Charlie Ghost I first met Charlie on a humid, London summer’s day in June 2016. A true mountain of a man he was tall, broad, and covered from shaven head-to-toe in elaborate tattoos. We were meeting for the very first time to begin our Mentor/Mentee relationship at a crowded museum café, amidst crowds of people chatting over their designer coffees and overpriced baked goods. I remember being nervous; not because I was meeting someone who had been to prison, but for more common and rational reasons such as: Would he like me? Did I have enough experience to help him?…

Why You Must Connect The great British writer, E.M. Forster had this advice for aspiring writers: “Only Connect!” It’s damn good advice for non-writers, as well. Our brains, a vast network of connections, are genetically evolved to basically be connection-making machines. We’re born to see patterns, both in nature and in the abstract. And we’re born to connect with people, to share ideas, to share our knowledge, to share our lives. We are no islands, we are hyper social primates. Connection is primal. Connection is survival. So the next time you’re beating yourself up for spending too much time online (Something we…

Food for Thought? As young adults discover more exotic varieties out there, consumption of American cheese slices are down. WAY down. And why should anyone be surprised? It’s completely understandable. With the Internet, people have never had so much power to choose, so much ability to tell the difference between A and B. Ergo, like Jeff Jarvis says, if you give people power, they will use it. Cheese is only one example of thousands. Seth Godin has been writing about this for years… an exodus from mass market behavior, towards a plethora of tiny niches. He summed it up beautifully in his short masterpiece,…