GoHuman Blog

The GoHuman blog has expressed Occupy Wall Street sentiments since before the movement started in Zucotti Park on 9/17/11. One reason a disenfranchised 99% seek to occupy is because they lack ownership.  Owners have legal rights to “enjoy, occupy, possess … an item of property.” The Occupy movement claims moral ownership to rights they don’t legally possess.  Is this moral claim valid?  Let’s look back to our Judeo-Christian heritage to point a way forward. 

It’s been a very tough year for many, including GoHuman.  We pre-launched in Beta two years ago, on Labor Day, with grand ideals around helping the “little guy” compete.  Over the past 12 months we’ve failed miserably in achieving our goal.  This was largely due to internal misalignment at the partner/owner level.  These issues were finally resolved last Friday, and GoHuman can now move forward, proudly, true to our vision and ideals.

We represent a new and different model than the failed systems and methods of the past.  Aggregation of wealth and power in the hands of big business place an unsustainable burden on humanity and the planet.  In the US our economic challenges have evolved into a type of class warfare.  A materialistic mindset had us all believing in a kind of Casino salvation – that if our system celebrates greed and excessive wealth, that’s OK, because maybe I’ll get a piece of that pie some day.  GoHuman’s internal struggles mirrored this tendency, but we have survived, and we have learned.

Bottom line, raw capitalism harnesses greed as an engine, which ultimately accomplishes more harm than good.  Here’s an article from way back in 2006 that serves as food for thought as we lean into our Thanksgiving meal this year.  It quotes Warren Buffet saying  “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

As we pause to celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S., I’m thankful that we’ve made it through the past year, and that the coming year is poised to be better.  We look forward to a better year ahead, resolute that what we stand for will ultimately win out despite the challenges of getting a start-up off the ground, not to mention one that is radically different and perhaps still ahead of its time.

Please join us in our mission to Change the Way Your World Works.  Get involved in the GoHuman.com Marketplace – as a small business using our platform to market your services, or as a customer of small local businesses.  Let’s build a better marketplace together.

Having a vision is the single most important quality a leader possesses. It gives him/her the guidance necessary to achieve success. Vision motivates a leader to inspire others and share in that vision. A leader without a vision, is like a traveler who has no idea where they’re going.

To develop a vision requires us to look within ourselves, because it starts from the inside. It’s not something that just appears overnight, it grows from a leader’s past experiences, mistakes, lessons learned and the people around them.  A leader draws from their own strengths & talents, dreams and greatest passions, when creating their vision.

The greater the vision a leader has, the stronger of a team he/she will need to support and help accomplish the goals. It’s equally as important that a leader have someone who they can turn to for guidance, whether that be a mentor, coach, superior; someone with more experience than they have and who can keep them in alignment with the results they want to achieve.

Lastly, a vision should be greater than any past memories, mistakes or accomplishments. If the vision is clear, the journey begins by taking one step at a time. Discouragement and frustration aren’t caused by not practicing, but rather by not having clarity about the journey itself and where it begins.

Fathers are as different and unique as snowflakes.  More so – as they range across the full saint to sinner spectrum.  But we can all acknowledge that without a father we wouldn’t be here.  And the majority of people on the planet no doubt have very positive feelings related to their father, because of what our fathers represent to us.

For me Father’s day has taken on a much deeper significance over the last 32 months.  From the moment my wife told me I was going to be a daddy my life was transformed.  Zoe, who’s name is Greek for Life – helps me understand its meaning.  Being her daddy offers the inspiration needed to move mountains that need moving in creating a better world.

And that is the tie-in to GoHuman.com, which seeks to Change the way the world works – for the better.

Happy Father's Day from me, Zoe and GoHuman.com

Why GoHuman.com?  Reason #13 is to give fathers another way to change the way the world works

Reason #1; Reason #2; Reason #3; Reason #4; Reason #5; Reason #6; Reason #7; Reason #8; Reason #9; Reason #10; Reason #11; Reason #12

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) concept of “People, Planet, Profit“ demands that a company’s responsibility be to the people who are influenced in any way by the actions of the firm rather than the people who own it.

TBL is typically discussed in a big business context for two reasons: One, big businesses are by nature the farthest out of human touch with sustainability. Two, if you have to choose one business to make sustainable, a bigger business will have a bigger impact.

But what if we could create an integrated network of small local businesses and independent professionals with an eye on the ecological, economic, and social concepts expressed by the Triple Bottom Line related to their communities?

What if people all over the planet quietly frustrated with the status quo could find the voices of power they’ve lost in the wake of unprecedented corporate growth over the past century?

GoHuman’s vision is a world where these ideals are not afterthoughts, but rather integral and essential elements connecting every community and every business within those communities. We cannot afford for these to be abstract thoughts or luxuries. They are a necessary part of the emerging global consciousness and we need to integrate them into our personal and professional lives by igniting our tribal instincts.

In the United States and other parts of the world, the motivation to adopt this sustainable lifestyle is neither handed down by the government nor encouraged by our existing capitalist economic model. An intricate web of subsidies and loopholes has all but extinguished the basic humanity enjoyed in simpler times in favor of the almighty profit margin.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There is hope. We believe in a better way. It’s the passion that fuels GoHuman and the real people behind it — people just like you with the vision and gumption to do something about it.

It starts simply. It starts with an equitable marketplace that promotes balance amongst the people who use it by rewarding those who provide value with something equitable in return.

It starts with you.

Whom do you trust most when making a decision to hire someone or buy something?

Most likely, you trust people you know: friends who have given you good recommendations, colleagues who have particular expertise, family, etc.

This type of trust has taken on a new form through the Internet and social media. Reviews for products and services are prevalent on GoHuman and elsewhere. These are useful, to be sure, but are subjective in nature.

GoHuman is allying with trusted organizations that promote local businesses. To represent this trust in a reliable and intuitive fashion, we have added a Trust Badge feature to GoHuman, which allows you to showcase your earned certifications, affiliations, and partnerships right along with your business postings, endorsements, and feedback.

Our first Trust Ally was the Green Business League, that provides Green Business Certification. We are working with several organizations to allow their members to proudly display their Trust Badges with GoHuman.

You can help by telling us about the organizations you trust and want to show off with GoHuman. We’ll work together to provide more exposure for you and all your fellow members.

Ultimately this will help your online reputation, which will lead to more trust, which helps get you more leads.

What does green mean to you as a business owner or consumer? It’s certainly a buzzword that gets a lot of attention, especially this month as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

In 40 years have we accomplished as much as we could to sustain a sustainable ecosystem for our planet? Probably not, but it’s human nature to move incrementally until disaster strikes.

GoHuman is a marketplace devoted to helping local communities achieve sustainability. Local energy and ideas serve as the foundation for the site’s growth, and allow for mutual prosperity. Local means:

• Fewer resources to transport goods and services is better for the environment
• Money spent by the community stays in the community
• Services tailored specifically to the needs and challenges of the community
• Reduced costs due to lower overhead of the individual provider
• Greater flexibility for better quality of life
• Bringing back the unique downtown communities this country has lost
• Helping the economy-at-large by feeding it at the smallest level
• Taking the current crisis into your own hands rather than waiting for someone else to fix it

If you are a green-certified service provider, you’re one of us. So why not join us? I welcome you to post your services to GoHuman and join a growing community of like-minded businesses and community members. Together we can help local communities and the environment.

Thank you for making a difference in your community and ours. Read on for ideas on marketing a green business.

We’re two weeks into GoHuman’s first micro cause and we’re very happy to report our success!

Out of our goal of $14,900, we have currently raised $999.17 to send Sunshine to an intensive autism treatment program in Massachusetts. We’re on our way, but still need to spread the word far and wide.

We seek 10,000 people to donate $1 or more. Can you help?

In addition, GoHuman will donate $1 in your name for every friend who joins GoHuman and mentions “Sunshine” through March. You could help Sunshine just by telling a few friends about GoHuman and what we’re doing to help local businesses.

Thanks!

GoHuman is all about empowering small businesses and independent professionals by connecting them with the right customers in their community to establish a more sustainable economy. We’re not the only ones with this idea, which is a great thing. We can’t do it alone, and we depend on people everywhere who believe there is a better way.

But how do we do it?

Word of mouth has proven time after time to be the single most powerful form of marketing. People trust people like themselves, who are typically people they know well like friends or family.

At this stage in GoHuman’s growth, we are connecting with as many small businesses as possible in Chicago; L.A.; Madison, WI; Knoxville, TN; and Vancouver, Canada. You might ask why we’ve chosen those particular areas and I would tell you that in a way they chose us.

We believe in involving people who share our vision for a better, more equitable world, no matter where they are. We’re looking for people to join our grassroots marketing teams, whether they are in one of our existing markets or if someone has the gumption to get a new market going. It’s happened before, and we welcome anyone who is up for the challenge and the rewards.

Businesses everywhere are hurting. People everywhere are being shut down by the powers that be. GoHuman.com represents a genuinely better way for business to work to support themselves and their community.

There is nothing more inspiring than meeting new people who want to join the cause. Some have established themselves in their community and others are just looking for a way to help make things better. Either way, it’s the fuel that moves us forward and gives us hope that our dream can work.

And guess what? People just like you are growing GoHuman.

If you’re interested in joining our team and becoming a Founding Member of GoHuman.com, just email refer@GoHuman.com for more info. We guarantee that an actual human will respond.

I was on Ted.com the other day, listening to Seth Godin talk about tribes and more specifically about the dynamics of starting a movement. In this talk he spoke about how it is important to find a group that needs something and connect them with an idea that will address their needs. During this economic recession I have been bombarded with requests to forward resumes and requests for job leads from readers of my blog and listeners of my radio show. As much as I would love to help every single one of my supporters, I simply did not have the resources to make an impact.