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I don't want an MBA... I want real life experience with Seth Godin

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The world says, "It's Murphy's Law," when it's really just an opportunity for innovation

Maybe losing that job or not getting that promotion, or just realizing "it's time to move on" was really just a first step towards a new, crazy adventure? Maybe it creates just the right circumstances for you to do something that you would never dream of doing?

Have you thought about apprenticing under Seth Godin for 6 months? If you too want to change the world - click here for the details and create/send in your application.

My name is Murphy Felton and I found myself in that place. Not totally sure what to do next in my life, but armed with dreams in one hand, desire in another and nothing holding me back, has created opportunities for me to plunge into things I would have never given much thought.

There are no responsibilities holding me back that would make it impossible for me to work with you, Seth. The following is a snapshot of who I am, what I've done and what I'm willing to do to continue to make change in this world.

Thank you for taking the time to look through this lens. In all you have going on in your world, I appreciate the time you'll take to have our worlds collide.

What do you do now?

Assembling Possibilities

Currently, I'm piecing work together on projects that I don't know if I would have ever been able to jump into if I was still "regularly employed."

Faith Village
One opportunity is to help build a website and online marketing strategy for an orphanage in Thailand, called Faith Village. This orphanage was formed in 1996 as a safe haven for boys and girls in danger of being exploited in the sex trade, slave labor and being sold to opium warlords who would use them as little boy soldiers. In need of sponsorship and funding, a revamp in marketing and presentation is needed to raise funds for these kids.

Kingdom Building Ministries
This opportunity is marrying two organizations together to revamp a "new way to do camp." I'm looking forward to taking the goals and objectives of KBM and just shifting thought patterns and ways of doing things at SpringHill Camps to create an entirely new camp experience.

We Will Not Be Silent
The other opportunity is vague and not yet defined (my favorite, for real). The idea here is to produce a reality/charity TV show with a band called, Alabaster Box out of Australia. The band and small crew would go out on tour in Australia raising awareness and funds for water in impoverished lands and challenging listeners to not be silent on the injustices of this world. The goal is to raise enough money to give to Living Water International who will use it to refurbish and restore wells that have been destroyed during recent civil wars in Sierra Leone.

What astonishing thing did you do before what you do now?

"8 years is a long time to work at a camp." - Everyone I've ever met

From the fall of 2000 until October of 2008, I got paid to play. In my time at SpringHill Camps, I held several different roles that played to different strengths.

IT Director - allowed me to build websites, interact with people on difficult subjects (like, "How in the world do I get this program to work?") and take my first stab at managing and distributing a budget.

Video Productions Director allowed me to use more of my eye for design, the ability to tell a story with words and video, teach up and coming talent, and manage another budget.

Marketing Liaison allowed me to interact with Marketing Companies, help develop and brand SpringHill Camps, design internal pieces and organize workflow and deadlines.

Senior Programming Role combined levels of the previous roles and added curriculum development, on stage presence, large event creation and production, task force creation and project management.

SpringHill definitely gave me quality experiences that I am deeply grateful for and can't wait to take those experiences and build on them for other organizations in the future.

After 8 years of building relationships at SpringHill Camps, I wanted to make sure that people knew how much I loved my time there and how much I appreciated them and their contribution to the mission of SpringHill. So what's a more personal "see you later" than a YouTube Video?
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Why do you do it?

I am mission driven

Since the seventh grade, I knew that my life would have something to do with ministry - whether that be a direct involvement or setting others up to do and accomplish effective ministry.

There is something deep inside of me that compels me to create and serve and push beyond what's normal or safe, in order to celebrate intuition, vision and to see faith in action.

Knowing that being involved in some way of showing love and making the world a better place even if it's one child at a time, is just a fraction of giving back on Love I have received in full.

What am I hoping to learn?

My desire from this experience is to learn how to take big, hairy, audacious dreams and help turn them into professional, tangible, desired experiences supported and encouraged by technology.

I purposely try to surround myself with brilliant people who are smarter, deeper, edgier, and more passionate than I am because I learn by gleaning, doing, making mistakes, doing it again but differently, incorporating, modeling, reading, experimenting, and pushing the boundaries.

Important!

"Orville Wright never had a pilot's license." - Gordon MaKenzie

If you're the first to do something, you don't have to have permission.

After you learn it, what are you going to do with it?

The possibilities are endless

My desire from this experience is to take what I've learned to small to medium sized ministries or mission driven businesses and help them think beyond their current realms and design ways to take them to the next level of effectiveness.

Immediately
I am hoping to wrap the things I am learning into my current projects of the orphanage, the water project and a new way of "doing camp". Because these are mostly undefined, there is much to be developed.

Making a change in the world

even if it's my niece's

Being involved in camping or ministry since I can remember, I know I have been able to come in contact with thousands kids and people and have had people talk about the impact I've had directly or indirectly in their lives.

I have to admit, however, this last summer was the first time I got to watch the impact up close. One of my nieces, Hope had/got/was forced the chance to come and spend a summer with me. I mention "forced" because it was kind of her choice and then again not so much as her parents were at a loss and needed some space. So nervously yet excitedly, I accepted a 17 year old (going on 30) into my home and the adventure began from there.

A Summer of Hope
The summer was filled with adventure and a modeling of "creating your own story" as opposed to following someone else's. So after 3 months of festivals, camps, baseball games, late night golf cart adventures, road trips, WICKED, and service, Hope's conversations began to shift. When the summer first started the conversation was all about friends and somewhat shallow things (No offense Hope as you read this), but over the course of the summer, the conversation went to her future, dreams of how she was going to change the world, passions, and personal attitude changes.

I have no doubt in my mind that Hope is going to change the world someday. Her heart is huge and tender. Her focus is compassionate. As she continues to mature and her passions align with avenues, the world isn't going to know how to handle such a woman.

I'm thankful that I got to hang out with her for a concentrated amount of time. There are days that I'm sure that her parents wonder if it was a good idea to spend so much time with me. But more than not, I see a far different person in Hope today than who I picked up in June.

Brace yourself, world. Hope is coming.

Have you ever overcome a Dip?

The SpringHill Music Festival

5 years before the festival came to fruition, it was a proposal that repeatedly got shot down. Every time I proposed it, I would get, "I don't know if we can do it," or "I don't think people will come," or "that seems too expensive." Every excuse possible, I heard it.

So, I took another route... build events and projects that would lead to the next possible evolution of a festival. If I could prove that we could handle large live production - it knocked out 1 excuse. If I could build relationships with bands that could draw a crowd - knocked out another excuse. Starting small projects that used input and built trust throughout the entire organization, knocked out another excuse. Pushing events with limited marketing resources eliminated another excuse.

I'm a bit tenacious
Throughout the years, I pushed to eliminate the excuses and when it came down to another proposal and waiting for a decision, I remember saying, "there aren't any excuses left. Let me do this."

During the inaugural year, I had the privilege of creating an inter-departmental task force, driving the marketing, rallying sponsorships, and recruiting volunteers.

This resulted in igniting the entire organization behind a "hair-brained" project because they saw how it could work by putting all these different pieces together. So in September of 2007, The first ever SpringHill Music Festival was born. Two days, 30 bands, 1000 people and a ton of momentum... all on limited resources - promoted mostly by viral means and driven by passion.
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Make a wish

Oooo... besides wishing my Rock Band Drum talent would transfer into real life?

I probably, knowingly over analyze the difference between "dreams" and "wishes." Which can be interpreted as "I might be a cynic." I don't mean to be, but I see dreams as attainable and wishes as miracles.

Wish: I wish I could hangout with the teenage version of my parents (for pure curiosity's sake) and had gotten to know all of my grandparents as adults.

Dream: My dream is to one day create an event or series of events or experiences that no one has thought of, but once they experience it, they wonder how they ever lived with out it.

Random Info, if you're thinking about stalking me

* I'm addicted to Coke... the kind with ice cubes.

* I heart Brett Favre and have the restraining order to prove it.

* I'm the youngest of 8. (26 years between myself and the oldest) If you were wondering where the name "Murphy" came from... Murphy's Law... but always told my dad, I wasn't the "oops," but the BONUS.

Personality Profiles: (Work at a camp long enough, there's lots of these)

Myers Briggs: INTP
DISC: High D High I - Lion, Otter
Enneagram: 7 with an 8 wing
Temperaments: Sanguine Choleric

General Opinion: Awesome.

Live Samples

Murphy in Action

The following are four videos were made mostly to drive traffic to the "alternative web presences" of SpringHill Camps. These gave a "behind the scenes" look at what was happening.

The "Sneak Peak" Video was a sneak peak view of my favorite Set Design, I've ever designed. Larger than life Ear buds (to scale 132x) and EQs that responded live to the music that was playing... YouTube had a little trouble converting, but you;ll get the idea.

The fourth video is a "fan video" of an improv comedy club at SpringHill.
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Projects, Sets, Events and Designs

A Smörgåsbord of projects, events, and things I've designed or produced

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Footprints in the Sand

A digital footprint

Although I have my own personal footprint, I have spent the last several years setting up/writing blogs, myspaces, and facebooks for others who needed that "teen" connection, but had no idea where to start or what to say.
Facebook
Personal Facebook Page - this is where I do most of my networking. Over the last 8 years, most of my interaction and recruitment has been with college students and we learned very quickly that college students really only check their facebook and myspace. So, in turn, that's where we "lived."
Xanga
Blogged here pretty consistently until the I took on a major festival project... then my attention turned primarily to Facebook.
SpringHill Camps MySpace
This MySpace was created for SpringHill just as MySpace was taking off. The creation of this space was underground (according to the general SpringHill administration), but a necessity to be "where the kids are."

After about 6 months and increased popularity on-line, the administration started to take notice and after filing several reports and sending direct feedback from campers, I received an "unofficial ok" about creating online communities for SpringHill Camps.

This MySpace page gets regular visitors, daily comments, and messages regarding students, campers and counselors' experience at SpringHill Camps.
Jeffrey Dean's MySpace Page
This MySpace was created for Jeffrey Dean, an inspirational youth speaker out of Nashville, TN. I set it up for him and designed a couple of modules.
SpringHill Camps Fan Page
Built this fan page for SpringHill Camps a little over a year ago. Sent out a message from my personal network of staff and campers and we had 1500 fans in 3 days.

I would also blog on here for camp and post "behind the scenes" videos.
The SpringHill Music Festival
Another fan page for the SpringHill Music Festival. I created this one for our marketing firm and then they ran with it.
MySpace
Personal MySpace page. Started my own after I had established some others. Used MySpace until Facebook surpassed the networking and usability.

Hookd on Fonix

Books I've read/reading in the last couple months, years, lifetimes

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There are other people crazy enough to do this?

Absolutely.

Here's a list of other world changers chasing this opportunity as well!
Matt Corker
Corker: (kor'ker) n.slang - a remarkable or excellent thing or personE.g. 'That story was such a corker.''This internship with Seth Godin is such a corker.''Allow me to introduce you to Matt Corker.'----------I am a Corker. I didn't get to choose my last name, but I do get to choose how I live up to
Susan Lewis
So ... I've been trying to figure out what I want to do when I grown up. (40 is grown up, right?) Just restless of late, not feeling as though I really fit in the career skin I've somehow donned. I haven't made it very far in my quest for something new, though. Then this comes along.Seth Godin is ma
Paul Pettengill's
I woke up on Monday morning and checked my RSS feed to see what was new, and I saw Seth had a new post, when I was done reading, I immediately texted my colleague/business partner at 6 am Clay Hebert and told him to check it out.
Matthias Galica
Big ideas, guts, and ambition. I know this is half the battle.Learning the execution: that's what I need. Having already gleaned a few things the hard way, I know I'd prefer the 6-month accelerated program.
Jess Sloss
I'm really excited. I'm excited about this life changing opportunity I am applying for but also for something much bigger. I'm excited about opportunity in general.Never before have had such a favorable playing field for changing the way much of our world is run.That makes me excited.Seth's books we
Jack Storey
This lens is for you, Seth, to show you who I am, why I am, and where I plan to go. It contains your questions and my answers. I truly hope to spend six months in the near future learning side-by-side with you in a way that will help me to achieve a brilliant start to my ultimate goals and dreams. T
Pat Ferdinandi
It's a New Day! I've had my previous days...taking advantages of many opportuntities. It's time to decide what my next day will be like.The purpose of this lens is to be reviewed by Seth Godin for his MBA -Substitute Application process (http://www.squidoo.com/Alternative-MBA). I will use this lens
Chris the Pizza Guy
I opened my google reader to find Seth's post the other day, and it really got my mind buzzing. This is pretty much something I want to be a part of.Before I begin, I would like to thank everyone who stopped by, voted for me here, made a comment and gave me their advice. Just the process of doing th
Tiara Shafiq
Cool Story and background... If anything, this has been a really cool project in getting to read about people's adventures!

Say What You Need to Say...

  • JD Whyte Apr 6, 2011 @ 6:31 pm | delete
    I remember you. You were in my youth group, The Wabash Valley Players, way back when you were at Jeff High School in Lafayette. I've often wondered what you were doing. Stop by my FB and say hello sometime.
  • Murphy Apr 6, 2011 @ 8:18 pm | delete
    Holy Cow! JD! How in the world are you?! I was just talking to Brian the other day! Also wondered what you were up to! I tried to find you on Facebook, to no avail. Maybe you could find me? Would love to reconnect
  • Dave Hatfield Dec 16, 2008 @ 9:59 am | delete
    Murph has had a big hand in changing the world if hundreds of transformed lives fits your cirteria. For what looks like is going on here, her being really smart and really creative seem to fit the bill. Possiibly lost In the midst of all the adjectives of "crazy, awesome, huge" is the one I've personally found most important for starting something totallly new: humble. Murph is truly a humble soul. Pragmatically, that means she learns - real fast - because she is open and listens. Spiritually - that means she's ready to tap into the true creativety and power that meaniingfully changes the world. Smart, creative - and humble. Not alot of folks like that around.
  • Becca Hedrich (Shannon) Dec 12, 2008 @ 6:57 am | delete
    Alert the media!! "Genuine Article" found!

    I knew Murph when we were freshmen, back in our college days at Cornerstone University. We've played a game or two of euchure together :D

    I'll tell ya something, Seth- Murph has this bioluminescence kind of thing going on (like a lightning bug, only...not) and anyway, people are drawn to her. She is kind, compassionate, zany, driven, and GENUINE.

    I can't think of one reason you wouldn't want someone of her character and caliber on your team.
  • pizzamancer Dec 11, 2008 @ 9:29 pm | delete
    Just stopping back to check out your lens, and sure enough there is Seth's post. Good job on getting it turned in.
  • sethgodin Dec 11, 2008 @ 9:17 pm | delete
    thanks Murphy!
  • Chris duMond Dec 11, 2008 @ 6:06 pm | delete
    One word: Totally awesome. Yep that's two. Seth, once you meet Murphy (and you will if you really are as smart as you seem) you will also have trouble describing here with just one word. She's too dynamic and wickedly talented for that. I have seen the fruits of her labor and one of the reasons kids (and adults) love to come to SpringHill can be directly attributed her and the creative programming she brings to the table. You won't manage her, you'll just try to keep up with her.

    I can't imagine anyone not wanting to have Murphy on their team so you'd best hurry up and hire her.

    Chris duMond
    designvox.com
  • Chad Farrand Dec 11, 2008 @ 2:28 pm | delete
    I had the pleasure of working with Murphy on the Program Team at Spring Hill Camps. Technically, I was her boss, but in truth she WAS the creative drive the programming become one of the most cutting edge programs in the country. Her professionalism and creativity is truly inspirational. Her dreams have a way of coming true, as was evidenced in the music festival that is now a reality at Spring Hill. There are very few people I could recommend to you, and Murphy is truly at the top of that list.

    Chad Farrand
    Director/Pastor
    Tapestry
    Michigan
  • Jason Rosewell Dec 11, 2008 @ 12:18 pm | delete
    I'm a drummer, also in a band that has had dealings with the great Murphy Felton. It's hard to sum up what kind of a person she is but a few key words come to mind: talented, creative - no, super-human creative, charismatic. Murphy is a doer, and whatever she does she does it all the way with no holds barred. Low budget? Who cares, Murphy will make it awesome.

    I've been blessed to work with Murph for several years and every time the experience is positive. One time my band was rushing from one show to the next with little time to make the second and weather was not on our side. The second show was a music festival that Murphy was coordinating. As one of her festival staff was communicating with me and relaying to Murphy that we we running very late I got a text from Murph that just said "Thank-you for being awesome. Drive Safe." We made the show, but it was great to know that she cared more about us than our punctuality!

    Not taking the chance to meet Murphy is... well, silly!
  • geraldcroteau Dec 10, 2008 @ 5:20 pm | delete
    I saw your goodbye video. I definitely hope I get the chance to work with you on Seth's program. Best of luck!
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MurphyFelton

Just finished an 8 year stint at SpringHill Camps in Evart, MI and Seymour, IN. Held roles as the IT Director, Video Productions Director, Marketing L... more »

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