Working On Purpose

See if you can follow this recipe, will you? Start with one part loving, supportive, and encouraging family who knows how to have fun. Add in one joyful, vivacious kid. Stir in another part tremendous discipline, focus, and determination. Add a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, maybe a little effervescent energy. And what do you suppose you get? In this case, your recipe would yield Gavin Doyle, who found his joy of Main Street USA in Disneyland at age 4 and has cultivated this passion over the years into a very successful business enterprise. Having always had a mind for business, he started with a lemonade stand, later began offering family vacation planning packages to Disney, and then created two popular websites devoted to all things Disney. Now, at age 17, he’s finishing his last year of high school, applying to colleges, and has just published his first book. Kind of makes you wonder – what could you do with the right inspiration and support?

Everyone can expect to encounter a series of challenges throughout the course of their lives and careers. Some are small, short-term impediments that test our persistence or creativity to overcome a problem. Others are really big, hairy obstacles that last for many years and may make or break us in the end. Navigating through such incredibly strenuous times helps us realize just what we’re made of. In this episode, we meet a very successful speaker and trainer who shares her story of going blind at age eight, navigating through school and college, and going on to realize her dream of teaching public school. She shares why she was so passionate to teach and what she learned about herself along the way. She also describes some of the messages she imparts to her speaking audiences today, along with her seven leadership principles. If you’ve got something trying to hold you back in life or work, you’ll be glad you tuned in for her wisdom and inspiration.

Today many people hunger for meaningful work that feels satisfying, facilitates engagement, and allows them to make a difference. Steve Taylor has found his perfect match in a company that celebrates his competitive nature, rewards his strong service orientation to customers, fits his values orientation, and facilitates his own leadership development. Originally introduced to the opportunity at RDO Equipment Co. more than eight years ago, he finally agreed to an interview, and he hasn’t looked back. Steve is powerfully connected to the history and story of RDO Equipment Co.’s founding and revels in the pervasive company culture to bring out the best skills and talents in its employees in service to customers. And the results speak for themselves – Steve has been continually promoted over the years and enjoys leading his agricultural equipment sales team to exceed sales goals and operational initiatives. How about you – have you found your perfect match?

With so many possible careers available to us today, how do we ever choose which one to pursue? Whether we are transitioning from one field to another or just starting out, how do we notice when one opportunity somehow stands out among the others? Once we do make a decision as to a direction, we have to prepare for the field and get that first job. Then there’s the social aspect of the work – what will my friends and family think of my path? Will they approve of my decision and support me? Can I really make a living doing what I love? And what dreams do I have for my future – what do I hope to accomplish? In this episode, we will explore all these questions and more from the vantage point of a 24-year old just starting his career in the wine industry.

Does the Tooth Fairy still visit your house? We hope so! All the magic and wonder that alleviates the pain of losing a tooth comes with the promise of money – or perhaps something even more fun – when the Tooth Fairy pays a visit. This is exactly what two women from the Portland, Oregon area have discovered in their quest to start a business based on the childhood memories so many of us share. What a delightful and creative way to express their talents and earn an income. Tune in and learn how the women got the idea, why they’re in the business of delighting children and parents, and how they continue to develop and grow the business.

Is it really true that if we do not keep learning in today’s fast-paced international marketplace, we’ll fall behind? Everyone benefits from having a set of technical skills that ground them into their respective fields, whether those talents are in engineering, accounting, manufacturing, or marketing. But what about those soft skills, those abilities that allow leaders to be effective with and through other people at work? Today as more and more companies do business across cultures, having a set of strong people skills that enable leaders to empower, motivate, and continue to develop their teams is good business. Everyone wins – the team whose skills are continually being developed, the leader who now gets to do more and more interesting work because she’s empowered and developed her people to work at a higher level of output, and certainly the organization that employs them which now has a stronger culture of engagement, performance, and overall bench strength.

The workplace has radically been altered in the last 15-20 years and will continue to morph and change with technology and market trends. The manner in which people seek and apply for work, engage in their jobs, and whether they choose to remain in one field or with a single company is constantly evolving. The ground seems to be literally moving under our very feet, a phenomenon which can produce both tremendous anxiety while ushering in unforeseen opportunities. In this episode, we’ll gain insight from a preeminent career coach and counselor to learn how job seekers can set themselves apart from their competition, take a pulse on the general economy and see how people are feeling about the job market these days, and consider some future trends that will affect us all.

Croatia Dream is a tourism business in the city of Split in the country of Croatia, nestled along the Adriatic Sea. Founded four years ago as an agency for villas and apartments in Croatia, the nimble company now offers full service in seven languages for travelers to Croatia - amazing accommodation, all kind of transfers, excursions, and adventure tours. And each of the three principals work 15-hour days during the busy season and absolutely love their work. They then relax, travel the world, and recreate during the off season – a wonderful work-life integration. But how did this company run by three entrepreneurs all in their 30s come into existence? Built on a profound love for their country, the business was launched when a serendipitous opportunity to rent office space came available, and the three decided to leave their various other professions and join forces. As a tight-knit team, they take great pride that their professional solidarity makes them even stronger as a family.

Today’s dynamic international marketplace is driven by innovation. And that innovation often comes to us at the hands of entrepreneurs who somehow see an opportunity in the marketplace most of us simply can’t visualize. That is, unless you’re an innovating entrepreneur yourself. These enterprising business people have a special knack for the creation of a product or service - and here’s the important part - that people will actually pay for. It is one thing to have a great idea, quite another to have one that translates to value creation. And then there’s the strategy and operations skills required to get the business up and running. So much goes into creating a business, it’s no wonder the vast majority fail before they go on to realize success. This week, we celebrate innovators and entrepreneurs who keep at it and let their passion guide their next enterprise.

What’s cookin’ in Texas? Ask Dotty Griffith. Her humorous insights and instruction reveal what makes Texas cuisine so big, bold, and beautiful. This is a woman who not only knows her way around the kitchen but has also hob-knobbed with some of the most loved and celebrated Texas chefs. Whether it’s a simple grilled peach salad or a perfectly smoked beef brisket, Dotty knows the secrets to make food delectably memorable. She has enjoyed an extensive television and culinary teaching career and loves bringing food to life with flair.

Are you one of the lucky people out there who literally grew up in the business you’d ultimately spend your life as an adult? Blaine Wright, a professional horse trainer with his own racing stable currently working with 60 horses, has a story just about like this. Having grown up working in his parents’ horse race training business, he learned early that he had a real knack with animals and felt at home around them. Over the years he experimented with other kinds of work, though none could quite get him out of the starting gate like the sight, smell, and connection with horses. He simply could not resist the ongoing tug back to the race track and the magnificent animals who ran around it. Despite the challenges of working in a business that requires his near total focus seven days a week, Blaine has stayed true to his passion. And the results speak for themselves - not only is he very successful in his business but he has managed to cultivate a beautiful and rewarding way of life.

What would you do to make your dreams come true and live your life’s purpose? It’s certainly not an easy path for most. Would you restructure an incredibly well established and successful business? Start a PhD program in order to change fields? Move to a different continent? Start a brand new subsidiary from scratch? Erika Jacobi did all these things and more in order to live fully to her values and allow her true identity to emerge in her life and work. Leaving Germany, she started over in the United States where the opportunity to reinvent herself as a scholar, earn a PhD, and pursue a career in Organizational Change Consulting coincided. Tune in to hear about her lessons learned, what she did to forge ahead to realize her dream, and why pursuing this dream was so important.

Initially unsure of what to study or pursue for work, Dr. Edward Fischer tended bar for a while and then his parents sent him on a trip to Guatemala for a little rest and redirection. And that fortunate intervention helped him fall in love with Latin America and ultimately study anthropology. Today Dr. Fischer makes a career studying people all over the world, including how they participate in the economy, and has written several books chronicling his study experiences. Professor Fischer also deeply cares about malnutrition in children, knowing the profound difference a good diet makes to a youngster’s overall cognitive and physical development. He created the Mani Plus program in Guatemala, which relies on locally sourced ingredients. In all of his study and travel, Dr. Fischer has come to realize that while people’s socioeconomic circumstances can vary widely, at the end of the day they still value aspiration and opportunity, dignity and fairness, and commitment to a larger purpose.

The path of least resistance in a career is not always the best long-term fit, nor the most fulfilling. And worst still is when we ignore the persistent voice in our heads telling us exactly the career path we know is right for us. Dr. Malea Maynard learned all these lessons and then some, as she transitioned mid career from Audiology to Medical Doctor. She had known since she was a young child that she wanted to be a doctor but somehow convinced herself it just wasn’t meant to be. At age 32, while in the midst of her work in Audiology, she decided to go to medical school. She simply could not ignore the persistent inner compass that kept telling her that this was the work she was meant to do. In exchange for heeding this compass and with the investment a lot of time, effort, and money into this path of medicine, Dr. Maynard has been handsomely rewarded with fulfillment and purpose as a Family Medicine physician

Once you get to the top, how do you know when it’s time to let go? At a time when women were rarely decision makers in business or agriculture, Susan Sokol Blosser, a pioneer in the Oregon wine industry, distinguished herself in both. For over three decades, Susan managed every aspect of Sokol Blosser’s winery operation. As the vineyard manager, she drove the tractor, did hand work, and used a forklift to load grapes onto flatbed trucks. As president, she saw Sokol Blosser grow to become one of the largest and most innovative Oregon wineries, with national and international distribution. Then, at the height of her career, Susan made an extraordinary decision – to step away from the work she loved and transition control of the winery to her children. The book Letting Go is the engaging account of how she made that decision, the surprising challenges she faced, and the unanticipated journey that ensued and the good life that followed.

After careful consideration of a college major, you navigate a thoughtful and successful career. Years go by and you learn a ton along the way and enjoy knowing you’re making a valuable contribution to your employer. Then, seemingly out of the blue, you enter another stage of life where you want something else from life and your work. The question is – should you stay or should you go? There are certainly advantages to each route. How do you choose what’s right for you? And once you do decide, how do you strategize that transition and make that new path work for you? If you can relate to this story or any of these questions, tune into this episode as Dr. Shelette Stewart discusses how she learned to connect her career with her calling and her profession with her purpose and how she espouses this same path for others in order to maximize personal fulfillment and professional success and drive performance, productivity, and bottom-line profitability.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could stumble onto an unexpected hobby and manage to turn it into a business? And what better if that something involves the curious complexities and full-palette flavors of, well, beer? That is almost exactly what happened with Jacob and Lindsay Sloan of Dallas, Texas. Smart, forward-thinking young professionals, their passion for beer turned business venture is at an early stage, so they both work other full-time day jobs. Their zest for crafting beer and coming up with new recipes keep them going while they learn entrepreneurship and the fine art of running a business. Tune in to learn their story and what they hope to accomplish in the future.

What can drive, focus on continuous improvement, and a good mentor do to catapult your career? A lot, says Donald Thompson who refers to himself as The Unlikely CEO and is in fact writing a book of the same name. After a year of college football, Donald left school to start his career in Sales at age 19 as a determined and ambitious young man bent on success. Today, standing at the helm of several technology companies, he is focused on leadership and leaving a legacy. An insatiable student of life and business, Donald has attained extraordinary success in his 43 years while developing a focused, can-do perspective that has served him well in both his personal and professional lives. Join the conversation as he shares his lessons learned, perspective on common mistakes people make to inhibit success, and what he believes has contributed to his own success and happiness along the way.

Ali Tiegs took the 20 year plan to complete her education and delayed her career gratification, never losing sight of goals in life but aware of what it would ultimately take to obtain them. Priorities play a very significant role in achieving success and even in her later career as a teacher, principal, and executive director, she looked at the end result first, then worked her way backward in order to achieve the desired outcome. While in her 20s, she purposely opted to postpone completing college and instead focus on her marriage and motherhood. After raising her three gifted and talented children, she set out at age 42 to finish that college degree and seriously develop her career. Now, some 24 years into very fulfilling work in education and administration, she enjoys strong connection and fulfillment in her work, making the journey all the sweeter. Ali’s story reminds us that each of us can enjoy several careers and it’s never too late to pursue our dreams.

The importance of finding a niche to serve in today’s marketplace cannot be overstated. In fact, entrepreneur and author Dan Schawbel recommends everyone be known for one big thing. In his case, Dan began his career out of college working at EMC, and quickly realized he could be the voice of the Millennial or Gen Y generation. This realization led him to write Me 2.0 and then Promote Yourself, which are international best sellers that clearly speak to an audience hungry for career advice. Recently, Dan founded and directs Workplacetrends.com to provide the Human Resources Community research and advisory membership services. In this conversation with Dan, we’ll cover the gamut of his own career and hear his perspective on current workplace trends, Gen Y, and the importance of self promotion in your career.