21 years ago I moved to NYC not knowing it would become my forever home.
Two months ago, I became a US citizen, during a pandemic nonetheless.
Today I voted for the first time, after two decades of paying taxes, building businesses and and raising my children in the USA.
It feels good to citizen.
I have been holding my breath since March. While trying to keep my companies alive and making sure my kids feel emotionally safe.
I am done holding my breath.
“At any point in our lives, we can choose to be happy, no matter the circumstances,” my wise friend @suefan once said.
Think about it.
At any time you can choose love over fear.
I refuse to let 2020 go down as an unlived year.
I hereby exhale and surrender to what is.
I am going to breathe deeply and actively look for and celebrate anything that brings me joy:
Be it this imperfectly perfect heart-shaped tomato.
Rollerskaters dancing. (Check my Instagram story highlight titled HAPPY)
Tending to my plants.
Sitting with my neighbors on my stoop.. …
Given that 2020 is one big dumpster fire, I am trying to think of joy-producing ideas that up the ante.
Here’s one that made me giggle: What if we muster up all of our courage and confess to our secret crushes?
“Hi [insert name],
2020 sucks. But I figured it would make you happy to know that I have been secretly crushing on you.”
Can you imagine how that would make your day?
There are 124 days left in 2020. Let’s live a little. Let’s be warriors of joy.
PS: Please, exhale.
(originally posted over on my Instagram account)
Thank you for this gentle yet powerful call to action, Anisa Makhoul. I have to do better.
Such a pleasure to be in conversation with Paul Jarvis on his podcast Call Paul talking about how this moment in time has affected me personally and my various businesses.
My blog is turning 15 today. Maintaining this little corner on the internet has been one of the most rewarding projects ever. I wish more people would go back to owning their content, maintaining their own, well curated corner of the internet. Some of the folks that are doing that and I consistently go back to are:
What personal blogs do you go back to regularly?
Let’s bring blogrolls back!
Happy my 15th blog-iversary to you! Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.
“My friend once pointed out how negatively I spoke about sales. She looked at me and said: “Tina, selling is a transfer of enthusiasm. Nothing else.” That was a game changer for me.”
— yours truly
I am hoping to come out of this pandemic with a new sense of self, ready to fly. Beautifully illustrated with this Tattly by August Lamm.
“How are you doing?”
I have no idea how to answer anymore. Do you?
— Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) March 27, 2020
2020 goal:
Being in the presence of truth.
Reading the signs when I am not. Addressing it. Moving on.
— Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) February 14, 2020
This graph from a Standford University Paper on “How Couples Meet” caught my attention.
Having been single for a few years now, it seems as if apps have become the socially accepted and expected way to meet a partner. But what if the way apps work and feel is really not your jam?
I am determined to help reverse that “meet through friends” graph.
When you get introduced to someone via a friend, there is instant common ground and trust. Tapping into the “web of love” as my friend Sharon Lee calls it, is where the magic happens. When a friend introduces me to someone she/he holds in high regard and loves, I show up differently, open-hearted and less garded. (By the way, this also works in a work context!)
When you meet a stranger on an app it takes a lot of hard emotional work to figure out if that person can be trusted, is a good human, is who they say they are.
Looking back, when I was still married, I realize I was so busy being married and coupled, I didn’t pay attention to who was single in my circle of friends and if I could help make an introduction.
Seeing now just how hard it this to meet someone, I wish I helped my single friends more.
The IRL enthusiast that I am, and struggling with dating apps, I started asking my friends if they can think of a single friend they *love*. If they do, I ask them to write me a little paragraph about them, share their name and email so so can add them to my ever growing secret list of wonderful singles. Then they get invited to fun small gatherings. We had one so far and it was an absolutely delightful event. We are not labeling them as a singles event, we just tell them in the beginning that we all have one thing in common and they’ll probably figure out by the end of the night what that is. We are just getting started with these, Kyle and Christina are with me on the organizing committee. Best team ever.
Let’s bring back IRL and reverse that graph by tapping into our “web of love”.
(You can read the Stanford Study here: Disintermediating your friends © Michael Rosenfeld, Stanford University *, 2019)
One of my biggest advice to anyone starting their own company is to find a lawyer that you trust and like. For the past 13 years Jerald Tenenbaum has advised me through *everything* and by now I consider him a friend. So grateful! https://t.co/8k8kPY2E2m
— Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) June 26, 2019
(click to see the entire thread)
Lawyers get a bad rep. That bums me out. I have been working with the same lawyer for the last 14 years and I don’t think I would be where I am today without him. I had a bit of a “I love my lawyer so much” gratitude wave come over me yesterday so I channeled it into a Twitter Thread.
Kyle’s additional response put the biggest smile on my face, it really shows what a good human my lawyer Jerald is.
“Do your plants have names?” I was asked over dinner this past weekend. I shook my head. I couldn’t help but feel like I was a bad plant mom. The next morning, I woke up and spent an hour thoroughly overthinking and finding a name for my green friends. A weirdly satisfying experiment.
Now, I keep a list of potential names for new plants. One of them, I just added today, is Leif.
You spreading the word about a project/company/product you love makes a difference. Don’t just think a compliment, put it out in the universe. It’s rocket fuel for makers.
Tina Roth-Eisenberg – new title from The Do Lectures on Vimeo.
This summer, attending the Do Lectures in Wales, I gave the most personal talk of my life. I talk about my divorce and my spiritual journey as an entrepreneur. I admit, I am a bit nervous sharing this. Deep breaths.
Here’s an idea for you to cut through all the small talk, next time you host a party:
A few days ago I experimented with a “Cheese Personality Party”. Everyone had to bring a cheese that reflects their personality in some way or the other. Once everyone was present, we stood in a circle around the cheeses and listened to everyone’s reasoning for their choice. I was surprised how honest, sometimes vulnerable and sometimes just plain funny the thinking was. I will definitely do this again. ⠀ ⠀ ⠀
Looking at a cheese board filled with your friends’ personalities is simply the best.
⠀
My friends Stephanie and Jonathan Fields definitely made us laugh by bringing a cheesecake. Well played!
It’s been quiet on here. I realize. I spent the past few days with my dad in the hospital, in Switzerland, holding his hand and telling him over and over how much I love him. Wish I would have done that more often sooner. Maybe you can?
Also, what’s a word that describes both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time?
I feel grateful for this generous mention in Inc Magazine’s 100 Female Founder issue.
A big thank you to the charming photographer Jen Dessinger for making me look legit.
Some of you have wondered why postings are light and there was no Friday Link Pack. It’s because I am on vacation! Every summer I take my kids to Switzerland and indulge in fresh air, sausages, hiking and swimming. I am trying to spend as little time as possible on my computer. Thanks for understanding. You can follow my adventures along on Instagram. Make sure to check my stories.
Waving from the Alps!
I was asked yesterday “What do you do for fun?” I had to think. Spend time with my kids. Sit on my stoop. Host dinner parties. I couldn’t come up with a typical ‘hobby’ though. My work is my passion and is FUN.
And then this morning, I read this Tweet:
Creatives, if you ever have the luxury of your profession and your passion aligning to where you now get paid (in part or in full) to do “your thing” I can’t recommend enough the importance of finding some other hobby/interest on the side for pure leisure and rest.
— Patrick Michael Chin (@iampatrickchin) May 30, 2018
I need a hobby.
I appreciate the intention behind the Role Models Podcast: Interviewing women with inspiring careers so more women feel encouraged to aim higher.
And I am honored I was asked to be on it. Here’s the most recent episode with yours truly.
Thank you David for your thoughtfulness and making this so easy for me. Also, I talk a mile a minute.
13 years ago today I started this labor of love. And, I yet have to grow tired of it. Thank you for reading. I appreciate you. So much!
Happy my blog birthday to you!
I am ANXCITED over what I am about to share:
For nearly a decade CreativeMornings, an organization I started, has been bringing together people who are driven by passion and purpose, who support one another, and are collectively raising the bar on what it means to be creative.
Today, we’re launching the CreativeGuild where we will be translating our face-to-face community values to an online network for creatives. We like to think of it like LinkedIn, but for the creative world. .
This is something I wished existed 19 years ago, when I first moved to NYC and would Google ‘design studio NYC’ to find companies to apply to. All these years later, there is still no broad directory of creative companies, until now.
The CreativeGuild will start out as a global directory of creative companies and jobs but with an ambitious product roadmap ahead of us that will make it evolve into much more, a place for creatives to meet, that will open doors to new connections and opportunities. (The individual profiles will undergo a major upgrade next!)
Where other social networks are leaving me wanting more; more connection, more inspiration, more control over my data – we’re taking what we have learned with our face-to-face events and are aiming to create a more human experience.
What if, there was a place on the Internet that optimizes for opportunities instead of advertisements? An internet that is more interested in how you show up as a human, than how your data shows up in an algorithm? An internet that believed online experiences should feel more like face-to-face interactions?
I believe this version of the Internet can exist. Help me make it a reality.
Seth Godin had me as a guest on his Facebook live today. What an honor!
He is the force behind numerous bestseller books, the creator of AltMBA. Watch his CreativeMornings talk and see his magic.