Navigating communication in the workplace can be tricky. But experts agree the most effective way to improve communication is by first gaining self-awareness — understanding your own personality traits, behaviors and listening preferences — then learning to recognize and appreciate those in others.

It sounds like an urban legend, or maybe a suburban one: A town in San Joaquin County is declared “the most underwater” municipality in the United States. But in little more than a decade, the town has become not only California’s newest incorporated city but also a thriving community with elegant homes, neighborhood schools and three varieties of local parks.

Jacqueline, Allison and Elaine Taylor traveled with their father to Asia as he expanded Taylor Brothers Farms’ organic prune business. All this family immersion laid the groundwork for when they decided to branch out and form their own plum-related company Le Prunier.

When Earl Gorman Taylor planted his first plum tree on the 70 acres he bought in Sutter County in 1916, he could never imagine that his grandson Richard would one day turn it into a global empire. That’s exactly what Taylor Brothers Farms is now — the world’s largest producer and global distributor of organic prunes and prune products. 

In a delicious coincidence, the year that Heringer Estates in Clarksburg introduced its pinot noir was the same year the film comedy about wine lovers, “Sideways,” with its references to the same varietal, hit theaters. “Our sales just soared in 2004,” says Mike Heringer, CEO and winemaker at his eponymous, six-generation family business.

From one vantage point, the Padillas — Greg, Topo and Brandon — are the most-multi-faceted professionals working in the Capital Region’s courts. The success of their bail bonds business over four decades involves how many hats each of the three generations can wear.

Collins’ first major project was a state hospital in Stockton in 1929, followed by another in Mendocino. More recent projects include the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Candlestick and Sutter Health parks, and many casinos.

Ming Luong started Ming’s Recycling in 1987, less than a decade after the Luong family arrived in the U.S. They were among the millions of people who fled Vietnam following the fall of Saigon, riding a fishing boat to a refugee camp in Malaysia before a church group sponsored their relocation to Laramie, Wyoming.