Chalkboard Thoughts

Transform Yourself with Storytelling

When clients asked me to create one for them and they gave me their scripts, I held my head in my hands in despair. The scripts were boring and were basically adverts. They said, here’s my product or service, please buy me.

I know the purpose of any advert is for people to buy a product or service of course I do. But unless you have thousands or millions in your budget to use the hammer on a rock method, you can repeat your advert daily until it has been hammered into your prospect’s brain. The brain being the rock which eventually will develop a huge dent to make the information (ad) stay there forever or at least for a very long time. But this is an expensive and a very time consuming method. I'm not saying it won't work and most small businesses (my ideal clients) don't have deep pockets to be able to afford constant advertising.

You’d be better off sharing a story. Let me explain why. You and I learnt about stories as soon as we were born. We couldn’t speak or maybe even understand what these people around us were saying but we learnt to make sense of their noises and expressions. It’s how we learnt body language. We then also learnt that when our tiny body was hungry we could make a very very loud noise by crying which almost immediately made the food (mother’s milk) come to us. Just like a delicious takeaway.

Oh LinkedIn Help, know thyself!

I have been observing the fact that LinkedIn Polls are taking over our newsfeeds. I was guilty early on, got massive engagement on a few polls, but it led to nothing, just like most posts these days on Social.

I saw the flood of polls flowing into my newsfeed and soon realised that everyone now knows that polls get a lot of engagement and they're all going berserk!

Beserk: Out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied.

I posted why it is actually so popular, it's no accident:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6868989560437645312

So, after experimenting for a week, by unfollowing every 1st level connection that posted a poll and muting them when they commented on other polls (2nd level), the amount didn't reduce. I must have unfollowed/muted at least 100 people, but it has made no difference whatsoever. I am absolutely convinced that LinkedIn's algorithm prioritises polls in our newsfeed. You may wonder why? Well, it's simple really, more eyeballs means more active users on the site, which they can promote to advertisers, because adverts are one of the biggest moneymakers for LinkedIn, as it is for most social media platforms.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Mar 09, 2021 — Episode 15 — Clubhouse

I have been on Clubhouse since 16 February 2021. I’m grateful for the invitation to join the party but having regularly listened to maybe a dozen or so shows/clubs one thing’s is very clear to me. You do need a MASSIVE ego to participate as a host/moderator making it very difficult for those that are more humble and introverted to jump in with your own show.

Chalkboard Thoughts — February 15, 2021 — Episode 14 — Right Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness traditionally is the seventh part of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, but that doesn’t mean it is seventh in importance. Each part of the path supports the other seven parts, and so they should be thought of as connected in a circle or woven into a web rather than stacked in an order of progression.

I first became aware of the Eightfold Path by listening to an episode of the Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris. His guest way Brother Pháp Dung who explained more about this.

https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/brother-phap-dung-320

I started with Right Mindfulness as although this is number 7 in the list. Don’t ask me why I am starting with that one, I guess it’s the one I am most familiar with!

Chalkboard Thoughts — Jan 17, 2021 — Episode 13 — NHS

To get the stats, you will have to play the video below. I was watching an episode of Andrew Marr — a news programme in the UK on a Sunday morning. Actually I had to watch it on replay, as I was late getting up. The mornings are just too damn cold for getting up!

The CEO of the UK NHS (UK National Health Service) — Simon Stevens was being interviewed about the current state of the pandemic and the impact on the NHS and it’s staff.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Jan 13, 2021 — Episode 12 — Experiment

There’s always a price for wanting to be famous. But this time he price isn’t what you were hoping for. Today you are starring in your own disaster movie, but there really is imminent danger of death and with the stats in many countries stacked against us, we really do have to run for our lives. Run away from other people, who may infect us, which may mean we could get ill and worse still we carry the infection and share it with our elderly or vulnerable relatives.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Jan 11, 2021 — Episode 11 — Reality

Reality is in our minds. If you’ve ever studied or heard about Quantum Physics (Mechanics) then you will appreciate that nothing we witness is actually real. In the world of the atom everything is but orderly, in fact it’s total chaos and what we think to be order is actually disorder. It’s therefore very logical for things to be very unrealistic and not in order at all.

However our human minds want things to be orderly, that’s what we’ve all been told at school and what our parents have taught us when we grow up. In the animal kingdom nothing is orderly at all and remember we are just animals.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Jan 11, 2021 — Episode 10 — Predictions

During 2020 I made several predictions, albeit not publicly, and they pretty much all came true. Of course they were mainly about Covid-19, about vaccines, lockdowns and the timing of our perilous journey on planet earth.

This time I’m going to make some of my predictions public. Now, these predictions are only about the U.K., if they occur in any other country, it will be purely coincidental. Already one of the predictions will be exceeded and that’s the one about the number of Covid deaths. I predicted 100,000 deaths, but I think it will be much higher than that, more like 150,000 by the time we’re out of this. This is purely down to how the U.K. government has handled this pandemic.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 31, 2020 — Episode 9 — The Present

We will have exchanged presents during December 2020, but we will also have been either locked down and prevented from meeting with loved ones. I have compassion for all of you who have been affected by the loss of family members during December too. Unfortunately you will remember this event every single year for the rest of your lives.

Our human drama on this planet is driven by our thoughts of the past and the future.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 23, 2020 — Episode 8 — Socialise Sensibly

Image by Wordswag - words by Michael de Groot

In the U.K. we’re about to be told that other areas across England will be going in the highest Tier (4) of lockdown from Boxing Day, 26 December, 2020. Why is the virus spreading so fast? Okay, so we have a ‘mutant’ variant of the virus, which is causing it to spread faster. But, what we are forgetting, the only reason it is spreading faster is that the population is too close to each other, we’re not taking the rules seriously enough, in fact folks have forgotten the rules, forgotten which Tier they are in and crossing Tiers as they please. Many stories circulating of people going to other counties to drink in Pubs that are in a lower Tier. The virus can only spread when we are too close to each other and that’s been the main issue with the U.K. ever since we came out of lockdown 1.0.

The possible other reason is kids. See the image below that unfortunately confirms a rise in positive cases in kids.

And that’s why I published my latest Chalkboard Thoughts episode below.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 22, 2020 —Episode 7 —  It Gets Lighter From Here

#ItGetsLighterFromHere from Twitter

It Gets Lighter From Here is an initiative by Culture Central, a collective voice for arts & culture in the West Midlands, U.K. Please see below the explanation by Culture Central for the initiative.

About It Gets Lighter From Here

21 December is the shortest day of the year. It is also the last Monday before Christmas, the start of a festive season that is likely to be seriously overshadowed by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

On the night of the 21st — the Winter Solstice, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year — we want artists and cultural institutions across the West Midlands to come together to provide multiple moments of happiness and hope under the banner: It Gets Lighter From Here.

This is why over 35 organisations are realising a number of digital micro commissions, each no more than sixty seconds long, which will be released across various social media platforms creating a region-wide celebration of hope, optimism and possibility for the future, and of the value in creativity and the arts.

The project aims to involve a huge cross-section of artists and art forms — from theatre and dance, to spoken word and music — from the most internationally renowned to the most recently emerged.

Content will be shared via the hashtag #ItGetsLighterFromHere, reaching substantial audiences and networks from across the participating organisations, artists, region and beyond.

Following the event on 21 December, the collection of work shared across social media platforms may be assembled into an online collection that will be available for sharing into 2021.

I was inspired to create my own short production based on the above initiative, I wasn’t commissioned to contribute, but I thought I would anyway.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 21, 2020 — Episode 6 — Competence Hierarchy

Image by Wordswag - words by

Michael de Groot

It was the week before Christmas and the U.K. Government delivered a major U-Turn on national television telling millions of people to stay at home with a new Tier 4, which in effect means a total lockdown. Basically the same as in March 2020, but this time the country has been carved up, meaning only people in London and the Southeast of England are affected.

It was during hearing this news briefing, that the the four stages of competence or the ‘Competence Hierarchy’ came to mind. It occurred to me that the U.K. Government are still in stage 1. Watch my Chalkboard thoughts video below to see what I mean.

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 12, 2020 — Episode 3 — Brexit!

Image by Wordswag

The U.K. is on the verge of leaving the EU without any kind of trade deal, it’ called WTO Rules, or World Trade Organisation Rules. Nice considering we were all told that by Boris Johnson the deal was ‘oven ready’. Some of you will remember Theresa May who frequently used the phrase ‘Brexit means Brexit’. But actually that’s not what it means at all. Brexit means something different for many people, for some it’s their job they will lose, for others, their business turnover will suffer, for others it means holidays will not be as convenient. I’m Dutchman and have been in the UK for over 40+ years, still have my Dutch Passport and yes I applied and received approval to stay in the UK indefinitely and I’ve never been a big fan of Brussels, however I do believe the whole Brexit matter has been unbelievably badly dealt with. So what does Brexit mean for you?

Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 11, 2020 — Episode 2 — The Vaccine!

Image by Wordswag

I’ve been observing people’s enthusiasm for the vaccine, celebrating Margaret Keenan and William Shakespeare (real name) for being the first people in the world to receive the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine. As a consequence there’s this massive optimism of being able to get back to normal, whatever that might look like, whilst many nations including us in the UK, are still witnessing very high number of infections and only last night (13th March), I heard about Germany closing down, basically for Christmas and the New Year to keep infections in check. Germany was held up as a model nation for having controlled the virus, but unfortunately they also have succumbed to this dreadful pandemic.

Comparing Trump with an 8 year old

Following, from a distance, the behaviour of THE most powerful man on the planet, Donald Trump, made me think of how an 8 year old would behave.

The trouble is he’s an adult, supposedly, but actually does behave like an 8 year old.

Just incredible to witness.


[embed]https://youtu.be/2fScoWfeCm8[/embed]

Michael de Groot — shareyourstory.me