Author Archives: Louise

Louise Holmes worked in the Silicon Valley, Austin and New York City for technology companies and universities as a leader, educator, and management consultant, specializing in leadership and workforce development, and in using technology to make learning opportunities available to people – wherever they happen to be. Louise has created award-winning learning programs and communities that facilitate collaboration for organizations that include Dell, Apple, and Cornell University. She is co-author of a recent article, Speed Networking for Scientists.

How to Earn a Living Following Your Passion

June 15, 2010 – 2:05 pm
By Louise
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Passionate Life Secrets


UPDATE: Janet and Chris Attwood (authors of the best selling book, “The Passion Test“, on June 15th hosted a live 9 hour marathon online streaming video event on UStream, with a terrific line-up of speakers, for anyone ready to begin the journey toward Earning a Living Doing What You are Passionate About. 


I watched a bit of the event. While the speakers were excellent, I didn’t see the point of the video; it was hard to watch one person nodding for hours.


Despite that, Chris and Janet have helped many people through their work. Take a look at their website and see what you think. Enjoy! —Louise

Harness the Power of Attention

May 5, 2010 – 12:56 pm
By Louise
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"Love is a way of paying attention." Dr. Les Fehmi

How to Reduce Anxiety, Get Unstuck, and Lead a Fuller, More Productive Life


What if you could reduce anxiety, get unstuck, reduce pain, optimize mental and physical performance and promote a sense of well being – simply by learning how to move between four (4) modes of paying attention?


A couple of years ago, I was laid off. In the throes of anxiety and panic, I stumbled on exactly the right book at the right moment. Written by Dr. Les Fehmi and science writer Jim Robbins, “The Open Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body”, the book includes a CD with simple attention-training exercises. And they worked – my knotted back muscles relaxed, my thoughts stopped spinning unproductively, and I could move forward.


Meet the Fehmi’s

The world works in mysterious ways. Several weeks ago I found myself heading to Princeton, New Jersey to interview Dr. Fehmi and his wife and partner, Susan Shor Fehmi. I had the privilege of spending the afternoon in their company and hearing about their fascinating work – with adults and with children – on attention, open focus and neurofeedback.

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Interview with Entrepreneur Gary Whitehill

April 11, 2010 – 7:59 am
By Louise
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How can you do what Gary did, and catapult your vision into reality?

Lessons in Being Unstoppable


Lessons in Being Unstoppable

Gary Whitehill believes that entrepreneurs change the world – and he backed up his belief by founding New York Entrepreneur Week. To learn how to be unstoppable in turning your vision into reality, listen to Gary tell his story – how he arrived in NYC 3 years ago with no job, no plan, and almost no money, and the specific action steps he took to move from that point to becoming CEO of a non-profit that has already reached more than 120,000 aspiring entrepreneurs around the world.


Interview with Gary Whitehill

Download the mp3 podcast directly from itunes by clicking here.

Click hereto get an outline of topics for Gary’s podcast interview, including the times (minutes/seconds), so you can easily move right to the topic you’re interested in.


Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:25 — 38.8MB)


This week, at Gary’s invitation, more than 100 speakers from three continents, including CEO’s, venture capitalists, angel investors and branding consultants were in NYC to teach, to advise, and to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs and to provide insight into growing a business from concept to profitability, and all presentations have been offered live, online, via UStream.


Learn about his plans to grow Entrepreneur Week into cities across the USA and around the world. Not only is it inspiring to listen to Gary, but he delivers practical advice, tips and ideas you can adopt to catapult your vision into reality.



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Tools for Face-to-Face Networking

March 13, 2010 – 4:26 pm
By Louise
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Beyond the Business Card: Three Alternative Tools

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I wish I’d had these “kill the rolodex” tools last weekend when I was meeting people at a conference – I have a bag full of paper business cards to process and respond to. The good news is, I’ll be ready for the next event, however big or small. I just installed BUMP on my iPhone, and I am ready for the upcoming New York Entrepreneur Week conference.


People at this conference were running around with Flip video cameras (and other similar), whipping them out for instant interviews. I did have mine with me, but wasn’t comfortable pulling it out and aiming the lens at people I just met. And to tell the truth, I was equally uncomfortable with the reverse …a couple of people I barely knew wanted to video me making statements for their web sites.


What will work better for me, I think, is recording our conversation using the iPhone’s audio apps, such as Voice Memos or Voice Record. (If you have a better app to suggest, I’d love to hear about it.) I had one fantastic conversation/interview that I wish I’d recorded every second of; at the time, when I suggested video recording, he froze. Not that I blame him. And I didn’t think of the audio record possibility until later. Audio recording is far less intrusive and more likely to capture a normal conversations for the many among us who aren’t natural hams.


What about you? How comfortable are you speaking with someone who places a video camera in your face, versus an audio recorder and perhaps a microphone?


Are You of My Tribe? Friend or Foe-Two Seconds to Make a First Impression

Speaking of networking and conferences, did you know you have only 2 SECONDS to make a good first impression? Check out Olivia Fox Cabane‘s outstanding, high value talk from the Fall 2009 New York Entrepreneur Week. Who is Olivia? “An expert in the fields of charisma, trust, influence and persuasion.” Her focus is on behavioral science. I’ll be reviewing this before my next event (I’m uncomfortable in large groups), and “how to project warmth and affection” rather than the extreme stress that someone told me I was projecting at last weekend’s conference. Watch – I guarantee you’ll love it. And you’ll learn!


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Crush It

December 6, 2009 – 11:22 pm
By Louise
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Follow Your Passion – and Earn a Living, Too


Recently I bought some new software for my website. As part of the deal, they sent me a free copy of a book called ‘Crush It‘, though I didn’t pay much attention to what it was about. The book finally arrived in Saturday’s mail, so this afternoon I stuffed it in my bag when I walked over to my “office”, the neighborhood coffee shop.


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After settling in with my mug of coffee, I opened up the book  and was surprised to discover that it’s about “how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about,” a subject near and dear to my heart.  Author Gary Vaynerchuk writes about how social networking and media and the web have created an opportunity today that anyone with a passion, a desire to learn, and a commitment can turn into a career and an income. He tells you how, too, by describing how he harnessed the power of the internet and social media to grow his family wine business from $4 million to $60 million in five years. It’s interesting, inspiring and practical and I’m itching to read the rest of it. Though I’ll have to wait a week.


Why? A friend who joined me at the coffee shop took the book home.  She’d had a terrible, horrible, very bad day and was not looking forward to Monday morning and heading to her corporate cubicle job. To take her mind off things, I mentioned the great book I’d found. She picked up the book and idly scanned through pages, reading me bits and pieces from a chapter on “Authenticity”, and then from another on “Telling a Story”. Soon she was too absorbed to read aloud, and the next thing I knew was begging to borrow the book. I lent it to her. It was worth it to see the change in her from “before opening the book” to “after”.


On a side note, is anyone looking for business opportunity in this part of Brooklyn? There aren’t enough coffee shops with free wireless and seating to accommodate the burgeoning population of freelancers and modern day “work from anywhere” business owners. Other businesses may be closing, but the coffee shops are getting more and more impossibly crowded. Opportunity is knocking for someone.

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Linda Waldon Interview Part 1

December 1, 2009 – 9:04 am
By Louise
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True Colors: Show Up in Your Most Beautiful Self

Former Silicon Valley Training Director Linda Waldon left a career in the corporate world behind after a layoff – with no regrets, and began a year-long odyssey to choose a new work and life direction for herself.


In Episode 1 of the 3-part Interview with Linda Waldon, she talks about her new work passion, her fashion consulting business, “True Colors by Linda.” She talks about “owning who you are”, personal branding, self-confidence, and about how quickly other people make a decision about who you are, based on how you look. Her mission is to help you put together your “look” so you’ll show up “in your most beautiful self” and stand out from the crowd.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:04 — 3.7MB)

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Linda Waldon Interview Part 2

December 1, 2009 – 8:22 am
By Louise
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From Corporate Job to “What Next?”

In Part 2 of the 3-part Linda Waldon interview, she talks about her former corporate career, and how, when that ended suddenly, she experimented, took classes, several in fashion and design. As a result of what she learned, she changed her own “look” and style – resulting in attention and compliments from her husband, her friends, and from complete strangers. Her friends all wanted her fashion help, which led her to create her ‘True Colors By Linda’ business, doing work that she is passionate about.


Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:31 — 3.2MB)

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Linda Waldon Interview Part 3

November 30, 2009 – 7:24 pm
By Louise
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Top 5 Tips for Making a Work Life Change

In Part 3 of the 3-part Linda Waldon interview, Linda talks about how she made the transition from high tech corporate career to founder of the fashion consulting business, ‘True Colors by Linda’. She describes her self-discovery process, and how she tapped into her intuition and trusted her gut. Today the gut-wrenching stress that was so much a part of her former career is gone, and she loves her work and the reward she gets in watching the transformation and renewed confidence and joy she sees in her clients. In addition, Linda offers you her “Top 5 Tips for making a Work/Life Change.”


Podcast: Download (Duration: 7:49 — 7.2MB)

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Tiny Revolutions

November 23, 2009 – 8:01 am
By Louise
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Whatever you dream you can, begin it.

CHANGE – YOU make it happen


Tiny Revolutions

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Yesterday’s blog post  by community and social media guru Chris Brogan is absolutely a must read for anyone. That is, anyone who dreams of starting something new, anyone who is currently taking “tiny” steps in their own “revolution” on a path to change their lives- or the world…or anyone who has “been there, done that”. Because there’s always a new challenge, a new frontier, a new mountain (or, for some of us, a new anthill that feels like a mountain) to climb.


The KEY difference between your revolution and letting life live you is that YOU start making these events happen, instead of just letting them happen to you.


That one quote is the most powerful statement in Chris’ post. After being laid off 4 times in 6 years, enduring chemotherapy, a divorce, and several other adverse life events in the same time period, I felt like a rubber ball with all the bounce missing. Resilience? I didn’t have an ounce left. It took me six months of participation in a series of education programs to realize that I felt like – and acted like – a victim (life happens to me…I have no control). Ba da bing! THAT was the beginning of my tiny revolution.


Taking action, even when the outcome is uncertain, is empowering and energizing.


Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

—Goethe


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You have Passion, now you need Structure

November 19, 2009 – 4:23 pm
By Louise
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I’m at the New York Entrepreneur Week, and testing to see if I can post from my iPhone.

In a few minutes the panel about setting 30-60-90 day goals is starting.

You can watch live – go to my Tweets on the right side of this page. That should take you to UStream.

Fantastic conference, by the way!

-Louise

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