Adin

For 5 Years I'm Not Spending Any Money So I Can Give Lots & Lots Of It Away

Facebook Only Allows 5000 Friends…I Better Start Getting Picky!

March 15th, 2010 No Comments

So, I already have 2016 friends on Facebook. Only 2984 to go!

Why do I want so many friends?

Well, it is not just because I am a ‘friend-a-holic’. I mean I really do love meeting new people and making friends, but it goes further than that. There is a strategy behind it. It is part of the BIG PLAN.

On my 10 month NO MONEY-VERSARY I wrote a blog post entitled WE Is The New Me! In it I said that my goals were too big for me to reach alone. With enough people, and with the right people, anything is possible though and I intend to prove it.

5 days later I wrote a post called Have We Got A Story For You – Ubuntu In the 21^st Century. In it I spoke about building a community of people, a new way of telling stories called Wiki-Ality and making money to give away.

That community is my friends I’ve already made and the friends I am yet to make.

As my friends you are invited to:

· Follow the stories, tell the stories and be the characters in the stories

· Come together to co-create the businesses that make money to give away

· And help me find 2984 of the coolest, most creative, interesting, passionate and connected people on Facebook

All this story needs right now your interest. Just by being interested in this story you will follow it. By following the story you may become inspired to take an action of some kind. ANY action you take will be valuable to this story.

What can you do right now?

· Add me as a friend on Facebook

· Follow me on Twitter

· Join the Facebook group NO MONEY REQUIRED – Our Experiment In Abundance

· Join the conversation (make comments, ask questions)

· Tell your friends what you think of this story

· Tell your friends to add me as a friend on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and join the Facebook group

· Blog about, Tweet about and SHARE anything you find interesting

· Join the HELPERAZZI (take photographs & shoot videos)

· Do some kind of ‘business’ with me (trade exchange or sponsorship)

· Let me know how I can help you.

Thanks so much for reading. Looking forward to seeing what you get up to.

GO TEAM!

Adin & Team

What You Can Get From The 2nd MY RIGHT ARM Sponsor And How You Can Get It

March 11th, 2010 No Comments

My 2nd sponsor for MY RIGHT ARM is the Consciousness Coaching Academy. This is an organisation that has had a massive impact on my life.

First, some history. This is a cool story…

A few years ago, synchronicity had its way with me and placed me in a workshop that changed my life.

I was having a drink with an old friend, Joey da Silva, that I had just reconnected with on Facebook. A woman sitting alone at the table next to us overheard me telling Joey about all my wonderful ideas and plans that I had to change the world. She interrupted me and said “Excuse me, I usually don’t interrupt people, but you need to be a Consciousness Coach.” “What’s a Consciousness Coach?” I replied.

She went on to tell me about a training program that she had just begun, that had inspired her and made a massive impact on her life. She said she felt compelled to tell me about it, like she saw something in me. She told me to call the creator of the program, Marc Steinberg, and get myself on the course.

Well, when something like that happens you take action right? So I called Marc Steinberg the next day. He put me onto a member of his team, Joerg Nawrocki, who enrolled me on the first course.

Master I – The Awareness Process changed my life as well…the lady was right! After the first course I decided to complete the full training program to become a coach and the rest, as they say, is history.

Talk about a Critical Moment.

When CCA (Consciousness Coaching Academy) found out about my experiment, they were incredibly supportive. And when they heard about the MY RIGHT ARM campaign, they asked how they could support me. We decided that the best way was to give some of those life changing courses that I can trade with my friends.

So you could get to have the same experience I had!

In this video myself and my friends Sue Roy and Mash Mashologu discuss the benefits of the course in more detail.

So, would you like to give yourself that experience?

All you need to do is offer me your unique value in exchange for the course. This is not something you can buy or a physical thing that you give me. I want you and your passion, you and your skill, you and what you do best.

Right now I’m preparing for my 1 year anniversary where I have committed to take this project to the next level and begin making money to give away.

To do this I need to tell a better story, reach more people, and leverage the story for money. If you can help me to do that (in any way) I’d like to hear from you.

I need help with my website, shooting and editing videos, advertising and marketing campaigns, PR, and anything that can help me make a lot of money to give away.

Who wants to come play?

Have WE Got A Story For You – Ubuntu In The 21st Century

March 10th, 2010 No Comments

So, up until now you may have heard about this crazy guy who has decided to live without spending money for 5 years. You may also have heard that this guy plans on giving away R555 555 555.55 by the end of the 5 years. Some of you may be his friend on Facebook, some of you may follow him on Twitter, some have even gotten involved with his story either by trading with him or sponsoring him and some of you might have your logo tattooed on his right arm!

The more perceptive of you may have realised that this guy that I speak of is me. Hi there.

Even though it may appear that for 10 months I have succeeded in living without spending money, the truth is that I have only accomplished what you have allowed to happen or what you have supported me in doing. WE have made it possible for one guy to live without spending money.

What’s also kinda beautiful is that it all happened rather organically. I have tried my best not to ask anyone directly for any kind of support, preferring a ‘just putting it out there’ strategy. That way, anyone who has responded to an invitation has done so out of their own free will…their action or contribution then is their own idea, their own creation. This has made me happy, yet I do feel that if I had been more comfortable asking for help, this story may have progressed a bit further than it has, and more people would know about it.

It is clear to me now that a community of people is way more interesting and powerful than any individual. My friends: Kelly Guidry Robinson, Calvin Dorman (also my minister of transport), Priscilla Talle and my trusty side-kick Anita B have helped me see that in the last 10 months, I have already begun to build that community.

In my previous message, I mentioned that I wished the story had been documented more effectively. That is an understatement. I’ve always known that the success of this experiment is dependent on its story being told. What good could come of this experiment if no-one knew about it? However, stories have the power to do much more than just spread a message. They can be leveraged in many different ways.

The story is where I would like much of the focus to be from now on. In the world of instant media and self publishing, stories are a powerful business tool. Being a part of this story has arguably been my most valuable trade item and I want nothing more than to add value to my friends, my country and the world. With a bigger and better story that reaches more people, WE can do that.

So how do WE tell a bigger and better story? In short, WE tell the story TOGETHER.Welcome to the future of story telling which I call WIKI-ALITY! (if wikipedia and a reality show were to fall in love and have a baby, that baby would be called wiki-ality!)

Seriously though, imagine an online reality show:

that is Crowdsourced
that is Open source
that is a real time documentary
where all the content is generated, contributed, shared, edited and published freely by a community of collaborators
that exists on any and all social media platforms like: Youtube, Zoopy, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter etc etc.

I don’t think anything like this has been done before so we’ll figure out the best way to do this. We will use the Facebook group to have discussions as well as real life brain-storming sessions and face to face meetings. Everyone is welcome be a part of this process – all input is valuable. You don’t need to be an expert to be a part of this.

With social media EVERYONE has an audience and ANYONE can tell a story. If you are on Facebook, you basically have your own little multimedia reality show already and you are watching your friends’ shows too. What if we put a little intention behind that and chose to tell stories that have value? Wouldn’t you rather keep up with what your awesome friends are creating in the world than those silly Kardashians? Let’s create our own reality shows, let’s tell the stories that we think should be told.

All you need is phone with a camera and you can create content. With an internet connection you can share that content instantly with your own community, and their community and so on. Your reach is bigger than you think. By sharing that content with people who have skills that you don’t, the quality of the product (the video, blog post etc) can only improve. My biggest fear has been editing. I know that there are people out there who love editing. If we provide them with footage, they can add what they love to it. Animators can make cool titles, musicians can make sound tracks etc. Maybe you like to take pictures but are not a confident writer. You could share you images with the community and allow others to use them in their posts. The reverse is also true, writers you can find awesome photos to add to your articles.

The best part is that you get to tell the story that most interests you and your community. You get to tell your own story or your version of another story.The possibilities with collaborations like this is endless.

WHAT STORIES DO WE WANT TO TELL?

I see 3 immediate areas of focus: the people who make up that community, the community itself and the projects created by the community.

The People:

Well that is you and me. So far I have been doing this for 10 months so maybe my story is the biggest so far. However, like I’ve said before, many people have played an integral part in that story. The interactions that have taken place and relationships that have made it possible for for me to live without spending money are what is really interesting about this story. Let’s say I have exchanged value with 5 people so far, then there would be 6 unique perspectives of those exchanges, 6 possible stories right there. But then, those stories could be perceived differently by the greater community and someone may choose to retell those stories to his or her community, then we have 12 stories. You see how this could work?

The Community:

The community that we are creating already exists. I was its first member, but you (my friends) are where its real value lies. Although it already exists our task now is to systemise it and formalise it so that it can be more effective.

It will:

Answer the question “What can we create without spending money?”
Support members to share and leverage value between each other by means of trade, sponsorhip and donation
Be an incubator for the projects (social enterprises) that will make the money that will be given away (R555 555 555.55)

The Projects:

The projects are social enterprises designed make money to give away. What is special about them is that they will all be created without spending money. Everything that these ‘businesses’ require to create their products & services will contributed by community members.

By documenting each of these areas we make it possible for many stories to be told. You can either be the subject of a story, play a part in telling a story or share other people’s stories.

I believe that the best way to tell a really big story is to tell many small stories, don’t you? What story do you want to tell? How do you wish to get involved?

The following discussions have been created on the Facebook group (see if you can spot the subtle change in the name and description):

Who? What? Where? When?

What part of this story is most interesting to you?

What type of projects should we work on?

What would you like to know?

Please join the conversation.

Much love

Adin & Team

I Got Dissed By Sandra Kennedy

March 9th, 2010 No Comments

Wow, when I went online a little while ago I was greeted with a Facebook chat from my friend Sandra Kennedy. When I say friend, I mean ‘Facebook friend’ as this was our first interaction. I always look forward to chatting with friends because it gives me an opportunity to connect with people, find out what they think of my experiment and hopefully find a way to engage with them.

This conversation this morning did not go the usual way. Most times people offer some kind of support, say that are interesting in what I am trying to do or share an insight or an perspective that they may have.

Sandra, on the other hand, was somewhat more critical of my lifestyle. No no, that’s not true, she was ridiculously critical.

I wanted so badly to share this experience with you. My intention was to copy & paste the chat into this post so you could see ALL that Sandra had to say to me, but unfortunately FB chat doesn’t have a very long history.

The first thing she said in the chat was MOOCH! At first I thought she was being cute, making a little joke but as the chat went on it became clear that she was being totally serious. She went on to call me a ‘ho’,a ‘user’ a ‘kept man, a ‘glamor boy’ and a ‘pampered biotch’! There were a few other less nice things that she said too…

You see, people like Sandra are one of the reasons I am so passionate about what I am doing. Some people are so jaded by money and all that is supposedly means, that when anyone tries to do something a little out of the ordinary they can only get defensive and critical.

I am going to post this now on my blog, and share it on her wall. Please Sandra, pick up where you left off…I think the wold would like to hear from you.

So this experience, if nothing else, has inspired me to work harder in creating a new way of doing things.

Please join the conversation if it starts on Facebook….I think this could get FUN

WARNING! Sandra is:
NSFW (not safe for work) – Sandra likes to swear…a lot
Difficult to understand – Sandra types like a teenager on MXit, her lack of complete words (and the ability to spell) may make this a little difficult to follow. I know I had trouble…

Thanks for reading…

ENJOY!

WE Is The New Me!

March 5th, 2010 2 Comments

Today is my 10 month NO MONEY-VERSARY!

Wow, it feels like just the other day that I embarked on this rather exciting, and somewhat crazy little experiment. (“somewhat?” my cheeky side-kick sniggers in the background… thanks for the support Anita!)
You’ve heard people talk about “life changing experiences”… well this has definitely been one. This journey has been filled with highs and lows, but way more highs than lows.

I would like to thank EVERYBODY who has supported me. I won’t be doing so individually because it would take too much time…but you know who you are. The truth is it is only possible to live without spending money if you’re supported by other people. If nothing else, living this way has taught me about the power of relationships… and I am blessed with truly awesome relationships. If wealth was measured in friendships… the no money guy would be the richest guy in the world!

When I started, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I applied the “jump off the cliff and grow wings” philosophy. I knew that if I waited until I had the perfect plan, I may never have begun. In hindsight, that may not have been the ideal way to go about it. In my first year A LOT has not gone according to plan. There are things that I definitely would have done differently, some that I would not have done at all and many that I wish I had done. In light of that, I am committed to making year 2 even better!

The first regret is that this journey has hardly been documented at all. I have not done the best job with my blog and my use of video (especially in the beginning) was limited. I always saw this as an online, open source, creative commons type collaboration – this has not materialised.

Having not documented the journey as much as I would have liked, I feel that I have not been able to make what’s possible without spending money more inclusive. What I mean by that is, I don’t how many people have actually seen the ‘how and the why of it’ and experimented with it themselves. If I just go for 5 years without spending money and nothing changes, what would be the point?

And lastly, and this is the one that stings the most, I have given very little money away in the last 10 months. One of my main motivators for beginning this project was to make a lot of money to give away. My target for the 5 years is in fact an ambitious R555 555 555.55! I still get a little fright every time I write it or say it out loud!

SO… what have I Iearned? Well, I can now see very clearly that I could never have done those things on my own. There are just some things that I am not good at. If there was a team of people, all sharing their skills, talents, ideas, resources and networks, the last 10 months would have had a much greater impact. The focus was on one guy living without spending money, when it should have been on the people who make that possible.

So WE is the new me!

In the next 2 months I am committed to building a team that is inspired to take this project to the next level. I have a vision that is too big for me to manifest alone. I can see now that my biggest strength is in connecting with people…let’s see how good I am at it. My commitment to this vision is to attract the right people to create it with me. If you are reading this you may be one of them… are you?

So if you have skills, ideas, resources and experience that would help us make a lot of money to give away, and to tell an amazing story – I would love to hear from you.
Yes, I said “WE”…I already have a few people who have said YES to this… but now we need a lot more. What do YOU say?

Please join in this discussion in my Facebook group if you are keen:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=12834&uid=136255177672

Thanks again and much love
Adin & Team

GO TEAM!!!!!

I’m Getting My First Camera In Exchange For A Tattoo!

March 3rd, 2010 No Comments

Just as I was beginning to worry about who the next sponsor of My Right Arm was going to be, something awesome & synchronistic happened. Something that resulted in me being given this camera!

sexy isn't she?

What happened?
Well, I was invited for dinner by my friend Sally Wellbeloved on Monday night. You may remember Sally, she is the lady who took the photo on my home page.
Anyway, I hadn’t seen her in a while so I was updating her on my adventures. She hadn’t heard about my giving My Right Arm to live without spending, so I was telling her about how the campaign worked and she asked me what I wanted for the next tattoo.
I told her that what I really needed was a quality compact camera to help me document my journey and more importantly to give exposure to the people that support me.
She told me that she knew someone called Arthur who sold cameras and suggested I get in touch with him. So she sent him and email that night telling him about what I’m up to. Arthur replied the next day saying that he was interested, I called him a bit later and on that call he agreed to give me the camera.
Not wanting to get too excited I asked him to send me an email confirming his decision and he had this to say:

Hi Adin ,

Very nice to chat to you abut this exciting marketing opportunity.

I can confirm that ISO100 will be sponsoring you with a Canon EOS SLR camera. I will be handing over the unit early April if that is in order. I am awaiting new stock to arrive.

ISO100 is very excited about this and I think having our logo on you will drive our brand. We are planning on taking on the big boys in SA and offer competitive pricing.

Please find my Logo and also a link to my site www.iso100.co.za

Regards
Arthur van Zyl

So, I am very proud to announce that ISO100 is the 5th sponsor of My Right Arm and that the following logo will be inked into the history books very soon. You know that by history books I mean my arm don’t you?

this is gonna look great on My Right Arm!

To get hold of ISO100 to see what deals they have for you, here are the contact details:

Physical Address:
32 Prestwick Road
908 Quyside
Green Point Telephone:
+27(0)21 427 2777
Email:
sales@iso100.co.za
www.iso100.co.za

So thanks Arthur, thanks Sally! My ability to tell this story will be greatly improved now!

That means I have secured the first 5 sponsors who will get tattood on my arm…I wonder who’s going to be next…

If you wanna connect with me, here’s how:

www.facebook.com/adinvanryneveld

@AdinvanRyneveld

071 220 9605

adin@nu-buntu.co.za

http://www.adin.co.za/

How Can I Be Of Service To You?

February 24th, 2010 No Comments

Just because I don’t spend money doesn’t mean I don’t work. Just like everybody else, in order to be successful and get what I want, I must find ways to be valuable to people, and be of service.

I thought it was time to remind you of the types of things that I do:

Life Coaching
Consciousness Coaching® is a brand of coaching developed my Marc Steinberg of Creative Consciousness International.

Coaching is a professional, result-orientated dialogue about all personal and working issues. It aims to generate and expand success and personal growth, producing exponential breakthrough results through insight and action. For more info on coaching, please visit the website www.consciousnesscoaching.co.za

Marketing/Advertising
If you offer me your product/service/resources/support/advice, or generally help me to live without spending money and to give lots and lots of it away, you and your business will get exposure to people following my story.

I will blog about you, tweet about you and even upload videos to Facebook and YouTube. I do not have a rate card or anything like that and will not promise ‘x-number’ words in a blog post or ‘y-many’tweets if you give me something. This is where the authenticity comes in – I will write and share what I am moved to write and share.

Social Media Services
I may not be an expert but I do know my way around Facebook and Twitter. If you are new to social media or not familiar with all its wonderful opportunities and possiblities, I can show you how.
Let me help you create a group/event/fan page on Facebook or set up an account on Twitter.

Also, I have quite a few friends on Facebook (1853, to be exact) so I can invite my friends to your event /group or suggest they become a fan of your page.

House-sitting
If you are not going to be home for whatever reason, why not let me look after your pets, plants and property. I am a non smoking, non drinking all round good guy and I am pretty damn responsible.

Designated driver
As your designated driver I will drive my scooter to your house, pick you up and drive your car to pick up your other mates and head out on the town. I join you on your night out and you split the costs of my evening between you – if you go to dinner…I eat, if you go to a party…you pay for me to get in and you keep me hydrated with non alcoholic beverages. Then when you decide it’s home time, I drop everybody off safe and sound and then drive home on my scooter.

Inter-personal assistant
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had a personal assistant to take care of that stuff? But seriously, who can afford a full time personal assistant anyway? In fact, who needs one? We can take care of most things that come our way but every now and then we need a bit of help…that’s where I come in!

As your interpersonal assistant I can do those once-off, random, inconvenient things that you just can’t get to. And you can share me…I don’t mind.

My Right Arm
MY RIGHT ARM launched at the beginning of the year and is my answer to the question “What are you willing to do to live without spending money?” Quite literally, I am giving MY RIGHT ARM, are at least advertising space on MY RIGHT ARM to friends of mine with businesses.
I am creating 25 extremely unique advertising opportunities on MY RIGHT ARM for brands who would like to support me in my quest to live with out spending money. If your product or service can help me live well, or do the things that I need to do, get in touch with me, you could be next to have your logo tattooed on MY RIGHT ARM.

Public talks/motivation/inspiration
Remember Calvin Dorman, of Calvinbusiness.co.za, my friend who agreed to buy me petrol for the rest of my 5 year experiment? The deal that we struck was that I will give a talk per month at Calvin’s business networking and goal setting club, E=mc3.I will be happy to offer similar talks to other companies, organisations or clubs.

So that’s what I have to offer. Anyone out there want what I’ve got to give?

If you want to do a trade of some kind, here is how to get hold of me:

adin@nu-buntu.co.za

@AdinvanRyneveld

071 220 9605

http://www.adin.co.za/

My Day Of Volunteering At The Earthchild Project

February 24th, 2010 No Comments

On the 10th of February I volunteered at Sakumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha, one the schools in Cape Town that the Earthchild Project works with. They have a gardening club and a worm farming club where the children learn about growing edible gardens and creating awesome compost and worm tea. It is really cool because the kids get hands on experience because they are the ones who tend to the gardens by doing the weeding, watering, mulching and harvesting as well as feeding the worms ands harvesting the compost and worm tea.

I love this project and love volunteering there.

I thought I would give you a taste of what happens at the school and why I love volunteering there so much.

I hope you love these videos

If you are interested in purchasing a worm farm or getting involved with Earthchild in any way, please go to their website:
http://www.earthchildproject.org/
join their Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19401522208&ref=search&sid=647030714.1765310067..1
or call them on:
021 462 2218

If you wanna connect with me, here’s how:

http://www.adin.co.za/

adin@nu-buntu.co.za

@AdinvanRyneveld

071 220 9605

Ben Getz From Urban Harvest Talks About Permaculture & His Relationship With The Earthchild Prorect

February 24th, 2010 No Comments

On the 10th of February I volunteered at Sakumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha, one the schools in Cape Town that the Earthchild Project works with. They have a gardening club and a worm farming club where the children learn awesome about growing edible gardens and creating awesome compost and worm tea. It is really cool because the kids get hands on experience because they are the ones who tend to the gardens by doing the weeding, watering, mulching and harvesting as well as feeding the worms ands harvesting the compost and worm tea.

A company called Urban Harvest has been a great friend to the Earthchild project over the years.Not only did they help set up the garden and the worm farms, they actually come every week with a team to help the kids with ‘edu-maintenance’.

In this video I talk to Ben Getz, founder of Urban Harvest.

If you are interested in purchasing a worm farm or getting involved with Earthchild in any way, please go to their website:
http://www.earthchildproject.org/
join their Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19401522208&ref=search&sid=647030714.1765310067..1
or call them on:
021 462 2218

If you would like to get in touch with Urban Harvest you can check out their website:
www.urbanharvest.co.za/

If you wanna connect with me, here’s how:

http://www.adin.co.za/

adin@nu-buntu.co.za

@AdinvanRyneveld

071 220 9605

For 5 Years I'm Not Spending Any Money So I Can Give Lots & Lots Of It Away

Facebook Only Allows 5000 Friends…I Better Start Getting Picky!

What You Can Get From The 2nd MY RIGHT ARM Sponsor And How You Can Get It

I Got Dissed By Sandra Kennedy

WE Is The New Me!

I’m Getting My First Camera In Exchange For A Tattoo!

My Day Of Volunteering At The Earthchild Project

Ben Getz From Urban Harvest Talks About Permaculture & His Relationship With The Earthchild Prorect

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