It Really is a Small World

I live in a little town in Northeast Tennessee.   It was a lifestyle move I made early in 2001 when I relocated from Austin, Texas.  It’s a small town with no traffic, beautiful mountains, lots of golf, and a regional airport that connects me to Atlanta and the rest of the world where I conduct my business.

The remarkable thing is how this tiny place is known as I travel.

Blue Ridge Mountains

Ambassador Campbell

Earlier this year, I was part of a meeting in Ulaanbaatar with US Ambassador to Mongolia Piper Wind Campbell.  As she entered the room and dropped her paperwork on the conference table, she asked “Who’s here from Johnson City, TN?”  Turns out she has family in the area, and an Aunt who works in our local public library.  The Ambassador’s commercial officer served in the military with a man from the Tri-Cities.

Small world.

On a more recent assignment to the West Bank to work with Palestinian women-owned businesses, I met with two local experts who had vetted the companies with whom I was to meet.  In the course of our meeting, one of the experts—Mohammad Najjar—looked at my card and commented on my being from Johnson City.  “You know the area,” I asked.  “Yes,” he replied.  “I lived there for three years.”  He had received a master’s degree from our East Tennessee State University, and gone on to work at Eastman Chemical for a time before returning to Palestine.

Small world, indeed!

It seems the more I travel, the smaller the world becomes.  We’re so interconnected that the six degrees of separation, from a geographical sense, seems more like two degrees.  I continue to be amazed at those I find during my travels who know my tiny part of the world, and I relish the opportunity to find out more about their spots on the globe.

Life is good.  These connections are the icing on an already spectacular cake—my international development work.

The rare day off, Part I

Airport after airport, driver after driver, presentation after presentation, and life can turn into a complete blur.  Add the dozens of time zones you’re zipping back and forth across, and even day and night get confusing.

But once in a great while comes the rare day off.  A complete disconnect from work, and a chance to dive into self-serving exploration.  One memorable day off led to some great memories and a new friend.

Flying into Almaty, Kazakhstan on a Sunday prior to Tuesday work on an IESC international development project (to save a few tenge!), I had the great good fortune to visit Medeu and Chimbulak in the mountains overlooking Almaty.  Since it was the occasion of the first snowfall of the season, the mountains were a veritable fairyland.   

 

An eerie sunrise in the mountains above Almaty, Kazakhstan

 With Dima, my local and extremely knowledgeable guide, we headed carefully up the snow-covered roads, and in no time found ourselves overlooking the Madeu outdoor ice rink.  At over 5,500 feet, it’s the highest rink in the world and has seen many world records.

Looking down on Medeu

Continuing up, we reached the ski area of Chimbulak.  Now at over 7,200 feet, you could definitely tell the air was thinner…and colder!  But the views made the journey well worth the while.  We passed on taking the lifts to the Talgar pass which sits at almost 10,500 feet, and settled instead for a hot coffee at the lodge.

Chairlift from Chimbulak.  Going up?

Heading back down the mountain to reality, Dima pointed out the history and cultural aspects of the area, a definite perk of the job, ending back in Almaty at the Independence Monument on the Republic Square. You can see a nifty panoramic view at bit.ly/1gujQdl.

Many thanks to my guide Dima for a great day.  Now (sigh) back to work.

"Tell us a story."

They say if you pay attention, you learn something every day.  The more I do this work, the more I learn; and the learning makes me crave the work all that much more.

I had finished with a group of entrepreneurs early, and I opened the floor for discussion.  Expecting Q&A on the material we had covered during the course of the day, I was surprised when the request was, “Tell us some stories.”  What kind of stories, I asked.  “Tell us how you got involved in the work you do today.”

This was an interesting question, because it became a kind of self exploration for me.  Without a game plan, I grabbed a marker and headed to the white board to map it all out.

Telling stories in Kazakhstan.

The short-ish version of my story is that I created a program for an NGO is Washington, DC in about 1999 called the US Market Entry Program (USMEP).  The group that approached me wanted a simple bundle of marketing communication deliverables that foreign entities could use to help them prepare for doing business in the US.  A rep in Tunisia—good friend and frequent collaborator Rym Bedoui Ayari—jumped on and sold the program to several Tunisian companies.  And though the NGO group I originally designed the program for has ceased to be, lots of others see its value and promote it through their in-country reps.  It has led me to work on USAID-funded projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories, and allowed me to visit lots of other places, too.

I often now work as a trainer to help governments, trade organizations and companies ‘up’ their marketing game for the US and other growing market opportunities.  Recent trips include working with entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan interested in developing business relationships in the US, and abattoirs and live animal exporters in Ethiopia who want to increase their market share in the MENA region through an upcoming appearance at the 2014 Gulf Food Show in Dubai.

Working with abattoirs & live animal exporters in Ethiopia.

As I said, the explanation of the program was a journey of self discovery for me, and a validation that marketing fundamentals are still the basis for strong business growth and international development.  It also reminded me of my passion for my work, and why I do what I do.