Welcome to the companion monthly magazine to our upcoming book “From the Titanic to the Ark – Handbook to Survive and Thrive in Epic Times” to help you plan, protect and prosper!

We share important aspects in preparing ourselves for transformation. The hardest work will be emotional as we welcome a complete shift in paradigm (our view of the world and our relationship to it) – in other words there will be no familiar frame of reference since change at this order of magnitude is not history repeating itself. What's more, nobody has been here before....which is to say we are all here on the leading edge - no followers looking for leaders, no leaders gathering followers - we do the work together shoulder to shoulder…and we’re making it up as we go!

For our well being, it is crucial that we do so consciously! Should we be asleep at the wheel, we couldn't help but waste valuable energy resisting 'ever changing form' by projecting our perspective backward in guilt or forward in anxiety – this is giving away our power. Rather, by becoming self aware and authentically present, we arouse the genius within while summoning creative intelligence to work through us – standing ever ready to anticipate and harmonize with real time events. And of course, let us look to one another side-by-each for support and encouragement. The obvious starting point is right here, right now. Surf’s up – let’s catch a wave!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Right Brain Left Brain

"If you're not a content creator, wait a while. The 21st century is to content creators what the Industrial Revolution was to factory workers: In a world where information is superabundant, unique and creative ideas are hot-ticket advantages both personally and professionally. More and more people are finding more and more ways to parent, make money, find friends, and generally live well by relying on creativity. I've seen this shift among my life-coaching clients. For instance: Michaela develops financial-planning strategies for stay-at-home moms. Mary runs a long-distance mother's support group via Skype. Alyssa's innovative T-shirt designs keep selling, recession or no recession. The demand for creative thinking is both a challenge and an opportunity. It requires us to use more than the logical left-brain skills we learned in school. These days, we all need to get back into our right minds." Martha Beck
http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200911-omag-beck-right-brain



‘Right brain’ thinking (Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes) instead of ‘left brain’ thinking (Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts -  taught to the masses since their earliest indoctrination sessions in schools) in tandem with heart intelligence, will lead us to creating our "Heaven on Earth"!


In his fascinating book The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle describes how the brain reacts when a person develops a new skill. Performing an action involves firing an electrical signal through a neural pathway; each time this happens, it thickens the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibers like the rubber coating on electrical wires. The thicker the myelin sheath around a neural pathway, the more easily and effectively we use it. Heavily myelinated pathways equal mad skills.

Throughout your education, you myelinated the left-brain pathways for thinking logically. You were prepared for predictability and order, not today's constant flood of innovation and change. Now you need to build up myelin sheaths around new skill circuits, located in your right hemisphere. To do this, you need something Coyle calls deep practice.

Deep practice is the same no matter what the skill. First visualize an ability you'd like to acquire—swimming like Dara Torres, painting like Grandma Moses, handling iron rods like Uncle Phineas. Then try to replicate that behavior. Initially, you'll fail. That's good; failure is an essential element of deep practice. Next, analyze your errors, noting exactly where your performance didn't match your ideal. Now try again. You'll still probably fail (remember, that's a good thing), but in Samuel Beckett's words, you'll "fail better."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Becoming A Recognized Industry Expert Can Pay Dividends

Blackbird was recently invited on to a panel for Social Media PR for Food & Beverages: Best Practices Workshop. "


Veteran food and beverage communicators and social media experts share their experiences in creating high-impact social media marketing."


Blackbird, as a small family business, made the point by our our presence and said so for the record, that the Internet is the great equalizer evidenced by our sitting along side General Mills and Taco Bell! We were singled out for our creative use of video as a very powerful and effective tool in sharing our ideas with our community!


The dividends for participating in events as a speaker is the leverage of PR that results from the professional promotion of the event by the organizer that has a far greater reach than a small business may have - an excellent opportunity to leverage to enhance traffic back to your website. Plus the information is a permanent record on the Internet coming up in search engine results as highly credible stories that can support a view of the company's community engagement and industry credibility over the longer term!

Here is the brochure as an idea of our participation - this may give you ideas on how you can create similar engagement in the areas of your interests and endeavors. http://www.infocomgroup.net/foodbev/foodbev.pdf

Monday, August 16, 2010

Gerald Celente - What's Your Ark?

We're starting our series called What's Your Ark? We are going to begin developing the idea of what various people are doing in this times of so called challenge. Those who roll up their shirt sleeves are busy looking for the treasure in these times, and many will create incredible opportunities by using entrepreneurial spirit and creative thinking for innovation.


We'll showcase what our readers and our mentors are doing to inspire others! Here's someone who has been a tremendous guide about the economy over the past several years, and his views have proven to be insightful.
Gerald Celente

Gerald Celente, who has been advising people about the coming Crash, and more important, how to prepare, addresses the top things we can do in this radio interview - have a listen -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6jhWGrmk0U&feature=player_embedded - hope you enjoy!
Here are our notes:
The key idea here is that since this so called recovery is impossible without jobs, in his view it is looking like the Crash of 2010 is underway...and in order to turn things around, Americans need to once again become a nation of crafts people, tradesman, merchants and manufacturers to replace what has become a service economy of clerks, shelf stockers and cashiers, which jobs are dying. Saving the domestic economy by buying local instead of from other countries is key. Buying local organic foods to take care of ones health ranks #1 on his list, and at #4 is Becoming self sufficient by ripping out our lawns to begin producing. Enjoy!
#1 - Watch what you eat - get in shape - become healthy - spiritually, emotionally, physically - only the strong will survive the coming crash...so buy local and organic food from farmers markets instead of the WalMarts (talks about corn syrup injected into almost everything Americans eat which has been debilitating on health)
#2 - Meditate
#3 - Learn to protect yourself - when people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it
#4 - Become self sufficient - rip up useless lawns and start producing instead so you don't have to spend a dime you don't have to
#5 - When you do spend that dime, invest it in yourself, in your family and those close to you that you trust - and only buy quality
#6 - Be prepared in the event of calamity - have provisions for staying put, and have a plan for leaving if need be
#7 - Protect against any currency devaluations with precious metals, or cash on hand in the event of bank holidays


Find more about Gerald Celente at http://www.trendsresearch.com/gerald.htmland his views at http://www.trendsresearch.com/journal.html .

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Cheep Cheep Is A Very Big Girl!

After getting our baby chicks in June, and building an amazing chicken coop in July so that we could move those girls from the cozy garage to their secure and fantastic new digs....we are now focussing on a few new product launches for Blackbird, while getting one store after another set up with our Cacao Fudge Truffles at Whole Foods. Life is great and busy when you jump in with both feet!

Visit our post at Blackbird to see our pictures of Cheep Cheep at three weeks old after she and I did her therapy to learn to walk...and a picture of her in almost the same pose six weeks later - amazing! Can't wait for her amazing eggs which will taste all the better for what she and I accomplished. Meanwhile, here's my baby!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Prudence Health Guide

Alongside building our Blackbird Naturals business, I am also building a website designed to generate advertising and affiliate commission from the traffic that I expect to develop coming to the site. My site is called Prudence Health Guide - Hear the truth from experts to help you manage optimal health!

Firstly, Prudence is the name of one of our chicks (she is now a big girl so we can call her a chicken)! Secondly, there is tremendous search engine traffic generated with the use of healthy related keywords including anything from weight loss to antioxidants to anti-aging. I am learning how to build my own websites in addition to understanding what it takes to become noticed in the search engines when someone needs information on a subject related to my site.

The premise of Prudence Health Guide is to provide key information from a handful of widely followed experts relating to key health concerns. Nowhere is there a compilation of the view of many of today's medical thought leaders' point of view on vital issues. Prudence Health Guide is a very simple, informative compilation of the things that affect wellness rather that treat illness - though we do offer information relating to some prevelant conditions that may provide some insight. The idea being that this site becomes a stepping stone for further research for a visitor, and empowers them to link through to important information on each of the topics covered. We hope you enjoy!
Visit Prudence Health Guide at www.PrudenceHealthGuide.com - you'll be glad you did! With Love, Prudence

Thursday, August 5, 2010

AZ Core Properties

We've been busy with great success with Blackbird Naturals - the best way to build our ARK is to become self sufficient by developing entrepreneurial skills. With time, we'll be summarizing the process that includes envisioning our business, choosing partners who empower and encourage, creating our business, setting up operations, developing our marketing and sales plan, creating community, and creating a bigger cause ie Blackbird Naturals Organic Gardens and Food Forests that pulls the Blackbird into exponential development. More on that coming shortly.

In the meanwhile, we have been working closely with other family and friends to assist and support in helping them develop their businesses. Laurel and Mario have been hard at work in the very challenging environment of real estate here in Arizona working with Canadian buyers who perceive great value in our local real estate. We are in process of building their website at www.azcoreproperties.com which will become a comprehensive guide to their buyers. Included in their strategy of education, you will soon find many informative videos at AZ Core TV - enjoy!