Author Archives: Jacqueline Ashby

McKinnon!! Can you picture us dressed up like two old flappers driving around in this? So fun!

Reminder to myself to get this book!

No, I moustache you a question!
Who shaves his face to look like a question mark?
My best friend in the whole wide world! That’s who!
Taking Movember to a whole new level!
You rock!
And I know it’s December! Any month is a good month to make a positive change towards a healthier, more active lifestyle. Get screened and get outside!
Love to all my boys this holiday season!

Stephen! This image is THE cover of your new book!
Though I recommend a change in title. How about..”Hiking BC’s Backcountry with the Physically Illiterate and Socially Inept”?
Bahahaha!!! Dude, you need to photoshop Niagara Falls underneath me. This is ridiculous.
You know what I love about this shot? Visible are my chewy chocolate chip granola bars stashed in the side pocket. And you can just get a glimpse of my fanny pack! Ha!
Good times. Always good times!

There’s the ideal beauty of youth and health, which never really changes, and is always true. There’s the ideal beauty of movie stars and advertising models, the beauty-game ideal, which changes its rules all the time and from place to place, and is never entirely true. And there’s an ideal beauty that is harder to define or understand, because it occurs not just in the body but where the body and the spirit meet and define each other….

That must be what the great artists see and paint. That must be why the tired, aged faces in Rembrandt’s portraits give us such delight: they show us beauty not skin-deep but life-deep.

~ Ursula Le Guin via Brainpickings

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
~ Steve Jobs

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream,
remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if,remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek(forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me,remember me

~ e.e. cummings

Chasing Creativity & the Art of Storytelling
Pearls shared by Neil Stevenson, High Wizard of Chaos at IDEO
Watch the interview here.

Use the Bar Test to Prototype Your Story:
Next time you have to communicate something in the work environment, practice communicating it first to your friends over beers, coffee, or tea. We call this the “bar test,” a verbal story prototype that we teach in the Storytelling for Influence course. Prototype your story ideas by talking them out in a human context before writing them down in a professional context.

Beware of the Danger of Expertise:
There’s this danger in the comfort of expertise and there’s huge value in putting yourself in situations where you’re the opposite of an expert—where you’re a beginner, where you’re learning. Try putting yourself in situations that have an intentional level of discomfort. This is often a stepping point toward bold new learning.

On the Importance of Fear in Creativity:
It’s easy to think of fear as a warning, but in the creative context, fear can sometimes be a beacon that you’re going into new, growth-inducing territory. All forms of creativity involve some sort of dissonance and there’s often a feeling of, maybe I shouldn’t do this. There is a policeman inside your head, and he must be destroyed. In the context of storytelling, in order to conquer (or minimize!) your fear you really need to get out and take action. There’s a tendency for people to wait and then wing it with their stories and presentations.

Less Like a Powerpoint, More Like a Campfire:
Make your stories and presentations more impactful by imagining them as time around the campfire with your audience. Partner with your audience and remember a story is an emotional journey.

It’s a Never-ending Journey:
Chasing creativity is kind of like chasing a rainbow. You only have one life, you should push yourself to do all the things that seem scary to you. The act of doing it will immediately push you somewhere new.