Tech journalist Gina Smith had never been on TV when she was asked to appear on PBS to debate Steve Ballmer of Microsoft about Windows ’95. It was a gutsy move, but she said yes because she was determined to let consumers know her criticisms of Windows ‘95. After the interview, she was worrying “Whoa, should I have actually done that?” when ABC called and asked her to be the tech correspondent on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. And that’s how Gina started her TV career: by saying yes to opportunities, taking risks and sharing her passion.
Gina is also the New York Times bestselling author (with Steve Wozniak) of iWOZ: From Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and Had Fun Along the Way. She’s a radio host, wrote an award-winning column for the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, wrote a book about DNA, and now she’s a partner in First 30 based in San Francisco, which is an incubator firm for tech start-ups.
During our conversation, we talk about Gina’s serendipitous career journey and her current role at First 30, and:
- How getting a text from a friend who met Steve Wozniak at a Grateful Dead concert turned into a book deal
- Bringing great ideas to life: getting the guy who’s been working in his basement for 7 years a patent, an expert team, and a million dollars in funding
- The Purple Cow: what Gina looks for when deciding which projects to back
- Ripping the band-aid off: how to reject people without making them resent you
Learn more about Gina’s company at www.first30services.com.
Listen to my interview with Gina Smith
Today I’m talking to Mark Pearson, publisher and president of Pear Press. I came across Mark because I was interested in a book he published by John Medina, a N Y Times bestseller, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work.
The business model of traditional publishers is to publish 100 or so books per year, knowing they’ll have a few great books, a lot of good ones, and some bad ones.
Pear Press is doing things differently, and it’s a fascinating, admirable approach. They only publish one book per year, and they pursue it with full-hearted gusto. It’s gotta be a quality “great” book that can knock it out of the park and hit some bestseller lists.
In this interview, Mark and I discuss:
- Standing out in a sea of 800,000 new books published each year
- “Cut out the crap”: the advice Steve Jobs of Apple gave to the CEO of Nike, and what publishers can learn from this lesson
- Why exercise is important for the brain and taking a break from your desk is not slacking off
Visit Pear Press at www.pearpress.com.
Listen to my interview with Mark Pearson
These crayons rock the house in about 12 different ways. Recycled. Funky. Community-based. Genius.
Make sure you check out the short video to see how they’re made.
And buy some for anyone in your life who loves a crayon. (Which is most of us.)
We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
~ Walt Kelly
I get a regular dose of quotes from Quotes of the Day, and this one showed up today. I actually laughed out loud – it’s such an elegant reminder of the possibilities that exist in every nook and cranny for Great Work if only we stopped motoring along at a gazillion miles an hour, paused for breath, and looked around us.
Opportunities for connection. For impact. For fun. For friendship. For meaning. For difference.
So no excuses then.
Matthew Kelly is a fellow Australian based in North America. He is a real force for change in the world of great work and following your dreams. In his 12 books, his consulting work and speaking work (he’s spoken to over 4 million people in the last 20 years!) he addresses how we fulfill the best version of ourselves.
Matthew has sold millions of books, including The Dream Manager, The Rhythm of Life and The Seven Levels of Intimacy. He has also created the The Matthew Kelly Foundation to spread his strategies on how we become the best version of ourselves and to help high school kids figure out what they’re going to do with their life.
In this interview we talk about:
- The insight that people don’t exist for organizations. Organizations exist for people.
- The 12 dream areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, psychological, material, professional, financial, creative, adventure, legacy and character
- How to get members of your team to become dream managers for each other
- Why you need your own dream manager, whether you’re the janitor or the CEO
Visit www.floydconsulting.com or www.thedreammanager.com to learn more.
