PassionPlayers

#PassionPlayers Jennifer Leggio

So this #PassionPlayers feature is neat in that it was actually this series that introduced me to Ms. Leggio. She thought it was a cool series and enjoyed some of the other profiles I posted, so I invited her to play, and here we are 🙂 Jennifer put a lot of thought into these answers – check ’em out!

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is not something that you do; passion is something that is. Passion isn’t an endless love, or a surefire success. It’s something that’s deep within you, and it’s a commitment that you honor regardless of how challenging it is, or how much it might hurt. It requires bravery, and a keen understanding of the blissful line between love and hate. It never stops. It’s never satisfied. It moves you forward, and it keeps you alive.

2. What is your passion?

I have two core passions, and they are of equal intensity.

The first is music, which has been my lifeblood since my youth. I have a modicum of talent, but I am not passionate about creating music. Music can change my emotional state, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, and it can create “quiet” when I need it. That quiet is actually the sound of whatever music I choose at the moment. It’s such a part of me that it could never be considered noise. If I’m not presently engaged in a conversation, a movie, or a book, you can almost guarantee that I have music playing — especially while I write or I work.

The second is supporting technology innovation, specifically in the area of computer security. Protecting users and organizations is critical, and everyone should be educated on risk, threats, and protection resources. It’s not something I do; it’s something I believe in and choose to action with my talent. This also includes fostering and empowering innovators, by pushing them toward their desired successes, helping them to grow their companies, or using my network and marketing prowess to spread the word about new tools and technologies that can provide better digital privacy or security.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

Oh, that’s an easy one. Because I’ve never been satisfied with any of my passions, and I’ve always wanted more. And even when I’ve had to step away from focusing on them for a short time, I’ve always taken great comfort in the fact that they will always be there.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

Simply: I’m honest with myself about who I am and what makes me who I am, and I just live it. I had a talk recently with a brilliant man who emphasized the importance of staying true to one’s “mission.” Sure, we all need and want to make money and pay the bills, but if you stay true to why you do something, you’ll always be successful. Never forget the mission.

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

Listen to yourself before anyone else. Take the steps to form a level of self-awareness that can indicate your passion, and don’t let your fear stand in the way of you engaging with it, or hinder your benefitting from the potential success of pursuing it. Don’t let others cloud your judgment; no one will ever know your passion better than you do. And there is rarely a passion that is “wrong.”

6. Anything else you want to say?

For some reason while answering these questions, a quote from Elizabeth Taylor popped into my head: “Now is the time for guts and guile.” Guts are required to stay true to your passions and truly live them; guile is required for actively pursuing them in a way that complements and even better fuels your life. I think now is always the time, and the rewards are sweet.

#PassionPlayers Scott Monty

by Margie Clayman

I think I started hearing about Scott Monty about a year or two into my social media experience. Everyone kept talking about how he was a great social media role model, and what he was doing at and for Ford was really something everyone should take note of as they struggled with their own social media marketing campaigns. I thought it was interesting that for all of the compliments, Scott didn’t seem to be one of those folks who had to remind everyone how awesome he was via blog posts or tweets. He just did his job and did it well.

I have had the great privilege of getting to know Scott a bit better over the last few years and have found him to be thought-provoking, way too smart, and extremely kind. Add to that the fact that he is a bigger Sherlock nut than me by a large margin and you know why I wanted to feature him here.

1. How do you define “passion”?
To me, passion is something that gets your heart racing, something that can get you motivated even when you really don’t feel like doing anything. We all face the drudgery of some tasks from time to time, but when you’re so interested in something that you lose track of time or other responsibilities – that’s passion.

2. What is your passion?
I have a few, but the one that has taken priority for many years is my interest in Sherlock Holmes. To some, this may seem like another literary character, but for me, it has opened up a whole world of friendship, scholarship and technological tinkering (the last of which is also a passion of mine).

3. How do you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?
For me, it clicked when I discovered how many other people shared this interest. Not only were there massive amounts of books about the topic, but I discovered an underground network of individuals across the country (and later across the globe) who were also interested in Sherlock Holmes. Our shared passion means that we always have other people to connect with.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?
Oddly enough, in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. Watson poses as a collector of Chinese pottery in order to infiltrate the home of the antagonist, who is an expert on the topic. When quizzed about his deficiency of knowledge, Watson excuses it with his busy medical practice. The villain’s reply sums up my feelings about nurturing your passion: “That is no answer. If a man has a hobby he follows it up, whatever his other pursuits may be.”

So for me, part of it is connecting with other people to fuel that passion, and constantly finding ways to express my own interest. That has meant creating I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, a website and podcast dedicated to Sherlock Holmes.

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to follow their passion?
Find other people who share your interest and a place (online or offline) where you can meet to discuss it together. A passion without someone to share it with is an addiction.

From there, you’ll get ideas about how to harness your energy and do something with it, like writing a book, exploring a new place, or building something. Having some sort of proof of accomplishment – whether it’s a stamped passport, a website, a magazine, or photos of an experience – is a great way to demonstrate the value of your passion.

6. Anything else you want to say?
Thank you for being so passionate about what you do! It’s great to be able to share a story with someone who’s interested in hearing about it.

#PassionPlayers Susan Fox (aka GagasGarden)

by Margie Clayman

I met Susan quite serendipitously on Twitter a few years ago. She was looking for help on Twitter and I happened to see her tweet, so I jumped in. From that point on, we have developed a friendship just as purty as Susan’s roses 🙂 As it happens, Susan is a highly skilled and respected rosarian, so I think I have learned more from her than she ever could learn from me. Susan is one of the sweetest and most passionate people I know, so I hope you enjoy her answers here as much as I did!

1. How do you define “passion”?

A: Passion is a force greater than you, a calling. One morning I didn’t feel like going outside and yet I knew I ‘had to’ take a picture of ‘Legend’ because the moment would be lost if I did not. Nature is perpetually in motion and that motion and light changes everything every second. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that in the time it has taken to write this sentence the room around me has changed. How much more does a blossom change in a minute, an hour, a day? My passion is a compulsion.

2. What is your passion?

A: Rose growing, gardening, photographing and writing about moments in the garden and sharing it with people, often times with a sense of humor. Showing folks in pictures the beauty that surrounds us in simple pleasures. Also educating folks that if they want to grow roses they too can do it. I realize that at any given moment I may be the only witness to an event that will never come again. I feel it’s an obligation to share that moment with as many people as I can.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

A: My Mother’s favorite flowers were peonies. They bloom first in the spring in Northern Illinois so she wanted me to apply bone meal around the peonies first and get them ready for the spring bloom. I realized roses might be my passion when I just wanted to hurry up with the peonies to get to the roses. Now I love peonies and just about everything that grows.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

A: You will know when you are following your passion because your passion whisks you along with it. A passion is a driving force, and the fuel for passion is generosity and sharing. The more you give it away the more it comes back to you and grows in ways that one cannot measure.
5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

A: We all know children ask difficult questions and a child asked him a very difficult question. What was God doing before the creation? The Pope pondered the question and knowing that God is Love, Pope Francis said: paraphrased a bit, “God was loving. I can say to you to find your passion, love. Love persons, animals, plants, places or things and you will find your passion. Because the Pope also said “God is beauty”. Whatever name for a creator you believe in I know we can agree on that statement. Roses and the garden connect me to the creation in ways nothing else can and thereby connects me to you.
6. Anything else you want to say?

Thank-you Margie for asking me to share about my passion. The passion and generosity of spirit of Margie and in folks I have met through Margie has multiplied the love and caring I have seen in so many ways and any way that I can show people about the beauty of sharing my passion I am more than happy to do so.

Editor’s note – Susan’s very kind words were in fact unsolicited 🙂

#PassionPlayers Tom Redwine

by Margie Clayman

Tom is an incredible person and a great friend. He is one of those people I’ve felt I have always known. To be honest, I can’t remember exactly when or how we connected! It just seems like he has always been around, and that is ok with me. I have always admired Tom’s great passion for music, and not surprisingly, that is what he focused on here. Enjoy!

1. How do you define “passion”?

As an urge to create or explore in a specific area or direction. It’s not uncontrollable but it is urgent. You’re compelled by something not terribly logical or very easily explained, and you feel diminished or slightly less “you” if you don’t pursue it in some way.

2. What is your passion?

(Wait, I only get to pick one? Just kidding…) Music! I enjoy just about everything musical; listening, discovering new favorites, making playlists for friends or road trips, singing, playing bass and performing, whether it’s a jam session, open mic, or an actual paying gig.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

I was hooked at an early age; I remember obsessively listening to “American Top 40” and rock & roll radio stations on my transistor radio as kid. I loved watching the Monkees after school on TV. I collected 45’s and LPs (yeah, I’m old), traded, discussed and argued with friends about what we liked and didn’t like, made mixtapes for friends (and girlfriends), and vacuumed up any information on my favorite artists from magazines. “Obsession” doesn’t quite capture it.

My parents started me with piano lessons just before adolescence kicked in; I wound up quitting after my teacher wouldn’t show me how to play “Beth” by KISS. (Teenage hormones & discipline do not mix very well.)

My first real rock concert was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (“River” tour, 1981). That was not my first rock show though; months before, I’d seen my first local bar band and was awestruck by their take on Queen’s “Dragon Attack.”

Later on, my buddy Bert showed me the electric bass. Turns out that I took to the bass more naturally than piano, and soon I’d played a few times with friends in informal jams, which led to playing at parties, being in bands, writing songs, learning how to really sing (and not clear the room), and eventually some paying gigs.

I had a lot of fun working in radio, starting at my college radio station (WUSC) and two local commercial stations (WSCQ & WNOK) before moving into a retail career.

Even when involved in other projects, like community theatre, I kept coming back to music. In fact, the first time I had a chance to direct a play, I chose a musical (“Nunsense”). By the way, you have to be a little nuts to tackle a musical as a first-time director, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Music capped my retail career when I worked in Walmart Radio, first as production manager then general manager, programming music and commercial content for Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs throughout the US and Canada.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

I find music in a lot of places, but I mostly use the internet and Spotify to discover new artists and sounds. Trying to keep my ears open to the new keeps me from getting old! ;^)

Also, I try to play at least ten minutes each day, even if it’s just improvisational noodling. Most of the time I’m actually pursuing a goal, such as learning a new song, writing something, or finding a new way to play something old and familiar. I find You Tube videos to help me learn new songs or decipher a complex pattern. Chord structures and tabs are available on different sites, but I’m mostly driven by my own desire.

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

Outside of my piano lessons, I had little encouragement (and quite a bit of discouragement) about pursuing music for a career; when I got older and could see how many different jobs and roles one could have involving music, I realized that my parents and past counselors had been short-sighted. Considering the amazing opportunities that we have via global communication with the internet, there are likely even more opportunities than before. If you keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities, you’ll likely find opportunities to pursue your passion – and get paid for it – throughout your life. Acknowledge the doubters and try to stay grounded, while you just keep reaching for those stars!

6. Anything else you want to say?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug some of the amazing artists that I’ve been listening to (and I’d love to know who YOU are listening to as well!):

Sara Morgan https://youtu.be/6g488J1sjtY

Stardog https://youtu.be/XxC8ldrXecg

Gregory Porter https://youtu.be/9HvpIgHBSdo

Jason Isbell https://youtu.be/ZtgPeNKpnyw

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats https://youtu.be/1iAYhQsQhSY

Leon Bridges https://youtu.be/pgS_xob1x4A

Chris Stapleton https://youtu.be/4zAThXFOy2c

#PassionPlayers Aaron von Frank

by Margie Clayman

No, I didn't choose this image just cuz their duck Margaret (aka Marge) is featured. Nope! — No, I didn’t choose this image just cuz their duck Margaret (aka Marge) is featured. Nope!

Aaron and his wife Susan are two of the coolest people I know. The amount of passion they have for several things is transparently not only in their work but also just in conversing with them. Also they are disgustingly smart. I highly encourage you to check out Grow Journey – I have been a member for about a year now, I think, and I am overwhelmed with how much I have learned, how much I need to learn, and how much work goes into the project. I am hoping Susan agrees to be featured in this series as well, but in the meantime, enjoy Aaron’s responses!

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is what anchors your ship. My life trajectory hasn’t been linear because I’ve sampled a lot of things in search of something I cared deeply about; something meaningful that could capture my imagination and my interest for a lifetime. Once I found that thing, I no longer felt the need to keep “sailing.” (I’m not literally a sailor, I just think that’s a useful analogy.)

2. What is your passion?

I guess to the outside world, that “thing” is known under a few different terms: organic agriculture, agroecology, permaculture, etc.. Basically, transitioning human society from extractive models to regenerative models (ecologically, economically, socially). That starts at the foundation of a civilization, and food production is the foundation of every civilization. It helps define our relationship with the planet and with each other.

As an example of that: hunter-gatherer, pastoralist, and horticultural societies perceive themselves as part of nature, not separate/removed from it. They tend to be much more decentralized in their social hierarchies and inclusive of women. Their spiritual worlds are comprised of human and animal gods, male and female gods. Nature is sacred, the provider of life.

If you look at agricultural societies, particularly those with origins in the Middle East and Europe, you see a different cultural narrative. For instance, the word “lord” means “keeper of the grains.” This was the local strongman who hoarded and doled out food and/or protection to his subjects. As such, it makes sense for those societies to create a male king God that mirrors their male-dominated, hierarchical societies. What’s interesting to note is how often throughout history agricultural societies have collapsed as a result of over-exploitation of their local environmental resources. Due to thousands of years of extractive agricultural practices, the Middle East is largely a barren desert now; whereas it used to be one of the most fertile, verdant regions on earth.

Throughout the history of agriculture, when the soil was ruined and food could not be produced or local populations expanded beyond the land’s carrying capacity, there were two options: 1) expand/conquer, or 2) collapse. If you’ve studied history, you know that’s why agricultural societies are inherently expansionary, militant, male-dominated and hierarchical. Our religions mirror that reality.

So, IMO, food is much more than a cheap pile of calories on your plate. Given that there are 7+ billion of us inhabiting a planet that experts say has about 60 years of productive topsoil left, our food production models are rather important. We can’t afford to be extractive with that model: we’re destroying our oceans, our atmosphere, our soil, causing the anthropocene extinction, etc. in the process. The sand is running out of our hourglass. Up until a few hundred years ago, there were only a few hundred million people on earth, so these patterns weren’t that big of a problem. We’d just move somewhere else or there would be a local population collapse that didn’t really impact another society living on the other side of the world. Now, we’ve run out of planet and we’re still pretty far away from being able to hop to the next rock in our solar system, terraform it, and make it habitable for life as we know it. NASA is working on that problem though.

The important point is that it doesn’t have to be this way; these are choices. Societies change; culture is malleable. As Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” So when more and more research is piling up showing that we can grow all the food the world needs without using pesticides, herbicides, etc. while also building soil health, species biodiversity, and without removing the carbon from our soil and dumping it into the atmosphere—that’s a demonstrably better model on multiple levels. We know how to do it. People are doing it. Researchers are proving the efficacy. It just takes a while for a transformation as big as this one to work its way through, and these aren’t notions that many people on the outside understand or care about. It’s hard to boil it down to a bumper sticker slogan.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

When it consumed me. When I obsessively read about it and experiment with it on our own tiny piece of earth. When I unconsciously steer conversations in that direction. I guess I’m an organic food evangelist.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

Thankfully, my wife and I have found a way to turn our passion into a business via www.GrowJourney.com. We’re close to being able to do that full-time now, and it will be really nice to have our passion be our work. You know the saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think that’s fairly accurate, although building a business inevitably involves very hard work and doing things you don’t necessarily love (or know anything about when you’re getting started).

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

Hmm, I try not to give blanket advice because everybody’s path is different. So, I guess my advice would be try not to take any single person’s advice as the one way of doing something. You know yourself better than anyone else. Keep learning and exposing yourself to interesting things and interesting people until you find something that consumes you. Hopefully, it’s something you can make a career in, but if not, you can still do lots of good work in a hobby, your spare time, or as a volunteer.

6. Anything else you want to say?

Yes, when you’re done reading this, take a few minutes out of your day to read this 30 year study by Rodale Institute (done in coordination with the USDA and University of Pennsylvania): http://66.147.244.123/~rodalein/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FSTbookletFINAL.pdf. Then start voting with your dollars and forks three times each day.

#PassionPlayers Josh Gippin

by Margie Clayman

Today’s feature for #PassionPlayers is my cousin, Josh Gippin. Josh has always been someone I look up to (I also adore the fact that he is one of the few cousins I have who is older than me). Josh has been true to his passions for an awful long time now, and he is holding true to that while also being a great father and husband for his family. Here are his answers to my questions!

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is what fuels my engine. Without it, I feel my life would be at a standstill.

2. What is your passion?

My passion is to bring about social change through documentary film.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

How did I know this wasn’t just a passing fancy? I only know now, in retrospect, but I couldn’t have predicted that I would keep making films. I might have given up on this passion long ago, especially when we started having kids and I felt the pressure to make ends meet.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

On the contrary, it nurtures me. If I couldn’t make films, or work for social change in other creative ways, I would feel empty. Using my gifts to make the world a better place is what gives my life meaning.

Be sure to check out Josh’s awesome documentaries at Joshua Tree Video Productions.

PassionPlayers

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