In May 2003, I met with a woman for a life coaching consultation in a caf in New Yorks West Village. She had a nasty case of writers block. I was about a year into my coaching career at that point and was continuously astounded at how good it felt to help people drill down on their stuff and get going on change.

This woman already had some suitors for the novel she had begun, called Bling, but she was frozen. That one-hour session clicked something into place for her. While I would never typically reveal even that much about a clients business, this one wrote me a website testimonial and so these facts were made public by her:

Two days after meeting with [Nancy], I broke through my three-month long bout of writers block, finished my novel a month later and scored a book and film deal six weeks after that. Publishing my book changed my entire life! I cant believe I was going to give up! And I shiver to think what would have happened if I hadnt had Nancy to put me back on the right track.

A beautiful expression of appreciation.

Last weekend I learned this woman, author Erica Kennedy, died at age 42. I am still stunned.

Her book went on to be a New York Times bestseller. I was proud to attend the launch party at Lotus in the then-emerging Meatpacking District. When Bling came out in paperback, the blurb from The Times on the back cover read, Kennedy is wry and funny, with the deadpan humor of a stand-up comic.

Once a publicist at Tommy Hilfiger, but not quite a fit in a corporate environment, she took her Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford education, combined it with her love of magazines and writing and wrote what The New Yorker called A gleeful satire of the hip-hop glitterati.

Imagine being only a year out of the life coaching gate and watching someone succeed on such a grand level because you listened, helped her see what was in front of her and yes reached her on a profound level. Whatever it was, whatever I said, whatever my energy conveyed across that caf table, witnessing the ensuing developments joyously unfold cemented my calling as a life coach.

I feel as if I am the one who owes a debt of gratitude to Erica Kennedy. Perhaps this is her testimonial.

In the years that followed we stayed in touch enough to know what the other was doing. For a while we attended the same church in Manhattan and so after service there was some real conversation over Jamba Juice and Murrays Bagels. We attended a Suze Orman book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square in 2008. The following year she published her second novel, Feminista, which author Rebecca Walker called smart, hilarious, and totally of the moment.

Excerpt from:
With Gratitude for 'Bling'