On The View From The Bay: Lessons in Visioning

On Wednesday, I was live on a local San Francisco TV talk show The View From The Bay.  I talked with co-hosts Spencer Christian and Janelle Wang about balancing acts for busy moms (you can watch it here).  Janelle, Spencer and everyone at the studio are so incredibly nice which made the whole experience even that much more enjoyable.  I am extremely grateful to the several Lady Launchers who cheered me on from the studio audience and to Adryenn Ashley who was by my side backstage for extra moral support.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve reflected on a few important lessons that this experience underscores for me.  These lessons include the power of:

  • Visioning and writing things down
  • Showing up
  • Taking care of myself.

Lesson 1: Visioning and writing things down. Being on The View From The Bay was one of my goals for this year.  I wrote about it in a letter to myself from the future.  Also, in the marketing section my Right-Brain Business Plan, I included “be on The View From The Bay this year using creativity to get clear on vision.”  You bet I was excited that I got to show an Unfolding Your Life Vision collage book as one of the tips on getting more balanced!

Right before the Sacramento & Co. show and VFTB, I even wrote on my wish cards to get clear about how I wanted to show up.  My visions for each appearance included descriptions like being calm, comfortable, poised, engaging, informative, personable, positive, clear, present, relaxed, and inspiring.  I brought my cards with me and also printed out of all the lovely comments and e-mails people shared from the Sacramento show to help ground me.  It was really cool to get feedback afterward that was very much in alignment with my intention.

Lesson 2: Showing up. A few people have asked me how did I get on the show. It started simply by showing up!  Adryenn sometimes gets tickets to the studio audience, so when she offered tickets at the end of September, I said, “Yes!”  I was a geek and read up on the show and the hosts before I went.  I didn’t know this, but on commercial breaks they ask the audience trivia questions.  I actually won a prize because I got one of the questions right from reading the bios and I got to wave into the camera!  After the show, I had Adryenn introduce me to Janelle and I gave her one of my Unfolding Your Life Vision Kits.   Adryenn highly encouraged me to come back the next day and I did.  To my surprise, Janelle remembered me!  She said she had a story idea and to come see her after the show!  I worked with Adryenn to develop a formal pitch, sent it in and then was asked to be on for the end of October.  It all happened in about a week!

Lesson 3: Taking care of myself. I really had to pay attention to this since I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone.  The day before the show, I was starting to get anxious so I made sure to go to yoga.  After class I felt so much more grounded, focused and ready to prep for the next day.  The day of the show, while I was in the green room, there was a moment where this introvert/HSP got too overwhelmed by all the talking that I had to go find a quiet spot to just sit and breathe.  It definitely helped me center right before going on.

Lots of great learnings here from a truly wonderful experience!  I loved being on the show and getting to share tips and ideas about something I’m passionate about.  I hope to be on again and to also venture into other shows, too…  like Martha and Oprah, of course!  I’m including that in my next future letter to myself and on my new Right-Brain Business Plan!

Sacramento & Co. TV Appearance

Last Wednesday I was a guest on the live morning talk show Sacramento & Company where I spoke to the co-hosts about life coaching. It was my very first TV appearance and I was on the air in less than 24 hours of getting the call, which was perfect because I had less time to worry about it!

One of my 2008 goals in my Right-Brain Business Plan was to increase my media exposure, including being featured on TV. Even though it makes my palm sweaty just to write that here and my stomach was in knots the entire hour and a half drive back from the studio, I love that I am stretching myself outside my comfort zone. Each time I do, I learn and grow and new opportunities open up for me that I had never even considered before.

In fact, this opportunity was the result of meeting the very cool Jerusha Stewart at the Ladies Who  Launch Be Your Own Boss event last month.  (Sidenote: Signing up to do a vendor table there was another way in which I stretched myself as it encouraged me to finally finish my Unfolding Your Life Vision Kits and sell them!).  Anyway, Jerusha had mentioned me to the producers and I got called up when they needed a last minute guest!

Another lesson in showing up and saying YES!

The cool thing is before this opportunity even came about, I had already lined up a spot on our local talk show The View From The Bay.  I’ll be on live this coming Wednesday October 29th (yikes!).  I’ve been working with the very talented Chief Idea Bunny Adryenn Ashley to get ready.  I’ll write more later about how the VFTB opportunity manifested itself.

I’m noticing that even as I’m preparing to post this entry, I’ve got butterflies in my stomach.  Ha, that’s a good sign that I’m outside my comfort zone again!