Every career has a first door. Mine was opened by Diane Sawyer.
Before 8 Minutes in the Morning was a bestseller in sixteen languages, it was just a small idea from a kid from San Diego: eight minutes, first thing in the morning, before life gets a vote. ABC News and Good Morning America were the first national show to put that idea on television — and working with Diane was a genuine pleasure. She was warm, disarmingly prepared, and she asked the question every viewer at home was thinking. She took the method seriously, and because she did, America did too.
That segment is the reason my entire book-publishing career happened. Everything that followed — the 8 Minutes in the Morning series with Rodale, the years of national television, the books that came after — traces back to that morning on ABC. I can't thank her enough.
Filmed at Miramar with the military wives
The kickoff was shot at MCAS Miramar in San Diego — the Top Gun base — in front of an F/A-18. The participants weren't models or celebrities. They were military wives holding families together while their husbands were deployed to Afghanistan, and they had eight minutes a morning, not eight hours. That was the whole point. If the method worked for them, it worked for anyone.
It also meant something to me personally. My father, Melvin "Mel" Cruise, served in the U.S. Army. Standing on that flight line with those women, teaching them something that gave them a little of their strength back, is still one of the proudest mornings of my working life — and it's why coaching is 50% off for everyone who has served, and their families.
The ABC News relationship that followed
ABC stayed with the work for years afterward — including the primetime Good Morning America interview on The 3-Hour Diet and later coverage of The 100. You can see the full run of national appearances on the press kit, and the tribute to my dad on the Mel Cruise page.
Thank you, Diane. One segment, eight minutes, and a career.
Photos: Jorge Cruise with Diane Sawyer at ABC News; and the Good Morning America shoot with Navy wives in front of an F/A-18 at MCAS Miramar, San Diego.
