Lorna Li | Green Marketing 2.0

This video seriously cracked my shit up!

Technorati Tags: hitler, burning man, bman

I haven’t blogged for a long, long while,’coz life got real hectic for me at the start of the year. For one, I changed jobs. I have been hired by Salesforce.com to help them with search optimization of their content, social media marketing, building social networks, and scoping out new technologies for acquisition.

After that was all squared away, I took off to Honduras for a couple of weeks, where I spent one week doing a raw food, eco-yoga retreat in the rainforest just outside of La Ceiba. Every morning, I practiced Mysore-style Ashtanga yoga. In the afternoons, I went hiking. I did a lot of skinny dipping in waterfalls (not featured)

After a week of living a yogic lifestyle, eating only raw fruits and vegetables, I ended my retreat with a yummy meal of coconut shrimp & rice, apple pie, and an Irish coffee at the jungle eco-lodge up the road. Then it was off to Roatan for a week of scuba diving.  There I balanced out my raw food regimen with the shrimp, king crab and lobster diet.

The highlight of my stay on Roatan island was a swim with a group of ocean-faring bottle-nose dolphins intent on out-swimming our dive boat, the Bad Boy.

Now I’m back in S.F., 5 shades darker, a lot more relaxed, ready to begin the rat race again!

One of my favorite places in the Bay Area is community of ecological, sociological, technological, and cultural activists called Solstice Grove. Founded by Jim Fournier, eco-visionary and founder of Planetwork and Biomass Energy & Carbon, Solstice Grove consists of a main community house, swimming pool and several yurts and a redwood grove on several acres of gorgeous land in the community of Nicasio in the Marin Headlands.

Solstice Grove holds a number of sweat lodges, sacred ceremonies and community events, such as the Bioneers After Party, throughout the Year. The Dalai Lama has even visited and blessed the community. Solstice Grove is known for their fabulously fun parties on the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, another reason why Solstice Grove is dear to my heart - the Winter Solstice is my birthday.

I had the privilege of spending a weekend there for a sacred music gathering a few weeks ago. I met MJ Greenmountain of Hamsa Lila, and Mariela de la Paz, one of my favorite visionary artists, next to Pablo Amaringo.

The music was incredible, and people were lovely, and I was again reminded of how much I enjoy living in the Bay Area.

Technorati Tags: Solstice Grove, Jim Fournier, Mariela de la Pa, MJ Greenmountain, Hamsa Lila, eco-community, Pablo Amaringo

This evening, our yoga instructor made a statement during class that struck a chord in me. In the writings of Carlos Castenada, according to Don Juan, a Yaqui elder and brujo, there was one main difference between an ordinary person and an impeccable warrior.

Ordinary people see life as a series of blessings and misfortunes.

An impeccable warrior sees life as a series of challenges.

Every challenge has the opportunity to awaken us to life.

So finally I’ve decided to pull together the disparate parts of life into one location, using WordPress as my vehicle to communicate with the world.

One this day last year, I knew nothing about blogging, web apps, search marketing, social media or Web 2.0 technologies. I had only the nagging sensation thatI needed to leave the nonprofit world and develop my marketing skills in the technology sector. I spent nearly a decade exploring the world, travelling, working on social justice projects and engaged in environmental activism. I thought that I would spend the rest of my life trying to save the world, because the world needed a lot of help.

I worked on interesting projects, projects related to themes I encountered during my travels around the world. Globalization, human rights, environmental activism, indigenous cultural preservation. I had numerous life-changing experiences, working with the Tibetan community in exile, living with the Zapatistas, journeying deep into the Amazon Basin to meet with indigenous medicine men.

What I found in the nonprofit sector was a great deal of goodwill, an equal measure of disorganization, and, at the grassroots level where I was working, a pervasive lack of funding. I got an MBA in order to get a better grasp of business strategy organizational efficiency. During this time, I discovered the world of social innovation and entrepreneurship.

I love innovation - discovering faster, cheaper better, more powerful ways to positively impact society. And because I thrive on constant change, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the world of technology innovation.

Over the last year, as I explored a career transition into the world of technology and Internet marketing, I ran smack into a phenomenon that many were referring to as “Web 2.0″. It took me almost a year to even begin grasp what Web 2.0 technologies are, and only recently did the realization of why now is such an exciting time to be playing in the Internet space truly sink in. With the development of new social media technologies, we are experience a democratization of the web, where, never before, have so many people been able to express themselves, discover themselves, connect with each other, and create community in cyberspace.

I also know that the term “Web 2.0″ is so misused and disputed, that interpretations abound. My understanding is still novice, but grows each day, and as with the many explorations of my life, I intend to enjoy this one to the fullest.