It all started on a Wednesday with an email from my CBO that the Today Show confirmed a spot for me the following Tuesday. Yes! In less than one week, I was to be on one of the top morning television shows in the country. With my tight-knit, nimble team ready to take direction on a moment’s notice, just under a week to prepare wouldn’t typically scare me—however, last week when the call came in, I was away with my family on a short getaway, a little ‘treat’ for us all on the heels of my month-long book tour. Yikes!
So, I flew back to Phoenix that night and went straight to work. I worked half the night, then all day Thursday and Friday only to find out three hours before our booking sheet was due that we were on the wrong track and needed to re-work the entire segment by the end of the day. My heart fell. How was I going to craft another segment in just three hours? It took me three days to do the first one!
I have to admit I was a little worried at first. The producer asked me to do three place settings from the book, which was shot well over a year ago. I didn’t have much of what we used to create those settings laying around, and one particular request was for the party I did with Mariel Hemingway—all those items were from her house and backyard. Yowza! How was I going to pull this off? It’s the TODAY SHOW!!
But with the help of my team, I orchestrated three new examples of the story points I was being asked to convey. Again, this would have been a no-brainer, but given the small window of time (did I mention three hours?) plus the fact that I promised my kiddos I would be back to our getaway spot the next morning, I REALLY needed to get everything wrapped up that night.
We scurried and pulled together the things we did have, repurposing old pieces of fabric and stemware and dishes (practice what you preach, right??) and wrote a completely new booking sheet. At 6:00pm (Eastern!) I hit the send button for the second time…”Would this be ok?” And then sat on pins and needles for what seemed like forever… just waiting… Thankfully, the email response came back that afternoon and our producer loved it! She said the new direction was great and let us know we were a go! Whew.
Just another lesson on the power of being flexible and rolling with the punches. (Not that I didn’t earn more than a handful of grey hairs that day!!)
But the intensity of this BIG DAY didn’t stop there… Stay tuned!
Live the dream,
