5 year plan, an update

In August of 2005, I made myself a 5 year plan to quit my job with the State of Illinois Child Welfare system. Wow, what a difference 4 years and 9 months can make! I picked 5 years because of fear, mostly.  I had so many questions about what value I could bring to organizations, where I didn’t have to be chained to a 9 to 5 bureaucracy.  Five years seemed so far out there in the future that the plan could pull me, without pressuring me. So, what’s the status? What’s happened so far?

Well, I’ve facilitated at least a dozen open space events, implemented a unit testing framework at AboutUs.org as a contractor, worked on the community team of AboutUs as a contractor, worked full-time at AboutUs remotely on the community team, in sales, and then in organizational development, moved to Portland to work in the AboutUs office as an employee, and now have left employment altogether and count AboutUs as my first executive coaching client.  I’m currently seeking my second client.  My plan is to become a Gazelles Coaching Associate on June 1st.

So, what’s changed, ultimately?  Well, the fear has been replaced by courage and confidence.  I now know that I don’t need to have all the answers to make a real difference in organizations.  I do have some answers, but it’s much more important to ask questions to find out what people and organizations really need.  Then we’ll see if any of the answers I have fit, or better yet, if the organizations creativity has been unleashed by my questions.

What an amazing ride!

new blog

I’m just recently separated from my job and so created a new blog as a place to explore my new consulting/facilitating/coaching business.  It’s all about the future and the possibilities we create that make a difference right now. http://TedErnst.com

Testing AboutUs Embedded Profiles Widget

The Legend of the GiantLotus

Further testing of netcasting. I added an image to this audio file in GarageBand before exporting. Let’s see how it works. This file is an AboutUs.org legend, demonstrating one of our core values.

Ted’s Podcast #4: We’re in iTunes!

This podcast is a review of all I’ve learned so far, including the fact that we’re now in iTunes! Here’s a link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=302756299

I still have to figure out why the player looks so weird here in the blog, and why the podcast doesn’t have an image after I subscribe to it, either in iTunes, or on my iPhone. Fun, fun, fun!

Ted’s Podcast #3: What I’ve learned about podcasting so far

It appears there is a 24 hour delay before iTunes will recognize a podcast in a feed. In that first 24 hours, when I tried to add my podcast feed to iTunes, it said there were no episodes in the feed, but after that 24 hours, it said it accepted my application and that it might be reviewed before being added. So we’ll see. This podcast is everything I’ve learned so far.

Ted’s Podcast #2

Still working on testing. Thanks John for the comment!. I still haven’t figured out how to get my feed into iTunes. Maybe there’s a delay and this will work tomorrow. We’ll see.

Ted’s Podcast #1

This is only a test. I recorded my voice using my USB mic and GarageBand. I want to see how podPress works with WordPress and iTunes. This is only a test.

Steve Miller for US Congress, 7th District of Illinois

Steve Miller is someone I know and trust.

His #1 issue is to bring transparency to Washington. Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution says: “… a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”  Steve Miller intends to serve for only two years in Washington, and to work tirelessly to mandate that all federal bank account check registers be published online and available all the time.  That’s why I donated to his campaign.  This is not a partisan issue (Steve is running on the Republican ticket with no support from the party.  He also happens to be a life-long Republican though is in no way is a politician.).  If you support the idea of knowing where your tax money is going, please consider donating any amount, $5, $10, $20 (I gave Steve $100).

Free Geek Chicago

At Michael’s urging, I’d love to share this video from Free Geek Chicago, except I can’t get the video to show up here, so head over to Michael’s post and watch it there. :-)