New Idea: Speakers Bureau

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?

I fell and then I got up and laughed

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): 🙂

Proud

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

Executive Leadership Circle 2007

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.
ELC at Parnassus

Reunion with the ocean

I surfed Pacifica with Eric today. It was weird being there without Jed because that was our surf spot last summer when Jed was still living here. But I managed to surf without my surf mentor.

The conditions were actually quite nice. Beautifully sunny and clear day. Negligible winds. Comfortable waves.

One of my favorite things about surfing is that while I’m on the board, getting pommeled by the waves, I get a lot of time to think… about the next wave and life.

I discussed with Karla my surfism today:

kingisrey: ive been doing thinking too.. on the waves
Babeehug: What happened?
kingisrey: the waves kept on crashing and bashing into me
Babeehug: What was the conclusion?
kingisrey: conclusion was that waves will do that, no matter where u r
Babeehug: I wanted to go into the ocean so bad today
Babeehug: Yup
kingisrey: and its no one’s fault. its just that that’s what waves do,
Babeehug: They sure the hell do
kingisrey: and i chose to be there in the water, crashing right back at them
kingisrey: but i did that because i knew in order to achieve my goal, i would have to go through the waves
Babeehug: Ya
Babeehug: And you can’t always stay in the white water
Babeehug: Eventually, you gotta go out in the greens
kingisrey: so its not h’s fault that i am working on the weekends…
kingisrey: but because im going to denver and went to the east coast, which will help me get to those future goals… this is what i need to do.
Babeehug: Ya

Deep thoughts, catalyzed by the water. The summer at work is always a bit choppy, but I know I will get through the waves eventually.

Fat kid no more


Growing up as a fat kid, I always dreaded the mandatory physical education tests… You remember those don’t you?

The obligatory mile run.
The awkward sit and attempt to reach your toes with that funky box measuring contraption.
The push-ups… oh those horrendous push-ups!
And of course the always distressing pull-ups.

As a reformed fat kid, I work ard to keep myself healthy and in shape. I eat well (overload on the antioxidants probably) and exercise regularly (my new favorite machine is the elliptical because I can work out AND read at the same time, which makes me feel fit AND smart!). And because of this, I’ve overcome the running, the stretching to touch my toes, and the push-ups. I can do those pretty easily. But that damn pull-up has been haunting me ever since fourth grade when I first climbed up to the bar and just hung there, like a lifeless monkey, unable to pull my own body weight up in front of the PE teacher and my classmates. Embarrassing much?

Until today, that is.

Call it a small victory, but it is a victory nonetheless. I did two pull-ups, with no assistance. And the funny thing was that I wasn’t expecting them. I was just stretching on the bar and on the off-chance that I could do it, I tried, and then pulled myself up. And then tried again and did it again.

Small victory. I left the gym smiling tonight.

Back from the east coast, heading to Denver in two weeks

One of my post titles last year after a College Summit workshop went something like “Physically exhausted, but spiritually rejuvenated.” Nothing can better describe how I feel after my 12-days of rap director training.

I feel so good about it that I signed up to do another workshop, this time with only one other rap director. I’ll be flying to Denver on July 17 to co-rap direct the workshop at Regis University.

In between, I will also be going to Tahoe for our BUILD staff retreat from July 10-12.

And on the 13th, my parents are coming to the bay! I can’t wait.

Cross-country flights bite


There’s just no way to get around the sucky-ness factor of a cross-country flight.

Last night I flew a red-eye from SFO to Cleveland, Ohio, and from Cleveland in the morning I flew to Baltimore, Maryland. A couple of months ago, I flew a direct flight from SFO to Washington, DC in the morning, thinking it would be better than a red-eye, but no, it still sucked because I had to get up at 3:30 am to go to the airport for the 6 am flight.

But a red-eye still sucks. Although I slept on both flights, it was that cramped sleep, which I feel like doesn’t technically count as sleep. It’s more like temporary hibernation / cocooning which is intermittently interrupted by flight attendants giving out drinks and peanuts.

When I got to Morgan State University, where our workshop is being held, I was so tired and jetlagged that I could not operate. And to top it all off, I forgot my ipod at home (it’s snuggly charging on my ihome alarm clock). You never know how valuable something is until you are thousands of miles away from it.

Moral of the story: Traveling across the country sucks, and you need to give yourself at least a day to recuperate just from the traveling itself.

For future self-reference: I need to invest in some noise-cancelling earphones and some other travel luxuries because I am traveling way too often to not take care of myself.

Love the little affirmations

I got a sweet note from a co-worker today after our site hosted a group of about 20-30 British women who wanted to learn about BUILD.

I wanted to tell you again how impressed I was with your presentation. I think you are one of the strongest public speakers at BUILD…

…You are really, really compelling when you speak…

I’ll leave it at that, and just give an anonymous thanks. 😉

Representing three families at the airport

How Filipino is this?

On the last day of my dad’s sister’s family’s visit to America, the whole entire Faustino Northern California contingent heads to the airport and waits around in the international terminal to say good bye.

That’s love. I love family. It grounds you.