Very cool news to share!

The short story is that I’ve been confirmed to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss my book, The Very Cool Life Code this fall!

This has been unfolding for a for a few years now, but I just got confirmation earlier this week.

First, I would like to publicly thank my longtime friend from college and super-fan of my work, Margaret (“Maggie”) Redding for all her efforts. Maggie has been a producer for Oprah for the past 13 years and has been singing my praises to her for years. (I think she finally just wore Oprah down!)

 

A little backstory:

I got the chance to share a glass of champagne with Oprah at Maggie’s wedding in Chicago a few years back. She was really down to earth (just like she is on TV) and seemed genuinely interested in my work (or she was a pro at faking it).

This was back when Oprah’s Book Club was all the rage, and she asked me if I had a book for her to read. At this time, while I had all the ideas in my head, I’d not yet organized them on paper.

After sheepishly telling Oprah that I was “working on it,” she nodded politely and we parted company. As you might imagine, I was kicking myself for letting this huge opportunity pass me by. In the same moment, I promised myself to write a book crystallizing all my thoughts on living an exceptional life.

As I mentioned, Maggie has been a believer in my work since our college days. We’d regularly stay up into the wee hours and dissect the meaning of life over a couple of Keystone Lights in the dorm.

She’s worked on Oprah’s show for over a decade and has earned her trust in terms of guest recommendations. Over the last couple years, every time we’d connect, Maggie would nudge me to finish my book so she could pitch Oprah before her show ends later this year.

Well, I finished the book, and being the great friend she is, Maggie got a hold of Oprah’s Kindle and strategically planted a copy of my book on it.

Maggie’s plan worked, because Oprah called her at home that night, asking if she knew anything about the great new book on her Kindle. Maggie told her of our friendship and vouched for me endlessly (somehow, Oprah didn’t remember meeting me at the wedding!), and earlier this week I had a Skype meeting with Maggie and two other producers of the show.

Things went wonderfully (some very nice folks), and yesterday they confirmed me as a guest!

The show’s theme will be about lifestyle design and there are some other really well-known authors/ experts booked as well. (They asked me not to say anything more for now, so I won’t).

I will have an 8-minute segment with Oprah and the show is set to air on September 10th, 2011.  (Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to remind you!)

I am pretty psyched as you can imagine — a dream of several year in the making, finally coming true! We tape in June, so I’ll be sure to chronicle my experience here.

Oh, and if you have a Kindle or iPad (and you really should, they are very cool!), you can download my book for under 3 bucks! It’s also on the Nook. If you prefer soft-cover, we got that too!

I’m givin’ em away!

Have a great one…