Gratitude App - leveraging mobile and social mediums to discover and grow personal and professional attributes and scale to provide global impact

I haven't posted in a month or so but have been spending some time looking at value-based businesses. When I say value-based, I am not only looking at the product but the service that a business is providing to humanity as a whole and the potential for global impact.

As part of the advertising/media industry (and post our Superbowl blitz of ads) what percent showcased ideals like humility, kindness, gratefulness or understanding? We are drawn to the puppy / Clydesdales, Veterans and family value ads...Why?? because they strike a cord and make us feel all warm and fuzzy. But what, if any, long term impact do these ads or companies provide??

As I've moved along my career path I've been very lucky to work with a handful of people and projects that actually had quantifiable impact on the human race. Unfortunately, today, these are few and far between.

I spent some time in Miami recently (no, not just to get out of the snow in NYC) but to look at a special platform being built by a special group of people who are leveraging mobile tech and social networks to play an incredible role in helping people realize their life's possibilities.

Interested? I was!

Nick Conner a successful entrepreneur exited Legion.com four years ago. He made a lot of money and left Tribeca for Miami. His brother, famous guru and spiritual guide, Patrick Conner, was one reason for his move to Miami. Yet something else was eating at him....he understood that everyone was capable of extraordinary things yet the difficulty was unlocking the potential within each of us. This is done by discovering our higher qualities and removing our limiting beliefs.

And then came along Gratitude. Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools to create the inner positivity required to enable this potential. The greatest impact is expressing gratitude for others - it impacts every part of our life - work, family, friends, relationships and success. Yet, despite wanting to do it, most of us find it cumbersome or it requires too much effort.

Enter YouCloud. Nick and his team have developed a platform of Apps (Android and IOS launching April '14) that make it simple to express appreciation and see how that appreciation grows, is paid forward, showcases your unique potential qualities and impacts lives..

The platform will launch with a beautiful and free app about Gratitude but the vision is much larger. The group of Apps will help corporations and businesses align values and culture, track performance, enhance job recruitment. The platform will also be used as a tool to enhance personal relationships, matching, and even guideing children and parenting. The abiltiy to discover, log, review, track and provide key development content for any number of goals is not only powerful, it is what is needed today to grow economies, leverage technology for human good, decrease stress, improve education, live more fully, be healthier, and ensure that we are building a better world.

I believe in the power of gratitude and the impact that these types of programs and platforms can provide. Happily I am working with Nick and team to help raise a round of capital and look forward to seeing how this will explode and impact the world in a positive way.

If you are interested in finding out more, please drop Nick a line at nick@theyoucloud.com.

Relationships and value....how would you rate yourself?

In a world where we use media of all kinds to describe our most intimate details and give ourselves and hearty pat on the back for posting our latest achievement or "like'ing" or "sharing" a friend or colleagues post, are we really having and nurturing real relationships?

Yes, everyone is busy and yes, everyone uses media to communicate be it email, social media, and the never ending photo posts and pins....but as interesting and sometimes self serving as it feels (or seems at the moment) in acting or reacting so quickly and so robotically it feels like the value is lost.

I have a friend who has been estranged from his daughter and son for many years and while he now has a consistent phone and Skype conversation with his son, his daughter refuses any communication. Now mind you, there was no criminal act done and in fact he became a father at a very, very young age and wasn't always around. Her shutting him down also meant that her two young daughters were also part of the shutdown too.

Rather than use email or sending them updates via social media, my friend chose the old phone and writing simple notes to the grandkids because he truly values his relationships and deems them special enough to take the time to communicate in this fashion.

After several attempts writing the eldest granddaughter and several months of waiting, he received a very simple but beautiful note from a 9 year old telling him about her best friend, that she likes the color yellow, loves dogs and is a big reader too.

Not only was my friend surprised [he didn't expect a response] it truly made his day. He recognized that by his simple and personal attempt how it made a difference. I am glad to say that he is well on his way to building a better bridge to the future generation.

I am not saying that we all need to go back to writing personal notes but then again if we just stopped sending emails for a day or just quickly responding to every little post or tweet or pin could could it change our life or enhance the life of someone else? I think it could.

On rating myself I'd say out of a possible 10 I am a less than 5 right now in terms of personal communication. I love reading folks like Ted Rubin and his great daily posts about communication, return on relationships, personalizing brand relationships and social media - I think I'd like to try brining this to my personal life too. I think I am worth it and know some people in my life that would appreciate a personal note or call a bit more often.

Honestly how would you rate yourself in terms of your value in relationships? What simple things can you do to change how you relate??