IdaVation: What I couldn't say in 15 seconds!

If you were at IdaVation you know I did an Ignite Growth presentation (Ignite Boise style!) along with 3 other brave souls, Candace Sweigarts, Ryan Woodings and Clark Krause. If you missed it, you can see it again here. Many thanks to Jason Hunsperger of The Imagery Lab for his hard work at IdaVation and support of Kickstand!

As mentioned in my presentation, I “asked important people important questions”. People I consider to be leaders and Rock Stars in our community, such as Jess Flynn and J.D. Mullins. With so little time for each slide, I did not have time to post all the answers. and you certainly would not have had time to read them!

So…once again, here are the questions I asked:

1. What is the one thing you have done that you believe has contributed to the growth of your company/team or organization?
2. To your personal growth?
3. What motivates you?
4. Do you mind answering these types of questions?

The reason I asked number four is to illustrate that these local Rock Stars are very approachable, willing to share and discuss!

Jess's answer to the first question was awesome since Optimism was one of the main themes of my presentation - she said: 1.) Built a leadership team with a balance of boundless optimism and detailed pragmatism.

I also loved how she answered number 4.) Love questions like these, we need to ask, and be asked them more often to reset our thinking :-)

As mentioned in my presentation, I also asked J.D. Mullin these same questions, as another local Rock Star, leading from within his organization he said:

1) Continued to invest time and energy into recruiting, training and hiring college interns (even when the economy was not at its best).

2) Mentoring, volunteering and actively participating in the technical community around me has contributed to my personal growth the last two years.

There is more, but this is already becoming too long for most of your attention spans so I'll stop here and post more at a later date. I am still waiting for several other Rock Stars to reply, such as Michael Boerner of Unity Media Group and, of course, Ryan Woodings!

Here again is what I called my "Ignite 5"

1. Be Contagious - or at least hang with peeps who are!
2. Self Examine - Comfort Zone Check
3. Do something different than you've done before
4. Get a buddy, be a buddy (mentor)
5. Ask important people important questions

A quick word on the first point, "Be Contagious - or hang with peeps who are." These days, it seems that even for the "ultimate optimists" such as myself, it is often hard to keep a positive attitude with all that seems to be wrong today. When it is one of "those days" - I make an extra effort to get out and be around people who are upbeat and positive - I do that by attending meetings like Girls in Tech, Tech Boise Open Coffee Club, Kickstand, and so on. It is in those places that I find the most inspiration, excitement, and always, "Contagious Optimism".