I found this video in a post on Todd Defren’s site PR-Squared where he shared Gary Vaynerchuk‘s Web2.0 keynote.

Gary’s tone and energy match the way I’m feeling now. I’m working on something big and I am pumped. Every conversation about this project has me energized and I’ve taken to saying “Kill It!” as the pieces fall into place. Hopefully I’ll have more to report early next week. In the meantime enjoy Gary.

Note: There’s some not so office friendly language in there.

There are so many gems here including the quote Todd shared that I also liked.

“If you’re pumping out good shit, people will follow. But if you for a second – for a 1/2 second – don’t believe in what you are doing … you need to get out, now.”

Some of my other favorites -

“Hustle is the most important word. Ever.”
“Your great great great grandchildren are going to watch and see everything you’ve ever done.”
“There is never a bad time when you believe, when you work hard, and when you know what you’re doing.”
“The only way to succeed now is to be completely transparent.”

How does this resonate with you?

I want to introduce and thank Stacey Monk who has been a real inspiration and mentor to me.

Stacey runs an organization called Epic Change that seeks to support community change by helping people to use the power of their stories to obtain the resources they need to improve their communities. In its first project, Epic Change is partnering with Mama Lucy Kamptoni expand Shepherds Junior a school in Arusha, Tanzania that now has over 200 students.

I first met Stacey this past May on twitter. She had just posted about a Miracle on her birthday when she guest posted on Sam Lawrence’s blog. As I have gotten more involved with Epic Change, I have learned so much from Stacey and I am thankful to have her as a mentor. Her passion is an inspiration and she works tirelessly to help the people she works with. Stacey is deeply connected to the world around her and acutely aware that distance doesn’t make problems any less significant.

This week Epic Change is issuing holiday cards with the proceeds going to support Shepherds Junior. She’s posted about her excitement about the holiday cards on her blog. They’ll hopefully be available on her site this week.

Stacey is very good at saying thank you. Back in August she entered a competition to win funding for her cause by creating a video of Shepherds Junior students using post it notes to thank Epic Change’s supporters. The video didn’t win the money, but I felt like a million bucks. (See if you can spot my name in there)

Stacey, you’ve taught me so much about gratitude, having a can do spirit, and leading by example. Thank you!

What about you folks? What, or who are you thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches?

This post is a submission to the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, be sure to check out the other submissions this week on SocialButterfly.

Update: The holiday cards are now live and smokin’ on the Epic Change site.

Recently, while visiting with friends in New York and DC over intercession vacation, I started a round of informational interviewing in an attempt to learn from friends and some other nice folks. Now that classes are back in gear I thought I’d reflect on some of what I’d learned and also thank the people for sharing their time and experience with me. Hopefully this series will grow as I pick the brains of more interesting people.

The meeting I was most anticipating on this trip was with my friend Tamar Weinberg. Tamar and I go back to high school in South Florida, though when I got in touch with her recently I admit she remembered me a lot better than I did her- which was embarrassing and super flattering. She’s been terribly encouraging and generous through my exploration in the web space so far.

Tamar blogs at her own blog techipedia and also at a number of other blogs including SEroundtable, Life Hacker – where she’s the weekend editor, and sometimes over at her old gig 10e20. She also facilitated some awesome student activism at my high school last year, setting up a blog for people to voice concerns and raising the ire of the administration. When I met her in Riverdale she had just come from a meeting and was freshly groggy from 4am exploits the night before after the new Digg algorithm was released (Not that things seem to have improved much at Digg since then.)

Tamar has a mixed attitude towards her new found fame in the blogosphere. The notoriety she has found in the online social space seems almost to have caught her by surprise. Despite her rockstardom, she impressed on me the level nature of the playing field and insisted that the pieces fell together for her through luck, persistence, and the help of a few key people along the way. I’m beginning to get a welcome taste of the kind of openness she’s encountered across the social space from people with genuine interest in what she had to say in my own limited networking experience. Meeting with Tamar, the need to take risks and put yourself out there really stood out. Most people are willing to listen and share their experience, but with that comes the expectation that you be forthcoming with your own take on things as well.

Tamar certainly has dedication and experience in the social space and the humility to match it. Her narrative is really interesting and there’s little doubt we’ll all continue to benefit from her advocacy on behalf of the online community in the future and get to see her rise to still brighter achievements. Thanks for the advice and yummy lunch Tamar!