Jon Goes Hollywood-Featured In Upcoming Movie!

After a near-death experience when I came close to coughing up a lung due to this darn bronchitis, I spent the next day at the home of my colleague and good friend, Tony Magee and his five beautiful, wonderful kids. It was a commercial for what my life will one day look like. Well, I’m not having five kids, that’s for sure. I tell people how many kids I want and I tell them like I’m bidding my hand in Spades, “I’ve got 2 and a possible.” That’s it. I’m 31 and I refuse to be having kids when I’m eyeing retirement. Nope! I plan on being a cranky old man and I don’t want any crumb snatchers getting in the way of that! I digress.

I found myself sitting on the couch in the living room for nearly an hour, staring at each picture on the mantle. It was surreal. Tony and his wife put a lot into giving their kids a loving environment that is an incubator for their success in life. His house is one of my favorite places to be in all the Earth. Outside of habitually waking up at 1:50am to and coughing like I had just been sprayed with tear gas, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay. Reading books in the morning with Ahmir (5) and Makayla (2) before they went to school is the best feeling in the world. I got so caught up, I forgot I was going to be in a movie that afternoon.

Yes…a movie!

The picture above is the Presidential Suite of the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey, CA. It’s $1,400 square feet and $3,500 a night. Good thing we were filming in the day! Ha, ha. Woody Woodward, founder of The Law of Importance, cast me as one of the experts in his upcoming feature film, I-ology. If you’ve seen or read the phenomenon called The Secret or the movie Pass It On, you’ll know the concept of the movie. This film is going to have a different twist to it though. Rather than simply talking in theory about how to improve your life, Woody actually follows people through their lives and shows how applying The Law of Importancehas changed their lives. He chooses people from diverse backgrounds, from the ‘hood to well-known heroes and shows how the one commonality that ties us all together is having an “internal focus.” You’ll know what that means when the movie premiers in July.

Woody was floored by my segments. He said that he knew “something was missing” from the story and after he saw me do my thing, he realized that “something” was me. I had a great time shining for the camera as Woody egged me on during the interview. He was nodding vigorously as his eyes got bigger and bigger. I tried not to think about what this was going to look like on the big screen…but I couldn’t help it!

 

TEACHING POINT

The “real” reason why I was surprisingly good on camera in Woody’s eyes was because I’ve been training for this moment for years. As happy as I am to be in my first movie, it won’t be my last. I learned many years ago while doing a video for my Cash Cow Keynote course how difficult speaking in front of a camera, pretending to be talking to the people at home can be. Those who appear to be “naturals” are anything but. Ever since that taping, I have used every small opportunity that presented itself to become more comfortable and articulate in front of the camera.

People at church asked me to do a quick commercial, I was on it.

A conference in Ohio asked me to do a promo video for their attendees, I was on it.

Every time I stepped in front of a camera, I wasn’t thinking about that project, I was thinking about the big screen. I was working on little nuances that I picked up as I studied famous people who were doing what I wanted to do. I didn’t like The Secret very much, but I studied every hand gesture, facial feature and every vocal nuance of the featured speakers. I imitated them until I sounded like I too was a renowned expert. I finally understood what Ledisi meant when she said in the first song of her third album but her first major hit, “I’ve been waiting on you ’cause I’ve been here…all the time.”