In February 1998, I lost my mom — the woman who believed I could one day meet Oprah Winfrey. Eight months later, at 27, that wish came true. I was invited to The Oprah Winfrey Show to share how I coached clients online — back when "the internet" was a new frontier. Yahoo had just named me the most downloaded fitness trainer of 1997, and Oprah was fascinated by the idea of helping people transform through a screen.
During a break, I told her my mom had passed earlier that year and had always said, "Take photos of the people who change your life." But security had taken my camera. Oprah stopped the crowd, tapped her microphone, and said, "Here's a secret — if you don't ask for what you want, you'll never get it." She agreed to take the photo you see here, and that single moment became the defining lesson of my life and career.
That day, I learned that courage opens doors gratitude alone can't. More than twenty-five years later, I'm still training people online — still living that lesson — and forever grateful to my mom and to Oprah for helping me believe that asking can change everything.
The photographs from that day
Harpo Studios sent a limousine to bring me in. I still remember standing outside that teal Harpo, Inc. entrance in Chicago, a kid from San Diego in a borrowed overcoat, thinking: my mother would not believe this.
And I wasn't alone. My father flew out with me, and so did my sister Marta. After the taping we all stood together under the Audience Entrance sign for a picture. Eight months after we buried my mom, the three of us were standing at the doorway of the exact dream she had spoken out loud for me.
It was a magical day — and it changed everything that came after it: the books, the shows, the twenty-five years of coaching, and the work in longevity I'm doing now. All of it traces back to that sidewalk in Chicago.
