The wisest thing to do is to cancel the trip.” That’s what Steve, my boss, told me the day before we were set to send our senior writer and our video director to California to interview Dr. Tim Muehlhoff.
And I agreed.
Tim is a FamilyLife conference speaker, an author, and a communications professor at Biola University in La Mirada, CA. We plan to feature him in our new In This Together curriculum—a program that will equip laypeople to share in the work of pastoral care by helping them apply what the Bible reveals about friendship.
So why did Steve say to cancel the trip?
Tim told us that he enjoys going to the movies with friends. So I wanted to shoot his interview in a movie theater. And we found a theater that was willing to allow us to record there. But without going into the details, the contract the theater wanted us to sign was too much in its favor. (Don’t ask why we were signing a contract the day before the taping—the explanation is worthy of another blog post.)
Anyway, Steve didn’t think they’d alter the contract to accommodate us. So he figured that the wisest thing to was to cancel the trip and negotiate a better agreement. And I thought he was right.
But we underestimated the clout of CareLeader.org.
Just kidding. We actually underestimated the negotiating skills of Heidi Bowman, our project manager. She got the theater rep to amend the contract. And now there’s a video for you to see.
Listen to what Tim has to say about why he loves hanging with friends at the movies and his insights into mistakes people often make when having difficult conversations.
And if you like the video, thank Heidi!
