Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching

How to Use Me for Free. Really.

Preface: This is my Blog Action Day post. I need some preamble to get where I want to get with what I want to say, and I hope you will bear with me! Mahalo.

My Preambling about Free

As of this writing, Ho‘ohana Publishing (which is essentially the ‘engine’ running Say Leadership Coaching, and thus running me) has just one product you can purchase if you decide you would like to directly support me: Managing with Aloha, my book. When you read it, Ho‘ohana with it, and then buy more to share as gifts, I am a happy camper because word of my mission spreads; the MWA movement to create worthwhile work flourishes.

Everything else that Ho‘ohana Publishing presently produces online is free (not counting the pocket change we get from assorted affiliate links, which I used to buy more copies of MWA at cost myself so I can give them away to schools: The price of schoolbooks and the cost to reading).

In anticipation of this post slipping into the archives eventually, I do need to say I fully intend to have more products sold one day, fun and useful stuff, but as of this writing my book is it.

‘Free’ is a concept that any blogger or ‘citizen publisher’ needs to come to terms with, for as Kevin Kelly said so well in his widely acclaimed essay, Better than Free, the internet is one big copy machine. You’re gonna get copied if you post something, —assuming that it’s worth copying to begin with. Copyright and Creative Commons distinctions may be present as permissions (or restrictions), but the nature of the beast is that they are as well understood as RSS buttons (meaning they are often not understood, or just ignored.)

Heck, I’ve discovered that even my book gets its share of Xerox-glass face time: I know a little about that book; my name is Rosa. (A story on MWAC.)

However the stuff that is free online is as varied as the life in the ocean from algae to humpback whales, and some is trash, some is treasure. Depending on your perspective and your needs, Ho‘ohana Publishing therefore, is adding to the clutter or to the wealth.

Blog Action Day 2008

I love the idea behind the Blog Action Day movement which was started last year with a blog-world focus on the environment. This year, the issue is poverty.

I am quite awed by Blog Action Day. The central idea I see is world-wide collaboration meshing with Aloha for our fellow human beings —it is the value of Kākou, inclusiveness and togetherness.

Best of all, it is a call to action: Blog Action Day is Kākou-focused on making a positive difference of some kind, versus remaining stagnant and complacent about certain issues. (My wish is that we tackle hatred or racism next year… look no further than our current elections for evidence of the need in so-called ‘civilized’ nations.)

Poverty stops me in my tracks. I have had a blessed life. There are certain discomforts that I’ve lived through, and current economics is certainly no walk in the park, beginning to hit very close to home, however I can’t even pretend to have empathy for true poverty. I believe I am generous with my charitable donations, but I also get very aware of how my donations can be mere bandaids, and are not the medicine needed to truly eradicate most problems they seek to effect.

Poverty is huge, and it begs that ‘yeah, but’ question (which you know I don’t care for), “But what can just one person do?”

Well, turns out that the Blog Action Day folks shared a video that seeks to help us answer that very question.

I have shared this video over at Joyful Jubilant Learning today too, and there is already some terrific discussion going there: Blog Action Day 2008: Our JJL Voice.

So back to Ho‘ohana Publishing…

And back to what I can do. I am a practical person who is fully capable of taking some kind of action, so where shall I start?

I had a small idea which deals with my free. Value versus clutter.

It’s a small thing, but it’s something in my circle of control and I believe in my community of influence. Today is the first day that I am adding a page to Say Leadership Coaching which is all about how you can use me for free. It will live there from now on.

I fully realize that I am not yet getting to the children shown in this video clip, but I believe I am warming up to the time that I will. I don’t know what to do with algae and humpback whales yet, but I can continue to feed the fish in my own saltwater tank, keeping them healthy and thriving well.

I can give my free —my most valuable, and uncluttered free —to those whom I realize may need it, but can’t afford it. It’s a stretching my realization that ‘poverty’ comes in a lot of different forms, and that the poverty I can help with today and right now, is called ‘unaffordable’ by some people when it really isn’t. I can do much better in helping the people who may need Managing with Aloha in its free versions, while being direct and honest about the reading-work, learning-work, and doing-work that goes with it; work that I believe to be good for us. This humble page now living at Say Leadership Coaching is my beginning.

If you have some time today, please do me a favor and read my new page:

How to Use Me. Really.
You can comment there, and I’d love to know what you think.

The invitation explained through-out that page is open to you too. Use me.

I’d also love to hear any way that you are sorting out and cleaning up your own free offerings. You can leave those comments here: Honor system guys, good intentions only. I am not letting up on my zero-tolerance with spammy link parking.

I’d also love hearing about any other Blog Action Day posts you’ve discovered that are your favorites: There are a lot to sort through today!

The 20 Benefits of Peer to Peer Coaching (and the MWA Way of doing it)

Peer to Peer Coaching the Managing with Aloha way (P2PC for short) is a tool I bring to as many workplaces as I possibly can: As with The Daily Five Minutes® (D5M), I am always looking for a place to insert P2PC into the opportunities we have while working together, whatever their coaching or learning program with Say Leadership Coaching may be.

Here is the short form of Peer to Peer Coaching. 5 Steps you can count on one hand while practicing it:

The 5 Steps of Peer-to-Peer Coaching Ask a question about what you would like to be coached on. Be completely open-minded about the answers you get. Get whatever clarity you need, and then, Say thank you. Follow-up by creating some new habits aimed at improvement. Check back with the person you spoke with in about a month, and ask them how you are doing, and for more coaching if you still need it. P2PC becomes a dynamic feedback loop when you schedule the conversation consistently (different subject matter is bound to come up) and take turns starting at number 1. in mutually beneficial relationships invoking the Law of Reciprocity.

Writing this article for Talking Story came to mind for me while sharing an example of using P2PC on Managing with Aloha Coaching connected to the value of Ho‘ohanohano, delivering dignity and respect.

You can read it there at Are you a high maintenance manager?

What is the Managing with Aloha 'way" with Peer to Peer Coaching?

Others will build pretty elaborate processes or coaching programs around P2PC (here is an example offered online by Syracuse University with a form and all. Sheesh... wonder if anyone actually fills it out.)

The MWA Way is to think of it as a simple, straightforward conversation, resist specific rules (like with confidentiality and being politically-correct) and just talk story. Jump in as you would to any other conversation you look forward to with a positive expectancy about the outcome, and build better relationships at the same time.

Bridge the Learning it, Knowing it, Doing it Gap

Like the rest of our SLC-MWA Tools, I do encourage you to make P2PC part of the expectations of your organizational culture:

We interrupt our normal programming... for Responsibility Coaching

... and for this commercial announcement.

Quick and brief announcement: I just introduced a new mini coaching program on MWA Coaching this morning, and already the response has been very favorable. Perhaps you'd like to check it out too?

It's called Kuleana Value Coaching because of its connection to our Sense of Personal Responsibility with the work we do.

Are you interested in something designed to get the responsibility you may feel is out-of-whack back into a semblance of order you can handle?

Start here for the back-story to how this all came about just this past weekend (and for a bigger view of this great picture), and then,

Click to the program itself here: Our new MWAC blog companion coaching.

Flickr Photo: "Atlas, it's time for your bath" by woodleywonderworks.

Ma‘alahi = December Bliss!

Aloha. Say Leadership Coaching is now on annual hiatus and our see-the-whole-family travel is done: We’ve arrived back on the Big Island of Hawai‘i to have a simple Christmas together at home.
This is bliss.

We’ve decided to have a simple Christmas this year in the spirit of ma‘alahi, contentment within simplicity and ease, or to use an English expression, happily living a holiday where “less is more.” My children are now young adults, still in college and without children of their own (I can wait!) and so for our Christmas we’ve cut way back on the gift-giving this year, trading wrapped boxes of more ‘stuff’ for Faith, Family and Friendship experiences instead – quite wonderful! Turns out that the paring back to just what we feel are the essentials of the holiday was gratefully welcomed by everyone.

And there’s a 4th “F” within our list of essentials:) —In our house, Food is always a big part of the equation too, a family bonding experience uniquely its own!

My wish is that you completely enjoy your Christmases dear readers;

Have Faith —Believe in the spirit of giving, for it lives in your aloha.

Love your Family —None of us were meant to live alone, and family is who you love, something not necessarily determined by birth alone.

Call your Friends —Wish them the blessings of the season, and let them know how much they mean to you.

And eat well! —Be nourished by those comfort Foods of your own holiday traditions.

I shall return for more talking story after the New Year arrives. Thank you so much for reading, and for being such a special gift to me as our Ho‘ohana Community.
Much aloha, ~Rosa

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• Want to talk story with your family about ma‘alahi? You can find more about it here: Sunday Mālama: A Ma'alahi Persuasion for Calm.

• From the Talking Story Archives: I had first written about A Ho‘ohana of Faith and Family in December of 2005.

Stress-busting for December: Project Sweet Closure

Are you feeling stressed at work right now?

Think it has something to do with the holidays? Suspect it may be something else?

This is a cross-posting of an article I have written for Managing with Aloha Coaching that offers a way to get yourself some stress relief. It asks that you give yourself the gift of a 45-minute exercise, one that can make a big difference with the pressure you might be feeling. Check it out.

Give yourself an early Christmas gift:
Project: Sweet Closure 2007

It’s interesting to me how many of my workplace conversations in the past week are falling into two different outlooks;

• One, that we are now less than 10 days from Christmas (and how exactly did that happen?!?) and
• Second, let’s get this year over with; I want and need that fresh start in 2008.

Both are connected in a way; they deal with that stress we all feel at varying degrees during December in our workplaces, whether we blame them on the holidays or on that unavoidable (and predictable) march of time, a march that happens with or without us.

So what can we do? Get smart, and get with it.

How do we get with it? One way is to be more cognizant of our Starts and Stops.

I offer you the same coaching that I give all my clients during December: If you are feeling stressed right now, hold off on those New Year Resolutions —workplace translation: “Strategic Objectives for 2008”— until you get your sweet closure to 2007.

If you don’t finish those things needing good finishes first, they do haunt you; seldom will they just go away. Even if you miraculously get excused from them by your boss, they remain. They may remain in your boss’s memory as work not done, they may still be affecting others on your work team, but worse, they can remain in your subconscious. New goal setting with people is a mainstay of my business and my past experience as a manager, and believe me, whether you may be aware of it or not, not finishing those things can befuddle your judgment when you get that fresh start you are craving for January 1st. You end up with carry-over baggage, and not a fresh start at all, but a fresh set of new blinders.

Reality check: The year IS almost over. What can you possibly do now?

You may be unlikely to finish everything, but chances are you can get to closure with a few tasks and a project or two. The trick is to get them back on your radar and out of your subconscious so you can swiftly and decisively deal with them. Working on the right things can dramatically decrease the stress and any unsettled feelings you are experiencing.

Project: Sweet Closure 2007

Turn off the Christmas music and focus for the next 45 minutes to an hour on this exercise:

1. Make a list – what haven’t you finished that you would love to finish before January comes calling? This is a stream of consciousness exercise in which you are pulling weights out of your mind, soul and spirit; count on your brain to do its magic for you, and do not go scrolling through your calendar, lists, inbox, or filing cabinets.

2. Look over that list and decide which you would LOVE to finish if you can. Chances are that whatever you have first written down are your prime candidates for the sweet closure you need. Another indication is any aha! moments that came to you connected with step 1 when you did your mind sweep.

3. Now focus on those 1, 2, or 3 most important things you decided on, by pulling out your calendar (hopefully up to date from your Weekly Review) and setting a few non-negotiable appointments with yourself. Non-negotiable means that they will be held sacred, and you will keep those appointments: No procrastination, no excuses or distractions will sway you. (Read between the lines here folks – you know what is realistic; don’t sabotage your own efforts.)

4. Get them done.

5. Bonus Points: Don’t go it alone. Share this exercise with your team, and buddy up on some projects. Everyone is probably feeling the same stress you are. Adopt a mantra: Plan in plan, make “Project: Sweet Closure 2007” the subject of your daily huddles (D15M) through yearend: For the BEST 15 minutes in the workday, Huddle.

It has been fairly quiet here in Rosa’s Blog Land over these last few days because I am presently doing this with my own business and with my executive coaching customers. Because they have agreed to hold themselves accountable to their coaching, most of my clients are amazed at what they are getting done this week, a week many of us normally write off at work as being pretty useless. Fact of the matter is this: Nearly everyone in the world we work with is leaving us alone right now as they do their own scrambling, and we do have open windows in our calendars – the trick is to be proactive and use them.

I have one determined exec in particular who got a remarkable start with this, and he is now on a second round with the exercise. In step 3 above, he picked tasks he felt the key members of his work team would most appreciate if he finished them, one task for each person. He fully realizes how much his work affects everyone else, and he figures that his sweet closure for their sake will be the best gift he can give them for Christmas.

Now that’s a great boss.

Another quick tip: Don’t go overboard! FINISH what is pending, do NOT get ambitious and create new sub-projects along the way. Capture your thoughts by just writing them down, and we’ll revisit your list in January.

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Additional Reading (after you do the exercise!)

• On Managing with Aloha Coaching: Exercises like this one are part of creating great organizational cultures in the workplace. Review MWA3P: Part Three – How Organizational Culture Happens.

• On Joyful Jubilant Learning: Keep your good habits going with the Weekly Review!
  Learn a 5-Step Weekly Review: You’ll love it.

If you are just now joining us, Welcome! You can jump in instantly with very little catching up! Start your reading + doing right here: This exercise is representative of the tools I offer you on Managing with Aloha Coaching. You will find both RSS and email subscription options here).

If you do not yet have a copy of Managing with Aloha, you can BUY ONE HERE! We have just sent a few more cases to Amazon.com to stock them up for the holidays :)

How to Capture an Expert’s Value: 12 Tips

With Ho‘okipa as our focus for the month, it seemed like the perfect time to bring back this article, one I had written for Lifehack.org just short of two years ago.

Initially I felt a bit strange about writing this, not wanting my suggestions to sound like the personal laundry list of a presumptuous author, but it has since proved to be one that several of my customers and newsletter subscribers have told me they greatly appreciated, since booking speakers is not an everyday occurrence for them. So here it is again, just lightly edited without the holiday framing it first contained.

In one sentence, it describes what happens when someone hires me as a speaker, and they decide we’ll become friends with a professional relationship by the time the engagement is over.

Think about this for a moment. When you hire someone — to do anything for you, anything at all  — what lasting effect will they have on your life? What lasting effect will you have on theirs? What kind of opportunities might you be missing?

If you are going to spend some time with a new acquaintance, is that valuable time captured, or is it squandered away and wasted?

When you boil an engagement down to its essence, people want me to speak at an event because they are looking for some kind of inspiration or motivation. When they treat me as a vendor I do make sure they get that shot of inspiration they are expecting. However when they treat me as a prospective collaborator on their vision of greater possibility, that’s what they get.

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How to Capture an Expert’s Value: 12 Tips

In bringing Managing with Aloha to the world of business I speak a lot; everything from 20-minute keynotes to week-long seminars and retreats. I love it, and in this past week I’ve enjoyed some truly terrific speaking engagements. They were terrific because my clients were terrific, and I felt I wasn’t just a hired gun; we collaborated on the design of my presentation, and they gave me the opportunity to give more than just another speech.

With my very last presentation I had the pleasure of staying in a magnificent hotel, and part of my fee arrangement included an extra night’s stay so that I could end my time with them much more leisurely than I normally have the opportunity to do. Their offer was irresistible to me and I took advantage of it. Smartly, so did they; it was a win for both of us. They helped me create a defining moment for them and their company.

The entire experience caused me to reflect back on all my speaking over the last year, and I thought of all the clients associated with them — the good, the bad, and fortunately none I would call the ugly! With Ho‘okipa (the value of hospitality) so fresh in mind for us, I thought I’d share with you my best clients’ smarts.

There have been those clients who took full advantage of our engagement knowing how I am more coach than consultant by nature, and I think they were exceptionally clever. By the time our project was over they had received oodles of free coaching from me, and I didn’t mind one bit. In fact, they usually left me wishing that all my clients were just like them. This is how they did it.

We are Talking Story about … Ho'okipa, Hospitality

Are you here for the first time? Aloha mai kākou. Welcome. The keywords which best describe the Talking Story blog are aloha, values, work, business, management, and leadership. SAY LEADERSHIP COACHING is the company founded by Rosa Say, author of Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business. Please stay, look around, and talk story with us. Site navigation for Talking Story may be found in the left column, including a listing of our Recent Posts and community conversation. The right column links will take you to the pages of our Managing with Aloha website and blog. We change our focus every month: We choose a Hawaiian value to study anew so we may continue our learning of the values that drive the Managing with Aloha movement. Why? We know that values serve us well: they create our best habits with great work. The values we believe in are those we practice naturally and with universal intention, feeling strong and self-fulfilled when we do. They drive the behaviors of our integrity. This month, we talk story about hospitality: Ho‘okipa, the Hospitality of Complete Giving We take this monthly journey of discovery knowing it can bring us to Ho‘ohana, our intentional and very personal work. We want our professional work and our personal values to match up. Often we find we share our values with people who are passionate about the same things we are; people who want what we want. Theirs are the positive voices of the Ho‘ohana Community of learners you will find here on Talking Story. In the spirit of Ho‘okipa, we warmly welcome writers who would like to share their stories and thoughts on hospitality throughout the month of July. Talk story with them in the comments of their articles; Deb Estep: Ho'okipa Via The United States Postal Service Lisa Haneberg: Build Energy then Go Where the Energy Is Reg Adkins: Hospitality: Our Gatherings Seek to Meet a Need Maria Palma: Hospitality: The Key to Peace on Earth Dave Rothacker: Ho'okipa: A Mother's Love by Rosa: Hospitality and the Comforts of Home, with Company Reg Adkins: Our Gatherings Nudge Us Toward Collaboration April Groves: Dissecting Hospitality Joanna Young: Writer, reader, place: writing with ho'okipa Maria Palma: Welcome to the Customer Service Carnivale! by Rosa: A charge for the Ho‘okipa Brigade: Social Graces April Groves: The Business End of Southern Hospitality Dwayne Melancon: Hospitality is more than façades Carolyn Manning: No Requests Required Phil Gerbyshak: Hospitality: It feels like home Rebecca Thomas at Career Niche: Be worth copying Two more ways to get involved this month: Take a look at the list we are starting of Books on Hospitality and give us your recommendations; which book would you add? Co-write this posting, by brainstorming in the comments; What are your interview questions for the Mea Ho‘okipa?

Values and monthly Habit-magic

At Say Leadership Coaching, the first day of each new month is always a day of reckoning of sorts: are we ready for the next push? The flip of the calendar means it's publishing day for the division of my company called Ho'ohana Publishing.

... yes, another use of that Ho'ohana word!
If you're gonna have a mantra, have a mantra...

What gets published that month (kick-off e-letter, blogging themes, lesson plan evolutions, coaching missives for our customers, project e-booklets or pdfs...) depends on what the new value of the month will be, just as Kūlia! Break thrū! comes from Kulia i ka nu'u as our value for June, 2007.

Values and months go together like they were made to.

I have long adopted a value of the month within my personal practice of Managing with Aloha. Before my book was even the remotest of possibilities in my thinking, the manager living inside my skin knew that

a) values drive behavior, and

b) values spoken out loud all the time drive on-purpose behavior, (that is, as opposed to luck-of-the-draw or good-mood behavior) and

c) values deliberately practiced a month at a time with consistent focus (i.e. EVERYONE) made work expectations both crystal clear and more regularly delivered upon.

In other words, I knew that values at work, WORK.

Months seem to frame them so perfectly; not too long, not too short. As Goldilocks said when she found baby bear's bed, a month is "just right."

Months give you enough time to create a new habit around the value you've chosen, for even without your weekends, you'll get those 21 days that people who study habits (like Stephen Covey) say are necessary for the repetition that creates a habit that will stick.

What habit will you be creating this month around Kūlia i ka nu'u (excellence and achievement)?

How will you Kūlia! and Break thrū?

From Corporate Life to Self-Employment

Knowing of my long history in corporate life, people will ask me if I’d ever go back to it should I be offered the corporate dream job again. The question will come up when I say that I came very close to having THE corporate dream job more than once in my career. I knew when I was in those situations, and I truly did enjoy them; I had learned a lot being Mz. Corporate Manager.

While I have no regrets, the quick answer is no.
I’ll never go back.

Today I realize that even THE corporate dream job has a long, long way to go before it can get close to the benefits I now enjoy being self-employed. Here’s why;

1. Working for myself means I work for my own reasons, defining my work completely in terms of what I consider my ho‘ohana to be. Life is too precious to do anything else.

2. I now understand what my ideas can potentially be worth. There is no question that whatever I write, whatever I create and produce is totally my intellectual property. Thus, I’ll always have it as an asset I can market.

3. In my particular situation I have no establishment or office hours; I work where my customer works, or with their brains (i.e. on the phone and virtually works just fine).

4. Because of number 3. I don’t really have the walk-in effect; I get to choose my customers after interviewing and “qualifying” them. I choose to work with people who are coachable yet who are smarter than me in some way (hence I’ll learn from them too), and who I will enjoy working with. To be perfectly blunt, I don’t work with unpleasant people.

5. Now that I’ve had this 4-year taste of it, I’ll never give up the freedom I now have to tweak my work schedule however I need to (and want to). My time belongs to me. The ironic thing is that I work more hours; the exceptionally cool thing is that it no longer feels like work.

6. The incentives are different. You are never as financially literate working for someone else as you are when you are self-employed, and that kind of intellectual currency is increasingly valuable in today’s world.

7. Similar to number 6, being self-employed equates to being self-sufficient. At first you think it’s more risky to work for profit versus paycheck, but you soon find out that counting on a paycheck is the riskiest thing you can do.

8. This one speaks to knowing myself; I thrive on being totally in charge. I got pretty far up the corporate ladder, yet like most “top” executives I ultimately answered to someone; a boss, an owner, a stakeholder. Today I answer to me.

9. I get more done. I have never before had the amount of self-discipline I have today, because I hold myself more accountable than any of my employers ever could. If I slack off, procrastinate, or try to justify anything I only fool myself. Again, today I answer to me.

Self-employment may not be for everyone, but it definitely has become MY only option. It honestly makes me feel smarter.

So why should you care about all of this? Because I’m hoping you’ll think about joining me sooner versus later. To me, smarter and happier people are not my competition; they add the qualities of enthusiasm and optimism to my world.

It’s not that I feel working for an employer is a bad thing. On the contrary, I think you should milk all the knowledge and benefits you can get out of it while you do it. However I do believe that the day will come that you’ll need a “second act” to life’s play because there is this inevitable thing which happens to all of us; it’s called aging. Age creeps up to deal us this cruel card called, not as employable as younger candidates.

UNLESS, you have something to offer that those younger candidates don’t: Intellectual property that buyers can only get from you. Go back to my list and read number 2. again as the single reason. The other ones are the icing on the cake.

For me, Managing with Aloha is my current number 2. Because of number 4. I know that there will be other things like Managing with Aloha in my future.

What is the intellectual property you are working on, banking it for your future?

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Related posts from the archives:

• What does Financial Literacy mean to you?
• An index on entrepreneurship: The Start-up Garden

A Love Affair with Books and our Added Value

Hana Hou! “Let’s do it again!”

This morning the comprehensive index to A Love Affair with Books for 2007 was posted at the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. The added value you’ll find is in eleven more books listed via reviews that came in with their Trackback Sundays, and a “70+” program.

Last year, this is how we wrapped up the 2nd Annual A Love Affair with Books at Say Leadership Coaching:

A total of 72 hardcover business books were donated to the business library of Chaminade University in Hawai‘i, home of the Hogan Enterpreneurs. More than half of them were signed by the books’ authors with an encouraging message in celebration of the students’ intention with learning.
—From the 2007 ALAWB intro on JJL.

This year, I made this commitment:

This year, SLC will do it again; I will purchase at least seventy books, double the number reviewed in our ALAWB this year, and donate them to a learning library here in Hawai‘i.
—From the 2007 ALAWB recap on JJL.

At Teaching with Aloha, Dean was quick to cheer on the good cause with me, and we came up with this:

“70+” Championing Literacy as we Teach and Coach

Join in the good cause, adding our signature as teachers who coach. Here’s what you do:

• Next time you buy a book for yourself, consider choosing one of those reviewed in the JJL 2007 ALAWB and buy two or three copies.
• Then, give the others to two of your students and do a group read with them.
• Discuss your own learning gleaned from the book so you learn together. Co-teach and co-learn.
• Journal the process for the next step ...
• When you’ve completed the book, suggest you each choose another one, and repeat the process with new people, i.e. 1 group of 3 can now become 9 people learning.

• ALSO: Be sure to comment at JJL and add your book count to the “70+” tally there!

Talking Story community, let’s participate too!

Buy a few books per the JJL reviewers’ suggestions, and add to the tally! 

We can do way, way better than that “70+” … This is about all of us individually adding up to mega-results, mega-influence, and mega-aloha for the communities we live in.

Let’s demonstrate that aloha is palena ‘ole, without limits, because it starts within you, and YOU are without limits.

Book reviews. Reading. Learning. Community. Aloha. WOW! What a combination and force to be reckoned with. A positive, Talking Story way to use our voice for good.

Just as these very generous book reviewers did.

Keep in mind you can also view the JJL 2007 ALAWB selections at Shelfari thanks to Tim Milburn.