Well, that was embarrassing.
Embarking without pants. Em bare assing.
We did some bareassing yesterday at the first ever meeting of The Remarkable Fools Society.
We began with the pledge / oath of The Remarkable Fools Society:
The perfectly imperfect, incomplete, irrational and limited fool in me that laughs at myself, recognizes, celebrates and laughs at the perfectly imperfect, incomplete, irrational and limited fool in you.
Omnes Puppibus
Everybody poops.
After that was the mime lesson. I must say that everyone who attended was spectacularly foolish and delightful to hang out with.
People were super brave, creative and generous with each other and themselves. We shared embarrassing stories in embarrassing ways.
In the second part of the gathering, I introduced the Registry of Certified Fools.
We now have an actual certificate. It was designed by Hanif Jianmohammed aka @the.reluctant.illustrator
The certificate is spectacular and can be purchased on Gumroad.
It comes framed, hand signed and numbered and ready to be hung with pride.
What is a certified fool? What difference can that make in my life?
This certificate bestows upon the person named the right to be a flawed, incomplete, perfectly imperfect human. This entitles the named to take risks, make mistakes, fall short, learn and repeat the process of being human.
The named is added to the Registry of Certified Fools and as such has demonstrated the ability to laugh at themselves and know that we are all humans, united by one simple truth: Everybody poops.
Designed by @the.reluctant.illustrator these certificates are framed and ready to hang on your wall to declare your dedication to the acceptance of our limited, imperfect and wonderful human experience of being a fool!
By registering with The Remarkable Fools Society and becoming a Certified Fool there are benefits. They include: permission to try things, come up short, make mistakes and feel embarrassed, stupid and slightly humiliated; permission to bounce back quickly; advanced access to The Book of Wrong Answers Audio book version and first notice of special events online and in person that are only available to Certified Fools - there will be more on these special gatherings in the coming months.
Finally, the mime / share your embarrassment bit of the gathering is part of an hour long workshop. The workshop is designed to promote creativity, innovation and change by re framing our relationship with embarrassment. Embarrassment and fear of the feeling, frequently gets in the way of creativity, innovation and change.
I offered ‘kickbacks’ to anyone there who wanted to organize a Certification Workshop.
I now understand that ‘kickbacks’ have a negative connotation. I think what I meant was “affiliate sales program”. Which is the ethical version of a kickback but a kickback none the less.
So, in either one or three hours, The Remarkable Fools Society is thrilled to be able to offer a program that leads to a Certificate of Remarkable Foolishness Award. Contact me to find out more.
In addition to the Certificate of Remarkable Foolishness Award, @the.reluctant.illustrator and I are creating The Million Dollar Joke. With The Million Dollar Joke, I will go to the ends of the earth to find the World’s Biggest Fool. I’ll know when I’ve found them because they will be willing to pay a million dollars in order to claim the title of The World’s Biggest Fool. We’ll have a launch party for this on June 15
There’s an affiliate opportunity there too should you directly connect us with someone that foolish.
Finally, I read from The Book of Wrong Answers Volume 1 - The Book of Larry. It will be released on May 15.
We’ll have a launch party for that on May 15.
And during these 34 minute, respectful of your time events?
You can expect the unexpected, to make a new connection and ideally, laugh.
It’s like the old saying goes:
Laughter is the best medicine.
Ah, kickback: a percentage paid to a decision maker or influencer by a vendor who bids on a contract to have said vendor win a contract. At least a conflict of interest and easily immoral as the best priced and quality goods, as a rule, would not require an incentive to be selected if the best vendor won. The goods being pushed are usually overpriced for the quality (to cover the kickback), so the purchaser's best interests are not being served.
An affiliate, from the root "fil" is an associate or more directly, a brother, is a person who helps you with a sense of goodwill for you. Energetically, taking without an energetic return, is unsustainable. When someone helps us, we want to so something nice in return or pass on the kindness. Affiliate marketing is essentially compensated word of mouth when it's sincere. You love and use a product and tell others. You are rewarded for the direct word of mouth marketing and the business gets targeted marketing. When you promote products that do not delight you, simply because they pay you to say nice things, well...if you used private parts for that, there is a word for that behaviour. Not that there's anything wrong with it.