Friend of Simplicity - Rosa Say

Today’s Friend of Simplicity is Rosa Say who I have known for about 4 years and who lives in Hawaii – are we all jealous of that or what?

Rosa is a prolific writer and a passionate advocate of lifelong learning. I am sure you will enjoy hearing from Rosa and visiting her various links.

Trevor - Hi Rosa - Tell us about your career to date and where you are based.

Rosa - I live in Hawai‘i and primarily work there, but I am fortunate in being able to accept invitations to speak and teach elsewhere in the world too, fortunate in that I love my work and love to travel.

I also do quite a bit of virtual work. After three decades gaining my professional experience in the Hawai‘i hospitality business, I founded three different companies, one for coaching and consulting, and two for writing and publishing. All three are dedicated to the mission of the Managing with Aloha™ movement: I help managers and leaders create and maintain healthy workplace cultures by way of value alignment and achieving their full potential in those professions and personal behaviours. http://www.managingwithaloha.com/

Trevor - You always seem to be ahead of the game with internet technology. What excites you most about communicating through the internet/blogging/twitter etc?

Rosa - The learning is what excites me most, followed closely by the now global nature of how we can communicate and collaborate.

Technology gets our physical and geographical limits to disappear, a true godsend when like me, you live on the most remote land on the face of the earth, yet want to be connected with like-minded people and thought leaders wherever they might be.

Lifelong learning and the adoption of technology are choices we all can make, yet in my case I’ve come to consider them both my innate talents; they are strengths begging me to capitalize upon them as much as I can, and so I do: I believe that working on our strengths is the way we live within a sense of thankfulness while we serve others in our best way possible.

A huge fringe benefit for me is that I find both learning (of all kinds) and technology to be great fun!

Trevor - What is your latest project?

Rosa - My newest business creation is that third company just launched in January of this year, named Writing with Aloha. It is the product-creating arm of Ho‘ohana Publishing, and it takes the teaching and coaching services of Say Leadership Coaching and converts them into product packages. The goal is to scale what my MWA training and coaching delivers, and deliver it to a wider audience in forms which are much more affordable for them.

Trevor - What advice would you give to young people coming into the world of business in 2009?

Rosa - Understand how lucky you are right now and close your ears to any negativity you hear.

True that this may be a very painful time for many people, however there are incredible silver linings to the dark clouds! I find it very exciting that we are no longer able to rest on our laurels and must reinvent and newly create better business models, and young people today are in prime position to optimize those advantageous conditions. My advice to them is to focus on their innate talents and put them to work: We don’t employ people; we employ their strengths and harness their potential.

Trevor - Tell us about your writing Rosa and do you have any plans for more books?

Rosa - Yes I do! I have a manuscript in draft right now which focuses on a very specific concept within Managing with Aloha which I call our ‘language of intention.’

Where MWA had focused on management, my next book will take on what I believe to be the crucible challenge of leadership. I know I have kept my MWA readers waiting for this, however I don’t think I could have written it before now and have it be good enough, meaning useful enough; we don’t need another lofty impractical leadership book. As they say, “the world conspires” at times so things happen when they should.

Trevor - Do you have any plans to visit the UK?

Rosa - You can bet I do have those plans Trevor; I just can’t yet say exactly when that will be. I am hoping it will be within a year at the most. Perhaps a book signing when my next book is released?

Believe me, it is not just a wish, hope or dream; I fully intend to visit and stay for a good amount of time; the prospect has been a very compelling one for quite some time now.

As you know Trevor, one of my projects is the Joyful Jubilant Learning network of the Ho‘ohana Community, and I’ve long thought of the UK as the more central place to hold our first global convention because of the key players most involved. http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/

Trevor - Where can people find out about the services you provide Rosa?

Rosa - I invite your readers to visit www.RosaSay.com for more about what I do. It includes an overview of all my work in the business community, and the site will always highlight my current projects. August of 2009 will be my 5th year writing on the web, and to celebrate, I have newly created www.HoohanaCommunity.com - it is already live for those who would like to take a peek before our August launch. Both sites offer links to my blog Talking Story. Thank you for your Aloha here Trevor, I sincerely appreciate being able to meet those in your Simplicity community.

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