Blackamericaweb.com: Will “Iyanla: Fix My Life” be viewer-generated? Going forward will people be able to write into you and ask to be on the show?
Iyanla Vanzant: That’s how it works now. All of our guests wrote in to us in response to an inquiry or in response to a Lifeclass. All of our guests wrote into us. We didn’t cast any of these people. They came to us.
Blackamericaweb.com: So many people watched you and Oprah reconcile on her show. That was pretty amazing, because it illustrated the kinds of issues and misunderstandings that often come up between African-American women. How were you able to shape that conversation so that it ultimately turned out to be healing and allowed the two of you to work together again?
Iyanla Vanzant: That was our intention. To have the conversation that was a demonstration of healing. What we brought to the conversation was the willingness to hear, a willingness to listen and a willingness to tell our truth, which we hadn’t done prior to that. I’m so grateful that people got that this was not just me and Oprah having a conversation but how to heal a breakdown in a relationship particularly for women and women of color.
Blackamericaweb.com: What are the biggest lessons that people can take not just from that conversation but from your new show?
Iyanla Vanzant: My work right now from “Lifeclass” to “Iyanla: Fix My Life” is about giving people skills, tools and information they need to be better across the board no matter what the issue is. Number 1: Tell. The.Truth. We keep making up stories and eliminating facts and changing situations and scenarios. We have to learn to tell the radical, ruthless, gut-level truth about who we are, what we need, what we want, what we do, what we don’t do, what works, what doesn’t work – there are so many things that we lie about or that we withhold information about. We’ve got to learn to be authentic. Show up as who you are and stop trying to be who you are not. Call a thing a thing. Stop making excuses for bad behavior and wrongdoing. Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness! Did I mention that forgiveness will be a big theme in “Iyanla: Fix My Life?” I would say those four things are the common themes throughout all the shows.
Watch an extended preview here of "Iyanla:Fix My Life."
I meant to say that Iyanla was NOT living as she was preaching! OBAMA 2012
I must say that I get tickled every time I see Iyanla and remember the episode where she all but begged Oprah to take her back!!! I am sure she said “there is a God” but look what life lesson God sent her through! a taste of her own medicine. I personally think it was because she was living what she was trying to preach to others! Neither here nor there, I bet wild bulls couldn’t get her to leave Oprah now! LOL Not Barbara Walters or any other network for that matter. Funny how those simple things can be taken for granted! I love your book and don’t know what makes you the authority on understanding relationships or how to mend them. We all have that innate power within to heal but do believe that sometimes we need others like Iyanla to bring it out. I wish Oprah so much success in such a difficult industry to hopefully surround herself around those that are genuine. A successful show is very different than a successful network sometimes I think that there is so many “gate keepers” to Oprah that success with the network is going to be difficult. I have a few good ideas of shows as a consumer that she will never know because of those around her. I don’t think the majority race of people want Oprah to be successful because that would “entitle” her to influence and this country does not want black folks to have too much influence even if they become the President of the United States! So Oprah and Iyanla keep doing what you are doing and Oprah find a way to limit your financial exposure just as the Trumps of the world do. Use other peoples money to help others become successful! 24 hours of network programming is a dauting task but it is what you do best! OBAMA 2012