Cindy Cashman
The First Woman Married in Outer Space

Bob Serling: This is 15-Minute Innovation, and today I have the great pleasure to be speaking with Cindy Cashman. Welcome, Cindy.

Cindy Cashman: Thank you.

Bob: To start off, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself and the biggest business-building idea that you're known for?

Cindy: My claim to fame right now is a book called "Everything Men Know About Women," written under the pseudonym of Dr. Allen Francis. I've sold over a million copies and it's 128 blank pages. In fact, 2008 will be the 20th anniversary of the book, so we have a 20th Anniversary coming out at the end of 2007.

But my biggest business-building idea that I'm known for is really the first space wedding. It's firstspacewedding.com. My fiancé and I will be the first couple in the history of the world to get married in outer space. We will be going 62 miles up and we'll be weightless for approximately five minutes, and it's scheduled for early 2009.

I own the worldwide rights, so I'll be selling the rights to a major network to televise it worldwide.

Bob: And I understand you're already in negotiations with a number of networks.

Cindy: Right. We're going to be having a reality show or some type of contest that will be opened worldwide, and the winner will literally get to marry us in outer space. Nowadays, with the internet, anybody can go on and be ordained in five minutes, so the winner of the contest or the reality show will get to marry us in outer space.

Bob: That's wild! I was going to ask you who was going to be brave enough to go 62 miles up into outer space with you to marry you, but you've answered the question.

Cindy: Oh, gosh, all kinds of people! How I got the idea is — you know, my website is cindycashman.com, and I have a Question of the Week, and when I sent out the announcement to my question of the week subscribers that I was getting married in outer space, I got all these emails back, "Please, can I marry you", "Please can I marry you", and that's how I came up with the idea, "Oh, wow, we should have a contest to see who's going to marry us."

Bob: You know, that's a great example of an important point. I don't want to digress too much, but often — and it seems obvious — but you really have to pay attention to the feedback you get from your prospects and your customers...

Cindy: Absolutely.

Bob: And you can get a brilliant idea from that. As an example of this, I always tell the story of Arm and Hammer. Originally baking soda was for baking, and Arm and Hammer started to get feedback from their customers that they were using it to deodorize their refrigerators. So they were smart enough, then, to come out with a special baking soda packet made just for deodorizing refrigerators, and started a whole new multi-million-dollar product line. And this was based simply on listening to customer feedback.

And that's what you've done. You've taken this feedback from your readers and created yet another extension of your idea.

Cindy: Right, and plus, too, as we know in zero gravity I cannot wear a typical wedding dress, so there will also be a worldwide contest to design a wedding dress that won't float up over my head.

Bob: That's wild. I didn't even think of that.

Cindy: Yeah, so the opportunities, when you think about it, are to perform the ceremony, create the wedding dress, the licensing the merchandising, the sponsorship. Our flight suits arrived a few months ago, and there's days I pinch myself and say, "Wow, this is like so cool!"

Bob: So how did you come up with this idea to get married in outer space in the first place? I mean, it's obviously a wild, extravagant idea.

Cindy: I love to meditate, and I came up with the idea in May of '05. I was meditating, which I do almost every day, and during this particular meditation, I paid attention to what I call "quicken thoughts." Quicken thoughts are thoughts that just pop in out of nowhere. And the quicken thought was be the first one to get married in outer space and it's like, "Wow!"

What is so funny, Bob, is I didn't even have a boyfriend at the time. I was in the middle of what I call my "dating bliss." I was out and dating. I actually went out with 33 guys in a one-year period, and I met Mitch, who is my fiancé now, in September of '05. Mitch asked me to marry him two months after we met, and he asked me going 70 miles an hour on a motorcycle, and I said yes.

And then I waited a few weeks, and I said, "By the way, I'd like to get married in outer space."

And he looked at me — he gave me that look like any man would give any woman who just asked that kind of question.

Bob: Like maybe I better get on my motorcycle and get out of here? (Laughter.)

Cindy: Well, no, no it wasn't. He looked at me and said, "Okay, yeah, whatever." That was his response. "Okay, yeah, right, whatever." The thinking was, the odds of this really happening would be slim to none.

So when he said, "Yeah, right, whatever", he said, "It would be fun, cool, whatever", thinking that the odds were less than one percent.

So when I first received the idea, I got up and called my son, and I said, "My gosh, is this even a possibility?" So my son went on the internet and did research and found out that at the time there were four companies in the race to see who's going to be the first one to take private passengers up into space.

And so then I started negotiating with a couple of different companies and signed the largest deal in my life the end of June of '06.

Bob: So I assume that because this space, not exploration, but travel with private citizens is new, it's also fairly expensive. Are you defraying the cost through sponsors?

Cindy: Well, it is, Bob. This particular one is $250,000 a seat, so that's $750,000 for all three seats. I've done well financially, so with me buying the seats, I also own the rights. And, yes, I will be selling sponsorships.

Bob: Excellent. So I want to shift gears a second. You talked about the fact that this particular idea came through meditation, and my next question is when you need to come up with a big idea, either to solve a problem — a business problem, possibly — or achieve an important goal, take advantage of an opportunity that comes along, what method do you use? Do you generally use meditation, or are there other methods that you use as well?

Cindy: Well, I really have a five-step system. The first step is I do meditation. That's my number one, most favorite, most effective way. While I'm meditating, if there's a specific question I have, I will ask a question.

So here's an example. I knew I wanted to do a two-and-a-half-minute reality documentary on our space wedding, so I asked the question, "Who do I know in the business that I can call, or who do I know that knows somebody in the business that I can call?" And with that, I pay attention. I listen.

So one would be meditation, two I ask the question, three, I listen, and in this particular case I heard to call a couple different people, and then, four, I took action and I called those people. And then I interviewed them.

Step five is I listen to my intuition, big time, because with the first person I interviewed, I just had this tremendous pain in my solar plexus, and I pay attention to that. The pain in my solar plexus tells me no, this is not the right person. So then I repeat the process. Okay, who else can I be calling, or whatever?

And in this particular case I happened to be out dancing, and a guy mentioned, "Oh, I've got a friend in the video business", and my ears perked up. I went over and I said, "Well, tell me more about him."

So I called this guy. I met with him and I checked in with my intuition by asking a question, "Will I be happy with the results of what this guy does? Will it result in what I want in an easy, effortless way, and will he be fun to work with?" And I got a real calm feeling, which is a yes to me.

And so I hired this guy, and he's absolutely fabulous. We sat down and wrote out the script. We shot the video so my space-wedding trailer video will be released probably within the next couple months. It's done, and that's what I've been sending out to producers who I'm negotiating with for who's going to do the reality show and the TV movie, and we're going to have a series leading up to our space wedding and stuff like that. So I have not released the documentary trailer out to the general public yet, because I know when I do, we'll probably have a good ten million hits on Youtube.

Bob: That's incredible.

Cindy: Where I'm at right now is developing a strategic plan before I put it up on Youtube — what is my overall message. And really in my space documentary trailer, my overall message is, follow your heart, realize your dreams, even if it is out of this world, because that's really what I did. I followed my heart, realized my dream, even if it is out of this world, because I'm used to people saying, "Oh, you know." Like with the blank book, as if you're crazy. "Everything Men Know About Women", people told me I was crazy. But in less than three years, they said I was brilliant.

Bob: That's great, because that's exactly what my next question for you was going to be. Your ideas are obviously very big, and I used the word earlier — very extravagant. But you seem to be fearless about going into them.

Cindy: I absolutely am.

Bob: A lot of people would say, "Boy, that's either so goofy or so big and probably can't be done or whatever", and they'd give up before they ever got started. How do you deal with those doubts and fears?

Cindy: Well, I think I must have heard this from Earl Nightingale many years ago, and I teach this to my son and everybody. You automatically have a "no" if you don't ask.

Bob: Great point. There's a famous quote from the hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. "A hundred percent of the shots you don't take don't go in."

Cindy: Oh, there you go! Perfect!

So somewhere long ago I got in my brain that I automatically have a "no" unless I ask. I'll get on the phone and call anybody. I have zero fear, because the worst they can say is "no", and I would have had a "no" if I didn't call, so why not take the chance and call?

Bob: It's so simple, but it's brilliant in its simplicity. Does the fear ever come up to you? Do you feel the fear but go ahead and take action anyway?

Cindy: No, not with calling. I have zero fear — it never comes up. I just get on the phone and call. In fact, Mitch will just sit here, my fiancé, and just laugh. He just thinks it's great. I'll say, "Oh, I feel like calling, whatever — ABC, CBS, NBC, whatever", and I just get on the phone and call them. And he laughs. He loves it! So that doesn't exist. They forgot to give me some of that when I was born.

I have other fears, you know. I don't like to cook. I have more stress in the kitchen then I have on the phone and calling.

Bob: So does that mean other people have fear of eating what you cook?

Cindy: (Laughter.) The deal is if it turns out badly, we go out to eat, so we eat out quite a bit.

But I do have other fears, obviously. In fact, I'll just share a quick fear. I actually was very shy when it came to dating, and it was very difficult for me to go out on a date. And people thought, "Oh, come on. Cindy, she's so outgoing, and da da da da da". And I said, "Well, that's in business."

So one guy said to me, "Well, just treat it all like business. Just shift that mindset." And someone else said to me, "Just think of it as meeting as friends."

And the moment I made that instant mind switch, I can go meet anybody. I mean, those 33 guys I went out with, I had a wonderful time. I was doing a radio interview and the guy said, "How many people would have gave up after three or four or five dates, and you went out on 33."

Bob: Yeah, great point. And I like your concept of taking a strength that you have in one area and cloning it into another area, and then using that and acting from that strength instead of from the fear. Because everyone has fear, regardless of how successful you've been in business or life or whatever, there are areas that you're going to have fear in. And when people are dealing with big business-building ideas and creative ideas, there are always going to be some fears. So that was a great example of how to handle those fears.

Well, let's wrap it up here because we're just about at the end of our time. I would like to ask you how people can find out more about you and your company and your space wedding and everything you're involved in.

Cindy: There are two websites. The first one is www.cindycashman.com, and the other one is www.firstspacewedding.com, and from there they can learn whatever they want to know.

Bob: Great. Cindy, as always it's been a pleasure and illuminating to talk with you. I'm always inspired by your thinking style, and I very much appreciate your doing this with me today.

Cindy: Well, thanks, Bob.