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Denise DeLuca
Think Like Nature Guide || Founder, Wild Hazel || Adjunct Faculty, MA in Sustainable Design & MA in Creative Leadership at MCAD
Denise DeLuca is a multifaceted professional with expertise in sustainable design, biomimicry, and creative leadership. She is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the MA in Creative Leadership program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD).32
Professional Background
DeLuca has a diverse background that includes:
- Founder of Wild Hazel: She established this organization, which appears to focus on sustainability and ecological thinking.12
- Former Director of MCAD's Sustainable Design Program: Before her current role, she led the Sustainable Design program at MCAD.3
- Co-founder of BCI: Biomimicry Creative for Innovation: This initiative likely combines biomimicry principles with innovative design practices.3
Academic Contributions
DeLuca's academic work is centered around sustainability and innovative design:
- Author: She wrote "Re-Aligning with Nature: Ecological Thinking for Radical Transformation," a book that explores how aligning with nature can lead to sustainable solutions for social and business challenges.1
- Educator: Besides her role in the Creative Leadership program, she also teaches in MCAD's MA in Sustainable Design program.6
Expertise and Focus Areas
DeLuca's work revolves around several key themes:
- Biomimicry: She is an advocate for using nature-inspired design solutions in innovation and sustainability.45
- Sustainable Design: Her expertise in this area is evident through her leadership and teaching roles at MCAD.37
- Creative Problem-Solving: She combines her engineering background with a passion for creative approaches to sustainability challenges.
Denise DeLuca's LinkedIn profile can be found under the username denise-deluca-4364b6b, where she describes herself as a "Think Like Nature Guide".4
Highlights
Self and Systems
“Someone who is self-centered or self-absorbed tends to be focused on themselves and may have difficulty showing consideration for others.” [https://lnkd.in/gveuHfKB]
If someone suggested that you’re self-centered or self-absorbed, you’d probably be offended. But our dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — drives us to behave and make decisions as if we were exactly that. We believe we have to look out for number one, play the game and play to win, keep climbing. We post selfies and track likes.
It is natural, imperative even, that each of us look after our own self-interest. We need to take care of ourselves so we can be our best selves and contribute to the world in our own unique way. In Nature, when an organism acts in its own self interest, it does so in harmony with the system in which it participates. There is give and take, respect and reciprocity, synergy and balance. In an ecosystem, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
In our human constructs and culture, when we look after our own self-interest, it is with the intent of getting more from the system than we give, ideally much more. That’s how we accumulate wealth. We admire and celebrate those who are really good at getting more than they give. We choose to be intentionally ignorant of the negative impacts that acting in our own self-interest has on other living beings, human and otherwise. The “real world” is a negative sum game.
When we follow the Conventional Paradigm, we tend to be focused on ourselves and have difficulty showing consideration for others. We are self-centered and self-absorbed.
If that makes you cringe, know that there is an alternative and you likely practice it often — when you are living from your Natural Paradigm. When you are with those you love, you care as much or more about their welfare and happiness than your own. When you’re thoroughly enjoying a walk in the woods, you feel at one with Nature, not in competition with the trees and the birds. When you open the door and are greeted by the fresh smell of rain, you want to share that joy with others, not hoard it or expect people to admire you because you smelled it before they did.
When we follow our Natural Paradigm, we tend to be focused on others — our friends and family, our community, our society, Nature — and find it natural to show consideration for others. We are ecosystem-centered and absorbed in love of life.
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If you’d like to explore your own Natural Paradigm, please request a free Tiny Transformation workbook [ https://lnkd.in/g3ABD9Xp ]. If you’re really curious, contact me and we can set up a time to chat.
#biomimicry #innerdevelopmentgoals #systemsthinking #thinklikenature Andy Middleton @JamieCreola Benjamin Freud, Ph.D.
Meaningful or Myopic and Misinformed?
When we care deeply about something, such as Nature, we feel a heightened sense of meaning, of purpose, of passion. We might feel clarity about what needs to be done, perhaps with a sense of urgency. These feelings can lead us to take meaningful action — or lead us to becoming myopic and misinformed. Our current dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — is based on seeing the world with a mindset of scarcity, individuality, competition, greed, resistance, and fear. We can blame this mindset for the existential problems we’re facing. Unfortunately, many social and environmental activists — knowingly or not — adhere to this same paradigm — which leads to beliefs and actions that are myopic and misinformed rather than meaningful. We cannot address the existential crises we are facing by following the Conventional Paradigm. We might make positive changes here and there, but the bigger problems keep getting worse. Let’s look at forests as an example. We all love trees and forests. For many of us, the forest is our happy spot. And no one likes to see a forest that has been recently harvested. Accordingly, environmental activists often fight to stop the cutting of trees. They point to loss of wildlife habitat, soil erosion, or need for carbon sequestration. Those issues are meaningful, but viewed through the Conventional Paradigm, the resulting actions are myopic, misinformed, and ultimately harmful. For example, greed and fear lead us to protect trees in our own backyard (literally or figuratively); however, as long as the population continues to grow, so will the market for lumber, and trees will be harvested somewhere. If not in our own well-regulated, well-managed, and highly productive backyards, trees will be cut in places that lack protections and regulations and in areas where a greater number of species are at risk (like the Amazonian rainforest) resulting in backyard protection, but global harm. We point fingers at timber harvest, but most of us live in wood-framed homes filled with wood-based furniture. Forests and trees and wood are natural, can be replanted, and can be managed for multiple objectives including habitat. Harvesting trees for wood products is a net carbon sink. By contrast, the production of steel and concrete account for 15% of CO2 emissions, and mining permanently destroys ecosystems. What is meaningful and what is myopic and misinformed in the case of forestry? If you’re curious, I encourage you to listen to “It all starts in the soil” from the Forestry Smart Policy podcast series [https://lnkd.in/g5ruZaaQ]. After listening, think about how we might approach forestry and our own lives and impacts from Nature’s Paradigm. If you’d like to explore your own Natural Paradigm request a free Tiny Transformation workbook [https://lnkd.in/g3ABD9Xp].
#sustainability #forestry #biomimicry Jake Dailey Andy Middleton
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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