Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to get together for lunch with my friend Suzanne Broughton. Because of our schedules, it seems that Suz and I can only get together once every six months. For those that don't know, Suz has been the biggest influence on me with all the online/social media stuff that I do. Suz was the one that bullied me into starting Dharmabum, getting on Twitter, and hooking me up with the OC Metro writing gig. At some point yesterday our conversation turned to the influence of Twitter. Suz is a big proponent of the power of Twitter and its potential reach. I wont bore you with all of that, but she did suggest that I get a little more detailed with my Twitter profile. There's not much you can do in a 160 characters, but surprisingly it did cause me to pause and think about who I am these days. In a nutshell this is what I came up with:
Narrative Therapy/Inquiry Practitioner. Blogger for @OCMetro Magazine, Social Entrepreneur, Community Worker, Art & Poetry Enthusiast. Test Pilot & Raconteur
Now that might not seem like such a big deal to anybody, but two pieces hit me in a enlightening way.
Social Entrepreneur: Yes, I have a long entrepreneurial background, and have even spoke about social entrepreneurship at a conference, but I never identified as a social entrepreneur. Until now. It struck me that what Anne and I are doing with the Narrative Project of Orange County is establishing a social enterprise. A low/no cost community counseling clinic that will serve our community in need. I have to say, it felt good to try on this new identity.
Community Worker: But I think it felt even better to discover that I am at a place, where at times I wasn't so sure I wanted to be, working in the community giving back. As I look back now it all makes sense, all the schooling and training, the amazing people that have influenced me and my world view, the theory, the practice, the hard times, all of it has brought me to this place where I can call myself, a community worker. I'm right where I've always wanted to be.
So who knew a conversation about Twitter would lead me here, but that's what happens when you have lunch with Suz. I suppose I should also apologize to all my friends in advance, now Suz wants to me to get on Foursquare. Sorry.
It's good to have a Suz in our life.
Posted by: Middle State/MomZombie | November 16, 2011 at 06:56 AM
It's great when people can inspire you to look in a new mirror and discover something that was already there :)
How do you keep up with your commitments? I am determined to invite you to coffee one of these days to pick your brain. You are doing exactly what I want to be doing and then some! Bravo!!!!
Posted by: Brooklynn | November 17, 2011 at 02:24 PM
Brooklyn- Coffee anytime. Look forward to the invite.
Posted by: Chris | November 17, 2011 at 08:59 PM