The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘biggest failures’

Interviewee: Marnie Walker

Company: 401 Bay Street

Website: www.marniewalker.com www.401bay.com

Marnie Walker is an amazing woman who is proof that you can get anything you want in life if you want it bad enough and are prepared to do what it takes. In her last year of high school she became critically ill and subsequently spent many years struggling to walk. I recently met Marnie at an international conference and knew that I had to interview her so that you may learn from her. Get a notebook and pen because you are sure to learn a thing-or-two from this serial entrepreneur who was named Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the year in 2004.

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Marnie Walker: Starting and building organization is exciting to me.  It comes as no surprise then, that I am a serial entrepreneur.  My current business is 401 Bay Centre, a fully serviced office facility at 401 Bay Street, in the heart of downtown Toronto. Prior to that I started and built Student Express, a school bus company from a start up to a multi-million dollar company with a fleet of 250 buses, which I sold.  I love being around entrepreneurs.  There is an excitement and magic about them.  They are out there every day creating, innovating, doing.   I teach entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business, am a founding Board member of Maple Leaf Angels investment organization and sit on several boards.  I am married to a supportive husband, Bill Fahey and live in Toronto and Australia.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Marnie Walker: While living in Australia where I am now, I get up between 5 and 6 am when the sun comes up.  This is my favorite time of the day.  It is fresh and beautiful with the day just unfolding.  After a coffee and fruit, I head into my office and get on line with Toronto. It is afternoon there. I usually work until noon and then go out and do something.  Sometimes, it is a walk on the beach, a swim, a drive, a hike in the rainforest or visiting friends.   Other times I sit on my lounge and read a book or just think… If I have a big project to do, I may work all day.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Marnie Walker: Long ago, I discovered that if I do what I love to do, I do it well, and am happy.  So I try very hard to organize my life, so I do what I love and love what I do.  Then motivating myself is easy. The trick here is to find people to share your life with who are different than you and like to do the things you don’t and vice versa.  Then you can focus on what you love to do, and so can they.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Marnie Walker: Like many women my age, I have too often given up or postponed my dreams and needs for others. I have realized as life has unfolded that while many of my dreams and needs have, are and will be met, others will not. Knowing how precious time is, I would have been more selective with how I spent it, and focused more and earlier on making my dreams a reality.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Marnie Walker: The way people work has dramatically changed over the past five years with technology advances in communications. 401 Bay Centre is part of this new office reality where resources like meeting rooms, reception and administrative support are shared and only used when needed. This new office model reduces the financial overhead for an organization as well as the environmental footprint.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Marnie Walker: The biggest threat to 401 Bay Centre is the state of the economy and the tight financial markets. To meet this challenge, we have reviewed our costs and modified our services to increase the value to our clients.  Examples include:  more team offices, expanded administrative support, frequent user discounts for meeting rooms, discount long distance packages, discounts on services, reduced lease terms.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Marnie Walker: 401 Bay Centre is unbranded, the address is the name. Therefore the office has the look and feel to clients of their own private space. We offer all the services and administrative help a company needs.  Having started and run businesses, I understand these needs well and have put together the facilities and team to provide them. Our location on prestigious Bay Street, with direct access to the P-A-T-H, Queen subway, underground parking, Sheraton Centre, The Bay and the new Bay Adelaide Centre is fantastic. The views from the office are great. The building has been recognized for excellence in both management and its ‘Green’ focus.

Avil Beckford: What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Marnie Walker: I believe 401 Bay Centre offers a level of client service that is not available elsewhere.  Our philosophy is to be become part of our client’s team and work together. Being owner run and operated is a huge advantage.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it.

Marnie Walker: 401 Bay Centre opened November, 2008 in the heart of the financial crisis. Our target market was small companies wanting to grow and professionals.  The market went into freefall. We quickly refocused our offices and services to companies looking to downsize, and companies and branch offices looking for temporary space due to uncertainty regarding their long term needs, and organizations looking to reduce their overhead.

Avil Beckford: What lessons did you learn in the process?

Marnie Walker: Flexibility and quick reaction to changing market conditions and other challenges is the key to continued success.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Marnie Walker: There have been many people who have helped me throughout my life, I call them my heroes.  Many of them did not realize the impact they had on my life.   My kindergarten teacher who encouraged my curiosity; my hematologist who helped me recover from a serious illness; a professor at Western University who encouraged me to enter the business school, the dean at the Schulich School of Business who helped me re-locate to Toronto, the official at the York Region District School Board who gave me my first bus contract, my first client at 401 Bay Centre, my current team at 401 Bay Centre who look after the clients so well.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Marnie Walker: I have never failed.  However, I have many bumps in the roads and a few dead ends.

I have learned to get up, shake myself off and get on with it. There is always a solution – I just have to find it.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Marnie Walker: My biggest disappointment has been the inability to have children of my own. I raised two stepchildren in my first marriage and am involved in the lives of my nieces and nephews, and children of my friends.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Marnie Walker: The decision to sell Student Express was one of the most difficult decisions.  It was my baby, I created it, built it, and loved being part of it. However, the offer I received was too good to receive and I sold it. At first I felt like I had fallen off a cliff. Now I realize it was a wonderful opportunity to experience new things and make more of my dreams a reality.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Marnie Walker: When I was in my last year in high school, I became very ill and spent seven months in the hospital and many years struggling to walk.  While this was devastating, I learned that if you want something bad enough, and work hard you can overcome anything. I went to the University of Western Ontario. I took an introductory business course, which I loved.  My professor realized I had an aptitude for business and helped me enter the business school. I had found what I loved to do and was good at. This is remarkable as it was a large class and women were uncommon in the business school at that time.  There were only two women in my class. The decision to leave the Corporate world and become an entrepreneur led me to start and build two successful companies – Student Express and 401 Bay Centre – and to teaching entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business which I love.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Marnie Walker: I was named Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the year in 2004 in recognition of growing Student Express from a start-up to a multi-million company with a fleet of 250 buses. The award further acknowledged the contribution Student Express made to transporting special needs students which was our focus.  It was wonderful to be able to make a difference to the lives of these children and their families and be successful as a business as well.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Marnie Walker: I met Tina Breckinridge, when I was in my 20’s.  She had a profound impact on my life. She was a successful business person, an independent thinker, travelled the world, had a loving family and friends, was a great cook, had a wonderful home, loved art, ballet, opera, was widely read and sharp witted. She taught me that I could do it all and be myself! Tina is 102, lives alone in her home in Oakville.  She is still a remarkable woman.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Marnie Walker: It is your life, so take charge of it and live it the way you want.

Avil Beckford: As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Marnie Walker: Have the courage to follow your dreams even though it will lead you into uncharted waters.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or  RSS Feed.

This week on Tuesday and Wednesday I present Gina McAdam. For new subscribers I interview highly accomplished people from all walks of life and locations to share their wisdom and experience. All interviewees are asked the same questions, so it’s always interesting to see the diversity of responses. Gina like many successful people plans for her day the night before by checking her schedule, what about you? Her responses to the question, “What are three threats to your business and how are you handling them?” is quite surprising so look for her responses. Her response to “What’s one core message you received from your mentors?” is ” Don’t hide your light under a bushel,” resonated with me, and I’m sure will resonate with others, especially women because we often tone down our accomplishments and are often the best kept secret. I know that people are often surprised by some of my accomplishments. Because listening is such a critical skill please zero in on her response to her biggest failure.

There is a wealth of information that can assist us in attaining professional success, this is my contribution to getting you there.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m a wife and mother who runs her own strategic marketing and communications consultancy in London, with a portfolio of very exciting clients.

I’m steeped in the commercial world now, but a few years ago I was involved a lot more in government-funded programmes. There was the strategic planning and delivery of the government’s agenda for upskilling the workforce through vocational training. I even produced a study on the problem of ‘worklessness’ and prepared enterprise development strategy reports for London.  A totally different spectrum.

The fact that I work with people with similar values to mine helps. After the ‘me-first’ culture of the last decade, a sense of community and collaboration is important. Being part of peer networks, such as the Worshipful Company of Marketors, the City livery company for marketing professionals, is excellent because it has a civic and charity focus as well.  I’m also very keen to help raise the profile and economic empowerment of women, through organisations like the 50,000-strong The International Alliance for Women (TIAW), of which I’m a Board member. They do wonderful things like promote micro-credit, mentoring and entrepreneurship.

What’s a typical day like for you?

Up at 6am and sometimes before, check my emails, run through the things I have to do for the day. If I’m not headed out the door, wait till 8.30 or 9am to start the phone calls. Lunch with a friend, client or associate – sometimes that’s one person rolled into one. Meetings or work delivering on projects occupy the main part of the day.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I’m always excited about what a new day brings, and the chance to learn something I didn’t know. In a role that calls for dealing with people, the interaction is the thing. Even old friends and contacts bring something fresh each time you see them.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I accepted an offer in my twenties to write in Florence for a year, shutting out the rest of the world.  But that was just my parents being indulgent and I was quite romantic then.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

If you’re good at what you do and are open and resourceful, regardless of the economic climate, there will always be something for you.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Although my work is essentially marketing and communications, it straddles many different industries. One of the biggest changes has to be the rise of digital and specifically social media, and my clients are all very excited about the possibilities of Twitter, You Tube, Facebook and even Linkedin.  People will always demand solid, well-crafted and thought out content, but the channels and tools available to express them are revolutionising the way people do business and communicate with their customers.

In terms of the hospitality and tourism industry, where many of my clients sit, I would say that more women across the world are taking on the big operational roles of general management, or becoming managing directors and CEOs.  There is also the trend for international companies to hire local talent rather than merely parachute in expats. One of the oldest, most prestigious hotels in Asia appointed its first female, Chinese general manager a few years ago. And it’s been a great success. Also, there’s a lot more use of new technologies, and of course the consumer’s awareness of the environment has wrought positive change.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Three questions come to mind – can I keep up the energy levels? Are my clients safe and secure? Will my family always be this supportive? In terms of the first, I try to look after my health; second, I try to add as much value as possible to my clients’ business; and third, I show my husband and son that they are more important than anything.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I think it’s the ‘personal touch’ and becoming part of my clients’ team and not just a service provider. It’s important that they know you are with them every step of the  way.

Also, because of my international background – I was born and raised in Manila, but spent some of my formative years in the US, studied in the UK and worked in Asia, America and Europe, the last twenty years in London  – I can bring the positive sensibilities of different worlds to the table.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

I tend to operate amongst fantastic, hard-working ‘can do’ people and this field is awash with them. If there’s anything we do badly, it’s not stopping often or long enough to relax and smell the roses. I’m as guilty as the rest, often working during holidays too. Not good! I’m sure we’re all trying to work smarter, but in our field, we have to keep up with the speed of communication.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

It was a situation involving divergent business practices and beliefs.  When this occurs, you are best to cut your losses.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

Sometimes you just have to walk away.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

I was moonlighting as a journalist at university when I was assigned to interview a hotshot female advertising executive in Manila. After that, she asked me if I’d ever consider going into advertising after graduation. She became my first ever boss. Her name was J M Rebueno, and I’ve never forgotten her.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

It was probably a personal one, over a decade ago. I lost a whole year’s joy with one of the very best people I’ll ever know because of something silly. But we’re now closer than ever and a lot of my success is down to my friend’s deep and abiding support. The lesson is always to listen to what the other person says, even when they’re not saying it.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I try not to dwell on setbacks.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Deciding to leave Europe for New York, after having lived and worked happily in Madrid for more than three years.  But it was something I had to do. As it happens, New York eventually led me back to London, where I have been ever since.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Just one, really. My father’s death in 1990 was a huge blow, as he had been a great mentor and source of wisdom.  Outwardly he was a traditionalist but his liberal spirit allowed all his children the freedom to choose their own lives. The death of a parent catapults you into the next generation, they say, and it’s true. Your whole perspective changes and suddenly you feel much, much older.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Hands down, my son Harry.

How did mentors influence your life?

Their kindness and generosity, sharing their time, ideas, experiences and contacts, impressed me deeply. This gave strength when one needed it, and also a key through many doors that may have otherwise remained locked or unnoticed. Their bright example is what made me want to be a mentor as well. In 2008, I was thrilled to be named Shine Outstanding Mentor of the Year. Shine is a national industry award for female talent management in the UK hospitality and tourism industry. It was started in London by two ladies of Italian origin who wanted to make a difference to how women were seen and wanted to see themselves in the industry.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Don’t hide your light under a bushel.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

One fabulous mentor, Diane Morris who runs TIAW, recommended that I join and get involved in good networks. I have never looked back since. Someone who is less a mentor than a caring colleague has always signposted me to great articles, events, people and organisations.  Through him I’ve got involved in the Oxford Brookes University Bacchus Mentoring programme for final year hospitality management students. I now mentor a very motivated girl from Sweden and a very bright young man from Hong Kong.

What aspects of Gina’s story can you apply to your situation? What would be your five great ideas and takeaways from this interview? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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About Gina McAdam

Before founding Stratemarco, a successful London-based marketing and communications consultancy, in 2003, Gina was Head of Marketing and later Head of Policy Development & Public Affairs for the National Training Organisation for the UK hospitality and tourism sector. Today, she is a highly-regarded communications expert whose work brings her into regular contact with leaders of some of the best known brands in the UK and global hospitality and tourism industry. Highly versatile, she also undertakes assignments for key public,private and voluntary organisations beyond the sector.

Gina was raised near Washington DC and Manila. Moving away from the family traditions of law, banking, agriculture and medicine, she started her career in advertising for Ace-Compton/Saatchi & Saatchi in Manila where she handled various Proctor & Gamble accounts, and at J Walter Thompson Advertising Company, handling the Anne Klein, Cacharel and SC Johnson brands. After that, she travelled extensively, writing and teaching in Madrid and working in publishing in New York. Today, she is regularly invited to contribute pieces to publications in the Far East – it is her way of keeping in touch with her Asian roots.

Highly committed to diversity in the workplace, Gina has been on the board of City Women’s Network (CWN) and is now on the board of The International Alliance of Women (TIAW). She is a member of the European Professional Women’s Network and a Changemaker for the UK charity Working Families.

Gina is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors, and a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), for whom she was a guest speaker at the 2008 IABC Eurocomm Conference in Barcelona. She is a member of the Institute of Director, and holds an MA in English & American Literature from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and is an alumnus of De La Salle University, Manila and Henley Management College, Windsor.