Author, Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want
This week, Ira spoke with Emmy Award winning producer Maria Baltazzi, author of Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want. In this happy episode of “Ira’s Everything Bagel,” Maria talks about her epiphany while acting as supervising producer of “Survivor”; her journey in self-reflection and exploring her own happiness; everyone’s untapped potential; why she looked at the chapters in her book as a series episode; why action is important; the benefits of journaling; how her book differs from other books on the subject; why she wanted to write a book relevant to her background; how pictures of one thing a day brought her joy; why she considers herself a happiness explorer; how the key to happiness is choice, followed by action; and why happiness can also be defined as resilience.
Maria Baltazzi has climbed the 15,000-foot trail (46 miles) to Machu Picchu, led African safaris, and summited Mt. Kilimanjaro twice among her other adventures. But it was a small television stage lit by tiki torches in the middle of the jungle in the South China Sea, that gave her pause. As supervising producer of CBS’s Survivor for seven seasons, one of the longest-running unscripted series on television, Maria had a front row seat to this bold new era of television filled with drama, tears, machinations, and revelations. While watching the contestants, she had her own epiphany.
Utilizing her own experience as a producer, she channeled her energies into building a healthier state of being for herself and had fun while doing it. Her creative use of her cell phone to chronicle her story, a natural idea for a heartfelt storyteller who made her living envisioning life in snapshots, and her extensive studying, led her to develop a unique viewpoint and path to peace and happiness.
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