Time off Works for Exec

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The buzz of Los Angeles can sometimes become loud enough that it drowns out the best ideas. That’s why Susan Gates, a founding partner of content marketing agency Redbird Group, makes it a point to get out for at least a few road trips every year.

Gates, 60, prefers to take the road less traveled – that is, the one that leads her back in time.

“I love to find places that are unchanged,” she said.

In November, for example, a long ferry ride took Gates and her family to Santa Cruz Island, where they were greeted by schools of dolphins in crystal-clear water, along with a sparkling sun, and undisturbed native plants.

“By the time you’re there, you feel like you’re separated from civilization,” she said.

But it’s not all play without work, or work without play for Gates, who runs the Culver City firm.

“It’s absolutely central to my work,” she said. “Creativity is about perspective. It’s important to get a little distance.”

She encourages her fellow creative colleagues at Redbird to get out, too.

“We’re sacred about the weekends and vacation time. Work flourishes when people have the opportunity to get away and take time for themselves,” Gates said.

Taking Plunge

Horror attraction creator Melissa Carbone’s craft lies in frightening visuals, but it’s the real-life horrors that have honed her passion.

As co-founder and chief executive of Ten Thirty One Productions, creator of the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, Carbone finds time throughout the year to travel and raise awareness about animals in captivity, particularly dolphins.

With its compelling depiction of dolphin hunting in Japan, Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove” unearthed Carbone’s activist heart in 2010 and pinpointed her next travel destination – Taiji, Japan, where thousands of dolphins are caught and sold or slaughtered each year at the Taiji cove.

“To actually travel to Japan each year and watch something so heart-wrenching, it’s changed me in so many ways,” said Carbone, 40, who’s visited the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo with activist and “Cove” participant Ric O’Barry to discuss ending the dolphin slaughter.

A dolphin’s true home is in the wild – not SeaWorld, said Carbone, who now incorporates her activism at work and home.

“With things I truly believe and care about, I go hard,” Carbone said. “Go big or go home.”

Staff reporters Kristin Marguerite Doidge and Jonathan Ponciano contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled
by Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].

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