This guidebook is designed to lead you into the practical world of being present. The reason I can guide you is that I have put 30 years into learning exactly how to move from lost to found...from absence to presence. And the reason I'm writing this is that it has been the most important journey of my life. Thirty years ago I seemed confident and capable even though I was uneasy in almost every situation. In business interactions, I was clear and precise even though I was entirely disconnected. I could not engage except by accident, and I was clueless as to why. How could I speak well, but have no depth and openness? I couldn't understand why others didn't "get me" - or why I wasn't powerful or persuasive. My words were there, but something crucial was missing. I can only be a guide if I've been there, and I have. I can only bring the answer if I've found it. And I have. I'm not exaggerating, and I'm not saying any of this for effect. What I discovered was that my words were there, but I wasn't. What was missing in my life was ME. Over the years, I've learned that my clients, many of them major stars and high profile executives, felt the same way. They experienced the same discomfort and distance that I did. And they realized that something was missing. But what? To a person, no client has ever thought or believed that there could be an answer to this deep absence. But there is an answer. And it's real. It is simple and it is difficult, yet it can happen very quickly...and usually does. This guidebook is capable of finding you. It is written for that reason. It answers the question: "How could I be the Missing Element in my own life?" It de-mystifies a prevalent fear. How often have you avoided doing something important to you? Something like a job interview or promotion, a first date, saying a few words at a PTA meeting, or bringing up an issue with your boss, all because of the anticipation of discomfort? How often do you feel the need to "act" like someone else in order to meet expectations? And having done that, how often have you left that situation thinking, "Who was that?" This book offers a well-tested technology that directs you through the self-imposed blocks to being present, fully connected and powerful. It offers turning points that open the door leading back to your authentic self. Being present and authentic whenever you choose is an elemental right. This technology provides the mechanism for achieving that. This work is the result of a 30 year journey that changed my life; and if you're anything like my clients, it is capable of changing yours. It's not about practice. It's about awareness, courage and willingness. It doesn't take months or even days...it can happen instantaneously. You don't have to be a mystery.
About the Author: My name is Jeri Lynn Burgdorf. I am a presence coach and consultant. With the start-up of my communications company 30 years ago, I taught clients to use the same "delivery" skills I had used earlier in radio and television careers. These, I reasoned, surely led to my natural abilities in the broadcast arena. I was wrong. Early in the life of my little company - my clients, now using their newly learned delivery skills, were doing far worse than before. Their high-level skills seemed to be making them plastic and fake. And that realization suddenly brought my coaching to a halt. I came face to face with the shocking truth that whatever natural abilities I had weren't the result of those delivery skills and techniques. It was something else. And I made a promise that either I would find what was missing or I would stop coaching. Once I knew what it wasn't, I was on the trail of what it was. And eventually I discovered that it was all about being natural, being real, or in other words, being present. And now, so many years later I'm still discovering and honing this Technology of Authentic Presence. It's surprising the way in which I realized this is my life's work. One day I was drinking a cup of coffee and staring at a list of what I offered my clients - things like, persuasion and "people building" and facilitation skills; and I was shocked to realize that while everything I taught was called something else, the core of it was all the same thing. I was teaching people how to be present. Presence is the thing I know, from the bottom of my feet to the bottom of my soul; and whatever else I called it, my message was and is always about presence. And now I know that is because presence lives somewhere inside me, just as it does in you.