Four weeks ago I was in Calgary, Canada, where I met Donny and posted his video. I was being escorted by Andrea Ranson, part of the outreach team from Calgary Homeless Foundation . It was so cold out I thought my face was about to fall off.

Immediately after I posted this video,  Tim Richter, President & CEO of Calgary Homeless Foundation, tweet me that they were aggressively looking for Donny. About a week ago Tim tweet me they found Donny and offered him housing. Then yesterday Andrea sent me the this video from her phone:

On a few occasions after an Invisiblepeople.tv video was posted communities have rallied to house the person featured. I’d love to take credit for that, but the truth is, it is the community that makes the difference. In this case it’s the people in Calgary who took the effort and not only found Donny but got him off the streets.

My prayer is that more communities will step up and make housing happen for those people living on the streets homeless.

I could spend hours just listening to my hero Robert Egger. I first met Robert this past summer and have been in awe of his genius ever since. Last week I was helping Beth Kanter tell the story of NTEN’s Day of Service and was able to grab another interview with him. By the way, although I cannot confirm, this photo to the right of me capturing Beth capturing Shawn capturing Robert did not create a hole in the Space-Time Continuum.

Interview with Bo at DCCK:

Robert Egger Codified Transparency sm:

This last week I was speaking at 2011 National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness put on by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It was an amazing event with lots of information on the battle to fight homelessness focused on the increasing number of homeless families. If you or your organization works to help people get out of poverty and homelessness you MUST attend these events. The networking opportunities alone are invaluable. All of us need to work together as a team if we are ever going to have large impact on poverty.

The first time I met Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, was earlier this year when I was asked to sign and become a stakeholder for Home For Good L.A.’s campaign.  I have been around lots of famous people in my life, I even produced a show with George W. Bush once, but meeting Barbara Poppe felt like the first time I met Frank Zappa in the 70s. I felt like a groupie waiting for an autograph. I was almost even speechless, but thanks to Ed Cabrera, a mutual friend from the 100kHomes leadership team, I was properly introduced and gave Barbara a We Are Visible card. Well, I have to thank Ed once again for helping me connect to Barbara and even doing a professional job as cameraman.  Truth is, Barbara is very down to earth and very nice.  My nervousness was simply because I care so much and respect her and her position.

In this short interview Barbara Poppe talks about President Obama’s “Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness”.

The plan has 4 key goals:

• End chronic homelessness by 2015
• Prevent and end homelessness among veterans by 2015
• End family, youth and child homelessness by 2020
• End all forms of homelessness

I, for one, was very encouraged by Barbara’s session and that the Obama administration is taking tangible actions to fight homelessness. Yes, I can hear people now saying it can’t be done, or pointing out the flaws. But instead of fighting the fight against poverty and homelessness we need to forget our differences, silence our egos, and just give the plan a chance.  As I travel the country the communities that have the most impact are the communities that work together well – so let’s do just that! The point is to save lives and get people into housing and the support they need. We can do this! We can end homelessness!

From the moment I met Carol Roth I was impressed. First, I like real people, and Carol is a tell-it-like-it-is person!  We met at SOBCon last year and even went to a Cubs game with a few friends. But it was not until I got back home where I started to REALLY like her. See, most people who have had the success Carol has, and is about to have (she is a true rising star) ignore the little guys like me. But not this brilliant woman with a heart. Carol started to help me without my even asking!

I started to read the advance copy she sent me a few weeks ago and immediately started yelling “HELL YES”, but wish a book this honest was around years ago when I worked in church marketing. Pastors all around were telling people they need a “second revenue stream” and encouraging people just to jump into business. Many of course failed, and could have saved a lot of time, money and frustration if Carol’s new book, The Entrepreneur Equation, had been around.

From the book:

Over 90% of new businesses fail (or fail to succeed) within five years, a statistic that would not be accepted for any other profession.  And, many business owners waste their precious time, money and energy because they don’t know how to evaluate the risks and rewards of being an entrepreneur – and how to stack the odds of business success in their favor.

Now remember I first met Carol without ever knowing anything about her. Instantly I saw she was very confidant and smart. But when I got online and read a little about her I’ll be honest – I was blown away and intimidated. It was like “Oh WOW. That was the girl eating hot dogs at Wrigley Field with us”  Carol has an amazing background in not only helping entrepreneurs, but she’s helped companies raise over $1 billion in capital.  She knows her stuff, which is why MSNBC, FOX Business and many other business outlets consistently feature Carol’s advice.

I believe this book should be required reading for everyone.  I also want to make you aware of the creative pre-launch contest Carol’s put together:

By clicking on this link, you’ll see some of the amazing bonus offers that Carol is giving away to readers who buy the book this week, including an exclusive 3-part Audio Series: Strategies for Getting Your Company, Your Product or Yourself on TV & Other Free Press! with Emmy award winners, TV anchors and PR veterans.  And, you’ll get the scoop on the generous prizes offered by entrepreneurs you respect and admire, including Alexis Neely, Liz Strauss, Michael Port and many more.

And, here’s the best part.  For every book purchased this week, Carol will be donating one book to SCORE, the national business non-profit, as a way to help as many entrepreneurs as possible to succeed.

So, I encourage you to grab one (or more) copies of Carol’s book for yourself and help encourage your success and this great cause:

http://theentrepreneurequation.com/special-offers/

If you are not following Carol on twitter you better start NOW!

Since I started InvisiblePeople.tv the National Alliance to End Homelessness has supported me. A few years back, during my first national road trip,  I had a chance to visit their offices and interview Steve Berg, Vice President for Programs and Policy. My interview with Steve was one of the first live streams I ever tried to produce and you can watch it here. To put this in perspective, in 2009 I was this crazy guy who just lost his house to foreclosure and was driving the country using social media to scream real loud about homelessness and poverty. At the time, many agencies in Washington would not return my calls (although today they are now calling me asking for help), but NAEH took me seriously and accepted me always encouraging me to keep going.

I have been honored by NAEH to be asked to speak at their conferences. At each conference I tried to get a moment with Nan Roman,  President of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, but as to be expected her time is very limited.  This last week I was at  2011 National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness and as luck and persistence would have it, I was able to record a short interview with Nan.

Nan Roman opened up the conference by highlighting National Alliance to End Homelessness’s recent report State of Homelessness in America 2011. I wish I had the bandwidth to stream her powerful speech like I have in past years, it was just not possible this year. For this short interview I asked Nan to sum up the report on State of Homelessness in America.

Please help support National Alliance to End Homelessness and all the great work they do.

Seem like so long ago when I made my living as a church marketer. In fact, this very blog was started so I could develop my personal brand and get more consulting work. I leave the old posts active, but I am so very different today, and that’s a very good thing.  I used to be very good at getting people into a building or to respond to a campaign. Now, thanks to life experiences that have shaped me into a new person, I am much more concerned about what happens outside of a church building then within, and again, that is a very good thing!

Long ago, while working as an executive marketer for (at the time) a growing church, I ran into the marketing firm AspireOne. Not sure if it was when I spoke at NRB or not, all I remember is I was in awe of their work. It was also my first introduction to Dawn Nicole Baldwin. Both Dawn and her husband Keith run AspireOne, and they soon became my idols in the church marketing world.  I never imagined one day we would become friends.

Another church marketing idol, Brad Abare, hired me and relocated me to Los Angeles. That was right when the economy started to get bad. Brad may have been the coolest boss I ever worked for, and also the shortest full-time boss I ever worked for. Three months after I was hired Foursquare was forced to layoff fifty people,  and I was last in – so first out. Looking back, Brad played a huge part in the start of InvisiblePeople.tv. He got me hooked on twitter, the book “Finding Grace” I first saw in his office, and he fired me! Today I received a call from a friend who told me the housing program started because of InvisiblePeople.tv has now helped 15 families get back on their feet and is currently housing 6 homeless families. That is just one of several started.  I am so glad my church marketing career ended into something only God could have planned!

If you’ve gotten this far you’re probably wondering what the heck my rambling has to do with anything. Well, after Brad fired me, Dawn, who I really never met, started to help me look for work. Then fast forward a little, when InvisiblePeople.tv was a crazy risk she kept encouraging me to keep going. That encouragement continues today and I am grateful to call Dawn and Keith friends.

Since we have become friends I’ve heard Dawn speak a few times. She is brilliant. I am impressed with everything she does!

Now get this, and I am still kind of freaked here, Dawn has asked me to speak at Cultivate 11 coming May 4th and 5th in Huntington Beach, California. First, I am crazy honored. But here is why I am freaked – it’s a Christian conference! And please let me clarify “freaked” – I am freaked out because I know this will not be a NORMAL Christian gathering. Cultivate 11 will be an event of open-communication and positive ideas to effect positive change. Let’s be real, Dawn actually supported my ‘confrontational’ post on Church Marketing Sucks so I can guarantee you Cultivate 11 will NOT be a typical Christian event.

Still not sold, or maybe the Christian stuff spooks you out (it does me and I’m a Christian), then here are two more reasons to go: You can get a discounted rate of $109 [$20 off Early Bird regs & $50 off the regular rate] by clicking here,  AND part of the proceeds will benefit InvisiblePeople.tv. It doesn’t get much better than that.

In all seriousness, if you work in communications, and especially church communications, you must go to Cultivate 11. I take every speaking gig seriously, but when God gives me a chance to effect change in His church IT IS ON!  I’m already getting excited!

Ever since I started tweeting in the homeless services space I have been in trouble. I once tweet about a shelter running out of pillows that caused all kinds of madness. Another time I tweet I was going to buy coffee for the shelter because they have been out for two weeks. Both tweets my motivation was to show followers real life in a homeless shelter and to raise donations. I believe people want to get involved,  but these days don’t have a lot of money or want to know exactly where their money is going. Buying pillows or coffee is a great first step and also a great way for the shelter to build relationships with new donors. The coffee tweet caused me and my supervisor an afternoon of painful executive meetings where my whole twitter stream was scrutinized.  It was there I coined the term “Executive Director Disease”. EDD is simply a person in nonprofit leadership that is scared of different thought and still believes nonprofits can control social media.

OK maybe I’m crazy, but I have always wanted to know I have a booger in my nose. I have always embraced the negative feedback as a chance to grow. Maybe it comes from the days I played music for a living. You could be on stage and know the performance sucked, yet,  when you asked people after 90% would tell you “it was great”. I always sought the 10% who would be honest about how bad we sucked so we could do better next time.  I continue to seek those negative comments in both my personal and professional life.

About a month ago I had this same conversation with my friend Shira Lazar and she said something interesting. The topic was on trying to get someone to stop saying something on social media. Shira said something like, “people are going to think bad thoughts. They are going to talk about it with their friends. They will be sharing. At least on social media you know what they are and you can address them” – BINGO!

I don’t know what it is about the homeless services sector that we fear ‘negative’ comments in social media. Many are based on truth. The shelter was out of pillows and then coffee. No need to overreact, just fix the problem, and if handled right- create new, loyal supporters! We all “vent” at the airport or in line at Starbucks. Many brands are now listening to social media and have learned it’s invaluable feedback, and if engaged properly, you’ll make a new loyal friend. Let’s face it. You can still be the most organized, well-planned  nonprofit and “life will happen”. Listening to social media can help you fix areas that need fixing.

I think maybe one of the reasons homeless services is scared of a ‘negative’ tweet is they don’t know how to respond. Old communication ‘damage control’ tactics no longer work. Only responding as humanly as possible will.

Here is a great example of a positive response to a ‘negative’ tweet. On January 25th a homeless youth was dropped off that we now had to find housing for. I called Covenant House, a true leader in helping homeless youth get off the streets. I’ve had lots of great interaction with them and they’ve helped me with youth before, but this was my first time calling their hotline. I got the runaround and tweet this:

Yesterday I received a very nice email from Swan Bargue at Covenant House:

Hi Mark,
This is Swan, from Covenant House.
I was out of the office and I just saw on Twitter that you had an issue calling Covenant House on January 25th. I’m so sorry for that, could you tell me what happened? We have numerous sites and phone numbers, where did you call? I would love to follow up with whoever you called to try and figure out what went wrong.
Thanks a lot,
Sincerely,
Swan

In my two years using social media in homeless services this is the best response I’ve received. This is what I felt while reading the email:

1) they were listening ( better late than never)
2) they engaged me in conversation
3) they took responsibility (right or wrong does not matter – doing the right thing does)
4) they asked me for feedback (builds a relationship)
5) they want to get better and grow

End result – I am now their evangelist!

Yes, it would have been better if they responded right away and via twitter so their response is visible. But most nonprofits don’t have the staff to listen to social media 24/7. I understand that. Thing is, they did respond, and they responded in such a way I am now singing their praises.

As your homeless services grows and becomes successful you’ll also find more resistance. Some of it is just nasty, and although I know it’s a sign of success, it still sucks. Not every tweet/comment/facebook should be responded to. The best thing is to develop a strategy to deal with online communications. The worst thing to do is overreact then react instead of respond. Most ‘negative’ feedback is based on truth so look at it as a way to find the areas that may need some attention. Also, if you’re like me, you should be seeking those comments. More often than not, a person voicing frustration online, if responded to correctly, will become your biggest supporter.

Beth Kanter sent me this blog post Social Media Anger Management Tips from Carie Lewis that you should share with your team. I first heard Carie Lewis speak on this topic at NTEN Conference last year. It may have been my favorite talk.  (TIP: send your communications team to NTEN Conference.) I like how Carie keeps a list of not just troublemakers but supporters she needs to engage with on a regular basis.

And let’s be real, If you’re trippin’ now about what people are saying about you on social media, what are you going to do when more of our homeless clients get online? More and more homeless people are online everyday and they’ll be sharing about your services. Too me, that’s a very good thing!

Today I witnessed our homeless friend, Rd (@lostawareness), move into a gorgeous apartment. It really is nothing short of a miracle that this even happened, and I am so very grateful to Shelene Bryan and Skip.org for making it all happen.

If you have been following me for awhile you’ve heard me talk about Rd. Maybe you even saw us speak at 140 Conference LA. Rd, who we all now know on twitter as @lostawareness, was days away from being homeless when she found me on twitter. I have to say, social media played a huge part in her finding support and now a home. Watch Rd’s story on InvisiblePeople.tv by clicking here.

InvisiblePeople.tv and Skip1.org was a match made on social media. Early on I became friends with Matt and Drew. This other guy, Chris Brogan, also played a part in connecting us. Then Shelene holds a Skip1 fundraiser for InvisiblePeople.tv, and now Rd is in housing. Something like that!

I wish it was always this easy. We (homeless services) sure make it hard to house anyone. The hoops we have to jump through to get someone into housing are insane. Rd qualified for HPRP funding (Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program) that would help with move in costs. The paperwork for the landlord was 9 pages. To get $1,000 in assistance would probably cost the government $5,000 in admin costs. Worse yet, once the paperwork is approved, there is an 18 day wait for an inspection and who knows what else. That would mean Rd would have to remain living in a winter shelter for another three weeks or more.

Ya just have to love Shelene, when I faxed the paperwork to her she called me and said “we are going to skip it” and through Skip1.org she helped with the needed move in costs!

As I type this I cannot stop thinking about what Rd must be feeling tonight. I remember my first apartment after homelessness. I lived in a church for seven years and made the conscious decision to live there one more year to save money to buy all new stuff. I didn’t want ANYTHING donated! I was so sick of wearing donated clothes and eating donated food – donated this and donated that! After I saved up enough I rented an empty apartment. I then went shopping to by furniture and everything I needed, and had every item delivered on the same day. I opened my new empty apartment one Saturday and by the end of the day it was filled with all brand new stuff. Maybe the best day off my life! Because of Shelene’s forward thinking and huge heart Rd has a furnished apartment with all new, cool stuff. I am so happy for her.

Thank you Shelene for helping me help a woman who might never have found housing through the homeless services system. Thank you everyone who supports Skip1.org. We are ending homelessness one person at a time!