Amy Schoen | Dating & Valentines

February 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Amy Schoen [11:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We spoke this day after Valentine’s Day with relationship expert Amy Schoen. She has coached singles for many years, and tells us the story of her own love breakthrough.

Information about Amy Schoen from www.heartmindconnection.com

Amy Schoen has been transforming people to be their best for over 20 years. Amy has the gift of visualization and uses this gift to ask the right life and relationship questions to visualize the kind of life they truly desire. To move clients towards positive action, Amy draws upon her vast life experiences, business experiences and keen knowledge of people.

Amy has found that asking the right relationship questions makes you reflect on what you truly want, and gives confidence in yourself in the dating world. This approach will give you a better sense of what you truly want in a relationship, how to avoid damaging relationship issues and lead you to success in life and dating.

Before being the principal of Heartmind Connection®, LLC, a life and relationship coaching and consulting business, Amy owned an upscale clothing boutique for 13 years in Bethesda Maryland and was an image consultant. Here, she helped her clients to discover their best image which gave them the self confidence they needed to accomplish their life goals. After closing the boutique, Amy continued as an image/wardrobe consultant and established Amy’s Eye for Style consulting service.

Having owned a clothing boutique, starting a business as an image consultant and now running Heartmind Connection, life and relationship coach, Amy Schoen, understands what it takes to be an entrepreneur! More importantly, Amy understands the unique relationship questions and relationship issues you may face as you seek success in your love and business life.

If you’re ready for a long-term relationship in your life, go for it. Amy has spent over 10 years figuring out the right relationship questions that will get you visualizing exactly what you truly want. You’ll avoid unnecessary and damaging relationship issues and get solid dating advice for what you want in life and marriage with the Motivated to Marry^TM method.

Amy has an M.B.A. from Georgetown University and has studied life coaching and received her professional certification from the Coaches Training Institute of San Rafeal, California. She speaks regularly to professional organizations and social groups including the DC Young Professionals, Learning Escapes, New Beginnings and eWomen’s Network. On a personal note, after a divorce in 1996, Amy has been happily married at the age of 42 since July 2002! Read Amy’s personal story.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Dating, Valentines Day, Holidays, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Deborrah Cooper | Suckas & Dating

February 15, 2008 | 4 Comments

Interview with Deborrah Cooper: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We enjoyed speaking with Deborrah Cooper today, about her book Sucka Free Love. She explained the definition of Sucka, and talked about dating in the 21st century, and how to find the right partner (not a Sucka).
More information from Deborrah Cooper’s website: www.suckafreelove.com

San Francisco based life coach and dating/relationship expert Deborrah Cooper speaks and writes regularly on topics relating to singles, interracial relationships, dating, and romance. Deborrah is the author of “Sucka Free Love! - How to Avoid Dating The Dumb, The Deceitful, The Dastardly, The Dysfunctional and The Deranged!, published in March 2007.

Deborrah is also the founder and resident advice columnist on AskHeartBeat.Com™, her award-winning relationships site. AskHeartBeat™ was founded in 1997, and holds the honor of being the first site on the web designed to focus on black male/female relationships! The site is full of informative articles on dating and relationships for both adults and teens of all nationalities. Deborrah’s witty, no-nonsense weekly advice column (which she pens under the moniker “Ms. HeartBeat”) is highlighted.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Dating, Valentines Day, Holidays, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Lisa Marie Mercer Transcript

December 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” Today is our holiday show, sitting between Christmas and New Years. My next guest is Lisa Marie Mercer, author of “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” Welcome to the show.

Lisa Marie Mercer: Hi, how are you? Glad to be here.

Dr. Kent: Have you been skiing this year yet?

Lisa: Yes, I have. I’ve been skiing where I work at Copper Mountain, and in early September, I had the good fortune of teaching a ski fitness week out in Portillo, Chile. So, I sort of got a head start on everybody else.

Dr. Kent: Sounds like it. I grew up cross-country skiing. I was a competitive athlete up in Minnesota, in the cold. How did you start skiing?

Lisa: It was a very funny story. I met a man who loved to ski. I was a quintessential native New Yorker who thought that even a 40-degree day was in the Arctic zone, but I wanted to be with this guy. So he took me on a ski trip. At first I absolutely despised it, because I couldn’t stay up for one minute. Then about 10 years later I started doing all these balance exercises, working out on the stability ball, and I got up on the slopes and found out my balance was incredible. From there I just got hooked, left New York, moved to Colorado, and the rest is history.

Dr. Kent: So tell me a little bit about “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” This is a book that’s not only about fitness. What’s it about?

Lisa: It is about the benefit of learning to ski or snowboard, or even snowshoe or cross-country as an adult. And I’m talking about the physical benefits, the psychological benefits, and even, for some people, the spiritual benefits. It talks a little bit about my journey into the world of snow sports.Then the second part of the book presents a very, very detailed ski or snowboard or snowshoe fitness plan. It has references to some of the best instructors in North America who specialize in teaching adult beginners. All in all, it’s a very comprehensive book. It’s basically everything you wanted to know about snow sports.

Dr. Kent: And what value does athletics and sports have in our lives, not just this time of year to work off those couple pounds, but for in our sedentary lifestyles where we’re staring at the computer all day, what’s the value of sports?

Lisa: There are many, many values. First of all, you’re getting outdoors. In the winter season, anybody who suffers from any kind of Seasonal Affective Disorder, you’re out there in the snow. There are social values. Let’s take an example of some of the Internet message forums, such as EpicSki.com; that message forum has over 16, 000 members from all parts of the globe. People go on that forum to talk about skiing, and sometimes they even meet up with each other at various parts of the world, so you have friends all over the place.Physically, snow sports are weight bearing, so they prevent the eventual onset of osteoporosis. They improve your balance, which is great just for general walking around. If there’s something on the ground that you normally would have tripped on, most snow sports participants would have enough core stability to kind of drag themselves back up and not fall down and get hurt. So, the possibilities are endless.

Dr. Kent: I know you also work with people one on one, why write a book? Why do that?

Lisa: Why write a book? Because when I first tried to learn to ski, I was what you would consider an extremely fit person. I was a marathon runner. I spent about two or three hours a day in the weight room, but I had no balance whatsoever. And my first day on the slopes was absolutely embarrassing. Then years later, after I did some balance training, I found out it was really natural.Now I work at Copper Mountain where I’m sitting right now. One day in this very spot where I’m sitting, there was a woman, very fit, very beautiful, looked like she worked hard, she was sitting in the cafeteria crying, and I went over to her. I asked her what was the matter, and she said “I always prided myself as being a very, very fit person, but I cannot stand up on these slopes.” And I spoke to her a little bit about the proper type of training, and as I walked away, I said “You know what? I need to write a book.”

Dr. Kent: So you feel that this book can reach out to people that are athletes and want to figure out how to do this winter sports thing. Does it also reach out to non-athletes?

Lisa: Oh absolutely, absolutely. A lot of people I know, especially a lot of people who take my classes out at Mountain Sport Fitness in Frisco, Colorado, they never got into any kind of physical exercise until they started skiing. And it was the skiing that motivates them to stay in shape.

Dr. Kent: And it’s because of the fun aspect? The view and the endorphins? What is it about skiing?

Lisa: There are a lot of things. It’s the social aspect of it, although for some people–for me I often like to ski by myself, the solitude. It’s the fresh air, the excitement, the view. Sometimes you use it as a way of just traveling around the world, seeing different parts of the world, but not seeing it through the point of view of a tour bus. You’re just out there on the mountains getting a view of the scenery, the different topography. It’s just a rather amazing thing to do.

Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about New Years; it’s coming up. Do you get a lot of people coming in saying, “It’s my New Year’s resolution to get in shape”? What do you tell those folks?

Lisa: I tell them that it should go beyond a New Year’s resolution, because resolutions often get broken. It should just be something that is going to become your way of life. Start to see yourself as an outdoor person, and that’s the way–if you make the total commitment that you’re an outdoor person and this is important to you–then it will be natural for you to want to stay in shape for your sport.

Dr. Kent: I can see several different personalities of athletes. My father and I tend to be very extreme athletes. We like to push the limits, but my mother, when she goes skiing, she’s thinking about the hot chocolate at the end of the hill. Do you get both types?

Lisa: Well, that’s a big part of it. I was talking beforehand about Portillo in South America. When we went the conditions were not really all that good, but the whole environment, it’s just a rather amazing place.It turns out that the same people will often book the same week every year so they can come back to see their friends. You’ve got a lot of the international ski teams going out there, and they just hobnob and socialize with everybody.Part of the day is just spent in the afternoon in the lounge having some cocoa, chatting with people. So, I always tell people don’t overlook the entire experience. For some people, it’s going to be about the thrill and the challenge, but for others there’s just something very wonderful and relaxing about the experience. It can be catered to each person’s preferences.

Dr. Kent: Where can we find out about your next project?

Lisa: You should check out my website which is mountainsport–no “s” at the end of sport–just sportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com?

Lisa: Dotcom.

Dr. Kent: Sally Franz’s book is called, “Stressing down for the…” Sorry, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. My next guest’s book is called, “Stressing down for the Holidays”.But, on that subject, stressing down for the holidays; how do you feel after doing the exercise of skiing? Is it the same as running or running a marathon, as you said you did before?

Lisa: It’s a little bit different. There is a similar type of thrill, but I would say it’s a little bit more mellow. You feel a little bit more relaxed at the end of a ski run, whereas in a marathon you’re often still a little bit hyper and you’re talking very, very quickly because you’re just moving very quickly. But, the skier’s high is a little bit more mellow.

Dr. Kent: Cool. What are some tips for winter fitness besides just skiing for us this winter? What if, like in my area, we don’t have much snow?

Lisa: OK. Balance training is extremely important for any kind of snow sport. You want to get yourself a stability ball which is very, very inexpensive nowadays. There are some great exercises that you can do on the ball, which I’ve covered in detail in my book.You also want to learn to keep your core muscles, your deeper abdominal muscles very active. And, that’s very simple to do. All you need to do is about 10 times a day draw your belly in and see if you can hold it tight for about 10 seconds; that’s all. Eventually, that will train the deeper core muscles to support you, and eventually you will find your balance will start to get better.

Dr. Kent: What’s the importance of physical balance in terms of our everyday lives?

Lisa: In terms of our everyday life, they keep us from getting injured. One of the biggest causes of injury in older adults is falling, but if you start training your balance at an earlier age you are less likely to fall.Out here in Colorado we have women and men in their late 80s who are still skiing. Although it’s intriguing to watch them ski, it’s equally fascinating to watch them walk across an icy village in their ski boots, carrying their skis and being totally balanced. But, that’s because they started training for it when they were younger.

Dr. Kent: How has athletics balanced your life?

Lisa: That’s an interesting question. It’s balanced it in a number of ways. It’s made me see that balance in the general aspects of my life, balancing work and play, balancing play and family time, balancing work and family time and spending more time with my pets.When we first started to learn to ski, we had just adopted a greyhound. It turned out our greyhound really, really loved the snow. So, we just started taking ski vacations with our greyhound. Eventually, she was part of the decision of moving us out to Colorado.

Dr. Kent: Do you put skis on her?

Lisa: No, we don’t put skis on her, but she absolutely loves to play in the snow. The other day we had some deep powder, and she decided to just jump into it to do her business. And, it was so funny because all you could see was her little smiling head sticking up with her mouth wide open and looking like she was laughing. I wished I’d brought a camera. It was really adorable.

Dr. Kent: That’s a great picture to leave us with. Thank you so much for being on the show, Lisa Marie Mercer. Her website, again, is…tell me again.

Lisa: Mountainsportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com and her book is, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. And we’ll all do our best to do that. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Lisa: Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Dr. Kent: You, too. Sally Franz is my next guest with “Stressing down for the Holidays”. Come on back.[music]

Posted by admin | Filed Under Christmas, Food, Health, Holidays, Travel, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, TRANSCRIPTS, Sports, PODCAST

Sally Franz Transcript

December 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on this holiday show is Sally Franz. Did I pronounce that correctly?

Sally Franz: Yes. Hi, how are you?

Kent: Hi, very good. She’s come to talk to us about her new book, “Stressing Down for the Holidays: 25 Tips to Peel You Off the Ceiling”. Give me a little sound clip about that.

Sally: Well basically it’s looking at what our expectations are and what we can really do in this modern era to create family traditions that are not hard on us. A lot of the things that have been passed down generation-to-generation are just not possible with how we live our lives today.

Kent: And I noticed by looking through some of it that you deal with some issues that definitely pop up in my family, and I’m sure in many families. When you say ‘Grinches’, I tend to be Grinch sometimes, and I think all of us have certain aspects of this. Let’s start out by talking about the value of the holidays. New Year’s is coming up and we have resolutions coming up later, but this is the season of family gatherings. Tell me a little bit about how we can have healthy family gatherings.

Sally: First of all, let me just say that anyone listening can get this booklet - it’s actually an e-book - for free if they go to BabyBoomerTalkRadio.com. And when you go to the Boomer Boutique, which is our store, you just scroll down to the bottom, click on the PDF and you can actually be reading along with us as you’re listening, and it’s free. I think the most important thing is to understand what stress is. Stress is the difference between what we wanted and what we got.And if we were expecting ‘Uncle Booze Hound’ to be sober for one hour, and at the end of the holiday dinner, we’re in the kitchen and we’re throwing things in the sink saying, “Why couldn’t those two just stop talking politics for one hour?”, the answer is they would if they could, but they’re not going to. So how are you going to still have a lovely holiday, given that every family has its person that’s nuts?

Kent: Absolutely. So was your family trouble-free as a kid?

Sally: No. We had a mixed family - his, hers and theirs - way before people were doing that. We had a tradition where all five kids had to stand in front of the fireplace, posing as they hung their stocking. And every single picture for 20 years, somebody’s all puffy-eyed from crying - at least one of the kids is miserable Christmas Eve. So there was screaming and yelling, and then the aunts came, and the aunts were saying things like, “shush, quiet, quiet”, to five year olds. I had a twin brother; you can imagine the chaos.I think the key thing is to say, what do we love about the holidays? For instance, if you’re a homemaker, or better yet, you’re the holiday-maker - which could be man or woman - you’re the one in charge of the pageant.If you really love the idea of lit candles and beautiful flowers in the middle of the table and everyone’s sitting around, but you’re kind of fantasizing that it’s some other family; one of the things that you could do is have a buffet dinner, and then ask anyone who’d like to join you for dessert around the table. So it’s only limited to five or ten minutes and that way hopefully they can behave themselves for five or ten minutes, but they may not be able to. But at least you had your moment without actually ruining your dinner.

Kent: And it always seems that these family gatherings can get quite lengthy. What’s your take on… One of my fiance’s pet peeves is that when we visit with family, the women segregate themselves; it’s a societal thing. I’ve tried my hand at getting into the cooking and the dishwashing and do a bit of that, but I feel like an unwelcome participant. The men and women segregate, what do you have to say about that part of the holiday?

Sally: Well of course some of the fun is hanging out with either family, or like you said, all the women may be in the kitchen, and three may be sitting on stools at the kitchen bar, and the others are whipping something up, but it’s a fellowship thing. There was a guy that did a one-man show, ‘The Caveman’, Rob Becker. He talks about a very funny incident where he tries to join the women and he realizes he doesn’t have any of those skills because he’s a guy.The guys are all talking about potato chips, they get down to the last one, and the one guy goes, “You ate the last one; you have to get the next bag.”. And the next guy says, “No, I brought this bag!”. The other guys says, “It’s my house.”, so they argue about who’s going to do it. The women, as they get down low on chips, all walk together over to the chip bag and fill it together, and then walk back to where they were sitting. So when the guy comes in and gets down to the last chip, he goes, “I’m not going to fill it; I just filled the other one.”, and they all look at him like he’s crazy.So the question is if you really do want to participate and you also want the women to know that you don’t think it’s their share, you could make a declaration that after the meal, the men are going to do all the cleaning up, and the women can sit and watch anything they want on the television.

Kent: Exactly. They can turn the football on and fall asleep.

Sally: Yeah, like that’s going to happen. They’ll be watching Martha Stewart or something.

Kent: And then you talk about in the book some of the more difficult things. I’m always thinking on the holidays about certain friends of mine who are alone somewhere in the world on the holiday to people that might have lost their families or never had a family. Talk a little bit about that.

Sally: I think the real key here is how do you cure the ease of the malaise or the stress of the holiday. I think the number one thing - and if you’re not doing this, get going - is to start doing either random acts of kindness or join an organization that is helping people less fortunate.Every synagogue, every church, every curb right now is collecting toys, food and things for needy families. And if you don’t know how to do that just go directly to Salvation Army or directly to Social Services, and they have lists and lists of families that are not going to have a Christmas, that are not going to have a holiday at all, and start giving.I know lots of people, and I’ve done it myself, where I was alone on Thanksgiving, so I just went to the nearest soup kitchen and helped serve. And I could be around people and I could laugh, see smiling faces and I got fed.

Kent Gustavson: It’s true. I’ve done that also on Thanksgiving and it’s a very fun experience. Kind of on the other side of the spectrum, we’ve got families that definitely have each other and are grateful to have each other, but one person comes in and is a ‘Grinch’, and that’s the term you use. Tell me about the old grievances.

Sally: Again, you are not going to cure 30 years or 50 years of dysfunction just because you wish it so. God bless you, but get rid of your magical thinking. Then it’s like triage. What are we going to do to save the day? And one of the things you can do is say - if the Grinch is a political nit-picker - is anyone who wants to talk politics with ‘Uncle Grinch’ can go sit in that corner. The rest of use who want to eat pumpkin pie and go throw snowballs during that kind of climate, we’re going to go do that.I think the most important think is compartmentalizing both the day and the people. The other thing that’s really, really important for the pageant producer; please have other people who are coming - if you don’t have family and you’re single - assigned to these difficult people.So if you have the goth, whacked-out teenager who’s in a mood even before they get in the door, and you’ve got what I call the ‘free-range’ two-year-olds who’s parents say, “We never spank them or correct them; we never say the ‘no’ word.”, and they also never watch them and now it’s your house. So when you have those kinds of things, you say to your sister, “You’re in charge of the two-year-old.”, and your mother, “You’re in charge of the grandchildren.”. You assign them out. Now you did bring up an interesting question, what if you’re the Grinch?

Kent: Right.

Sally: I do sit down at Christmas time - Christmas is my holiday - and I say “At what point have we stopped giving and it now feels like extortion?”. And some years it’s not until the end that you find out that even though you finished with all your shopping in November, there actually are three more gifts. I just got an email from my ex-husband’s family, and they all said “Well you’re in the Christmas grab bag!”, and that was one of the things I was looking forward to getting out of. It’s just that now I got to go do that.

Kent: There’s a certain stigma attached to a lot of events. I guess we all have the required event and the events that we like. And it’s kind of like taking the sugar to help the medicine go down. Do you have your favorite events on Christmas or on New Year’s?

Sally: You really nailed it. There are some things you really look forward to. I lived in New York City for a while, up on the Upper Eastside, and there was a church - I don’t remember the name - and they would play their organ and bells, on the loudspeaker system, Christmas carols. And it was a tradition, everybody in the neighborhood - and I mean this is New York City and people are coming out of high rise buildings, I was on the 25th floor - all just started gathering and singing to the hymns, to the Christmas carols. And it’s just a magical thing, and nobody organizes it except the people that put the music on, and everybody just gathers. That was very cool.And then I lived in California and one of the big things was to go to sing ‘The Messiah’ with a full orchestra. The guy would hand you the entire ‘Messiah’ music, and I can read about every other note. The altos would sit there and somebody would lead you in singing almost the entire ‘Messiah’. It’s really cool.

Kent: I know for some people that would drive them nuts. My family is Swedish and my sister loves to make these cookies that are just solid butter and sugar, and I can understand how she likes them, but I can’t stand them. And so we always joke about it. She says, “Oh, I made these cookies.”. and I say, “Oh, I hate those cookies.”.

Sally: Are they like apple skivers?

Kent: No, they’re deep-fried. They’re pretty good.

Sally: It sounds wild. Well I think the big this is, again, everybody brings their favorite cookie, and everybody says you don’t have to eat those cookies, I hope. I think one of the most important things is to save the stuff you love. If your family absolutely loves making gingerbread men and decorating them, save that one; but don’t do the one where you have to go ice-skating at the mall or whatever it is. I used to love to carol as a kid. We got together gangs of kids and we’d go door-to-door, and we just loved Christmas carols; we did it for hours. We did it longer than we did trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood.The key thing is the family needs to sit down, or the single person needs to sit down, and make a list of all the things they love. Then, actually do like you do at a job, do a time frame. OK, making sure Christmas cookies that are decorated, and I have that in my book sort of as a joke. It takes like five hours usually and everybody eats them in two seconds, and they didn’t even notice that the little red hats made of hearts; they just chomped right into them. So cut corners, gift bags for gifts not wrapped, pre-made bows. Just make it easy on yourself.

Kent: And what about New Year’s? Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

Sally: I sat down one day and I went I don’t keep any of these resolutions. They’re a joke and they’re embarrassing. And then I feel guilty and that’s no way to start the new year. So I like to make a list of New Year’s resolutions that are easy to keep. And actually when you look at it, it gives you so much joy that it would actually be easier to give up the drinking, the smoking, the weight gain, whatever you were trying to get rid of.What if you just made a resolution that you were going to watch a funny video or DVD every single week, at least one where you fell apart on the floor, something like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” or whatever it is. And then maybe you make another resolution that you’re going to eat some kind of fantastic chocolate at least once a week. And making yourself happy actually makes you a person that has a lot more energy, and that energy you can use to feel better, and usually then you don’t have to go drug yourself.

Kent: Those sound like some pretty good resolutions to a lot of people, I’m sure.

Sally: And the other thing is if you’re not laughing out loud almost to the point where eggnog comes out of your nose, you are not doing the holidays right. Most people don’t laugh that hard, but it could be hysterical.

Kent: Sally Franz’s e-book is available online from her website, it’s called “Stressing Down for the Holidays: 25 Tips to Peel You Off the Ceiling”.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Travel, Holidays, Food, History, Thanksgiving, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, TRANSCRIPTS, PODCAST

Bob Goodrich Transcript

December 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is our Holiday Show. It’s December 21st. And my next guest is Bob Goodrich, winner of 14 Emmy Awards and his newest project is called Sports Cast Stars Training. Welcome to the show.

Bob Goodrich: Thank you very much for having me.

Dr. Gustavson: Who did you grow up listening to on television?

Goodrich: Wow, I grew up listening to Chris Shinkle and Jim McKay and, you know, some of the old-time great announcers, Curt Gowdy. You know, I remember listening to him when I was a kid on the radio all the time.

Dr. Gustavson: Who was your home team?

Goodrich: Well, I grew up in Dallas so I didn’t really have one until the Dallas Cowboys came into town. We didn’t have much pro sports back then.

Dr. Gustavson: And you produced Monday Night Football..

Goodrich: Yeah, yes I did.

Dr. Gustavson: … and that’s how the Emmy awards got… Are you an athlete yourself?

Goodrich: Yes, I played football through college and played basketball through high school and ran track in college and through high school and played baseball in the summertime. So, I’ve always been an active athlete.

Dr. Gustavson: Can you give us kind of a breakdown of what creating the show was like? You know, you worked with the sportscasters. You worked with..

Goodrich: Yes, yes. It…one of the things that I always tell people is that when you’re watching a sporting event, I decide what you see and the director decides how you see it. And then obviously you listen to the announcers for the description and replays and so forth.So, I decide where the replays go. I decide where, you know if we have to promote another show. I decide when a timeout comes, whether we’re going to do a commercial - all of those kinds of things.And then the director decides, as I said, how you see it. Whether he takes a tight camera of the participants or a wide camera or an in-zone camera, or whatever it might be.

Dr. Gustavson: Man, television sure has changed since then. When I was a little boy watching, you know, the tiny little television at my grandparents’ house-black and white and grainy-colored television at my folk’s house that didn’t do all of this fancy stuff with painting the first down line on the field.

Goodrich: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gustavson: How has television shaped the way that we think about sports?

Goodrich: Well, I think, the biggest innovation was color. I think, that was far more important than HD. Although we’re all being told that we have to have HD in another year-and-a-half or so. But, color made it so much easier to tell the difference between teams when you were watching sports and to be able to tell the various nuances of the game-whatever the game was. So, I think, that’s been the biggest.And the next biggest is obviously our ability to do replays from every single angle and every single camera that we have.Then the third thing is the recent addition of the Sky Cam. I happen to be a huge proponent of Sky Cam because you can - you sort of feel like you’re a part of the play when you see the play from a Sky Cam.

Dr. Gustavson: And the sound makes a lot of difference too; now days they can mic the field.

Goodrich: Yes. Yes, I am totally with you on that because most shows in all honesty don’t pay that much attention to getting the sound. But, I think, the sound can really add to the experience for the viewer of watching whatever game it is.It doesn’t matter whether it’s, you know whether its golf and you just occasionally hit a - hear a sound of the ball being hit and the crowd applauding. But, it makes a huge difference in the perception that the viewer has about the sporting event that they’re watching. And it’s all positive.

Dr. Gustavson: Tell us a little bit about some of these folks that you’ve worked with. You wrote a little bit to us about Howard Cosell and O.J. Simpson. Tell us a little bit about them and about a couple of other characters that you worked with.

Goodrich: Well, Howard Cosell is…I think, anybody that has either heard of him or seen him or knows of him, you know, would probably admit that he was a kind of a character.Howard was probably the most intelligent person I ever worked with, was certainly the most unusual person I ever worked with and you just never knew what was going to happen. One day he would call and tell me I was the worse producer in the history of television and two days later he’d tell me what a great job I’m doing and… You just sort you know - you just sort of took it and said, “That’s Howard and that’s his moods.”He knew a lot more about the sports he was calling than I think, people gave him credit for. He brought a different perspective to it because he was not an athlete. And he brought intelligence to whatever game or boxing event or Wide World of Sports event that he was calling.And he did his homework. He had a photographic memory and could remember anything he read about a participant in a game or an event. He was… by the blind is, he was a lot of fun to work with. And you know there were some trying moments, but so what? You know, it was worth it because he really, really made a difference in our business.As for O.J., I worked tons of shows with O.J.–Wide World of Sports, Super Stars, any number of events and I was a friend of his. Back then we played golf together and tennis together and so forth and I never, ever, ever saw a mean side of O.J. He would get frustrated or kind of mad at himself because he made a mistake and hit a bad golf shot or something but when we were working together or around people and stuff he was as charismatic a person as you could ever want to be around. So, I have nothing but fond remembrances of working with O.J.

Dr. Gustavson: When you’re planning these shows, do you plan it and how much doest he forecaster-how much does the voice sort of improvise on its own?

Goodrich: Well it depends on the event but for the most part the event dictates what I do and what the sportscaster does. Hopefully we stay in sync with what we’re doing. That’s part of my job is to make sure that we stay in sync because if you have a blowout football game hypothetically you’re going to treat it differently than you would a tie game because there are so many additional stories you can tell and so many additional features that can be used in a blowout. In a tight game you don’t want to lose sight of what’s going on on the field. So, it’s more, I think, the event than anything else.

Dr. Gustavson: Let’s talk about the holidays a little bit. Where are you going to be for the holidays?

Goodrich: In Las Vegas for a bowl game and in Atlanta for a bowl game.

Dr. Gustavson: You’re still working hard after 35 years in the business?

Goodrich: Yes, because I love it. It’s so much fun to do and the people are so great. I enjoy sports. I’m not a sports junkie. I don’t sit everyday and read box scores everyday and stuff but I enjoy producing the sports and enjoy being there and working with the great people I work with and getting to enjoy the people that are participating in whatever the event is.

Dr. Gustavson: And speaking about that I’d love to talk a little bit here about…you also founded the Sportscast Stars Training?

Goodrich: Yes. What we’re trying to do is take people who have a great desire to be a sportscaster, that are coming out of college or changing professions or whatever. Or people that are working somewhere in the business now but are not at the highest level and they’d like to be at the highest level and believe they can be at the highest level. That’s why we call it Sportscast Stars Training because we’re going to show them how to become a star.I have worked with all the greatest sportscasters in the last 35 years but they’ve pretty much been in the business so I know what it takes and I know what you need to do to become a great sportscaster. So, that’s what we’re doing. We have a very limited size on the seminar. We can only accept sixty people and we’re hoping to get sixty people that have this great desire and that out of that we will help the industry by finding some really great talent that will move on and work in the industry and people will say ‘boy, that person - he or she - is terrific. Where’d he come from or where’d she come from? And we’ll be able to say we helped them with our seminar.

Dr. Gustavson: The industry sure has changed a lot also. I mean even from when I was a kid. It was so much more focused on the voice and now it’s so much more media personalities and all of that. Do you think it’s going a good way?

Goodrich: Yes, I think, it’s going a good way as long as it doesn’t go too far away from the calling of the game or event because that’s what in all reality - and we all know this - that’s what people are tuning into the event for or the telecast for. It’s for the event. So, I’m all for having some fun. I’ve all for interviewing people. I’m all for putting little features into the events, I’m all for any and all of that - sideline reporters - but as long as it doesn’t take away from people enjoying the game. I’ll go back to what I was talking about a while ago, the difference between a blowout and a tie game.

Dr. Gustavson: Tell me what your greatest accomplishment is.

Goodrich: Ohh, probably my five-year-old daughter. That would be my greatest accomplishment. In terms of my work it would probably be producing the first Super Bowl for ABC Sports back in 1985.

Dr. Gustavson: Those are both wonderful events. You’re the winner of 14 Emmy Awards and which one of those are you most proud of?

Goodrich: Probably the Indianapolis 500 because it is such a difficult event to do and requires so much teamwork by so many people and to put it all together and have it work and work so well and have a great race and then win an Emmy Award for it was very gratifying.

Dr. Gustavson: Well thank you so much for being on the show. Bob Goodrich’s new project is called Sportscast Stars Training. We can find out about that - where can we find out about it?

Goodrich: Our website is sportscaststarstraining.com, just like you said. And there it gives you all the contact information, email, 800 numbers and all that kind of stuff to call us about any questions and we’d love to talk to anybody that has any interest in it.