Interview with Jennie Wong

Jennie Wong, April 24, 2009
Via phone and e-mail

I met Jennie through a former colleague and terrific networking guru, Scott Wigley. Scott thought that Jennie and I might enjoy knowing each other because of our interests in coaching and finding creative career paths. Jennie is a certified executive coach and previously was a managing consultant in Organization Development. Although we have not met face-to-face, our virtual contacts have always been rewarding from my perspective. The following interview has been edited and compressed from our phone interview on April 24, 2009. Jennie has reviewed and approved her comments.

What are you doing now?

At the moment I am focusing on the family business, Limelight Solutions, a web site, development and hosting company. We help business owners grow their businesses by enhancing the look and function of their websites and increasing their search-ability.

(Here is how you can reach Jennie if you would like to learn more about her business: jwong@limelightsolutions.com)

Have you had time to think about the many changes that occurred in your life over the past few years?

I have been through a tidal wave of changes over the last few years. I was downsized from AIG in November 2007. Then shortly after I started working for my husband in December 2007, I discovered that I was pregnant. My daughter was born in September 2008 and then we decided to move from LA to Charlotte, North Carolina in March of 2009.

How are you managing all of these changes?

My immediate focus is still on the move and being a mom. And when you have a infant, you are talking about constant change! I also had to adjust to working for myself, then not working, and now getting back into selling web sites. Before the baby I used to juggle both my coaching practice and my work at Limelight Solutions. But we made the decision that I would work only 20 hours a week, so I decided I needed to focus growing the family business. I am still accepting coaching clients but I have very little time to market my practice.

How did all of these changes come about? Were they sudden, gradual?

Some of these changes have a lot to do with the economy. Had we been able to sell our houses in LA or Charlotte at 2006 or 2007 prices, we might be somewhere else right now.

My blog entry for February 18, 2009 goes into some detail about our decision to leave LA and move to Charlotte. (http://charlottewongkrause.blogspot.com)

What was most challenging about the change?

Moving away from LA because I’ve lived there since I was two years old. That’s where my family and friends are. Leaving behind my support system and needing to build a new social network are big challenges.

What did you learn from it?

Well, I would say that the transition so far is very much like I imagined. When I started thinking about moving across the country, I had a realistic vision. I knew that I was going to get lonely for my friends. But I also knew that I could afford to fly back to LA a couple of times a year. I already have my first flight back booked for June – something positive to focus on. It would be much harder if there suddenly was radio silence – no communication. But instead, I just make more of an effort to upload photos and total sent if stay in touch.

Did something unexpected happen along the way?

I did underestimate what the experience was going to be like for my husband. I thought that he would adapt more quickly than me, but it took him a little time. I guess I’m a fairly good judge of myself but not always other people.

What inspires you?

That’s an easy one. Being a good example for my daughter.

How did you stay motivated?

I’m not looking to just get by, emotionally speaking. I’m looking to build a life that I will love just as much as the one I had in LA. I try not to waste time wishing the economy was different, I know that our decision to move made good financial sense, so now I’m just focused on making wonderful friends here, just like I had back home.

As coach I ask my clients to decide on a specific goal and then commit to that goal with weekly actions. It’s important for me to walk the talk, so I’m doing things every week to make this adventure an awesome, fabulous experience.

Here’s just a little example of the “choose your focus” principle. I decided that I was going to absolutely love living in North Carolina, and this was an immediate test because the first two weeks we were here it rained constantly. But instead of focusing on the lack of sun and blue skies, I concentrated on the gorgeous dogwood trees and blooming azaleas all around me, which the rain makes possible. So, when I was missing the sunshine of home, I would just notice all the pinks and fuchsias of the flowers.

Do you have any other thoughts about dealing with change?

I think how people deal with change is how they deal with fear. They are almost the same thing, really. These are kind of like mental habits that get revealed when change happens. you control. I would encourage others to be bold, commit to audacious goals, and find the upside of their situations. Finding the upside of moving to North Carolina was my choice.

Interview with Karen Hirsch

Interview with Karen Hirsch
April 18, 2009 via phone

I first met Karen in 2007 in a coaching group facilitated by Zuno Kristal. Since then, we have also expanded our friendship. I am honored that Karen agreed to jump in on the ground floor of my blog for my first interview. The following comments were culled from a longer discussion and have been reviewed and approved by Karen.

Karen is currently working on building a professional and informal coaching practice for people in the arts and/or involved in social change work. To learn more about her practice please visit her website: http://www.karenhirschcoach.com.

Here is what was on Karen’s mind about a change process that she is currently experiencing:

I would say that a deeply profound change that I am in the midst of working on is attaining a more intense awareness of myself so that I can be fully in touch with others and all that I am grateful for.

Quality of connections is what I want in all my interactions. People really open up to me. They find it easy to talk to me and I can become quickly engaged.

What prompted your decision to focus on increasing your self-awareness?

After a very in-depth conversation with someone whose work I respected, I felt a renewed conviction to continue to explore my own self-awareness so that my coaching experience could more effectively contribute to his work. In a way the conversation was a catalyst to make me reexamine my own growth.

Was this a quick change or a gradual realization?

The interest in self-awareness is not new. What is new about my experience this time is to be more focused since I see how having greater self-awareness can really improve how I coach others in their important social work that I so respect.

I am crystal clear now what gives me the greatest joy in life -- to give help and support people I trust. By that I mean people who have integrity, capacity for learning and self-reflection. I want to leverage what I bring to a relationship with a person like that. More and more people are already doing so many wonderful things and I want to help them to maximize their potential.

How do you stay motivated?

I want to be a good coach for amazing human beings. A loop of positive reinforcement lets me know when I am present and clear. Magical things can happen between people. People actually go beyond what they have known when I am acting as a positive catalyst.

What inspires you?

I want to share a quote I saw on a downtown #1 train overhead. This is my guide for the next decade.

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Sir Isaac Newton

Now that I am in transition, I thought I would jump into the blogging sphere. Initially, I was fueled by the idea that I should address the issue of age discrimination in the job market and my experiences. For advice on my rights, I researched a few web sites. What I found was abundant information about camouflaging your age so you would not seem like a person stuck in the 20th century and less about legal rights.

While I don't accept the notion that older people must look younger than their years to find a job, I realize that this economy has been uniformly unkind to talented people of all ages. Taking a closer look at my own motivation, I also realized that I wanted something very different for my next career and that was going to take time.

As I shifted my axis towards more positive thoughts, I realized that many of my colleagues had subtly influenced my change. Over the last several months, I have heard many wonderful stories about the new beginnings they were creating for themselves. Not all stories were about making more money or finding a better job. Many were about waking up one day and realizing that they were happier than they had been in a long time.

Not only have these stories of self-discovery stayed with me, they inspired me to finally start blogging. Over the next few months I will be inviting my friends and colleagues for a blog interview so they can share their stories.