My guest today is Lydia Fenet, one of New York’s most dynamic and compelling businesswomen and personalities. As the founder and CEO of the Lydia Fenet Agency, Lydia represents best in class charity auctioneers. Before founding her agency, she spent more than two decades at the famed Christie’s auction house, serving as its Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships. During her time there, she became the world’s leading charity auctioneer and single-handedly raised over a billion dollars for more than 800 organizations around the world, standing alongside Bruce Springsteen, Hugh Jackman, Elton John, Matt Damon, and Jerry Seinfeld for some of the auctions she raised money for.

Lydia is also the creator and host of the podcast, Claim Your Confidence, in collaboration with Rockefeller Center, launched after the success of her book of the same name. Her other best selling book is The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You, which was optioned by Netflix in 2022 for a series that will be produced by Chernin Entertainment starring Kiernan Shipka as the lead.

In addition to auctioneering, podcasting, and writing, Lydia travels the globe and speaks with companies, helping them to unleash their sales potential and public speaking capabilities. She also recently hosted her first Claim Your Confidence retreat.

Photo courtesy of Lydia Fenet

Connect with Lydia here

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My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Steve Shenbaum, a classically trained actor and comedian and Founder & President of Game On Nation, a communications, leadership, and team building firm based in Bradenton, Florida. For over 27 years, Steve and his team have worked with some of the country’s most recognizable athletes, colleges and professional sports teams - including NASCAR, the LA Lakers, NY Yankees, and more -  Fortune 50 companies, government, and military leaders, and he is an industry expert in presentation, public speaking, teambuilding, and communication skills training. 

In his past career as an actor, Steve was featured in “American Pie 2”, “EDTV”, “Space Jam”, “The Third Wheel” (with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), “Will & Grace”, “Married with Children”, “Beverly Hills 90210”, and more than one-hundred national commercials. Steve graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Performance Studies and also trained at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. 

Connect with Steve here

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My guest today is Natalie Van Doren, a writer/director and assistant director in film and television, in Los Angeles. Natalie has directed multiple network episodes of the Nickelodeon show, Side Hustle, and That Girl Lay Lay for Nickelodeon and Netflix, with famed producer Will Packer.

After graduating from Colorado State University, Natalie moved to LA and began her career in the entertainment business as an assistant at ICM Talent Agency. While there, she worked with Francis Ford Coppola, Baz Luhrmann, Luc Besson, and others. Soon after, she was accepted into the prestigious Directors Guild of America Training Program. 

While in the program, Natalie produced and directed her first short film, The SharkTank Redemption, a parody of The Shawshank Redemption, which was purchased by HBO and aired on HBO and Cinemax for 6 years. 

Natalie has since gone on to direct the second unit of CSI Miami, was the DGA trainee on on Ocean’s 11, and was the assistant director, CSI, The West Wing, ER, and many more productions. She also recently finished a graphic novel, Infinite, which she wrote with her brother, writer Doug Van Doren.

Learn more about Natalie on her website, natalievandoren.com, and connect with her there.

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My guest today is Amira Lerario, a Lifestyle and Fitness Model who began her career at the age of 55.  Amira is also a creative writer, having recently completed her bachelor’s degree that she started in the 90s, a former running coach and personal fitness trainer,  and has published articles about her life as a mother of four, world marathon runner, and part-time employee.

Amira spent over 10 years as a running coach and she’s trained many runners from beginners to intermediate, to advanced. A competitive marathon runner herself, she has run over 30 marathons around the world. In 2017 she completed all 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors, which included London, Boston, New York, Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo. In 2021 Amira qualified for the Abbott World Marathon Age Group World Championships which was held in London 2022. She qualified again for the World Championships in Chicago in 2023, and she will run the World Championships for a 3rd time in Sydney, Australia in the fall of this year. 

Amira  writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and in 2023, she wrote her first short and feature-length screenplay. Born and raised in the northwest of England, Amira permanently moved to the US in 1992 after meeting her husband the previous year while working at a summer camp in Lenox, MA.

Connect with Amira via instagram at Amira_jane07

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Stephanie Katherine Grant starred for 10 seasons as Emmy Mirsky on ABC’s long-running hit comedy, The Goldbergs. She has been awarded Young Artist and Young Entertainer Awards for her work on the show. She can also be seen in standout roles on STARZ'S Survivor's Remorse and Criminal Minds. In addition to her TV work, Stephanie Katherine starred in the Cannes hit, Max Rose, playing the granddaughter of the legendary Jerry Lewis.

Stephanie Katherine is also an accomplished director/writer and co-founder of HarisGrant Productions, alongside Michael Grant. HarisGrant’s latest film, Kepley, starring Emmy-nominee Elizabeth Mitchell and Aaron Stanford, has screened at renowned festivals around the world. For her work on Kepley, Stephanie Katherine Grant and Michael Grant were awarded Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Best Film at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. Other HarisGrant films have played in acclaimed festivals, such as Cannes, Calgary, Flickers’ Rhode Island, and LA Shorts. The production house has also directed and produced numerous fashion campaigns, including for brands Brandy Melville and J. Lindeberg.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Katherine Grant

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My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Maria J. Avila, a Pulitzer-prize-winning photojournalist based in San Francisco, California. Originally from Los Angeles, Maria was a member of the Rocky Mountain News photo staff awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News covering the wildfires.

In her 25-plus-year career as a photographer and editor, she has specialized in documentary, news, editorial, and food photography. She has been on staff at the San Jose Mercury News, the Detroit Free Press, the San Antonio Express-News, and the aforementioned Rocky Mountain News.

Maria is a polyglot, speaking multiple languages, and now documents work performed by government workers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can view Maria's work and connect with her here

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My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Herb Ankrom, an Emmy award winning seasoned film and television Executive Producer, who has worked in the entertainment industry for twenty years. Herb began his career in Los Angeles in 1995 working as a production assistant on the popular sitcom, Rosanne, starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman. After Rosanne, he shifted to film and worked several years in production roles on films like Batman and Robin, Cruel Intentions and The Bourne Identity.

In 2002 he was hired to produce on a pilot for ABC, which became Extreme Makeover Home Edition, that he produced for five seasons, garnering the show two Emmys and five Emmy nominations.

Following Extreme Makeover, Herb became Director of Development for a production company and went on to help develop and produce shows such as NBC’s School Pride, and ABC’s True Beauty, seasons one and two.

More recently, Herb worked as Co-Executive Producer on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and New Jersey, Cyrus vs. Cyrus, and Southern Charm: NOLA. He also was Executive Producer on the Lionsgate film, Open Water 3: Cage Dive and has several scripted projects in development. Most recently, he Co-Executive Produced Netflix’s Million Dollar Beach House and Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey. Currently he is Executive Producing Serving the Hamptons season 2 for Discovery+

Herb splits his time between California and Florida and can be reached via LinkedIn.

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My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

On this episode of My Time, My Life, my special guest is playwright and landscape photographer Curt Strickland. Curt is also a political and cultural essayist, expressing his views on topical issues of the day. When Curt isn’t writing, he’s practicing landscape photography, born out of his previous career as a former owner of Great American Art, one of the largest commercial art corporations in the United States.

Curt believes that all art forms should serve to heal, inspire, provoke, challenge and offer hope – but most of all to connect and remind us of our common humanity. He believes in the power of words and their power to ignite change and inspire, and to be used as a tool to ‘fight the power.’

In 2020, Curt received a double lung transplant, an event that had profound effects on both his writing and his life. This experience is the basis of a new play called Double Lung that he is currently developing. Curt is finishing up his 5th play in a ten play opus on America, with each play set in a different decade.

Curt honed his craft at Lesley University, in Cambridge, MA, where he recently earned a masters degree in playwriting.

Contact Curt at curt@curtsview.com

Read Curt's essays on his site curtsview.com

Read Curt's plays here

View Curt's photography here

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My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production