How Design Strategist Builds Creative Skills - Ross Floate

In Chapter 19 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "How Is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  Floate starts his career viewing his creative toolbox as the tools of his trade - for example, his computer, his Pantone books, his scalpels.  As his career progresses, his toolbox evolves based on the experiences he has inside and outside his industry.  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.

What Makes Product Design Work Meaningful - Richard Moross

In Chapter 2 of 17 in his 2012 interview, London entrepreneur and Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Moross does not believe meaning is created in his work; rather he finds his Moo.com products create a canvas that customers can use to tell their own stories.  Moross finds great joy creating new product designs that enable more effective customer storytelling.  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.

Idan Cohen on Why Your Career is Not Your Life

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "Where Do You Seek Inspiration Outside Your Career?"  Cohen challenges Erik's question, as he does not feel what he is does is a part of a "career".  Instead, he finds his family, past, present and future, and his work define his life.  This is not something linear, however, as he keeps himself open to new possibilities that plot on a timeline but not necessarily a specific career ladder.  It is less about progressing on a career and more about a life journey. 

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: Where do you seek inspiration outside of your career?

Idan Cohen: Okay, I think that the one important thing about this question is that I do not look at my—what I’m doing as a career. It’s just career is very, very boring. Anyone who’s—I’m sorry, I don’t wanna hurt anyone but anyone who’s, you know, focusing about his career then I don’t know—it’s okay, it’s great, but for me that’s the wrong choice because my work definitely defines my life.

I think there’s 2 things that kind of defines your life, and that’s family and the family that you’re gonna build, and work. ‘Cause at the end of the day, I can’t see myself not working, or not creating, doesn’t matter right now, so that’s why it’s not exactly working, I’m not going to work, I’m going to make things. And I choose what I’m going to make, and it’s not about career, it’s about building bigger things and better things and different things, and maybe going sideways and maybe going forward, and making steps into accomplishing more complicated tasks. But it’s definitely not about going to work, and it’s definitely not about career, the path and just, you know, thinking today I wanna be here and tomorrow— you know, today I wanna be this position and tomorrow I wanna be in that position, is that really interesting enough?

It should be about what you’re actually doing, it might be, you know, today I can accomplish this and tomorrow if I wanna build something bigger, I need to accomplish all of that. So it’s not about the title, it’s about what you make. And that’s how I look at it. I really don’t like to look at myself as going to work. I might say that day-to-day, you know, I’m at work but I’m just—I’m at life. I’m currently doing what I love doing.

How to Turn a Cancer Tragedy into Something Good - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 1 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What is Your Entrepreneur Story?"  Rubin recounts how after his father died of myeloma cancer, he tries to raise money to fight cancer.  The process proves painful and frustrating and, over time, Rubin meets what would be his two IndieGoGo co-founders, Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell.   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.

Erik Michielsen: What’s your entrepreneur story?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, so when I was 15, my dad died of cancer and then for 10 years I really couldn’t deal with it and then as a New Year’s resolution I decided to finally do something about it and I started my own charity called Music Against Myeloma. This was in the middle of the last decade when the internet really sucked for raising money. So, I tried using Myspace. I remember Facebook was smaller than Myspace and Twitter was nascent, YouTube was not owned by Google and Obama wasn’t a word. So, it was pretty challenging to raise money using the internet.

I had this discussion with two other peers Eric Shell and Danae Ringelman and the three of us all shared our mutual frustration of hard it was to use the internet to raise money. So, in January 2008, we decided to launch a platform that would democratize fundraising called Indiegogo and, you know, we persevered through the market crash of 2008 and 2009 and beyond reason continued to work at Indiegogo and really the last couple of years have been consistent growth and we’re excited now to be funding millions of dollars globally every month. So, that’s how I got here which is turning cancer into something good.

Courtney Spence on How Travel Creates Cathartic Moments

In Chapter 5 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?"  Spence notes how the art and journey of traveling has helped her find breakthrough moments in her life.  She notes the trips need not be exotic; rather, it is about the experiences that make a trip and resulting positive and inspirational impact they have in her life.  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: What have you found most rewarding about traveling to new places?

Courtney Spence: I think new places prompts new ideas. Big landscapes prompt big ideas. I think there is so much to the art and the journey of traveling. Even if it’s being in an airport or flying in an airplane or being in a train or driving a car, I think that it’s not about the destination, as much as it is about the actual journey itself. And I’ve realized that I’m fortunate that I’ve always loved the journey. I actually love flying. I, you know, couldn’t help that I’m really short and so the little spaces I can fit into easily, but I really do enjoy that process of meeting new people and seeing things I hadn’t seen before and really have, particularly in the last 6 months, recognized the need – when you’re trying to think of new things, or you’re trying to go through a breakthrough or you’re up against a wall and you just – you’re in a rut or you need something big to shift, you’ve gotta move yourself out of the location that you’ve been in and the locations quite frankly that you’re familiar with to really breakthrough effectively. At least that’s what I need.

So, I’ve seen it happen and I’ve been able to sort of reflect on the moments where we have gone through breakthroughs with Students of the World, which are also breakthroughs for me personally. They’ve really come from going to new places. And, you know, places like Chesapeake Bay or Norfolk, Virginia, I mean they’re very – it doesn’t have to be exotic necessarily, it just has to be new. So I’ve learned a lot about that, and particularly recently, so.

Audrey French on Why to Have Coaches in Your Life

In Chapter 11 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "At This Moment in Your Life Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  French notes how she first looks to close relationships - her husband and best friends - for advice.  She then looks outside her inner circle to experts, for example her fitness coach and career coach.  She shares how important it has been to be willing to be coached and allow others to help her hold herself to higher standards. 

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. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Audrey Parker French: Seeking advice and coaching has actually been a predominant theme in my life over the last 5 to 6 years. Right now I would say I’m seeking the most coaching from the people closest to me that I look up to. My husband, my best friends, and then beyond that, if it’s something other than, you know, something in that frame, I’ll go to someone who has a specific area of expertise and ask for some sort of coaching or advice. You know having a fitness coach, you know, if I wanted to change some of my fitness goals, and you know I don’t wanna ask someone who doesn’t really know about fitness about being my coach for something like that.

So you know, I think that having coaches and being willing to be coached and hold yourself to a high standard and have someone else hold you to that same high standard, it has done incredible things in my life, in my career and in my personal life to have coaches in both of those areas of my life, my professional coach has really helped me improve my professionalism and develop in areas that I – I could’ve, yes, of course I would’ve developed but it would’ve taken me a lot longer, and I’ve had personal coaches in my life, for emotional and spiritual guidance and coaching that have really, in those areas, helped me to grow a lot faster. So – and actually I’ve been coaching some women in my life and it’s nice to feel like I’m able to, you know, to return that favor to other women who can look to me for inspiration and guidance and coaching.

How Leadership and Management Work Together

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "What is the Difference Between Effective Management and Leadership?"  Goswami discusses the duality of leadership and management and also how they differ.  He talks about management, as an externalized skill, can be learned and leadership, more internalized, is more difficult to teach.  Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What is the difference between effective management and leadership?

Bijoy Goswami:  Management I think is about how you get from A to B, you know. What are the set of things that need to be accomplished from getting someone or a team or an organization from A to B. So, it’s about breaking things down to tasks about, you know, understanding what’s something—what’s involved, who’s on the team, what are people doing, that kind of thing. 

Leadership is providing the inspiration. The why. Why should we do those tasks? Why does it matter that we’re going from here to A to B. So, to me these are very linked. The duality of management and leadership is that they’re linked, intermingled but they’re very different. 

So, a lot of the times people might be very good at one and might not be as good at the other but leadership again I think is, is certainly the place where I get excited because I think management is, it can be learned very easily because it’s an externalize skill, you know, you kinda go okay, here’s some principles, here’s some ways of doing it. You know, I think a lot of times leadership is taught like management which I think is a mistake like “Leadership, there’s this 25 rules of leadership”, I don’t think it works that way. 

I think leadership is much more personal, it’s much more, you know, it comes from within. So, that is the hard thing is that in a way I don’t think leadership can be taught. You think you can be given a way to find out what your leadership is about, who you are as a leader. So, then maybe you can teach that like I work in leadership Austin in Austin, that’s a lot of what happens there is they go what is leadership to you? Whereas with management, I think you can really sit there and teach that and say here’s what management is.

How Father Inspires Son to Pursue Public Service Career - Ken Biberaj

In Chapter 1 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council candidate and public relations executive Ken Biberaj answers "What is the Source of Your Passion for Public Service?"  Biberaj shares what he learned from his parents' immigration story, including his father's public service as a radio broadcaster for "Voice of America" in Albania.  This teaches Ken that public service matters and informed his education and career decisions to fulfill this intention.  Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Candidate for New York City Council for the West Side of Manhattan.  He is also a public relations executive for the Russian Tea Room restaurant at One Fifty Fifty Seven Corporation, a family business focused on real estate development, investment sales and retail leasing.  Previously he was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. He holds a JD from New York Law School, a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from American University.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: What is the source of your passion for public service?

Ken Biberaj: Well, my parents emigrated from Albania and we ended up in the Bronx. And my dad worked 3 jobs while learning English. He was the oldest of 8 kids. He worked as a pizza man, a doorman, and a cab driver, and went to Columbia. And he got his PhD at Columbia and then came back to get a job for the government in DC at Voice of America. While he was there, he was the head of the Albanian service so he was on-air broadcasting into a communist country and we had no idea if anybody was ever listening to it.

As communism began to crumble in Albania, turned out that everybody was listening to my dad on the radio, so we kind of grew up seeing our father as somebody who had had such an impact on an entire country. So what he was able to do as just one person has always been a source of inspiration for me in understanding that public service matters. You can actually have a real impact on people’s lives.

And because of his work and you know, he’s my dad, and I’m the oldest of 4 kids, I always wanted to kind of emulate what he had done. So I went to American University in DC and tried to get involved locally there. Went on to the Harvard Kennedy School and then worked on a presidential campaign and all the while trying to do what I could to make my community better, but always in the back of my head understanding that we all kind of have an obligation to do public service.

How Family Role Models Teach Work Ethic - Ken Biberaj

In Chapter 9 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council candidate and public relations executive Ken Biberaj answers "Where Did You Learn Your Work Ethic?"  Biberaj tells the story of his family, starting with his grandfather and his work moving the family out of Albania to the Bronx in New York City.  He shares how this blossomed into his father getting a world class Columbia University education and pursuing a public service career, his uncle running The Russian Tea Room, and the entrepreneurial initiatives of his mother.  Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Candidate for New York City Council for the West Side of Manhattan.  He is also a public relations executive for the Russian Tea Room restaurant at One Fifty Fifty Seven Corporation, a family business focused on real estate development, investment sales and retail leasing.  Previously he was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. He holds a JD from New York Law School, a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from American University. 

Fabian Pfortmüller on How to Break Out of a Comfort Zone

In Chapter 10 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller answers "What is Your Comfort Zone and What Do You Do to Break Free of Living in It?"  He shares how he gets into a comfort zone when doing overly repetitive tasks.  He shares how creating a risk-taking program at work has helped him to experience new things and seek out others who think big and challenge his thinking.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of the young leader accelerator, Sandbox Network, and HOLSTEE, an apparel and design firm that sells meaningful products to mindful shoppers.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its school of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What is your comfort zone and what do you do to break free of living in it?

Fabian Pfortmüller: When I have too often the same task or the same objective on my plate and on my task list, I'm too much in my comfort zone and I feel that if I don’t take enough risk and if I'm not a little bit scared, I must be too much in my comfort zone. We have this tradition at HOLSTEE where we pick one risk a week, where just every week we say let’s just, you know, randomly pick one risk of something we wanna achieve. It’s kind of something we’re scared off, something that we might not do otherwise and it’s so energizing.

It’s so often we get things done like this and we did a little experiment last year where we actually created a whole role about risk taking and we called it Agent99 and Agent99 was an internship that was about 99 risks in 99 days. So, we would pick some risks of things that we thought would be good for our community, would be good for, I don’t know, the world, would have a good impact and would also help us as a brand at HOLSTEE and we then found amazing perfect person who was so willing to take risk and he just went out and achieved it. And I think that’s a great, that’s a great way of doing it.

I think for us really thinking big helps me to get kind of just out of comfort zone and one thing that I believe helps me also is being surrounded by people that really think big. I realize that when I'm surrounded by other entrepreneurs and I kind of get this chilly feeling of like, “Oh, my god, that’s kind of crazy.” That’s what I want for myself as well and that’s what I want for my own idea as well and when I'm missing it, I know something is not good.

It’s good to have a little bit of fear in it because it means you’re really going for a big idea and you’re not just executing something and in the end of the day we’re trying out something new that has not been done before. We’re building something that has not there before and that little bit of like “uh-oh”, in the back of my head is something very healthy.

How to Cultivate and Mature Your Creative Process - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "How is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  Margolis shares how he is shifting his creative inspiration from outside-in to inside-out.  He details how the stimulation is shifting from external to internal, specifically working with the experience, knowledge and tools gained to create and produce.  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. 

Where to Find Inspiration Outside of Work - Mike Germano

In Chapter 4 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "Where Do You Find Inspiration Outside of Work?"  Germano shares the inspiration he gets as a newlywed in his marriage.  He also highlights how underdog stories give him energy and inspiration.  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.

Finding Food Writing Inspiration Reading Thoreau

In Chapter 12 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Have Thoreau's Words 'None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life from the vantage point of what we should call 'voluntary poverty' ' inspired your work?"  These words, from Thoreau's "Walden", inspire Erway to put herself in a place to see things from another person's shoes, which opens a creative channel that becomes her blog and, progressively, her healthy food advocacy platform. 

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 have Thoreau's words "None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage point of what we should call voluntary poverty," inspired your work?

Cathy Erway:  That's a very interesting quote, isn't it? I thought it was so audacious for him to say that. It's so -- You've never heard something like that. I haven't before, so I thought it was, "Wow, what a bold statement," and that's what really caught me when I saw it, and obviously if we could say it a different way it would make a lot more sense. So you could say, "Altruism is..." you know, "…the best way to get to know about life and people." But he said this kind of shocking, you know, word poverty, voluntary poverty, that's crazy, right? So it did inspire me and it made me feel brave to start a blog called, "not eating out in New York" because that sounds pretty weird, that sounds shocking, a little crazy, and I just knew that it was going to be -- it was going to work because of that, because I liked it. It just caught me.

Erik Michielsen:  And was there sacrifice?

Cathy Erway:  Was there sacrifice? I mean the whole experiment was like a big sacrifice. But I thought, you know, I thought of a lot different names that would sound nicer to you, on the ear, it would just kind of be evocative of, like fruits or something like, you know, something nice, something pleasant, something people like to hear. "Oh, you know, 'juicy tomato,' that sounds great." But that wouldn't really say anything about the blog so I was like just go ahead, just do it, just say, "not eating out in New York." "What?" You know…

Erik Michielsen:  With regard to voluntary poverty, does that come back to being surrounded by so many professionals and a lot of wealth, and choosing to kind of go against that, and then tying that into your choices from a writing and food perspective?

Cathy Erway:  Yeah, I think that that pretty much sums it up. I mean, voluntary poverty means you've taken it upon yourself to see things from another person's shoes. So, you know, going back to -- that's another way of putting that statement, right? So, yeah, I mean we live in the most cosmopolitan, arguably, city in the world. Of course there's a huge disparity of, you know, different incomes in the city, so you can see that all around you, but for the most part, I mean, yes, I mean we have everything at our fingertips, the greatest arts, the greatest food, which is what I was going to focus on, and, you know, Thoreau, his whole thing was he stepped away from society. That quote is from Walden, so he lived in the middle of the wilderness in Walden Pond actually, and survived, and learned how to survive basically on his own devices, so that's what I was comparing myself to doing by feeding myself all the time when there's so much non-need to do that.

How Motorcycle Lifestyle Inspires JaegerSloan Brand - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2012 interview, entrepreneur Doug Jaeger answers "How Do Motorcycles Play into Your Story?"  He shares what motorcycles have done to shape his New York City experience and how they came to represent attributes - awareness, efficiency, speed, fun, design excellence - behind the JaegerSloan brand.  Doug Jaeger is the co-founder of JaegerSloan, a multimedia design services firm in New York City.  His street front office doubles as the JS55 Gallery. Jaeger is also an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).  He graduated from Syracuse University.

Grandmother Influences on Personal Growth - Yoav Gonen

In Chapter 7 of 11 in his 2011 interview, education reporter Yoav Gonen answers "How Have You Built a Relationship With Your Grandmother and How Has It Shaped Your Life?"  Gonen notes the importance of strong women in his life, especially his grandmothers.  Through counsel from both grandmothers and his mother, Gonen learns to be more confident and stand up for himself.  Yoav Gonen is the education reporter for the New York Post newspaper in New York City.  He earned a Masters of Journalism degree from New York University and a BA in English from the University of Michigan.

Jullien Gordon on How Storytelling Class Improves Public Speaking

In Chapter 10 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon answers "How is Your Public Speaking Experience Teaching You to More Effectively Engage an Audience?"  Gordon shares how taking a storytelling course helps him better share his experiences and connect with audiences.  The storytelling, combined with what he learns taking a stand-up comedy course, help him create more actionable personal and professional development messages to his audience.  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:  How is your public speaking experience teaching you to more effectively engage an audience?

Jullien Gordon:  In addition to my comedy class I’ve actually taken a storytelling class with a company called Narrative, and I know just based on my own experiences and the messages and the guidelines for life that have stuck with me, have all come through stories and so I’m actually working on things to become a better storyteller, like I said I went to a comedy class to become a better communicator and when I’ve coupled these things with the messages that I already have, this comedy and this storytelling, has allowed the messages that I have to share with the world to actually stick and land in a deeper place for people and so it’s just -- it’s been amazing to be able to touch people in so many ways. 

One of the most beautiful things that I love is getting emails from people within like 48 hours after a speaking engagement because you know speaking engagements they can inspire you in a lot ways, but for me inspiration isn’t enough.  I actually need to see people make changes in their life otherwise the inspiration it comes and it goes and that’s not enough to actually cause change.  I like to see when people actually make a change in their life as a result of something I said and when I get those emails back about people’s new commitments based on what I shared with them, that means the world to me.

Jullien Gordon on How to Take Action on an Inspiring Moment

In Chapter 14 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon answers "What is Your Process for Designing Career Learning Products and Programs?"  Gordon goes into detail on how he takes action on inspiring moments and creates learning products and expeirences that help others.  Gordon shares the step-by-step evolution of that idea and how he packages the idea and delivers it to an audience.  From this, Gordon, develops an annual framework that allows him to continuously turn new ideas into learning and career education products.  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 is your process for designing career-learning products and programs?

Jullien Gordon: The first process is for inspiration.  For instance, the Route 66 tour started out of being inspired by a statistic from the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2009, that only 20% of college grads had jobs on hand at graduation and I had two little brothers who had been through college and that was inspiration.  I was just like, you know what I have to do something about this, this is a huge problem. 

From there I wrote a blog entry called 66 things to do before you graduate then I tried to share that blog entry with as many people as possible so I reached out in the National Society of Collegiate Scholars who I was a member of during undergrad and all I originally wanted them to do was send it out to their membership. When they saw it, they invited me in to come share it as a presentation.  They loved the presentation and we formed a partnership and that became a tour.  So that’s kind of been processes starting with being fully inspired and committed to solving a particular specific problem, from there packaging it or creating some sort of comprehensive way of delivering it. For this instance we chose a book and a presentation and a tour and then from there just going and doing the work. 

So I noticed that I have this rhythm in my life that has been occurring for the past three years, which is in the summer is like my down time when I’m actually in creation mode.  That’s when The Innerview was produced, that’s when 8 Cylinders of Success was produce, Good Excuse Goals, Route 66, those were all produced in this summer type area and then I go out in the fall and I try to test them.  I test them in small places at first and then to see if they work in those test markets and once I get proof that they work then I commit the rest of the next year to actually expanding them and spreading them as widely as possible. 

So I have this rhythm in my life of this creation phase like in June, July, August, this experiment phase towards the end of the year and then this execution phase from January to June of the next year.  So that’s kind of been my cycle and my rhythm of creating the products that I’ve created.

How to Recruit Top Technical Talent - Marc Ferrentino

In Chapter 14 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, cloud computing technology executive Marc Ferrentino answers "How Have You Learned to Be a More Effective Recruiter of Top Technical Talent?"  Ferrentino notes the scarcity of top technical talent means companies must look outside regular levers, including pay, to differentiate themselves and attract the best employees.  He notes the power of storytelling in better framing the company culture and purpose.  Additionally, he uses story to help people feel they are part of something larger than themselves and part of a cause.  Ferrentino is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of cloud computing at BMC Software.  Previously, he was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) at Salesforce.com.  Previous to Salesforce.com, Ferrentino worked in mobile and Internet startups and at Goldman Sachs.  He earned a BSEE in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.