About Coach Ina |
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A Fortune 500 consultant in strategic planning, Ina changed course (after being beaten up by her muse) to focus on writing and publishing. And is resuming her work in team building for public and private sector organizations. Emphasis in both arenas: lighten up!
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Read More, From Ina
It’s fun for me to work with clients and students from a wide range of backgrounds (for ex., Eliza, who grew up in India during the time of the Raj; Howard, a pilot and beekeeper who learned how not to be pantsed, thus keeping his purple shorts to himself; most recently, Chester L. Richards, a retired aerospace engineer, inventor, adventurer, and romantic, whose first book, From The Potato to Star Trek and Beyond I have just published through my Pawpress imprint.
From the beginning…Born and raised in Philadelphia, my late brother Conrad — former jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and Swing Journal of Japan — spent half our kidhood living in Los Angeles after our parents’ divorce. Bi-coastal living wasn’t half bad, we decided; Burma Shave signs on Route 66 alone were a treat.At age 21, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (an anthropology major), and then ran away from both sets of parents to attend graduate school in New Orleans, at Tulane. There was a magical wedding in the French Quarter. Soon husband Barry, a lawyer who stopped to smell roses on the way to the office (among the many things that captivated me), and I drove to Manhattan with our first child, Rapscallion P. Cat, to seek our fortunes.
Barry wound up heading Contracts for the Today and Tonight shows at NBC, while I started learning the ropes of being a focus group moderator at J. Walter Thompson. When our daughter Nicole was born, I took a leave of absence and decided to become an independent consultant so that I could spend time at home to be with “The Tot.” Work expanded, and by the time Nicole was three, Hillebrandt Consultants had grown into a full blown consulting business in strategic research and planning, counseling Fortune 500 companies and non-profits around the country on trends, new products and communications.
In the mid-eighties, I had several epiphanies. There was a divorce, a move to Connecticut, and then a return to first love – California, with Nicole, two cats and Handsome, the World’s Best Dog in tow. First living in Marin, and later Berkeley and Carmel, I am now based in Los Angeles, and happy to add that Nicole is nearby after her own forays into exotic locales including Firenze.
Not long after re-entry into the Los Angeles of my youth, my book Pawprints got published. Its debut was held at the Los Angeles Zoo, where I was billed as Homo Sapiens Authorensas, with a sign cautioning visitors “Please don’t feed the Authorensas. She thinks she’s too fat as it is.” The book surprised this Authorensas, appealing to kids as well as adults, and I wound up creating a literacy program based on exercises developed for a workshop for educators for the Jane Goodall Institute. Using Pawprints’ tales of close encounters of the furry kind to interest kids in reading, and writing, the program, Pawprints Literacy Plus™, improves literacy skills and reinforces the importance of kindness to animals, the environment and each other; it’s in use in different parts of the U.S., and we’ve had inquiries about programs for other countries as well.
Before writing Pawprints, which became an Amazon.com top seller, I’d contributed to other books, written articles and edited and written for newsletters, appeared in print in papers including The New York Times and LA Times, on camera and mic on a range of radio, TV and video programs. Since then appearances expanded to online programming.
Now, as you know, one of my personal areas of focus is on helping adults write, and morph projects where warranted into live and film/TV/web video programs. I work as a writing coach, specializing in memoirs, and on TV/film content development. If you’re interested in creating or refining your own memoirs, you can find me leading live classes, and as a private coach for help with writing, editing and publishing memoirs, by phone and virtually. I am also available to coach or write biographies for leaders of organizations. Just click here to shoot a private e-mail.
I am also working again in the field of team building, via The UnWorkshops™ to help organizations foster stronger bonds among employees, build understanding between management and staff, and strengthen customer relationships. Tools I have developed tickle the inner funny bone, free up creativity, productivity, retention and a spirit of enthusiasm for the work, whether in the office, hybrid or all remote. And enrich personal as well as professional lives of attendees.
From the beginning…Born and raised in Philadelphia, my late brother Conrad — former jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and Swing Journal of Japan — spent half our kidhood living in Los Angeles after our parents’ divorce. Bi-coastal living wasn’t half bad, we decided; Burma Shave signs on Route 66 alone were a treat.At age 21, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (an anthropology major), and then ran away from both sets of parents to attend graduate school in New Orleans, at Tulane. There was a magical wedding in the French Quarter. Soon husband Barry, a lawyer who stopped to smell roses on the way to the office (among the many things that captivated me), and I drove to Manhattan with our first child, Rapscallion P. Cat, to seek our fortunes.
Barry wound up heading Contracts for the Today and Tonight shows at NBC, while I started learning the ropes of being a focus group moderator at J. Walter Thompson. When our daughter Nicole was born, I took a leave of absence and decided to become an independent consultant so that I could spend time at home to be with “The Tot.” Work expanded, and by the time Nicole was three, Hillebrandt Consultants had grown into a full blown consulting business in strategic research and planning, counseling Fortune 500 companies and non-profits around the country on trends, new products and communications.
In the mid-eighties, I had several epiphanies. There was a divorce, a move to Connecticut, and then a return to first love – California, with Nicole, two cats and Handsome, the World’s Best Dog in tow. First living in Marin, and later Berkeley and Carmel, I am now based in Los Angeles, and happy to add that Nicole is nearby after her own forays into exotic locales including Firenze.
Not long after re-entry into the Los Angeles of my youth, my book Pawprints got published. Its debut was held at the Los Angeles Zoo, where I was billed as Homo Sapiens Authorensas, with a sign cautioning visitors “Please don’t feed the Authorensas. She thinks she’s too fat as it is.” The book surprised this Authorensas, appealing to kids as well as adults, and I wound up creating a literacy program based on exercises developed for a workshop for educators for the Jane Goodall Institute. Using Pawprints’ tales of close encounters of the furry kind to interest kids in reading, and writing, the program, Pawprints Literacy Plus™, improves literacy skills and reinforces the importance of kindness to animals, the environment and each other; it’s in use in different parts of the U.S., and we’ve had inquiries about programs for other countries as well.
Before writing Pawprints, which became an Amazon.com top seller, I’d contributed to other books, written articles and edited and written for newsletters, appeared in print in papers including The New York Times and LA Times, on camera and mic on a range of radio, TV and video programs. Since then appearances expanded to online programming.
Now, as you know, one of my personal areas of focus is on helping adults write, and morph projects where warranted into live and film/TV/web video programs. I work as a writing coach, specializing in memoirs, and on TV/film content development. If you’re interested in creating or refining your own memoirs, you can find me leading live classes, and as a private coach for help with writing, editing and publishing memoirs, by phone and virtually. I am also available to coach or write biographies for leaders of organizations. Just click here to shoot a private e-mail.
I am also working again in the field of team building, via The UnWorkshops™ to help organizations foster stronger bonds among employees, build understanding between management and staff, and strengthen customer relationships. Tools I have developed tickle the inner funny bone, free up creativity, productivity, retention and a spirit of enthusiasm for the work, whether in the office, hybrid or all remote. And enrich personal as well as professional lives of attendees.
From our show in progress, a Senior Moments Production
Ina giving notes to Nikki
w/ Craig Kupka
Our writing consulting work is geared to both new writers and published authors new to the memoir form. We meet in small groups online, and also one-on-one in person or by phone, Zoom and email. My Footprints Writing Clubs ™ also step out onstage, and in video to do spoken word shows. Our most recent is “Memoirs, We've Got [Weird] Memoirs!” inspired by a phrase from her life story from our 37 year old stripper, blond bombshell Nikki Gratson.