About Joel
It's easier to understand me like a mosaic. Each piece integrates with the rest, but no one piece contains enough context.
The Short Version
At 6'5″ / 2 m tall, I'm not exactly short by most standards. I'm also barefoot everywhere I possibly can be, mostly bald since age 21, and wear a grey t-shirt uniform.
Those physical facts aren't nearly as relevant as what's inside. My overarching theme is bringing people together and core to who I am. My extroversion, urge to convene rad humans, drive to facilitate/amplify, and put as much as possible in spreadsheets has almost no off switch.
Maybe you can already tell I tend to operate at the extremes of a spectrum and sometimes forget about shades of grey?
Keep reading for more mosaic pieces because each is a shiny window into my world.
My Family
I've been with my glorious wife, Melinda, since 1999 when we met in our shared college dorm.
She's a questioner and I'm more of a leap-of-faith person. She's loving, dependable, and not afraid to roll her eyes at me for any of my endless shenanigans or unconventional ways. I think we balance each other!
Melinda's also the invisible reason why I get to do what I do and brings new meaning to the concept of support. We have two kids, which we named with a spreadsheet.
Grant (born 2010) and Clark (born 2013) aren't old enough yet to decide how much they want me to share about them online. Fortunately, I can hit my daily offline hug quota with just my immediate family, especially with Grant's help.
If the love languages are real, physical touch is definitely mine! I give great hugs.
What I Believe (and Don't Believe)
I like bullet points. 😊
- Almost every group or community already has what they need to get what they want. That's not optimism: it's Asset-Based Community Development, and it's how I approach every community I belong to.
- Quantum biology is my biggest intellectual rabbit hole. The short version: our relationship with light, water, and magnetism matters way more to health than most people realize – for humans, trees, and everything alive. A decade in, and I'm still constantly challenging my assumptions and biases.
- I'm an outdoors animal and, no – that's not a metaphor. I'm outside a lot, ideally barefoot with the sun on my skin. Living in Minnesota makes this hard for much of the year, but I do it anyway.
- I grew up Jewish, became an atheist at 23, and see divine forces worth honoring all around me. I just don't call them God.
- My memory is terrible, which is why I live by the gospel of Google Calendar, standard operating procedures, and checklists. One of my longest-held mantras is: “If it's important, put it in a spreadsheet.”
- I'm unsentimental about physical and digital objects. If they don't have a practical use, I probably don't own them.
- Generosity is inherently valuable and doesn't require reciprocity.
I don’t claim to know the “right way” (if such a thing even exists) and I'm far from perfect. I’m just learning, stumbling, and celebrating through the mistakes and triumphs.
Ayahuasca Changed Everything
I've sat with Ayahuasca many times and, through her plant medicine, she's taught me many things in the most profound experiences of my life.
The shift across those ceremonies was from self-focus to collective awareness. I went in expecting visions and answers. What I got instead was a deep sense of connection as the focus kept moving from “me” to “we.”
Each time I commune with Mother Ayahuasca, I feel less like a seeker and more like part of a team, helping others through hard moments and realizing that belonging itself is medicine.
Healing is just as collective as it is personal.
Belonging and Connection
I'm a long-time community enthusiast who doesn't build them: I animate them. My general community approach is:
“Hey you! With the seeds. Do you see that person with a watering can? Hey watering can person! Let me introduce you to someone with fertile soil. Alright you three – let's see what you can do together that none of you can do alone.”
In other words, I bring dormant possibilities to life through connection and fostering belonging. I've co-created simple living conferences, local chapters of national/global movements, two neighborhood associations, a hyper-local block connector project, and I love a good Offers and Needs Market.
The Surprise Me, Joel podcast is where I get to do this live. Just me and someone I find fascinating talking about whatever the heck we want.
My Lens Statement
My effervescent friend, Kristoffer Carter, helped me craft a Lens Statement – a personal philosophy around my values and what I speak like a mantra every morning.
We. We. We.
Love and gratitude are always with me, can be amplified on-demand, and magnify my kindness plus patience.
My effortless connection and deep ownership of my gifts invites others to do the same.
I am an outdoors animal. I am intentionally in relation with everyone and everything around me. I absorb the sun and the charge helps me radiate enthusiasm, vitality, and light beyond the horizon.
When I stray from my guiding virtues, I know right away – and honor them enough to self-correct. I know why I do what I do, who and what is most important, how to show up the way I want, and I'm open to evolving at any moment.
We are connected. I am love. I am grateful. I am aware. I am nature. I am kind.
Where to from Here?
If you:
- Want to see what I'm co-creating lately? It's on the home page.
- Want to chat? Contact me directly because I'm intentionally not on social media.
P.S. I Guess I Have an Official Bio
Joel Zaslofsky is the community-animator, multipotentialite, and quantum biology enthusiast behind a bunch of neat stuff. He loves having delightful conversations on the Surprise Me, Joel podcast and has one overarching theme in life: bringing people together.
You’ll often find him deep into a minimalist spreadsheet, making his wonderful wife roll her eyes at his antics, or hanging out with his two sons around Edina, Minnesota. Otherwise, Joel’s out walking on frozen lakes (when available) and reigniting his personal renaissance.