Reinventing Nerds

Joanie interviews Calie Hendrickson, who is a systems engineer at Engility Corporation.  Calie acquired her people skills along a roundabout path to the aerospace industry.  She capitalizes on these skills to communicate with her multidisciplinary teams of engineers.  Calie also talks about how she mentors across disciplines and the surprising benefits of cross-disciplinary mentoring. Highlights:...

Joanie has a conversation with Rich Yumul, a web designer and CEO of Sage Tree Solutions.  Rich calls himself a “website therapist” because he helps clients have better relationships with their websites. Highlights: Q: How did you come to start your own company? “I started out being a freelancing contractor.  I got so much work, I started adding people.  That’s when it started to becom...

Joanie interviews Kevin Ehlinger-Wilde, a nationally award-winning creative entrepreneur, speaker, and innovation trainer who has worked with over 500 executives and companies across the country.  He’s an expert on the TIPS personality profiling tool and he has offered our nerd community a special offer. Get a free overview of all of the TIPS profiles: www.wildespark.com/reinventing-nerds . The fi...

Joanie interviews Elisa Yu, a business coach who started out as a biochemical engineer.  Elisa talks about the people challenges she’s faced in running a startup company and being a business coach and what skills she has developed to succeed in these different roles.  She also gives tips for leaders from her business coaching practice. Highlights: Q: How did you come to move out of biochemistry? “...

Joanie interviews Brian Dersch, the president and CEO of Dersch Design & Engineering.  Their mission is to design power and lighting systems for construction projects with an emphasis on renewable energy, customer service, and employing engineers that you can hold a conversation with . Brian is no exception! We start out a little bit differently in this episode because Brian is able to articul...

Joanie interviews Etienne de Bruin, CEO of 7CTOs, a company that offers forums of peer groups of CTOs who follow a curriculum to pursue and inspire innovative thinking.  Etienne shares the typical people challenges CTO’s run into, as well as his own.  He also asks Joanie about hers! Highlights: Q: What kinds of challenges do CTOs run into? “When you start going into a leadership role, especially C...

Joanie interviews Abby Malchow, who was attracted to the dynamic, growing tech industry even without a technical background.  Intel recruited her because of her experience with supply chain management in the Navy.  She now is a commodity manager in software and cloud technology.  Abby tells stories about how she made the transition from military to tech and how she helps veterans.  For example, wh...

Joanie interviews Geoffrey Mattson, CEO of MistNet.  Geoffrey leads a team of software engineers who use artificial intelligence to detect digital security threats in real time to keep organizations safe from cyber-attacks.  Geoffrey shares his insights into how having such valuable technical skills can lead nerds to feel entitled and not bother learning people skills that are critical to success...

Joanie interviews David Wallace, who talks about emotionally charged situations on this entertaining and enlightening episode.  David is the president of 5 th Avenue Energy where he combines two of his passions, electricity and protecting the environment.  5 th Avenue Energy is a San Diego based Electrical Contracting Firm that specializes in solar and renewable energy solutions in the Commercial...

Joanie interviews Dr. Tamsin Woolley-Barker, an evolutionary biologist, business consultant, author, and speaker.  Dr. Tamsin helps companies look to nature for sustainable business solutions but not necessarily in the way you would think.  Tune in for an extremely interesting episode of Reinventing Nerds. Highlights: Q: How do you bring evolutionary biology to companies? “I ask myself, &#82...

Joanie interviews Scott Krawitz, the CEO of People Driven Solutions Inc (PDSI).  PDSI provides technology advisory services, such as the “virtual CTO.”  Scott has had many years as a technologist and a leader of technologists and he shares the people strategies he finds work best. Highlights: Q: What are the most critical people skills for a technologist? In nerd parlance, think of it like a netwo...

Joanie interviews Franklin Taggart, a mysterious nerd with an interesting past.  Franklin is a musician, podcaster, and audience coach.  He’s an extremely creative nerd and, in this episode, he explains how creativity can actually make you unemployable–and how to get around that. Highlights: Q: Are you or are you not a nerd?  Or is it not a binary answer? Franklin defines and expands t...

Hi, I’m Joanie Connell, your host of Reinventing Nerds. I’m a nerd myself.  But you know what?  I don’t think I’m a whole nerd.  I think I’m about half nerd.  I started out as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley and, after several years, I decided to go back to graduate school to learn psychology because I wanted to help  engineers and other technical people be b...