Joe stump on Staying Composed When Things Do Not Go as Planned

In Chapter 6 of 14 in his 2012 interview, Internet entrepreneur Joe Stump answers "How Have You Learned to Adapt When Things Have Not Worked Out As Planned?"  Over time, Stump follows the idiom "don't cry over spilt milk" and not to get hung up on things that cannot be changed.  Stump keeps his composure through difficult times and continue starting, building, and advising companies.  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 Mchielsen: How have you learn to adapt when things have not worked out as planned?

Joe Stump: I think there's a couple of things that I've learned over the years. I used to be much more hot-headed than I am now and I think that – I think I've done a lot better job of recognizing that when you're in a bad situation or things have kind of went off the rails of accepting that and triaging and moving forward.

Like I can’t -- the phrase is don’t cry over spilt milk. You can't do anything about the fact that the milk spilled. The only thing you can do now is go and get a mop and clean it up. And I think embracing that has been really important because quite frankly I mean, the last couple of years, I probably would have gone back to Michigan and just bought a farm, bought some sheep or some shit. I don’t know.

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 to Manage Travel Stress When Vacationing With Your Spouse

In Chapter 3 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Did Traveling Abroad This Past Year Teach You About Yourself?"  She travels abroad with her new husband and discovers quirks about each other, including experiencing stress when things happen outside your control.  She learns to be more accepting of both unexpected situations and behaviors that happen in those moments. 

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 did travelling abroad this past year teach you about yourself?

Audrey Parker French: Well, that I get really grumpy when I haven’t have a good night sleep, and I’m hungry, and I don’t speak the language, and we might miss the train. My husband and I both learned our – some little quirks about each other. We learned about where we get tense and how we get tense, things about, you know, having something be out of our control, where a train stops, the announcement is happening and we don’t understand the language to know why the train just stopped or if we’re gonna make our connecting train and we got to really experience, you know, how each other are under those really stressful circumstances, and we could be both really hard on ourselves and beat ourselves up, ‘Oh I really – that was terrible of me to get so angry and frustrated’ and then later we could be like, “Well, I guess we can just keep in mind that if I ever am over tired, hungry, about to miss a train, and can’t speak the language, that I’ll probably be a little grumpy.” You know?

Just having more of an understanding that you know sometimes you throw in a lot of different variables and a person is gonna react a certain way, so just learning our limits and learning how to be more flexible. We definitely noticed at the end of our 6-week European kind of tour and experience, we found ourselves being a lot more relaxed in circumstances that initially had us feel very uncomfortable, by the end, we realized that we might be offending people unintentionally because we don’t know the culture and we don’t know what we – the taboos and we finally just started letting that be okay and just being like, “Well, that happened again.”

As opposed to early on, we felt very, you know, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” We just offended someone and, “Oh, we have to make sure we don’t do that again.” But the rules change everywhere, so finally we just really relaxed, so it helped us become more comfortable with the unknown and with difficult circumstances.

How to Handle the Pain of Rejection

In Chapter 12 of 14 in his 2012 interview, real estate development executive Brett Goldman answers "How Do You Deal With Rejection?"  Goldman shares how he feels when experiencing rejection and how he gets over it by simply letting time pass. 

Brett Goldman is a Real Estate Acquisitions Director at Triangle Equities in New York City.  He holds a BA in General Studies from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Real Estate Development from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you deal with rejection?

Brett Goldman: Not well. I think for the first -- depending on how bad the rejection is, 12 to 24 hours, I’m pretty down about it, and then just kind of fades away. I try not to get myself into that same situation. But it just fades. 

Erik Michielsen: Is it different in your personal life versus your professional life?

Brett Goldman: No. It feels pretty much the same, it feels a little bit more personal in the personal life but, you know, I mean, there's definitely been some setbacks in business that I wish I had back. I usually don't take it as personally but it still hurts and, you know, it stings at first and then it kind of fades.

How to Handle Rejection - Jason Anello

In Chapter 16 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "How Do You Deal With Rejection?" Anello shares how he has learned to be creative when facing adversity and rejection.  He uses an example from his college experience and shares how what he learned in that experience has been useful managing rejection in his career.  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.

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.

Learning From Failure - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 15 of 21 in his 2011 interview, Phil McKenzie answers "Why are Failures More Meaningful Learning Experiences Than Successes?"  He finds failure valuable because it tells you what not to do in the future, whereas often success can provide the reward without understanding why it happened.  More often than not, he is able to understand why things didn't work and make necessary changes to correct the course.  McKenzie shares how failure provides more direct feedback, which he uses to correct his course over time.  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. 

Julie Hession on Finding Personal Best by Embracing Challenge

In Chapter 2 of 21 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, food entrepreneur Julie Hession answers "When are You at Your Best?"  Hession feels she is at her best when she has more on her plate than she can accomplish and when she is challenged.  She shares how she competed in the Sterling Wines Ultimate Host event, planning an entertainment experience by herself with a limited budget in a limited timeframe.  She won the event, receiving a $40,000 award from Padma Lakshmi and becoming an ambassador for Sterling Wines.  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. 

How Politics Impact Non-Profit Environmental Career - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Andrew Hutson answers "How Does Politics Effect What You Do in Your Non-Profit Environmental Work?"  From an environmental community perspective, Hutson has seen it go from being on the verge of transformative legislation to combat climate change to needing to defend the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) right to do its job.  While Hutson finds some shelter working for private sector clients, he still feels the public and media pressures and resistance to general environmental and sustainability efforts.  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. 

How to Manage Aspiration Expectations - Anatole Faykin

In Chapter 3 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "To What Do You Aspire?"  In aspiring to live meaningfully, Faykin aims to make an impact on where he chooses to spend his time and how he values the resulting experiences.  Faykin is the founder of Tuanpin, a Shanghai-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011.  Previously, he worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startup ventures.  He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

How to Stay Composed During a Crisis - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 6 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "How Have Your Learned to Stay Composed in Crisis?" In his years working for elected government officials, Curtis has learned different ways to focus, prioritize, and respond based on urgency and relevancy. He learns preparation from his current boss Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell's experience managing crisis from his Air Force pilot days. Curtis is the communications director for Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell. Curtis' charity work includes affiliations with Capital Area Food Bank, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Students of the World, the Rainforest Project and the Art Alliance. 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.

Courtney Spence on How to Teach Creative Students Teamwork

In Chapter 16 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What do you find most challenging about teaching creative students teamwork?" Spence shares how she teaches her creative student program participants teamwork. In her application process review and interview, teamwork is a top priority. Teams are sent abroad in challenging and often extreme conditions that require collaboration under pressure. Spence creates team leadership opportunities, for example in the producer role, as well as by training students to communicate in emotional and time sensitive environments. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What do you find most challenging about teaching creative students teamwork?

Courtney Spence:  In our process of application review, interview, we really – I mean it’s all about teamwork.  How do you work with a team?  Tell us about the challenges that you’ve met there because, you know, if they’re not comfortable working with a team, they’re certainly not gonna be comfortable working with a team in the West Bank, like it’s, you know, the stakes are a lot higher, and we have, you know, really, I think, done a very good job of finding the individuals that prefer to work in teams.  I would say overall that my sense of the millennial generation is that they – they do prefer teamwork. 

They’re not as comfortable with hierarchy, and this is a leader, and this not. For a long time we didn’t have specifically designated roles because the feedback we were getting from students is they didn’t wanna feel like there was a hierarchy in the team and they wanted it all, you know, we’re all in this together, which is still more or less how we operate.  We have someone that is the producer that sort of makes sure every – all the trains run on time or at least as close to on-time as we can get them to run, you know, make sure people are, you know, happy, dealing with team dynamics, so they are, you know, in a way of the team leader, but even still we call them the producer, and there’s really, you know, opportunities for leadership in our seven-person teams in various ways.

I think what we offer them in training and as we go through the production and post production is how to anticipate problems that are coming up in the team. How to open lines of communication, you know, among people that might not always be comfortable communicating about how they are reacting on an emotional level.  You know, we really encourage lots of daily meetings and communication, and, you know, when you’re in the places where we work, when you’re seeing the kind of poverty, and disease, and things that, you know, we don’t get exposed to on a daily basis generally here in the U.S., the emotional reactions and the emotional kind of rollercoaster that you go through when you’re on these productions is really dynamic because on one hand you’re working with people that basically will be your friends for life.  You’re working with, you know, individuals that will provide inspiration for you for the rest of your life, I guarantee it, but you’re also seeing, you know, some really severe problems, and some really, you know, things that are wrong in this world.  And so if you’re not working as a team, if you’re not communicating, it’s gonna be ugly.  And so we do a lot of training with them upfront, but I would have to say that they more or less know how to do that, we just sort of give them the tools and the best practices to really maximize their teamwork, and its worked out really well.

How to Cope With Losing a Job - Tricia Regan

In Chapter 2 of 10 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, filmmaker Tricia Regan shares how she has learned to manage her emotions when a potential job falls through. As a filmmaker, Regan has experienced multiple moments when a seemingly sure thing falls through. She learns from friends and experience to release her emotion when the disappointment happens so she is in a position to move on and pursue the next opportunity full steam. Regan is an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker. She directed, produced and shot "Autism: The Musical." When not shooting documentary films, Regan has worked as a director, producer, and writer at ABC, NBC, FOX, and Lifetime. She earned a bachelors from Binghamton University and masters from New York University.

How to Use Middle School Teaching Skills in Corporate Finance Job - Andrew Epstein

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, charter school executive Andrew Epstein shares how his 7th and 8th grade teaching experience has made him a more effective finance professional. His 7th and 8th graders teach Epstein the value of improvisation, focus, and composure in finance roles both at Island Def Jam and currently at Democracy Prep Public Schools. Epstein is currently Senior Director for Finance at Democracy Prep Public Schools in New York City. Previously, he was a finance executive at Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam Records and, previous to that, a schoolteacher in the Teach for America Corps program. He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

How Small Business Counseling Helps CEO Manage Stress - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 7 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares how he learned to manage stress dealing with the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur. Jaeger encounters compounding challenges - accounts receivable, office lease payments, canceled clients, and partner tension - and turns to SCORE (http://www.score.org), a government-backed small business resource, to navigate through the them. The group, comprised of retired CEOs, helps Jaeger organize and prioritize the steps he then takes to resolve the stress-inducing issues. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

How to Overcome Common Influencer Brand Marketing Mistakes - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 11 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie shares how fear and knowledge gaps limit brand marketer ability to connect with influencers and tastemakers. Additionally, short-term timelines - predicated by Wall Street quarterly earnings pressures - causes breakdowns in longer-term influencer community connection.  Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How Goldman Sachs Sales and Trading Teaches MBA to Adapt - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 1 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie joins Goldman Sachs sales and trading upon earning his MBA at Duke University. McKenzie is thrown into an unfamiliar trading floor and industry environment and is forced to adapt over time. McKenzie recounts that initial year as the most challenging in his career given the intensity and overwhelming amount of new information to learn, both at the bank and within the industry - pharmaceuticals - he covered as a trader. McKenzie worked at Goldman for eight years before embarking on an entrepreneurial career. McKenzie is now co-founder of FREE DMC, a New York based event, media and publishing company, and co-founder of the Influencer Conference, a global event series bringing together entrepreneurial, arts, design, and non-profit communities. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

Why Composure Matters in Real Estate Investing - Brett Goldman

In Chapter 5 of 10 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, real estate development acquisitions director Brett Goldman shares how macroeconomic market analysis helps him overcome frustration and stay composed at work. Goldman builds a composed approach assessing market participants, economic indicators, and government regulation and the combined effect on supply and demand. Amidst unfavorable decisions and challenging conditions, Goldman prioritizes indicator input over emotional input when making investment decisions. Brett Goldman is a Real Estate Acquisitions Director at Triangle Equities - http://www.triangleequities.com/ - in New York City. Goldman holds a BA in General Studies from the University of Michigan - http://www.umich.edu/ - and a masters in real estate development from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation - http://www.arch.columbia.edu/ View more at http://www.captureyourflag.com