The Invisible Mentor

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Interviewee Name: Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Public Speaker

Company Name: London Employment Help Centre

Website: http://linkedinheavyweight.com  

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Chris Kulbaba:  I consider myself to be first and foremost a family man so that’s really my focus. I have six children between my partner and I so family is very important. The next thing is that I consider myself to be a helper and a collector. I was told very recently that I collect people and information, and I thought that was a very appropriate description of me. And the last thing is I consider myself to be a social media fanatic – I love that stuff.

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

Chris Kulbaba: A Monday to Friday typical day means getting up at six o’clock, taking my two dogs out to do their business, then having my breakfast while I’m updating and connecting with all my social media channels. I usually leave the house at 7:45 am, so it’s about an hour in the morning that I am doing social media. A day at work is never truly typical however because I do several things: I facilitate workshops, I do individual counselling, I also do group intakes, and I teach several different workshops.

So day-to-day I could be in a workshop, or doing personal counselling, or writing resumes, or doing resume practice, or discussing life skills with clients. So in that mix of items I see clients until about 4:30, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm is my regular work hours, then of course I come home and I like to have dinner at home. I like to talk to my family and see what their day is like and somewhere between 9 and 10 pm usually for a half-an-hour to 45 minutes I am updating and connecting on social media.

That’s what I do Mondays to Fridays! Saturdays I try to set aside some time for my blogging, usually for an hour in the morning before anyone gets up.

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

Chris Kulbaba:  When I looked at the questions, believe it or not this was the hardest one I found to answer. I try to empathize with all of my clients because I was also a job seeker several times and I remember the feelings that came with that position. So the most important thing for me is to sit myself in my client’s shoes when I’m dealing with a client, and I try to do that with many of my network contacts. I try to imagine what I can help them with, and who do I know that can help them.

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

Chris Kulbaba: I have asked myself this question several times. And I don’t know if I would do too many things differently because the mistakes I’ve made have helped to shape my attitude, my beliefs, and my goals so knowing what I now know I would honestly say that I wouldn’t do much differently. I am who I am because of the struggles that I’ve had so I don’t know if I would do anything differently if I could still come out the other end knowing what I know and feeling what I feel and believing what I believe. I might have stayed in school a bit longer for more formal education, if I had to choose one thing that would be it.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Chris Kulbaba: I discovered the true impact that social media can have. A quick story, in the past year I’ve helped people become Canadian citizens from India that had reached out to me through LinkedIn and that was pretty significant that I could do that for them for free. That was a very significant discovery I made about the true scope and reach of these tools. It’s a global tool.

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

Chris Kulbaba:

1. I work for a community service agency so one of the threats to that particular business is the impact of the economic crisis. We are having a very difficult time helping our clients find jobs. One of the strategies we are using is networking actively with employers to try to understand what they are looking for in a job seeker so that we can further help to coach our clients to be successful.
2. Another threat that is coming to my personal business – The LinkedIn Heavyweight, the things I’m doing with LinkedIn – is the challenge to show other people, how effective it is and unfortunately social media is not a silver bullet. So after actively using this tool for several years now and learning, changing and strategizing, I’m finally able to point to specific successes that I’ve made through network contacts through social media, then I’m further bringing other people in front of me explaining to them, “this is some of the impact that this communication tool can have.”
3. The final threat is having people challenge me when they do not get immediate results, they point that out. Again I have to come back to the fact that social media and communicating and networking in this way is an organic process and like anything organic, you need to nurture and feed it. So the first thing I now do with clients at the beginning is ask them a few quick questions such as: What is your end goal, what do you want to accomplish? How much time are you willing to commit to this? and How are you going to nurture and feed your network so that it grows into a vibrant organism.

Avil Beckford: So Chris, have you gotten any business through LinkedIn?

Chris Kulbaba: Absolutely, it hasn’t been business in the sense that I’m making a profit, so when I say that I’m having business through LinkedIn, I’ve been able to interact with several different people and give them very pointed feedback to increasing the effectiveness of their LinkedIn profile. So at this point as I’m strategizing my own business I’m doing some A, B, C testing so I’m trying Strategy A, Strategy B and so on to see which one is generating the results I want. So at this point, my definition of business and my definition of success are measured by the number of referrals that I’m getting from these first few clients. I’ve made some profit but it’s quite negligible at this point. My goal wasn’t to make a profit, it was to determine the saturation of what I can offer inside the market, to see if people want to buy. The answer so far is yes.

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

Chris Kulbaba: What’s unique is that I bring it forward to job seekers and I help them to envision themselves through a different lens. So utilizing social media as a broadcasting platform for your personal brand is one part of it, but it’s also determining your features and benefits. So what I do is use the analogy of a car. When you bought your last car did you buy it because it has four wheels, windows, doors and a trunk, you probably didn’t buy it for those features because they are on every car. Maybe you bought the car because the design was what you wanted, maybe you bought it because of the heated seats, there is a feature that attracted you to that car that’s unique, and then the benefits to those features. So maybe the car was a nice colour, and it was a nice design. Job seekers are the same, as a person you have a feature, so how does that benefit the employer? How can you tell people about the features that you have and the benefits to them. How can you engage them in conversation about your features and benefits?

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Chris Kulbaba: The major challenge I had in life was figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I worked in a factory for 16 years and I didn’t realize that I could do something different. I was making good money and I had full benefits and I thought that was as good as it was going to get, and then the factory closed and I was very lost and very hurt.

I met some people form the community services and I fell into the world of career development, and not only that, I learned that I had a natural aptitude for the work and that it was just so rewarding and enriching to help people solve pain that I was experiencing and that I had experienced, and for me that was a huge challenge to figure out what I wanted to be and how I wanted to do it.

I started off with information interviews. I had never written a resume until my mid-thirties because every job I had had until then was through a family member. The major challenge was how to write a resume when I’m here trying to help people write resumes and I don’t know how to write one myself. So I had to figure out what I wanted to do. As Coordinator of the Action Centre, which the government funded under contract after the business closed, I was able to network and learn and I was also able to define myself slowly as a career development practitioner. I was also slowly able to create a niche for myself in this industry by listening, investigating and taking action through a strategic process. I’d say it took me two years of effort to fully immerse myself into this sector to feel comfortable in it.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Chris Kulbaba: I would have to say my big break was Coordinator of the Action Centre. A mentor, the HR manager was advocating for me to get that position. That was a huge break and it really set me up for everything that has happened in the last four-and-a-half years.

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

Chris Kulbaba:  My biggest failure in my life was my marriage. It takes two to make it and it takes two to break it. So what I learned out of that was any relationship, whether it’s personal or professional is going to wither and die if you don’t feed it. If you do not use the F word once in a while, and that is feedback, you have to ask the other person are they getting what they need and then you have to decide if you can or can’t provide it. When I started to apply those lessons, and I still stumble and fall,  I learned that nurturing a relationship is a lot of effort and a lot of work but of course the more you put into it the more you are going to get out of it whether it’s personal or professional.

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

Chris Kulbaba: The toughest decision I had to make was to leave the Action Centre and start looking for other work. I was running the Action Centre helping people, some of them had high school, some of them were in their fifties and had a grade nine education. They were looking to me to help them and their families. As I looked around the Action Centre and tried to ask other people to take part of the role that I was doing nobody was willing to do it. I had a very difficult decision about stepping out of that role so that I could provide for myself and family while at the same time trying to train a successor and trying to ensure that everyone was still getting the quality service they needed. It was very, very difficult.

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

Chris Kulbaba:

1. The first event happened when I was just a young person. I was 15 years old and we were on vacation in the Cayman Islands and I learned of my thirst for travel and other cultures, how deep it was within me simply by experiencing a wonderful place that was so different from my own. So very early on I had a real desire to learn about cultures, different places and to visit other places.
2. Another event was failing university, and when I say failing, it’s not failing academically. I failed to choose education-wise a career path that was right for me. In university I had taken music education. At the age of fourteen I was playing with the London Youth Symphony, at aged 16, I was invited to play with the Western Symphony Orchestra, so I thought this makes sense and I didn’t really investigate it. When I got to university and started taking the schooling, in the middle of it I realized it was a really bad decision, this isn’t something I should have done.
3. The third moment that really impacted my entire life was when I insulted a friend of mine. We were at the factory working the night shift and he was doing day trading, real estate and he was working at the factory. So I said to him, “Why are you at the factory, you really do not belong here?” He was very angry and turned to me and said, “Who the hell are you to tell me that I do not belong? What are you doing to improve your life?” I thought about what he said and he was right, so for the next 11 years I took continuing education courses at college and university.

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

Chris Kulbaba:  This may sound a bit hokey, but I’m really proud of my children. That’s a big accomplishment for me to listen when we’re discussing life decisions and hear how they rationalize their decisions, and to hear their values and to see their interactions with other people. They are polite, very intelligent, that’s a huge accomplishment to me to know that as a father and a parent I have helped them to make good decisions.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Chris Kulbaba: They are still mentoring and still influencing my life. It was a very difficult process because I was being mentored without knowing that I was being mentored by several people. And when I finally stopped pushing against the flow of information and I started to accept and embrace it that was when the true learning began. Since then I have tried to use my ear twice as much as my mouth, something I still struggle with. The return on that investment by my mentors has been enormous. One of the other influences of mentors is one of my mentors telling me that I can mentor other people.

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

Chris Kulbaba: There are four people I would consider as mentors and the biggest message I received is to stop getting in my own way.

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?

Chris Kulbaba:  Always walk you talk. If you are going to say that something is important then that’s the way you should behave.

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.

This week nine cities around the world, including Toronto, are celebrating Social Media Week 2011. From the session Business 3.0 – Strategies and Tactics that can be leveraged to help small companies grow their business and brand here are five tips.

Panellists

Chris O’Neill: Country Director, Google Canada

Jonathan Lister: Country Manager, LinkedIn Canada

Carissa Reininger: Founder & President, Silver Lining

Sean Stanleigh: Editor, Your Business, Globe & Mail

1. What are your objectives? What do social and digital media mean to you? Create a social and digital media strategy then build relationships and share.
2. Play with the platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to understand what they can do.
3. Find out who the influencers are and get them to help you spread your content.
4. Be clear about what you do, who you do it for, figure out the best way to do it then seek the best tool to help you do it more efficiently.
5. If you are selling consulting services and higher priced products you are in the relationship business and you have to take the online relationships you build, and build them further offline. That’s the only way you will make a sale.

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.

Related articles

• Social Media Week … or Weak? [Matt Hodkinson] (ecademy.com)
• Social Media Week kicks off today, find out how you can get involved (thenextweb.com)
• Social Media Week Seeks Innovation With Multi-City Approach (mediabistro.com)

Interviewee Name: Susan Murphy

Company Name: Jester Creative Inc.

Website: http://www.jestercreative.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Susan Murphy: I live in Ottawa, Canada with my husband, 3 cats, and 1 dog. I’m an entrepreneur, a writer, and a teacher. But mostly, I’m a storyteller.

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

Susan Murphy: A few years ago, my business partner and I made the decision to get rid of our office and work remotely. Our team also works remotely, and it’s the best decision we ever made for the company.

As a result, I have a lot of flexibility in my days. Typically I start the day off with a big, warm mug of coffee and my laptop or iPad. I read through the morning headlines, check in on Twitter and Facebook and say good morning to some friends. I then usually compose a blog post or two, for my own personal blog at suzemuse.com, or for one of the other blogs I contribute to (Workshifting.com and Thoughtwrestling.com).

I try to schedule meetings for late morning or early afternoon, so I can work in lunch and errands midday without affecting the flow of what I call the “real work” in the morning and afternoon.

My “real work” time is focused on projects like client work, working on our television show, or prepping for classes and speaking engagements.

I teach at the local community college a couple of nights a week as well as some online courses, so my evenings are usually made up of either teaching commitments, events, and of course, some social time with family and friends, too.

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

Susan Murphy: I love to work hard. I’m not afraid to work hard, and since I’ve been self employed (going on 8 years now), I’ve not had a difficult time staying motivated. When you are solely responsible for your own income, it pushes you to keep bringing in new opportunities. Lack of money is a big motivator!

But mostly, I try to surround myself with people and ideas that are inspiring. I watch successful people and study how they work. Then, I try to bring what I learn into my own environment. Watching other people succeed is a great motivator.

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

Susan Murphy: I would have way more confidence. I’m a shy person by nature, and I tend to not give myself enough credit for my experience. I’ve been working in media and communications for 22 years, but sometimes I still feel like I’m a kid just starting out…like I have so much more to learn. And I realize that in many ways, I do.

However, if I had the chance to do it over, I would have done more to overcome my fears and shyness sooner, to make the most of the opportunities that have been presented to me.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Susan Murphy: I think the thing that’s been the most apparent to me this year is the real power of what’s possible when you work and collaborate with other people.

I’ve learned both sides of collaboration too, because there are times when it works and times when it doesn’t. I’ve worked on some great blogging projects, and some awesome web and video projects this year, where the team was tight and there was a lot of trust, and the ideas and work just flowed. However, I’ve also had some situations this year where trust and respect went by the wayside, and collaborative efforts broke down.

When trust leaves a relationship of any kind, business, personal or both, it can be very damaging. Unfortunately, not every collaboration is going to work out, because not everyone has the same level of trust and integrity.

I guess the important discovery for me was to realize that it can, and will be both ways, and that we should focus on the positive collaborations, and know when to let things go if it’s not working out.

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

Susan Murphy: Well, hands down it has to be the emergence of the social Web. As I mentioned before, I’m a storyteller. I started my career by helping people to tell stories using video, by helping people produce TV shows that were important to them. I moved into the Web world in 1997, and continued to help people tell stories by building an online presence. But when I first got involved in the social part of the web – things like blogging, podcasting, and of course, Facebook and Twitter – the way people told stories began to evolve again.

I was like a sponge back in 2007 – absorbing everything I could about this new, social, online place. I contributed, I got to know people, I learned, and then, I started to really understand how to use these social tools to help people tell their stories.

I’m still a storyteller, at the root – but now, I have a whole lot of new storytelling tools at my disposal.

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

Susan Murphy: I try not to focus too much on threats, other than being aware that they are there. I prefer to move my business forward on the positive. If I feel threatened, I’m fearful, and I don’t think that’s a way to run a business.

But I suppose the biggest threat, if there is one, is the one that we all have – what if business dries up? What if the downturn in the economy hits hard? Being in a marketing-related field, we’re well aware that marketing budgets are often the first things to be cut. So, to counteract that, I think it’s necessary for companies to continue to be diverse – don’t just pigeon-hole yourself into one specialty. Use all of your skills and experience to find ways to help people.

That’s why, not only am I a TV producer, but I’m a consultant, a web site designer, a teacher, and a writer. I even do HR and recruiting work sometimes, because I have a background in that. I move my work in and out of where it needs to be for me to be always expanding, and growing.

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

Susan Murphy: Jester Creative prides itself on being a one-stop media production company. We build web sites of all sizes and complexity. We design print layouts. We write copy. We run marketing campaigns. We do training. We produce videos, and make television shows. We help our customers design and create and manage all of the media they make.

A lot of companies only provide one service or another – just web design, just video production, or just social media consulting. What sets us apart is that we do it all. We deliver fully integrated media campaigns on as small or as large a scale as our customers require.

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

Susan Murphy: I think by far, the thing I see done the most poorly is anything to do with social media. First of all, I believe that social media in and of itself is a buzzword, and because it’s a buzzword, there are lots of businesses out there who are trying to take advantage of the trendiness of the term. They are trying to build entire businesses around teaching people how to make an @ reply on Twitter, or create a page on Facebook, and charging way too much money for social media consulting services that are mostly bogus and not based on any real best practices or experience.

We don’t need to be teaching people how to get more followers on Twitter, in my opinion. We need to be teaching people how to become better communicators in this new era of communications.

People don’t need to be taught how to upload a video to YouTube. It’s one button – labelled, “Upload”. I think most people are smart enough to figure these things out. Given a bit of time and the self-motivation, anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can figure out how to use Twitter. What they may need more help with is using it to communicate well.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Susan Murphy: Back in 1994 I had the worst year of my life in terms of my health and personal life. In addition to the end of a significant relationship, I ended up quite sick more than once for 3 different, and fairly serious ailments. I spent much of the year either not working or only working part time. The worst of it was, I was only 24 years old.

Until that point, I’d always been very healthy. But I was working 100 hours a week in a very stressful environment. I had no distinction between my personal life, my friendships, and my work. In short, I was way out of balance, and at just 24 years of age, it had caught up to me. My body literally shut down, forcing me to stop suddenly, and take stock of where I was at and where I wanted to go.

It was a turning point for me, because I realized that everyone has a physical and emotional limit to what they can do.

I spent a good chunk of time over the next year or so healing physically and emotionally, and I came out on the other end of the experience a much stronger person with a sense of the direction I wanted to take with my life.

Though I would never wish sickness or heartbreak on anyone, these are often the times in our lives when we learn the most.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Susan Murphy: I was just out of college, 19 years old, and ready to take on the world. Only the world was not quite ready to take me on yet, apparently. Two years of broadcasting school, and there was not a job in sight. It didn’t help that the same year I graduated, both the CBC and CTV had just gone through rounds of layoffs. The future didn’t look so bright in my industry.

I discovered that the local community cable channel was looking for volunteers to work on productions, so I signed up. I quickly realized that this was a great way to get experience and to meet new people. Since I didn’t have a job, and I was still living with my parents at the time, I dedicated 40-60 hours per week to working on productions. One day, I was giving one of the staff producers a ride home, and he asked me if I was aware of a job placement program being run by the provincial government, where I could work at the station 40 hours a week for 4 months with pay. I signed on immediately and was accepted to the program. I was immediately taken under my boss Andre’s wing. He taught me everything he could about producing shows.

About 1 month into my placement, Andre got a promotion to Executive Producer. Suddenly, he had far less time to devote to producing his shows. He figured, since I was already basically doing the job, that I might as well step in and run the shows. He gave me a shot, trusted me with 7 programs that meant a lot to him, and set me off and running. I did so well that 3 months later, when my placement ended, I was hired full time. Andre was the person who believed in me from the beginning. To this day, 21 years later, he and I are still very good friends. I am forever grateful for his support and friendship.

It just goes to show that one must seek out and grab onto opportunities when they come their way. Even if the opportunity doesn’t mean a paying job at first, if it’s in line with your path, then it’s vital to grab hold. You never know where the path will take you.

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

Susan Murphy: I once made the mistake of trusting the wrong person too much. Although things were fine for the first little while, I started to feel suspicious that the person was not being truthful. Instead of terminating things when the red flags went up, I ignored the warning signs and continued. Ultimately, the bottom fell out of the relationship, all trust was gone, and it wound up being a very expensive mistake, both financially and emotionally.

I’ve learned that it’s one thing to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s another entirely to throw caution to the wind and blindly trust, especially when entering a business relationship with someone that you don’t have a history with. Trust and respect are to be earned, and take time to build. If you see red flags, heed the warnings and get to the bottom of it. Even if it means saying “no”, you’ll be better off in the end.

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

Susan Murphy: To be honest, I spend so little time focusing on disappointment that I can’t answer this question. Everyone makes mistakes, and I’ve made several. I’ve had hard times like everyone else, but I can’t look at things with regret and disappointment, because then I could never move forward. My advice is, when bad things happen, work as diligently as possible to pick up the pieces and carry on. Harbour no regrets. Forget about being disappointed. Take the lesson and move forward.

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

Susan Murphy: The toughest decision for me was finally quitting my full time job to start my business. Jumping off the cliff into the unknown was very frightening. Many things had to be put on hold financially. My husband had to sacrifice a lot and take on a second job.

There were many times when I wanted to give up and go back to my old life. There were lots of sleepless nights. But eventually things started to turn around, and now, 7 years in, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m grateful to my husband, my family, and my friends for sticking it out with me on this journey.

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

Susan Murphy: Getting my first job, marrying my husband, and starting my business.

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

Susan Murphy: I am a very shy person by nature. I’m most proud of the ability I’ve gained to stand up in front of people and teach and speak. It’s something I would have never dreamed of doing 20 years ago.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Susan Murphy: Through all the iterations of my career, mentors have been there. I watch, listen, and learn from them on a regular basis. And now, with the Internet, our mentors can be anywhere. I have friends that I only know online who influence me and teach me things on a daily basis. It’s a remarkable thing.

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

Susan Murphy: Above all else, be yourself.

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?

Susan Murphy: Don’t spend too much time getting caught up in the method and the process. Spend the most time on using your natural talents and abilities to create great things.

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.

Your Invisible Mentor: Jacoline Loewen, Partner 

Company: Loewen & Partners

Website: http://www.loewenpartners.com

Many years ago, Jacoline Loewen went to see a psychic. The psychic heard her accent and assumed that she was from Australia, so she went on and on about Australia. None of her predictions were accurate. Jacoline wondered why she wasted her $50, which was a lot of money at the time. She asked herself, “What would make you breathless?” and developed a life plan of five-year increments for 25 years. Though her plans appeared bigger than life at the time, she has achieved all of them and more. Diane Danielson suggests that you go for the grande.

What makes you breathless? If you decided to go for the grande, what would that look like? While reading Part Two of Jacoline Loewen’s interview, think about what you can learn from her, and in what ways are you similar to her.

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jacoline Loewen: I work with Loewen & Partners which is a family business. I love to work but I also love to be a mother, I’m married as well, and I think I have done a pretty good job of combining all those things. I’ve tried to have it all and I would say because I am a high energy get-it-done person, you would think that I’m a corporate person, but my husband and children say that’s not the case.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Jacoline Loewen: I was very fortunate I had my father as my first mentor. I didn’t know that I was a “girl” because he took me to work with him all the time and loved discussing business with me. My mother was another mentor, she started her first business at age 53 and then ended up selling it 15 years later. She is my coach and I still phone her up, especially if I’ve had a really bad day, and she’ll get be back up on the horse. My father-in-law Chuck has been a tremendous mentor to me as well. He took me under his wing and showed me how he has done business so it gave me confidence to know how much success he’s had, how he has done it. I’m doing it the same way because in business you have to put so much out before you get the fruits of your reward for all you effort.

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

Jacoline Loewen: It’s the phoenix from the ashes. If you want to succeed you have to have tenacity, get punched in the face, and get up again. You have to get out into the fight, and finance is a very vicious place, it’s a very tough business. I’ve been in consulting and that’s a lot easier than finance. I would say that you have to keep going, and if you’re doing your own business you have to commit to it for 10 years. You are just not going to make it if you don’t realize that that’s the timeframe that you have to commit to.

Avil Beckford: Which books, training resources did your mentors refer to you?

Jacoline Loewen: It’s interesting because my father was very much into training courses, and he developed all the first safety training in mining and got me very involved in that. I learned action learning at that point, so not just reading a book. So if you read a book, share it and get up and make a speech about it. Give a 10-minute talk at your meeting. Obviously the book In Search of Excellence had a huge impact on me, and another book Intrapreneurship had an impact on me as well. These books were in the early eighties, then Rosabeth Moss Kanter had a book called The Change Agent which impacted me as well. My father-in-law, Chuck Loewen made me do an MBA, and I didn’t know what it was, and at the time I thought, “Why?” No one I knew had done it and I was in consulting at that point. I didn’t want to apply because I was afraid that I wouldn’t get in. I always had this mountain of not wanting to try things because I was too afraid.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I spoke to this coach who coaches the top CEOs of the Top 10 companies listed on the stock exchange. I asked him, “What on earth can you teach these men? How do you mentor them?” and he said, “You have to know yourself.” And he told me about this book, As a Man Thinketh, that you can download from the internet, and I said, “Why? Obviously these guys know themselves.” And he said, “No, you have to make your personal life parallel with your work-life. Who you are at work is who you are at home.” Personal issues impact the way you are at work so he works a lot on their personal lives.

I would also tell your readers to listen to podcasts because they are so mobile and motivating, and they teach you so much. If you go on to iTunes Podcasts Higher Learning, all these universities offer courses. Stanford has entrepreneurs talking, you have the top guys from Google talking, and you can spend an hour listening to how these guys started their careers and their jobs and learn what happened to them.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I’m lucky because I work in a family business so I can bring my sons into my office and they have worked for me. I pay them and they understand my work environment. I’ve always shared a lot with my sons even when they were tiny. I would talk to them about the fact that I was unhappy going to work because I wanted to spend time with them, and it was a big issue for me. I would share that with them and kids understand.

We socialize a lot with our clients now. My husband is what you call a “bear hugger,” and he bear hugs our clients and draws them into our social life. It’s actually great, we enjoy their company and we’ve become very good friends. I think the social aspect of having Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is interesting because I have been wrestling with whethere or not I’m going to make my Facebook part of my business life. This is what people are moving toward. I’ve always hidden behind my brand, my name. I have this sexist attitude about how women will be valued and I’ve always used my initials for my books. I’m at the crossroads where I’ll probably open my Facebook and make it one with my Tweets and LinkedIn.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I tend to not step forward when I’m offered opportunities. People see me as a leader more than I see myself and then I don’t push for things enough. I’m nice, I’m a good girl.

For a major regret, I don’t know if I have any major regrets. I try to design what I’m doing so that I don’t have regrets. For example when I decided to stay home with my kids for a couple of years, I ended up doing my business anyway and I asked myself, “At 50 will you regret stepping off this corporate job.” I had an amazing corporate job that I had been at for five years, and to leave it was huge at the time. At 50 I would know that I made that decision on purpose. So I’m not sure that I have any regrets.

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

Jacoline Loewen: 

1. Things work out in the end so just keep going. I’ve had some terrible times in business, the one I talked about losing that client that I thought I was going to get. That was such a major financial commitment that I thought I had. Pick yourself up. Get on the horse, get on the phone calling, and get moving again as fast as you can. Astonishingly, within two weeks after we lost that client we got the best client we’ve ever had, and he is our number one client. But I had to force myself. I remember going out to see that client and feeling, “Oh what’s the point? This is a waste of time. It’s not going to happen,” and bang it happened.
2. Be yourself! I get so worried thinking that people will notice this, that or the other, or I didn’t do this and people will notice. People don’t care, and most people don’t notice a thing.
3. As an immigrant, get over it.
4. As a woman, get over it.
5. And the main thing I’ve learned is to relax and have more fun at work. I’ve always been so serious and tense. And I learned it’s okay to have fun. We took our clients out for World Cup Soccer to a local bar and had all these finance guys come out for it. I’m much more formal, but at these events, it’s where the real business happens.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I like to paint. I like to read. I like to go to the movies and I like going out to dinner with my kids. I spend a lot of time talking with my children.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I read a lot of the best minds. I read Harvard Business Review and I ask people what books they are reading. The internet is amazing because of all the blogs you can read. I have a notebook at hand and I write all the time, and then I go back and look at what I’ve been writing and get my ideas from that. That’s how I write books.

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

Jacoline Loewen: “A few people in a room make the greatest changes in the world” by Margaret Meade. This quote shows you the power of strategy, the power of getting a few people together and making a big plan of what you’re going to do then getting everyone behind that plan and doing it.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Jacoline Loewen: It’s what makes you happy. When I started my MBA, the first exercise we did was a values exercise. It was about what was important in your life. They did a whole week of that, getting you to understand yourself and your priorities. At the time I had a professor who was a Birkenstock kind of guy, he was into “Don’t be an A-type, relax.” I’m not a B-Type, I’m an A-Type. I’m someone who likes to be super busy all the time, that’s just how I am. So I define success not by how others define it.

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

Jacoline Loewen: You really have to know your values. If you can sit down and write your Top Five values and keep those in mind, and plan your week keeping in mind those values. For example, I have my mother in town and my parents are seldom in the same city at the same time as I am. She is getting older so I make the time and carve it into my diary. Tuesday evenings she is at my home and I come home early from work and make dinner for the family. Even if someone comes to town like Russell Crowe for a date I would have to say no these are my values, these are my priorities.

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

Jacoline Loewen: You really have to plan it. When I was 25 I went to a psychic and I remember paying $50 which was a lot of money back then. She heard my accent and thought I was Australian, and she went on and on about Australia. I have never been to Australia and none of what she said was accurate and I wondered why I paid $50. I said to myself, “What would make you breathless?” and I planned 25 years of 5-year increments and it’s amazing how much of what I planned I achieved and went beyond. I still have that book. And yet at the time I thought there was no way I could achieve any of these things.

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

Jacoline Loewen: If you are starting out in private equity get a really good financial background. Get a CFA, Certified Financial Analyst certification, I recommend it. Work in a big company where you can get a high volume of deals. Go to New York or London, England if you can.

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?

Jacoline Loewen: 

1. Don Tapscott: I love his business ability, his ability to market his books and he is obviously a kind person as well. I would say to him, “Don could you spend an hour with me and show me how I can take my books, and where I am right now, and leverage them the way you have?”
2. Margaret Thatcher: She came into power at the time when many people were emigrating from the UK. There were rolling blackouts, the unions had all the power in Britain, there were no jobs, and she changed all of that. I would like to spend an hour with her and find out how she managed her fear. She was from an entrepreneurial background, her father was in the grocery business.
3. Queen Elizabeth I: I would ask her why she didn’t marry Walter Raleigh
4. William Shakespeare: I love to write and I would ask him if he really wrote all those plays, how did he write and when and where he would write and what inspired him.
5. Kathryn Bigelow: She directed The Hurt Locker and was the first women to win the Academy Award for Best Director. I’d love her to spend an hour with me talking about her career in the movie business.

The Hurt Locker – Official Trailer [HD]

If you cannot view the YouTube video please click here.

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

Jacoline Loewen: That would definitely be In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies by Tom Peters.

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.

Jacoline Loewen: If I’m on a deserted island I’d have a lot to read. I would definitely go for volume.

• I’d have the Bible not that I’m religious but because I have never read the whole thing and it’s dense so it would take a lot of time to read it
• The entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica
• Get some Booker Prize novels that I haven’t read – The Gathering is something that I’ve wanted to read
• Anything by Gary Hamel who I love
• And of course Michael Porter’s Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

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

Jacoline Loewen: I would have Diana Ross’ Greatest Hits. I just love her, her songs have a profound sadness to them but she is always getting over her sadness. She is always making bold statements and going for what she wants. She always energizes me. The movie would have to be Gladiator. I love his energy and bravery.

Diana Ross- Do You Know Where You’re Going To – Live 2011

If you cannot view this YouTube video please click here.

Gladiator Trailer HD

If you cannot view this YouTube video please click here.

Avil Beckford: Have you read any books which inspired you to start a business or introduce a service?

Jacoline Loewen: Actually yes. You know who is great, believe it or not, is Martha Stewart. She wrote a book, The Martha Rules when she was in prison, that’s a great book and if you are in business, that’s a really great book to read and get ideas from.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Jacoline Loewen: My family excites me about life: my sons, husband and mother. My father has passed away now.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Jacoline Loewen: Spending time with my family.

Avil Beckford: 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?

Jacoline Loewen: Besides money, fame, power, beauty (she laughs) or the ability to eat chocolate as much as I wanted, I would wish for – going beyond my family – to have my family business become a legacy business. In other words, I would love to grow my business to pass it on to another generation of business owners.

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

Jacoline Loewen: I am happy when I am motivating and exciting others.

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.

Video Credits: The Hurt Locker – Official Trailer [HD] Uploaded by trailers on Jun 12, 2009; Diana Ross- Do You Know Where You’re Going To – Live 2011 Uploaded by goldmosh on Sep 22, 2011; Gladiator Trailer HD Uploaded by FilmTrailersChannel on Aug 22, 2009

Related articles

• Jacoline Loewen on the three steps to create value (moneymagnetbook.blogspot.com)
• Should I hire a broker or investment banker to help me sell my company? (moneymagnetbook.blogspot.com)
• Jacoline Loewen on 3 Rules for every Start Up – BNN The Pitch (moneymagnetbook.blogspot.com)

Like all the other Skinny On books, I received The Skinny on Networking: Maximizing the Power of Numbers by Jim Randel to review. The objective of The Skinny On series of books is to provide concentrated learning by extensively researching a topic, distilling the salient facts, and presenting them in a “progression of drawings, dialogue and text intended to convey information in a concise fashion. The book which can be read in less than two hours is presented in slides, two to a page, and 267 of them.

Networking is an important topic because success, happiness and personal fulfillment depend on the quality of your relationships. I consider The Skinny On Networking a good introduction to networking. I do no think that it’s possible to learn everything about networking, even the most important aspects from one book. Jim Randel highlighted some important aspects of networking that many would not think about. I have included some of these important points.

According to Randel, The Skinny on Networking: Maximizing the Power of Numbers is “about creating and maintaining your network.” And his definition for networking is “developing and utilizing relationships with other people…it is any activity that helps you to develop relationships with others…and is about increasing depth and breadth as a person…Successful networking entails identifying and asking your WHO to help you meet your WHAT.” The author includes 10 activities to clarify and support what he means by networking.

1. Staying in touch with people you have already met
2. Meeting new people
3. Doing research to find the person(s) who can assist you
4. Using online resources to identify someone you know who knows someone you want to meet
5. Increasing social capital
6. Entertaining and helping others – creating a desire for reciprocity
7. Building positive word of mouth
8. Marketing your expertise
9. Joining groups that foster natural connections
10. Asking for introductions and referrals

To achieve astounding success in life requires the use of your human capital (knowledge, skills, expertise and experience) as well as your social capital (the resources you have access to through your personal and professional networks). You create social capital by establishing, building and nurturing relationships. It’s important to invest in the relationship by giving something of value to the person before you start to make withdrawals by making requests. The longer you have known someone and the more time you have spent investing in the relationship, the more social capital you have created with them. Building social capital is a lifelong activity, and it’s also important to build social capital before you need it. You can lose social capital by asking for too much too soon.

Steps to Successful Networking

1. Tap into family, friends and acquaintances because they have connections that you are not aware of
2. Always be specific about what you want so that the person knows exactly what is required of them, and always give them an out just in case they may be uncomfortable filling your request
3. When making a request, make it clear that you are willing to reciprocate when they require your assistance
4. Use all tools available to you, both offline and online (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook)
5. Successful and savvy networking is very hard so make it an ongoing process
6. If you are shy or an introvert, use a connector to help you connect to people you’d like to meet
7. Create diverse networks of people, some who are very different from you – step outside your comfort zone
8. When you meet someone, put the spotlight on them, most people like to talk about themselves so give them the opportunity, and listen to what they are saying
9. Within 24 hours of meeting someone who you find interesting, make notes about them: how you met her, what she does, what you learned about her during the conversation
10. Keep in contact with your networks

Most of us, including myself know about popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but Randel includes four others that I have never heard of. I recommend that you read The Skinny on Networking: Maximizing the Power of Numbers, but keep in mind that it’s a very good introduction so you will not learn everything about networking. Despite the size of the book, you will pick up a few tips like I did. As usual, Jim Randel includes the books he referenced, as well as some quotes from them. The inclusion of books referenced throughout the Skinny On series of books makes it easy to decide which other books to read on the subject matter.

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.

Note: The copy of The Skinny on Networking that I received is a pre-publication copy.

Additional Resources to Assist With Online Networking

Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You

Use LinkedIn Effectively

Write Your LinkedIn Profile for the Future

If you are a blogger, Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn

50 Power Twitter Tips

My Best Twitter Advice

How to Prospect Using Combined Power of LinkedIn and Twitter