Michelle LaBrosse Blogs

Well, it is now the fourth day of cooking school, and I am just getting around to writing in the blog about the first day of school.  They keep us busy here from early morning to late at night.   Mostly in EATING.   Yes I am learning quite a bit about Italian cooking – which I am coming to find out is as much about selecting the correct ingredients and enjoying a fine meal as it is about cooking.   The Italians are very passionate about their food.  More than five hours every day is devoted to meals.   This explains why I am having to play late night catch up on the blog.

Oddly enough with all this attention on eating, my pants are getting looser, while many of my classmates are having the opposite problem.   WOW what does that say about my eating habits at home?   A big part of the Italian cooking class is also learning how to consume wine with every meal and not get too inebriated.   I unfortunately am allergic to alcohol.  So while most of my classmates are getting a good number of calories from the wine, I am just doing the tasting meals.  Which is lots of little portions.   And lots of time in between.  Slow eating, over a couple of hours, small quantities of food and LOTS of walking in between time.  That explains it all.

Overall the experience with Academia Barilla in Parma has been fantastic.  My classmates are primarily woman – most over 40.  Two brought their husbands.  The rest came with friends or solo.   It’s a group of woman who love to cook and have a great time.   The laughter has been non-stop.   What I love even more about it – I am NOT IN CHARGE.   If there is a problem, it is someone else’s to solve.  (I did have to get one of my classmate’s computers to work on the internet – but as a volunteer it didn’t matter if I succeeded at that or not).

We spent the first day in a lecture where we learned about the quality certifications on the foods produced in Parma and how to distinguish the real thing from the fakes produced all over the world.  Very insightful education.   Sounds like the food industry has the same problems the Project Management industry has with people presenting knock offs as just as good as the real thing (non-certified PMs vs. PMPs).   Then we went to their incredible kitchen classroom.   We were in groups of four working on the recipes for a five course meal.  For every two groups, we had a dedicated chef to help us.   One of the woman in our group was trained at Cordon Bleu (what she was doing in this class for untrained folks was beyond me).   I learned “knife” skills the first day. by our in group “expert.”   The Academia Barilla chef, Nicola, seemed fine with my knife skills but taught me some  techniques if I wanted to try something new.   I preferred his approach.   After almost 40 years of cooking,  I wasn’t doing everything wrong with the knife.  I learned more about group interaction styles and what approaches work well in a team and what don’t more than I learned about knife skills from our group’s self proclaimed expert.

One of the other woman taught me how she chops up rosemary – never really had given much thought to how I chopped up rosemary or that it even needed to be chopped.  But then she explained all the different ways she used chopped rosemary with cooking her own beef as well.  We became good friends fast – a fellow cattle woman.   Now we’re exchanging stories on installing windmills.  Maybe we woman who love to cook and are willing to travel to Italy to learn more, have more in common than we realize.   And since I am not the teacher in this group – I am allowed to have favorites.  Mary Jimmy is one of my favorites – she is an emergency room nurse.  If I ever find myself in need of an emergency room nurse near the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee, I will be in good hands at her hospital.  I think we need to write the definitive guide to cooking an entire cow.

I’ve made lots of other friends in class as well.   An elegant woman who on a wing and a prayer made a dramatic life change to follow her heart and start her life over in San Diego – she was as beautiful as she was gutsy.   Another was  a recently widowed full of life woman from LA.  And then there was the truffle loving  veterinarian who took copius notes.  I became fast friends with “Mom and Dad” – a recently liberated couple who sold their chain of hotels.  And by the end of the week was discussing entreprenurial opportunities with this spit fire mom-preneur from Georgia who was on the trip with her Mom.   I also got to know  two wonderful employees from Sur La Table (good move sending those two to this class).  When we reconnect with each other back in the states – at least we know we can all cook.

I’ll write more tomorrow – it’s almost 1 AM and we’re taking a boat to some island to try out various olive oils tomorrow.

by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book – The Black Swan – he points out that most catastrophic events are completely random – yet we are compelled to find causal relationships. Being an “empiricist” he shows how most of what we consider rational explanations for events are completely random and that our intuition on what should happen in a future state is more often than not completely wrong.

In Jonathon Jarvis’ presentation “Visualizing the Credit Crisis” he shows the dynamics that caused the banks to lose their shirts on sub-prime mortgages which is being implicated as the main reason for the global economic crisis. I would like to propose an alternative theory – the global economic crisis is being caused by the lack of sun spots. I’ll go out on a limb here and blame it for the global climatic crisis as well. Also, it might be what is to blame for the global rash in terrorism. Research shows that sun spot activity has a significant impact on human behavior. Lack of sunspots specifically makes us more susceptible to repressive regimes – EXACTLY what has been being put in place “protecting” us from all these global calamities.

Now the million dollar question – being the self-flagellating ego centric beings that we are – how are we responsible for the lack of sun spots on the sun? And if it’s not us who are responsible for the lack of sun spots, then who is to blame and how can we hang them out to dry for the lack of sun spots causing all of our modern day problems? Is it Tim Geitner’s inability to use Turbotax that has caused the most recent decrease in sunspot activity?

I have noticed that my own creativity has been stymied lately. I am usually a prolific blogger posting my ramblings in two locations. On this blog and for those postings related to my drive to become energy self-sufficient – on www.cheetahpower.net. But for the last month, I just have lost my zest for blog postings. I was trying to establish the cause for this. I had thought that it was due to the fact that I was getting too angry about the global economic crisis and the apparently inept leadership (but who am I to make that assessment about the quality of leadership?). I then remembered this circle of influence vs. circle of concern concept that I describe in my science of success talk. The concept is that when you focus on your circle of influence instead of wasting your time on those things that concern you but that you can’t do anything about, you find much more personal success in life. I was living in my circle of concern instead of my circle of influence. And just why was I doing this? Now I know – lack of sunspots. Well now that I know the source of my ennui, I can go about fixing it. I certainly can do NOTHING about the lack of sun spots, so I’m going back to what it is I can influence and living there. At least I’m much happier and more productive living in my circle of influence.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

In younger days, the only way out of a difficult patch was with an “excused” absence. All that was needed was a note from Mum. Congress has shown us over the past six months that they are capable of writing these “notes” as well for their friends having a rough time in the financial markets. Congress’ notes though are printed by their neighbors at the US Mint. Coincidentally, both a note from Mum and notes from Congress have about the same value these days. All either do is provide a temporary reprieve from dealing with the problems of the day.

We’re always being exorted to write to our congressmen or senator (as if that really does any good). All of them were inundated with missives from the masses against these upsurd bailouts. If we received any replies at all, were just told, “you just don’t understand.” (I will share the replies I’ve received from Harry Reid on this if anyone would like to see them). Just last night I tried to send another note to my senators and congressman and their servers were overloaded. So I well suppose there are many of us still participating in this futile exercise in modern civics.

I have a new idea – we need to get an excused absence note from our congressional representatives, similar to what we used to get from Mom, to be excused from paying our taxes. I am willing to bet that every single one of us, has had at least as tough a year as the millionaires getting the tax payer funded bonus’ from AIG. It can be thought of as a “you keep your money, and I’ll keep mine policy.” I am after all a much better manager of my money than the federal government or the banking industry (as I can bet is everyone else who is reading this blog post). I cover college for my children, create jobs for about 200 people with my business, and have helped about 30,000 people so far make at least $10k more per year over the past decade because of the skills they learn from Cheetah Learning. But it’s been a tough year to reconfigure my entire financial landscape as the rules were rewritten by several thousand greedy bastards in the financial world. Even though they rewrote the rules, I still have college to fund, a business to run, and retirement to consider (mine and now quite possibly my parents). I’d like to be excused from taxes this year – this has given me a wee bit of a headache and a year off is just what the doctor ordered.

Better yet, it would be nice to get the money back that went into the ether from the kids low risk college 529 accounts and what was even touted as more of a sure bet – that 401k. I’m not asking for anything extra – just put back in what was originally saved, of course adjusted for inflation. Yes, I am a bit daft, as I have been told by Harry Reid, which is why i don’t understand the bailouts. And yes I was a bit daft for not fully understanding the rules of my kid’s 529 college account and mine, and my employees 401k accounts.

For all this stupidity, enough to go around really on all fronts, please excuse Michelle from taxes for the year. Maybe for good measure, give her a pass on the next decade.

Thanks Harry, John, and Dean – I’ll make sure to put something extra in this year’s Holiday Greeting card if you’ll do me this little favor this year.

By Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

For the past six years, I have been raising Belgian Blue cattle. I got this idea by reading two magazine articles simultaneously – a Time Magazine article on the obesity crises in America and a Scientific American article on gene doping and this breed of cattle that naturally does not produce any fat, however the beef is especially tender. Being a beef eating capitalist, and also getting on in years and being told by the medical profession that red meat was bad for me, I wanted to come up with a better beef product. So I started on a quest to raise a breed of cattle that would produce beef that was actually “heart healthy.”

I got my first five Belgian Blue hefers (these are young cows that have not had babies) in 2004. They were born to surrogate dairy cows near Houston, Texas. The dairy cows were implanted with fertilized Belgian blue embryos. You see, there is a problem with this breed – the cows have a difficult time giving birth naturally. The babies are a bit large, and the cows tend to have pelvis’ that are too small for natural births. NOT A GOOD THING when you’re trying to raise free range cattle. The trick to be successful with this breed, we soon learned was to raise a variation of them that could give birth naturally. This meant literally being very Darwinian. It meant we lost some cows and their babies in child birth.

We had a plan on how to not lose the mother and baby by making sure the first baby created with the cow was with a small bull in another breed. This has worked well – we ended up with some very lovely Belgian Blue/Angus crossbreeds. We also purchased several Belgian Blue bulls that were small in the hopes that they would create smaller babies for the cows’ second pregnancy.

Our experiment worked. This week one of our first cows – named Pixie Dust, gave birth to a 90 pound full blood Belgian Blue bull. Both mother and baby survived and are doing well.

And to top off a great week, a friend sent me the Facetime article in Business Week about Jim Rogers. Mr. Rogers ended the interview with this statement: “So you should find yourself a nice farmer and hook up with him or her, because that’s where the money’s going to be in the next couple of decades.” Well thank you Mr. Rogers for the endorsement of my fantastic business concept that I am pulling off here – woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

I’ve had a number of different experiences over the past week that really got me thinking about this whole “opt in, opt out” thing popularized by the internet. It started a week ago at a dinner hosted by the farm where we rent space for our bulls. I learned more than I ever thought I needed to know about bull genetics and how to create the “super” cow. The woman running the show was a genius and I give her very high marks for creating a highly entertaining and engaging event – especially based on her audience. An audience of family farmers working the land to provide a great quality free range beef product. I still have her interactive handout in my bag where she had us do a series of math exercises based on how many head of cattle we owned vs. what we sold and what that represented with respect to impact on our customers and the environment. I got this lady, I liked her style, but still I felt like an outsider at the event. I’m not a family farmer – I’m an investment farmer and I hire other folks to manage my herd. I play by their same rules with respect to taking care of my animals – maybe even spend a bit more money to insure a humane existence because that is who I am. But I’m not the one who tends my wonderful Belgium Blue herd day to day. I opted in to the event enough to go to one event, but it was not my world and it’s unlikely I’ll go to more.

The next day I flew to the East Coast – I had to meet with my sales and marketing team to discuss – what else, opt in, opt out issues. How do we do a better job having people opt into the company and create an environment of inclusion while maintaining an element of exclusiveness because we tend to create superstars. The folks who opt in to Cheetah Learning either are looking at ensuring they maintain their superstar status or are aspiring to get to the superstar status fast. This is both helping us and it’s hurting us as folks who just don’t feel like they are super stars or aspire to something less than being their best, opt out. People have told me they know right away if they “fit” into Cheetah. The ones that don’t – they opt out pretty fast.

The meeting was great – we all enjoy getting together. But being on the East Coast is a bit of a challenge. I’m much more at home in the wilds of Alaska. And I’m also much safer. Last year, within four hours of showing up at my east coast abode, there was a very large black bear right next to my mini-van. I have never seen a bear in my yard in Alaska. This year, I was rendered house bond with just two inches of snow. In Alaska, I have neighbors galore willing to offer a helping hand when you’re stranded. Here, good luck. My front wheel drive mini-van went into anaphylactic shock over the slick road and the ABS braking system had a seizure. I finally got it into the driveway just to have it skid into a snow bank and render itself done for the day. Everyone coming into for the meeting had to take cabs and walk the quarter mile in from the road. And I got to learn just why I stock up the pantry – when something you count on “opts out” and you aren’t in a culture of “opt in” you have to have back up plans.

My blog buddy, Kristen and I rented a car and drove to Philadelphia for a wedding. We weren’t exactly sure of the details of the wedding – we know the general vicinity and had our iphones. We were able to “opt in” to a fun journey because of new technology.

My cousin was marrying into a very large and extended Filipino family. And even though we knew nothing of their customs of culture, we felt very much included in the event. We were able to “opt in” at a level that was comfortable for us.

And then I have my “internet world” that I still exist in regardless of what is happening in my external world. I have scads of folks opting in to follow me on twitter (no idea why). I think I got on several people’s follow lists who generate tons of followers so their followers are now following me. And I have a growing list of acquaintances on Facebook and linked in. Linked in is purposeful. I am trying to create an opt in network of folks that my publicist can toss publicity opportunities. Facebook is another story – while I find myself happy to “friend” someone on facebook, it just seems that a requirement to actually meet them in person is a big requirement. I’m opting in and opting out simultaneously. When is a friend is a friend is a friend? Is it possible to have “friends” that are only “friends” on the internet? It is far easier to send sentimental missives and lets keep in touch stuff via face book than it is to actually set up a time to catch up with someone you knew years ago.

Opting in or opting out – I’m not even sure most of us our conscious of our opt in and opt out practices. I opt in when the commitment is commensurate with the activity. I tend to opt out if the commitment is far in excess of what I’m willing to make to participate. Keep it light and lively and give me an easy exit strategy, and I’m more than likely to opt in, and want to keep coming back. Make me buy into a lot of stuff that just isn’t me, and I’m heading for the hills fast.

by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

Andrew Carnegie

I found this interesting article at www.cato.org on why intellectuals hate capitalism. Basically it is the “wordsmith” intellectuals as opposed to the “numbersmith” intellectuals who dislike capitalism. The basic theory – wordsmith intellectuals disdain capitalism because while they do well in school, their skills are not as valued in a capitalistic society as they are in school.

But lets look at how much capitalists have helped the very folks who disdain them. One of my favorite capitalists – Andrew Carnegie. His major philanthropic activities were building massive libraries around the United States, and funding schools and universities. The bastions of the wordsmith’s domain. Without this incredibly successful capitalist, the wordsmiths would have less access to one of the most important tools of their trade – the library.

Just how does one become a very generous philanthropist? It does take time and intentions, but it also takes MONEY. And money is what capitalists obtain by creating value in society. So it seems extremely counter intuitive that wordsmith intellectuals would disdain the system that enabled them to become wordsmith intellectuals in the first place. This defies logic to me – but then I would be more on the side of the numbersmith intellectuals anyhow.

You don’t see people who run non-profits soliciting money for their efforts from folks who don’t make much money. You see them catering to the capitalists – the folks who have figured out how to create money. As Andrew Carnegie noted in the quote above, capitalists are going to capitalize on any situation. You can’t take away the spirit of a true capitalist no matter how hard you try. This is why I created a course to teach others how to capitalize on the recession. Just because the government and large companies (relatively socialistic organizations) want to put a sour face on changing economic conditions, doesn’t mean that needs to be the response of the capitalist.

Occasionally I find myself “going domestic.” Yesterday was one such day where I became fixated on making pumpkin bagels. Just what spurred this craving is beyond me. I was doing laps in the pool and it just popped into my mind – pumpkin bagels that sounds great. Now I have to put a caveat in here – I am in Alaska right now – so it’s not like I can saunter down to the corner bagel shop and pick them up. And I only ever found one location that made pumpkin bagels anyhow – a Noah’s bagel shop in Camarillo, CA near my graphics designer’s office. And another disclaimer, no I am not pregnant. My “baby” is heading off to college in the fall.

I scoured the internet and found some very interesting tips on making “NY” style bagels (which involves boiling potatoes and using the water). And I found a number of recipes for making pumpkin bagels using the bread machine (which I don’t have and had no way of getting on a Sunday in remote Alaska). But I did at least have a list of ingredients.

I made my way into town and after visiting the three grocery stores, managed to procure the necessary items. I was well into bagel making planning on the drive home when I saw a guy on the beach waving frantically. I sped past and about ten seconds later it dawned on me – this is out in the middle of no where – I better turn around to help him out. THANK GOD. I saw the most amazing wild life scene of my entire life. YES, my entire life. He was waving me in to share with me something so totally incredible that he needed to share it with another human being to make it even more real.

There was a large pod of killer whales – about 20 of them chasing a school of porpoises. All of them were jumping out of the water. It was a very large marine mammal water ballet show. It rivaled anything the Belllagio could ever put on. It was just he and I watching the most incredible aquatics show on the planet. We watched in awe for a half hour – when they calmed down, I went home to get my camera. Here is the picture – but they were not jumping anymore.

I was sharing this story later with my Dad and he said – and you saw all of this in Nevada? No Dad, I’m in Alaska. Given that I change locales more often than my teenagers change their hairstyle, Dad is forgiven for not keeping up with where I am. But at least now I know why he occasionally forwards those odd emails related to your mental state as you age. I have seen odd things in Nevada too that I’m sure I shared with him at some point it time.  It was a zebra like creature- come to think of it – it was on a Sunday and it was related to swimming as well (I was again on my way home from the pool).  Maybe I need to start reading those emails he is forwarding about losing your marbles.

It took me a couple hours to “process” all my ingredients and finish the pumpkin bagels. Here is the recipe. I like to make my bagels small. I was reading in this month’s Consumer Reports issue that the number one thing that thin people do to stay thin is to control the portion size of what they eat. I figured making the bagels smaller will help me do that too. So keep this in mind if you try out this recipe – you can make your own bagels whatever size you want to. The cooking time appears to be about the same because it matters more about the plumpness of the bagel than the width.

Pumpkin Bagel Recipe (NO BREAD MACHINE) Ingredients:

2 peeled potatoes cut into quarters.
About 2 quarts of water (enough to cover the potatoes)
one package of fast rising yeast.
4 tbs brown sugar, honey, or agave nectar.
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour (may need more).
1 cup pumpkin puree.
2 tbs pumpkin butter (if you don’t have this put at least 1 tbs of oil).
1 tbs of pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
Glaze (don’t mix this in with the bagel ingredients)
1 egg white
1 tbs honey or agave nectar

Boil the potatoes in the water until they are soft and the water is cloudy. Remove the potatoes. Let the water cool to about 100 degrees (too hot and it will kill the yeast). Mix about 3/4 cup of the 100 degree water with the yeast and the 4 tbs of sugar. Save the remaining water. Wait until the yeast gets bubbly (this is called “proofing” the yeast). If after 5 minutes the mixture does not bubble, you have bad yeast. Get some new yeast and start again. Mix the remaining ingredients into the proofed yeast. If the mixture is sticky, keep adding flour until it is not sticky and somewhat elastic. If you are using a big mixer, you are essentially kneading the dough. If you are not, you knead the dough by hand continuing to add white flour until the dough is elastic and not sticky.

Let the dough rise until about double in size. To create a nice warm, moist environment for the dough to rise, I boil a small pan of water and put that and the dough (loosely covered) in an oven that is NOT turned on. With the fast rising yeast, it takes about an hour for the dough to double in size.

Pull the dough out, and shape it into bagels of whatever size you’d like. I made mine about three inches across. I made about 20 mini bagels with this amount of dough. Put the bagels on a cookie sheet covered in corn meal to prevent sticking. Let rise again for about a half hour.

Boil the potato water again – adding more water to get more water to fill the pot. Drop the bagels into the boiling water – only put as many bagels into the pot as can fit on the surface. Boil on each side for 30 seconds. Take out and put on cookie sheet – lightly brush each one on top with the egg white and honey glaze.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees (AFTER YOU REMOVE THE RISING BAGEL DOUGH). Cook the bagels for 15 minutes or until top is a bit hard.

For some delicious reading to go with your delicious pumpkin bagels, download the Cheetah Smart Start Guide for the PMP.

About six years ago I started working out in the water – quite by accident. I was building a corporate retreat center in Haines, Alaska. The first summer there, we did not have running water. I was taking showers at a local campground until I found the pool in town and discovered the water aerobics class. GREAT I thought – I can do two things simultaneously – get clean AND workout. I LOVED IT. I made some great friends there too.

Working out in the water has become my thing. I travel a lot so it’s easy to bring my bathing suit with me everywhere. I created my own 45 minute cardio and strength training workout. It’s helped me out a lot – with flexibility, strength, and stamina. I just started playing tennis again after 7 years and my game is a lot better than when I stopped playing (just how that happened, I have no idea – I attribute it to water aerobics). It helps my golf game too with the arm and back strength training I do.

Some folks on twitter wanted to see my water workout regime so here it is. If you need clarification, post a comment.

I realize some people are feeling a chill breeze blowing through their ideas of prosperity right now.   But really it’s just a matter of perspective.   Lets look at history, and one person in particular – Orison Swett Marden.   Marden lived from 1850 – 1924.  He was orphaned at 7 years old and had to work as a houseboy to survive early in life.  He managed to graduate from Harvard Medical School and went on to a life that had it’s trials and triumphs.  

He published a scad of books on personal success and believed that our thoughts influenced our lives and our life circumstances. He said, “We make the world we live in and shape our own environment.”  “The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.”

Here is a list of the books he penned:

Pushing to the Front or, Success Under Difficulties. 1894.

How to Succeed or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune. 1896.

Architects of Fate or, Steps to Success and Power. 1897.

The Secret of Achievement. 1898.

Cheerfulness as a Life Power. 1899.

Character 1899.

The Hour of Opportunity. 1900.

An Iron Will. 1901.

Every Man a King 1906

Do It to a Finish 1909.

Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life, A Book for Young People.

The Man You Long to Be article printed in Nautilus January 1918

Ambition. 1919.

Prosperity – How to Attract It. 1922.

Thank you to Mike Litman for introducing me to the work of Orisson Swett Marden