Posts Tagged ‘Life Design’
095 #1 Tech Startup In Africa w/ Matt Brown
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Entrepreneur, CEO, and top podcaster Matt Brown joins us today for another no-BS conversation about being a Techpreneur in South Africa. He gives us a glimpse of the South African Tech scene, as well as his successes, as he was voted as #1 Tech startup in Africa in London Tech Week. Matt gives practical insights on business and life design as well.
#1 Tech Startup
Matt Brown, a very down to earth guy, recounts to Christopher his experience at London Tech Week, as organizers named him the #1 Tech Startup in Africa. Although he admits he now has unnecessary pressure due to the title, he claims it was a great opportunity for international development in the technology space.
“It was pretty insane when a government like the UK gets behind an idea. So what they have done is, they mobilized literally billions of pounds just for Africa Tech, 1.2 Billion pounds available for distribution.” – Matt Brown
The Storytelling Technology
Matt runs a firm called Digital Kung Fu and he candidly shares with Christopher his elevator pitch — “we’re the world’s fastest tech story production business.” He further shares that Christopher’s books Play Bigger and Niche Down inspired him in this business.
“The truth is were evangelizing this idea — which I totally started from your thinking by the way — category design thinking and creating a point of view that is unique and different.” – Matt Brown
He further shares that through his firm, they are connecting that point-of-view at scale to a market a way that it creates value. In his case, it is the storytelling technology.
“It’s about taking proven powers of storytelling and marrying that with technology — data, automation, AI — and delivering stories essentially at a scale that makes very complicated things in ways that are memorable and relatable and understandable.” – Matt Brown
The South African Tech Scene
Matt also talks about the South African tech scene, as other countries do not exactly know what is happening locally. He shares about the different challenges and opportunities they have there and the similarities in terms of trends.
“I think Africa has some unique challenges. We have infrastructure challenges, connectivity challenges, bandwidth challenges, and these things don’t typically exist in developed markets.” – Matt Brown
Amidst these challenges, Matt shares how these forces techpreneurs to innovate, especially in the mobile phones market.
“African tech has got a bad name in many respects. Basically at a type of expansion into emerging markets, it’s less competitive in many respects. But, the economic opportunities are huge because there is no competition.” – Matt Brown
Bio:
Matt is the CEO of Digital Kungfu. It was named as “Best Tech Startup 2019 – Africa Tech Week Awards.” The company is a lead generation and storytelling production company purpose-built for technology businesses.
Links:
The Matt Brown Show in partnership with London Tech Week creates State of X Season One on Prime
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
092 1000+ Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently w/ Marc & Angel Chernoff
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Our guests for today, NY Times best-selling author/power couple Marc and Angel Chernoff talks about their new book and other self-help topics. We had an insightful conversation about happiness and unhappiness, as well as overcoming serious set-backs and other tons of practical insights for living.
The Journey is Worth It
Marc and Angel Chernoff got into this line of work when they lost someone — a best friend and a sibling. Just in their late 20s, they found themselves investing a lot in personal development and self-reflection.
“It was those moments where ultimately — we saw therapists, I mean depression sets in. We had no tools for coping and coming out of it. We realize what we want to do on a daily basis was to reflect.” – Marc Chernoff
Fast forward to the present day, Forbes dubbed this duo as “the authors of the most popular personal development blogs on the planet.” They are promulgators of the idea of acknowledging that “our present lives are more important than all of the lofty goals we have set for ourselves.”
“Because obviously it’s a cliche, but the journey is worth it. The journey is more important. Are we spending our days the way we want to spend our lives? Our days are our lives.” – March Chernoff
Live a Life Worth Living
Marc and Angel further share some wise words about living a life worth living. Marc pointed out how lucky most people are, as there are a lot of people living in dire situations and facing immense challenges. He further discussed the importance of a positive mindset and the ability to focus on the present.
Christopher also shares his own views on living life, especially about dealing with failures. He quoted Marc when he discussed “the belief that failure is the opposite of success.” He shares candidly that he has failed himself into a life that he loves and shares a quote that says “failure feels fun.”
“I don’t necessarily think that time wasted is wasted time. It’s time for self care, it’s time to relax. We don’t always have to be go-go-go.” – Angel Chernoff
Other practical insights
Both Marc and Angel share tips on how to cope with heartbreaks — from love interests to a divorce or a broken friendship to a loss of life. Marc shares how we can use these experiences to empower us in moving forward with our lives.
Marc, Ange-and Christopher discuss a lot more about things that happy and unhappy people do, as well as dealing with expectations of others.
To hear more about the 1000+ little things happy successful people do differently, and more information about Marc and Angel Chernoff, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Marc and Angel Chernoff are New York Times bestselling authors, professional coaches, full-time students of life and admirers of the human spirit. Forbes recognized the couple as having “one of the most popular personal development blogs.”
Through their blog, books, course and coaching, they’ve spent the past decade writing and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love, and peace.
Marc and Angel’s New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs, is a guide to spark sustainable action—and to return to whenever needed.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
082 Next Time You’re In The Endzone, Act Like You’ve Been There Before
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In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about the idea of “faking it till you make it.” He poses a real question about what to do when you finally “make it.” This episode is inspired by Silicon Valley coach Bill Campbell’s quote, “next time you’re in the endzone, act like you’ve been there before.”
Bill Campbell’s Wise Words
On Episode 072, Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins joined Lochhead to celebrate the life and lessons of legendary Silicon Valley coach, late Bill Campbell. Guest Randy Komisar, along with colleague Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital, came together to capture Bill in a podcast, called No Bull Podcast. Bill was the coach to Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and countless Silicon Valley legends.
Randy shared a story about Bill, back when he was coaching a football team. There was a time when the team hit a touch down and went mental to celebrate the small victory. According to Randy, Bill did not approve of this and gave the team his wise words: “Hey guys, next time you’re in the endzone, act like you’ve been there before.”
Don’t Do The Victory Noise
Even Lochhead is guilty of celebrating small wins. He recounts a story about surfing as he gets all too excited when he encounters a good wave, often called as “claiming the wave.” His buddy corrected him and told him the message that he sends out to other surfers is that it was “just one” of his best waves. He reminded Lochhead to have the mentality that all of his waves are the best ones.
“You wanna act like you’ve been here before. You wanna act like all your waves are like that” – Christopher Lochhead’s friend, when he does his victory noise
Fake it till you make it
Lochhead candidly shares that he had “faked it till he made it” a number of times in his life. However, Lochhead poses the question, what will you do when you finally make it?
“Act like you’ve been there before, act like it’s something that happens all the time.” – Christopher Lochhead
Further, Lochhead reminds that when we’re pushing ourselves to the next level, we have to act in our own minds and in our behavior. We have to always think that we are the “Whoah-Man or Whoah-Woman.” It’s always nice to celebrate wins, but ideally, it is best to do it privately.
“You have to prepare yourselves so you’ll have the least amount of faking as possible and when in you’re in the situation and something happens, just roll it.” – Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about how to act next time you’re in the endzone and more relevant information from Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Links:
072 Why Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & many others turned to “The Coach” Bill Campbell
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
074 From Abused Child to Fierce Ph.D. w/Carolyn Colleen, PhD
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Dr. Carolyn Colleen is a shining example of the fierce power of the human spirit in the defiance of unthinkable abuse. Join us in this riveting conversation about her incredible journey—from surviving with food stamps to gaining her Ph.D. and becoming a celebrated author. This discussion is not only about abuse—it’s about triumph—and it will impact a lot of people’s lives.
The Past Doesn’t Define The Future
Our guest today Dr. Carolyn Colleen, has a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She authored the best selling book FIERCE. On the side, she is a life and business strategist.
She is a woman who commands presence, but surprisingly has struggled so much since childhood, up until she was married.
“As my definition of love evolved, I evolved. I learned to further deepen my definition of love — how I see love in the world. I also have a deeper sense of self-love.” – Carolyn Colleen
Carolyn’s Dark Past
From the time she was four, Carolyn was sexually abused by his teenage neighbor. Unfortunately, the pattern repeated throughout her childhood, even after they relocated.
Carolyn’s mother struggled with mental health. She was a hoarder and have issues with being too trusting with strangers. Her mother provided free lodging and meal for both men and who ended up molesting both Carolyn and her sister.
“There was a time when I defined myself as being someone who was put here to be used and abused.” – Carolyn Colleen
Changing Perspective
People who have experienced trauma or who suffered PTSD may have flashbacks when exposed to a certain trigger—such as a certain sound, smell or mannerism of another person. Victims of abuse are reminded every day of their unfortunate experiences because of these triggers.
As a victim of abuse herself, Carolyn says her perspective is different. Memories pop up daily, but what she does with it and how it affects her is different now.
She is now at peace with herself; developed a gratitude attitude and has acknowledged that her experiences made her stronger.
“Coming from a place of trauma—physical, sexual and emotional abuse—I’ve done a lot of self-work and realize when things might trigger me and how it affects my life. As I continually grew, I realized what happened to me doesn’t define me .” – Carolyn Colleen
To hear more about the amazing journey of Carolyn, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Carolyn Colleen holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and a Masters in Business with a focus in Servant Leadership from Viterbo University.
Dr. Colleen is speaker, author, and coach.
She was born and raised in the Midwestern United States. She describes herself as a FIERCE mother, daughter, sister, and friend.
Out of sheer necessity, Carolyn developed the F.I.E.R.C.E. 5 method, which helped her grow from a downtrodden, scared and ragged victim, standing in a food line at the Salvation Army, to the confident and successful person she is today, living a happy life she never realized she deserved.,
Carolyn took up the challenge of writing a book about her experiences.
Now, with her book completed, she hopes that through sharing her story she will provide others with the hope, resources, and willpower needed so that they too can live the life they deserve.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed Carolyn Colleen on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
073 Why Dyslexia is a Superpower w/ Gibby Booth Jasper
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Gibby Booth Jasper, host of podcast Dyslexia is a Superpower, joins us today for a powerful dialogue about the learning difference Dyslexia. As a coach and advocate, Gibby talks about real life experiences of Dyslexics as well as the challenges and triumphs that go along with it.
Dyslexia is a Superpower
Gibby Booth Jasper believes that the real value of being dyslexic is the power of having a different mind. Dyslexics look at problems differently. It enables different solutions and in turn develops a person’s tenacity and determination.
Many people look at dyslexia as a disability. However, it can be noted that a learning difference is never a hindrance to achieve personal goals. Just look at famous dyslexic people such as John F. Kennedy, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Richard Branson and Steven Spielberg, to name a few.
“They say everybody has a mountain to climb, but with dyslexia, your mountain has lava flowing, it has wild boars and all these obstacles. When you finally get to the top, you are able to accomplish so much more.” – Gibby Booth Jasper
Dyslexics Daily Struggle
Gibby believes dyslexics can connect the dots and solve problems differently. However, society has put on a standard on activities like writing, reading, and solving Math—which makes it hard for dyslexics to cope. Other than that, they do have spatial awareness problems, which is the difficulty of differentiating the left and the right.
Gibby and Christopher exchanged personal experiences, as both are dyslexic themselves. Gibby recounter how traumatized she is with gas stations, as she cannot figure out moving forward and backward with her car. Christopher also shared some experiences, especially in self-check out counters in grocery stores and with tipping and counting money.
“Spatial problems, self-checkout counters, counting money. Those are the kind of things that can be normally linked to dyslexia, so if you do see someone struggling, that might be it. Go help that someone” – Gibby Booth Jasper
Empowering Dyslexics
In dealing with dyslexia, Gibby stated the importance of informing their child that they are unique and different in a good way. Parents must reassure their children that nothing is wrong with them and assist them in building self-confidence.
“I think being able to look at it as ‘letting go of things because I can’t control them.’ Just have a sense of humor, because, in the grand scheme of life, it doesn’t matter” – Gibby Booth Jasper on struggles in doing daily activities
The real challenge for a dyslexic lies on their ability to play out strengths and to empower themselves while dealing with the existing society.
We hope you enjoyed Gibby Booth Jasper on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
BIO:
Links:
070 Alternative Investing w/ Eric Satz
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Eric Satz, CEO of Alto IRA and retirement planning advocate, joins us in today’s episode. He is on a mission to enable everyone to invest their retirement money in alternative investments. He actively campaigns for drastic information dissemination among retirees to save them from potential poverty in the future.
Diversifying Investments
Regular listeners might remember the teachings of prior guests like David Osborne or Pat Hiban or Dorie Clark. These smart people recommend a diverse investment strategy that creates multiple income streams over time. Such a strategy will help investors achieve the amazing goal of having investments pay for all expenses.
Eric Satz also promulgates diversifying investments, especially for retirees. He acknowledges the importance of various platforms today, where resources can be easily uploaded and disseminated. Eric and his team from Alto IRA provide information on alternative investments such as private startups, growth companies, real estate, loans, and digital assets and currencies.
“The idea is to open up areas of investment that have the potential to generate higher returns, higher yield and greater levels of current income—so that we are all in a better position to retire.” – Eric Satz
Alarming Truths About Retirement
Eric started his mission with straightforward and entrepreneurial motivation. There is a huge market opportunity of 30 trillion US dollars, sitting in retirement savings. However, only 1% of this amount is invested in alternative assets, instead of around 10 or 20%.
“Investing is proactive, saving is passive. If we don’t change the way we invest, 25 million Americans—elderly Americans—basically will be living in poverty.” – Eric Satz
Eric wanted to fight the conventional wisdom of financial advisors. He considers America to be under a retirement crisis up until 2050. He promotes diversification in investing in businesses commonly considered by upper-middle-class and the elites, like real estate.
Save and Invest
Further, into this episode, Lochhead mentions the importance of having investments while saving on the side.
He further says that retirees should take the opportunity to invest aggressively because of the changing of public-market-private-market dynamics. With a projected 46% increase in capital gains annually, an avid saver can plot his or her retirement early.
To hear more about alternative investing and more relevant information from Eric, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Eric Satz, Founder/CEO Alto IRA
An entrepreneur and former investment banker, Eric worked for DLJ/Credit Suisse First Boston before co-founding Currenex, Plumgood Food, and Tennessee Community Ventures, a VC firm.
Eric served on the Board of the TVA from 2015-January 2019, and he teaches an entrepreneurship class to high school students.
A Miami native and diehard ‘Canes and Dolphins fan, Eric went to Amherst College.
After years in NYC and then San Francisco, he and his wife moved to Nashville, her hometown, to raise their kids.
When he’s not breathing life into startup companies, Eric loves to ski, play soccer, and practice yoga.
Links:
Alto Ira Raises Seed Round – Hypepotamus
Will Wall Street be able to earn the trust of younger investors
Book: Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans
We hope you enjoyed Eric Satz on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
069 Trust w/ Christian Anschuetz & Bob Evans
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In this episode, former Marine and Entrepreneur Christian Anschuetz and Bob Evans, host of “Cloud Wars Live” podcast, joins us for a conversation about the connection between trust and happiness. They explore the dichotomy of why trust has never mattered more but remains so low in major institutions.
Trust is Collapsing
The conversation starts about personal definitions of trust and how trust and love coincide. The guests share anecdotes on their personal lives and ultimately, how trust adds to overall happiness in any relationship. Given the background of the guests, the discussion took a quick turn in discussing the trust issues of consumers to institutions.
“Whether it’s on a corporate level or a personal level, who we are, on a large part, is the promise or commitment that we make and whether or not we keep those promises or commitment.” – Christian Anscheutz
According to PR Firm Edleman, only 48% of people trust the government and 47% trust the media. Moreover, The Atlantic says, “Trust Is Collapsing in America.” Major corporations are not exempt from this discussion.
Breaking Promises
At a fundamental level, businesses are expected to have a set of commitments and promises around a product and service. These things make customers come back to the product/brand. However, we live at a time where a lot of major institutions have broken a lot of major promises to consumers, resulting in a massive takedown of trust.
“Trust is being eroded and trust is being created and both seem to be happening on a rocket speed today.” – Bob Evans
Christian and Bob observed that as big companies rise, failure in internal leadership, model setting, and problem recognition also results. It may be an advanced world now. However, these companies have no clue in keeping their customers’ trust.
Overriding Policies
Internally, policies guide management decisions, while externally, policies help the company lead in new markets. However, policies don’t square well most of the time, especially in terms of bridging the gap between the consumer and the company. No matter how much employees want to help consumers, their hands are tied because of certain company policies.
“How do companies fail to see this and how do they fail to act? It’s not a matter of doing stuff a little better or being more efficient. This is survival and death.” -Bob Evans
To further enhance personalization with consumers, Christian and Bob suggest that companies should explore Artificial Intelligence in customer service. AI can understand a consumer’s profile and history. It can contextualize an appropriate response without causing risks for the company.
To hear more about trust from Christian and Bob, download and listen to the episode.
Bios:
Chief Digital Officer, UL
Christian Anschuetz is the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for UL (formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories) where he is responsible for identifying, prioritizing and embedding technology innovation and digital trends into the vision, strategy, and operating models required to sustain and accelerate the company’s growth. Before assuming the role of CDO, he served as UL’s global Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Before joining UL, Christian was the CIO for Publicis Groupe, the 3rd largest communication company in the world.
In addition to holding several other executive positions, Christian also founded a technology services boutique focused on providing cybersecurity services to firms as early as 1998.
Christian holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Stayer University. He is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the founder of the innovative nonprofit startup, Project RELO.
Bob Evans
Bob grew up outside of Pittsburg, with hard-working parents and his 6 siblings. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and entered the business world, flowing his passion for information technology and writing.
He rose to become the editor of Information Week, one of the top two publications in technology at the time. Later on, he became the SVP and Content Director for Information Week’s parent company TechWeb/CMP
After thirty years in the media business, he left to join the world of software vendors, after a quick stop at ERP vendor SAP, Bob was recruited by the world 5th richest person, a legendary category designer and entrepreneur –Larry Ellison the founder of Oracle.
At Oracle Bob served as SVP and Chief Communications Officer for Larry.
Today Bob runs his own strategic communications firm, is a prolific writer, a tech industry commentator, public speaker, and a legendary guy.
He hosts the widely popular Cloud Wars Live Podcast.
Links:
Christian Anscheutz – Linkedin
We hope you enjoyed Bob Evans and Christian Anscheutz on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
068 Can Women & Men Work Together? w/ Shelly Witzke
In this episode, Shelly Witzke joins us to discuss her work relationship with men and with Lochhead in particular. They both have worked together as software salespeople and have developed a close but very professional connection. They talk about how men and women behave in the workplace pre-MeToo movement, establishing common respect for the opposite sex and the subjectivity of interpreting words and actions.
#MeToo Movement
In 2017, the #MeToo Movement went viral as social media users attempted to demonstrate the prevalence of sexual harassment. Different people felt strongly about the event. It gave rise to a common point of discussion in the workplace—can men and women still work together?
“I feel that the common reaction of male to the #MeToo movement is, ‘Don’t even.’” – Shelly Witzke
In this interview, Shelly shares valuable insights such as: how men think differently from women; how women can protect themselves by intuitively deciphering a person’s character and how reputation and patterns of behavior towards other people are important in dealing with the opposite sex.
Respect Begets Respect
Shelly Witzke has her fair share of #MeToo stories. She says that men have also been protective of themselves in the workplace. Men nowadays consider working with women risky, even more so if work requires traveling with the opposite sex. The stories of today differ from her personal and professional stories with Lochhead, as they used to spend loads of time together. There was never a time where Shelly felt she needed to evaluate her work relationship with Christopher. He was clearly respectful of all his colleagues.
“It was obvious from your actions and words that you have utmost respect to human beings and women, no different. Perhaps that’s partly where the trust factor [came from]. Maybe it starts there, maybe it’s built there.” – Shelly Witzke on Christopher Lochhead
Context Is Everything
Aside from a person’s reliability, one can note that the feeling of threat is highly dependent on each person. A man can utter profanity and be very vocal about his opinions. However, because of his respectful character, he may not offend the opposite sex.
“From that perspective, it never crossed my mind that I had to guard myself or be careful. I think that’s a big part of our relationship, my feeling of safety.” – Shelly Witzke
A man and a woman can have a peaceful working relationship, just like what Shelly and Christopher have. This can be achieved if the feeling of “safety” is established from the beginning of the relationship. To hear more about how men and women can work effectively together and more relevant information from Shelly, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
A software rep in the ‘90’s working with accounting firms and family businesses, Shelly made a bold choice to retire at the height of her career at the age of 33.
Unwilling to continue her life as it was, she forged into the unknown frontier of being a stay at home mom to let her with business degree languish in the idyllic green hills north of Toronto.
Humbled by parenting, she began to appreciate other moms, and now believes that parenthood forces our hand at leadership skills when we are least prepared.
Shelly holds an honors bachelor of commerce degree from Lakehead University, and today teaches bread baking in her kitchen and in unique online experiences to bring the smell of fresh bread into every kitchen.
Spending time with this warm hearted woman, you will crave feeling the blissful softness of proofing dough, delight in the intoxicating smell of homemade bread and learn to listen for the faint crackling of a hot crust as it starts to cool. She hopes that craving will be the beginning of a love affair with your kitchen and your life.
Links:
Instagram.com/insideyourcupboards
We hope you enjoyed Shelly this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes
067 CEO Whisperer Jerry Colonna Reboot
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WIRED calls Jerry Colonna the CEO Whisperer. He believes better human beings make better leaders. Today, he joins Lochhead in a fun and deep adult conversation about his new book, Reboot, and about growing up, what it takes to become a warrior leader and a lot more.
Writing a Book He Would Read
Jerry shares that Reboot is the only book he could write. Anything else would have been complete and utter bullshit. After all, he has had too many scars to bullshit his way through life.
He didn’t even know what he wanted to write when he received his agent’s offer. But soon he realized that they wanted him to be himself and show up. And the experience, coupled with his readers’ reactions, could easily reduce him to tears.
“I wrote the book that I needed to read 20 years ago.” – Jerry Colonna
Words Coming from Life
Towards the beginning of his book, Jerry ran by some of the many hardships people could go through. A co-founder quitting, investors pulling funding, spouses giving up, and many more. Every one of these instances is not some theoretical experience and can happen to anyone.
Such are the moments to stare deeply into our own experience and ask ourselves some important questions. What are we made out of, what have we chosen? But more broadly, in what ways have we been complicit in creating conditions we don’t want?
“It’s much easier to look at the world and say, ‘Why are you doing this to me? Why is this happening to me?’ But that’s uninteresting.” – Jerry Colonna
Complicit Versus Responsible
In writing his book, Jerry used the word “complicit” purposefully. He says that it differs from “responsible”, in that being complicit is like “going along with” and also unconscious. And like Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung said, until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives and we will call it fate.
We can realize how we become complicit in creating such conditions by answering the question of how they have served us. After all, that which persists does so because it delivers something.
“We might maintain structures not in our best interest because they serve this sort of larger wish for love, safety and belonging.” – Jerry Colonna
To hear more about Reboot, warrior leaders with open hearts and more life-altering nuggets from Jerry, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
The founder and CEO of Reboot.IO, Inc. Colonna is a certified professional coach.
Colonna draws on his wide variety of experiences to help clients design a more conscious life and make needed changes to their career to improve their performance and satisfaction.
He established his coaching practice in 2007. Prior to this work, Colonna was a venture capitalist focused on investing in early-stage technology-related startups.
In 2002, Colonna became a partner with J.P. Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private-equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase where he led the firm’s investments in companies such as ProfitLogic, Inc.
Colonna served as a director at ProfitLogic until its purchase by Oracle, Inc.
During his time at JPMP, his commitment to the non-profit sector increased significantly. In the fall of 2001, he worked with The Partnership for the City of New York to help launch the Financial Recovery Fund, a $10 million-plus program that made recoverable grants to small businesses impacted by the attacks on the World Trade Center.
He was named co-Executive Director of NYC2012 in January 2002, the organization designed to secure the City’s designation as the representation in the competition to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
In that year, he helped raise more than $6 million to further those efforts.
He joined JPMP from Flatiron Partners.
With his partner, Fred Wilson, Colonna launched Flatiron in August 1996. Flatiron became one of the most successful, early-stage investment programs.
During his tenure with Flatiron, Colonna was responsible for the firm’s investments in companies such as Geocities Inc. and Gamesville Inc. Colonna joined his first venture firm, CMG@Ventures L.P. in February 1995 as a founding partner.
CMG@Ventures was the first “Internet-specific” venture firm.
Prior to joining @Ventures, Colonna worked for ten years for CMP Media, Inc.
From 1985 to 1993, he served in a variety of roles at InformationWeek, including a three-year stint as its Editor.
Colonna also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Naropa University. Naropa University comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.
It is the only accredited Buddhist-inspired university in North America.
He also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Tibetan Village Project, a not-for-profit, non-political organization dedicated to creating sustainable livelihoods for Tibetans through social entrepreneurship and educational opportunities.
He is also a director at the Good Work Institute, whose mission is to educate and connect a network of local community members and actively support their collaborative efforts to regenerate their places.
The recipient of numerous awards and a compelling speaker on topics ranging from leadership to starting businesses, Colonna has been named to Forbes ASAP’s list of the best VCs and Worth’s list of the 25 most generous young Americans.
A graduate of Queens College, Colonna lives in Boulder, Colo.
Links:
WIRED – This Man Makes Founders Cry
We hope you enjoyed Jerry Colonna on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
