My guest this week, Bonnie Stevens, is a multifaceted individual whose diverse career has left an indelible mark on the worlds of journalism, documentary production, and entrepreneurship. She shares insights from her captivating career, touching on the intersections of nature, science, and business, and offers valuable lessons from her journey through life. Bonnie is a natural storyteller and shows us how to blend that wonderful art into speaking engagements, interviews, and public appearances. Listen in and uncover the unique experiences, stories, and wisdom Bonnie brings to the podcast.

She was a delight to interview.

You can reach Bonnie Stevens at: bonniestevensarizona.com

For info about the upcoming SHINE! Workshop in Sedona (Feb. 6th – 10th 2024)

www.storysoulstyle.com

A little about me: 

I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected. 

In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of items for you. 

A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile:  

An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by taking the  

10 Card Challenge – you won’t regret it.   

Connect with me: 

http://JanicePorter.com 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/ 

https://www.facebook.com/janiceporter1 

Thanks for listening! 

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Hello everyone and welcome to relationships

rule. I am most excited this week about my guest, Bonnie

Stevens, who comes to us from Arizona. We call her the zoning

girl she calls herself the zoning girl. So it took me a

minute, Bonnie to figure that one out because Arizona is not

my home space, but I finally got it. And now of course, it's

completely. So welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you so much. You know, Genesis is such

an honor to be here. And I love the name of your podcast,

relationship relationships rule, I just love that I promote that

so strongly throughout my my business and for years. And

really, it's all about relationships.

It is and thank you, thank you for that. So just

a little snippet about Bonnie, because there's way more to tell

you that she is an Emmy award winning documentary producer,

and international speaker, international best selling

author, career journalist, editor of to business journals,

public relations consultant, entrepreneur, and former

television news anchor. And there is way more that we will

weave in as we go because I was fortunate enough to meet Bonnie

on a retreat in Arizona actually, not long ago. And she

is a pro extraordinaire, and I loved her from the minute I met

her. So I'm so glad that you were able to come on the show.

And I'm going to start actually by taking you back because I'm

curious as you know, I'm curious about the the chapter that you

wrote in this book, the impact of one voice and you tell your

story of of kind of being in a in a bad place. Looking for some

solution to how you were feeling in the depths at the time. Now.

I'm guessing this was 1520 years ago. 10.

Not not just a little over 10 years ago, and

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, maybe about 12? About 12 years ago. Okay, so

you went through? Well, then it may not I thought

it was a bit longer. But this I'll ask the question anyway.

So, um, if you want to give us a synopsis of what happened and

what, what came out of it, I'll just tell you that my question

that I was thinking, when I, when I was reading this is, how

do you know that movie sliding doors?

I've heard of it. I don't altro and

if you see her at the beginning of the movie, it's

an old movie, but she gets on a train. And if she left, this is

how her life would be. Oh, right. This is how her life

would be. And so you see both parts of the of the story. And I

just wonder if that affected your path. Career wise, when you

had this, this experience in Hawaii?

Yeah. Great question. You know, Janice, I,

when I was having this time, and it was a dark time, and just

briefly, the three people that I was closest to the people who I

believe loved me more than anybody else on the planet, and

we're always rooting me on. And when I did something, they

would, they would see it as three times as big as anybody

else, you know, and they just, were always my cheering section.

They were all dying of a disease, all three of them. It

wasn't like an accident that was handling the ball. It wasn't the

same disease that they contracted from each other. It

was just this really dark time. And it was my mom, my oldest

sister and my oldest brother. And it was really difficult. And

it was a difficult time for me in other personal ways as well.

But this this really got to my core to the fact that there was

nothing in my life that I recognized as my life anymore.

My husband and I had had 100 miles of distance between us, my

oldest son had moved away to find work in another state after

graduating college. And and so I wasn't living in my same

beautiful mountain home. And then there's all this tragedy

everywhere. And what's interesting is that during this

time, you know, I believe that the universe has a way of

mirroring back to us what we're going through or helping to see

and understand what we're going through. And I'm sitting there

on my deck one day trying to process what all is happening

and where how I'm going to help everybody it all you know all

the people that in my life and a fire a forest fire started just

to the north of May right before my eyes lit just a few miles

north and it turned out to be a huge devastating fire was called

the Schultz fire and I was watching the plume build up my

background I'm I had spent time in the Forest Service and had

been on fire lines. And I understand, you know, when a

forest fire plume gets to a certain point in the atmosphere,

it can collapse on itself. And when it does that, it just

washes out flames, it can be deadly dangerous. And I was

watching this thing built and getting heavier and heavier, and

it was really kind of freaking me out. And it wasn't far from

town. And then as I turned around, there was another fire

starting to the south of me. And it just felt like my whole world

was this hazy, covered in this hazy smoke that I didn't

recognize anything. And I was just like, sort of grabbing on

to things sort of stabilizing myself, like what is happening.

And I feel like the universe does that. And and if we're not

paying attention, we get it, you know, hit 10 times harder than

we should have caught it the first time. And so in this time,

you know, I've been a journalist for, you know, decades already.

I had told stories all my life, and been in front of the cameras

and almost felt very confident and sort of in charge and

balanced. And, you know, I did all the things that you're

supposed to do. I tried to eat right, I tried to exercise all

the time. And I felt like I was doing everything I can to be,

you know, healthy and strong. And yet, I was sitting there

going, how can my world have gone so wrong? When I felt like

I really tried to follow the, you know, the straight and

narrow and make it all seem right and good. And, and that's

when it hit me that I really needed to hear other voices

besides the fear that was inside of me. And so that turned me on

to listening to audiobooks, just obsessively anything that was

good and positive and, and motivating and inspirational. I

was just playing in my head, I'd go to sleep with it going on.

And then, you know, I was really tuned into my intuition at the

time, too. And trying to ask for, you know, how do I get

through all of this, and I heard my higher voice. And it's funny,

Janice, because my Christians, my Christian friends will tell

you I misheard the message that it was really go surf. Yes, I

heard go surf. Yeah. And so I thought, Well, okay, so I

started looking up surf camps, and I was thinking, Oh, my gosh,

you know, it cost me a lot of money I'd I have, it's totally

irresponsible for me to check out on my life, to go, you know,

away for five, six days, spend the money, like $1,500 on

airline tickets, that camp itself was another 35. So you're

starting to add this up, that's $5,000. And then my mother, who

was going through dementia and getting worse, you know, as that

disease progresses, one day, she tells my sister that she wanted

to give a my sister that was my other sister, that that she

wanted to give all her children $5,000 Now my mother never gave

us money like that. And when I got this gift, I thought, Okay,

that sounds like divine intervention, you know, my

mother pushed this out through the fog of dementia. And she had

these, this $5,000. And that's exactly what I had, in my mind,

I'm going a must be assigned. So to everybody else, that will be

completely absurd. But I went ahead signed up for surf camp.

And I tell you, you know, it's in my book, which is coming out

in January. It's called life lessons from a zonie girl how to

stay Sunny, grounded and resilient. And I talk about that

as the lead in. And then I talk about so many inspirational

stories, people I've interviewed and covered through my life as a

journalist. How and I and I relate it to things that happen

in Arizona. So if you're in a gravelly pit of indecision,

which, you know, is, is such a visual, if you've ever been

hiking in Arizona, or mountain biking in Arizona, and it just

kind of talks you through, you know, what your choices are, and

what what successful people have said, I pull in their quotes,

and, you know, they all say make a decision, you know, don't

don't be in indecision, make a decision. And if you if it's

defined out, it's the wrong decision. Make another decision.

And I'm going simple enough, you know, don't just stay in this,

this confusing mixture of I don't know which way to turn. So

I mean, it's things like that, that really helped me that I

wish if I wrote that book, read that book. 2030 years ago, I

would have been able to jump across maybe two decades of

lessons learned, right? So I appreciate that you read the

chapter and I do tell that story also in the impact of one voice

inspirational stories of passion, purpose and

perseverance, which I'm thrilled to say is an international Your

best seller. So exciting stuff, really fun and interesting and

fresh stories that you've never heard before. And that's, that's

the turning points that we talked about this tourney time

in my life. So I really felt like, Okay, now that I have all

this wisdom, and I've gone through the, you know, yeah, I

write and come out the other end, I realized that, you know,

what that was doing to me was it kept me quiet, it kept me small,

it kept me from not sharing my gifts, it kept me feeling like,

I didn't have anything to give, and I certainly didn't have

anything to share, and who cares anyway, and that is the wrong

message. Because, you know, women especially need to hear

that message that we have gifts, and we need to share them. It

you know, if you think of it more as as a responsibility, it

takes your ego out of it, you have something that somebody

needs to hear. And that's why today I illuminate women, women

in business, so that they can learn how to be camera ready as

how I call it in, in story and soul and style. And through

this, they can step into the spotlight be more visible,

impact, their their value, increase their their impact,

and, and inspire others to do the same. And that's really how

my mission changed from telling other people's stories to

encouraging people to tell their stories.

Got it? Because I know that you know, certainly

having been in the in the spotlight and on air for all

those years and so on. You know, you were it was a job. And you

were you were doing investigative journalism as

well. I know that you're really um, I had forgotten that you're

a science geek actually like, right? I

am. Yeah, like, thank you. I am a science in a

positive way. Don't

get me wrong, but I own that. But sure, one thing

the most. I think the thing that stuck with me the most when I

met you. And I just set the scene a little bit that you

actually gave a little bit of a presentation or workshop for the

group of us that were at this retreat in Arizona. And the

thing that I think it's because I don't I feel I don't do this

very well. And I was in awe of what you were doing is, and this

is this is leading to your workshop that I know your your

retreat that you're doing in February, and February, right,

yes. But I want to just mention that. And we'll get into that.

Because what what I was in awe of was how well you tell a

story, you tell a story so well. And the other thing about that

is having those stories to tell like on like on it, thinking of

them on a dime. Because I can't do that. I just feel like

there's got to be a story that I can elaborate on about this. And

it doesn't come to me. And you know, if I've got the story,

like one of the things I love to do as a teacher back in the day,

was read out loud read to my class read to wonderful kids

love to read stories to kids. But thinking those experienced

stories that will illustrate the point. That's where the art is.

And that's what I saw you do so well.

So oh my gosh, well, that is such a compliment.

And Janice coming from you, I especially hold that so dear in

my heart, I will hang on to that. Thank you so much. That's

always the current skill, or Yeah, it is it is practiced. You

know, I've I've been telling stories in print and on camera

for a long time. But the the skill that I've had to learn is

how to deliver them without a teleprompter and connecting with

the audience and, and feeling the feedback about how it

resonates. You know, what, what the captures them what they're

interested in and how the points are made. And so, you know,

every audience, it's, it's different. And which is really

fun. Right? Read the audience is yes. And I've had to really

learn that because I used to think when I was up in front of

people that I was telling them so one way communication, right?

They weren't there to learn and this is what they're gonna get.

And I was, you know, really adamant about giving them the

information, right, but I wasn't a news reporter in you. Yes. But

I wasn't having the interactive experience, which is really the

whole enjoyable part of speaking to a group of people. It's

feeling the energy and feeling the feedback and you know,

really feeling the love and when you say something that is that

tugs at your heart. And somebody hears that for the first time,

you've forgotten what an impact that is. And you can see it in

their eyes. I mean, I've had roomfuls of people, you know,

like, like wiping tears, as I'm telling them a story about about

somebody and how that changed their life and what they went

through. And to a writer, you know, I mean, the whole point

is, to get people to feel to open up to be vulnerable, to

look at something differently, to have a different perspective,

perhaps, but but all of us, you know, when I, when I talk about

and you know, this, you've heard me say this before, story, we

all have a story. And the story is how we connect with each

other. So that is so powerful. And, you know, not everybody

recognizes that we learn through stories, and we have through

through history, we tell, you know, around campfires, before

we had written word, we would talk, we would share stories

that were passed down through generations. So the story is

such a powerful tool. And that is one of the things that I help

people develop in this workshop is for women, and it's

immersive. It's February 6, through 10th. It's called shine,

and it and just to remind people how to find it, you can go

story, soul style.com. And so story is how I mentioned how we

connect with people, and I help people craft their story. And

really hit the points most people don't dissect their own

story, right? story has a beginning, a middle and end,

there's adversity in it, there's champions in it, you know,

there's the heroine in it. And there's, you know, in a story,

there's a positive ending, there's something that came out

of it, there's a lesson learned or a new direction, or whatever

that is, and most of us don't look inwardly at our own story

and just determine, you know, what were the factors that

shifted our beliefs or shifted our motivation, or gave us more

determination, whatever that was, and then your soul is

really how we trust you, you know, you we do things for a

reason, we're passionate about what we do, for some reason. And

when we hear that, then then it's transfers into style. And

that's really how we recognize each other, you know, our style,

and all of that should flow together. And we should be able

to, you know, recognize when I see Janice, I see, you know,

somebody who values, relationships and helps other

people maintain that connection, and really say what's in their

hearts and not just let it be a fleeting moment, like, oh, yeah,

I should really think that person, and then never do it,

you know, and you have taught me that I can do that quickly,

easily, effectively, efficiently, and cost

effectively, which is really incredible. And I have, I have

really become the spokesperson for you. And you're just in the

past two weeks, I've seen so many people during the holidays,

and I'm out there taking pictures. And for your send out

card thing. People are so ecstatic when they get this this

candid picture of them having a blast in and it takes you right

back to that moment. And they open the cards and they text me

immediately. And they're laughing. And they're they're

saying, you know, this, this was really thoughtful and

meaningful. And it's

actually because you're specific and unique for

them. You were just thinking

about them. Exactly.

Yeah, it's beautiful. People are touched

by that. Yeah,

thank you. It's true. And they're in this world

today. We need more of that.

We tell them like, gosh, well kind of cuts

through, it stops you in your tracks when you're doing your

things are going through your mail quickly. Oh, that's a nice

Christmas card from somebody you know, and then you open that up

and you're going, Whoa, that is really thoughtful. That is super

fun. And I've never seen this picture I'd totally forgotten

about what we were doing in November, you know, so yeah, it

does. It just brings people to life. It's beautiful.

Thank you. I'm so glad that you get it because the

more people that get it are able to spread that kindness and joy.

You know, the more the world will be a better place

made it Yes.

So I watched you I listened to a couple of

interviews that you did and one that I watched because it was

video that I was actually I really really enjoyed it but I

thought it was interesting was it was one that you did earlier.

This year with Joanne McCall calling, yes, gain visibility.

And her book was media savvy or something like that. She's

Darlene. Yeah, darling. I wrote that we down. That's right,

Darlene. She's a publicist, and she's in the world that you have

been in write for four years. And I, I really thought it was

interesting. Couple of things came from you. I watched it,

because I wanted to see you how you do interviews in on your

podcast? And also because I noticed, okay, it was on video,

it wasn't your news broadcast. You weren't a an anchor in this

situation. But I have to ask, did you have prompts on the

screen?

Oh, you know, well, I always write notes

myself,

you had notes down on your table, but you

never looked at them? Maybe once? And so see, now I'm into,

like, how to do a podcast? How do you do? But did you have us

yet? Well, I do you know, I keep my notes on a

an iPad, and I'm able to see that iPad. And you'll notice,

you know, one of the tricks I do and I talked to the people I

interview ahead of time, is if I break eye contact with you, it's

because I'm looking down at my notes, I'm still listening, I

want to make sure that I get to the points that we Yes, want to

get out. And so you know, it's it's kind of a fine dance of

being engaged, you know, unlocked with eye contact and

bringing out that person to, you're also the producer, you

know, in a normal TV setting, you'd have an something in your

ear, and a producer would be talking to you. And they'd be

saying, don't forget to ask him about, you know, or I've never

had that. So, yeah, so you have lots, you have a big team on a

TV set that's helping you and remind you of things, and you

have a great teleprompter, and you've got a teleprompter

operator and all that. But when you're doing a podcast, and

you're doing the video as well, you know, it's a little tricky,

because you don't want to look like you're disengaged, right,

so, so I try to make sure that when she's on camera, the whole

in filling the screen, and I'm not on camera, I'll try to look

down just to see, and I'll have big circles on my script, like

you know where to go to next. So I'll have sometimes I'll have

arrows, you know, or I'll, I'll say, quote, page 63. And I want

to grab their book, you know, and open it up and read

something that they wrote that I thought was really impactful. So

yeah, I'll do a lot of cues. And I tell you what, you know, I

took a speed speak, a public speaking coach, I took some

sessions with a woman who's amazing, she's masterful. Her

name's RV Robinson, you I'm sure you've heard of her. And I

learned so much from her about public speaking, and how to kill

yourself and how to do things smoothly. And so I have been

practicing that, and my vodcasts my video podcast, helps me do

that, and helps me try to be smooth. And then when, when

everything goes wrong, you know, that's, that's the, that's the

mark of a real pro, when they can just keep the conversation

going. And like you, Janice, you've done your homework. So

you have lots of questions already floating around. And

there's, it's easy to pull things out. But you have to just

stay your concentration this day with your concentration. And an

RV says, you know, if you're doing one hour of public

speaking, it's like an eight hour day, it and and I get that

and I don't know if you feel like this, but after all do a

vodcast and I'm in charge of producing it all and make sure

it all comes together. I'm starving. I was thinking, you

know, it feels like I just ran a marathon and I really need a

hamburger. So that's so you do put out a lot of energy. And and

a good interviewer is somebody who does their research, and

doesn't just show up and fire questions at somebody and call

it good. You know, you're not really having a conversation

you're just being fired at. So people recognize the difference.

And they're very appreciative. You know, authors, I don't know

how many times I've heard, Wow, you really read the book. Right?

And you're thinking, shouldn't anybody who interviews you read

your book? And the answer is no, you know, they might look at the

table of contents or read the news release. But they won't

really delve into it they won't absorb it and they won't

highlight something that really spoke to them or is relevant for

the moment you know, I'll because

because we take on too much. And there's there's

so much out there and we don't have time. So then why did we do

it? You know, like, I get it. And I understand that and I

actually have had people say that to me too. Although I I'm

learning that, you know, if I don't want to read that book,

then maybe I shouldn't have that person on my podcast. Right?

Well,

yes, I have run into that too. And sometimes I

have to force myself through a couple of chapters to like, and

just really kind of get into it. But yeah, I know what you mean.

And I'll put that off. And then it'll be like, nagging at you,

you know, off in the corner office going? Remember? You're

gonna read? Interesting.

So which part of what? So right now your focus?

Is it? What do you have different things going on? So

how many things do you have going on? Now? Like you do your

vodcast? You? Do you do private training for people? And yes,

okay. Go ahead.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I do I do

many workshops in an afternoon. I do them with as I do them one

on one, I do them in groups of three or 10. You know, after you

get to about 18, it's kind of tough. But I'll and sometimes

I'll bring in people that are broadcasters that I'm good

friends with, and they'll help me you know, do interviews with

people and help them get feedback and keep trying and

practicing until they feel more confident, more comfortable and

kind of get where everything is, you know, when when you're being

interviewed on camera, there's so many questions just down to

the basics of where am I supposed to look? And that's a

really important question. Because if you're, depending on

what kind of format it is, you can look really shifty, if your

eyes are going all over looking for where they need to land. And

what I always tell people is you just focus on the person talking

to you just like you would, it's, that's normal. And really,

we're just eavesdropping, like the camera, you know, we're just

kind of hearing and listening and finding you very

interesting, you know, it's like being in a crowded party, and

somebody's holding court somewhere and they're animated

and people keep are being drawn in to them. It's kind of the

same feeling where you're just engaged, and you're so involved

in this conversation, that it's charismatic, you know, it's

magnetic, people want to come and find out well, what all of

this is going on, and who is this person. And that's Janice,

that's really how I operate. When I'm in a room, I'm always

looking for that next best story. It's just what I do, I

love to tell great stories. And so I'm always kind of filtering

through rooms and looking for somebody that has this glow

about them, or this drive, or this passion, you can tell in

the way that they walk in the way that they move. Or they're

gregarious, or whatever it is. And sometimes it's not even the

main speaker, or the person that, you know, we're all there

to see sometimes. And sometimes there's a lot of side stories,

you know, it's like a bonus for me, I get to go to one event,

and then pick up five different stories and five different

sources.

Well, I think part of that is because you are

such a relationship person, yourself, like you love people.

And it's very obvious. And I saw it in that when we first met,

and you had each of us come up to be interviewed by you so that

we could go through and see how we were and what to say and

whatever. And you were so beautiful with everybody and

everybody was in a different place. Some people were more

natural and comfortable speaking to the you know, on camera and

others were not, and you made everybody feel comfortable and

try to move them ahead. And, and it is an art, there's no

question if you're not used to it, it's,

it takes practice it. It

really does, I'm struggling still with this

green.on my, on my computer, versus looking at you on the

screen. And I've been dealing with that all day and more with

you than anybody else. I'm admitting it because I know that

I want to look at you. But if I look up here, I think I'm

looking at you, right? I don't know, it is,

you know, with every different format, there's

just something to learn about it. And, you know, you talk

about somebody being a natural, they're a natural this their

natural that well, you know, I submit that there's very few

naturals in the world at just, you know, being really good at

speaking or being really good on a certain format. It really

comes down to practice and, and practice. So you know, I think

back to playing the piano when I was seven years old, when I

would rather have been climbing a tree, you know, I mean,

practice takes discipline. And it's, it can be painful, because

you've got to play it back and watch yourself and get

comfortable with your voice and your mannerisms. And, you know,

try different things and see if you animate it if you use your

hands does that help you communicate a point is Is it

more interesting to watch you? Or is it too much and you're

bumping into things, you might have to rein it in a little bit,

but knowing yourself, most of us don't even realize things that

we wouldn't want to be doing on camera, but we do it because

we're not aware of it. Right. So that practice makes us makes us

focus in on that and pay attention. And then ask for

feedback, which is also makes you very vulnerable. You know,

if people might say, something that's, that hurts you or is

offensive, but I take it all with a grain of salt. You know,

we're, we're all individuals. And we're all anybody. You know,

I applaud everyone who puts themselves out there because it

is scary. And you can't control it. I think that's part of the

fear is, you know, once it's out there, or two, it belongs to

them, and then you can't control it. And that's very

uncomfortable for most of us.

You know, I learned something a long time

ago, when I was doing some I was doing a television show for a

friend of mine. This is something I've thought about for

a long time he produced this show in in LA it was a it was

like a forerunner to Dancing with the Stars. It was called

Dance Fever. It was many, many years ago. And he had auditions

for that show, wherever to find dancers right to come on the

show here. It sounds familiar. Okay. Yeah, the premise of the

show is they get these amateurs on there, and they'd have a

three celebrity judges. And then they had a couple of dancers,

professional dancers on there as well, just to make it

interesting. And, and then anyway, so he said, Why don't

you do some auditions for me in Vancouver? And I said, Oh, yeah,

that would be fun, because I love doing events and things,

right. So I did it long story short, and I had to find a

nightclub to do them. And I had to find different kinds of

dancers and whatever. And I found celebrity special judges

to do that, you know, it was the same premise as the show, but it

was auditions. And from that, he would look at the tape, and they

would bring people down there to be on the actual show. Well, one

of the judges I got was a dance critic from the newspaper, and

the local newspaper, which was fine. Well, I did two shows this

first show this person came the second show, she couldn't come.

And she sent one of her colleagues, who was another

reporter from the local paper. And I won't get into the

details, but later, he basically wrote an article the next day

about how I handle things. And he didn't like what the way the

results had gone. Oh, no, kind of slammed me because it wasn't

like a contest. It was basically a TV show. And we had to pick

the dancers that we needed for the show as opposed to

entertaining. Yeah. So he

slammed me in this article. Well, I was

devastated. And horse devastated. But I also realized

after that, that any press is good press. And it's gone in a

flash, because nobody really, you know, it's not that

important in the big scheme of things. But oh, my goodness, it

was hard on me at first.

Oh, my gosh, yes. Well, you know, that

happens. It does happen as you get good press. Right, whatever.

And I have to say that I do. I do agree that publicity is

usually good, even when it doesn't seem to be favorable.

Yes, exactly. It puts you it makes people curious about you.

Yeah. Which makes them want to find out more. And, you know,

so. So even, I've done a lot of crisis management in my public

relations consulting firm. And, you know, I try to calm people

down, because, like, you're absolutely right, you're the

only one that is feeling the heavy hit. And, and it goes away

everything, especially these days is so fleeting, oh, yeah,

you know, used to worry about the shelf life of something. And

if it's gonna sit there and just, you know, ruin your life,

because it's there on the table. But it's, it's so not true. And

the best way to move on from something like that is, is to,

is to succeed. You know what I mean? So to so to flood the

media world, with all the successes, not necessarily that

you did, but that you're introducing that you're bringing

along from this program, you know, and, and just bury it just

flooded with kindness and goodness and success, and joy

and relationships, and then people will not it'll just be

buried and it'll go away. Whatever it is. I mean, there's

a lot of unfairness out there, but mostly, it's good. I like to

think that mostly, the experiences are good. Exactly.

So as we were wrap up because I realized I've

gone over and that's okay. We have so much fun talking. Now, I

want to ask you a couple of quick hits. So favorite quote,

what's your favorite quote?

Oh, favorite quote? Well, as you know, I've,

I've had the great honor and opportunity to interview so many

amazing people, people who have done, you know, something that

no one else has done. And I have interviewed for men who, out of

the 12 that have walked on the moon and not just interviewed

them, but spent time with them, you know, like, spend an

afternoon with them working with them as a keynote speaker and

driving them around and having conversations. And my favorite,

I shouldn't say this, but my favorite was Alan Bean. And he

was on Apollo 12. Now, I always felt sorry for Apollo 12.

Because Apollo 11. And as you remember, it was Neil Armstrong

and Buzz Aldrin, and, you know, they got, they got all the

glory, no, Apollo 12 was like, you know, been there, done that.

And yet, Alan Bean was one of those astronauts that walked on

the moon with a very, like, the third person, I think, walked on

the moon. And so as I'm talking to him, just casually, you know,

not even in with my notepad. I said, So what's it like to step

out onto the moon, and everything's Gray, and

everything's still and everything's quiet, except

whatever's going on inside your helmet, you know that your

respirators and whatever else is going making noise. And, you

know, nothing moves, there's no wind, right? And, and he goes,

and then you look back at Earth, and you can see the Blue Magic

bubble back there, and the marble with the clouds and the

oceans and, and he says, that's when I realized we live in the

Garden of Eden. And that quote, has stuck with me ever since.

Because whenever you're feeling down, whenever you're feeling

like, life is not being fair to you. I think of that quote,

because all you have to do is for me, get into nature. And

realize, remember, if you think about that, we live in the

Garden of Eden. And if you really dissect that, what does

that mean? I think of abundance. You know, everything we need

oxygen, water, food, people, animals, you know, everything we

need is right here. And if you can take yourself as you lift

yourself out of the doldrums, wherever you are, and pull

yourself up to that place where you can really appreciate the

beauty and the wonder, and the opportunity that we all have.

You know it it really works for me. And I think that's so

beautiful. So that is my favorite quote, in the Garden of

Eden. Yeah,

that's amazing. Okay, last question. What would

you say? Is the best piece of advice that you've ever

received?

Oh, boy, you know, I've received a lot of

advice. Well, one that sticks with me is Kevin Harrington. You

may you know, early shark tank fans might remember him from

that program. He was one of the first sharks. And he is an Uber

entrepreneur, his story is, I love his story. Because if you

remember the days of television, where everything went fuzzy, at

the end of the day, you know, static, and there was there was

just like, no program, or programming or really bad

programming in the middle of the night. So Kevin was the guy who

thought, well, I'll buy that airtime. Yeah. Right. It was an

infomercial. And he would put actual inventors of, you know,

wondrous vacuum cleaners or, you know, juice makers or whatever.

And he'd have the inventors out there, you know, demonstrating

their product for half an hour. And like through it, they'd say,

if you want to buy this vacu wonder whatever they would call

it, you know, call this number right now. And so he invested in

all these inventors and got him on airtime. And his his advice.

He says, you know, people don't succeed because they're afraid

in a lot of cases. But his quote was, you know what, we're all

afraid of failure. And he says, So you tried, you failed, you

learned? And I'm like, well, that's, you know, you can kind

of just dust your hands off and say, Okay, put it beside you.

And his message was really about maximizing your, your chances of

winning. And so he would say there'd be times when I tried 10

different products, I would invest in 10 different products

and three of them would be successes. Now if you look at it

depends how you look at it, get three successes, that you got

70% failure, and he said then I would match summarise it. So I

would invest in 50 products, and then you know, you would

multiply your successes. So I really love his attitude about

failure is like, you fail, you learned. And I'm like, if we can

all just look at it that simply that it's just part of, of life.

It takes, it takes some of the fear out of out of trying things

that are scary. And, you know, I'm a big believer in, in

pushing ourselves, it gets our heart racing and makes us feel

alive. And and that's, that's really healthy.

That's good. That's really good. I forgot

that he was the infomercial guy too. And I know that he has, and

he's all over the internet now. I mean, still, and you know,

yeah.

He never stops. No, he's so high energy. Yes.

Well, this has been delightful. And I know that

I'm, I'm looking forward to hearing about I wish I could

come but I can't, to your wonderful event in Arizona in

February. Tell my audience one last time about it. And we'll

make sure that the show notes show how they can find you and

find it. Okay,

absolutely. Yes, I'm thank you so much. I'm super

excited about this. This is the workshop that I would have

wanted. For myself. And I've integrated it's called shine.

And it's February 6 through 10th. It's in the red rocks of

Sedona inspirational in and of itself. It's immersive. So we're

in this beautiful luxury accommodations built into, you

know, surrounded by the red rocks. And we'll be practicing

on camera, crafting your story, practicing telling your story,

practicing all different formats, you know, how you

appear on Zoom, as well as on camera on set on stage, getting

your key messages together, and sharing those in a compelling

way. And what really makes this workshop sensational is that

I've got such a team of experts. I mean, these are award winning

legendary broadcasters, pumping speakers past is called coaches.

This this one woman that I've gotten to know who is an

expression expert, she dresses people for TEDx talks, by

getting to know their topic and their brand, so they look like

their message. And this will be so fabulous for every part of

your life. It's for women. And we'll also be mixing in some of

the magic of Sedona like stargazing under these beautiful

dark, brilliant stars, dark skies, and we'll be doing some

yoga and, and sound bathing and which is you know, with bowls

and gongs and, and things so very Sedona esque and that will

be dining in a friend of mine who's an entrepreneur in Sedona,

she has six award winning restaurants in Sedona that are

absolutely all of them, also very different, and all

incredibly good. So that's our celebration, we'll be doing that

and then we'll also be on my vodcasts. So we'll be on, we'll

be putting on a program that people can use for their

websites. We'll also I'll also be writing stories about them

that will be published. And they can use that so they'll walk

away with materials, I'll have videographers, their

photographers there, and, and that just the fellowship of

being together with like minded women. It's going to be

fantastic. I'm, I'm super excited for it, people can find

it at story, soul style.com Or look for me at Bonnie Stephens.

arizona.com. And you can if you want to chat with me to decide

if it's for you. It's bonnie.stephens@gmail.com and

just right shine in the subject line and I'll know what your

what your what you want to know about. So it'll be fantastic.

Thank you, Janice. This has been an amazing opportunity. All was

so much fun to talk with you. I love what you do. And I so

appreciate the opportunity to talk about how relationships

matter so much in all of our businesses. While you've

been a delight. Thank you. It's been my pleasure

and my privilege to talk to you so I so appreciate it and I know

your event will be amazing. I I do will spread the word about

this. When this comes out mid January. Okay,

fantastic. Thank you so much. And, you know, I'm

feeling the urge to send you a thank you card. I

love it. I'll accept it anytime. Absolutely.

There's so much and remember to my audience. If you like what

you heard, please go seek out Bonnie's event and the work that

she does, and remember to stay connected and be remembered