Chelsea Rustrum, our global curator representing the United States has a new book that offers a how-to guide on how to share in your daily life. In this interview, she answers a few questions about where she draws her inspiration from, as well as what to expect from the book.
What personally drew you to collaborative consumption?
A friend of mine started one of the very first coworking spaces in the U.S. where I set up shop and around that same time, I took a solo trip to Italy, Spain, and Germany. On that grand adventure, I had transformative experiences with sharing through Couchsurfing. And at the beginning of 2011, I became keenly aware of convergent trends, companies, organizations and a groundswell toward shared time, resources, space and stuff. Sharing seemed like the next natural wave and evolution of the internet. I was personally drawn to collaborative consumption by the positive power it had in my own life and as a storyteller and marketer, quickly felt responsible to spread the movement.
What made you decide to publish a book about collaborative consumption?
Once I returned from my travels, I started experimenting with Airbnb, GetAround, time banking, TaskRabbit, Zimride, and Kickstarter, among others. At that point, I hit a rough spot in my business and needed to find a resourceful way to continue enjoying a flexible life whilst contributing to society and remaining in an increasingly expensive San Francisco. The sharing economy offered a viable alternative and helped me feel more connected and trusting of humanity. I started testing these services to save and make money, but found something much deeper and more interesting in the process – the power of relationships, human connection, and shared experiences.
I learned that this movement (and I believe it’s a movement) is about rebuilding a collective mentality as much as it’s about the economic benefits. And through these realizations, I knew that I had to share what I was learning in a way that anyone could access and understand, regardless of their proximity to the Silicon Valley.
As serendipity would have it – in these journeys, I met a filmmaker and producer of a Couchsurfing documentary and later became a subject in One Couch at Time. After the filming was done, the producer approached me and asked if I’d wanted to co-write a book. The answer was a resounding yes! So Gabriel Stempinski, Alexandra Liss, and I set out out to tell the story of sharing in the most practical, easy-to-understand way possible.
What in particular does the book focus on?
The book is a practical guide to the sharing, a chronicle of the age were in, and tells the stories of the people (including the co-authors) using the sharing economy, plus gives step by step instructions, and tips and tricks for specific sharing services. There are eight areas of life covered, including Home, Travel, Work, and Transportation – people can learn everything from how to live rent free and pay for their car to how to travel and work from anywhere – and these aren’t just pipe dreams, but rather real opportunities that people all over the U.S. and world are taking advantage of.
The book also makes use of illustrations and uses icons to show what type of sharing each service uses (buy, sell, rent, pay it forward, gift, and swap) as well as the specific aspects that make it sharing (underutilized resource, ability to save/make money, and peer-to-peer exchange).
To wrap the book up, stories of people leading a Shareable Life are told, followed by a vision of what the authors hope to see in the new economy in the future.
Can you give us a preview of what to expect when reading the book?
In reading It’s a Shareable Life, you’ll learn how to:
- Live rent free
- Pay for your car
- Always have a new outfit
- Make money in your spare time
- Travel the world on the cheap
- Live and work from anywhere
You’ll also be charmed by the stories of people we’ve run across who are participating in the sharing economy – and discover firsthand how you can apply their experiences to your lifestyle.
You can read first 30 pages here for free ShareableLife.com
Book is available on Amazon
