Thursday, July 15, 2010

Interview with Kristin Andress: Part 1

Kristin Andress is the CEO of Andress Consulting, a Solana Beach, California-based firm that offers strategic planning, marketing and communications solutions. For nearly two decades, she has helped major corporations, start-up companies, and entrepreneurs, streamline business operations, promote and differentiate their products and services, and improve company and individual performance.

Kristin's new book, Imagine Being In a Life You Love (www.ImagineBeing.com) provides an invitation and rally cry for people to design their lives by choice rather than leave it to chance. She says, "Along with my co-author Jaqui Jeanes-Lowry, I want people to know they are the cause and the opportunity maker in their own lives!"

Exciting plans are underway to celebrate the July 15 Summer Book Launch of Imagine Being In a Life You Love!

Kristin says: "Please order 1, 2 (or more copies) on July 15 and 16th as part of our bestseller campaign! Even if you have your copy, Imagine Being In a Life You Love makes a great gift for friends, family or as a differentiator in offering it to your clients. Also, please feel free to forward this info to those in your network and we would love it if you would add the Amazon link to Facebook and Twitter. Thank you for 'Being a Light' for us! We are certainly grateful for your help."

FREE giveaway! For the first 10 buyers who sign up for the newsletter at www.ImagineBeing.com and send their receipt number and contact information to Kristin@ImagineBeing.com, she will offer a free 45-minute consulting session and 25% off her 5-part Teleseminar series (available Aug 15). The first 100 who sign up and send Kristin an email will be put into a drawing for an iPod Nano!

Kristin was kind enough to stop by and answer some questions about the path that led to the publication of Imagine Being. Part 2 of the interview will be posted tomorrow, so be sure to check back!

Tell us about your childhood and life leading up to Imagine Being In a Life You Love.

I enjoyed growing up in the small town of Pittsfield, Illinois and I return often to visit family and friends. In the winter months it is great fun to rub in the San Diego weather and the ocean air and golf courses of Solana Beach, CA where I live.

Prior to launching Andress Consulting, I had a ten-year career with Arthur Andersen, serving as the Director of Tax and Legal–Performance and Learning. I led global operations of a fifty-two person team in the United States and had coordination oversight of twenty-five people in Cambridge, England and Asia/Pacific, with responsibility for a multi-million dollar budget. (Now, I am SO glad to be an entrepreneur and in business for myself!)

Most people are interested in knowing that one of my clients is Stedman Graham, Oprah’s beau, who I have worked with over 6 years to develop new business, manage client relationships, and manage aspects of media relations and book tours. It has been a whirlwind of new experiences.


Tell us about your book Imagine Being In a Life You Love.

Imagine Being In a Life You Love provides the guidance for people to consciously participate in authoring their life’s design and not leave it to chance. We get but one go around, and we want to help people make the most of it. Imagine Being is an invitation and a rally cry for people to take the reins of life in hand. If you are intentional in your life, you can change the trajectory of it. We provide the guidance for:

• You, being the cause of designing your life
• You, being the opportunity maker in your life
• You, being the reason for momentum in your life
• You, being the energy responsible for your life
• You, being the light that guides the way for others

We want to change perceptions about what is possible in a lifetime.


What was the impetus to write this book?

The reason for writing Imagine Being In a Life You Love came to me on December 31, 2007 -- New Year’s Eve day. I always utilize that day to write my goals and intentions and since I'd recently moved to San Diego and instigated a lot of chaos in my life, I found myself struggling. I thought to myself, "I've taken so many personal development courses and read many books on the subject -- basically been there, done that, got the T-shirt - so, if I am having difficulty, there must be millions of others experiencing this uncertainty." I decided to use my voice and my experience to create a product that alleviated this uncertainty and helped people imagine being in a life they love -- and then take the action to achieve it. It is my way of giving back, and leaving an imprint by helping others.


Your book seems especially relevant in today's crazy-busy society in which many people feel empty and dissatisfied. What topics does your book address that help people discover their own personal happiness?

Imagine Being does arrive at a time when people around the world are seeking opportunities to take control of their lives amid the myriad setbacks facing them, what we call the PINGs of life. Whether it is job loss, weight loss, or clarity of life's purpose, Imagine Being provides an invitation, direction, and a swift kick in the behind for people to take the reins of life in hand.

When it comes to what we want and need, we are long on good intentions and short on action. Many people feel that life just happens to them, and it will, unless we choose to own the responsibility to cause the events, the situations, the opportunities, and the miraculous we wish to manifest. Imagine Being is a navigation tool for learning about who you are, defining and creating a purposeful life you imagine living, and managing the setbacks that arise through the "ah but's" and "if onlys." It is a myth that life should or will be problem-free. Imagine Being gives people the fuel -- the courage, the conviction -- to carry on.

We include the following unique concepts for creating a life you love:

• Lifelines – Identifying those people who will help with the intentions for your life.
• Box In/Box Out – Ensuring that you put yourself in the position of having to accomplish your intentions by getting leverage on yourself.
• PINGs – Realizing that "stuff" will happen in life, and that you must adapt, move on, and utilize what you learn to empower yourself and others.
• The Change Equation – Developing a system for managing and thriving through change.
• Super Champions – Seeking those people you may not personally know (yet), but who are doing and being what you wish to be up to - then modeling them!.
• Passive Hostility – Recognizing the behavior that arises when you want something you are not getting.
• LIP Service – Changing the original definition of lip service from talk only to expanding to the associated possibilities and acting on them—Living In Possibility.
• Choice Cards – Acknowledging that you have infinite choices available to you, as well as their results and consequences.
• Unshakeable Belief System – Accepting that you will have challenges in life and develop a belief system that will sustain your dreams and hold you accountable to them.
• TEMP Excuses – Leaving behind your excuses regarding time, energy, money, and people.


Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of my interview with Kristin!

You can also connect with Kristin on Twitter and Facebook.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the best advice is this: Unshakeable Belief System – Accepting that you will have challenges in life and develop a belief system that will sustain your dreams and hold you accountable to them.

Anyone can sail through the good times. But when the sotrms of life overwhelm you, you need that unshakeable belief system to get you through the dark times.

Stephen Tremp