"Resistance is about believing you are vulnerable or susceptible to something not wanted

and holding a stance of protection

which only holds you in a place of not letting in the well-being
that would be there otherwise.

There is nothing big enough

to protect you

from unwanted things -

and there are no unwanted things big enough

to get into your experience."

-- Abraham-Hicks

When you get that palpable sensation of having one foot on the gas, and one foot on the brakes in your life, where do you turn, what do you do?

As you'll discover from the email snapshot below, coaching in mainstream media such as television doesn't ONLY occur with great fanfare or even red carpet. It can be a very natural process with nary an agent, hissy fit or M&M dispute in sight. 

Coach Maureen shares her inspiring 'can-do' approach in a way that begs the question, "If she can do it, I could too, couldn't I?" If you feel empowered after reading her story, submit your questions or comments below for Maureen; I think I have her energized to lead us some more in this arena, so help encourage her, would you? ;-) 

Thanks, Maureen, for your great work...

Visit Maureen online at:
http://thinkingrevolution.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/ThinkingRevolution

-----Original Message----- From: Maureen Miller Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:54 AM To: andrea@andreajlee.com Subject: TV star already

Andrea,

I've been reading, with interest, your comments on coaching on TV. I guess I beat New Jersey to the punch line. I had been taking a course with Jan Marie Dore and met another woman, from a nearby town who had her own show as a fitness expert.

I immediately got challenged by the group to explore doing this as a coach so I shakily took down the phone number and contact name of the Person who was the producer of the network.

It's a small local cable company and I went it to talk to the producer. She was very nice and VERY excited that I had an idea for coaching on TV. I told her I could get people to come on TV and coach them through a short session that would get them to a place where they could take an action step. She was thrilled by the idea and wanted to set up a time to start taping the first "bubble show".

I walked out of the studio with a lump in my throat but was getting quite excited myself. I sat down for a couple of days and built a format for the show, which she suggested I do. We filmed the first show in April and found out the sound didn't work. So slowly we have built up three shows to pilot this fall.

She has been so impressed by coaching and what I do. She had also told me that once I started it would be a lot of fun. Which it is.

I had also thought that people might not be too keen on admitting to needing some direction in their lives in front of a TV audience. I was wrong. We have three "bubble" shows and the network manager was so impressed they are piloting the three shows with their fall line up.

WOW is all I can say. And what I have learned about being on TV????? Anything from how to cover up a mistake, a cough, how to react to what people are saying without being distracting. I've learned all about editing the show and when I told the producer I would love to be more in charge of editing she was excited about not having to do that as well.

She has also warned me to be prepared for an onslaught of business as a result of this. Yikes, I better get moving.

Maureen Miller

Coaching Personally
http://thinkingrevolution.blogspot.com and http://www.squidoo.com/ThinkingRevolution

Excerpted from the official release:

Political satirist Stephen Colbert guest-stars in "He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs," the new season debut of "The Simpsons", Sept. 23 on Fox.

After Homer saves Mr. Burns from drowning in a mall fountain, Burns thanks him by taking him on a whirlwind trip to Chicago on his private plane.

Homer is smitten with the luxury jet and all the perks that come with it...

After returning home, he makes it his mission to find a job that offers him the chance to fly on a corporate jet and enlists 'life coach' Stephen Colbert to help him fulfill his dream.

Is it too cheeky to ask whether Fox made sure Colbert is certified or professionally trained? Does he give Homer advice or just ask incisive questions? Is Coach Colbert happy and successful in his own life, I wonder? And...what kind of car does he drive?

I guess we'll all just have to wait and see. For now, Fox blesses us with their first promotional image for the year, showing cheerleader Colbert in the background. Two thumbs up!

There's certainly nothing new about poking fun of coaching - it's hip to be geek these days, after all! What do you think?
.

The Maui Writers Conference last week was...

Delightful - A full 10 days in an environment of bright and shiny, creative thinkers from hundreds of walks of life, not to mention sweetly-scented air and ocean all around, made for a multisensory feast of an exeperience. It was also extremely...

Fruitful - Two literary agents and one editor are interested in seeing two book proposals. Two other agents are willing for me to stay in touch on behalf of clients who have books coming up themselves. And one editor was tolerably encouraging of the idea that I might hang up a shingle as agent in the new year, and call him with a couple of pitches. "If you think you have an eye for recognizing talent, that's a gift that separates regular agents from agents I want to work with." Excellent!

For those of you who'd love to 'piggyback' on this immersion experience, I'd be delighted to share an infusion. If you'd like to know more about:

- the big picture of the publishing world as I've been learning it the last several months...
- the little picture of the players in that world (what do they wear, eat, read?) after 'living' with them for a week...
- what's occuring with the 'new media' revolution and what it means...
- the distinctions between publishing and self-publishing, and...
- which projects I'll put on the mainstream publishing track - which ones I'll self-publish, and why...

Of course, post-conference life is terribly interrupted now, by design. And I'm grateful. Like a big trunk full of toys collected over the years, sometimes you have to dump all the pieces of your life on the ground in a mess in order to decide what to play with next.

Interrupting life this way means it will be impossible to put all the toys back the way they were before. What a perfect relief!

On a personal note, two things:

Snorkelling and swimming has freed me from residual body-fear. 10 weeks after my surgery and that's a good thing. Yes, I am smiling!

Well actually make that grinning from ear to ear because my hubby Mike had an even more incredible time than I did at the conference. Of the 3 tracks at the event, Mike took part in the most intensive - Screenwriting with Director Michael Palmieri (Chico's Angels, Michael P is on the right, my hubby at left), featuring Bobby Moresco (Crash), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and others. Among 29 attendees in the group, only two wrote in the romantic comedy genre - you know that genre where the movies are either fabulous (When Harry Met Sally, French Kiss) or really really horrible (names omitted to protect the innocent)?

Well, my Mike took the screenwriting track's prize for best screenplay. Even better, his writing met with - in his words - "laughs basically right on cue, pages in a row" which had him the ultimate Cloud 9. Then, an agent asked if he had a manager and invited him to take next steps.

Let's just say that with a free ticket to next year's conference, $1000 in prize money, massive validation and a ton of new questions (Will we move to LA as hinted would be wise? Of all the new ideas, which screenplay will Mike tackle next? Is this really real, pinch me/us/him!)....... this is life - perfectly interrupted - for us at this moment.

With that...perhaps a little of this energy can be turned around to good use for you. That is after all, the point right? Will you join us for an energized fall? Why do I think you have a ruckus you're itching to create, underneath your skin? Or maybe its something you're spinning, silky and smooth?

I think of Fall as such a great non-new-year non-cliche time for refreshment and renewal...a counter-culture overachiever's fantasy. So while no one else has noticed the January 1st that's looming yet - what will you do with your life and business next? Will you solidify the road you are on? Will you try something new? What will feel good and feed you energy? What will you whittle away?

I'm looking forward to reading whatever's useful to you to share, and hearing you on the Open House call, once again, registration details above. More Maui stories to come...

Use the player below to listen to the recording of this call or click the link below the player to download the mp3:

Do you remember ABC's Wide World of Sports, (WWOS) that long-running sports anthology show on American TV?

Running from 1961 to 1997, it had an iconic montage of sports clips that ran with brassy music and the narration:

“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC's Wide World of Sports!"

While a lot of you may remember the show, do you remember one of the scenes from the intro, of a guy on a surfboard? I daresay this is one of those images, like the unfortunate ski jumper who wiped out week after week, that's burned into our collective subconscious.

Well, the surfer in that clip is one 'legend-in-his-own-time' Mike Turkington, pictured with me last week on my trip to Maui.

I hadn't met Mike before this, but I was seated across from him at a supper of screenwriters from the Maui Writers Retreat. Mike T and I were among the 'spouses' of those in the retreat. A really unassuming and quiet kinda guy, he and I were among the wallflowers - the smiling and indulgent foil to the very happy and slightly punch-drunk screenwriters. (A week of 12 hour days will do that to you.)

There were many cool conversations around the table that night - Luanne has a neat screenplay about what happens when a princess kisses a frog and...turns into a frog. Graham has another cool one about how Hurricane Katrina hides the evidence of a crime, and a second hurricane reveals it again...lots of creative people.

But cutting to the chase (just a little) there was something about the gent across from me, some hidden spark (something that ultimately is in everyone, you just have to look) that compelled me to ask:

"So Mike, what do you do? We spouses have to stick together you know."

"I'm a Captain...I take people out on the water." Very relaxed, he smiled when I leapt in with "A Captain? Ahoy!" and "Port...starboard, which will it be Cap'n?" And then, like a splash of cool water in the face, it came out that Mike was the guy - The Guy - in the WWOS clip.

"What's cool about that clip is that I start out goofy foot on it." This is surfer lingo for left, or 'other' foot, forward. "Then I disappear inside the wave and when I'm there, I switch-stance, and when I come out my other foot is in front - that's what they liked so much about that shot."

Okay...not only is he perched on a small piece of wood in the middle of 15 foot high waves, he is messing about with the position of his feet, changing things around part way through...

"Gosh...well, I have to ask Mike...what are some of your craziest wave stories - I'm sure you have tons! What is it like? I'll probably never surf in my life, I find high heels a little wobblesome - so is it completely crazy inside the wave?"

That's when, if you were watching, you could see the spark hit oxygen and quiet Mike T's energy come on full.

"When you're in there, and you catch a wave, all of a sudden you feel yourself tumbling and your stomach is above your head and you're in this fifteen foot fall...and then there's a second when it all smoothes out and you can start to control the board again, move around, do some zigging zagging...and all you can see is all this water in front of you..." Pause. Big smile. And a giddy sounding giggle.

"Whooaaaa." I say. For the first time in my life, I understand why this word is so drenched with emotion whenever it's said. "Whoa."

More giggles from the formerly austere, unassuming Captain Mike.

Cindy, his partner of the last 6 years, pipes in...Mike used to run one of the original surf shops on the North Shore of Maui - one of his surf boards just sold on ebay for thousands of dollars.

"You are totally aLight, Mike" I say..."Your eyes have this LOOK in them..." I'm laughing, I can't help it.

"And it's the giggle, you made him do the giggle," Cindy says...and it's true, he's giggling away, transformed.

Mike T's been in movies as himself and has a modest page up at IMDB. He's part of the fabric of early surfing history especially on the North Shore of Maui and when people (especially surfers) find out who he is - Cindy tells us - the eyes go round and it's electrifying.

For me, it's the highlight of the night, and the unexpected gift of the entire two-week trip. I'm energized just recalling the look in his eyes as he described it - I'll carry that around with me forever.

Click on the photo above to enlarge it and see for yourself - it's a keeper of a look.

I don't know about you but that look of pure bliss, that state of being that's calm AND excited, serene yet massively charged, is a goal unto itself and any one of us could be forgiven for pursuing that the rest of our lives.

I don't write poetry, and this is not poetry, but listening to Mike was like catching a piece of powerfully moving poetry for just a moment. He might never know it but for that moment it was as if all his years of surfing (he still does it on the island of Oahu) and all the waves he ever caught, were transmitted to me.

No wonder surfers will pursue waves relentlessly for decades with a passion most people don't understand.

Thanks Mike, to say the least. I'll be adding your words to my treasure chest of touchstones along with the tune from 'We are the Champions' and the smell of fresh-squeezed lemons...