I could either be a statistic or an example: Why Russell Phillips is Fighting Drug Abuse

On average, at least 130 Americans die every single day from a fatal drug overdose, according to the Center for Disease Control.

That could’ve been Russell Phillips. Phillips is a Maryland resident and former addict who says he spent close to two decades addicted to drugs. He didn’t get clean until he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Now, three years since his release, he’s sharing his experiences, mentoring youth and fighting to change policy and the stigma against drug use- particularly in light of International Overdose Awareness Day, held annually on August 31.

“I think people are scared to discuss addiction because people who don’t understand it, they bash both addiction and addicts as well,” he explained. “People who are addicted or families of addicts, don’t always want to face the severity of the issue at hand. I think it’s easier just to forget about it or even pretend the problem isn’t there.”

Phillips was addicted to drugs for more than 18 years, experiencing homelessness and damaging relationships with his loved ones- particularly his mother and his daughter.

“I began selling drugs when I was 16. I would hang out and party with friends on the weekend. So, it started with alcohol and weed.”

He was eventually sentence for cocaine distribution and in jail he got clean. For his mother. For his daughter. For himself.

But that was just the start of another journey.
“I came home October of 2016,” he said. “When I first came home, I didn’t have anything. No money and my license was suspended. I had no car, I had no job and my mom was gone. The house that she lived in got foreclosed. A family member stole a life insurance policy that my mom had left for me. I literally had nothing.
But he said he was motivated by the last two decades. He wanted to make up for those mistakes, be a role model to his now 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, and simply put, make a difference. So he began mentoring youth, speaking publicly and formed a coalition called Light in the Shadows.

“Light in the Shadows is an organization that looks to shed light on people living in the darkest of places and situations…People living in the Shadows,” he said. “I founded it for the sole purpose of helping people realize that they are bigger than their circumstances, and that no matter where they’ve been in life, no situation is too big to overcome.

What’s next for this change maker? He said he plans to continue raising awareness around recovery, overdosing and addiction overall. He said he’s not just doing that through mentoring though:

“I also have a novel called “Dear Mom” coming. That will be out sometime next year. I’m speaking as well, trying to use my story as an inspiration to anyone who feels lost in life. I’m also in the process of reaching out to schools to help with kids. We all share a responsibility of helping and teaching the next generation. This world desperately needs change and direction, and I want to be a part of that.

You can learn more about Phillips and support his work by visiting his website (russellphillips.com/) and following him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/russell.phillips.71) and Twitter (twitter.com/RPhillips1979).

Once featured as a prominent woman in journalism by Ariana Huffington’s Thrive Global, journalist and editor, Taylor Leddin, releases her first book inspired by a creative process that she has been honing for nearly a decade. The Time Capsule Journal is a completely original workbook created by Leddin, which is based on an activity she developed in high school. The workbook, described as “a creative journal for now and later”, allows an individual to answer prompts in the present. Then, after completing all “present prompts” the individual will place the workbook out of sight for a year (or more as Leddin recommends) and then answers “future prompts”. The purpose of this journal is to see how you grow over time and serves as a way to merge your present and past selves.

The idea came to Leddin at the age of 17, when she turned a standard journal into a time capsule of what was happening in her life at the time. Upon her high school graduation, Leddin placed the journal into a shoebox and has not looked at it since. She will open 10 years from that date on her 28^th birthday to see how she has grown over the last decade. “I love the concept of creating something for my future-self to enjoy,” says Leddin. “More than something to look forward to, it encourages accountability as I wrote lists of goals to accomplish within that 10-year time frame.”

Leddin’s work has appeared in national publications, such as: The American Genius, Fan Fest, and The Roosevelts. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of her own online publication, The Tidbit – an entertainment and lifestyle site that features interviews Leddin has conducted with the likes of Tony Danza and Melora Hardin.

Though Leddin is no stranger to being published in print, The Time Capsule Journal is her first self-published work. This interactive journal makes for the perfect gift – for yourself or a friend. For more information on Taylor Leddin, visit: www.taylorleddin.com and to order a copy of The Time Capsule Journal, visit Amazon.

Taylor Leddin links:
Website: www.taylorleddin.com
The Tidbit: www.thetidbit.online
Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylorleddin
Instagram: www.instagram.com/taylorleddin
The Time Capsule Journal on Amazon: amzn.to/2TDpgNW

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Hi, my name is Alex Kurkowski. In 2018, I started attending Rice University as an MBA candidate. Already equipped with a career in the pharmaceutical industry and now maintaining a new MBA workload proved to be a tall task. I noticed that all my free time started to slip away, and so did a lot of my relationships with friends and family. To keep in touch, I started mailing them epistolary (literary/artisanal work in the form of letters) style illustrations. I would draw pictures in story form and snail-mail them out to loved ones piece by piece over time. Imagine a comic or any book with images being taken apart page by page and then those pages snail-mailed out one by one throughout weeks or even months! For my friends and family, it was always a way to stay connected and create fun, personalized stories so that they could look forward to checking their mailboxes every day. My family and friends always enjoyed these stories because they were always goofy, consistently sent over time, and they were always drawn as the main characters in their own personalized “mailbox movie.”

For example, I sent the first two to my brother and mother when I started at Rice. The story about my brother was based on a running joke they shared about a trip to see the Kansas City Chiefs training camp in Wisconsin; my then-teenage brother asked tight end (Tony Gonzalez) to autograph his ball while fake crying about having come all the way from Houston to get his signature. The one to my mom referenced one of her nicknames: “Queen Mamadala,” a play off of Queen Amidala from Star Wars.

After telling a few friends at school what I was doing, they suggested I turn my hobby into a business, so I decided to start Tellinga. Tellinga (like telling a story) is a Houston, TX-based start-up that creates personalized hand-drawn greeting cards that tell your story through snail mail. Story recipients receive illustrated stories about themselves based on unique preferences. It can be fun, dramatic, thoughtful… anything!

Here’s how it works:
1. Select your story length (options-one day, one week, two weeks, or one month)
2. Upload a photo and add a description of your desired story (you can reminisce a memory from your past or create a brand new story)
3. Our team of talented illustrators and artists will start working on your story
4. A few days later, the designated recipient of the story will start receiving unique hand-drawn greeting card-sized illustrations every other day in their mailbox until the package ends

There are three reasons why I decided to start Tellinga.

1. First, we live in such a digital world these days as we are always emailing, text messaging, and following each other’s social media accounts. Things such as traditional mail have somewhat been forgotten and for those that still frequently check the mail are often disappointed by the number of bills or junk mail. Tellinga offers a way to tap back into the tangible and traditional by providing a product that you can touch and feel on a deeper level rather than staring at another screen. It provides that old level of eagerness and anticipation of looking forward to checking your mailbox every day. It is the same exciting feeling of when you were exchanging letters of a pen pal or loved one growing up, looking forward to that new edition of your favorite magazine, or the expectation of receiving a greeting card from a loved one. The goal is to provide an extremely personalized gift that brightens a loved one’s day by delivering little hand-drawn story surprises in their mailboxes. It gives people the chance to be a character of their own mailbox story sent out piece by piece.

2. Second, greeting cards for lack of a better word, suck. They are templated without any real personalization or meaning. Messages are usually generic, lame, and flat out cheesy. Greeting cards also provide zero additional benefits. Sure, maybe you put one up on your fridge for a week, but nobody truly enjoys it. People usually receive a greeting card, fake smile, say “thank you,” and toss it out when nobody is looking. Why? It’s because there is zero additional use because it lacks meaning and feeling. Lastly, you only receive greeting cards one time in one given situation. I honestly don’t know how they have survived this long. Tellinga is the perfect solution to these problems. Telling a offers 100% personalization/customization allowing the customer to have whatever they want. Messages are told in story form, which is more heart-felt and personalized than standard templates. Tellinga also provides additional uses including Framing, putting on your refrigerator, set as the profile picture on your social media pages, and you can even create your own reusable storybook for your coffee table or book collection. Lastly, you receive Telling a hand-drawn cards over some time to enjoy multiple times rather than just the one occurrence. It’s where greeting cards meet storybooks!

3. Lastly, I wanted to start Telling a to deliver a new platform for young and eager artists to express themselves artistically while pursuing a path of personal and economic prosperity. Currently employing 25 talented artists from across the nation, Telling a is providing younger artists a chance to demonstrate their hard-earned art degrees by sending 100% hand-drawn storybook greeting cards as unique gifts by snail mail

Thanks for telling our story now let us help you tell yours. Your mailbox isn’t dead – it’s more alive than ever! Start your story today at Tellinga.com

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THE ILL EFFECTS OF A SEXLESS MARRIAGE

Some years ago I began to see a disturbing trend in nearly 80 percent of the married couples I treated. Their once rich, exciting, and active sex lives had become sexless. These were not middle-aged or senior couples, either. These were young, vital people from their twenties to forties. Most were unhappy, and at a loss about how they arrived at such an impasse. They also did not know how to return to the happy, healthy, sexually active lives they once led.
I consulted Saul L. Brown, M.D., Emeritus Director, Department of Psychiatry, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Emeritus Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, who is my go-to expert when I am baffled. Imagine my shock when Dr. Brown confirmed that he was seeing the same trend in his practice: many young people having little to no sex early in their marriage, when previous generations demanded more.
This might be because shame often surrounds discussion of sex, particularly when things are not going well. We all have sexual hopes and expectations. Some even have fairytale fantasies about sexual encounters. In my private practice, and as an expert on WEtv’s Sex Box, I have seen that when sex for these couples goes south, many see it as a personal failure.
Lack of sex has many causes, including “we just had a baby,” to being worn out by the kids, financial strain, or career demands. No matter the cause, at the root is a common denominator: lack of communication. And, when marital communication breaks down, sex falls apart. Divorce often ensues.
The divorce rate in America has averaged 40-50 percent for decades and that is far, far too high. Plus, a 2014 report by Sheela Kennedy and Steven Ruggles from the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota, as published in Demography, shows our divorce rate as increasing for the past thirty years. Another study, this one published in 2013 in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finds the fear of being single may keep people in sexless relationships, or settling for less desirable partners. They’d rather have someone than no one. But, help awaits.

DR. FRAN’S TOP TIPS FOR REKINDLING SEX AND HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

1. Talk honestly with your partner about his or her needs––and yours.
2. Don’t wait until the sex is gone to address issues.
3. Use “I” versus “You,” meaning don’t blame, criticize, or put down your partner/spouse.
4. Own your feelings, and be accountable for your part of the equation.
5. Women: ask for your sexual needs to be fulfilled. You’d be amazed how many young women are uncomfortable asking their guy for specifics.
6. Men: request your needs, too. Statistics show that men cheat more frequently than women. Men are too quick to look elsewhere if they do not get what they need. Why not ask for what you want, and preserve fidelity in your relationship?
7. No one is attracted to a dependent personality. When individuals nurture their own areas of interest, they become stronger and more attractive partners.
8. When you need help, search for a qualified couples therapist.
9. Send romantic texts and emails to each other every day.
10. Take a shower or bath together. Fill the bathroom with candlelight, then wash and massage each other. Exciting stuff!
11. Don’t share your fantasies with your partner. All telling does is stimulate jealousy and low self-esteem. Think your fantasies instead.
12. Put your worries in a locked box and leave it outside the bedroom. If she’s worried about the kids she will not have an orgasm. When the stock market goes down, so does his erection. Free yourselves to enjoy the moment.

© Dr. Fran Walfish, Psy. D. 2015

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Just 20 minutes outside of Chicago sits MassVR, the first-of-its-kind virtual reality Esports arena. Unlike any other VR in the world, MassVR offers a next-generation Esports game where players are not only competing and socializing, they’re also being active by continuously walking, running, and jumping while playing the game. This is changing the virtual reality narrative from a sedentary activity to an active experience.

MassVR has developed the first player-vs-player virtual reality experience where participants can interact and immerse themselves in 32,000 square feet of free roam, unrestricted movement playing space – four arenas each hosting 8,000 square feet. This VR gaming platform brings the fun of video gaming to life as it turns real space into a large-scale, playable arena that feels as close to reality as one can get. The location also hosts spacious banquet rooms available for parties and corporate events. They have even hosted events for A-list celebrities, such as Chance the Rapper.

Players gear up with a VR headset, a backpack, and a game controller – which was developed by MassVR – and are then transported into the virtual realm, where up to eight players can engage in a team-vs-team battle called VR Champions. This is a first-person shooter game that immerses players in a massive virtual map where they team up to destroy the enemy team’s power core. Powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine, MassVR has developed a proprietary “1:n” playspace giving the players thousands of square feet of physical playspace while expanding that into a larger virtual world. In-game elements – including ziplining, teleporting, and use of jetpacks – enable players to go beyond the limitations of the physical world.

Links
Website: www.massvr.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MassVRGaming
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MassVRGaming
Instagram: www.instagram.com/massvrgaming/
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/massvrgaming
TedX: www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=4E_Uiz75_LA

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The Raw Truth About Entrepreneurship – and How to Stay Motivated

Introduction

Hi! I’m Julie Singh, Co-Founder of www.TripOutside.com. My husband Reet and I started TripOutside out of a shared enthusiasm for outdoor adventure and travel. We are passionate about exploring this incredible world on our bikes, kayaks and skis. After many frustrating experiences wasting valuable vacation time renting equipment, we decided to create a website that allows others to easily book gear for their adventures online, saving them time and effort and letting them enjoy more of their vacation time. We are woman and minority owned, with over 20 combined years of experience in retail, finance and technology at a fortune 30 company. We left our corporate careers 2 years ago in pursuit of our passions. TripOutside is a fully mobile company – we gather information on the best outdoor destinations for our customers by exploring the country in our motorhome with our cat Juke.

What Differentiates TripOutside.com?
TripOutside is a new website for outdoor enthusiasts who want to book outdoor gear and adventures online from the best local shops. The site allows customers to discover top outdoor destinations, compare rental prices, and book the gear they need online quickly and easily. The site features shops that rent bikes, kayaks, stand up paddleboards, canoes, skis, snowboards, rafts, surfboards, camping gear and more.

TripOutside.com features outdoor gear and adventures for the outdoor enthusiast. We strive to tread lightly on our extraordinary planet and we feature only “silent sports” – gear and adventures that leave no trace. We focus primarily on gear rental for “DIY” adventures, but we also feature some awesome guided trips like whitewater rafting and backcountry paddling tours. We curate our outfitters and adventures to make sure we are only featuring the best local shops.

Many other travel sites exist where customers can book a broad variety of experiences – everything from museum visits to guided city tours. You won’t find museum visits, walking tours or ATV rentals on TripOutside.com. We focus on a smaller outdoor adventure niche, but everything on our site is relevant to the outdoor enthusiast. Our goal is to get more people out and exploring our magnificent wild places!

TripOutside.com works with gear rental shops of all sizes, whether they have an existing online booking software or not! We can integrate with many different booking software or send them booking requests using our custom-built tool. We provide an additional marketing channel to help shops rent unused equipment while saving them time and effort in the shop.

My Favorite Aspect of Being an Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur, particularly a “digital nomad” entrepreneur is extremely exhilarating because it gives us the flexibility to live our lives the way we want to. We decide where we want to be, what we want to work on, and how we balance our time and lives. But it also requires a TON of discipline, because with flexibility comes the need to evaluate and structure for success. I love being able to look at my most precious asset, my time, and decide where I’m going to spend it. I believe this is also the biggest difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else. Having spent 15 years in Corporate America, I see the biggest difference is the true autonomy of entrepreneurship that requires a ridiculous amount of discipline, motivation and tenacity.

Sacrifices of Entrepreneurship
This leads me to the sacrifices. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thinking about the business, strategizing, brainstorming, planning and executing. It’s hard to step away from it, it truly is my baby. We are working most of our waking hours, and I think most entrepreneurs can relate. The never-ending feeling that there is more work to be done can be hard to deal with, especially when we are in incredible outdoor destinations! The good part about our business (and the reason we started an outdoor adventure business) is that it also allows us to get out and experience the destinations we are featuring. We focus on curating many of the local shops and outdoor activities we feature for our customers. We try to get outside and explore every day – even if it’s just a short hike – and plan a bigger adventure like mountain biking a few times a week. We are truly passionate about helping people get outdoors, and the conservation of our wild places – so that definitely helps. We also use nature and the outdoors to help us clear our heads, relieve stress, and get our creative juices flowing!

Business Advice for New Entrepreneurs
The Obstacle is the Way (another great book we read recently!). Don’t shy away from the challenging areas of your business – this is probably why you started the business to begin with! The obstacles are usually where the big “aha!” moments come from, and where you can make the most difference. It will not always be easy, but that’s also why it probably hasn’t been done before. Have confidence in yourself and your ability to figure it out!

My Favorite Book that Helped Motivate Us to Start a Business
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is a really great book that I read just before we started TripOutside.com. I came across it at just the right time – it helped me to challenge my status quo, redefine my idea of success, and make some drastic changes to pursue my passions. It encouraged me to move beyond traditional ways of thinking and redesign my life on my own terms. It’s worth the read!

Contact Details: Email, Social Media, Logo/Photos
Website: www.TripOutside.com
Email: info@tripoutside.com
Instagram: @trip.outside (www.instagram.com/trip.outside/)
Facebook: tripoutside (www.facebook.com/tripoutside/)

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“Email is dead! Webinars are dead! Organic social media is dead!”

That’s what all the experts are saying right now. Maybe they’re right, and that’s got you worried. You’re thinking, “Maybe I’m too late to use these popular digital tools to make a name for myself in my industry, to be the person everyone wants to interview on podcasts and in traditional media.”

The good news is, it’s not too late to build authority in your niche online…even if nobody knows who you are yet. And I’ll prove it to you. Let’s see how different authority building tactics stack up against one another. Which has longevity? Which tactic most effectively establishes you as the thought leader on your topic?

Let’s take a look at email first. If you know how to write killer subject lines and emotion-soaked hooks, your marketing emails will move your leads to action. Email effectiveness, check! But longevity? Once your marketing emails disappear from the first page of somebody’s inbox or even go immediately to your Gmail Promotions tab, that’s it. So yes, email marketing works, but its lifespan is about that of a fruit fly.

Second, how about those webinars? Same story here. If you’re entertaining, your best leads will stick with you on your webinar. They’ll ask questions and click the link you send them. But do webinars work most of the time on most people for very long? Nope. Twenty years ago, webinars were the hot new exciting marketing tactic. Now, a lot of people see them as the internet’s equivalent of hour-long infomercials. As a long-term strategy to build authority, webinars are dinosaurs unless you’re doing one or two every single day.

Third, organic social media. Ten years ago, Facebook and other social platforms shared your every status update with your business page’s followers. Today? A mere fraction of a fraction of a fraction of your followers sees your authority-building content, which is probably great! But does it make sense to pour your heart, mind, and soul into brand-building thought leadership content that only six people see?

All that said, we can think of only one marketing strategy that works twenty years ago, that works today, and that works twenty years from now. You probably know what it is already because it’s right in front of you.

Your bookshelf.

Like you, I have business books that were published twenty, thirty, even fifty-plus years ago. I keep the books right in front of me in my workspace just like you do. We see these authors’ names and book titles, what, maybe fifty times per day?

Clearly, books win the longevity game, no question about it. But what about effectiveness compared to email, webinars, and social media? Whether your readers buy your book or get a free copy from your Free Plus Shipping funnel, your book is the one and only place where you put literally every single lesson, tactic, technique, tip, and strategy you’ve compiled over the course of your career. Short-form content like email newsletters or blog articles you post on social media just doesn’t give you that much space. Plus, a book is the one and only place where you can talk yourself up big time yet you don’t come across like an egotistical know-it-all. Do that on a webinar, and you’ll be the only attendee you’re talking to.

In short, the reason writing and publishing a book is the number-one best way to build your authority? You get to say, “I wrote the book on my industry.” So, who else are the event coordinators, the high-ticket prospects, and the media going to call when they need an expert on your topic? You!

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My Number 1 PINCH Motivation Tip
By: Jason Pinchoff

So there’s just no escaping the world any longer online or offline. Because everyone you know has an opinion whether you asked to hear it or not… it’s shared and reposted over and over.

One of my biggest motivational processes I live by comes from that old school mentality of just being in the moment. For a long time I tried a bunch of tricks all these overpriced motivational “speakers” speak. But you’ll quickly find out you basically paid for common information you could have bought a $9.99 book on.

So I tried the next ideal thing, to go out with friends or coworkers, but you’ll quickly find you can get sucked into their lives which will pause your motivational growth. There’s no set rules, but I found one motivational secret that works powerfully, for me… might just inspire you too?

PINCH Motivation Tip whenever I hit that invisible motivation wall I will step back… close my laptop, turn my papers over, I’ll ask Alexa or Google to play Hip Hop, grab my Nike walking sneakers, grab my iPod and go for a walk… but not just any walk. This walk has a purpose, it’s to mentally disconnect and become a sponge to the environment while I listen to music and watch everything around me. I live in New York and I get inspired by all the art, the energy on random blocks filled with architecture and all the beautiful individuals just walking around and think of what or who they are or wonder what’s there story.

When I found myself freeing myself from the confines of my work… my work began to feel different so allowing myself to be in a moment always jolts new motivation.

So get up… get dressed and get on your personal walkabout and find yourself through the energy surrounding you as you listen to whatever music plays on your iPod while getting lost in your area.
Believe me you’ll discover when you disconnect will get reconnected quicker than you knew.
Go Get Motivated.

: Stay Great :
Entrepreneur/ Author: JASON PINCHOFF
www.jasonpinchoff.com IG: jpinchoff

More about Jason Pinchoff:

Originally from Hollywood, Florida, Jason Pinchoff knew from an early age that through his passion for style and dedication to hard work, an ethic developed from watching his father, he was going to make a difference.

Jason harnessed the power of his mother’s life-affirming approach to adversity and began to change his future. In his 20s, Jason began his career at HQ Creative, an advertising and content marketing-company, where he developed a knack for events, budget management, client relations and multimedia produced and post production supervisor.

His career escalated to playing key roles on campaigns for such major brands as iHeartRadio, the Walt Disney Company and The McGraw Hill Corporation. His unique mix of business savvy and street smarts, coupled with his determination to spread the positive outlook that saved him, indicated his next step was that of entrepreneur where he founded A PINCH LIFE a boutique fashion company. A PINCH LIFE’s “I Don’t Do Ugly” anti-bullying campaign combines his love of design and giving back.

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Tips for Effective Storytelling: How to Narrate a Good Tale in a VR App

Everybody loves a good story. It can transport you into an alternate reality. Thanks to virtual reality (VR), now it’s possible for the app developer to transport you into that alternate reality.

Storytelling in a VR app is an emerging medium. It’s also a very different storytelling medium in that traditional oral, written and filmed storytelling is mostly a passive experience. True, if you’re listening to or reading a story, there’s some imaginative engagement on your part, but you’re still essentially consuming content provided by the storyteller. It’s an even more passive experience in video, where you’re watching a storing unfold.

In a VR app, though, you can actually enter the action of the story, perhaps even influence the story’s outcome. Instead of what Jesse Damiani terms the teller-listener paradigm, you have a builder-participator paradigm.

Here’s what the app developer—the storyteller—needs to consider to tell an effective story in a VR app.
360 Degree Perspective

It’s not unusual to relay a narrative from the perspective of different characters. In the VR experience, users can choose the perspective they want to see. Or, change perspectives whenever they wish. And, perhaps, participate in the story from the perspective they choose.

Characters are in a room. What do they see? With VR headsets, viewers can point and turn to see what’s going on from any angle, as if they are actually in the room. Consider point of view. Will you allow your audience to view the room through the eyes of the main character only, only specific characters, all the characters, and/or from a neutral third-party observant view?

As Erica Anderson of Google News points out, VR provides the ability to tell a story about a political crisis from a particular side of the conflict or play a game from the perspective of two teams or see outer space from the inside of an astronaut’s helmet rather than from a spaceship window.

From the perspective of the storyteller, that means considering the viewpoints of all the characters and how you want them to “play” within the narrative. This determines the larger architecture of the story and what users can experience. The key here is that instead of a linear narrative where the author regulates what viewers are told, viewers control what they want to be told.

Writing a story from multiple perspectives involves more work, so it may be a good idea to either limit the characters or limit which character perspectives users can select.

Space Is the Place
The story in a VR app is the place. Because the story is more about experiencing it, as opposed to telling it, the setting is more important than plot. Composing a VR app story is primarily building the environment and then considering how users can act within that space. As Jesse Damiani points out, “If you’re making a tabletop AR game, its size could mean the difference between users playing it from the comfort of their beds or needing to run around a kitchen table. Understanding your target audience’s desires and habits empowers you to use narrative potential effectively—and thereby produce content that appeals to them.”

Once you’ve designed a space for your story, the next step is to populate it with “things” that advance the story.
Points of Interest

These “things” are called points of interest (POIs). They are things that draw attention, or that you force attention to be drawn to. In a library setting, for example, an open book on a table could be a POI a viewer could (or could not) select to read the displayed page. Or, you might have the book fall from the table, attracting the viewer’s attention and calling for some action to advance the narrative. If, for example, reading a clue in the book is integral to advancing the narrative, you might opt for it to fall off the shelf. On the other hand, if it’s just a branching narrative that isn’t essential to your story’s plot, then leave it out there for viewers to see and if they pick it up, fine, if not, that’s fine too.

“Placing bets on POIs helps to form consequential editing decisions,” notes Jessica Brillhart, “like which world I want to go to next and how best to transition from one world to another.”

Branch Out
If you’re giving your viewers choices, then you need to map out where those choices lead. Make sure there are no dead ends. Or, if a branch does lead to a dead-end, make sure viewers can find their way back on another track. Also, take into account how these branching experiences intersect.

Brave New World
Keep in mind that VR apps are still very much a work in progress. Everyone is familiar with screenplays (though maybe not everyone knows how to write a good screenplay). The rules for writing a VR app and the standards for what is considered a good VR app are still evolving. So, by all means, feel free to experiment.

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With over one billion websites in existence, standing out on the Internet can be a difficult – sometimes impossible – task. Zima Media makes it possible to stand out as they specialize in online marketing. Zima Media is an SEO, PPC & Analytics Digital Agency as well as a Fiverr Pro top seller with over 1,000 positive reviews. Their customer base spans over 30 different industries in over 80 countries.

The company was co-founded by Chief Growth Officer, Michael Zima, who lives in Spain full-time, and Damien Bouvier, who is currently located in France. These two business partners have been working together remotely for four years, but have never met in-person.

The fact that they work remotely doesn’t stop them from delivering top-notch services to their clients. Zima Media has a leg above competitors as they are a completely decentralized digital marketing agency, which means all employees work remotely – therefore, they avoid overhead costs and assure exceptional productivity. This is an unfolding story which proves that with the technology in this day and age, you can make amazing things happen for your business – even if you’ve never actually met your business partner in-person.

Their innovative marketing approach has been incredibly successful for clients, as they know the secret to make the difficulties of digital marketing more straightforward.

Links
Zima Media Website: www.zimamedia.com
Zima Media Facebook: www.facebook.com/zimamediallc/
Zima Media Instagram: www.instagram.com/zimamedia/
Zima Media LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/zima-media/
Zima Media Twitter: twitter.com/Zima_Media
Zima Media YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCiI_e5kni1Du5SbKFV1qOBw

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Tuthill Corporation has produced their first Internet documentary series, The Search for Aliveness, which premiered on January 31, 2019. Tuthill, “the company with heart”, is taking a journey outside of manufacturing to explore what it means to be alive. Tuthill’s summit is to Wake the World, which is a movement of discovery: discovering that you can create the life that you want to live. Episodes of the docu-series will stream on www.thesearchforaliveness.com, YouTube, and Facebook.

In their Internet documentary series, The Search for Aliveness, Tuthill’s creative team – made up of Tuthill’s Sherpa of Purpose, Chad Gabriel (host and narrator), Awareness Activator, Erica Magda (director of photography), and Explorer, Vito Pellicano (creator and director) – are currently traveling the world interviewing individuals from different backgrounds, races, cultures, etc. to see if there is commonality in aliveness. The series is still in production and is being created to encourage people to slow down and think about what makes them feel alive amidst our fast-paced lives that are full of chaos, distraction, and doubt.

The company began their search with a worldwide casting call, and continues to find participants around the globe to share their perspective on what aliveness means to them. Each selected participant will not only appear in the Internet docu-series, but will also be featured on The Search for Aliveness website and social media. Interviewees have shared stories of love, loss, inspiration, and motivation. All of this will be used to find basic human truths, a “recipe”, made up with ingredients contributed by those who share their stories.

Links
The Search for Aliveness Links:
Website: www.thesearchforaliveness.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheSearchForAliveness
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlivenessSeries
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesearchforaliveness
Official Trailer: www.thesearchforaliveness.com/video/extras/official-trailer/ YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpAfy9VOO9Q
IMDB: www.imdb.com/title/tt8991104/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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Do that. That’s where you should go looking to find some true inspiration; inspiration you can touch, feel and that will build with time and show you the path to tread on.

Shooting for the stars and reaching for the moon is what ambition is all about and that’s what we have been taught from day one. But, what about the journey from your “Now!” to get to that moon? How do you learn about the path to take, the incremental steps that get you there, the defeats you need to face before you arrive?

Defacto, attention is drawn to stalwarts of our time and times before. Gandhi, Edison and such famed personalities are pointed to as historical figures to emulate from. Go ahead and learn about them. They lived in a different time and did different things that influenced the course of our past and present. However, it’s difficult to find a constant in the realm of inspiration from them. The more recent personalities such as Steve Jobs of Apple and Dr. Abdul Kalam, the missile man of India also provide inspiration. Mostly, it is inspiration that points to aspirations to reach their heights. All of these people have a place and time in our own lives to learn from, no doubt about that. But, it’s the aspiration of their heights that is the driver more than anything else. And, we all know that there was one Steve Jobs or one Gandhi.

Each of us and our own lives are unique. What you do or will do is unique and it’s for you to chart your individual path while drawing inspiration and lessons from far and near as you chisel your own destiny. Mind you, none of the personalities we look up to, set off to say that one day I will make my mark and influence the world. They all set out to do what they personally wanted to achieve, in many a case not knowing when or how they will pave their path, leave alone where they would end up. They started for themselves and soon, many others found a unity in purpose with them, which made them out to be the personalities they are today.

Look for your inspiration closer home. It doesn’t always have to be a towering personality you need to look up to. My kid’s bus driver who makes it on time early in the morning every day, to pick them up and drive them to school safely, inspires me. I am inspired by the teacher who has an extra-curricular activity planned for the kids an hour before the school starts and holds the door open for them to come in even before the sun breaks out. The dad or mom who goes out to win bread for the family against all odds, no matter what, inspires me. Parents who multi-task to provide for a family yet, pursue meaningful careers and hobbies inspire me. Some venture to take on and tackle the challenges of the world.

Look around you and find inspiration from those you interact with every day. Learn from them as well as influence them with what is good in you. This keeps the flow of inspiration fluid and constant. Then, continue to build your aspirations, look to learn from the experiences of towering personalities and tweak your own agenda and actions to get to where you want to be. Following in someone’s footsteps is one thing, but the current times provide you the opportunity to tread and create your own paths and go, discover unchartered territories.

Get inspired, aspire and accomplish!

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