The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Work-life balance’

“You want to align yourself with people who believe in you and can see things in you that you don’t see in yourself.” Carol McManus, America’s LinkedIn Lady

Invisible Mentor: Carol McManus, America’s LinkedIn Lady

Company Name: LinkedIn Lady

Website: http://www.linkedinlady.com, http://ywait4success.com/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Carol McManus:  I’m an entrepreneur. I left the corporate world in 2007 to start a coaching, consulting and leadership development company. I built that company to six figures using social media. My business has moved over to social media expertise and I’m now known as America’s LinkedIn Lady.

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

Carol McManus: It’s easy especially now. I have always been a balanced person. I learned many years ago that you have to turn it off. Whatever you choose to do, whether it’s family or friends or personal activities, or the pets or the children, you have to separate that from business. In my case, there comes a certain point in the day, and it’s toward the end of the normal business day, sometimes it’s 5:30, sometimes it’s 6:30, or 7:00 pm, but when I turn off business, I’m done for the day and the rest of the evening is devoted to me and my husband. We don’t have children at home so it’s really about us, our time together. That’s my world and it doesn’t necessarily apply to other people.

My advice from my own integration, you want your business to support your personal life and your personal life to support your business. At the end of the day you have to set the rules on how you balance them because if you let either one get out of balance, the other one is going to suffer. 

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

Carol McManus: My down time is creative time for me. I have a couple of hobbies. I like to write so I often write. I love to read, but my physical creative activity is I love to do flower arranging with silk and artificial flowers and make different types of decorations. I find that very therapeutic so it doesn’t involve other people. It’s time for me to go into myself and be creative and do things which in my world brings beauty and satisfaction for me, but it has nothing to do with anything else that’s going on around me.

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

Carol McManus:

1. Always be true to yourself. I remember my daddy telling me when I was a little girl that at the end of the day, the only person you have to sleep with is yourself. What he meant by that is you always have to be responsible for yourself.
2. My father was very passionate about me being able to be independent, not that he didn’t wish for me to be married, and have children, and a wonderful life, and someone to share my life with, but because he grew up in the Depression he was passionate about wanting me to stand on my own two feet. That’s a second lesson I learned and it goes hand-in-hand with being true to yourself.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously and always be able to laugh at yourself.
4. You have to have humour in your life. Without humour a life can be pretty dismal and boring, and it makes you a dismal and boring person to be around so find ways to bring laughter into your life. And if it doesn’t come naturally to you then seek people who are fun to be around and share that joy. Go buy a video of I love Lucy TV series, which will make you laugh.
5. We only have one life, and the richness, satisfaction and depth that you get from life – and we don’t know when that life is going to end, life is very precious and for some it ends far too soon, and for some who live healthy lives it goes on forever. You only have one life and you are the only one who can ultimately control that, so having goals and knowing what it is you want to accomplish and what you can give back to the world, what is your legacy going to be, and I don’t mean legacy etched on Mt Rushmore with the presidents’ profiles because for most of us it’s nothing nearly that dramatic. But for all of us, leave a legacy, even if it’s only with your own family, or your neighbours or the people you interact with. But being conscious of that, and taking ownership for what you leave behind is the other big life lesson for me. And it’s something that I try to work on a little bit every day.

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

Carol McManus: I will give two answers to that because it comes up in two forms. I come up with a lot of ideas just when I’m in my own head. That could be when I’m listening to music, taking a walk or driving in the car. I let my mind wander, go, and think creatively. When I’m doing some of these crafty things I find I’m also creative and come up with great ideas. But having said that, the development and the richness of those ideas, come to fruition when I bring people into the conversation. I love to brainstorm and debate with people. I want them to challenge me and take the seed of an idea and help me improve it because I know I can’t do it all by myself. I’m very much an open book, so it’s letting me be creative in my own head, and then testing the market, but really using other people’s attitudes and experiences and impressions so that you can improve on what you thought was a really good idea to begin with. It always gets better.

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

Carol McManus: It’s a quote from Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way you’re right.” I’m paraphrasing a little bit but it’s so absolutely, 1,000 percent true. If you think you can do something, you’re going to put yourself subconsciously on a path to make it happen. If you think you can’t do it, you’re going to subconsciously put yourself on a path that it will never happen. Based on everything you’ve heard so far, you always try to put yourself on a path that you really have to believe in it and the tools and resources will come into your life to help you let things become real. If on the other hand you think you can’t, guess what, that’s going to be the reality.

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

Carol McManus: I define success as happiness. I think success is whatever ultimately makes people happy. And it’s defined differently for different people. For me, it’s the joy of being able to sleep peaceably at nights, that I’m able to provide for myself and the family, that I’m getting personal and professional satisfaction out of what I’m doing, that I’m influencing and impacting other people’s lives, and that I’m having fun doing it. So it’s all packaged together, it’s not just monetary, or about specific accomplishments, and it’s not just about joy, it’s all of that wrapped together. And I think every person needs to define what that is for themselves, and I don’t think anyone can say, “This is the formula for success.” If there is a formula, you need to define the pieces of what success is for you.

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

Carol McManus: Because I have a training background, I have always been the best student. I’m a teacher’s dream if you will because throughout my entire adult life, long since I left the college classroom, I’ve always taken courses or programs or conferences to be around people, and I think that has contributed to my success. My field has changed, my specialty has changed, it’s gone from sales to operations to executive to entrepreneur or to coaching to consulting to social media, so my career has had many dimensions to it. But at each level, I think my success came because I was first and foremost a good student, and invested the time, effort and energy through reading, listening to others, observing or mentoring under others, how they did what they did, that I could become the best at it that I could.

And if I found that I was on a path that didn’t feel comfortable, it didn’t feel right, or it was taking me off track, then I would stop and take another direction.

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

Carol McManus: Invest in yourself and continue to learn whatever you are learning. But in today’s world, I’m going to add something else to that answer, is that you always want to keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities. We’re in a very different world today than the world I grew up in. When I grew up, there was an expectation that you got an education, you chose a career, and that sort of became your life path. And I was fortunate in that, that was the direction my life took, and it was only at the later stage of my life that it took a new direction. And what I mean by that is social media because when I left the corporate world four years ago, if someone told me that I was going to be a social media expert, I would have laughed. It wasn’t on my radar screen, but the world we’re in today, we have to be nimble and flexible, times are changing, things are happening at a rapid rate, technology has dramatically changed. The speed at which things happen, the speed at which we communicate, I think anyone, regardless of age, if you’re starting out today you certainly want to be goal oriented, but at the same time you want to know that those goals are not etched in stone, that other doors and opportunities may open, and you want to be open to those possibilities. So don’t get too locked in, that you miss the acres of diamonds that are right under your feet.

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

Carol McManus: I love this question because I could come up with 50 people that I’d love to meet.

1. Abraham Lincoln: He was not a popular man, he was not a popular president, but he had leadership qualities that were so critical, and a true turning point in this country’s history. I would love to sit and chat with him about what he thought were the solutions to the country’s problems at the time, what were the key decisions and how did he make those decisions to lead the country in a more positive direction.
2. Jack Welch: He is an extraordinary story, and there are many well-documented corporate executives in America, but Jack Welch because of his history of being able to do turnaround situations and to turn lemons into lemonades. I read his book, but beyond the heart and soul of what made him tick, and the kinds of things that kept him up at night that allowed him to accomplish what he accomplished.
3. Martha Stewart: I would love to sit and have a conversation with her. Martha is a lightening rod. I find as I talk with people, people either love her or hate her, but what you cannot deny about Martha Stewart is that she is an extraordinary self-made woman with self-made success. She is focused and very successful and continues to reinvent herself. She is a model for always seeing the next opportunity. Again, I want to know what makers her tick, how does she think, what kinds of people does she surround herself with, what are her tolerances and intolerances. The other thing I admire about her, and it may be because of the space that she’s in, but she seems to be someone who has this balance of what’s important to her in her personal life and what gives her joy, and her dog comes to mind. She is famous for her chow chow dogs, her home and farm, but at the same time, she is passionate about her business and what drives her business and her brand.
4. Lou Holtz: Because coaching is part of my repertoire, I heard Lou speak on multiple occasions. I’ve listened to his videos, he to me is the epitome of an inspirational coach and someone who in multiple challenges, not just Notre Dame but University of South Carolina and other places he was over his career, he has great quotes and great inspiration, and I would like to sit and talk to him about the lessons he had learned as a coach. I would actually ask him some of the questions that you asked me.
5. From a more introspective level and understanding beyond the surface and the obvious. I tend to be focused on the now, but I’m a reader and follower of Deepak Chopra’s teachings and if I could ever have an hour to sit and talk to him, to really understand at a deeper level how I can understand myself, and take myself to a deeper level, that would be joyous.

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

Carol McManus: That’s easy for me because the answer is the The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It’s not a new book by any stretch of the imagination. It’s been out there for a very long time. To me, the BI is the guiding light, the “bible” for business, life, for how to communicate , negotiate, strategize, for all of the things we are talking about, that are a part of my business  and personal repertoire – it’s all right there in that book and I’ve referred to it, reread it many times. I try to read it once a year.

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 two years? T he 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?

Carol McManus:

Two Years

Survival would be first and foremost because you have to have shelter and you have to feed yourself. For me personally, having a creative soul, I would write, write, write because I think if you have two years to spend with yourself everything that’s inside of you, and everything that you can imagine needs to come out and needs to be shared. That’s how I would spend the majority of my time when I wasn’t in survival mode.

Five Books

1. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) – It’s a marvellous book because you have to have that expectation that you are in fact going to get off this island. That might take some negotiation and persuasion, skills that have served me well. It’s a book that I read regularly because as human beings that’s all we do is communicate and negotiate with people.
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell: There are lots of good lessons there on how to survive.
4. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman: Or something similar to that. It’s a compilation of poems. It’s very inspirational and I think if you were on a deserted island you would have those moments where you needed to reflect and see the joy and beauty in life.
5. Milton Berle’s Private Joke File: Over 10,000 of His Best Gags, Anecdotes, and One-Liners: It’s the greatest book ever. He is a renowned stand up comic.

Movie and Music CD

My all time favourite music CD is Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD) by Carol King. I find all of the music she has written over the years, she didn’t sing, she wrote more than she actually sang, but that was such an influential, and remains an influential CD to me because there is so much inspiration and hidden messages in the music. I have listened to it over and over again and never get tired.

The movie is a tough one because there are so many to choose from. The one I choose would be the absolutely most outrageous, that would cause me to laugh and that would be Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition) because it is truly one of the most ridiculous movies ever made but every time I see it I never cease to laugh. I never cease to see new nuances and I think that’s something I would want to spend my time with.

Blazing Saddles – Movie Trailer

If you cannot view the YouTube video, please click here.

Carole King – Tapestry

If you cannot view the YouTube video, please click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Carol McManus: Life and people. I love being around people. If there is a challenge that I had, going from the corporate world to being a solopreneur, and commuting versus working out of a home office it was separation from every day having the interface with people. So I have crafted my business so that is part of my day now because I think the opportunities in life are endless. We don’t happily live in this world on a deserted island by ourselves and if you don’t take joy in the people who are around you and appreciate something about everybody regardless of who they are, where they came from, what they do, we are all a unique special person. I just love to talk to people, find out what’s of interest to them and it’s part of that expanded life – our universal life together. That’s what gives me joy and what I try to bring to the people around me.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Carol McManus: Reflection and meditation. It’s supplemented by everything we talked about – the reading and the music and the creative outlets. The real nurturing comes from the downtime, the quiet time, the reflective time. It’s a learned skill that has served me well. I wish I had learned to meditate much earlier in life because it does really amazing things to center you and recharge your batteries so you can continue to move forward.

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

Carol McManus: Good health for me and mankind. And where that comes from, it starts from a very personal place as I watched my father’s declining health. I had my mother come live with us in her later years with her declining health, her sister also because my aunt didn’t have children. As a young child, I went through health issues with my grandparents on both sides of the family. As I get older and the bones start to creak, things start to go wrong, you realize that the joy of life and the ability to do the things you want to do is all grounded in good health. I do believe that all the health issues we’re facing today, whether it’s cancer, heart disease on one end of the spectrum and things that alarm me are autism and ADHD at the other end of the spectrum, I personally have a strong belief that a lot of this is environmentally influenced. If I had one wish for the genie, it would be to wave her magic wand or whatever she uses to give good health to everyone because once you have health then there are no boundaries to what we can do.

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

Carol McManus: I’m talking to people like you because you stimulate me and I’m absolutely being sincere about that. This has been a delightful experience and what I mean by that is that interaction with other really smart, savvy people, that stimulate me, that cause me not to not only give and share my thoughts, but forces me to go in, think about and test myself and my own boundaries.

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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Video Credits: Blazing Saddles – Movie Trailer Uploaded by zuguidemovietrailers on Apr 15, 2010, Carole King – Tapestry Uploaded by raymaclean on Dec 29, 2008

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• The Invisible Mentor Interviews Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Resume Writer, Facilitator, Public Speaker & LinkedIn Entrepreneur Part Two

Wisdom of Life: “Pick the right people to surround yourself with, it will set the bar, encourage and support you. However, if you choose the wrong people, they will bring you down a different path,” Invisible Mentor, Jeanne-Marie Robillard tells her 12-year old son.

Interviews for Mentoring: Key Lessons from Jeanne-Marie Robillard

• Be grateful for what you have in life and count your blessings.
• Prepare for your day the night before, to help to decrease stress the following day.
• Network, network, then network some more, and never let little things such as shyness or “introvertedness” stop you. (Note to self)
• Allow people to get to know the real you.
• People rarely remember what you said to them, but they remember how you made them feel.
• Give a new job sufficient time – at least two years – before you decide if the fit is right

Invisible Mentor: Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive

Company Name: National Speakers Bureau/Global Speakers Agency

Website: http://www.nsb.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: I am currently a senior account executive, which is an agent to public personalities and celebrities for their speaking engagements. I’ve been doing that for 11 years. Prior to that, I was an agent to the performing arts community – groups like the National Ballet, Canadian Opera Company, to helping place them into seated environments for audiences to enjoy.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: It’s not always easy, is it? It’s hard when people are passionate about their work and passionate about their family. I would say that I’m trying as best as I can to compartmentalize tasks, responsibilities, chores, commitments and obligations, so setting time aside to do specific tasks as opposed to running around doing too many things for too many people.

I try to put my phone away at home in the evenings and try not to look at it as often even when I’m tempted to. I log on to the computer and try to get an hour or two later in the evening. I get so much done preparing for the following day that I go into the next day feeling confident to start the day in a safe place if you will.

It’s a constant challenge, and it’s one of the top topics we get asked for speakers, is work-life balance and it will continue to be so as we improve technology.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: Entertaining absolutely! I love entertaining. I love to have people over. I love to cook. I love to shop for food. I love everything around food, going to the market etc. Planning a dinner party and setting the table, and picking which guests will love each other, another form of connections. As you can see, I apply that everywhere, and yes that would be my favourite thing and I’d like to record those times in a book as well.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: It’s a little bit of what I’ve already said.

1. Be honest.
2. Approach life with intent, purpose and meaning.
3. Even if you’re shy or introverted, try your very best to get out and about. Take someone with you if it’s hard. Having another person with you will be the best thing you ever did. They can brag about you, you can’t really brag about yourself because that comes off a little odd. They can pull you away from someone who may not be the person you need to speak to all night if you’re trying to network. They can also be a great support if you’re feeling a little nervous about the experience. So get out and meet as many people as you can. People do want to help each other – inherently it’s human nature. It’s like so many things in life, the more you do, the more you try, the more chances you have on landing on what’s more meaningful for you.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: I believe we come to better decisions and better results when we do things in a group. Pulling a team together and brainstorming, sending a mass email out to those in your network who have a common experience with what you’re struggling with, reaching out for ideas and bringing those ideas together. I also use the Internet quite extensively and subscribe to many different chats and blogs.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: That’s hard for me because I live a life that’s filled with quotations because of the people I represent. But if I had to choose one it would be, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Maya Angelou, American Poet.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: Success is when you’re truly happy doing what you’re doing. When you’re happy with your life, you’re proud of your life. Proud in a good way, that you’re contributing. Contributions to your community, your workplace, your family and your friends are essential to defining success. The formula for success is trying as many things as you can in life. It’s trial and error.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard:

1. Asking a lot of questions to the right people, that means asking questions to a lot of people until you figure out the right people.
2. Taking chances.
3. Staying in a job and seeing it through for at least a good two-year period. I think that’s very important that full cycles be lived. A calendar year is a full cycle, rarely do we start in January so you are landing in the middle somewhere in that second year, so give it the time it deserves, unless it’s clearly for some interpersonal reasons. Give it the time it deserves and give yourself the chance you deserve.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: I would give the same advice to someone just starting out. I would say, ask around, you can make an educated decision, but once you’ve made that commitment to something, commit to it and give it your best shot. And it also looks a lot better on a resume quite frankly.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard:

1. Maya Angelou
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Nelson Mandela
4. Madam Michaëlle Jean (I represent her and have met her a handful of times but would love to get to know her better)

They are truly good people making a difference in the world, and I would tell them “Thanks!” I would thank them for their great contributions to bettering the world.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard:  One of our current speaker on the roster is Izzeldin Abuelaish who wrote I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey. It’s a bestseller and an unbelievable book that I highly recommend to anybody and everybody.

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 two years? T he 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?

Jeanne-Marie Robillard:

Five Books

1. I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
   
2. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
3. Maybe I’d like to learn more about the Bible.
4. Ulysses
5. Jane Eyre

One Movie and Music CD

Big Night for Big Night movie and Big Night: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Big Night – Trailer

If you cannot view the movie trailer for Big Night click here.

How I Will Spend Two Years

I would spend the two years learning, reading all the classics if I could. I would like to learn more about classic literature, religion, and learn to meditate.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: People, I love that everybody has a story. My current husband is an architect, and he laughs when I say that I love looking at office towers or high-rise office buildings, or condos. I think, “All those stories in there, that’s so cool.” So people for sure.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: By surrounding myself with positive people, and finding the time to be alone to refuel when I need that time. I go to bed quite early by most people’s standard. I try to head to bed by 9:30 pm on weeknights, and I read. So that’s how I nurture my soul.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: To help the disadvantaged, to make less suffering in this world.

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

Jeanne-Marie Robillard: I’m helping others.

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.

Other articles you may enjoy

• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews: Do Big Breaks, Mentoring, and Hard Work Equate to Success? Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay (theinvisiblementor.com)

Book links are affiliate links.
Video Credit: Uploaded by MahatmaCartman on Dec 2, 2010

Interviewee Name: Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay

Company Name: eBay EU

Website: http://www.ebay.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Image via CrunchBase

Annemie Ress:  I’m South African by birth and grew up there. I studied law, worked in Switzerland for a short while and have been living in the United Kingdom for the past 13 years. For the past 13 years I have worked for Pepsi (for a short while because I worked for them in South Africa). I also worked on the trading floor for the International Petroleum Exchange and since then I have been working at eBay. I have had multiple careers at eBay.

I’m totally passionate about diversity, positive psychology, human rights and I just did the New York Marathon with my husband.

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

Annemie Ress: I’m not going to lie to you, it’s very hard working for an American corporation, working in an environment that we work in now, I’m not great at integrating my personal and professional life. Although I say all these things, and the reason why now is so important to me as a concept, is I feel I’m always rushing. I started doing yoga with my husband a year ago, and hatha yoga has been fundamental in terms of transforming and just bringing a sense of calmness into my life. And again surrounding myself with diverse people. I make sure that I also read a very diverse range of material, and I constantly listen to diverse conversations, articles and podcasts so in that way I do fun things, but sometimes they are professional things that contribute to my work-life but I do them while I’m walking. Or I learn while I’m out exercising. I’m not great at it but that’s how I try to connect and keep both parts going. 

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

Annemie Ress:

1. Don’t be afraid of the unknown.
2. Surround yourself with people who are very different from you – people who you do not think you have anything in common with.
3. Live in the now or try to live in the now.
4. Have compassion.
5. Realize that not everything is black and white. Grey is an interesting colour.

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

Annemie Ress: I don’t have a specific process. Most often when I’m not thinking is when ideas come to me. I will consciously try not to think about a challenge or a solution that I’m facing but switch to doing something creative or relaxing, and that’s when the best ideas come.

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

Annemie Ress: I don’t have one, there are so many and I think I’ll do an injustice by just choosing one. I’d say the one for today is “Honesty without compassion is cruelty.” I think the quote relates the concept that life is complex, and it’s not a set of rules by which we play – if you do A, B will happen. It really helps us to understand the full complexity of life.

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

Annemie Ress: I think success is very personal and I don’t think there is a formula for success. I can be very self-help-like and say this is the formula for success so read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I think for me success is all about being able to go to bed at night and go to sleep feeling that you’ve had a fulfilled day and contributed in a small way to making the world a better place and I know that sounds idealistic, but I really mean that. For me, failure would be going to bed at night and not being able to say, “I showed compassion to someone today,” or I did something that was hard to do, but I did it in a way that helped someone to do something that was really tough.

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

Annemie Ress: Relationships and sponsorships and being authentic. It’s about building meaningful relationships with key opinion makers and stakeholders at all levels in your organizations. It could be with the person who brings you your coffee in the mornings, if you work in that type of environment. Or it could be with the security guard who is at the entrance when you come in to work, or the president of the corporation. But it’s not just about the relationships it’s also about celebrating the uniqueness in the other person and really connecting with them authentically. In my environment that’s the one thing I’ve tried consistently to do because it builds trust, integrity and respect and that stands you well in both good and bad times.

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

Annemie Ress: Be brave and don’t think that you have to have a planned journey in life. Go a little bit with the flow and be open to what may come your way, and unexpected things will happen.

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

Annemie Ress:

1. I’d like to meet some evil people because I want to really understand their minds, I think that would be interesting because I cannot understand how one can commit some really commit some horrendous things, whether it’s Stalin, Hitler. I would try to understand how their minds worked. One could say they’re delusional but who knows. I just don’t understand that level of evil. Out of the two I think I would choose Stalin because so much has been written about Hitler.
2. I’d like to meet Mother Teresa because I know she’s had moments of doubts – I read that in a book recently – in her life and faith and I find that really interesting.
3. I met Nelson Mandela briefly, but I would love to understand the compassion he could show after all those years in jail and the wisdom that he had.
4. I would love to meet someone who lived in the Middle Ages – people who were suspicious of everything, and believed in witchcraft. I would find it fascinating interacting with them.

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

Annemie Ress: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and the Power of Now
by Eckhart Tolle. Both those books impacted me. I have read all of Paulo Coelho’s books and I loved all of them. I love how he combines mystery, religion, magic and life experiences, challenge and it started with The Alchemist, and that unlocked my interest in him as an author. I find it a powerful story that never dates. And for the Power of Now, back to my earlier comment that we have nothing now but the second, what’s passed is gone, and we can’t ever be sure of what happens next, so value every minute that you have.

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 two years? T he 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?

Annemie Ress: I have a Lisa Se Klavier CD of Afrikaans – which is my mother tongue – of folk music that is lovely poetry that I’d like to take with me. It’s about a girl who sits and plays the piano while the sun goes down in Cape Town. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love The Killing Fields as a movie and the books I would take:

1. The Alchemist
2. Power of Now
3. Blank book that I could write in. I love writing poetry and I would love to write a story. I’m trying to so about all my memories from childhood. Everyone says that, but if I had two years on an island I’ll take the blank book and do it.
4. I would like to take a Chinese language lesson book that teaches me how to speak Chinese.
5. A children’s story, something that makes me really happy, whether it’s Dr Seuss or something like that. That would keep me smiling in a fun and uncomplicated way.

During the two years, I would write the book and I would meditate, sit quietly and look at the waves, clouds, just calm down and breathe a lot, and practice everything I’m being taught in yoga. I would slow down and become in touch with my body, mind, and nature and really connect with who I am.

“Lisa se Klavier” – DOZI – Afrikaans Lyrics with English Translation

If you cannot view the YouTube Video please click here.

The Killing Fields Trailer

If you cannot view the YouTube Video please click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Annemie Ress: The unknown, both the scariness and the excitement of it – we don’t know what will happen. I don’t know what’s ahead for me and I really don’t want to know.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Annemie Ress:  I have to read more than one book at a time. Reading is absolutely critical. I love to listen to philosophical arguments, debates and podcasts and stay in touch with news in Africa, and without that I don’t feel alive.

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

Annemie Ress: I’d wish that my mother and my husband who are the most important people in my life would always be happy.

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

Annemie Ress: I have the freedom to do whatever I want to do.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? 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.

Book links are affiliate links.

YouTube Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/user/Afrikitty, http://www.youtube.com/user/francesco99?feature=watch

Related articles

• The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay (theinvisiblementor.com)

Interviewee Name: Evan Carmichael, Entrepreneur

Company Name: EvanCarmichael.com

Website: http://www.evancarmichael.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Evan Carmichael:  I’m the founder of a website called EvanCarmichael.com and we’re an online resource for entrepreneurs. We have 14 million people who check out the website and we try to give them motivations to keep going in their business and also some strategies to help them grow their companies. Before that I had a biotech software company, built it up, sold it then hooked up with a venture capital company and was raising venture capital for entrepreneurs and the started my website.

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

Evan Carmichael: I’ve done a lot with time management and try to chunk the tasks I try to do every day. I do most of my work between Monday and Thursday. Usually on a typical day I get in around 1 o’clock, go through all my emails – I’ll spend an hour-and-a-half on that. I’ll spend 90 minutes every day doing CEO tasks, and those are important tasks to build and grow my business. And the rest of the day I could be doing emails or other projects that we happen to have on the go.

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

Evan Carmichael:  A lot of entrepreneurs have challenges with this, especially if they are solo-entrepreneurs or working from home, it can be hard to keep it up and keep the energy going. For me, I really started my website around the famous entrepreneur profiles. If you go to the home page you’ll see stories about Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and other highly successful entrepreneurs and if you look at their stories and how they got started it wasn’t easy for them. They had a lot of hardships to overcome and they often doubted themselves. They didn’t know if they would be successful or not. And you think, “Wow that’s crazy, these guys were scared just like I am now.” They are human, they had all these challenges, and it makes it easier for me to keep going.

I also enjoy getting feedback from my readers and viewers. Every time I send out a newsletter or create a new video, I’ll get comments back from people saying, “This really changed my life, thank you so much. It’s a great resource.” And when you hear those types of things it makes you want to keep going and keep providing more information and ideas to help people out.

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

Evan Carmichael:  I don’t regret any of the decisions that I’ve made because they helped to get me where I am now. But knowing what I know now, when I first started my business, it wasn’t even a business at all. The website was called EvanCarmichael.com just off my name because it was more of a personal site. It grew organically. There wasn’t a plan behind it from the very beginning. So I would have started sooner on that front. I probably would have gotten into communicating with a audience a little bit better, so doing a newsletter sooner, doing social media sooner, getting my Twitter account and Facebook page and YouTube Channel all set up sooner. I’m really happy with how things are going now , but if I’d started that years ago, I’d be a lot further ahead now.

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

Evan Carmichael: First I would encourage people to try to be genuine and try to help people. It might sound like obvious advice but a lot of people start off in business with the goal of making money and not necessarily following their passion and not really helping people out. So really try to help people as much as you can. Give advice, be the expert on whatever area you’re in and try to help them out as much as you can.

Tell your story. People like dealing with people. When I fist stated my site, I didn’t have my picture anywhere and people said, “It’s called EvanCarmichael.com, but I cannot see who you are.” So I started doing a lot more with my story and people wanted to find out a lot more about me, and people are interested in your story. As an entrepreneur you want to be properly telling that, and then try to reach more people.

And that’s what I have done more of in the past year. I’ve done a pretty good job of people who have come to me and needed help, they wanted me to help them with their business, or do an interview, or whatever it is. I try to keep my door open to entrepreneurs as much as I can. In the past year I have done it in a more open and public forum. So if people ask me questions, I may write an email back but I may create a YouTube video so many people can benefit from it and not just that single entrepreneur. And that has paid off in a lot of different ways, so that’s an important discovery I have made in the past year.

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

Evan Carmichael:

1. We are dependent on people finding us through search engines. We are an online business so if people aren’t searching for our type of information online we wouldn’t have people coming to the site or if we got penalized for whatever reason we wouldn’t have a lot of traffic to the site. We try to do all the right things like link building, social media, and trying to provide relevant, ongoing valuable content that people would want to search for and not have spammy content.
2. We are dependent on advertising revenue, that’s how so we make most of our money. If advertisers had a hard time so they cut down their budgets and weren’t interested in going after small business owners then that would hurt our business as well. We try to diversify our sources so we are not dependent on one single source of advertising. If a really bad economy hit all advertisers then that would impact us, but if any one company didn’t do well we’d be okay.
3. We have a great core team and if for whatever reason they thought that I was a bad boss, or it wasn’t fun here anymore then that would really hurt my business as well. I try to provide a workplace for them that they enjoy what they are doing and feeling that they are being challenged. I also try to be a nice person – a lot of people don’t like their bosses and think they aren’t great people, and so to try and understand what they are going through really helps out a lot.

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

Evan Carmichael: The thing that started to differentiate us is the famous entrepreneur profiles so we have a lot of content for entrepreneurs. What we got known for are profiles of famous entrepreneurs like Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, and Bill Gates and looked at how they got started. So how Bill Gates makes $1 million now doesn’t interest me. How did he go from zero with that idea to making his first million and what can I learn from that as an entrepreneur, I find that really interesting. So we have the largest collections of those famous entrepreneur profiles and stories online. And that’s how we started our niche going after those entrepreneur profiles and then other people wanted to contribute to our website and we’ve grown to have 6,000 people who contribute to the website. But it all started by creating this niche that we’re good at and that gave us awareness that attracted people who wanted to contribute.

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

Evan Carmichael: It’s a challenge that a lot of entrepreneurs go through and that’s managing my life – my off-work time – with my working time and trying to create a happy work-life balance. I think that’s something everybody can relate to. I have a wife and I recently had a child, two years old now. That’s a great part of your life but limits what you can do in your business life. I’d often be pulled in both directions trying to figure out, “Well how do I manage this? How do I have a happy family and also a grow business?”

I sat down with my wife and figured out what times we wanted to spend together and how we can break this out during the days, and how can I make time at work more effective and more efficient. So most days in the morning I’m doing something with my family, and my wife has her own business teaching salsa classes, so she is usually tied up in the evenings. So we don’t get to spend evenings together so we try to spend the mornings together and do something. We’ll have lunch together, and then I’ll come into work at 1 o‘clock.

And then I start chunking out my time. I’m usually working from 1 o-clock to 6 o’clock and pick three main projects that I’m working on. One will be my email for the day, one will be my CEO task and another will be a project that I’m working on at the time. And I found that creating that schedule really helped me feel happy that I have a lot of time to work on my business and I still had a lot of time to spend with my family.

The lesson I learned is that communication is important, and that’s important if you are married or if you have a team. Instead of getting stressed out or feeling there wasn’t an answer, the best solution came from just being able to talk to my wife, sit down and come up with a plan. Also talking to my staff, we have a lot of remote working hours, it used to be that everybody came into the office and we all met here, but now people know what they are doing so we don’t need to see each other that much. So people can work at home if they want, they can come into the office if they want, so communicating that and making sure that everyone was on the same page was an important lesson that we learned.

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

Evan Carmichael: For this business, how I started building my website after I sold my software company, I was being asked to speak at a lot of events – young entrepreneur success story. I just used my website to say, “Here is where I’m going to be speaking.” Then when I connected with a venture capital company I started writing content around how to raise capital and use my website for that as well as some famous entrepreneur profiles.

I didn’t have a big moment, but I think what really helped was as I built up content for my site, we started to get people who wanted to contribute as well, and at the time I didn’t have a revenue model behind it. It was just marketing consultants, business coaches writing to say, “Hey you have a great site, I’d love to add an article about business planning,” or whatever it was and I’d say, “Sure, “I’ll put it up.”

I thought it would be great for my readers even if there was no clear way that I was going to benefit from it. I thought it was useful and helpful information for my readers. Then we discovered that we could make money through advertising and we did a couple of tests using Google’s Adsense program and discovered that this could actually be a potential business where before I hadn’t thought of it that way. It was more about providing useful information and potentially generating some leads for the venture capital business.

I guess the big break came when we realized that this could actually be a business in itself making money through advertising and then I slowly transitioned my business to focus on that path.

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

Evan Carmichael:  With my biotech software company we realized that we wanted to sell the business. The market was certainly heating up and we thought if we didn’t sell now we’d have to wait another five, ten years before we got another opportunity again. The mistake we made was try to identify companies that would be a good fit for us, who would buy us and what would be their incentive to buy us. We identified a couple of players and we spent most of our energy on the number one player and it turned out that they were not interested in us.

One of their competition, the number four player in the market was the one that ended up doing a lot of acquisitions and bought our biggest competitor and it was between us and them at the end of the day. We did our presentations and that other company got bought out for $40 million in cash, which was a great deal. Maybe if we had done a better job of preparing, and not gone after the number one player, we would have looked at some of the other companies that were starting to kick up some noise. We might have had a better chance of getting that deal.

So what I learned from that was a lot of times the number one player is lethargic and not as interested in growing. The smaller companies, two, three, six down the line are usually more aggressive and willing to take risks to try to grow because they want to be the number one company. So they’re more motivated, ambitious, so if you’re looking to form partnerships, and you’re looking to grow your business and get some credibility you might have a better chance going after the companies that aren’t number one, but want to get there and see you as the vehicle to help them get there.

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

Evan Carmichael:  I think the decision to sell the business was a tough one. We had a good business going and there were three partners in the business and we had a good lifestyle and really enjoyed what we were doing. We went back and forth should we sell it, should we not sell it. A lot of the reason came from my partners wanting to move to the US and selling the business would help them get there, where for me I was happy where I was. I am based in Toronto, Canada. That weighed on my mind and at the end of the day we decided that the market opportunity was right, and if we didn’t do it now it would have to be much further down the line. If we waited too long the hotness would go away, it wouldn’t be as sexy a deal anymore, and it would be harder to sell for a good price.

That was one decision that we struggled a lot over, but eventually we made one that everyone was happy with. Starting a business is like raising a baby and you put so much into it that to sell it off can be a big challenge sometimes for people.

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

Evan Carmichael:

1. When we sold the business I started to get a lot of invitations to speak and a lot of media, and before then, I was just running the business. I was helping the customers but I was providing information to help entrepreneurs. Selling the business and being asked to make all these appearances got me thinking that I could try to help other entrepreneurs.  They can learn through my story and that helped shape where I am right now and the type of business that I do.
2. A great discovery we made with my first business was to think that we weren’t the first people to do what we were doing. We were a software company and when we started, I was 19 years old, still in university, didn’t know about what I was doing. And one day I said, “Hey we’re not the first company to try to sell software so why can’t we model success and see what other companies have done,” and then try to use their strategies that have worked out for them. So we looked at companies like Microsoft, Intuit, McAfee and looked at how they got started – from zero to a million in revenue, how can we get started. How can we copy some of their successes? And that’s been a strategy that I’ve continued to use, and that’s why I put on my website famous entrepreneur profiles. There are a lot of lessons there that you can take.
3. Getting married and having a child is another event that shaped my life. It definitely changes how you do your business and you have to restructure your life around it. It’s not just you, you have to plan for other people, and maybe you cannot spend as much time doing the things you were doing. You have to make sure you are working smarter and you may have to change your schedule.

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

Evan Carmichael:  One that came up which I’m really proud of is we created a program to support entrepreneurs in Africa through Kiva – a micro-lending program – and we’ve helped over 1,800 entrepreneurs get their businesses started, which I’m really happy with. Their businesses are really small, it could be for $1,000 so they can buy some chickens and build a fence and start a business, and that’s what they do. And then they can grow the business and hire a couple of people. It gets them to learn how to be entrepreneurial but also support themselves, and not depend on anybody else for their livelihood. To be able to help that many people get their business set up is great, it’s a feeling that you’re making a difference. When people tell you that you have made a difference in their lives it makes you feel good.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Evan Carmichael:  We’ve had a lot of mentors. A lot of my mentors come from people who I have never met. So when we were selling the business, we had a number of people who helped us and gave us advice on what to do because they had gone through the process and it was brand new for us. We leaned on them a lot for advice on how to structure it and who to talk to, and what terms to ask for. But I think a lot of the mentors from the business side have come from people I don’t know so it could be from books that I have read, famous entrepreneur profiles and you read stories about how they have accomplished success and it gives you ideas. And I found a lot of success from doing that.

On the personal side, my parents have been great mentors, teaching me how to deal with people and to try to do what’s right. So the combination of both of those two things has had a big impact on my life.

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

Evan Carmichael: From the personal side it would be to try to do the right thing. My parents always taught me if I am not sure what to do I should always strive to do the right thing wherever possible, and sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing. I may not be the best at doing that, but I always try to heed that advice.

From the business side of things, I think following your passion is definitely something that comes up a lot. It would be great for any entrepreneur to think about. Most entrepreneurs will start up a business because they think it’s going to make them a lot of money and they don’t really care about what they are doing. Those are the businesses that don’t succeed whereas if you look at the businesses that have really done well, it started with an entrepreneur that was really passionate about what they were doing.

You have to care about money, but it’s more about changing the way people do work, run their lives or whatever it is. They have a strong passion for making their companies successful, and that passion will help you to get through the dark days. Every entrepreneur has dark days when they aren’t sure if they are going to make it or not, and they get down on themselves. But if you’re really excited about what you’re doing – imagine what work you’d be doing if you weren’t paid to do it, things you love so much that you have to do it for free – then turn it into a business you have a good chance of being successful.

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

Evan Carmichael:  Follow your passion, that’s definitely where you want to start. From there I would look at how you can be as helpful as possible. That may sound super basic, but how can you help as many people as you can and be significant, so you want to make sure that you have a significant impact on their lives in whatever industry you are in. If you sell flooring, or you’re a personal coach, you want to try to have a significant, positive impact in the lives of the people you’re touching. And if you can do that, if you can have a significant impact then you can build a good business from it even if it’s a small market. If you are really making a difference and being super helpful, that can build you a little business. You can make that business go from a small business to a highly successful one by helping more people. So still being significant, still being super helpful, but trying to reach a wider audience, so go beyond your initial niche and try to meet more people.

So for our site, we started with the famous entrepreneur profiles. That’s what we got known for and we attracted a lot of people from that and we’ve since expanded to cover a wider range of topics that entrepreneurs are interested in to help more people and still be significant in their lives.

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

Interviewee Name: Jennifer Graham

Company Name: M. Moser Associates Ltd

Website: http://www.mmoser.com, http://www.lmnopnyc.org

 Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jennifer Graham: I work as a project director for M. Moser Associates, a global firm with 650 employees worldwide, and I am one of 46 directors in the firm. Our work is primarily focused on corporate interiors. My role as project director is a combination of two roles – one is for projects and the other is having oversight for project staffing for the office. From a directorial standpoint I interface with the global directors for strategic process implementation and improvement across the firm.

I came to the USA specifically to study design, and I have a degree in interior design as well as an MBA. I was born in Barbados and lived there for 18 years. I came to the US 30 years ago – I am a single mom with twin girls.

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

Jennifer Graham: I do not separate the two. I find positions that have supported me where I am in life. 

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

Jennifer Graham: With my girls – most likely reading together. It is my ‘daily down time’ even if it is only 10 minutes.

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

Jennifer Graham:

1. Patience
2.  Accept others for who they are – if I don’t get on with them – move on.
3.  I am not always right
4.  The more I know the more I have to learn.
5.  If I don’t like what someone has to say to me, first evaluate if it is a good critical remark, if it’s not, I ignore it and move on.

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

Jennifer Graham: Get away from my daily routine and then get enough sleep!

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

Jennifer Graham: “Low aim, not failure is the crime.” It speaks for itself.

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

Jennifer Graham: Accomplishing attainable dreams early enough in life so that every day is a blessing and new experiences are pure icing on the cake. And the formula for success is:

1. Do what you enjoy
2. Gain respect
3. Have the experience of loving unconditionally and receive love unconditionally
4. Be recognized  by your peers for contributions to one’s profession
5. Be able to pay your bills!

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

Jennifer Graham:

1. Study, BFA.
2. Good positions and experience.
3. Very hard work.
4. MBA and other professional accreditations.
5. Being good at budgets, problem solving and a good leader.
6. Having my own high standards.

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

Jennifer Graham: Love what you do.

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

Jennifer Graham:

1. Elton John – thank you for the music
2. Michelle Obama – I am curious
3. Stephen Hawkins – I am awed
4. My future love – where have you been?
5. The fifth person would be someone who had influenced others without having known that what they did would have such a broad impact. And people who fall into that category could be Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Teresa. They might not have expected that their lives would have had such an impact. There are also everyday people who have that kind of impact who may not go down in history but actually end up changing the path of others. I would want to pick someone I don’t know.

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

Jennifer Graham: The Encyclopedia Britannica. I could visit anywhere I wanted as a child (in my imagination) and it prepared me for my move to NY by taking the mystery out of foreign places but showing that everything is mysterious in a foreign place and I would never be at a loss to learn if I left Barbados.

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

Jennifer Graham:

1. The Bible. Each time you read it you see something you have never seen before and I am not well read or well versed of the Bible.
2. Paradise Lost - the eternal story about the fall of man
3. A book of poems through the ages. For memory, rhythm, romanticism
4. Webster’s Dictionary
5. Ulysses (I have never read it!)

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

Jennifer Graham: I would have to choose Bach’s Brandenburg concertos. The movie is a hard choice. Maybe the Sound of Music because of the scenery, humour, romance, love, the perseverance of the human spirit and music and dance.

Bach – Brandenburg Concertos No.5 – i: Allegro

If you cannot view the YouTube video, please click here.

The Sound of Music – Trailer, Please click here to view the YouTube video.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Jennifer Graham: Everything.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Jennifer Graham: Hug my children and be thankful everyday for all I have.

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

Jennifer Graham: To give myself enough time and resources to have time to focus on health each day of each week.  I would manifest a personal trainer/chef.

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

Jennifer Graham: I am with my children and family.

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