Yesterday, I got back from an 8 day journey across the country. Not only did I have a multi-city stop, but I had a very different work mix in each city. Asheville was a mastermind retreat for my wonderful entrepreneur clients, where we dug intensively into audience definition and market positioning. My best friend Desiree Adaway was also leading a retreat of her men’s mastermind, so we had a joint session with Susan Baier around audience segmentation, and really enjoyed getting to know each other. Cincinnati involved teaching a workshop on Quiet Leadership for a large corporate client. (This is part of my ongoing consulting with Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution, which is launching online next month). I taught brilliant research scientists from a large company how to appreciate the natural strengths of introverts, as they innovate on mixed teams. Photo credit: Haseeb Turiq   In San Jose, I organized and led a panel for The Small Business Web on how to build a strong community of customers, partners, fans and supporters, with bestselling author Guy Kawasaki, Chief Branding Officer Cliff Worley from Shark Branding (Shark Tank Daymond John’s company) and Marketing Director David Potter from Citrix. Each of these events required a quite different mix of skills and experiences (what I call "ingredients" in Body of Work): Running a retreat required listening, marketing and branding knowledge, strategic thinking and empathy Delivering a complex curriculum required focused preparation and research, advanced presentation skills, partnership with technical experts and humility Running a panel involved relationship building (to invite the right people, and have them say yes), facilitation and storytelling   These may seem like extremely different activities, but I see them as part of my larger mission: to build skills and build communities so that we collaborate on solving our most pressing problems.   In today’s quickly changing world of work, you likely face a similar array of different projects on a weekly basis. Here are my 5 tips for creative ease in a whirlwind work environment: Love the one you are with. When I was preparing for this trip, I started to freak out a little when I saw how different each project was. At the end of the first day of my retreat in Asheville, I started to think ahead to the complex workshop in Cincinnati in 3 days. But I immediately pulled myself back to the retreat at hand, and only allowed myself to worry about day to of the event. I cannot tell you how many times this tip has greatly reduced my anxiety when facing huge project deadlines. Anxiety Pam: "OMG, I have six chapters to write in my book in the next three months, that is impossible!"  Love the one you are with Pam: "Right now, you are looking into the eyes of paragraph one of chapter one. Make her feel she is the only chapter in the world, Slim!" This is how huge projects get accomplished. Put your ingredients on the counter before you start cooking your next recipe. As you shift from one project to the next, clarify which of your ingredients are going to be most important. You may have just used some serious humor and empathy to help clients through a brainstorming session about their new brand, but these ingredients will not help a room full of smart scientists.  Consciously choose the skills and experiences that you need to use for each project. Sometimes this means significantly shifting your approach to the work (in California, we call it "changing your energy"). Organize and separate your projects. It can get very chaotic if you are working on different projects at the same time, each which include notes and research. Use different colored folders for paperwork that relates to each project. Create an organized file structure on your computer so that you have folders for each project instead of random documents all over your desktop. When I travel with multiple projects, I make sure to keep notes and papers in separate folders. This makes sure I don’t pull out notes ideas for my coaching clients when I am trying to get ready for my software development conference. Be sure your self pep talks include "how." I heard a tip from Daniel Pink at South by Southwest that worked beautifully on this trip. He told the story of a research project that he conducted on his National Geographic show "Crowd Control." Most of us (life coaches especially) are used to giving ourselves motivational speeches (in front of a mirror or in the toilet stall) before heading into a stressful work situation, like a presentation. It usually goes something like this: Panicked Pam, channeling Stuart Smalley: "You can do it, you are good enough, smart enough and doggonit, people like you!" What Dan and the research suggests, is that it is much more effective to include a "how" in the pep talk, and tell yourself exactly how you will walk through your challenging situation. Panicked Pam channeling Dan Pink: "You may be scared about presenting in front of these smart scientists, but this is how you are going to do it: You will do a Power Pose that you learned from Amy Cuddy 2 minutes before going on stage. You will follow your carefully prepared workshop outline. You will rely on your colleague in the room to handle challenging technical questions. You will breathe, and you will only worry about getting to the first morning break (see "Love the One You Are With"). Take time to anchor gratitude. When you complete each individual project, be sure to take the time to express gratitude for yourself, the people you worked with, and the creative outcomes of the project. This avoids our tendency to rush from one project to the next, without truly seeing the wonder of the creative experience. You want to anchor the positive rush in your body from facing a challenge and walking through it with strength and focus. We are capable of creating so much. We don’t have to live in a binding niche. But we do have to know ourselves, and how to find the thread that ties our work together. — Want some help with your plan for the second half of 2015? Check out Indispensable Summer Program, which starts on June 1. Registration ends May 27. Details here: http://pamelaslim.com/training/indispensable-summer-2015/

Two years ago, my friend Jonathan Fields gave me a call and asked if he could pass my name on to Susan Cain, author of the bestselling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Stop Talking, as a resource for the training project she was undertaking. I had met Susan once and loved her work, so of course I said yes. At that moment (June, 2013), I was in the very last throes of writing Body of Work. The day after I turned in final edits on the manuscript, I began working with Susan and Paul Scibetta, her business partner who would become the CEO of the organization. I learned that they not only wanted to create a corporate training program from the Quiet material, but they had a much bigger vision — to create a Quiet Revolution, gently nudging the world to recognize and celebrate the natural strengths of introverts. What I thought would be a small consulting project turned into two years of intensive partnership. Starting from our tiny roots — Susan, Paul and a wonderful intern from Yale named Davis Nguyen, we built the vision, infrastructure, IP and staff that launches today at Quietrev.com. My role shifted through time from acting COO in the early start up stage to a consultant for the Quiet Leadership Institute (QLI), the workplace training arm of the Quiet Revolution. When West Point graduates and Army veterans Mike Erwin and Jeff Bryan joined QLI, program development went into high gear. Mike and Jeff closed a deal with NASA, where in our very first pilot of our workshop materials, we taught rocket scientists who worked on the space shuttle. I can safely say it was the highest stakes debut of a new program I have ever been part of.  The participants were amazing, and they loved the material. We were working under stealth mode, so now I can finally show you the pic from that event:  Jeff and I in awe of the shadow of NASA facilities. It was a day I will always remember. We continued to extend the QLI reach, most recently with senior research scientists at P&G, where we are bringing the Quiet Leadership program. Kathy Fish, P&G’s Chief Technology Officer (a really wonderful person, and great example of an introverted leader) was quoted in today’s Fortune article about our work there.  Why a Quiet Revolution?  One of the biggest things I have learned since working with Susan is that the popular definition of "introvert" is wildly inaccurate. Webster’s Dictionary defines introvert as: "a shy person, a quiet person who does not find it easy to talk to other people."  This is, quite simply, inaccurate. Introversion is driven by neurobiology — specifically the triggers that release dopamine in our brain. Introverts’ dopamine flow starts when they have periods of quiet reflection, in peaceful and not overly stimulating environments. Extroverts’ dopamine flows when we are in stimulating environments, responding to body language cues like smiling faces or nodding heads.  The extrovert bias that Susan mentions in her record-breaking TED talk and in Quiet says that in order to be successful — in school, in the workplace and even in relationships — you must act as an extrovert. This negates the deep and profound gifts of introverts, like prudence, love of learning, judgment and humility.  The goal of the Quiet Revolution is to celebrate the strengths of introverts, for the benefit of us all. I am a raging extrovert, with deep love and respect for introverts. In my bio for the QR team, I wrote: "One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting in a row of folding chairs lined up facing Lake Almanor, where we camped every year. My father, mother, sister, brother and I all had our noses in books, speaking up only about once an hour to read an especially juicy passage aloud.  And yet I, unlike the rest of my family, would engage in conversation with anyone who walked by. I would pepper the camp ranger with questions, tell my life story to the campers next door, and make friends with the small town grocer where we would buy fresh milk.  I was (and am) the sole extrovert in my family. In the decades since, I have learned what a gift it is to deeply understand the nature and gifts of introverts. I am comfortable waiting a full 5 minutes in silence after asking my Dad a question, to give him time to reflect and gather his thoughts. I am acutely aware of how jarring an assault it is on introverted audience members to shout from the stage "Can I get a YES or YES?!!!" This is due to my socialization in a family culture that celebrates solitude, reflection and silence."  How to learn more:  Here are some resources my friend Claire Diaz-Ortiz (Chief Digital  Officer for Quiet) put together for us to share: The original Susan Cain TED talk is a fantastic overview of all things Quiet. If you haven’t seen it — it’s one of the most viewed of all time — watch! For digging in deeper, download this free 40-page ebook: The Power of Introverts: Nine Best-Loved Stories by Susan Cain. See this great section of the site devoted to regular folks. Think Humans of New York. It’s called Quiet Revolutionaries and I love reading through the stories. For parents like me, check out the Kids section for perspectives from writers, experts, and educators on what it means to be a quiet kid (or parent). The chock-full Work section has ideas, advice, and inspiration for anyone trying to carve their own career niche. I have waited a long time for this day, where I can share with you this huge project I spent a lot of time working on. While we started with some huge benefits not normally available to new entrepreneurs — a hugely popular book and TED talk, seasoned founders with access to lots of resources and capital — I will tell you that it has not been an easy process. So much work has gone into building this organization to the point that it was ready for public launch. Many wonderful team members contributed along the way, before the full-time team came aboard. I am thankful to you all!  As a person who is passionately committed to furthering education about our unique strengths and differences, so that we more deeply respect and harmonize with each other, as well as being a community builder by design, this is a very happy day. Enjoy Quietrev.com !

Pingendo is a cross-platform free WYSIWYG application for prototyping web pages. It uses Twitter’s Bootstrap as a base, and responsive web design support ensures your sites will adapt to fit phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. (Review)     Download at: http://pingendo.com  

    Play @ https://color.adobe.com/ Getting Started with Color http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-creative-cloud/get-started-with-adobe-color-cc/  

Responsive and adaptive designs are extremely popular in the world of mobile learning, but they are also very commonly misunderstood concepts. Today’s mobile learning professionals need to understand what responsive and adaptive designs really are in order to plan and implement them effectively with HTML5-based solutions. Responsive & Adaptive Design @mLearnCon15 Nick Floro from Nick Floro  

Prototyping Tools and Techniques mLearnCon15 from Nick Floro

You need a performance support solution, but getting approval to implement a larger, more costly solution takes time—if you have the budget at all. But maybe you don’t need the larger, more costly system. Maybe you can start your performance support journey using tools you already have available. In this session you will explore how using open-source-based products can help you launch and support your audience without breaking the bank. You will learn from demonstrations on how to use these tools to prototype and test a concept to develop the best workflow and meet your audience’s needs. You will receive a breakdown of open source and free technologies that can be used to build a solution with a minimal or zero budget. You will leave this session understanding what’s needed, and how to plan, demonstrate, and launch working versions of several key performance support tools that you can model and implement within your organization.   Designing a Performance Support Solution on a Shoestring @ mLearnCon15 061115 from Nick Floro   Presented at eLearningGuilds Performance Support 2015 Conference - June 2015

A look at what HTML5 is and how people use it today to deliver the next generation of learning content and applications via browsers, native apps, and hybrid apps. You’ll learn what you need to consider in designing content along with technical guidelines. Get an introduction to five hot features in HTML5 that you can start using today, and prepare for developing with the new standards. You’ll discover the five challenges you need to know in order to make sure your first app or delivery is a success and you’ll learn whether to launch a native app or web app. Designing HTML5 Mobile Learning for Browser, Native, and Hybrid App #mlearncon15 from Nick Floro Presented @ mLearnCon15

There’s a growing interest in creating interactive digital books for learning. The challenge is that there are several publication formats and many different vendor applications to use to build an interactive book. Knowing which format and/or tool to use, when to use it, and what’s involved in creating your content in the format provided by the vendor can seem overwhelming. In this hands-on session participants will learn the process for building eBooks using iBooks Author. You will explore the authoring environment and discuss the processes that are involved in building an eBook. You will discuss and apply the pluses and minuses of each file format using iBooks Author. You will leave this session with an understanding of the latest tools, gain an understanding of what each format offers, and discover how you can take advantage of it in your organization.   Creating an Interactive Book with iBooks Author #mLearnCon15 from Nick Floro   Presented #mLearnCon15

Augmented reality has great fidelity, but suffers from limited field of view. Source: How Minecraft and Halo make the most—and the least—of HoloLens