As many other writers are and have been, I am basically a loner. I enjoy my own company, almost never feel lonely for the company of others, and find I can do a lot of creating in total isolation. That being said, I have enjoyed many rich and wonderful connections with others.
I loved interacting with fellow explorers of the mind and heart in The Association for Humanistic Psychology. It was exciting, after the success of Moneylove, to be invited to join the National Speakers Association and meet the top motivational and inspirational speakers in the world. When Jack Canfield, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, and other creative leaders helped create The Inside Edge support group in Beverly Hills with me, it became an important part of my life.
Special Notice: As I have been calling my first couple of weeks on Periscope a “shakedown cruise,” we’re going to shake things up on Wednesday, August 19, by doing my live video at noon NY time rather than 9:30 that night. Some fans and friend in Great Britain and other places have not been able to see the live shows because it is the middle of the night over there. We’ll try it out and see what the response out, and I will announce any further changes on Facebook and Twitter.
But just this past year, I have really begun to collaborate, which is defined as working with one or more other people on some joint project. In my entire writing and speaking and workshop-leading life, I have never had an assistant or even part-time employee. Today, I have two partners, who handle a lot of the logistics and Internet activities of my current efforts. In fact, it was one of the partners who practically pushed me into my newest collaboration.
As I have written about in my previous two blogs, that is Periscope, the new video streaming platform owned by Twitter, that just passed the ten million mark is users and is well on its way to becoming the predominant force in social media. I say this because of so many of the top performers and coaches involved with other platforms like Facebook and Twitter rushing to be a part of this ground floor breakthrough. And now I have entered a new level of collaboration.
Not only am I broadcasting three live video programs each week called ProsperScopes (9:30pm New York time on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), but I just joined a community on Periscope created just this week by Mark Shaw. It’s called #tagtribes, and Mark has been a giant in the world of Twitter for seven years, being very well paid to coach and teach others to be successful in that medium. He is now pretty much putting all his eggs in the Periscope basket. Check out his videos, available on YouTube, or on www.katch.me, the website where many of us have our Periscope videos saved. You will then understand why he is a man I am pleased to follow and have as a role model as I explore this new and exciting medium.
Mark Shaw also has created a brand new group on Facebook for #tagtribes members, and everyone who is a member is committed to supporting, encouraging, and even watching the videos of the other members to make real time comments during the broadcasts. It is, in many ways, the epitome of what I called in my book, FRIENDS, the “supportive interpersonal environment.”
Oh, I still like my alone time, and as I now hear the sounds of a typical torrential tropical downpour on my roof here in Panama City, Panama, I am looking forward to a few days spent all by myself. But not really, because I will be doing another Periscope video tonight, and checking out some fellow collaborators’ programs, and having lots of interaction via the comments I send out live, and the ones I will be receiving.
I suppose I could come up with lots of reasons collaboration is important for everyone, and seems increasingly so for me, but it really all boils down to the fact that I am having fun, doing fun things with other fun people.
