My name is Carol. My 3Lunches partner is Anny. We met 12 years ago when we worked at the same entertainment ad agency. Anny was a commercial director/creative director and I was the senior vice president of marketing/creative director. Big titles. What we actually did was create TV and radio and print campaigns for the TV networks and all those talk shows and judge shows and entertainment shows you see on TV. I also worked on some new media and online accounts – and Anny directed commercials.

Anny left the agency and we lost touch.  Then twelve years later I got a Facebook message from her. We exchanged contact info and one week later, we had lunch. 

Within 10 minutes, we had got one another up to speed on our lives. It turned out that we were both at a crossroads.  I’d been the owner of an ad agency for ten great years and the economy was hitting me hard. Anny was currently heading up development for a prominent TV actor’s production company, but all TV is basically on spec until you have a show on the air and she was frustrated.

Once the pictures of our lives were clear, we began offering suggestions and ideas to one another. It was like we were back in our agency days—brainstorming and problem solving.  We were coaching one another and it felt really good. The attention to one another’s issues was such a relief. It felt like we could be one step away from finding a clear solution to our dilemmas. 

It occurred to us that we weren’t alone. With the economy in a freefall, businesses closing, people losing their homes and jobs, everyone in America was experiencing or watching a friend or family member struggle.  Collectively, we were in crisis. Why couldn’t we encourage people to help one another the way we were doing? We thought, why not create a grassroots movement to encourage friend-to-friend coaching?  Let’s create a simple methodology for asking for, and giving help in an organic format. Let’s take a break from the expensive therapist mentality and the even more expensive life coach trend and simply commit to helping one another. Let’s promote coaching over lunch, and let’s live through the process ourselves.

We called it 3Lunches: a goal-oriented, free, coaching exchange over lunch. You have exactly three lunches to give the help you can…and get the help you need.   

And that was that. And here we are. As we build this movement, and engage others in the conversation, we’re writing a book to introduce friend-to-friend coaching as an easy, valuable social tool to use during times of crisis.