It Takes a Village
In our book we talked about the concept of “Who is in your kitchen?” as a means of thinking about who we surround ourselves with, who we learn from, who inspires us, and so on. We strongly advocate having diverse voices and lived experiences in your kitchen with you. Surround yourselves with people who are different from you, who think differently, who are culturally and racially different and who will offer you a perspective that expands your reality. We also talked about the importance and power of intentionality. We proudly and intentionally worked with and engaged with a very diverse group of people in all aspects of writing our book.
The leaders we interviewed, the editors, our writing coach, the folks who we asked and got endorsements from, the folks who advised us on technology and the folks who did incredible illustrations, photography, and videos for us. It was important for us to live up to what we wrote in our book that diverse perspectives and people lead to stronger and better outcomes and, in our case as authors, more creativity and broader impacts. It does take a village, and for us, the amazing people highlighted here are the reason we were able to create and write this book.
Writing Coach and Project Manager:
Danielle was incredibly important and a critical part of our writing effort. She provided immensely helpful editing but more importantly helped us think through the flow of the book as well as within chapters. She played a project management role and kept us on track. Her biggest help though was in merging two voices into one coherent voice throughout the book.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers:
Impressive, inspiring, and dedicated are words that come to mind as we think about BK Publishers and the all-encompassing support they give to their family of writers. Their collective knowledge, energy, belief in the written word, and compassion for writers as people was noticeable from day one. It does not escape us of just how important it is to have such incredible and genuine backing from a publisher.
Illustrations, Photography, Video Production and Website Design:
We were very fortunate to have wonderfully creative and talented artists involved in providing
critical creative illustrations, photography, and learning & marketing videos.
Jaclyn’s talents went beyond creating beautiful illustrations. The concept she envisioned and brought to life for our 2IL model (Insights of Inclusive leadership) was spectacular. Rishi’s patience and professionalism during our author photoshoot was incredible and his efforts to identify and edit the best photos much appreciated. Ivan and his amazingly talented and dedicated team at IG1 Communications created a relaxed and welcoming environment for the videos we recorded for this website and to help us get the word out on the messages in our book. His talented team of video professionals created a relaxed environment where we could be our authentic selves and enjoy the experience while producing the content we came to produce in an efficient and high quality manner. Bhavyesh helped us design an amazing website with his normal calm, encouraging, and accommodating style. His eye for simple yet impactful captured exactly what we were looking for.
Innovation Advisor:
Arthur’s sincere interest in the book we were writing, and his generational lens led him to suggest how we can differentiate our book by using QR codes throughout. That is exactly what we ended up doing. This addition was especially helpful for the learning sections and recommended resources.
Danny Schmidt:
Jonathan was invited to a house concert during the summer of 2023 at the home of his good friend, Joel Lilly. Joel’s first cousin, Danny Schmidt, was set to perform that night. From the first chord and all the way through the evening, Jonathan was mesmerized and inspired by Danny’s music. And when Danny sang the lyrics to “Black and Blue”, Jonathan knew he had to have Danny apart of our book. Danny and Jonathan talked that night and Danny was open to the idea. Soon after, Eddie was fully on board as well. Danny’s lyrics to “Black and Blue” appear in the beginning of our book and we’re forever grateful for his support and generosity in allowing us to share his genius with all of you.
Our Book's Publicist:
Dawn’s task is to help us create visibility and interest in our book as well as booking speaking engagements to talk about it. We were drawn to Dawn not only because of her stellar credentials and abilities but her authentic passion for ID&E and palpable energy sealed the deal for us.
Featured Leaders:
(in order of Chapter presentation)
We were grateful for the opportunity to interview and include in our book these amazing leaders. We aligned them to the chapters we felt their stories and messages epitomized. Their insights and lessons from incredibly successful careers were invaluable and grounding for us. We grew as ID&E leaders and humans just listening to them
Endorsements:
(in alphabetical order)
We were very fortunate to have very thoughtful endorsements from incredible leaders and appreciated the time and effort that went into writing them.
Tyrah Majors:
When Jonathan was finishing up his Masters program at City University of Seattle, he served on a panel with Aaron Day, then a Producer at KING-TV Seattle (the local NBC affiliate). Aaron and Jonathan struck up a friendship and recently, as were launching our book, Jonathan reached out to Aaron to learn if he had a contact in the Seattle market that could both help us get the word out on our book and moderate our book talk at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA. Aaron generously sent an email introducing us to Tyrah Majors at KOMO-TV (the local ABC affiliate). She is also the co-host of ARC Seattle on the CW Network and an Emmy award winning journalist, author, and professor at Seattle University. Tyrah stepped up in a big way for us, not only
interviewing us on ARC Seattle , she expertly moderated our book talk and Q&A at Third Place Books. Her presence at the book talk created a credibility and professionalism that would not have been there without her.
