Break on Through: a writer discovers a motivational course that works
by Teresa Willis
It’s nine a.m., Sunday morning. I arrive at an attractive North Hollywood apartment. Not being a morning person, the coffee is gratefully slurped when it is promptly presented by my hosts. I’m skeptical. I’m reserved. I’m about to observe and, I suspect, be coaxed to participate in, a seminar. Not just any seminar. A seminar that starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. Got to be some glassy-eyed smiling people behind this continental breakfast. Some self-ordained guru bouncing around telling me I can be all that I can be, if I just hand over my Visa card.
I settle in with the other five participants in the living room. They range in age from 20 to 40. They are there for different reasons: an ad, a friend’s recommendation, etc. When asked why I am here, I make it very clear that I am a writer, on assignment. Couldn’t let anyone think I had actually been conned into plunking down money like the other five suckers. Nobody seems as cynical as me. They are all actually somewhat eager. Then, we begin.
I’m at a Limitbusters General Introduction Course (GIC). The leaders are Cynthia Loy Darst, a bouncy, smiling person, and Eric Kohner, not so bouncy, yet a completely earnest kind of guy. I am determined to resist them.
See, I’ve been through my share of seminars and gurus, and I’ve never yet come away with anything that solved my consistent career crisis. A few credit cards later, I’ve finally realized that there are no short cuts. No matter how much money I blow on motivational methodology, nobody’s going to magically round the corner with the silver platter I’ve been expecting all my life. Since this type of seminar has taken a lot of my money, I have a score to settle. I have prepared to do a piece on Limitbusters as though I were asked to review a play starring an ex-boyfriend.
The GIC lasts from nine to three. I’m not about to do six hours of this, so I devise an early out: have to be gone by 11—no getting around it. By the time the clock strikes 11, however, I have to pry myself away. Cynthia and Eric have won me over, and I have forgotten I was ever resistant. I’m telling stories, raising my hand and participating with the rest of the group. A month later, I come back for the full course.
What won me over? Limitbusters client actress/writer Marilyn Rockafellow puts it best. “It’s not just a formula. It’s a process. It’s open to each individual’s way of doing things. Eric and Cynthia are not pretentious. There’s no ‘guru’ aspect to them. Other programs last just a weekend and make you feel good for a short period of time. With Limitbusters you have to commit for four months of your time—and what they charge for four months is about the same many charge for a weekend. And I like their integrity—to say it can’t be done in a weekend.”
Nevertheless, they pack a lot into a short period of time. From my one Sunday with Limitbusters, I came away with a definite plan—steps 1, 2, and 3—for developing a seed idea into a screenplay. And these weren’t steps from a “how-to” book. These were tailored just for me, by me, taking into consideration all my strengths and weaknesses.
Cynthia and Eric refer to themselves as “personal business coaches,” sort of like personal trainers for one’s career. They work with people in three ways: private coaching, coaching in small groups, and courses. The purpose of Limitbusters is to inspire and support people to “go for it” with their dreams.
Founded in 1992, Limitbusters was formed by Cynthia and Eric in response to both a need in the community and a need in their own lives. “People come out of training programs and acting classes and they know what to do, after they get the role,” explains Cynthia. “But they don’t have any clue how to get the work in the first place. And most people, even entrepreneurs, much less actors, don’t know all the parts involved. So that’s what we do. We help them to see what might be missing, and then to tap into their own natural creativity that they’ve been working on for years and apply it to business. It just makes it fun.” Though they serve primarily actors and artists, their clientele is starting to expand. “We work with chiropractors, attorneys, shiatsu therapists, people in sales who aren’t getting the management they need,” says Cynthia. “We’re working with one woman now who is looking for the perfect partner. Set a goal, devise a strategy, put it into action, and make it fun.”
“We believe we’re on the cutting edge of a whole new profession that is just going to sweep the nation,” explains Eric. “Especially now, because many companies are downsizing. People that have had secure jobs for 25 to 30 years are suddenly unemployed. They’re becoming entrepreneurs.” Eric and Cynthia are among the first hundred people in the country to be certified for this kind of work. They completed the course work for the Professional Personal Coach certification with The Coaches Training Institute in San Francisco, and Cynthia is furthering her training with Coach University in Houston.
Both Cynthia and Eric have tackled acting as a profession successfully. “After three years of making my living acting, I started to realize that that wasn’t it. It’s a little like when you think you’re going to be playing basketball and you end up playing football. Somewhere along the line you say, ‘This isn’t the game I wanted to play.’”
“I got into acting so I could avoid the business part of life. Little did I know that it was one of the toughest, most aggressive businesses in the world,” says Eric. “For years I went about it on my own, as an actor—it wasn’t until I got into AIP that I realized that I didn’t have to do it alone.”
AIP is the acronym for the now-defunct Actor’s Information Project in New York, founded in 1978 by producer Jay Perry, actress Susan Perry, and agent David Rosen. A membership organization, AIP’s library of business reference books was a source of education for many involved in theatre at that time. “They started offering courses,” says Cynthia, “and they offered something that was called ‘career confronting,’ which is similar to the work we do, coaching.”
“When I started using the tools that were available at AIP, my career turned around,” says Eric. “Then, when I was offered a chance to learn how to do this kind of work, I just jumped at it. The gift I got out of all that is I found another career I like almost as much as acting.” Eric still works as an actor. “Yes, I just got a job. I’ve been auditioning. But, actually, what’s starting to happen now is that acting is becoming my support job, and career coaching is my passion. That’s what I really want to do when I grow up.”
I remember hearing about AIP in my New York days. A friend who had gone there shrugged it off, saying, “It’s great if you’re not self-motivated in your career, but I don’t need it.” I remember knowing I wasn’t self-motivated, but she made it seem like such a bad thing, I didn’t want to admit it. That was the end of my investigation into AIP. I no longer pursue acting, but I now wonder, when I hear of the success of those early eighties AIP people, how things might’ve been different if I had checked it out.
It was at AIP that Cynthia and Eric met. Eric had started a coaching business with friend and mentor, Henry House. “He’s been a major influence on my training as a coach. He runs the San Francisco branch of Limitbusters, and is partially responsible for the name.” But because Henry was in San Francisco and Eric was in Los Angeles, Eric needed a partner closer to home. “I’d have these clients, then I’d get work and not be able to get there. So I was always looking for someone to set up a partnership with. Henry was up in San Francisco, so he couldn’t do it. Cynthia moved out here, so I eventually asked her to be my partner, and the rest is history.”
Limitbusters works on a few basic principles, one of which is a sort of “buddy system.” The theory is, if you’re responsible to someone else for a project or task, it is more likely to get done than if you have only yourself to answer to. You and your coach devise a strategy to achieve your goal. Then the coach calls and reminds you, checks up on you. You call for support before, during, and after.
Limitbusters client David Presby attests to the success of this approach. “It has turned my whole perspective on my career around,” he says. “I usually hate stuff like this. It’s usually very fake, very hokey. But as soon as Cynthia and Eric started the course, I knew they were different.” Presby works with Cynthia on a private coaching basis now. “I knew after the first course that even if I never got the opportunity to work with her again, certain fundamental changes had already taken place. Changes that would not reverse themselves.” Through Limitbusters, Presby devised a marketing strategy that proved largely successful in his acting career. “I wrote letters to casting directors and agents as though they were coming from my Aunt Ida. I had this great picture of her and me that I sent out with the letters. She’s got red hair and cat’s-eye glasses. So I made it funny. ‘You should meet my David. He’s so funny. I’m going to have my David call you.’ Through Aunt Ida I could say things about myself that I couldn’t say otherwise. And people loved it. It opened more doors because I made them laugh. Now there’s an Aunt Ida newsletter.”
All this action can be overwhelming to many. “We were doing an intro and we started talking about goal setting, and I saw this woman go completely out,” Eric says. “She raised her hand and said, ‘I haven’t heard a word you’ve said in the last five minutes.’ And I had to tell her I understand. I remember the first time somebody started talking about goal setting and marketing and business planning. Words like ‘strategy’ completely freaked me out. And, still, today, if I set a goal, I get really attached to it. I think it’s important to note that we’re not very evolved. We’re human, and the stuff that we coach people on, we get coached on. We have a coach.”
“One of the biggest obstacles people have [to this work] is hope,” explains Cynthia. “They get into the lotto mentality. They don’t realize they’re doing it. They don’t think it’s a gamble. But, for actors, there’s a ninety-eight per cent unemployment rate. Making it in this business is like winning the lotto. If you’re basing your dreams around that, then you’re in serious trouble. What we do is we help put people in the drivers seat of their own careers. Rather than waiting for someone to save them—a Prince Charming, the right agent, the producer that’s going to make them famous—rather than waiting for some outside influence to affect their lives, we help them to take the reins and make this thing happen for themselves.”
In talking to them and working with them, I could see that Eric and Cynthia really derive joy from helping and supporting others in achieving their life goals. They get off on it. Their prices are reasonable, ranging from free introductory sessions to $500 for a 16-session course. You aren’t asked to come up with an astronomical sum. You are asked to commit—to your coach, to the group, to yourself.
If you are interested in checking out Limitbusters, Cynthia and Eric would welcome your inquiry. They can be reached at (818) 752-2764 or (213) 953-8494. ♦