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[#1]

It all started with pencil!

When I tell this story, nearly 29 years later, I still can't believe it happened to me!

I was working as a television host and producer in the fall of 1986.  I loved my job but it wasn't full time, and I had a car payment to make! Promises that the job would evolve to full time weren't coming true, so I decided to answer an ad in the newspaper for a host position on a new thing called QVC. It was a home shopping channel, and  even though I had never  seen shopping on TV,  I figured I'd go for it!   However, when friends in the TV business heard my decision they told me I was being ridiculous and I would never get a real job if I aligned myself with this new venture.

But, I needed a job! The day I was called to come for the audition dawned dreary and rainy. It matched my mood. I sat in my Mom's kitchen, starting to second guess my decision. For goodness sake I had never sold anything in my life! Why was I going to this audition??  My Mom replied, "Oh Janie, you are a natural born sales person, here, sell me this pencil!"

So I took the pencil and told her a pencil is a wonderful tool, because a child can get an A on a math test, and a lover can write a love letter, and an artist can draw a picture.....  And she said get in the car and go to the audition.

I drove out to West Chester, ran through the raindrops to a makeshift studio (since the studios were still under construction) and went into a small room with two guys and a camcorder.  The one gentleman said, "Now this is very simple. I just want you to sell me this pencil."

Whoa. We stared at each other for about a full minute, and then I launched into exactly what I said in my Mom's kitchen about one hour ago.  At the end he said, "This is where we usually say don't call us we'll call you but can you come back tomorrow??"

I was on the air two weeks later. I know that QVC and I were meant to be!!