We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Vander Schaaf a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, James thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

My answer is multi-faceted, but basically, it’s self-innovation. Over my entire career path, I’ve had many different jobs that I enjoyed. But while at each job I was always preparing myself for 3 jobs ahead. While it is virtually impossible to predict the future (except if you listen to the daily talking heads on the media), it is possible to discover trends. These trends have different characteristics and some are clearly longer=term trends. I was always interested in entrepreneurial activities in business and technology.

Many trends were relatively easy to identify in their earlier stages: 1) the expansion of the interstate highway system and its potential for expansion of businesses of all types, 2) changes in the job market away from lifetime employment 3) to the rise in the use of personal computers of all types, 4) the internet and it’s expansion across virtually all businesses, 5) the expansion and development of mobile technology , 6) the identification of the genome and gene editing, 7) the development of robotics, This list could easily be expanded dependent upon one’s interests.

My approach was to think about these trends and educate (formally or self[education) myself to prepare for participation in an interesting (to me) longer term trend. I asked myself: What would I have to know or do to prepare myself for participating in such a trend. Then look for companies or entrepreneurial opportunities that fit those interests and trends. This led me to several different and challenging jobs and businesses.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Jim is a graduate of the University of Michigan (BS & MS in Aerospace Engineering and MS in Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering) and Johns Hopkins University (MS in Computer Science). While in the US Army, he also pursued a law degree until other opportunities became available.

With initial experience in private industry and government jobs in the Washington DC and Chicago areas, he was invited to take a change management position with Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, Maine in 1981. This work involved bringing Japanese shipbuilding expertise into BIW in order to improve productivity. He later managed BIW’s Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Management (CAD/CAM) department. Fudamental approaches to reducing rework due to removal of physical interferences and reduction of design change rework due to have a three dimensional model of the ship and a computer based change management system were persued.

Jim left BIW in 1996 to form two private companies, AMCI and JVS Inc. These organizations performed strategic planning and worked to align people, process and technology, enabling their clients to achieve results more rapidly and with agility. The focus was to integrate people, process and technology. He served as a consultant with a wide variety of organizations and later semi-retired in 2001 to cruise on a sailboat for several years.

This led to the formation of DownEastYachtDelivery.com which performs at-sea deliveries of sailboats and motor yachts, while providing education and training. After a sailboat delivery from Costa Rica to San Francisco in 2007, Jim traveled in Mexico, and settled in San Miguel de Allende, where he became involved in NGOs dedicated to improving the lives of impoverished children. He was asked to become a board member and Treasure of Ojala-Ninos.org and later taught English pronunciation to Spanish speaking children, who in turn taught him Spanish.

Since returning to Maine in 2012, he has continued boat deliveries and pursued furniture design and woodworking and has completed several projects for a variety of clients. He maintains a heated workshop, building furniture and teaching and writing about woodworking. He published his first book in 2018. He has a YouTube woodworking channel with over 4500 subscribers: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesrvs1

I’m Jim Vander Schaaf and I’m here to help you have fun and achieve satisfaction with woodworking thru a variety of projects, educational materials and how to videos. I am a local Maine wood artisan, furniture builder, educator and author. I’m here to help you succeed, not show off my work. I promise to provide the best advice I can, or, if I don’t know the answer, refer you to others who know.

I would enjoy answering questions and discussing topics. Please comment on the various videos. I respond to every comment.

My published book, An Adventure in the Art of Woodworking, is available on Amazon. It is a full color guide for beginning (and more advanced) woodworkers who wish to have fun while rapidly increasing their skills. Sketch Up 3D models are also provided.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

An ancient Chinese proverb drives the education process of both of my current businesses (woodworking and yacht delivery): “Tell me and I will forget, Show me and I might remember, Involve me and I will understand.”

So, for any educational process we are involved with, it is critical to actively listen to the client’s needs and then and only then respond with how you can help them meet these needs. Sometimes with some people, it is necessary to peel the onion a bit and instinctively ask follow-up questions to probe more deeply into what is being stated and follow that up with a verbal test to confirm your understanding. This process can only be understood (to the uninitiated) by witnessing it in action. It is a skill built up over years of first trying to understand myself and what my needs are and then with a great deal of practice attempting this process on others.

It is intensely rewarding to satisfactorily perform this and truly meet client needs. Nothing builds a client base faster than by doing this. Even if you think you are doing it well, always ask for feedback on how you can improve.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Interesting question and the answer changes as we change. Early in life, monitary rewards would rate high. Now I would say that client satisfaction and positive feedback in the most important aspect. We all have needs and wish to have purpose, have a path forward and feel that we are needed.

Showing someone a method, process, technique or other learning skill, and, having them understand and be able to execute the learning is my greatest joy. I feel that I’m building friendships and community when this happens. We all are happier when we connect with others in a positive and healthy manner. I simply love it when it happens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.downeastyachtdelivery.com/ https://www.downeastwoodart.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.vanderschaaf
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesrvs1