Last night, Barry and I did our interview with Patrick Combs that I referenced a few days ago.

We got to ask him lots of questions about manifesting his dreams, the power of not giving up, and his #1 secret tool for getting what he wants: taking action.

Some of the listeners writing in questions from the webcast — and in fact, some of the community members who send us emails — have a tough time understanding the context of the term “taking action”. They tend to see it as being the opposite of “allowing” things to come to us.

They also have trouble putting together how they can “focus” on what they want to manifest, and yet “allow” it by not being attached to it.

And in fact it’s such a prevalent complaint that, coincidentally, as I started writing this, Barry was posting a similarly-themed article over on the LWL Worldwide blog.

(And no, I don’t believe in coincidences, only synchronicities.)

But if I was going to boil the process down into a nutshell version (which I also did on the call, to sum up what Patrick was saying) it’s not a bunch of contradictions that are happening at the same time; it’s a process, a sequence of events, and all the parts need to be in place:

1. Focus on what you want by thinking about it, emotionalizing about it, visualizing it, singing about it, writing out a list of goals, or however you like to do it.

2. Let it go and allow it to come when and how it wants to (in other words, don’t be attached to exactly what the result has to look like… and, Patrick doesn’t advocate dream boards or vision boards because they tend to make it more difficult to let go).

3. Take action towards that outcome, and action could mean any variety of things including picking up the phone and talking to someone, looking for ads, checking your finances and saving up for what you want to buy, or getting out to a party.

4. (And, as Patrick added, the cycle continues as you go back to focusing again as required.)

And if you’re worried about taking action BEFORE you know what direction you should be taking action in; Patrick suggests always taking small action steps.

That makes it easier to do, and also, in my opinion, easier to switch directions if need be.

This is where standard physics meets metaphysics.

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On Thursday this week, Barry and I are doing a live two-on-one interview with Patrick Combs, “Mr. Good Think” himself.

I wrote an article about Patrick’s drive to succeed, and never-say-die attitude, over on the Masters of the Secret blog.

I start off the article by saying:

We all know them; people who just don’t like to see other people happy, or achieve big things, who will always tell you why it can’t be done.

Why you’ll fail.

Why you should give up before you get started, and, above all, “keep the day job.”

And yet, those of us who dream big — to the point that our dreams are bigger than even our own minds can conceive — just refuse to listen to those naysayers, as hard as it is sometimes.

Who are they to steal our futures — the lives we want to manifest for ourselves?

But… what about when those “naysayers” or “dream stealers” are really the people you love — who love you back — and just want to make sure you don’t get hurt?

What if they truly have your best interests at heart?

Do you listen to them then?

And then I reference an article from Patrick’s GoodThink.com website, a story which tells about his ironic journey struggling to be accepted as a storyteller, and the amazingly synchronistic manifestation that came as a result of never giving up.

You can read my whole article on the Masters of the Secret blog here…

I’ve spent my life doing the same thing; refusing to give up, no matter how rocky the road got, no matter how many roadblocks were on that road, and no matter how many times I tripped on those roadblocks and scraped my knee.

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Last night I conducted my first on-camera interview with a live audience… kinda like a real talk show!

It went incredibly well… which, for me, means lots of learning and the odd burst of laughter too (because if it’s not fun — whatever “it” is — it’s not worth doing at all).

The interview was with Guy Finley at his world-renowned Life of Learning Foundation in Merlin, Oregon.

(I always find that town name funny because it reminds me of my good friend, Merlin Holmes — someone I jokingly call a wizard, who was partially responsible for making me the person I am today, with the partner I’m with today, through his ongoing encouragement that made me open my mind and heart. Thanks, Merlin!)

But back to Guy… he has a loyal following of students on a quest to open their own minds and hearts, and several times a week Guy either teaches them a live lesson, or gives them a chance to be guest speakers themselves (or sometimes both).

Last night my live interview was the curriculum rather than a solo talk from Guy, and the focus was his international best-seller, The Secret of Letting Go and his new release, 365 Days to Let Go: Daily Insights to Change Your Life.

We talked about what it means to let go, why and how to do it, how to overcome the stumbling blocks that typically stop us from letting go, and the ebbs and flows of life.

I personally learned a lot from Guy through the course of conducting the interview — and from reading his book in preparation — and I know that most of the audience members (including Barry) did as well.

One of the main takeaways was to love unconditionally, and not put any weight on what “should” happen or how things are “supposed” to be (in other words, “stop shoulding on yourself,” as Michael Angier says).

To be happy, we need to accept every moment as perfect; whether it’s going the way we expected or not, it’s rewarding us by either giving us our desires or teaching us a lesson.

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This morning (early morning… gawd, I hate 8 a.m. interviews!) Barry and I interviewed Robert Scheinfeld, author of Busting Loose From the Money Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies For Changing the Rules of a Game You Can’t Win.

Or… the even more mind-blowing Busting Loose From the Money Game Home Transformational System.

The interview was to add to our Manifest More Wealth package, because when he was in the group call he didn’t really have time to dive into his concepts very deeply.

I made Barry promise not to book any more interviews before 10 a.m… I like to be as wide awake as possible to catch the nuances of the conversation and follow up accordingly.

One of my interviewing secrets is to always listen, always take notes (unless I’m on camera) and work on being in the moment.

Come to think of it, not a bad philosophy for life in general too.

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Today I did 3 teleseminars (a hat trick in hockey terminology, which seems appropriate because today apparently the NHL season started).

Earlier today it was Ben Mack, author of Think Two Products Ahead: Secrets the Big Advertising Agencies Don’t Want You to Know and How to Use Them for Bigger Profits.

The interview was for Rick Raddatz’s Entrepreneur’s Vacation Club, and we uncovered a lot of content on sales, marketing, advertising, branding, Legend Platforms and more… but of course, in Ben’s unmistakable style where you never know what you’re going to get (which is half the fun).

Then it was real estate artist Frank McKinney for Masters of the Secret.

Frank’s the author of two bestsellers, Make It Big: 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success, and Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success: How You Can Go From A $50,000 Fixer-Upper To A $100 Million Mansion!

Barry and I asked him about his success principles, following your instinct, not giving in to fear when taking calculated risks, how to attract super-targetted high-end customers, how to discover and live your highest calling, and more.

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Today I was interviewed about how to interview people by Jessalyn Coolbaugh, a copywriter friend of Ben Mack’s.

It was her first interview… and she actually did a darn good job of it, especially for someone who is a self-professed extremely shy introvert.

Hey, I’m an introvert too… and I always say that’s not a bad thing for interviewers, because the #1 skill an interviewer needs to have is listening. And introverts make the best listeners because they’re usually focused on other people instead of themselves.

But I was expecting someone beyond shy, based on how she described herself, and yet true to form for most introverts, you would never have known.

Besides the #1 interviewing skill, I shared some of my tricks with her. But the questioning focused a lot around how to get a guest rather than the types of questions to ask, so I never got into my schtick about open-ended neutral questions like I do in my book, Interviewing Unwrapped.

Bottom line in a nutshell? Stick to questions that start with the journalistic 5 W’s — Who, What, Where, When, Why… or the H, How.

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This weekend I was at Ken McArthur’s JVAlert Live Seminar in Philadelphia… it was actually my first JVAlert, and much more intimate than I expected.

I was supposed to spend the weekend interviewing as many speakers and experts as possible on video for a project Ken and I are working on, but there was a mixup in communication and I only could get three of them.

Lesson 1: Always confirm that things are in place as much as you can before taking action on them, to avoid miscommunications and breakdowns in the process.

Lesson 2: Keeping Lesson 1 in mind, don’t neglect to take action simply because you’re spending too much time trying to get it all right; nothing will ever go exactly according to plan, so jump in and be ready to adapt, overcome and improvise along the way.

And by the way, if you’re ever planning to do on-camera interviews (and you should consider that if you’re trying to do interviews for online info-products or traffic generators), here are a few tips to keep it professional looking.

These are assuming you want to be on-camera with the guest, rather than off-camera like a documentary:

1. On-Camera Positioning: Make sure you’re both facing towards the camera, but not looking at it; so you don’t want to be in profile to the viewers, you want them to see 3/4 of your face at least, but at the same time the conversation is with your guest, not the audience.

2. Interview Notes: Try not to work with notes, unless you’re doing a lot of editing and can cut out the parts with you looking at them; it’s best to listen and respond to the answers with another question.

But if you do have a list of topics you’d like to cover, consider making a list of one-word bullet points that you can place off to the side and glance at occasionally from where you’re sitting.

3. Mic Technique: If it’s a short interview, you can use a hand-held mic; don’t forget to point it towards the guest’s mouth when they’re speaking, and to yourself when you’re speaking. Practice with a hairbrush if you have to.

But if it’s a longer interview, you’ll need to use lavs or a boom mic; you’ll never be able to hold up the hand-held mic for that long.

Barry and Jody, my partners at Masters of the Secret, also came to this one. Jody spends most of his time behind the computer, so it’s great to get him out mingling with people.

And Barry and I just love meeting others face to face that we’ve worked with over the internet, so it was a perfect opportunity to expand our circle of influence, meet some new contacts, and for me, some new interviewees.

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This evening, Barry and I discovered what it means to have technology kick your ass.

We deal with it all day, every day. Technology allows us to do the work we do.

And, as a result, we rely on it heavily to do that work.

We had a live teleseminar scheduled for tonight with Peggy McColl, author of Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions, and Attract the Life Of Your Dreams.

Unfortunately, if the life of our dreams included a call with Peggy, it wasn’t meant to be attracted tonight.

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I just got back from my first event speaking in the internet marketing arena.

And I have to say, it was a blast!

It was Ken McArthur’s Get Your Product Done workshop in Atlanta, Georgia, and it was HOT!

Actually the event was quite intimate — not your average big seminar, but about 30 to 40 participants working with us one-on-one between the speeches.

I shared the stage with Harris Fellman, Jason Oman, Matt Bacak, Simon Leung, Alex Nghiem, Frank Sousa, Glenn Dietzel, Ben Mack, and more.

The picture above some of us on the expert panel, listening to Jason Oman make a point.

The whole event was about product creation… so of course I spoke about interviewing, and had my new product for sale: Interviewing Unwrapped.

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My name is Heather Vale, otherwise known as “The Unwrapper”, and this is my personal blog where I tackle the topics that intrigue me most and “unwrap” the mysteries and secrets of life.

You can read more about me at HeatherVale.com.

So why am I called “The Unwrapper”? Because I have an investigative nature that needs to know things; because I’m determined to constantly discover as much as I can about what I’m passionate about; because when I search for answers and ask questions, I refer to the process as “unwrapping”.

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