Name: Mindy Gledhill

Hometown: Madrid, Spain & Provo, UT

Occupation: Musician

Passion: Finding Happiness

Lunch: Cafe Fresh, Orem, UT

Be in Touch: Website, Twitter

Photography by: Justin Hackworth

Mindy Gledhill was born in Northern California, but her family moved to Spain when she was 13. She learned to speak fluent Spanish and after a few years, they moved to Provo, Utah. She is 1 of 9 kids.

While Mindy was studying at Brigham Young University, she met Jeff Simpson, the president of Excel Entertainment and Kenneth Cope at the Faith Centered Music Association Conference. They approached her, with an interest in working with her.

“Excel signed me to their label and I released my first album. I grew up with music, and I always really enjoyed it. I didn’t necessarily mean to start out in faith-based music, but it happened, and I learned a lot from it.”

As she was getting ready to release her second album, she realized she was interested in creating more than just faith-based music.

“I had other goals, and I had started recording another album that wasn’t church songs but was more indie-rock. I decided to leave the label to release the album on my own – ‘Feather in the Wind.’ At my former label label, I learned how to make an album, how to hire, how to market, and I wanted to keep a higher percentage of my profits. So when I released the album, I was able to make more money, and had more freedom to write what I wanted to. Now, I feel like I’m able to reach a broader audience and people in different walks of life.”

With her third album, “Anchor“, Mindy chose to seek out a main-stream producer, sending inquiries to producers who had worked with Lenka, Lee Nash, and Sarah McLachlan. Two of the three producers were willing to work with Mindy and the budget she had.

“It took a while, but I ended up going with Stuart Brawley who produced Lenka’s single “The Show” in 2008. It’s been, probably, the most amazing experience of my life.”

What made her third album different, Mindy explains, was

“A new level of confidence, knowing what I wanted, creating a vision, attracting the components I needed to complete the vision, not being afraid of rejection, and doing what felt totally authentic to me and not worrying about anything else.”

Mindy has also worked with two coaches, Tony Litster, and Trina Harmon, who have helped her achieve various goals for her life and her career.

“There is a saying, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher appears.’ I was ready for a change, and I gained the tools and confidence I needed to trust myself. That was kind of a big “ah-ha” moment for me. My coaches helped me realize a lot and gain a lot of confidence both in my business decisions and in performing as well. I had a lot to learn. I was really a late bloomer in music.”

Mindy’s favorite part of producing an album is the recording process, and the creative direction of an album.

“Some people assume or think ‘Who does all this for you? Who decides this?’ It’s me. I decide. If I feel like making a music video, I make calls, and I’m the executive producer. It’s so much fun. No one has to give me permission to make a music video. If I can find someone and some way to fund it, it’s about creating the team to make it happen.”

Mindy’s definition of success is,

“Success to me is when you feel happy…I think every human being is striving to feel happy and accepted. To me, when you feel that way, you’ve made it… But I’m a human being so I have days where I feel frustrated or depressed. I’m not a millionaire. I don’t have a Grammy, but I feel happy because I feel like I am creating the life that I want to live and that makes me happy. Sometimes we think we have to arrive to do something, but it’s just one step at a time and may take a while. We need to learn to enjoy each step.”

For up-and-coming artists and musicians, Mindy advises to “put yourself out there.”

“You have to be assertive on your own. Every workshop I’ve attended has been a valuable experience. Get yourself out there – it’s so important. I think people are maybe afraid. I’ve heard people say they don’t want to spend their money, but it’s your career. It’s an investment that should bring you revenue. Find someone to sponsor you. You have to put yourself out there if you want to make money. You can’t just wait for things to come to you.”

It was a joy to meet with Mindy, to talk with her about her journey and learn some valuable life lessons. She is a free spirit, with deep roots, and her music is truly an inspiration. Check out her website here, or her albums: Feather in the Wind, Anchor. (Or her Christmas album, Winter Moon.)

Let us know what you think about Mindy!

Read the original post at Mindy Gledhill

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Josh James

Hometown: Provo, UT

Occupation: DOMO Founder/CEO, Omniture Co-founder (sold to Adobe)

Passion: Winning, and being #1 in a field

Lunch: Cafe Rio

Be in Touch: Twitter

If you’re a young entrepreneur in Utah County, you’ll have a hard time avoiding hearing the name “Josh James” – a man who recently sold Omniture, a company he co-founded, to Adobe for $1.8 billion. He is living the epitome of an entrepreneur’s dream, and we were lucky enough to meet him for lunch, and learn a little bit more about what makes him tick.

Having done our homework beforehand, we had read a lot about Josh and one piece of advice that stood out to us was he suggested that young entrepreneurs should start with a blog. When we sat down to lunch, we asked him why. He explained that even a business only “making 5 bucks a day” is a business. And through analyzing a blog, you can learn to become an expert in a field. For instance:

“I know so many people that became an expert in web analytics. [For example], maybe they start a web analytics association. Then everyone thinks they’re an expert because they started the association. Then they walk around and do consulting for two-  to three- thousand dollars a day, or do a speaking engagement at ten-thousand dollars a pop. Even if they weren’t that smart to begin with, they figured it out. They’re good business people. You can become an expert in so many things in a short period of time.”

This set the tone for the rest of our conversation. We learned about how Josh considers the best experiences to be the ones where you hit “go” and just jump straight in.

“Don’t worry about the business plan. If you’re really considering doing a business, then go. Get it started. Start doing anything. If you’re spending 5 bucks every day, you’re going to learn some lessons. If you’re making 5 bucks a day, you’re going to learn some lessons. And then you’re going to figure out how to make it a hundred bucks, or a thousand bucks.”

This was the mentality he had when he began Omniture. He admits,

“I lacked general business understanding, but I understood the math so I could see how business worked. I understood people, and how to motivate people, and I was pretty self aware. So every interaction was a case study to me. I was painfully aware that I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know – I just knew there was a lot.”

So he committed to learning it all, as he averaged working 18 hours a day as well as reading an average of 100-200 books per year during the formative years of his company. Not only did these books educate him, but reading about icons like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos gave him the confidence to continue on a similar entrepreneurial paths.

“When you’re young you have to make up for it somehow. We made up for it with hard work and then with being insanely competitive. For me, I always wanted to be the best basketball player or football player, but wasn’t blessed physically to be able to do that. But I had the heart of that, and I was finally playing a sport where, when I got on the court I wasn’t picked last, and I knew I was as good as everyone else on the court. It came down to ambition and drive and determination and practice.”

As for inspiration, Josh turns mainly to music. He met his wife when they were performers in BYU’s Young Ambassadors – a musical theater ensemble – though he wasn’t classically trained in musical theater. Despite the fact that he doesn’t listen to Broadway tunes, Josh will “listen to pretty much everything,” turning to hip hop, and “more esoteric” rock, like U2 and Coldplay.

“Music is my favorite thing in the world. Music motivates me more than anything…I love music that will allow you to sit there and think. I don’t necessarily care so much about what the words are saying. I generally don’t know what they’re saying.”

Josh is driven from a number of forces. He feels a need to beat the competition, and get to a point “that when you’re 70 you can look back and you’re proud,” having made the world a better place. He thinks about his employees, and their families, and the force for good that he and his company can be.

On a more personal level, Josh emphasized the importance of relationships – that what the people closest to you feel and think about you, and the time you spent with them is positive.

“You may have tough conversations, or get really intense, but do [the people closest to you] understand, beneath, that you really do care about them?  I don’t know anyone that thinks business is more important than family.”

What is most inspiring about Josh, however, is how aware he is of his “A-Game,” both in business, and at home. He relates an experience when he realized how important it was to be as invested in his family as he was in his business.

“I remember looking up the word “zeal” in the dictionary when I was about 10. And that word has always been in my head. I remember one time when I went home at 2 in the morning, and I was dead tired. The next morning I was planning on sleeping in. Most days I came home and was super tired, but I realized…I spent the right amount of time with my family, but the quality of that time was not an A+. Just because you have the quantity doesn’t mean anything. I realized that when I go to work, I bring it. There are very few meetings where I’m not on my A-game. But then when I went home I was kind of a lump. The biggest epiphany for me was to realize when I go home, I need the same effort, and zeal, and creativity, and resourcefulness, to just be the best dad or husband you know how to be. That was really empowering and enlightening for me. I try to do that.”

Want to be more like Josh? He reads Forbes, Fortune, Businessweek, Wired, Fast Company and The Economist.

Let us know what you think about Josh James, or if you have any suggestions for guests we should be taking to lunch!

Read the original post at Josh James

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Justin Hackworth

Hometown: Rexburg, ID

Occupation: Photographer

Passion: Enriching the lives of others

Aspiration: A wedding in Italy

Lunch: Gurus Cafe, Provo, UT

Be in Touch: Website, Twitter, Blog

We know that you’ve probably heard of Justin Hackworth. I mean, who hasn’t heard of Justin Hackworth? We were first introduced to him after some friends of ours gave us a portrait session with Justin for our wedding. It was beyond delightful, and it’s been a joy to follow his career ever since.

Justin started as a photographer in a pretty casual way. He says,

“You know, I always liked [taking pictures], but I never thought it could be a career, so I didn’t ever do anything about it. I always just took snapshots and stuff – and then my last semester in college I thought ‘ I want to figure this out. I want to try this.’ So I took a beginning photography class. It didn’t really satisfy what I wanted to know, it just took me a little further. So I found some guys that worked at a photography lab who were really helpful and gave me a lot of good advice. I was getting the technical part of it, but there was a giant chasm between what I was doing and what the photographers I looked up to were doing. There was real soul in those pictures and I didn’t know where to go to figure that out. A book or a class is really about technical stuff. I wanted to figure out how to add a little bit of life.”

It is undeniable that Justin’s work is filled with life and soul. When you look at his work, it’s like making friends with the person in the image. He explains it this way:

“…I’m sure it’s the same with musicians. It’s the reason why you don’t go to a concert to hear a player piano. It’s just technical. There’s no one giving a voice to the piece.”

Justin gained more experience when he approached Kent Miles, a photographer based in Salt Lake City, about learning from him – stunned by the work Miles produced.

“I had no idea photography could look like that.”

After putting together a small group of students who all wanted to learn with Kent, Justin began to learn photography, from an artist’s perspective.  To this day, Justin still learns from Kent when he can.

“In 1996 I started going to him, and he’d give us assignments (me and 4 other people who would go and be instructed by him). I still go, 15 years later. That’s how I was trained, and as that went on I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do for a living.’”

Justin has learned a lot along the way, experiencing many “starts and stops.” He emphasized that it’s important to keep pursuing what you love, even if it takes a long time to figure out. At this point, Justin is satisfied with where he has been – from an English degree, to a full-time marketing director, to a photographer and business owner.  He also looks forward to where he’s going.

“Honestly, I don’t know what else I’d do. But I never really knew when I was really committed – like ‘this is it.’ I’m in, now… I’m in for sure.”

Justin anticipates adding teaching to his long list of services, as well as he would like to do more weddings and traveling. But for now, his favorite part of what he does is making prints.

“I love making a wedding book, opening it up, and seeing the story in a beautiful, finished piece.”

Justin has a very calm sense about him. This becomes obvious within minutes of meeting him. Composed and thoughtful, he says,

“I’ve never, ever been nervous [for weddings or events.] I know what I’m doing, and it’s all going to work out. If something bad happens, it’s probably out of my control. So I never get nervous at a wedding.”

And weddings are his  favorite!

“I love weddings. I love toasts at weddings. I love when the father and bride have their first dance. Oh my gosh, I love that. I remember last summer at a wedding the dad leaned in and I heard him say ‘I’m so proud of you.’ I love it.”

Justin draws inspiration from sports stories (like Andre Agassis’ book, “Open”,) and athletes, saying,

“I really admire their discipline. I like seeing people who are at their peak.”

He also loves and appreciates live music, which explains his involvement in Downtown Provo’s Rooftop Concert Series, run by Courtney Jane Kendrick, Mindy Gledhill, Justin Hackworth, and Sarah Wiley. These concerts are to DIE for.

Lessons you can learn from Justin include a cheerful outlook and positive thinking. He tries to always be thinking of what good he can provide for others, and is careful to not “go looking for diamonds somewhere else” when they may be in your own front lawn, referring to Russell H. Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds” speech.

Look for Justin’s photos on his blog, on the upcoming cover of Parade magazine (feat. Stephanie Neilson), and let us know if you or someone you know is getting married in Italy! We’ve got just the photographer for you.

Read the original post at Justin Hackworth

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

In the meantime, we’ll be continuing with lunches of our own. Expect to see a new post this week from our lunch with photographer Justin Hackworth!

Read the original post at The Legalities

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

We apologize for the delay in posts, lately. Thing is – we’ve been seeking out feedback (feel free to leave yours here) and have learned a lot from both our guests and readers. Because of that, we are expanding the vision for The Luncheon Project.

First, we fleshed out “What We Know”:

1. We want to spotlight amazing people, everywhere.
2. There are millions of amazing people.
3. “Everywhere” is a very big place.

This brings us to the oomph-factor. We want The Luncheon Project to be just that – a project. It’s got to be something collaborative that can accomplish the goal of spotlighting millions of amazing people all over the word. That means we need YOUR help to make it happen.

To encourage both lunching and professional networking, we need YOU to take YOUR mentors, heros, and professional contacts to lunch. Here’s how it works:

1. Take someone out to lunch. Ask them if you can record your conversation, and take a picture with your guest at the conclusion of the meal.
2. Do a write-up about your experiences – quotes that stuck out to you, lessons learned, etc. Follow up with your guest and have him/her proof it for any errors or clarifications they’d like to make.
3. Email the write-up, along with the picture of you and your guest, and a review of the food/restaurant, to contact@theluncheonproject.com. And don’t forget to include your name and mailing address. (And, of course, as you participate, you’ll receive some correspondence from us about all the legal mumbo jumbo.)
4. For each post you submit during a given month, you will be entered into a monthly drawing for a prize, like a gift certificate to a restaurant. This is our way of saying “Thank You” and will hopefully keep you coming back for more!

The point is simply to foster and promote networking, and to highlight the amazing people all around us. So if you’ve been wondering how to get started with your own networking, this is your chance (and excuse) to finally take someone to lunch! Call or email that person you’ve been dying to get to know. Tell them you’re participating in The Luncheon Project and would like to take them to lunch, write about it, and post it online for others to read about.

As we receive posts, we’ll select one write-up to post, per day. Because we anticipate a high volume of entries, we can’t guarantee that your lunch will be posted, but there will be other opportunities for your experiences to be shared (how cryptic and exciting is THAT?)

Of course we, here at The Luncheon Project, will continue to meet with folks and post about our experiences. However, we will also be posting more content regarding networking, lunching tips, and more to help you achieve your own networking goals.

We’re SO jazzed about the potential of this project. The new system starts in February – so pull out your phones, open up your inboxes, and start extending some lunch invitations!

Have any more ideas for our new direction? Leave us a comment to let us know!

Read the original post at A Little More Oomph!

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Ed Eyestone

Hometown: Ogden, Utah

Passion: Running, Coaching

Aspiration: To continue to integrate athleticism into his life, and help others do the same

Connect: Faculty Profile

Occupation: Men’s Cross Country Coach and Assistant Track Coach, Brigham Young University

Lunch: Legend’s Grille, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

Best Marathon Time: 2:10:59

Learn More: Wikipedia

You will find Ed Eyestone to be a kind, confident, and open person.  When we asked him to go to lunch with us, he was completely on board and supportive.  We learned about his journey to come to be where he is in his life, and found it to be an amazing story.

Whether you saw him run the marathon in the 1988 or 1992 Olympics on Seoul, Korea or Barcelona, Spain, or if you saw him perform as General Waverly in BYU’s recent production of “White Christmas,” you’ll recognize Ed’s wide range of talent.

It all began in the 7th grade when the baseball coach dashed his hopes and dreams of becoming a major league baseball player when he cut Ed from the baseball team.

“When you have your dreams dashed in 7th grade, and you still want to be an athlete in the spring of the year, the only other sport is track and field. I probably wouldn’t have run had I made the baseball team, even to sit on the bench. I would have been content to just play baseball.”

I’ve always been under the impression that sports are all about being the right body type or having some sort of natural ability. While Ed enjoyed running he emphasized that he worked very hard for his success in Junior High and High School, that it didn’t necessarily just come to him.

Eventually, he was running faster than the 8th and 9th graders, and his mile was around 5:06 in 9th grade,

“Which was nothing to indicate that I was going to be very good.”

But as he entered high school, his coach and mentor, Neville Peterman, really helped Ed make the switch to being a “hardcore” runner.

“He not only was our track coach, but he got us into the culture of running, and what it is. He introduced us to Track and Field News, a hardcore running magazine. He immersed us into this world and got us excited about it. He was a really good motivator.”

That’s when Ed decided that running was what he wanted to do.

“My junior year in high school, I went from being one of the good guys on the varsity team to winning everything – and I was winning most races by a lot. Finally things clicked.”

But the real turning point came at a big invitational where Wayne Pinto, the state “running god” of the time was going to compete.  Ed’s goal was to stay with Wayne for as long as he could during the race.

“But the long and short of it was that I ended up beating him that day. That was a breakthrough for me.”

Ed went on to run for Brigham Young University, and graduated as “the best college guy coming out.” He ran professionally for 15 years, landing a shoe contract right out of college, and supplemented that with race money and appearance fees. He competed on the USA Olympic teams in 1988 and 1992, running the marathon, and after his shoe contract expired around 1999, Ed was hired at BYU to coach the men’s cross country team.

In addition, Ed has had a running column in Runner’s World Magazine for the last 12 years, as well as he has been a sports commentator for ESPN and Fox Sports Elite, and served as the head distance analyst for NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

What has been the key to his success?

“I think more than anything it was perseverance in it, and having a coach who believed in me. I also believed that as long as I continued to do the work, things would fall into place.”

He also stressed the importance of a balanced life, commenting that making a living as a runner allowed him to not only get 150 miles of running in a week, but also to be at home, and help his wife raise their six daughters.

“I think there are the people who live, eat, drink and sleep running. That’s their whole life, all they talk about, and all they do. And then you have those who are very good at it, but don’t make it every aspect of their lives. I think the guys who have a balance in their lives leads to having a better overall athletic career. If that’s all you are and that’s all that defines you, you’ll inevitably have ups and downs – you get injured or just aren’t running very well. If running is all you have going on in your life, that makes things really stressful for you, but if you have some other outlets in your life it takes some of the pressure off.”

Some of the crowning moments of Ed’s career have been his time running at BYU, where he ran undefeated his Senior year, making the Olympic team – twice! – and broadcasting for NBC during the Beijing Olympics.

Of the stressful and nerve-wracking nature of the Olympics, Ed explains:

“It’s hard for runners to get into two olympics. You have a two year window to qualify for the trials. And on a given day they have a race and the first three guys to cross the finish line make the race.  There are any number of a hundred things that can go wrong. And if they do, you have to wait. And unlike most professional sports where you just wait a year, or until next season – you have to wait four years.

Making the team the first time was probably as much a feeling of relief as it was joy.”

We got to talking with Ed about his victories, and about the different feelings he feels when he runs for himself, and when he coaches other runners. He said that it was almost more gratifying when an individual or team he has coached wins the race, because it feels good to know that you have helped someone else achieve their goal. But those goals can vary widely from person to person.

“It depends on the guy.  Someone who wins a national championship may not feel successful, because it wasn’t his best time, where another guy may get 6th in a conference and feel successful because it’s his best time yet.”

Summed up, Ed admires John Woodens’ view of success,

“Success is peace of mind in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

Ed’s goals for the future include performing in the theater more with his daughter, Claire, as he can fit it around his rigorous coaching schedule. (Recent roles have included General Waverly in BYU’s White Christmas, and Charlie Davenport in Annie Get Your Gun in Orem, Utah’s SCERA Community Theater.)

He also hopes to continue to run, build up the running program at BYU, and help inspire others to continue to run.

“Like breathing, sleeping, talking or eating, I think running is something hardwired into everyone’s genes. A lot of people don’t recognize that because they haven’t done it. But once they do it, and get over the initial discomfort that comes with it, they realize how important it is.”

 

Like what you learned about Ed Eyestone? Share it with your friends! Also, feel free to leave us a comment to let us know what you liked best, who you think we should interview next, or what we can do to improve!

Read the original post at Ed Eyestone

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Clark Merkley

Hometown: Springville, Utah

Passion: Education and teaching

Aspiration: To make a difference every day

Occupation: Assistant Personnel Director for Utah County Government

Lunch: Milagros, Orem, UT

You probably haven’t met too many people who studied Zoology and Scandinavia Studies in college. Nor would you expect someone who studied zoology to have a career as a lawyer, a junior high teacher, the president of a company, an entrepreneur, and a government worker. But Clark Merkley has done all these things, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

People sometimes question Clark about whether or not going to law school was a good idea. For him, the answer is simple. It also makes for a great life lesson:

“Education is always valuable.”

Clark regularly asks himself: “What do I have to show for [my work]?” This simple gut-check has helped him gauge whether or not what he’s doing is actually making a real difference in the lives of those around him. While working as a lawyer, he had two kids about to graduate high school. He didn’t feel like he knew them as well as he would’ve liked, so Clark followed his passion and moved to Springville, UT, to teach junior high math and science.

I asked Clark if he ever felt inadequate teaching alongside people who had been teaching for years. He said it was definitely an issue, but that the solution was just hard work (and the blessing of a photographic memory).

When we asked if he was still teaching, he simply said:

“Well, no. I’ve changed my mind since then.”

We found throughout the course of lunch that Clark isn’t afraid to retool himself, try something new, and continue learning. He mentioned that he eventually came to the point in his career when he could say, “I can kind of do what I want”. Granted, it took hard work to get to that point:

“Don’t be too hasty, because sometimes you have to be in a financial position where you feel like you can do that.”

After teaching junior high, Clark worked as a consultant at an HR consulting firm, where he eventually became the president, a position he held for over three years. One of his clients was working on a startup and convinced Clark to join the startup as the president. However, when money got tight, Clark laid himself off.

Clark was then faced with a tough task: finding something that he enjoyed doing, but that could also provide stability for his family. At this point in the story, he confirmed the value of professional networking:

“[Networking] is the only way to look for a job.”

As he talked with the people he had become friends with over the years, he started to get interviews and eventually interviewed for a job with Utah County. What made him take the Utah County position in the end? The 30-minute bike ride to work.

But Clark hasn’t forgotten about his passion. This semester he’s adjunct at UVU and will likely be adjunct at BYU in a year from now. While it may not be the main focus of his career, Clark always leaves time for his passion.

In his work with the Utah County government, Clark said something that I personally hope to achieve:

“I make a difference every day. I know it.”

From the minute he walked into the restaurant, Clark had a smile on his face. It’s obvious that he’s a genuinely happy person who loves what he does. His coworkers often tease him about always having such a positive attitude, but he says it’s not hard.

“I’ve never had a bad day. I’ve had a few bad minutes, and maybe a few bad hours, but never a bad day.”

As we started wrapping up, we asked what his definition of success is:

“Success is contentment, life balance, a great family, and opportunities to make a difference.”

Clark is a great example of someone who is really out to make a difference in the world. And he’s able to do that because he worked hard to put himself in a position where he could help other people.

Did anything about our lunch with Clark stand out to you? Let us know in the comments!

Read the original post at Clark Merkley

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Read the original post at A Short Holiday Break

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Jeremy Grimshaw

Hometown: Payson, Utah

Occupation(s): Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Brigham Young University

Passion: Curiosity

Aspiration: Foster an ongoing interest in non-western music at BYU, and (as a writer) help people think more critically about how music affects their lives, and help scholarship about music engage with a non-scholarly audience

Connect: @jngrimshaw, Ignite Salt Lake City, Google Author Page, “Draw a Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young”, Interview on Radio West, KUER, about La Monte Young, “The Island of Bali is Littered with Prayers”

Lunch: The Museum of Art Cafe, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

If you’ve attended any of Brigham Young University’s Bintang Wahyu concerts, you’ve definitely learned a little about Jeremy Grimshaw.  Gamelan music, namely the music of Bali, is the specialty of Jeremy, BYU’s resident Ethnomusicologist.

To pursue this interest, he’s taken numerous trips to Indonesia to better learn the music, and has even written a book about brining Gamelan to Utah. This book is for a “general audience,” and draws cross-cultural comparisons as it seeks to tell the story of expanding interest in non-western music.

Jeremy started his path as a percussion performance major at the University of Utah. But even at that point in his life, he realized his passion for writing.

“By the time I finished my undergraduate degree, I already knew that I would want to go in an academic direction…so I went into Musicology because I liked music and writing, and those were the kind of people who wrote about music.”

But after some years working towards his graduate degree at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY,) he felt a yearn to perform again. It was at that point that a friend recommended that he join the University’s Gamelan ensemble.

“I started playing in Gamelan and was outlandishly mistaken about how easy it would be to learn, which was good. I think if I had known just how extensive and rich a tradition it was, I wouldn’t have been dumb enough to just say ‘Oh, I think I’ll do this!’ Strategic ignorance can be useful.”

After being hired at his first position out of school, at Dennison University (in central Ohio, just outside of Columbus), he was able to take advantage of the opportunity to buy a small Gamelan, and begin to both teach and learn more about Indonesian culture and music.  Later, an opportunity to move to Brigham Young University came along, as BYU sought to diversify its offerings and integrate world music more deeply into the curriculum. This is also Jeremy’s goal, and something he hopes to foster into the future.

What you’ll notice about Jeremy, that may be the most refreshing about him, is his ambition to pursue what interests him.

“When I was looking to do research, I was always looking for things to write about–not necessarily, ‘This is the work that needs to be done to contribute to the body of knowledge.’ I wanted to find things that would engage me as a writer. From moment to moment, curiosity motivates me. A lot of my research comes out of non-methodical perusing of things.”

This “non-methodical” perusing is what led into his latest book about artist and composer La Monte Young. But it was a “writer-ly” interest that stemmed this project.

“I love his music. His music is really wonderful and strange and innovative and creative. But also his story–he is a compelling, intriguing person.”

Jeremy explained that Young was born in log cabin in Southeast Idaho, where he was raised Mormon and worked on his family’s cucumber farm on the shores of Utah Lake. Interestingly, Young ended up in New York City doing concerts with Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol, and mentoring the members of the The Velvet Underground. He had a “huge influence” on the art and music scene of New York, but “lurked in the shadows” as he was able to work out a system, early on, where he had a network of patrons who kept him financially stable, so he could produce whatever art he wanted. A lifestyle with an odd effect, that….

 ”…creates a sort of freedom but also creates an isolating effect with the rest of the world.”

Jeremy has a wide scope of interests and the creativity and drive to go far.  In his own life, and in a life of academia, he has had the opportunity to make some pretty remarkable observations about successful individuals. He believes that the “constant fear that I don’t know what I’m doing” is something that drives him – in that there are always people who can be better than you at one thing or another. So in an attempt for self-improvement, he seeks out experts. For instance, he mentioned that to learn how to better write about music, he would rather read something written by a great writer, as opposed to a great ethnomusicologist.

Jeremy also believes that immersion is important to learning and growing.

“Successful students tend to be the ones that are interested in stuff. They make a habit of being curious about things. They wonder about why things are the way they are and why they aren’t a different way.”

“Some key advice came from my brother who said ‘Whatever you’re doing at the time, you just have to eat it, drink it, and sleep it.’ I’ve remembered that a lot, because in grad school there were some seminars about music that I initially didn’t think I was really interested in, but I was able to get a glimpse of something that other people have devoted their life to… What that taught me is that working really hard, and really wrapping your brain around something – whatever it is – can be satisfying in and of itself.”

Satisfaction is something that can be difficult for artists, though.  Jeremy noted that in the arts,

“Defining success is part of the process – leaving the question open…It’s hard to define success because you don’t always know where the goal post is out there. You’re wandering out into unexplored areas – which is sort of what you’re supposed to do. I think when we think in a very goal-directed way – or when we talk about creativity using the language that we use to talk about other, more quantifiable things, we have to be careful to not over-define where we’re headed, Beauce that’s part of doing creative stuff. We can’t be preventing ourselves from wandering off to another trail.”

Be sure to check out Jeremy’s books, or his recent interview with Doug Fabrizio on Radio West, 90.1 KUER so that you can learn more about some of Jeremy’s inspiring pursuits.

Read the original post at Jeremy Grimshaw

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project

Name: Adam Wooten

Hometown: Palmdale, CA

Occupation(s): Director of Translation Services at Lingotek, International Business columnist for the Deseret News, and Adjunct Professor at BYU

Passion: Being outdoors and playing with his kids

Aspiration: To make his division one of the largest translation companies worldwide

Connect: @AdamWooten

Lunch: Paradise Cafe, American Fork, UT

If you’ve ever wondered how businesses translate their materials into different languages, look no further than Adam Wooten. We asked him to describe what he does:

“I’m a translation nerd who got into the business side of things.”

While in school at BYU, Adam worked as a Spanish interpreter for the Utah court system. After realizing that his translation work was more than just a fleeting interest (and deciding that his previous interest in becoming a doctor wasn’t as interesting as translation), he decided to go to the Monterey Institute of International Studies, “the” place to go if you want to become a high-level interpreter or translator. But before he left BYU, he took a translation technology course and realized he was really interested in the technology aspect of translation.

By the time he got to Monterey, he had decided to pursue a more business-oriented track, and earned his MBA in addition to his other studies. While he still enjoyed actively translating, he realized that he preferred the lifestyle that the business side of translating would offer. But even that had its ups and downs.

“When I first started learning about translation project management, it was intimidating to think that I would be managing projects of documents or websites that would go into one or two dozen languages that I didn’t speak. I learned a lot about making sure a good process was in place so that I could actually trust what came out the other end.”

But he kept working at it. As we talked, there was one thing about Adam that really stood out to me–he’s the kind of guy who decides what he wants and goes for it. He just figures things out, like how to become an approved court interpreter. That’s a great quality, and one that I really admire.

One of the defining experiences in his career came early on with a company originally called TermSeek (now Lingotek). Adam was able to interface with the CEO and get some one-on-one mentoring.

“He [the CEO] taught me quite a bit about the industry. That ended up being very worthwhile and leading me into project management for a small, local translation company while I was in school in Monterey.”

Working for that small, local, “Mom & Pop” shop in Monterey, Adam wore many different hats and learned about the different facets of running a business. When asked if he had ever considered opening his own company, he said:

“I’ve often thought that I would want to run my own company, but that’s been changing a bit. I think running a very successful division of a company would be just as fulfilling.”

There are more than 25,000 translation companies in the world, of two employees or more. That’s not counting the thousands of one-man-shows doing the same kind of work. But that doesn’t bother Adam. We asked about his goals and ambitions for the company:

“I want to build this division into one of the largest translation companies in the world.”

This is a guy who shoots for the moon. And I don’t doubt he’ll get there. He shared his definition of success with us:

“[Success is] being able to do your best and be happy doing it.”

“Although my career path has taken quite a few twists and turns, it’s been nice, in hindsight, to see that each of those turns was for a very good reason and really helped to prepare me for exactly what I want to be doing now.”

For those looking to expand their networks and break into the world of business, he had this advice:

“Be willing to do pro-bono projects–things for which you’re not paid, but will still give you some experience and allow you to network.”

When it comes to work, there are two things that get Adam out of the bed in the morning:

“I like being able to feel like I’m really helping people with something I know something about. Also, it’s nice to be constantly learning about different languages and cultures.”

Be sure to check out Adam’s Twitter account and his column in the Deseret News. This is definitely someone you’ll want to keep tabs on.

(Hat tip to Tyler Smith for introducing us to Adam!)

Read the original post at Adam Wooten

Check out other lunches at The Luncheon Project