The Invisible Mentor » Mentors

2011 Interviews for Mentoring

Avil Beckford — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:30:46 +0000

These are some of the people I interviewed this year to act as your mentors. In case you missed any of the interviews, when you get the opportunity, take a moment to read them. While you are reading the interviews, think of what you have in common with the interviewees, and ask yourself, what can I learn from them that I can use in my work and life? You can also find these interviews and more on the Mentors page of the blog

Mind your Qs please! She was the first female CEO of a steel company in Canada (Part I) (Part II)
She left a successful search consulting business to become a human excellence coach (Part I), (Part II)
The life coach who is also an artist (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who knows what leadership is about (Part I), (Part II)
The “hip accountant” (Part I), (Part II)
The entrepreneur’s friend (Part I), (Part II)
Head of PR for a technology firm, a writer, and very witty (Part I), (Part II)
The social justice film producer (Part I), (Part II)
A mentor directed her path to success (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is a career and employment counsellor and a LinkedIn Heavyweight (Part I), (Part II)
A leadership and career coach, and a very straight shooter (Part I), (Part II)
An internet marketer and social media trainer (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is a relationship builder (Part I), (Part II)
An IT executive who sang at her own wedding (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is into food safety (Part I), (Part II)
She is an Assistant Deputy Minister (Part I), (Part II)
As a youngster he read biographies (children’s) of “great people” which taught him the importance of reading and learning from the experiences of others (Part I), (Part II)
The founder of Athena International (Part I), (Part II)
A successful business owner who attended 17 schools in three countries while growing up (Part I), (Part II)
Founder of Connected Women (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who was a former editor of Chatelaine Magazine (Part I), (Part II)
She started in the library and ended up in the executive suite (Part I), (Part II)
She launched the International Women’s Festival, and also operated a very successful business which she sold (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who died for four minutes (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who used to hide under the table from bill collectors, now she is a success story (Part I), (Part II)
When she first became a leader, she was referred to as Godzilla, but a mentor helped to smooth off the rough edges, now she is a remarkable leader (Part I), (Part II)
His best friend was embezzling so he gave him the opportunity to do the right thing (Part I), (Part II)
A busy senior level banking executive who escapes from it all through fiction (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is a CFO of a restaurant chain (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is a marketing and communications consultant (Part I), (Part II)
Someone knows what it means to fall down seven times get up eight (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is an entertainer and comic artist (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who is a goldsmith and jewelry designer (Part I), (Part II)
An entrepreneur who blends health and technology (Part I), (Part II)
The medical doctor (Part I), (Part II)
The serial entrepreneur with mild superpowers (Part I), (Part II)
Serial entrepreneur and expert interviewer (Part I), (Part II) (Part III), (Part IV)
Founder of First Fridays (Part I), (Part II)
Someone who does cross-culture consulting (Part I), (Part II)
This senior executive made a tough decision that no parent should ever have to make (Part I), (Part II)
The reinvention guy (Part I), (Part II)

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.

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The Invisible Mentor Interviews Kevin Popović, Communications Director, Ideahaus

Avil Beckford — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:30:24 +0000

Interviewee Name: Kevin Popović, Communications Director

Company Name: Ideahaus

Website: http://www.ideahaus.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kevin Popović: My job has evolved. I call myself a communications director so I help my clients direct all their communications – marketing, strategy, corporate identity and branding, advertising, design issues, public relations and quite a lot of social media these days. Quite simply, I help my clients figure out what to say and how to say it to their target markets.

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

Kevin Popović: If I had two days in a row that were the same I would be so surprised. Some days I work out of my beach studio in Delmar here in San Diego. Some days I’m at a comic convention interviewing different people in the comic, television and movie business. Some days I may be in New York working with a CEO client. Other days I may be in Hollywood at a celebrity awards gifts suite, some days I am in our Pittsburgh studio. Sunday I’ll be on stage at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. So my typical day is an adventure – every day is an adventure, and it’s a new adventure.

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

Kevin Popović: I look at the pile of bills that I have to pay this month. The challenge as an entrepreneur is that there is no one telling you what time you have to be at work, and there is no one telling you what has to get done today, and if your intent is being self-employed and an entrepreneur, that is one of the first things that you have to overcome is being able to motivate yourself and stay motivated.

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

Kevin Popović: Not a damn thing! And I say that in all sincerity. I had a path earlier in my career to go and work for somebody or to not go and work for somebody, and I worked for some people, and then I decided that that wasn’t for me. But the things that I got involved in throughout my life have all been different types of communications, whether it was video production or event production, or design, or advertising, or website development, all of those things that I have done have gotten me to where I am today and I’m very happy where I am today.

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

Kevin Popović: I’m realizing the opportunity in social media, and I have been involved in social media for six years. And every week I learn something new, but it has been over the last year that clients are realizing success as we are doing some very innovative things, realizing how many people are connecting and what that means. That’s my greatest observation.

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

Kevin Popović:

The economy which I can do nothing about.
My competitors which I can do nothing about.
Me and my company which I can do everything about. So that’s where I’m focusing on, me, my company, and my team.

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

Kevin Popović: Me! I do not mean that in an arrogant way. But every ship has a captain, someone who tells you to steer left, steer right, watch out for that iceberg. I’m the captain of our ship Ideahaus, and there are lots of different ships and lots of good captains. But what’s different about us is me.

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

Kevin Popović: I think most people do what’s expected. I think most people don’t pay attention to the compulsories because they are expected, and there isn’t a lot of innovation. I think we do innovation very 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?

Kevin Popović: One of our clients is a retailer of pop culture apparel and that includes t-shirts, hoodies, belt buckles, patches, hats and things like Superman t-shirts. The challenge is that you can get Superman t-shirts anywhere, so why get it from my guy?

We focused on making it a priority for people to understand why you got it from our client, and we focused on their branding, and we focused on listening, and communicating back with the customers, and we came to what you call an understanding, a quid pro quo with our customers. They can pay attention to us, if we give them something to pay attention to, so we developed an online show that provide subject matter that we are both interested in, for instance superheroes. We give them entertainment, 5-minute daily shows about superheroes, or movies, television, or the things they are interested in, and in return they watch their show, and our commercials are placed within that show, and they buy t-shirts. That’s how we took a client with a commodity product, turn them into a premium, and developed a communications channel with his target audience.

I learned that you have to have an objective understanding of who you are in the marketplace, and where you fit in. I think we helped our client do that. I think this is something that is hard for businesses to do, and I think it’s hard for communications professionals to do that with their clients. But when we both do that, I think it’s when we are able to make much more informed and effective decisions.

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

Kevin Popović: There is a gentleman named Bob Friday, and he had a company called TGIF Productions that did video and event production. While I was a struggling entrepreneur, and trying to figure out where I was going to fit in this communications business, I had to take a part-time job in retail. Every so often Bob would come in to the store and buy something new for his office, and he’d share a story and I would chime in about what I thought about his story. We started communicating back and forth.

I ended up offering to help him with these projects on the side to gain experience, and after four or five months of this he started paying me to freelance and after six months of that he brought me on in a full-time position as assistant producer. For four years I traveled all over the country learning about video and event production and how to deal with clients.

I saw how he ran his business and I also saw what I did not like about how he ran his business. So I attribute one of my big breaks to Bob Friday, and thank him for the opportunities he provided and the lessons that he taught me. Many of which are things that I knew that I did not want to do. My father taught me a long time ago to learn from my mistakes and I’ve tried to apply that to everybody I’ve worked with. As much as I have learned from them about what to do, I’ve also learned what not to do.

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

evin Popović: One of my biggest failures was a very early entrepreneurial effort I had called Fairytales Productions. We were going to do event marketing for skateboard manufacturers. On the west coast we were going to do events on the east coast where they didn’t have that great of a presence. I put together a very large contest, and Wendy’s was going to be a sponsor and give us $5,000 toward the promotion. Everything got booked and three days beforehand, I find out that Wendy’s has changed their mind, they are not going to give me $5,000 in money, they are going to give me $5,000 in sandwich coupons. Vendors did not want to be paid in sandwich coupons. So it was a disaster and I ended up closing the company, and what I learned is to get everything in writing no matter who the relationship is with.

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

Kevin Popović: I don’t think there is a biggest, there is a bunch of little ones and I think you learn from each one. You get your hands slapped, or your fingers burnt and you pay attention and try not to do what you did to get your hands slapped or to burn your fingers. Eyes wide open going into situations and no excuses coming out of them. You make constant decisions and you have to live with the consequences.

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

Kevin Popović: I worked with one of my best friends to start a business. I learned that this best friend had embezzled money from the company, and I gave him the chance to fix what he had broken. He didn’t take me up on the opportunity so I had him arrested and pressed charges. It reminded me that there is a difference between personal relationships and business relationships, and that when you mix the two, and you will, each has their own responsibilities. That’s what I learned.

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

Kevin Popović:

Getting beat up at the age of 15 for shooting my mouth off to somebody I had no business shooting my mouth off to. This taught me to watch what you say to people and who you say it to.
The birth of my two daughters.

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

Kevin Popović: Ideahaus! My company is my proudest professional accomplishment and it continues to be a source of adventure, personal inspiration and a platform to explore and help others.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Kevin Popović: I’ve had a couple of mentors. My father has been a good mentor to me as a professor of marketing. My grandmother has been a mentor to me. She sold shoes for 30 years. Michael Bosworth, sales legend and author of Solutions Selling, Customer Centric Selling and Story Leaders has been a mentor to me in the way that I approach sales and how I present myself, or professional opportunities.

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

Kevin Popović: Know what you are doing before you go into it.

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?

Kevin Popović: Don’t believe your own bullshit. I select that word purposely. I find that a lot of entrepreneurs, and a lot of young people, particularly when they have some raw skills, and some raw talent, think very highly of themselves, and you need to have confidence, and then with some initial success and one or two people telling you that you did a great job, many of these people get inflated egos and start believing these things and let it distract them from learning and being better, and creating better opportunities. That’s what I think they should pay attention to.

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Interview With Invisible Mentor Kamel Hothi, Director, Lloyds Banking Group

Avil Beckford — Thu, 26 May 2011 09:30:03 +0000

Interviewee Name: Kamel Hothi, Director

Company Name: Lloyds Banking Group

Website: http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kamel Hothi: I’ve been working for 32 years in the banking world. I’m a Director at Lloyds Banking Group. I’m married, I have two children and I live in a very strict Indian traditional family.

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

Kamel Hothi: Very, very busy. To be honest, there is no me-time. I tend to leave the house at about 6:30 to get into the office in London (UK). It’s about an hour and a half’s drive. I look after three remits – the Asian market, as well as the world’s internal infrastructure between us and corporate banking, and I also support the procurement for supply to the Group so we work on those, then tend to go home around 7:30, 8:00 pm. I arrive home at about 9 pm and head straight to the kitchen, and see what needs to be done. I get to bed around 12:00 am and I’m back again in the morning.

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

Kamel Hothi: I think that’s a difficult one. One goes through the peaks and troughs of life and I divide my life very much at work and home and I suppose at work I like to be very structured. I need to know exactly what I have to achieve at the end of the year, what success looks like for me, and see if I can carve that down into bite-sized chunks and monitor and track that. I’m a bit of a control freak, so as long as I know what I need to achieve that keeps me motivated because I know I’m achieving the bits that I need to do.

And at home, it’s making sure that the family gets attention, that they are on track. I’ve got two children so I ensure I’m giving them my time and that’s important to me so I try to do that on the weekend as much as I can, trying to find a couple of hours to make sure that I stay in touch with them. And if I know about their life that keeps me motivated that they are doing the right thing.

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

Kamel Hothi: Coming from a very different culture, we came from India to the UK without speaking a word of English and being brought up in a very traditional household where the females didn’t really have a career. So I was very fortunate to get into banking and convinced my parents to allow me to continue. But I had other aspirations and I wanted to go to university and I wanted to do further studying but I was very nervous about approaching those subjects with my parents because it’s such a complete no-no area. Now looking back, I wish I had the confidence to address these issues and have a conversation with them, partly to reassure them that I wasn’t going to rock the traditional boat, it was just that I had these burning ambitions that maybe my other siblings didn’t have. But certainly better communication with the family I think would have been much better for me when I was younger.

I feel I’ve still got so much more to give and I’m at a crossroads in my career now after 32 years in banking. I love educating people. I love mentoring and I’m certain that’s the route going forward in the future. I’d like to get involved with some charity. So I like bringing people together, and I work better in collaboration with businesses and business units, that’s where my skill is really, so I don’t work very well in silos. I think that’s where I want to go and develop further in my next stage of life.

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

Kamel Hothi: I suppose in banking I would say it’s IT (Information Technology). It has completely changed the way that we work, whether it’s from emailing to the online banking system, that’s certainly made the pace so much faster and much hungrier and somewhat easier to communicate. It also has some negative downfalls because when people are on holidays the Blackberry is constantly on, you’re always in touch, it’s a good thing but also a bad thing that the pace of change is so fast that you have to constantly be on the run. So I would say that IT is the biggest change in our industry.

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

Kamel Hothi:

For banking I would say it’s what’s happened in the financial world. The world is shrinking so an impact in America or Asia will have a huge impact on our business so that’s something that’s even more crucial as we speak now.
Regulation is getting really tight and very difficult to operate in the areas that we do.
And now with times changing with acquisitions and mergers, I’ve gone through three in my lifetime in a huge organization. You never know what’s on the horizon with Asia growing so fast. Some of it is exciting but certainly it impacts the business and the branding and therefore lots of changes are happening.

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

Kamel Hothi: What I’m really good at is building strategies, so it’s really understanding what the business case is for a particular strategy, what are the barriers, how can these be overcome, finding and implementing the solution. That’s what makes me unique and that what I bring to the forefront. And that’s what I’m known for. I was the architect behind the Asian strategy for Lloyds Bank and I’m really proud of the legacy that I’ll hopefully leave behind.

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

Kamel Hothi: It is really two things. Working in a huge organization you do find that divisions tend to work in silos, and it’s very much about them and their particular business, whereas our customers only obviously see the whole brand. It’s ensuring that these divisions are working together, I would say that’s what I’m very good at. I tend to work with the whole group and think of the whole group as a whole and I totally empathize with the customer, and our customers are at the forefront of everything that I try to do.

This also leads to the second thing in that sometimes I get frustrated with my colleagues with the follow-through — when you are networking, making sure that the commitments that you’ve made, that they are followed through right to completion, and it’s the speed of follow through. I’m proud of myself to make sure that my credentials say that I’ll get back as quickly as I can once I’ve met all the promises that I’ve made.

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?

Kamel Hothi: I come from a very Jekyll and Hyde lifestyle, that I live at home in a very traditional culture to the corporate world that I operate in, in the daytime job. That is the biggest challenge, balancing those two different worlds and keeping both of them content and the people that are my key stakeholders both at work and at home, and that they are aware of what I do and are appreciative of what I try to deliver.

It is a totally different world, from one end I’m standing and having a board meeting with a room full of men, and then going home and being the daughter-in-law in a very different household where it’s still a quite sexist environment, but it’s the culture I was brought up with. I would say that my biggest challenge is constantly battling with the differences and helping both of them move slowly forward into the world.

One of the things that’s helping me and helping others around me to understand the cultural differences and if I look at myself earlier, at my first 15 years in banking, it was hugely challenging. I felt I was really delivering the results, I felt I worked hard but just couldn’t understand why my colleagues were either promoted above me or quicker, and it wasn’t until later in life that I realized that it was really those first impressions and things and the subconscious behaviours you bring to work.

As I’ve said before, I come from a very traditional background where it is seen as keep your voice very feminine, behave very feminine and you don’t challenge back and shouldn’t be assertive, and you respect your elders. And so subconsciously you bring those behaviours into work and although I was working hard and producing 200 percent of my results, but because I was so respectful, and my voice was quite timid, my manager translated that to being, she is not hungry, she is not assertive enough to be a leader and therefore why move her, she is doing the results for me and not giving me a hard time. I won’t promote her.

So it’s really understanding what is in fact the opposite, and a number of times when I was early in my career would result in me becoming bitter and rather than challenging back, would either move divisions or find another role. Now I coach other ethnic minorities across the organization to help them understand their own differences, and then once you’ve understood what the differences are then you can make an informed choice, but I also educate line managers, mainstream managers that they may have a burning star amongst their employees, who may not be shining in their eyes as they see them but actually once you give them the empowerment, give them the go ahead, they could be one of their biggest talent pool amongst their employees.

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

Kamel Hothi: I would say my biggest break was from my line manager going back three lines ago, a gentleman by the name of Arif Mushtaq. He was parachuted in from another company into Lloyds Bank. I encountered him when I was setting up the effort for the Ethnic Minority Network, and he was the one who sponsored the event. It was great to meet Arif. When we started discussing the event and he heard some of my views and ideas he really encouraged me to take a risk. He had faith, he saw something in me that I suppose other people didn’t see and so that encouraged me to take a risk from the position. Yes I could have lost my job. He gave me a blank sheet of paper and said he would support me, and to be honest, that empowerment was the best gift I have ever had. It increased my confidence and since then I have never looked back, so I’m really grateful to Arif.

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

Kamel Hothi: Going on the personal front, both at work and at home in the early stages of my career was having the courage to stand up for myself. I knew that I had a burning ambition in my stomach and didn’t really know how to articulate it. That actually took me several years to get the strength to talk about it or to demonstrate that I wanted to do this, which wouldn’t rock the boat at home. But also at work, there were a number of promotions that I allowed to pass me by without questioning and challenging the lines, why they made the decisions. I had no information on their outcomes, so I would say that my biggest failure in the beginning is not talking up and giving myself the confidence to do that so that’s certainly something I’ve learned over the years and I’ve learned something about myself . And I learnt that when I’m contributing I’m adding value to the organization that I’m working for so that’s given me the confidence to be much more confident in what I do. And I found that therefore the people around me accepted what I do, and certainly at home my family where they were uncomfortable in the past now see it as something they are really proud of.

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

Kamel Hothi: One of my biggest disappointments is that my parents passed away many years ago, so they haven’t witnessed the change in myself and seen the achievements over the last decade that I have done both at work and at home, so that’s always going to be something that you can’t really undo. However, that also helped me to understand that every day is so precious, for me it’s making sure that my children are part of my journey, and they are certainly involved in my career. They encourage me, I encourage them. We talk a lot, I seek their advice on what I’m doing, the next steps I should be taking, so they actually feel they’re the ones that’s been supporting me so they are part of the whole equation.

So for me, my children are very important and we stick together and I want to be a part of their future. We talk a lot, we talk about their future, it’s something in the Indian community that’s not done often. Coming from a first generation where my father was very dominating, discussions that were open were very rare. That’s something we’ve hopefully undone in our family and that we’ve given our children the empowerment to say what they need to say but at the same time we are guarding them and steering them to what’s best for them as well.

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

Kamel Hothi: I think it’s taking the new role in corporate banking. The previous role I had to this one was very comfortable, and one that I was very familiar with. I had been working in that division for a number of years. I got a lot of kudos and people knew who I was and in coming into a division that I had never worked in before, hardly knew any of the executives there, it was a huge jump and starting from scratch again and having to prove myself. It was a tough decision, do I want an easier life or a tough life and I took the tough path but it was a challenge I was prepared to take because I could see the opportunity in that division to help them understand the market that I was being asked to come and help and support them in. That’s where I started the architecture of the Asian strategy and was delighted that it got embedded because it could have easily been thrown out. They accepted it and to this day they are still supporting it.

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

Kamel Hothi:

I got married at the age of 19 and it was an arranged marriage, which completely changed my life. I was the youngest of six children from a very protective family and all of a sudden parachuted into a very tough environment at the tender age of 19, and in our culture you are married into the extended family, you do not marry an individual.
The second was having my children. Balancing work, life, home and children was a huge, difficult task but at the same time it was one of the most rewarding things.
The third was coming into corporate banking. I love the role, I love the division, and it has empowered me and opened so many opportunities. Networking in the Asian community, I have met so many special individuals through my daytime job. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t made that particular decision.

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

Kamel Hothi: I would say that it’s writing the Asian strategy for Lloyds Group. It’s wonderful to educate a huge organization like ours to help them understand the Asian market, how to reach out to them, what products we need to develop, the cultural differences, and how to communicate with them, and now we’ve seen leaders in our field in the UK and to know that I was the architect behind that, and am now seen as an ambassador for the company, having attended hundreds of events each year. But at the same time, the reason I’m so proud is I think the community has done so much for the UK, achieved so much, many coming here with no money, working without speaking a word of English then they are now running multimillion pound companies and it’s wonderful through the work I do, through the events that I sponsor to be able to give them a platform to showcase these entrepreneurs who have done so much, and added so much to the UK.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Kamel Hothi: I have had a number of mentors I would say, and some were good and some were bad. Most were not what you call formal mentors in the beginning, but certainly people who you admire who you see can add value in different ways. My mother was a huge mentor to me, she helped me to shape my personal life, helped me to focus on the core things to look at, how to overcome when things are not quite going right. And at work, Arif Mushraq was a huge mentor to me, he helped me, and he understood what other people thought were weaknesses, were strengths and he had a real influence on my career.

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

Kamel Hothi: Believe in yourself and listen to your gut feelings. More people believed in me than I believed in myself. They could see that there was something there, the decisions I made through my career, were very well thought out and balanced. Believe in myself is the message that has come out over and over again.

Kamel Hothi: Really understand yourself. We can all get on this conveyor belt of pushing for a career, but step off the conveyor belt for a minute and assess where you want to get to. Where do you see yourself in five year’s time? And how do you get there and carve your path both at home and work. I do believe they go hand-in-hand because one can’t do without the other. So have two paths, one for work and one for home, and see them together. Do they match up? Is one conflicting with the other? Life will change accordingly but if you have some visible path to guide you then you can divide that into small chunks on how you are going to get there.

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The Invisible Mentor Interviews Business Coach David Gray

Avil Beckford — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:30:34 +0000

Interviewee Name: David Gray

Company Name: DSG Associates

Website: http://www.davidgraycoach.com

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

David Gray: A typical week-day starts around 7:30 am with a breakfast of home-made muesli. I very seldom miss breakfast. While I eat, I respond to emails. Then it’s off to meet my clients. When possible, I grab a quick lunch. Then in the afternoon the consultation process continues with my clients. In addition to my own practice www.davidgraycoach.com I work on large firms’ Career and Coaching delivery contracts, so there is seldom a dull moment. By 7 PM I am usually home and enjoy spending a couple of hours with my wife, Anne, sharing a laugh while we cook and eat dinner and then settle in for a couple hours of reading or TV. By 11 pm I am back at the computer responding to emails. By 1 pm I am generally in bed.

Saturdays and Sundays are catch-up days. I might see one or two clients on a Saturday, but for the most part I enjoy doing domestic chores (yes, I am that rare male who actually enjoys doing cooking, laundry etc., as I find it very relaxing.) For exercise I swim at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre at Spadina & Bloor where I am a member. I try to fit some yoga in at the Yoga Sanctuary at College and Yonge, and I do a stretching and Pilates routine at home that Dr Darlene at Balance Fitness at Yonge & St Clair designed for me.

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

David Gray: Motivation is easy as my philosophy is simple: We are each here for a very short time and each have gifts and burdens differing. I intend to live my life to the fullest possible extent with as few regrets and complaints as possible. I am always amazed to see people with long faces and sullen expressions. Do they think this life is a dress rehearsal?

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

David Gray: I would go my own way earlier on, rather than try to satisfy family and social expectations and win parental, sibling and societal approval.

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

David Gray: The most important discovery I’ve made in the past year concerns the innate plasticity of the brain and the implications indicated by that reality.

Neuralplasticity refers to emerging scientific proof that the human brain is structured along the lines of a flexible and adaptive ecosystem whereby if one part of the brain is damaged or malformed, then other areas of the brain can be ‘programmed’ by repetitive thought or ‘patterning’ physical movements to gradually create new synapsistic links between the area of the body’s nervous system that is sending the chemical or electric impulse to the brain and that part of the brain that is taking over the original function from the damaged section of brain.

This understanding of brain capability and activity is in contrast to the previous scientific model which conceived of the brain as being along the lines of a rigid, unchangeable mechanistic apparatus.

Interestingly, this revolution in scientific understanding of brain function mirrors the radical transformation in physics from a Newtonian model of matter as existing within the framework of a universe that functions much like a gigantic clockworks, to a post-Einsteinian model of a universe where matter at a sub-atomic level can seemingly exist in two places at one time, where molecular matter can defy the laws of Einsteinian macro physics and, among other improbable feats, be in two places at once and even penetrate supposedly impenetrable physical barriers. In essence, the current revolution in understanding the brain is little more than a variation on our understanding of universal physics principles at a sub-atomic level. In some ways then, although literally ‘mind-blowing’ in a sense, it is not particularly surprising that our Newtonian model of the brain, perfected during the 19th century, is now, belatedly giving way to a more accurate, post-modern concept which is more in tune with our understanding as to how the external universe functions.

For access to primary sources, please refer to the following secondary source: http://www.normandoidge.com/

Avil Beckford: What are the three greatest threats to your business success?

David Gray: Fear, procrastination and indecision. I focus very consciously and creatively on potential available solutions to whatever current challenge I am facing in order to banish those threats.

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

David Gray: I tend to think way outside the existing structures and definitions concerning how to help people break-through to new levels of consciousness in both their business and personal ways of dealing with challenges.

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

David Gray: My biggest business challenge was probably embedded in the realization that I was no longer interested in corporate life and not particularly entrepreneurial. So, I set out to learn how to run my own business doing what I loved doing, which was working with individuals, one-to-one, to energize and inspire them with useful insights.

Although like anyone else, I have had numerous challenges in my business career, the most fundamental consisted of trying to move at the age of 47 from working within a corporate structure for 28 years either as a paid employee or as a commissioned salesperson, to working as an entrepreneur, something I had not done since I was 16 – 19 years of age when I co-founded and co-owned what started with one lawn-mower and a few tools in the back of an eight year-old car, and quickly became one of the largest landscape build/maintenance firms in Toronto. As a teenager, I had been “Mr Inside” – the Operations guy, so even then I had not really been the entrepreneurial brains behind the enterprise.

Additionally, although I had tremendous experience in large and small organizations, in sales, marketing, line management and business consulting, I had never once worked in an HR capacity. And my ambition at 47 years of age came to focus on working with individuals in what was in essence an HR oriented function as a coach and consultant. It took me several months of badgering to convince a London UK based firm to allow me to operate as an unpaid Associate whereby I was given an office and administrative support on the basis that I would “eat only what I killed myself.” It took another three months to land my first client. Eventually, I was billing more than anyone else in the office. However, as interesting an achievement as that was, I found myself back at square one two years later when my wife and I decided to return to Canada. Ironically, although a Torontonian by birth, I had no credibility in terms of credentials (no coaching certification) or track-record in Canada, no understanding of the corporate HR services market in Toronto and no connections. I tried to get hired corporately but to no avail. So, I started my own practice and depended largely on word-of-mouth to attract new clients. The challenges consisted primarily of generating sufficient client work to make an income, and secondarily of quickly convincing clients that I knew what I was doing despite the lack of an HR background or pertinent credentials.

The resolution of the challenge was simple and elegant: Provide one half hour of free consultation by phone. Then bill strictly by the hour on the basis that the client would never be on the hook for more than one hour of consulting advice at a time. In other words, I HAD to deliver or else I would be in effect ‘fired.’ The major lesson I re-learned was one I had first learned as a teen-age. When people are paying with their own hard cash, as opposed to soft corporate dollars, they are extremely demanding and expect fast, effective results. It is essential to very quickly establish trust, dispense with the niceties of a more structured approach, and demonstrate an ability to understand both the individual and that person’s perceived challenges (which might in fact be very different from my perception as to their primary challenges) and then get right to the heart of how to generate solutions to those challenges. In other words, I operated more like a surgeon in a battle field medic unit with limited access to back-up and technological resources or in an ER room of an inner-city hospital rather than in the more gentrified manner of a corporate HR practitioner or surgeon in a suburban hospital setting with access to all the best equipment and resources.

As a result, now that I am working within a more structured environment once again, in a quasi-corporate capacity as an Associate, I am able to combine the best of the corporate world (access to tremendous technological and human resources) with the best of the lean and mean entrepreneurial mind-set which demands and conditions one to think outside the box and quickly develop innovative approaches in real-time to client’s real-life challenges on an individual rather than a corporate cookie-cutter, traditional HR perspective, basis.

As arrogant as this might sound, I firmly believe that in addition to the essential traits of empathy, technical expertise and good listening skills essential to anyone who aspires to be a ‘consultant’ in any capacity, the combination of my many different life and business experiences within many different business (sales, marketing, manufacturing, telecomm, business & technology consulting) within diverse geographical contexts (Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Alberta, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow UK) is part of my secret to success as one who would aspire to advise people concerning business challenges. Who would you rather have as a business, leadership and career advisor – someone with multiple coaching and related designations who has spent twenty five years in Toronto in various HR capacities, or someone with a wide and deep variety of business and life experience in multiple locations, an MBA majoring in Strategy, minoring in Operations with a thesis focused on Leadership and Empowerment, with a mind-set and world-view which is coming from a relatively unorthodox perspective?

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

David Gray:

I learned to follow my dreams regardless of what obstacles were in the way
To remain optimistic and persevere no matter what other people thought or said about what I was doing
One is never too old to reinvent oneself
Challenges and pursuing a dream reinvigorates one at any age
It’s a wonderful life
To never, ever be complacent or accept limitations without first trying very hard and for a very long time to overcome them
The more you accomplish, the more that other doors of opportunity open for you
The biggest obstacles any of us face generally reside within our own world and self view rather than out in the external environment.

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

David Gray: My big break was convincing my wife to marry me. That relationship has been the foundation for all of my business success.

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

David Gray: My biggest failure was in not recognizing or having confidence in my own potential as a young adult. As a result, I worked at manual labour and other mundane jobs while other fellow were going to graduate school. Eventually, I wrote the LSAT (pre-law exam), scored in the 93rd percentile and realized I was actually quite bright. That gave me the confidence to do an MBA, go into Business & Technology consulting and then enter the Leadership and Career Coaching fields.

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

David Gray: Not having children. My antidote is to live my own life to the full.

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

David Gray: The toughest decision I have had to make was to walk away from a friendship of many years that had turned sour. To this day I feel the loss, but despite my best efforts there was no way I could discover to turn the situation around.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

David Gray: Mentors have influenced my life more by their actions and their own ways of conducting themselves rather than by any specific mentoring per se.

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

David Gray: Establish trust by being principled and doing what you say you will do.

About David Gray

David has advised executive clients based in Canada, the UK, Europe and Asia. In addition to his own consulting practice, David serves as President of the Board, Toronto Chapter of the Association of Career Professionals International (ACP International), and is a member of the Strategic Leadership Forum (GTA).

Prior to working as a career and strategic leadership consultant, David held management positions in Canada and the UK in business & technology consulting, and started up and managed two Divisions in Canada for a blue chip, global financial services organization.

David’s quiet, incisive, highly personalized approach has inspired many executives and entrepreneurs who are in process of redefining strategic paradigms to realize growth opportunities on both a business and personal level.

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The Invisible Mentor Interviews John Klotz Part Two

Avil Beckford — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:30:45 +0000

Interviewee Name: John Klotz, President

Company Name: Northwood Mortgage Life Insurance Corporation

Website: http://www.northwoodmortgage.com

John Klotz – Your Invisible Mentor

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m an insurance and investment advisor and have been in the industry for close to 20 years. I own my own brokerage.

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

Earlier on in my life, I wanted to go to medical school or something like that, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I learned about myself in that process that what I really wanted to be if you think about what a physician is, a physician is a trusted advisor regarding your health. It’s someone you go to about your health and generally what he says is supposed to be in your best interest and you should follow the advice. I think if I was to apply that to my life, I would say, as an advisor what you want to do is position yourself as that trusted advisor. So when you want into a doctor’s office they have diplomas on the wall saying basically that finished medical school that they are board certified, and are professional at what they are doing. If you walked into my office you’d see 20 plaques on my wall that would say the same thing.

So I guess a failure for me would be that I didn’t pursue something like that. I found something else and sort of took what I liked about that area and applied it to the profession I’m in now. And I would hope that if people are looking for a financial advisor that they’d want someone who is educated, who’s got designations and carries himself as a professional.

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

I was a Senior Vice President at a downtown firm and was doing extremely well there. I made a decision to leave and form a partnership with Northwood Mortgage to set up their insurance company. It was a big decision because I was doing very well, earning a very comfortable living, and a lot of my expenses were being taken care of. But I knew that in my heart of heart that I wanted to run a brokerage. I wanted to be my own entity. I could stay there and continue to do well, or I could take a chance.

I actually went to my son who at the time was six and I said, “Jeremy, dad has a good job and he is doing really well and he likes the work, however he’ll never be the owner. But he can stay and be very happy or he can take a risk and go out and form his own company, but it might mean that for a while the presents I get you might not be as nice as you were getting before.” And this little six year old kid looks me in the eye and says, “Dad take a risk, go for it.”

I didn’t want to look back on my life and go, “I was scared,” because they have interviewed older people asked them, “What’s your one regret?” and their regret is that they didn’t take enough risks. And here was my shot, and by the way, it hasn’t been total smooth sailing. But now at least I have a lot of answers that I wouldn’t have had, had I stayed put.

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

I’m not sure I can answer that but I can say three things that changed my life. I come from a family of professionals. My grandfather was a doctor, my father was a surgeon, my eldest brother is a surgeon, and my two siblings are lawyers. I’m surrounded by people who work really hard. We’re a family that dedicated themselves to being the best, and that sort of moulded me, and I knew that I’d want to be in that circle as well.

I would say my family moulded me not to settle for things, to go for the gusto, and my father had a huge impact on me. My dad died about two years ago at the age of 83, but he worked as surgeon until he was about 81. His health really deteriorated and he really should have left a little earlier. But what I admired about him was that he just loved his work. He loved the interaction and it really killed him to retire.

So I have a real different view of retirement planning than most people. For other people it’s about acquiring a certain number of dollars in the bank and then saying, “Screw off” to everybody. To me retirement planning is not that at all, it is basically finding something that you love, pursuing it, maybe refining it during retirement by not doing as much of it or having more holiday time, but still sticking with your passion.

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

There are a few of them. One of them was I started a speaking series, Toronto Talks 10 years ago, and I put on an event every month. I’ve never really done a ton of public speaking, but I’ve always wanted to run a speaking series and I remember the first week we got the speaker and we threw out a bunch of emails about it. Fifty people were going to show up and I was going to emcee the thing. I remember being really nervous that first night. I practiced in front of a mirror and went over and over how I was going to present the speaker and what I was going to do. So that was 10 years ago and we hosted about 120 sessions, so I’m really proud that I was able to build something – a speaking series that a lot of people know about. And that’s been a really great thing.

I’m proud of basically taking a risk and setting up this brokerage here at Northwood Life which took a lot of guts, and I’m still building it and there is still a lot or work to do.

I’m most proud of my kids, I have two young children and I have a very solid marriage and I’m really proud of that when I see everyone around me divorcing and splitting up. I’ve got the most solid marriage and I have two amazing kids, and I would put this at the top of everything.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

I’ve always had mentor. One of the mentors I have now is my partner Art Appleberg, who has basically taken Northwood Mortgage the brokerage he started 20 years ago and grew it into a 200 person sales force. We’ve set up a model on the insurance side that is similar to but not identical to the mortgage brokerage business. But I’m trying to follow – Art is full of all this wisdom – how to build a brokerage. He has done it on the brokerage side and I’m doing it on the insurance and investment side. He is a great mentor so it’s always good to go in and tell him what’s working and what’s not. The thing about mentors is that it’s not all about glory. You also have to talk about what’s not working. That’s been really great for me.

I’ve had other mentors along the way. At my last employment the owner and I were very tight and I always talked to him about how I would do things. Mentors have always helped me.

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

Never say die, constantly improve, and that whole kaizen that the Japanese constantly look for better ways to do things. Always keep your eyes open, always act professionally like I told you about that “Good Loser” letter. That’s professional, if a client says, “I don’t want you as my adviser,” instead of being snotty, respond with a “Good Loser” letter. I never send angry emails, ever. I’ve received them, but I never send them because that’s on record forever.

There are different readers, so let’s say I’m thinking about someone who is going into a career. One of the things that I did is that I wrote down a list of the things that I wanted in a career. And I knew when I entered this business that I wanted something with an education path; that was important to me. And I knew that I wanted something where there was no limit to your upside potential. And I knew that I wanted something where I could grow old with my clients so it wasn’t always a new sale every week it was about building relationships. And I didn’t want things like territories, but I wanted to be able to move all over the place. And I wanted something with real scope.

I wrote that 20 years ago, I created that list, I wanted an education path, I wanted a career with no limit on the ceiling, I wanted open territories and I wanted the opportunity to be a professional, to really embrace something. So what I would say to people listening to this is if you are looking at some sort of career, whatever, I would say know what you want because if you know what you want you will pursue it.

One of the failures I had is a job that didn’t work out, they let me go. I was selling office equipment and I didn’t enjoy it. So 20 years ago, I wrote down what I wanted in a new career, so I would say know what you want, write it down and set a plan.

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

A lot of marketing that you do in insurance can be personal. A lot of people join golf clubs to meet people. We ski every weekend. I really try at times to keep my business and personal life separate. I let everyone who I’m friends with know what I’m doing but I try not to be in their face. There are people in my field who can be in your face and that has always bothered me. I definitely try to keep my kids away from the business. I don’t want them to see me as this prospecting animal. You can work all the time in this business, it’s interesting, the people are interesting, and the clients are interesting. My challenge is that I need to turn it off when I go home, and that’s the question I’d like to address. When I go home, I’m there for my kids and my family. We go skiing, I’m there for them and I try and turn it off.

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

I don’t have any. My life is evolving, I’m proud of it and I’m able to keep my family in a certain lifestyle, I feel professionally fulfilled, I own my own business and I’m good. I don’t have those big regrets.

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

I need to work with people I like, and that’s a great lesson. I’d rather take a lousy opportunity with great people than a great opportunity with lousy people because if you are with great people you’ll synergize, you’ll figure it out, you’ll go forward and you’ll have great fun.
Stick-to-it-tiveness - I’ve been doing this for 20 years and what I’m finding as I get older and mature, instead of being cast to the side I’m getting better and better at it and getting more established.
Find something that you love.
You can’t judge something right away, you have to give it a year till you can even think about judging it. I wasn’t sure I would love this business, but I wrote down what I wanted and I gave it a year and within two weeks, by the way, of being in the insurance and investment industry I loved it and knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do.
Set long term goals and give things a chance.

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

We are a family of skiers, we like to ski. I’m dedicated to my two kids and that’s my downtime and it’s really important for me that they grow up well balanced, respectful and educated and I’ll do anything for them. Unfortunately sometimes I need a little bit more downtime that just for me, so I try to keep physically fit and try to read a lot. I’m constantly taking courses for improvement so that’s kind of my downtime.

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

Sometimes just setting time aside to think about them. Great ideas require downtime. It requires just sitting in your office or a beach. I find when I go away on holidays sometimes my best ideas come then.

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

Just do it – Nike

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

I think there are many levels of success. There is this thing called “top of the table” in the business where you are “top of the table” and they say there is no point to be on the top of the table if there is no one there to sit with you. I thought that was great so it’s not just about financial success. I think you need to have family success, and you need to be around people you care about.

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

I think it’s finding something that you are truly passionate about and creating a plan.

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What Is It Like to Work for Google? The Invisible Mentor Interviews Sarah Speake

Avil Beckford — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:30:19 +0000

Interviewee Name: Sarah Speake, Strategic Marketing Director

Company Name: Google UK

Website: http://www.google.co.uk/corporate/

Sarah Speake – Your Invisible Mentor & Workshop Leader

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Sarah Speake: I have a significant year this year. This year is my 40^th birthday. I live in London, I’m married and I have two small children, I work full-time and I’ve always worked in the technology sector. Currently, and for the past 4 ½ years, I have worked for Google. I recently started a new job as Strategic Marketing Director for the UK and Ireland, and prior to that I was our Technology Sales Director.

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

Sarah Speake: Absolutely crazy busy, which is something that gives me a lot of energy and is very much in keeping with my personality. Because I work full-time and have two small kids, I get up at 5:30 am so that I’m at my desk at 7:00 am, which is wonderful because it usually gives me a couple of hours of me time to plough through things before my team arrives. I work through the day till 5:00 pm and then I leave. I let my evening without exception, be my time for family, friends and not anything work-related. So I make a very big and intended distinction between what I do work-wise versus my personal life. And that’s something I think that’s really, really important.

In addition to my Google job, I also do quite a lot of charity work, for two different charities. One is SANDS which stands for Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society and the other is Platform 51, which has been set up to help disadvantaged women. I’ve never sat around twiddling my thumbs.

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

Sarah Speake: I’m a pretty energetic, motivated person most of the time anyway. Because I’m a natural extrovert, I get a lot of energy and motivation from other people so it gives me huge amounts of pleasure and motivation to see my team develop, to be achieving lots of different things that help various different people. So whether that’s customers in a work context, or whether that’s the women I work with outside work, I think that’s probably one of my key motivators. And I’m always challenging myself to do more, and do things differently. But generally I’m pretty motivated.

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

Sarah Speake: My big break work-wise was when I was headhunted by Google, and I was eight and a half months pregnant at the time. I was referenced by someone who worked for Google at the time that I had worked with previously. I had my first six interviews here a week before I gave birth and was very impressed with Google as an organization, not just in terms of the technology and innovation focus but very much the attitude and the culture, so when I returned from maternity leave I started here at Google rather than returning to my previous employer. I can safely say it’s the most enjoyable, challenging, motivational organization I have ever worked for or with so I will always consider that to be my biggest break so far at least.

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

Sarah Speake: You asked what SANDS stand for and my first daughter died when she was 11 days old. And the toughest decision undoubtedly that I have ever had to make was to switch off her life support machine. Inevitably it changed me as a person. I can now genuinely look back – and this is six years ago that this happened – at this experience and say that it made me a better person. I also think that the experience meant I put work in a very different perspective so although I’m very passionate about work and as I’ve already said, very motivated by it, I think my experience with Amélie, our daughter allowed me to view it differently and certainly not the be-all-and-end-all of life, that I probably viewed it as certainly in my earlier career in my twenties.

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

Sarah Speake:

Definitely my daughter’s life and death that I just touched on briefly.
Becoming a counsellor for SANDS the charity that I work with, looking after other bereaved parents, which I now do quite a lot of has enabled me to actually consider myself to be very lucky, and as perverse as that may sound, given what I’ve just outlined. I think I’m incredibly lucky. I have an amazing family and now have two living children. I have a job that I adore, I’m fit and healthy and it’s allowed me to see that in comparison to many others, I’m well off and I don’t mean in the financial sense by that.
Getting married has shaped my life as well. In that sense I think I’m very lucky to have married someone who I genuinely see as my soul mate, and I certainly couldn’t have the career that I now have without my husband’s unquestioning support.

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

Sarah Speake: Becoming the person I now am in a work sense in that I’m deemed to be a very good inspirational mentor, leader and coach and that’s something that I take great pride in, and something I’ve always aspired to be known for. Now being known for that type of person, that’s a huge accomplishment.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Sarah Speake: Posing good questions first and foremost so that I challenged myself. And that’s also for formal mentors in he business community that I’ve had. Equally I have a close set of girlfriends, many of whom I have known for over 20 years, and in a less formal sense I see them as my mentors too. The two give me very different sets of advice in a way because they know me in a different context, but they definitely influence my life in a very positive way and allowed me to challenge myself by posing questions that I would probably be a bit reticent to ask of myself without a bit of prodding.

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

Sarah Speake: Be authentic and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I’m naturally a perfectionist and a bit of a control freak if I’m being brutally honest, and I think the advice around not being scared to make mistakes allowed one to learn more than constantly thinking that I have to do everything perfectly and 200 percent. I think I’ve actually learned as much from my mistakes as my accomplishments.

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

Sarah Speake: I’m a huge believer in self-assessment, to constantly strive to better one’s self. I’ve just talked about the idea of being authentic, which is a piece of advice that I have been given on a number of occasions by mentors in the past. I think self-assessment is very difficult to do regularly but I think that by holding the mirror up to one’s self and truly looking at what am I good at, what am I not so good at, does it actually matter if I have a few weaknesses? Probably not, but keeping check of the direction that you are going in and going through that process is really important. And it’s something that I do on a regular basis to keep myself on track, equally, asking people for feedback. I think it’s very difficult to be authentic unless you genuinely understand how you’re viewed by others, and that includes the positive and the negative. So taking feedback and not necessarily seeing it as a personal slight, it’s actually taking it on board and working on it by going through the process of looking through the mirror.

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The Invisible Mentor Interviews Susan Murphy, a Creative Genius

Avil Beckford — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:30:11 +0000

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.

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.

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Mentor Yourself With Paulette Ensign, Queen of Tips Booklets Part Two

Avil Beckford — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:30:22 +0000

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.

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:

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.
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?
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.
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.
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.

If you cannot view this YouTube video of Oh God Trailer, 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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Mentor Yourself With Serial Entrepreneur Marnie Walker

Avil Beckford — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:30:46 +0000

Interviewee: Marnie Walker

Company: 401 Bay Street

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

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

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Invisible Mentor Interviews Doreen Conrad, International Trade Consultant

Avil Beckford — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:29:58 +0000

Doreen Conrad has had a very successful career because someone believed in her. Someone saw her potential and took the time to let her know and offer her the encouragement she needed to change her career path? Have you had a similar experience? And, who in your life could you offer encouragement to? If you see potential in someone, it’s your responsibility to do whatever you can to assist them in unleashing that potential. All of us will benefit from that gesture of goodwill.

Treat Doreen Conrad’s interview, and all the interviews on The Invisible Mentor Blog like a workshop where you are there to learn. It doesn’t matter which industry you are in, or what your job function is, you never know what ideas you can transport from one sector to another, or one job function to another.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’ve had quite a full career in the private sector, public sector and overseas in an international organization. I have learned very much, which I am now applying by working as a management consultant, having retired from the government and the United Nations.

What’s a typical day like for you?

A typical day for me now, as of two years ago, is working in my home-based office as a sole practitioner getting up in the morning, responding to emails, preparing proposals, working on projects and perhaps preparing to travel to deliver a workshop. It’s the first time in my entire career that I don’t have a boss or staff members to work with me. I’m on my own except for my business partners.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I’m always motivated because I have a positive attitude. Nothing is insurmountable. I have never stayed at a job where I was in the least bit unhappy. It was always about me enjoying what I was doing, and that’s a natural motivator.

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

I definitely would have put more emphasis on education. I grew up in an environment where I was not encouraged to have a career. I was encouraged to be a mother and secretary. Those were some of the choices available at the time, and I would definitely have looked at an international career much sooner than I did.

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

I’ve discovered that there are certain things that I really don’t want to work on anymore. I really don’t want to do in-depth market research studies. I’d rather get a business partner to do that part of the work. To be motivated and happy, I need to continue to focus on the things that I know I am good at, and I must find other people, other partners, to contract out the parts that I am not happy doing.

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

Unquestionably it has to be the impact of information technology. Being in the service sector you are essentially selling a promise. You do not have anything tangible to show as a sample, and therefore technology has been incredible as its speed has increased and its cost has decreased, which now allows service providers to both market and deliver their services online without even needing to leave their home office. So definitely that has been a significant development in my industry.

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

One of the big threats is I have to travel for my business and with the threats of terrorism and the increased security, increased cost of checking bags, environmental fees, it’s becoming more and more onerous and I think it can be a threat to international business as time goes on. I find myself saying no to international travel more than I’m saying yes just because some of the hassles that are only going to get worse as time goes by.
The second threat is that, if we get another global recession donor funds may dry up. Most of the work I do is funded by international donors and I’m seeing a lot of agencies and governments cutting back on their international trade budgets.
The necessity to continue to market my services and to prove my credibility.

I’m traveling and not enjoying the experience as much, especially when I’m traveling nine hours to another time zone and have to deliver a workshop the next morning, so it becomes less and less fun as the years go by. I had myself certified as an International Trade Professional, which gives me additional credibility, when I go out into the marketplace both here in Canada and abroad, so people see that I’m obviously qualified in the field. I’m working to ensure that my clients give me good word-of-mouth referrals because service business is garnered by word-of-mouth referrals so I’m asking all my clients if they are happy with service to tell others. I’m being more proactive with that.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I don’t have that much competition particularly in my area which is the promotion of the export of services. No one is going around to other developing countries saying, “Okay accountants, lawyers, consultants, here is how you sell your intangible products. Here is how you market something people can’t see.” There are a lot of people in international trade and service but they are all working on policy, trade negotiation, free trade agreements and so on. But not too many people are looking at the business community to the specific challenges that they face. So that is definitely very unique for me, at the moment anyway.

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

Without question it has to be public speaking. One of the best ways to market your service is to stand up in front of an audience and be perceived as an expert in your field, and that involves understanding the audience and what they would or would not be interested in hearing. I go to dozens of conferences – I was just at two in the last two weeks alone – and you continually see people stand up, and deliver facts and figures that’s of no use to the audience.

I have trained myself in public speaking. I do it a lot and I volunteer to do it a lot. I even have a couple of slides that I use in my workshops to tell people what to do and what not to do when they are asked to give a presentation. One of my favourite slogan is, “Marketing is everything that you do,” and if you are marketing yourself, you are standing up in front of people. You have to be an excellent public speaker. So I think that people need to take a close look at improving their public speaking skills.

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

I would say that on a couple of occasions, I have developed materials that I have shared with others at workshops and people have asked for the slides with all the information, so there is an intellectual property issue because others can easily use my materials. Now what I do instead of handing out my PowerPoint, to overcome this issue, is to prepare a short summary, which is an expansion of each point on the slide, and hand that out to the audience so it’s not enough information for someone to teach it or copy it, but is a leave behind for them.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

I have learned not to rush into things. Decide if something is right for you and is going to make you happy. Don’t take something on because you think you should or you want the work. Think about who is going to see what you are presenting. The competition is everywhere and so you need to think about your intellectual property, and how you can keep your specific material yours.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break came when I was working in the private sector for several years mostly as a support person helping marketing managers at trade shows and things like that. The president of the company who was located many miles from the plant where I worked, noticed me. He said, “You know you’ve got great potential.”

No one ever told me that before. That was the hugest break that I got because he thought I could do more.

I said, “Do you think I could do more?” and he said, “I think you could do a marketing manager’s job, why don’t you go for it?”

I never ever would have thought about that unless someone had stepped up to the plate and said, “You’ve got that potential, I know you can do it.” He being the CEO of the company, the Chairman of the Board, aged seventy-something, telling me that, he must see something in me so I need to go after this and I think it changed my entire career.

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

I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was in hiring an employee. It became obvious in a few weeks that it was mistake. Regrettably the interview process was not exhaustive because we were in a foreign country, and they didn’t fly people in for three or four day so you could get to know them in a work setting. But I think that was a mistake I made, I chose the wrong person. And I learned that you probably have to do more than the interviews and looking at the references because that doesn’t always show the true person. I was much more cautious after that, so I think that contributed to better recruiting and HR processes throughout.

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

The one time in my life when I was bitterly disappointed was when there was a re-organization where I worked, and years of work had been decided by new management to be changed and moved into somewhere else. I didn’t understand the changes and was quite disappointed. So, if you don’t want to experience change you need to work in an environment where you are not going to be facing major change.

As soon as you work in any large organization, the management team is going to change, the shareholders are going to change, the directors are going to change so there is always going to be change. If you are averse to change and want to stay on one path and not participate in change then you should put yourself in an environment where there is not going to be changes.

Now that I’m my own boss there isn’t going to be a lot of change. I put myself in a position where I’m a sole practitioner and very few environmental factors are going to change the way that I work now.

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

I had to make the decision twice to move away from my home town and family for work. Fortunately, my husband was extremely supportive and able to move with me on both occasions, one not so far away, and the other overseas. They were major decisions which involved giving up jobs, material things including a house. It impacted my life but it was the best decision I made on both occasions. I think I had some gut feeling that it was the best thing to do and why not, why stay at the same thing. Part of me was saying why upset the apple cart, everything is fine and we are happy. The other side was pulling at me for the adventure and the change, and the new challenges that would come my way.

Those two decisions to move away from family were difficult ones, but in the end were positively the right thing to do.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

I would be remiss if I didn’t say my husband of 37 years because he was always supportive. When I was 27 years old and hardly ever been outside of Canada, I said, “My company has asked me to deliver a tender to Finland, what do you think?” And instead of balking at the idea, he said, “You might as well go. I’ll probably never take you to Finland.” From that day forward he has been very supportive of me building my career, so that was a major influence and he is such an enabler for making it happen for me.
The business travel to Finland showed me that someone entrusted me with a very important document, and I do believe that that was an event which helped to shape my life because it gave me confidence in myself and I knew that I could do much more.
That mentor I mentioned before that told me thought I had more potential and could do much more. He gave me the impetus to push and do more, to train myself more. One of the things I’d like to share is that I started to work for people who I thought could teach me. When I went for a job interview, I was in essence interviewing them to see if I could learn from them and whenever I heard them express things in a really unique and professional way I made notes. I copied them and their mannerisms, and I learned so much from mentors and bosses.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

I believe it’s the two jobs I had where I was asked to set something up from nothing. I was given some resources and people to get started, but all the strategic planning, the implementation, the execution, the impact these had on thousands of people around the world really gave me great satisfaction. Those two accomplishments told me that I had a skill and could go in and set things up from nothing and make them work. I felt that was a real accomplishment in my work.

How did mentors influence your life?

They encouraged me. If I took mentors out of my life, the people who continually told me that I could do more and I should, in the absence of that I would have stayed where I was. I sensed I would have if there wasn’t any push, so that was key.

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

You can do it! I’d go home and think about it and think, “Really?” In my disbelief the Chairman of the Board said, “You could be president of this company some day.” And that was pretty heavy for me in my twenties. I went home and thought about that which opened all kinds of doors in my mind.

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

Through referrals from contacts, I mentor many young women who are recent university graduates. People say to me, “Just sit and talk to them because you’ve had a fulsome career in three unique areas and maybe you could give them advice on how to get started.” I think the core message that I would pass on to your readers is to: think things through, don’t rush into things and really look at what can be done instead of what cannot be done and believe that anything is possible, take risks, because there is always a way.

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