PLUS: KEEPING GOALS IN CLEAR SIGHT • WOMEN + MONEY = CHOICESSPRING 2011

LivingSRring CleanYour Career

Secrets todusting off thosejob-seeking skills

Northwestern Mut~a\ ""wor\d's Most ~dm\redute \nsurance Compan~

-according t~ I

fOR1UNf magaZInes~O" annua\ survev

~r?Northwestern Mutual"

-Creative~Living

comes to you compliments of

It's springtime! And it's certainly not too late to talk abouthow we can make 2011 your best year yet. Please call ore-mail to discuss your financial security needs. In themeantime, enjoy this issue of Creative Living - a magazineproduced especially for the Northwestern Mutual family.

About this magazineThe mission of Northwestern Mutual and its Financial Representa-tives is to develop lifelong relationships with clients-and CreativeLiving is a great way to keep in touch. When we work with clientslike you, our goal is to learn what you value in order to help youarticulate and achieve your goals and dreams.

The idea behind Creative Living is similar; we bring you thought-provoking articles and interesting ideas for enriching your dailylife. Of course, because our business is helping you achieve financialsecurity, we also include lots of helpful financial tips and tools.

Finally, this magazine is a reflection of the Northwestern Mutualcommunity, with articles, advice, and information coming from thepeople we serve. If you are a client, we encourage you to share yourstory with us. If you are not, we encourage you to reach out andbegin a conversation today.

~ Northwestern Mutual"

letter fromthe editor

Reinvention andrenewal

Have you ever wondered what youwould do if you had a chance toreinvent yourself? Would you take

up an entirely different career? Would you goback to school? Move to another city, region-even country? What would you retain fromyour present life? Thinking about questionslike these can help you focus on what youwant-and need-to do, whether you arechanging jobs or thinking about crafting a pro-ductive retirement. One thing you'll certainlyneed as you move forward is the ability to keepyour goals firmly in mind and take concretesteps toward them. In this issue of CreativeLiving, we bring you three feature stories wehope will provide some food for thought,whether you are recommitting to what you doalready or are considering a bold new move.Check out "Spring Clean Your Career," "StickWith It," and "Setting a Course." We thinkyou'll find the stories both inspiring and useful.Let us know!

Many of the ideas in this issue come fromNorthwestern Mutual clients. Be sure tocheck out the profiles of successful entrepre-neurs in "Creative Business" and read aboutclients who make a difference through theirvolunteer activities in "Good Works."

We'd love to hear your stories and get yourreactions to what we publish. Or maybeyou'd like to recommend a friend who mightbenefit from meeting your FinancialRepresentative.

cqrace@tmqcustommedla.com

COVER: JONATHAN ROBERT WILLIS

BY MICHAEL J. McDERMOTT

insights into founding and growing innovative companies

Out ontheir ownTechnology fueled these entrepreneurs'dreams of working for themselves

The blistering pace of techno-logical change demandscreativity of today's entrepre-

neurs. Along with the opportunitiesit creates, technology presents chal-lenges for business owners whochoose to hitch their wagons to thisshooting star. Here's how two verydifferent businesses on oppositesides of the country are findingcreative ways to convert bits andbytes into solid opportunities.

PRESERVINGMEMORIES, ENSURINGINDEPENDENCEAlan Kolsky, founder and chief executiveof Digital Video Dimensions, Inc., spent 25years as a specialist in operations managementwith a major financial institution. During thattime, he was exposed to many technologies,especially digital imaging. He spent much ofhis financial-services career on the road, trav-eling from coast to coast for his employer.Tiring of that nomadic existence, in 2002Kolsky decided to start a business in his home-town of Novato, California. That was justabout the time DVD technology was pushingto the forefront of digital media, and it becameclear that it would displace videotape as theformat of choice.

"I took the whole idea of a home-basedbusiness very seriously, and I looked into threeor four concepts in depth," Kolsky says. Heknew what he didn't want: anything involvingextensive fieldwork, traveling, or hiring andmanaging a lot of employees. He'd been inter-ested in video for years, becoming an early

ROBERT HOUSER

adopter of the technology in the 1980s. Whenhe found a company offering a businessopportunity built around proper engineeringof DVDs, it struck a chord.

"I pursued that business opportunity andlearned quickly that you can't pay someone elsefor a business plan and expect to be success-ful," he says. "You need to put a tremendousamount of effort into defining what your prod-uct or service is going to be. For me, digitallyarchiving people's existing material from othermedia, such as photos, slides, and videotape,onto DVDs seemed to be my sweet spot."Kolsky says the investment in equipment

required to get his business off the ground"wasn't cheap, but it was doable," and soonhe'd hung out his shingle and put a listing inthe Yellow Pages. Kolsky "muddled along," ashe puts it, during the time it took his businessto build momentum, but by the third year itwas beginning to turn a reasonable profit. Hisreputation for good work was spreading, lead-ing to more referrals and repeat customers,which in turn opened a new door of opportu-nity for Digital Video Dimensions.

TSnapshot: DigitalVideo Dimensions

Business: Digitalarchiving

Owner and CEO:Alan Kolsky

Location: Novato,California

Established: 2002

Employees: 2

Mission: Preservingprecious memories-for individuals andbusinesses

Quote: "Smallbusinesses are great.In most cases, youare dealing with theultimate decisionmaker."

FinancialRepresentative:Fred Priest ofFairfax, California

creativeliving . spring 2011 9

creative business

Secrets of Success Digital Video Dimensions

Michael J. McDermott,

a freelance writer

specializing in business

and technology, is based

in Carmel, New York.

Businesses profiled in

this column are clients

of Northwestern Mutua/.

If there is a business

you would like to

nominate for Creative

Business, please

contact Creative Living

editor Catherine O'Neill

Grace at cgrace@tmg

custommedia.com.

123

Get involved in something you enjoy doing, and spend a lotof time learning about it and doing it.

Realize you may face a long lead time before you hit yourstride and build a viable business.

Monitor the effectiveness of what you are doing by main-taining interactive communication with your customers orclients.

"Some of my repeat customers began askingme to do a little editing on the DVDs I wasmaking for them," he explains. "It was a natu-ral extension of what I was already doing."Pretty soon, small business owners beganexpressing interest in Kolsky's work,approaching him to create promotionalDVDs, edit their travelogues, and pursuesimilar projects.Kolsky never intended to be a high-volume,

low-cost provider. His desire to remain a one-or two-person operation meshed perfectlywith his ambitions. He decided to orient hisservices toward upscale consumers and smallbusinesses, a client base more interested inhigh-quality work than bare-bones pricing."Small businesses are great," he says. "In

most cases, you are dealing directly with theultimate decision maker, and he or she encour-ages you to pursue your creativity. That'sreally what they're paying you for." And it'sthat creative aspect Kolsky finds mostfulfilling.Like any business, Digital Video

Dimensions has its challenges, including thenonstop technological change that takes placein its industry. "You constantly have to bealert to new phenomena, such as YouTube,"Kolsky says. "Now business clients want theircontent online instead of on DVDs, and thereare all kinds of different requirements by vari-ous video-hosting services."While Kolsky has continuously educated

himself in his field's emerging technologiesand regularly invests in new equipment, oneaspect of his business remains constant. "Thecommon denominator is digitizing and edit-

ing," he says. "Those are the things that arethe foundation of what I do, and where thecreativity comes into play. The mediuminvolved is not that important."

LEVERAGING RISK,ACHIEVING BALANCEMention high-tech entrepreneurialism,and most people think of California's SiliconValley or the Massachusetts Miracle on Route128 outside Boston. But New Kingstown,Pennsylvania? Not so much. Fortunately forgovernment, commercial, and education cus-tomers up and down the East Coast, DebraPierson, founder, president, and CEO ofPierson Computing Connection Inc. (PCCi),never got that message. After attending asmall private college in Grantham, Penn-sylvania, the Boston native decided centralPennsylvania was a fine place not only to raiseher family, but also to launch and grow a suc-cessful technology venture. And creativity hasplayed a major role in helping her do it.Pierson started working for IBM as an

undergraduate at Messiah College, and shebecame a full-time systems engineer at BigBlue when she graduated in 1989. She workedclosely with Pennsylvania government agen-cies, providing technical support, assistingwith the architecture of computer networks,and overseeing the installation of data cablingand computers.Many of the agencies she assisted during

that period encouraged the use of woman- andminority-owned businesses. IBM was havingtrouble finding such firms that could providequality work at reasonable prices. Pierson wasconvinced she could do better. When IBMoffered her a buyout in 1993 that included asmall financial package and health care cover-age for a year, "I decided to take the buyoutand establish my own business to meet a needfor quality installation of technology withintegrity and excellence in customer service,"she says.Over the first five years, Pierson literally

was the company, and she used that time todevelop PCCi's core competencies and reputa-

10 creativeliving . spring 20n