Photo courtesy of Taylor Davidson

I started this meme in 2009 and continued it in 2010. Thanks to Taylor for inspiring me to do this project – his meme of cities goes back to 2006. Unlike him, I don’t have a photo of all of the places I slept, but that’s certainly something to aspire to!

As in previous years, a city makes it onto this list when I’ve slept there so any day trips aren’t included. If I was in a city and slept in multiple places, that counts as it’s own entry – since it counts against the total nights away and not spent at home in my own bed.

The big thing this year was having ONE home. A home that started unfurnished – a huge step for me compared to 2009 and 2010! It was still a year of travel (both in the U.S. and then to Haiti, Mexico, Barbados and Portugal) but it was also a great year to sink into New York City and enjoy everything that this glorious city has to offer and start to build a home. It’s been a good year. Here’s where I was in the year that was…

January
New York City (homebase)
Miami (1)
Boca Raton, FL (2)
York, ME (1)
Boston, MA (1)

February
New Orleans, LA (3)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (2)
Jacamel, Haiti (1)

March
Austin, TX (2)
Austin, TX (2) *separate place
Los Angeles, CA (1)
Los Angeles, CA (2) *separate place

April
Miami, FL (1)
Tecate, Mexico (7)
Fairfield, CT (1)

May
Asheville, NC (3)

June
Kittery, ME (2)

July
Barbados (4)
Manchester, CT (2)
Boston, MA (1)

August
San Diego, CA (3)
Pittsburgh, PA (3)
Luray, VA (3)

September
Hidden Valley, PA (3)
Boston, MA (2)

October
Chambersburg, PA (2)
Kittery, Me (2)
Santa Monica, CA (1)
Burlington, VT (2)

November
Wahington, DC (3)
Hidden Valley, PA (3)

December
Scarsdale, NY (1)
Pittsburgh (5)
Lisbon, Portugal (2)
Duoro Valley, Portugal (2)

Total nights away from home: 76 (20% of nights)

Where did you go last year (work/personal or both? Where are your travels taking you this year? To all the places you’ll go and beyond – happy travels!

There is a story I recently heard that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. I told some of my team and then I’ve found myself telling it to friends, in meetings, on the phone. That’s called “stickiness” and so I want to share it here as well.

There are two supermarkets. You walk into the first supermarket and they’ve run out of a product you want and you think, “That’s really a crap store.” You walk into a second supermarket that you really admire and they’ve run out of the product and you think, “I should have been here earlier.”

That’s good branding.

How we feel about places, people, things we interact with on a daily/weekly/monthly basis matters. It matters because our perception of a place becomes reality. Reality is a hard thing to shape, it’s not as cut and dry as everyone would have you believe. After all, the second a moment passes it stops being reality and becomes memory – the most personal and subjective emotion in the world.

Whether you’re creating a Brand from scratch, in the process of reinvention or elevating your Brand to another level, remember you have limited opportunity to create a “moment of truth” and those moments matter. This message applies to all businesses, nonprofits, startups, etc. It’s these succinct stories and messages that I’ve been thinking a lot about as I work to build brands in my day-to-day work.

What’s your story? Which supermarket are you?

This story comes from Michael Wolff, Founder of Wolff Olins (and comes at 3:42 on the video above). I found his video on m ss ng p eces, a Brooklyn-based creative company who created videos for the Intel Visual Life series. I found them through Cowbird, the new storytelling project website from Jonathan Harris. I met Jonathan at Davos in 2010 and greatly admire his work, creativity and creation of new projects on the web.

It’s always a telling sign when my favorite friends are suddenly all telling me that I simply have to meet someone because we’re from the same cloth and we’re destined to know one another. That is what happened with me and Becky Straw this fall. And honestly, everyone was right. We have tons of friends, passions and travel experiences in common and Becky instantly become a woman I not only wanted to be friends with but great admired. Soon it was my turn to be telling people about Becky and her new nonprofit, The Adventure Project. I’m proudly on the host committee for tonight’s Join our Nice List: A Celebration of Global Entrepreneurship honoring The Adventure Project and invited Becky to share her story of how The Adventure Project came to be and what we all can do to help.

If you’re in New York tonight, come on out and join us (RSVP here). For everyone else, consider making a $20 donation to buy a cookstove or shopping in their online store.

And now, Becky’s story.

*****

“People will tell you that it can’t be done. And you know what? They’re wrong. Nothing is ever impossible,” Gayle said matter-of-factly, before finishing off her glass of wine.

I admit I have ambitious dreams, but Gayle’s statements are not what I usually hear at happy hour. I was sitting in the clubroom at The Sheraton in Times Square, surrounded by five phenomenal women. Gayle Lemmon was speaking at the TEDxWomen conference in two days, and her friends gathered around her hotel room to hear her practice.

Gayle’s book, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana , has recently become a New York Times bestseller, chronicling a young heroine working as a successful entrepreneur under the Taliban. I had been invited because my nonprofit, The Adventure Project, works with female entrepreneurs around the world.
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Welcome to the season of Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving the past few years without #EpicThanks, a project of Epic Change by my good friends Stacey and Sanjay and their countless amazing friends, volunteers and supporters. Epic Change amplifies the voices and impact of grassroots changemakers and social entrepreneurs. I’ve written about their fundraising projects here, here and here. I thought it was time for another voice to be heard!

Make a donation here:

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This is a guest post written by Adriana Mistick, a junior at Wheaton College. She also happens to be my sister! This past summer she had the incredible opportunity to go volunteer with Mama Lucy at Sheperds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania. This is her story.

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Addy and the students from Sheperds Junior School, Summer 2011

I’ve sat down to write about my summer in Tanzania so many times without ever being able to find the words or the descriptions that are just right. I’ve decided now that it was one of those experiences I will never fully be able t explain or attempt to show with photos because what I really want is for everyone to be able to go and experience it for themselves.

It was early this year when I decided I wanted to do something different for the summer. I was about halfway through college at that point and had been lucky enough to take some time off early in college to help me get my head on straight. Now I guess you could say I’m focused. On what, you ask? Water and teaching kids, or teaching anyone I can, about water and our environment. I’m a self-proclaimed “water junkie”. Thinking about my summer and not knowing where to start, my sister Sloane (maybe you guys know her??) was eager to help me find a good match in terms of location and program. The moment I told her what I was thinking she had something perfect in mind but still worked wonders by facebooking, tweeting and emailing a personal ad for her baby sis.

EPIC CHANGE. That’s where Sloane’s mind was from the start and from the moment she first told me about meeting Stacey Monk at a conference and following their progress, that’s where my mind was too.
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Dear friends, family and everyone else who has stumbled onto this page,

Let me set the stage…the big one was my 30th birthday in 2009 – that was the year Cause It’s My Birthday was born and we raised $20,000 for Netting Nations and for malaria nets in Ghana.

Ever since then, I haven’t been able to shake the power of social media to help drive social change. I eat, live and breathe in this space.

I’m at it again! This year, I’m celebrating my Sweet Sixteen (x2) and 100% of online donations and donations at my birthday party will go to She’s The First.

She’s The First supports girls education in the developing world. The partner school I’ve chosen is Starfish One By One School in  Solola, Guatemala. Only $300 provides a scholarship to one girl for one year.
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