Michael Margolis on Living Better by Deciding What Matters Most to You

In Chapter 13 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing as Your Experience Grows?" Margolis shares Lao Tzu wisdom on adding to your life by taking away or subtracting things. Margolis adopts this philosophy in his own life as he learns to say no, to set boundaries, to managing information technology streams and battle the oft competing priorities of serving others while taking care of your self. He shares what it is like to go through a process of finding what matters to you in life and how he is working his way through it. 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.

Tricia Regan on Finding a Mental State to Do Your Best Work

In Chapter 4 of 15 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, filmmaker Tricia Regan answers "When Are You at Your Best?" Regan notes she is at her professional best when she is fully immersed in her project work. She translates this focus into effectiveness and finds the intensity and purpose she gives to her work exciting. Tricia Regan is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker known for writing, directing and producing documentary films, including the Emmy-winning "Autism: The Musical". She also has worked extensively in non-fiction television for A&E, ABC, FOX, Lifetime, MTV Networks and NBC. Regan earned a bachelors from Binghamton University and masters from New York University. 

Doug Jaeger on What Makes Some Collaborations Better Than Others

In Chapter 14 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "What Have You Found to Be the Keys to Creating Successful Project Collaborations?" Jaeger shares what he has learned about collaboration building film teams for production and post-production. He finds ways to build working relationships with people that have different skills and to bring the right mix of skills together when hiring production crews and project teams. Working in a creative director role, he shares the challenge of getting the skills mix right on a project and how he and his business partner have learned to assess fit take people off teams with the fit is not right. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Ken Biberaj on How to Build Name Recognition Running for Office

In Chapter 13 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council Candidate Ken Biberaj answers "What Are the Challenges to Building Name Recognition and How Are You Addressing Them?" As an underdog in a highly competitive political election, Biberaj finds a balance between social media, mail, and email outreach and shaking hands and meeting voters every morning at subway stations and street corners before work.

Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Democratic Candidate for City Council in New York City. 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 Biberaj was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. Biberaj 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. 

Audrey French on How Make Your Communication More Effective and Enjoyable

In Chapter 9 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Are You Learning to Communicate More Effectively?" French learns to see communication as more than getting information across to another person. Specifically she advances her communication skills by embracing the relational or relationship way shared experiences can foster more effective communication and understanding between two parties. Audrey Parker French is an entrepreneur who co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She currently volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and teaches children's choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.

Audrey French on How to Handle Emotional Life Pressures

In Chapter 16 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Does It Mean to Perform Under Pressure in the Work That You Do?" French shares how the pressure she needs to manage in her life is more emotional and interpersonal pressure. She finds managing emotional pressure very different than managing the pressure of working a full-time job and learns new ways to address it. Audrey Parker French is an entrepreneur who co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She currently volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and teaches children's choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.

Why to Work With People Who Think Differently Than You

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?" Stallings seeks out different personality types at work because they help him learn new subjects, new problem solving approaches and new ways of thinking.

Hammans Stallings is a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Kyung B. Yoon on How Peer Advice Decreases Feelings of Isolation

In Chapter 10 of 17 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Kyung B. Yoon answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Yoon talks about feeling isolated and how reaching out to peers - in her case other non-profit directors - has helped her overcome that feeling.  The resulting conversations help her feel less alone and provide useful instruction on improving her non-profit management skills. 

Kyung B. Yoon is the executive director of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF) in New York City.  An award-winning journalist and documentary film producer, Yoon earned an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in History and Political Science at Wellesley College.

Garren Katz on Why Travel to Distant and Unfamiliar Places

In Chapter 7 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?"  Traveling to distant and unfamiliar places teaches Katz about people.  He finds this is something he is unable to get by watching TV or movies - being present in a foreign place connects him not only to people he meets but also to humanity in general. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

What It Means to Be a Strategist - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 2 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What Does it Mean to Be a Strategist?"  Stallings finds his strategy work is about constantly searching for new ways to create advantages for his clients.  He enjoys the discovery and research process that he gets with each project that play into creating that strategic client plan.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

How Reading Passion Shapes Learning Style - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 8 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "Where Did Your Passion for Reading Originate?"  Stallings shares how he read for escape during summer camp as a kid.  As he grew up, he learned to read to get into the minds of people he would not necessarily have the chance to meet.  He finds great value in gaining insight into the thought process of those he reads about.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Idan Cohen on 3 Reasons to Travel Somewhere New

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?"  Cohen first notes the importance of overcoming fear and acclimating to and learning to appreciate a new place.  Secondly, he notes the reward that exploring a new place or city presents and finding the expected as well as the unexpected, in particular local secrets.  Thirdly, he finds fulfillment meeting new people along the 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: What have you found most rewarding about traveling to new places?

Idan Cohen: I think that it’s composed of 3 things. 

So first of all, overcoming fears, a lot of times when I get to new places, I don’t like investing in research before I go there. I kind of really like discovering by myself. But it always brings some kind of an uncertainty when you get there. Like I remember when I visited New York for the first time, I was terrified. I came back—actually I was there for 2 weeks for the first time I was there, when I was 18. And I came back and I said, I don’t like that city. I just—It’s too big. It’s too noisy. It’s too busy. I was afraid. Like I got there, it was the mid-‘90s. People told me, put your wallet in front pocket, you don’t—you don’t wanna be careful from this area, you wanna be careful from that area. And then, you know, few years later, I was there again, and again, and again, and again, and I just fell in love. And I’ve seen that happen in a lot of other places. I just get there and I have this fear, because I don’t know enough. But then as you get comfortable, that fear goes away. 

A second part is actually the part of exploring. So not researching before, just being able to walk in the streets and find it by yourself. And every time I find that I actually probably once I’ve been to a new place, and then I talk to other people maybe then I see that I’ve found—probably half of the things that I’ve found are the most common probably, you know, run of like exactly what you were supposed to find as someone, a tourist or someone visiting a new place. But then the other half is just things that I stumbled upon. Which are these little secrets of the locals, which I think that a lot of times when you do research before you won’t find. 

And then the third part is obviously socially just meeting new people wherever you are, just interacting with the waiter in the restaurant, you know, with the barman, bartender, with the guy on the street that helps you find something. That’s the most interesting part.

Why to Travel to Foreign Places

In Chapter 2 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?" French not only learns to be more open to new experiences while traveling abroad but also to embrace home more fully after getting a new sense of appreciation for Austin, Texas. 

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 you found most rewarding about traveling to new places?

Audrey Parker French: I find that traveling to new places and experiencing new things just reminds us all that we can have new eyes when we look at things, a new perspective. And for the 6 weeks abroad that my husband and I enjoyed last fall, just really having the freshness of perspective to see that people’s lives are lived in all different ways, in all different languages, in all different cultures, and it helps free up any of the, you know, everyone does it this way, I have to do it this way kind of things that just run in the background of our minds that we don’t necessarily pay attention to.

It’s just like, well, this is how everybody does it, and when I – when we got the opportunity to travel and look around and see not everybody does this like this, not everybody eats like this or goes to work with the same attitude or for the same purposes or lives the same lifestyle, there’s just – there are so many new things to see and travelling is just an opportunity to have perspective on our own lives and learn anything and everything that we didn’t even know is out there to learn.

You can go to a new place and before you know it, you’re learning things about that place that make it special and unique, and it has you realize the special and unique things where you live, where – it was amazing just to come home. We started seeing our home – our hometown, Austin, Texas with new eyes. And really comparing it to other cities and countries and just saying, “We really have a new appreciation for where we live.” Seeing the quirks and the culture and the flavor and the things that for us are like home for us, and yet they are very different to other cultures. Other people of other places would come here and point out all sorts of things that they thought were different or interesting and to us it’s life -- it feels home, so it brought an expanded perspective to us of how other people live and a new appreciation for how we live here and just the fact that we love where we live and we love the culture and the people, and it really could be – all those things could be very, very different.

When to Take a Sabbatical and Rethink Your Personal Identity

In Chapter 4 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Did Taking a Year Off From Work Reshape How You See Yourself in the World?"  French learns to let go of her career woman identity, including her title, embrace her personal identity, and find new perspective in her new marriage and ambitions to start a family. 

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: How did taking a year off from work reshape how you see yourself in the world?

Audrey Parker French: Well, it’s been really interesting, before the year break, I saw myself as an entrepreneur, I saw myself as someone who was strictly my career, it was all kind of my identity was kind of wrapped up in my career and what I had just completed because it was really profound for me and it was – it really was where my identity was. And then as the year progressed and as I met the man who’s now my husband and got to travel, I really got on a deeper level how that was a chapter of my life and how my identity is not in a job or in a career or in anything that can be changed.

And it was simultaneously scary because we all wanna hang on to our identity. I definitely wanted to hang on to the comfortable and what I knew. And yet I had to just – it was very liberating to be able to let go of that and say, “I am not my career. I am not my job. I’m not my job title. I’m not my age. I’m not – ” All those change. And really discovering that once those things started falling away, and it took several months for those things to really fall away. I realized that I’m a person, and I get to experience life and what I had experienced before is a part of it. It’s part of my journey. It’s part of my experience.

And being married really changes the dynamic of everything going forward. I’m no longer me living my life, I’m half of me and my husband. And we are living our life. And it really has put into perspective how much I want to have children, and how much I want to have a beautiful thriving family, and how – in my past identity, there was no room for that. And so the year has really allowed me to break free and let go.

And it’s just – all I can say is that it sounds simple and yet there’s so many people who cling to an identity all their careers, all their lives perhaps, and they never – I want – I hope that people can look beyond just what they think they should be doing and really realize what do I want to do? Maybe I am in this job and maybe it’s expected that I do ABC, but I really wanna do DEF, and go outside of that box and just realize that your identity is what you make it and we’re a lot more free than from a day-to-day basis we might think.

How to Be More Creative by Changing Your Surroundings

In Chapter 5 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Has Changing Your Surroundings Made You More Creative?"  He notes how altering patterns and routines creates a more open-minded or curious mindset that fuels his creative thinking. 

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:  How has changing your surroundings made you more creative?

Bijoy Goswami:  You know, you get into patterns, right? So, when I'm in Austin I'm in my pattern. I mean, there’s a set of things that I do and I think Austin is a very creative place because there’s so much serendipity that happens both from things like South By and other festivals, Fuse Box and things like that happen through the year and they sort of immerse you into these different environments but otherwise with those happening you’re kind of on a particular pattern.

I think you start to get grooved in, you know, things start to solidify and you don’t really think outside the box but when things like South By happens, it’s really interesting because it’s actually an experience layered on to the same environment all of a sudden I'm in a different mode, you know, and so it’s a very interesting thing because you’re not going toward something you’re more open to receiving things. So, your mindset is very different. You’re saying, oh, what’s new? What’s interesting? You’re looking up and around rather than forward and ahead. So, I think that’s what that does, I mean, in Austin our festivals do that.

For me, it’s whenever I travel that’s what happens. I mean, you know, I go to London or go to UK or I was in Oslo last year, I mean, it’s just always interesting because – and it’s also funny because you see the similarities of what makes culture the same but you also see all these differences and you’re like, oh, that’s really interesting and I can see where that came from and the weather influenced this and, you know. So, I think it just jogs you out of your routine, which is really cool.

How Coaching Advice Advances Career - James McCormick

In Chapter 17 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, legal career advisor James McCormick answers "At This Moment of Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  He shares how his fellow partners and business colleagues provide him experienced insight into new perspectives and points of view and how his approach is transferable into personal matters such as living fully and raising a family.  James McCormick is a Partner at Empire Search Partners in New York City.  Previously, he practiced law as an employee benefits and executive compensation attorney for Proskauer Rose and Jones Day.  He earned a JD at Tulane Law School and a BA in History at the University of Michigan. 

Finding Personal Best by Interacting With Others - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 2 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "When Are You At Your Best?"  Margolis finds his personal best when teaching, interacting with an audience helping them learn through story.  He shares how interaction, specifically a dialog editing process, also plays a role in his creative writing process.  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. 

How to Break Out of a Comfort Zone and Find New Things to Do

In Chapter 10 of 14 in his 2012 interview, real estate development executive Brett Goldman answers "What is Your Comfort Zone and What Do You Do to Break Free of Living in It?"  He shares how he constantly monitors his satisfaction with thing that become routine in his life, always trying new things and bringing them into his regular activity pattern if they are a fit.  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:  Where is your comfort zone and what do you do to break free of living in it?

Brett Goldman: I'm definitely a creature of habit. My comfort zone is my routine. But there's no doubt that I delight in getting out of that routine. It's kind of like a Eureka-moment, where I just decide I'm not gonna do routine. And then I turn left or whatever I'm doing, it really doesn't -- I don't think it through too much, sometimes I just get sick of the routine, sometimes I know that I don't wanna be in the routine so I go out of my comfort zone and when I get out of my comfort zone, there's usually great things anyway, I usually discover good things when I'm out of my comfort zone, and then they become incorporated into the routine. 

Erik Michielsen: How do you make that happen?

Brett Goldman: You know, once something is a good experience that was outside of the routine and I found it, then I'll go back to it. Usually until I get sick of it.