The Seattle based KKNW radio program Chat with Women recently featured Landmark Education. LE spokesperson Deborah Beroset was interviewed, and Landmark Education graduate Karen Dannenberg spoke about how the Landmark Forum impacted her life and her business. A complete transcript appears below.
Rochelle: Welcome back. You’re listening to Chat With Women and I’m Rochelle.
Rochelle: And joining us now is Deborah Beroset who is the Director of Corporate Communications and Seminar Leader of Landmark Education. Good morning, Deborah.
Pam: Good morning.
Rochelle: Hah-hah! She’s perky too. Everybody’s perky today. I love this. So Deborah tell us, we want to know what is Landmark Education?
Deborah: Okay. Landmark Education, it’s an international training and development company and the company is committed to the fundamental principal that people have the possibility of success, fulfillment and greatness.
So we offer our core program, the Landmark Forum and over 50 other courses around the world in 24 countries, in more than 125 cities, and they’re basically designed to have people able to challenge their conventional perspectives in their decision-making patterns and give people new tools so that they can affect significant change and actually shift the very nature of what’s possible for them.
Rochelle: Well you know for me we know it’s – we’ve heard about this for many years that it’s a three-day program. It’s a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and if you look at your materials it says that it’s designed to bring about positive and permanent shifts in the quality of life.
So I want to know how to you accomplish that just in three days? That’s a lot to accomplish.
Deborah: It is a lot to accomplish. I mean I think it’s helpful to kind of give you a picture of what people can expect when they go in there. Right?
Rochelle: Yes, that would be great.
Deborah: Okay. Great. Well it’s basically – as you said it’s three days, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then a Tuesday evening everybody comes back together for the conclusion of the course and it’s a guided dialog basically between the instructor and the participants. It’s conducted in a casual environment. There’s generally – I don’t know – 75 to 250 people in a course and it’s basically as I said an opportunity for people to look at their decision-making patterns. Now the thing that has this so impactful is that this is not one of the seminars where you get all these tips and hints. Those have their place. That’s just not what this is.
In this program and our other programs it’s really designed to have people have an opportunity to look at really how they think and how there habitual ways of looking at themselves and life and others, and their relationships in their businesses tend to color not only their perception of how things have gone, but also what’s possible, and when you – when you have an opportunity to really look at how you operate as a human being in life, that is an extraordinary shift.
Rochelle: Okay. Well I’m curious, so I’m still thinking I’m walking in that door Friday.
Deborah: Great.
Rochelle: Give me an example of — (Laughing.) Well not really but give me an example of what would be – what would it be like at first? Give – you know I am so having a hard time imagining how – what – how are you going to get – what’s like a first question? What’s – how do you get people to get into – a lot of times we do and behave ways that we don’t even know that we’re doing –
Deborah: Sure.
Rochelle: — and we have these patterns that we think are just fine and so obviously you’re shaking that up in that three days but give me an example of a question that you ask of the participants.
Deborah: Well the great thing is once the program leader kicks off the conversation you’ll find that other participants are asking as many questions as the program leader. So people can be sitting there in the course and get the whole course out of just listening to interactions that the program leader is having with the people in the course.
But you know what happens is people will get up to share about something going on in their lives, something they’re dealing with in the midst of an inquiry in the course and suddenly you’ll be sitting there and a little light bulb will go off for you as you hear something that applies to your own life.
So let me just give you an example of one. You know when I first did the Landmark Forum back in 1998, the summer of 1998, I’m sitting there and it’s Friday and there is a fellow up front at the microphone and he’s talking about his relationship with his daughter and I am sitting there thinking okay, well, you know he really needs to kind of get it together and I’ve got all these opinions going through my mind and I’m thinking about how this guy is an emotionally distant father just like my dad was as I saw it at that time an emotionally distant dad, and all of the sudden the course leader made some comment about how we think of ourselves as open-minded and objective but in fact our approach to ourselves and circumstances and other people, it’s often filtered and sometimes even obscured by these pre-existing notions and ideas.
And all of the sudden I got that this guy talking about his daughter was absolutely a great dad. His daughter was probably just fine. It’s just that he had some pre-existing filters that he was listening to his daughter through. Well that’s all very well and good but in the next moment I was completely – it was like a cosmic two by four and I realized that I was viewing my father through some already existing filter that there was no way the guy could make it with me.
Everything he did was more evidence for my opinion of him and I called him on the next break and let him know what I had suddenly seen after thirty-some years and our relationship has been altered ever since. That’s the kind of thing that happens in the Landmark Forum.
Rochelle: Well speaking to that Deb, we want to bring on Karen Dannenberg of Karen Dannenberg Clothier. Good morning, Karen.
Karen: Good morning, ladies.
Rochelle: Because I believe you have a beautiful story to tell us what Landmark Education has done for you.
Karen: Well I did the forum way back when, some time in the mid-seventies and I believe it was the last year that Warner Erhard was with the company before he sold it to the employees, and the first day, 24 hours I did not speak and there’s just something about the listening in the room and as she was saying you can sit there and somebody else will be sharing something about their life and you start to – just feelings start to come up and the reality for me – sorry I get moved telling this story.
Rochelle: Oh Karen, well you know let me just interject. When we met Karen, we were at an event and really this is why this all came to be. Karen started sharing her story with us and again she was moved to tears, which brought Pam and I to the evolution of why we had to bring on Deb from Landmark Education.
If your life can be so moved and you can be thrusted into another dimension then it was very important for us to get this out to our listeners to see because look, we all carry baggage, we all carry things with us, and if you can while you’re here at this short moment of time change your life, that’s what Pam and I wanted to do, so that’s why we have these ladies joining us.
Karen: Well she was talking about her dad and this is what kept coming up for me. I was so not in a relationship with my father that I wasn’t even aware of it and it was just – I swear by Saturday morning I was just so shocked that I realized I had no relationship with my father and for a long time I made him wrong for so many things and anyway I called my dad and we had a great talk, and I told him I forgave him for a lot of things and I wanted to open up the doors to get in a relationship with him, and over the next few years he started to decline in health.
And I went back to Boston one year several times as he was getting sicker and sicker, and it got to the point where I had to ask his forgiveness to forgive me for not allowing him in my life, and when my dad died we were totally complete. We knew how much we loved each other and all the stuff I made up about my dad didn’t care, my dad didn’t love me was just not the reality. I knew that my dad loved me and no matter what happens happen but the truth is that my dad loved me and he was always there for me.
So I would say that’s the biggest gift of the forum in my life and how that changed my relationship with my dad and my family.
Rochelle: That’s very, very, very, very powerful because when we carry that kind of baggage because we feel unloved we cannot be successful in our lives. So Karen, from that you’ve created this fabulous –
Pam: Company.
Rochelle: — business. So tell us a little bit about how did Landmark help you in that arena?
Karen: Well I had continued to do courses and I actually moved to Seattle out of doing a course called the Advanced Course and moved here 12, 13 years ago, and I believe it was 1997 when I did a course called the ILP and it was the introduction to the forum leader program and it was a seven-month seminar on leadership, and little did I know it would alter my life forever but in the beginning of this course I spoke that I was going to do a store someday, and my girlfriend talked to me on the phone from Portland and she said, “Karen, when are you going to do your store? You’re getting old.”
Rochelle: (Laughing.)
Karen: And I was 47, 46 years old and I said you know, you’re right about that.
Rochelle: You’re not old.
Karen: During the course I spoke in the very beginning that I was going to do a store someday and what I realized in the training and the coaching from amazing people who volunteered for seven months to work with individuals and stand for what they were committed to and what their goals were, I didn’t even know what my goal was. I didn’t even know how to put it in place and the structure for fulfillment of the training on time frames and measurable results was something that is crucial in starting a business and I had no clue that I was going to open a store by the end of that course.
And when my financing didn’t come through I was backing out of my commitment and the coaches were so amazing. They never let me quit. They stood for me and they believed more in me than I believed in myself and in September, the end of that year, I opened my first store, a little small store, 400 square feet and outgrew that in a year, and I think it was – 2003 was the first year that we had a million dollars in business and my financing didn’t come through in the beginning but I charged my first store on a credit card and I bought a Numoir which is now in my living room and a beautiful leopard Charenautem which is in my store now and I did it on a prayer and a wish and a dream, and I never gave up and here it is 12 years later and we have a wonderful store and a great clientele, and I’m eternally grateful for the training and the support that I have from Landmark Education.
Pam: What a beautiful story.
Rochelle: Wow, that’s a beautiful testimony. Listen, we have more stories and we have more things to share but we’re going to take a quick break because we want to thank our sponsors too. So you’re listening to Chat With Women and we’ll be right back.
(Pause for break.)
Rochelle: Welcome back, you’re listening to Chat With Women. I’m Rochelle.
Pam: And I’m Pam.
Rochelle: And we are being moved this morning by two wonderful women. First we have Deb Beroset who is with Landmark Education and we also have Karen Dannenberg of Karen Dannenberg Clothier who is sharing with us her beautiful, beautiful story of how Landmark Education really changed her life.
But you know at break Karen you said something very important which is you know going to Landmark Education you really didn’t have an agenda or any expectations.
Karen: I had no expectation at all and a lot of people have shared with me about the forum and I said one of these days I’ll do it and I had met a gal who was in a seminar at the time and she shared her life with me and I went home one night and I just really thought about what she had talked about, and the next morning we met again and I handed her a credit card, and I said, “Would you register me in the forum?” and she started crying, and I said, “Why are you crying?” She said, “Nobody’s ever asked me to register them,” and she was in a course also at the time and we have been friends ever since and that day really did alter my life forever.
Rochelle: Deborah, I’ll bet you’ve got a lot of stories like Karen’s, don’t you?
Deborah: Oh, I was just listening to Karen and being inspired all over again, but one of the privileges and great things about my job is I’m in touch with people who have participated in this program all around the world, and in fact just recently there was an article that came out in a magazine in the UK called “The Apprentice” which is affiliated with their version of the show that we all know about here in the States.
Pam: Right.
Rochelle: Donald Trump’s, yes.
Pam: Yes.
Deborah: Yes, and there was one of the people who was profiled in an article called “The Keys To Success” about people who have done the Landmark Forum to benefit in terms of business. She shares in this article and she has also shared with me how her – she has a company called Designer Alterations in London and also another one called Total Wardrobe Care.
She’s got all these fashion editors and celebrities among her clients and she has shared that when she did the Landmark Forum she was thinking that – you know she was doing pretty well with her business but she was one of these people – I’m sure there’s one or two of us in the audience perhaps listening who think they need to or should do it all themselves basically, right?
Karen: Right.
Deborah: And she saw in the course that when things went wrong she blamed other people and she was getting to the point where she said she just didn’t want to be doing her business anymore, and it was just really an uphill battle for her and she said when she did the Landmark Forum she found herself more focused on her team, making sure people have what they need to do a great job, and this was a really key point for her that she was enabled to make requests for people to contribute in the areas where she wasn’t as strong.
So there’s that kind of thing that happens, you know, I’ve had tons of women entrepreneurs and women with careers talking about the risk-taking break-thrus that they have had, how many people – we look at successful people and we just assume that they are not afraid like we are.
Rochelle: Right.
Deborah: And successful people are afraid all the time.
Rochelle: Oh, absolutely.
Deborah: They just act anyway when it makes sense to do so, right?
Pam: Right.
Karen: Right.
Rochelle: Absolutely.
Deborah: So you know that’s another thing that a lot of women have shared with me and I think I heard some of that in what Karen was sharing that people, they recognized that some of the trepidation or just that sense of being stopped doesn’t actually have to stop us and in the programs you look to see what is in the way of you actually taking action and make commitments, make promises, make big promises and then fulfill on them.
Rochelle: Well you know I understand that you are obviously all over the world but in Seattle, in this vicinity you put these Landmark events on. So I think it’s important to let people know how often are they on here and how do they find out about these different courses and, you know, Karen I think you should be teaching a course actually.
Pam: Yeah.
Rochelle: Too bad you’re so busy but your passion and your – what you’re saying, you could sell this like it was like –
Pam: Right.
Rochelle: — you know so you really are a great success story. But I want to – so the listeners, where can they go and sign in?
Deborah: Sure, I’d love to tell you about that. In Seattle we offer a Landmark Forum about once a month, and in fact the next one is the July 18, 19, 20 and then the evening of the 22nd. The tuition is $495. That includes a scholarship to a follow-up 10-session seminar that takes place – you know it’s three-hour sessions one weeknight over the course of about three and a half months.
It’s designed to have you really deepen what you got in the weekend course and get great coaching in all areas of your life with the distinctions of the course. People can go to our website which is www.landmarkeducation.com and in fact on there not only can you register on-line, there is also an on-line video introduction so that people can get a really good look at what this is, and if you’d like I can give you the phone number for the center in Seattle so people can call.
Pam: Please do.
Rochelle: Absolutely.
Pam: Please do.
Rochelle: Absolutely.
Deborah: Okay, it’s area code 206-545-3730.
Pam: Great.
Rochelle: What I’d like to ask of you Karen is can you say to our listeners why should they call and beside the fact of what has happened to you in your business and your personal life, is there any last little statement you would like to make to listeners about how important this is?
Karen: Well I think if anybody is going through any transition in their life, maybe changing careers, looking to start a career, getting married, getting divorced, anything that might be coming up in their life or furthering their education, non-linear education, and expanding their mind in their fields, this would be an amazing opportunity for somebody to just go to a weekend and see what opens up for them.
And as I said you could sit there for three days and four nights and not say a word, and the way the course is taught things just come up in your life and by the time you leave that weekend, you know, my feeling is you are so committed to what you’re committed to and that light does go on and things just seem to alter.
Rochelle: I would think having the support of a lot of people that you have met at these workshops or seminars would be really important because one of the things that I think women need is we need a cavalry, you know, and to have positive people around us that are supportive that just like what happened to you Karen where they believed more in you than you believed in yourself. That’s pretty big.
Karen: Yeah, because I wasn’t going to do it. I didn’t have the money.
Rochelle: Right.
Karen: And if anybody said to me charge it on your credit card I would have said you’re crazy.
Pam: Right. (Laughing.)
Rochelle: Right.
Karen: And here we are 12 years later and it’s amazing that I’ve come this far out of creating something out of nothing.
Rochelle: We should give a little plug for Karen Dannenberg Clothier. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the greatest shop on First Avenue and the nice thing is you can always find something. It’s one of those stores that you can walk into and there’s always a piece there that you need, you just need, and the nice thing also is that Karen is there to assist you.
You might have a wedding to go to or a luncheon, or a bridal shower or something and you just don’t have the right outfit or the right accessory. Karen is there to help you and she has the right piece to make it all happen.
So ladies we want to thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Karen: Rochelle?
Rochelle: Yes.
Karen: May I just say where the store is?
Rochelle: I wish you would.
Karen: Okay. We are at 2232 First Avenue at Bell right next-door to the Flying Fish and our phone number here is 206-441-3442, and we are open Monday thru Saturday 11:00 to 6:00 and we will be open on Sundays starting in July through August. Private appointments are available and we specialize in a lot of travel wardrobes too as a lot of ladies go around the world and they need easy travel fabrics.
Pam: Wonderful.
Karen: Fabulous.
Rochelle: Well thank you again ladies and Deborah thank you from Landmark Education.
Deborah: Thank you so much for having us.
Rochelle: You’re so welcome. So we will see you ladies later.
Deborah: Thanks so much.
Karen: Thanks, bye-bye.
Rochelle: Bye. Hello now, tomorrow we have Joe Stuczynski and we’re excited. We’re going to announce a winner. We have a winner!
Pam: Winner, winner!
Rochelle: And we’ll be announcing that winner of his four-week coaching session and we have Trish Carpenter who is going to be talking to us about Overlake Service League. This is very important. And Barb Iverson of Remax Realty is coming in to talk about the real estate market. So you’ll want to stay tuned tomorrow. So listen everyone, have a great, great, great day. It’s going to be beautiful and dare to dream big.
Pam: And remember to live, love and laugh.
(Pause for music break.)
Pam: Hi, this is Chat With Women and I’m Pam.
Rochelle: And I’m Rochelle.
Pam: Now you’re probably wondering what’s Chat With Women and who is Pam and Rochelle?
