When I was 13 I read my very first book about a powerful business leader and I was hooked.  It was Iaccoca’s original autobiography.

In the past several months, I’ve found myself back in the biography/memoir genre and noticed an odd pattern … they’ve almost all been about powerful men.  I’ve read:

Isadore Sharp’s Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

Dennis Felix How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets

Tom Bergeron’s I’m Hosting As Fast as I Can: Zen and the Art of Staying Sane in Hollywood

Bill O’Reilly’s A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir

Larry King’s My Remarkable Journey

5 men doing big things, each one of whom has inspired me to be more of me and keep on the path by his story.

Isadore Sharp has inspired me to hold true to my outrageous philosophy of creating a nationwide group of lawyers clients love to work with again and again (people said his vision for the Four Seasons was crazy too!)

Dennis Felix has helped me be okay with my desire to be rich and also realize the sacrifice I’ll make in getting there.

Tom Bergeron made me laugh, remember that it’s all perfect, we are all connected and God’s got my back.

Bill O’Reilly helped me understand how to brush off the critics and keep moving ahead.

Larry King guided me to know that if I love doing it, even if I’m not great at it yet, I will be if I just keep doing it … so to keep doing what I love.

Right around the time I realized I was reading book after book by powerful business men, Coach Deb recommended a book by a powerful woman, Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics from a Woman at the Top by Nina Disesa, chairman of McCann Erickson.

Oh, it was so good.

So, what else is there?  Where are all the memoirs/bios/autobios about and by powerful women who will inspire me?  Anything written by a mom who has made it happen in business?

I read Penelope Trunk’s blog for regular inspiration from a mom who is really making it happen in business and hopefully she’ll write her memoir one day.  But, is there anything out there now?

Can you recommend any other books that have the real life stories of women who have made it big in their industry that you think I’ll love?

But, what about you?

I can’t be the only one with big hairy audacious goals, can I?  What are your dreams?  Are you taking action on them?  How?

I want to hear from you!  To incentivize you to let it all hang out, let’s make it a contest!

Lots of people ask me if I’m still doing coaching or email me for help and guidance.  When I was doing it one on one, they paid $1,000/hour.  I don’t offer it anymore because I’m too busy building my businesses, publishing books and getting on TV.

But, I miss the feeling of being there, guiding someone and truly knowing I’m making a life-changing difference when that big a-ha comes along!  TV is great, but it’s kind of impersonal, ya know?

One tip from the right coach can save you months, if not years, of going down the wrong path.

So, post a comment about your big dreams and how you are taking action on them and I’ll pick the one that most inspires me for a one-on-one personal coaching session with me.

It can be around pinpointing your purpose, publishing a book, getting publicity or media, being a mompreneur, balancing work/life and still making your dreams come true, having it all, manifesting what you want, moving through fear or building your business. You pick.

So, let’s hear it!

PS – while you’re here, why not subscribe so you don’t miss anything?  Choose the subscribe by email option.  It’s in the upper right hand corner.  And, if you use OtherInbox, a super cool new service to help you take back your inbox, it won’t clutter up your inbox, but you’ll still stay up to date.

Yes, I was incredibly nervous the morning before I appeared on the Today Show for the first time.

I had gotten into NYC the night before and met Dave at our hotel, Le Parker Meridien. Good hotel, great location, and best price I could find on Hotels.com. ONLY $379/night compared to $600 plus for every other decent place in town.

Went to bed at a reasonable hour and woke up at 1:30a thinking it was time to get up. You know how it is when you have to get up early for something important, you are anxious about it and so wake up every hour thinking it’s time to get up? It was like that. Dave laughed at me and told me to go back to sleep.

Finally, it really was time to get up. 6am. Did my makeup and headed over to J Sisters International to get my hair done.

Although they don’t open until 9am, they open early for me and Vincent, my stylist, is there waiting. It’s so New York – a walk up four flights up and no elevator. At the top, an opulent salon with Italian fresco everywhere. (I don’t even know what Italian fresco is, but that’s what it seems like I should say about it – I’ll have video posted for you soon and you can tell me if I’m right).

Vincent makes my hair perfect and we are off to the studio.

Somehow, I lose track of time and we decide to stop for breakfast. Right before we get our food, I look at my watch and realize I need to be there in 10 minutes. Luckily, it’s just down the street. We get our food to go and walk over to 47th Street, where we are to enter through a non-descript office building.

As we near, I see all the tourists with their signs vying to get the camera to notice them outside the Today Show studios. It’s really happening.

We tell the security guards our names and then we’re in. Matt Lauer is standing by the elevator and says good morning to me. Wow, it’s real. I’m at the Today Show. We enter the Green Room, which isn’t green and a page whisks me away to hair and makeup and suddenly I’m nervous as hell.

I meet Elizabeth Mayhew, lifestyle contributor on the Today Show, who will be doing a segment about pillows, and she and I talk about book writing. She’s got a book coming out and tells me I should meet her agent. I’ve finally decided on the next topic for my book. I’d like to sell it before I write it, so that’s perfect. She gives me her email address.

Back to the green room where I see the drop dead gorgeous Natalie Morales, who seems to be as nice as she is pretty. And then, I wait.

At 9:30a, I’m whisked upstairs to the studio where Ann Curry and I will be taping the segment. It’s right next to where they tape the cooking segments. It’s freezing. I chat up the camera guys. I wait. I pace. Yes, I’m anxious. I review my points in my head. I never do that. But, today it’s Ann Curry and the Today Show. I never do that either.

Then, she’s walking in and we are rushing to get everything set before we go on. I mention her tribute to her dad and how it made me cry. She apologizes. I tell her no, thank you. I wish I could have done something like that for my dad when he died.

And then we have 30 seconds and it’s happening – Ann Curry is interviewing me.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YWRO7E56XI]

It’s over before I know it.

Amanda, the producer of my segment, takes me down to the control room where I see the Senior Producer, who tells me I was great and invites me to submit more segment ideas. I have to hold myself back from submitting them to him right then and there.

Then, we’re back out on the street and it’s over. Nearly all the feedback I get is great, except …

Apparently, I looked as if I was wearing a maternity shirt.

Dave’s ex-wife is the first to mention it in a text to him. Before I can dismiss it as the mean comments of a hurt ex, Laura Lee, my Executive VP at FWPI says the same thing, so I know it’s true.

For the record, I’m not preggo and it wasn’t a maternity shirt. It was a very expensive shirt from BCBG with what I thought was a flattering silhouette. I can see now that it wasn’t the best choice, but if that’s the only error I made, then I did good. And, next time, I’ll work out a little before going on the Today Show.

Ah well.

One of the things I’m learning most through this journey is that not everyone is going to like me and not only is that okay, I welcome the haters.

Hello haters, welcome!

Is there any truly successful person who isn’t hated by a lot of people?

I was heartened to read in Barbara Walters book Audition (on my Kindle right now) that she was hated by Frank Sinatra, which was painful for her, but helped to reinforce for me that not everyone has to like me. Actually, it helped me understand that if everyone does like me, I’m not getting where I want to go and impacting millions of people.

Luckily, I was full on prepared for this by high school where I was called vicious names to my face as I walked down the halls for reasons I couldn’t figure out at the time, but now I totally get. It was the Universe’s way of prepping me to laugh at this 1 star review and all the rest that are sure to come over my lifetime.

Fortunately, I’ve gotten enough “Wow, I love your book!” “Holy Cow, Alexis, this book really does make legal planning easy and even enjoyable” and “Thanks Alexis, now I know just what to do to make sure my kids and money are taken care of if anything happens to me” that I can easily dismiss my 1 star reviewer as an unjustified hater who has it out for me.

It could be my boyfriend’s ex-wife, a former disgruntled employee (who by the way is now suing me for pregnancy discrimination!), or a handful of other people who are not entirely thrilled with my success. Or, maybe it’s someone who doesn’t know me at all.

And that’s cool too. In fact, I hope one day I’m as hated as Rachael Ray and Madonna and Suze Orman. When someone takes the time to set up a whole website, or in Suze’s case a whole TV segment, about why they hate me, I’ll know I’ve made it.

In the meantime, if you’ve read my book and didn’t hate it, please post your review on Amazon and let the world know that it made estate planning understandable, accessible and maybe even a little fun for you too. And if you don’t have your copy yet, get it so you can decide for yourself whether you are a hater or a lover. It’s less than $15 ($7.99 on the Kindle), so you really can’t lose either way.

It launches May 7th and we are giving away over $3,000 in gifts to purchasers on that day.  More information here.

Seeing my amazon page for the first time was beyond exciting, even though the book image isn’t up yet and my name is spelled wrong.  It’ll all get fixed before launch day – I hope.  But, the coolest thing was seeing that someone has already posted a review of the book at Amazon.

And, this is not even someone I know!!  She must have gotten a review copy from a friend.

Then, I saw that a blogger who had a chance to review the book has also already posted a review.  Wow!

Do me a favor, and don’t buy the book yet!  I know that sounds weird, but if you want to buy the book, go here and register so you can get a reminder to buy on May 7th and get all the awesome bonus gifts we put together.

If you want to review the book on your blog or on Amazon before our launch on May 7th, post a comment and let me know and we’ll get you an electronic review copy.