How did you come to Digital Storyteller?

I taught myself to code from a book in 1997 when the actors union was on strike. My martial arts teacher was an 8th degree blackbelt teaching amazing Tang Soo Do in New York City… and had only 5 students.  I knew he needed a website and these were the days before WordPress, Squarespace and WIX. So I taught myself to write HTML, CSS and Javascript to try to help him build a studio. A year later when I moved to LA, the studio was thriving and 80% of the students came to him through the website.  I was hooked.

A lot has changed in the “how” of creating online presences for people and their businesses but the why is still the same… Tell the world what you do better than anyone else and the right people will be able to find you.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about your education or upbringing?

I was raised by wolves – ahem – I was raised by actors in New York City.  My mom was on Broadway with Sir Lawrence Olivier, Bernadette Peters, Angela Landsbury among many other luminaries.  My dad was a soap opera star (who was also on Broadway) playing Ray Gardner in All My Children and Hawke Shayne on The Guiding Light. I was, necessarily, also an actress… many of you know this about me already… what you may NOT know is that when Ken Blanchard re-released the One Minute Manager in the late 1990’s I was hired to play the lead in the film.  Oh yeah, it’s cheesy, but it was a blast to shoot and the information I learned by doing the video helps me be a better team leader now that I own a business.

What are your top 3 podcasts/ books?

How I built this with Guy Raz. The Invisible Man by Ralph Elison (not about an invisible man…) The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

If you were to look back from the age of 80 and tell yourself anything what would it be?

Stretch more, worry less, take the time to be here now, this time in your life will never come again.