I’m an accidental activist for many
years I was an investment banker in New
York and this was actually my view from
the office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza but
the story of a young guy changed my life
and made me move back to my native
Bulgaria a couple of years ago I was
back here and at a party a young guy I
did not know approached me and asked me
if we could talk
that guy was very nervous I did not know
him
now I’m an openly gay man and probably
the only gay man this guy has ever met
let’s call him Andre Andre shared with
me that he told his mom that he was gay
and she had taken him to a psychiatrist
to be cured of his disease and Ray ran
away from home and tried to commit
suicide I was stunned right there in
front of me there was a human being
who’s hurting being rejected for who he
is and I was even more stunned to find
out that there are absolutely no
resources in the country to help him and
all the teenagers like him so one thing
led to another I went back to the States
talked to a few friends and I eventually
came back to Bulgaria to establish an
organization called single step to help
Andre in the tens of thousands of
teenagers like him now this is Sandra’s
life as a gay teenager in Bulgaria he
knows that society doesn’t accept him
in school his teachers don’t hide their
homophobia his classmates mock him bully
him call him
at home his father is ready to kick him
out
his mother is ashamed and blames herself
and wonders what other people say
so Andre is left completely alone asking
himself what’s the point in living
so that Andre has somebody to talk to
you we launched an online chat so that
we can provide information and guidance
to his parents who started a toll-free
hotline so that Andre is accepted in
school by his classmates and his friends
we produced targeted online campaigns
with positive stories and personal
example and now we arrived to the
million dollar question Society how do
we change public opinion when there is
so much stigma surrounding Andres very
big and let’s take a look at it from an
even broader point of view the more
general context how his transformational
social change achieved through civil
disobedience through public marches on
the street this is Emma Gonzalez a lot
of you may know her she’s a survivor of
the recent park-like shooting in in the
states that killed 17 and injured 14
kids now she’s the fiercely L spoken
leader of the never again movement would
we change to bring about gun reform in
the u.s. very powerful very outspoken
leader even in her screaming silence she
stood on stage silent for six minutes
and 20 seconds just how long it took
that killer to kill all these innocent
kids so the neverland movement actually
launched the March for our lives which
only in Washington DC attracted close to
a million people now the question is the
example that I gave society was
polarized it was more or less evenly
divided on gun control but what happens
if your cause is so stigmatized with
only 17% of the population X actually
accepting it I’m just giving this as an
example the case in Bulgaria and I would
like to offer you one solution to
affecting social change and it involves
bubbles snowflakes and push-ups and
they’re actually all technical terms now
believe me so let’s take a look at the
bubble our first ingredient now give you
an example in recent elections in
Bulgaria 90 plus percent of my closest
friends
voted from one party that party got
three percent of the vote so take a
second to consider this very
revolutionary revelation ninety percent
of my circle is actually a
representative sample of three percent
of the general population to me that was
stunning now let’s take a look at
another at another example
our beloved Facebook we get our news
let’s call it primarily from social
media from Facebook and we live in a
sort of an echo chamber where we can
only see posts from our circle or from
like-minded media outlets so to study
the effects of this bubble Facebook did
a study back in 2015 over the course of
six months and actually worked with 10
point 1 million news
and then our friends at the Wall Street
Journal created the real-time website it
still functioning and it’s absolutely
amazing and fascinating you can go and
find it just google blue feed red feed
and you get there so you see the blue
feet or very literally aligned or the
red feed which is very conservatively
aligned these are two feeds that
actually show problems issues in society
where society is polarized and it just
opposes views from both sides so it
looks at controversial topics such as
president Trump gun control abortion
immigration so for this presentation
actually went online and looked at
something that I care about gun control
so on the right hand side you will see a
cartoon mocking this movement that I
talked about the match for our lives
movement and I’ll quote this is the age
group we’re allowing to control the
narrative on our constitutional right to
have guns on the left hand side MSNBC
calls the same movement historic so
which is one to believe the point I’m
trying to make here is that we only live
within our circles we will only see
feeds from our respective point of view
so lesson one dramatically burst our
bubble if you want to affect social
change significant social change you
have to proactively reach out if you’re
from the blue feed reach out to somewhat
someone in the red feed and find an
unlikely ally now on to my second
solution our wonderful snowflakes
first this model actually helped when I
helped Obama win two elections and it
was first articulated by a longtime
activist and organizer in a Harvard
professor Marshall Ganz who said and
I’ll quote leadership is the practice of
accepting responsibility to enable
others to achieve shared purpose under
the conditions of uncertainty
what is the snowflake model it is a
model where the leader is actually
outsourced to a system and network of
interconnected leaders and each one of
those leaders are responsible for an
aspect of the campaign and that
beautiful snowflake helped Obama when
two elections so let’s see how it
there were three team leaders for each
team leader there were four team members
for each team member there were 66
volunteers and for each volunteer there
were 30 voters so if we do the math I
love math you see that one organizer
help deliver twenty three thousand seven
hundred and sixty votes so stay with me
I know it’s a lot of math so she goes on
further there were twenty seven hundred
organizers which resulted in sixty four
million votes and these votes were in
battleground states helped Obama when
that that election now if we consider
this in the context of what I’m talking
about one organization one organizer
will have a very hard time even an
impossible time to deliver twenty three
thousand seven hundred and sixty changed
opinions
but if you reach out of that bubble if
you remember what I talked about earlier
reach out to an unlikely ally and use
them as your team leaders volunteers
now let’s bring these two concepts home
and I’d like to give you an example
actually two examples something related
to a single step in the foundation I
established
recently we participated in a
competition for social entrepreneurs
which involved an election of sorts
people had to vote online for their
organization of choice the second
example is actually a fundraiser that we
organized what better way to actually
get a vote of approval you know other
than people voting with their wallets so
let’s take a look at the vote we knew
from the beginning that our cause is
very controversial and we had some very
major and great competitors people with
very important causes but not so
controversial the the 204 organizations
actually started and in order to select
the top three there was an online vote
so we knew we had to reach out way out
both internationally and domestically if
we had a fighting chance so we actually
mobilized the snowflake reached out
internationally and all these
organizations use their networks to help
us with the boat so in total all these
organizations get 2.5 million followers
on Facebook organizations and companies
with significant mailing lists and
subscribers also helped us now the
second example is actually the
fundraiser
we use some unlikely allies as I
mentioned this is a deaf activist an
ultramarathon runner who has run some of
the toughest races on earth then my
favorite I love him or hate him pop star
in Bulgaria so all of this helped
deliver fifteen thousand two hundred and
sixty three votes for us so mission
accomplished it also helped deliver very
sore muscles for me because I committed
in the very beginning that I will do one
pushup for every vote we get so I did
that now the second example want to want
to tell you I want to give you is Cindy
ladies and gentlemen please meet Cindy
now for it’s actually a CrossFit complex
CrossFit to workout and for those of you
who don’t know what CrossFit is it’s
actually the most amazing thing in the
world but I’m not going to talk about it
because I’ll be here forever
so what is Cindy Cindy is five pull-ups
ten push-ups 15 squats for a total of
thirty that’s one round well that’s easy
but in order to validate my hypothesis
and actually raise some money for the
foundation I decided to do three hundred
and thirty three rounds of that for a
total of ten thousand repetitions took
me fifteen hours but I finished so
mission accomplished I survived and
this is what the ten thousand comprises
of again we used those snowflakes I was
talking about both domestically and
internationally internationally look at
my very fit and very strong snowflakes
we had fundraisers organized in New York
in California in Europe even a soldier
in Afghanistan did some Cyndi’s you know
for a
but domestically in my gym while I was
doing these Cyndi’s ad nauseam for 15
hours we had friends who came cheered me
that some Cindy’s with me
and donated money I had a Guinness world
record holder a twice world champion in
parkour and countless of friends and
strangers not only came and cheered but
actually donated money for the cause
so in conclusion I’d like to show you
something very personal it’s it actually
extended the reach of that snowflake I
do believe in the power of a personal
story and in storytelling so this is my
story which was all watched more than
I don’t know pain the racing heart the
grasps for air the returns the aching
muscles the urge to give up immediately
because it hurts but I don’t because I
don’t know pain pain is the piercing
spoken word fat ass useless pain
is being different pain is the fear
facing the bully alone pain is when
everyone watches and no one helps pain
is being that loser
pain is being alone but you know what
that bully is weak and I am strong cause
pain may decide to choose me but I chose
not to suffer
I don’t know pain
thank you so my friends burst up bubble
motivate your snowflakes and watch it
grow but whatever you do do it with your heart thank you
years I was an investment banker in New
York and this was actually my view from
the office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza but
the story of a young guy changed my life
and made me move back to my native
Bulgaria a couple of years ago I was
back here and at a party a young guy I
did not know approached me and asked me
if we could talk
that guy was very nervous I did not know
him
now I’m an openly gay man and probably
the only gay man this guy has ever met
let’s call him Andre Andre shared with
me that he told his mom that he was gay
and she had taken him to a psychiatrist
to be cured of his disease and Ray ran
away from home and tried to commit
suicide I was stunned right there in
front of me there was a human being
who’s hurting being rejected for who he
is and I was even more stunned to find
out that there are absolutely no
resources in the country to help him and
all the teenagers like him so one thing
led to another I went back to the States
talked to a few friends and I eventually
came back to Bulgaria to establish an
organization called single step to help
Andre in the tens of thousands of
teenagers like him now this is Sandra’s
life as a gay teenager in Bulgaria he
knows that society doesn’t accept him
in school his teachers don’t hide their
homophobia his classmates mock him bully
him call him
at home his father is ready to kick him
out
his mother is ashamed and blames herself
and wonders what other people say
so Andre is left completely alone asking
himself what’s the point in living
so that Andre has somebody to talk to
you we launched an online chat so that
we can provide information and guidance
to his parents who started a toll-free
hotline so that Andre is accepted in
school by his classmates and his friends
we produced targeted online campaigns
with positive stories and personal
example and now we arrived to the
million dollar question Society how do
we change public opinion when there is
so much stigma surrounding Andres very
big and let’s take a look at it from an
even broader point of view the more
general context how his transformational
social change achieved through civil
disobedience through public marches on
the street this is Emma Gonzalez a lot
of you may know her she’s a survivor of
the recent park-like shooting in in the
states that killed 17 and injured 14
kids now she’s the fiercely L spoken
leader of the never again movement would
we change to bring about gun reform in
the u.s. very powerful very outspoken
leader even in her screaming silence she
stood on stage silent for six minutes
and 20 seconds just how long it took
that killer to kill all these innocent
kids so the neverland movement actually
launched the March for our lives which
only in Washington DC attracted close to
a million people now the question is the
example that I gave society was
polarized it was more or less evenly
divided on gun control but what happens
if your cause is so stigmatized with
only 17% of the population X actually
accepting it I’m just giving this as an
example the case in Bulgaria and I would
like to offer you one solution to
affecting social change and it involves
bubbles snowflakes and push-ups and
they’re actually all technical terms now
believe me so let’s take a look at the
bubble our first ingredient now give you
an example in recent elections in
Bulgaria 90 plus percent of my closest
friends
voted from one party that party got
three percent of the vote so take a
second to consider this very
revolutionary revelation ninety percent
of my circle is actually a
representative sample of three percent
of the general population to me that was
stunning now let’s take a look at
another at another example
our beloved Facebook we get our news
let’s call it primarily from social
media from Facebook and we live in a
sort of an echo chamber where we can
only see posts from our circle or from
like-minded media outlets so to study
the effects of this bubble Facebook did
a study back in 2015 over the course of
six months and actually worked with 10
point 1 million news
and then our friends at the Wall Street
Journal created the real-time website it
still functioning and it’s absolutely
amazing and fascinating you can go and
find it just google blue feed red feed
and you get there so you see the blue
feet or very literally aligned or the
red feed which is very conservatively
aligned these are two feeds that
actually show problems issues in society
where society is polarized and it just
opposes views from both sides so it
looks at controversial topics such as
president Trump gun control abortion
immigration so for this presentation
actually went online and looked at
something that I care about gun control
so on the right hand side you will see a
cartoon mocking this movement that I
talked about the match for our lives
movement and I’ll quote this is the age
group we’re allowing to control the
narrative on our constitutional right to
have guns on the left hand side MSNBC
calls the same movement historic so
which is one to believe the point I’m
trying to make here is that we only live
within our circles we will only see
feeds from our respective point of view
so lesson one dramatically burst our
bubble if you want to affect social
change significant social change you
have to proactively reach out if you’re
from the blue feed reach out to somewhat
someone in the red feed and find an
unlikely ally now on to my second
solution our wonderful snowflakes
first this model actually helped when I
helped Obama win two elections and it
was first articulated by a longtime
activist and organizer in a Harvard
professor Marshall Ganz who said and
I’ll quote leadership is the practice of
accepting responsibility to enable
others to achieve shared purpose under
the conditions of uncertainty
what is the snowflake model it is a
model where the leader is actually
outsourced to a system and network of
interconnected leaders and each one of
those leaders are responsible for an
aspect of the campaign and that
beautiful snowflake helped Obama when
two elections so let’s see how it
there were three team leaders for each
team leader there were four team members
for each team member there were 66
volunteers and for each volunteer there
were 30 voters so if we do the math I
love math you see that one organizer
help deliver twenty three thousand seven
hundred and sixty votes so stay with me
I know it’s a lot of math so she goes on
further there were twenty seven hundred
organizers which resulted in sixty four
million votes and these votes were in
battleground states helped Obama when
that that election now if we consider
this in the context of what I’m talking
about one organization one organizer
will have a very hard time even an
impossible time to deliver twenty three
thousand seven hundred and sixty changed
opinions
but if you reach out of that bubble if
you remember what I talked about earlier
reach out to an unlikely ally and use
them as your team leaders volunteers
now let’s bring these two concepts home
and I’d like to give you an example
actually two examples something related
to a single step in the foundation I
established
recently we participated in a
competition for social entrepreneurs
which involved an election of sorts
people had to vote online for their
organization of choice the second
example is actually a fundraiser that we
organized what better way to actually
get a vote of approval you know other
than people voting with their wallets so
let’s take a look at the vote we knew
from the beginning that our cause is
very controversial and we had some very
major and great competitors people with
very important causes but not so
controversial the the 204 organizations
actually started and in order to select
the top three there was an online vote
so we knew we had to reach out way out
both internationally and domestically if
we had a fighting chance so we actually
mobilized the snowflake reached out
internationally and all these
organizations use their networks to help
us with the boat so in total all these
organizations get 2.5 million followers
on Facebook organizations and companies
with significant mailing lists and
subscribers also helped us now the
second example is actually the
fundraiser
we use some unlikely allies as I
mentioned this is a deaf activist an
ultramarathon runner who has run some of
the toughest races on earth then my
favorite I love him or hate him pop star
in Bulgaria so all of this helped
deliver fifteen thousand two hundred and
sixty three votes for us so mission
accomplished it also helped deliver very
sore muscles for me because I committed
in the very beginning that I will do one
pushup for every vote we get so I did
that now the second example want to want
to tell you I want to give you is Cindy
ladies and gentlemen please meet Cindy
now for it’s actually a CrossFit complex
CrossFit to workout and for those of you
who don’t know what CrossFit is it’s
actually the most amazing thing in the
world but I’m not going to talk about it
because I’ll be here forever
so what is Cindy Cindy is five pull-ups
ten push-ups 15 squats for a total of
thirty that’s one round well that’s easy
but in order to validate my hypothesis
and actually raise some money for the
foundation I decided to do three hundred
and thirty three rounds of that for a
total of ten thousand repetitions took
me fifteen hours but I finished so
mission accomplished I survived and
this is what the ten thousand comprises
of again we used those snowflakes I was
talking about both domestically and
internationally internationally look at
my very fit and very strong snowflakes
we had fundraisers organized in New York
in California in Europe even a soldier
in Afghanistan did some Cyndi’s you know
for a
but domestically in my gym while I was
doing these Cyndi’s ad nauseam for 15
hours we had friends who came cheered me
that some Cindy’s with me
and donated money I had a Guinness world
record holder a twice world champion in
parkour and countless of friends and
strangers not only came and cheered but
actually donated money for the cause
so in conclusion I’d like to show you
something very personal it’s it actually
extended the reach of that snowflake I
do believe in the power of a personal
story and in storytelling so this is my
story which was all watched more than
I don’t know pain the racing heart the
grasps for air the returns the aching
muscles the urge to give up immediately
because it hurts but I don’t because I
don’t know pain pain is the piercing
spoken word fat ass useless pain
is being different pain is the fear
facing the bully alone pain is when
everyone watches and no one helps pain
is being that loser
pain is being alone but you know what
that bully is weak and I am strong cause
pain may decide to choose me but I chose
not to suffer
I don’t know pain
thank you so my friends burst up bubble
motivate your snowflakes and watch it
grow but whatever you do do it with your heart thank you
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