Who Motivates the Motivator ?

I wrote a blog post a while back entitled "So, I Met This Guy... ," talking about my (now) friend and colleague, Steve Borek, business coach. Actually, "business coach" might be a bit of an understatement, but you can get all that from his web site, End Game Business.

Shortly after the meeting mentioned in that blog post, Steve awarded me the pleasure of updating his executive portrait and we came away with this image that portrays his personality: easy going, approachable, laid back, a kind of quiet confidence. That's also the way he conducts his coaching sessions -- quiet, laid back, and conversational; except he's not really doing the talking, you are (or in this case I was). And, he's not the one coming up with answers to your problems; he just casually facilitates you coming around to your own. Yup, he's as good a coach as he was invigorating conversationalist over coffee in my original blog post, and he helped me come to some life changing realizations.

And among other things, Steve also produces plays for the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild. As a matter of fact, right after I make this post I'll be heading there to see the closing performance of Exit the Body. So, if you have an urge to patronize your local theatre guild, give BTG a look.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Executive Portrait: Not your normal stuffy executive!

When you think of executive portraits, you tend to envision a serious, stuffy, starched, uptight, dark suit, sterile corporate atmosphere. Nahhhh. Not today's executive -- or, at least not this one!

Meet Wendy Cobrda: purposed, driven, intense, meticulous, fun, successful, famous? Serial entrepreneur, wife, mother, author, executive.

Founder and owner of Catenate Consulting, founded in 1997 with a desire to help companies solve their customer profiling and acquisition challenges, and more recently, Earthsense, LLC, which was founded in 2007. Earthsense is a unique applied marketing company that combines the best practices of market research, data mining and GIS (spacial representation of data) to understand the motivations and barriers when marketing "green" to consumers.

Wendy's presentation undermines the stereotypical image that comes to mind of one engaged with such statistical intricacies, and she emerges as a vibrant, engaging personality.

But don't miss the intensity and depth of purpose in her eyes -- this executive of the 21st century.

Wendy was interviewed in October by Jill Hurst-Wahl of Hurst Associates, as part of the a Enitiative Grant-funded "Talking Business: A Conversation With..." series of workshops, when Earthsense transitioned from a home-based enterprise to a full-fledged business located in the Syracuse Technology Garden -- another by-product of Wendy's intensity and resolve. Behold today's executive.

You Know What They Say, Right?

Barbers' kids always have long hair, mechanics' cars are always broken and photographers' blogs are never updated! We do get caught up in the grind sometimes... and things just slip -- although having a year pass without updating my blog might be a little ridiculous. You'll be happy to know, however, that I did not duplicate that same trend... with my bills (smiles).

But, I *have* been busy on several levels -- and having a great deal of fun -- so I'll share couple of things with you, here.

It's old news for most, but last year this time I became president of the Professional Photographers' Society of New York State (Hmmmm. I wonder if that had any correlation to... ) and admittedly that's taken up a good deal of my attention and mental real estate.




One of the most fun things for me was to have my mom there for my induction. She turned 80 a couple of months later, so this made a nice birthday present. Click here to see other photos, if you haven't before.


My year culminates at our annual conference March 28th-31st in Albany, NY, and I'll officially relinquish the gavel on May 17th. It's been a fun run, but with three weeks left to the convention... you can imagine where my mental focus is right now.


One of my duties as president was to travel around the state to visit our different sections (chapters) so I've done quite a bit of traveling this year, and made some friends I wouldn't have otherwise known. Most recently, I travelled to Westchester NY for a section event. Shown left here with Westchester section president Frank Mohalley (rear) and long time PPSNYS member and internationally known Master Photographer Frank Dispensa (left).


So this has been a HUGE part of my past year, although I *did* manager to photograph some clients, which I'll share with you in future posts -- and I promise not to take a year this time.

Have an excellent day!

Kelvin