Watch standup comic, entrepreneur and author Laurence Shorter in a fascinating and funny interview on Canadian TV talking about his mission to discover the secrets to the brighter side of life for his book “The Optimist”.
(Love the story of how he flew all the way to South Africa to interview Desmond Tutu and then got into an argument with him!)
Laurence will be talking at Scanners Night this month about what he learned on his quest to meet some of the world’s greatest optimists from Richard Branson to Mick Jagger to the surfing Rabbi.
He will also share what he has learned as a Scanner in his search for the perfect career and his own version of the good life.
Ever tried to communicate your excitement about something to other people and been met by blank stares? This is bad news if what you’re talking about is the business, project, or book idea you’re trying to launch.
Being able to tell a great story about your current project is a powerful thing.
Here’s a very dramatic (and funny) one minute video that I think will show just how powerful a great story can be - particularly when you find yourself in a spot of bother:
In November, we are running a special one day workshop called “Find your story” with professional bard Sarah de Nordwall. If you’d like to find the killer story in your project, business, or book, click the link below.
We Scanners hate to focus on one thing for too long yet if we don’t focus at all, how can we ever bring all our great ideas to fruition?
At October Scanners Night Nina Grunfeld showed us the secret to “Effortless Focus”; how to find your natural way to focus without making yourself crazy with boredom! Nina Grunfeldis a Scanner and yet has created a business, Life Clubs, running weekly workshops in 12 locations around the UK and has still found time to write 3 great books.
Nina is a also an enthusiast of the Enneagram and explains why Scanners are “Epicures” and what that means.
Do have a listen - just click the play button below.
Nina runs an exercise in this recording with the balance chart. You can get your copy to fill on the LifeClubs website here.
At September Scanners Night, we met the superb Sarah de Nordwall, Professional Bard.
Sarah runs the UK’s only Bard School, was poet in residence at BBC Worldwide, and writes poems on commission. Sarah has performed as bard in locations from prisons to the House of Lords - and now Scanners Night.
Sarah captivated the audience with her ideas, stories and poems and she showed us the importance of story. Do have a listen to her - just click the play button below.
Have you got a good idea you’d like to make happen and perhaps even make some money out of?
Have you already launched your grand idea but not quite got the result you wanted?
Have you turned your idea into a business but want to find a way to make more money out of it?
Scanners Night this Wednesday is The Ideas Lab
It’s a virtual meeting on a teleconference line and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll cover as many people’s ideas as we can in the time and for each one, I’ll give my best tips for making the idea fly and also ask everyone else for helpful contacts and advice. If you’ve never experienced a Scanner brainstorm before, you’re in for a treat.
What’s your idea?
Want to write a book and win a great book deal?
Want to be a professional blogger?
Want to launch a killer website?
Want to get yourself, your business, or your music on the radio?
Want to turn your expertise into highly paid consultancy?
Want to add some ‘passive income’ to your current business?
Want to start a live event but don’t know how to get people to come along?
Want to build a following on twitter without resorting to tacky tricks?
Want to know how to double the number of people who know about your business/band/artwork/invention/book?
I’ve had experience of making all these ideas happen and with the help of everyone else on the call, you will be amazed at the connections we will make.
Come to The Ideas Lab and get your idea supercharged
Or just come along and help others.
All for just £10!
At July Scanners Night blogger, designer and creative thinker San Sharma showed us how to use Social Media to make a splash, build a tribe, and supercharge your scanner projects.
You can listen to San’s entire talk for free right now - just click the play button below.
Follow along with San’s slides
Go to SanSharma.com (opens in a new window) and click the link on the front page under “Free Download…” to open his slides so you can follow along with the audio.
Here are several superb new videos from Barbara Sher who originally coined the term “Scanner”.
These were shot on her recent Scanner Retreat in France which she runs several times a year. The next one is in Corfu.
They’re short and well worth watching.
What you love is what you’re good at
Barbara says, building a successful life begins with seeing the importance of doing everything you love.
Barbara Sher talks about Happiness Levels
H-Levels are one of the many ways to find what you love.
Barbara Sher talks about Resistance
Barbara introduces the theme of Resistance. Getting to know the nature of your inner obstacles is one of the steps to building a life you will love.
Barbara Sher: Do you like to Design, Execute, or Maintain?
Who you are will determine how you do your best work. Are you a designer, or do you love turning plans into reality? Maybe keeping things running is what you do best…
You can follow Barbara on twitter as @barbarasher. And while you’re at it, why not follow me with news of Scanners Night and other creative tidbits - @johnsw.
Find out how you can use the power of youtube and twitter for your projects and businesses at July Scanners Night.
Creative people, particularly Scanners, tend to have a lot of different interests and run multiple projects simultaneously. This keeps life interesting but makes it difficult for us to easily capture what we do in a way that potential contacts, clients or customers can grasp.
At May Scanners Night, John Purkiss showed us how to pull the various strands together, using a simple model based on Jungian archetypes.
Are you the Caregiver, the Creator, the Explorer, the Hero, the Innocent, Jester, the Lover, the Magician, the Ordinary Guy, the Outlaw, the Ruler, or the Sage?
You can listen to his entire talk for free right now - just click the play button below.
The book will be published on May 18th. Find out more at www.brandyou.info.
John studied economics and has an MBA. He has worked in banking, management consultancy and software. For the past 12 years he has been an executive search consultant or headhunter. He occasionally invests in the companies for which he finds finance directors and other board members. As well as writing books, he takes photographs. See www.johnpurkiss.com
Come to Scanners Night
Scanners Night is an event for creative people who love to learn new stuff, have many interests and get bored easily.
Scanners Night is on the 2nd Wednesday of every month and each one features a different speaker on a fascinating topic.
April Scanners Night was wonderfully inspiring. Our 4 speakers have all created a business and a lifestyle unlike any other in the world and you can listen to the recording of how they did it right here:
Sophie Boss created Beyond Chocolate with her sister Audrey. Beyond Chocolate shows women how to ditch diets forever, transform their relationship with food and lose weight in the process. Sophie and Audrey are author of the Beyond Chocolate book published in 2006 and are now recruiting “Chocolate Fairies” to take their mission nationwide of helping women start to enjoy food again.
Petra Barran, ChocStar
Choc Star is Britain’s only touring choc-mobile - converted from an ice cream van. Petra tours the country, making delicious chocolate goodies from local ingredients to sell from the van. She’s just completed a Chocstar Tour of Britain meeting strangers all over the country who invite her in for dinner in return for one of her hand-made chocolate desserts. Her next mission: to take the van acrosss America.
Sam Bompas and Harry Parr of Jellymongers
Jellymongers create fine English jellies, design bespoke jelly moulds and curate spectacular culinary events. Previous projects have included creating the wobbly Millenium bridge in jelly and an entire scale model of Barajas Airport in, you guessed it, jelly. And they’ve only just started. In April, Sam and Harry are creating Alcoholic Architecture with a walk-in breathable cocktail in Central London.
Sarah runs the UK’s only Bard School, was poet in residence at BBC Worldwide, and writes poems on commission. Sarah has performed as bard in locations from prisons to the House of Lords - and now Scanners Night.
