At the age of 11 Li Cunxin was plucked from his remote village in China to be groomed for the Beijing Dance Academy. As the 7th son in a family with minimal education and no worldly exposure, Li had no aspirations to study ballet. But after enduring grueling...
A lot of people talk about wanting to move to Hawaii, but for most of them, it's simply a fantasy. When Kathryn Ryan first expressed that desire, I have to say, I thought she might be just another New Englander seeking to escape the cold and icy winters of our...
Dr. Debbie Danowski, a professor at Sacred Heart University, is a friend of mine and also a former client. We were in a writers group for several years and have stayed connected since. Over a year ago Debbie wanted to work with me on her vision for her dream house....
Back-to-back coaching calls with similar themes give me ideas for my blog. Yesterday two of my creative clients reported in with extraordinary success stories. A designer client began apologetically, saying she hadn't completed her fieldwork assignments, but that...
On December 13, 1997 this egg I was commissioned to create was presented to concert pianist Adlan Cruz at the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport, CT. The event was a fund-raiser for BCHC, an acronym I can no longer identify. I'm sure I heard some buzz after...
Mercury may be in retrograde, but my client calls this week have been nothing short of stunning. This afternoon Sarah Youngblood of Youngblood Interiors started our conversation by saying that there's been a shift in her. (Music to my ears!) She didn't even need to...
After hearing rave reviews for Venus in Fur playing way off-Broadway (13th Street in NYC), my daughters and I got tickets for yesterday's matinee performance, the last one of the run. I got there early to pick up the tickets my older daughter had ordered. The box...
Cookie Russo (left) and I met at Camp Chinqueka as young girls--eight and ten. We were drawn to each other back then and re-united when Cookie found me at Mount Holyoke College where she entered a year after me. Our friendship re-ignited living in the same dorm and...
The subject line of the email dated 1/2/10 read: OH MY GOD...I JUST GOT A LETTER THAT I THOUGHT WAS FROM YOU... and it was from Erica Green, a client who has become a dear friend. In many of my Mastermind and Transitions groups, I have the participants write a...
I knew I couldn't pack one more thing into my day Wednesday, so I pulled out a notecard to let interior designer Olga Adler know that as much as I'd love to see her holiday table arrangements at Juliska's flagship store in Stamford, I was going to have to miss it....
When Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles, teaches us how to write an affirmation, he's specific. It needs to be in the present tense, positive, brief + several other attributes, and ending with the phrase "or something better." The implication is that...
I heard a familiar refrain this week. Something along the lines of, "Since I never heard back from "x" prospect, I decided to enroll in a course I'd been thinking of taking. I really got a lot out of it, and am moving forward in this new direction." Substitute any...
Even with taking the month of August off, changes are happening in my business. I'm beginning an alliance with a company I highly admire. We have our first event at the very end of the month which has already sold out. I love everything this company stands for, a...
The New England Women Business Owners (NEWBO) honored me this week with its Woman of Distinction Award. I received the call from Gretje Ferguson--a member of the nominating committee-- back in the dark, cold days of February. It wasn't something I'd applied for or...