Exceptional People Magazine - September/October 2019 by Atela Productions, Inc.

September/October 2019

Creating a Winning Company Culture Inspires Ingenuity - Part 2 How to Cultivate Employee Talent for Maximum Value

Dr. Leonid Moroz IMPROVING EFFICIENCY, ONE ROCKET AT A TIME

DR. KAVEH ALIZADEH

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE: NOT JUST SKIN DEEP

Founder and Publisher Editor-in-Chief Monica Davis Writers & Editors Jon Crump Marla Gem Suzanne Harris

Letter from the Publisher Dear Friend,

Company Writers & Contributors Donna Carletta Kathy Kentty Pat Markel

Often, in life, we don’t realize how much of our success is because others played a significant role.

Other Contributors Andrew Horton Greg Williams Jack Canfield Annemarie Cross

It’s often the smallest gestures from others that allow us to experience amazing opportunities and enables us to experience incredible life journeys.

Art and Graphics Designer Jenette Antonio Sityar Exceptional People Magazine is published bi-monthly by Atela Productions, Inc. The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily those of Atela Productions, Inc. Exceptional People Magazine is a copyright of Atela Productions, Inc. The contents of this publication may not be printed, copied or distributed without the express written consent of the Publisher. Copyright © 2019 All rights reserved.

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P R O D U C T I O N S , INC.

We sometimes tend to think we accomplished all that we have on our own. But in reality, we usually achieve most of our success because of others.

Think about it. Did someone send you a referral? Did they make a call on your behalf? Did they perform a task for you without asking for pay? Did they offer you advice that you put into practice? There are many different ways people contribute, which leads to our lives changing for the better. I want to challenge you to think about the last few successes you’ve experienced; how your life has improved. Who helped you achieve that success? Who helped you overcome that problem you never thought you would overcome? The people who support you are those you should seek to build relationships with and try to find ways to be of service to them. Remember, we rarely achieve anything by ourselves. Until next time,

Monica Davis

Contents Extraordinary Profiles

05 D r. Kaveh Alizadeh Sustainable Change: Not Just Skin Deep 15 Dr. Leonid Moroz Improving Efficiency, One Rocket at a Time Minding My Business 22

Create Systems That Lead to Success

Creating A Winning Company

Culture Inspires Ingenuity - Part 2

How Do You Generate Positive Publicity for a New Brand?

30 How to Cultivate Employee Talent for Maximum Value 32

Self-development Ideas for Entrepreneurial Success

IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT YOUR EYES ARE THE WINDOWS TO YOUR SOUL. IF I LOOK INTO THEM, WHAT SHALL I SEE? A TRUE REFLECTION OF THE PERSON BEFORE ME?

Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh SUSTAINABLE CHANGE: NOT JUST SKIN DEEP

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n a world obsessed with physical beauty, the plastic surgery industry is booming. But where some surgeons simply nip and tuck the skin, Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh also looks to improve the structure and strength of the bones and muscles underneath for a more natural, integrated look that lasts. Looking below the surface is kind of how Alizadeh operates, even in the way he donates his time. Where some surgeons generously donate their skills, Alizadeh also looks

to be a child living in the chaos of war-torn Iran. With his father arrested and imprisoned as the country became embroiled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, young Alizadeh was naturally confused and scared. All he wanted was to have his father released, for his family to live in peace, and to play with his friends again. But in order to survive, he and his parents were forced to escape their country. While Iran writhed in the 6

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to improve the structure and strength of the local medical communities for, well, a more integrated change that lasts. The result is Mission: Restore, a new kind of surgical non-profit focusing on more impactful change through education. Alizadeh is passionate about Mission: Restore. When he recently spoke at the YPO Global Leadership Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, he described what it was like

agony of political upheaval, they made it to the U.S. as political refugees. Tragically, his two uncles were not as fortunate. Graduating from high school in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Alizadeh was admitted to Cornell University and attended Columbia College for pre-med. He received his MD from Cornell with commendation from the Dean.

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Alizadeh was obviously a smart, hardworking, and driven young physician. But he also knew he was lucky. He could still feel the loss, fear, and abandonment of innocent victims of war and terrorism. Unable to stay put while suffering occurred, he volunteered his surgical skills at Afghan refugee camps during the same year that he completed his residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Since then, his professional career and reputation as a tireless volunteer have soared. Every year Alizadeh has

across four continents. Its volunteers also use telemedicine technology to provide long-term follow up and collaboration worldwide. Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Westchester Medical Center and Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at New York Medical College, Alizadeh has served as president of the largest and oldest plastic surgery center in North America. Alizadeh directs the

travelled the world donating his skills to correct pediatric cleft lips and palates, burns, and genetic or accidental disfigurement. But over the years he became frustrated with organizations that only delivered surgeries on location with limited follow up. So Alizadeh founded Mission: Restore to create a more sustainable solution. Mission: Restore provides local surgeons the knowledge, training, skills, and support needed to treat patients in their own local communities

Clinical Research Division of Cosmoplastic Surgery and is credited with developing new breast, abdomen, and eyelid-lift techniques. He opened his own private practice on Park Avenue in Manhattan in 2014. Alizadehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s humanitarian volunteer work has earned him the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor and numerous other citations. He regularly appears on major network news as well as leading national magazines and Exceptional People Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; |â&#x20AC;&#x201A; September-October 2019

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newspapers. He has authored numerous publications and has given extensive presentations at the national and international level.

undoubtedly a challenging place to go and work, but we always felt welcomed by the local people and the patients or doctors alike.

Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh is a kind soul and a force to be reckoned with. You’re sure to learn and grow from our recent interview with him.

Monica: What are some types of conditions that you treat through Mission: Restore?

Monica: It is just absolutely amazing the lives that you have touched and will continue to reach through your Mission: Restore program. What was the driving force, first of all, behind your desire to build a profession as a plastic surgeon? Dr. Alizadeh: I went to medical school intending to become a neurologist or a psychiatrist. I got a scholarship to medical school, and that was my intention until my third year in medical school, where you have to decide as to which career you want to pursue. That’s the year when the medical students start rotating into hospitals with different specialties. I had the good fortune of spending time in the New York Hospital Burn Unit. During that time, I was exposed to the work of plastic surgeons and their transformational operations where they were able to take someone who was entirely disfigured, and return them to normal again, either by skin grafting or using flaps. That was very inspiring to me, and I decided that was what I wanted to be when I grew up. Monica: It’s indeed working very well for you. You have developed a fantastic program, Mission: Restore, which provides medical and surgical care to citizens around the world and in developing countries. When you first began working as a volunteer with African refugees in camps, as well as in other countries, how were you received or perceived as one who was coming into another country from the outside? Dr. Alizadeh: I’ve been fortunate enough because of the nature of what we do, which is primarily to go and teach and train doctors. We’re always well-received despite the political environment of the native country where we work. Afghanistan was no different. Having spent the past 20 years just doing volunteer work regularly, you get to learn that everyone’s the same. All humans are the same. They’re all appreciative when someone’s willing to take the time to focus on their lives and to help improve them. So, Afghanistan was 8

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Dr. Alizadeh: As I mentioned, I’ve been doing volunteer work for the past 20 years – 21 years now. I first went to the Afghan refugee camps, which you stated, as a medical student. That was in 1993. That was 26 years ago. That was the moment where I felt this kind of work was impactful enough that I wanted to dedicate my life to it when I finished my training. I completed my training by the year 2000 when I started my practice, and I have not missed a year since. I’ve not missed a year of going and doing the work since 1998. I’ve been doing this every year, at least twice, if not three times, a year. We’ve learned that to be effective, the work you do has to be sustainable. So to be sustainable, the accountability has to be transferred to the local people we work with, because the work essentially ends the minute you leave that location and that country. The colleagues you’re working with on location are the ones who have to assume the responsibility from day one. You go in there to help them with your experience. However, patient care is always done by local doctors and nurses. Once we learned that, that’s how Mission: Restore was born. It was born in response to a crisis, which was the Haiti earthquake in March of 2010. That’s when my colleagues and I talked about going there and setting up these sustainable programs. We said, “You know what? Let’s go and see if we can do this in Haiti.” We responded to the Haiti earthquake within a week of it happening. What we learned from Haiti was that the infrastructure and the resources for the local doctors were not quite in place yet. So, then we pivoted, and we said, “Okay. Now we want to focus on countries where there’s war and trauma, but there’s also infrastructure in place.” That was the reason for the help of our American colleagues in Afghanistan and Iraq during the war there. We essentially piggybacked off the American military and

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some of the non-profit organizations that were based in Kabul and Iraqi Kurdistan at the time. The lesson learned there was that you could have a great infrastructure in place. You could have great colleagues who are local. However, if the political climate is not right, you can’t have a sustainable program because it’s hard to have doctors come and teach when they’re worried about their safety. So, the next pivot happened in 2013 when we said, “Let’s pick a place where we know there’s stability over long periods of time, and there is a need, and the ability to actually recruit, train, and network young doctors and nurses who can then become the next generation of leaders.” That place on the map ended up being east and central Africa. It was mostly because, in 2013, there was a report that was widely distributed by the World Health Organization talking about how the next world epidemic was going to be wounds and essential surgical care for

wounds from trauma and accidents. It also spoke about how east and central Africa were the epicenters for the needs for training the next generation of doctors. Once we saw that report from the World Health Organization, we had our map. Everything was mapped out for us. We knew we had to be there from a geographic perspective. We felt that it was politically stable enough. Kenya and Tanzania were where we got our start. Thankfully, this area has not had much political instability. There’s been regional instability, but not national or local instability. The idea was to go to one place and drill deep and set an anchor, and then we would wait for these young doctors and nurses, whom we were training, to come through so we could make them self-sustainable. Here we are now five and a half years later. We’ve stayed in the same place. We’ve grown it from our very first location, which was in Mwanza on Lake Victoria in Tanzania. We now have over 100 participants from 14 countries in Africa. Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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Monica: Do you have to design the training and education based on the needs of each country and the surgeons in those countries, or do the programs stay the same regardless of where you’re training them? Dr. Alizadeh: Our program is the same. Our view is that we want to be very focused on what we’re good at, and what we know works, and what’s in demand. Those are the three key principles. The next principle that we believe in is that we operate with the local doctors, not for the local doctors. Traditionally, when we think about a medical mission that goes and does work, they have the right intentions, but they’re usually going in and using a lot of the local resources. They’re setting up these camps to do surgery for a kid with a cleft lip or a kid with a burn. They’re using up all the local resources; the hospital beds are taken up. Then they leave. Then what happens? What is the follow-up? How do we know if these people are healing well? If they’re not healing well, who is taking care of them? That’s why we’ve taken the long view at this. We believe success is defined by the number of doctors and nurses

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we train, not the number of patients we treat. It’s a very different mindset. If we’re able to successfully train a surgeon, for example, that surgeon in his lifetime, will be able to perform 10,000 operations that will affect 10,000 lives. You can never match that by just setting up several camps. Those numbers are just not achievable. That’s essentially how we achieve scale, by going there and doing this for a while. You have to go back to the same place because, during these multiple visits, you get to learn about the local health officials and the government officials, and about which doctor has a personal problem that will not allow them to make it long-term, for example. The more time you spend with someone, you’ll be able to affect change over time. That’s why we decided that we’re going to actually pick a few places in a very geographically localized way, which is east and central Africa, and then keep going back to the same places over and over again. Monica: What about the supplies? For all these different locations that you have established, how easy or challenging is it to get the supplies needed for the surgeons to be effective?

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Dr. Alizadeh: Here’s what’s different about us. We don’t take any supplies with us. The idea is for me not to come and change what’s happening but to come and make you better. We don’t want to distort the way they do things by introducing equipment or other things that will end up making it more expensive.

isn’t going to be able to hold a pen, so he’s not going to be able to do his work at school.

Monica: You’re also training and supporting female surgeons around the world. In what ways are you helping them to become better at their craft?

A straightforward operation that we teach, which is how to release these burn contractures on a skin graph, which takes about 30 minutes, will potentially bring the function back to this kid. This operation will enable him to start writing and playing again. He can hold a ball. He can hopefully hold an instrument to work in the field to help his dad.

Dr. Alizadeh: In the past 20 years I’ve been doing this; what I’ve learned is that women who work in a community, especially women surgeons, end up staying in their communities. Whereas usually men, once they get the proper training, they will seek economic opportunity by going somewhere else. Women tend to stay in their communities because they are usually caretakers, not only for their children but also for extended family members. They have a commitment that is innate with regards to staying involved and ingrained in their communities. It came from a very pragmatic approach, which is about asking how we could make sure these programs remain intact and alive over time. If you rely on women leaders, they’re more likely to stay, as opposed to men. I think that’s a general trend that we’ve noticed, which is why we’re pursuing this path. Monica: Even though you’re helping the doctors perfect their craft, you’re also supporting the citizens of those countries by restoring hope, confidence, and even selfesteem, wouldn’t you think? Dr. Alizadeh: I would say most of what we do in Africa is mainly functional improvement. I would say the byproduct is cosmetic. However, it’s really about functional improvement. By that, I mean a typical case is a young child who was playing at home where there’s open-fire cooking in the middle of the home. That’s how it’s usually done in the villages in Africa. So he went to pick up something. His ball rolled close to the fire. He went to pick it up, and he burned his hand. When he burned his hand, he lost the ability to use his hand, which means as he grows up, he’s not going to be able to help his mom around the home, and he’s not going to be able to help his dad in the field. Likely, he

So, that kid is now completely shunned from the community. Over time, he will be a fallout from that community.

These all by themselves are incremental, but they have huge connotations with regards to the community for these people. There is the cosmetic aspect, but it’s really beyond that. I think most of what we’re doing is functional improvement because that is what’s going to make a difference in the communities. When you travel in Africa, you get to see how most people are on the road. Unfortunately, that’s one of the reasons we see a lot more accidents in places like Africa. Everyone’s walking on the road, so there is more likelihood of accidents. Everyone’s cooking in open fire, which is another reason why burns happen in these villages. So, going back to your question, essentially, what we’re trying to do is to restore function to people. A byproduct of that is to restore cosmesis, which helps a person not only feel whole again but to look whole again. It’s both. Monica: As you travel the world, what have you found to be the common denominator among the doctors that you meet, teach, and work with? What is the one thing that stands out to you about who they are on the inside? Dr. Alizadeh: I think the most compelling message that stays with me is that no matter where we are on the planet, we all have the same hopes and aspirations. We want to help ourselves as individuals. We want to improve ourselves as families. We want to help ourselves as communities. The opportunities that we have is what sets us apart. We’re fortunate enough in the United States that we have many opportunities, so we get to do a lot more with what we have. However, a lot of these people, unfortunately, don’t have the opportunities available, Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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so they don’t get to exercise them. With regards to the human spirit and what it’s able to achieve, we have seen people who have traveled eight days on the road to get to us to have a chance to feel better. We’ve seen doctors who have traveled over 2,000 miles in Africa to work in a village because they were promised that if they work in that village for three years, they’ll be allowed to pursue surgery. Only one person can go into surgery per year, so they have given up so much for that hope. Essentially, the human condition is about hope. If you take that away, what is there to live for? 12

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The ultimate African of all for me is Nelson Mandela, who waited 27 years to get to the village. Monica: It’s incredible when you talk about it because it makes me think about a lot of what we take for granted here. Dr. Alizadeh: Yes, indeed. I have a very selfish reason that I go: not only for what happens there, and what I learn there, but when I come back and how grateful I am. There’s this sort of spiritual message that you should always be grateful and have gratitude.

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I can tell you; you are promised to have gratitude and be grateful when you come back from these trips. Monica: In what ways have the people you have served through Mission: Restore helped you become a better person? Dr. Alizadeh: By watching them in action, by watching their humility and how they go through their days, and watching their patience and how they stay focused on what they need to get done despite all the odds. Also, by their lack of complaining. Monica: What is your vision for Mission: Restore moving forward? Dr. Alizadeh: I think the ultimate test of Mission: Restore is for it to be an organization that essentially runs on its own with local resources. When we started five years ago with our first networking summit in Africa, 100 percent of the doctors who were lecturing and teaching were from the west. This year, I’m proud to say that 80 percent of the doctors who are teaching and lecturing are from Africa. So, we’ve gone from zero to 80 percent. I think at some point, it’s going to be 100 percent led by African surgeons, and I would say the number of female surgeon lecturers is currently at 40 percent. Hopefully, someday, that number will be over 50 percent, as well. Those are the goals we’re moving towards. Monica: In terms of your team, do you ever bring on new people, or do you have a steady set of people working with you? Dr. Alizadeh: No. We like to circulate, so we do have a steady number of people. There are about 30 surgeons in the U.S. who work with us as educators or instructors. However, the idea is to continually circulate and try and bring new ideas and add to the network. I would say the most significant growth in the network has been within Africa in terms of new instructors and teachers. Monica: A woman by the name of Marianne Williamson once said, “Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” What does that mean to you? Dr. Alizadeh: I certainly agree with it, and I think that the only way we know whether our abilities are used well is

by constantly testing them. The only way to test them is to be out on the field. You can keep telling everyone how you were the greatest quarterback in high school, but if you’re not playing football, it’s not helping anybody. So, I think you have to continually test your skills by being out there on the front lines. I’m lucky enough to teach and do surgery here in America, but I do feel that the way I’m tested is to go and respond to where the most significant needs are, which is what keeps pulling me back to that part of the world. Monica: How can others help support Mission: Restore? Dr. Alizadeh: There are three ways to do that. The most obvious way is if they have the financial means to help us. These projects are dependent on financially supporting a lot of education. The educational part comes both in forms of sending teams there that are teaching and training, and also helping support the doctors too, by paying their tuition, essentially. The bang for the buck is enormous there because to train a medical doctor in the United States currently, it’s about $120,000 a year. Whereas there, the average expense in terms of training a doctor is about $3,000 a year. The second part is what you are doing: bringing awareness to our work. You have done your good deed of the day. One of the most important things is to bring awareness because we are a small organization, which means we don’t have a loudspeaker. If anyone can help spread the word with us, especially in today’s world of internet, that is key. The third part is to sort of do something grassroots. Grassroots can take several different directions. It could be we have college students who are starting chapters of Mission: Restore in their colleges. These are students who are interested in global health or medicine, usually. That’s their interest. So, they’re starting their own chapter. I think we have over 15 chapters right now in different universities in the U.S., and we would like to grow that. The second way to do it is to hold an informational session, at your home with colleagues and friends, or online where myself or one of my colleagues will be happy to jump online, and we can give a presentation about our work, and then open it up to questions. Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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People will have sort of a visual journey as to what Mission: Restore does, and what the impact is. I think those are the key ways to be able to gain traction. Monica: This is wonderful. I would love it if you closed the interview with your last word. Dr. Alizadeh: I would like to close with the words that have inspired me to continue, despite the difficulties and obstacles that you can face with our kind of work and where we operate. “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” That’s Mahatma Gandhi’s quote. We always know what’s right. Every one of us knows what’s right. The question is, how much are we acting towards making it right? 14

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Hopefully, with the work that we’re doing, we’re taking a small step toward making things right. That is primarily making sure that every human has the right to have access to medical and healthcare, and is functional, healthy, and able to contribute to their community. Monica: You’re certainly doing an exceptional job at it. Dr. Alizadeh: I hope so. Monica: Thank you so much for this opportunity. It has been a pleasure. Dr. Alizadeh: It has been a pleasure for me, as well. I hope you keep up with our work, especially since we’re going to be back in Africa with our training in two weeks. So hopefully, you can keep up with us. 

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Dr. Leonid Moroz IMPROVING EFFICIENCY, ONE ROCKET AT A TIME Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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urbomachinery design is critical in industries like aerospace, oil and gas, defense, and clean technology. Dr. Leonid Moroz’s company, SoftInWay Inc., also helps some of the world’s largest manufacturers of turbines, turbochargers, pumps, and fans. But Moroz is happy to explain that his company’s innovations also impact the car you drive, the vacuum cleaner you use, the air conditioning in which you work, and the electricity needed to power your mobile phone. A lover of music and athletics as a child, Moroz knew early on that engineering held promise as a lifelong career. So he started his career as a Group Leader at TurboAtom. TurboAtom, while a state-owned entity, is one of the world’s top thermal, nuclear, and hydropower

plant turbine construction companies. It’s a company that operates at the level of companies like General Electric and Siemens. Moroz designed both gas and steam turbines during his eight years at TurboAtom. While he was there, he also earned his Ph.D. in Turbomachinery from the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine. When he founded global aerospace engineering leader SoftInWay, Inc. in 1999, he intended to assist turbomachinery manufacturers needing his expertise. What evolved from that intent has revolutionized engineering design and allowed improved efficiencies for multiple system types: Its flagship software, AxSTREAM. AxSTREAM helps engineers develop efficient turbomachinery flow path design, redesign, analysis, and optimization. Under Moroz’ direction, AxSTREAM itself has also evolved into a design platform supporting rapid development of a new generation of liquid rocket engines. Still a relatively small company, SoftInWay supports over 400 companies worldwide and works closely with universities, research laboratories, and government organizations. The company takes its educational responsibilities seriously, continually offering webinars, training sessions, educational blogs, and online workshops on topics like When To Upgrade

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Your Pump, The Pros and Cons of Wind Energy, and Radial Outflow Turbine Design. Moroz loves to talk about his work, his company, its innovations, and his team. He’s proud to have had the same group of engineers for 30 years, so SoftInWay feels more like a family than a workplace. As the company has become a leading global R&D engineering company, it has expanded to encompass locations in Boston, Massachusetts; Zug, Switzerland; Ukraine; and India. Yes, Moroz’ specialty is indeed a bit technical for people who aren’t in turbomachinery engineering design. But Moroz and his team clearly enjoy what they’re doing because it benefits society and makes life easier and more comfortable in myriad ways. Next time you switch on that ShopVac or Hoover, be sure to thank Dr. Leonid Moroz. Monica: So, who is Dr. Moroz? Who is the man behind all this amazing technology you’ve developed? Dr. Moroz: Well, I always appreciate my team. I have an excellent team, and I’ve worked with our key people for probably 30 or 40 years. We try to bring new technology to the world to make it better, to save time and resources. When I started as a young engineer, I worked in a powerplant that produced steam and gas turbines. It was the beginning of my career. When you’re 20 or 21, your management usually sends you to people who are more experienced. Traditionally, high technology comes from aerospace, from the military, when you need to develop the best things. I was always fascinated with people who could achieve that because they have the experience, and I started learning from them to see how we can apply it. Now we’re in a position where we develop technology for aerospace, we develop technology for space, for new propulsion generations, and supercritical CO2. Today, we are a pioneer in what we’re doing.

need to get an education, so I said, “Okay, let’s start from engineering.” So, I started with engineering, and after that, I continued that path. Monica: Well, it certainly has paid off for you. Dr. Moroz: Well, it’s rewarding because I enjoy what I’m doing. I am working with amazing people, not just inside of our company but outside too. We’re a small company, generally speaking. We’ve been growing quite fast during the last number of years, but it’s bootstrap growth. We never took any investment, and that was our decision. We wanted to see how we could do it on our own, and we did great. On this road, we meet amazing people, a lot of them, and they appreciate what we’re doing. When we first introduced our product on the market, it was 2005, and like any new technology, like any new product, it’s tough to explain to people what’s different, especially in an established industry like turbomachinery, because turbomachinery has existed for hundreds of years.

Monica: When you got into the field of engineering, did someone inspire you to take that path?

Monica: What types of businesses or companies can benefit from the innovations you develop?

Dr. Moroz: I cannot say that I was inspired by when I was a boy. I loved different things from that time. I love music, chess, and sports. When you’re in school, you

Dr. Moroz: Our innovations apply to companies that work in oil and gas, aerospace, and power generations. Our latest development was focused on helping young Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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produce power, so we need to be more efficient, but the second part, when we get this power, we need to cool our houses, we need to cool our cars, and so on, and again, it’s turbomachinery. You can be sure that you utilize turbomachinery to develop an air conditioning system that is efficient and is quite substantially in large buildings. Power consumption for air conditioning is like 30 or 40 percent of the overall power consumption. Can you imagine if you were to decrease this by 10 to 20 percent? It would be a considerable saving. Monica: With your years of experience in the engineering industry, do you find that young students have an interest in this kind of engineering? startups and companies who work in space. This was with a company that developed new launchers, and with launchers, one of the critical components is engines, which require many resources. It’s very complicated, so we’re working to help companies and young startups to quickly develop reliable engines to be sure they can quickly move this product development. Monica: We often take for granted how engineering plays a huge role in our daily lives. How much of the world depends on the kind of technology and engineering capabilities you produce? Dr. Moroz: Quite substantially. For example, society produces a lot of waste and heat. If you have options, it utilizes waste and heat to produce power, or it is thrown away. We’ve helped companies to utilize this energy and to produce power to heat or cool our houses, to prepare food, and to help our businesses survive. Another example again would be launchers design. Launchers are important for turbomachinery. A significant part of space development depends on turbomachinery inside those launchers. It’s important to understand two directions where people can utilize turbomachinery with power consumption and power generation. Power generation is when you 18

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Dr. Moroz: Yes, I’m pleased to have found it right now. In our company, I don’t think the average age exceeds 30. We have a lot of young engineers, young Ph.D.s, and master’s degree graduates, and in our education program, we start them from an internship. We bring in interns, and we train them and see how they proceed. They stay with us. We have this program that’s working globally, in the US, and we have five offices today, so we have many interns we train, and we bring them to our company for future development. It’s the only way to go. Monica: There are different areas within engineering, but just generally speaking, engineering is a prevalent industry right now, and I think it will continue to be that way. Dr. Moroz: Well, I think we need to be a little bit more cautious with those conclusions because engineering is quite a wide range of different kinds of specialties. What we see is that young engineers want to be attracted to something cool. If you read any news related to space, there are many competitions, and we support those competitions for the design of a rocket. We support competitions that organize the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to develop different kinds of aircraft engines, and we feel it’s beneficial for all society. It gives visibility to the topic, it gives visibility to young engineers, and we see it growing globally.

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So, I cannot speak for all disciplines, but the aerospace arena is critical. Monica: When a company comes to you for support on the development of their products, what can they expect from you and your team? Dr. Moroz: Our team is customer-driven, and usually, we ask, what is your final goal? It’s critical for us. Some companies come to us and say, “Okay, we wonder if you can give us a vision of what could be the next step.” Sometimes, companies want us to develop an end product. We did several very successful projects where we determined a strategy for developing a new line of compressors, or a new line of engines, or a new type of turbomachinery.

Dr. Moroz: Yes. Monica: What does it mean to you to know that you are helping people and companies improve the way we live and work? Dr. Moroz: You know, I interviewed a young engineer for an engineering position in our company, and I asked him, “What do you want to do?” He said, “I want to develop new technology; I want to work with customers; I want to be sure that what I’m doing is useful for people.” It’s the same for me. That’s why I’m looking for people who have this kind of mentality. Whatever they’re doing needs to be useful. I don’t want to waste any minute of my time or my colleagues’ time doing something that has no benefit for society. We

Most important, when it comes to this topic, quite often companies ask us not just to develop products or perform studies. They ask us, “Can you help us transfer technology?” We develop technology, and we transfer technology to them. We train the engineers to be sure the company can move to the next level themselves with just a couple of calls to us if they have any problems. Monica: So, you provide them with excellent service. Depending on what it is they need, you can offer them other options to help them build on that.

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

Monica: It has certainly been a pleasure talking to you. What you’re doing is helping to change the world. Most people don’t realize that many of the types of technology-related products you create are used in a way that helps us as a society to live comfortably or at least to accomplish things in a much more effective manner. Dr. Moroz: Absolutely. It’s a reality. Artificial intelligence helps us not only when we go shopping and buy things, but it helps us to live. Shopping is, of course, part of our life, but to do shopping, we need to produce the goods, and it’s what we can do. So, we are a producer of goods. Monica: I would like for you to close the interview with your last word.

always try to find a project that brings benefit to society globally, because the world is so small, and we need to help people around the world. In Africa, Korea, Asia, and Egypt, people need expertise. It’s not just about trade. It’s about people. We all live globally. That’s why we work extensively internationally to be sure that we can support our international partners and friends. One thing that I really feel is important today for society is the application of machine learning in engineering. Machine learning and artificial intelligence is the next level. Artificial intelligence and global systems are our future, and we are looking forward to bringing this future to each of us.

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Dr. Moroz: My wish to students and young engineers is to always think about the future, to think about what they create, and not just today, but think about the future and how they will benefit. How will their work benefit society, and how can they bring us to the next level of enjoyable work? I think it’s important, because if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll never produce a good product, and you’ll never develop new technology. Enjoy what you’re doing, and you will be happy. Monica: You certainly have to enjoy what you’re doing, and that’s what makes you great at what you do. Dr. Moroz: Again, I want to recommend to young engineers to do what they like. You should push yourself to do what you want to do. Enjoy your work every day. Life is short, so be kind to yourself. Monica: This has been a pleasure, and I even learned a few things. Dr. Moroz: Thank you very much. 

Thorough planning is a necessity when executing any long-term goal, but especially when you want to succeed as a business owner. Fully analyze your mission, business goals, and how you plan to run the business.

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Create Systems That Lead to Success By Jon Crump

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

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ou might understand the power of setting a goal, but that’s just the beginning. A goal is where you want to end up—the final destination—but it doesn’t tell you how to get there. Creating systems that move you toward success is the real path to success. For example, a successful business always has a system for generating sales. There are sales goals, but the system is what moves the company toward that sales goal. You already have a lot of systems. You have a system for mowing and trimming your grass. You have a system for making sure you have clean clothes on Monday morning. When you set a new goal, it’s important to create new systems. Follow this process to create effective systems that lead to your success: It’s imperative to know and understand your goal, but you need to have laser focus on how to get there. Let’s imagine that your goal is to run a marathon in nine months. How exciting! But, let’s focus on how you might get there. Let’s also imagine that you haven’t run in years, and you have 20 pounds to lose if you want to increase your odds of success. • With research, you discover that you need to ultimately have a long run of 20 miles every other week to have a good chance of finishing a marathon. You also know that you need to work up to a weekly mileage of at least 40 miles per week. Armed with this knowledge, you can create a plan. • You know that you need to lose 20 pounds, so a diet of some sort might be in order. • You also believe that you need to learn more about running and how to develop stamina and improve your breathing. Formulate a support goal. You know that you need to ultimately have a long run of 20 miles every other week, work up to 40 miles per week, and lose 20 pounds. You also need to learn more about running. These are support goals. • Your “systems” will be the way you choose to accomplish these support goals.

• One way to develop your systems is to work backwards. Work backwards. Obviously, you can’t just go out and run 20 miles if you haven’t run in years. You’re also not going to lose 20 pounds in a day. Trying to run 40 miles the first week will lead to injury and a loss of motivation. • If you need to have a 20-mile run every other week, the week or two prior to running 20 miles, you need to run 19. Before that, 18. Keep working back until have a number you can do your first week. Build a schedule. • Over the next 9 months, you need to work up from just a few miles to 40 miles. Again, build a schedule. • Perhaps on Sunday, you will create a menu for the week and do your shopping as a way of helping to lose those 20 pounds. • You might also decide to read for an hour each week about running. • Now, your goal each week is to follow your plan. Monitor how well you’re sticking to your plan. The end goal is just the destination. The key is to focus on your systems in order to get there. Each goal will require different systems. For example, if you’re a real estate agent and want to sell $10 million worth of real estate this year, your systems might be to: • Call 25 expired listings each week. • Send out 100 postcards each month looking for new buyers and sellers. • Go to three networking events each month. • Ask everyone you know if they’re interested in buying or selling a home. Effective systems are doable and will guarantee success. Create systems that make it less likely to fail. Poor systems or poor compliance lead to poor results. Set your goals and then focus on developing effective systems. If you create good systems and follow them, you’ll achieve success. What systems do you have in place in your business or home, or at work? Are they working? 

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

CREATING A WINNING COMPANY CULTURE INSPIRES INGENUITY Part 2

By Jon Crump BUILDING A CULTURE You’ve started the ball rolling and given it some thought. Now, let’s take the next step and get more specific. There are many things to consider when building the best culture for your business. And a few of them you probably haven’t considered.

environment will be at odds with your personal values.

• You can’t choose the culture of a company you work for, but you can choose the culture of your own company. Choose something that you will enjoy.

Questions to ask yourself to build the most successful workplace culture:

What are my employees like? Think about your typical employee. Is it a 20-something liberal techie? Or is it an Ivy League MBA with a trust fund? • Certain cultures suit certain types of employees. Design a culture that supports the characteristics of your employees.

What are my customers and clients like? Who are your clients and customers? Doctors? Investment bankers? Children? People who just want their car washed? • Do your customers and clients come to your workplace? What would you want them to see? • An investment banker might not be impressed by the sight of everyone wearing shorts and playing frisbee on the front lawn on “Casual Friday”. • Consider the people and businesses you serve.

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What are my values? What are your personal values? If you value family and a balanced life, then a take-no-prisoners aggressive workplace September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

What type of workplace culture would I enjoy? It’s your company, and you’re going to be there all day and many nights. What type of environment would you find pleasant?

What type of workplace culture is needed for success? Of course, it’s not just about making yourself happy. You want to be successful, too. The key is to find something that checks all the boxes.

Establish a culture that meets your values that you also enjoy. The culture must also have a high level of potential for success and address the needs of your employees and customers. This can be challenging, but life is all about compromises. Take your time and get it right. A corporate culture isn’t completely static, especially at the beginning. There will be opportunities to strengthen and evolve your culture. One way of doing this is through feedback. While you can, and should, encourage random feedback, having an established process can be even more effective. Questions to ask to employees to strengthen your workplace culture:

What improvements or changes would you like to see in the culture? Every employee has at least an

MINDING MY BUSINESS

idea or two about how things could be made even better. Many ideas won’t be feasible, but you’re sure to get a couple of good suggestions.

What is your biggest gripe or pet peeve about the current culture? If you’re hearing the same couple of complaints from multiple employees, you have a great opportunity to make everyone happy with a few alterations. • Fixing something that annoys everyone is more powerful than adding something that everyone likes.

What do I need to do to be a better leader or CEO? You’ll have to dig to get honest answers, as many employees are reluctant to criticize their boss. But, this is some of the best information you’ll receive. It’s not easy to see our own shortcomings. • The use of anonymous suggestions might be beneficial. You could require all employees to submit a form each month with replies to all of these questions.

What have you been doing to grow yourself as an employee? What have you learned on your own? Encourage employees to strengthen their talents and develop new ones. This does great things for the culture of your company. By asking the question, you create action in your employees.

What is the one thing you would change about our product or service? Your employees are bound to have some good ideas on how to improve your products and services. Many heads are better than one.

Get some form of feedback from your employees each month regarding your products, services, culture, and management. Don’t just ask for this, require it. It not only gives you a ton of valuable information, but your interest in these things also sets the tone for your workplace culture. You’re simultaneously showing that you value communication and regular improvement. The employees also know that you value their opinions and feedback.

“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.” — Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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COMMON TYPES OF WORKPLACE CULTURES

There are many types of workplace cultures. Understanding the various basic types can provide a good insight into which type of culture might best work for your company. As you read through this list, ask yourself, “Would this work for my company?” Remember that you're free to develop your own unique culture. Consider these types of workplace cultures:

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Outcome oriented. Results are what matter and results are rewarded. This type of culture is often found in sales-driven companies. Innovative. Creativity and new ideas are the order of the day. It’s about figuring out what the marketplace needs and being the first to deliver it.

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Lottery. The people near the top have it made. The hours are decent, and the pay is exceptional. Everyone below this level is overworked and underpaid. This is common in investment banking and consulting firms. • The carrot of that great job makes this scheme work. Everyone is willing to drive themselves incredibly hard to attain one of those rare, coveted positions.

Casual. Wear what you want within reason. The hours are flexible, so work when you choose, as long as you do your job.

People-oriented. This culture puts the value of the employee above all else. These companies are often willing to sacrifice profits to pay their employees above the normal rate.

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"I used to believe that culture was ‘soft,’ and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.” – Vern Dosch, author, Wired Differently

• The company policies focus on fairness, and the work environment tends to be casual regarding hours and family obligations. • These companies have better retention than others.

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Aggressive. Aggressive cultures are focused on outperforming competitors. This type of culture can also be quite competitive and aggressive between employees, too. The battle cry is, “We will destroy our competitors one way or the other.” Stable. This type of culture is common in many large, well-established companies. There are rules, so follow them. It’s a very hierarchical structure and very bureaucratic. • Decisions are made centrally. So, the headquarters in Milwaukee is making the big decisions for the office in Miami.

Detail-oriented. Often found in the hospitality industry, these companies emphasize the little things. It’s all about the details each and every day.

This is just a sampling of some of the types of cultures you can choose for your company. Which one do you think would be a good starting point? Perhaps you want to use elements of different cultures for your company.

CONCLUSION Defining and creating a workplace culture that works for your business is one of the more challenging tasks as a business owner. You can’t make everyone happy, as you well know. However, creating an effective culture for your business is the one of the best ways to raise the odds of your company succeeding in the future. 

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

he number one question I get asked when people find out I am a media consultant is “I just started a business--how do I start ‘doing publicity’?” And that’s a great question: even if you have the best idea in the world, you need to get eyes on it. How do you get traffic and generate buzz about what you’re doing? Launching a new brand can be extremely daunting. The internet is flooded with tutorials and “Top 10 Tips” for generating fast publicity and getting your brand off the ground. But unfortunately, most of the advice you’ll find is just a flash in the pan--nice for a moment, but once it’s done, you’re right back to where you started. It’s absolutely essential that, as a new business owner, you adjust your thinking from “How can I generate

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

publicity fast?” to “How do I generate positive publicity that will last?” And here’s the truth: before you start posting on Instagram, before you start scheduling interviews on local TV, before you start running ads in the paper, you need to look inward. You need to build a solid foundation. Fortunately, since your brand is new, you’re at a perfect place and time to think about these kinds of things. This isn’t going to be a quick and easy thing to do. It’s going to take time to build up to positive publicity, but you have to start laying that groundwork now. Here are the steps/things you need to answer about your business so you can start building up your base.

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How Do You Generate Positive Publicity for a New Brand? WHAT’S YOUR WHY?

WHAT’S YOUR HOW?

I’ve known since a young age that I wanted to get into the world of media in order to cast a light on people doing extraordinary things. This “why” is my engine. It powers me through interviews, motivates my decisions on what types of media opportunities to explore, and more.

This might sound a bit harsh, but a “why” without a “how” is just a nice thought. In order to make any movement on your business, you need to think about the way you want to operate--how you want your brand to be perceived.

You need to know what your “why” is for your brand. A lot of people on the internet and in business always talk about “mission” as your purpose, which is true. But it goes a bit deeper than that. Understanding your mission means you know what actions and the kind of impact you want to make. This isn’t just something you write on the “About” page of your website. It’s your roadmap to what you’re going to be building towards. So, ask yourself, what is so important to you about building this brand? What kind of difference are you hoping to make? The more genuine and thoughtful your answer, the more of a guiding light it’ll be to you down the road-especially when it’s time to make difficult decisions. So, don’t brush over this. Give your “why” some serious thought.

“Culture” is a buzz word that’s been thrown around so much in business settings that it has kind of lost its meaning. But the idea is extremely important. When people think of your brand, what do you want them to imagine? Is your brand high-energy and youthful? Serious and reliable? Quirky and fun? There’s no wrong answer except no answer. Choose adjectives to describe your business and then use them to help guide decisions down the road. A tip here is to think hard about your audience and what they would respond to best. This is just the beginning. But if you know your “why” and “how” when starting your brand from scratch, you’ll have a fantastic foundation for building the rest of your positive publicity campaign--and be miles ahead of most of your competition.

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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How to Cultivate Employee Talent for Maximum Value By Kathy Kentty

ears ago, a successful career usually meant achieving upward mobility. Ambitious employees climbed the corporate ladder to reach management positions. Today, fulfilling career paths run in many different directions, and fewer employees spend their entire careers at one company.

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However, some things do stay the same. Most workers still value career growth even more than salary and benefits. At the same time, employers depend on a staff that feels engaged in their work and uses learning and development opportunities to enhance their performance. Building your internal team is important to the success of your company. How can your business cultivate internal talent so that employees contribute maximum value in their individual roles? Here are a few ideas to consider for talent attraction and retention strategies designed for today’s workforce. Benefits of Developing Internal Talent: 1. SAVE MONEY. Filling positions with internal candidates usually costs less than external hiring. You cut down on expenses like advertising, screening, and training. Plus, new staff members might expect a higher salary than someone who is already on your payroll. 2. REDUCE TURNOVER. Every company experiences turnover, some much more than others. High turnover can damage morale and disrupt productivity. It’s expensive too. Finding and training a replacement typically costs twice the departing employee’s salary, according to The Wall Street Journal. Retain employees longer by showing them they have a future at your company. 3. KEEP TOP TALENT. Retention is even more important when you’re talking about your top performers. Even if they’re not actively searching, they may be getting calls from recruiters, so it’s important to stay competitive. Find ways to keep them motivated and satisfied with their work by providing challenging assignments. 4. REDUCE RISK. What happens when a new recruit seems unable to deliver what they promised at their initial interview? You’re less likely to make an unfortunate decision when you’re dealing with staff members you know well. 5. ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS. Most importantly, talent development enables you to build the team you need for current and future business priorities. Engaged and empowered employees are essential for success. How to Implement a Talent Development Program: 1. ALIGN AND COMMUNICATE. Ensure employees understand your business strategy. Then, you can

align individual goals with your corporate priorities, so they know where to focus their efforts. 2. OFFER SKILL-ENHANCING OPPORTUNITIES. Provide opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge. Technology makes education and training more affordable and accessible. Many experts recommend a blended approach of classroom lessons and workplace experiences. 3. COACH AND MENTOR. Create a formal mentorship program and reward employees who provide guidance and support to others. Set clear objectives and measure results. 4. EMBRACE DIVERSITY. An inclusive workplace can make your business more competitive and innovative. Learn more about your employees’ backgrounds and encourage relationships based on appreciation and respect. Companies that practice diversity and inclusion often succeed at higher levels because they benefit from the ideas and perspectives of people from varied backgrounds which generally means more opportunities are presented to them. 5. RECOGNIZE POTENTIAL. In addition to highperformers who regularly exceed expectations, identify those employees who may have the ability to shine, especially if they move into a different role that leverages their strengths. Remember that performance and potential often overlap. 6. ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION. Major accomplishments in most workplaces are the result of group efforts, so it makes sense to reward teams as well as individuals. Set team goals, use online collaboration tools, and build a sense of shared purpose. 7. PAY FOR PERFORMANCE. At the same time, basing compensation on merit motivates employees to enhance their performance and helps to create a transparent and fair pay structure. Experiment with annual bonuses and other forms of incentive pay. 8. BROADEN YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Overall, identifying and nurturing internal talent requires expanding your vision. Evaluate employees based on how they can serve your company in the future, as well as how well they’re performing in their current positions. Focus on organization-wide goals. Give your employees opportunities to develop their skills and progress in their careers. An effective talent development program helps both your staff and your company to meet their goals.  Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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Self-development

Ideas for

Entrepreneurial

Success By Donna Carletta

ntrepreneurs are in a challenging situation. They have to be good at so performing many functions in their business but are strapped for time.

Most entrepreneurs have limited time, energy, and other resources available to spend on self-development. However, self-improvement is a necessity when it comes to growing a business and entrepreneurs are in a position to gain the most from improving their knowledge and skills. It’s a tough balancing act, and one that must be managed well.

July -August 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

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If you’re an entrepreneur, try these ideas to successfully undertake self-development projects:

Carefully consider what you need to learn. Assess your needs and weaknesses and make a decision about what you need to learn. What will add the most value to your life or your business? Since time is a resource that very limited, it’s important to make wise decisions about how to spend your selfdevelopment time. • Ask yourself, “What would most benefit my life or happiness?”

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• Then ask yourself, “What would most benefit my business?”

elling skills. It’s hard to make money without S customers or clients. Selling skills can be among the most valuable for entrepreneurs. If you don’t have all the income you desire, enhancing your selling skills might be a logical choice for your selfdevelopment efforts.

Marketing skills. If people don’t know about your business, they will never find you. There are tons of inexpensive marketing choices available today for entrepreneurs. Maybe your business will benefit if you strengthen this important skill. If you prefer not to enhance this skill, then you will need to outsource this skill and develop a budget for it.

Social skills. Networking, gaining, and maintaining customers and clients is a big part of an entrepreneur’s job. If your social skills are subpar, your business will struggle. Everyone can benefit from greater social skills, whether they’re an entrepreneur or not. Attend events that are associated with your industry or business focus. You’ll most likely meet prospects who may become leads and eventually, customers.

Public speaking. Depending on your business, this can be a very useful skill. It can build confidence and comfort when dealing with people. Speaking at conferences can be a good way to market and sell your services or products to a larger audience. If you’re not ready for on-stage keynote speaking, try speaking on panels with other experts first.

Establish goals. Do you have goals? Most entrepreneurs would benefit from having a set of reasonable and applicable goals to work toward on an ongoing basis. Setting and striving for goals is a valuable skill to develop. It’s a skill that will be useful in more areas of life than just entrepreneurship. You should always seek to develop new goals.

Focus, discipline, perseverance. These are three qualities all entrepreneurs could use more of. If you’re lacking in any of these areas, consider implementing a program that builds on one or more of these characteristics. • Other qualities to consider include the ability to deal with stress, confidence, and motivation.

Time management. Entrepreneurs are frequently pressed for time. The closest anyone can come to creating time out of thin air is to learn how to manage their time more effectively.

Health. Most small business owners fail to care for themselves properly. Too little sleep, too many skipped meals, poor food quality, and a lack of exercise are serious impediments to good health. Making your health a priority and building some healthy habits might be the best way to spend your self-development time.

Relationships. The time commitment of running a business and the stress that goes along with it can be a real strain on any relationship. Perhaps learning how to reconnect is the best skill you can learn at this time.

Entrepreneurs are short on time, so they must approach self-development intelligently and efficiently. Decide what area of self-development will best serve your business and life. Do you mostly want to make more sales or to enhance your health? Is managing your time the best skill for you to learn at this time? Take a look at your situation and allocate your self-development hours appropriately. 

Exceptional People Magazine | July -August 2019

EMPOWER YOURSELF

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

September/October 2019

Start Before You're Ready: Taking Action Leads to Inspiration How to Get Better Results by Strengthening Communication Within Your Team

Yvette Dubel Why Radical Inclusion Is Probably Good For You

Dr. Pamela Davis Building Robots, Relationships, and Resilience

Contents

Extraordinary Profile 37 Dr. Pamela Davis Building Robots, Relationships, and Resilience 44 Yvette Dubel Why Radical Inclusion Is Probably Good For You

Empower Yourself 54 How to Deal with an Unpredictable Boss 56 Start Before You're Ready: Taking Action Leads to Inspiration 58 How to Ace Your Next Phone Interview 60 Get Better Results by Strengthening Communication Within Your Team

Ligher Side of Life 63 Help! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a Minimalist Trapped in a Hoarderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House 65

Recipes

Always aim for excellence in all things. This means constantly improving your professional skills and updating your knowledge both personally and professionally.

Dr. Pamela Davis Building Robots, Relationships, and Resilience

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

hen Pamela Davis was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer, she panicked. The 47-year old technology educator had never married. She had no children, and her parents and sibling lived out of town or had health problems of their own. She felt very alone. But Davis was not unfamiliar with serious illness, having endured epileptic seizures since the age of 10. She knew that getting through cancer treatment would take a village. So when people offered help, she took it, building her own community of caregivers and supporters. At the time of her cancer diagnosis, Davis was already an accomplished and highly degreed educator with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) as her specialty. The native New Yorker had served as Elementary Computer Coordinator with the Elmsford School District for 18 years, during which time she’d earned a Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University. As if that wasn’t enough, she had also served as Adjunct Professor at St. John Fisher College as well as on the School Board of New Rochelle’s City School District. She was Lead Instructor and designer of the Coding Robotics and 1:1 Devices for NASA’s Endeavor STEM Teacher Certificate Program. And her labor of love? Reach To Teach, Inc., named after her doctoral dissertation at Columbia and founded to generate opportunities for students to learn STEM through performance and play. When she started attending Gilda’s Club cancer support meetings, she was naturally drawn to the children there. She was shocked to learn of the number of children affected by cancer, whether their own or a family member. She had learned to practice mindfulness, meditation, and yoga for her own therapy, but saw a gaping hole in the tools children were given to deal with their emotional and physical pain. With robotics practically in her DNA, Davis started bringing Lego robots to the children attending sessions or awaiting family members there. The transformations she observed in the children - and many adults - revealed her new direction. She founded 38

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Wellbotics in 2016 to help children age 5 to 12, and their families deal with medical trauma. Wellbotics sessions combine Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math with Mindfulness (STEAM + M) to help kids and families build resilience through technological tinkering, teamwork, and problem-solving. A research project at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Wellbotics is rooted in theory from instructional technology, and human development, including embodied cognition and trauma-informed care. What does all that mean? Well, Wellbotics sets up pop-up maker spaces where kids and their families build relationships and learn how to handle some of life’s toughest challenges while building robots, themselves fallible and problematic. Today, Dr. Davis is a cancer survivor on a mission: To help kids of all ages have fun in a stress-free setting while enhancing cognition, deeper emotional connections, and critical thinking skills applicable in other areas of their lives. She blogs at crowdsourcingCancer.com and delivers Wellbotics to cancer care communities and other safe spaces. Dr. Pamela Davis is the ultimate personification of what you can do when giving up is not an option. We’ve gained much from her words and actions and think you will too. Monica: Can you talk about your personal experiences, especially in terms of being diagnosed with cancer? Dr. Davis: I was diagnosed as a single woman, and I was overwhelmed with that diagnosis. However, I had a sound support system, and part of that support system led me to go to Gilda’s Club in Westchester, which is a cancer support community. In that working space is where I got to be strong with other people, and be weak with other people, depending on what the day was like. I met several new friends, and many of them had kids. That was kind of how Wellbotics started. I leaned on that community for

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support, and as I got to be a stronger part of that community, I came to understand there were some kids who weren’t cancer patients themselves, but they were living with cancer patients who had some real concerns that seemed familiar to me because I was a teacher, and I had seen kids who were dealing with illness at home or even death at home. There was not a real place for them in school. When I was at Gilda’s, and I saw that there was this opportunity to reach out to those kids – many of them the friends of my friends—I started a robotics club. It became a way for the kids to connect. I thought, “Maybe just bringing the robotics in will help them connect with each other.” And little bits of me just wanted to play. I can’t pretend it was all about them. There was a little piece of me that needed that level of interaction again for myself, and I got to share it with these kids. Monica: Would you say it was your diagnosis of cancer that somewhat inspired and propelled the growth of your ingenuity and innovation to create Wellbotics? Dr. Davis: It was. It was not even as much as the recovery from cancer. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I think the main thing that I was concerned about was being well and being whole. When it became more about healing, rather than trying to understand what was going to happen, that’s when I started Wellbotics. It was that connection to that group of people that helped me heal; it made me want to heal through helping other people heal.

That’s how Wellbotics was born. I don’t think I thought of mindfulness and robotics as going together until I was in the room with the kids and we were all talking about how we coped with whatever our role was in that community. It’s not just for kids, and it’s not just for the cancer community. Other people, adults in different types of traumatic situations have somewhat benefited from that original notion that was mainly for kids of cancer patients. Monica: If someone were interested in Wellbotics, how would you describe the benefits of it?

Dr. Davis: That’s how it started. It didn’t start with mindfulness, or anything other than having some toys and wanting to play with them. But, as you know, I started working with the kids.

Dr. Davis: One of the significant benefits is that we work with not-for-profits. So, we work with communities. In other words, a lot of the groups we work with already have a safety to them. They’re already safe places. Wellbotics brings inspiration and motivation, and even information, to those places and helps people cope with homelessness, for instance. It also helps first-generation college students to deal with the ups and downs of that experience.

I’ve called on mindfulness myself to help me get through what I was living through at the time. So, when the kids and I began to talk, it all started translating into having the robots be kind of a model to help them understand what I was talking about when I was talking about mindfulness.

I’ve worked with cancer patients themselves and the people who had cancer in their family. Recently, I’ve started working even with children who come from income instability situations that vary. That group is not as cohesive, but they all have a similar financial demographic.

Monica: Is the program mainly for young people, for kids?

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Monica: What noticeable changes have you witnessed in the students who participate in the program? Dr. Davis: The most important voices that I hear are from kids who want to come back and do more in those safe spaces. In other words, we create a dialog, and that dialog leads to a more in-depth discussion in our group. Even when we leave there, the discussions continue. I hear reports from social workers and parents. Early on, there was a kid who spoke to me and told me what a big difference it had made. A young lady who was helping my groups as a teacher’s aide had a mother with cancer, and she was helping kids younger than her who had cancer; she would work with the robots and explain to the kids how mindfulness works. When the program was over, I went with her and her mom to a sushi restaurant. She felt like she needed to tell me how much of a difference this had made to her. Not only did she feel like she was helping the kids, but she also had begun to understand that she wasn’t alone. She felt that she was going to be able to get through it 40

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because of the things she had learned, and the people who understood what she was going through. She didn’t have that anywhere else. Monica: Someone on the outside looking inward may not understand how mindfulness fits into the realm of STEAM, for example. So how does that work? Dr. Davis: Well, one of the things we do right away is talk about the neurobiology of coping, of how mindfulness is a neurobiological process. We also talk about how computers and artificial intelligence were built on human neurology. When we have those discussions, you can not only understand what’s going on with you as a person when you’re mindful, but when you see that in play in the little robot model of someone interacting with their environment and understand the code that it takes to try and fail and try again, then it becomes a clarifying moment. With the kids, even though we don’t use the explicit kind of neurological terms that we use with older people, they still understand the success of this little

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robot as he’s going through whatever his trials are. As the robot is experiencing the robot game we are playing, you see the kids rooting for him. In rooting for him, they’re rooting for themselves, because the robot is overcoming obstacles and dealing with different things on the map that he’s traveling. If you see it in action, it is easy to understand why after rooting for this little guy who tries, and tries, and finally makes it, you walk out feeling like, “Hey, I’m a little guy. Maybe I can make it.” Monica: Do you believe that by participating in the program, they are also learning patience? Dr. Davis: I think it teaches them patience. For instance, one of the strategies they learn is how to do object meditation. We have different things tied into the lesson, like pinwheels and tops. We teach them how to meditate using those things as part of the overall experience. We directly show them ways to incorporate mindfulness into their own lives, and we usually give them some tangible tools to do that.

Monica: I think it’s crucial, too, to continue to encourage young girls to be a part of this. Dr. Davis: Yes, young girls and young people of color – there are many groups of people who don’t have this kind of seamless perspective when it comes to STEAM. They see it as an isolated set of experiences, and it’s not. Monica: How can parents encourage their young child to think about those particular fields? Dr. Davis: I think the encouragement probably is like science, STEM, and STEAM itself -- there is no stronger encouragement than doing it. I don’t mean you have to put your kid in a program that is going to teach them STEAM. It doesn’t have to be as sophisticated as you might think. If you have a good Instant Pot or a recipe, that’s an opportunity for STEAM. You’ll find that it’s everywhere. It’s not as unreachable as you might think. There are so many good after-school and before-school programs, and I encourage parents to do that. Make sure that when and however you can, to encourage the schools to do their parts, as well.

Monica: Your program includes the components of STEM, but you also include art, which you introduce as STEAM. How important is it to be focused on those particular fields in schools across the country?

With toys and games today, and everything else today, there’s probably a four-foot distance for the kids and some opportunity to interact with STEAM.

Dr. Davis: It’s essential. I honestly believe that if children are not exposed in time, they lose perspective as far as what opportunities are available.

Monica: I like the fact, too, that one of the programs you offer is “Robotics and Resilience.” It’s important for teens and for kids to be able to be resilient when they’re going through tough times or when they experience something negative.

There is no real path without some level of STEAM at this particular point in history. I think that even to be a supermarket cashier or to be an orthopedic surgeon; there is going to be some level of that type of discovery understanding and interaction with technology. The idea of problem-solving is more significant than a small deal these days. Standing in the self-checkout line at the grocery store is a problem-solving experience within itself. So, there’s nowhere to get around it anymore. Exposing children to it in school or outside of school (in my opinion, both is best), is to give them perspective and allow them to understand the ubiquitous nature of STEAM and STEM. It’s unavoidable. And those who try and hide from it will be found. So, they might as well understand it as fluently as possible, as young as possible, and use it to their advantage.

Dr. Davis: That’s one of the things robotics can teach you how to do. I haven’t met too many people who did not fail when they first tried it. The whole concept of failing is not the same. In robotics, you’re learning. Every time something doesn’t work the way you expected it to, there’s an examination and evaluation process. Even with robots, kids can take into account limitations before they even set their goal. I think with resilience, you understand that you can do almost anything, but the question is, what’s the best way for you specifically to do it? Sometimes, that takes a couple of turns to figure out. That, to me, is the bottom line of resilience. It’s not that I bounce back, but that I bounce back and I keep moving toward my goal. Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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Monica: Where do you envision Wellbotics being in the next couple of years or so? Dr. Davis: I am very interested in working with notfor-profits. I’ve already worked with the Gilda’s Club in Westchester. I’ve worked with Gilda’s Club in New York City. I’ve worked with the American Cancer Society, and I’m working with Riverside Freedom School again this summer. I’ve also worked with a camp in Westchester called Camp Sunshine in Elmsford, New York. I think for a couple of years, I was focused on the cancer community. Now, I’m branching out and also working with adults in Riverside Church, and I work with adults and kids at the American Cancer Society. There’s this opportunity to create this methodology that helps people understand robotics and STEAM as the natural kind of marriage to mindfulness and resilience. I think they’re a match made in heaven. Monica: What do you enjoy most about what you have created and how it’s changing lives? Dr. Davis: As I admitted earlier, I like to play with robots. So, I’ve got to say that’s part of it. But also, after being a school teacher for so many years, I like that opportunity to impact lives in a way that is not as academic. I think it may be more spiritual in some ways. It’s more about the whole child. I think for many years, I was dealing with the school child, and that is not a whole person. The kids that I’m dealing with now, I see more of them. I see more of their entire selves. I get to know their families as a unit, and their realities, even the lessthan-pretty part. To be there and impact people in those spaces has been a blessing to me. Monica: What kind of feedback have you received from parents? Dr. Davis: A lot of parents want more. A lot of times, after robotics is over, we usually do a five-week, and sometimes they have the sixth or seventh week for 42

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an expo, or a storytelling session, or something like that, but it’s a limited run. I get a lot of parents who want to do it again, or they say, “When can my other kids go?” Monica: This was all pioneered from your adversity. What’s so powerful about it, I believe, is that often, when we experience difficulty and challenges, people can’t seem to get beyond that to turn their adversity or challenge into something positive – not only for themselves but for other people. But you have successfully managed to do that, and people are benefiting from it in so many ways. Dr. Davis: It started for me only because I had a childhood illness. I was epileptic growing up. Cancer was not my first rodeo. I had brain surgery at 21. I think, at least in my experiences, when you face adversity as a child, and you have that understanding that sometimes bad things happen, and sometimes, they happen again, it gives you either the perspective that you have to start looking at things as though they can get better, or that this will not last forever. As an eight-yearold or a nine-year-old, you don’t have a real option to give up. Monica: This is an amazing story that you have. I hope the Wellbotics program can expand throughout the U.S. if that is your vision. Dr. Davis: Actually, I’ve had people from Africa, Nigeria, specifically, and other places who have been interested in it, as well. I would love for it to expand. I would love to touch more people. I plan to train others to make it something that is part of practices like social workers. If social workers had a Wellbotics kit in their office, they might be able to bring it to people that way. I can imagine many faithbased places and care workers that might benefit from having this as a strategy in their toolbox. It’s a new generation of people who are undergoing traumas and uncomfortable events and have been treated.

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Most people under 30 don’t know a world without technology. So that means that the social workers themselves have a new tool in their toolbox, and they can offer it to people who may understand this better than some other strategies. Or they may have this in addition to some other approach. Monica: In addition to mindfulness and motivation, another aspect of the Wellbotics program is makerspaces. Can you talk a little bit about that? Dr. Davis: Makerspaces – if you’re not familiar with the term, it’s when groups of people get together and create. A lot of times, they might be differentiated between makerspaces, hackerspaces, and tinkering labs. Those are specifically technological kinds of places. A hackerspace would be more of a place where people code, and create apps, and create those types of twodimensional digital designs. A makerspace could include art, robots, or 3D printers, and things like that. So, when I say “makerspace,” we use analog types of artistic materials along with robotic kits, and LEGOs, and we create entire scenarios for these robots to endure and eventually encounter success within. Monica: Is there anything specific you want to mention? Dr. Davis: I’m a doctor of instructional media and technology. So, I’ve been doing some academic conferences because I’m a huge believer in participant input.

Monica: I’m sure you will succeed at it. Dr. Davis: The website is wellbotics.org, and people who would be interested in having me speak or having a workshop can find more info on the website.

When I create a new program, I like to go to places where there are makers who are teachers, and I like to get their feedback. I like to go to psychologists and kids and get their input. I was at FabLearn this spring, which is one of the most awesome maker educator conferences in the world.

Monica: I certainly wish you much success.

Monica: The impact you’re having is wonderful. It’s something different, and you have a completely different approach; it’s a different approach to healing.

Dr. Davis: I’ll go with the idea of what’s on my email signature, which is “Be well.”

Dr. Davis: Yes. That’s what I’m hoping, and that’s what I’m watching. It is something that most people haven’t seen. I would like to think that this particular time in the evolution is the time when I start moving closer to understanding how to make this available for practitioners and people who need that level of connectivity.

Dr. Davis: I thank you so much. I appreciate what you do, as well, to shine a light on people who are trying to make a difference. Monica: Would you mind ending with your last word?

And by “be well,” I, of course, being a cancer survivor, wish everything wellness. But also, “be well” has a second meaning, which is to do well at being. Do well at being who you are. Do well at being part of this whole thing that we’re all a part of. Being well as in not being sick is not as enjoyable if you’re not the best that you can be. Monica: Well, thank you for this opportunity. Dr. Davis: Thank you, Monica Davis.  Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

s I n o i s u l c n I l a c i d Why Ra u o Y r o F d o o G y l b Proba

Yvette Dubel 44

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t’s not every day that an empowerment innovator like Yvette Dubel shares her personal secrets with you. When she goes even further to reveal the origins of her proven strategies for success, you’ve hit the jackpot. So it was like winning the lottery when Dubel spoke with us recently about her life, her passions, and why anyone (and any company) wanting to stay on top needs her unique skills, methods, and vision. Granted, Dubel’s life journey explains why she’s so happy to open up to inquirers. She was surrounded as a child by racism, abuse, and injustice. She decided early on never to let those evils — or any others — limit or define her. Take the name of her company, for example, WebAntiphon Group. It’s named after the alternating responses or chants often heard in Christian church liturgy. But while Dubel’s origins are in Christianity, she read the Buddhist basic Siddhartha as a teen and has been meditating ever since. Dubel was identified as gifted when she was a kindergartener. Of course, the powers that be in her small southern town weren’t about to let a poor African American girl into the gifted classes. No matter. Little Dubel was never one concerned with touting her academic accolades. Besides, she got advanced oneon-one tutoring in the back of the class. Over the years, she saw these dynamics play out in bigger arenas. Working with the underserved and abused in the U.S. and internationally, she learned that diversity efforts are often flat-out rejected by beneficiaries of the status quo even when it’s to their detriment. Dubel observes the same exclusionary dynamics today. Of course, racism still plays a part in many personal and business relationships. But

now, gender, religion, nationality, and sexual orientation are also part of the mix. Is everyone from hourly workers to entrepreneurs to corporate CEOs, including everyone with open arms? Not always. And that’s where Dubel shines brightest. But it’s a big mistake to believe that you — yes, you — are not excluding someone too. There’s one person you are probably excluding from your life no matter how open-minded and inclusive you believe you are. That one person is you. Self-acceptance is one of the tallest mountains Dubel helps people to climb. But once she does, her clients feel nothing can stall their happiness or success any longer. Dubel believes that organizations are transformed by the people within them. She also believes that innovation is personal. Creator of Empowered Innovation, or CFAaP, Dubel uses a cognitive-creative approach to help her clients experience transformation so that they can finally bridge the gap between where they are and where they need to be. Her podcast, It Matters, curates stories of courage and insight on the personal innovation journey. Author of Why Brand Risk Management Innovation Is A Game Changer: And How to Get Ahead of the Game, Dubel’s work has evolved from her days as an Amnesty International volunteer. Today, she uses artwork series solutions to simplify complicated concepts, ultimately to transform challenges into launchpads for success. Dubel is happily married, a mom of three grown adults, lover of rescue dogs, and much more. We hope you enjoy our interview with the ever-innovative Yvette Dubel. Monica: You have a passion for dealing with issues related Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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to homelessness as well as domestic abuse, poverty, and more. What was the driving force behind your desire for advocacy and community development? Yvette: In the first episode of my It Matters podcast, I talked a little bit about stepping up in advocacy. I was posing that question to myself. The first thing I remembered was the incident that’s from childhood and stepping in when people were being bullied because I had faced my own bullying situations, and I guess I had some confidence about how to handle that. I was not the kind of person who could stand by and watch somebody be victimized when I felt that it was within me to stand up. Not that I was a big fighter, but I wasn’t afraid to get between people. I grew up around a lot of domestic abuse. I come from a lot of violence and the trauma that goes with that. For a lot of people, you either become your piece of the pattern, or you decide to do something different. For me, deciding to do something different was the advocacy side. It started at school. I remember this gay kid – we didn’t know that he was gay at that time, he was probably 14, and he was being chastised. There was a girl who had scoliosis, and when she would get up, they would trip her and call her hunchback and things like that. So, my first memories were standing up for people like them, but it was something I’d always seen my mother do. I remember when I realized homelessness was a thing. I was distraught by the idea that it was a reality that people didn’t have a home. I remember my mother picked up older women sometimes when we would see them walking in the rain with their baskets, and so I think that made an impression on me. So, when I was 17, I wanted to volunteer at the homeless shelter, but I could not because I was under 18, and my mother wouldn’t permit me. I would spend some of my money, when I got paid, to buy toiletries and things, and take them to the shelter. I was also in Amnesty International and got very involved. I got involved when I was 15, but age 17 was like a turning point in my life. There had been some assault situations, and I saw that I could go down this dark path or do something else. I didn’t know what the something else was, but I walked into a store, and this book on meditation literally fell right in front of me. Nobody was touching it, and I took it as a sign, and I started meditating. I had just read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, and it’s about Buddha’s journey to becoming the Buddha, and I had been very affected by that. 46

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His description of meditation and nirvana stuck with me, so I ended up reading this book. I started meditating. I became more committed to my social justice projects. At that time, apartheid in South Africa and pressuring American companies to divest were issues that interest me. When I met my husband, that was actually our first date -- he had to come with me to collect signatures. I also got involved in voter registration and working at the polls. We would help older people, the seniors, in and out of the vans, and we would help people who couldn’t read. Because we were kids, we were allowed to go into the booths with them, so we could help people read. That was when I was about 13 or 14. When I worked with Amnesty International, you would hear back from these political prisoners of conscience when they were released, and I thought, “Oh my God, we saved somebody’s life.” That stuck with me. Monica: You are the creator and the founder of WebAntiphon. Is there something specific behind the name? Yvette: Yes. I’m from the South, and when I came back to North Carolina from Georgia, I was working on a project. I’d done this painting called “The Storyteller” when I was more focused on my art career, and everybody loved this painting. When my grandmother died, we’d given this painting away. I started networking with a lot of storytellers. I really became interested in oral traditions as history, and that connection to storytelling and what storytelling was culturally, and what it did. First, I was looking at it culturally, but then I started to look at the broader human experience of what stories were and learning about different traditions. So, an antiphon refers to that; in the liturgy, when they reply, that response is the antiphon. The idea was way too clever, but we thought it was brilliant when we came up with it. Monica: So, there is a lot behind the name. Yvette: Yes, because at the time, that was a real passion and practice of mine that I was looking to do as a community project, but the politics for the funding was more than I could handle at the time. Since I was still

passionate about community development when I first came online in 2005, I was helping international nonprofits at that point, and that was a lot of fun. I had some exciting experiences with people on the other side of the world, and I started connecting with people who were working at getting U.N. funding. Often, English was not their first language, and they would need help to figure out paperwork. Sometimes, there were political complexities. There were some orphanages in South Africa that I worked with, that were dealing with real problems of girls getting kidnapped on their way back from school, and not being able to get help. Going through the process of filing the paperwork was hard for them because they didn’t read English that well. So that was my first transition to taking what I had learned in community development on the ground and taking it online. I was more focused on peace projects. My broad focus was people who were interested in peace, and then the various things that have to happen in order for peace to happen. I’m not as involved with the International Day of Peace as I was years ago, partly because of the realities of dealing with my own disheartenment. When I was doing domestic violence work, the thing I heard from women all the time was their frustration about the fathers not being involved. So, I started the Fatherhood Initiative, working with men who had justice system involvement. Those were the seeds from which Empowered Innovation came. It was an approach of side-stepping certain resistance, instead of trying to confront it and siding with people on those things. These men wanted to rebuild their lives, and nobody likes to be branded by their worst mistakes. I thought the most obvious thing was not to call it a re-entry program. We called it a Fatherhood Initiative. We focus on them as fathers and addressing the issues that they’ve brought to the group. Mediation training has been shown to reduce recidivism by almost 90 percent, so we did mediation training. We had parenting skills. We had a qualified mental health professional support group, HIV/AIDS/STD education, and entrepreneurial development. I learned a lot from that. Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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Monica: What is the core focus in regards to your company, WebAntiphon? Yvette: My core focus is always to increase the peace, to look at how I can increase peace and inclusion for better tomorrows. My mission statement is, “To increase the peace and increase inclusion today for a better tomorrow.” Monica: When you say inclusion, what do you mean? Yvette: I started doing art-based research work. The first project in my “Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy” series was, what is peace? So, everything ties back to that, and one of the things we started looking at is exclusion. That’s what causes people to rebel, and so I started looking at inclusion. When I started looking at inclusion, at first, I was using the phrase radical inclusion, and people did not like that. I started saying, “Instead of putting it that way, how about we just focus on the fact that I’m not going to give my attention to excluding anybody?” It was a hard sell. So, diversity and inclusion at that time were focused on sustainability. Monica: Even when you’re talking about corporate culture, sometimes companies will say, “We practice diversity and inclusion.” The diversity part they may do well; they may have people of different backgrounds and ethnicities in the company. But when it comes to inclusion, are you including these people in your conversations and how you actually run the company and are you accepting of their ideas? That is the question. Yvette: I would say we know they’re not. Empowered innovation is an approach that takes what I learned from doing the Fatherhood Initiative, and I bring that to a different audience. Instead of confronting their biases directly, we first focus on relationships. There’s building a relationship. We have seven weeks to build a relationship and develop trust because that’s where I think many programs go wrong. You’re not going to fix somebody’s biases in a couple of days, because it just goes too deep and there are too many things that are connected to that person’s identity, and you’re not going to get to the core of that in a short period. I don’t even think you’d get to it necessarily in seven weeks, but you open that person’s eyes and start them on a journey, 48

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and you get them into a space where they don’t feel that they’re going to be judged if they share their epiphanies about themselves; it’s a safe space for them. We talk about these issues in the context of their goals and what matters to them, but you’re making it personal, not something that they have to do for somebody else to benefit someone else. It becomes something that they’re doing as part of their growth process, and I help them to have that awareness that you have to be vigilant about it. The primary obstacle to meaningful innovation is diversity inclusion, and we’re seeing the implications of that with facial recognition software, which is biased against women and people of color, and that reflects the biases of the programmer. Monica: Speaking of personal innovation, can you define what personal innovation is to you? Yvette: I see personal innovation as a lifestyle choice. It’s a lifestyle choice based on growth, where nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I have decided that my approach to it is always going to be one of being proactive, of being positive and coming from as loving a place as I can possibly manage, and to have love for myself as well as I do other people. The emphasis is on growth and love – being creative in my approach, and not always responding the same way to things. I feel that I have learned something about how to live with more peace, clarity, and creativity. Since that doesn’t come as naturally to a lot of people, it was clear to me because again, I came from a very negative background with people of very limited mindsets, and so it was just something that I learned very early on. Monica: As you were growing up, experiencing a lot of those negative things that were happening, how did it impact you as far as the way you thought about yourself at that time? Yvette: I have to give my mother a lot of credit because my mom loved me a lot and always tried to teach me that there was nothing wrong with me being me and being different; there was nothing wrong with the way that I was. The advice that people gave her – again, remember I’m from the South and a different generation – was, people thought she needed to punish me.

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I was smarter than most of the adults around me, and that made them even angrier because I would call them out. I was tested for the gifted program several times in elementary school, but because of racism, they didn’t want me in the gifted program. After my mother spoke out about it, the compromise was that somebody would work with me separately, because I was in kindergarten. They had someone come and work with me on more advanced work in the back of the class. On the one hand, I didn’t feel like I was getting treated fairly, not that I was particularly liked, but I took solace in the fact that I was smart, and nobody could deny that. I think that was a big part of my identity when I was young; I was known for being smart. But I did not care about grades, and I didn’t like school. I did my first painting when I was 17. I would say that was a real defining moment; I had found something. That was transformative, because then I got into photography and art, and I felt that school got in the way of what I wanted to do.

the type of art that I was into was not the art that they taught. Monica: Do you feel that art is what helped to propel you into what you’re doing now? Yvette: Without a doubt. Basquiat’s work, I thought, was terrific, not looking at it from a technical perspective but looking at the fact that he was making a statement. I related to the way he was making his statement about blackness and his exploration of black identity, and how he was dealing with his anger and his frustration around that. I used to be called Oreo, and all these kinds of things, when I was growing up.

I initially wanted to be an installation artist, but at that time, I did buy into other people’s limitations of what they thought was possible for me, because I did not believe that was an avenue. I didn’t have a lot of money. I couldn’t afford an out-of-state school, so I went to school close to home, and they didn’t offer those kinds of programs. I was the only black art student at that time, and I was not made to feel welcome, and Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

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So, I rejected the idea that blackness was limited in that way, and I think part of my early identity was defending my blackness to people.

bias and the exclusion tendency. We don’t tackle it like head-on, but through the principles, you get at those things.

Monica: There are seven empowered innovation principles you’ve developed. Would you mind sharing them?

Monica: You use art to find paths of lesser resistance to facilitate targeted change in society.

Yvette: Sure. The first one is, new value can be accessed when you ask, “What if there is another possibility?” The second one is, seeing what may not be obvious but needs to be seen opens up new possibilities for growth and healing. Three, your choices express what you are really saying, not your words. The fourth one is, the path of transformation is eased with the acceptance that change is underway or possible. Five, the skill to unknow loosens the grip on known knowledge for new understanding to emerge. Six, liberation from problem perspectives starts with shifting to see other views that include aspects of needed solutions. And the last one is, QPlay (Quantum Play), which describes holistic approaches combining big-picture views with creative exploration. Each of those principles I have in a playbook, where you look at what the issue is that you’re dealing with right now, and you explore. It asks you some questions to explore how to apply each principle to your situation. Monica: You’re getting the person to do some internal work. Yvette: Exactly. But we do it with this art project. It’s using things I’ve learned from brain science. I’ve had some friends who were neuroscientists. I’ve learned some things from brain science and the effect of art, especially when you ask openended questions. I’ve used those things to break down some of the barriers that result in the 50

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Yvette: That’s it. We use the seven principles to help people learn. The workbook we use helps them to step up by facing the challenges that they’re dealing with, and the challenge is then the transformation. Monica: When people go through this process, what is the overall transformation? How can it help them both personally and professionally in their lives? Yvette: One of the big things is they learn a lot about themselves. You learn a lot about what your needs are and where you are with those needs. Are they being met, or are they not, in a work context, in terms of how you work with other people and how you approach work yourself? Through looking at that, you gain some insight into how you’re dealing with yourself. So those are things that we talk about, and that shapes the goal because there’s a fivestep strategy for your personal innovation plan. A big part of it is not to overwhelm them with what we’re going to do. They realize that these things are overwhelming. People will often avoid situations because they’re too big; it’s overwhelming for them even to contemplate thinking about them, so they don’t. Monica: When they go through this process, they find out who they truly are and who they can become, and how that can also help them in their professional life, career, or if they have a business. Correct? Yvette: That was one of the main reasons I decided

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

to do this. I thought that if a decision-maker could go through this process, this would change a lot in the organization. People make their discriminatory decisions in the moment. They usually don’t realize that’s what they’re doing, but after they’ve gone through this process, they will question themselves, and that’s important. You have to be willing to consider that you have biases and that you do express them in some way. The thing I always encourage people to do is, to be honest with whomever the situation involves, taking responsibility for who you are and what you do, and how that affects other people. You can’t take responsibility for how it affects them, but you can control what you’re putting out there. Monica: Your children are now adults, but how have they learned from what you do to help other people, and are they practicing that in their own lives? Yvette: My kids were home-schooled, so we were radical un-schoolers. They are very independent. I know they respect me, and they respect each other. Monica: What legacy would you like to leave? Yvette: With Women Crossings, the play that I did, I’m going to circle back to that. I want to develop that as an intervention for domestic violence, because domestic violence goes to the heart of pretty much every social problem that we have from drug abuse to poverty, to incarceration. They all convene with that as a commonality. Over 90 percent of people that you find in all those situations, or close to 90 percent if not higher, have that history. If we can make domestic abuse a thing of the past, that will do volumes. Women Crossings was my idea to do that, to kind of take what they did with Vagina Monologue and bring that to this conversation. One of my innovations around domestic abuse was targeting the issue of financial abuse because that’s the precursor to physical violence. There are these four women who are having a conversation about their relationships with money and their partners. I want to get back to that, and I wish for that to be my legacy. I want that to evolve so that the story can evolve culturally, as it needs to be culturally appropriate.

It’s a crucial conversation for women to be having, about their relationship with money, and the purse of their romantic partners, and recognizing these tendencies when they start before they become abusive. Part of the play looks at how a woman turns her money over to a man with whom she’s having an affair. When he commits suicide, she finds out the house that she thought she owned, she was renting from him and his wife, and that her money was being used to enrich them, and she has nothing. Then there’s another woman who is murdered, so her ghost is in the play. These things are based on people I’ve known and things I’ve encountered and witnessed, working with women. Monica: Helping others to overcome or avoid domestic abuse is a wonderful legacy to want to have. Yvette: My aunts were all abused. All the women I knew growing up were in abusive relationships, so that was all I saw. Monica: You’re certainly using your skills, talents, and gifts to help change the lives of women, and so many people in so many different ways. Yvette: I think it took realizing that it wasn’t natural for everybody, and I used to be frustrated because I thought these things were obvious. Empowered Innovation, I would say, is the first system that I’ve come up with that it makes it easier for somebody to step into if you know nothing about self-help. Monica: Well, this has certainly been a pleasure. Yvette: Thank you for being somebody who cares. This has been so much fun. Monica: Would you mind closing this very informative interview with your last thought? Yvette: Sure. I think everybody wants to feel accepted, and I believe my experience with having not selfaccepted most of my life uniquely positions me to understand that pain. I think that’s part of what drives me to focus on inclusion because inclusion is about acceptance. It’s about accepting people the way they are. That’s what I want to do with this work; I want to create a space where people can feel accepted and know that who they are matters and what they do matters.  Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

EMPOWER YOURSELF

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

R Y OU E W R S O EL

Approach life with confidence.

EM P

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

How to Deal with an

Unpredictable Boss By Pat Markel

EMPOWER YOURSELF

healthy relationship. That’s especially true if you work in an industry that requires a great deal of flexibility and rapid responses.

orking with an unpredictable boss can be tough. You’re confused when they change your assignments repeatedly. You’re hurt when they act friendly one minute and snub you the next. You’re angry when they yell at you in front of your colleagues.

On the other hand, if you’re feeling bullied and pressured, you need to find coping strategies to protect your wellbeing and career.

The solution to this problem may depend on their attitude. If your boss treats you with respect while they’re moving the goalposts, you may be able to maintain a

The following tips offer ideas for dealing with an volatile and unpredictable boss.

STEPS TO TAKE YOURSELF: 1. Stay calm. It’s natural to take things personally when your boss has frequent outbursts. As long as there is no valid issue with your performance, you can take comfort in knowing that their behavior is more about them than about you. 2. Work on your timing. Be aware of the times and situations when your boss tends to be more approachable. They may be less perturbed by negative news after lunch or on days without management meetings. 3. Take a break. Step away for a moment if you feel like you’re close to losing your composure. Walk around the block or make plans for lunch. Meditate for a few minutes or listen to music. 4. Document your actions. If your boss tends to rewrite history to their advantage, put your agreements down

in writing. Create a paper trail with email and other evidence that you can refer to when there’s a conflict. 5. Talk with HR. If you think it would be helpful, consult HR or a colleague that you trust. Be tactful and discreet so your boss won’t think you’re going over their head. Provide HR with some details so they’ll know that it is a real problem and not a fabrication. 6. Update your resume. Start exploring other opportunities. You may find a more fulfilling position or just feel more secure by lining up additional options. 7. Think positive. However long you stay on the job, try to be upbeat. A cheerful outlook will reduce your stress and help you to be more productive. Find a co-worker you can communicate with; someone who may have common interests as you and find a few minutes to chat daily.

STEPS TO TAKE WITH YOUR BOSS: 1. Look for patterns. Can you spot the triggers behind your boss’s behavior? Maybe they expect you to respond immediately to their emails or they become more irritable when deadlines are approaching. If you can anticipate stressful times, you’ll be able to plan for them. 2. Ask questions. Clarify priorities and expectations. Let your boss know that you care about your work and want to cooperate.

think they’re exaggerating. Be open to their worthwhile ideas even if it creates extra tasks for you. 4. Empathize and validate. Look for ways to be supportive while you’re having conflicts. Let your boss know that you realize the pressures they’re under. You can listen attentively and acknowledge their emotions without having to agree with their choices.

3. Focus on content. Try to distinguish between what your boss is saying and how he or she says say it. Look for the kernel of truth in their feedback even if you

5. Express appreciation. While you’re dealing with their unpredictability, remember what you like about your boss. Demonstrating some sincere gratitude and kindness could create a more positive foundation for your interactions.

You may find a satisfactory way to deal with your boss or you may decide to move on. Either way, the more you

understand their behavior, the more effective you can be at doing your job and taking care of yourself.  Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

START BEFORE YOU'RE READY:

TAKING ACTION LEADS TO INSPIRATION

By Marla Gem

ow long have you been waiting to begin pursuing your goal or dream? Most people are stuck in a perpetual mode of waiting. They’re waiting for everything to be perfect before “pressing the start button”. Everyone is waiting for the exact perfect moment to finally pull the trigger and get started. This is a huge mistake. The perfect time is right now. Time is more important than timing. Don’t waste time focusing on timing. Preparation is important for achieving success however, you can only remain in “preparation” mode for so long before it becomes a form of procrastination. If you develop a well-though-out, you can always modify it as you move towards your goal. Consider these ideas to begin acting on your plans today: 1. You’ll never be one hundred percent ready. We love to procrastinate. It’s in our nature. If you wait until you’re fully ready, you’ll still be waiting on your deathbed. • If you know what the first step is; that’s all you need to know. Just do it and you’ll figure out the rest along the way. It’s like walking up the stairs. You only need to see one step at a time to make it to the top. 2. There’s no such thing as the perfect time – it will never happen. There will never be a good time to get started. There will always be a viable excuse. All of the variables will never be in perfect alignment. The most perfect time you’re going to get is right now. 3. The sooner you get started, the sooner you can start obtaining results. The advantages of getting started now are numerous. Perhaps the most relevant is the fact that you can achieve your goals sooner. The sooner you begin any journey, the sooner you reach your destination. 56

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

You’ll also identify challenges or roadblocks sooner which means you can begin working on finding solutions to them much sooner. 4. Your natural tendency is to wait too long. When is the last time you did something too soon? Everyone else is waiting. Be the person that doesn’t wait. Fortune favors the bold, so be bold. 5. Your natural tendency is to value information too much. We want to know everything there is to know before we take the first step. We have a fear of not knowing what’s going to happen as we move forward so we try to figure out every detail beforehand. We can’t know everything. Life sometimes unfolds in unpredictable ways. You know more than enough to get started. Just step out on faith and do it. 6. The most successful people make decisions quickly and stick with them. The least successful people are terrible at making up their minds. They’re eternally conflicted for a variety of reasons, primarily fear. Give yourself a time limit to make a decision and then run with it. • A decent decision, made quickly, that you stick with, is better than a great decision, a year from now, that you can’t maintain. • Practice making decisions quickly and moving forward with them. This is a great habit to develop. You’ll find the rewards will be worth it. As you move forward you’ll begin to learn how to handle various situations and make the best decisions. 7. The sooner you take action, the more you’ll learn. Action leads to results. You learn something each time you get a result. You’re not producing any results while you’re sitting around waiting for the perfect moment to act. 8. Action leads to inspiration. Most people falsely believe that they’ll take action when they feel inspired.

EMPOWER YOURSELF

But the opposite is true. Action leads to inspiration. Inspiration leads to even more action. When you start to see results from your hard work, you’ll be motivated to continue. Why are you waiting? The most honest answer is fear – either fear of failure or fear of success. If you never get started, there’s still hope, since you can’t know for sure that your plans won’t work. If you never begin, you can’t fail. You can’t fail at something you never start, nor can you succeed if you don’t start. If you never get started, there’s no real hope of anything better. The most successful people in the world learn to fail fast and as a result they reach a high level of success much faster. You’ll never be 100% ready or comfortable, so you may as well begin right now. Now is the moment to change your life. If you haven’t done so already, start creating a basic plan of action; a plan that outlines your goal and the steps needed to accomplish it. Begin taking small steps everyday or at least every week. It’s the only want to bring your dream to fruition.

Here are just a few questions you can begin asking yourself, if you’re just getting started, to help you analyze the purpose for your goal. Analyze your business goal by asking and answering the following questions: Purpose • Why do I want to achieve this goal? • What products(s) or services(s) will I provide? • Who are my competitors? • Have I done the research to determine if what I’m offering is unique or different than my competitors? What’s unique about it? • How will my customers or clients benefit from the products or services that I offer? • Why am I committed to starting the business? • How will creating the business affect my life in the short and long term? • How do I plan to use this business goal to further enhance my personal and professional life? Answering these questions will help you set the stage for success early on because you’ll be building a solid foundation from the beginning. Here’s to your success.  Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

EMPOWER YOURSELF

How to Ace Your Next Phone Interview By Donna Carletta

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

EMPOWER YOURSELF

at the outset. It’ll come in handy if you meet them for an in-person interview.

erforming well on a phone interview can help you land the job you want. As unemployment lingers, more companies are using phone interviews to screen large pools of qualified candidates. Here are some tips to make a good impression throughout the entire process.

 Adapt to the interviewer’s approach. Be yourself but

BEFORE THE PHONE INTERVIEW:

 Deliver your summary statement. Have a summary

 Be strategic with your contact information. Let potential employers know the easiest way to contact you. Suggest that you can best be reached at home if it’s awkward for you to take calls at work. More and more companies do phone interviews without any advance notice, so do what you can to establish the best conditions.

 Keep a contact log. If you’re sending out multiple applications, keep a contact log so you can keep them straight. You’ll be better prepared for impromptu phone interviews or any return calls.

 Do your research. A phone interview requires just as much preparation as face-to-face interviews. Learn all you can about the company, position, and the people who will interview you.

 Prepare talking points and questions. Write down talking points and follow-up questions that you can reference. It will help you sound prepared and make it easier to remember everything you need to address.

 Warm up your voice. Your voice matters, even more, when your body language and facial expressions aren’t visible.

 Clear away distractions. Let other calls go to voicemail. Ask your kids not to interrupt you. Give the call your full attention.

DURING THE PHONE INTERVIEW:  Be friendly and enthusiastic. Make a strong first impression. Smile and hold your head up. Focus on the positive aspects of the position so you’ll sound excited to discuss it. Remain energetic and positive throughout the interview no matter bad; you think it’s going.

 Record everyone’s name. If you’re interviewing with more than one person, write down everyone’s name

be sensitive to the style of your interviewer. Adjust to their level of formality and the degree of detail they’re seeking. Some employers may ask a few preliminary questions while others will go into great depth. statement prepared about why you think you’re the right candidate. It should be about 20-30 seconds long.

 Avoid interrupting. It can be difficult to judge when someone is done speaking when you can’t see them. Pause for a second before replying to avoid any awkward interruptions.

 Request feedback. If you sense any weak areas during the phone interview, try to revisit them. Ask the interviewer to clarify their needs so you can offer more information to strengthen your case.

 Ask questions that show you’re a good fit for the position. Ask questions that demonstrate that you’ve done your research. It will show that you’re interested in the job and give you another chance to talk about why you’d be an asset.

 Clarify the next steps. Ask about their hiring process. They may want to schedule an in-person interview immediately or let you know when they’ll decide on the remaining finalists.

AFTER THE PHONE INTERVIEW:  Send a thank you note. Send a brief note of thanks by email or regular mail. It’s proper etiquette and yet another chance to show you’d make a good employee.

 Make follow up plans. Hiring decisions often take longer than expected. Follow up as needed with gentle persistence.

Phone interviews now play an essential role in the hiring process. Learning the techniques to ace a phone interview will give you a significant advantage in your job search. 

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

GET BETTER RESULTS

BY STRENGTHENING COMMUNICATION WITHIN YOUR TEAM By Kathy Kentty

July-August 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

EMPOWER YOURSELF

n your position as a team leader, the quality of the relationship among your team members is perhaps one of your most significant areas of focus. A unified, communicative team produces the best results, but it’s not always easy to develop.

People have different beliefs, backgrounds, and social skills, all of which can prove challenging in your quest for a productive workflow.

• Structure a point system for different elements of communication. Some examples of healthy communication are courtesy, respectfulness, changes in task-related expectations, and honest feedback.

Try these effective strategies to bolster good communications:

• Establish consequences for non-compliance with the courtesy policy, so they realize how important it is to be in accordance. • Engage them in discussions about the positive impact it has on their jobs when they’re courteous and respectful to others.

• Announce recipients of communication incentives, so other team members are inspired to improve their level of communication as well.

INSTITUTE A COURTESY POLICY. When employees are clear about the organization’s position on treating each other respectfully, they’ll realize that they play a part in ensuring it’s supported. Insisting on common courtesy is the most direct way to improve communication among co-workers.

• Outline your expectations about how they address others and respond in various situations.

CROSS-TRAIN STAFF. A great way to improve communication among co-workers is allowing them to see and understand the elements of other people’s jobs and responsibilities.

• Having an appreciation for what happens on the other side, inspires your team members to communicate without prejudice. • Cross-training allows team members to experience each other’s challenges so they can communicate with an informed perspective as opposed to ignorance.

INCENTIVIZE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION. Incentives for team members encourage them to work harder, which, in turn, bring back benefits to you. For example, when you see your team members offering excellent customer service, recognize their effort.

• Remind team members that, although you are incentivizing effective communication, it’s still their responsibility to participate in that level of discourse even if you’re not there to see it.

HAVE REGULAR TEAM MEETINGS. When you bring all members of your team together, it allows you to hear what everyone is saying and understand their positions. Also, it gives them a chance to have direct, open communication with each other. • Ask members of the team how they feel about upcoming changes in the organization. • Find out from them the issues they are having with others and encourage them to relay the details directly so openness can be achieved. • Try to determine if there are areas of the organization’s operations that aren’t as effective as you would like and discuss how strengthening communication can turn things around.

As you already know, a team that isn’t capable of communicating effectively soon diminishes from a lack of cohesiveness and a common goal. To avoid having your organization experience that end, start placing significant importance on how co-workers communicate. You’re sure to achieve smooth operations as a result. 

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

Lighter Side of

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

Life

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Help! I’m a Minimalist Trapped in a Hoarder’s House By Dorothy Rosby

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

I have a neat, uncluttered home. I have cleared away all the nonessential things in my life to make room for those that give me the most joy. I am a minimalist. And a liar. What I really am is a minimalist wannabe, a minimalist trapped in a maximalist’s life. That is, if by minimalist you mean one who travels light through life. And, if by maximalist you mean one who has to clear off the dining room table to eat, so they eat on the couch instead, and they have to clear that off too. You may wonder why, in a culture where more is better and shopping is recreation, I aspire to minimalism, as though having to clear off the couch to sit down isn’t reason enough. I’ve got plenty more:

1 2

My life is a mess when my stuff is a mess and my stuff is a mess right now and has been for quite some time. It seems to me, the way to restore order to my stuff, and therefore my life, would be to have less stuff—less to clean, maintain, organize and track down when it goes missing, which it often does. It would be easier to enjoy what we have if we didn’t have so darn much of it. One Christmas Eve, I watched a relative’s five-year-old daughter unwrapping gift after gift. Finally, with many more presents still in need of unwrapping, she threw up her hands and said, “Could I just play now?” I wisely refrained from telling her parents that Jesus himself only received three Christmas presents. And his mother was probably thinking, “Now what are we going to do with these?” The family was traveling at the time, after all. At any rate the little girl understood minimalism. All those fun toys and she wasn’t enjoying any of them.

We own our stuff, or our stuff owns us. If the trouble a particular item causes us outweighs the enjoyment we gain from it, it owns us. I’m reminded of this fact every fall when I spend three or four weekends raking leaves. I’m not sure if it’s my giant cottonwoods or my golf course of a lawn that owns my yard, but I know isn’t me. If any of my neighbors ever complain about my leaves, I’ll tell them to talk to the owners.

More isn’t always better. More is just…well more—more for the storage unit, more for the landfill, more for the next garage sale where we’ll sell all the stuff we don’t need so that we can acquire different stuff we don’t need.

In the end, we can’t take it any of it with us anyway, which is lucky, because having to haul it around for all eternity would be hell. 

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

Asian Herb Chicken Dippers Ingredients:

Directions:

1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. onion powder 1 tsp. paprika 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp lemongrass 1/2 tsp basil 1/2 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/8 tsp cayenne 1/4 cup canola oil 4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless and cut into 1 in chunks 1/2 cup soy sauce 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tbsp green onion, green cut away and minced 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Stir together the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin, lemongrass, basil, thyme, salt, pepper and cayenne in a large mixing bowl. 2. Gradually add the canola oil and whisk as you add to be sure the spices do not clump together. 3. Place the cut-up chicken pieces in the bowl with the spices. Toss to cover completely. 4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate one hour. 5. Heat the grill to medium temperature. 6. Place the chicken chunks on a bamboo skewer. 7. Grill six minutes, turn over and grill an addition five minutes. 8. In a small bowl stir together the soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, green onion and red pepper flakes. Use the sauce for dipping. 9. If the dipping sauce seems too thick, add a couple teaspoons of water. Be sure to stir well so the water doesn’t rest on the top.

Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2019

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

Fresh Herb Infused Cucumber Topped Asparagus Salad Ingredients:

Directions:

3 lbs. freshly picked asparagus, trimmed 1 bunch green onions 3 cups fresh small cucumbers, scrubbed clean 1 tbsp fresh parsley 1 tbsp fresh chervil 1 tbsp fresh chives 1 tbsp fresh mint 2 tsp fresh tarragon 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper 3/4 cup light olive oil

1. Fill a large pot with water and salt and bring to a rapid boil. 2. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl with ice and water and set in sink. 3. When water boils, quickly cook asparagus until just crisp-tender, only about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove and quickly put in ice bath to cool and stop cooking. 4. Drain well and set aside. 5. Chop green onions and place in a large bowl. 6. Scrub cucumbers, trim ends, cut lengthwise, then slice thin and add to bowl with onions. 7. Add all the fresh herbs to the bowl and mix together well. Keep cool. 8. Make dressing by whisking together the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt, and black pepper, then slowly start streaming in oil, whisking steadily, until dressing is creamy. 9. Pour dressing into onion cucumber bowl and toss to combine. 10. Arrange the asparagus on salad plates and spoon the dressed onion cucumber mixture over the top. 11. Taste and salt if desired.

September-October 2019 | Exceptional People Magazine

Profile Resources Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh

Dr. Leonid Moroz

https://www.doctoralizadeh.com/ https://missionrestore.org/ https://www.facebook.com/MRestore/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kaveh-alizadeh-343325170/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-restore/about/ https://twitter.com/MissionRestore https://twitter.com/CosmoPlasticNY

http://www.softinway.com/en/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonid-moroz-1a56521/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/softinway/ https://www.facebook.com/SoftInWay https://twitter.com/SoftInWay

Dr. Pamela Davis http://www.wellbotics.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drpamdavis/ https://www.facebook.com/wellbotics/ https://twitter.com/wellbotics https://twitter.com/drpamdavis

Design and Graphics Magazine Design and Graphics, and Cover Design by Jenette Antonio Sityar

Yvette Dubel https://www.webantiphon.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvettedubel/ https://twitter.com/ydubel https://www.facebook.com/yvette.dubel

TRANQUILITY. Travel to a place youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never been, if only in your imagination.