The Casey Lartigue Show!

  My day started at 7 a.m. with me doing a voice recording for a university. When I got to work, I found that I was part of a Korea Times Interview with Songmi Han . * * * Greenlight to Freedom sold some more copies so it bounced up in a few categories. * * * We had lunch with executives of a foundation. Jin Park, formerly of the National Assembly and now the Minister of Foreign Affairs, happened to be having lunch nearby. We gave him a signed copy of Greenlight to Freedom.  He gave a moving testimonial about me last year. * * * After lunch, FSI's co-founders Casey Lartigue & Eunkoo Lee returned to the office with Songmi Han. She finished signing copies of the book. On Instagram she wrote: "I'm sure today is my lucky day." * * * I had a mentoring session with a North Korean refugee with an incredible story that he may tell one day. * * * Evelyn Jeong stopped by for the second consecutive day to work on her book. * * * The day started with an article in the Korea T

The co-founders of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) met with the new Board of Directors. Through a unanimous vote, the board selected the new chairman of FSI. FSI will be making some other changes and upgrades over the coming months. Selecting a board of directors is a very serious thing for an organization. Eunkoo and I are co-founders and co-presidents, but the board has the power to fire the top executives. Eunkoo prepared everything for the meeting. We discussed FSI's main activities and plans for the future. The highlight was when I introduced details about the writing of Songmi Han's memoir, Greenlight to Freedom ,  and our plans for a trip to the USA. * * * North Korean refugee Youtuber Evelyn Jeong stopped by the office to work on her book. She stayed here for several hours. * * * In the evening another North Korean refugee dropped by to get feedback about public speaking. She said it felt like the session was worth $1 million to her.

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  Hwang In-Cheol, Casey Lartigue Jr. and Eunkoo Lee visited the British Embassy of Korea to inform them about Mr. Hwang's campaign to have his father freed from North Korea.  After that, the co-founders of FSI introduced the organization's main activities. I have learned to listen with a third ear when I meet with government officials. They are diplomats so they do tell people who listen carefully what they can and can't do. * * * Six years ago, we were at Imjingak (near the DMZ). Here's a report on TBS e-FM about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LOXV0IdOyw&list=PL5XTOUUBFQy8J8LtDJXUAqyRjQ4IxXM_A&index=42   Here's a roundup of media coverage. https://caseylartigue.blogspot.com/2016/06/17-media-Imjingak.html  Here's my Korea Times column about our trip to Imjingak. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2021/08/638_208087.html  

  On June 15th, Songmi Han returned to the FSI office to sign more copies of her book for people who reserved signed copies in advance. She returned the next day with another first-time task. She was going to be interviewed by a reporter face-to-face in-person. I joined for the first 15 minutes, then Songmi was on her own. She has already been interviewed by a few media outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, but those interviews were online. I arranged this interview for her with one of my favorite editors who is now reporting on North Korean issues for his newspaper. After that, we posed for some photos. That same day I saw that Greenlight had hit number two in the History of Korea category on Amazon, behind only Yeonmi Park's "In Order to Live."

  North Korean refugee YouTuber Evelyn Jeong always seems to have great timing with FSI! Last year after she joined Freedom Speakers International she came to South Korea on a trip. She ended up being the only person to speak at both our International and Regional conferences. She returned to South Korea to stay long-term this time. And she contacted us just as we were finishing other projects and were ready to work with her! On Wednesday she stopped by the FSI office to work on her book. She is a busy lady but she makes it clear that she wants to finish her book.  It was her birthday the day before so we had a small birthday party to celebrate!

  Sunday morning FSI's co-founders hosted a meeting with potential volunteer leaders. Two of the leaders have already emerged. Irene Yoon and Michael Donmoyer have been appointed as the managers of the publications team. FSI's two books were managed by FSI's co-founders. That cannot continue if we want FSI to continue growing. It will take a team to publish books.  In addition, we discussed marketing, fundraising and special events. * * * This is not our first time to try this. In 2016, we set up numerous teams. We weren't even an official organization so those teams turned out to be a bit premature. During much of 2018, I talked about the need to develop a leadership academy. At the end of the year, a couple of volunteers took up the challenge. During much of 2019, we had numerous leadership teams set under the command of our volunteer coordinator. For once, there was a different besides me getting analyzed by others. However, when our volunteer coordinator had to step