Tag: TinaOLife

OMYGOD – Press Conference

May 24, 2021


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday May 17th 2021

CONTACT:

Media Relations: Zoe Gray social@powherhouse.com

Impact Producer: Charlene SanJenko charlene@powherhouse.com

Artist: Tina Overbury tina@tinaolife.com

STORYTELLING FOR RECONCILIATION

AN IRELAND & CANADA STORY

Press Conference & Digital Premiere of OMYGOD by TinaO

Storytelling for Reconciliation

May 17th 2021 – Vancouver, BC Canada – PowHERhouse Impact Media Group with TinaOLife announces the three country press conference and the global digital premiere of OMYGOD, a Storytelling for Reconciliation experience about the women we’ve burned, the babies we’ve buried and the Gods we have worshipped. 

There are Some Stories only Art Can Hold

On May 28th 2021, the digital press conference and screening of OMYGOD will connect audiences of Ireland, Canada and the United States to introduce the social impact project Storytelling for Reconciliation, and meet the writer/storyteller TinaO alongside the core creative team behind OMYGOD.

OMYGOD Press Conference

Friday May 28th at 10am (PDT)
 

OMYGOD Screening

Ireland 7:30pm BST / 11:30am PDT
New York / Toronto 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT 
Vancouver / Los Angeles 6:30pm PDT 

What is OMYGOD?

It’s not a feminist show or a witch burning show, and it is not a “dead-babies” show. It is a weaving of complexity and historical scar tissues that exists not to entertain, but to invite transformation. It is a production offered in a spirit of restorative justice, reconciliation and as a bridge of humility between cultures. 

In Canada we have a Highway of Tears.
In Ireland, they have an Irish Triangle.

In our current time, the narrative of OMYGOD follows a little girl named Cristiona who loses her mother, and her 50 year old self says yes to a call to Ireland as she wrestles with her own story of God, faith, Indigeneity, and grief. 

The Tuam Babies and the Death of 9000 Irish Babies

In Tuam, County Galway Ireland, the remains of 796 unnamed babies were found buried in an abandoned septic tank outside of the Bon Secour Catholic Mother and Baby home. Such homes existed across Ireland, and more than 56,000 children from a ‘fallen’ mother were born there. The anonymous testimony from residents compares the homes to prisons, and recalls that the nuns verbally abused the children, often calling them the “spawn of satan” or “devil’s spawn”.  Some were adopted out of the homes illegally to the United States and across Ireland, others spent their whole childhoods in such home. Across Ireland, some 9000 of these children died in Mother and Baby County Homes, each erased from their mother’s care and for many, from their actual existence.

Canada’s Indigenous Genocide and the loss of 6000 Children

Before we can have reconciliation we must have truth. Starting in 1831, the colonial governments in what we now call Canada removed Indigenous children from their families and forced them into residential schools with the explicit goal of cultural genocide. Priests, nuns and clergymen belonging to Christian Churches operated these homes and effectively carried out the task of “civilizing” more than 150,000 children, thousands of whom lost their lives in the schools, thousand more of whom suffered through abuse of all kinds and subsequent trauma.

The Murder of Women

In 1487 The Malleus Maleficarum, or, the “Hammer of the Witches,” was written by Catholic Clergyman, Heinrich Kramer. This manual detailed the how-to of naming, torturing and burning a witch, and it became a founding trauma tool in the Christianization of Pagan and Celtic Ireland.

Seven generations of children watched their mothers emerge from cages and prison cells after being crushed and tortured, becoming screaming witches before their eyes.

Witch burning continues. In 2010 Ama Hemmah, a 72 year old grandmother was burned alive in Ghana after being named a witch. 

OMYGOD is a Storytelling for Reconciliation experience. It is a poetic, often humorous and harrowing journey across time, cultures, and faiths to invite each of us to walk a full story all the way through the trauma to acceptance, to grief and ultimately to a place of rest beyond blame. As a storyteller, this is TinaO’s offering to reconciliation: even if we weren’t there, we can still say we’re sorry and mean it.

Before we can have Reconciliation we must have Truth.

OMYGOD is Executive Produced by Impact Media Producer Charlene SanJenko. PowHERhouse Impact Media Group is a 100% Indigenous owned organization who champions social impact projects that change the narrative for H.E.R. – Human Expansion Realized. 

OMYGOD – KEY CREATIVE TEAM 

Writer/Storyteller/Performer – Tina Overbury

Dramaturg – Nicolle Nattrass

Creative Consultant – Dean Paul Gibson 

Digital Director – James Gardiner

Director of Photography – Randal Hrytzak Bemoved Media

Sound Designer – Paul Tedeschini

Editor – Jay Lehmann 

OMYGOD, a Storytelling for Reconciliation piece about the women we burned, the babies we buried and the Gods we have worshipped, premieres on Friday May 28th with a Digital Press Conference at 10am PDT, followed by three individual screenings: Ireland/UK screening 7:30pm BST; New York/Toronto 6pm EDT; and Vancouver/Los Angeles 6:30pm PDT. 

RSVP FOR THE PRESS CONFERENCE & SCREENING HERE

To book your seat and receive a full agenda and press kit, click the red button above, or rsvp here.

To connect with Impact Producer Charlene SanJenko, please respond to: Charlene@Powherhouse.com

To connect with TinaO or the creative team please respond to Tina@TinaOLife.com

CONTACT:

Media Relations: Zoe Gray social@powherhouse.com

Impact Producer: Charlene SanJenko charlene@powherhouse.com

Artist: Tina Overbury tina@tinaolife.com

Ruby Glasses

June 14, 2020

I am working on a one woman show called O MY GOD for my 50th birthday, and so much more. I’ve been wading through moving images from my childhood for days and this one keeps comes back to me over and over. As I pulled it up I realized I don’t remember moving. At all. But I do remember wrapping the ruby glasses my mom used to collect carefully in newsprint and placing them in boxes.

Ruby Glasses 

It’s cinema to me

dust on light becomes mist,

dissolve

evening sundown

to dusk

to twilight,

lighting

my knees on the linoleum

a tint of pale not yellow

but not green

and cool

with grooves that form map lines on my skin

from sitting for so long

It’s okay

I’ll trace them later

under a summer sheet

her picture tucked under my pillow

and a faded window curtain

breathing sleep over me,

set deck

We are moving

and I’m wrapping ruby glasses

with my dad,

I

am

quiet

I am never quiet

I am a tiger

a magician

a trapeze artist

a clown in long blue chiffon

trailing the ocean at my feet

I burble

I giggle

I wonder

out loud

always out loud

I am the maestro of this

this

circus of music

of black cherries and red poppies,

of blue bells

of white sheet wonder

and of mystery,

sound design

I tilt here,

so full

my throat

and the sky I see through my window

has wrapped me

and my shoulders

in a shawl to forget

all the things I will miss

when we leave this place

it slips

and I shiver

the depression glass, the broken porch, the pears

the plums and the cherries

the blossoms

so messy

so pink

and always in my hair,

the sound of my feet

running

tripping

twisting my ankle

falling down the stairs

again

dipping my fingers into the chocolate paint

that smothered

everything in the 70s,

editing

everything you built with your hands

for her

will be gone

like her

from both of us

I won’t remember my last sleep in this house

I won’t even think of it until

now

like cinema

but I will remember

wrapping

ruby

glasses

at seven years old

my hands, your hands, her glasses

in newsprint

like moving pictures

This poem was originally published on Medium.

TinaO is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media Group where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.

As part of TinaO’s audience, CLICK HERE to receive a personal message from TinaO about the power, beauty and invitation of Story, and your personal Story from the Core. You will also be able to stay up to date about TinaO’s performances, storytelling events, and upcoming retreats and workshops.

Blog- PowHERcircle

May 13, 2020

PowHERCircle 

About to jump on with PowHERhouse Media Group for their 7×7 powHERcircle challenge to speak in to the importance of deep listening.

The human psyche can only hold so much.

The body can only perform so far.

But the spirit of us is limitless. It is fuel is limitless when we keep ourselves ‘plugged in’ so to speak.

It’s January. We have set goals. We have closed doors. We have cast a vision. Our focus and ‘work’ (and I use that word lightly) has begun.

We are going to get tired. You can count on it. We live in a human body.

We are going to be heart broken. Great risk of true heart and grit will take us into the unknown where we will grow and you can’t grow in a marshmallow. There IS resistance. There will be disappointment and choices to stay down or get up.

So we nourish our body to hold us.

We feed our minds to discern for us.

We listen to our spirit, like we would a lover, someone we hold dearer to ourselves than we ever thought possible. We listen. We listen. We listen.

We honour.

And we follow out inner wisdom.

There’s gonna be days where we’ve given ‘rrrrr and are triumphant and days were face down in the mud and the part of us who picks ourselves up and dusts ourselves off and notices the insight from what just ‘happened’ is the part of us who can ‘hear’.

It’s a practice.

And it’s a fuel tank which is never empty and will never leave you.

Spirit is in our business.

Our work is sacred.

Your instrument of a ‘self’ is made for what you do.

Listen.

Tina Overbury is a core-communications specialist who works with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Story Stones, TinaO’s weekly online gathering of listening in to sacred stories. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse media where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow. 

If you would like to know more about Tina’s approach to story, click here. 

This is Fifty with TinaO

May 27, 2018

This is 50. But I’m not quite there. I’m 47 and like every milestone, their whisperings begin around the 7 mark: 17 begins 20, 27 begins 30, 37 to 40 and now this, fifty. A half century.

I’m already blessed because I have made it this far.  In 1962 the average life expectancy was 65 which means a whole lot of people in my circle (even me) could’ve been dead by now fifty five years ago. In 2018, our average life expectancy for women in Canada is 83. I wonder what it will be in twenty years. I’m guessing closer to 95. If that’s the case, right now, (if all goes well) I’m probably at the half way point. In these moments I wonder… good gawd, what on earth am I going to live through next?

I suspect everyone has an approaching 50 list. Here’s mine:

At almost fifty I am:

  • Shocked to be soon divorced.
  • Overwhelmed by how many more years I am willingly and yes lovingly carrying my children as a single parent (another decade).
  • Aware, grateful and still a bit raw about a journey through cancer.
  • Kind of ashamed by the financial collapse of my life, now twice, both post a marital breakdown.
  • I forgot that part, I’m soon to be divorced twice. Ugh. Twice. I’m a statistic too.
  • Almost 50 and I’m pretty awed by my psychological and physical constitution. I have endured many stories and I still smile, just not all the time.
  • Appreciative of this body of mine which carried me through my first triathlon months post cancer (seriously, what was I thinking?). I’m astounded by what this body can do, and how I can recover.
  • I am kind of disssociated from the achievement because I don’t really understand how it all happened and where the motivation came from. Have you ever felt like that?
  • Heartbroken by the randomness of loss I know to be part of this thing called life.
  • Lost in my own romanticism of possibility.
  • Drowning while still breathing my almost-50 yearnings.
  • Blown and breathless by the mystery that is Love, Art and God.
  • Clear that I never need to be ‘saved’ by any one person again.
  • Solid to be my own hero yet deeply aware and moved by the knowing none of us are here to do this or be alone.
  • I am almost fifty.
  • I am my own hero, my own sunflower, my own carpet of magic, and my own story stone in the ocean.

And still,

Life kicks my ass sometimes, cracks my heart open so wide I swear my heartbeat meshes with the pulse of the sun, and life and all it’s messiness can bring me to my knees in utter helpless, and hopeless beauty.

This is 50.

If you’re familiar with my writing you’ll know ‘this’ is what I do. Something wild this way comes and ‘this’ is what it looks like when my story tells me. After coffee and scrolling through travel adventures online, followed by deliciously facebook messaging a dear friend across the globe with my findings, I began to scribble some thoughts on a big hunk of paper.

This is 50. I wrote.

And then ‘that’ impulse came. Gahhhhh the familiar nudge, push and shove forward I know so well. That feeling launched my first vlog series which tracked my journey post cancer through to the Vancouver 5i50 triathlon in 2016. I turned my computer on.

Welcome to my next series on TinaOLife.

This is 50.

I’m three years out from five-oh and closing an old story. In the work I do as a story coach, I call this swimming between ripples.

The visual I use is this: it’s as if we come in to this world as a story stone and are dropped into the water and who we are, or our story ripples out. Every circle is the next, expanded version of the first one. Every ring another layer of who we are.

Swimming between ripples is letting go of one to follow the ease of the next. I’m going to share this next journey with you. I’ll be posting regularly here.  This is 50 with TinaO.

As always…

Thanks for listening.

In storyland, listening is loving.

xxT.

TinaO is a Writer, Story Coach, and Host of the TinaOShow, collecting and telling Stories from the Core. She’s the co-owner of The LEAP Learning Lab with Gina Best, and the other half of The Writer’s Compass with Meribeth Deen. She says: Stories are like toddlers, they will follow you around, tugging, hanging off of you until you listen to them.  TinaO is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening using writing, storytelling, nature, nourishment, art and connection as a way to listen to the personal story within. The retreat is held in various locations around the world, and is always offered 3x/year in British Columbia where she lives. All are welcome.
As always… let me know your thoughts. They’re always welcome.

Pay What You Can and Pay it Forward to Live Your Best Story – VIDEO

July 21, 2017

 

I didn’t get to where I am in life by doing all of the heavy lifting myself. The truth is, almost every significant experience, and I do mean life changing, has come to me through a leg up. I have rarely, if ever had a breakthrough in my professional or personal life getting there on my own. For real.

Sometimes my social conditioning gets the better of me and I can feel embarrassed about it. I too hear things in my head like:

  • If it’s meant to be it’s up to me.

  • Raise the bar.

  • or this ugly one, raise the bar – trim the fat.

  • The cream will rise to the top

  • Your only limit is you

  • I can and I will

  • It never gets easier, you just get better

But my experience has always been this:

  • If it’s meant to be, ask for help

  • Raise your bar by receiving the gifts coming your way

  • Raise the bar of humanity by allowing everybody in

  • Your only limitation is your unwillingness to lift and be lifted

  • I can because we will

  • Community makes things easier

 

Live Your Best Story

I grew up in rental housing. My dad fell apart after our mom died and when he was laid off in his 50s he never recovered emotionally or financially, leaving the many of us (blended family of 11 – some at home, some not) to get by on my step-mom’s slightly above minimum wage bakery lady pay. The only reason I did, or had anything was because one, I worked for it and two, people helped me and three, I understood what it felt like to be grateful.

I somehow missed the pride gene around this stuff because I didn’t seem to care when someone bought me lunch, I said thank you instead. I wasn’t ashamed to wear my sister’s hand-me-downs. Are you kidding? I was thrilled to wear her grown up stuff!  I learned how to get by on busfare in my pocket, and if I didn’t have that, how to walk and read at the same time (and walk I did!). My practice was: yes please, thank you and what can I do to help?

And I didn’t feel like a charity case either.

Weird right?

Well, not to me.

The first act of kindness I remember learning from was just after my mom passed.  I’m pretty sure it had happened only weeks before and my grade three class was going to Stanley Park. The field trip was really kinda no big deal but the student teacher, Ms. Soleil was. She was the first one to show me what lifting others looks like. After a long day at the beach and hanging with the geese, we were on our way back on the public bus when one of my classmates, Sukvinder was targeted. He was only eight years old, and two young men flipped his melting icecream cup over on his head because of his ethnicity. Our South Vancouver neighbourhood was changing and the once uuber white community was rapidly welcoming an influx of East Indian and Asian families. You know what I remember about my childhood? I didn’t see skin colour. I didn’t notice hair texture. I didn’t register differences. I had friends. That’s it that’s all. So when Sukvinder was picked on by a bunch of teenagers, I couldn’t make sense of it. I was shocked and totally spellbound by Ms. Soleil’s response. She stood up like a super-hero with a furrowed brow and laser eyes, and with fierce, active indignation, she marched those racist boys off the bus so fast they didn’t know what was happening. She was awesome, and her protection of Sukvinder’s self-esteem left a lasting impression on me.

Her action said to me We are all worthy.

She’s also the teacher who sent me home with a photo from that day with a note on the back saying “what a pleasure you are to teach and I’m so sorry about the passing of your mom”.  She was the only teacher who said anything. I remembered that. She wasn’t afraid to acknowledge, or to lift.

Live Your Best Story

Because of this and so many more countless situations where I was the kid, or the grown up who couldn’t figure out how to make it work – and yet was still offered an opportunity to rise up, I’ve never really had an attachment to the belief of CAN or CAN’T.  I won’t say I’m an eternal optimist, because trust me, I’m not. I’m wicked skeptical. I don’t believe in rules though I do recognize them. I don’t follow deadlines, though I’m aware of them. When someone says you’re not allowed, I think, really? We’ll see.

It’s not that I’m cocky (though I can be),

or that I’m irresponsible (though trust me, I can be that too).

It’s not that I’m contrary (though it can look like that),

or that I refuse to follow the rules (I just don’t sometimes).

It’s not that I think I’m above it or that I live in some kind of Steve Jobs reality distortion field (I wish!).

It’s just that my experience has always been LIFE MOVES when WE DO.

Sometimes, there’s a way.

Sometimes, there’s a hand.

Sometimes, you can even when it looks like you can’t.

That’s been my experience.

For this reason, Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat reconnecting you back to your own voice of timeless wisdom has always been made accessible to anyone who wants to come. The weekend, created and facilitated by Nicolle Nattrass, Carolyn Nesbitt and I, and held at Xenia Retreat Centre on Bowen Island is now starting it’s fifth year.  As such, we’re ready to make our accessible pricing official.

New Pricing for Live Your Best Story

#1 PAY WHAT YOU CAN (with a $100 non refundable deposit)

or #2 PAY IT FORWARD ($695)

and yes… you can pay what you can now and pay it forward later. 

 

Here is how it works: for as little as a $100 non-refundable deposit or as much as $695, (and anything in between) you can book one of our 36 spots/year (we hold the retreat 3x with 12 participants in each weekend Oct/Feb/May).

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor and here’s what I know about me, neither financial position was a reflection of whether I deserved something or not. Afford it? Maybe, maybe not, but deserve? No.

And I’m going to rattle a few cages here. The whole conversation about ‘if you want it you’ll find the money to make it happen’ – is part of an old paradigm which no longer serves us. While it’s original intention was to EMPOWER people to raise their head, square their shoulders and keep bravely stepping forward, it’s now become a way to price based on perceived worth or even worse, fear of not being worthy. The price points for work meant to help people is beginning to divide us. There are those who can afford personal development, and those who cannot. Or worse, there are those who are empowered enough to attract money into their lives, and those who are not. Yikes… stretch the concept a bit farther and we can get into the whole winner/loser perspective. I’m speaking with broad strokes here of course, but I think you follow me. Here’s a prime example (and I usually like Brian Tracy): 

Live Your Best Story

 

Who wants to be a part of that kind of divisive and disempowering conversation?  The way I see it, we’re the ones throwing ice cream now – only our target is the loser who is choosing not to ‘start’.

Here’s what I see… some people sell stuff at a price more than my mortgage or monthly grocery bill for a family of five. It’s not that their product isn’t WORTH the price – it’s not about worthiness at all. It’s about accessibility, and as someone who values deeply those who have lifted me, I’d like to fan the flames on that kind of practice.

BTW – Accessibility is not about charity, it’s offering a hand.

and it’s not about rescuing either, it’s about creating a space.

Because time and time again I’ve been on the receiving end of such grace and as such, I get it. Now it’s my turn.

On Friday night at Live Your Best Story we always open with “and my wish for you this weekend is…”, and so today, my wish for all of us is to offer more accessibility in our pricing out there. What if we started asking:  How can I help more? How can I serve more? How can I offer what I do in a way that honours as many people as possible AND myself.  

Now that’s abundance:  many, more, all – not just some. There’s no scarcity thinking here.

Imagine if our pricing wasn’t a reflection of ”worth”, but rather of our humanity.

That sounds pretty worthy to me.

You?

Live Your Best Story

Want to check out REGISTRATION DETAILS for Live Your Best Story? We only host the retreat three times per year with a maximum of 12 spots per retreat or 36 spots/year.

You can place your $100 deposit now and choose your dates later!  Click here for more about the weekend, and click here to register. 

 

TinaO is a Core Story Specialist and a Program Director of PUBLISH with Meribeth Deen for The LEAP Learning Lab. She’s a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub to Live, Give and Be Your Story, plus the deep listening weekend retreat Live Your Best Story. She’s been in the PR and Marketing world since she could put words together and has been a professional network marketer for over twelve years. She teaches: selling isn’t slimey, marketing isn’t make-believe and writing won’t give you an aneurysm (it’s not hard). You can be yourself in all that you do. In fact, that’s what the world is waiting for. 

Why I Love Jake Hassel-Gren a TinaO List to Love – BLOG

May 14, 2017

We make some people harder to love because they defy our societal and cultural norms. They’re pure. They don’t mince expectations with filtered down possibilities so everyone else is comfortable. They don’t stop to give you their spot in the sun because they know we all have one.  They think: Why create shade when there’s enough heat for all?

That’s Jake.

She’s highly misunderstood, and it’s precisely what I love about her. What you see is who she is and what she wants for you is everything.  Tricky to believe these days: someone who actually wants the best for you because she understands what it is.

And therein lies the rub.

Her standards are high.

She comes by it honestly. She was raised that way (but that’s next week’s story). Here’s a glimpse though. I can’t help myself.

“My parents are truly incredible human beings. They exposed me to life across it’s multiple landscapes. I had it all. During the week, life in a fine home with velvet curtains and stunning design and then weekends running barefoot in the grass with scads of artists and hippies. There  was no room for judgement in my life, only experiences. My parents gave us and showed us what the best truly is: a full and confident life.”

No wonder I liked her immediately even though I wasn’t sure I should.  She challenged me right from the get-go.  There was no nicey-nicey dumbing it down small-talk. She asked what I did. I told her I’m a Core Story Specialist. I help people articulate exactly who they are and intrinsically, why they do what they do.

And she got it.

“Cool”, she said.  And that was it.

I liked that.

She didn’t offer any polite ‘filler’ conversation. She just moved on to what was next.

What you see is who she is and what she wants for you is everything.

I’ll come completely clean on this one, we work together now and I offered to write this article because I feel lucky to know her. Holy Hannah and mutha of all that is F-bomb sacred, Jake Hassel-Gren has a MASSIVE VISION for female entrepreneurs. She (and I) can drop more F-bombs than a bus load of 14 year olds on Dorritos. The difference is kids do it ’cause they can, and she does it ’cause sometimes it’s called for.  Some moments deserve a capital F in the front with a big ole K at the back.

The truth is though, as much as I send her up now, I completely couldn’t figure her out when we first met.  “I’ll connect you with my friend Jake”, said Charlene SanJenko of PowHERhouse Women’s Media Group to me last August. “She’s the woman behind The LEAP Learning Lab. You two can talk about building a program to help women bring their book from concept to publish-ready.  Jake is as tired as you and I are of seeing women continue to work in silos. We have to change how we do things and Jake’s LEAP Learning Lab is all about that.”

Where does she live? I asked.

“Toronto”, said Charlene.

Oh gawd I thought, not another perfectly coiffed Toronto woman to snicker at my hippy hair and make snide comments about my closet full of Crocs.  Sure… let’s talk. I thought. We’ll see. 

We got on a video chat in September and in perfect post summer form, I had sun-fried frizzy hippy hair and was still bumbling around with beach brain struggling to finish complete thoughts and sentences as we shared big ideas about what would make the lives of female entrepreneur’s easier AND more powHERful.  Jake, once upon a time a VP in the banking world, now an entrepreneur on a mission to create a global, world class online Community of Practice for women and set a platinum standard for online learning, showed up exactly as she is: stunning, primed and ready for anything.

I’m going to write another piece about Jake next week. This is just the beginning.  It’s going to take a lot more than one article to capture this woman’s story. I spent a few hours on the phone with her doing what I do best, which is pulling together who she is at the Core so I can understand why she cares so deeply about women taking their spot, as she calls it.

For today though, my focus is on WHY Jake rather than WHO is Jake. I want you to know why I decided to hitch my online learning wagon to LEAP, and you know me, my reasons always have less to do with business and everything to do with the person.  A long time ago, in an entrepreneurial class I took in my early twenties, the teacher at the front of the room said “never do business with someone you wouldn’t have over for dinner”.  That truth has stayed with me.  So here’s a bit about Jake and why I think she’s pretty dang spectacular.

TinaO’s Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Jake Hassel-Gren.

Do women even say that about women anymore? I do.

#1 – She’s wicked, and every other totally awesome and righteous word I used in the 80’s. Remember how the 80’s defied logic? There was only one direction, and it was UP.  That’s how it feels to work beside Jake. We’re going somewhere and it’s gonna be florescent green, Madonna awesome.

#2 – She likes dogs. Seriously, her dogs have matching winter jackets and she’d never treat them like an accessory though they will look fantastic.  She’s a ‘small dog’ parent and yes she does post funny dog videos on Facebook.

#3 – She speaks artist. Okay, I’m stretching the truth a little (maybe a lot). She doesn’t actually SPEAK artist, but she FEELS artist which is harder and far more vulnerable to do.  I couldn’t hang with this chick if we didn’t connect in this way.

#4 – She wears red lipstick like it’s a signature. Red is primary. It isn’t made from something else by anything else. Perfect.

BTW, it’s Chanel. I asked.

#5 – She can flip you the bird while screaming your praises. Expression is like that. It’s a full contact sport. Jake does life out loud and what she doesn’t say with her words, she’ll tell you with her eyes.

#6 – It took less than 3 seconds for my phone to ring when I told her about my sister passing. Not a text. She phoned. Who calls anyone anymore? Jake.

#7 – She asks “How are you?” at least twice a week. In her world of ‘best’, of ‘do’, of ‘be’ she still finds the time to connect with those she cares about. She says things like “I was thinking about you today. How did your doctor’s appointment go?”, or “How are you holding up?”, and “Do you need anything?”.  Again, I ask you, how many people do you have in your life who do that regularly?

#8 – She calls me out on my greatness and I’m not talkin’ blowing sunshine up my butt. It’s not about compliments, it’s about saying what is so. She’s the first to say “You know that. You do that. You are that.” – When she says it, I believe it. When I say it, I talk myself out of it. I’d rather listen to her.

#9 – She loves football. Okay, so I grew up with too many brothers and I can’t stand watching sports on tv or in an arena, but I frickin’ love that she’s over-the-top, beyond-all-understanding, geeked-out C R A Z Y about The New England Patriots. I gotta respect that kinda passion you know?

#10 – When I asked her what is ‘home’ for her, and what is her greatest medicine? She said LOVE. 

Jake is a big game of life player.  She gets up every morning and asks: How can I be of service today? Some of us are harder to understand because our whole package doesn’t match the stories set up and made-up by others on the outside. Jake is like that.

I thought she was tough. She is.

I thought she was an uncompromising high achiever. She is.

I thought she was opinionated, driven and sharp. She is that too.

I thought she cared about success. She does.

Yours.

and Hers.

and Mine.

Because in Jake’s world, you don’t have to step into the shade to give someone else a piece of the sun.

The best is meant for all of us, and a woman need only stand and claim her spot to know that for herself.

This is PART ONE of TinaO’s Exclusive on Jake Hassel-Gren. Watch for Jake’s Core Story in PART TWO coming out next week. For more about Jake’s LEAP Learning Lab, you can visit her site. 

TinaO is a Core Story Specialist and a Program Director of PUBLISH with Meribeth Deen for The LEAP Learning Lab. She’s a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub to Live, Give and Be Your Story, plus the deep listening weekend retreat Live Your Best Story. She’s been in the PR and Marketing world since she could put words together and has been a professional network marketer for over twelve years. She teaches: selling isn’t slimey, marketing isn’t make-believe and writing won’t give you an aneurysm (it’s not hard). You can be yourself in all that you do. In fact, that’s what the world is waiting for. 

Core Story Writing Prompt – Where the Wild Things Are – VIDEO

April 20, 2017

Our communication is only ever as powerful as the core we’re willing to plug into.  It’s kind of like saying a team is only as strong as it’s weakest link or, the strength of how you start ‘off the block’ often sets up the fire of how you finish. Writing from the core is like being powered straight from the source. It takes courage and muscle and a lot of practice. Using writing prompts can help with that.

Every week in my Core Story Club (which I run with my writing partner Meribeth Deen), we post a weekly writing prompt. Today’s is inspired by Maurice Sendak’s book, Where the Wild Things Are which I read as a child and loved so much so that I had to find it and read it to my three boys as they grew up.

Remember this?

I swear I can still smell the carpet in the library I first heard this in.

 

Sendak’s book won multiple awards including the 1964 Caldecott Medal, the most Notable Children’s Books of 1940-1970 (ALA), the 1981 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Illustration, the 1963 & 1982 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book), the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 1963, 1982 (NYT), and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. It was later made into a stunningly evocative film in 2009 by the celebrated director Spike Jonze. I frickin’ love it.

Today, I’m asking you, if you were in the land of Where the Wild Things Are…

What would you do?

How would you live?

What might you say?

Where might you say it?

When might you care the most?

Who would you let yourself be?

Why would you roar?

 

Set your timer for 3 minutes and finish this sentence:  Where the Wild Things Are I…

Keep going – do not cross out

Keep writing – do not erase

Keep breathing – do not crumple up

What does your story want to tell you today?

 

Here’s the thing… I never post without doing it myself, so here is mine.

I’m setting the timer now.

Ready… Set… now I Go…

Where the wild things are I write like a demon. Words spill out of me and I don’t hold back. Where the wild things are I can see full colour and I say the things that my heart wants to sing. The truth is, I feel like I live where the wild things are anyway. I kinda am a wild thing. Okay, so I’m not kinda a wild thing, I am one. I’m afraid of that sometimes. Truly. I wear red because it reminds me that I am that. I wear red because it has a beginning, a middle and an end and the world understands it. Okay, so true that people have opinions about women who wear red. Lady in Red. Revlon Red. Red nails. Oh my goodness that makes me think of Cheap Trick and that album cover with the red leather pants. I was only nine years old when that album came out.  I had lots of opinions about women and men who wear red. I’m a wild thing and I hold on to my red purse, remember my red dock martins, eat red tomatoes and colour my hair red (well sometimes) when I’m brave enough to let the world know how wild I am.  I like primary red. I like that you can’t blend it to make it. It just is. It’s red, wild and wonderful. I’m a wild thing – what can I say?

What do I learn from this?

RED is an expression of my core story even if it’s a secretive part for me. It’s how I share my wild self in a contained kind of way.

How might I use this?

Well… look at my logo.  Interesting right?

Here’s another way to use these prompts.  Our stories come through us in different ways.  How I share my story as a writer is different than how I share as a speaker. I did this writing prompt as a vlog too.  I still timed it. I still did the stream of consciousness thingy without filtering.

JOIN IN THE CORE STORY CLUB HERE

 

TinaO is a Core Story Specialist and a Program Director of PUBLISH with Meribeth Deen for The LEAP Learning Lab. She’s a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub to Live, Give and Be Your Story, plus the deep listening weekend retreat Live Your Best Story. She’s been in the PR and Marketing world since she could put words together and has been a professional network marketer for over twelve years. She teaches: selling isn’t slimey, marketing isn’t make-believe and writing won’t give you an aneurysm (it’s not hard). You can be yourself in all that you do. In fact, that’s what the world is waiting for. 

 

A Life Coach Walks into the ER… Writing Prompt – BLOG

March 23, 2017

 

I’m starting a Daily Writing Prompt series because I’ve noticed that so many in business don’t understand the value of what they do. Maybe you’re one of them. You probably think that you’re a consultant or a facilitator or a coach or a real estate agent, accountant… whatever, but you’re not. You’re so much more.

You’re a damn specialist. That’s what you are.

You’re an ER doctor of something awesome.

You have life-saving capabilities.

Okay, I know, you’re not parachuting into war zones with a case load of oxygen tanks behind you and I get that you’re not a front-line health care worker supporting people through a blood transfusion, but you ARE designed to give something radically unique and I’ll say it here… even transformative to your clients. Because if you didn’t, they wouldn’t pay you, they’d pay someone else.

This Writing Prompt is going to help you.

Here’s another one – clients do not choose you because you’re a good listener so please let that go. Lots of people listen well and most think they’re awesome at it. Did you know that every single core story consult I’ve given, the person on the other end of the phone tells me that being a good listener is what makes them special?

It’s not.

Also, clients do not choose you because you’re a great strategist. Toss that one out  too. There are a zillion strategists out there who think they’re the bomb. I’m not saying you’re not, I am saying that we need to figure what KIND of success-strategy explosion you set off.

Lots of people are good at strategy. So?

Here’s a biggie: Clients do not come to you because you CARE.  Can we please please please stop saying this?  Here’s why: EVERY BUSINESS OWNER cares. No one goes into business if they don’t. Come on now, I still have days where a little tired voice in my head pleads with me: “Really Overbury? Really? Can’t we just make cookies and sit on the couch today?”.  My answer is NO. You know why?Because I CARE. Every business owner cares. I’m not kidding, and guess what? Every single business owner I talk to tells me this as if it’s THE THING that sets them apart in the marketplace. It’s not.

Ready?

Breathe.

Here comes the truth:

No one cares that you care.

Your clients care about what THEY CARE about and maybe that’s you, but they need to find you first.

Here’s another doozy.  Clients do not refer you because you ‘genuinely want them to succeed’. Their mother wants that for them too (well most do…) and she doesn’t get paid for it. Even if you promise them success, that won’t make them refer you either. Success does not create stark raving mad fans (but it does help).

If you think that guaranteeing success is what sets you apart, what do you think other business owners want?

  • Their clients to kinda succeed?
  • Maybe succeed?
  • Do-it-half-way-and-if-you-squint-just-so-you-can-kinda-pretend-they-succeed? No.

Every business owner wants to see their clients succeed. This is NOT what makes you special. This is NOT why people will refer you.

Trust me on this.

Listening, caring, success and results is the baseline. This is where you started, and if you’re not doing these four things you shouldn’t be in business anyway.  Okay, I’m being blunt today. I have a reason and here it is:

You are an ER Doctor of something. It’s inside you. It’s part of how you’re designed.

Here’s what I know:

  • You came into the world with a personality you didn’t have to work for. You are designed to BE something.
  • Then you experienced a number of life-changing events that created a skill-set so you can DO something.
  • And somewhere in there you faced a bunch of challenging turning points that shaped your mind-set so you can GIVE something.

It’s one great big set-up and it’s one of the many narratives within your Core Story.

This is what I do.

This is what I’m a specialist at.

I’m an ER Doctor of Core Story Listening. I save people from dying with their words still locked up inside of them.

What are you an ER Doctor of?

Today TinaOLife begins Writing Prompts for Coaches, Consultants and Thought Leaders. Whether you classify yourself in one of these categories or not, come and play.

Here’s How:

Grab a piece of paper and a pen, (yes, please use a pen because it unlocks a very different part of your brain and story), a timer and the day’s prompt and begin.

Tell me what you notice.

What did you learn about the kind of ER Doctor and Business Specialist that you are?

Want my book?

Grab it here.

TinaO is a Core Story Specialist and a Program Director of PUBLISH with Meribeth Deen for The Leap Learning Lab. She’s a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub to Live, Give and Be Your Story, plus the deep listening weekend retreat Live Your Best Story. She’s been in the PR and Marketing world since she could put words together and has been a professional network marketer for over twelve years. She teaches: selling isn’t slimey, marketing isn’t make-believe and writing won’t give you an aneurysm (it’s not hard). You can be yourself in all that you do. In fact, that’s the world is waiting for. 

 

Six Reasons Why Your Core Story is How We See and Hear you From Space – BLOG

March 22, 2017

 

Your Book and Message Will be Different.

Because Your Book will Make you Money and not just Cost Buckets of it.

You are smart. You are committed. You’ve done everything you’ve been told to do to ”level up” as they say. You have followed the lead generating system that everyone knows works and looks something like:

  1. Build your network – Grow your audience 
  2. Offer a valuable optin – Grow your list
  3. Have an irresistible offer – Convert your leads
  4. Post two blogs per week – Drive traffic to your site
  5. Write your book – Cultivate credibility 

Am I right?

You’re doing it all.

You’re ticking off every box.

You’re a freakin’ rock star… but… nothing is happening right?

Or something is happening but it’s not enough and it’s certainly not what you thought.

Here’s why:

STORY.

Your CORE STORY.

and YOU.

When you paid big money for that marketing course, or the program with that proven formula to ‘write your book and be seen as an expert’, no one told you that the single most important ingredient in the whole darn this is your story, specifically your core story.

It’s not about:

  • a word count or reaching 90,000 words.
  • a compelling title.
  • ten key steps or five key steps to a great book (for those who like less as more).

It’s not the steps, it’s the story that lives within them.

It’s not writing your book, it’s telling the story.

Your client and audience only have three resources: time, money and energy. Whether you are a consultant, a coach, a thought leader or a CEO, when you put your book out into the market, you are asking your reader to spend all three of their precious resources with you. Write your book by a formula and I promise you you’ll get your book, but you’ll also lose your credibility and audience unless you write from your core.

Your core story is what connects you to your people. It’s what shakes you into their memory. It creates an imprint that they’re compelled to talk about. It’s what builds your ”tribe” as Seth and Simon say. Your story is the greatest vehicle of trust building that you have. Don’t waste it.

Here are the six parts to creating a Core Story of trust and impact. I’m going to help you because as the story teller you have a blindspot, and that is you. Your story is riddled with them and that’s why you need me and when I write, I need someone else. Our story deserves that level of love and respect.

Here are six ingredients to catapult your message and brand promise into the stratosphere. That’s my benchmark btw. I know we’ve hit gold when I can see and hear you from space. Until we get there, we’re not done.

Six Core Story Ingredients that will Catapult your Message and Promise into the Stratosphere

  1. Your Innate Who
  2. Your Urgent Why
  3. Your Compelling How
  4. Your Impactful Where
  5. Your Profound What
  6. Your Life Changing When

Pretty logical right? Sure, but I promise you, if you attack this list on your own, you’re going to get all clever about it and it will never work. Story is personal even if the details are not, the process always is.

I want your book, your message, your brand’s foundation to rest on these six solid pillars of a Core Story because:

  • I don’t want your book to collect dust in the closet, sitting in a box of hope.
  • I don’t want your marketing message to be thought of as shlock.
  • I don’t want your keynote to be forgotten and considered just one of one hundred other possibilities.
  • Most importantly, because this one really gets under my skin, I don’t want your book to cost you more money, than you’ll make from it.
  • I want your story to matter to the world in the same way it matters to you.

Here’s how I’m going to make sure this happens:

Here are TinaO’s Top Ten Core Story Principles to Being Seen and Heard from Space. Sounds silly right? But it’s not. Think local and act global right? It’s time to speak, write, work and share from the core of your story to create a lasting impression that people are willing to invest in. Enough already about making a difference… be the difference with your story.

Click here to receive TinaO’s Top Ten Core Story Principles.

It’s a PLAYBOOK.

I speak directly to you.

There is a workbook too.

I’m silly.

It’s direct.

It’s more than just a read, it’s an experience.

Let’s do this together.

You Matter, and so does your Story.

xxT

 TinaO is a Core Story Specialist, a Program Director of PUBLISH with Meribeth Deen for The Leap Learning Lab, she’s a writer, speaker and the founder of TinaOLife – a hub to Live, Give and Be Your Story, plus the deep listening weekend retreat Live Your Best Story. She’s been in the PR and Marketing world since she could put words together and has been a professional network marketer for over twelve years. She teaches: selling isn’t slimey, marketing isn’t make-believe and writing won’t give you an aneurysm (it’s not hard). You can be yourself in all that you do. In fact, that’s the world is waiting for. 

Want my book?  Get it here.

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Meribeth Deen on Patriarchy and Being Robbed of Our Stories – BLOG

March 13, 2017

At a recent event that could best be described as a women’s circle, the women participating were asked two questions in order to kick off the evening’s dialogue. First, introduce yourself not only by your name, but also by the names of your mother and grandmothers. Second, state something you’ve done in your life that you feel proud of – in particular, what you’ve done to “fight the patriarchy” (those were not the words, but that was the jist of what was being asked.

I honestly felt stumped on both counts. Now partly that has to do with the fact that I absolutely freeze in any situation where I’m put on the spot and am asked to talk about myself (helloooo…. job interviews). Also, I couldn’t even name my paternal grandmother. Never mind the fact that I never met her… I should at least know her name. I should know more than the fact that she had A WHOLE BUNCH of kids and even adopted one or two, and that she was both short and stubborn. Really though I don’t know much more about my maternal grandmother even though she lived until I was 21 and yes I did know her name, oh it still shameful how little I know about her life.

My grandfathers, on the other hand, their stories shine. Stories of heroics, intelligence, ingenuity, determination and yes, a few less praiseworthy traits as well – but still, with all of those, stories, the memory of these men evoke a much more complete picture of the lives they lived.

It’s a great assignment, digging up the details of these women’s lives. And I am sure that by taking it on, so many of us women could end up revealing stories that would blow us away. Shedding light on the lives of women whose voices were so diminished compared to ours, we could start to see that we come from a long line of heroes.

We’ve been robbed of their stories, and we can reclaim them.

From their lack of stories, we can also begin to understand the value of our own stories. Our predecessors have fought hard for so many rights we now take for granted, and having a voice and the power to make our stories heard is one of them.

Which brings me to the second question, you know, the fighting patriarchy one. It’s been really hard for me – putting myself, my thoughts, out there publicly; and I am growing into the role. But now I realize, speaking up and trying to be heard and listened to, well that’s simply a woman’s responsibility.

Our stories matter. Your story matters. Take the leap and write it, your granddaughters will thank you.

If you are ready to position yourself as an expert, become a unique voice for your industry and build a residual income, it’s time to write your book so you can grow your audience, reach new markets, and fill your calendar with speaking gigs. It’s time for impact. It’s not about writing a story, it’s about writing yours. Welcome to PUBLISH, a three phase book writing program that brings your story from concept to publish ready.

Every Wednesday we host a Publish Ready Master Session at 3pm (pacific time). We hope you’ll join us on any of these following days: 

March 15, 22, 29 and April 5

 

CLICK HERE to Register for Wednesday’s 3pm PST PUBLISH Master Session (to April 5th)

Meribeth Deen is a Journalist and a Story Producer. She’s a program director of PUBLISH on The Leap Learning Lab. She’s produced radio documentaries all over the world and brought the stories of whistle-blowers at Guantanamo Bay to the screen. She goes to where the truth lives. She’s kind, process oriented and believes that when writing, you need to get lost in order to find the point.