My Oprah Casting Call: One Stiletto Stampede, Forty-Five Breathless Seconds, and Six Lessons Learned (Part 1)

A QUICK NOTE: I published this story on Facebook back in June, and the response was so overwhelming, I thought my new readers on this site would be entertained by it as well! Enjoy!

There are moments in life when you wonder what the heck you have managed to get yourself into. The Oprah “Win Your Own Show” casting call Saturday June 26th was precisely such a moment.

As many of you know, I had been competing - quite successfully, thanks to your amazing support - to win my own talk show on Oprah’s new OWN Network. I entered the competition because of the way that it was described on the website calling for entries, “Are you an expert or spiritual guru? Are you passionate about what you do? Win your own talk show and help MORE people!”

I thought, “Hey! I am an expert, and I really, really want to help people! I am passionate! I am going to go for it!”

Not to mention, I - like so many of you, I am certain - truly admire Oprah Winfrey for all that she has overcome and accomplished. To be part of her network would certainly be an honor. 

So, I did the video thing - which was totally unnerving, because even after all this time doing what I do, I truly hate being taped. But - if it meant getting a shot to get The Flow Method out there and help as many people as I could, I was going to grit my teeth and do it.

After about a half an hour of filming and one laborious Sunday filling out the 20 page application to enter the contest, I submitted everything and the video went up.

Then, somewhat apprehensively, I took a deep breath and started letting people know that I was up there and could use votes. 

The most extraordinary thing happened - I started to get these lovely messages of support from all of you. Thanks to so many of you sharing the video on your page and also voting like crazy, my voting numbers started going up and up - and I ended up holding a spot on the 1st page of the Health and Wellness category for the entire competition (finished up on Saturday in the #21 spot out of 1787 videos in the H & W category and #98 out of all 9,504 videos - top 1% - which is pretty remarkable).

But - there was more I could do to win this thing. I knew that there was an open casting call in Atlanta on June 26th, and I felt that if I was serious about going for this I needed to make the effort to get there. So, still jetlagged and exhausted from my incredible Romanian book tour, I took off for Atlanta on the 25th.

I delighted in driving my new Mini Cooper Clubman, found out that I still knew all the words to Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” (not sure what that says about me, but it can’t be good), and ran through my answers for the questions that the producers would surely ask me. 

After about 7 hours of driving and almost running out of gas in Sandy Springs, GA (the signs say that they have a gas station there, but don’t you believe them), I arrived, checked into the hotel, and decided to do a “dry run” over to the Kohl’s where the call would be held the next morning. Being somewhat famous for having the sense of direction of a drunken sparrow, I figured that the first time I tried to find the place should not be in the dark at 3 in the morning. 

To my relief, the Kohl’s was only 1.5 miles from my hotel and quite easy to find. I walked in to see if anyone knew anything about, well, anything for the next day, and ended up being greeted by a leather-skinned Kohl’s cashier we’ll call “Maria.” I glance around and don’t see any signs up about the casting call, so I ask her if I am at the right Kohl’s, fearing that I may have headed to the wrong store altogether. 

“Yep, you’re in the right spot, and you can show up here tomorrow at 4 am to line up.  Here - “ She waves me over. “You just need to fill these 5 questions out quickly for tomorrow!” She walks toward her register. 

I assume she means that there is something else I need to bring in order to get in line. “Oh, okay - what else do I need?” I say, following her to her counter, “I already filled out my application and brought it with me.” 

“No, no - this is different. It’s just 5 questions.” She rustles around looking for something.

I stare at her trying to understand what in the world she is talking about.

She flies through the next sentence as fast as an auctioneer selling cattle. “Just 5 questions so you can get a 20% discount tomorrow on shopping and...” she slows down, “you just need to fill it out now.” She smiles like a snake charmer. 

Something is not reading right here. “Uh, well, I don’t really need a discount right now. I just got off the road and am really tired.”

She sinks her teeth in deeper. “It’s just 5 easy questions - just your name, your address, your social security number -”

I cut her off. “My social security number? Is this for a credit card?”

“Oh, well, yes - but if you are going to shop tomorrow, you will want your 20% off.” She acts like she is looking for something at her cash register.

“No, I doubt I will be shopping tomorrow, and I really don’t want to do this right now.” I look at her with as determined a look as I can muster. I am a ridiculously friendly-looking person, so it isn’t very convincing.

“It’s just 5 quick questions - you don’t even have to think to do it.” She hands me a pen, but refuses to meet my eyes.

“No - I am not doing that right now.” I mentally call up my inner Mr. T, stare at her like I really mean it, and hand the pen back.

Refusing to let her potential credit application commission slip through her leathery fingers, she whips out an app and fills her name and “associate number” in the proper spaces. “Oh, well, here - keep this with you and you’re all ready to go for tomorrow.” She hands it to me. “Don’t forget it!”

Sure thing! I think to myself as I wonder how far away the next recycling bin is.

I begin to make my escape when I hear my dear friend Kellie Kuecha call out, “Hey girlfriend!” She and her wonderful boyfriend Cliff Moitt are also there doing surveillance. I hadn’t physically seen her in years, so we hugged and laughed and she brought me up to date on what she had found out - which, unfortunately, was pretty much what I found out - which was not as much as either of us would have liked.

We parted ways with me worrying because they had not found a hotel yet (they found one right after). I grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel to just relax and burn a sample DVD of me doing on-the-spot mind-body diagnosis and a CD of sampling of the meditations I have produced. I put these with my media kit, testimonials of The Flow Method, articles in Romanian about my tour, press releases and everything else I can think of to showcase my work. Being under the assumption that they are looking for an expert in her field that does something really unique, I want to bring an entire kit to show what I can do.

I run through everything one more time, get a pep talk from my husband and parents and fall asleep around midnight.

Next, Part 2: The Stiletto Stampede and My Run-In with Del from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...

Read the whole story: 

My Oprah "Win Your OWN Show" Audition

Yep, I decided to try out to win my OWN Show for the new Oprah Winfrey Network. It was a remarkable experience, to say the least! I am proud to say that I ended up in the top 1% of over 9500 videos, with over 260,000 votes, which I was totally humbled by.

Enjoy the video, and I will post the whole amusing story - as well as my lessons learned from the craziness of it all - in the next few days. 

3 Ways to Stay Motivated - Part 2: Take an Ax to Your "Big Issue"

If you read Part 1 of the article yesterday, then you will have identified your “big issue” and come up with 3 things you could do right away to begin shifting it in the ways you desire. Good for you! 

Now, you need to go a step farther. You see, the next major motivation-killer I see is either expecting that the issue will change overnight, or looking at the big issue and having no idea where to start.

Here’s the thing: Real, long-term change rarely happens overnight, and it certainly doesn’t happen on big issues. In order to profoundly change a major issue in your life, you need to actually change the neural pathways that are creating the problem. To do that, you need to set up a plan for success and then take actions every single day for 40 days to “retune” your mind into a new reality. 

In fact, this is one of the major factors I see in people feeling like they have failed in their life-transformation plans - they will try out affirmations, new actions, or exercises for a week or so, not see any changes, and give up. The problem is not with the person, the problem is that they did not go long enough to make the desired change.

Remember, the neural pathways that are tuning you into the “big issue” - or really any problem pattern or experience - have likely been set for a long time. To reset them, you must be consistent in doing something each and every day to create new programming. 

In order to do that, you really do need to take an ax to the big issue. I know that whatever your big issue is may seem so overwhelming that you do not know where to start, but trust me, you can start and you can create a plan that will allow you to accomplish this goal - no matter where you are in life or what you have going on.

So, what do I mean by “taking an ax” to it? I mean that you must chop the problem into little actions that lead you to your ultimate success. 

Let me give you an example. Let’s say that you want to create a business that makes 1 million dollars by the end of 2011. Put your goal date down as December 31, 2011. Now,  make a list of everything you think you need to do in order to achieve that goal. For instance, you will likely need to create advertising, reach more customers, increase your web presence, etc. For each area that you identify, break it down to small actions that you can take each week that will lead you to that goal. In this case, small actions might be  to create a Facebook fan page, create a webinar, create a vision board, do success meditations and affirmations (or, as I call them, retuning statements), work with a graphic artist to create advertising, and attend educational events to learn the most efficient ways to reach your goal.

Then, sit down each week and schedule your actions into your week. Once you do that, you will see that no matter what the big issue is, you can take small steps every single day that will move you forward to your ultimate success. But remember - it is critical that you actually schedule time for your actions. When you don’t, you can easily forget to do them or simply get pulled into other things and never get to the actions that YOU need to take for you! (You really are as important as anything else in your life - aren’t you??)

It doesn’t matter what your big issue is - you can chop it into little, manageable actions that allow you to make the long-term changes that you are seeking.

THE YOU WHISPERER ACTION:

Look at your big issue and put a realistic goal on when you would like to accomplish this goal or solve this issue. Now, write down all of the different things that you think you will need to be able to achieve this goal. Then, break those categories down into actions you can take each week to lead you to this goal. Finally, schedule time into your week to take these actions. And remember - it takes 40 days of daily actions to actually change your neural pathways and retune them in to a new way of life. Taking little actions each day for 40 days ensures that you will see the long-term success that you are seeking. 

Part 3 tomorrow!