In years past Steve and I attended the I Can Do It conference as members of the audience. Hay House puts on this conference a few times per year and showcases many of their authors. It’s an amazing, high energy, high awareness conference that has positively impacted both of our lives. Last year when we were sitting in the audience I had an intuitive flash and said to Steve, “You’ll be speaking at this conference next year.” He replied, “I doubt it, I don’t even have a book deal. Even if I did it would be too soon.” But I just knew that in 2008 we would not be attendees, Steve would be one of the presenters.
This is exactly what happened. Steve got a book deal with Hay House shortly after the 2007 I Can Do It conference, and even though his book, Personal Development for Smart People, won’t be released until October 15, they asked him to speak at the Vegas 2008 conference. I knew Steve was ready.
I was excited to be attending this year as an author’s guest because I knew it would give me the opportunity to meet some of the other Hay House authors and to see what the conference is like from behind the scenes.
All of the Hay House staff were absolutely fabulous, including all of the volunteers. Steve and I were treated with great respect and endearment. Not only are the staff totally professional, they are totally friendly, competent, and authentic. I think when you have a woman like Louise Hay at the head of a company you can’t help but see a trickling down of the love. We really weren’t sure what we would see behind the scenes, but all I saw was happy people with strong messages they truly believed in. It was a real pleasure to meet everyone and get a chance to connect with their energy.
Steve will no doubt go into great detail in his review of the conference so I just want to hit my own personal highlights.
Meeting John Holland
John Holland is one of my favorite psychic mediums. I read his book, Born Knowing, when I first started developing my own psychic gifts. His book was very insightful and in many ways mirrored my own life. I attended John’s pre-conference workshop (I highly recommend the workshops because you really learn a lot and get to actually practice what’s being taught). John is so humorous and personable that it made the entire workshop just fly by. During the lunch break I saw John go into the speaker’s lounge for lunch and saw my opportunity to introduce myself and say hello.
John is just as funny and personable off stage as he is on stage. He is very passionate about his work and very happy to be working with Hay House. I didn’t get too much of a chance to chat with him as there were a lot of people coming in and out of the lounge, but we connected for a minute or two and that was fine with me. 🙂
Later, at the speaker’s dinner on Saturday night, Steve and I got the opportunity to chat at greater length with John and his guest, Vincent who is also a wonderful psychic. In fact, Vincent did a quickie reading for me and I was impressed with his accuracy and insight. He bills himself as the Psychic’s Psychic and I can see why. By the end of the evening I had gotten to know John a little better and he had gotten to know me as well. Steve and I look forward to seeing him again in Tampa.
On Sunday we watched John do live demonstrations of his mediumistic work. He was fabulous. I found John Holland to be extremely caring, compassionate, and a true being of the light. He is an inspiration to me.
David Hamilton
One of the first people we met in the speaker’s lounge on Friday was David Hamilton, PhD. He and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, are from Scotland and they’re about the same age as Steve and me, so we hit it off right away. Plus I’m a real sucker for a Scottish accent. Steve and I very much enjoyed getting to know David and his work on mind over matter. With a background in organic chemistry, David began studying the placebo effect and came to the realization that the mind has great power over the body. His book, It’s The Thought That Counts, will be very high on my list of books to read coming out of this conference. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t attend his lecture since he was speaking at the same time as Steve, but by all reports he was funny and fabulous. At the speaker’s dinner on Saturday night we sat with David and Elizabeth. I was very struck by David’s passion and zest for life. He’s a real people person. He also gifted us with a rehashing of the freedom speech from Braveheart. It was awesome! Hopefully we’ll get another chance to hang out with our new friends from Scotland. 🙂
Steve’s Presentation
A few months prior to this conference Steve asked me if I wanted to introduce him. “Sure,” I said before I could chicken out. As the day approached I was feeling just fine about my decision, but as the morning dawned I found I was feeling a bit nervous. In fact, Steve was picking up on my nervousness which was a bummer because he wasn’t nervous about his presentation at all. So I left him in the room to practice and went down to the room to check it out. 400 chairs! Eeep. The most people I’d ever spoken in front of was probably 20. So I got up on the empty stage in the empty room and belted out my introduction 5 times. That helped a lot! I was ready. Until the room started filling with people! 🙂
They gave me a hand microphone and I had my speech in hand. About two hundred people present. My toastmaster friends were there and gave me great encouragement. And members of our boards were there as well which helped bolster my confidence. Thanks to everyone who lent me some of their courage. When I actually started speaking I felt pretty good. I had some adrenalin going but I wouldn’t say I was nervous. It was more an excitement. It took all of maybe 40 seconds though it felt like 20 minutes in my mind. 😉 I am so glad I did it though. I think I went up a level in courage.
Steve made a fantastic presentation. You know it’s good when it’s your own husband speaking and you get a lot of information and growth out of it yourself! I was rapt with attention. I hadn’t heard the presentation ahead of time, though I have read the book, so I had a good idea of what he was going to talk about. I felt the energy of the audience was also rapt and intrigued.
After his presentation he went out to a table in the hallway to sign journals, hand outs, and a few auras. 😉 I stayed in the room to meet and greet our board members and some audience members who wanted to chat with me. After Steve’s presentation he couldn’t go 300 feet without someone stopping him to share their thoughts about his presentation. It was wonderful to connect with so many new people who are hearing Steve’s work for the first time ever.
The Radio Show
Steve was asked to be on a panel for Hay House Radio with Summer McStravick as host, and fellow guest authors Andrew Harvey and Alan Cohen. They decided to film it so Steve got some hair and make-up done in advance (so adorable). Not too many people actually watched the segment since it coincided with sessions, but that was alright because you can probably catch it on Hay House Radio at some point. With three very different perspectives on self-help and personal development, the show was intriguing and became highly energetic. It was fun for me to watch. 🙂
The Photoshoot
Steve was asked to do a photoshoot so Hay House could get a good photo for the back of his book and promotional materials as well. So Sunday in the early evening we headed over. That was a lot of fun for me to watch. They took nearly 400 photos of him, and asked me to be in a dozen or so just for fun. That was a kick. The photos came out great so hopefully we’ll see a new photo on Steve’s About Us page soon.
The Other Authors
We didn’t get a chance to meet every author but we did meet plenty. Colette Baron-Reid, Dr. Brian Weiss, Andrew Harvey, Alan Cohen, Robert Ohotto, Robert Holden, Louise Hay, Jonathan Ellerby, Loretta LaRoche, and Timothy Freke. All wonderful people. I was hoping to meet Doreen Virtue to tell her what an impact she had on me becoming a professional psychic medium, but she was speaking on stage during the speaker’s dinner, though her husband Stephen Farmer came by to say hello to everyone. I also would have liked to meet Dr. Wayne Dyer but he also was not at the dinner. The Event Director, Nancy Levin, was amazing. She and all of her assistants did a wonderful job of taking care of everything! They were a real pleasure to work with.
Exhausted
The conference was wonderfully uplifting but by the end I was exhausted. Meetings, presentations, doing readings for people, and socializing can take a toll. We had few down moments. By Monday I was ready for some rest and relaxation. Hay House gave each of their authors a free spa treatment at the Venetian Canyon Ranch Spa, so we decided to take Tuesday off and just go spa (yeah, as in the verb “to spa”). I had a Shiatsu massage and Steve got a Double Abyangha. It was blissfully relaxing.
This year’s I Can Do It conference got me thinking about my future. Perhaps a stage and a book deal are in my future as well. We’ll see. 🙂 I’ll probably go to Tampa with Steve for the I Can Do It event there this October. I hope to see as many of you there as possible. It’s a wonderful conference. Everyone I know who has gone has come away from it with more purpose, focus, energy, and love. Don’t miss out. 🙂
