I talked to a friend on the phone today and I told her that when the week began I had decided to make this a book writing week – my daughter is at my in-laws for a winter holiday so things are pretty quiet around here, which is awesome for writing. Anyway now it’s wednesday evening and  I had done a ton of restructuring, a ton of client work and business planning this week, but no book writing.  And then she said something:

” how about doing something that’s easy?” and I went

“what do you mean ?” then she said

“well everytime you do something you want it to be worldchanging in your perspective, just so you can look back at it in 2 years time, when everybody has come to terms with it and said “I told you so. If you wrote something that came easy to you it would be mindblowing in the present and you could do that in no time”…

I think she struck a very large chord within me, Im so obsessed going after the next megatrend so I can say “I told you so”… I don’t believe in writing stuff that’s not worldchanging, but I think my problem is that I don’t see how far ahead I am… So I chose to supply my worldchanging epic book that’s due in the fall with something easy for the spring. And I found out that easy for me, has a pretty good shot at being mindblowing, practical and current for a lot of people on the internet.

And I became humbled by her insights. Especially when she added “im in communication and marketing, and I just can’t keep up with you.. you are such a geek”…

I love my work – but somethings more than others. Today I feel so lucky because I get to launch my brand new e-book entitled “rock your identity” .Here. Together with you guys. And it makes me feel great. Seriously I love launching stuff and just see how things build up.

Anyway this e-book has taken me a while to finish… actually it’s core ingrediens is something I posted on this blog a while back , and now I’ve been working with it in Toothless Tiger and I’ve had succes with working with clients around it – So I thought – hey I should write an e-book about the valueloop I’ve introduced. So this is it. This is how you can rock your identity on the social web. The e-book is out in Danish here and in English here.

oh and btw – the danish pressrelease is here

I’ve loved writing this e-book. I hope you’ll find it useful.

Yesterday I launched the involvement manifesto – again. I’ve launched it already once – but I don’t believe that my homemade indesign skills did it any justice. Therefore I let Amelie from Krawatt.se play around with it and here’s what she came up with :

I absolutely adore it.

Unfortunatly we are having some complex technical problems with people downloading the manifesto in the large format (depending on browser and such) but you can go ahead and see if the internet is with you today and download it on http://www.toothlesstigerpress.com/involvementmanifesto.

Anyway I decided to put it up here on the blog as well (the format on toothless tiger press is larger though – large enough to print out and framing it =). It’s only in english so far, because the danish translation is bugging me.. however danish, swedish and german translations are planned =) Normally you would have to “pay” with signing up for the toothless tiger newsletter to get it, but hey – the technique doesn’t work today (we would appreciate it though if you signed up for the newsletter anyway=)

But even though that’s all good and well (apart from the tech) I want to touch upon how important it is to take large pieces of content and break it up and make it digestable.

The involvement manifesto is a digestible way of reading a part of danish book “return on involvement”, it’s a mini teaser for the english one as well.  There are so many ways to break down large pieces of content – and it’s one of the things I love to do the most because it makes you feel so creative. So have you any done something huge? and have you thought about breaking it down and spread it out like little snippets of you and your messages ? It’s truely important to not only work around your business plans with HUGE books and all these things that makes your brand – because you need small snippets of freebies and information that travels fast. Like fragments of epic shit building the empire of me.

One of the things that I would actually love, was if just one person in the world thought that this was an utterly amazing manifesto, and put it up on the wall in the office and start using it. Believing so much in my thoughts about business unusual that the person would print it out and read through it occasionally. That’s my ambition for this manifesto. However I must say – I will print on canvas and put it up in the Toothless Tiger office in Copenhagen because to me that poster is a stunner –  the essence of the book and I am so proud of her=)

I am in the process of turning my Danish “handheld” book (entitled “return on involvement – how to use social web to create business unusual”) into a digital book in English – it’s so much fun and a very creative process for me. Also it’s frightening me a bit that I won’t only have to be completely open in Danish – but in English as well. That means that my book will be available to every english speaking person around the world (and that, my friend, is a huge deal to me – even though I know I  have blogged here since 2005 in english) – then I see the digital book as a huge thing and one I am really excited to do.

So while I have been reading the book through in Danish, a lot of new ideas came up that I will add to the english version – it’s ok. I can. I have published the book on my own “press” because I hate when people tell me what I can and cannot do, so the world is open for everything and who says that the english version has to be the same as the Danish.

I have moved a lot personally in the last year and the english digital book will reflect that as well. I want to make it really concrete and really Henriette (because that’s how I roll and what excites me =). So in addition to the Danish book “just” being translated I am working on a workbook to accompany it and some interviews. Thanks to the magically wonderful Danielle LaPorte for making me realize that I could do this. That the world really needs more of me =) (and I have to love myself and all that jazz – well you know.. )

Also I can announce that for the 1st birthday of my book – I will make it available as a Danish e-book and as an audiobook =)

One of the things that I am really coming back to is the “abundance of stuff”. I did a talk about this at the amazing #ton40 un-conference in Enschede a couple of weeks ago. That in this world we can get everything we want. That we for example are so plastic abundant that we have it drifting around in a large part of our ocean. That we keep getting new. Luckily it seems like upcycling and adding value is becoming a bigger and bigger way of looking at products and life cycles. To me its super weird that we keep talking about abundant life, and getting the things we want – when we have so much already and we throw it away again and again..

I just finished the last pages of Michael Pollans “in defense of food” and I was awestruck. It was an amazing book and an informative one that argues why we should “eat food not too much and mostly plants” which is the concept of the book where it argues what the western diet has done to the people living in the western world – our soil, our plants and our eating habits in general. It’s was a frightening experience reading through the book – figuring out why an apple from the 1940s had 3 times more goodness in it, than an apple today.
The book has a lot of concrete advise and I will continue my reading about the food culture of today and acting on it…
Basically what I took away from it, is that even though things are edible doesn’t necessarily mean it’s food. Like this Happy Meal that has just turned one year old.. Amazing what we have come to live by and amazing how little energy and vitamins there is in things we stuff ourselves with.

So today I decided to take better care of myself – and start defending my food – By working my way to become a flexitarian (heck I was vegetarian for 5 years without any problems…) I will limit my meat intake to a level that is satisfactory to me and my family as well=)

ps. found a podcast where Michael is interviewed about “in defense of food” – am going to listen to it now while I go for a jog =)

my car in the future – picture by clgoss77

I stumbled across this section in a book I am reading entitled ” confessions of a public speaker” that is getting more and more fantastic by the word.

“From a planetary view, if you’re reading this book indoors, under an electric light, within walking distance of a stocked fridge or a take-out delivery menu you can afford to order from, and rarely find yourself worrying about malaria or dysentry, you are doing quite well. And if you’re still not happy, consider that compared to most of the galaxy, a place comprised of 99,9% dead, empty space, the fact that you’re even alive and in a form of a species evolved enough to read books reminding you on how rare life is, makes you astronomically fortunate. We should be happy about this, but mostly it seems we’re not”..

Adding to that:

I have a man in my life that makes me happy everyday
a daughter that is a perfect child, a huge family that loves me
I can do with my time whatever I want – and I have still managed to make a living for the last couple of years outside of the cubicle.
I am in a position where I can value time over money, because money don’t need to be important to me.
Im a self-published author!
People thinks I am cool!.. They even give me money to speak to them.
I teach people and companies how to rock – and they are loving me for it
I work on projects for clients that are really fantastic and they are changing the world
People who are changing me as a person and my life, are people I have never met – which is fantastic
I am creative and inspired in every breath in and out..

Oh and all those things like weightloss, insecurity, camilla skovgaard wedges, an mgb roadster from 1954, saving the world and end poverty – NO PROBLEM.. we are doing it everyday, and you can join us too if you set your mind to it.

Radical self love is so much my thing=)

Ps – it’s been such a long time since i’ve seen a meme in the blogosphere – if you want to tell us what you are grateful for – please do =)

So these days are important to me. I feel like I personally am living in the end of an era – an era of publishing my book Return on Involvement, an era of ending some areas in my own social media chain and starting on new ones. The first review of Return on Involvement was in my RSS reader this morning (in danish), yesterday I finally got notion from the community that handles the bookselling logistics in DK that my book was actually going to be able to be purchased by the bookstores. And here I am, sitting in front of my computer with my to-do lists, ideas and initiatives to get this book to be sold in Denmark and worldwide (in english) and I am literally holding my breath. As absurd as it seems, I feel like this is the first time I am completely exposed to everything. You can hit me. You can kiss me.

I am a child of the internet. And I have been involved in so many projects and companies and NGO work online since my teenage years. I mean that should make me feel exposed right ? I put my thoughts on the internet, I ramble, I shout, I believe. I have friends here. The book feels different to me. It has been such a relief for me to actually have a product that isn’t really myself and my work. but it’s a product that you can touch and feel and own. A piece of me, and yet again something bigger than me.

Actually I think that these days are the days where my personal growth is on the highest. I have a perfect tool in the hand – to show what I stand for, what the social web stands for according to me and how I believe you should use it as a company, oh and if I play my cards right – this could be really important and change a small part of the world, maybe a bigger part when it’s launched in english – but as you might now, we could use some business unusual in Denmark as well (no Denmark could use some love for sure – to other countries and cultures)

Even though I am holding my breath and continuing my book project as planned, I am happy, excited, proud, loved and scared shitless at the same time. I am having a party tomorrow where you should come if you are somewhere near Copenhagen . It’s all good and I am a changed, provoked and wiser person myself =)

crossposted on eeze.dk

So a couple of nights ago I decided to do it – give the pressrelease and the date of the launch of the book to the public. danish press release here and google translation of press release here. It feels great to launch and give the date of when you can get the book in the bookstores (august 31st 2009) still there is a lot of stuff PR and marketing wise that needs to be done (oh and the logistics=).

I think it’s been a great ride, but it’s been a tough baby to bear, I guess I knew I had to do it on my own when my ex-editor told me that she didn’t think it was time for me to publish a book, i should be doing other stuff. Now one of the first triggers to get me going is when people tell me what I can and what I can’t do, I just knew that I had to get this book out of my system – and right away.

The book to me is something that’s missing out there. Not focusing on the social tools (to me they are 10% of social marketing and branding), not to focus on why you need to do it, but simply to give people an overview on what it takes (and it takes a bit) and how they create business unusual – the type of business I find is most suited for what I call the “anarchistic ways of the internet”. So it’s been a fun progress – it has a bit of everything I have been working on for the last couple of years – rockbandism, tools, identity, revolutions, movement, marketing, branding – stuff like that.

The best that I have taken with me from writing this book is the process of it. It was hard work (not just hard- but darn hard), and yet I still know what my next book will be about, I have even started to structure it in my mind, which is scary because I have promised myself that I need to take care of myself after this first insane project.

I have a saying that I can only take care of one baby at the time – now up is my health (I need to loose weight and these days I am loosing weight as we speak =), next up I am gonna ruin my weightloss by having another real baby. (Princess P is 5 now and tired of not having any siblings), heck I might even do 2 babies in a row (aka. weightloss probably pretty much ruined).

Also if you want to know more about the bookwriting process – I did a summary a couple of weeks ago

There’s gonna be a booklaunchparty on the 28th of August where all of the internet is invited.. So I hope to see you there.. be-fan the book at facebook if you want to know more.

ps. crossposted on toothlesstiger.com

Today I write history – well a little bit of my own history that calls for champagne, dancing and a bunch of laughter- I uploaded the free introduction to my book called “return on involvement – how to use the social web to create business unusual” (in danish only so far – sorry non-danishspeaking people). The book in itself is going to be available for purchase medio june. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the process of writing this sucker =). It started out in January 2008 where I decided that I needed to put all my thoughts on the social web and business down in a structured format – which became known in my head as “the book”.

When the first draft of the book was finished – A danish publising house contacted me because they where curious about the book. We arranged for a meeting, and after a couple of meetings – they decided they wanted to publish it – i was exstatic for a while but my smile soon faded. The book they wanted my book to be, where not the book that I had written.
they wanted a how-to book on social tools
I wanted to write a book about why social tools are necessary and what effect they can have on business – which meant no deal, they called it off first, but I am glad they did today.

A couple of days after I decided to do my own publishing house – Toothless Tiger Press , mainly because I could not see what my former publisher could provide me with at high cost, that I could buy myself and with a greater gain in the end. I don’t really think we are going to be having that many big publishing houses anymore – to me, what I have encountered that a publishing house does – doesn’t really have a place in todays world of connectedness on the internet. You have to transform and you have to transform big time. =) Toothless Tiger Press has been used as a platform for my own (only) free ebook on rockbandism so far.

In January I decided to add two more chapters to the book, in february the first round of editing started, march 2nd round of editing and in April my hands where off the manuscript and I could leave it in the hands of my excellent editor for the 3rd round of editing. These days it’s having it’s final layout, a last round of editing and then it hits the bookstores in Denmark. Meanwhile I have hired someone to translate it all to english – so you english speaking people won’t wait long ( we are talking mid-september or someting here)..

The absolutely hardest part for me, has been to let go of the book. In this area of work you can continue to work on it forever and ever. It was my wonderful husband who told me that if I didn’t stop adding stuff to this book he would go insane – and I really couldn’t have that on my shoulders. I am one of those people who are so terribly afraid of being un-original and not-that-genuine at all. So I really wanted to do my best. I think it has it – a bit of everything that I believe to be important, combined with a couple of why? how-to’s and best practice.

I hope you will all enjoy it when it launches both in danish and english !

So the videos from two talks I gave 2 weeks ago in Hamburg and Stockholm are online.

Here’s the one from next09 called: “rockbandism” or “why every company should be a rockband” based on my ebook with the same title – filmed by the amazing Andrea Vascellari

Here’s my talk on “return on involvement – how you can use social to create business unusual” from disruptive media a couple of days later i Stockholm.

Here’s where you find the video

This week I am working on putting last hands on a new ebook that is probably going to be entitled “from hopeless to hot – a crashguide in social marketing” – I don’t know yet – I change my mind all the time =) anyway the suggestion came from Eva Jonassen who send me a mail with the coolest suggestions…

Also I have made up my mind to move socialmediacamp copenhagen from the 5-6 of june to the 12th of september – this is mainly do to heavy workloads on the PR and publishing side of my big book (entitled return on involvement – how you can use the social web to create business unusual” which is due to come out shortly.

that’s about it these days – what’s happening on your side on the internet ?