The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Mentors’

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:

1. Definitely my daughter’s life and death that I just touched on briefly.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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

Related articles

• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Stefan Meister, Director, intercultures (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Stefan Meister, Director, intercultures, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews: Do Big Breaks, Mentoring, and Hard Work Equate to Success? Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• 12 Blog Posts People are Reading on The Invisible Mentor (theinvisiblementor.com)

Interviewee Name: Susan Murphy

Company Name: Jester Creative Inc.

Website: http://www.jestercreative.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

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

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

Susan Murphy: Above all else, be yourself.

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

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

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

Interviewee Name: Paulette Ensign

Company Name: TipsBooklets.com

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

Paulette Ensign – Your Invisible Mentor & Workshop Leader

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

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

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paulette Ensign:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Paulette Ensign: Being happy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

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

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

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

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

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

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

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

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

All book links are affiliate links.

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.

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.

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.