Wednesdays are turning into a good day for us to get out of the office, connect with people and events in the community, and celebrate the successes of people we respect. A few weeks ago, we went to the Seahawks parade which I wrote about here.

This Wednesday, we attended Chase Jarvis Live with special guest Brandon Stanton.

Chase Jarvis is a Seattle based photographer who co-founded CreativeLive, an online training platform for artists. Brandon is the creator of "Humans of New York", which was first a Facebook Page where he posts thought provoking photos and captions of New Yorkers, and is now a best-selling photo book. The book's been on the best seller list for seventeen weeks and counting, and the Facebook page gets thousands of new followers per day. So it's pretty clear that Brandon's work is really resonating with lots of people.

James Workman, our executive director, first came across Chase Jarvis and his work a few weeks ago when Gary Vaynerchuck was on his show. James is a big fan of the Vaynerchuck "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" marketing model (which basically means, "Give, Give, Give-then ask"), so he watched Gary on Chase Jarvis Live. He was so impressed with the subject matter, interviewing style, and production quality, that he called me over to take a look. I was also impressed, so James got us tickets to attend a live broadcast-and what a show it was!

We were extremely lucky to be in the audience for such a powerful episode-all of the content was related to storytelling, following your passions, and being open and honest with the people around you. Brandon and Chase told stories about how, though both have had huge challenges, they've found success doing what they love.

On it's face, attending an episode of internet talk show where a photographer was interviewed by another photographer may not seem particularly related to presenting Environmental Training, but when you consider a few things, you might see why we took the time:

• Good photographs tell a story about their subjects. Good training programs tell attendees the story of the subject matter in an engaging way, so they can understand and apply it.
• Chase Jarvis's "CreativeLive" presents specialized training, and so does NWETC. Though our subject matter and delivery methods are quite different, we both are driven by the desire to help people improve themselves with skills they can apply at work.
• Connecting with people who are making things happen is energizing! Meeting and talking personally to Chase and Brandon inspired James and I to push even harder to bring our goals for NWETC to fruition. So expect to see us add more new topics, post more online offerings, and expand our attempts to make personal connections with all of you who take our courses!

If you have a little time, click some of those links above to check out Gary Vaynerchuk, Chase Jarvis, Brandon Stanton & Humans of NY. (You can watch the episode we attended at the link for Chase Jarvis Live.) We're betting that you'll find something relevant to you in the work of at least one of them.

And of course, keep watching our site for more news, and more ways to get your Environmental Training!