Have you ever tried to tell your life's story in under 4 minutes?  I have, and believe me, it wasn't a pretty sight!

On August 24th, I was interviewed by Good Day Atlanta Host Mark Hayes, live and on the air on Fox 5 in Atlanta at 7:10 in the morning.  The focus of conversation was, obviously, The Five Finger Paragraph.  My focus was to stay in my seat and try to keep my hands in my "frame" because they warned me that "the cameras can't hit a moving target."  I've never been known to be a wall flower.  When I was growing up at home with four younger brothers, he (or she -- me) who was seen and heard first, got to eat first.  If you shrank into the background, you probably got left out!  So, needless to say, I was not a shrinking violet!

I teach The Five Finger Paragraph to groups of kids, parents, and teachers, sometimes all together, and my job during those events is to move constantly to grab the attention of the little people in the audience and to hold the attention of the adults.  I'm consistently moving back and forth across the stage area, tripping over mike wires, and writing on charts.  I'm always embellishing and elaborating on something to get the point across.  Fox 5 wanted to curtail that "entertainment" factor.

Mark Hayes is a giant, at least 6'3" and I'm about 4x4.  It was obvious to the producers how dwarfed I would be if he stood up, so we sat.  My hands and mouth and eyebrows and head were in constant motion as I demonstrated, succinctly, the finer points of paragraph-dom. 

I realize that the purpose of the interview was to pique interest in the topic just a little bit, then throw up the web address and throw me out of there.  That's why they were only allowing 4 minutes to my "spot."  But try to answer questions like "How did you come up with the original idea?" and "What advantage is there to all of the colors on the hand?" and "What..." and "What..."  All you end up with is a lot of one-sentence answers to the host's questions, not a lot of information is imparted, and you feel, as the BackStreet Boys song goes, INCOMPLETE! 

I get to do it again on August 30th at a small cable station in south Georgia, but this time I'll get a whole 15 minutes!  Won't that be a luxury!

I think I like talking to people, not cameras, a lot better.  People usually don't "click a snapshot" and run.  They stay for the whole movie.....