Stress-business...

So I'm hanging on for dear life.

Doing my best to pull together the political special I referred to in my last post.  It's been a crazy day.  I think I've made well over a hundred phone calls and sent more than that by way of email.  This post has five things worth noting because:

a) You might be a show-biz person and this kind of 'tale from the trenches' story will encourage you re: what you're going to face, have faced, or will face again.

b) You might be a pastor and the whole 'manipulating your way forward for the sake of the common good' theme contained herein might be useful to you.

c) You might just be somebody with a job or a life that sometimes gets out of control and you feel like you're going to drop dead and this here story will help you feel like you're not alone.

So here are the five...

First, we locked everything.  The location fell into place this morning and we locked all four local Member of Parliament candidates (PC, Lib, NDP, Green) so we officially went 'go' with it, put a deposit in with our local production services company, booked flights and basically started burning through money.  The point here is that sometimes, even when a thing is huge and last-minute and seemingly impossible, it can come together if you work hard enough.

(and have money to burn)

Second, near the end of the day we got a call from Jack Layton of the NDP saying he'd come to our event if Prime Minister Harper comes.  That's really cool because it will help us make our case to Mr. Harper's office that this event is one that really matters for Canadians and is something he should make time for.  The point here is that, sometimes--if you hang around long enough just doing what you do--you'll have a surprise 'pinch hit' come in from a benefactor when you least expected it.  So hang in there.

Third, we began to notice some serious interest in the press re: what we're working on here so tomorrow we'll start talking to the press and promoting our event in earnest.  That's potentially fun 'cause it means we'll have a chance to connect with and impact more people. The point here being that you shouldn't even think (at least not too much) about promoting a 'thing' until it begins to show signs of promoting itself.  That 'self promotional urge' usually appears as a result of 'word of mouth' which you can neither create nor control but which simply starts happening as you talk to people in a way that's compelling enough that they start talking to people.  Point being, have something compelling to say, say it with conviction and when you start to notice momentum building, THEN start thinking about how to 'push' what's happening.

Fourth, we got turned down pretty harshly by the Bloc today.  They said (and I do in fact QUOTE) "We don't care about this kind of issue in this election..."

Shocking.

The 'issue' we're talking about is the spiritual faith and beliefs of Canadians.  Our thesis is simply that behind every issue and at the root of every policy there is some kind of belief about what's right, what's wrong, what's just, what's unjust and we feel it's important for voters to know what their potential leaders believe.

So, we're taking that 'slap' and talking about it.

And people are starting to listen.

Point being that, when people attack you or treat you with a lack of respect or indifference, if you keep your brain in gear, you might be able to find a way to turn that 'slight' into something that can help you keep moving forward.

Lemonade from lemons, or something like that.

So, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.

Oh yeah, then my venue tried to pull out on me.  So fifth--you just can't control anything.

I'm blogging while waiting to hear back from them 'cause I called them and told 'em "Oh no you didn't..."

We'll see.

Such fun...

T