Road to Innovation

Artist Nance Wheeler - A Practical Approach to Stepping Out

It's always satisfying to see someone fully embrace their life's passion and step out to own it. Sometimes people do it quickly and sometimes they take a more circuitous path in fulfilling their dream.

Encouraged by her mother to paint and explore the arts at an early age, it would be decades before Nance Wheeler would pick up a brush again to paint.

Stepping out to claim her dream as an artist took an act of courage. But Nance is now taking bolder actions to move her dream forward faster from participating in more public venues to launching her website www.NanceWheeler.com and blog Practical Palette.

I caught up with Nance during this year's Silicon Valley Open Studios 2008 event, where every year, during the first three weekends in May, more than 300 Silicon Valley artists open their studios to the public.

Length: 5:35

Crossroads definition: Individuals taking bigger actions to reinvent their lives in pursuit of a dream.

Sheryl Chamberlain - Out to Change the World

Sheryl Chamberlain is a corporate change agent. When you meet her for the first time you sense it. When you see her in action you experience it.

I caught up with Sheryl during Santa Clara University's Women in Business 2008 Conference where EMC hosted this year's event.

As the Director of Technology Alliances at EMC, Sheryl is in the perfect position to bring people, ideas, and action together. Collaborate and innovate to change the world is a mantra worthy of a trail blazer.

Trailblazer definition: Individuals leading change in green technology, social innovation, and corporate entrepreneurship.

Women Who Tech (The After Party)

I juggled half a dozen client meetings to attend the Women Who Tech after party in San Francisco on 31 March hosted by Madrone Lounge after Jill Foster of Housewifery blog fame asked if I would do a bit of videoblogging.

Monday's Women Who Tech national telesummit brought together talented women breaking new ground in technology both from the non-profit and political side of the house for a day-long telesummit that drew in over 650 women from across the US and abroad. Arianna Huffington and Joan Blades challenged women to get involved in open source and mobile technology, while panelists focused on the practical aspects of technology and social networking.

Interested in keeping up with Women Who Tech events and programs? Sign-up here and share your talents to help level the innovation playing field.

You can check out my photos and a short video of the fun following the telesummit.

 

Conversation with Reiko Emmi Sota - Bridging U.S.-Japan Innovation

The Golden Gate Bridge looms large in the distance from her office in the historic Presidio of San Francisco, a symbolic reminder of what Reiko Emmi Sota has done naturally in commerce for close to four decades.

As President and CEO of Splice International, Reiko, along with her team of professionals, help business clients navigate the complex world of Japanese culture, allowing them to focus on building innovative products for an international market.

Reiko's enterprise and entrepreneurial experience spans decades here in the U.S. and Japan. Arriving in the U.S. in 1991, she learned to adapt personally and professionally to the different ways of her adopted country, bridging relationships, commerce, and culture, and developing her own unique ambassadorial style of doing business in a global economy.

I was lucky to catch Reiko for an informal video chat between her frequent travels to Japan and asked her to share some cultural insights with us for developing strong business ties with the Japanese.

To top it off, she threw in a few travel gems, as well, for your next visit to Japan.

Sidewalks Category Description

People working in tandem--partners and customers, global teams, coaches and clients, change agents and innovation catalysts

*Disclosure: Splice International LLC and Risktaking for Success LLC are alliance partners.

Conversation with Dr. Leonard Liu - Augmenting Innovation for a New Global Frontier

Dr. Leonard Liu, Augmentum Chairman and CEO, is a powerful example of the American Dream.

Arriving in America from Taiwan forty years ago with $250 in his pocket, Dr. Liu was able to build a successful career at IBM for two decades, and now heads a company that in four years has grown to a 1,300 person, outsourcing powerhouse for software product and IT application development.

Customers the likes of Intel, Microsoft, and Motorola listen to what Augmentum has to say.

Dr. Liu is poised to raise the bar for himself, once again, by sharing with other U.S. companies how to live and work in two worlds, something he has done successfully for the last three decades.

The Asia America MultiTechnology Association presented its Asia Impact Award to Dr. Liu during its AAMA CONNECT 2007 conference. Given to an individual who stretches convention, identifies and executes on untapped opportunities, and has established a leadership role in his or her community validates the role that he now hopes to take to another level.

Dr. Liu uses the analogy of China as the second chef coming into the kitchen where for decades the U.S. was the only chef. "We need to learn how the second chef works and the second chef must learn how to come into our kitchen."

Now, two chefs have a chance to create exquisite meals together that neither one could do alone. Dr. Liu and his company will continue to augment innovation by building teams that know how to work in this kitchen, in a new way.

Visionary Description: Individuals / organizations representing far reaching change that lies just beyond the horizon

Conversation with David Cory - Speeding the EQ Evolution

David Cory is on a mission to spread Emotional Intelligence around the world.

"Companies talk about knowledge workers but ignore the humanity in the workplace...We're at the point now in the evolution of our species where we're beginning to be ready to talk about what's going on inside of us."

From his business base in Vancouver, Canada where he operates the Emotional Intelligence Training Company, Inc., David regularly travels to companies and businesses in China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and cities across the U.S., delivering his EQ training and certification courses.

(length: 8:16)

 

Initially trained as a high school teacher, David decided to pursue a graduate degree when it became obvious to him that high schools were places that had more issues and challenges than what his teaching credential had prepared him to handle. 

It was here that he decided to focus his efforts on the workplace, collaborating with companies on how best to develop their people to be the most productive and to reach their full potential. The rest is history.

Listen in as David shares his Emotional Intelligence journey with you and the idea that speeding the rate of the EQ evolution could mean a capacity to become "emotionally un-intelligent" when our environment calls for it.   

Don't miss his rendition of the Chet Atkins song Frog Kissin' as a wrap-up to our interview. Priceless.

Backroads Description
Roads less traveled, inventors, pioneers in their field, explorers

Conversation with Artist, Mary Lonergan - Bold and Persistent, Keys to Success

Mary Lonergan, San Francisco Bay Area artist and writer, might remind you of the person who works alongside you in the gray cubicle by day, but after work, her life is anything but drab.

After years of struggling to claim her artistic talent, Mary's advice to others is to live life bold and pursue your dreams no matter who judges and criticizes you. Persistence in pursuit of a goal has been her path to success where she aims to become a "wildly successful woman on her terms". 

Mary's discipline and perseverance has paid off with her first public art show opening in Florence, Italy this December. She shudders at the thought that this international door almost closed before it ever opened...

(length: 6:19) 

Crossroads Description: Individuals taking bigger actions to reinvent their lives in pursuit of a dream.

Conversation with Monte Malhotra - Author, Young Investor

Financial investor since junior high, Monte Malhotra, decided to write a book when he got to high school and found that others didn't share his passion for building wealth at an early age.

Now a full-time student at Stanford University, he's on a mission to educate high schoolers and college students on the principles of investing based on his book The Young Investors Guide to Retiring Young.

How young?

Listen in as Monte shares the challenges of writing and publishing a book at seventeen, the detours he took along the way, and some insider tips and practical investing advice for all ages.

(length: 5:30) 

Detours  Description: Risktakers who use creative routes when one is closed.

Conversation with Bob Heckerl, Coach of the Airwaves

I was able to catch Bob Heckerl, Founder and President of Coach of the Airwaves Worldwide Internet Radio, during a recent visit to California from his home in Seoul, Korea.

Bob knows a thing or two about risk and reinvention having done his fair share of both from packing up and moving with his family to Seoul twelve years ago to his dream last year of how he might bring coaches together, from around the world, to form a community that would spread coaching to all areas of the planet via internet broadcasting.

Click To Play

(length: 6:00) Get Adobe's Flash Player

Pathways Description: Individuals and organizations carving a new niche for themselves and others.