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All is said and done. We had a vision to do a book launch and movie screening that emerged from a tea chat between Mike Schauch and I three months ago and out of the sparks emerged an inferno of ideas and thoughts that came to be last night. The amount of effort and work was tremendous with setting the venue, caterers, coordinate all our amazing speakers like Mike Schauch, Sharad Khare, Rick Antonson, Adam Cotterall and our artists, Eric Suczak, Thomas Beckman and Nicoleta Dicianu.

I kept wanting this to be an evening of thoughts, ideas and dialogue on storytelling, visioning and community leadership. Mike and others did not want to put the book and the book launch into the shadows. They tread carefully to make sure the essence was the book and I kept trying to shine the light on my family of storytellers. Back and forth we went. There was a lot of respect from both sides. From me on what each person brought to the evening and from all the speakers, wanting to steer everything to the essence of the night…this was the only point we could not agree on but it worked out.

What I think I most appreciated about last night was that there was no rehearsal or cued process. We literally flew by the seat of our pants and knew that it would all come together. It is what happens when you have trust in each other. I will steal a page from Mike’s world where in mountaineering, it is important to not have any weak links and all must have trust. We had a format that was pieced together and forged over email and talks. Mike and I met a couple of times, Rick, Adam and I emailed a couple of times, Sharad and I met once, Mike met Eric and Thomas and on the night of the book launch, we brought all our pieces together. Quickly, we huddled in a couple of areas to just make sure it all fit together and then it was show time. The volunteers were instrumental because I did not have to worry about anything. They wanted to make sure I could concentrate on what I needed to do…thank you for that!

What was also of importance was being with my tribe. The audience members were engaged and involved. New connections were formed and relationships re-ignited. I went on stage and needed to take a moment to see what we had done…a room full of amazing souls. Each person had a story to share and they all had a part in my journey. My social media channels were off the charts since yesterday; however, I will take one post as the essence for the book launch last night and it comes from James P: “Just wanted to write a quick note to say how much I enjoyed last night’s festivities. All of the different components you brought together were fantastically entertaining and amazingly inspirational. While the evening was supposed to be all about you and your accomplishment, you so gracefully and selflessly made it about so much more. Thank you for taking the time to organize such a wonderful event and for inviting me into your clan.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of your book this evening…it was hard to put down last night.” James, you got it spot on!

The day after the book launch has me running on four hours sleep. I am exhausted, body aches and physically drained…but the head and heart are elated for what we pulled off last night. I equate this to going on one of those thrilling amusement park rides like a roller coaster and while on the ride you vow to never do this again and pray to God to please just get me back safely to earth, eyes closed hoping everything is alright…only to get to the end and say: “WOW, I want to do that again!”…that is how I feel right now! If you think about it, there really was nothing ordinary about last night!

If anyone is interested in a copy of the book, you can always make arrangements with me or you can order directly from – http://www.lulu.com/shop/sam-thiara/personal-storytelling-discovering-the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary/paperback/product-21603844.html For those who have read the book, please leave a review.