Mike Germano: Having a Baby and Selling a Business in the Same Year

In Chapter 1 of 23 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, VICE Media Chief Digital Officer Mike Germano answers "Since We Spoke a Year Ago, What Has Been the Most Exciting Thing to Happen in Your Life?"  In the year in between his last Capture Your Flag interview and this one, Year 5 in his career documentary, Germano shares what it was like starting a family - becoming a first-time father - and selling his business Carrot Creative to VICE Media in the same year. On top of it all, he and his business partner also invest in a pizza restaurant, Forino, giving him a place to celebrate all the positive news.

Mike Germano is Chief Digital Officer at VICE Media, a global youth media company based in Brooklyn, New York. Germano joined VICE Media via its 2013 acquisition of Carrot Creative, a social media agency he co-founded and led as CEO. 

Bijoy Goswami on How Grandparents Inspire Life of Stewardship

In Chapter 1 of 17 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, community leader Bijoy Goswami answers "What Were Your Grandparents Like and How Did They Influence Your Development?" Goswami shares how each of his four grandparents played different roles in his development. He learns about taking responsibility and community service from his maternal grandfather and about sadness and grieving from a maternal grandmother. Together their lives help direct Goswami's toward living an ethos of helping others embrace a life journey through stewardship.

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas. He develops learning models to help individuals, organizations and communities live more meaningfully. Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software. Goswami graduated from Stanford University. 

Audrey French on How Having a Baby Changes a Marriage

In Chapter 6 of 21 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, new mother Audrey Parker French answers "How Has Having a Baby Changed the Relationship You Have With Your Spouse?" French shares how having a baby with her husband has deepened her marriage bonds in a beautiful way. She finds marriage joins your lives together but creating a life together builds a physical bond that goes beyond words.

Audrey Parker French is a new mother living with her husband and son in Austin, Texas. Before leaving work to focus on family, French co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She graduated from Wake Forest University. 

Audrey French on How Parents Embrace Becoming Grandparents

In Chapter 10 of 21 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, new mother Audrey Parker French answers "How Have Your Parents Transitioned into Becoming Grandparents?" French shares how her divorced parents have individually embraced becoming first-time grandparents. Her father decides to get engaged to his partner while her mother goes through the circle of life by saying goodbye to a passing parent and welcoming a new grandchild into the world.

Audrey Parker French is a new mother living with her husband and son in Austin, Texas. Before leaving work to focus on family, French co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She graduated from Wake Forest University. 

Audrey French on Why to Carry on Family Christmastime Traditions

In Chapter 11 of 21 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, new mother Audrey Parker French answers "What Family Traditions Do You Feel are Important to Carry on to Future Generations?" Getting married introduces French to husband's family Christmastime traditions, including decorating the Christmas Tree and watching "It's a Wonderful Life" together as a family. She and her husband look to carry on these Christmas traditions while also doing the same with daily traditions such as having family dinners to talk about the day as a family.

Audrey Parker French is a new mother living with her husband and son in Austin, Texas. Before leaving work to focus on family, French co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She graduated from Wake Forest University. 

Courtney Spence on How Grandparents Instill Family Values

In Chapter 1 of 20 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, nonprofit CEO Courtney Spence answers "What Were Your Grandparents Like and How Did They Influence Your Development?" Spence shares how her grandparents passions for politics, love of family, and life of civic duty and World War II military service shaped her parents and her own values.

Courtney Spence is founder and CEO of Students of the World, a nonprofit empowering a diverse network of student and emerging filmmakers to apply storytelling skills in purposeful work. She is also the Founder and CEO of CSpence group, a creative agency building millennial-focused content and programs for brands. Spence earned a BA from Duke University. 

Courtney Spence on How to Be Intentional Keeping Family Traditions

In Chapter 4 of 20 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, nonprofit CEO Courtney Spence answers "What Family Traditions Do You Feel Are Important to Carry on to Future Generations?" Spence shares how she is making a priority not only to carry on holiday family traditions such as Easter Egg Hunts but also weekly family rituals such as Sunday night dinners and special occasion meals such as steak and twice-baked potato night.

Courtney Spence is founder and CEO of Students of the World, a nonprofit empowering a diverse network of student and emerging filmmakers to apply storytelling skills in purposeful work. She is also the Founder and CEO of CSpence group, a creative agency building millennial-focused content and programs for brands. Spence earned a BA from Duke University. 

Hattie Elliot on Making New Year Plans to Grow a Small Business

In Chapter 15 of 15 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Hattie Elliot answers "What Has You Most Excited About the Year Ahead?" "Elliot shares how the New Year has given her opportunity to put new investor financing to work growing her business. From expanding corporate business partnerships to scaling the size and scope of destination events such as a Telluride Ski House and Hamptons House, Elliot looks to build her relationship business and improve her member experiences.

Hattie Grace Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, a social networking company that creates destination events and experiences to forge lasting personal and professional connections across its young professional members. Elliot graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.

Nina Godiwalla on Training Leaders to Step Up and Speak Up

In Chapter 7 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "When Someone Asks You, 'What is Your Mission', How Do You Respond?" In her diversity and leader training work, Godiwalla strives to teach those in power to "Step Up and Speak Up" to support those with less or no power. She examples of this as it relates to diversity issues in the office as well as in more general meeting environments where credit for ideas and work is often taken by senior staff who just restate another's idea or work. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: When someone asks you, “What is your mission?”, how do you respond?

Nina Godiwalla: I think one of the major messages I have is really focused on step up, speak up, and it's about being able to, when you’re in a place of power, really being able to take your power and help other people that might not be in power, and those apply to both my focuses, leadership and diversity, and that applies from a diversity standpoint, so such a small example is if you’re in a room and you hear an inappropriate joke about a certain minority group, if you’re not part of that minority group, it’s the most important thing, and it makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, a lot of times we’d just gonna look the other way. The most important thing for you to do at that moment is be able to say something and be able to stand up for that group because that group has been criticized and it’s an opportunity for you as not being a part of that.

And I think from a leadership standpoint which I’m focused on is being in a place of power, whether you—wherever you are. You don’t even have to be high in the hierarchy or whatever it is, but a great example was we were just talking in a meeting, we were at the State Department, we were having this talk about how people repeat, someone gives their credit to the wrong person, so a very senior person says, basically, he repeated what someone else said, and everyone kind of starts giving credit to the senior person who said it, 15 minutes before, two other people had already mentioned it, and we’re giving examples of what’s a way to actually remind people that that’s not the right person, that’s not the person that really said it, and it’s something along the lines of, “Oh, well, Joe, that’s a great point—that’s a great way that you’ve summarized Sandy’s comments earlier, that’s—that was really impressive the way you did it concisely,” or something like that, and, basically, giving back credit to the person that did it. And if you are the most senior person in that room, it’s even more important for you to do that because you’re acknowledging to the rest of the staff, I’m aware of where that came from, and even if you’re not the most senior person, you’re in that room, and so you have an opportunity to bring attention to that, so it’s those sort of things, always making an impact, whether you formally have a hierarchical place or not.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Validating Your Company Mission and Values

In Chapter 8 of 18 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur and community builder Fabian Pfortmüller answers "What Experiences in the Past Year Have Most Influenced the Direction of Your Company?" Pfortmüller shares how validation moments have helped him and his co-founders find clarity and confidence in their mission and purpose. At Holstee, outside feedback on "mindful living" shapes company direction while at Sandbox Network insight on trust and family values validate the cultural development occurring as the organization grows. Fabian Pfortmüller is co-founder of Holstee, a socially conscious online marketplace, and Sandbox Network, a global community for young entrepreneurial people. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University.

Michael Margolis on Rethinking Your Career Goals After an Illness

In Chapter 7 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "What Experiences in the Past Year Have Most Influenced the Direction of Your Company?" Margolis shares how recovering from a long-term illness reshaped the aspirations he has for his company Get Storied. Going through the illness and recovery pushes Margolis to evolve the business model from a lifestyle business and his role as a self-employed author/speaker/thought leader running a virtual company into a full-time employee-led business and his new role as CEO. Michael Margolis is founder and president of Get Storied, an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. He earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Doug Jaeger on Cultivating Creative Aspirations to Make a Difference

In Chapter 3 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing As Your Experience Grows?" Jaeger continues to seek ways he can leave behind a legacy in what he creates. He works strike a balance between experimental projects such as silverware design and other ways to make things, including films, that can change user behavior or culture in meaningful ways. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Slava Rubin on Making Lofty Career Aspirations a Reality

In Chapter 4 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing As Your Responsibilities Grow?" Rubin shares how his aspirations actually remain constant while his optimism toward how realistic it is to achieve those aspirations grows. Rubin shares how his lofty goal to revolutionize finance and change how the world funds projects is slowly becoming a reality. As he approaches the goal, Rubin works with his co-founders Danae and Eric to bring together more people to share in realizing the vision. Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are your aspirations changing as your responsibilities grow? 

Slava Rubin: I would say, actually, my aspirations are staying the same. Maybe I’m only starting to become more optimistic of how realistic it is to hit my aspirations, ‘cause maybe, if several years ago, I still have the same aspirations to become the world’s funding platform, but maybe I was lying to myself that it was even possible, or maybe I was so naïve. And now that it’s becoming a little bit more realistic, I think that I’m just trying to follow through in our potential and realize it, right? I don’t think that my aspirations are changing because it was always a pretty lofty goal.

Erik Michielsen: Yeah.

Slava Rubin: Changing the world of finance and allowing people to fund whatever matters to them is a huge goal. So that’s still the same goal but, you know, now, I just want more co-workers and people to be part of the team to help realize our dream together.

Erik Michielsen: Do you have those moments where you look at Danae, look at Eric, and just shake your head, and say, “How did this all happen?”?

Slava Rubin: It’s actually incredible. We just opened our new office in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful, incredible office, built out, brand new for us, and it’s really a signature Indiegogo office, and we just had our all hands there, with 60 employees, and I stood up, gave a State of the Union talk about Indiegogo, and it’s really incredible to have all these great talent, all these great employees, co-workers, just working towards the same vision, to change people’s lives, have an impact, and let people fund what matters to them.

Leslie Kerner on Giving Younger Employees Opportunities to Lead

In Chapter 20 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, education software company executive Leslie Kerner answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?" As a general manager, Kerner owns bottom line responsibilities to make sure her business unit is growing and profitable. Beyond P&L measures and metrics, she measures success based on her ability to create ways for younger employees to take on more responsibility and become the next generation of company leaders.

Leslie Kerner is Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Professional Services group at Amplify, a software and services company innovating K-12 education. She is responsible for building and managing training, professional development and consulting services for schools. Previously, Kerner worked as a management consultant at Deloitte & Touche. Kerner earned an MBA from the Duke University and a BA from Northwestern University.

Courtney Spence on How Making Hard Decisions Can Strengthen Your Resolve

In Chapter 5 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, social entrepreneur Courtney Spence answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing As Your Experience Grows?" In the year since her last Capture Your Flag interview, Spence shares the challenge of making her work and her organization more lasting and sustainable and the resolve it has taken from her as a leader. Social entrepreneur and storyteller Courtney Spence founded 501c3 nonprofit Students of the World (SOW) to shine a light on progress and celebrate the world's problem solvers. She is building a movement of next-generation storytellers and creative activists through the SOW program The Creative Activist Network. Spence is a graduate of Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your aspirations changing as your experience grows?

Courtney Spence:  So, this year, and lot has happened this last year. I feel like I keep referencing it as this year, but these are annual interviews, so that would make sense. But this year has been about, I think, wanting to create sustainability within my organization, and I think—and that is not for legacy reasons but for the reason that I really believe in what I’ve been building for the last 13 years. We’re starting to see true traction and enthusiasm and the possibility of making Students of the World, and our new endeavors have a much more of a lasting kind of global impact than we’ve ever been able to see or imagine before.

And having seen that and understanding where we’re going, it makes me very focused and concerned about the longevity of the organization, the health of the organization, the sustainability, you know, being able to provide benefits to employees, and being able to, you know, really, really put people in the right places and assemble a team that can weather the difficult times and the good times.

Like, for example, we had to go through a series of a few layoffs in August, and that was the hardest time I’ve ever experienced from a professional standpoint. And it was not something that was pretty, it was certainly the most stressful, sad time that I’ve experienced with Students of the World, but it was necessary to continue the work that we were doing. It was for the health of the organization and the mission. And, you know, having to kind of grow up and make some of those harder decisions in a role of leadership is difficult but it also strengthens, I think. It strengthened my resolve in what I’m doing and my role as a leader and, you know, as the executive in the company.

Mike Germano on Aspiring to More Than Making Money

In Chapter 17 of 20 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Carrot Creative social media agency CEO Mike Germano answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing as Your Experience Grows?"  Germano finds many people in his life tell him he is successful - from his parents to his wife to his peers to his industry.  He finds that defining success is not about reaching these respective expectations as end points but seeing them as new starting points on his aspirational journey. 

Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO Brooklyn-based social media agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

Phil McKenzie on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 2 of 18 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Phil McKenzie answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing As You Get Older?"  McKenzie finds the biggest change is that he is thinking far more about family legacy and the long-term thinking that comes with it.  Seeing parents age and friends go through new challenges motivates Phil to make the greatest positive impact he can in his lifetime. 

Philip L. McKenzie is the Founder and Global Curator of Influencer Conference, a global content platform that brings together tastemakers in the arts, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and technology to discuss the current and future state of influencer culture. Prior to that, he was Managing Partner of influencer marketing agency FREE DMC and an equities trader at Goldman, Sachs & Co.  He earned an MBA from Duke University and a BBA from Howard University.

Andrew Epstein on Finding Meaningful Work in Charter School Education

In Chapter 3 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, charter school CFO Andrew Epstein answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Epstein shares how he works to support 180 teachers providing 1700 students a college preparatory education in underresourced Brooklyn neighborhoods.  By helping structure academic programs from early grades through high school, he finds a deep connection between his work and the outcomes it creates. 

Andrew Epstein is CFO of the Ascend Learning Charter School Network.  Previously, Epstein was a finance executive at Democracy Prep Public Schools and an operations executive at Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam Records.  He is a former Teach for America corps member and middle-school science teacher.  He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School.