Last week, I had the honor of being interviewed by Dr. Claudia Six from “Six on Sex.”  (I’m still having trouble uploading photographs, but if you click on the link above, you will be able to see Dr. Six). Dr. Six and I both attended the same school for Sexology, it turns out, though she went on to get her doctorate; she has her Ph.D. in Clinical Sexology and is Board Certified by the American Board of Sexology.

Dr. Six has a great podcast, which is about Erotic Integrity. She interviews local personalities about what Erotic Integrity means to them, and how Erotic Integrity shows up in their work and in their lives. As stated by Dr. Six, “Erotic Integrity is about the humanity of sex, not the acrobatics. It’s about being true to one’s erotic self.”

I strongly recommend downloading and listening to her podcasts. Dr. Six is a fantastic person, and a wealth of information! Not only that, Sheila Kelley’s S Factor has offered anyone who listens to the podcast and mentions it to their local S Factor half off on an introductory S Factor session through 2008. I discussed how working out at S Factor really has helped me to release my “Erotic Creature,” and S Factor has generously offered the ability to any of Dr. Six and my listeners!

Here are a couple of other links that we discuss in the podcast:
Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s website (put “sex” in the Search Box in the very top, blue bar to get some of the sex facts that we discuss in the podcast)

Sheri’s Ranch website link

Click below to listen to the interview:

 

 Interview on Six on Sex [27:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yes, Yes, I know, I am the WORST blogger (I’m going to try to be good…) I am chatting with my new best friend Cathy Hazzlerigg and we were talking about using iGoogle and Google Word Alerts. In showing her how to use it, I put in “Sandy Shepard”…and guess what! Someone is talking about my book!  Wa-Hoo!!

More later. I have now sworn to be better at blogging :-)

I am just such a ham! View From The Bay, our local San Francisco Bay-area show that’s on the Hour before Oprah, came to my house during a Clothing Swap that I was doing, as outlined in Chapter One of my book.  (You have it, right? So you can just go check it out…right? (wink))

We had a BLAST, and all the clothing that wasn’t taken (which was thousands of dollars worth) went to a charity, Image for Success, that dresses women (and their families) with two weeks’ worth of business and personal clothing. Check it out! 

OK who do you know that would have a Google Alert for “Granny Panties”?  Um, that would be me…

And check out this faboo blog - no no, it’s not just faboo because they’re quoting my book (wink). It’s my new subscription in iGoogle!

- Solitaire

Yay! Our View From The Bay episode (and my book) were mentioned in Sheila Kelley’s global “S” newsletter, read by all the coolest grrls in the world.  If you haven’t seen it… hmmmm, whyzat? No, really…

OK just kiddin’ - here’s the link.

Besides, you just gotta LOVE the book that she’s covering… A Mind Of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis by David M. Friedman.

I was asked by KOMO Seattle, a TV program that is trying to decide whether to have me as a guest, to compile the “Top 10 Tips” for a fempowered lifestyle. What do you think?

The overall theme of my book and coaching practice = live your best, most passionate life. So these are the Top 10 Tips that came to me:

1. Clean House. Declutter your life of belongings, friends, commitments, and the like that do not feed your passion and fempower your Inner Bond Girl. (Empty your glass of beer to get champagne in there!)

2. Donate. Support fellow Bond Girls in your community by allowing the items you have freed from your life to reach their “next best use” with others. (Pour your beer into another grrl’s glass with water in it!)

3. Be Congruent. Coax Your Inner Bond Girl out by matching what you wear and the way you walk, talk, laugh and listen with who you are becoming.

4. Be Present in your Luscious Body, Now. Accept, love and nurture her as she is now, and explore her fempowered nature through sensual dancing, pole dancing, or the like.

5. Be Ready. Take advantage of every adventure and opportunity that comes your way, and structure your life to facilitate it. Learn to travel light and get out of Dodge in minutes.

6. Block out non-negotiable You Time. Give yourself a minimum of 10 minutes/day to dream and move that passion forward. Join a fempowerment group to move your life to the next level.

7. Be Adventurous. Do something you’re not good at, and stretch your horizons and your sense of humor.

8. Go Lean & Green. Fempowered women are not credit card-wielding, debt-accumulating consumers; they save and invest their $

9. Flex your Femininity. Be The Girl in your personal relationship, and take the lead in nurturing it - sex included

10. Be Self-Sufficient & Appreciative. All Bond Girls run their own businesses, live in the tropical paradises that Bond drops into as a government employee on an expense account, and take care of themselves BUT, they also know that men feel good taking care of them and are sensitive to it and appreciative. (Let him open the door, or the jar, when he offers.)

What would you add? Change? Let me know!

Today’s entry in San Francisco IdealBite goes like this:

Ever seen da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”?

The Bite

Then you know food can be art. And that’s what the founders of Slow Food International - a nonprofit devoted to bringing back whole foods that are cooked and savored slowly - are all about. If you’re into food prepared the old-fashioned way (and with sustainability in mind), add slow foods to your daily menu for a more vibrant…er, palate.

The Benefits

• Eating becomes art. Getting to know ingredients, producers, and the cultural history behind our foods makes for more soul-satisfying meals.
• An easel way to avoid empty calories. Many additives in processed and fast foods are chemicals that lack nutritional value and sometimes wreak havoc on your health.
• Painting a greener landscape. The slow food movement promotes biodiversity of crops, organic farming, and the preservation of family (not factory) farms.
• An energy-saving Renaissance. Example: The production of a 1-pound box of cereal requires almost seven times as many kilocalories of energy as it provides in nourishment.

OK, you know, it’s the last one that gets me. I keep harping on posts like The Story of Stuff (long, but worth watching), but those are the things that astonish me.

When I posted my comment today on IdealBite, I was reminded of my Podcast 8 about Life-Affirming Rituals, including Saying Grace (start at 25:00 for this portion). As you may remember from that one, a student of mine wound up losing weight, literally just through the act of thanking the “folks” that had gotten the food to her. She used to eat in the car, standing up, junk-food-on-the run. When I suggested she and her husband start saying Grace over everything they ate, they originally balked because they “don’t do that God thing.” I explained that wasn’t what this was about — this was Giving Thanks to the farmers, truckers, plants, animals, etc. that got that food TO them. The actual physical energetic “beingness” that went into what they were putting in their mouth.

Once she started doing that, first, she found it ‘disrespectful’ to eat standing up. And in the car. She and her husband felt weird saying grace over take-out boxes, so they put the food on plates. Which made them stay at the table longer, and the Grace started them talking about something besides Their Hard Days. Ultimately they started cooking.  And she started losing weight.

If you have my book, check out page 127 for a reminder about Mindfulness versus “Guilt-Ridden Scarfing” — and a discussion about “sensory awareness” when eating. It also talks about Living CAMP (check out the “eating a banana” link).  If you don’t have my book, it’s not pretty, but I have a PDF copy of the page for you here as I originally sent it in to my publisher: guilty-pleasures-sidebar-page-127

How’s about starting a quickie Thankfulness Practice, today?  You’re GOING TO EAT IT ANYWAY, my dear, so…why not?

This podcast has some tricks to help you save Energy which is really what Earth Day is all about. These include green tips for around the house that are easy to implement. The beginning of the podcast also introduces you to a real fishing family in Sonoma County that are being devastated by the impacts of our current global situation.

The video podcast that I refer to in this podcast is The Story Of Stuff by Annie Leonard. You can go back and find where I blogged about it a few weeks ago, or just click the link here. It’s a bit long, but it definitely explains the whole manufacturing process and Planned Obsolescence — I think this would be great to show kids.

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Episode 9: Earth Day - It Can Be Easy, Bein' Green [1:02:10.625m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Oh my goodness. Yesterday was the best day. I was on View From The Bay—I tried to upload the link for their viewer here, but I can’t get it to take… so here is the link to the show. (I am still going to list it under “Podcasts” — and maybe my sainted James can figure out how to actually make it post here so you won’t have to “go get it.”)

Make sure to watch both halves of the interview. They gave me 4 minutes, and then decided to give us 4 more after the commercial! We were having so much fun. This is my parents’ house, and a friend had come over to watch it Live with my mom. She said my mom basically freaked out when suddenly we were down in her closet! She said that she “Hadn’t had time to clean it” (As if!)

When you follow the link, you can see lots of tips that I gave them that I could talk about. If you’ve read my book, you know there are about 50 pages of tips! They picked some of them for me to show on the air, and have others posted on their website.

If, after you read this, you could put a comment on their website, I would sure appreciate it! I’d love to get invited back!

This “Coffee Chat” podcast is with Eve Abbott of Organizer-Extraordinaire.com. She has graciously offered that if you visit her website and purchase her book, tell her that you found out about her here, and she will send you an autographed book and another free goodie! (NOTE: I don’t get any “kickbacks” from any of these interviews—these really are my experts, and I want to share them with you… no strings attached!)

I mentioned (in this Coffee Chat and I believe my Chat with Scott Smith) the book by Oprah’s Organizer, Peter Walsh. The actual title of that book is Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? Like Eve, Peter Walsh states that clutter is basically symptomatic of an unresolved issue in your life. I saw him on a recent episode of the Oprah show, and his specific quote was that “eating more and buying more is an attempt to fill the need for something more. Until you get those underlying issues dealt with, all the rest is a waste of time.”

I hope you enjoy this podcast, and please let me know if there are other experts you might like to hear interviewed on our Coffee Chats.

And, yes… next podcast will be a “regular” one—I promise! I’ve been working on the V.I.P. Podcasts and having a great time with them… but Regular Podcast 9 is on its way soon.

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Interview with Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire [34:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today, I received a shout-out on the fantastic Dr. Laura Berman Better Sex Podcast. Yippee! This is an absolutely great podcast. I love the way that Marcus and Dr. Laura relate - they make me smile just to listen to them.

Best of all - I learn something new every time!

Thanks for the Shout-out, Marcus!

Hey grrrls!

Heidi Miller reviewed fEmpowerment on the tag-end of her latest podcast. I think if you click the link below, you will get it. (My tech dude AKA my husband is out valiantly trying to resurrect our chainsaw to take down some narsty poison oak/stumps/etc. in anticipation of making a new patio and path — so I best not bother him. I have gotten posting my own podcasts down, but I’m a little unclear on the concept re others’ podcasts.)

 SO, when you take a listen (at the very end), Heidi reviews the book.  She says that she believes fEmpowerment might make a lot of women angry, because I am advocating the “empowerment that can be found” in being in a “subordinate position.”

 I would be very curious to hear from those of you who have read the book if that is what you had as your take-away, as well.  Now, granted, Heidi said she was only 1/3 of the way through the book — but I thought that it was obvious that what the Bond Girl analogy, and fEmpowerment, is all about is being #1, the CEO, the Big Kahuna in whatever you’re passionate about, but also not to forget that there are other parts of your life where being supportive (not submissive) is not only empowering, but necessary.  And to “be all you can be” in that supportive role, too (e.g., the “Being #1 at being #2″ tagline).

As most of you know, the book was a product of dealing with friends, Romans and Countrymen (just kidding! — friends and clients) who were recently divorced, or were heads of companies or divisions, or the like, and either couldn’t get a date on Friday Nights or had lost the “spark” in their relationships, or who seemed to always be looking for an ROI (return on investment) in matters of the heart. The book details thoughts in this area, especially with respect to “turning it off” and “being the girl” in the guy-girl relationship. (Although we have at least one Amazon.com review where this has been effective, obviously, in a girl-girl relationship!)

Dr. Laura Berman in her show on NBC5.com has discussed this — as has Oprah now 2x in the past month or so, once with a Matchmaker who actually quite bluntly detailed what has “gone wrong” with women not wanting to “be women” today.  She also detailed that women seem to go from being “Girls” (at school) to being “Men” (duking it out to be ‘gender neutral’ in the workforce) and that they don’t have any faith in the power of Being A Woman.  Or being Supportive. Or just relaxing into it. Or going first, and treating their man like they need him. (Listen to my podcast interview with Scott Smith on this point!)

One of my favorite sidebars in the book actually has to do with Lance Armstrong and the idea of being a “domestique” (French for “maid”!) If you remember that part of the book, it discusses that when Lance was riding the Tour de France, he had a bunch of other fantastic riders who worked to be his “domestiques” — he was taking the lead, and they were doing what it took to get him over the line. However, a couple years ago, I saw Lance riding as a domestique, to another rider, when he came to ride here in San Francisco.  In that case, he was doing what it took — getting water bottles to the guy, etc. — to get him over the line.

Other readers constantly tell me the Bowling Story (”You like him? Then how about throwing a gutter ball, not trying to beat his pants off? Have some fun! Flirt!”) is their favorite. This story actually came from Sheila Kelley at S-Factor, but it’s one of my favorites, too.

To me, the “domestique” story is the perfect analogy for the Bond Girl. When she’s doing what “she does,” she’s #1, and Bond doesn’t question her — in fact, he relies on her to fly the plane, or defuse the bomb.  HOWEVER, when it’s her turn to “open the submarine door” after he’s gone out to fight the bad guys, she’s not arguing with him, saying “HEY, no WAY, I’m going to go fight the bad guys!  What, you think I’m going to be your doormat?? YOU open the door. And did you make the bed last night by the way???” — then they both drown.

 I’ll be very curious whether you, as a reader (or podcast listener) think that the idea of fEmpowerment would make “women angry who have worked hard to be the CEO.” (Which is what Heidi states.)  Think so?  Let me know, can’t wait to hear!

 

 Diary of a Shameless Self-Promoter, #99 [20:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s February! The perfect month to start coaxing out your inner Bond Grrl. It’s cold and rainy outside as I write this, and instead of getting cabin fever, I have taken my own advice from Chapter One of fEmpowerment. I’ve started making room in my life physically, for the blossoming that I know will come to my life in Spring!

As any grrl knows, February contains St. Valentine’s Day. If you have a James in your life, how about putting a few chocolate hearts in his coat pocket before he leaves for work, or sending him a few steamy texts? And who says that St. Valentine’s need only be celebrated on the 14th? What about making this St. Valentine’s month? It’s certainly a lot easier to get a date at a restaurant, hire a babysitter, and even buy cards and roses if you and your James decide that you will celebrate on a different day. Why let an arbitrary date stress you out? Being a Bond Grrl is all about Balance and eliminating unnecessary stress when you can.

If you don’t have a James in your life, no pouting! If you want one, he will come – when you’re truly ready. Is your house clean? Is your schedule ready to accommodate him? On Valentine’s, buy some yummy bubble bath, a small bottle of champagne or your favorite fizzy drink, a treat, and some wonderful flowers for the bathroom. Let your mind drift with the bubbles, and have delicious dreams about that James that’s just about to enter your life. Remember – no negatives, and no pouting! You get what you think about…

If you have a grrlfriend who is lamenting Valentine’s, now’s the time to pick up a copy of fEmpowerment for her. One of my clients said that she loved giving the book to grrlfriends, because it contains advice that she is too “politically close” to render herself. As she has been changing her life for the better, she can point to her own successes and the book, and urge her grrlfriends to do the same, without “preaching” to them. I love that!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the new podcasts. We will be opening up new Mastermind coaching groups soon – stay tuned!

SOME day, these podcasts are going to load into iTunes! I’m not sure what’s going wrong — frustrating!
That said, I’m going to list the references that go along with the episodes here… so that once they are working, this will be done :-)

Obviously, the number one reference in the podcast is my book, fEmpowerment: A Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Bond Girl. The link to purchase the book in a manner that gets me the “most dough” is through the homepage on BeABondGirl.com — hey, I’m a shameless capitalist :-) This link goes directly to the on-demand publishing house that my publisher used, so there is none of the “50% discounting” that goes on when you sell a book through a bookstore (online or regular retail).

If you have Amazon.com credits, of course, be my guest and get it on Amazon :-) I only get 23 cents this way as the author — but I’d rather you have the book and if Amazon is the way — it’s the way!

If you go to the Resources for the book on the Home page of BeABondGirl.com and click through on any of the books, you will be through a “portal” where you can then search for the book… and I get another 2 cents since I’m an “Amazon Associate.” Yeah Yeah — Shameless, Shameless, Shameless!!!!!

The links to the other websites that I reference in Episode One are listed under Resources on the main BeABondGirl.com website, but I will also note them here:

BeingJamesBond.com
MotivationToMove.com
FitnessRocks.org
BehindTheBarShow.com
[my heroes!]

Thanks for reading!
“Solitaire”

You can download my first podcast! I have actually already done another one, but I have to wait for my James (the technical one of the relationship) to get it up there. It’s also uploaded on iTunes.
Yippee!

This podcast introduces you to what being a Bond Girl is about being #1 in your passion, while also having the time and energy to be #1 at being #2 to your James. Dont bristle at the analogy until you listen to the podcast! Be brave. Be a Bond Girl.

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 000-Introduction to the Be A Bond Girl Podcast [08:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You’d think that being an author kinda ends when you turn the book into the publisher. Not so! Now comes the “visualization” part. Figuring out how to portray your vision on the page, in a manner that’s not going to break the bank (e.g., use lots of fancy colors, ’screens’ and fonts). Everything from margins, lines, fonts, … ack!

It’s tough, too, to get a mock-up from the publisher and then see mistakes that weren’t caught. Maybe it’s seeing it in more “book-like-form” that does it; just a second ago, I re-read one section and realized that my “math” was off by a factor of 10! (I said in the book divided your age by 10 and multiply by your income, and then used the example of someone who is 40 and making $50,000. My sentence blithely says: “so that’s 4/10 x $50,000 or $20,000.” Um, no. It’s 40/10…and $200,000. Aw, only 10x more…(laugh). Also have been seeing a lot of sentences that, for example, start with “you” (as if I’m addressing the reader) and end with “she” (as if I’m addressing a third party). My publisher can’t be happy that I keep sending little “oh, just one more thing” love notes to her!

Thursday, a friend of my mother’s (my mother is the head of a Public Relations company), who used to book folks on Oprah, is giving a seminar I’m going to attend via telephone. I’m going to get on Oprah, yet! I’m ready to take lots and lots of notes! LAUGH!!!

Well, amazing but true—I haven’t posted for nearly a year! Why? Lots of reasons…but most importantly, I have been working on my book. And it went to the publisher today!

I am SO EXCITED!

In 5 minutes, I also have an interview with a reporter for Money Magazine—the Universe literally delivered this opportunity “unto” me. I’m excited, and… OK, kinda scared. I just have to tell myself those are butterflies in my stomach—not condors!

Solitaire