We seek out and promote interesting voices who engage, cajole, provoke, teach and encourage through the written word.
Author Archives: Bryan
Career Clarity Books
A to Z: 26 Keys to Unlock Career Change Success: for Midlife Women (Career Clarity Book 1)
Available on Amazon in Kindle or Paperback
Are you at a career crossroads, not sure which direction to go? Are you unfulfilled, fed up, or out of work—ready to make a significant career change but not sure how to or even what to do? Start with this book.
There are hundreds of helpful career books but not all are pertinent to midlife and beyond. The author shares 26 key elements that lay the groundwork for your personal platform for success. It’s meant to motivate and inspire you to reach higher levels of career success.
Free Bonus: Find Your Career Passion_A to Z 26 Keys
Love It or Leave It: Is it time to change your career? (Career Clarity Book 2)
Available on Amazon in Kindle format
Do you drag yourself to work every day? Job stress just won’t go away? Wondering if you can fix this job? Or do you have to leave and start over? How do you decide? The questions posed in this self-help workbook solves that problem–deciding if you can reenergize your current career enough to love it–or do you need to leave it and reinvent your skills into a completely new direction.
At midlife, it’s more than just finding another job. It’s a matter of becoming who you are meant to be. It’s living your personal definition of success and meaningful work. This book will guide you to understand your underlying passions and drivers. Only then can you get clear on your next steps.
Free Bonus: Love It or Leave It Workbook
About the Author: Diane Howell Topkis
Recently retired, Diane was known as The Midlife Woman’s Career Coach. Diane helped women gain the clarity and confidence to reinvent or re-energize their career into meaningful work for their next chapter. Her clients have successfully discovered new possibilities and developed new levels of personal and professional success.
Her very rewarding career brought a deep sense of peace, freedom, joy, and fulfillment. She wrote her Career Clarity ebook series to share what she knows works. She hopes that more women will benefit from her proven signature process and find the clarity her clients have. From that clarity comes the confidence to make changes. Read more on her Amazon author page.
Craft Beverage Tasting Journals
Wine Tasting Journal: My Wine Travel Experiences
Perfect companion for your wine travels
At last, a wine journal about wine travels not just the bottle.
If you love wine and love to travel to where it’s made, learning how wines taste different from region to region, this journal is for you.
This journal will help you:
- Understand the essentials of wine tasting
- Improve your wine vocabulary
- Learn flavors & aromas of 25 Red, White, & Rosé wines
- Record your experiences – region, vineyard, wine
- Compile your own tasting notes for over 200 wines
A perfect gift for yourself and everyone who loves wine and loves to visit wineries.
Craft Spirit Tasting Journal: Discover the pleasure of artisan spirits
A Journal for the Craft Spirit Enthusiast
New distilleries seem to pop up every day. Have you been to one? No? What are you waiting for? There’s a whole new breed of artisan distillers ready to ignite your love of spirits and cocktails.
This journal will help you:
- Understand the craft spirit movement
- Learn flavors & aromas of whiskey, gin, vodka, rum
- Understand the essentials of spirit tasting
- Record your experiences – distillery, spirit, cocktails
- Compile your own tasting notes for over 140 spirits
- Collect cocktail recipes
Grab a glass. Take a sip. Enjoy!
Craft Beer Tasting Journal: Give your beer the attention it deserves
A journal to capture your passion for craft brews
Innovative American craft beer is known for its very distinctive taste and style thanks to hops. The flavor is huge—intense, aggressive, and bitter.
This journal will help you learn:
- About the craft brewery industry
- How to hold your own tasting party
- Recommended way to taste not just drink your beer
- Record your own tasting notes for over 100 beers
- Beer and food pairing ideas
Which beers do you like best? Not sure? There’s lots of beer to explore. Start tasting! Cheers!
About the Author
About Terre Wines
Terre Wines is about making a connection – to people, to land, to life. It is about drinking in life’s essence, through it’s bounty of wine and food, about enhancing the joy of both when sharing with friends and family. We’ll find the story behind the wine, it’s terroir, the people who give it love and attention, and those who enjoy it. Come join in the discovery, the journey, the joy that is good wine and food.
About Terre Strategies
Terre Strategies is about helping small and mid-sized firms grow in exciting and organic ways – both in their local markets and reaching new clients in new ways.
About Terre Music
Terre Music is about building the emerging artist community. We see tapping the creative spirit and soul for it’s life energy and light. It’s about creating connection – and filling in the spaces with music, word and art.
HBK – Hot Bread Kitchen and Incubator
Very interesting venture and organization, built to teach immigrant women baking skills and prepare them for their own business or for employment.
Our Mission
Hot Bread Kitchen increases economic security for foreign-born and low-income women and men by opening access to the billion dollar specialty food industry. We do this through our culinary workforce and business incubation programs, Project Launch and HBK Incubates.
To help offset the cost of our training and to build esteem in the contribution of immigrants, we sell delicious multi-ethnic breads that are inspired by our bakers and the many countries that they come from. We make it a priority to use local and organic ingredients.
As our staff of trainees grows, so does our product line. As part of our mission, we preserve valuable baking and culinary traditions and “br-educate” New Yorkers about the tasty and important contributions of immigrant communities.
Leader: Jessamyn Rodriguez
Our Staff
Jessamyn W. Rodriguez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jessamyn W. Rodriguez is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the award-winning Hot Bread Kitchen. Since its inception in 2007, she has led the growth of the organization from a visionary idea to a thriving bakery and workforce development program. Hot Bread Kitchen won the 2009 “Best Small Business” for Queens from the NYC Department of Small Businesses and has become nationally recognized brand that has been covered in print (New York Times, Daily News, and Food & Wine Magazine), TV (Today Show & NPK), and Radio.
Jessamyn combines her passions for baking and social justice for foreign-born women in Hot Bread Kitchen. Her efforts have also been recognized by Echoing Green, which selected her from over 1500 social entrepreneurs and by the Eileen Fisher Company that awarded her a Grant for Women Entrepreneurs in 2007. Jessamyn has an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of British Columbia. Before starting Hot Bread Kitchen, she gained 10 years of experience in NGOs, government, and the United Nations, focusing on human rights, education, and immigration issues. She worked in many places, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bosnia, Guatemala, and Chile. Jessamyn also has a Master Baker certificate from the New School University and was the first woman to be hired as a baker at Chef Daniel Boulud’s renowned Restaurant Daniel.
KITCHEN RENTAL and INCUBATOR CONCEPT
Kitchen Rental and Program Detail
COMMERCIAL KITCHEN OFFERINGS
Our 2,300 square foot, shared commercial kitchen is equipped to handle most needs of start-up caterers, specialty food producers, and bakers. The modular layout of our space is designed to accommodate six separate production spaces for businesses.
Our commercial kitchen offers:
- Four individualized stations of specialized commercial equipment including: convection ovens, 6-burner ranges, steamer, grill, deep fryer, 30-gallon tilting braising pan and 20- and 80-quart Hobart dough mixers
- Two private prep rooms with ample counter space and sinks for ingredient preparation and packaging. The smaller prep room is temperature controlled, ideal for confectioners and chocolate makers.
- Dishwashing space
- Dry, refrigerated and freezer storage (rented by the month)
- Receiving included, easy load-in and out area
- Easily accessible: close to the FDR, accessible street parking, one block from the 6 train and three blocks from 2/3 train
Once businesses are ready to start producing, we work with each business to ensure they get inspected and licensed by the appropriate state or city agency. We also assist with commercial kitchen training, efficient kitchen use and recipe scale-up.
PROGRAM OFFERINGS
The business development portion of our incubator program includes:
- Monthly business and culinary workshops focused on financial preparedness, sales and marketing, accounting, logo and label design, and more
- One-on-one monthly finance advising
- Exposure to a vibrant and dynamic entrepreneurial and culinary environment
- Partnership opportunities with other incubator businesses
- Marketing opportunities
Storybranding
Interesting looking firm focused on power of storytelling as part of both organizational and personal branding and messaging.
A few key links to research:
http://www.storybranding.com/site/organizational-branding-and-message-strategy.php
http://www.storybranding.com/site/organizational-branding-and-message-strategy.php
http://www.storybranding.com/site/organizational-culture-assessment-and-engagement.php
Portland and Willamette Valley
Food Research:
- Food Trucks
- Farm to Table
- Wine
Willamette Valley
- Four Sisters
- Adelsheim
- Bergstrom
- A to Z
Business Planning – Vision
Terre Ventures is about making connections in communities. About bringing people together over food, wine, and music. About bringing people together over art. Over the experience gained in growing food and cultivating earth. About synthesizing the elements of terroir: earth, food, culture and music.
Terre Ventures 