Executive Presence · Leadership Communication
Executive Presence · Leadership Communication
How forty-four years in aerospace built a second life in Soca.
Roderick Von King · Aerospace Engineer · Author · Songwriter
Roderick was the first guest we recorded for Sip & Speak. I wanted the inaugural conversation to be with someone whose life had refused to sit inside one identity. Aerospace engineer for forty-four years. Award-winning novelist. Soca songwriter. None of those came in sequence. They came in parallel, and the conversation makes the case for that as a strategy.
"The first thirty seconds in any room decide what the next thirty minutes are allowed to be."
Episode Cold Open · Samantha J. Best
Aerospace Engineer · Author · Songwriter
Roderick Von King spent forty-four years as an aerospace engineer with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and a Master's in computer science. Music ran in parallel from the fourth grade onward, sharpened by years as the eyes and driver for his cousin Gordon DeWitty, a sightless professional musician who played with Earth, Wind & Fire, Sly Stone, Bobby Womack, and Rufus & Chaka Khan.
He is the author of Why Didn't We Love?, winner of Best Romance and Author of the Year. His third book, Last Night in Trinidad, builds twelve chapters around twelve original Soca songs he wrote after marrying into a Trinidadian family. He publishes through VK Publish.
The promise Roderick made to his father at twenty-two that kept him out of the music business for the next four years.
The Trinidad song he studied for six weeks until he could speak the country's rhythm back to it.
The single John Grisham line at a UCLA seminar that gave him both the title and the heroine for his first novel.
Why a finished manuscript sat on a shelf for fifteen years before becoming an award-winning romance.
The Carnival Tuesday TV moment that turned a costume designer's stray phrase into an entire Soca song.
What a steady aerospace paycheque actually bought him as a writer, and why most creators never see it.
"Your thought is your thought, and your thought is unique. That is what makes you unique."
Roderick Von King · Vol. 002
The conversation continues in the room. Next gathering: June 13 at Cascadia Hotel.
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