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"As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Marianne Williamson |
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For all intensive purposes, what follows is basically just for my record keeping. It's an abbreviated, albeit somewhat long, chronological account of my career. If it serves a public purpose, perhaps it shows what time and persistence can do for one's success.
I graduated, with a B average and a bad haircut, from San Francisco State University in 1989. I majored in speech and communications and minored in marketing. I would have double majored but the thought of having twice as much homework changed my mind. The highlight of my education came not from the classroom, but from my two year experience of managing a rock-n-roll band. This part-time hobby largely paid my bills. The rest was paid by student loans.
Three internships in college resulted in a job with Levi Strauss & Co. at their Bay Area headquarters. I began with prestigious tasks such as organizing the video tape library, and then was rescued from boredom, by a rewarding two year stint as their first Videoconferencing Manager. The position paid $25/hr and offered lots and lots of hours -- this combined with doing contract work at $50/hr for The GEO Group, a corporate training company, resulted in an income of $60,000 plus. Money got really good that same year when I also earned a $20,000 commission from a $200,000 sponsorship deal that I created for The GEO Group.
When the pilot test of videoconferencing was complete, and right before the "videoconferencing manager" position was about to turn into "videoconferencing scheduler", I left Levi Strauss & Co. I found full time work with The GEO Group, as a producer of a breakthrough Fortune 500 leadership event called A Day In the Future. In a fast and intense year I got great entrepreneurial mentoring, but I also got stiffed for over $40,000 of income. (A Day in the Future turned out brilliant, and on September 2, 1991 we put it on for 500 of Los Angeles' Who's Who in Business. But the planned money-making model didn't work.)
After another year of working with The GEO Group, I lost interest in the work and left. My next career step was catalyzed by an extensive reading sabbatical and a 21 day Outward Bound in the Joshua Tree desert. 1992 marked my the year I set out to write a book that would help college students succeed and began launching myself as a speaker at universities. It is also a year in which I earned an amazing $16,000.
1993 brought twelve speaking engagements, a publishing deal, a summer job testing video games for Electronic Arts and $18,000 of income. 1994 brought twenty-two lectures and many temp jobs. 1995 brought thirty-five speaking dates, the bookstore release of Major in Success: Make College Easier, Beat The System & Get A Very Cool Job, a nomination for Speaker of the Year, the launching of my speaking career, the craziness of my $95,000 adventure, and a guest reporter role on the television show Hard Copy. 1996 brought fifty speaking dates, a second nomination for Speaker of the Year, the third printing of Major in Success, and a television show contract with Paramount's new hit show, Real TV and a whole lot of story writing for my web site. 1997 brought 65 speaking engagements, a co-host role for a PBS career course called Career Advantage, my first corporate speaking engagement, a spokesperson role for Visa Inc., and many awards for my website. 1998 brought over 100 speaking engagements, a revised edition of Major in Success, a guest role on Canadian Radio radio, a renewed spokesperson role for Visa, the adoption of Major in Success as a required text at the Univ. of Tampa, and my first engagements as an after-dinner entertainment speaker. On a challenging note, the book of stories I hoped to publish suffered a big set back by being deemed not-ready-for-prime time by an editor, who's opinion I respect.
I closed at the Millenium by getting stationary (for the first time) and by licensing a young man present my Major in Success talks. After three months of intensive training Troy Stende was ready, and in the Fall of 1999, for the first time, my presentation was given in two places at once, Troy in PA and myself in FL (woo hoo!). This not only made double speaking possible, it freed me up to lift weights (though you can hardly tell) and develop a presentation about the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo (a real favorite).
2000 was full of fear and triumph. I affectionately refer to it as my Year of Living Dangerously. I spoke at a lot of corporations, such as Motorola, Shell, RSM McGladery, and even an annual leadership retreat for senior executives. I developed a new keynote called Charisma: Your Personal Magic and delivered it several places. Additionally, I revised Major in Success, a third time, while Jack Canfield added a foreword (bigger woo hoo!). Upon it's release I gifted thousands of copies to the Boys and Girls Club of America, and began donating 100% of the book's royalties to the The World Food Programme. A summer highlight was co-leading and designing a 10 day forum for college students held at Claremount College in August. Perhaps most notable for the year though is the fact that in November, I picked up my book of stories again and began rewriting the whole thing.
[Editors note: Ugh... this is no longer "brief." ]
In 2001, my 10th year in the speaking/writing biz, I devoted myself to rewriting my book of stories. I'm telling you, all year long I wrote and wrote and wrote to better my stories. Along the way it was a very good year. 28 speaking engagements came my way, including one in Puerto Rico.My book Major in Success achieved it's highest sales numbers yet, (#300 at Amazon!) and generated thousands of dollars and donations for charity. I also created a new talk, Martin Latulippe, stepped up and got a publishing deal for a French edition of Major in Success. And I picked up my 3rd nomination for Speaker of the Year. Then, at the years end, I excitedly sent proposals to 15 of the world's greatest literary agents, hoping to get a deal for my re-written book of stories. The results: 15 rejections. Next! In December, I created a flyer for a one-man show I long dreamed of creating.
In 2002, after 10 years of trying, I was finally selected for a national showcase, but I had an off day and wiffed it. You truly can't win them all. On the other hand, my 27 real keynotes during the year went great. I also pursued my dream of doing a one-man show in a theater, and by the years end, I'd performed rough drafts of my show 5 times, including a short performance for a packed house at Sushi Theater in San Diego! By God's blessing, in May I picked up a great literary agent for my book of stories, and kept my fingers crossed as he sent my work to every major publisher in the US. But all I received, yet again, were rejections. Are these people nuts?! None-the-less, I vow to keep trying... The unbelievable happened in April: Barbara Walters interviewed me one-on-one on National TV about Major in Success! Other great things included the bookstore release of L'Ecole du Success, the French edition of Major in Success and its co-author, Martin, became the 2nd licensed presenter of my work. I ended the year by hiring Santana, a full time office director, and perhaps best of all about the year, donated more money than ever to charity.
2003 kicked off with a bang. I performed my budding one-man show, Man 1, Bank 0, for 100 in Dallas and the show finally showed it's potential to entertain. At the year's beginning I also woke up to the unexpected calling to write a book for high schoolers: Gearing Up for a Great Life. Six short months later it was done and published. The first printing sold out in less than a month! Keynotes continued to be my mainsail (50 in all). High points were the commencement address I did for Harper College, the speeches I did for Liberty League in Cancun and the development of a new keynote titled "Living Brave: More Passion, Less Fear." While I still couldn't get a publishing deal for the book form of Man 1, Bank 0, the show caught fire near the year's end. I performed and won awards at the SF Fringe Festival, caught HBO's attention, and was invited to showcase on the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood at the Hudson Theatre. The year ended with invitations to perform next year in HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and the Uno Festival in Victoria! Perhaps most notably about 2003 was the fact that I only worked M-W-F's throughout, and spent T&TH's with my daughter. Less work, more riches!
2004... what a year! Undoubtedly, my one-man show dominated the year. I performed it a whopping 36 times! I also released a DVD of the show which I can honestly say is the product I'm most proud of ever creating. The highlight of my show this year goes hands down to my run at the Winnipeg Fringe, where I performed the show eleven times to eleven sold out audiences! Runner up goes to my time in Aspen at the HBO Comedy Festival, and specifically the second night when my show took a magical leap forward during a single performance that seemed to come from above. 2004 also brought awesome speaking experiences (27 in all) including an astonishingly powerful experience of leading 1000 people through a board breaking/goal getting workshop in Cancun with my wife. In September I began taking on personal coaching clients and quickly discovered a LOVE for coaching! Also this year brought a third language edition of my book Major in Success (Korean). Perhaps what needs to be noted most about my year though is that is was a very spiritual year for me, one that brought great peace and great inspiration.
2005... It feels like this was the best year yet. For starters, my show made it to NYC for a month long run off-Broadway at the Lambs Theatre! Plus I did runs in New Zealand,, Montreal, Charleston and five other cities. Unexpectedly, the best show of my life happened this year, and not in New York, but in Stone Mountain, GA where wonderful people apparently have an extra special love of laughter. My speaking continued to roll with 32 talks with unforgettable experiences in Arlington, Baltimore, Auburn and Dallas. (Auburn gave out 4500 copies of my book to every new student!) Also, all year long I developed a new keynote called When There's a Will There's a Way. I think it has an exciting future. Additionally, I put on my first two seminars for speakers this year which brought two great groups of people to San Diego. It was fun 'opening the chocolate factory' and giving alway the secrets. Also continued the personal coached with a handful of extraordinary people and loved every minute of it. Did I mention the all-expense paid trip on the only 6 star cruise ship in the world? Exquisite. Perhaps the best thing about the year though was the new dreams that came to me for 2006!
2006 ... Where to begin? My 1 man show was launched onto magnificent sold out mainstages throughout the south (15 of them - had the show of my life in Hilton Head) and then went all the way to the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival. There was also a super-enjoyable sold out and extended run at the Edmonton Fringe on which my daughter accompanied me. On the speaking front, I had both corporate and college highlights that extended from Malibu to London, but it was my keynotes in Cancun, Orlando for NCSL, and my 5 day "Masters" seminar in Washington DC for Eagle U that topped my 'favs' list. But it was not a business as usual year. 2006 was really dominated by new beginnings for me in the world of on-line coaching and teleseminars. A good 8 months solid of this year went to creating my new dream endeavor, higher-touch ways to serve more people with my work. It's all a gianormous new extension of my passion that nicely aligns with the exciting side of new technologies. After a year of effort, my coaching program is now reaching hundreds on a weekly and monthly basis. Oh, and I expanded my office space this year, and studied a little Reiki.
2007... What a year! Early on I received an incredible invitation to head up the creation of two extraordinary empowerment and prosperity development products called Awakening and Discovery. I devoted myself fully to the project for the better part of 5 months and loved every second right on thru the DVD and CD products were released in September. The same company, LifePath Unlimited, invited me to continue on as a creative partner in their live event and product development. It's a thrilling opportunity. We put on our first live event in Puerto Rico in November. I did some Man 1, Bank 0 performances this year but not very many. The highlight being my run at the prestigious Blumenthal Theater in Charlotte and the addition of curtains to my staging! (Oh, and Man 1 is a permanent addition to the wall at the hip LakeShore Theater in Chicago now - that's fun.) I kept up my speaking with a couple dozen performances but most satisfying was the creation of a keynote that I feel really tremendous about titled, "Formulas for Miraculous Results." My coaching community was a thriving part of my mix throughout the year and a part of my work I truly enjoy. Finally, in November, my wife and I moved into our absolute dream home in Encinitas.
2008... My spiritual advisor had a vision of a profoundly life-changing event happening to me in 2008. My '08 started with a full-on case of Bells Palsy that froze the left side of my face from Feb-July, while I was performing and speaking. I toured Man 1, Bank 0 to 17 cities. I finally came to feel that Man 1 was creatively complete; six years in the making. Of many stellar shows this year, my night at the Zoellner Arts Center with 600 in attendance was perhaps the best Man 1 night yet. I spoke at more than a dozen colleges and companies also. I spun my Bells Palsy experience into a new spiritual/scientific keynote, Humazing Beings, and it was given an extraordinary reception for a company audience in Budapest. I presented a talk that combined wisdom from one of my favorite books, The Alchemist, with the story of my theater career to a college audience - very memorable and satisfying night. I continued my coaching program and my wife and I presented our seminar for speakers again. But most of all the year was dominated by my passion and work on LifePath Unlimited, an extraoardinary personal development company I am co-founding. I designed and spoke at our company's two BreakThrough events held in Cancun first in June and then in November. Firewalking is only a small part of these extraordinary 3 day events. Every Saturday I interviewed a remarkable person for a live LifePath call I conduct. Perhaps my professional high of the year was the inspirational-show titled, 5 Easy Chairs of Entrepreneurs, that I performed at the Nov. BreakThrough event. It was the achievement of my inspirational speaking combined with my theater performance - something I've long anticipated but finally realized. Truly an amazing and fantastic year!
2009... A very creative year and one dominated by my involvement with LifePath Unlimited. I put a ton of time and creative energy into the creation of our three transformational conferences this year, one in St. Thomas, one in Costa Rica, one in Cancun. I'm especially satisfied with my design of our 5 day Destiny Conference, it's very out of the box. For the second year in a row, every Saturday I interviewed a very cool person for the LifePath community, amazing individuals like David Goggins and Sean Stephenson. I blogged a fair amount. Additionally, through LifePath I headed up and accomplished two large charitable visions I'd held for a couple years; I organized a fundraiser in St. Thomas to build a school in Africa, and I put in place a company-wide system where everytime a product sale is made company money is directed to charity. LifePath also took me to Sydney Australia twice this year because of our global growth. In what has to be called a last laugh, I was invited to perform "Man 1, Bank 0" at three Banker's events this year! (Bankers love the show, and honestly, I always knew they'd come around). On the speaking front, I created a new show, Dream On, all about the many obstacles I had to overcome to succeed with my one man show, and performed it at BreakThrough. I think this keynote has real legs. Additionally, I became an official presenter of the "Awakening The Dreamer Symposium," and led it at Destiny in Costa Rica. It's a program to help make the world a better place environmentally, spiritually and socially. Between my speaking and performing I did about 30 performances total, not bad considering that LifePath dominates my time. And at the very end of the year, I picked up my Man 1, Bank 0 book and took another pass at the writing, and you know what? Dare I say I think this book is darn near ready for a release?
2010... I'm headed into 2010 with more confidence and creative urges than ever before in my life. I feel poised within myself for huge and new things.
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