Meeting Joan Darling

Lea-Ann Berst, club president of BPW/Raleigh, and Joan Darling,
one of the first female directors in Hollywood, at the BPW/Raleigh
dinner meeting on Tuesday night.

What a wonderful evening I had Tuesday night, thanks to Lea-Ann Berst (@MarketSleddogg) of Sleddogg Marketing Management.  

Lea-Ann is a woman I truly admire and appreciate. She's the club president of BPW/Raleigh, a nonprofit that strives to support and educate women in business. Lea-Ann was kind enough to make sure I knew about last night's October dinner meeting because of Abandoned Allies.

The meeting featured Joan Darling, one of the first female directors in Hollywood who worked on plenty of shows you'd recognize: M*A*S*H*, MARY TYLER MOORE, TAXI, and MAGNUM P.I. She was nominated four times for an Emmy and twice for a Directors Guild of America award; winning one Emmy and one DGA award.

And guess what?  She's also an improviser.

Her speech was about a lot of things that made my heart soar.  I wish I had it on video so I could watch it repeatedly. I could listen to her talk for hours.  

During her speech I found myself mentally interviewing Joan Darling on-camera about her life. She is absolutely fascinating, and I feel she has a great story to share with women in business. Darling graciously gave me a printed copy of her speech and some advice when I met her after the meeting ended. What a thrill it was to meet her!

Joan Darling has literally done what I dream of daily.  She has done everything from improvisation, acting, directing, teaching and is now finishing up a book. From Broadway to Hollywood, she's experienced so much--yet is generous, kind, humble, feminine and caring.  She's a big deal, but doesn't act like it.

Thank you, Lea-Ann, for the shout out during the meeting, and for being so kind to extend a personal invitation to Tuesday night's dinner meeting. It is something I have been happily reliving all week long!