Jonathan is a 42 year old guy from New York, USA.

Likes 899 pages, 18 videos, 4 photos • 154 fans • Received 30 reviews

Member since May 25, 2007

Hey gang! I’m a NYC husband and dad, former mega-firm lawyer turned serial-entrepreneur in the wellness industry (currently own a yoga studio and teach yoga), writer, copywriter, career-coach, blogger, marketer, speaker and author. Would love to connect with anyone with similar interests. For tips and advice, stop by my blog at: Jonathan Fields | Awake At The Wheel.

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I’ve been stumbling for about 6 months. Before really knowing anything about any social-media communities, I first joined as a way to market myself, but SU has quickly turned into a wonderful source of information, insight and friendship.

2. How do you select your SU friends?

I often end up connecting with people who share common interests. It usually begins by one of us stumbling the others’ submissions, then checking out profiles and, if available, blogs. I also look for people who are active on a regular basis, it’s easier to develop friendships when you know the people are available, active and invested in the community.

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

My stumble topics tend to mimic what I write about on my blog at JonathanFields.com. Major areas of interest are blogging, entrepreneurship, marketing and innovation, writing, personal-development (with a real-world bent), health and lifestyles.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

I really like the new additions to the “send to” feature, but would love the ability to send to multiple people at once. The risk, of course, is that this feature would get seriously abused, like shouting on Digg.com. Maybe the ability to respond to e-mail from my own e-mail client, too.

5. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

I belong to a bunch, but SU is where I spend most of my time. I am 42, a family-guy and the SU community seems to fit best with who I am and what I am interested in.

6. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

I like the ability to create friends and I believe it is easier to find great content on SU than on some others.

7. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

I am all about creation and compassion. I am pretty much always actively pursuing either or both. It starts with family and expands to friends and then business. And, I am passionate about writing. I was a lawyer in a past life, so I know how to write in a very rigid, grammatically correct way…and now, as a writer and copywriter, I love that I can break all the rules in the name of being human and telling a story.

I am also just now finishing up a book for Random House’s Broadway Books on the intersection between passion and prosperity that’ll be out in January 2009.

8. What would you say are the best tips for StumbleUpon success?

Contribute to the community. Give more than you get. Discover or create great content, pass it on and help promote great content from others. It’s really just a karma thing, but it also makes for a great experience in the SU community. Also, if you are going to send pages to others, rather than just sending every page to every person on your friend list, take the time to try to make sure the people you are sending to have some shared interest in the content you are asking them to look at.

9. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

StumbleUpon is a great place to spend some time online, just make sure you are playing with people offline, too. If you spend more time playing online than off, you may want to take a step back and reallocate a bit of your energy.

10. If you have any other thoughts about StumbleUpon and Stumbling, please add those here.

In the end, life is about relationships and experiences. So, to the extent you can tap StumbleUpon as a resource to deepen all these, dive in.