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.

Joe Stump on Management Career Advice on Finding a Mentor

In Chapter 9 of 14 in his 2012 interview, Internet entrepreneur Joe Stump answers "At This Point in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Stump references his goals to be a good businessman, programmer, partner, son, and brother.  He recognizes the domain specific nature of each and highlights the importance of cycling in new opinions regularly.  As his career responsibilities progressively become management focused, he turns to new mentors, including his father, who provide outside perspectives from different industries.  Joe Stump is a serial entrepreneur based in Portland, OR. He is CEO and co-founder of Sprint.ly, a product management software company.  Previously he founded SimpleGeo, which was sold to Urban Airship in October 2011.  He advises several startups - including attachments.me and ngmoco:) - as well as VC firm Freestyle Capital.  He earned a BBA in Computer Information Systems (CIS) from Eastern Michigan University. 

Transcript:

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

Joe Stump: A number of areas. I continue to leverage my Jedi Council. I have a number of mentors. I find that you can’t – I mean look, long term, I have to be a good businessman, I have to be a good programmer, I have to be a good boyfriend, partner, husband to my lady, and I have to be a good son and brother. And those each take different skill sets. And so, the mentoring that I seek out tends to be a little bit more domain-specific.

I also try to cycle new opinions into the Jedi Council. So, what I seek out now, like it's changed a lot. I used to lean heavily on a lot of programming mentors. I'm not programming as much anymore so I don’t really lean on them so much. I've actually been leaning a lot more on my dad when it comes to management. My dad’s a great manager. He’s done great things where he’s at and I like talking to him about that because he gives me an outside perspective from a completely different industry on how to interact and build employees up.

I have a friend of mine who is also kind of an engineering manager similar to me and he has this saying about employees. He treats employees, he thinks of employees like campsites and that you should leave them better than you found them. So, getting that outside perspective, I think is really important. I think it's been a really great bonding experience. My dad now calls me and will ask me questions about management, which I think is kind of funny.

So yeah, so what I look for in a mentor has definitely evolved over time because my career has evolved. Like, I'm no longer – I’m not sitting and banging out 10,000 lines of code a day. I'm managing, I got to do accounting now, I got to do – like I’m management benefits, I got to talk to lawyers, I have to read contracts. So yes, seeking out different advice now from different people has been pretty important.

Joe stump on How an Entrepreneur Learns the Startup Investing Game

In Chapter 12 of 14 in his 2012 interview, Internet entrepreneur Joe Stump answers "How Have Your Entrepreneurial Pursuits Taught You to Be a Better Investor?"  After raising money for three companies, advising a venture capital firm and investing his own money in three companies, Stump shares what he has learned about startup investing.  He describes the portfolio theory approach VC firms take and how as an entrepreneur he has learned to compete as a portfolio firm.  He learns the mechanics of angel, seed, series A and series B investing and how to negotiate contract terms.  Joe Stump is a serial entrepreneur based in Portland, OR. He is CEO and co-founder of Sprint.ly, a product management software company.  Previously he founded SimpleGeo, which was sold to Urban Airship in October 2011.  He advises several startups - including attachments.me and ngmoco:) - as well as VC firm Freestyle Capital.  He earned a BBA in Computer Information Systems (CIS) from Eastern Michigan University. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How have your entrepreneurial pursuits taught you to be a better investor?

Joe Stump: So, I've been involved in a number of ways with venture capital, raising money. I've raised money now for two companies myself and I've helped a third company raise money as well. I'm a fund adviser for Freestyle Capital and I've invested my own money into three companies now. And the things that I have learned are that there are billions of dollars that are being deployed in what at times appears to be a very chaotic manner.

VCs work off of portfolio theory. They invest in a hundred companies and they expect 95 of them to fail for the most part. And what that lesson taught me as an entrepreneur is if you're one of those 95, guess what, you are competing with 95 other people for probably 20 percent of their time because they're spending the other 80 percent of their time on the five winners. So, that’s a harsh reality to learn but it's good to know and I think that there are times when getting the attention of your VC and your investors can actually be a bad thing. I mean, not that they're bad people or whatever, but it's nice to sometimes work without having the pressure.

So, I know founders that will withhold good information for just a little while longer so that they can have a little bit more breathing room and then they're like, “Ta-Da! We're one of the five!” and then the VCs are like, herd over. And they’re like …  and they bear hug them, you know, and they’re like oh god. It's like when your mom gives you a hug, you're like, “Mom, stop.” You know.

So, that’s been interesting to learn about. The way that... What's been really fascinating to me is like someone like me that dress like me, looks like me, says the F word as much as I do, can walk into a guy’s office who manages billions of dollars and then I’ll show him -- well, with my last company, I didn’t even have a PowerPoint presentation. I didn’t even have a presentation. I had a financial model in Google Docs, a product document, and a prototype and they were just like, “Oh yeah. Let me pull out the check book, and just write you a giant check with lots of commas in it” and you're like, “Really?” It seems -- Growing up in a blue color family in the Midwest, it seems like you're cheating somehow, like you're stealing money or whatever. So, that’s been really interesting.

A lot of people on the outside view it as like oh this – that the firms don’t really talk with each other and that they're always competing and they do compete for deals. But it's not really like that at all. They talk a lot to each other, they will actually -- I won’t say fully collude but I mean there are a lot of times that the VCs are back channeling with each other a lot more than entrepreneurs really realize. And then you just learn the basic mechanics like I know now that Angel investors, depending on the Angel investor, they want between a half a point and one and a half percent. They want enough that we’ll take their $20,000 to $100,000 investment and turn it into a million dollars, right? If you're the first point and a half in, that can happen if it’s one of those five companies.

I now know that seed stage, they generally want between 12.5% and 17% of the company. I know that the series A wants 20 percent, series B, things start going back down because hopefully by then you're making money and what not then looking at more anywhere between 10% and 20% and the C is definitely kind of in the 10% range. So the basic mechanics of understanding how that game is played has been invaluable to me.

I've been able to negotiate better terms for myself, I have been able to…I advise a number of companies, I've been able to return sheets over and tell them, “Hey! Maybe we shouldn’t do that. Maybe we should do this,” and getting clear insight into how the VCs interact with each other and who likes who and who doesn’t like who and how they work together has made me a much stronger -- I won’t say opponent, but like when I go into the ring with those guys, like I know who’s going to say what to who and how that’s going to all work out. And knowing the players in the game makes you a better player.

I almost feel like one of the best defensive basketball players of all time: Dennis Rodman. That man watched hundreds of thousands of hours of video and it was all so that he could know his players, his opponents inside and out. And being an adviser, being a fund adviser, investing my money, et cetera, that’s my way in to understanding the game and my opponents and who I'm going to be going up against as far as the next -- who goes on down the line and getting insight into their mentality.

I read an interview once about Dennis Rodman and they were talking about how much of a fanatic he was about watching tapes and he got so good at it that he could literally say by the time the guy flicked his wrist – so you’re talking about the ball is maybe one-third of the way to the rim. He will be like, “That’s going to bounce off the back of the rim off the left side. That’s going to bounce off the front of the rim straight down the lane.” That’s how good he was. Doing that has taken me from being a blue-collar kid that grew up in a cornfield to somebody who can negotiate contracts with some of the best MBAs that our country has and it's really fun.

Jon Kolko on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 1 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Kolko shares how mentors have taught him to pick his battles and not fight every fight.  By being more selective on what he takes on, he lowers his stress levels.  He still wrestles with an inner dialogue of the quantity, validity and craftsmanship of the work he does. 

Jon Kolko 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: What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Jon Kolko: Let's start with what's getting easier. I feel like if I say it out loud then everyone will laugh. At least people who know me will laugh because it isn’t true. But I feel like I'm less of a stressed out maniacal control freak about things. I feel like I'm able to let the little stuff go and again, maybe like everybody is, “Seriously? He’s still a total ass.” But I do feel like I’ve figured out -- like all of my mentors in the past have said in some way, shape, or form, pick your battles, and I never understood it and I never did it.

And so, everything was a battle. Anything that wasn’t going my way was always like, ok, we're going to argue about it and I'm going to get my way, and I do feel like I figured out how to just simply ignore the stuff that is irrelevant and to reprioritize what matters and what doesn’t and really emphasize – you know, fight for the stuff that matters and let everything else go to the wayside. I think my stress my level has decreased tremendously as a result of that.

What's getting harder? Staying out drinking all night long, I'm not able to do that anymore. I'm losing my hair. I don’t know if anything’s getting harder. Actually I'm in a pretty good place recently. I feel really good about the way that my work is going, my life is going, my relationships are headed. I always have that sort of inner dialogue about the quantity and validity, and craftsmanship of the work I do and I suppose that’s true about anyone who does anything creative but that hasn’t gone away. I wouldn’t say that’s harder to deal with, it's just hard to deal with it and it's always there. But I don’t think that -- it's not new, this. That is what it is.

How Entrepreneur Courtney Spence Seeks Advice and Mentors

In Chapter 14 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Spence notes how she is seeking advice and coaching in new ways, including her board of directors.  After Spence finds herself lonely and isolated as an entrepreneur, she places a higher priority on building peer entrepreneur and female mentor relationships.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag 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: At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Courtney Spence:  I am seeking advice and coaching in ways that I haven’t before, for sure. I think if you’re gonna go do something big, or grow, or scale, you have to have mentors and people that can advise you. I, of course, have my parents. I have the members of our board of directors which are – we purposely have kept our board really small and they are people that I ultimately trust, and are guiding me just as much as they’re guiding the organization. I recognize that as we grow, that board of directors will need to grow and change as well, but right now it’s a really solid core group of individuals that can advise me from very different perspectives.

I would also say though that I think I am in a position where I would like to have a couple of more mentors in place, particularly female mentors, I think that I’ve never actively sought out mentorship before, and I have recognized that I desperately need that, especially from a female perspective. I think that just as I’m recognizing the need to surround myself with other entrepreneurs, I think there is a real need for – Well, let me just say this, I didn’t realize how lonely I was until about a few months ago, when I started to spend more time with other entrepreneurs through not any sort of purpose or it just – it just sort of happened. And when I was able to talk to people that had been through similar situations that I was going through and then understood that, you know, the need to be certain in times of uncertainty like that, you know, all of these things that I had been struggling with, I recognized, “Wow, I’ve been trying to do this all by myself”. And with not necessarily the adequate support.

And again, if wanna go run the most effective, wonderful organization movement that I can, I’ve gotta be supporting myself in some ways, so I am realizing that there is great value and need in having advice and mentorship.

Courtney Spence on How Support Networks Help Women Professionals

In Chapter 15 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "What Makes a Women's Professional Network Valuable?"  Spence notes the majority of her organization is female.  She notes the career and parenting balancing challenges being a woman presents and the importance of both giving support to and receiving support from other women while finding that balance over time.   Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag 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 makes a women’s professional network valuable?

Courtney Spence: Interestingly enough, our staff is 98% female. We work – it’s all women and it’s not purposeful it’s just how its happened. It’s been wonderful and I think what I’ve realized is I think women – everybody has their challenges and this is not a woe is us, but women do have a lot more to balance, in a sense of, you know, this – the urge and desires to have a family and the urge and desires to have a career, and just by default that women have to carry the babies for 9 months and deal with that repercussion, there’s a lot more to I think that struggle of I want – if I wanna be a mother, I wanna be a great mother. If I’m wanna be a professional, I’ll be a great professional, and I wanna do both. How in the hell am I gonna do both?

I think that, you know, I look at my mother and she was – she’s, I’m convinced, the best mother in the world. And I wanna be just like her if I choose that path to have children but how am I gonna do that and do Students of the World which is a child, and it’s my child that I have had for 12 years. So how do I do that? How do I struggle with the emotions that come with that? I think there’s, again, as you get into your 30’s, you start to really – you have to start making decisions that will affect the rest of your life. You have to start living more consciously than you did in your 20’s, or at least I have, because you do recognize that, you know, life doesn’t go on forever and that there are certain phases to life and you have to prepare yourself for those because you don’t wanna wake up one day and be like, how did I – I never made a choice, and this is where I am. I wanna be a lot more an active participant in my life personally.

And so as I’m struggling through what does that mean and what does that look like, finding other women to be supportive and give advice and go through those trenches with me and me to do that with others is really important because I think there’s not just the need to be mentored and supported but as women, we feel the need to support and mentor others in general, and there is great satisfaction that comes from that.

And I think that for me, the women – the women’s movement – and, you know, this started, you know, when I wrote a, you know, high school paper on the importance of first ladies, and I remember I sent a copy to then first lady Hillary Clinton. And I realized that Hillary has been such a really, really incredible role model for me, you know, that I, you know particularly since 2008, have recognized the need to really bring women together and that the importance of a woman’s network and how difficult that is because, you know, unlike other groups or cohorts, women are so diverse, you know, in physical locations, in socio-economic situations, but we all have the commonality of being female, of being a woman, and how do we bring that group together more effectively is a great challenge of our time I think.

What Married Friends Can Teach You About What Makes a Marriage Work

In Chapter 5 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Have Your Friends Taught You About What Makes a Marriage Work?"  French listens and learns from married couples, including those starting and raising families.  She learns about the power of transparency, communication, and family values.  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: What have your friends taught you about what makes a marriage work?

Audrey Parker French: Well, one of my closest friends has been married for 10 years, and I was the maid of honor at her wedding, and I’ve watched her and her husband over the last 10 years, and she’s taught me a lot more than she would probably know or say that she’s taught me. Because I’ve done a lot of observing, they have a very healthy strong marriage, and in spending time with her and with other friends who have the kind of marriages that I really have looked up to, they’ve taught me how people can be real, how it’s important to be real.

It doesn’t mean you always put on a happy face if you’re not really happy, you really have to be with whatever is in – whatever is there, you have to really be okay to talk about it or get it off your chest and it’s not always pretty per se and yet even after you go through something that’s not pretty, it can get a lot prettier because you’ve had the courage to hash out whatever is in the way. And I’ve also watched them move from being a married couple, a happily married couple into being a happy parent couple. They have 3 children now and they are just watching the – I mean the – talk about life changes, I mean marriage is one, having children is a big life altering change.

And watching them as a couple go through that 3 times and watching them interact with their children, it’s taught me so much. And I’m very, very grateful to have friends in my life who can demonstrate those values to me because, you know, I’d recommend to anybody, you know, before you dive into starting a company or starting any kind of new venture, it’s important to have something that you’ve seen before or that you can envision so that you know what you’re aiming for and I really – I’m very, very glad and grateful and blessed to have the friends that I do so that I can feel like that I’m entering my marriage in this stage of life with some really good role models and some really good teachers and some really good confidants that when I have a problem or question or whatever that I have some people that I can go to for support. It’s wonderful. 

How to Cultivate a Future Generation of Leaders - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 8 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "What Has Been Most Exciting Thing About Making the Transition From Winning Austinite of the Year to Encouraging a Future Generation of Leaders in Austin?"  Curtis reflects on his time as Austinite of the Year and how he is turning his attention to promoting more formal program alumni involvement to support future award winners in the Austin community.  Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn.  In 2011, Curtis won "Austinite of the Year" in the Austin Under 40 Awards.  He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

How Mentor Network Guides Long Term Life Choices - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 10 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "At This Point in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Curtis notes how he goes to a variety of people for advice, including a network of advisors and mentors from his Whole Foods, Austin breakfast crowd.  He notes the importance of learning from older community leaders successes and failures.  Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn.  In 2011, Curtis won "Austinite of the Year" in the Austin Under 40 Awards.  He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

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 Learning to Work With Coaches and Mentors

In Chapter 9 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller answers "At This Moment in Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Pfortmüller is learning to take advice and coaching more seriously after realizing, as an entrepreneur, he has been learning by doing when, in fact, learning from others may often be more effective.  He details how he engages his mentor and peer support networks to make the respective relationships more valuable.  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: At this moment in life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Fabian Pfortmüller: Where I stand right now, I realize that advice and coaching actually is more and more important and I start to take it more seriously and I start to more proactively look for it. I realized over the last year that I as an entrepreneur have been very often learning by doing and very often there is no need to do it the first time yourself because so many people have done it before and I think looking to other people to learn from them, also to books or existing sources of learning has been a big change in my life.

I look for mentors on two levels, on the one hand more senior people. I've been fortunate to have a few very senior people supporting me for several years now. I usually try to interact with them and talk with them in a very informal setting. So, we meet over breakfast or we meet for dinner where I think the more open I can be the more valuable that relationship is. Also the more I can show what is not going well, the more valuable it is for me.

The other group of people that is really supportive and has been extremely helpful is a peer community like Sandbox where people are my age or even younger than I am but they are going through the same things and the more and more I start to really take advantage of that peer group. It’s working with mentors and working with coaches for me has a lot to do with being able to show weaknesses, being able to formulate what you’re not good at and being able to formulate your challenges and that’s something that I have to learn. It’s not something that I can just do by nature.

Michael Margolis on Improving Online Info Product Marketing

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Margolis shares how coaches and advisors have been useful as his business has marketed, launched, and grown his online info product business.  He shares how advisors have helped him grow as a leader to help his business refine its culture and value framework for future growth. 

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. 

Transcript: 

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

Michael Margolis: There’s a few things I'm really focused on with growing my business right now. One is really the internet marketing playbook for product launches and info product creation and so last year we designed and rolled out a program called The New About Me, teaches people how to reinvent their personal bio into a story. Basically, how do you talk about yourself without sounding like a douche. And, it’s a really fun cool product, people love it, it’s this whole curriculum online and just learning a lot of the fundamentals of not only designing a curriculum or info product but how do you market it and how do you bring in affiliates and joint venture partners and all the various different things for doing a product launch and we’re now taking that to the next level for this Reinvention Summit that we’re doing. 

So, I've got all sorts of coaches and advisors on that that are teaching me about Autoresponder series. We just shot a free video series on storytelling as part of our product launch for this and just seeing all the little devil in the details, which I used to kinda geek out with a little bit and realizing that there’s sort of an exponential curve of where we can take things. So, I'm getting a lot of support there. The second big area is really around editorial. So, we all know the adage content is king. So, in my case, you know, the niche of storytelling is a really unique niche and one that, you could say storytelling is a really hot business trend right now. Everybody’s interested and curious about it especially how it relates to branding and marketing and innovation and social media and culture change. Those are some of the big buckets. Everybody is looking at the storytelling stuff and so I have a lot of opportunities that have come my way for not only creating content but syndicating that content or creating content series and so really getting a lot of support there as well for how we build, get storied into more of both an online destination, right. Sort of an online magazine for the business of storytelling.  And then how we also create sort of key segments or key content series for various different niche audiences whether it’s the self-publishing audience, whether it’s an entrepreneur audience, whether it’s a marketing audience and so on. So, those are the two big buckets from a business perspective. I'm getting lots of coaching and advice from -- on the personal front, it’s really been about sort of a new maturation for the business, which is about growing an organization.  

So, even though there’s an aspect to where we’re at we get story that’s still very much a startup. But now there’s a real team in place. So, I'm really conscious of we’re creating a culture whether we’re consciously thinking about it or not but the decisions that we make are shaping a culture, right? We’re instilling certain set of values. Saying this matters over this. Saying we stand for that. Some of those choices are things that I'm getting a lot of feedback from and inputs so that, you know, I can support as CEO really create the right environment to really empower the development and the performance of all the different people on my team.

Finding Obstacles When Seeking Advice and Coaching - Jason Anello

In Chapter 17 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?"  Anello shares the challenge he is finding as he seeks advice and mentoring to get help learning business operations.  In seeking experience and knowledge he shares the difficulties he faces finding the right mentor and the right advice.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany. 

Cathy Erway on How to Find a Food Writer Mentor

In Chapter 11 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Erway details how she is learning from experienced food writer mentors and the steps she has taken to build relationships with them over time. 

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

Cathy Erway:  At this moment, I am seeking advice and coaching from veteran food writers. I love to talk to them, hang out with them, eat with them. As well as I found that older, you know, food writers really like to hear what's going on with the youth culture, so it's a win-win. I have a few friends that had been doing cookbooks for decades and, we don't really, like, so much talk about cookbooks all the time. We kind of just hang out and maybe we will talk about the Super Bowl and just other stuff, you know, our families, what's going on in politics, but, you know, if we ever need each other's advice--like I've been helping a certain older food writer friend get into Twitter and do more social media and stuff like that, and figure all that stuff out. And I'm sure I will go back to him if I ever need a contact at The New York Times or something.

Erik Michielsen:  And do you find there’s just inspiration that comes from being in that group's presence independent of what specific thing you're talking about?

Cathy Erway:  Well, for me, definitely. Because the older, the more experienced you are, the more foods you know about, I think. I mean it's really a learning experience, the more places they've probably been around the world, so, yeah, I love hearing about that kind of thing and I will ask them endlessly and they're like, "Oh, and then in Barcelona, we went and had these snails..." you know, so I just love hearing about it I was like, "I wanna go."

Erik Michielsen:  Have you ever been intimidated asking, you know, to be part of that conversation, be part of those gatherings, and if so, how did you overcome that, you know, trepidation and push yourself in there?

Cathy Erway: No. No, I don't think so. I mean I will, like if I see a food critic at a party, say we're at the same event, and it's a public event, right? And some people are shy to walk up to people. I'm not, you know? Or email them out of the blue, because a lot of times they'll respond and they're really awesome. I try to do that to people that email me out of the blue. Maybe I don't get to all of them, I don't know, I think I do. If anyone's listening. I don't know, I mean, I think that it's, you know, if you wanna talk to them, they'll probably be happy to talk to you, too. 

Cathy Erway on Learning to Lead and Champion a Cause

In Chapter 13 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  By championing the good food movement, promoting healthy eating and encouraging people to cook at home, she finds it critical to engage people to drive action.  By allowing people to respond and take action to her words and messages, she finds her leadership actionable.  Erway goes on to share food writing and healthy eating mentoring influences, including Anna Lappe, Marion Nestle, and Alice Waters. 

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

Cathy Erway:  Well, there are different levels of what I do. I think that one of the things that you could say I do is champion the good food movement, healthy eating, and cooking creatively at home. So-- "What does it mean to be a leader?" means engaging people and leading people, not just by writing about it, but by getting out there and organizing activities, initiating group -- just engagement somehow, whether that be asking people just questions to answer to in a Twitter feed or getting together a bunch of people and hosting a great event for a good cause. So I think that people just need to respond to you and need to be active themselves, they need to take an action, aside from just watching or reading, in order for you to be a leader.

Erik Michielsen:  Continuing on that, what leaders have you learned from?

Cathy Erway:  I've learned from a great deal of a really good food writer mentors. Also, along those lines, there are lots of local leaders in the food world, Anna Lappé who lives down the street from here, she's great, she's always been very active. Same with Marion Nestle she's always on panels, always talking, always being at events. I don't know her personally, but Alice Waters is such a leader. It's insane how much she does.

Erik Michielsen:  How so?

Cathy Erway:  Edible Schoolyard, I was out in Berkeley, California when they were celebrating their 30th anniversary with that project, and it just seems to expand all the time. They add more functions to this project. There's more cooking courses going on, there's more events surrounding it, and more groups that are getting involved with Edible -- it's like this thing, it's like this beast now. So, yeah, she's a huge leader.

How Online Research Improves Business Capabilities - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 7 of 17 in his 2012 interview, entrepreneur Doug Jaeger answers "At This Moment in Your Life Where Are Your Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Jaeger finds it challenging asking his network for advice and turns to the Internet to research past successful business approaches and apply the wisdom in his current work.  He then 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.

How Julie Hession Turns Cooking Passion Into Food Career

In Chapter 4 of 21 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, food entrepreneur Julie Biederman Hession answers "What is the Source of Your Cooking Passion?  As a child, Hession's mom gives Juile the freedom to experiment in the kitchen.  Growing up she gets more comfortable around food by playing restaurant, building 5-course menus with a Sesame Street Cookbook.  Many years later, while in business school, Hession re-immerses herself in cooking, building confidence in dinner parties and food events.  Near the end of business school, Hession finds a mentor in food entrepreneur Sarah Foster, who connects Julie to Patricia Kluge.  Hession goes on to work for Kluge and build a farm shop, launching her career in food.  Julie Hession is the founder of Julie Anne's All Natural Granola Company.  Passionate about food since childhood, Hession has developed her career by food blogging, cooking contests, and starting fine food companies.  Hession earned an MBA in Marketing from Duke University and a BA from UNLV.