The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Desert Island Books’

Interviewee Name: Paulette Ensign

Company Name: TipsBooklets.com

Website: http://www.tipsbooklets.com, http://www.CollectionOfExperts.com

Paulette Ensign – Your Invisible Mentor & Workshop Leader

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Paulette Ensign: Fourteen years ago I got smart and made a cross-country move from Northeast America where I had lived all my life to sunny San Diego and I did it without missing a beat in my business because of the flexibility of Tips Booklet, which is what my business is all about. My cat and I got on a plane and I have never looked back. People have asked me why I moved to San Diego, and it’s simple, it doesn’t snow here (she laughs). I live a mile from the Pacific Ocean and I refer to that beach as my office annex. It’s one of the most beautiful experiences plus it does really allow me the kind of life that I want. I think it is important for anyone listening to or reading about our interview, to understand that’s what I promote. I promote people creating the life they want by taking their knowledge and putting it into information products and getting their message out worldwide and making good money from it.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Paulette Ensign: Mostly in good ways. The president of the music college that I attended for my undergraduate work said, “You go to a concert for two reasons: to find out what you like and to find out what you don’t like.” My mentors helped with that regardless of what profession I was in. And I had mentors in each of my three careers. They helped me to see what I liked that I wanted to emulate, expand and expound on, and they helped me see and sift through the things that really were not a match for me.

My mentors helped me to see who I am, respect it and build on it. For instance, they taught me to honour what my gift, personality and approach was all about. I am a go-getter kind of a person and for me to be a soft spoken person, is not the primary nature of who I am.

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

Paulette Ensign: The old Nike slogan to “Just Do It.” The core message is that I do not need approval from other people to do and be who I am, and that who I am really is something that needs to be shared with people who are open to receiving that. I am not everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s the good news.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Paulette Ensign: One of the things that have been very consistently voiced over the year that I have been involved with Tips Booklets specifically is the concern of people already knowing what the booklet author is thinking about putting in the booklet, or the question, “Gee, doesn’t everyone know this already and why should I bother to do this?” And I see and hear this so often that I continue to encourage people to think in terms of the fact that each of us has lived with, breathed with and slept with our own expertise, so we know it very differently than people who are coming to us for the first time. So that the folks who are coming to us, whether invisible, or visible, interactive or passive.

Think in terms of the fact that some people know some of what you know, some know a lot of what you know, and some don’t know any of what you know. It is really valuable to put your knowledge out there because if they don’t know anything at all about your expertise, that’s great; if they know some of what you know, you can definitely function as a good reminder to them and if they know a lot of what you know, confirmation is certainly valuable to people so do yours anyway. That’s what I think can be of great value to readers about what they can do to move forward in only the best way.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Paulette Ensign: The thing that I want to impress upon our listeners and readers is the notion of course correction. Most of us to go from Point A to Point B, but rarely even with the best map in the world do we do that without a little bit of “zigging” and “zagging”.

Throughout my life in integrating my personal and professional life, some days it’s just been really too much of one thing. Too much of my professional life or on a rare occasion I’ve been out of the office for longer than I’m comfortable with. I have confidence in the knowledge that I can always fix that, I can always shift that. If I’m in the office too long it’s just a question of saying to myself, “Get up, get out of your chair, go and either walk or get in the car, do something or pick the phone up, and make a plan to get together with someone.” And I think that realization and autonomy, and also the notion of self-determination, and the fact that I live alone with my cat is a different situation than folks who are in a relationship with another human being, or where they’ve got families that are really pulling more on their schedule, time and attention, but it’s a different reality than what my life happens to be at this moment.

I don’t want to overlook or disrespect that as a single person whose sole responsibility is to her cat, yes, I’ve got huge autonomy, and I can make those choices differently without consideration of anybody else. Do what you can do, my personal opinion about all of that even when you have people around you, because of that it is even more important to determine what it is you need to feed yourself and fuel your own good movement forward and your own satisfaction. Take a breath, it may not be some huge change to make, it may be something small that will satisfy that need. Regardless of what size it is, think about what you need and get that done.

Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Paulette Ensign: I don’t know that I’ve got any regrets at all. I don’t mean that to sound Pollyannish. Based on what you have heard me express as my philosophy, I believe that everything have happened the way that they were supposed to, and some things have turned out differently than I would have preferred, there are other things that I am sure had I had more information I would have done them differently. At this point I’m really reluctant to identify anything as a regret. I think it’s just a matter of saying, “What can I learn from this? or this wasn’t my journey to have that experience and what’s next?”

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Paulette Ensign:

1. I need to keep going even on those days that don’t look the way I’d like them to look; tomorrow is going to look different. It just simply will. I can have a momentary pity party, can feel bad about it and tomorrow is going to look different.
2. I have the ability to make changes, and if I don’t make changes, then that’s a choice I’ve made. If something is different from the way that I’d like it to be, the lesson there is to ask myself, “What can I do so that it’s different?” For instance, if my cash flow isn’t what I’d like it to be in a particular week or month or year, it’s up to me to take a look to see what I can do to make it different because playing the blame game doesn’t get us anywhere so what can I do to make it different?
3. My happiness depends on me, which is a spinoff of what I mentioned a moment ago about what I can do to change what is happening. Happiness specifically is something that is really up to me.
4. Listening to other people’s opinions is something that needs to be filtered out and filtered in, in ways that really work best for all concerned, so when someone is unabashedly giving me their opinion and it has tinges of negativity attached to in, what I’ve learned over the years is to say, “Thank you so much for your thoughts,” and then filter it out. After selling about 50,000 copies of my booklets – and by the way, I’ve sold over 1 million copies, without spending a penny on advertising – my younger sister said to me, “How is that stupid booklet doing?” She didn’t mean it in a mean way, even though those words could sound like it, it was in a kind of offhanded way, and I’ve now had the last laugh about that because I had sold 50,000 copies at that point. There will be dream killers in the lives of many people. I’ve learn that while some folks around any of us may mean well, they are not walking in our moccasins, so I thank them and realize that is their agenda, their issues, not mine, and I do what I’m going to do anyway.
5. Honour who I am, and when I think about the fact that I enjoy starting things and being a trailblazer. There are a lot of examples in the world right now, of people who have done things, and the people in their lives thought they were totally out of their minds. When I think about the inventor of things like the hula hoop, or the pet rock or the chia pet, who had the last laugh on those? The chia pet now every year during the Holiday Season, the silly thing that you add water to and it grows a goofy kind of plant, is around decades later and they just continue to change what the actual form of it is. The lesson is to honour myself and do what I think the best thing is for me to be doing, as long as it is legal, moral and ethical and is not hurtful to other people. That’s a crucial lesson to learn, and I continue to support and encourage other people to get beyond their own self doubts, and concerns about what the people in their lives are saying to them, and that’s a big thing for me.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Paulette Ensign: I live a mile from the beach and that’s no accident or coincidence so that’s a magnet for me immediately. I also enjoy eating sushi, which I know some people have never acquired the taste for but that’s something that I never have to be asked twice to go out to enjoy. I enjoy traveling though I never like to be a road warrior, just enough and I think it is important and it is a necessity not a luxury to change environment by traveling. There is always so much to experience, learn and enjoy by traveling. I have gone to Europe several times and I’ve experienced traveling around the United States and Canada a bit, so those are the things that come to mind most readily that I think people can enjoy. I’m not particularly a big reader per se although that’s not to say that I don’t read a book now and then, but as far as folks who enjoy reading as one of their top fie great hobbies, that wouldn’t be mine. I enjoy getting together with friends too.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Paulette Ensign: Some of it is talking it out with respected colleagues, family and friends. Some of it is just to get a yellow pad and start scratching it out. I am somebody who enjoys crunching numbers so I will go that route first; and the combination of all those things plus I’ll use a mind mapping process to get the components out and that’s the short answer for how I generally like to generate ideas. I also like to get it out there and see what’s working, what isn’t working and make changes and then proceed.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Paulette Ensign: My favourite quotation is one I created a while back and I would admit to it being a spinoff to one of the big credit card company’s. My quote is, “Are you open to the possibilities?” because it’s so open ended and gets people thinking and moving beyond those limitations.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Paulette Ensign: Being happy!

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Paulette Ensign: Taking a look at what I’ve got, accomplished and feel great about. If it’s not something I feel great about, what can I do to make it different? If I’ve got things, experiences that are making me almost happy, what can I do to make it so that I am completely happy about it? Sometimes it’s not possible in that moment, sometimes it’s going to be delayed, and sometimes it’s not going to be possible at all. However to look at what it is that I have, and am, and experience and express real sincere gratitude for it, is my formula for success.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Paulette Ensign: This is going to sound glib and I don’t mean it to be, but the steps that I’ve taken to succeed have been literally to keep going. I know that may sound like an amazing grasp of the obvious, but when things have not worked, where either the quantity of the sales hasn’t been what I would like or where the prices just weren’t lining up, with what my market said was a good idea, or where I’ve created a product that nobody wanted, I have kept going, either I’ve said, “This isn’t a match at all,” “Let’s just put it off to the side,” or I’ve taken a look to see what I can change to test to see how this will work.

For instance, a couple of year ago I created a membership program, and I took what my people had been doing with Tips Booklets and went beyond that into a bigger realm regarding publishing. It really did not get to the point where I would like for it to have gotten to on two levels. One, I never really got the number of people to make it financially at the level that I was planning for it to be. And I got feedback that was extremely helpful from people who had been traveling with me for a while on this booklet journey. They said that even though the people that I interviewed, other experts in the field of publishing, while they were good, they felt that the general publishing information was not as powerful, and didn’t have as much of a punch as the information I was personally putting out about booklets.

In the process of doing that I risked diluting what my brand was with booklets and I risked alienating people who had been very keen on knowing more about booklets. However, you asked the question earlier about regret, and I don’t regret having done that, because had I not done that I wouldn’t have known that that was a path that was not for me to go down. It took a year of experimenting on that to see that part of it worked, part of it didn’t. Some of that is important to be aware of and acknowledge.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Paulette Ensign: I’m someone who enjoys instant gratification, and I would be lying to say otherwise. However, a lot of what I say defies that, and when someone comes to me and wants to know how they can make lots and lots of money in 30 days, I say to them, “I’m the wrong person for you to ask.” Spend time exploring, and finding nooks and crannies and who your people are, and I’m not going to say who your market is. You may find certain people in a variety of markets who resonate with who you are and what you are about. I advise people to keep going and that 99 times out of a hundred you are going to find that where your starting point is as logical as it may have seemed, is rarely your finish line.

Let me give you an example that’s very easy to understand. When I wrote my booklet, 110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life, I was in a very senior leadership position in the profession of professional organizing. I was the National President of the Association of Professional Organizers when I wrote my booklet and when I made the cross-country move.

I had access to the major office supply manufactures worldwide at that point because of my involvement in that association, and it was very appropriate access that I had. I was not usurping my position in anyway. It was typical interaction that we had within the association. So I thought this was going to be a really easy thing to have office supply manufacturers clamouring for my booklet, well, it wasn’t the case. As it turned out, there were others entities that ended up buying many copies of my booklets. Financial planners for instance, found that it was a great thing to send as that year’s holiday gift to their list of people, and other industries viewed it similarly. That’s the kind of thing which reinforces the issue of to keep going.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Paulette Ensign: I don’t have an answer to that question because I don’t know who I want to meet because people show up that I couldn’t have imagined who would have been so wonderful to connect with. Because celebrity does not appeal to me per se in and of itself, there are not people that come to my mind. I had dinner one time in Washington DC because I was doing a speaking event there, and my hosts happen to take me to a restaurant, that at the next table Maya Angelou happened to be sitting, and I was so thrilled to get a sense of what her physical essence was about and that she carried with her an aura about her that was so basic and down-to-earth that was so regal.

It was just one of those things you know, and it was like a cat walking in front of me and I don’t mean that in any kind of a negative way. As far as five people that I’d want to meet, I don’t know who they are, and I have a feeling that I’ve met some of them already, and the rest of them are going to appear as appropriate. As far as what I would say to them I would ask them some questions. I would ask them about their lives, much in the way you are asking me today and see what would surface as important to them and learn from that and enjoy the experience. That’s how I would answer that question for you today.

Avil Beckford: You say that you do not read a lot but was there one book that had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Paulette Ensign: Yes, there was one book and I was really impressed that it had an impact on the lives of people I wouldn’t have anticipated, and that book was the Celestine Prophecy. I remember reading it probably 20 years ago, or close to it. And what I became aware of is that people across socio-economic identifications were finding this book to be very helpful. I have one foot in the metaphysical , new age, holistic world and one foot in mainstream, so for me that book resonated because of the kinds of life lessons that were in it, that I found were so applicable to so much of what I was about.

I had to laugh at the folks who I knew were highly educated – not that I do not have my fair share of formal education in my two degrees – who I viewed as snobs thought the book wasn’t well written and missed the whole point. I was not there to analyze the calibre of the writing style as much as what was the message of the book, and there were life lesson throughout that book. Even though I can’t cite them in this moment, I know that it was a book that I was unusually recommending to other people and buying them copies so thank you for asking that question.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

Paulette Ensign: The Celestine Prophecy would be one. Because of the fact that I am fairly spiritually-based, I would be inclined to have some self-help books, a copy of the Torah because of my Jewish background. I have also found some great value in some of the books about human behaviour and self-help. One book that I have also found very helpful in my business life is 1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer. I have three consecutive editions of it on my bookshelf, and it has prompted so many ideas. There is no way any one person could do everything in that book in one lifetime. However it certainly has generated lots and lots of ideas for me in my booklet business, and things that I teach others and share. There is a book by the futurist Faith Popcorn, The Popcorn Report – she thinks very much like me although she goes into much greater depth, and her background is such that she has predicted lots of trends – that I get excited about.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Paulette Ensign: Any CD that is Brahms. Brahms is my absolutely favourite composer so any of the symphonies and chamber music by Brahms would be great. As far as the movie, there is a movie many years ago that George Burns did called “Oh God,” and I think that represents my statement about spirituality, and that I believe that it’s a joint venture, that I can’t do it all and that it’s not my nature to hand over the responsibility of my life to some higher being and give up any part that I can contribute.

If you cannot view this YouTube video of Brahms, click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Paulette Ensign: Brainstorming and I do not care about what topic it is. Of getting involved, of interacting with other people and getting ideas going because they always contribute to what I have got and I am comfortable enough, and confident that I do contribute to the thought process and lives of other people.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Paulette Ensign: I think that we’ve hit on a lot of ways that I’ve done that in the time that we’ve talked today – dealing with other people’s ideas, and being with people who get me and who I get, where we resonate. That adds so much to my world both in receiving and giving the gifts of who each of us is all about.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Paulette Ensign: I’m not going to tell you world peace because that’s so obvious, however I am going to say the one wish of having people around me who we can interact and receive, that’s probably the one wish that I would have.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Paulette Ensign: I am able to share the best of who I am with other people where they are equally willing to share the best of who they are with me.

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Sylvia Lafair – Your Invisible Mentor

Company:  (CEOinc) Creative Energy Options, Inc

Website: http://www.ceoptions.com/

How adventurous are you? Do you take time to have some serious fun? In Part Two of Sylvia Lafair’s interview, the theme of adventure continues. Her favourite quote is by Helen Keller, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing… Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure” because it moves her. And her response to, “What excites you about life?” is, “The adventure of the not knowing.” How would your life improve, if you lived your life like an adventure? Sylvia isn’t just about having an adventure so read on…

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a searcher and an adventurer, and have a PhD to prove that I search academically in clinical psychology. I became a family therapist who then morphed into an executive coach and conflict management expert in the business world. I’m married and have two grown daughters and a couple of grand kids. Life is good.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I’m in a lucky place with integrating my personal and professional life. My husband’s first wife died from breast cancer. He began a search as to why he wasn’t able to help her heal, and it took him on a journey to look at health, wellbeing and relationships. When we met, he was in an interim place in his life, and I had gotten divorced and wasn’t ever going to do family therapy again because I couldn’t keep my family together. We found each other, and one of the things he said to me was, “You have such talent in what you’re doing, can’t you just redesign it? And so we began to work together, so integrating my life has been easy for me. We travel the world together, and we always make sure to take extra days before or after, to explore new territory and do exciting and interesting things. We share his kids and my kids together, and that works well. I am living what I believe, and that’s a joy for me.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

It’s not having the skill to understand relationships earlier.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. One really big one, and I think it’s coming around to all of us now, is that everything is connected and no one wins unless we all do, and that has become so core as I look at everything. I think that’s a critical lesson that we are all learning, especially as we are watching this beautiful planet going through such a difficult time.
2. I can do with very little, even though I enjoy lovely places, my beauty can come from sitting among the trees in nature. I’ve learned that I don’t need what I thought I used to need for life.
3. There is an incredible value in the workplace to create a culture of collaboration, that we can’t do it alone, that there is a lot of fun in working together. I have an incredible staff that I enjoy working with.
4. The hardest pattern to work with is the splitter, and that is someone who will talk out of both sides of their mouth. We had a splitter working with us, and as smart as I think I am, it was hard to detect, and in fact I teach that the splitter is the hardest one to detect in the workplace. I have a better way of looking at it now, because some people will never change. And, the workplace is not a rehab facility, and we really have to do our best. I think one of the things I used to do at work was to think that no matter what a person’s problems were, I could help resolve them. I was like the therapist in the workplace, and I have learned over time that that it is not so, work is not a rehab facility and you have to “un-hire” people if it’s not the right fit.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I take walks. I love to take walks in nature. We live in some beautiful places, the country place in the mountains in Pennsylvania, and our home in New Mexico. I can take long three to five mile walks and just appreciate the sun and the sky, and even the rain drops if they happen to show up while I’m walking.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I like to read books and I love to watch films. I will watch a film and all of a sudden something will come to me that I’d never thought of in that way before. If I am feeling stuck and stale in my thinking, I will get a magazine that it as opposite to who I am and my personality, and I’ll spend time with it. I’m not a motorcycle person but I’ll get motorcycle magazines, and I’m not particularly into the stock market but I’ll do some reading about that so it sort of juggles my brain a little bit, then all of a sudden I get that aha moment. So it’s really doing something that’s really different than I normally would do.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

My favourite quote is “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing… Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure” by Helen Keller. This quote moves me.

How do you define success?

Success is continuous learning to live with an open heart.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

The formula for success is to know that we’re in it together, all of us, that everybody have come from somewhere and have their own stories, that if we listen and really appreciate each other, we can learn so much. We are here to help each other grow to the next level

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Initially I got a PhD in Psychology and studied with some of the most amazing people, and then as I made the transition into the workplace, I found mentors who were really thinking differently. Willis Harman who was the President of the Institute of Noetic Science in Sausalito, California was really instrumental. He told me to take my talents into the workplace. He wrote some beautiful books, and I would call him up every so often and say I don’t know about this and he would say keep going. That was really important to me.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

The field for me is consulting in the workplace, and the best advice I have is to take some classes in leadership psychology. It seems to be a new field that’s finding its place, study neural psychology because they give us the clues on why we have our buttons pushed, and also study about family relationships because what we do whether we want to or not, is bring the patterns from the original organization, the family, into the workplace, and they play out. Those of us who are working in this area who can begin to see that, can help people make very quick changes. Within three to six months you’ll see major changes in people, in teams and in organizations

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

1. I would like to sit at the feet of Mahatma Gandhi and say, “What was it like for you to stay true to yourself?”
2. I would like to sit at a dinner table with Steven Spielberg. I find the work he has done and the quality of his work important and powerful.
3. I’d like to sit with Thomas Jefferson and ask him about life during those times and how he was able to pull together what was going on his personal life and what was going on in this country, and how he saw the things that were happening in his life.
4. I would love to have been able to sit with Eleanor Roosevelt and find out what it was like for her, even though I have read the books and I understand, I would like another version of what it was like for her to be in a marriage that was so complex to a man who was so complex, and to be one of the first women’s libber before the term ever came to be. She stood for women to be able to stand on their own two feet and make a difference.
5. Another one would be Abraham Lincoln after I read Team of Rivals, and looking at the research that was there, the more I’d like to sit with him and talk about how he worked with the sadness that was in his life and that he saw around himself.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

I read a book that I loved called Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. The author is very unique, and I love language, and when words are put together in a sentence. The story takes place in New Orleans, but the essence is a tale about how things are connected, and how we are so much bigger and vital than the small beings we have been led to believe that we are, and that we are connected to a deeper source where magic can happen.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. One of the key books that I’d like to have is Jitterbug Perfume because it’s a book I can read over and over.
2. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
3. An Anthology of  Shakespeare’s work (World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library)). Shakespeare touches the core of what relationships and human essence is really about.
4. I would like to have the Bible and it really would be for me, something that I’ve never delved into in the depth of understanding the cultural, language and relationship part of it.
5. I’d like to have Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. It’s a big, thick book and the author did an amazing job. I must admit that I speed read the book.
6. I would like to add Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology by Gregory Bateson.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

The music is from an interesting album that is called War Child by Pavarotti and Friends, and it was produced to raise money for the children who grew up living in war torn places, which sadly never seems to go away. In this he sings with Lionel Ritchie, and some of the best people on the planet singing all kinds of different songs. The song I love the most is called the “Magic of Love,” and is about the power of love in spite of whatever is happening in the world. It’s not huggy, kissy, cutesy love, it’s about the depth of agave love.

If you cannot view this YouTube video of “Magic of Love” click here

The movie is from a play on Broadway called Into the Woods by Steven Sondheim. It’s a story about fairy tales that you are familiar with, and how they all weave together, and it’s got a Shakespearian flavor to it, in terms of showing connections and how our lives will play out in spite of ourselves, and what happens when we learn to handle conflict and chaos with dignity.

Latest Trailer for Into the Woods

If you cannot view YouTube video please click here.

What excites you about life?

The adventure, not knowing what tomorrow will bring, and I just love the “I never thought of it that way before.” I love meeting people, and I love being in places when I can turn around and say, and who are you? It could be anyone, taxi cab driver, the person I’m sitting next to at dinner. It’s the adventure of the not knowing.

How do you nurture your soul?

I meditate and love to listen to beautiful meditation music. I will sit down and read some of the things Thicht Nhat Hahn (Vietnamese, Buddhist monk) writes. I find beautiful books to read or get a book of beautiful pictures. I sit and fill myself with beauty.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I feel like I’m giving you the Miss America answer but it would be world peace. My wish is that we as a species begin to understand how the patterns of the past have locked us into behaviors that are no longer sustainable on this planet, and begin to see us helping each other more effectively with everything we need to do in terms of health and wellbeing.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I’m with people who want to make a difference.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? 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 hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

All book links are affiliate links.

Video Credit: Latest Trailer for Into the Woods Uploaded by digitaltheatre on Mar 24, 2011, YouTube video of “Magic of Love” Uploaded by space2lovebird on Jul 29, 2009

Further Reading

Wisdom Wednesdays: Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady, International Diplomat, Writer and Philanthropist
Wisdom Wednesdays: Helen Keller – American Activist for the Visually and Hearing Impaired
Wisdom of Life: Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, Led America through the Civil War

C. Hope Clark – Your Invisible Mentor This Week

Here is Part Two of Hope’s interview, and I have an additional five great ideas that I have pulled out. After you have read the interview, what are your five great ideas?

5 Great Ideas from C. Hope Clark’s Interview

1. Do not seek shortcuts, the long road is always the more educational
2. Admire the success of others, but find your own path
3. Everyone’s career changes so constantly do research to keep up
4. Help others, fill a need and you’ll become indispensable
5. Study your craft and practice, practice, practice

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I write nonfiction for others and fiction for me. I hope one day to cross the bridge where each works for the other side. I adore the outdoors. When I lived three years in Phoenix, one of the first things I did upon returning to my beloved South was to hug a tree. Seriously. I’m married to a retired federal agent, and security/safety is huge in my house. I have two sons, two stepsons, a grandson and granddaughter (Yea, tell me I look too young. I love hearing that – that’s just the photography, trust me. You should see me in person. The years have left their mark here and there.) When I built my house, I told the contractor he had two main goals – place my writing room so it had the best view of the lake . . . and build my husband’s walk-in-safe exactly as he wanted. I said safety was key already, didn’t I? We live on the banks of Lake Murray in South Carolina.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Very wisely. I know how to say no to those things that interfere. I keep my life simple, but my professional life is a strong part of me. It’s the reason I left the nine-to-five, so I’m committed to it. But working at home has allowed me to better weave the two so that they complement and rarely interfere with each other. For instance, while my husband washes dishes and catches his second morning coffee, I’m typing this. When he’s done, we’ll go outside and work on my latest chicken coop project. It’s a constant give and take, with respect for both.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

I didn’t trust myself as a young person to pursue my own interests. I went to college and studied the sciences because my parents would approve. I did so many things in order to please my parents. I was 35 before I realized I had to achieve things for my own interest. It was a major jolt for them and me when I did.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Love yourself.
2. Respect others.
3. Do not seek short cuts, the long road is always the more educational.
4. Admire the success of others, but find your own path.
5. Be honest.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Reading, a lot. Gardening, a lot. Sitting on the back porch, sipping a bourbon usually, with hubby, watching the wildlife at the lake and sometimes reading him my latest chapter. It’s a ritual. It’s hard to pry me from this place.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Sit in silence with paper and pen. Introspection is the most basic step of invention and creativity.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

I do not have one. The closest might be “be true to yourself.” Again, I admire others, usually more in passing than dwelling on them, but I don’t want to live in anyone’s shadow.

How do you define success?

Ah, I’ve given this answer many times. Doing what you love and loving the results.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

See the answer above. I think being original and not copying others helps hone the edges of that success, making it all the finer.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

First, choose an enjoyable field. Second, do tons of research and never stop doing that research, because everyone’s career changes. Third, be consistent and reliable in your work product. I kept envisioning others watching, waiting for me to produce for them, needing what I had to deliver. When you feel you are helping others, filling their needs, you become a better worker, better person.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Don’t be so arrogant to think you should publish quickly. While publishing is a form of recognition in my field, to do so too soon is to tarnish your image and disrespect the reader/your client. In other professions, people attend years of school, intern, serve residencies, create many prototypes. They work for years to become respected. Writing is no different. You will not be successful overnight. Thinking you can is a slap in the face of others in the profession. Study hard, write daily, read voraciously, then submit only when you feel great about the end product. If you don’t know if it’s good, then it isn’t.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

This is going to border on the arrogant, but I do not want to be perceived as a groupie. I’m not into meeting famous people. I only want to have a conversation with someone just as interested in me as I am in him/her. Only then can we have a genuine, back-and-forth conversation with depth. Only then can we both walk away and feel the experience an investment in our lives.

That said, let me see if I can drum up five people:

1. My grandmother (deceased). She lived on a farm in the Mississippi Delta. She was talented with her hands and seemed to have been good with people – a gentle soul.
2. Jesus Christ. Might sound cliche-ish, but I would love to hear how he would have handled some situations I weathered.
3. Jenna Glatzer. Also a writer who started with a newsletter like FundsforWriters, she sold Absolute Write to pay more attention to her personal life and her freelancing. I respect her apparent vision and would love to meet her as a peer in the business.
4. Thomas Jefferson. He was a visionary as well as an agronomist (my college degree). He loves politics as well as gardening and animal husbandry. Just seems to be a gifted man whether being cerebral or digging his hands in the dirt.
5. Pat Conroy. One of my favorite authors. His settings and characters are remarkably crafted. I’d want to know the origins of some of this characters and how he perceives his dysfunctional rearing impacted his writing. I’ve heard him speak several times, but the social upper echelon always seems to dominate his attentions. Would like to have a drink on my dock with no one around, to hear some of his thoughts without a formal audience.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Sorry – no one book. I’m constantly amazed at new books, and my list changes and changes. The closest I’ve ever come to gushing over a book might be Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Pat Conroy writes about South Carolina, and I know those back roads and swamps. He writes about tormented people and how they cope, not always in a light-hearted way. Kathryn Stockett wrote about Jackson, Mississippi (near where I was born, where my mother’s family is from) and about how black maids adapted to white women in their 30s, to include taking care of their children. Very good. I know this history, having family that comes from that era, under those conditions. I guess these authors touched upon my own world.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. Prince of Tides – A young boy, in a dysfunctional family, grows up in the romantic, dark, yet enlightening setting of coastal South Carolina.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird – Two children mature into reality in their hometown that proves to be more than a comfortable place where they were born. It’s centered in the South, where my heart lies.
3. Tales of Sherlock Holmes – Various mysteries that entice the reader to learn predominantly through Watson’s eyes how Holmes uses people’s foibles to solve crimes and mysteries.
4. The Bible – It’s full of stories from romance to war, with lessons from personal growth to respectful living.
5. Gone With the Wind – Who doesn’t know Scarlet O’Hara’s struggles in learning what she really wants and who she really is throughout the Civil War era? This is such a detailed world, painted by Margaret Mitchell, that I could get lost in it and forget I was on the island.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Music CD – would have to be either Josh Groban’s first release or Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. Groban touches me with his rich voice. I can see JC Superstar in my head and can sing all the words. But I could list so many other CDs – Andrew Lloyd Weber soundtracks of any kind, the Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, the Beatles, Eric Clapton.

If you cannot view the YouTube video of Jesus Christ Superstar (Carl Anderson performing), please click here.

Movie – Casablanca

What excites you about life?

Discovering what I can do with my talents, discovering people I have something in common with.

How do you nurture your soul?

Hands in the dirt, breathing fresh air outdoors. Sitting on the edge of water.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

Longer life to experience more of the world.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Those I love are happy.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? 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 hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links

Here is Part Two of Diana Gallo’s interview. I learn so much from each interview that I conduct, and this one is no different. After you’ve read both parts of the interview, what are your five takeaways? What information can you use right away. Pay attention to Diana’s advice to someone wanting to start out in her field. Even though the information is about social media, the advice is valid for any field.

There are many times in life when you see information that’s not related to your field so you devalue it, but never do that because you may find the next great idea for your business. I interview people from different walks of life to give you a breadth and depth of knowledge. Our journey together is to become smarter.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m very passionate about what I do which is a good thing. I am in the digital media space both interactive and social media. Outside of that, I love movies and music and I try to see as many films and attend as many concerts as I possibly can. While I am very independent and have difficulty asking for help which at times does work against me – and see career as very important, I love my boyfriend (who I live with) and respect and appreciate all his support. He, family and friends are very important to me. I love Toronto, though if I had to live anywhere else, New York City and London, England would be my choice, they are my two favourite cities, and would probably move in a heartbeat if the opportunity allowed it. My addictions would be coffee and magazines, I love reading magazines. I am a kid at heart and regardless of my age I try to keep that. I think people sometimes take things too seriously.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

A few years ago my dad fell really ill, he is feeling great now, but at the time it was one of the reasons that I had to say no to that trip to England. It made me realize the importance of not only family, but of taking care of yourself. Without your health you cannot do the things you want to do and from that, to never hold a grudge because you never know what can happen, and it might be too late for an apology.

I moved out a decade ago and refused to rent so I decided to buy right away not even having the funds to do it, but creatively found a way to do so. But what the experience taught me was true responsibility and it shaped me quickly. I grew up overnight.

The death of my grandfather was another event that helped to shape my life because he was my best friend. I was about 12 years old when he died. He told me stories and was always that person who I could lean on. He is the one that got me to love history. He had a way of teaching me how to stand up for myself without talking back to my parents. He was my “everything” and when he passed away it took a lot out of me. And it was also the first time that I dealt with death in a real way. I didn’t cry because I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to his death.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Part of what I do in my professional life is work in a social media space. When I’m at home, I continue that but on my personal profile. During the day it’s a way for me to communicate with end-users, our movie goers, but in the evening it’s the way I stay engaged with my friends.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

There was a period in my life when I didn’t appreciate what I had, and looking back I had it really good. I didn’t have the right to complain or feel as bitter as I did. So I regret not appreciating my accomplishments and the things that were happening around me as much as I should have.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. The best leaders are the ones who empower their team so they can perform their jobs successfully and give them opportunities to flourish
2. Appreciate every day as if it’s your last
3. Regardless of who the person is, don’t undermine them because everyone has something to offer
4. Don’t go to sleep angry because it could be your last
5. Listen and act on what you’ve heard

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I’m online, and in the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time catching up on my favourite television shows, and a lot of them happen to be either on Showcase or HBO. I also listen to a lot of music, watch a lot of movies and read a lot of magazines. A lot of these activities happen by myself, or with my boyfriend, or with friends and family

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I put on my iPod and listen to music and have a doodle pad. I don’t know if the music influences, inspires or triggers something. That for me is the best way for me to generate great ideas.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

It changes and part of what I do on Facebook is to change them according to how I feel. I think the one that I’ve got that’s been top of mind for a while now is “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it,” by Pablo Picasso. The first time that I read this quote I thought, don’t ever fear trying something new, it’s exciting to try something new because it’s the only way you can learn about what you don’t know because if you continuously do what you do best, the things you already know, are you really learning? And my favourite quotes change depending on the stage that I’m at in my life.

How do you define success?

You define success by what it means to you. Sometimes I define success because there are measurable metrics in place and if each one of these metrics is met, then success has happened. But most of time, even if those metrics are met, I ask myself if I did the best that I could have done, and it’s about how I feel. So if I feel really proud, and really good about what I did, for me that’s success on a personal front. If it’s a team effort, which a lot of times it is, if the people around me who worked on the project feel the same way, then that too is a success. I think it’s the measurable, and how I feel, and that could be very different from the measures themselves.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

In terms of defining success I believe in setting realistic goals and timelines, so if I want to achieve a goal, I want to make sure that it’s very realistic because I’ll disappoint myself if I don’t. Break down your goals into smaller components, so instead of achieving this one goal that seems impossible, which may or may not be, if you achieve each one component independently, all collectively for that end goal whatever that is, it makes for a better formula in terms of how to achieve success. I think a lot of the time what happens is that we try to attain something that is really impossible and if we think it’s impossible we start worrying about it and get overwhelmed and never meet it and are always disappointed. So I think sometimes it’s simply a matter of breaking it down and say I’m going to do this.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

A lot of it was really about understanding what’s happening in the field. I am immersed in what I’m preaching so I’m always in the social media and online space talking to people, reading articles to keep me on top of what’s happening and questioning the things that I don’t know.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

For anyone starting out in the social media space before they take the plunge and say, “I want to be a social media ‘something’,” they should participate in the space and see if it’s something that they really want to do. They have to really understand it because they are going to have to practice what they preach.

They should also speak to people at various level who are in that space, so they can talk to community managers who are posting and engaging with the users, speak to someone that’s doing the strategy for social media, and speak to people who are using social media in very different ways. They should speak to some people on a personal front, some on a professional front and it could even be someone in a not-for-profit, because for some people, social media is a way to raise awareness for a good cause. They have to really understand how social media can be used, then step back and see if it’s something that they are really interested in doing and at what capacity. And I think they won’t know until they have talked to people and immersed themselves into it.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Sorry if I sound shallow, but there are certain celebrities that I’d like to talk to. I’d like to speak to:

Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails

I’d say I love his music, but the big one for me would be how he feels about what he has done for the music industry. He said “FU” to the middleman, which is pretty much the music labels and said I’m going to reach my audience directly, I don’t need you to interfere and he engages with his audience and gives them what they want, and that’s what is making him so successful. I want to know when there was a turning point for him, when he said to himself,” I don’t need or want the music label, I want to give my audience access to my music, I want to engage with them because they are the ones who come to my concerts, the ones who are passionate about my music and I want to give them what they want.”

Johnny Depp

I love Johnny Depp as an actor, he is an amazing actor, but he has the knack for taking on really different roles and exceed at those roles regardless of how the movie does, so I’m curious about how he does that. I find that quite amazing and it shows talent and adaptability.

Martin Scorcese

I would say, thank you for making such fantastic films throughout the year – and continue to do so. Your passion, dedication and talent are obvious in all your pictures; it’s no wonder every actor wants to work with you. Tell me something: what drives that passion and what is it about Leonardo that makes you want to work with him every time?

Steve Jobs

For Steve Jobs, I’d say, with all the success you’ve had to date – yeah with some hiccups along the way – the innovation seen in the products launched, and so on, what is it that keeps driving you, Apple, to develop the products you do? I would like to believe that as a multi-millionaire, it isn’t all about the money.

Ivanka Trump

A great role model for young business women. You might be thinking why, i.e. she was born into money etc. Well, she is a smart business woman who has proven that she can run a business, has the drive and smarts to do so, without always depending on her dad, Donald.

Let’s face it, she may have it easier than you and I, but she could have just chosen the path to do nothing and just enjoy the family riches Iike Paris Hilton and others. You don’t see her name on tabloids, entertainment gossip shows. If there is one ‘celebrity’ that a young woman wanting to get into business should look at, I would say she’s one.

I would ask her the following:

• I believe she wrote a book for young women starting out and wanting to succeed – how is the book doing, why did you decide to write it and have you received any feedback from readers – both positive or negative?

• Are your business smarts, drive all a product of her DNA, who she was born to and upbringing or is this something she really is interested in, something she wanted to do.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which is a fantastic book that really makes you think about change and how it can happen so quickly and unexpectedly. Gladwell talks about social epidemics and then goes into explaining these. Another one is Anthem by Ayn Rand which was about not losing sight of individuality, and that the collective is not necessarily the best way to go. You as an individual should not be dominated by the collective thought. This was an amazing book which really impacted me and I’m a big believer in you as an individual first and foremost. And I don not mean this in the context of working in teams, I’m talking about collective thought versus you as an individual having your own thought. You can be persuaded by others, you can agree with others, but you should have your own thought.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. Anthem, Ayn Rand
2. Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger
3. Touching From a Distance, Deborah Curtis
4. Any edition of Calvin and Hobbes

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

The music CD would be Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads and the movie would be Say Anything.

YouTube Video of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

If you cannot view the YouTube Video of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds click here.

YouTube Video Say Anything Movie Trailer

If you cannot view YouTube Video Say Anything Movie Trailer click here.

What excites you about life?

What keeps me excited about life is just learning. There is so much that I could still be doing, and there is so much that others could be doing, and that is exciting for me knowing that there is so much out there. I get off by seeing people happy and I mean genuinely happy, not just being content and settling.

How do you nurture your soul?

It’s sitting back, reading and listening to music. I can’t stress enough how important music is to me.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

If I had one wish, there are a bunch of kids at Sick Kids Hospital who might die within one week, or they may have three months, but it’s not a long life and my wish is to grant them their wishes.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I’m happy when I accomplish things. Happiness is contagious, so when I see someone happy, I’m happy even if I do not know why they’re happy.

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.

All book links are affiliate links.

Here is Part Two of Carrie Katz’s interview and once again relationships play a prominent role. After you have digested the entire interview, what are 10 takeaways?

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

When I lived in Montreal I was always involved in community affairs. From when I was a child my mother would take me when she went from door-to-door under the heading of UJA requesting money for the poor. My mother has three children, and for some reason, I’m the one that that resonated with. So from a young child I was always involved in something in the community. As a young mother I started the Montreal Career Women’s Network in 1984. At the time, there weren’t any similar services of its kind. In Quebec it was more difficult to get it going because of the line between French Quebecois and the Anglophones, so that was a lot of work, but it was fantastic how we brought the two groups together. The Network is still operating today so I am very proud of that.

I also started a successful business with a friend called Origami Plus which operated for 19 years until it closed in 2009. Origami Plus was synonymous with people who were interested in paper. It was the first paper store that people could come in and do creative things, like make invitations, anything that had to do with paper.

I moved to Toronto and once again became involved in community work. For me, I think it’s my essence, it helps me to feel like I’m participating in the world.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I noticed something interesting about women, and it may be my vintage of women because we never talk about our work life when we are socializing, and it could be among very close friends. We are very matter-of-fact, whereas with men it’s most of what they discuss. I have a friend who is renowned throughout North America and when we get together we rarely ever talk about her world of work. I happen to be interested in it so I ask her lots of questions but otherwise we don’t. The way you integrate both worlds is to socialize with people you work with so they get to see another side of you, and for your friends you talk a little bit about your work so they get to see that side of you.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

I keep on coming back to the end of my marriage. I think because he passed away and we didn’t get the opportunity to complete things. We were in the midst of leaving one another and he passed away, so it left a real big dent for me. It was regretful for me to watch my children grow up not having a dad.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Family is the most important thing
2. Be kind to others
3. Listen when someone speaks
4. Like yourself
5. Have laughter in your life

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I run around a lot so my down time is a bit of a giggle. The only time I ever read is when I’m on a plane or away so my new thing is to read a chapter of something a day. I tell myself that I do not have to do the entire book just the chapter.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I have a friend in HR who I’ve been friends with for over 35 years. She conducted a series of test and the thing that keeps coming through is that I’m an idea person. I’m always idea generating about whatever, it could be about making dinner for friends. It’s part of my DNA, it’s an every day process for me.

I write down what I’d like to get across and bring in more than one idea at a time. I do this by email, then I come back and let’s say there were five ideas, I narrow it down to one, then start generating the concept.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

I think at my stage in life since I’m almost 70, it would have to be “Enjoy every moment, bring laughter into your life and share lots of hugs.”

How do you define success?

I can define success very easily for other people, success for myself, if I give myself a pat on the back for what I’ve considered to have done well, it stays there for about 10 seconds then I’m on to how can I do this better. The most successful thing for me is having children and that they have a sense of understanding of living in the world. I think success has to do with the stage of life that I’m at, and I think when you have a family that functions and the children like each other and like you, that’s success. I have worked hard at this in my life.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Never give up and understand that whatever you do it takes a great deal of work to become successful, it just doesn’t  happen overnight. Watching someone on the tennis court to the CEO of a big corporation, nobody gets there without a lot of input and a lot of work. If you go into a family situation and you look at kids who are doing well, it could never be because parents were not involved. The kids I know are from 28 to 50 and every one that I admire, there was so much that went into bringing up that child.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

We started off Origami Plus in a room and we ended up in a big store and it was the passion that we felt for what we were doing. We often worked 10 to 13 hours each day, and the joy we felt every time we had a little success, translated into something bigger and bigger until we got there. It’s a constant dayness, and I do think success comes when you do what you love. It’s very difficult when someone lives in a space where they constantly think that I have to do this. There is that line when you get to a place where you are working on something that you connect with, but this is a luxury because not everyone has the ability and opportunity to do something that they love. Some people just have to do something to eat, so it’s another dimension how to do that. Don’t we often hear stories about someone who has become very successful and you ask them how they started and they say I swept the floors. They didn’t like doing that, but how did they go from sweeping the floors to where they are now? I would love to speak to someone who did that, they’d have a lot to teach us.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

A friend who is now turning 50, graduated from Barnard in New York City and wanted to write for Time Magazine. At the time, I had a friend George Russell who worked for Time Magazine, so I asked him to see my friend Lisa. He said, “Carrie, there is no room,” and I said that he could give her some advice, so off she went to have lunch with him. He called shortly after lunch and told me that they had found room for her. What was it about her why he found room for her? It was about her attitude. He told her that she would be bringing coffee.

She graduated from Barnard, a highly recognized university and was going to serve coffee for the next year. But while serving coffee she would be learning. She didn’t have a problem doing coffee, she didn’t have a problem running to the store to pick-up an apple for someone because he wanted it at that moment. And she has excelled in whatever she has had to do, and she is brilliant at what she does. But I think that the attitude of saying it’s okay it’s my time it doesn’t matter, I’m going to get to where I want to go.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

1. I’d like to meet John Mackey the co-founder and owner of Whole Foods, the naturalized grocery chain across North America and the United Kingdom. You look at the products on the shelves and you can see that a lot of thought was put into each item. For me, it’s like being the best at something. Whole Foods shows a sense of best. I love the idea of best, and he knows how to do best. My daughter lives in Nappa and I could be there for seven days and I’d be in Whole Foods four or five times just enjoying the best.
2. I’d want to meet the writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who recently passed away. He wrote about the transformation of Russia, what happened there and the political background. He was in the Gulag for 10 years so I’d like to talk to him about how he got there, what kind of paper he wrote on. He is someone who I admire a great deal.
3. I’d also like to meet George Soros who is responsible for giving away millions and millions of dollars.
4. I’d like to meet someone who has a passion for art, and they become art collectors and share their art with art museums. To have that passion and inquisitive nature, to start a collection and have the joy of sharing it with others speaks to me. Personal art collectors include the Lauders – Estee Lauder’s family has an impressive art collection, which I’d love to see.
5. I’d also like to meet a director of a museum

I’d want to say something specific to each person, so for instance, if I knew that I was going to meet Solzhenitsyn I’d ask him about after he went to America what was the big pull to return to Russia. I’m sure it’s obvious to him, but for me it would be interesting to hear how he came from living in Vermont then finding his way back to Russia. So for George Soros, I’d like to know when he chooses things out of the box to provide funding for, when and how did it start for him, when did this become a part of his life? With John Mackey I’d say something I admired about him and what he did. I like that whatever city there is a Whole Foods, he uses the sources of small farmers, and people who are starting out in small businesses. He gives people opportunities. For the art collector I’d like to know when his passion was created, where did it come from? For the museum director I’d like to know about his day and what it’s like.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine. It was about taking a group of women to China, and all the various things that happened to them when they were there, and how their lives were transformed by being there and with each other. This was in the seventies when no one went to China.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid

Zorro, Isabel Allende

The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Beethoven Seventh Symphony and I’d like to watch the movie Here Am I by my son Douglas Naimer, a writer and film director.

What excites you about life?

People and relationships are the most important things.

How do you nurture your soul?

Giving and caring about others.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I wish we could have about 32 hours in a day.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected? What are 10 takeaways? How can you apply this information? 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. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.