Many people I work with are often afraid of “going too far.” That’s good; we don’t want to scare people off — from making a policy change, a donation, a personal action or whatever it is that could give us the change we need.

But there’s a difference between the fear of scaring people off and the fear of shaking things up a bit. The fear of the former at the expense of the latter can be your undoing.

Indeed, an unwillingness to shake things up — to catch your audience’s attention and give them something different to think about — will scare them off just as much as if you had offended them. Making straight, dull, unoriginal content that doesn’t engage is a guarantee of a sub-one-thousand click payoff. If you’re lucky enough to already have a captive audience — you’ve handcuffed them to their chairs — then I guarantee you a room of echoing snores by the time you’re done.

Benign Violation is a principle that drives enjoyment and sharing of content. Essentially, if your piece violates the viewer’s norm — takes them out of his/her world and questions it for a moment — that person’s brain perks up, takes notice, and pays attention. If your message is compelling, that same listener will be so grateful for the experience s/he will want others to feel the same sensation, by sharing your message and video.

I don’t know why benign violation works. Humor, storytelling… it’s all elusive neuroscience that, while we’ll never completely understand it, we must use to our advantage.

Above is a piece that follows this principle. The narrarotr casually mentions atrocious industrial secrets in a format known for guilt-free, happy hype. It glorifies gluttony, and ironically encourages the behavior. Violating? Yes, it’s not what we’re used to hearing in an infomercial, and covers topics we don’t like to discuss, including energy resource depletion. Offensive? Eh. Almost, to the point of being edgy, but not really.

Consider the alternative: Should you make a video with pictures of sad children and smoke stacks with a voiceover saying, “Don’t buy useless novelties. They are bad for the environment, and waste energy,”? If you’re leaning yes, re-read this article, or give me a call so I can shake you, very hard.

What do you wish you could say, but are afraid to? If it’d violate your comfort zone, but get some attention and wouldn’t burn bridges, I’d highly consider saying it, in hopefully a creative way. Any other approach may go unnoticed.

Loosen up a bit, because your audience is not as lame and humorless as you assume. Give ‘em some credit and have some fun!

We. Are.  The 99%! (And so are you!)

That’s what I heard legendary Reverend Billy Talen sing at #occupywallstreet during my journey to the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  It’s now a common chant at the marches up and down Wall Street.  The “so are you” is what got me out here.

Forget about the whining about not having a clear demand that you hear from the media and the actual occupiers, who share the same criticism.  They’re there all for the same reason — they are disgusted by banking’s control of our government, and they want to see either major reforms or see the system dismantled and rebuilt. The real problem though, is bigger than capitalism, bigger than the banks, bigger than Obama’s failures.

However, few know it ultimately boils down to this: We have a growth-based economy, dependent on infinite resources on a finite planet.  With only so much oil, soil, clean water, coal, natural gas, etc., it can’t grow forever.  Many feel we are now at the peak extraction rate of all these resources, so now it’s a matter of getting ready to adapt to the change.

That’s the message I’m bringing out here, that I hope gets its message into the mind of the movement, asap. Thank you, occupiers, for starting — continuing — a movement we’ve needed for a long time.

Research shows that people kind of don’t care about really important things that can change their life forever, if it’s just given to them straight.

So I made this promo for the Art of Community conference in September a little… well, you’ll see.  What was your reaction?  What did you do at the end?  How did you feel?

The link at the end takes you to Art of Community promo page, which should have the video you see below, right at the top…

Community living is the way of the future, and even the present.  Will I see you at the conference?

Netroots Nation is the home of the online progressive movement. It’s an intense four days of learning, networking, and being wooed by every union and politician around. I’m already on their side, so for me it’s kind of like a rep from Ben and Jerry’s begging me to try their new ice cream. Except the rep could be trying to sell me their new All-Natural Agave Swirl, only later to learn it’d be better described as Nuclear High Fructose Corn Syrup Sludge. They both taste good, so it’s best to look closely, or not look at all.

This is I trying to make sense after being on my feet for 10 hours on 3 hours of sleep, so you may notice me slipping in and out of consciousness. Excellent interview technique by Mike McIntee, who had been interviewing folks all day; I know how taxing that can be, so I am impressed by his focus and thought-provoking line of questioning.

As you may know by now, iStock has a pretty decent selection for stock images; it’s really helpful when making a video you need to get out quickly.

Once you sort out the cheesiness and clear the coffee out of your throat from gasping at the hilarity of some of the images it recommends when you type in your search, you can snatch some great finds. Nature photography is plentiful.

This one’s good for 10 free credits, if you buy 26 credits more… iStock’s New Discount Offer

More on real-world stuff soon…

PSOM was written as a “flash mob”, originally, but we didn’t have the resources. But if we did… would it have gotten 1,136,033 views in 20 days? Inspiring…

Last night Krista K. Brown of KristaKBrown.net blew my mind — my traps, shoulders, and whatever that impossible-to-reach muscle is underneath my shoulder blades.

Krista was donating her time to Bay Localize‘s 5th Anniversary Fundraiser, offering chair massages and donating the proceeds toward relocalizing the Bay Area. With a bright smile and serious focus, Krista went beyond the routine and really dug down into the nasty knots I let build up over time… apparently a professional massage every two years is too long of a stretch.

If you’re in the Bay Area, I highly recommend checking out Krista for her work, dedication to the future, and all that lactic acid that’s been building up in your overly-stressed trapezius. She may very well be the best massage therapist in Oakland.