What does a typical Thursday look like for you, starting from when you wake up – to heading to bed?

Most weekdays I am up at 7 am, I do a 30 minute Pilates tape, or my elliptical three days a week; coffee, breakfast with my kids and husband, carpooling to Etobicoke School of the arts and Karen Kain Middle School of the Arts with my two kids, Jack – 15, and Julia- 11. Then it’s back to my home office – I sit at my desk, look at the calendar for the day, and start to return emails, tackle the day’s conference calls, planning meetings, and design strategies etc. So much to do always it seems!  I am working on quite a few new projects and my partners are in other time zones, so it can get kind of tricky organizing meetings, but it is great that we can get so much done with emails, faxes and scans, etc. And thank God for Vonage phone service, and a good international cell phone plan, otherwise I would never make a dime! Then by 5pm, I take a break and make dinner, or we all go out for dinner. I do some more work in the evening on some days, but I try not to, so I can be with the kids. We are fans of American Idol and Heroes, and we love to watch re-runs of Friends too!  I always plan to get to bed early, but by the time I get the kids to bed, and hang out a bit with my great and helpful husband Mark, it’s almost always midnight, and then we are scrambling to “sleep fast’ as we call it, and begin the process again the next day!

What was your first job out of school?

I got a job doing children’s theater in Toronto. The show was The Princess and the Pea, and I played the evil Queen. It was fun, but a lot of schlepping. The second week I got myself an agent. They sent me to C.B.C. to read for a part in a television series called Home Fires, with Wendy Crewson, and I booked the job! I found out that it would to pay me more for one day then I made for a week in the theater, so I quit the play! Ah, Capitalism! 

 

What are the 3 skills you require most to do your job well?

Creativity, perseverance, and the ability to choose good partners! 

What do you love most about your career?

I love being my own boss, and I love that I have made a career selling laughter and family togetherness all over the world for the last twenty years! 

Do you have any warnings?

I am in a book called Women Invent, and have done some keynote speaking to inventor – I always tell fledgling game creators that they should never mortgage their house and produce a ton of games themselves. The best route is to make a great prototype, and shop it around to distributors and see what the reaction is. Try to get someone to license your idea. It is so challenging to “do it yourself.” 

If you could try a different career on for a year, what would it be?

I want to continue to make music. I sing jazz, and I play guitar and write music – Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Sarah McLachlan are influences. I am in the process of making a record and would love to tour the world playing music, and also to do more musical theatre, which was my first love. 

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