Interview with Paul Kingsman | Sound Authors Radio

December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is 8-8-08; it’s an Olympic Friday. Tonight is the day everything starts at the Olympics in Beijing. I’m excited to watch, my whole family will be watching. It’s a real tradition for so many of us to turn on the TV and see all of the athletes win these medals. It’s a lucky day for the Chinese; 8-8-08, and a lot of the athletes are hoping it will be a lucky day for them. I’m very lucky today to have a man named Paul Kingsman on the line today and he is going to give us some insight about China and about the Beijing games. He competed in 1984 in Los Angeles and again in Seoul where he won a medal. He’s from New Zealand and now lives in California and he travels the world as a professional speaker and executive coach. Welcome to the show Paul Kingsman.

Paul Kingsman: Thank you.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little about your Olympic adventure. I need to know what did it feel like for you?

Paul Kingsman: Well 1988 was the year that I was really focused on although you mentioned I went to the 1984 Olympics. I went there when I was very young. In fact I was 17 in 1984 and it’s amazing. the Olympics is such a huge event, its amazing how much you learn the first time and I made a number of mistakes and made sure I was focused on what needed to happen the second time around. Fortunately I got another invite and in 1988 we laid out a great plan. My coach and I did a plan that we believed would win an Olympic medal in the 200 meter backstroke.

So I had a goal time that I’d set to hit bearing in mind that you have no guarantees with that particular time to win a medal but then going to Seoul I was well prepared and was just a fantastic event. Obviously in Seoul after the 1984 Olympic boycott and the 1980 Olympic boycott it was the first real Olympics for 12 years. So everyone knew, I mean it was just a buzz throughout the village that this was the year to really come out and do something. It didn’t matter if you were an Olympic medalist previously or whether you held the world record. No one cared.

The Olympics are the kind of event where everyone there recognizes that you’ve got a front on the day and reputations come from nothing. You still have to produce it on the day. So yeah we had a great time and I won my Olympic medal by four one hundredths of a second. It was a very close race.

Dr. Kent: Do you watch the Olympics in a different way? When you see a television broadcast, when you see a race live, are you watching the same way a writer reads a book after they’ve written one?

Paul Kingsman: It’s funny because the first couple of Olympics after I retired; I retired from swimming in 1990 and the first couple of Olympics I didn’t even watch. I had learned about the performances naturally of our team from New Zealand but I didn’t really get tuned into them. It was one of them even being in Sydney Australia quite close to where I was living in new Zealand but mainly it was so fresh and the experience was so fresh that to know what those athletes were going through and not to be able to take part in it I found quite difficult and so the first Olympics that I watched and really got into was when I came back to the US in 2002 and watched the winter Olympics. I just loved them and actually fell in love with them and I like the winter Olympics better than the summer ones.

This time around I’m going to be watching, in fact even watching it this morning you get a little emotional because you know what these people are going through, you know the pressure, you know the distractions that are there and now its coming down to the final stretch so I’m enjoying seeing the coverage that I’ve already seen this morning.

Dr. Kent: What’s amazing to me is it’s almost like this holy space. It hasn’t been tainted by professional sports too much. These are people that give everything and for what? It’s a day of seeing that one top of the world medal. What drives a person like you to really put everything into this? I was a bit of an athlete growing up but what does it take to push at that extra level? You’re always going into that zone of extra effort and exhaustion. What does it take to be an Olympian?

Paul Kingsman: Well it starts with passion and I’ll come back to that point but you made a great point as far as not really being tainted. I remember in 1988 when they introduced tennis to the Olympics. They had it at the previous games but was starting to grow in popularity and speaking to tennis players and even some of the tri-athletes, their response was I don’t think tennis really needs the Olympics. They have their four match tournaments and then they go on after the Olympics into another million dollar event and earn more money in that one tournament than some of the Olympic athletes will ever see in their lifetime.

So it was interesting to see how the other professional coaches responded to actually being in the Olympics. Some of them were kind of a little standoffish wondering how they feared some of the other athletes were going to receive them. So its interesting hearing a different perspective and what drives a person to get there is firstly passion. It’s not so much these days about finding what you’re passionate about it although it’s important. The biggest issue today facing people is actually protecting what their passionate about because there are so many distractions out there now in our environment that its actually being able to focus on something for the long haul. Obviously as an Olympian you’ve done this.

Any person who gets to the Olympic games have focused on something, have locked onto something over the long haul, have done the hard yards and have still kept that passion, have still kept that desire, you know white hot every day. So that’s the first thing I think that one of the points that sets Olympians apart from other people is that they keep that passion first and foremost every day and all their actions are predicated upon that one thing. Its not that things get done if there’s a chance it’s that the priorities are the things that need to get done. That’s what these athletes have taken care of.

Dr. Kent: Let’s say you just arrived in Beijing last week, you’re in the middle of China, a place you’ve never been before. You’re a first time Olympian at age 17, what’s going through your head?

Paul Kingsman: Well I can tell you what was going through some of the heads and what shouldn’t be going through your head. First of all what’s going through your head and what should be going through your mind is I was doing this since when I was nine years old and now is my chance and I need to make sure I don’t blow it. I need to make sure I don’t blow all those years of training in the last couple of days.

For instance in the 1984 Olympics I was young and a little silly and you go from training for six hours every day all of a sudden into a tape situation where you’re only going into the pool maybe ½ hour 45 minutes a day. You’re body’s not burning all those calories and all of a sudden you got a 24 hour buffet in the games village with everything imaginable. So very quickly in 1984 I stuck on probably four or five pounds in five days just through lack of discipline.

What’s key now is for the athletes to realize it’s going to be hot, it’s a dry muggy atmosphere, we need to keep off our feet, we need to be staying indoors, and so if you combine the fact that now you’re tapering, you’re not training six hours a day, you’re just touching the water. At the same time you have to train yourself to lie still and rest when your body is feeling like its ready to bounce off the walls. It’s very difficult and so you’ve got to be very disciplined to handle that and stay focused and avoid those distractions.

Dr. Kent: What event was it when you won your bronze and take us through it? Were you expecting it? Was that your goal? What happened?

Paul Kingsman: My goal time was to swim a time of two minutes. When I was nine years old I saw the 1976 Olympics and I actually wrote down that I wanted to go to the Olympics and win a medal. So I had that goal right from when I was nine. By the time 1988 came around I was 21 and I had been swimming over here at Cal Berkley in northern California for a couple of years and so I’d been watching the world rankings. I knew who was doing what and our goals was to swim that two minute event but there were no guarantees.

I think that’s something that you need to understand going into an event especially like the Olympics. There are just no guarantees and anything can happen. Any one of the finalists can come out and win a medal but we believed that two minutes would be good enough to win a medal. So that was the objective. I was racing the first day of the swimming competition. I marched in the opening ceremonies because it was six days before I swam. So during those five days you’re trying to get out of the environment, you don’t want to go along to the swimming pool to watch and it’s a tough one because you hear about team spirit but at the same time if you go along to the pool, the atmosphere is such that it just saps you.

Over those five days I was very measured with everything I did. I swum my heat in the morning and made the final to come back and swim at night. Then I rested during the day and that’s very difficult because your body is still very tired, its sore from the morning swim and you know now you’re in the top eight in the world. A lot of people at that stage will back off and say hey top eight in the world is pretty good. A lot of other people won’t do it and so that’s when they settle at that point for a lesser performance than what they could do. So I came back that night to swim. I didn’t feel great when I was warming up and that’s something else these athletes will have to battle.

You have to plan for years and years before the actual point and things just don’t feel as magical as what you’re expecting them to feel. But I got through that point. I qualified seventh in the final so I was out in lane one. It was a four lap race, the world record holder, the top three guys went through the first lap in under world record pace and watching the footage you can see the video on my website they were way ahead of me. At the end of the second lap I turned in fifth place so it was, you know you’re starting to get tired, you’re starting to get sore but we’d prepared for that third lap especially. Down the third lap I still remember that point in the race and you’ll see the athletes go through that point when you watch the Olympics.

The question hits you, what are you going to do now? And you ask it and you answer it in a split second. The body is fatigued and you got to make that call. Are you going to go and just take the pain for the next 40 seconds or are you going to hold off and have a decent swim. And I remember thinking, just go. Just go. When I turned off the third turn, as soon as you hit either end of the pool you hit the touch pads and the score board lights up and because I was out in lane one I was at the top of the scoreboard so when I pushed off the third turn I accidentally saw I was in fourth spot and I remember thinking someone’s going to die but its not going to be me. Just keep going and going.

I remember seeing the first guy hit the wall, I saw the scoreboard light up which meant somebody won the gold and then saw the scoreboard light up again so the second place was gone. In coming into that wall on the last stroke you’ll break your fingers, you’ll break your hand, and you don’t care. I remember lunging and just hitting and looking up and seeing the scoreboard and looking up and seeing lane one P. Kingsman… 3 and it registered that I’d won a medal. The feeling of excitement and then just exhaustion. It was like somebody dropped a piano on you, just this heavy hit of fatigue. They took the three of us out to get us ready for the medal presentation and one of the guys from radio new Zealand came bursting into the room where I was at.

He told me then that I had won that medal by four one hundredths of a second. When I’m talking to large groups of people you just hear this huge sigh and a whole bunch of people are sitting there just shaking their heads because basically what I had done was swim for 13 years. I hit my goal time, which was two minutes and that medal was decided by four one hundredths of a second. So there’s a big commitment to that race and to that medal and that’s what I speak a lot about now is overcoming distractions and staying focused. The reason why is because again if you see the video of my swim, the guy that came fourth to me right at the very end literally on the last three strokes looked across at me. On two of his last three strokes, he was a German swimmer, very talented swimmer but he looked on the last couple of strokes and that cost him easily four one hundredths of a second.

So you see the price of distraction, you see the cost of distraction and we do that in our lives every day. In fact I was talking one time to a group and I had a young student stand up. He said to me, “So what you’re saying is that basically if he hadn’t have looked you wouldn’t have even had a medal.” To which I said, “Yes, that’s exactly right.” And that’s what we do everyday in many different ways. We’re trekking along one path, we know we need to tend to things and we just get distracted. So that’s how I’ve used that story now because I see the price of distraction and for me fortunately it turned out well with a bronze medal in the Olympic Games.

Dr. Kent: Talk a little about your career now. You talked about your speaking and you’re a coach and motivational speaker and you’ve worked with many corporations over these last years. How does this tie into your life plan? You’re such a focused athlete and then you went into corporate America and now you’re speaking. How does all that tie together?

Paul Kingsman: Well when we came back here to the US I got involved in the financial services industry starting at Morgan Stanley and I’ve been speaking since I was 17. I’ve probably been speaking a lot longer than that but started speaking professionally to groups when I was 17 and loved being able to teach groups and talk to people and help them. I always thought if I was 24 years old and I could talk with a 16 year old about different issues in life or swimming issues I’d save that kid eight years of possibly banging his head against the wall. So

I’ve always enjoyed teaching people and having them realize hey, what I did in swimming I did because I had God given talent and that but you also have abilities in different areas. It doesn’t have to be necessarily as glamorous as the Olympics, that’s not the point. The point is whatever you’re going to do, do it well and do it excellently and figure out what’s involved in doing it excellently. It has no relationship to beating anyone. When I’m speaking this is a point that I make. That I never wanted to go into a race doing anything less than to win but I’ve never gone into a race wanting to beat anyone. They’re two different things.

So when I’m talking to people I enjoy talking with them about how to bring out excellence and in today’s culture that is just not going to happen unless you can stay focused and get rid of those distractions. So when I’m talking with groups its normally groups within the financial services industry, but I talk to different business groups all over the country about those very things. They then understand, hey if this is the same thing in business then they realize why I also address the issues in family life. Whether it be careers, whether it be in relationships. It doesn’t matter, the main thing is to keep focused on those things that you really want to see happen in your life and then be prepared to do the work. So that’s how that now fits into what I’m speaking about and talking to various groups about.

Dr. Kent: Now do you have a book?

Paul Kingsman: Currently I’m working on a book. It’s about overcoming distractions and you’ve heard about the book The Law of Attraction? This one is going to be predicated on the Laws of Distraction and how they hinder us and ways to overcome them. Because the people that I’m speaking to out there as soon as I mention distraction, the very first thing they say is boy if you can help me get through this or help me get through the amount of emails I’m bombarded with or help me set up a system where I stay focused everyday on what’s important. How to prioritize properly and follow through.

So that’s the book I’m currently writing. While it will be obviously for the financial services industry, it’s applicable to everyone. Whether it be relative to raising family, bringing up kids, relationship issues, it’s coming back to not getting distracted. How do we avoid getting distracted and in our culture that’s the biggest obstacle today. Because companies are getting better and better at getting their messages out and our attention spans are getting reduced all the time. It’s not their fault for advertising or anything like that; it’s our fault for not being disciplined. So those are the kind of things I’m going to be dealing with when the book comes out.

Dr. Kent: I find it fascinating to speak to an Olympian of course you always get that but I’m curious about a person like Michael Phelps. He’s gone from sort of no one knew who he was until last Olympics and he’s kind of come in and out of the spotlight. How does a person like Michael Phelps be a celebrity while at the same time still be at the top of their game?

Paul Kingsman: That’s a great question and fortunately with what we’re seeing so far in Michael Phelps is we’re seeing that happen. I was watching him interviewed this morning and he has tremendous poise which is something you don’t find or rather something you find in athletes that sets them apart. Guys like Tiger Woods have it. Ali was another one that had that poise, that presence of mind and that high level of self awareness. When I’m coaching people and coaching groups those are some big key areas and Phelps clearly has poise. He’s aware of his environment, he’s aware of his situation, but just like Tiger Woods, its hey this is only going to have so much influence on me because first and foremost this is what I’m about.

I’m about swimming fast and I’m about getting the job done. So he hasn’t lost that. You can tell that by how he’s speaking. You can tell it by how he’s focusing on things. Obviously people, it’s a tough one because when people talk about winning eight gold medals he’s in a tough position because if he wins eight gold medals he’s done what everybody expected him to do. If he wins seven gold medals and a silver medal, he missed. So that’s a tough situation to be in.

Having said that, I think he’d be the last to see it that way. I think he’s a very focused athlete and I’m hoping he has a dream performance in these Olympics. But I mean it’s incredible to think if he wins eight gold medals over two Olympics he would have 16 Olympic medals, which is phenomenal in this day and age.

Dr. Kent: A question for someone like you, I’m speaking with Paul Kingsman of course and you have a bronze medal. There’s such a difference between I guess the media coverage in this country and in other countries. In one of the Olympics I was fortunate enough to be in the Middle East and there was no commentary. We got to watch the Olympics and there was zero commentary. It was uncommon because I got to hear the actual announcers at the events and there’s so much stigma attached to these events. Oh, will Phelps win all of the gold and yet a bronze medal. If I had a bronze medal that would shape my life just as it in some way shaped yours.

Paul Kingsman: I preach like that and that is the label of competition at the Olympics. When you go to the Olympics its an historic event and then to go to that next level up where you become an Olympic finalist and the top eight in the world and then an Olympic medalist which very people do and then obviously a gold medalist, yeah it’s a special thing and that was one of the aspects I did appreciate it a lot more when I came to the US. There tended to be a lot more recognition over here than probably in new Zealand even though it’s a smaller country of the fact that winning an Olympic medal.

So yeah, when you compete against the best in the world, I’ll never forget the feeling at the opening ceremony where they say “ladies and gentlemen, gathered before you are the greatest athletes on the planet” and that’s like whoa! And I’m one of them and that suddenly starts to sink on. Hang on we’re talking about the best athletes in the world here. So yeah it’s a big deal but you’ve got to remember too that once your events finished the next day, you’re a normal person and life goes on and the sun shines and away you go again.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little more about what you do everyday with speaking and coaching and how we can find out more about what you do online?

Paul Kingsman: Typically with speaking I go in and speak to sales teams or speak on awards trips or speak to companies that are looking for ways to stay focused, to overcome those distractions and I talk a lot about passion. Obviously protecting it and I talk about priorities. People can say they’re passionate about stuff but how do you prioritize and then follow those things? Then I talk about practice. What does practice look like for you? What does it need to look like for you?

For an Olympian it’s a six hour day and its hard work but what does practice need to look like for you? Then we get to performance. What happens on the day of performance when you sit in front of a prospect that you want to make a client, when you get to pitch for a big deal out there? What’s going through your mind on that day of the performance and how do you cope with those kinds of things happening? I speak to groups about that and some people that specifically want to look at coaching and say look, these are my priorities and I’m struggling to keep on track, or these are my priorities and I want help and I want assistance and so that’s how I work when I’m coaching.

My website is paulkingsman.com. That’s the site and it has actually the video footage, the Olympics swim on there. If you watch closely right at the end you’ll see the guy in lane four actually look across at me. So that’s what I’m involved in doing now and I’m loving it.

Dr. Kent: It’s so amazing that four hundredths of a second plays such a big role in your life.

Paul Kingsman: It’s a great point and it’s a point often that people make when I’m speaking is that it changed my life. When I think if I was five one hundredths of a second slower that medal would now be in Europe and life would be very different. But having said that, I didn’t realize that guy actually looked until only four or five years ago when I was watching the video of the race.

Now it makes a big difference and I wonder and this is what drives me when I’m speaking, I wonder how much of a difference distraction has made on other peoples lives and that’s what I really want to help them overcome because I’m sure when I meet the people that I meet out there. You see incredibly talented people that could go on and do great things, it’s just a matter of avoiding those distractions and staying focused.

Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been an honor speaking with Paul Kingsman. He’s got a book coming out at some point about the laws of distraction and he has a website online paulkingsman.com. I’m really excited for the Olympics and I guess you must be too.

Paul Kingsman: Oh I am yeah. I’m looking forward to watching. I think there will be a few late nights and a few early mornings.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful, well it’s been such an honor and come on back after the break we’re going to speak to the musician Marcus Rill. Have a wonderful day Paul.

Paul Kingsman: It’s been a real pleasure, you too, thank you.

Dr. Kent: Come on back in just a minute, we’re going to listen to a little of one or Marcus Rill’s songs called Straighter Road. Come on back to hear him talk about it.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Motivation, Sports, TRANSCRIPTS, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, Business, PODCAST

Interview with Paul Mullen | Sound Authors Radio

December 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is Halloween and my next guest has been here before. Dr. Paul Mullen, he wrote a book called The Day I Hit a Home Run and his website is thedayihitahomerun.com. He’s had some great success getting that book out at baseball parks and he wants to talk with us about Halloween and read us some spooky stuff. So, welcome to the show Paul.

Dr. Mullen: Thank you very much for having me on your show Dr. Kent and happy Halloween to you.

Dr. Kent: Happy Halloween. Now tell me a little about the success your book has had before we get into some reading of it.

Dr. Mullen: Yeah, sure. We are going around not just in Ohio but we’re going to go to Iowa and we created another book and it’s called The Day I Hit a Home Run at Principle Park. What’s happened there is the Iowa Cubs are going to give away this book in 2009 and its written specifically for the Iowa market. This book has more of that Field of Dreams type of scenery. It’s that kind of a makeup but it still has the same kind of principle elements as the Great American Ballparks book had.

Dr. Kent: What got you into writing about baseball? Were you a baseball player as a kid?

Dr. Mullen: I loved baseball and I still love it. I liked seeing the Phillies seeing the World Series, probably the same as you’re area and neck of the woods also. My daughter also plays. She played hardball for a lot of years and in fact she just came home, she just got her masters degree and the first thing we did was go out and hit fly balls.

Dr. Kent: You’re a national speaker and you teach educators how to engage students better in reading and it’s such an important cause because literacy in this country is not where it should be.

Dr. Mullen: Exactly and the problem based on my research is and we talked a little bit about it, brushed it, is this inner voice and what we know is because so many children are getting hooked on television and video games that they don’t have this inner conscious, this thing when we were kids that if you get your hand caught in the cookie jar you knew that you did something wrong. With so many of these video games going on and the violence in them, children only know what they want to be rewarded by, they don’t have that feeling of hard work to get it. That’s why I’ve written these series of books is to teach them that yes you can have your dream but to get that dream to come true, these are the series of steps of what you have to do to get there.

Dr. Kent: So let me hear, I’ve heard that you’d like to read for us a spooky section from your book and now, which book is this from? Creeper and his Fake Eye, which book does this come from?

Dr. Mullen: This is from The Great American Ballpark and because it does so well with the children, we also included it into the Principle Park book. Let me first kind of describe why we called it Creeper if you don’t mind?

Dr. Kent: Sure.

Dr. Mullen: What happened was creeper, who was an older man, rumor had it he got in a fire and the right side of his face was very scarred and as a result, he lost his right eye and he had a glass eye. So at Tricks or Treat, that’s what we call it in the Midwest, we don’t call it Halloween, we call it tricks or treat night and on tricks or treat night what we used to do as kids is if we were brave enough and strong enough, we’d knock on creepers door. If we were able to hold his fake eye for 15 seconds, he’d give us a dollar treat, which was usually one of those big Hershey’s bars.

Dr. Kent: Wow.

Dr. Mullen: Yeah. So that wasn’t the only prize and this is where I’ll read. It’s about a page long in this series of books. The prize was back behind creepers house. Creeper lived in a mansion and his house was the biggest house on the block but he also had farmland behind his house and he had overgrown bushes. But he had a pond back there and that’s what we called Creeper’s Pond. That’s what this story talks about is when Foogie and his brothers and the gang went out camping out and rumor had it that if creeper caught you fishing in his pond, you were never seen again, so that’s the basis of the story. Now I’ll go ahead and begin reading, it’s about a page in length.

The moon was full and a gentle breeze rattling the swaying oak kept us from completely enjoying the tranquil moment. Larry and Elvin were serious fishermen. They had already hiked to the other side of the lake and were busy casting glow worms just along the edge of the lime green slurry. Butch dug through the barkers tackle boxes searching for additional fake bait when he stumbled across Larry’s midnight snack. He sniffed the cellophane and growled, “Mmm, peanut butter!” He tore at the wrapper like a kid opening his first Christmas present, and his bite was so deep that he nearly split the sandwich in two. His smile soured as he spit out, “Cucumbers? Too weird!” It was a cucumber and peanut butter sandwich. What if he had bit into Elvin’s sandwich? “Nice,” he countered. “Nice,” Butch hacked out, “what’s yours?” “Peanut butter and green olives.” “You’re sick,” was all he said as he flicked out his line with a nice juicy fat crawler on it just barely hiding the bar. “Don’t knock it ‘till you try it,” Lucky added. “Shh,” we dropped to the muddy bank. “What did you hear, Bill?” Bill was my older brother, I asked, my breathing beginning to labor. “Made you look,” Bill joked. Bills maneuver was cruel considering it was the bewitching hour. But he did cut down on the wisecracks. I was feeling rather peculiar. We were the hunters, baiting our prey with creepy crawlers and yet we were also the hunted, with Creeper’s Pond serving as our trap. I was feeling particularly bold. “Got one!” We could hear Elvin’s dragline screaming from the pool in which he had landed. “I’m going over there,” I commented. “Why do you think we suggested Larry and Elvin fish over there?” Butch asked. “I don’t know.” Then I thought about it, really thought about it. Creeper’s first move would be out the back porch and the Barkers would be his first victims. I plopped down next to Butch and cast out my line. Fishing this late at night wasn’t exactly relaxing. The ground was damp and when I closed my eyes for what I thought was a split second, it really seemed like an eternity. For all I knew, I was still on the back porch dreaming this whole episode. Creeper’s porch light doused us. “I’m going to get you kids once and for all!” Creeper shouted. The bright spotlight blinded us. We huddled together like a flock of chickens believing there was a safety in numbers. It was Bill that finally came to his senses, “Run!” he screamed. We dropped our poles. I took one step and slammed into Lucky. Fortunately he was kind enough to help me to my feet. Elvin circled to the other side of the lake. He reeled his line in at a furious pace but it was of no use. The fish was just too big. Creeper closed in on both of the Barkers. The final image I saw before turning and hightailing it out of there was Larry cowering to his knees. “Save yourselves,” were Larry’s final chilling words. And that was the last that we saw of Larry and Elvin.

Dr. Kent: Bravo! Love the story and we don’t have any more time but that will send me into Halloween with good thoughts.

Dr. Mullen: Well you make sure you dress up and give those kids the kind of candy they need, those dollar ones – the dollar size Hershey bars.

Dr. Kent: Exactly, I might just have to get a nasty glass eye to give them.

Dr. Mullen: There you go.

Dr. Kent: Well it’s been an honor speaking with Paul Mullen. We can visit is website on the Day I Hit a Home Run enterprise on thedayihitahomerun.com. We’re going to follow along with what you’re doing.

Dr. Mullen: All right, thanks Dr. Kent for having me on your show.

Dr. Kent: We should all think about children’s literacy as an issue in this upcoming new presidency. My next guest on the show is a musician. Her name is Marybeth D’Amico. I think I’m saying that correctly. She lives in Germany but she’s an American singer/songwriter. I’m going to play a song from her latest album, and that’s called Ohio. After that song is done, we’ll chat with her about that album and it’s called Heaven, Hell, Sin and Redemption. A great title for Halloween. So come on back after this tune.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Sports, Childrens, TRANSCRIPTS, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Interview with Richard Singer | Sound Authors Radio

November 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show is Richard A. Singer. He’s the author of several books. One is called Daddy What is Success? A children’s self-help book. He is also the author of an upcoming book called Now and has written a book called Your Daily Walk With The Great Minds. That was a non-fiction book of the year. Welcome to the show.

Richard Singer: Thank you very much, it’s a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Kent: I gather that you are thinking about breaking a Guinness book of world records?

Richard Singer: I am. I am going to be running across the US for several charities.

Dr. Kent: Tell me about this, what some would say crazy attempt.

Richard Singer: I love to help people and I like to do things that are definitely a challenge that people think are impossible. I don’t think there is much in life that is impossible if we use our complete potential as human beings. So that is my reason for doing it and to raise awareness for several challenging issues in life and for several charities.

Dr. Kent: So you want to go across the United States n 46 days. How do you go about doing that?

Richard Singer: I’m going to run each day several miles. The average will be about 60 miles. I just did a similar training run which was successful; I did 60 miles. So I’m training for it and I have a crew that’s going to go with me; a publicist, a director and we’re going to attempt to do this in about a month.

Dr. Kent: So what brought you to this? You’re an author, you’re a psychotherapist. Why would you do something like this Guinness book of world records attempt?

Richard Singer: I think it will be a great way to raise awareness for mental health issues; that’s one of the charities I’m working with. Another is addiction, an addiction charity and some others, the cancer society and the AIDS foundation. So it’s to raise awareness and getting the attention of people that need to know this is something I’m serious about and a lot of people are serious about and we need to continue to work on these issues. So I think it will get attention and also show that nothing is impossible.

Dr. Kent: So now talk about your older books. You’ve got the book coming out soon called Daddy What is Success? It’s an illustrated children self help book. You’ve got some of your older books; You’re Daily Walk with the Great Minds and Eastern Wisdom for your Soul. Talk about your books.

Richard Singer: My books I believe are and my books come from my heart and I’m very passionate about them. I don’t consider myself a great writer but I like the truth that comes from within and I write for people to think and what are affective ways of living ### I believe shows us how to live and gives us a map of how you need to live. I think they’re all very effective and they teach ways to live our life. My books are about the truth that I see and anything that can help another human being I write about.

Dr. Kent: You know, I’ve got to come back to this world record run. How is it possible to do that many miles every day for 46 days? What part of the US are you running across? The middle, the top, the bottom?

Richard Singer: I’m going to run starting in the middle, a little bit south of the middle. As far as I know right now that’s about right. Is it possible? I don’t know, I’m going to see. But I’m going to do everything in my power to do it.

Dr. Kent: It’s a 27 year old record, right? Talk about the old record.

Richard Singer: Yes it is. It was done and I believe that if something is done by a human being then I can certainly do it. And I really believe if I’m healthy along the way. There’s two people trying to do it now, I don’t know if they’re going to break it. I know the one can’t run anymore and he’s on a bike. He’s not going to break it. But the other one was doing very well.

Dr. Kent: Let’s talk about your charities and about the book. I would assume its coming out of the attempt. What charities are you going to benefit? You’re trying to raise a million dollars and what are your plans for writing a book afterwards, whether you’re successful or not?

Richard Singer: Yes, I’m definitely going to write a book afterwards and talk about the whole experience of this. One of the experiences for me was trying to get money out of people and that’s a very difficult experience. I’d like to write something about that. I live in the Cayman Islands so I’m trying to do a similar run across the Cayman Islands; which is about 85.5 miles to raise money for charity too. There are three separate charities in the Cayman Islands one is my own scholarship fund for at-risk youths, another is a mental health facility that’s here on the island and the last one is a great one. They help handicapped children scuba dive.

The incredible organization needed to do that on an island is like living in New York City. So those are here. The other charities in the US The ### Mental Health Foundation, The American Cancer Society, Make A Wish Foundation, Truth Drug & Alcohol Treatment Program, Animal Sanctuary that treats abused animals and I think the final one well I don’t have my notes in front of me. That may be all of them, but its distinct areas of life that I’m trying to benefit and things that I am passionate towards. Hopefully we can raise a lot of money towards that goal.

Dr. Kent: Now you have a couple of websites online, one is of course ricksinger.org, but you also have nowthemilliondollarrun. Is that the website for this project?

Richard Singer: Yes and there’s a lot of information on my website about is also called the milliondollarrun.org and that’s the site set up by the public system so there’s information on both websites. There’s a lot of information on ricksinger.org and anybody can call or email if they have questions or want to help out to do whatever for this project because it’s tremendous.

Dr. Kent: What do you hope to achieve with that project, with your children’s book, and with all of your books?

Richard Singer: I would like to achieve a transformation and I’m talking about a transformation of our world because I think it’s a mess. I think that if we all join together as one, which is very ideal but people can make changes and if we all join together we can make changes in society as well as the world as a whole because everything is connected. If we make changes ourselves it will emanate across the world.

Dr. Kent: It’s been a real pleasure chatting with Richard Singer. He’s the author of Daddy, What is Success? When’s that book going to come out?

Richard Singer: It’s coming out in December.

Dr. Kent: So we’ll look for that and we’ll check out milliondollarrun.org. We wish you the best of luck on that and even if you’re not successful with the run I think it’ll make a great story. It was a real pleasure chatting with you on the show.

Richard Singer: Thanks a lot. I would love to come back any time.

Dr. Kent: My next guest on the show is a musician of course the fourth guest of each show on sound authors is an author of sound. This group is called Circus Contraption. They are a non-profit organization and they are a hoot and they play incredible music. Here’s a song from Circus Contraption called Pink Elephants on Parade. When we come back after the tune, I’ll be chatting with Circus Contraption. Come on back for that.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Sports, Travel, Motivation, TRANSCRIPTS, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, Inspiration, PODCAST

Richard A. Singer | Million Dollar Run

October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Richard Singer [9:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Richard Singer, author, is planning a million dollar run for charity. We spoke with him about his books, and about his upcoming run. From his website:

Author and therapist Richard Singer has signed an agreement with the Guiness Book of World Records to attempt breaking the current 27 year old record by crossing the United States in 46 days on foot. He will be benefiting several charities representing different aspects of life. In addition, 50% of his book sales profit will also be donated to charity. Rick hopes to raise $1 million dollars and show the world what one person can do to make lasting changes.

Join Rick as he sets out on February 20, 2009 to run from Los Angeles to NYC to raise a money for charity which includesElton John’s Aids Foundation, American Cancer Society, Damon and Stella Foundation for Mental Health, Indra Loka Animal Sanctuary, and the Choice Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Travel, Health, Sports, Motivation, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, Inspiration, PODCAST

Kelly Adair | Body for Life

October 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Kelly Adair [15:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From the bodyforlife.com website:Kelly Adair’s problem was the same one many adults experience: procrastination. She knew she would one day make the effort to get back in shape—that day just never seemed to be today. Then, one day when she realized she was tipping the scales at 170 pounds, she decided today had arrived. She knew there was a body she could be proud of beneath the layers of baggy t-shirts and fat she had covered herself up with for so many years. In an effort to put a stop to her downward spiral of weight gain, Kelly joined a gym and accepted the Challenge. By the end, she lost 25 pounds of fat and went from a size 14 to a size 6. Her approach was simple: exercise consistently and eat three small, balanced meals and three snacks per day. ”I never knew what the word `focus’ meant until I made the decision to change my body and change my life,” Kelly says. “I knew I would achieve my goals … failing was not an option.” Now, five years after being named a 1998 Champion, Kelly’s plan is still going strong and she continues to be successful in her weight management. ”I’m proud of my initial success, but even more proud of the fact that I have continued to live a healthy lifestyle for the last five years since winning the Challenge,” Kelly says. “My biggest reward is how I feel. The program improved my physical condition, but more importantly it changed my attitude about myself. I feel empowered and confident. I’ll never go back to the way I was.” “I am proof that any carpooling, kid-totin’ `soccer mom’ in her 30s who has lost that twenty-something body can get it back!”

Posted by admin | Filed Under Sports, Health, Motivation, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

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