The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘United Nations’

Name: Tina Brillinger, President & CEO

Company Name: Global Food Safety Resource Centre Inc.

Website: http://www.globalfoodsafetyresource.com

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and other aspects of your life?

Tina Brillinger: As a fairly new business owner, this is something I struggle with daily, often feeling pulled in so many different directions. I am trying to make changes to strike a greater balance between my work/life balance. As time passes, I am getting better at this, without feeling guilty and knowing my mental and physical health depend on it.

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

Tina Brillinger: Time is spent with family, friends and my Sheltie Jewels. I enjoy cooking, travelling, entertaining, reading, movies, scuba diving, golfing, skiing and Nordic pole walking.

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

Tina Brillinger:

1. Regardless of circumstances, your past does not have to dictate how your life will turn out. The beauty of being an adult is that we have the freedom to make our own choices; eliminating those things or people who are not good for us.
2. A good education is a prerequisite to a life well lived, never to be taken for granted.
3. Everyone deserves a second chance – give yourself permission to have that second chance, that is, a second marriage, new job.
4. We learn more from our mistakes than the things we do correctly.
5. What constitutes a family depends on who is being asked; outside regular blood-relatives, a family can be represented through non-blood relations, friends who become family of the heart; same-gender partners – in essence anyone with whom you have a strong emotional connection that cares about you deeply.

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

Tina Brillinger:

1. Research by always reading interesting books.
2. Brainstorming with others to come up with “out-of-the-box” ideas.
3. Driving in my car where I’m relaxed listening to music.
4. Scribbling, sketching or writing down as many ideas as possible .

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

Tina Brillinger: “Givers have to set limits because takers never do” (unknown). Generally all people fall into two categories: givers and takers. Most givers don’t know how to set limits opening themselves up to constant takers. Takers like to find givers who don’t have set limits because they will take advantage of them and their generosity sometimes leaving the giver in a compromised situation. If you are a giver, set a limit on your time, money or energy that you can reasonably afford to give, and won’t compromise your well-being or circumstances. Develop a backbone because once that limit has been reached, takers will challenge you to cross it. Make a commitment not to let others cross it, unless it’s life threatening. If you set limits, chances are takers will not see you as weak and exploitable.

“Be the change that you want to see in the world” (Gandhi). In my view, there is no room for armchair pacifists in this world – they will never make a change to improve their circumstances or the world around them. If you truly want something to change then you must not wait for others to take action; be the impetus for change, no matter how big or small it is. The one thing successful people have in common is the belief that they alone can make a difference and they don’t wait around for others to act.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Tina Brillinger: Courage + Determination + Hard work + Perseverance = Success!

Success comes from a feeling of satisfaction in knowing you’ve reached your goal.

Avil Beckford: What steps did you take to succeed in your field?

Tina Brillinger:

1. Listening to what others had to say.
2. Continuous learning, no matter how irrelevant or seemingly benign it may be at the time.
3. Determination, strong work ethic; perseverance and courage.
4. Recognizing talent; surrounding myself with people who know more than me.
5. Making a business plan.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out today?

Tina Brillinger: There is room at the top for those who do things well. Keep high standards, be creative, be open to change and opportunities. If you don’t derive a certain satisfaction out of what you do then change it up. Don’t be afraid of failing….be afraid of belonging to the status quo!

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people (living or dead) that you’ve always wanted to meet, whom would you choose? And what would you say to them? 

Tina Brillinger: 

1. Elton John – Your music comforts me and has touched my soul when I hear it
2. Nelson Mandela – Your strength and determination to fulfill your vision has made your country and world a better place. Thank you!!
3. My Great-Great Grandmother who was full-blooded Algonquin – I’d like to hear about the kind of life she lived with my Great-Great Grandfather a French-Canadian. My family dates back to circa 1642.
4. Thomas Edison – I’d Ask him about his process for coming up with brilliant ideas
5. Indira Gandhi – Ask whether she would change anything in the course of her life, knowing she would be assassinated.

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

Tina Brillinger: A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah – This is a first person account of his life as a boy soldier, one of the 300,000 child soldiers living in Sierra Leone. Ishmael’s narrative voice had such clarity when describing how he became indoctrinated as a boy soldier, what he witnessed and how he survived. Riveting, yet disturbing; Ishmael’s takes the reader down his road to hell describing how the rebels use children to commit genocide against their own tribes. His determination to survive and escape, through what can only be described as hell on earth, was extremely courageous. His willingness to share his painful story with such honestly is admirable. After becoming rehabilitated, Ishmael joined the United Nations, as a Spokesperson to help end the practice of recruiting child soldiers. Surviving such hell to tell his story is inspiring.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the time? The prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million. 

A toothbrush, hair accessories and sun hat; two deck of cards; pens and journals for writing; Movie: Fried Green Tomatoes, Elton John’s Tiny Dancer Album, my mask, snorkel and fins plus my dive knife, and hiking boots.

If you cannot view Elton John’s Tiny Dancer YouTube video, please click here.

The five books:

1.  The War of the End of the World, Mario Vargas LLosa

2.  Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild, Steve Brill

3.  The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

4.  Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

5.  Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell

What I would do for two years:

• Get lots of sleep until I was fully rested, enjoy some solitary time unfettered by a rushed world.
• Take my mask, fins and snorkel and explore the underworld around the island.
• Go hiking in search of edible and exotics plants, cook interesting dishes.
• I would read books, play backgammon and solitaire and write my memoir.
• Have many fires and sing songs, make up different instruments with whatever was available.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Tina Brillinger: Things that visually delight me, nature, travelling to new places, learning something new, pushing limits and taking risks, that is, sky-diving, scuba diving, starting my own company, reaching a goal.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Tina Brillinger: Being with people who comfort me (my husband, children and friends), music, and being in water (bath, scuba)

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

Tina Brillinger: Ten years of great health and the financial resources to travel and participate in greatest adventures: Europe on the Orient Express, take an underwater tour of the Titanic or orbital flight, African safari.

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

Tina Brillinger: I am underwater, scuba diving with my dive buddy and husband Randy – the serenity balances and soothes me, against an otherwise chaotic world.

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

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Elton John’s video uploaded by vikomak.

What would it be like to travel to 80 countries? Doreen Conrad has done that, and now it’s not daunting for her to take on the world. This is Part Two of your workshop this week. What you can expect to learn include:

1. The steps Doreen Conrad took to succeed in international trade and services
2. What she recommends for those just starting out
3. The five life lessons she has learned so far
4. How she generates great ideas

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.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

My situation is unique in that we didn’t have children, so the personal life is my husband and I working on my career. He was in a unique position because he was able to travel with me most of the time because he retired early. He is my life and with me quite a bit. Now that I operate a home-based, he is my accountant. I have the luxury of work not interfering with my personal life because my husband is always with me, and there are no other things to feel guilty about, or tough to build into my life such as children getting into university, and encouraging and mentoring them. My personal life is fairly straightforward that way.

Having children introduces a certain amount of complexity into your life in trying to juggle everything. In my particular case it’s not a juggling act.

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

Not having children of our own. Not through any fault of our own, we weren’t able to, and that changed my life as well. That was a major, personal aspect of my life because I was then choosing to focus on my career, and I think it took me in a completely different direction.

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

• The biggest lesson I learned is something I read a few years ago and I keep it with me everyday, “Picture that you have one gas can of energy everyday, would you like to spend most of that on negative things that you cannot change, or would you rather use it up on very positive thoughts and very positive actions?” Pick your battles. Every time you find something is annoying, just think, “I’m not going to say anything because in the scheme of things, it’s going to use some up my energy and I don’t want to waste it on that.” This is something very important which I have shared with many people who have wasted much of their day on something they cannot change.
• Marketing is everything that you do. What you wear, what you say, people are judging and assessing you. I’ve traveled with young people who have said on route to a business trip, “I guess I’ll wear my jeans on the plane,” and I say, “Well you can do what you want, I choose to dress up in a pant suit because you never know who you are going to meet” and sure enough two out of three occasions we bump into someone who is a very high level client and they are looking at me as a business professional and the other person as a student. Always have business cards with you even if you are not in business. I tell recent graduates to get business cards made up so they have a leave behind for people to contact them easily, and they look professional.
• I took a course a long time ago on conflict management and that has helped me enormously in my career. You learn some basic things such as, if you are going to argue or disagree with someone, there is no reason to use the word YOU. For example say, “If this continues, this is what the impact is going to be, so what we need to do is, instead of you did this and now this has happened,” which puts people on the defensive. This has stuck with me all these years and I just heard a speaker talking about practically the same thing that you should remove yourself from the situation and keep it in third party so that was quite reassuring for me. I suggest to your readers to look up any books they can find on conflict resolution because it just helps you in your day-to-day dealings at home, and with your colleagues at work, and it avoids confrontation.
• Always be professional and never lose your temper. If you have to leave the room and cool down, just never let anyone see you lose your cool.
• Networking is important and is an opportunity everywhere. If you are in a service industry, as most people are in North America, you have to have a wide network of people who are going to refer you. Develop network skills to get out there, and realize that everyone is a prospect who can potentially refer you to someone else. I have many example of how that has happened for me over the years. Perfect your networking skills ad make sure you are well read so that you have something to talk about, and ice breakers ready when you meet people.

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

I’m quite competitive so I really like games, card games in particular. I like to play with friends, and I like watching a little bit of television, not too much, mostly nature programs and true crime, to get my mind off things.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Someone once said to me that I’m a real lateral thinker. I look for opportunities everywhere. If I sit down to read the newspaper, I don’t completely tune out because I’m looking to see how I can use information, so I’m continually cutting things out of the paper. We were going to be marketing a course through the university and then I read in the newspaper that all the top companies in the region had education grants for their employees, so I saw it as an opportunity right away. It was an opportunity for us to go after the companies that already had budgets for this kind of thing. So I’m always thinking laterally and outside the box for opportunities everywhere.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Marketing is everything and you never know.” And I would add to that, “What first impression do you make on other people?”

How do you define success?

Success is surpassing the goals you set for yourself. I never aimed at meeting expectations. I always aimed at surpassing them. So my own benchmark was to exceed everyone’s expectations. On all those performance evaluations when I was in the workplace, if I didn’t get the top box, we had to have a talk about what I needed to be superior, and the answer would be nobody gets superior because no one on the earth is perfect. So success is surpassing the goals you set for yourself.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Have a positive attitude 100 percent of the time. It is patience and it is creativity.

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

When I realized that this was quite a specialized field and there wasn’t quite a lot of material on it, I sought out to train myself. I found a couple of seminars in the United States. I found an annual conference that I attended every year. I just kept on trying to find out as much as I could to be the expert that I wanted to be in my field, which is international trade and services. It’s a unique and untouched area. I also went to a related conference called “Frontier and Services”, and academics would report on how the general public reacted toward hotels, airlines, management consultants and so on. I would draw from the examples and say, “If consumers are reacting to these trends, then we need to teach companies to do the following.” So again it’s thinking laterally and outside the box. It is taking what we know, what the research is telling us and applying it into a business strategy. This is what I did to succeed in my field.

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

I would say not to necessarily go it alone. You already have a network of people who can help you, and give you advice, and they are happy to do so. When I realized all the things that I needed as far as advice and getting started as a sole practitioner, I had never worked on my own business in my life, and starting a little later in life, I realized I needed technology savvy because I’m going to have to get into social networking, websites and so on. I thought about who I had in my network who could give me advice and help me with that. I have nephews for example, so think about what you need, and who in your network you can draw from to give you advice on sources and the way forward. It’s very important to use your network and don’t go it alone.

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?

I’m not sure that I would say anyone in particular, but I would just generally say that I would love to speak to a world leader, who has had to deal with so many challenges, such as in Haiti or other least developed nations, and I would ask them how do they continue to lead and be positive and provide hope to their constituency. What’s the fire, what’s the passion, how do you keep going?

I would also like to speak to people who have survived grief – loss of loved ones – and ask them how they cope with that, and have the hope to go on. I want to be positive in all aspects of my life, and the things that worry you like health, and losing loved ones, and what’s happening in the world. It would be nice to talk to people who have something to share in that regard.

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

One of the books I read is called Away from Her and it became a movie with Julie Christie. It’s about a childless couple just like my husband and I, about our age. She was diagnosed with dementia and he had to put her in a home. She was vacant after that and it was such a profound book to think about the fragility of life and how relationships are just hanging like that. That had a deep impact on me and I think about it quite a lot, and how it can happen, and pray that it won’t.

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. One of the best books that really impacted me, which I quoted from earlier is, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and it’s all small stuff. It’s a really easy read, which gives you short, two-page strategies for various irritants in life and how to overcome them. I love that book, it would go with me.
2. The second one would be a book that I have wanted to read and haven’t had time. I’m interested in life thousands of years ago so I picked up a very interesting book on life of the ancient Egyptians, what they ate, how they survived, so I would take that book with me because I would love to get to it and I’m not sure I will unless I’m on a deserted island.
3. I would take a thesaurus because I would like to learn a new word every day. I think that would be a chance for me to sit down with a thesaurus and learn a few words every day, and have different ways of saying the say things.
4. I like Bill Clinton, he is one of my heroes. I have his very thick biography called My Life. Being on a deserted island would be the opportunity for me to read his biography that I wouldn’t otherwise get.
5. I also like fiction so I would like to have some of my favourite authors like James Patterson, and Jeffery Deaver.

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

If I’m going to be on a deserted island, I would have to take one with Christmas music I love Christmas. And I love the music, and it would have to be the one I have which has Christmas carols sung by crooners of yesteryear such as Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. The movie would be Gone With the Wind because I think there is so much to that story. It is very powerful and I have seen it many times.

What excites you about life?

Possibility, anything is possible. The fact that the world is smaller than I thought it was. I have been to over 80 countries now, some of them many times, so it’s not daunting to me anymore to take on the world. I think the possibilities are endless.

How do you nurture your soul?

I nurture my soul through the appreciation of nature. I love nothing better than going for a walk in the woods up at the cottage, or sitting on the dock looking at the lake for hours. This regenerates me, and brings me back to my roots, and makes me realize what a beautiful earth we have.

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?

I would wish that they could help Indonesia and Haiti. It’s just one tragedy after another, and the people have suffered so much. I would wish that they could be on a good road to recovery with no more tragedies.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

When others I care about around me are happy. I’m kind of a pleaser, so if something is wrong in someone’s life who is close to me, I am not happy either. I empathize a lot and so it’s really important to me that everything in the world is good with all those I care about.

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.

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.

This is the second part of Nathalie’s interview and there are quite a few nuggets that will resonate with each of us. One of her five life lessons that she has already learned at the tender age of 24 is to learn to accept feedback and not take things  personally. This reminded me of the Four Agreements: Don’t take things personally, be impeccable with your word, always do your best, and never make assumptions.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am known as the raw foods witch, and I help people to eat more fruits and vegetables. I have a background in software engineering and all of my nutritional knowledge is self taught based on the experience of the results that I have had eating this way.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I do not see a big difference between my personal and professional life. I try to live by my values. I am very environmentally friendly and it’s important for me to believe in what I’m doing.  I like to support certain types of organizations, restaurants, where I buy my groceries. I like to have a good balance where I spend time with my family, boyfriend, friends and a good amount of time on my business. In my mind it’s all the same because anywhere that I am, I am going to be thinking about my business, ways to help others, and things to recommend. If someone recommends a book to me and I read it and enjoy it, I am going to recommend it to my clients. My personal and professional lives blend together.

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

I think it’s only a half regret, but I think I regret going into computers instead of business school, but at the same time I think that I would have ended up in the same place. But a part of me regrets having that kind of background. I would have liked to know about building a business, marketing and about the legal aspects of a business instead of the technical background that I have. I think in the end I would have been able to learn both things so it isn’t the biggest regret ever.

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

1. To not second guess myself. There were many times when I made a decision and wondered if the other way would have been better. Now I am a lot more comfortable with the decisions that I make.
2. Life is short. There is a lot of heart disease in my family, and that in part brought me to discover raw foods and adapt to this lifestyle and realizing that we are here for a certain amount of time and have to make the most of it, and we also have to take care of our health.
3. My third life lesson is to follow your passion and doing things that you think really matter in the world. So I was working in a very corporate environment, and it was really good money, but it wasn’t what I thought the world needed in terms of what I could offer it.
4. Learn to accept feedback and go with the flow. I am a perfectionist so when someone criticizes my work, my website, I have to look at it and take what’s useful and make the change. I am learning not to take things so personally.
5. I am very focused whenever I have something to do, but I have to tone it down because for a whole week I could be working on my website at the exclusion of everything else or I could be exercising and doing nothing else so I have to balance all of this. I am working on this because I have a Type A go-for-it personality.

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

I like to read and I read quite a bit. I also like martial arts, swimming, playing games with my boyfriend and friends, card games, board games, that kind of stuff.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Most of my ideas come to me right before I fall asleep, go for a walk and when I shower because I am relaxed then. When I take a break from work I get ideas, all my ideas come to me at once and I have to write them down immediately or I might lose them.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Well-behaved women never make history” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and the reason why I like that quote is because society has a lot of expectations when it comes to gender, and as female entrepreneurs, we have to be bold and be who we want to be and not shy away from our potential and what we can do in the world. For me, well-behaved is bucking convention and going against the norm.

How do you define success?

I define success by the way you feel, and I know that some people define it by money, your house and by more tangible stuff. But I think that success is more about the inside and how you feel on a day-to-day basis. If you feel like you are contributing and being rewarded for what you are doing and feeling comfortable in your space in the world, then you are a success.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

The formula for success will depend on the person. For entrepreneurs it’s putting yourself out there and deciding what you want to do, how you’re going to help people and going forward and creating great information and being there for people, but also taking a look at all the things that contribute to success, such as are you sleeping enough, are you eating well, are you exercising and creating a legacy, which is one of the things that will be there for generations to come.

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

Start local if you can and one of the things that has been useful for me is doing talks, and demonstrations, and connecting with people in person. Beyond that is building your website and creating your marketing. Having a website has been great for me because people have been able to go there and get information. From there keep building your offerings.

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?

The number one person would be Steve Jobs and I’d like to know how he keeps his drive and doesn’t get distracted from all the rumors. It would be interesting to learn how he keeps level headed.

Another person, who I have met (she was filming a movie in my small home town and I waited around until I got to meet her. It was a very short meeting) who I would like to meet again is Angelina Jolie and I would ask about her work with the United Nations and all the volunteer work that she does.

I would also like to meet Bill Gates and ask him how he manages his foundation and find out where he is going with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I would like to also find out what motivated him to start the foundation.

The fourth person that I’d like to meet is Gary Vaynerchuk. I feel like I know him already because of all his videos but I would like to ask him how he manages his time. He used to answer all his emails and now he doesn’t anymore, but he does everything himself and I’d love to know how he does that.

I would love to meet Hillary Clinton and find out how she ran her campaign.

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?

It would have to be Wishcraft by Barbara Sher. It took me out of the way I used to think about life, doing things and achieving goals. I like the way she describes how to get other people to help you to reach your goals. It was very step-by-step which was awesome. One exercise I liked was designing five or six lives and see how they each did and it was really interesting to see how you could have different options and you didn’t have to have one you and you could take different aspects of all those selves and incorporate them into your life right now.

One of the things I wanted is to have clients and do more one-on-one coaching and consulting and the other part was writing so it was really interesting to see how one of the mes would be a writer and the other a coach and I thought to myself that well I could do both, so I did.

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.

I would take Tribes by Seth Godin which is about leading people where there was no leader before

I would also bring The Purple Cow by Seth Godin as well, which is about how to make your business and your offering different.

The End of Overeating by David Kessler is about how the commercialization of food has made it easier to eat a lot more of it

Nine Lives That Are Holding Your Business Back And The Truth That Will Set You Free by Steve Chandler. And that book is basically just taking away all those things that you tell yourself to keep you from doing things that you really have to do in your business. That book has changed the way that I think about business.

Another book that I really liked is Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robins. I read that one quite a while ago but I think that I could read that one over and over again. That book has everything to keep you going.

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

I like the movie Hook and it’s about Peter Pan and I also liked A League of Their Own, which was about women playing baseball during the war.

I really like Sarah McLaughlin and I could listen to her over and over again.

What excites you about life?

There are really very few limits and that excites me, and more people are living an alternate lifestyle eating more raw foods.

How do you nurture your soul?

I meditate a little bit and I love going out into nature, sitting under a tree or by the water and connecting. I find that great for my spiritual side.

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?

I would wish for a solution to our overpopulation, and not a gruesome solution but one that would take into account everything that the planet needs, that people need. The solution could be really simple like people cutting back on certain things that they considered necessities. I want to heal the planet.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

There is sunshine and I am with people that I love.

What nuggets can you take away from Nathalie’s interview?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know what you think about this.  Click on the comment link 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 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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