Lessons Learned from 8 Years of Publishing Good News with Liesl Ulrich-Verderber (Episode #100)
If you want to hear a rare, fresh take on the present and future – a conversation full of progress and wonder – then join Liesl Ulrich-Verderber and I as we share what we’ve learned through 8 years of curating the internet for “good news.” The remarkable stories of newsworthy insight and innovation are out there, but going uncelebrated. Liesl will be changing that soon as she bursts onto the scene with a young, exciting, and brilliant voice, amplifying a “Conspiracy of Goodness” happening right now, across the world.
About Our Guest
In this conversation, Liesl helps us all look at the future with fresh eyes, and gives us the tools to start finding information sources that are “solution-based” instead of “problem-based.”
The next generation of information consumers will be insisting that their news sources leave us with three things: hope, dignity, and agency.
Get ready for the opening of a new chapter in content creation with a lot more joy and a lot less fear if Liesl has anything to do with it.
Liesl is our CEO at the Goodness Exchange and the founder of three other platforms in the Goodness Exchange orbit: our education site at EWCed, our endeavor to improve business and healthcare culture at Amazing World Media, and she is becoming a thought partner with leaders who need her perspectives to help them shape the future.
She is a Harvard grad who has found a way to use her background in design, economics, and education to make the world a better place for us all.
Liesl grew up on a farm in Vermont, but is also a world traveler since the age of 6, having been to over 30 countries by the age of 22. With those grounding life experiences, she also brings a global perspective to her work, weaving together a narrative about our world that is founded in experience and the mindset of a global citizen.
Resources Mentioned:
Show Notes
[00:00 – 02:10] Opening Segment
- Live life actively and make a difference
[02:10 – 05:51]
- Celebrating the 100th episode of Conspiracy Of Goodness podcast.
- 8 years in the making of Goodness Exchange – The idea of writing one article everyday on any subject under the sun as long as it proves it’s still an amazing world.
- Big change in Goodness Exchange: bring people more goodness in the world, celebrate more people, and connect more deeply with people
- Reflecting on where we are, what we’ve learned and the power that we are harnessing, the kind of media that we are producing to create more good in the world and to give people what they need.
[05:52 – 09:52]
- Why media matters.
- The home life, working life, and digital life.
- Producing media that matters.
[09:53 – 12:18]
- Solution-based journalism versus problem-based journalism.
- We have the agency to be activated and we can be activated to do something about the world’s problem.
- Solutions-based media is pointing you in a direction on what’s to do next
[13:19 – 15:50]
- Examples of solution-based media.
[15:51 -18:55]
- Celebrating the solutions not the problems
- Once you become immersed in it, you start to look at solutions in a different way
- Be a person that can be helpful
- Be an active participants and make a difference
[18:56 – 24:20]
- It doesn’t have to be “save the world”, it can be doing something that you’re uniquely built to contribute in your little corner.
- Looking at the world through the lens of something they love, and the problem that they have, and then finding ways to put them together.
[24:21 – 31:10]
- The importance of sharing.
- The more we share it, the more things are likely to get in front of the right people
- How sharing can change someone’s life
- The concept and power of sharing
[31:11 – 38:50]
- Slow media
- Fast media is changing the way that we respond to other people, it’s changing the way we make decisions, it’s changing the way that we live, and all these ways that we can’t really see
[38:51 – 42:00]
- Choosing and then deciding to practice.
- Remembering to check-in on the choices you make.
[42:01 – 48:40]
- The Facebook test.
- Being aware of how the interactions we are going through the day with, or how what we’re listening to, watching, reading is impacting us.
- Decide on what emotional state you want to be in.
- Notice the mood that you’re in after you consume a piece of media.
[48:41 – 52:30]
- What’s newsworthy?
- Consume media like you consume a balanced diet.
[52:31 – 57:10]
- There are a huge number of folks creating internet content specifically and designed to trigger our most primitive impulse.
- How to check if a journalist is unbiased.
- Are we consuming media mindlessly, or are we consuming it because we’re curious?
[57:11- 01:01:29]
- Stories and how our process works in Goodness Exchange.
- You have to have unbridled enthusiasm in order to get so ecstatic about everything that you want to share, that you want to get out into the world
- Each one of us brings our own special spark to the writing because we have unbridled enthusiasm.
- It’s so critical to let joy be a part of the work that you do.
[01:01:30- 01:07:15]
- There’s something for everyone at the Goodness Exchange.
- Benefits of having a membership with Goodness Exchange.
- We get to choose what we first lay our eyes on – will be like a cactus or like a blanket?
