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Dear Reader,
Yesterday, a wise friend pointed out to me that, in the past, when we wanted to make something happen, we organized a group, established a leader and made a structured plan. Today, it's different. The biggest ideas are developed by convening a circle of interested parties who have something to contribute to the conversation -- and letting the possibilities emerge. I see this happening in many arenas from the sufficiency movement to business innovation and even at the new Institute for Transformational Leadership. This new approach allows us to come together without knowing all the answers. By convening people who are passionate and engaged to explore an idea, we discover that the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts.
Global Force for Healing, The Dalai Lama Foundation, One World Lights and the Center for Emergent Diplomacy are all places where the leadership skill of convening a circle is fundamental to the work. I hope you've begun to see opportunities to convene a circle that could make a difference for your work.
Now, it's time to turn our attention to making one's vision real, as we say. Next week, I've invited my colleagues, Frank Ball and Mike McGinley, two superb leadership coaches who do some serious moonlighting as investors through New Dominion Angels, an angel investing group that they founded, to give us an inside look at how angel investors look at opportunity. Whether you are looking for funding to realize your dream -- or are just curious about how this process works, I promise that you will enjoy hearing what Mike and Frank have to say about what makes a great opportunity.
Very best,
Kate Ebner
CEO
Nebo Company
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Monday, February 11, 2013 11 AM Eastern Time On VoiceAmerica Business
Angel Investing 101 with Frank Ball and Mike McGinley of New Dominion Angels
Show Description
Does the term "angel investing" conjure up thoughts of billionaires from Silicon Valley swooping in to give a start-up the boost it needs to make its mark? This is no longer the typical face of angel investing. All around the country, groups of investors are forming "angel networks" in which they pool their funds and make investment decisions together. New Dominion Angels is one such group. Join co-founders Mike McGinley and Frank Ball for an inside look at how angel investors are seeding the great ideas of local start-ups. Operating in Virginia, New Dominion Angels supports early-stage companies in the region. Mike and Frank will help you understand how to think like an investor when you work on your business or your big idea. And if you've ever considered being an angel investor, this conversation may move you to action.
Guest Biographies
Frank Ball and Mike McGinley are co-founders and Managing Partners of New Dominion Angels, a membership-based investor group formed in 2008 to accelerate Virginia's emergence as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.
 In addition to investments made through the group, Frank Ball has founded or co-founded four other businesses in Virginia. Frank is also an executive coach and organizational consultant. He holds degrees from Davidson College and The George Washington University. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of American Public University System and sits on the boards of Mom Made Foods and Analytic Advantage, Inc.
Mike McGinley also is an executive coach and principal in Element North, a consultancy focusing on leadership development. He earned his MBA from The Darden School at UVA and leads a private foundation in Richmond aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty through financial and leadership education.
Frank and Mike both serve on the faculty of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at Georgetown University.
Be inspired.
Become inspiring.
Missed the Live Show?
Past Episodes are available on demand and podcast-ready via iTunes or RSS feed.
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Dr. Merle Lefkoff:
Convening Circles for Peace
by Rachel Wold
One cold night in 1993 during the Bosnian war, Dr. Merle Lefkoff found herself in the war-torn city of Mostar . Staring at the ruins of the Old Bridge, an Ottoman landmark dating from the 16th century that was celebrated as an architectural wonder and had just been obliterated by shells, Dr. Lefkoff found herself crying. Struck by the wide-scale destruction the war had brought, Merle Lefkoff recommitted to her mission.
Caritas, the Vatican-based peace charity, had sent Dr. Lefkoff to the region to teach conflict resolution to Croat, Serb, Bosnian and Albanian women in multi-cultural groups during a time of great hardship and suffering. The project exemplifies one of the core values of Dr. Lefkoff's work: empowering members at all levels of society to take leadership roles. As she remembers, "These were women who had never been involved of anything outside the home. During the war, they emerged into leadership roles because all of the men were absent due to the conflict." In their meetings, Dr. Lefkoff helped the women to discover "extraordinary leadership capabilities that had been suppressed by culture." Dr. Lefkoff sees the lack of women in public leadership roles due to cultural traditions as a huge opportunity to develop leaders for the future who may have ordinarily been discounted due to their gender.
Other methods by which Dr. Lefkoff encourages non-traditional leadership include convening non-traditional meetings and inspiring change at the grassroots level. Participants at her meetings sit in circles around small tables, not at a boardroom-type long, rectangular table. Circles are a naturally non-hierarchal shape which appeals to Dr. Lefkoff, who says that act of physically forming a circle, "encourages everyone to participate in creating solutions." Dr. Lefkoff's belief that change is catalyzed by activity at the grassroots level brings her to every corner of the world, seeking out activists with whom she can work on leadership development and encouraging peace-making activities.
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"We Have a Story!"
Creating a New Vision of a Peaceful Future
for the Middle East
by John Ewing
Inevitably, news of Israel and Palestine calls conflict to mind. Despite ongoing efforts to find common ground, the world hears stories of violence, animosity, and a failure in peaceful diplomacy coming from this region. Dr. Merle Lefkoff of The Center of Emerging Diplomacy and the "We Have A Story" project want to a give a voice to a narrative that we have not heard: the story of how the region's young people are envisioning a peaceful future.
After decades on the front lines as an international mediator in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Central and Eastern Europe, Dr. Lefkoff became frustrated with the traditional conflict resolution model and has looked for ways to create a new diplomatic model to help promote peace negotiations for the 21st century. One of the main aspects of the traditional model that frustrated Dr. Lefkoff was that the same method was used again and again with little to no success. With the "We Have A Story" project, Dr. Lefkoff has looked outside the proverbial box to find a solution that isn't just quick "band-aid" fix, but one that starts off as a small ripple with the potential to bring in a larger wave of change.
 Traditional programs for the children caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have focused on the terrible situation that surrounds their lives. According to Dr. Lefkoff, many of the programs victimize the children with a focus on the past and present violence that they have come to experience in their life. The children in refugee camps and conflict zones live with a sense of deep helplessness, growing up in a situation of violence that is outside of their control and with the belief that they cannot make a difference of the conflict in their future.
The "We Have A Story" project, in partnership with Al Quds Association for Dialogue and Democracy in Palestine and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, looks to stop focusing on the victimization of the past and the present. Instead, the project uses the fresh imaginations and visionary thinking of the region's youth and helps them develop the ability to craft a new narrative of a peaceful future and voice to share with the world.
The project, with the help of partners in Israel and Palestine, will recruit diverse groups of Palestinian and Israeli students between the ages of 14 and 17 with different social and economic backgrounds. Often, past programs have only been available to students who are more privileged and are able to travel. Using the power of new social media and the speed of online communication, the "We Have A Story" project will connect students of diverse backgrounds in various locations. With the guidance of mentors from graduate programs in the area, the students will communicate online as they begin to create their narrative visions for a peaceful future.
 The "We Have A Story" project is a two-step process. At first, the students, working together, will craft a creative vision and dream of their lives in a future free from conflict and violence. With the help of their mentors, they will build a narrative for their own future removed from the conflict that started generations before they were born. Then, once they have created their future story, the groups will work together to imagine what steps need to be taken, both by themselves, and the world at large, for their creative narrative to become a reality.
The promise of the "We Have a Story!" project is to shift the despair and hopelessness of the present toward the promise of an emerging and more peaceful future and to give the positive and innately compassionate and empathetic voices of Israeli and Palestinian youth the global hearing they deserve. Dr. Lefkoff hopes that, through this process, these students will become involved in shaping the political process in the future. To learn more about this project, visit the Center for Emergent Diplomacy.
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Create Your Vision!
We have designed a quick and easy visioning exercise just for you! You will receive your own personal vision statement immediately upon hitting "submit." To create your vision statement, CLICK HERE.
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On Social Change
"Social change happens from the bottom up. The top and the middle of the system are important too, but it's the grassroots level that is the catalyst for change."
--Dr. Merle Lefkoff on
Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Life, 2/4/13
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Missed the last show?
Listen to the story of Merle's fascinating journey from rural Georgia to mediation rooms all over the globe on the February 4 episode of Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Life.
Be inspired.
Become inspiring.
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Recommended Resources
These books were mentioned by Dr. Lefkoff during her radio episode. They both attempt to understand the human experience of war.
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