The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘tough decisions’

Interviewee Name: Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia, Founder

Company Name: NORSUN Diversity and Cross-Culture Consulting

Website: http://diversity-and-cross-culture.com/

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I am Norwegian, I have lived in Switzerland, Cyprus and the US, now I’m living in France. I am a consultant, trainer and coach – and also mentor on a voluntary basis for the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN). And I recently started up my company NORSUN Diversity and Cross-Culture Consulting.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: Not sure I have a typical day yet, as my company is still in the making. But the day always include morning, afternoon and evening walks with my Golden Retriever. The last few months I have been working on three trainings, and recently I have been busy setting up a blog and using Twitter.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: It is rather easy, as my work is something I feel passionately for. Otherwise it is important for me to keep a balance between work and leisure, and this balance keeps me motivated.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: Concerning my business, I would have contacted more large consulting companies to freelance at an earlier stage. The financial market is still tough in the consulting business and if I had more freelancing contacts I think that would have been better.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: It has been a pleasure to discover that the consulting business is very supportive. I had expected fierce competition, whereas what I find is that my “competitors” if you like are very willing to share information and be supportive

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I would say that it’s E-learning, blended learning, more structure – and demand for certification – around what it means to be a coach and mentor

Avil Beckford: When you say blended learning, what do you msn by that?

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I mean training that has many different elements so that could mean an e-learning element within the blended learning. It could be that you have to do exercises, or group training combined with more traditional face-to-face training.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia:

1. The financial market and competition.
   1. It is all about networking and creating trust so that customers choose me despite the above.
2. Gender discussion “fatigue”. By that I mean I have noticed that some people feel tired of the subject “women on boards, leadership.” I think that communication that focuses on a better future for men and women in business and at home is the way to go forward.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: To do that I have to go back a little. It is proven that a diverse company with an inclusive environment produces better bottom line results. I help businesses increase organisational performance through focus on inclusion, a diverse workforce and a better understanding of working across national cultures.

As a consultant, coach, mentor and trainer, my strength lies in my combination of strategic and operational experience, as well as having worked internationally cross-border and living in different countries. I am a good listener and have a solution-minded attitude.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I don’t like to focus on what others do badly. But I see a danger in cross-cultural trainers getting too hung up on the theories of intercultural specialists like Trompenaars and Hofstede. Their tools are helpful, as long as one does not forget about individual differences and taking the time to get to know people.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: It was actually to get all the paper work done to set up my business. With my cultural background (Norwegian) it is not natural for me to chase people, it is considered rude in my culture. But here in France it is more common to chase people to get things done. I learnt it by doing, and I got it done, but it was hard for me.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: Listen to the people who have “inside information” and follow their advice, even if it is difficult to do.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: It wasn’t a big break, but I would like to mention the story. In high school I had a gym teacher that had the ability to “see” people. One time I was going through a difficult time, she saw it without me having to say a word. She asked me if I wanted to talk and I said yes. It was a relief to talk with an adult that showed so much understanding. It is something I have carried with me, the importance of “seeing” people and reaching out a hand. Sometimes I fail, but I try the best I can.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: One time I did not work well with a superior. I learnt that there may be greater cultural differences than one would expect between neighbouring countries. It forced me to flex my style, it wasn’t comfortable, but it gave better results.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I rather tend to have many small disappointments, and they come in squadrons, as they say in French. When these periods arrive, I focus on “what happened instead?” “What positive outcome has there been from this disappointment?”

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: Well, I think the toughest decisions in life are most likely to be very personal ones. One that I can share was the decision to settle in France with my French husband. I knew that it would be a long process to integrate, as I had to learn the language (which isn’t easy!) and get used to yet another culture. The result is that I have indeed learnt the language, although it took longer than I liked, and I live in a very beautiful country with a wonderful climate – and we live a blessed life.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia:

1. The fact that I decided to take an education abroad set the scene for my intercultural experience. I had traveled over longer periods of time before that, but actually spending years abroad gives a stronger impact.
2. My husband. He provides a balance to my life that is amazing.
3. It is rather a personality trait than an event, but it does shape my life; I tend to take calculated risks (e.g. quitting my job before having another one, starting my own business). These risks have brought me exciting challenges (e.g. international job in a large petroleum company).

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I am very proud of a blended learning on working across cultures that I produced (main designer and team leader) in 2009 for a large petroleum company.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: I have had many invisible mentors, and some formal ones. They help me to trigger off new ideas or push me to get done things I already have in mind.

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: That they believe in me

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

Sunniva Heggertveit Aoudia: Follow your interests and don’t give up.

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

I have known Patty Zuver for over 12 years, and during that time we have sat on committees, Co-Chaired committees, had lunch several times, and attended yoga classes together, but I find that even for people who I have known for a long time, whenever I interview them I learn so much more. I think it has to do with the questions that I ask, which really get to the heart of the matter. You get to see the whole person, and they are much more than what they do.

I have always viewed Patty as a very successful, talented artist, and I have attended some of her shows. In this interview which follows, get a notepad and pencil because it’s a workshop, another lesson in work and life from our network of mentors. You see real people living real lives that you can relate to.

Lessons from the interview

• You do not need external validation before you can move to the next level. As Patty says, “Take the bull by the horn.”
• Be confident and take risks.
• When things do not go quite the way you expected, look back and see what lessons you can learn.
• Stand up for, and stick to what you believe in.
• Failure is feedback, learn from it, and move on.

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Patty Zuver: I hate to say that I’m primarily a mother of three, but that’s what I am these days. I’m also an artist and a teacher. I teach art and English as a Second Language (ESL). I like art, movies and I like to travel.

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

Patty Zuver: When I saw that question (I usually send the questions to the interviewees before the interview) I had to laugh because there is no such thing in my life as a typical day. I am a mother of three, and married to a musician, so both of us have very erratic schedules, and it’s not a typical Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 thing. So everyday before the two of us head out the door we sit down and say, “Okay what are you doing today? Who is going to pick up the kids? Who is going to make them lunch?” So a typical day for me involves a lot of childcare, a lot of packing lunches, a lot of making breakfasts, a lot of picking people up, and on a good day, it will include some studio time.

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

Patty Zuver: This is a tough one, especially with the art, it is easy to get unmotivated when I have only short periods of time to work. I motivate myself by going out and looking at art, seeing what others are doing, whether it’s contemporary art or a trip to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). Going to see a movie is always good, and so is exercise such as yoga and swimming.

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

Patty Zuver: If I could talk to my 20 year old self now, I would give myself the confidence that I was good at what I did, that I was a decent artist and that I should have tried a bit harder or stuck to it longer. I have never given up art, but before getting a traditional teaching job I should have taken advantage of my youth a bit more. Everyone says that, “Youth is wasted on the young.” In general there isn’t a lot that I would have done differently, I’m pretty happy with where I am right now. While I would love my work to be hanging on some museum wall, like a lot of other 47 year olds, I’m not, but I’m pretty okay with that. So there isn’t a ton I would do differently, just be more confident when I was younger.

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

Patty Zuver: About a year ago I had one of those sit downs and asked myself, “What are you going to do with your life?” kind of thing. As you know, a couple of years ago we went to China for three months, so when I came home I had the opportunity to regroup and figure out how I wanted to live the next couple of years. I decided that I really enjoyed teaching and that I am a good teacher so I decided to explore what was available in teaching. I got my ESL teaching degree, so I’m trying to work on that a little bit.

As far as my art is concerned, every now and again, about every five years or so I think I should be applying to galleries to have shows because that’s what you do as a mature artist. And once again I made the discovery that it’s much easier, and just as valid to rent a space at the Gladstone Hotel (Small, trendy hotel in Toronto) and pay your $200 for the night and put up your own art, invite your friends and have a good night, and hope you sell some art in the process. I have made that discovery again that you don’t need other people’s approval to do what you want to do.

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

Patty Zuver: Like most businesses, it’s probably the digital world. For instance, going back to applying for shows in a gallery, or for grants, or any of that kind of thing, so much of it is done digitally now. You have to submit all of your images on a CD and it has to be x number of pixels, and they are never consistent. The industry has changed tremendously where you would physically submit slides, and someone would put them in a slide projector and look at them, now everything is done digitally but it’s not standardized. So to apply for a grant you might have to submit images, say 2500 pixels by 2300 pixels, then you apply to a gallery and the digital images that you have from a grant that you applied for, you cannot use because they need either smaller or larger pixels.

I don’t know anything about digital photography, or how to make a CD, so every time I’m applying for a grant, I have to take it to Mr. Computer Guy, and tell him specifically what sizes my images need to be. I now have to bring another person into the process which I never used to have to do. Like any other business out there, the whole art world has changed dramatically because of digital images, even if you are not a digital artist you have to deal with it. I am in that cohort who missed the boat on learning how to use the computer.

Avil Beckford: The answer you just gave could apply to the next question, but what are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Patty Zuver: Threat is such a strong word. Anyway, it costs a ton of money if I want someone to do a DVD or CD that I have to submit to people. Every step of the way it costs a little bit more money if you bring another person into your circle, into the process to help you do something. This chips away at your very small profit margin, so I guess the digital thing is a challenge, but I don’t know if I would consider it to be a threat.

It could very well be a threat to my “success” because every time I look at a call for artist, and you know the deadline is two weeks from now, you go, “I can’t get this together in two weeks because I have to take pictures of the images with a digital camera, which I don’t know how to do to begin with, and then I have to take them to some guy to put it on a CD.” And so I don’t apply because I don’t know how to get it all done within the two weeks and so I won’t get that show.

Threat is such a strong word that I don’t really see any to the art world.

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

Patty Zuver: As far as my art is concerned I don’t know because every artist is going to provide a unique perspective. For the past couple of years I’ve been dealing with scenes of grief and loss of what could be considered a home or home base. There are lots of artists who have dealt with those subjects, but I offer my personal perspective.

In terms of my teaching style, I think that I’m very personable. I’m creative and very open to my students, and not like the “queen” at the front of the classroom telling them all what to do.

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

Patty Zuver: I’ll go back to trying to get a show in a gallery a few years ago. I was thinking that I should become a “real artist” and have a show at a “real gallery” and da-da-da. I applications to galleries and got a bunch of rejections, and of course whenever you get rejected from anything, you take it personally, and you think, “Maybe I suck, maybe I am a crappy artist because no one likes what I’m doing.” So there is that period where you go home and lick your wounds.

After that I came to the conclusion that so what? I can rent a space, show my work and I know that my work is good. I know a lot of people who think the same thing and I know a lot of people who buy my work, so again you have to try to not get discouraged, especially in the art world because so much is based on fashion – and by fashion I don’t mean what people are wearing – and taste. If what you are doing is not considered cool right now, like if someone is doing figurative art and that’s not cool anymore, a gallery is not going to show them.

So just because what you are doing is not popular right now doesn’t mean you should stop doing it, and produce work that’s going to get you in the gallery. You have to stick to what you believe in, and do what you are going to do, regardless of fashions and popularity, and hopefully some day people will come around.

Avil Beckford: So coming to the realization that you can rent your own space and have your own shows, what kinds of lessons did you learn in the process?

Patty Zuver: If you think you are good, and enjoy what you are doing, then you are good, and there is going to be at least one other person out there who appreciates what you are doing

You don’t need the approval of the “cool” crowd. A lot of times when you face a challenge, you go right back to high school, where when you walked into the cafeteria and felt like no one wanted to sit at the table with you. A lot of times when you get rejected, you go right back to that space, “Oh my God I’m not the cool kid.”

Do what you know is right, and forge ahead with what you know is right, and what you know is good.

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

Patty Zuver: Oh God, I don’t think I have ever had a big break (she laughs). In teaching, I guess it would have been way back. When I finished university I was working in a health food store and I worked with a guy who also worked at a Montessori school. He was talking about it one day and I thought, “Wow, that sounds really interesting, I’d like to learn more about that.” The following week he told me that they had an assistant who quit so they needed to hire an assistant. I worked at that Montessori school for a couple of years, and when I moved to Toronto I continued to work in Montessori schools, and did so for about 10 years. So I guess I can consider that a break.

In the art world I have to say that I haven’t been given any huge breaks. In high school there were two teachers – an art teacher and a photography one – who made me feel like I could have a career in art, that I should go and do it, that it wasn’t a fun thing to do in my spare time, that I was good at it, and should continue doing it. When I went to university, they encouraged me to study art instead of doing something like business.

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

Patty Zuver: Failure is an odd word, and at this point in life I never look back and say, “Oh my God, that was a failure.” I do honestly look at anything that didn’t go as right as it could have, as a learning lesson. And maybe I didn’t look at it like that as it was happening, but very soon after I go okay, “What was learned from that?” and they say what doesn’t kill you make you stronger and I do believe that.  I’ve had a lot of challenges along the way, both personally and professionally, but I think I’ve learned from every one of them.

Had I not have any challenges up to now I would be very boring, and not very empathetic. Anything that goes slightly wrong you learn from it, and you learn that people are human and you are human too.

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

Patty Zuver: One of my biggest disappointments would be that I hoped that I would have been further, and more recognized in the “art world,” whatever that means. “Success” for artists comes earlier these days. People are getting huge exhibits directly out of grad school and that kind of thing. I’m 47 now, and in some ways, it’s viewed that if I’m not big yet that’s it, it’s over and I’ll never be a “famous” artist. I thought I would have been further ahead down that road than I am.

Now I am taking the bull by the horn and doing my own thing. I’m renting my own space and putting my work up, and not thinking that I have to rely on galleries to come and recognize me, or waiting for an art critic to come to one of my shows, and declare me to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I go out and do it myself and be happy with what I have gotten done.

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

Patty Zuver: I scanned the questions when you emailed them to me and I saw that one. My son Joe is a challenge of a kid, so he falls into one of those tough decisions. Right now my husband and I are trying to decide whether or not we should home school him. I would have to say that is what I am going through right now. This is one of the toughest decisions that I’ve had to make.

Joe has ADHD, and he has also been diagnosed with a form of Asperger Syndrome and all that stuff. But then again you may ask me the same question next week and I would respond with the tough decision that I am going through then.

Business decisions are tough, but they are not life altering tough, where I think personal decisions can alter your day-to-day existence.

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

Patty Zuver: The type of parents I had shaped my like – good, bad or indifferent. My parents did the best they could with what they were given, which was not very much. I had a pretty abusive dad, and my mom was a great woman but not a great mother. I wouldn’t say that I had a tough upbringing, but it was not loving or supportive. It toughened me up a bit to be raised by those two, which was not a bad thing because that influenced me greatly.

My art and photography teachers in high school pushed me to go to art school.

The third event was when I married Mike and moved to Canada. That impacted my life hugely, on a bunch of different levels.

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

Patty Zuver: Getting to this point in my life, and having three children is an accomplishment that I am proud of. One of those kids is a big challenge and just the fact that I have kept level headed about it is a big accomplishment. It’s a lot of work to have other people see him in an empathetic light. Another accomplishment I am proud of, is when we went to China a few years ago, to take that big risk and take my entire family to China was a pretty big accomplishment.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Patty Zuver: It’s hard to say if I have had Mentors with a capital M, but if I look back at people who influenced my life it would be the two teachers who pushed me to believe that I could do something with art. They influenced me by giving me direction at a point in my life when I was floundering.

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

Patty Zuver: I would say it’s confidence, the message would me you can do it kind of thing. This is very important especially in high school when you are at that vulnerable stage and think you suck at everything. So it’s great when someone comes along and says that you are a talented artist.

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

Patty Zuver: Have confidence and believe in what you do, and take risks with that level of confidence. There are very few things that can be considered Failure. A failure is a challenge; you learn from it and move on.

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

I conducted this interviewed in 2008 but didn’t transcribe the interview. I had a short post and included the audio. I decided to transcribe the interview for you because I promised to do so, but also because I wanted to give you the option of either written or audio. As you will notice, the interview is different because at the time I interviewed Leslie Householder, the focus of the interview was more on the challenge and resolution. I have grown since then. As usual, I will present Leslie’s interview in two parts.

Leslie Householder – Your Invisible Mentor

Leslie Householder is the best-selling author of the Jackrabbit Factor.  Listen to her talk about a challenge she faced and how she resolved it. How did she transform a failure into a greater success?  To find out the answers to these questions and much more, listen to, or read the transcript of  her audio interview. Click here now to listen to Leslie’s interview. After you have listened to her interview, what are five takeaways? What are five things that you will now do differently? What ideas can you implement? What do you have in common with Leslie? When you have some time, answer the questions and then compare your answers to Leslie’s . How do they differ?

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

My biggest challenge besides the typical restraints on time and capital of course was exposure. I was empowered by the principles that I learned from Bob Proctor, so much so that we were able to triple our income in just a few months after going through one of his weekend programs. I was compelled to teach what I learned, and although I was a stay at home mom, with four children at the time and one on the way, I trained to teach his program and have done so ever since 2001. But the challenge I face however was that he didn’t supply me with an audience. It was my job to generate my own leads. So getting enough exposure to be profitable was probably the biggest challenge I faced. Without a marketing budget of any kind, I learned to round up exposure on the internet through websites that allowed you to post articles (IdeaMarketers.com and EzineArticles.com) and create a name for yourself on the web.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

• I learned to be patient, everything I did seemed to me that it should take only a couple of weeks, or a few months tops, but in reality, the exposure I was after took a few years to develop, and I had to come to terms with the fact that I was in this for the long haul. I was creating a future for me and my family. I was driven to put in the long hours for many months just for the hope that I would create something that would supply passive income.
• I was easily overwhelmed by all that needed doing, so I learned to put all my thoughts, all the things that were swimming around in my mind on to paper and just handle them one at a time. I learned to trust that time wouldn’t run out for me. If all I did was keep moving my feet everything would come together in the right time, and it has.

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

I don’t want this to sound wrong, but it’s hard for me to call anything I’ve done a failure even though I’ve make plenty of mistakes because I have always done the best I could with what I had to work with, my mindset, my resources, my stresses my understanding of things. So what may look like a failure to someone may in reality be a great lesson for me. Every mistake I made has shaped me and made me wiser so I’m grateful for all of it.

But if you want to know something about them, the toughest one we faced happened after my husband and I became actively engaged in helping others achieve prosperity, and so for us to have a major setback in non-prosperity was very difficult. We found a couple of investment properties that promised to yield us more than $200,000 in a couple of months, and at the very end of the process of obtaining them it looked as if we weren’t going to be able to pull it off at all.

We needed to float the properties until they were sold. The investors who provided us with funds, wanted us to prove more solidly our ability to pay them back in case the properties didn’t flip as soon as we expected. Seeing this obstacle, we had learned over the years how to overcome obstacles. So we saw this as an obstacle and decided to apply the principles of success to make sure that these things happened. We used visualization to get the deals to close, which ended up happening in a pretty miraculous way, but in the end however, we would have been better off had they not closed because these investment properties turned into the biggest money pit we have ever seen, and we ended up losing a lot of money at that time.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

What did we learn from that? We learned on a whole new level that you get what you ask for. We wanted it very badly and we got it. We have learned to be more careful, to consult God who we believe in to guide us in choosing worldly desires. Sometimes when we have a desire we’ll check to see if it’s the right thing to do before we move forward to make it happen because we know that we can get what we ask for and have learned to be more careful.

It left us with the feeling that if we have a goal or desire for our family, and we check our conscience, or pray, or however people consult God in their own way, when we do that and feel the peace of confirmation that this is a worthy and right desire then there is a feeling of being unstoppable because you know that God’s on your side then the obstacles are just obstacles and we know that we can get through this because it is a good and worthy desire. It’s really hard to go for a goal when you have this underlying question about whether this is the right thing to be asking for. Once you get that settled it makes future successes sweeter.

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

Every time we’ve set a major goal, instead of having the goal fall into our laps, the success or whatever, instead we’ve always been faced with an opportunity that took us out of our comfort zone. Every time it has been to the point the hardest thing we’ve had to do to take advantage of the opportunity that was presented to us in response to setting a goal. When you say which one was the biggest one, each one was the biggest one until the next one came along. I’m starting to see a pattern, that’s just the way it works. They all felt big, and we recognized them for what they were and saw them as the opportunities that are brought to us as a result of our asking.

These challenges have stretched us, and honestly, nothing feels better in hindsight, it feels really good, it’s scary but it’s an illusion.

How did mentors influence your life?

Mentors have always given me a model of life to aspire toward, a standard to strive for. They keep me reaching higher and stretching farther. They have given me an example. I feel very differently when I spend too much time watching television shows with people living lives that I don’t aspire to. I feel differently, and it drains me a little bit, so I’m inspired when I read about, watch programs about, hear audios about people who have achieved great things, and have become great people through overcoming obstacles and what-not, and so it keeps me motivated to look to them as mentors.

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

That the law of attraction brings opportunities, and that doesn’t always show up in the form of something blissful. And it goes back to if a person is going to ask for courage, they are not going to be given courage, they are going to be given an opportunity to be courageous. Now I’ve noticed that when we set a goal, sometimes instead of attracting piles of money, or great wonderful things, or whatever people expect to attract when they start to live by these principles, instead a challenge shows up, and what that challenge is, is the very experience needed to groom us to prepare us for the blessing that we are asking for on the other side. The problem is that by the time we see the obstacles, the natural thing to do is turnaround and say, “This isn’t what I asked for, the law of attraction doesn’t work,” and that’s not the case, it absolutely works, it brings you opportunities to grow you to eventually achieve and receive the thing that you are asking for.

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.

About Leslie Householder: Leslie is an international best selling, award winning author of Hidden Treasures and The Jackrabbit Factor.  Wife to Trevan and mother of seven, she is also the president and co-founder of Thoughts Alive International and School of Life Mastery – helping people everywhere reach their highest potential.  She is a contributing author to multiple Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and her articles online and in print publications have reached hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.  She will help you enjoy peace of mind in ANY economy and discover how to tap into a hidden source of genius, for overcoming obstacles and thriving in spite of life’s most difficult challenges.

Today I present Donna Whitney, and as usual there are many lessons to learn. Her response to the question, “Tell me a bit about yourself” was quite long, but weaves a very interesting tale that we can all learn from. One potent lesson for me after reading it was, if it doesn’t feel right, walk away, don’t compromise your values. I have to think about how to present it so I’ll do that for tomorrow. From the information presented in this interview, what are five takeaways? How can you use the information in your situation?

What’s a typical day like for you?

There is no such thing as a typical day for me, I wish there was. Because our business is very much an entrepreneurial start-up within a really large organization, we are everything. I am sales and marketing and distribution, and finance. Of course I do not do all those things without the support of the right parts of the organization, but really, we do most of the heavy lifting ourselves.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I don’t know that it’s a conscious thing for me. I absolutely love what I do, and when I don’t love what I do, I end up changing what I do so that I love it. It’s never been the same thing one day to the next. I seem to change my job title every 18 months.

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

I think that I would be kinder. I think there are a lot of people in my working experience that I could have shown a lot more grace to, especially in the early years when you are struggling to make your mark you get a sense that everything matters so much. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years from now you aren’t going to remember the offences you had to bear. I would have turned my cheek a lot more and be a lot more forgiving.

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

I’ve discovered Grooveshark and I really quite enjoy it. It’s an online radio that allows you to stream music for free.

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

Probably IPTV and the introduction of new entrants that make it possible for people to do things in a different way. That helps my team because that is the niche in which we play in. So every part of the traditional Rogers business is being assaulted by new competitors and new ways for people to do the same things.

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

1. The first threat would be the larger organization taking over our entrepreneurial start-up because then it wouldn’t be a start-up. If we were to be ingested by the larger organization then it would be much more difficult for us to do things the way we now do them.
2. The inability to deliver on all the opportunities that we have, and this threat has to be managed by making sure that we have the appropriate processes and people in place to do what needs to get done.
3. The third threat would be taking on too much all at once because there is an awful lot that can be done and ought to be done so it’s a question of timing.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Everything! I think what’s truly unique about what we do is that we do it within such a large organization in such a small way. It really is the best place to be in the company.

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

If you say that my field is large telecom, one of the things that large telecoms do incredibly poorly is being responsive and flexible to customers. If you’re saying that it’s people who do the things we do and are doing them poorly, it’s that we capitalize on the fact that we have a huge brand, and it really helps to open doors when you are carrying a Rogers business card. And a lot of those smaller companies don’t have that advantage.

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

There are always technology challenges. There is always a problem that needs to be solved, and I have been blessed with an amazing team that looks at issues as opportunities. And I don’t say that to be cliché in any way, shape or form, they truly do see things that way. I think another major challenge that any group faces is to maintain a healthy culture, and that has a lot to do with establishing boundaries up front and we’ve done that, we’ve sat down as a team and talked about our personal values and our values as a team.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

1. From a technology standpoint, one thing that we’ve learned is that it needs testing before you sell it. We’ve had a few hiccups where things seemed to make sense and not defy the laws of physics in principle, but in practice things never go as they appear. So rigorous testing and making sure that you build a demo lab is a must. It’s also important to have your customers as partners so that you can do that learning together. There should be a degree of agility and responsiveness by both partners to adjust to the things that happen along the way.
2. The more important one is establishing that team trust and integrity, and that’s been key for our overall success.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break came from David Robinson for sure. And that was the break from marketing traditional “I’m going to create this piece of collateral or view this marketing brief” to the switch to technology, to engineering. And really David Robinson was a huge proponent, advocate and supporter of me in those early years, especially when I don’t have an engineering ring, and I certainly don’t intend to. My guys are engineers and I think there has to be a bridge with those with marketing and that kind of skill set meshing with the people with technology because there is such value in marrying those two things together. I would have been a propeller head by interest but not by design, and Robinson took me under his wings and knew that about me but brought me in anyway, and gave me the biggest opportunity of my career so far.

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

The biggest failure that I’ve ever had and it wasn’t a monumental thing, had a lot to do with being more gracious in certain circumstances. I remember this one time I had a client that just drove me over a fence, this person was like nails on a chalk board and I could have been a lot more professional, but I let it get to me one day and I lost my temper. For the long-term repercussion I’m sure that no one remembers it but me, but it left such a profound impact on me to realize that, it was just work and I should let it go. I think what I took away from that is the ability to take myself a lot less seriously.

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

It would probably be how the music industry treated people back in the eighties. The experience has made me more sensitive to the diversity of people coming into circumstances and trying to appreciate where they are coming from.

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

I think it is having to let someone go, pulling the trigger when you have to fire them. I’ve had to do that now on a couple of occasions and I think one thing I’ve learned from those decisions is to make them slowly, cautiously and transparently so that when you are approaching that time in someone’s career, you let them know what’s coming down the pipe as soon as you can.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. My experience in the music industry
2. Moving to Toronto
3. The move from marketing to engineering

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

My ability to make sour dough bread, it’s kind of an art form.

How did mentors influence your life?

During different parts of your life you have different mentors for different purposes. I think that I’ve learned a lot of grace and maturity from the spiritual leaders and giants in my life. I am a huge fan of John MacArthur, and R C Sproul. From a work perspective, I think some of the giants in the company, the women that I have the pleasure and honour of working with really teach me a lot about the strength of women within this corporate environment because there are so few at the upper echelon levels.

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

Speak less and listen more.

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

The Tipping Point was a very good book. I had a mentor Maxine Armstrong – who I still consider to be a mentor – who was a great wealth of reading resources, so I’d have to say that that was a big one. In Moments of Magic the message was consistent and my mentor at Tronica referred that book to me. One of the members of my team recommended that I read Hoops which was by Greg Jackson the basketball coach. That was a really good book.

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

Be patient with yourself and listen to really hear, not just to absorb the information, but to understand it. It’s an entirely different thing from hearing a message and understanding the message. I think that too often people rush past the information so that they can contribute their own thoughts. It’s not about being heard, it rarely is about people hearing you, it’s what you hear from others that matters.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected? 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. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

On Wednesday and Thursday we present an interview with Duke Redbird, First Nations Ojibwe Elder. It is my intention to bring to you a diversity of interviews so that we may all learn and grow. It’s amazing how much we can learn from others if we are open. Interviewees who are different from us can direct our thinking in new directions. For example, when talking about disappointments in life, Duke says that if the glass is half-full he simply gets a smaller glass, so now that glass is full. I wouldn’t have thought of that. We are socialized to choose between half-full and half-empty so it doesn’t occur to us that we can add another choice and that is to get a smaller vessel. What are your thoughts?

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell me a little bit about your company and where the idea for your business came from?

I am a First Nations Ojibwe Elder from Saugeen, a small reserve located in Ontario. I was born in 1939 so I’m 70 years old and will be 71 in March. I lived my entire life between the sacred and the profane, and I see the sacred as anything that has been created by the creator and nature, and the profane as anything that has been created by human beings. So when I am in the sacred I try not to profane it, and when I am in the profane, like I am today, I try to bring something sacred to it, so that’s my rule and prime directive.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I mentor faculty and students at the Ontario College of Art and Design, I am also a mentor for students at the University of Toronto, I am doing a totem impact project at York University, and I work on my film and television projects.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Motivation is just waking up in the morning and realizing that you are alive and have things to do. We are here for a purpose and we have to fulfill that function whatever we find it to be. It is sort of like Joseph Campbell says about following your bliss.

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

I would never have touched alcohol or cigarettes in my youth. In my youth, holding your liquor and smoking appeared to be social badges of maturity. Though I quit drinking 25 years ago, and I no longer smoke, those were very poor choices. I wish I had had a mentor to steer me in another direction.

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

The most important discovery that I made was to recognize the shift of consciousness that’s taking place around the planet, and it’s taking place with all the discourse that’s going on about developing more spiritual context to engage the world that we live in. It’s like a quantum leap has taken place in a new kind of reality. It’s no longer about money and power, it’s about self preservation, and romance is becoming integrated into those ideas.

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

Technologies are constantly improving. We are on the cusp of a whole new technological society, and it has to do with things like making a movie on your cell phone and being able to project in on a screen, 3-D on your laptop. Now we have floating keyboards and you don’t even need a keyboard in front of you, just a little projector projecting one on your table, or some empty space, and it works on your computer. Whenever we come up with a new technology we have no idea how it will affect us as human beings.

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

Can’t think of any.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

There is nothing particularly unique about the service that I provide, except that I am engaged in broadcasting as an Arts and Entertainment reporter, and I act as a mentor elder and advisor to students.

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

I think the fact that television is becoming planned and not as creative as it once was. I look at old programs, what we called the Golden Age of television and classical TV and things have gone downhill in terms of what we call infotainment, it’s information and entertainment combined, but it’s not real news.

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

Every decision that one makes is a challenge to get it right, and I saw most of the challenges that I faced on the basis of discovering whether they were wise decisions. I realize that the past is over, it’s gone and so one shouldn’t dwell on the past. You face a challenge based on the information you have at the moment, and then you try to solve it on the basis of wisdom, and how they might affect  your condition, your health, your attitude and personality, all those things.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

Most of what we consider to be civilized activities are nonsense, and so we have to make our way through a maze of bad decisions that people are making on our behalf.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Moses Znaimer gave me the opportunity to work in television, and York University gave me a lot of help when I went to university. I have had so many it’s from a series of people.

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

To tell you the truth I cannot think of a big failure, nothing comes to mind.

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

I cannot think of a disappointment. I would view something as a disappointment if I wanted to do something and was stopped. That hasn’t happened to me. I was having a discussion with Ron LeBlanc and he asked me if the glass was half full or half empty. When a glass is half full, I simply reduce the size of the glass, and it becomes  full so you do not become disappointed if you have that approach to life.

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

A few years ago I decided to go and live in the North, and I actually bought a business in the Algonquin Park area. For all intents and purposes I made up my mind to live up there permanently, and one of the hardest decisions I had to make was when I realized that it was impossible, and that I would have to come back to the city [Toronto] to fulfill the obligations that I had, my art and my career, and so that was difficult.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Being born, being orphaned at nine months, and going through non-Native American foster homes as a child. These people were taking in orphaned children as a business and not for compassionate reasons. Going through that experience as a child, I realized that I was a commodity and not a person, and that I represented an income. These things defined my personality, character and how I approach life. Another event is when I chose to celebrate my culture and also get involved on social and political levels to establish a more equitable life for First Nations people.

What nuggets of wisdom have you gleaned from Duke’s interview? How might you apply his responses to your situation.

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

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