Knowledge Through Awareness & Creativity

I have revised my company web site, and have introduced the new look with a video! Here is a link to that video. I hope you will enjoy it and all of the future releases it brings!

You, the Inspired Thought Leader

You, the Inspired Thought Leader Part One: Introduction

During the past 15 months I have made drastic changes in my life. Most not by choice. Redefinition of who I am was part of that transition, whether I liked it or not, and now see it as a blessing beyond measure. Looking back, I see the changes with great clarity. While experiencing it, I could only see through the eyes of my closest friends, who were supportive and encouraging throughout.

I learned that when we choose to go through changes,we get more than what we asked for. A visualization I had of myself was similar to a character in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, being run through an old-fashioned washing machine with the roller. Just when I felt I was at a plateau through it all, more cranking of that roller, and more of me being pressed and wrung dry. I told many that at the end it was the hardest – mostly because it is hard to get a nose the size of mine through that roller!

Today I am feeling more secure and integrated.

One of my close friends observed that for the first time she could see me “wearing the clothes” of who I am versus carrying them in a suitcase for when I needed to put the right outfit on. Interesting observation and choice of metaphor.

In celebration, I am rediscovering the heros of my days of growing up. Two of them are experiencing a reenergizing as I experienced. Today is the release of the DVD set of television episodes of the Ellery Queen series on tv from the ’70s. I read every single Ellery Queen book available over and over again as a teen. I also worshiped the recordings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Georg Solti. I am now thrilled with the electric excite net my city of Chicago has for the new era with Ricardo Muti at the helm.

It was through Ellery Queen that I learned that I love problem solving. Give me a puzzle or a situation that needs resolving, and I will work on it until I figure it out. The elegance of the novels enthralled me, and the inevitable challenge to the reader at the end, where the detective challenges the reader to have a solution ready before the denouement was always a surprise for me.

I am loving the energy surrounding the arrival of Ricardo Muti to Chicago. I love the CSO. Their performances are thrilling and awe inspiring for me. To see and hear that 25,000 people attended Muti’s first performance of his tenure as Music Director is amazing.

I am relishing this feeling of excitement, and will hold on to it as I begin to blog again.

Watching the New Year’s Celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic on PBS this evening (January 2, 2010) was as mesmerizing for me as it is every year. Strauss waltzes are truly beautiful musical pieces, and extremely difficult for orchestras to perform. The Vienna Philharmonic each year produces these little miracles without flaw every year on this date. I have performed with many orchestras throughout my life (French horn) and I know even the best of orchestras have difficulty with Strauss waltzes. As a hornist, the amount of concentration required to get the never ending “pah pahs” on the second and third beats of every measure is intense. Try tapping your finger with the horns without tapping the “ooms!” Note the many tempo changes. How many variations do you hear in the different sections? Sometimes the second and third “pahs” are exactly on the beat. Other times the first “pah” is anticipated, like this: oom-pah……pah, oom-pah……pah. Watch the conductor and you rarely see him/her conducting the background rhythm; but, the orchestra always gets it right! How is this communicated?

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“You are a thought leader for thought leaders!”

“Excuse me?” I turned to ask the woman behind me. I was getting my things together to leave a meeting at my church. The meeting was one on prosperity, and this woman came up to me, surprising me again with:

“I said, you are a thought leader for thought leaders!”

In that moment I was inspired. A new process for my consultancy was born in that short sentence. At the beginning of the meeting we each were asked to introduce ourselves and state in a few sentences what we did and what we want to create for ourselves. In my case, I was thinking ahead of a session with a firm in Chicago that asked me to help them create a blog. I positioned the session with the firm as a means of demonstrating globally that the firm was a thought leader in its field. So in my introduction I said the usual, that I take the vision and strategy of an organization or individual and lead processes for discovery of hidden opportunities for that vision and strategy to be implemented or take form. This time I added that I want to take this further and assist people in their becoming thought leaders in their field.

I instantly saw the process in my head. It was magical for me. Read more

I am still feeling the awe inspiring, loving energy that took over the entire city of Chicago last night as the now President-Elect Barack Obama made his acceptance speech. It is the next day and the whole city is still in that wonderful vibe.

In the past two years, I found myself in situations that allowed me to face directly challenges where I had to make choices. Many of the choices were painful and emotionally draining. I cannot tell you how many times I felt more like screaming and running away rather than facing these challenges. Today, I see how these situations were the greatest gifts I could have ever been given. Read more