Using Journalism Education in a Business Career - Ross Floate

In Chapter 5 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "How Has Your Journalism Education Been Useful in Your Business Career?"  For Floate, journalism skills that teach finding out the fundamentals of a particular issue is hugely useful.  Additionally, the problem solving skills and also the inquisitive skills that come with finding the truth prove very helpful in business settings.  Ross Floate is a principal at Melbourne, Australia-based Floate Design Partners.  Experienced in branding, design and both online and offline publishing, Floate and his team provide marketing services to clients seeking to better communicate business and culture goals via image, messaging, and story. He is a graduate of RMIT University.

How to Find Mentors Who Give Good Advice - Richard Moross

In Chapter 5 of 17 in his 2012 interview, London entrepreneur and Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "At This Point in Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Moross looks for those wiser and smarter and recognizes those people change over your time.  He finds support in the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), family, and friends.  He looks for people who are mature and experienced that understand the best way to give feedback that is useful.  Moross is founder and CEO of Moo.com and a leader in the London startup scene.  Before starting Moo.com, an award-winning online print business, Moross was a strategist at Imagination, the world's largest independent design company.  He graduated from the University of Sussex, where he majored in philosophy and politics.

Jon Kolko on Teaching Venture Capitalist Thinking to Creative Students

In Chapter 17 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How Has Working at a Startup Incubator Taught You to Better Teach Entrepreneurship?"  Kolko shares how his experience taught him the language of business and entrepreneurship and how to talk about products and services from a venture capitalist perspective.  For example, Kolko notes venture capitalists look not only at how a product might sell, but also the product intellectual property value. 

Jon Kolko is the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How has working at a startup incubator taught you to better teach entrepreneurship?

Jon Kolko: It's definitely led me to understand the vocabulary around VCs and financing and how that game works around funding. It is a game and those involved in it will actually gleefully describe it is a game. And so, I think working at sort of the heart of that helps me understand both what that mentality is like and how to leverage it if you want to or how to completely avoid it if you don’t like it.

It is literally a different language and I don’t just mean in terms of vocabulary and jargon. Yeah, there's a ton of jargon and that takes a little getting used to but it's also just a very different way of talking about products and services.

And I’ll give you a very quick example. When a designer creates something new, irrespective of social entrepreneurship or anything else, they think of the value of that thing to a user. And typically, a good VC, will when they look at something new, will think of the IP value of that beyond the simple investment. Meaning yeah, that’s great. I obviously have to get my 10X return over three to five years. And then how can we continue to leverage the intellectual property that’s inherent in this invention well beyond me actually owning -- you know, having a full stake in this company because that will allow me to sort of tweak up that valuation. The notion of an invention having monetary value outside of its sales price and outside of the value for a user is 100 percent missing in the world of design, for better or worse, and I don’t really care to argue the value or non-value of IP right now. But it's just that it doesn’t cross any designer’s mind I've ever worked with in my life. And it's like the first thing that most good VCs will think about.

And so as an example then, if you're trying to teach a student how to present their work during a pitch, one of the things they need to understand is that the person looking at their thing is not thinking about how much is it going to sell for on the shelves of Best Buy, right? There's this second market of IP that they're considering which is totally in a third plane. That designers are like, “I don’t even know what words you're saying.” And that’s just an example. There’s tons of those. There’s tons of different ways of thinking about stuff.

Ask a designer what derivatives trading means. And it's not just that they don’t know because they're inexperienced. They don’t know because their brain doesn’t work that way. It's the same way when you ask somebody who’s in financial services to draw a teapot. They’ll say they can't but it's literally like their brain will not allow them yet to draw that teapot. And I think the closer, the sooner students realize that, the sooner they can decide if they want to overcome that hump or not.

3 Ways to Better Understand and Solve Problems - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 21 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Do Listening and Research Help You Understand and Solve Problems?"  Stallings notes how listening is a form or research.  Stallings finds the most important listening skill to be what is not said.  Also, he looks for implicit assumptions that are present.  Lastly, he makes a point to get a high level, or meta, understanding of the situation.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Startup Advice on Using Venture Capital

In Chapter 14 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What is the Role of Venture Capital in Building a Company?"  Cohen shares its relevance as a tool to build things that might not have financial viability from day one.  He notes when it is useful in building products that later can be sold and when it is not a good idea.  Cohen shares concern around success being measured by raising venture capital, rather than creating a successful, profitable company.  He goes on to discuss different markets and technologies outside the Internet domain that would benefit from disruptive innovation and what variation of fundraising or venture tools could be applied there. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What’s the role of venture capital in building a company?

Idan Cohen: It’s a tool that was put in place to allow us to actually build things that might not have, you know, financial and business viability from day one. And, so that’s great. It’s an awesome thing, the fact that there’s a mechanism out there where you can, you know, someone can put faith in you because he thinks you have a good vision and an idea and a theme. And he can let you—he can give you that lay to go and build it, for a while, before you need to commit to any real business, because, you know, he understands that it will take time to build the product that you later can sell or you later can monetize but at this point, you can just start out of the blue and make it happen, or maybe there’s a learning process in that product that you need to achieve and you’re not gonna be able to pinpoint the right answer exactly from day one, and it will take a process and he’s willing to be patient with that. So that’s great.

I think that if you look at it, for instance, definitely today, then on one hand, a lot of people measure success by being able to raise venture capital and that’s extremely wrong, in my opinion, it’s just it’s becoming this competition or—people are getting so much credit for being able to raise money, being able to raise money shouldn’t be a lot of—shouldn’t get you a lot of credit. It means that someone out there believed in your vision, it’s great. There’s so many other ideas out there and maybe someone believed in your team and that’s even more important sometimes, or most of the time, but at the end of the day, your ability to deliver on the product and the business is much more important than actually being able to raise money.

I really wish that there were these tools also for other types of businesses, if someone wants to put together a restaurant, there’s no need for him to struggle and definitely in today’s economy, not being able to bring together a quarter of a million dollars to open that restaurant, yes, the numbers are not the same as the internet industry, it’s not gonna explode, it’s not gonna grow as a hockey stick and you’re not gonna be able to monetize it in the millions. But there should be better tools for other types of businesses to get built and established. So I wish that more people would take these tools that maybe—or some variation of them that were invented for venture capital, as we know it today for technology world. And apply it for other types of businesses.

Today we look at venture capital as tightly coupled with technology. Venture capital should be much more tightly coupled with entrepreneurship. So just someone having a good idea and having a good vision and being able to build a good team and go out and build a business, so I love the fact that there’s now, you know, for instance, Elon Musk doing space acts, this is awesome, yes, you know, yeah, it might be a business—a huge business in the billions of dollars just because of the cost of sending rockets into space, but still just someone being able to go out and do that, and I don’t know if he would’ve able if he wasn’t Elon Musk and didn’t have billions himself. But still, just the fact that I think these businesses are starting to see, you know, it’s not pure technology, it’s not internet, it’s not gonna acquire million of users, no, it needs probably like 10 actually that are gonna pay for these missiles. But it’s still gonna work. Same for cars, you know, if it’s from like Tesla or something like that. Just—I would love to see many more people supporting these kind of businesses. Just—or cameras, you know, why is the camera market not ready for disruption? Like why can’t someone build a better camera than what Canon and Nikon has been doing for—Nikon has been doing for 50 years I’m sure someone can. So for instance, now with those Lytro that came from a little bit of a different angle – I would like to see many more businesses like that. 

Idan Cohen on How Leadership and Management Job Skills Compare

In Chapter 17 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do Leadership and Management Differ With What You Do?"  Cohen shares his struggle to become a better leader and a better manager.  He notes the importance of motivation and vision in leadership and details and composure in management. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do leadership and management differ in what you do?

Idan Cohen: Management is definitely something that I struggle with daily and leadership is something that I struggle with daily. Leadership is about being just a little bit mad, you know if you think about it, like going and wanting to be the president of the US, you have to be not a little bit, you have to be really, really, crazy in order to take on such a role, and go through the process of doing something like that, the thing that sometimes it’s also the same for a small company, it’s just coming up with a vision, being able to motivate people, so that’s not easy but it comes a lot of times for just being able to put away—put aside your fears or overcome them, put aside logic or overcome logic, and go and make that happen. 

Management is a much more I think kind of a methodical or a skill, sometimes you might have, sometimes people definitely have it inherit in them and sometimes they acquire it with time, but I think it has a lot to do with—and it sometimes is very different than leadership because it’s much more about listening, leadership is a little bit of also just like blindly looking forward and being able to charge and motivate people just to come after you, but then at the end of the day, management is not about just this motivation, it’s about taking care of the details, it’s about knowing how to politically split responsibilities, it’s about stepping down when needed, and actually helping doing something, just because you’re a little bit of kind of like, you have all of these skills together and you can help with whatever needed, definitely at early stages of a company. 

So I think that there’s a lot of great leaders, there’s—and visionaries, there’s not enough good managers, and it’s definitely something that I would aspire to be. I think I’m very far from it right now. 

How Startup CEO Faces Company Building Challenges - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 9 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What New Challenges Are You Facing as Your Company Grows?"  He details the importance of selective recruiting in the hiring process and maintaining focus as new opportunities emerge that may not align with the vision.  He details how the company has learned to differentiate as over 300 competitors have entered the market.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What new challenges are you facing as your company grows?

Slava Rubin: Company building is the number one challenge, which all about hiring the right people. It’s not okay to look and say ‘we’ll take anybody, we just need bodies’. See, that’s the beginning of the end for a great company especially one that’s our size. See, we can’t afford having just extra weight filling the spot. Everybody is a leader and everybody has to step up for different spots. So, number one is company building, number two is maintaining focus around the vision. At Indiegogo the challenge right now is not about what is the opportunity, I would say there are many opportunities to be had, the challenge is rather, what do we say no to and make sure that they we’re focusing as a team on the right things.

Erik Michielsen: You mentioned that over 300 companies have moved in to this crowd funding space, so how do you look at that as a competitive set versus look inside and just focus on your core and building that out?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, I mean, since we launched in January 2008, we now have over 300 competitors. Some competitors like to differentiate by country, so only in Australia or only in Germany or only in the US. Some like to differentiate by vertical, so only health campaigns or only cause or only theater. Some like to differentiate by business models, so free crowd funding, advertising based crowd funding or otherwise and for us the real win for the customer both the campaign owner and the funder is to create one platform where you can cross all these different verticals and have as open of a platform as possible. See, funders don’t think in vertical and they definitely don’t think in business model. They think in disposable income and they think about, ‘oh, I want to share my money or give or buy or contribute to this specific thing’ and when they see this campaign, it’s very easy to share another campaign with them and for us it’s really about having democratizing fundraising as our goal, creating a platform, which is open to anybody in the world to raise money for anything and in the process creating the best funder experience possible.

Courtney Spence on Why to Teach Entrepreneurial Spirit in Schools

In Chapter 18 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Can the Education System Better Prepare Social Entrepreneurs?"  Spence differentiates between entrepreneurs who have started organizations from those with entrepreneurial spirit who want to create something new.  She shares how the education system - middle school, high school, and college included - should turn focus to teaching the entrepreneurial spirit and how to help students thrive in uncertain times.  Courtney Spence returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How can the education system better prepare social entrepreneurs?

Courtney Spence: Well, first of all, I think it’s really important to recognize the difference between someone who is an entrepreneur and someone who has the entrepreneurial spirit. So what I’m noticing with the team that we’re putting together with Students of the World, everybody is motivated by an entrepreneurial spirit. Everybody is excited by the big challenge and even the uncertainty and really is finding, you know, excitement and drive and motivation, not through what are they getting paid or where is their name gonna go on the collateral or on the website, it’s really through this idea of we’re creating something that wasn’t there before. Does that mean that everybody that’s a part of our organization is an entrepreneur? Not necessarily.

I think that an entrepreneur is someone that in that capacity can help set leadership and vision but the – everybody on our team has the entrepreneurial spirit. So I think there is an importance that is lacking in educational system, and this is middle school, high school, and college quite frankly, that helps to encourage that entrepreneurial spirit and that idea of thriving in uncertain times, I mean that’s I think the world is trended that way and I think we all recognize over the course of the last decade that uncertainty is the only certain thing we have, and the really successful individuals and organizations are gonna be ones that can thrive through in uncertainty and uncertain times, externally and internally.

And I think that our education system could do more to support whether it’s teenagers going through those uncertain years or whether it’s college students preparing them for when they leave college, those – there are some massive uncertain years that happen right after college and most people that I talk to say, “Well, no one told me that this was gonna happen.” So I think that really preparing individuals to find internally the strength and the courage to get him or her through those tough times, those uncertain times, will help to foster entrepreneurship in general.

How to Use Your Network to Make Better Decisions

In Chapter 12 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Do You Use Your Network to Get Help Making Career and Life Decisions?"  She shares how her network provides her additional information she does not have personally.  She notes the importance of discerning matching requests to expertise in her outreach.  She notes how this allows her network to shift and evolve over time.  Audrey Parker French returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview after a one-year sabbatical from work and getting married.  She co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm.  In 2010, CLEAResult ranked #144 in the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.  In late 2010, CLEAResult was sold to General Catalyst Partners.  She graduated from Wake Forest University. 

“There is, I believe, a certain kind of a magic that can happen with a network. People introducing you to the right people who have the right opportunity that you didn’t even quite realize you were looking for...”

— Audrey Parker French

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you use your network to get help making career and life decisions?

Audrey Parker: Well, I use my network as a sounding board. I think about something. I do my best to work it out or to piece something together. And then what a network does is it provides additional information that I can’t get to in my own head. So if and when I need advice or I’m looking for advice about a decision in my life, I think, “Okay, who in my network can help me with this decision? Who’s gonna be a good person to call?” And in the past, I learned the hard way that I need to be careful with who I ask for feedback in a net—I mean we all need to be careful, you know, if we ask someone who has an expertise in dentistry for help with you know, what shoes to buy, that’s probably a mismatch. But if you go to someone who has an expertise in home design and you really want someone to help you design your lifestyle and your home, that’s gonna be a better fit.

So really the way that my network helps me is that depending on the advice or the guidance that I need, I pick out the people who are going to help me get there and what’s interesting is it helps my network shift as I ask those questions. So I’ve met – over the last year, I’ve met a lot of new people because I went to my network to certain people that I knew and I said, “Hey, I’m looking at this.” Or, “I’m curious about that.” And the people that I automatically have gotten connected to through those circles take me further down the road where I’m wanting to head anyway.

So there is, I believe, a certain kind of a magic that can happen with a network. People introducing you to the right people who have the right opportunity that you didn’t even quite realize you were looking for and that actually is the way that I met my husband. I have to thank my network on that one. A friend of mine invited me out and I met someone who knew my husband and the next time I went out with, you know, the same kind of people, he was there, and we met, so, you know, I didn’t realize that I was even looking for, I mean I knew on some level but I hadn’t gone to that friend for that reason, but networks can definitely bring you what you’re looking for in ways that you – we just can’t see.

How Routines Improve Home Office Lifestyle - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 5 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "What Have You Learned About Managing Expectations at Home While Building a Business?"  He shares how routines and rituals have helped him better manage work-life balance, working through an illness, and growing his business.  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. 

What It Means to Be a Leader - Mike Germano

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Germano differentiates between industry leadership and company or community leadership.  He focuses less on self-promotion and more on bringing people together to accomplish goals and produce team-based work.  Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO, Brooklyn based social media advertising agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

Why Not to Kill Your Creative Project

In Chapter 7 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Evaluate When to Continue a Project and When to Kill It?"  Erway notes she is less about killing projects and more about putting them on the back burner or shelf so she can return to them down the road. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you evaluate when to continue a project and when to kill it?

Cathy Erway:  Ooh. When to kill a project? It doesn't sit right with me to kill projects. I always like to think that, you know, they're on the back burner and that you can return to them but always change them up and shape them, and they'll evolve too. So in that sense, I don't think, you know--I had this idea of writing an essay collection a while ago. I didn't so much kill it but put it off and, you know, I think it'll probably be better in the long run that I did that. If I ever get to finishing it, that is. So if you start something, you're never--you're not gonna kill it, I just don't think, it's still with you somehow unfinished in its own, you know, kind of caught in the, just caught in that moment...

Erik Michielsen: File it away. Shelve it but always know that that shelf is accessible.

Cathy Erway: Right, right. Yeah.

Cathy Erway on Fixing the Mixed Messages of Food TV Shows

In Chapter 14 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "Why Should Food Media Be More About Education Than Entertainment?"  Erway highlights the need for food media television and blogs to be more clear in their intent.  She believes audiences see entertainment as instructional.  Erway takes issue her and aims to clarify the intent or purpose of shows teaching cooking and selling cookbooks that do not promote healthy eating. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Why should food media be more about education than entertainment?

Cathy Erway:  Well, I mean, not to sound too naive, but I think that, yes, I understand there is a difference in tone for the purpose of a food media thing, television show, for example, and a lot of the times we don't see it, we don't see that line and it gets confused for authenticity or just, you know, plain instructions, something that you should follow, but of course a lot of entertaining stuff is out there that--it wasn't--it didn't have that purpose.

So, the first food media, TV shows started, you know, in the '50s when television -- that truly was--that was like housewives need to know how to flip an omelet, so this is how you do it. That's really where it started, but of course, now we have all sorts of crazy shows, all sorts of funny, entertaining blogs out there too, and we need to, like, just be a little more clear on which, you know--what we should be watching it for, and--I mean, not that there's anything wrong with entertaining food media. I love watching funny shows like Food Party. I love the old British series Posh Nosh but, I mean, if you're going to instruct a food and sell cookbooks, I think that there needs to be more purpose behind that than just to entertain. Because you're going to have a real impact on people's eating habits, and they do, and they really do.

And, you know, I've noticed when I write something on my blog that's a recipe that is kind of hilarious, over-the-top--bacon cream cheese cupcakes--that the readership spikes and sure enough, you know, that's fun and stuff, and I do that once in a while, but it's not something I want to do simply to have a broader audience and, you know, I just -- because I don't want people to eat -- I don't eat that way all the time.

Erik Michielsen:  Right. Yeah, yeah, it's misleading.

Cathy Erway:  Yeah. I think so.

Erik Michielsen:  Only if it's done for entertainment's sake then it -- Okay, the goal is to entertain and then to sell advertising behind that and to make a productive, you know, television show, but when you're--

Cathy Erway:  Then you're like a tobacco company. Right? You're just like selling something that people like even though you know it's not good.

Erik Michielsen:  Yeah, there's a deeper element there that can be probably used a bit more.

Cathy Erway:  I like to write recipes that, if you read the behind the lines I do have a mission, but I'm trying not to hit you over the head with it. I talk about how delicious turnips are. And they are, but I mean, who would've thought that originally? It's not something you'd read and be like, "Oh, yeah, totally!" You know, there's, I feel like there's media that is affirmative like when the watcher--when the viewer is watching it, it's, you know, there's a positive experience which is, "I agree with you, and I already do agree with you." And that's the easiest kind of positive response to get.

But when you challenge by bringing up a totally new thought or new revelation like turnips taste decadent. Right? Or you try to make it sound decadent instead. There this like, "Eh." You know, non-- but you know after a while maybe they'll try and maybe they'll think it's a positive thing afterwards. So it takes a lot more time, it's harder to do, it's harder to get people to have a good experience because they have to actually do it or try it or something. 

Advice on How to Handle Rejection

In Chapter 16 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Deal With Rejection?"  Erway notes how dealing with rejection comes down to attitude and ego.  She reminds herself rejection is not about her and shifts focus on understanding the party saying no and why it would do so.  Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you deal with rejection?

Cathy Erway:  Rejection is actually -- it is a product of ego. I'm very easygoing, and if somebody rejects me and it's not a huge deal, I really handle it pretty well. Or if something, you know, I -- say I submitted to a poetry contest and I didn't get it, it's really not--I'm not going to be crushed, so I don't really get so worked up.

And if you didn't have a big ego, then you, there's no such thing as rejection, actually. It doesn't exist. It is something that you feel when you're--when somebody says no for whatever reason. You can take that to be, "Oh, I respect the way that person or that organization is thinking," and that's, it is what it is, you know? That's all it is. It's not about me, but let's think about what they were thinking, and that's their choice, okay. So, cool. But if you're thinking of it from only your point of view, "Oh," you know, "the world is -- It's me against the world. And the world is rejecting me." Then of course you're going to feel bad, so it's really about an attitude.

Why to Be Trusting When Building Relationships - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 18 of 21 in his 2011 interview, Phil McKenzie answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?"  He notes trust is something you just have to give.  McKenzie notes that people's actions will prove out that trust over time, so he feels it unnecessary being suspicious entering situations.  McKenzie is the founder of Influencer Conference, an international event series bringing together tastemakers across the arts, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and technology.  He is also managing partner of influencer marketing agency FREE DMC.  Previously he worked in Domestic Equity Trading at Goldman, Sachs, & Co.  He earned his BA from Howard University and MBA from Duke University. 

How Executive Defines Non-Profit Success - Kyung Yoon

In Chapter 18 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Kyung Yoon answers "As a Non-Profit Executive, How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?"  Running a non-profit, Yoon learns it is clearly a business, complete with managing revenues and expenses.  She finds it important to measure outcomes, however these do differ from for-profit metrics of returns to shareholders.  Non-profit returns, such has how many abused women and trafficking victims are provided shelter at the New York Asian Women's Center.  These experiences shape Yoon's perspective on what it means to lead in a community-focused non-profit.  Kyung Yoon is the executive director of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF) in New York City.  An award-winning journalist and documentary film producer, Yoon earned an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in History and Political Science at Wellesley College.

Jullien Gordon on How to Personalize a Leadership Lifestyle

In Chapter 4 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Gordon shares the stages of his own leadership journey and how experiences have shaped his approach to being a leader in his actions and ambitions.  Gordon is the founder of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, a personal and professional development company that helps clients identify purpose and map it to successful outcomes. Gordon has written five books and speaks regularly to college students across America.  He earned masters degrees in education and business from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Jullien Gordon:  Wow!  What does it mean to be a leader?  For me leadership has always been defined as creating more leaders and if you’re not creating more leaders then -- well actually that’s the external version of leadership.  I think leadership actually starts with self leadership and actually directing your life in the way that you want it to go and then from there, by that example, you actually inspire others to take control and full responsibility for the decisions and the choices that they’re making. 

So I definitely think leadership actually comes back to are you taking full responsibility for your choices, or are you letting life and other external factors actually influence your choice and therefore your choice being inauthentic.  Leadership is I think this space where you are actually continually making authentic choices based on what you think is best for you and those around you.

Erik Michielsen:  And how have you learned about leadership as your career has developed?

Jullien Gordon:  In undergrad I actually was a student leader of various organizations.  When I graduated I actually became executive director of a program called the Shake program where I was managing 32 part-time undergrads plus a team of volunteers and so that was my first real experience of full time leadership, then I went to business school and then I worked with MLT for quite some time. I developed a team there at MLT and from there I’ve been building my business on my own for the past few years now.  I would say that it’s all been about self-leadership for me. 

I haven’t figured out how I’m gonna take full responsibility for a team of people and still have the balance that I want in my life so I haven’t really committed to that responsibility.  I have part time people who work with me on various things. I have administrators, assistants, legal team, sales team etcetera but they’re all part-time so in terms of leading other people I haven’t been in that space for quite some time where I feel fully responsible for the life of someone else or for the economic future of someone else and so I’m still exploring that and do I actually want to have a big building out like the ones out here in New York is that ultimately my goal or is my goal actually time freedom. 

As I’ve navigated my journey over the past three years I’ve realized that it’s not about financial freedom for me it’s actually about time freedom which gives me the freedom to make choices and spend my time the way I want to spend it and that means that my business also isn’t necessarily about profit maximization. 

I’m actually using entrepreneurship as a vehicle to create a lifestyle that aligns with who I am and what I want and so as I think about my leadership it’s really been about time freedom and so a lot of leadership has been with self and not necessarily leading hordes of people or teams.  Of course when I’m speaking, at my speaking engagements, I’m leading people for that given time or if I’m doing a training for a corporation or a college, I’m leading people in that moment but I haven’t – it hasn’t been – it’s been a while since I’ve actually been responsible for leading people on a daily basis.

How to Define and Measure Success in Life and Career - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 2 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Andrew Hutson answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?"  Hutson looks at objective success measures that be tracked over time.  He also looks at how this impacts personal life and career goals, noting how a successful project may not necessarily raise personal or professoinal wellbeing.  Hutson is a senior project manager at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he advises corporate partners such as Wal-Mart on sustainable supply chain initiatives.  Hutson holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MEM from the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.  He earned his BA from Michigan State University.