Balancing the Winds of Change

What Should I Be When I Grow Up Now That I've Survived Mid-Life?

Have you ever asked yourself that question? What Should I Be When I Grow Up now that I'm past 40? Year after year, I have continuously asked myself that. Better yet, what does God want me to be when I grow up?

Many of you don't know that I started my professional life as a high school business and physical education teacher and coach. It seemed at that time there were only a couple of  directions a person could go - teaching, nursing, never as adventuresome as a doctor (just for guys) or, God forbid, a woman entrepreneur!! Seems like so long ago, but now I am living my dream job. I'm a woman entrepreneur. I have my own business with four divisions-medical marketing, speaking, writing (my latest book is "Laid Off? Don't Stress! How to Get from Mad to Glad!") cosmetics and now I've come full circle and am coaching people on "What Should I Be When I Grow Up" in their first and second half of their lives. Life has a way of bringing us back to our strengths. What age we discover this really doesn't matter. What does matter is that you and I are doing what we love to do - life is short - why go through each day disliking working or disliking not working.

The true secret is finding your real ingredients  that you need to make you happier and healthier from this day forward. We each have very specific patterns and passions that are unique to us. It is possible, but harder to discover them on your own. That's why an objective coach makes the journey easier. I have always found it difficult to concentrate on me and what I need. It's just so much more fun to focus on "you" and be the catalyst to help "you" be the very best "you" can be.

There are very purposeful questions that you can use to get started on that journey today. My suggestion is to get a journal and be your own historian so that you can look back on it next month, six months or a year down the way. It's amazing to me that when you look back at your answers you see how you change - we're usually too close to the forest to see the trees. Try this just for you Today!

• Describe the perfect career and lifestyle for you and your family. It doesn't matter if it seems unreal, just let your mind wander and write it down in your journal. What does it feel like? What does it look like? Tell the details of this life.
• What has been one of your greatest accomplishments so far in your life? Any time in your life - it doesn't even have to be as a grownup. Just scan your years and write it down. How did it make you feel? Who made you feel that way or what made you feel that way?

• What was the highlight of your life today? Patricia Drain, as many of us did, sat at the table with her family and answered that same question. What a great way to get to know your family. Actually ask them that question and ask them their opinions.

Oprah says, "If you don't know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it." Why not start that journey today no matter what your age.

Patience is Hard When You're Waiting...

At our last visit, the CNN crew had just left us and flown off to their next assignment - something about politics in Las Vegas. So now came the waiting. There are so many things to do when you are waiting for something important to air, so many questions. How can I maximize this great exposure for my book, Laid Off? Don't Stress! How to Get from Mad to Glad? If there is a surge in book sales, will I have enough books on hand? Should I order the 2nd edition now? Do I want to change the name of the book to be more inclusive? Do I want to add more chapters and more stories into this 2nd edition? What happens if it airs on CNN while my husband and I are fishing in the East Cape? Should I get a press release ready to send out as soon as it airs? Should I talk to Barnes and Noble and Changing Hands and Borders and...and...and...so many questions. Where do I find out about these things? Who do I ask?

The first thing I did was send out an e-mail asking friends of mine in the National Speakers Association and my toastmasters club, Gilbert 499, and the Arizona Book Publisher's Association to get advice. They were great! Everyone was so helpful and supportive. I highly recommend belonging to associations like these that fit with your own profession - it saves re-inventing the wheel.

One of the things I did right away is add a forward to my book by a very giving guy, Greg Reid, the Millionaire Mentor. Greg and I met in California when we were at an event from my first book I had a chapter in, Seizing Your Success from the Live the Life You Love series. We got to talking and since he liked my concept of showing successful transitions, he offered to write a forward. I so appreciated it, but my Laid Off book went to press before we got his back from the editor. Besides the 2nd edition would be even better than the first. After getting the story edited, I sent it off to the designer, 1106 Designs in Phoenix. OK, that's all set to go. Now what about books to sell in the mean time. My sister, Bev, agreed to come over and check my e-mails to send out books ordered. What would I ever do without her - my friend and faithful encourager.

Since I had asked Michael Cary from CNN to hold off as long as possible, he did, but in the mean time a well known journalist, Tim Russert, died so everything was on hold anyway. Russert's sudden death was a huge loss to the news community and to the world.

Michael did call and tell me he was grateful that I didn't hound him about the airing of the Laid Off piece. Finally on July 17th, Michael called me and said it was going to air on July 18th - a Friday morning. 7:30 a.m.

Friday morning, I got this call from a cousin in Phoenix who had heard from his mother in North Dakota who had heard from her daughter in North Dakota who heard from another cousin in South Dakota - they had all seen the CNN segment before I had. Just that alone was worth it - isn't the world small? It reminded me of the old telephone game we used to play as children. Another one of our fly fishing buddies had been awake during the night and had seen Gerry and I on CNN and didn't know anything about the piece and called others in the Desert Fly Casters club. To say the least, many people had stumbled upon it and the e-mails started coming.

Yes, publicity like this does sell books. But I was going to ensure more publicity, I sent out 40 press releases to state and local radio and TV stations. The piece was even picked up by channels 5 and 10 in the Phoenix area. I'm still working on maximizing the event - but there are alot of things you can do to move the event into a more financially lucrative event. I've been on talk shows and have received several calls from people who heard the segment and wanted to know how I made it successfully through the lay offs. I'll tell you more about that in the next issue. I can hardly wait - I've just discovered another way to take my business to a whole new level. Stay tuned...,

Kitty Wiemelt, Here's to Finding Your Passion and Living Your Life on Purpose with Gladness.

Nitty-Gritty of Process with CNN

In my Never Believe It Could Happen post I told you basically about the amazing fact that CNN found me in a sea of a million people. When I talked to Michael the morning after I responded to his first e-mail, he actually interviewed me about my Laid Off? Don't Stress! book for about 45 minutes. He asked me questions like:

• what was the book about
• what was the inspiration for the book
• tell me your story of three lay offs
• how did you recover
• what are 3 things to encourage those who are laid off

Of course, since I knew he was calling, I got out my list of questions (and prepared answers) so that I would be ready as possible. He only asked a couple of "my" questions. Since it was my first time at talking to someone from a big network, I had no idea what to expect. I found he was extremely easy to talk to and pretty soon, I was not even worried about being ready, we just talked as friends. I don't know if this is typical; I think I was lucky.

After that first day, Michael said he had to put a proposal together and submit it as a story idea to CNN. He was hoping to get it on Issue #1. I also told him I was going to East Cape for a fly-fishing vacation with Jeff DeBrown of The Reel Baja in three weeks, so if it were going to happen we had to coordinate it around that. No, I was not about to give up a dream fly fishing vacation that we'd planned a year ago.

I think that was one of the reasons I intrigued him.  I was laid off three times, I decided to re-invent myself and become an entrepreneur at age 58, AND I was an avid fly fisher. Just before my husband retired, I started Winds of Change Consulting on a shoestring with 10 hours a week of marketing consulting with the Desert Pain Institute (DPI), joined NSA as a candidate, and joined Toastmasters in order to build my speaking career and started networking like crazy. It was profitable the very first year. He also liked that 6 years later, my husband Gerry and I were able to take 12 weeks off to fish and travel and I was making more money than I had ever made in Corporate America.

Back to the process...Michael called several times in the next two weeks to ask questions about my work, or about the book, or about times we could get together for the possible shoot. He even asked me if there was an airport in Lakeside near our Airstream so that they could come up and film me fly fishing in the beauty of Northern Arizona. We ditched that idea, the logistics just would be too complicated....He was still waiting to get the OK from CNN.

Finally the week before we were to head down to the Baja, he called me and said they had agreed to air the piece, but it would be on American Morning which starts at 3 a.m. EST. He assured me that CNN replays their pieces several times and then it would go to the Internet, so it would be aired several times. Again I was nervous, but I did what all the pros say to do, I sent him a whole list of questions he might ask (and that I would be prepared to answer:-)

We were leaving on vacation early Wednesday morning. I was working and very busy and had no idea how we could work it all in. They decided that Michael and a camera man he liked to work with would fly out on Monday and start the process - maybe shoot out at the Salt River on Monday and then at Desert Pain on Tuesday morning or even shoot us at the house packing for our big two week fishing trip.(oofta!!) My sister, Bev, and I went out to the Salt River to see if it was feasible - oh, yes, it was gorgeous. What a great backdrop, with the mountains and sun setting. I called the Arizona fish and game to see if they had stocked the river with fish and Salt River Project to see if there would even be enough water to fish. The levels tend to vary greatly in the summer.

The night before they came, Michael finally told me the name of the journalist would be that would interview me. I made the mistake of googling Ted Rowlands - man, if that wouldn't intimidate a person, this guy has been on so many cases i.e. Lacey, OJ Simpson etc. I recognized his voice from all the reporting. There was a saving grace, he came from Wisconsin originally. At least we'd have a lot in common since we'd lived there for twenty years.

You know, one of the things you always think about when going on TV is what to wear. I called my  friend, Mary Kay Ilnitsky from Icon Image and we discussed dress or pant suit, red or black etc. It never hurts to get advice. Well, Michael and Demere showed up at Desert Pain Institute in jeans. Immediately, they put me at ease. Unfortunately, only some of their equipment had come with them so they were running on batteries - we took the outside shots first. Fortunately, they could plug in inside DPI. Of course, I seized the opportunity to tell them all about DPI's all "green" facility and fantastic staff. We proceeded to the ambulatory surgery center to film. No, in this sort of dry run interview, Michael didn't ask me any of the questions that I'd sent him. We just chatted. We even were able to get one of the DPI doctors, Dr. Eric Boyd, in on the shots.

Tuesday morning bright and early, Gerry and I met Michael, Demere and Tom at a gas station on the way out to the Salt River - he had to get a day pass for the river. Of course, we had brought an extra pair of waders along for Ted, and a beautiful rod Gerry had made and a net for all the fish we were going to catch. Demere brought his own waders and out to the middle of the river we all went. Ted did the whole interview in the middle of the river. Gerry only rolled his eyes once when I was telling Ted how important attitude is while going through a lay off and that there is power in laughter through these tough times. I do get a little adamant about that. One of the things I've done since starting my own business is become a Certified Laughter Leader through the World Laughter Tours to add to my humor talks. Laughter is a gift that helps in all situations!!

After the interview, Ted and Gerry went off to learn more about fly fishing. I continued to fish and Demere and I stood in the middle of the river and solved all the problems of the world. When the crew left Mesa, they went to the cute little tea house, the Teeter House in Phoenix to film owner, Lynn Behringer, who also had a transition story in the Laid Off book.

The story of the airing will be the next blog, stop back to see how it all came down.