The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Ray Bradbury’

Here is Part Two of Donna Whitney’s interview and I hope that you’ve had the time to digest Part One. I know that it’s a lot of content but it’s loaded with solid information that you can use. After I transcribed Donna’s interview, I realized that it was the first time that anyone had really mapped out their career path for all to see. The “Tell me a little bit about yourself” is very detailed and has a lot of depth. It was interesting to see how someone moved from one role to the next and sometimes the reasons for the decision. Instead of trying to summarize it and taking out germane information, I have included it at the end and called it Anatomy of  a Career. You get a glimpse of Donna the pioneer, who gets a sense that something is going to take off so she positions herself to take advantage of the the upcoming change. After you’ve read her interview, and especially the Anatomy of a Career you will feel as if you know her. And that’s what I am trying to do with the Invisible Mentor, I want you to get to know the interviewees, and learn from them.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Every step of the way. Every single aspect of my professional life is my personal life, and every single aspect of my personal life is my professional life. I think leaders, their values and what they stand for, who they are from 5:00 pm to 9:00 am the next day matters. Who I am in my personal life ought to be the same, and my values ought to be consistent with my professional life.

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

I wouldn’t say that I’ve had many major regrets, but there are an awful lot of things that I regret. I would have loved my husband to be the only man that I ever dated. And, I think it would have been good if I hadn’t spent so much time on the music side, and invested a lot more time in technology sooner. I don’t know if I could call these regrets, but if I could then that would be it.

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

1. Speak less listen more
2. Be gracious, turn the other cheek
3. It’s okay to be last, there is no shame in being last
4. If you can be a light for someone be that light
5. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

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

I love baking bread from scratch, not a bread machine. The stuff that takes 1 ½ weeks to make, I love doing that.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I don’t ever do it alone, I always include people.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“What if you believe that what you really believe is real, what difference would it make?” Dr. Del Tackett

How do you define success?

Being in adherence to the value system and the truth that you know and believe. It’s living your life in accordance with what you know to be true.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Serving.

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

I took risks and I wasn’t afraid to say what I knew to be true, and I wasn’t afraid to give over the spotlight when appropriate.

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

Experiment, try different things, see where things go because it will never go the way you expect it to, and be true to yourself.

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

1. Jesus Christ and I would say thank you
2. Apostle Paul and I would want to be instructed by him. He was a profound writer and a huge hero of the faith, and I would love to hear and understand, and ask him to explain some of the things he said in the scriptures
3. John Calvin
4. Mother Teresa and I would love to listen and hear what she had to say
5. Helen Keller and I would not have much to say to her, I would just want to listen. Her wisdom and perspective on things would be profound

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

I would say that it’s the Bible because it’s a pretty impactful book.

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

1. The Bible
2. A book with a rubber dingy
3. The Iliad
4. War and Peace
5. A book by Ray Bradbury, something I haven’t read yet by him

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

The Bible changed my heart, there are certain parts that really moved me.

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

The movie would be The Gospel According to John and the music CD, I would take my iPod with stuff that I liked and stuff that I had never listened to.

What excites you about life?

The prospect of what comes after.

How do you nurture your soul?

Keep myself in proper perspective, that it’s not about me.

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

That every wish that I wish would come true.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I’m serving.

Anatomy of a Career

When I was a little girl I wanted to be either a singer or a nun. I opted for the singing since that was easier to do than try to be perfect. I started singing when I was six or seven years old. I was a pretty rebellious kid and I was out of control. I started smoking when I was 11 years old and started going to bars when I was 12.

I started off my career in rock bands back in the 80s when I was 16 singing in bars. I found out quickly that being five feet three inches and 110 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes did not fit the profile of somebody who would be hugely successful with her talents alone. In that industry in the 80s was pretty nasty actually, the whole agent scene, bar scene was not a welcoming or supportive environment.

I met my first agent when I was 16 and taking vocal training. I walked into his office, and this was well before there were personal computers. In his office, he had this massive wooden desk with a telephone and a photocopy joke with a baby and a smelly diaper, which said, “Agents are like diapers, they’re always on your ass and usually full of shit.” Pardon my language, this was my introduction to the music industry, this was what the music scene was going to be like.

He had told me to bring in my demo tape, which I did, and I sat down and he put it into the tape player and walked out of the room. I sat there and listened to my own demo tape, when he came back into the room he sat down and looked to see if the tape was finished.

He said, “That was great”

I said, “Okay,”

“Let’s talk business. How short will you wear your skirt?”

I replied, “I’m16 years old, I’m selling my voice not my body.”

“You’re a smart girl, that’s a good answer. Have you thought about modeling?”

I’m five feet three inches, I’m not a model so I was taken aback, but I wasn’t stupid either so I said, “Well, I’m only going to model for the right bathing suit at the worst, you understand that, right?”

“Oh you’re such a smart girl, such a smart girl. Have you ever thought of doing European pictures, no one here will ever see them? $1,500 a picture.”

That’s a lot of money now, mind back in the 80s when I’m 16 years old, and my idea of full-time work is McDonald’s. I realized what he was saying so I thanked him for his time and got up and walked out of his office. I left music, and after that it was really hard for me. When you have no life experience and you’ve lived on the planet for only 16 years your own context of who you are is bound up on what little life experience you have, so walking away from music, for me was hugely tragic, because it was all I ever understood. I was never a really good student, so that whole experience really threw me for a loop and I decided then that I didn’t want to be what the pop culture would have me be. I didn’t want to be stupid, and I didn’t want to be a dumb girl, and I didn’t want to be a sex object.

That was all I ever wanted was to be in music, and all they ever wanted from me was to be something that I wasn’t. So when I quit music, my whole little world view was shaken, I mean it seems so silly now, because it was so many years ago but it was a really tragic event for me. A couple of years passed and I found myself moving away from the music side, and I found myself working behind the bar.

I bar tended for about eight years, and the bar life is entirely different when you are behind the bar than when you’re in front, and bar tending terrified me. It terrified me because I would see the same people coming in every weekend doing the same thing, beating themselves up, destroying their lives, and for some reason they seemed to think that this was appealing, and being a bar tender you learned to say the right things to earn tips. I never learned anybody’s name, I certainly learned what they drank and I probably still know what they drink to this very day. And bar tending convinced me to not drink. I completely avoided the night scene during the years when most people were discovering it.

Through the bar tending experience I also learned that I wanted to be more than that. So I started studying, pulled my grades up, and graduated with honours. After high school, I took a year off and saved some money, then went to university. I was in Winnipeg at the time, and went to University of Winnipeg, and then I went to Red River College, and I graduated with both a marketing and administration major.

Immediately after school, and while I was still bar tending, I got the sense that this Internet thing was going to take off, and I had no idea what it was about, and a girl friend of mine that came to the pub that I worked at was running a wild bird feed and specialty store so I offered to create a website when one of the first websites were coming out. It had one picture and took half an hour to download. I convinced her to hire me, so I started working at this wild bird feed and specialty shop designing websites and doing the newsletter, and that job launched my career.

As soon as I graduated, I ended up at Rogers Wireless in Winnipeg, and my job there was marketing collateral design, and it had everything to do with the fact that I had designed websites and the newsletter for this small wild bird feed and specialty shop. I did that as a term position while someone was on maternity leave. Also, while I was in college, I took advantage of a mentoring program, and had gotten to know a couple of business leaders in the Winnipeg market. And at the end of the maternity leave position at Rogers, I walked into one of those mentors, and at one of his workplaces he was running a multi-platform service provider called Tronica so they did Sun Microsystems, IBM, Mac. They were one of the few systems integration businesses back in Winnipeg so he took me on as a program manager, whatever that meant, and still to this day I don’t understand what the role was, but I think he saw that I was really ambitious and wanted to help me out so he gave me a job.

I worked there for about six months then Rogers took me back, so I left Tronica. I went into business and corporate so I was supporting major corporate clients such as the provincial government. I did that for about eight months then they stuck me back into the vortex that’s  marketing and I was doing event management, and I would probably still be doing event management to this day because I loved it.

My husband Clinton had always wanted to be a police officer. When I worked in the bar he was a bouncer and we had hooked up and been together for many years. He’d applied to the Winnipeg police at least eight times, and it’s an eight month process to find out that you hadn’t been accepted. He kept applying, and he kept on getting rejected. He decided that he would apply one last time, and this time he decided not to limit himself so he applied to Winnipeg, Calgary, Toronto and also applied to the RCMP. It was so close to it being the end of his dream, I’ll never forget it.

The AT&T Senior Opens where I was coordinating the Senior Opens for Rogers in Winnipeg, it was absolutely nuts. We couldn’t get anybody to drive people around. There were no limos available because of a premier’s convention so I had to go to Ford and get seven Chevy Blazers. I hired all my dad’s friends to drive all these people around because we couldn’t get any chauffeurs. I was short one chauffeur so I was driving people around. This was my job for the week and during the week, my husband Clinton got a call, and he heard that he was hired in Toronto.

So as I’m driving people around, I get word that my life in Winnipeg is now over and we had to move to Toronto. We got married on August 26, 2000 and he left for Toronto August 27^th. He moved early because he had to get sworn in, and he went to the OPC for four months. So for the first four months of my married life, I was apart from my husband. He was here in Toronto and I was in Winnipeg trying to wrap things up for my move to Toronto.

So we moved to Toronto, and Rogers offered me a job but it wasn’t ideal so I ended up moving to another company called Watts, which was in the fulfillment, logistics and distribution business. I knew nothing about fulfillment, logistics and distribution. Watts no longer exists, but while I was there I was doing program development and management, and my client was Rogers. I was at Watts for 18 months then someone from Rogers who had gotten to know me through that work, brought me back to Rogers in 2001.

I joined the business marketing team at One Mount Pleasant. I never really fit into the large corporate organization, and I still don’t fit in. It’s just that I love it here, they treat me good, and I don’t know why they keep me here. I didn’t fit into the corporate marketing niche and I ended up doing new product development stuff, and was really very comfortable with the unknown, the strange, the sort of gray area. They knew it was an interesting skill set but it didn’t really fit anywhere so I got promoted out of marketing into Office of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), where I worked for David Robinson. So I moved from marketing to engineering.

In the office of the CTO which is an engineering division, I was in a newly created office so I had done Wi-Fi development, I had created the Canadian Hotspot Roaming Alliance with my counterparts from Bell, Telus and Fido which was separate at the time (Rogers now owns Fido) and we started working on a global commerce initiative as well, which was a lot of fun and exciting, but I came to realize very quickly that if Wi-Fi was going to make any sense at all there needed to be some sort of presence within cable because cable was the back of the Internet which would feed all the Internet connections, so I parachuted out of the Office of the CTO into cable marketing and proceeded to work on product management for Wi-Fi within cable marketing.

Being a square peg in a round hole I got motivated out of cable marketing and into sales so I figure I’ve got IT and Finance left, so I’ll probably cover all of Rogers before I am done here.

Now I run a sales engineering team within Rogers Cable selling things like voice and data services into personal properties, so by commercial I mean hotels, student residences, large sports and entertainment facilities. I’m allowed to play where consumer cable products won’t do the trick because they don’t want me competing against the large machines. And that’s sort of what I do now.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected? What did you learn from Anatomy of a Career? Do you capitalize on the opportunities that come your way? What are 10 takeaways? How can you apply this information? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentorand subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

This is the second part of Robin Craig’s interview. The more interviews I conduct, the more I see that we are all connected, and we are not as different as we think. While I was interviewing Robin she told me that writing is a very solitary activity and as soon as she writes something she has to find someone to share it with. She then says to me that as a writer I should be able to relate to that and my response to her, no not really. I often have separation issues with my writing, except for this blog. When you write, do you immediately want to share it with others?

While you are reading Robin’s responses, keep a pad and pencil handy to write, so that you can apply the information to your unique situation.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

They are integrated. The people who I meet when I am doing my plays, we all become very close so I have hundreds of friends. Many of whom I would even consider to be close friends. There is always time for conversation on the telephone and catching up with people. Thank goodness for email, that’s a great way to keep in touch. My friends have now spread internationally through my work so it’s a good fit.

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

That my mother didn’t live long enough to see me married and have children.

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

1. Value your friendships because they are a wonderful support
2. Listen to what people have to tell you without interrupting, I’m still working on that
3. Think positively
4. Be patient, things will come to you
5. Try not to worry too much

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

I love spending it with my family but they are so busy and separated. Lorna is in Nelson, British Columbia, Andrew is very busy here in Toronto, and David is very busy as well. I also love to be at our cottage which is up near the Rideau Lake system in Ottawa, and I also just love to read. Reading is one of my great pleasures.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Talking to people, bouncing ideas around the room, and getting feedback. I’m not someone who works well alone. I have just started dabbling in writing, and I find that very solitary but as soon as I write something I have to share it with somebody and see how they feel.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

One of my favourite quotation is by Lucy Maude Montgomery who wrote the Anne series (Anne of Green Gables) and she said, and I may be paraphrasing, “Worrying is a bit like being in a rocking chair, you’re doing something but you’re not getting anywhere.”

Note from Avil: I researched the quote and here is what I found:

“It only seems as if you are doing something when you’re worrying.”  Lucy Maud Montgomery

“Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.”  Glenn Turner

How do you define success?

Being happy and being content with yourself. Having and knowing you have enough.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Be compassionate and patient with yourself, reach out to others and share your success. Don’t hold it tightly to your chest because it’s not as enjoyable that way. Visualize the end of the tunnel, visualize where you want to go, and just take your time to get there. It’s a bit like a tightrope, you visualize what’s at the end and you just balance and walk along until you get there.

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

I kept going, I’ve been in this business now for 35 years and I think a lot of it is stubbornness. I just keep trying, I pick myself up and dust myself off and go at it again. It helps when you are not good at anything else.

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

Keep reading, keep going to school, keep studying, go to see plays, go to see films, talk to directors, make contacts. Just keep going, and don’t be discouraged.

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

1. I would have loved to have met Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He was a great inspiration for me when I was growing up, especially because he was such a great supporter of the arts. I would have said thank you, thank you for providing artists in this country an identity.
2. I would love to meet Dame Judi Dench. I think that she is simply fantastic. I just love to watch her versatility and dedication to the arts. I would also say thank you.
3. I would also like to meet Helen Mirren. I just think that she is extraordinary.
4. I would like to see my friend Susan Wright who died several years ago. I wish that I could see her again because she was a wonderful actress, and a great friend and I would just tell her that I missed her.
5. The fifth would have to be Emma Thompson. I think that she is fantastic too, she is a wonderful British actress who has a lovely sense of relaxation on stage and on film and I would just say thanks.

Robin Craig’s One Influential Book from Avil Beckford on Vimeo.

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

I think the Uses of Enchantment is a great book by Bruno Bettelheim. It makes you realize that it’s okay to be frightened. It’s about children’s enchantment and fairytales, and it also ties in to the Jungian books that I have read. But the Uses of Enchantment really opened up my eyes to the power of the dark side of imagination and what those images mean to help you unravel your own dark side, your own psyche. It was very influential in opening my mind up to be more forgiving to myself. Everybody has a dark side and sometimes it’s a really interesting side.

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

1. Complete Works of Shakespeare
2. Grimm’s Fairytale: A children’s fairytale book, and again it ties into Bruno Bettelheim because Grimm’s fairytales are very dark and there is a lot of morality in them.
3. Dandelion Wine: This is wonderful book written by Ray Bradbury and it’s about a town, kind of like any town in the United States, but there is magical thinking in it.
4. Winnie the Pooh: It’s a wonderful book that should be read to every child. It’s about a little boy called Christopher Robin and his bear Winnie the Pooh, who is named after Winston Churchill.
5. Siddhartha

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

I read a cake decorating book once, and a book about how to make gingerbread houses, and what they helped me to do was make a whole lot of gingerbread houses for my church and have a fundraiser, and I just loved doing that. It wasn’t a real money maker but it was a hobby that I took up I just love it.

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

My favorite CD right now is by my friend Judy Marshak called a Moment in Time and it’s absolutely sensational. She wrote most of the songs and she is accompanied by John Alcorn who produced it. It’s beautiful, beautiful stuff. I would have to have that with me.

My favorite movie is the King of Hearts with Alan Bates. It’s a wonderful film about this rag tag bunch of asylum inhabitants, about 100 years ago, who escaped from the asylum and created their own world. It’s absolutely wonderful.

What excites you about life?

The people in it. It’s such an incredible world, everybody is different, everybody has a story to tell. I’m curious about absolutely everybody. I could sit in a train or a plane, or bus station for hours.

How do you nurture your soul?

Talking to my friends.

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

Continued health!

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I am on stage.

What are five things that you learned from Robin’s interview. Re-read The Invisible Mentor Interviews Robin Craig. What are your overall impressions of the interview? What lessons have you learned? What did you find surprising?

Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

This is the second part of my interview with Dennie Theodore, click here to read Part One. I conduct these interviews so that you may learn from them. Please let me know what you think. How do you keep on going, how do you motivate yourself? Most accomplished people are self motivated because they love what they are doing, do you? How do you distinguish yourself from your colleagues and even competitors? What’s unique about the  service you provide? This is important even if you are working for an organization? What kind of life lessons have you learned so far? How do you integrate your personal and professional life? These are some of the questions that Dennie answered.

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

Dennie Theodore: I promise myself one day a week to read late in bed and sleep in …. Not necessarily in the same 24 hr period.

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

Dennie Theodore: The best skill to have is the ability to adapt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dennie Theodore: It’s easier to point out what others are doing well – because my strength is seeing success in others and helping promote it.

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

Dennie Theodore: I’ve had several careers and many folks to thank in each one. My biggest break was my kid being willing to try anything once with me – from moving around the country to eating cereal for supper if that’s all we had. As one of my top priorities, he could have made my explorations difficult instead of participating as he has.

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

Dennie Theodore: There isn’t enough time in the day… considering giving up sleep.

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

Dennie Theodore: I learned to speak up, to forgive and to listen more.

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

Dennie Theodore: I try to be the same person in all circumstances. I don’t hide one from the other. I allow myself to have an emotional response every now and then J

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

Dennie Theodore: I’ll never win an Oscar. But I suppose first I have to write a screenplay.

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

Dennie Theodore:

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

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

Dennie Theodore: Reading, baking, walking/hiking, doing laundry.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

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

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Dennie Theodore: It changes. Today it’s “May you live the life you’ve earned” by TO Jazz singer Julie Michels

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Dennie Theodore: Success is not measured by how many hours you put in or how many projects went in under your watch. It is measured by the legacy you leave and the value you provided along the way through both your influence and achievements.

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

Dennie Theodore: Walk your talk.

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?

Dennie Theodore: Only 5?? Queen Elizabeth I; Carol Burnett; Katharine Hepburn; Terry Gilliam and Ray Bradbury …  I would ask: “Can I make you dinner?”

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Dennie Theodore: Humour, kindness, whipped cream.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Dennie Theodore: Same but I put the whipped cream on pound cake.

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

Dennie Theodore: My selfish wish is funding for a webspace…  my unselfish wish is that all children around the world be given love, food and shelter in that order.

About Dennie Theodore

a professional writer, facilitator, strategic planner and business manager, contributing to artistic and business projects across Canada and internationally. She has a long and successful history in many communities and is known as a caring mentor, negotiator and leader.

A business and artistic chameleon, Dennie offers a range of leadership, communication, strategic planning and change management skills. Dennie has brought her many skills to bear for such places as Atlantis Systems International, TD Bank, AT&T, Nortel, and The Citadel Theatre. She served on the boards of Cahoots Theatre Projects and Mixed Company, produced the Peer-to-Peer Conference with CWC and IBM, and currently runs the Similar Circles blog and events.

Recently named to the TIAW Making a Difference roster for 2009 , Dennie is a recognized leader and speaker in many industries.

Related Post

Interview With Dennie Theodore Part One