Sir Ken Robinson on Finding Creativity as an Adult

I just watched a five minute video where Elizabeth Lesser interviews Sir Ken Robinson on how to find creativity as an adult.

Please click here to watch the video.

Here are some of the comments he makes:

It’s never too late to find a new aspect of yourself. Obviously there are some physical limitations – at age 59, he doesn’t anticipate landing a leading role in a ballet any time soon.

We’re capable of extraordinary things. This is something that is at the very heart of my coaching philosophy.  I use the analogy of my experience as a stand up comic.  When I go on stage as a stand up comic, my goal is to make people laugh out loud.  Not to just smile or giggle.  I’ve chosen to live my life that way.  Pursuing the extraordinary rather than the ordinary.

Time moves differently when you’re in your Element.

He recommends taking two steps: a process of inner reflection where you take inventory on the things you’re drawn to do, the things you’d always wished you’d done and never did and then complement that with an outward journey of engagement.  The outword journey involves trying things you’ve never tried.

The comments that resonated most deeply for me were his comments about energy. He said that some activities take energy from you while those activities when you are in your Element give energy to you.   You feel emotionally buoyed by taking part in those activities.  I know this to be true from my own experience.  It’s counter-intuitive to add more things to an already packed life but whenever I add writing/performance to my life, I am energized by it.  When I add more activities that don’t make me feel in my Element, I am completely drained.

Lizzie, this one’s for you

Today, New Year’s Eve 2009, would have been my beloved Scottish grandmother’s 101st birthday.

Elizabeth Robertson, “Wee Lizzie” to all who knew and loved her, may have been small in stature but she had the personality and character of a giant.

I often wonder if it was the genes I inherited from Wee Lizzie that brought me to New York. I wasn’t a particularly adventurous child.   Our family had never done Disney.  Family vacations were always to Scotland to visit Lizzie and the rest of the Robertson clan.

Lizzie got her first ten-year passport at age 70, never imagining that she would renew it. But renew it she did.   In her late seventies, she traveled to Orlando on her own for three weeks and did her first and only exercise class.  Lizzie in Lycra and legwarmers must have been a vision.  She traveled to Lourdes, Florida and Turkey and many other destinations in those ten-plus years of being a passport-holder. She continued to regale us with wonderful tales long after her trips ended.

Wee Lizzie passed away at age 93. My biggest regret in life is that I couldn’t get back quickly enough to see her when she fell ill and to be at her funeral (Francesca was still a baby and I couldn’t get a passport for her quickly enough to get home).   The intensity of this regret burned a hole in my heart until I spent some time with it and allowed it to be.   Given my time again, I would have been on the next flight out of New York so that I could have physically said my “goodbyes” to the woman who shaped the person I desperately hope to become.

In reality, wee Lizzie is ever-present in the way my youngest daughter folds her arms and the way she carries herself. Her spirit shines as brightly in death as her personality did in life.

Here are some lessons I learned from the way Lizzie lived her life:

1.   To quote Shakespeare, “ there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. Lizzie had an extraordinarily positive outlook on life.  She always saw the best in situations.   She recognised that not everyone had that same outlook on life and was not impressed by those with a glass half-full mentality.  She often commented that “you could carry some folks on your back all day and, at the end of the day, they’d still complain of sore feet” (which sounded like “sare feet” with her beautiful lilting Scottish accent).

2. The importance of laughter.  Whenever you were with Lizzie, it felt like laughter was always imminent.  She had a constant twinkle in her eye and a constant quip at the ready.  She would tell hilariously funny stories and often struggle to finish them as she was laughing so hard herself.  I think my respect and admiration for funny people was born from time spent with her.   Some of my happiest memories are of vacations spent in Scotland with my Granny.  Each visit we would go to the Gaiety Theater in Ayr and see famous Scottish acts such as Johnny Beattie (singing The Glasgow Rap), Andy Stewart (singing “Donald, where’s your troosers”) and The Alexander Brothers.   What was wonderful was that we laughed just as hard when sitting in Lizzie’s living room as we did when being entertained by “real comedians”.

“A day without laughter is a day wasted. ”  ~ Catullus

3.  Character not circumstances shape a life. By all objective standards, Granny had a very hard life.  Partly it was the era she lived in.  Times were much physically harder then than they are now.  Our generation really doesn’t have a clue what life was like for people of our grandparents’ generation.  She worked as a servant for a large estate in Scotland and the work was hard.  Yet, that wasn’t what she dwelled upon.  Even in her role as someone’s servant, she was remarkable.  She forged life-long friendships with the people she “worked” for.

She had a life that was hard and yet she made it a great life. In an era when women didn’t really have any social outlets or expectations, she invited a large number of women to come to her tiny house out in the country when the men were all out drinking in the town.  As all the women left at the end of the night, the bus driver would laugh and say it was like people leaving a theater at the end of the night.  She created a life that reflected her character and not her circumstances.

4.  The importance of gratitude. Wee Lizzie considered herself a very lucky wee woman.  She was grateful for everything – her family, her wonderful daughters-in-law, her friends, her faith (she was one of the most wonderful examples of Catholicism I have ever known), for living to a big age (after she passed 70, she would often comment that she’d had her 3 score years and 10 and so any time from that point on was a gift).   Long before Oprah taught us about gratitude journals, Lizzie was living a life of gratitude.  She loved the residential home where she lived at the very end of her life.   She would tell everyone what  a “lucky wee woman” she was to live there.  Again, character not circumstance.

5.  People – especially children – want to be seen for who they really are. When I was talking to some very close friends about Wee Lizzie recently, one of them said: “Every child wants to have some person who sees who they really are.  I have a hunch that your grandmother was that person for you.”  This resonated with me so strongly.  I did feel truly seen and recognised by Lizzie.  I felt truly loved.  It’s an experience that becomes a part of who you are.

6. Be you. Lizzie was glorious just by being exactly who she was.  She didn’t try to be a good mother or grandmother, she automatically was those things because she was a truly good person and a truly authentic person.  I don’t think that the kind of mother you are defines who you are as a woman but I do think that the kind of woman you are defines who you are in all the other roles in your life.  She had it the right way round.  She was herself.  In everything she did, in every relationship she had.

The psychologist, Alice Miller, interviewed a number of adults about their mothers. Most said “I know that my mother loved me, but …”.   She then spoke to one man who, when asked about his mother, smiled and responded, “my mother loved life.” How powerful is that? That is how I felt about Lizzie, she loved life.

In February 2010, I will be performing my new one woman show, “Mother is a Verb”. It is dedicated to Lizzie.

“Lizzie, this one’s for you.”

how to make new year’s resolutions that refuse to be ignored …

I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a few years ago when I finally realized that making a list – without more – wasn’t going to magic my perfect life into existence.   At about the same time, I cancelled my monthly gym membership when the same harsh reality dawned – you do have to go to the gym to see some results.

I’ve always been stronger on the planning side than the doing side.   Better at dreaming than sweating the details.   I always blamed my inability to fulfill any of my resolutions on lack of willpower, being a procrastinator or a perfectionist.

The fact is that the way we traditionally make resolutions sets us up to fail and, the more we fail, the worse we feel about ourselves and the more resolutions we have to make and so it goes on.  If you’re really ready to make some changes, here’s Stand Up, Mama’s three-step plan for making New Year’s resolutions that simply refuse to be ignored.

Step 1 – Passion

Passion is something that was always missing in my resolutions.   My list looked like an updated version of the “Ten Commandments” – “Thou shalt not eat foods thou enjoyest, thou shalt not spend money on things that bringest thou joy, thou shalt force thyself into a torturous exercise regime, blah blah blah.”   At this point, my true self put its fingers in its ears and started shouting “lalalalalalalala” to ensure it didn’t hear a word of any such nonsense.

Now, how about, rephrasing a little and considering eating only foods I love and nothing else (you’ll be surprised how sensible your body is when left to its own devices), cutting my debt and saving a little so that I can take my daughters to Disneyland or myself to Rome, going rollerblading with my friends each weekend or taking salsa classes to get my metabolism kick-started.   Now my true self has pulled up a chair and is looking interested.

There has to be some damned good reason for a resolution to be on your list.   Stop depriving yourself and start living a little. I’m talking about kick-off-your-slingbacks, belly-laughing, toe-curling pleasure.    The more passion you feel for something, the greater your chances of actually getting out there and doing something about it.

The first time I felt physically fit (and discovered muscles I didn’t know I had) was when I first moved to New York and started latin dance lessons.   Walking into the dance studio was nerve-wracking but with a frisson of excitement rather than the heavy feeling of dread I would feel when walking into a gym.   There was a passion and excitement attached to taking dance lessons that made it an absolute joy to go.

If you write a resolution and you are not passionate about the thing itself or the impact of what doing that thing will do (for example, the freedom you will feel once you’re out of debt) then delete it and go back to the drawing board.   For some passion tips, look back on a time in your life when you were gloriously, deliriously happy.   OK, if that’s a stretch, go for the happiest memory your mind can muster.

What were you doing?   Who was in your life?   Where were you living?   Take a passion inventory and reintroduce as many of those things/people/places as are possible and/or ethical.

Step 2 – Turtle Steps

This is a phrase used by the marvelous Martha Beck.   This simple idea has transformed my life.   In her book “Finding Your Own North Star – claiming the life you were meant to live”,  Martha Beck defines a “turtle step” as her “label for the largest possible task that your essential self can do easily.   The last word – easily – is very, very important. … Even on a bad day, when you contemplate your turtle steps, your immediate, genuine gut reaction should be, “Oh, yeah, sure. I can do that.”

For example, I’ve been talking a big game about starting yoga classes.   For months.   OK, years.   So what was stopping me?

Good question.   Before I could take a yoga class, there were a couple of small, yet vitally important turtle steps I needed to take …

(1) Buy some clothes suitable for an exercise class, and

(2) Find a yoga class.

(1) Now this is not an empty “I don’t have a thing to wear” claim.   I threw out all my exercise clothes a couple of years ago when the realist in me figured that if I hadn’t worn them in over five years, chances were pretty good that they weren’t going to see the light of day for the foreseeable future.   Also, to be frank, had I kept them and worn them, people would have assumed I was auditioning for a sequel to “Fame”.

Quick fashion tip here – be discriminating in your use of legwarmers.

(2) You need to know where you’re headed if you’re going to have any chance of getting there.   The chances of me walking out of my apartment and stumbling across a yoga class are pretty slim.   Although these steps may sound trivial, unless I take them, the lotus position is going to continue to elude me.

So when you’ve got your passion list together, go back over it and break down every item on the list into turtle steps.   By that I mean every step you need to take to make that thing happen.   For me, a first turtle step of browsing the Internet for local yoga classes was something I could accomplish easily.   As a result, my fingers have become really quite flexible.

Step 3 – Accountability

When I used to beat myself up about lack of willpower, procrastination etc, I may as well have added “breathing” to the list.   If you have any doubt about the universality of procrastination,  make a point to watch Ellen DeGeneres’ fabulous comedy routine on the subject.

You need a support network to hold you accountable because you simply aren’t qualified to do it yourself.   Don’t beat yourself up about it or think that you can because you can’t.   It’s called “Loving What Is”.

So, choose a valued friend or join a local group who are pursuing the same goals or hire yourself a life coach.   When choosing a friend or life coach, make sure you choose someone with that special combination of cheerleader and bs detector who will call it like it is.   You don’t want someone who thinks that it’s kinder to sugarcoat it rather than – God forbid – blow your excuses wide open and keep you on track.  

So, if you’re really ready to claim the life you were meant to live in all its multicolor glory, start with Passion, take some Turtle Steps and make sure you have someone around to hold you Accountable.

Chances are you won’t recognize yourself next New Year’s Eve!

T’is the Season to go crazy … la la la la aaaaargh la la la la!

For many of us, what should be a magical time of year becomes one of the most stressful and least satisfying times for us.   I think that the way we spend our Holidays can be a great lesson in how we are living our lives – we can see our normal behavior and characteristics exaggerated at this time of year.   If you’re good at making yourself a priority and taking care of yourself, I bet you have a blast during the Holidays!   If, however, you tend to put yourself last on a very long list of people you’re taking care of, then my guess is that you really ignore your needs and desires at this time of year.

A few years ago, my husband, our two daughters and I spent our first Christmas alone.   My parents were unable to visit us from England and it would be my very first Christmas without them.   It felt quite momentous.   So much so, that we decided to plan a day that was uniquely perfect for us.   How outrageous.

We enjoyed a long relaxed morning with the girls opening gifts.  It felt remarkably stress-free as there was no impending disapproval lingering in the air if the girls were not angelic throughout the entire process.   None of us missed a single moment as we had cooked dinner the night before and were having leftovers for Christmas dinner.   What were we thinking?

We had tickets for the Big Apple Circus in New York’s Lincoln Center in the afternoon.   The circus was gloriously tacky.   We laughed.   We groaned.   We ate hotdogs and popcorn for lunch … on Christmas Day.   How very dare we?  

When we emerged from the circus tent, a little bleary-eyed from the bright lights, we rubbed our eyes in disbelief.   In the two short hours we had been inside, Lincoln Center had been transformed into a snow-covered winter wonderland.   It was an unexpectedly magical and perfect moment.   It was as if Mother Nature was giving us her stamp of approval for throwing off the normal traditions and creating a day that was uniquely right for the four of us.

Why share this story?   Because as I stood watching the girls laugh and tumble in the snow with my husband, I felt that it was the first Holiday in many years that felt truly magical to me.   There’s something eerily quiet about snow.   I felt that same eerie quietness deep inside as I treasured the moment.

“When I’m trusting and being myself … everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously.” …Shakti Gawain, therapist.

In Martha Beck’s* article “The Halo Effect” (O: The Oprah Magazine, December 2003), she writes:

“Suppose that every morning of this holiday season, you asked yourself what you really truly wanted to do that day, and then did just that.   Would you spend time you don’t have buying things you can’t afford for people you don’t like?   I didn’t think so. …   Would you engage in activities you love, in the places you love, with the people you love?   Oh, yeah.   That would be terrific. So do it.”

Great advice for the Holidays?   Absolutely!  In fact, wouldn’t this be one hell of a way to live life all the time?  

The only problem is that, for many of us, it’s been so long since we’ve followed our heart’s desires that we struggle to identify the things and places we love.   So let me help you!   I’m going to give you an exercise developed by Martha Beck that will help you to uncover your own inner compass.   This will guide you not only to make the Holidays truly magical but also to make every single day more joyful and satisfying to your true self.

The Body Compass:

Begin this exercise by remembering a very unhappy period or experience in your life.   I’m sure you’re thinking “and a very Happy Holiday to you too!”   Bear with me, this works!

Think about how that memory is making you feel … what physical symptoms and sensations are connected to this memory.   Let’s call the memory of this sensation the “ghost of Misery Past”.

Now write these negative sensations down and give them a name.   For example, the cold feeling, the tight chest, the sinking feeling in your stomach.

Now, repeat the process, except this time recall a very happy period or event in your life.   Again, feel for the ghost of those sensations.   This time, let’s call this the “ghost of Happiness Past”.

Write down these positive sensations and describe them.   For example, the warm feeling in your stomach, the tingling in your shoulders.  

These two sensations are your inner compass.   When you sense the ghost of Happiness Past, you are heading in the right direction … toward a place or activity that makes you authentically happy.   When you sense the ghost of Misery Past, stop!   You are headed off course – more than likely trying to please someone else rather than your true self.

So how is this going to improve this Holiday season for you?   I want you to list five things that you “have to” do over the Holiday season.   Then read each item aloud.   Notice your physical reaction to the items on the list and consider what sensation is connected to the item.   Is it the sensation linked to Misery Past or Happiness Past?  

Focus on the activity that you feel the strongest negative reaction to.   Attach a number to the activity ranging from –10, meaning the absolute worst feeling or experience, to +10, the absolute best feeling or experience.   Now, ask yourself if you really, literally “have to” do the negative items on your Holiday list.   I want you to pay very close attention to your reasoning as to why you “have to” do those things.   This is where you are going to discover a wealth of information about some deeply held beliefs that are in direct conflict with your true self.

Let’s say that one of the items that you react to negatively is that you “have to” cook the Holiday family dinner and then clean up afterwards.   You get a very strong sense of the ghost of Misery Past when you reflect on this “chore”.   Do you really truly have to cook the dinner?   What are your options?   Brainstorm some alternatives and see if the thought of those options are less stressful for you.

What you may discover is that you actually love cooking this special meal and that you are doing it because you want to, not because you have to.   Imagine how different you will be with this thought.   That tradition remains because it brings you joy and is something that works for you and your family as a whole.   However, if you are cooking dinner because you have mistakenly believed that you truly “have to” then the act of cooking is not going to nurture your true self and is going to make you (and those around you!) pretty miserable.   So pick one of the alternatives. As long as people get fed, who cares where the food comes from?

The Body Compass exercise can become an incredible tool to guide you in every decision – big or small – that you make on a daily basis.   You will become familiar with your unique set of sensations and come to trust them. Believe me, they will serve you well!

So, go to places you love with the people you adore and do the things you love to do!  May YOUR Holidays and your Everydays be truly magical!!!

With love from

“Mamacita Ho Ho” (this is the nickname my 3 year old son has given me and I LOVE it!!)

Are you a “safe place” for your children?

I am in the middle of reading “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” by a fellow Brit, Sir Ken Robinson.  I am LOVING it!!!

One of the people Sir Ken profiles in this book is Arianna Huffington (her life story is fascinating).  Arianna makes this comment about her mother:

“I don’t think that anything I’ve done in my life would have been possible without my mother.  My mother gave me that safe place, that sense that she would be there no matter what happened, whether I succeeded or failed.  She gave me what I am hoping to be able to give my daughters, which is a sense that I could aim for the stars combined with the knowledge that if I didn’t reach them, she wouldn’t love me any less.  She helped me understand that failure was a part of any life.”

Is this something you experienced as a daughter?

As a mother, do you feel that you’re a safe playground for your children?  If not, do you see ways that you could bring this into your relationship with your children?  It’s something that, as a mother, I’m very conscious of providing for my children.  I’ll be starting a discussion about this very topic on my Facebook page in the next week or so.  Please click here if you would like to follow me on Facebook.

Click here to find out more about Sir Ken Robinson and his book.

Take care,

Sally

Who do YOU want to be this Halloween?

This is an article I wrote for a parenting magazine in 2006..  I always think of it when my daughters start to talk about who they want to be this Halloween so, in celebration of the Season of Bad Candy, here’s my thoughts on lessons learned from who kids choose to be for Halloween:

“As the mother of two daughters (7 and 4), I’ve loved watching the evolution of their choice of Halloween costumes.  For the first year or so, they had no choice and I’m horrified by the “cute” costumes we subject our babies to!  I think that we’ve pretty much covered all the Disney princesses and I daren’t calculate how much money I’ve spent in Disney Stores over the years.  I’m always the mother in the Disney Store on October 29^th with the anxious look on her face as I’m neither organized enough to buy a costume when the sales are on nor creative enough to make costumes for the girls myself.  

Each year in September, the question starts looming – “who DO you want to be for Halloween?”.  The answer will be determined by whatever movie or TV show or book has influenced your child most that year.

 It made me wonder who we, as grown women, would choose to be if we had one day a year to dress up as the character who had inspired us or influenced us most that year.  As I was mulling over the idea for this article – while unloading the dishwasher – my seven year old walked into the kitchen wearing the red wig from her Little Mermaid costume, a pink boa from a dance costume, the dress from her Cinderella costume, shoes from Snow White and makeup from her rock star costume.

 The result was something uniquely her.  Yes, she’d brought together elements from many characters but the final result was something quite unique (although I did get a fleeting vision of  Cyndi Lauper in her early days!). 

She no longer looked like a cookie-cutter princess, available (at a price) from any Disney store.  She brought all these different looks together to create something with her unique mark on it.

 In that moment, my daughter taught me some valuable lessons about living your best life…

 Click here to read the full article …

Follow Stand Up, Mama on Facebook and Twitter!

After avoiding Facebook and Twitter like the plague for the longest time, I finally succumbed and joined them.  In all honesty, I still don’t completely “get” Twitter.  However, I am completely addicted to Facebook! 

For someone like me, who lives 3,000 miles away from “home” and who has had so many different lives, there is something so comforting about having your “world” in one place where you can see the faces and feel connected to the people who make up your life. 

I have my personal Facebook page and have just launched a Facebook page for Stand Up, Mama! 

If you’d like to be connected in this way, please click here  to become a fan.

Stand Up, Mama supports The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood

For some time now, I have wanted to identify a charity that I could support through my coaching practice.  I have chosen The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. I will donate 10% of my coaching fees to this charity and will also hold some events specifically to raise money to support this wonderful Alliance.

If you would like to donate to The White Ribbon Alliance or join their events and activities, please click here to visit their website.

Many mothers in modern countries often bemoan the loss of their “old life” when they become mothers.  What we too often forget is that millions of women each year literally lose their lives during childbirth.   Here is some information from The White Ribbon Alliance’s website:

“The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is an international coalition of individuals and organizations formed to promote increased public awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns in the developing, as well as, developed countries.

The white ribbon is dedicated to the memory of all women who have died in pregnancy and childbirth. In some cultures, white symbolizes mourning and in others it symbolizes hope and life. The white ribbon represents this dual meaning globally. The White Ribbon Alliance not only works to sustain life and hope for all women, but also mourns and honors those women who did not survive pregnancy or childbirth.

The White Ribbon Alliance represents an opportunity for new partnerships to work together to advance women’s health and women’s rights everywhere. The WRA:

• Educates its members and member organizations through seminars, working groups etc.;
• Creates with its members educational, communication and technical materials for use by members and others;
• Organizes policy efforts directed at national and local governments to increase funding and programs for Safe Motherhood;
• Supports and assists countries (other than the U.S.) to create a national White Ribbon Alliance (i.e. Nepal, Indonesia, India, Madagascar, Vietnam etc.).

Since its launch in 1999, the White Ribbon Alliance has been a leader among those holding governments and institutions to account for the tragedy of maternal mortality. With members in 142 countries and National Alliances established in 14 – Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia – WRA is amplifying the voices of people suffering from the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality of complications due to pregnancy and childbirth.”

What’s YOUR Circus Act?!

A much-loved family tradition for the past few years has been our annual trip to the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center in New York City.   We used to live near Lincoln Center – it’s where my oldest daughter learned to walk – and I would often see the performers from the Circus in the supermarket or post office.  

Having seen them perform such stunning feats in the Circus, I was always somewhat surprised by how ordinary they appeared in regular life.   I don’t mean that in any derogatory way – simply, that they weren’t striking or exceptional in any way.  

One year, as I watched the Circus, I was struck by something that seemed to me to be a perfect analogy for what I believe is involved in living your best life.   Each and every performer was using something unique about them to create something exceptional.  

The incredibly slim guy with the tiny hips was perfectly created to soar high in the air when the man with the unbelievably broad shoulders sent him flying.   The woman who could bend and twist her body in unimaginable ways was simply using a gift that she was born with and taking it to its absolute extreme.   She was quite ordinary in line at the checkout counter.   She was simply extraordinary when using the natural talents and physical attributes she was born with.   And, don’t even get me started on the man in the tights …

So, what is YOUR circus act?   I’m not talking about juggling because that’s just inherent in being a mother.   Many days, I feel like a juggler, lion tamer and ventroliquist (“say please, say thank you …” said through clenched teeth) rolled into one.   I’m not talking about the skills you’ve been forced to learn.   I’m talking about the character traits, physical attributes and talents that you were born with.

When do YOU feel extraordinary?

What comes effortlessly to you that others find hard to do?

This can be tough to answer as we often assume that everyone finds certain things easy to do simply because we do. Trust me, there is something about YOU that is extraordinary and you don’t have to run away and join the Circus to find it.   Although, there are days when that’s a very tempting thought!

Please spend a few moments looking back on your life and thinking of the times you felt most glorious.   What were you doing?   Where were you?   Does your present life give you any opportunity to feel that same way?

Send me an e-mail and let me know what came to mind for you.

Now go find your Big Top!

Imagine if Oprah and Billy Crystal had a daughter …

I just returned from the final part of my Master Coach training with Martha Back.  It was referred to as the “intensive” part of the training and that word describes it on every level.  It was an extraordinary experience and I left feeling as if every cell in my body had lined up to its perfect position. 

At one point during the retreat, we were asked to describe our vision for our coaching practice.  As I thought about it, the image of Oprah and Billy Crystal came to mind and the idea that they had a daughter who happened to be extraordinarily white and a lapsed Catholic but who – in every other way – represented their core qualities.  From Oprah, the intense desire to encourage people to live their best lives and from Billy Crystal, the ability to move people to laughter or tears by the telling of stories.

So that’s where Stand Up, Mama is headed.