The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Don Martelli’

Here are the ways in which seven very accomplished people succeeded in their careers. The interviews are very detailed, and important information often gets buried so I like to extract information for your benefit. I have deliberately not included the fields where these individuals excelled because the information can be transferred to any field. And innovation often occurs when information is taken from one area and applied to another. What are your thoughts?

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

Steve Spalding

I made a lot of mistakes. It didn’t stop there though, in the wake of every failed idea or half-cocked project I tried to pull out that reason that everything went wrong. I think it’s OK to fail. I think that entrepreneurship of all stripes, especially in something as esoteric as the web, is about testing and iteration. That being said, I also think that all this embracing failure stuff only works if you understand the fact that you need to use your failures to make better decisions in the future.

Sometimes people listen to folks like me and get too comfortable failing. You should never be comfortable failing! I don’t want you to fail, ever if you can help it but most of us can’t and I want you to accept that and do your best to lose the fear, minimize failures and learn from the ones you can’t get away from.

Gina McAdam

Generally, I was never afraid to try something new and see where it would lead.  I didn’t have fixed ideas and notions about myself. When I did, I knocked on the right doors. But I was lucky always to have an orbit of good and wise people around me for support.

Deborah Koehler

Paying attention to where I spent my brain time.

David Gray

To be successful in my field one typically needs empathy, compassion, a conscientious work ethic and a background in HR. However, to be truly outstanding one additionally needs a great degree of life history in a variety of business settings as well as a high degree of intuitive and innovative intelligence in order to be able to work with people from numerous diverse backgrounds who are each struggling with very individual career and life challenges. In a word, one needs wisdom. And typically, that can only be accumulated over a long period of time after encountering a variety of challenging situations in one’s own career and life.

Michael McCleary

The big thing was really to make a decision that I was going to commit to my career choice and continue to pursue it even when times were tough.  By taking committed steps of action towards a goal, the path becomes clear, even when at first it doesn’t appear to be.

Lynn Kahle

Not so sure that I have but I do keep up and change the content of a course to be as relevant as possible.

Don Martelli

Good education. Staying grounded in my beliefs and vision for my future. Working with smart people that I can learn from. Helping others learn what I know.

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.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

Related Posts

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Steve Spalding Part 1, Part 2

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Gina McAdam Part 1, Part 2

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Deborah Koehler Part 1, Part 2

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Michael McCleary Part 1, Part 2

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Lynn Kahle Part 1, Part 2

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Don Martelli Part 1, Part 2

How tuned in are you to what’s going on around you? I have pulled the interview responses from several interviews to give a different perspective because the interviews are rich in content so you may miss key information. I usually allow interviewees to interpret questions which has resulted in a minefield of very rich content. Take a look at the diversity of responses to each question. Which answer would be closest to yours?

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

Steve Spalding

My most important business discovery has been that working more does not mean working better. In the last few months I’ve realized that you need to take some time out for yourself and do things completely different than what you spend 50-60 hours a week doing or you’ll start to stagnate.

Go for a hike, learn about Jazz, take a trip to New Zealand, do something entirely different and see how it ties back into your day job. You might not think that your career has anything at all to do with the plot of Pulp Fiction, but the lesson that most entrepreneurs really need to learn is to take lessons from everything they do.

It’s a badge of honor among entrepreneurs to brag about how many hours you work on your business, that’s great and I do it all the time myself but the truth is that success is much more a function of efficient time use rather than raw volume.

Shannon Van Roekel

I have been startled to recognize that God is not at all intimidated by business. That world belongs to Him, too. I am trying to learn to strive less and to depend on His nudges and promptings more. He is the best agent/manager anyone could ever have.

Deborah Koehler

I am good at whatever I set my mind to do.

Dennie Theodore

The best skill to have is the ability to adapt.

Don Martelli

The most important discovery I’ve made is pretty simple — social media is great, but it doesn’t replace the human aspect that’s needed to close business deals. Yes, clients like the fact that we are on the cutting edge of social media, but if we don’t vibe well with the client, we won’t win the business. Relationships and personal, face-to-face interaction is key to bringing in new business and keeping current clients happy.

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

Steve Spalding

In the realm of Social Media (where I work most often), the biggest advances are coming as large companies start to care less about the number of people coming to their sites and start to care more about the quality of those people.

Almost every client meeting I have starts with the person wanting to get millions and millions of hits, as if traffic alone was somehow going to drive their business forward. I have to tell them that if that is all they want, that’s not too hard but no matter how many million people show up to see whatever stunt we devise to attract them, none of it matters at all unless those people eventually turn into customers.

I think companies are getting a more sophisticated understanding of how to read their own analytics and this understanding is translating into making discussions about “quality over quantity” a lot easier.

Shannon Van Roekel

I write contemporary Christian fiction; the biggest advance in that field over the past five years has probably been the growing interest in reading about real life issues, including international crises.

Deborah Koehler

Of course the movement of natural and organic products.  Nepal is ideally suited to deliver wonderful products that are non-chemical, utilize wise water usage and zero carbon footprint – all the new buzzwords. My business works to support new business opportunities in these areas.

Dennie Theodore

Women seen as necessary in leadership positions to move projects and business forward.

Don Martelli

That’s simple — social media. It has greatly impacted the way we think about our business and our client’s business. Every program we develop is run through a digital prism. The lines of advertising, marketing, journalism and PR are blurred because of social media.

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

Steve Spalding

Unfortunately, when you are in an information or knowledge based business like mine you only really have one threat — obsolescence.

Every day you wake up and your industry has moved forward a step, if you aren’t keeping up then it won’t be long until you have nothing to offer your clients that they can’t just read on the Internet.

I think the hardest thing about working in this field is the fact that not a day goes by where you can be complacent. If you are not constantly improving then you’re dying, and that death will come suddenly and without warning if you aren’t paying attention.

How do I handle that?

Well, mostly, I use the Internet a lot. I also try to avoid the trend lines. I am more apt to observe early adopters rather than be one myself, if you spend your time too deeply tied to the hot new trends you start to lose the forest for the trees and when you make your living off of the trees, that can be a serious problem.

Shannon Van Roekel

Three threats to my business and success would be

1. Not placing God first.
2. Lack of discipline
3. Getting distracted (can you spell f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k?)

I handle these threats, more or less, depending on the day, by starting it with God, keeping a day planner and working through the tasks I set for myself one at a time. Keep on doing the next thing.

Deborah Koehler

Local corruption, unskilled staff, and lack of testing facilities.

1. Local corruption: I face it without a Nepali present.  Usually corrupted officials are unwilling to ask for bribes directly to foreigners.
2. Unskilled staff: I teach in a college, train my own business staff, and offer suggestions where I can.
3. Testing facilities: I find existing documents and then talk to different labs and see if they can create a similar testing program or request that the testing be done in the clients home country.

Dennie Theodore

The usual… Similar Circles is run out of my kitchen with no funding, no time and is too GTA-centric. I’m handling them by asking my community to pitch in and they’ve been giving with both hands.

Don Martelli

There really isn’t three threats. It’s just one — social media. However, it’s also an opportunity. Social media has all but leveled the playing field for agencies. We are all “experts.” We are all going after the same budgets. It’s created a very intense and competitive environment, even more so than it was before. So the key is to stay on top of the trends and develop programs that are so forward thinking that the work you do speaks for itself. Clients hire on experience.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Steve Spalding

I think the most unique thing we provide is that we try to avoid stunts. A lot of Social Media tactics can devolve into pet projects that look great in a case study but don’t provide real client value.

At our core, we are educators, I want our clients to leave us, not only able to use the infrastructure we’ve built up for them effectively, but to also use some of the intuition that’s necessary to grow.

Shannon Van Roekel

I like to weave a story around a real issue, not normally in our radar, that will hopefully, not only inform and entertain, but also lead readers to compassion and empathy. Information dumps have caused us to shut down to the need, because we are intimidated by the enormity of the situation—especially in the third world arena. I believe touching hearts through the power of these stories can pull one out of that inertia into a state of true identification and hope.

Deborah Koehler

Traveling to and living in Nepal for 25 years, as well as working outside of my own culture has made be astute to cultural dynamics and my communications skills help me to facilitate new transactions.  I am accepted on both sides of the transactions.

Dennie Theodore

I’m not trying to offer a 10-step “how to” process, but rather open discussion on “why to”. By creating an emotional/mental comfort zone, folks feel better about mentoring and networking.

Don Martelli

Our unique perspective on this business stems from the mashup of the PR world before the web and since eruption of the web 2.0. We have experience that runs the gamut and fusing that experience with the knowledge of the digital space, truly gives our clients a 360 view of their brand and how we can help them move the needle.

What are your thoughts? How would you answer the four questions? Which interviewee do you identify with? 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 left 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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Skills often transfer well across industries, and the advice that is dispensed for specific positions and industries also transfer very well. In this post I pull together advice from three interviewees. How do the responses compare, and how can you apply their responses?

Tell me a little bit about yourself?

Dennie Theodore

Professional strategic planner, facilitator, writer and business manager, contributing to business and artistic projects across Canada and internationally. A long and successful history in many communities and known as a caring mentor, negotiator, leader and unappreciated parent.

Don Martelli

I am a 14 year-veteran of the communications business. I started out as a reporter for the Boston Globe and worked for six years in the education space in PR and marketing roles. I’ve worked for three top PR agencies, working on technology, corporate, healthcare and consumer accounts. Currently, I’m a VP and Director of Digital Communications with MS&L Boston (www.mslworldwide.com). You can find out more about me at http://www.donmartelli.com.

Shannon Van Roekel

I am married, with five children, two of which are getting married within the next 6 months. Lately I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night “angsting” over table centerpieces, floral arrangements and crash diets.

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

Dennie Theodore

Realized it wasn’t enough to dream but the practical bits needed planning. And that nothing succeeds if you don’t have passion – looked to put that back into my daily life.

Don Martelli

Good education. Staying grounded in my beliefs and vision for my future. Working with smart people that I can learn from. Helping others learn what I know.

Shannon Van Roekel

When I felt the burden on my heart to pursue writing, I did all I could to learn to write well, believing that this was what God was asking of me.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

Dennie Theodore

Have as many cups of coffee/tea as you have time for in a week with people who are willing to sit with you. Don’t make it transactional – simply meet them to enjoy them and see where it leads. By doing so you’re building a personal community that will care with you and for you as you start to put your plans in action or require support to see them through.

Don Martelli

Read, read, read, read and read some more. Make connections in the business.

Shannon Von Roekel

Read about writing; find other writers to talk to; go to a writer’s conference!

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

Dennie Theodore

1. Speak up
2. Ask questions
3. Speak out
4. Forgive
5. Listen

Don Martelli

1. Be yourself
2. Be honest
3. Help people
4. Take care of your family
5. Own up to mistakes

Shannon Van Roekel

1. Ask God for help, the sooner the better.
2. Forgiveness is always easier than resentment—and healthier.
3. I can forgive myself all I want, but unless God has forgiven me, I get no peace.
4. Nobody is free from insecurity or dysfunctions. Some are just better at hiding it.
5. Life doesn’t last forever so speak the truth.

What process do you use to generate ideas?

Dennie Theodore

I read read read. And then I talk about it with friends till I figure out what I’m thinking.  Then I write write write.

Don Martelli

Playing catch. Walking or listening to music. My creativity is fostered when I’m not thinking about something specific.

Shannon Van Roekel

I ask God to give me His ideas, which are better than mine all the time. Then I wait. Eventually something begins that I can only describe as brain percolation. It’s this craziness of ideas and connections that bubble up and spill over into story.

How might you use some of the interview responses? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment.

This is Part Two of Don’s interview. Please click here for Part One. In this content rich interview, you learn how he stays motivated, what are the threats to his business, advances in the industry, how he defines success, generates ideas and much more.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I love technology and being the director of Digital Communications, it’s my job to stay on top of the trends and keep our clients and staff up to date with the latest info in social media. I help our account teams weave social media into their traditional PR programs so I need to be right on the cutting edge. Due to my love of technology and social media, motivation is never an issue for me.

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

I’d create Twitter and be a millionaire.

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

The most important discovery I’ve made is pretty simple — social media is great, but it doesn’t replace the human aspect that’s needed to close business deals. Yes, clients like the fact that we are on the cutting edge of social media, but if we don’t vibe well with the client, we won’t win the business. Relationships and personal, face-to-face interaction is key to bringing in new business and keeping current clients happy.

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

That’s simple — social media. It has greatly impacted the way we think about our business and our client’s business. Every program we develop is run through a digital prism. The lines of advertising, marketing, journalism and PR are blurred because of social media.

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

There really isn’t three threats. It’s just one — social media. However, it’s also an opportunity. Social media has all but leveled the playing field for agencies. We are all “experts.” We are all going after the same budgets. It’s created a very intense and competitive environment, even more so than it was before. So the key is to stay on top of the trends and develop programs that are so forward thinking that the work you do speaks for itself. Clients hire on experience.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Our unique perspective on this business stems from the mashup of the PR world before the web and since eruption of the web 2.0. We have experience that runs the gamut and fusing that experience with the knowledge of the digital space, truly gives our clients a 360 view of their brand and how we can help them move the needle.

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

There’s too much “me-me,” i.e. self promoters. Let your work speak for your company and your services. Yes, you should market, but don’t go overboard with how “great” you are. Writing a book about social media doesn’t make you an expert. Implementing a program that generates an additional 500 sales leads makes you not only an expert, but valuable to your client.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I just do it. There’s no formula. There’s no “balance.” You do what you have to do to the best of your ability and you make the time for family. It’s not brain surgery. You have to make ample time to do both well.

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

Zero regrets. Regrets are just heavy pieces of baggage that add no value to your life.

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

Be yourself. Be honest. Help people. Take care of your family. Own up to mistakes.

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

With my kids or learning new things as it relates to social media.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Talking to my kids. Playing catch. Walking or listening to music. My creativity is fostered when I’m not thinking about something specific.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“You don’t ask to take a photograph. You ask quietly, to borrow it.” I’m a photographer on the side and saw that anonymous quote once and thought how smart it was, because it’s true.

How do you define success?

Healthy and happy home life.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Healthy and happy home life.

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?

I’d meet my two great grandfathers (for family reasons), president Obama (for his vision), Steven King (for his creativity) and Nelson Mandella (for his life’s lessons).

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

Steven King’s The Stand, mostly because of the creative writing and the descriptions he used to set scenes, describe characters and make you, as the reader, feel like you were in their 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.

I’d honestly take any of Steven King’s novels because of their creativity and the fact that they would take me to a world that I’d never see. I don’t need any self-help books or any books about people’s lives, Shakespeare, etc. I’d want simple, yet descriptively satisfying books.

Have you read any books that inspired you to start a business, service or invent “something”? If yes, which book?

Nope, not yet. But I’ve read a lot of books that have inspired me to do better at my job, better as a person and better as a dad/father.

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

Way too much to list. I couldn’t decide out of the slew of music I own.

What excites you about life?

My kids.

How do you nurture your soul?

My kids.

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?

Honestly, I’d eliminate homelessness. It’s a sad thing to see and I see it too, too often.

Complete the following, I am happy when…

I get home and I see my kids after a long day at the office. It’s food for the soul.

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. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab your personal copy by clicking here.

This is an interview with Don Martelli, VP, MS&L. He makes a fine invisible mentor (unique leader who you can learn things from) and you’ll agree when you read Part One of his interview. It’s very gratifying to see senior level professionals who understand that life is more than them. In the interview Don shares with you how he succeeded in his field and what someone starting out should do. He talks about the three events that shaped his life and you may be surprised by his answers. In his interview, you’ll also learn about his biggest challenge and how he resolved it, how mentors have helped him and a whole lot more.  I will post the second part of the interview on Friday, where you’ll discover the books that influenced him and the ones he would like to have on a deserted island.

Tell me a little bit about yourself

I am a 14 year-veteran of the communications business. I started out as a reporter for the Boston Globe and worked for six years in the education space in PR and marketing roles. I’ve worked for three top PR agencies, working on technology, corporate, healthcare and consumer accounts. Currently, I’m a VP and Director of Digital Communications with MS&L Boston (www.mslworldwide.com). You can find out more about me at www.donmartelli.com.

What’s a typical day like for you?

A typical day for me is one where I’m writing blog posts for our agency and some of our clients. I’m living in Twitter and other social media services all day. I’ll happen to design a piece or two for our new business process. I’ll also have a couple of client calls, media stories to pitch, bloggers to interact with and account management issues to deal with as well. To put it simply, I never have a typical day. The only thing that’s typical about my day is that whatever it is I’m doing, it’s typically done online and via some social/web 2.0 channel.

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

One great program we’ve developed and are still working on is one with Best Doctors (www.bestdoctors.com). They are an expert medical consultation service for large US employers. They work with employees to ensure that they are getting the right diagnosis and the right treatment. Basically, they help employees make better healthcare decisions. We wanted to inject the company’s point of view on healthcare reform into the online conversation, which is a very crowded one. Our first step was to launch a blog — www.seefirstblog.com. We then worked with the president and COO on messaging and tone as it related to the company’s POV on reform. Once we started to generate content, we connected the main author — Evan Falchuk, president and COO — to other online influencers in the healthcare space. We knew that making the right connections via services like Twitter, would get the blog’s content read and discussed in the space. Since April, we’ve had major news outlets like Wired, Atlantic Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, pick up See First Blog content online. Additionally, we’ve been linked to from Instapundit and have hosted the very popular healthcare blog carnival Grand Rounds. All of this work has resulted in over 2,000 unique visitors a month. We’ve topped off at nearly 4,000 due to trackbacks from Instapundit, Wall Street Journal, etc.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

The biggest lesson was that social media is not about volume. It’s about connecting with the right people that can help you move the needle.

How did mentors influence your life?

Guidance, education and common sense.

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

Be smart. Think things through. Be yourself.

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

Too many to mention. However, that’s the great thing about learning. There’s so much content in this world to digest. The key is discovering what your passions are and running with it.

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

Read, read, read and read some more. You can never read enough.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break was when I was hired as a writer for the Boston Globe. I got the job through my cooperative education program at Northeastern University. Without the Globe experience, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

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

I honestly don’t consider anything in my life to be a failure. I am where I want to be because this is the path I have chosen.

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

Again, no big disappointments for me. Everything happens for a reason. You need to learn from everything in life and determine how you can benefit from that experience in the future — negative or positive.

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

I had a good job with a local college preparatory school and decided to leave it to come to MS&L. It was tough because I loved the mission of the school and I loved where it was headed. However, the opportunity to be part of a top, global PR agency with the reputation that MS&L had was one I couldn’t ignore.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Getting married, having kids and going to Northeastern University. Marriage and kids keep me grounded. That’s what is important in life. Knowing that I have a family to provide for is all the motivation I need. As for the NU experience, as I said, without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today professionally.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Raising two beautiful and healthy daughters.

What did you learn from this interview and how might you use some of the 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. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab your personal copy by clicking here.