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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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Over the past few months this blog has grown and I have become more involved with several online communities. One of which (D*I*Y*Planner.com) has been a tremendous resource for me as I went through the steps of designing my own calendar pages to use with my GTD practice. Through DIYP I came to know Ryan Rasmussen, the Emerging Media Specialist at the Levenger store in Chicago, IL. His assistance and introductions to other collaborators has been very influential in the direction this blog is taking.

I thought that I would share Ryan with my readers, and ask some questions that may help others grow in the Web 2.0 world and the new knowledge economy.

I will let Ryan go first, with a short introduction (re-posted from another of Ryan’s conversations):

Thank you for the encouragement. I am happy to share what I have learned as a result of hands-on experimentation.

I took a lesson from Tom Kelley in my approach. He prescribes a new face of business - that of the anthropologist. Embedded within vocal communities, I have found that using the emergent tools of the environment to spark discussion through collaborative new product development (otherwise known as “hacking”) generates a great deal of positive feedback. The result is a spike in consumer generated marketing, and a steady stream of collaborative ideation that gives consumers a voice in the direction of ‘their’ company.

Is innovation and marketing the objective?

Conversations are the objective. I encourage others still hesitant to join in the discussions to break away from checklists and short-term goals that are designed to be measurable [ex. E-mail 15 “talkers” -> check]. The real value of open customer engagement is long term. Every example of remarkable customer service and interactivity that is open to search engine traffic becomes a footprint in the history of one’s brand identity. Weave inspiring narratives throughout the net that will compel future customers to fall in love with your own unique customer experience.

Through persistent, genuine interaction, passionate customers convert from “talkers” into “teachers,” thereby amplifying the voices of every new community they encounter.”

That is an impressive goal. I can tell that you have definitely been influenced by the Cluetrain Manifesto as well as Tom Kelley’s concepts of innovation. You definitely have created an online persona that has quite a reach. In fact, Ryan, you have your own avatar from Second Life that is part of your “brand”, is it not?

But let’s get back to the real world for a minute, I have some background questions that I would like to ask, starting with:

Where do you call home? Boone, Iowa. I grew up on a parsonage in the middle of a cornfield.

Where do you live and work now? Chicago. I walk to work along Lake Michigan to the Water Tower, located next door to the Hancock Building at the North end of the Magnificent Mile.

How did you get to where you are? That is, your experiences and study?

Education? An indecisive moment in High School, choosing between a bachelors degree in either computer animation or organic chemistry, led me to Bowling Green State University. My dramatically shifting course of study eventually fell into a three-pronged approach to jazz performance [alto saxophone], figurative drawing, and the critical study of English dramatic literature [Jonson, Middleton, Shakespeare] under the auspices of New Historicism. (Yes, I was that guy.) ;)

I completed the GMAT a few months ago, and am applying for part-time admittance to Northwestern. (Incidentally, I was just offered the opportunity to give a guest presentation on social media engagement before a class I would likely attend.)

Work Experience? Three years ago, I started at Levenger as an hourly Sales Associate in retail. After a subsequent promotion to Co-Manager, I began to experiment publicly with social media. An urgency to innovate was the result of attending a presentation by Tom Kelley. His words helped me to realize that creative ideation and the ability to brainstorm were fundamental to the success of a business. I saw an opportunity to actuate innovation for a company I cared for, which eventually led to my additional title, Emerging Media Specialist.

I then askedRyan, are there any interesting or unusual things about you personally, or unique experiences that you may have had? He included this picture of himself, rowing a boat through Versailles:

• I was married to my wife, Allyson, by a pirate aboard a pirate ship in the Treasure Island Bay in Las Vegas. Our families watched dockside across 50 feet of water, as the ring-bearer swung down a rope from the top of the mast during the ceremony.
• For five years, I improv’d jazz and blues sax in Northwestern Ohio with groups ranging from the soul-swinging be-bop of Eddie Valentine and the Cupids to the space-jam discord of Huge World Explosion. I recently attempted to form a junk-band using local networking site Yelp.com.
• My favorite playwright is Ben Jonson.
• In the last four years, I have grown to become a cat person thanks to one Johnny Cage aka Mr. Buttons.
• I am completely fascinated by the study of emergent technologies, pervasive computing, and the future of how we will define what it means to be human. I enjoy learning from Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Paul Saffo, Stewart Brand, and the instrumental ideation of the Long Now Foundation.
• My post-elementary school aspiration was, “to become the next Jim Henson.”

I take it from your tumblelog at Collaborative Ideation that you are a big reader.

What was the last fiction book you read?

Millard Filmour, Mon Amour by John Blumenthal

Non-fiction?

The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business by Rolf Jensen

Those are no lightweights! Okay, here we go with the really tough interview questions:

What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? I am in the process of planting those seeds. For now, I owe my greatest gratitude to my wife, whose love and influence has been immeasurable.

What is your next big goal? I would like to learn more about, and ideate strategy from emergent RFID technologies and portable content for the consumer products industry. As a peripheral study, I would also like to make an educated forecast of the future role of paper and writing instruments in a paper-less office. [virtualization, E-paper, the development of metaspace from the metaverse]

Excellent! Thank you so much, Ryan, for taking the time to share some of yourself with my readers. I trust that you know you are welcome to write a guest post anytime you would like. Have a great day, I know we’ll be hearing more from you soon.

You can read a profile of Ryan, written by Andy Sernovitz, here.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/3dqkma. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen