The Price Is Right!

We were on The Price is Right!

Mom me and my bro after The Price is Right!

Ok, using the term ‘we’ might be a little bit of a stretch, but here’s the story.

My bro finally moved out of the inner city of New York to the paradise of Los Angeles. Visiting L.A. is fantastic with the ocean and warm weather! So my mom and I have been visiting 2-3 times per year. But what do you do when you keep going back to the same place? What about getting on The Price is Right!

My mom watches the show religiously every day. She won’t leave the house until she’s watched TPIR! And the idea of attending the show was an exciting reason to visit Cali again. As soon as she heard the plans, she started coaching us on how the games work.

But what good is knowing how the games work if you don’t get on the show?

So step 1, in my analytical fashion, was to figure out how to get on the show. I have a lot of enthusiasm, as my friends and family all know. So I knew for sure that I could get on. My family knew it too. Of course my friends all assumed I would get on the show knowing how enthusiastic I am. But I also knew people wore clever t-shirts, which also helps. So what could I put on my shirt to help me stand out in the crowd?

Well one unique thing about me that few others have done is that I’ve traveled to every continent! So let’s capitalize on my shirt, something worth talking about. I ended up with “Travelled every continent to bet $1”. Not bad! Of course, during the interview with the producer he’s like, “You know there’s a direct flight from Denver to LA” Hahaha. Good one dude. Surely I’m in!

I told my mom about my shirt and she said that everyone in the group needs to wear a shirt too. She said she would wear one. Of course we couldn’t have matching t-shirts if mine is about traveling around the world. This was all very last minute so the t-shirt for my mom wasn’t my creative clever self, it ended up: “Surprise! Mom you are the next contestant to bet $1”. But there was no way my brother would wear a shirt. Just not his thing.

But then I had an idea. And ideas from this big sister are always fantastic!

A t-shirt for my brother saying that his sister made him wear it. And plaster my face on it to show who that sister is!

I had used this floating face of mine for my Denver Ignite talk “You love what you find time for” and for other conference talks as well. It was all ready to go. Just needed to pick a color for the t-shirts. Something bright and “PAY ATTENTION TO ME” like the red from The Price is Right logo. Perfect.

The t-shirt I made for my brother to wear at The Price is Right.

We signed up for tickets in advance and was able to get Priority Tickets for the Tuesday morning taping. There were Line Voucher tickets available on Monday, but that means there is no guarantee you get in. All the Priority Ticket holders get in first and any extra seats available after that is filled in first-come-first-serve from the Line Voucher line. If you have line voucher tickets, people show up a couple hours earlier than the show-up time because of this first-come-first-served aspect. If you have Priority Tickets, you get your spot as long as you’re not late.

My name tag for The Price is Right

We still showed up a bit early since we flew all the way to Cali for this it would be silly for us to miss it due to traffic or something. The day is long. First you first fill out a waiver. Then wait to have this amazing guy write your name out on your official TPIR name tag! It has to match your drivers license name exactly so people don’t get crazy nicknames like “PuppySniff” (I have a friend who’s email is this). ELIZABETH is 9 characters which has to fit on the tag and be super extra tall.

Then you wait in line for photos. They take photos in front of a green screen and sell them back to you later. There will be photos with your whole group as well as photos with just you. They will have you act like you just won a car too. It’s fun and worth being super excited for it! We didn’t buy any photos but the one of my brother jumping up was super funny.

Then you wait in another line. While you wait they explain how the interview process works. They take about 20 people at a time in a line and the casting director talks to each person one at a time while they also film you. Typically asks questions about where you’re from, what you do for a living, favorite TPIR game etc. In our research about how to get selected as a contestant, we knew you had to be interesting. I already do this in life too – when someone asks you what you do, why say the boring stuff like “Teacher”, “Realtor”, “Programmer”? Be interesting. My response varies depending how cute the guy is asking me, so I may say “Traveler!” or “Renaissance Woman” or “I’m an INSPIRATION!” So that’s what I did. And I doubled up my enthusiasm and excitement (my friends will be wondering how that is even possible!). My mom and brother also did too, and we all tried to be funny as well. Of course, it helps that we ARE really funny, and we made sure that came through! Actually every time we get together as a family I go home with a 2-pak tummy from laughing so hard.

Once our group finished, we headed around the corner and sat in another line until the seating time. Here they had TVs for us to watch snippets of the show. This was smart to watch and learn the games, as I felt like many of the games shown to us were also used during our taping of the show. I think they try to prep the audience to get ready and familiar with the games for that day so hopefully people who get on stage actually have an idea of how a game is played.

Then the seating begins! You maintain the order in which you arrived through this whole process (you have a temporary number on your shirt) and they seat you in order. However, they have ushers that know where the producers want to seat your group and have a seating map. So as you enter, you are directed to a specific set of seats for your group. We quickly realized all the cute young people were sitting in the front behind where the contestants would be, and yet we were directed to sit in the middle IN THE BACK. My bro and I just look at each other like, oh – we got old. haha

They filled in the seats following a very structured seating map. The map lays out a guide for the camera people to know where to focus for each name called. Music was playing and a handful of hopefuls stood and danced while this all happened. Showing enthusiasm and excitement is a critical component to getting selected, as is wearing the proper attire. We read no open-toed shoes, and for all the videos we watched we think that is accurate. I certainly didn’t want to fall and knock Drew Carey down as we’d seen in some previous episodes! I would feel so bad!

Before the show begins we were given some instructions. For example, it is really loud (because of us, the audience), so you will not hear your name when it is called – look for the name on the cue card some dude will hold up. Another is to not stand when someone’s name is called, because then the cameras cannot find the person who was called on in a sea of other people standing and jumping up and down. DO yell as hard as you can with price ideas whenever a contestant is bidding on something or on stage.

Then the show begins! OMG it is finally happening!

They call the first person down. She was an obvious pick. She was running up and down high-giving people and showing lots of energy while we were in lines. We all knew she would get picked.

They call the second person down. A third person.

The fourth and final person’s name on the cue card: “JOHN BOESE”!

I was in tears I was so happy! As much as I wanted to be up there, I knew with the shirt I made for him that he was definitely going to be selected. And besides, my face is right up there with him!! LOL. And he was chosen as the 4th contestant – the one with the best odds of getting up on stage!

You can watch the show to see what happened during the show, just a few more tidbits about what happened behind the scenes.

During the commercial break Drew Carey wanted to talk to me! “Where is the sister?” He invited me into the aisle to come talk to him, and I am bouncing all around but then didn’t hug him because I didn’t want to knock him over! I shook his hand which is probably pretty awkward, but I wanted to show him respect and not pounce.

While he was talking with me, of course he asked what do I do. In my excitement I shouted out, “I’m an Inspiration!” With my hands splayed in the area and the biggest cheesy smile on my face. Of course, that stumped him a little, since he’s a comedian and uses people’s jobs to crack jokes. So he asked if I was a motivational speaker. I said, “I should be!” Then splayed my arms up in the air and jumped up and down. Probably pretty awkward interview for poor Drew who must be like WTF is this woman? I wanted to say what I usually say to people but the words didn’t come out of my mouth: “I like to help people and make them laugh. Kinda like what you do Drew”. Perhaps he wanted some longer sentences out of me to make the interview more interesting, but we researched too much about what to do on stage for TPIR including don’t ramble! Keep it short. And that’s what I did, even though it was a commercial break. I don’t know if Drew could keep up with just how excitedly I could go on and on and on and on… and on and on. Drew did ask me what inspired me to make that shirt for my brother to help him get on to the show, and I was no longer coherent as I rambled absolute nonsense until I hung my head down and simply said, “I love my brother”. I mean I really did want ME to be on the show, that was the original plan. But I do truly love my brother and I knew the shirt would (probably) get him on and I love him so I let him get on the show instead of me. I don’t think I’m bitter about it 😉 Seriously, I am really happy and proud he got on. He might even be a tad funnier than me.

I was extremely excited during the whole show. I was so happy for my brother! It definitely is more exciting when your friend or family makes it up there. Actually it’s also really exciting when someone you’ve been chatting to in the line for the past couple of hours makes it on.

It was tough watching him lose on contestant row! He started in the prime spot and all he had to do was bet $1 over the highest bid to win! Usually that works, usually. We couldn’t hear any of the bids (or much of anything) so we hoped he listened to us about strategy. Only 6 contestants make it on stage and half-way through my bro was still in contestants row!

FINALLY he makes it up there! But then of all the games he has to play – he gets the check game. One of the hardest ones to win! My jaw was to the floor, my hands in my head staring at him with no idea how to help him. I mean, I got him this far on the show, how much more do you need me to do? LOL I just stared hopeful and when he looked at us for advice – probably the first time in my life I had none to give!

Luckily someone in the audience yelled out something helpful which he wrote down and actually WON! OMG phew! And it’s a trip to Panama!! I have visited 76 countries and Panama wasn’t one of them! I was so excited he would take me to Panama (you know, since I got him on the show)! But then he told Drew no he wouldn’t take me! He was going to take his girlfriend!! Grrr… really after all I do for you!

And of course, if you watched to the Showcase Showdown, you saw how amazing and unique my opportunity became! WOW to get to walk back stage was so cool! The models all smiled and said Hi and the staff were super friendly. The adrenaline was screaming through my veins and I couldn’t speak (literally, they gave me a mic but I just silently-screamed). I swore if my brother won the car I was just going to drive it right off the stage and keep it! It’s my face that got him there in the first place!!

Taping Date: Aug 23, 2019
Air Date: Oct 22, 2019

Getting Started

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

Choosing a goal is a great way to give yourself direction. Without goals, you make decisions without the guidance of where you want to be, who you want to become. Goals help give you motivation to do things you may otherwise pass on, like exercise when the couch would be the easier alternative. But goals by themselves lack the guidance of how to achieve them. Even well thought out SMART goals are missing a vital aspect to success – the step-by-step guide of how to achieve them. SMART is an acronym for helping you design your goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Adding such dimensionality to your goals helps to really define them and understand what qualifies for to say you achieved them. But how do you get there?

Creating an action plan to achieve your goals helps give you a guide on how to go about achieving your goals. But getting started can be overwhelming. There seems to be so much to do! Sometimes a goal may need to take a year or longer, and when you look at the task as a whole can feel overwhelming. At least for me, that is where I get stuck.

Want to write a book? OMG that is a lot of words and I need a good start, middle and conclusion but where do I even begin? The first sentence has so much importance to draw the reader in and encompass the book as a whole and I don’t even know where to start.

Want to run a marathon? OMG that is a lot of miles and right now I cannot even run a full block! What was I thinking? This is too much and I have no idea how to be ready by the time of the race.

Getting Started can be overwhelming. The problem is when you look at the task as a whole: the final 323 page book, 26.2 mile run. The way to get started, the only way, is to take a first step. There needs to be some first step towards getting you to that goal. What would be that first step? And how small can you make that first step so that it isn’t overwhelming? For a book, write down some thoughts about how the introduction should feel. Or write a rough draft of an outline. For a marathon, take a walk around the block. Run for ten seconds and then let your heart recover.

It’s those first steps that also start a new habit. Trigger yourself into getting started, taking that first step. Write a few thoughts down on paper, even if it isn’t about the book. Get into the practice of writing something – anything. Take a walk if running is too much. Get into the practice of walking, and then small bits of running. Start the habit.

The next step is to find something step-adjacent. Once you take the first step, the next step is not to write an entire chapter, or run half a marathon. Figure out a step-adjacent action that works towards your goal that is a “first step” from your current step. A small adjustment. Something UNDERwhelming. Something easy to add on to what you currently do.

And that is the cycle of progress to get towards your goal. Along the way may require adjustments to your direction, obstacles to figure out, and changes to be made. But taking a new “first step”, something easy, 1% improvement, and then building on that with something just a little bit more, is the path to successfully achieve a goal. Sometimes we get super motivated when New Years resolutions come by or we sign up for a race and we go all-in towards the goal. But usually that is not sustainable. It’s the small steps of improvement, with consistency, that works.