to a point that they liked, and told them, "Take this moment in. Think 15 years from now... this can be the view from your office." And I really feel like they believed it, which makes me happy.

Here's another pic of the whole group, including Jim, who works at Parnassus standing next to me.