Inspirational People #7

We seem to be good at finding impactful words then throwing them around in all situations. One of them is inspiration. Those who inspire you shouldn't be downplayed. They give you perspective and guidance, ideas and experience, deep thought and clearer outlooks. Leadership begins with us but others can help on our journey.

A few weeks ago on this site, we began looking at people who inspire us. Email me yours and we’ll add them to the list. The rules are simple: Is their information valuable to my work or life? Is the author doing actual work to back it up? Do they challenge me, make me think, and/or make me move to do something?

What Do You Think?

Today we look at some who inspire my friend and colleague Jason Dykstra who is a conflict management consultant specializing in relational issues. He takes these conflict situations and turns them into creative solutions. He deals with these relational conflicts primarily in three areas; Family, Congregations and Workplace situations.

Jason and I have had some good chats and tweet exchanges. He’s an inspiring and engaging guy. Here’s a few who inspire him.

Sean Aiken  

Between February 2007 and March 2008, Sean completed an epic journey around North America, working 52 jobs in 52 weeks. His journey took him across North America to find his passion. He trekked more than 46,000 miles, slept on 55 couches, tried every job he could including; Bungee Instructor, Advertising Executive, Stock Trader, Baker, NHL Mascot, and raised over 20 grand for charity.

His website OneWeekJob continues to grow and Sean is now spreading his message through his book, speaking appearances and consulting others on how they can help those around them. He also spoke at TEDx Vancouver which is posted below.

Julia Rosien  

Julia is the founder and Chief Idea Officer of SocialNorth, a social media strategy firm as well as founder and owner of GoGirlfriend, a travel-based website for women. Julia serves on various boards of directors and is 2012 president for Withit.org, a non-profit organization for women in the home and furnishings industries.

I’ve the pleasure of spending time with Julia and talking about her work, her passions, and most importantly what makes her inspire others. She loves her family, cares about the people around her, and I know from seeing her morning tweets that begin every day, she is determined to make it better than yesterday.

John Michael Morgan

John calls himself the Chuck Norris of branding which in itself is great branding! My theory on the topic is that brands cannot be created, that’s the audience’s job, but we must set the scene in order for the experience to be valuable to them.

John is the author of "Brand Against The Machine" and his clients range across the globe to include Fortune 500 companies, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and start-ups. John has started 3 successful businesses both online and offline. And he says he began studying branding and marketing when he was a teenager.

Thanks for the inspirational list, Jason! We must do the work that makes us passionate and cannot stop until we find it.


Kneale Mann

TEDxVancouver | Sean Aiken