Here’s the next posting of my Man of the Month series on the brilliant Ted Lau.

These interviews highlight some really amazing men who are making a difference and using their creative edge to do what they do best. They have been chosen because I’m impressed by their contagious spirit, creative thinking, and the opportunities they bring to the world, plus how they reflect infinite possibilities back to the rest of us. If you haven’t already checked out last month’s posting on Pat LP Camozzi, scroll down to read all about him as well.

Be sure to also read all about the fabulous women featured on my Woman of the Week blog.

August’s Man of the Month is:

Ted Lau

Here’s a little bit about him:

After somehow completing a degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University, Ted roamed the streets of Vancouver trying to solicit business from people. He soon found out that in order to get business, you first need a company with services people want.

Enter Ballistic Arts Media Studios Inc. Along with his equally demented business partner Tak Kawana, Ballistic Arts was birthed in 2002. As a full-service creative agency, Ballistic Arts remedies all patients’ marketing ailments with the proper doses of graphic design, blend of website development, spoonful of video production, and a twist of photography services for good measure.

Like all ADHD-ridden entrepreneurs, Ted can’t sit still. So, instead of having him talk them to death at work, his colleagues have put him in community groups. He currently serves as Membership Chair for the Entrepreneurs Organization’s Accelerator program, and was the recent Marketing Chair for SHARE Family and Community Services Society’s Just Desserts Gala fundraiser for the past 5 years. In 2007-2009, he served as a board director for the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce and sat as Marketing Chair. And because he likes chairs so much, he sits in a wooden chair when he mentors graphic design for the Immigrant Services Society of BC, and in a soft cushiony one when he attended IABC Professional Development meetings in 2009. Oddly enough, Ted stands when he gives his weekly video & music lessons to at-risk youth in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He even danced (kind of) as an Athlete Marshal at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games!

He’s married (yes, really), a father of a little baby girl (again, yes, really), a black belt martial artist (to protect himself from himself), and able to speak 4 languages (sometimes all at once, and none very well).

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What does it mean to you to be creative?
It means…Living Life!

What inspires your creativity?
I really only think in two places. When I’m in the shower and when I’m sleeping. It’s not like I go, “okay, I need to get creative, time to sleep!”, or “hmm, I want to be inspired, time to hop in the shower!” Ideas seem to find me, not the other way around. And I notice these are the two places where they typically come to me most. I try to explain it to friends as mental fishing. There are answers to everything floating just beyond our mental grasp somewhere out there and if we’re lucky, we can fish out a few gems from time to time. These ideas swim to the surface just as I’m on the cusp of waking or finishing up a long shower (and yes, I take the longest showers in my house). I also feel that there is a bigger conversation going on in the depths of my dreams and I somehow contribute to it when I’m asleep. I typically don’t take anything back from these conversations, but sometimes, just sometimes, I catch the answer to a problem that I’ve been struggling with just as I wake. BTW – I’m not crazy, really.

Ted & Teddy

What keeps you moving forward in making things happen?
My parents used to play these Chinese kids songs for us during car rides. They all had an underlying message in them. Kind of like all the kids cartoons in the 80s that had all this nonsensical fluff for kids and then gave an underlying message for kids not to do drugs or to be nice to pets. Anyways, one of the songs’ underlying message was to not let life pass you by. The chorus had something to the effect of “in a blink of an eye, you’ll be an old person, so make sure you don’t waste your life away”. I was a very literal kid and actually thought that if I blinked in a weird way, I would become old and my life would have passed me by without me doing anything with my life. Totally freaked me out. This might explain why I can come across as impatient to some people, because I want to get things done. On one hand, I live by the whole “life is short so don’t muck around” motto. On the flip-side, my Hapkido master is this funny, grumpy, spastic, and wise little old Korean man whose sole purpose in my life is to teach me patience. “ted-da (my name has two syllables when he pronounces it), life is long. Don’t rush through life. Enjoy and learn from it.”

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
While this isn’t the wildest journey I could share with you, this is appropriate for the size of this article:

When I was younger, I had a lot of dreams where I died. They were always kind of scary experiences because there would be these long black pauses with nothingness after them, then I would wake up and feel kind of scared, kind of relieved, but mostly refreshed. I could never explain it. I dated a girl in high school who had hippie-ish leanings and bought me a dream book. I didn’t actually read it until years after we broke up. It said that dreams about death were about change in one’s life. I embrace most changes in my life, so I guess my subconscious was signaling changes in my life back to me.

What’s the boldest, most provocative statement you are willing to make?
Myself: At this moment in time, I truly love my life. I’m not saying it in a granola-y sort of way. I just believe that my life has guided me along and laid things out for me quite nicely. It’s not that I don’t have to work hard or make difficult decisions, but everything always seems to work out. I’m simply not smart enough to foresee all that is ahead of me, but that’s okay because something out there seems to take care of that. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s been quite awesome for me and has also been true for me.

My industry: What can I say, it’s a lot of fun. (Sorry, not very provocative, but it’s true).

What’s next for you?
Haven’t finished what we’ve started yet. “Next” isn’t on the horizon yet.

And here’s a picture that inspires his creativity:

I’m a fire sign and this picture from the Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts album, calms me down.

What an inspiring fisherman you are Ted, thanks!

I’m performing on Wednesday, September 1st….Not as my one woman persona (Gumboot Lollipop) but as Dolly Hopkins the storyteller.

Come out for a night of short stories with a few laughs or maybe even some tears at the:

Cottage Bistro
4470 Main St., at 29th

The evening starts at 7pm sharp and the house fills up quickly so arrive before 7pm for the Early Dinner Special.

See you there!

This weekly interview highlights some really amazing women who are shaking things up and making a difference through creativity and bold endeavors. They have been chosen because I’m inspired by their powerfully persuasive spirit and their tenacity to make things happen. They are sisters in their creative ingenuity, building a legacy for others through their actions and venturesome spirit. If you haven’t already checked out the previous women featured, starting with Mercedes Baines, scroll down to read all about them as well.

Also, be sure to see what inspires Pat Camozzi, he’s featured as July’s Man of the Month.

Presenting:

Michelle Pante

Here’s a little bit about her:

Michelle is a full-time devotee to her almost four year old daughter and a consultant to the Arts and Health Project, a pioneering community-engaged arts coalition for vulnerable seniors. While tending the hearth these past few years, Michelle has also facilitated a group with Mama Renew, served on the Executive at Happy Corner Parent Participation Preschool, and initiated a monthly meeting of Catholic women with deep faith and big questions. Michelle is continuously striving to integrate and simultaneously express the fullness of who she be – Mama, woman, and global citizen; social worker, entrepreneur, and hotshot relish maker. It’s been a wild ride with stops along the way for youth work in inner city Dublin, marketing with the Westcoast Sacred Music Festival, social work studies in Montreal (BSW, McGill), a social responsibility research project with the Caledon Institute in Ottawa, business school in Toronto (MBA York), a product launch with VanCity Credit Union, professional development programming at the Urban Development Institute, and business development, advising and coaching with visionary entrepreneurs. Michelle is proud to be one of the founders of the InterSpiritual Centre of Vancouver Society.

And here’s how she answered my 6 questions about creativity:
What does it mean to you to be creative?
Being creative connotes openness to me; an openness to change, to innovation, to difference, to new life, new ways of being and doing, and to the end of things whether they are quiet deaths or fiery exits.

What inspires your creativity?
The belief that beauty is ever present.

A sense of spacious, in my physical space and in my days; both of which are sorely lacking at the moment!

What keeps you moving forward in making things happen?
The drive to manifest potential in myself, in others, in our collective ways of being and doing, and in our efforts to heal ourselves and our planet.
The desire to have the next 40 be as interesting as the past 40.
Curiosity about myself.
Compassion for others.
Gratitude.

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
Mamahood has been my wildest journey to date. Despite yearning for this role my entire life, I had no real concept of how profoundly it would affect every element of my life. Mamahood is an ever evolving, relentless journey of humility and power, love and loss, anger and awe, exhilaration and exhaustion, heartache and healing. I still can’t believe that motherhood is not headline news everyday and that I’m not making $150 grand a year.

Irish stone and moss

What’s the boldest, most provocative statement you are willing to make?
Living with dying, being with grieving and holistic death care are the next frontier ripe for transformation. Count me in.

What’s next for you?
Making pickles, relish and strawberry applesauce.
A family vacation to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Volunteering with the Family Grief Group offered by the Vancouver Hospice Society.
Continuing with my Healing Touch practitioner training.
Training to become a spiritual director
Becoming a funeral director or a farmer … or maybe both!

And here’s some of the dreamers and doers that inspire Michelle’s creativity:

Family creativity, baking and knitting www.soulemama.com
Healing and dying www.callanish.org
Thoughtful, beautiful spaces www.chestermanproperties.com
A path to world peace www.interfaithcenter.org

Thank you Michelle, grateful for your curiosity, compassion, and strawberry applesauce.