One thing I have learned in my 40 years on this earth is "It Never Hurts to Ask". Are you ever afraid to ask for something? What are you afraid of? The worst that can happen if you will get "no" for an answer, and what's wrong with that? At least you tried!
Learning to ask for what I wanted has gotten me lots of fun stuff in my life. For instance, it got me a kiss FULL on the LIPS from one hunky Mark Mirenda. You can read that lovely story here. It landed me one hot hubby. You can read that loonnnnggggg story here. It got me second row, center seats to the Oprah Winfrey Show after 10 years of trying. (I need to write that story someday....). It helped me to get amazing auction items donated for the Golden WHEEL Organization, which in turn helped us to raise tens of thousand of dollars for some well deserving youth. It also led me to fulfill a dream of meeting my main man, Mr. Andre Agassi. Please, revisit that story here. But just for fun...I'm including a picture or two or
three.....
Still gives me goosebumps. I'm sure he remembers it too....
It also helped me land the most
AMAZING JOB I could have ever imagined or hoped for. (Can I just insert here that Kim, my "boss" is the most creative, giving, generous person I know?? I'm so fortunate to KNOW her the way I do. It's a pleasure to "go to work" each day.)
So, what did I ask for this time?
Well......
While in NYC, we had a chance to go to a taping of the Martha Stewart Show. Let me also insert that this was a dream come true for Kim. Martha is her Andre.....well....you know what I mean. Anyway, at the end of the show, after the taping was over, the audience was allowed to ask some questions. I had a question in mind. Kim had no idea of this. They allowed two questions, and then after the second question was answered, they said "Ok, last question". I raised my hand high like a kid in school....but they didn't pick me. Darn it! The last question was asked and answered. In that split second, I thought "What the heck!" and I raised my hand again......"I have a question!" To my shock....to the the shock of the other members of the audience, they handed me the microphone. "Here's my shot!" I thought. I went down something like this:
"Hi Martha!" Yep, I was speaking directly to Martha Stewart. "I'm Toni from Arizona. How do you get your guests for your shows?"
Martha went on to say that most shows have "themes", like the next show they were filming was about woodworking....I didn't really hear much of what she was saying because something else was floating my brain. And what was that thought??? IT NEVER HURTS TO ASK!! So, when it came back to me, I said to Martha....."Ok...well, do you see that woman? (And I pointed to Kim who was sitting a few seats away from me, and was just as shocked that I was speaking to Martha as the rest of the audience was.) "That is Kim from The TomKat Studio, and she NEEDS to be on your show!". Yep, I said it. There was a collective gasp in the audience. I'm sure that was a mixture of "What is Martha going to say to that?" and "Why didn't I think of that" to "I cannot believe she has the guts to ask such a question!!! Rude!" Much to my surprise, Martha turned to Kim and asked what she did. I handed the microphone to my pretty boss lady, and she replied with "I am a party stylist, and have a party blog". Martha said "Well, we are doing a show on entertaining and we would love to have you on the show! Give your information to our producer" and with that a pretty young woman whisked over to Kim.
I sat down. I had followed the advice I had given myself for so long. It took some guts, and I was nervous as heck. But, I figured, WHY NOT ASK? What was the WORST that could happen? And let me say, Miss Martha was very lovely about it.
Some people may think that was rude to ask. Or that maybe I took the focus off of why we were there, and thrust it onto Kim. But you know what? I don't care! Because I can guarantee you that each person there was kicking themself for not asking that question for themself. I had several people say to me "You need to be in PR!" or "Kim owes you a bonus/raise!" But I didn't think either of those. I KNOW that Kim possesses the talent to be on that show. And we have thousands of readers of our blog that agree with me. She has a lot to share and teach, and the Martha Show is the PERFECT place to do that.
And let me also state, that my bold move inspired another friend of mine to action! She asked someone to invest in her business, and guess what....they said YES! See, it doesn't hurt to ask!
So, they next time you find yourself asking "Should I? What will they say??", throw those doubts and fears out the WINDOW and just GO FOR IT! What have you got to lose?
