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Carol Adrienne,
Ph.D.
Recently I received
an email from a former coaching client, Cindy Harris, updating me on
how her career has unfolded into an exciting new family business that
is reaching hundreds of thousands of people every month—and
growing.
A Desire to Work at Home--the Adventure Begins
I first interviewed
Cindy several years ago when she was just starting a home-based
business she called, Come for Tea. She had been home-schooling her
son, Cameron, and wanted to create a business out of her passion for
tea (her husband actually helped her define this passion) and one
that she could handle from home. In the beginning she developed a
Website to promote the physical and emotional benefits of drinking
tea, and sold a variety of teas out of her home. As the tea business
evolved, she started selling other items such as bakery goods and
other tea-related products from similar boutique businesses. As her
sales and presence expanded, Cindy began to receive invitations to
speak in public and to give seminars on the benefits of sitting down
with a cup of tea for a moment of reflection or to connect with a
friend.
A Plateau Allows Germination
Based in the San
Francisco Bay area, her business blossomed over the Internet, and she
continued to expand for another six years. As often happens in our
ever-changing path, her interests began to change along with shifts
in her family. When her father died, she went through a period
focusing on family matters, and began to give less time to the
business, which, not surprisingly, hit a plateau.
New Technology Fires Cameron's Imagination
At the end of 2008,
her son Cameron was now about fifteen years old. And full of new
ideas! Cindy said,
“One day, Cameron said to me, 'Mom, why don't we start a podcast
network?' I had no idea what a podcast was, and he explained that I
could video-tape the talks I used to give and make them into a
podcast to post on the Internet so that anyone could watch them all
over the world. I was immediately excited by the idea, since I still
loved teaching, and this would mean I wouldn't have to travel.”
New Passion, New Growth, Huge Expansion
At the beginning of
2009 Cindy and Cameron launched the Harwood Podcast Network.
“I did my Come for Tea classes on the podcasts, but now I
was able to demonstrate different tea sandwiches and be more creative
with it, because my format was unlimited. Each program typically
lasts from seven to fifteen minutes.
All of a sudden, we started noticing huge downloads each month of the
podcasts from people all over the world. This was exciting, so we
started doing other shows on cooking like making breads, cooking
seasonally using local Farmers' Market ingredients and baking cookies
and cupcakes.
People loved our shows. We have viewers in over seventy-two
countries. I am connecting with women in countries such as Egypt,
Mexico, France, Portugal, and Korea. Here in the US, we tend to
think that making cookies is no big deal, but in other countries
women want to learn how to bake and cook like this. One woman in
Korea has decided I am her teacher, so I am teaching her how to cook!
We email each other back an forth, so we actually have a connection
outside the podcast.
On the cooking podcast, I use my own kitchen. For other types of
podcasts, we have an actual video sound stage in another location.
For example, we have a show with a woman who teaches how to quilt.
As of this year, we have produced over 400 episodes, and we're
getting almost 100,000 downloads a month.”
Passion and the Next Generation
Surprisingly,
Cindy's original passion for tea has become a family-run business.
Not only that, but this new direction has opened up a career path
that Cameron is now pursuing with zeal as well. He is in charge of
the technical aspects of the Network, and was the first one to
attract a sponsor, which is helping pay for production costs.
“Our podcasts are free, and our quality is excellent and
consistent. Sponsors are realizing that people are getting a lot of
their information now from the Internet., and that we are reaching
people all over the world. As other sponsors show up, we want to
make sure that they fit with what we are doing.”
Besides Cindy's
cooking and photography podcasts, Cameron began to produce his own
shows. In one such series he demonstrates how to use a free
software program by Google, called Sketchup. It's a 3-D modeling
tool used by architects, for example, to redesign homes.. Cindy
says, “Cameron's show is now attracting its own following. This
caught the eye of a company called 3Dconnexxion, a division of
Logitech, a computer peripheral company. They saw what he was doing,
and they wanted to sponsor him to mention their products on his show.
Now he receives a monthly income from them. They probably had no
idea that he was sixteen! You can imagine for a kid like him who has
gone through so much to have his idea become literally our family
business.”
When a Physical Condition Sharpens our Focus
Cindy refers to the
fact that Cameron was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes when he was
eight years old.
When we initially
started this interview, she shared with me how Cameron's life took on
a new dimension after being diagnosed. “I don't think he would be
in this deeper, creative place today if this hadn't happened to
re-shape the trajectory of his life.” I was eager to talk with
her about her experiences managing diabetes with Cameron, as my own
eight-year-old grandson, Anders Rohrer, was also diagnosed with Type
1 five years ago when he was three. Cindy told me about Cameron's
podcast series called In Range, in which he talks about issues
related to Type 1 diabetes.
“He talks about different subjects that come up for people, who are
newly diagnosed. He's done at least twenty shows. He'll talk, for
example, about what is a carbohydrate. How to read labels. He'll
talk about what are good snacks, about having an insulin pump, how to
go on a trip with diabetes. Apparently, other young people find his
information very helpful, and they relate to him more easily than
they might to an adult.
It was actually his endocrinologist at the hospital who suggested
doing a podcast. This way people can watch it over and over. We
heard from a boy in the UK, who loves watching Cameron. He commented
that Cameron clearly knows what he's doing. He said it's like
watching a buddy telling him what it's like to be Type-1. In my
'spare time' I've been trying to accumulate a list of Children's
Hospitals so I can let them know about the podcast. I want to get
this information in the hands of families all over the country and
all over the world.”
Purpose is a Work in Progress
Cindy Harris and her
son Cameron are obviously fulfilling a major part of their individual
life purposes through this amazing new venture. Interestingly, this
development would not even been possible a few years ago before the
technological advances of the Internet and the relatively accessible
process of producing video segments.
It's important to
remember that our life purpose is a work in progress and certain
foundation work must be done. Creativity, courage, commitment, and
patience are needed to continue to follow our unfolding path. Cindy
remarked as we ended our conversation,
“You may be deeply involved in creating one thing, like a tea
business, about which you are absolutely passionate. Our tendency is,
however, to think that because we are passionate about something, we
have to keep doing it forever. I realize now how one thing leads to
another. I think it's very important to keep an open mind about how
that business may very well be a stepping stone to something else.
If your interest changes, you have to trust that that's part of your
developing purpose. My original tea business has never really died,
because it's evolved into something even bigger. The tea was the
initial content, but only part of a bigger picture of reaching out to
share and educate people. The tea business got me started learning
how to create a Website and how to use the Internet. It forced me to
learn how to speak in public, and put together a talk. It was a great
launching point for a woman in her forties, who was wondering what
was next in her life.
Just because we create something, we don't have to do that forever.
At this stage of my life, I am creating podcasts over forty times a
month. Forty times a month I'm doing something I'm interested in.
You can see there's not much room in there fore boredom! My intention
has always been to share only those things that I personally loved.
We've taken this same philosophy into our podcast project. There is
an energy of passion and integrity that goes along with our podcast,
and that's why I think all of these people in various remote areas
are connecting with us.”
Check it Out
To check out the
podcasts, you can see a list of all the shows and watch any of them
right now! Please go to Cindy and Cameron's Website at
www.harwoodpodcast.com
Happy March!
Carol
Adrienne
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Carol Adrienne, Ph.D. is an intuitive counselor and life coach
who has helped
thousands of people work through doubt, procrastination, and
obstacles to create
the life they want to live. Private consultations and
coaching available. Contact
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