Ship’s Log 05: Guided by the Stars with Yvonne Chotzen

“Each of us has a unique gift we came to give — our own zone of genius.”
- Yvonne Chotzen

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Project Candor, host Jeanne Andersen sits with Yvonne Chotzen, award-winning Hollywood TV movie producer, former federal public defender, and storytelling coach, to explore how narrative shapes lives, justice, and business success. Yvonne shares how childhood storytelling, high-stakes courtroom advocacy, and producing powerful true stories — including the Rosa Parks story — taught her how stories move people to action. She reveals how entrepreneurs can use Hollywood-style storytelling to communicate authentically, connect emotionally, and grow their impact without selling harder.

Guest’s Bio:
Yvonne Chotzen, award-winning Hollywood TV Movie Producer [The ROSA PARKS STORY] and https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnechotzenseasoned litigator, coaches entrepreneurs to unleash Hollywood-style storytelling, catapulting productivity and earnings to unprecedented 5X levels. Leveraging her background as an acclaimed Hollywood Television Movie Pro

Links:
LinkedIn: https://www/linkedin.com/in/yvonnechotzen
Email: yvonne@yvonnechotzen.com
Website: yvonnechotzen.com

Bust to Blockbuster with YVONNE CHOTZEN— Hollywood Producer and Attorney Yvonne Chotzen delivers the keys to the power of strategic storytelling. She has coached hundreds to infuse their speaking with a story as vivid as a Hollywood movie to gain unprecedented visibility and catapult their promotability up the corporate ladder. Your story well-told will captivate in meetings, inspire to action, and be the superpower that magnetizes your presence. Tell Your Story Like Hollywood and it will make you the star. yvonnechotzen.comBust to Blockbuster with YVONNE CHOTZEN

-Exclusive offer for first 9 signups (value $297) from YVONNE CHOTZEN

Tell Your Story Like A Hollywood Movie Success Call to Make Smash Hit Money! . https://calendly.com/yvonnechotzen/discovery

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Email: info@projectcandor.com

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Transcript

Jeanne: Welcome to Project Candor, where ordinary people share the most unexpected stories. I'm your host, Jeannie Anderson, and around here, we don't chase the highlight reel. We open the door to the real stuff.
The moments that change us, the turns that surprise us, and the stories you only hear when someone feels safe enough to share them. Every episode, we step into someone's world and discover what lives beneath the surface, beyond the job title, beyond the resume, beyond what you see on the outside. And today, we get to do that again with a guess whose story might just shift how you think about your own. Let's get started.
Our guest today is Yvonne Chotzen, an award-winning Hollywood TV movie producer best known for the Rosa Parks story ⁓ and a seasoned litigator with years of high-stake courtroom experience. Today, Yvonne coaches entrepreneurs to unlock Hollywood-style storytelling that can catapult productivity and earnings to unprecedented levels, sometimes ⁓ 5X and beyond.
She brings together her background as an acclaimed television movie producer and her legal expertise to help people tell stories that actually move audiences ⁓ and move the needle. Yvonne, welcome to Project Candor. Thank you for joining us.

Yvonne:
Thank you, Jeanne. I'm thrilled to be here.

Jeanne: 
I'm so happy to see you and get the time to talk to you since I've known you for what over a year now maybe. ⁓ It's fantastic to see you here. ⁓ Let's get started. I got interview questions for you that I really want to dig at what you're currently doing if you don't mind.

Yvonne:
Go for it.

Jeanne: 
Good. Your work, let's start with that. Your work turned real lives into Hollywood level stories. What's the moment in your life that first taught you the power of narrative?

Yvonne:
Well, I don't know how far back you want to go, but as the eldest of eight brothers and sisters, I grew up with a father who told bedtime stories every night. ⁓ And when our family of eight brothers and sisters grew to about four, he turned to me as the eldest and said, Vani, that was my nickname for Yvonne, it's your job.
to use the bedtime stories to get your younger siblings to bed. And I don't know how many of you have ⁓ ever tried to wrangle little kids to sleep at night, but I came up with a strategy that was my first training ground for storytelling. So I would go, ⁓ story time, brush your teeth, the first person.
sit on the bed next to me and everybody was like right around the house and get their toothbrush and there was great excitement. The story starting, the story starting and it would have to be a story that started very, very high energy, very excited. But as the story went on, of course, the purpose was to put all the little ones to sleep. ⁓ It would get slower and slower.
and the little piggy who is the hero of the story would lie down and take a nap. You get where I'm going. So that by the end of the story, they were all almost asleep or asleep. So that was my first training ground. And that led into, we were a big family in a diverse community and the kids wanted to make money. And so we got a big cardboard refrigerator box, cut it open with a big hole.

Jeanne: 
Yes. ⁓

Yvonne:
painted it up with wild colors ⁓ and put flyers all over the neighborhood. within weeks, ⁓ we had a booming puppet ⁓ show birthday party. ⁓

Jeanne: 
⁓ wow. I don't think you've ever told me that. ⁓ Or if you did, I forgot. That's funny. You know, the first story you started with sounded like you were in the Sound of Music and you were the Von Trapp family. ⁓ But the puppet story is phenomenal. I love it.

Yvonne:
⁓ God. ⁓
Yeah, it was really fun and the kids loved it because of course kids love birthday parties. They got to have cake three times in one weekend sometimes and ⁓ they made money. ⁓ So that was the early training ground.

Jeanne: 
Hahaha.

Jeanne: 
Yeah, and come to think of it, the Sound of Music, had the Marionette show. my gosh. ⁓ You were totally in there. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ Yeah.
⁓ We didn't sing as well as them, but our puppet shows were great. ⁓ We made them everything ourselves. We got burned out light bulbs, which we, think sometimes my siblings unscrewed some light bulbs before they weren't quite ⁓ the chagrin of my parents. And we paper mache them, know, strips of newspaper and a glue made out of flour and water. And then we painted them up and...

Jeanne: 
Who made your puppets?

Yvonne:
you know, put our little hands in them through the holes. ⁓ It was quite fun. And that experience led, ⁓ I actually was in a diverse community as well in college. And I thought, you know, there's kids everywhere. I put out flowers, flyers, I did it again. And I was charging $400 a birthday party ⁓ and I couldn't like fulfill.

Yvonne:
All the requests for entertainment that I had, ⁓ that was in Bronxville.

Jeanne: 
That sounds so ingenious at your age. Oh my gosh. $400 for a birthday party. How old were you?

Yvonne:
⁓ Well, at that point I was in college and so what I was saying is I continued because I was in an upscale neighborhood. ⁓ I continued the strategy. By then I had a ⁓ well-designed portable stage that collapsed and was very light. But I would go to these mansions in the area of upstate New York where I was and I would

Jeanne: 
okay, I missed that.

Yvonne:
put on these puppet shows and tell stories and ⁓ lead treasure hunts. And ⁓ it was ⁓ lots of fun to be doing that on the weekends too. It was an irregular job, but the first time I got to really see the monetizing power of story. ⁓

Jeanne: 
⁓ Yes. See, my mom told me once that she thought because I was always happy and funny and doing crazy things that I should do birthday parties and be a clown. Well, that was a no. I was not going to dress up like a clown. I wish I'd known you. ⁓ You could have told me how to do it. ⁓ Puppet shows would exactly, puppet shows would have been better. ⁓ So that was when you knew that ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ We could have done it together.

Yvonne:
⁓ And so.

Jeanne: 
Yeah, I mean, I can see how that would give you the dynamics of the power of narrative, ⁓ what you can do with a story. That's just amazing. So question number two, let's move on to that one, because this one is good. And I know you got a lot of good info. ⁓ As a producer of the Rosa Parks story, ⁓ you had a front row seat to history through storytelling. What did the project teach you about courage, truth?

Yvonne:
Yeah.

Jeanne: 
our quiet strength that still shapes you today.

Yvonne:
Wow, that's such a great question. it's ⁓ the whole journey to being blessed to be selected as the producer for the Rosa Parks story in itself could fill this whole podcast because at that point ⁓ I was a complete unknown and Mrs. Parks and her team had decided to have her movie, her life story made at the end of her life.

Jeanne: 
You

Yvonne:
And I was already in Hollywood ⁓ and I just couldn't get the time of day. I had had one big hit ⁓ based on one of my crime stories from being a federal public defender. But as Bette Midler says, you're only as good as your last three minutes. ⁓ The moment had come where, you know, secretaries didn't...

Jeanne: 
Yeah

Yvonne:
let their boss return my calls. I couldn't get on lots. I was really desperate. ⁓ And then I saw in variety ⁓ the news publication, like Hollywood Reporter, I think they placed it in both actually, ⁓ that she was looking for the producing team to make her story. And I remembered when I was growing up in the inner city, Seattle neighborhood where we lived. that Mrs. Kelly, who was our fourth grade teacher, had put on the bulletin board a picture of the young Mrs. Parks ⁓ with her hair pulled back in a bun and underneath the word courage. And it was up there my whole fourth grade year on the bulletin board. And she told us the story of how this...dignified woman came out of Montgomery Fair Department store ⁓ in 1952 on a windy blustery night ⁓ and clambered aboard bus number 56, which was her bus, and sat down where people of color were allowed to sit. They could sit in the back, but they were allowed to sit in the center section of the bus ⁓ if there were seats available. ⁓ So Mrs. Parks, sat there. ⁓ She had her little handbag and she ⁓ was sitting looking straight ahead when suddenly at the next stop ⁓ many people clambered onto the bus ⁓ and Jeannie there was no more room and a hulking white gentleman in a wet raincoat stood over her and said are you gonna get up and she just looked straight ahead.

Jeanne: 
Hmm.

Yvonne:
And he went to the front and summoned Mr. Bates, the bus driver who stood over her and yelled the same thing. Are you going to give up your seat lady? You know the law in Montgomery, Alabama here. She said four words, which changed the course of history. Quiet, dignified. No, ⁓ I will not. And that ignited.
what we know today as the civil rights movement because the police were called. ⁓ Mrs. Parks was taken off the bus, handcuffed, ⁓ driven to the Montgomery police station where she was given a mugshot, put in a cell with two prostitutes who were there and had been arrested ⁓ and held. And this ⁓ indignity ⁓ outraged. the black community because she was one of the most upright citizens and ignited, ⁓ as we know, the boycott of the Montgomery bus system, which went on for 166 days ⁓ and brought the bus system to a halt because the only people, the majority of people who rode the buses ⁓ were African-American and the bus system ⁓ was going under. ⁓ So that is... ⁓that when you ask about courage ⁓ is, ⁓ mean, thought, I remembered that story as a little kid and I thought about it so often. ⁓ And so I wrote it in a letter to her and I got that letter to her, basically just told that story in my letter. Well, I got one of the calls to have an interview with her. And when I arrived at the lot, and my beat up powder blue ⁓ Vogue swag. ⁓ I was like, ⁓ on all sides of me were these huge black limousines like Laura Mar and Warner Brothers were there. Warner Brothers was putting up a 60 foot screen to show their latest Batman to her and her team. I just thought, I don't have a chance. I was so nervous and I walked in.

Jeanne: 
⁓
⁓ intimidating for sure.

Yvonne:
⁓ And I was ⁓ initially, I was one of the first people they said yes to apparently, because I was given a 30 minute slot. ⁓ And they said, we're sorry, Miss Chotzen. And my heart just like fell. I thought they're going to cancel me. And they said, ⁓ you only have seven minutes. And my heart was just pounding when they issued me in and Jeannie there she was right across the table. the same iconic bun except instead of being black like it was in the picture on the bulletin board in fourth grade, it was now ⁓ silver white. She said, dearie, why should we give you ⁓ this huge responsibility as a new and a young ⁓ movie producer? And I was just so ⁓ over, I was like completely overcome. I mean, even now.

Jeanne: 
Mm-hmm.

Yvonne:
⁓ When I remember that moment, I just like get choked up because here's this iconic woman, ⁓ you know, on the level of a Mother Teresa, like just feet away from me across the table. ⁓ And I was just getting all teary ⁓ and when I saw my story on her table, I just thought, Mrs. Parks, if you give me the opportunity to make your story, ⁓ I will get it in every library across the land and for the rest of my life, ⁓ anytime I'm asked, I will speak to children and tell your story. ⁓ I just like by then tears were running down my face and they ushered me out. ⁓

Jeanne: 
You're almost making me cry. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ And I got a call and it starred Angela Bassett and Cicely Tyson and ⁓ the rest is history. Mean, my phone rang constantly off the hook. was a huge hit. It won the NAACP Family Movie of the Year award. mean, ⁓ talk about beginner's luck and it's in every library today. ⁓

Jeanne: 
You're not a beginner. You are the stage and screen producer of puppet shows. ⁓ You had it in you. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ That's true thank you for the reminder. ⁓
⁓ I'm sure that was a training ground. I said, children are the most difficult audience to keep, you know, attentive. So it was great training. ⁓ And there was one. ⁓

Jeanne: 
Yes.
I'm not being, I'm not minimalizing this at all. I'm just saying you can't cut yourself short. You were preparing for this for a long time. ⁓ It's a wonderful movie. I've seen that movie. I think it's a wonderful movie. I'm so proud to know you and don't make me cry. It's supposed to be my show. Well, that is fantastic to hear. I want to keep going though. I want to keep asking you so much stuff. So.

Yvonne:
Well, ⁓ yeah.

Jeanne: 
I will put a mark down that one day we need to just have a show just about that because there's just so much to talk there. But another question would be, you ⁓ basically you've been a litigator. You said you were a federal ⁓ defense attorney ⁓ and ⁓ a world that's just a breeding ground of stories. I think it's a world where storytelling has very real consequences.

Yvonne:
Mm-hmm.

Jeanne: 
So how did the courtroom sharpen the storytelling methods you now teach entrepreneurs?

Yvonne:
That is just a great question, Jeanne, because picture this, the way a defense attorney office works, at least the federal public defender's office in Honolulu, Hawaii, where I was the lead, ⁓ I was called first assistant attorney, is you never know when an arrest is going to happen. And so you're sitting there, you know, quietly doing your legal research and then boom, Chotson, get down to the lockup. There's a murder case. And you go, oh, we should start running. it was like, because there's always that question, you know, that I think we all have imposter syndrome. Oh, no, am I going to be able to handle this? You never know what you're going to.

Jeanne: 
You
A murderer? ⁓ No, I couldn't. ⁓

Yvonne:
So ⁓ I run down there, it's in the ⁓ basement of the federal building, and I go into this small interview room and the US Marshals say ⁓ they want her in a few minutes. And that's what happens. You have a few minutes with the person who's arrested to find their story. Because picture this, you're in the courtroom, the US Marshals bring your client in, you go in with your briefcase, you sit at a defense table. But the first thing that happens is a prosecutor stands up ⁓ and no matter ⁓ how small or large the case is, inevitably the prosecutor says, ⁓ bail. So you, in those few minutes you have ⁓ before you go into the courtroom, have to quickly extract the essence of the person's humanity. Because if you don't,
If you aren't able to convince that magistrate, that jury, ⁓ that judge to take a chance on this person who somehow terribly screwed up their life and is sitting next to you, they will appear when trial starts in an orange jumpsuit, ⁓ leg irons that have to be unlocked in front of the jury, and often handcuffs. Now compare that start of a trial to somebody who's sitting next to you beautifully coiffed, ⁓ or if it's a guy in a nice suit jacket looking like not only a regular person, but someone you might see in church. ⁓ Right there, those two non-verbal statements ⁓ all are determined based on the story that you can tell in those first moments to see if you can get your client bail. ⁓ So talk about a training ground.
or the stakes to somebody's freedom, or maybe the whole trajectory of their life can be swayed. That's a training gown for storytelling, for narrative that moves and touches people deeply, ⁓ that compares to none other. ⁓ And it was so stressful because I knew I had to quickly find out ⁓ what is it about this person that would make that jury feel like, ⁓

Yvonne:
That could be my auntie ⁓ or that could be my brother's kid who's kind of acts out or do you see where I'm going?

Jeanne: 
Right, exactly. Right. Well, and I do know that while you were sitting in Honolulu, I was over in Pearl Harbor. ⁓ That always amazes me to know that I meet you all this time from ⁓ when I was in the U.S. Navy. You were doing ⁓ defense for federal defense attorneys and actually are ⁓ on the same person. ⁓ I was reading reports for the captain.

Yvonne:
On the same earth. Yeah.

Jeanne: 
you know, to tell them what was going on. And since that was a civilian case at that point, the other part of it was the Marine case. And then, yeah, so I had to keep up with the newspapers. I had no idea years later on, meet you. ⁓ That's amazing. ⁓ Well, let's go ahead. got another one. ⁓ When you, ⁓ let's see, there's so many I could think of to say, ⁓ you help, ⁓ founder, you help founders 5x their results through Hollywood style narrative. So I'm when I think about that, it's any business owner, it's, you know, it's not just a Hollywood, somebody trying to write a script or a writer, it's any type of person. So what's the biggest storytelling mistake business owners make in trying to communicate their value?

Yvonne:
⁓ I think the biggest mistake ⁓ all ⁓ and the majority of business owners make is they don't realize the magnetic, transcendent power of story. They probably don't use stories or don't use them enough or they don't think they have a story, ⁓ but everyone has a story and every business has a story. ⁓ And it's not just telling a story. It's telling the signature story of your program or your product that plants in people that desire to buy. ⁓ just authentically communicates ⁓ who you are as a person and what, you you may be selling widgets or ⁓ HVAC or ⁓ raising great Danes. It doesn't matter if you can communicate your personal passion.
around your work, it connects on such a powerful level that you never have to sell. You don't. The story is that connectivity.

Jeanne: 
That's a fantastic answer because I don't like to do business with people unless I can see that they're human and not robotic. ⁓ And I know a lot of people just, they are selling to me and sometimes it's high pressure, but sometimes it makes no sense. Why are you coming to me to sell this to me? I'm not even the right client for you. So yeah, I think ⁓ your program is...

Yvonne:
Thank you.

Jeanne: 
is very beneficial and very necessary if you want to achieve good success as a business owner or in any walk of life. But that's maybe because I took one of your classes and I know how fantastic you are. ⁓ So ⁓ can you tell ⁓ us a moment when a client finally got it? ⁓ When their story snapped into place and everything changed for them?

Yvonne:
⁓ Thank you.
Well, the moment that opened the door to Hollywood was probably a moment like that, even though the person didn't walk away free. And that's the case that I first referenced, which is I go down to the lockup and there's this woman, big hair, ⁓ big breasts out to here, and she was furious. She was just enraged.
And she said, not only did they haul me across the country, ⁓ but they took away my baby daughter. And she was mumbling and she was yelling. I didn't know what the circumstances were or what had happened. ⁓ And that case ⁓ turned out to be a triangle love affair with a murder and a child kidnapping. And again, the details of it. would fill a whole podcast, but briefly what had happened was Kathy was a Marine wife on Kaneohe Air Corps Marine Station and her husband Chris was sent to sea for months and months and months. ⁓ And she foolishly fell into a love affair with his best friend. ⁓ And they were in bed together in her barracks apartment. ⁓base housing, were in base house. ⁓ When Chris was flown back with a stomach ailment, ⁓ walked in to surprise her and found her in bed with his best friend. A terrible fight ensued ⁓ and sadly, Chris was killed. He was murdered right there in the fight with a knife from their kitchen. ⁓ And Kathy's mother-in-law, Chris's mother, Mary Brown, who lived in a small town in Alabama,

Jeanne: 
Mm-hmm.

Yvonne:
was very wealthy and powerful. ⁓ And she literally, you know, charges drawn up against Kathy ⁓ so that she was ⁓ labeled an unfit mother. ⁓ She lost all access to her daughter. ⁓ Little Christy had been away ⁓ at the base, barrack daycare at the time, thank goodness. ⁓
But Kathy was desperate to see her. Little Christy was only four years old when the murder happened. ⁓ And Kathy had gone back to the small town where her daughter had been taken to ⁓ many times, tried to knock on the door, seek legal ⁓ assistance. No way. In fact, the Brown family put up a barbed wire barrier around their house. ⁓ There was no way Kathy had access. ⁓ But if you know anything about the South...There's one day in the year where the whole town turns out the 4th of July. Kathy banked on that. Even though she was blonde, she put on a black wig, her sister did the same thing, and with their boyfriend, who kept a car running in the bushes, ⁓ they waited. And sure enough, ⁓ little Christy, who is now almost six,

Jeanne: 
Mm.

Yvonne:
went running out into the field chasing a ball ⁓ after they'd been lying in wait for about three hours. ⁓ And Kathy ran out into that field and she grabbed her little girl and she said, baby, ⁓ mama's missed you so much. And she hugged her girl and she took Christie and they raced to the car and that instituted a five state chase. ⁓ Well, if you cross state lines, it becomes a federal case.

Jeanne: 
Hmm.

Yvonne:
and the FBI became involved and chased her and chased her. ⁓ She managed to hide out for several months. ⁓ Mary Brown put up posters that appeared in every woman's shelter. ⁓ And sure enough, one night in a raging storm, Kathy trundled into one of those shelters with little Christy. They were soaking wet and they were greeted. They were given food and shelter.
But what they didn't know is that the room they were put into for the night was locked from the outside. And when she woke in the morning, the FBI were waiting for her. Christie was returned to her grandmother, Mary Brown, and Kathy was extradited across the country and the ocean. And that's how I came and contact her with her on that morning.

Jeanne: 
Hmm.

Yvonne:
in the Honolulu courthouse. ⁓ But feeling was so intense. You know, it's like the ⁓ whole Marine Corps turned out ⁓ that the judge decided to the case to Los Angeles because you see in federal court, you can appear before any federal judge in your system and Honolulu, Hawaii ⁓ is in the same jurisdiction as Hawaii and some of the other West Coast states, California.
I believe Idaho, in any case, there I was on a Wednesday morning, having just gotten off a plane to go meet her and defend her. I remember it was a rainy Wednesday morning and we're sitting at defense table. She had been brought on the same plane, but was in the back with two marshals sitting on each side of her. Usually the public doesn't know when somebody's being accompanied by guards and that's how they did it.
But people were pouring into the courtroom. I couldn't figure it out. ⁓ Nothing like I'd ever seen in small town Honolulu. ⁓ So I took my legal pad and I wrote a note to the prosecutor and I said, ⁓ who are all these people pouring in What's going on? And he whispered to me because the judge was about to come in. They're all Hollywood producers. have no life rights with your client.

Jeanne: 
haha
Hahaha

Yvonne Chotzen (30:16.590)
And then I thought, oh my goodness, this could be the moment I've been waiting for. Cause you see at that point, I'd been defending the indigent for over a decade and I was longing to tell stories bigger than a jury of 12 to just a larger audience. So I jumped up right when the judge came in and I said, your honor recess, recess. need to speak with my client, it's urgent.

Jeanne: 
⁓ Hahaha

Yvonne:
We ran down to the lockup ⁓ and in the room that the marshals had put Kathy was a bare table, ⁓ one chair she was sitting on, and two things, a bright red apple and a white napkin. And I said, Kathy, ⁓ these producers are circling like vultures. ⁓ They want your life rights. What do you want to do? And she reached.
across and took the only thing I had had the presence of mind to bring with me, which was a pen, grabbed that pen, ⁓ took that white napkin and wrote, Yvonne Chotzen is my executive producer and I still get chills when I think of ⁓ it. I looked at that napkin and I looked at her like, what do you mean? And she said, ⁓ my little girl.

Jeanne: 
don't know why.

Yvonne:
is never going to get access to me until she's 18. And she's getting messages of hate. I never tried to have her father hurt, ⁓ but she'll never know that because she's growing up with a grandmother that hates me. She said, get all the money you can for my baby ⁓ as my life rights. Have it go to her. And that's what I did the next day. I was pitching at NBC. ⁓ picked one, it was three days later. ⁓ I picked somebody ⁓ that ⁓ seemed like the most successful. ⁓ And I walked into the room at NBC where you pitch movies and I had never done that before, of course. And I was nervous, am I gonna be the right person to produce for her? ⁓ And all the executives, ⁓ they were wearing like... $300 Gucci t-shirts, black jeans, black t-shirts, black sherry things, was black. And I was like, ⁓ I was in my Honolulu bright clothes, because everyone was there with flowers. ⁓ And I felt so out of place. And I thought, ⁓ you know, it's like anytime you like do something that has great moment, moment, you know, importance, momentousness for somebody else.

Jeanne: 
Hahaha ⁓

Yvonne:
You feel that burden. ⁓ And then I remembered, ⁓ I've argued for people's freedom ⁓ for a decade. If ⁓ I mess up here or they say no, nobody goes to prison for the rest of their life or worse, some people were facing the death penalty that had been my clients. Can you imagine the pressure of that ⁓ on young attorneys? ⁓ But I didn't mess up.
Not only did they say yes, ⁓ but it became more than a two hour, it became a four hour mini series starring Martin Sheen ⁓ and Patty Duke ⁓ that broke NBC's eight year record of the most watched mini series in all that time. And my phone never stopped ringing off the hook. ⁓

Jeanne: 
⁓ I remember you telling me about the movie and I found it. So for those listening, ⁓ I found it on YouTube. It comes in two parts. It is very good, but if you like Patty Do by the end of that movie, you will not ⁓ like her anymore. ⁓ She's a very good actress because she convinced me that I really did not like her. Her character, I have to say her character because she's been in a lot of great things.

Yvonne:
You read it. You watched it.
Yeah.
Well, then you did a good job because Mary Brown was the antagonist in that story. So yeah, she did her job as an actress, but it's called Matter of Justice. Yeah. And it's in the public domain. Anyone can see it for free. ⁓ So check it out.

Jeanne: 
She did.
It's on YouTube for sure. Just check it out. Yeah, it's a good movie. It'll tell you a lot about Yvonne. ⁓ Yvonne, so we gotta ⁓ flip the script here. ⁓ This has been such a joy having you here, but ⁓ I think talking with you is always time well spent, but we need to move on to my favorite part of Project Candor. ⁓ So what we're going to do now is go to, it's time for... ⁓

Yvonne:
you

Jeanne: 
The three story headlines, our ⁓ guest has provided three headlines of stories, personal stories, ⁓ that two are true and one is a lie. So we're gonna read off ⁓ her stories and then I'm gonna guess which one is the lie. ⁓ There is one in there, it was hard because yours are so robust and wonderful and rich in details, but ⁓ There is one with a Yvonne twist that makes me think it might be a little too perfect ⁓ But I'm gonna read them out loud I'm gonna share my screen so give me one second to do that and so those watching can see it But then I'll read it out for anybody just listening it. Don't tell me yet. What is the lie?
Alright, so do you see my screen, Yvonne? ⁓ Okay. ⁓

Yvonne:
I do. I love this. makes your podcast unique in the world. This is so much fun. And everybody that I'm sending to you, I'm telling them, you gotta get on this podcast. It's so much fun.

Jeanne: 
⁓ Thank you.

Jeanne: 
⁓ Yay! ⁓ Well, ⁓ you're in the ship's log now. And if you see my logo, it could be happy story, sad story, but the blushing winker is definitely the lie. ⁓ But we'll get to the real truth of this, or I'll make you walk the plank. Yeah, ⁓ all that comes from my ex-Navy career, so... ⁓
I can't help myself and I live down here in sunny beautiful St. Augustine, Florida. So yeah, the water is my is my bag. So to say so Yvonne, let me read these out. Hiking in Mount Rainier National Forest, Yvonne and her nine pound Chihuahua came face to face with a 180 pound grizzly bear to make him leave. She sang.
And you're gonna have to pronounce that. How do you say? Shama?

Yvonne:
Ma Yisroel Adonai Eloheinu ⁓ Adonai Ehad ⁓ That's a call for ⁓ God to come and save you in the Hebrew language.

Jeanne: 
⁓ So you sang that at the top of your lungs and you said it's a Jewish prayer that thanks to divine for life. I think I would be thinking for my life at that point too. ⁓ That's going to be a fun story to hear. And then number two on the quest ⁓ to visit 15 of the world's holy spots. Yvonne crashed the Vatican to receive a papal blessing from Pope John Paul II.

Yvonne:
⁓ Right.

Jeanne: 
14 months later, her son Aaron was born. ⁓ I'm not sure about that one. And you said you skipped a line in front of people that have been waiting five years to see the Pope. That's funny. So we'll get to that story. Number three, ⁓ Ginger, the family's Russian blue cat, became an unexpected hero, single-handedly lunging at an intruder and saving Yvonne's family, who later joked that Ginger was the smartest one in the family.

Yvonne:
Right.

Jeanne: 
or in the house. So I'm going to guess that the one that's incorrect ⁓ is number three. But I don't know. But let's hear from you. So what do you have to tell us about these stories, Yvonne?

Yvonne:
Well, do you want me to give you the answer or tell you a little bit? Tell the stories. Okay.

Jeanne: 
No, no, no, tell the stories. You have to, yeah, you're gonna have to own up to your lie one too. Just keep telling the story. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ So ⁓ the hiking story with my dog is true ⁓ and the bear. ⁓ I'm sorry. You wanted you want me to just. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so I was hiking ⁓ with my dog and ⁓ I'm an avid hiker. And, you know, the rule is don't hike alone. And I've always considered.

Jeanne: 
Don't tell us yet. ⁓ No, no, no, just tell the story because I've just given you the headlines. ⁓

Yvonne:
hiking with an animal who, as you know, has extrasensory perceptions over a human is the way to do it. ⁓ But in this case, it was my little chihuahua. And yeah, we came around a bend and there was this huge grizzly bear and it was just terrifying. ⁓ my twin daughters had been recently preparing for their bar mitzvah, ⁓ which is like...that equivalent of confirmation in almost every religion when they turned 13. ⁓ And I had heard that prayer over and over and over and over as they were practicing and it just came out of me. It wasn't anything that I anticipated. I just started belting it out. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know where that ⁓ inspiration came from and the bear trotted off.

Jeanne: 
Don't the daughters do bot mitzvah?

Yvonne:
It is a bat mitzvah, you're correct. That's perfect correction. It's a bar for boys, bat for girls. And then if you're a girl-boy twin, it's bene. And I only know that because I have a twin. Yeah. So we did ours together and it was a bene mitzvah. But yeah, that's a little bit of... That's almost all the Hebrew I know.

Jeanne: 
Okay.
I didn't know that.

⁓ Well that would have been like if ⁓ you hadn't already told us that one was true then when you said bar mitzvah I would have said hmm something's up there but anyway ⁓ so ⁓ that I can't even imagine so I guess the Lord helped you through that one or your singing was so bad ⁓

Yvonne:
If ⁓
⁓ That's very likely what it was. ⁓

Jeanne: 
⁓ I just don't know if it was bad enough to deter a hungry bear, but maybe he had just eaten somebody down the other trail. I don't know. That scared me. What did your chihuahua do? ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ Thank
My chihuahua was growling and I was afraid he was going to attack and the fur on his back was like straight up like I'd never seen and he was literally I thought if he if he tries to attack and it because this this dog had no idea that he was like 11 pounds. He thought he was you know huge and he often was very aggressive with big dogs and so I was very nervous that he would leap and attack.

Jeanne: 
Huh.
jump from your hands. Yeah. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ Yeah, ⁓ I grabbed him and put him in my arms and I thought, my goodness, it's like if I let him go and he attacks, we're going to have ⁓ a bloodbath here. So I was as scared for him as I was for myself. But I had heard that you're not supposed to run, that you're supposed to stand your ground ⁓ and look big as you can and stare them in the eyes. Anyway, the song just like came out of me. ⁓

Jeanne: 
That is so funny that it just came out. ⁓ I would have not have known what to do because I have family in Alaska and I know they carry guns in Alaska just because bears will come into the town. And my ⁓ sister-in-law had been going to church ⁓ and somehow the door she was going to go into was locked ⁓ and ⁓ somebody
just ran a truck up onto the grass ⁓ and started yelling and ⁓ she turned around to find a bear right behind her. ⁓ And fortunately that truck ⁓ got in between her and the bear ⁓ and she and her daughter were able to run around to another door, but she broke her leg and ⁓ my gosh, these bears are super dangerous. I mean, they attack all over the place. I told her, you know,

Yvonne:
my gosh.
Especially in Middle East.

Jeanne: 
I do not want to live in Alaska. I don't want to carry that gun and I don't want to shoot a bear and I don't want to see one. Okay, number two. Now think when I typed this up to get it on the screen, I missed the part that you were visiting these places because you were trying to be pregnant. So that's why you got all these blessings and from different places. Tell us all the places you went.

Yvonne:
or jump in the face of the bear. ⁓

Yvonne:
Yeah, we tried for years to get pregnant. First we thought the problem was with me and then it turned out the problem was with my husband. Years had gone by, we tried in vitro, we were just desperate. And I was desperate. I remember the day, it's like as the eldest of eight kids, and I already told you I did tons of childcare for years.

Jeanne: 
Right.

Yvonne:
I had absolutely no interest in babies. Don't show me a baby. They smell like dirty. All those images from being a kid who had to do all that childcare. ⁓ And one day I was already a producer and my husband and I used to take this shortcut in Hollywood through the Cinerama Dome Theater, which was a shortcut ⁓ through a little shopping center that had a department store. And we we, ⁓

Jeanne: 
haha

Yvonne:
always would park there because it was the fastest way to get into the theater, which was a very famous old theater, which sadly has been taken down. ⁓ But anyway, we were rushing through the department store and all of a sudden I came to this rack that had baby clothes on it and I stopped. I'm like putting this little frilly, frou-frou tutu up to my face. I remember still today it was like pink, it was fluffy, even I imagined a baby in it. And I just filled up with tears and my husband came back and said, we're going to be late for the movie. What are you doing? And I just said, I want to have a baby. I need to have a baby. And this is after I was the theater, I mean, right in the department store and, and

Jeanne: 
Mmm.
right in the movie. ⁓
⁓ the barbers' door, that's even worse. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ I hung up the little dress and we made it to the movie ⁓ and after the movie, which was, don't even remember, he said, now what was that all about? And so we walked back and the same like overwhelming urge came to me again. And that was the moment that I went on my quest as an older mom to bring through this angel that I felt like was like calling me to come through. And ⁓ we had our struggles ⁓ and there we were. And so I thought, I'm going to take a pilgrimage because, ⁓ you know, we tried every, we also tried adoption. We got turned down three times. I mean, each of those stories is so dramatic. ⁓ Anyway, there I was. And ⁓ I thought I'm going to go to all the holy fertility spots of the world on this pilgrimage. If nothing else, I'll have a book to write. And so. ⁓

Jeanne: 
I'm

Yvonne: We went to these beautiful places. I hiked up Mauna Loa, which is the highest mountain in Hawaii, if you count from the base of the ocean, made an offering.

Jeanne: 
Did you throw a virgin over the edge? mean... ⁓

Yvonne:
I didn't throw a virgin, but I brought an offering. And it was bizarre because on the way down, I saw this like little colorful thing on a rock and I went over and somebody had left a little carved image of a turtle. And I felt like that's left there for me because in Hawaii mythology, the turtle is the symbol of fertility. ⁓ then I started, you we went to Europe.

Jeanne: 
Mmm.

Yvonne:
We went to Scotland, I mean, each place we went. And then, of course, ⁓ we had to go to the Vatican, the most holy place on earth. And the line, it was Christmas Eve, almost the same time as now, and ⁓ people had tickets in their hands. ⁓ And I said, you know, how do you get to see the Pope and get a blessing? And they said, ⁓ we've been waiting five years. You'll never get in.
It took us years to get these tickets. ⁓ And I just like did a little prayer right on the spot. And I won't tell you the whole story ⁓ because ⁓ some magic was involved, but we got in ⁓ and I got that blessing.

Jeanne: 
You

Yvonne:
Yeah, it was 15 months later that the fertility treatments after ⁓ multiple tries worked ⁓ and I found out I was pregnant. So.

Jeanne: 
What a wonderful story. it's, yeah, one of these days I want to find out what you did. Because jumping in line, that's not cool, Yvonne. ⁓ Especially after they wait five years. So there's got to be something in there to redeem you. ⁓ But I guess it's because you had your son. ⁓

Yvonne:
Yeah. ⁓ When I had my son, I feel like he'll bring all the blessings to the world and make amends for my transformations. ⁓ Right? ⁓

Jeanne: 
Yeah, exactly. ⁓ How long as you didn't kick any old ladies? ⁓ All right, what about ginger? Because I'm fascinated on YouTube with stories of pets. Like I've seen cats like smack bears and they run. ⁓ And so now you got a cat that stopped a burglar. So what's that about?

Yvonne:
So we lived in, as I mentioned a few times, a diverse neighborhood, but everybody knew each other. And my cat was also known widely in the neighborhood. She would like, there was a fence that went along a culvert and that fence bordered a lot of backyard. She would like walk for 10 blocks on that fence from one end to the other. She ⁓ was so audacious. She would go three doors down and climb up the side of a house to get into the bedroom where a 17-year-old cat lived and eat his food. ⁓ She was so audacious. ⁓ We had a lively household because by then we had, you know...

Jeanne: 
my gosh. ⁓

Yvonne:
kids and they were bringing their kids over. were sort of the neighborhood family where everyone crashed. And so occasionally, disturbed by our teenagers, she would just take off and we would have to go door to door looking for her. And the houses that she preferred is where she was treated like a complete princess. And I remember knocking on doors and finally this beautiful house, they opened the door and I could see down the hallway in front of the TV perched on a red velvet pillow with little gourmet cat containers that had been eaten all around her. She was sitting on this pillow and she looked at me and she looked away as if to say, I'm not coming home. ⁓ And that noisy house and those wild kids and she just, ⁓ and the people said, can we keep her? I said, no. ⁓

Jeanne: 
Hahaha

Yvonne:
⁓ She was, ⁓ she ran away from home to be treated like a princess. ⁓ Anyway. ⁓

Jeanne: 
She's a brat. ⁓ She ran away from home. ⁓
That sounds like Shirley Temple in the attic. I don't remember what that movie was. ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ I love ⁓ you too. ⁓ Anyway, yeah, and so we heard some, ⁓ we ⁓ didn't actually hear it. There was ⁓ a break in at a window ⁓ on the backside of our house. And I just remember Ginger screamed and she ran down the stairs and we all woke up. We thought something was terribly wrong and turned on all the lights. ⁓ And the guy from ⁓ her screaming and the lights going on and the people running down the stairs. ⁓ He ⁓ broke the window, jumped out and ran away. So we never found out who it was. Nope. But nothing was taken and he did leave like ⁓ a black, you know, those hoods that people put over their heads. That we found we gave to the police, but you know, how can you get fingerprints off a piece of cloth? You can't. So.

Jeanne: 
my goodness, you never found it? ⁓
Mmm. ⁓ Wow.

Yvonne:
That was, that's the Ginger story.

Jeanne: 
Well, that's a good story too. Well, I guess that one, didn't that say that was the one I didn't believe? So which one is the lie?

Yvonne:
That one's the lie. ⁓ It's all true. ⁓ She ⁓ often ran down the stairs at night and screamed, but there was never a burglar. ⁓ I told you is true. She is just the most audacious cat today. She's 14 and she's still in our lives and we love.

Jeanne: 
Hahaha!
⁓ okay.
⁓ nice. Well, that, okay, so it was sort of true. That's fine. That was fun. You have so, so many stories, so many that we could go on for hours and we just need to do other podcasts with you. But thank you for sharing those. ⁓ So let's just, ⁓ thank you. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Yvonne:
Yeah. ⁓

That'll be a joy. Yeah, thank you. It's so fun to you and I love your. ⁓
I just said, think your ⁓ questions, the design of your podcasts, and I've done many in my work, is unique in the world. And I know you're going to be ⁓ having a queue for a year and a half. I'm so lucky to be at the ground floor and getting to do this interview with you. Thank you. ⁓

Jeanne: 
that'll be so much fun. ⁓ Well, I want to tell the ⁓ people that are viewing or listening how to get in touch with you. I'm ⁓ my screen is still being shared. So here's how you contact Yvonne. I want to read out her quote because I thought that was just a very powerful quote. 

Each of us has a unique gift we came to give ⁓ our own zone of genius. I love that Yvonne. So. I'm glad you let me put it on here. Do you wanna talk about how people could get in touch with you and find their own zone of genius? ⁓

Yvonne:
⁓ I'd be thrilled to work with any of you in the audience. can reach me at ⁓ yvonne@yvonnechotzen.com Y V O N N E at Yvonne Chotzen C H O T Z E N dot com. ⁓ And I will be delighted to work with you for 30 minutes to start you on your story journey, finding that just right signature story. that's going to catapult your product or your program. It's my joy, as you can tell from being a listener today. ⁓ Stories are my life. They're my joy. They give me energy and it's my gift to the world. So come and click on the link that's here. The calendary, the calendar is open and you can book and have a time with me to find your story. Because if you tell your story like Hollywood. It will make you ⁓ and your product, your program, or your brand the star. And you'll never have to sell again.

Jeanne: 
Nice. That's amazing. And I know you have a lot of success. We can list off a lot of your clients and their big successes. So ⁓ I know you're not gonna brag too much, but I can brag for you. I do know a lot of folks that work with you and are just so thankful for what you've done for them. ⁓ So I do appreciate you being here. as a, ⁓ just not just a guest, but as a friend ⁓ that ⁓ you have shared all these things and

Yvonne:
Thank you.

Jeanne: 
Please come back again. For those of you listening, ⁓ we'll come back next week with another guest. I'm gonna try to stop presenting this ⁓ so you can see Yvonne a lot clearer now. ⁓ But thank you so much again. And next week, everybody stay tuned for Project Candor podcast where we'll have a new and exciting guest. Maybe not as exciting as Yvonne, but maybe exciting in a different way.

Yvonne:
Thanks

Jeanne: 
All right, well, thank you so much, Yvonne. ⁓ I'm gonna stop recording now and we'll talk soon. ⁓

Yvonne:
Thank you. ⁓