I know it’s not Xmas – chill.  This elf represents the power of sticking to what you believe in and the magic that can happen when you do that.

So, this is the story of the Little Elf that Could – or better yet how Carol Aebersold was the? champion for this lovable little elf.

As with anything, the elf began with an idea.  Carol and her daughter Chandra created him to share the family tradition they loved so much with the world.  To do that, they decided to publish a book and contacted publishers.  The publishers didn’t love the idea.

“Doomed for the damaged returns bin” and “based on this committee’s expertise to this?portion of the market, your book would not see a great deal of success.”- they wrote in rejection letters she received.

Now, let me ask, if YOU received such rejection by authority figures – would you keep on going?  Or would you let others stop you cold?

Well, Carol and her daughter didn’t stop.  They stuck to their beliefs and self-published their book and had the little elf doll created to go along with it.

And, once they did all that, they then had to had to market them as well.  It didn’t just become an instant hit.   They began with a book signing in which they invited 200 people.  That was just the beginning of an intense marketing campaign in which they worked tirelessly to share their little elf with the world.

They didn’t quit when it got hard, they didn’t let other people’s discouraging  comments stop them.  They didn’t give up.

And, it paid off.

Today – the Elf on the Shelf is a multi-million dollar brand. That’s a true testament to the power of sticking up for your dream.

Congratulations Carol and team on your accomplishment!!  You’re my inspiration of the day.

If you’ve ever had anyone shoot down your dreams, tell me about it in the comments, I’d love to hear your story.

in 1973 Secretariat won the Triple Crown – The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness
and the Belmont Stakes.  That alone should have proved he had the X Factor, right?
Except the X Factor is more than that.  The X Factor means achieving celebrity
in a way that makes you stand out and be remembered.

And, he gave anyone who watched him race something to talk about.  In the Derby and
The Preakness he broke from the gate in last place, and he only started to challenge
the lead horse after the last turn.  He had to come from last place and pass every horse
on the track to win it.

He actually ran each 1/4 mile faster than the previous, he was speeding up as the
other horses were slowing down.

And, that was truly amazing to watch.  Secretariat didn’t take the lead until 3/4
of the way around the track and not only did he take the lead – he won by
almost 3 lengths.  And he was running on his own – no whip, the jockey
had both hands on the reins.

And, then with 2 of the Triple Crown races won – it was time for the Belmont.  The stakes
were unbelievably high.  This was his race to lose, and anything can happen in
horse racing.  In the Belmont, there were only 4 other horses even entered.
Secretariat didn’t break last as he usually did, he broke out in first and stayed
there until the first turn when he was overtaken by Sham for a couple of seconds.

Then Secretariat turned on the gas and he never lost the lead again.  He was ahead
by one length, then two, then four.   In the home stretch, the camera had to pull back
to show that he wasn’t running the race alone – he was almost 1/16th of a mile ahead
of the 4 other horses.  At that point, Secretariat wasn’t racing against the other
horses, he was racing into history, winning the 1 1/2 mile race in just 2 minutes 24 seconds.

Not only did Secretariat win the Triple Crown – but he shattered the track record and set his own for each race.

And, that is the X Factor at work.

What can you learn from this?  Use your natural talent to it’s best ability.
Stand out from the pack.  With each 1/4 mile, Secretariat pushed himself harder, he ran
faster, he was racing against himself to see how fast he could go.  Do the same.  Better your
best.

Run YOUR race, don’t look back, and don’t race against others.

It’s always fun to meet people that you’ve only met virtually
in person – I’m looking forward to that.

And, of course am looking forward to meeting new friends
and potential business partners as that’s one of the main
purposes of this fantastic event.

I will update from the floor of JV Alert Live – here and
on Twitter and/or Facebook.

I mean, the whole point to being a contestant is to get hired, right?

Ok, now that is out of the way.  Here’s my main takeaway from his book, “Think Big and Kick
Ass”.

Focus on the solution, not on the problem.

That is game changing, and it has been for me, these past few weeks.  I realized that I had
been focusing on problems.  This is not very productive and just keeps you pissed off and
frustrated.  I’m a big believer in the “what you focus attention to grows” theory.  So, that
was a lot of energy misdirected.

In the past month I’ve been focusing ONLY on solutions.  What a difference.  My mind
is now coming up with strategies to solve my problems.  I see opportunities where none
existed before.  I’ve learned to believe that there is ALWAYS a way to make what you
want happen.

Just don’t give up and always keep looking for solutions.

Donald J. Trump – thank you, you’re hired as one of my new mindset mentors.

If you don’t believe in your self, then who else is going to?  Hmmmm?

So, how do you kick your self-doubt to the curb and put a lid on those
nagging “who the heck are you to think you can do that” voices that keep
you playing small in the world?  Drum Roll…..

The answer is simple, but it’s not easyYou just decide you’re the balls.  And then you live into that decision every moment
every second of every day.  That’s it.  Because, honestly – you are the balls – really.

You will find that some people won’t like you because of that.  Now, before you go
boo-hooing to yourself about them – turn it around.  Tell yourself it’s THEIR loss
and you just go on your merry way being who you are.

Something magical will happen.  People will be drawn to you – confidence is like
a magnet.

As the great Dr. Seuss said so beautifully – “Be who you are and say what you feel because
those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

‘Nuff said.

Since you’ve dropped by – can you leave me a comment to let me know you’re here?

And, there’s a saying that it can’t buy happiness either.

So, WTF?

The truth about money is…

It can only buy stuff.

Then what’s the point of this blog post?

Well, I’m not raging on money, I believe it’s your right to attract as much of it to you as you like and enjoy everything it brings.

But, on the flip side, and there’s always a flip side.

The real trick to being happy, blissfully, joyfully happy is to be able to be happy without money or stuff or anything. That’s the key to lifelong happiness.

If you depend on anything, did I say anything in the outside world to bring hapiness to you

then you’re constantly at risk of losing that happiness if circumstances cause you to have

less money or stuff.

As Marci Shimoff brilliantly writes – be Happy for No Reason.

Try it. Put a smile on your face even if your outside circumstances make you

want to flip the world two fingers and throw yourself a pity party.

Sure, you can go through life moaning about your glass being half empty – or you can pull a smile out of every experience.

Which one do you think would feel better?

If you think I’m full of crap – please feel free to leave a comment. Or, if I gave you a different perspective would you hit the comment button?

Either way – I’d really love to hear from you.

The sun always knew of his perfection
So he decided to give Moon some of his reflection
Moon didn’t mind, he was to simple to know
And when Sun shone on him, he started to glow

Moon was just being used to give Sun a smile
But, they got along pretty well for a while
The people on Earth liked the glow of Moon at night
But he wasn’t unique, just a mirror of Sun’s light

Then one fateful day, Sun slipped and fell in Moon’s path
And now Moon was free to take out his wrath
When Moon went round next on one of his trips
He put Sun in a phase we call Total Eclipse

Sun was blocked out and could not shine on Earth
Thought he tried and he tried for all he was worth
Sun pleaded with moon to get a move on, get going
So they struck up a deal which we all wound up knowing

The Sun still eclipses to this very day
All because he slipped and fell in Moons way
So, no matter how unimportant you think you are
Remember the poem about the Moon and the Star.

I’d love to hear what you think about this poem.  Leave

me a comment to let me know!!

]]> http://leeannprice.com/2010/11/you-are-important-a-poem/feed/ 0 http://leeannprice.com/2010/08/life-aint-all-sunshine-and-rainbows/ http://leeannprice.com/2010/08/life-aint-all-sunshine-and-rainbows/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:14:38 +0000 Lee Ann http://leeannprice.com/?p=216 The title of this post was from Rocky 6.  It’s one of my favorite scenes from the film.
Rocky is telling his son that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, sometimes crap
happens.  But, instead of blaming other people for the bad things in your life,
you just keep moving on and dealing with it yourself.  Because losers blame others
for their circumstances and he doesn’t want to believe his son is a loser.

Great scene – great message.  No blame – take responsibility for your life and
you’ll figure a way out of the crap.  Blame others and you’re doomed to have things
stay crappy because by blaming others you’re giving up control.  And, if you give up
control, you’ll wait for outside circumstances to change your life instead of vice-versa.
Like it will just get better when the economy turns around, or it’s those politicians
fault.  Or it’s the weather – who can concentrate when it’s so hot, or it’s, well, let’s face
it.  You can always blame someone or something when something doesn’t go your way.

But, think about this for a second.  If it was the economy, or those politicians, or the weather
then why doesn’t it affect everybody?  Why isn’t everyone in a bad way?  Because if those things
were really to blame, how could the economy pick which people were going to suffer?  So,then if
just a few or a lot of people are doing ok in this economy – then the economy isn’t to blame.

There are always going to be highs and lows to life, rainbows will follow storms, Winters will
melt into Spring.  It’s up to you to take responsibility for what is going on in your life that
you don’t like and do something about it.  Don’t blame and don’t throw a pity party.

Here’s something interesting.

Don’t wait for change – you have to be the change – and then everything changes.

That may not make sense until you do it.

So, the next time you want to blame some outside circumstance, stop, and think
of something, even a little thing that you could do to change how you respond to
that circumstance.

When you stop blaming it puts you in action. You start looking for solutions instead of sitting
on your butt pointing fingers.  And, as we know from school, something set in motion,
will keep on moving, then you build up momentum, and things really start happening.

One idea will lead to another.  Not all of them will work, but some will.

I’ll leave you with this thought.

Instead of blaming what was going on in Germany for her situation in her diary,

Anne Frank wrote “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before
starting to improve the world.”  Wow.  Was she a victim or a heroine?  Hmmmmmm.

Go ahead. Try it.  And let me know how it works for you.

Now what?

Well, first, what does this challenge have to do with marketing and business.  My blog is also about business – (or at least it’s supposed to be – I’ve got to add more business/marketing posts).

Anyway, it has everything to do with it because if you own a business – you are the driving force behind it.  You create the vision for your business and if you’re thinking small – then your business will remain small.  And, if you work for someone else, well, you’re not going to stretch yourself to rise higher – if you’re playing small in the universe between your ears.

So. I hope that answers the question.

You CAN be, do or have anything you want for yourself AND your business when your thoughts are aligned with your vision and you take action towards your vision everyday.

Today being New Years Day – I thought it the perfect time to start practicing an attitude. An attitude of gratitude.

Take 15 minutes today and make a list of 20 things that you’re grateful for in your life right now. big or small – whatever you can come up with.  If you live in a house – there are hundreds of things to be grateful for with just that, such as hot and cold running water when you want it, a refrigerator with food in it, a warm, cozy bed – you get the idea.

The point is – if your present situation isn’t exactly as you would like it to be – it’s still important to feel good about what you have now.  Because if you don’t appreciate what you have now – why should you get anything else on top of that?

Would you keep giving an ungrateful child more and more gifts?

Until tomorrow…