Post Oscar....Could You Be the Next Big Thing?

Best Actress Academy Awards (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

   The gowns were outstanding and the pomp and effects, dazzling. Last night the 85th Academy Awards gave the famous Oscars to the actors, directors, cinematographers, costume designers and all those                                 who made the wonderful entertainment we enjoy possible.

    Looking at the amazing men and women who were nominated and those who earned the honor of bringing home an Oscar seems like a fairytale coming true. We imagine how fabulous it must be to earn so much money for doing something these individuals love doing. They have the "good life" because that is what is shown yet the back story, the work behind the scenes, the countless rejections and the low paying jobs held to just survive while hoping to make it to the big time are not mentioned.

    Sure, there are the famous actors and actresses whose parents got their foot in the door, but for many, having their dream come true took incredibly hard work and a lot of personal sacrifice and often years and years of patience and persistence.

    Fifteen years ago, Tom Hanks was working in Cleveland, Ohio in the lead role of the Taming of the Shrew for a Shakespearean Festival. George Clooney, even with a famous aunt, cleaned theaters,cut tobacco and worked construction jobs to pay for acting lessons. Ellen Degeneres worked at a carwash.Vince Vaughn worked as a telemarketer. Amy Adams worked at Hooters and Brad Pitt stood on the corner of Sunset Boulevard in a chicken costume advertising a fast food restaurant. Sidney Poitier was told to stop wasting people's time and become a dishwasher at his first audition. Harrison Ford was told he didn't have what it took to be an actor and Oliver Stone dropped out of school, taught English in Vietnam and

Sidney Poitier (Photo credit: michellerlee)

 then enlisted in the service and earned two purple hearts before he ever got near a director's chair.

   So, maybe you ARE the next big thing. Maybe that idea or plan or vision is really going to change the world but eight now maybe nothing you are doing seems like you will ever be living your dream, achieving your goal or making your mark in the world. Keep one factor in mind...IF you GIVE UP, you are right. The only way to achieve a dream is to keep going despite the rejections, despite the roadblocks and despite the things you might currently have to do.

   If you don't believe in yourself you will find it difficult or perhaps even impossible to convince someone else to believe in your dream. Maybe you haven't won your Oscar yet, maybe your best performance is yet to come or maybe it would just be nice to be recognized in a field among your peers for whatever talent you own. Regardless of what your goal is, you can be sure it will take hard work, sacrifice, disappointment, mistakes and rejections to get it right. That's what makes one successful; the stuff behind the scenes that make us who we are.

    Maybe you are living the back story no one knows. Maybe you are overwhelmed by rejections and disappointments, stuck in a place you think could never get you to your dream. Keep seeing yourself holding your prize, getting your shot, being discovered, but don't just dream; start to work on whatever you want to accomplish, bit by bit, step by step and stay focused on that goal, regardless ,and you will be able to someday say thank you to all the people and circumstances that made you a winner. 

You will be able to figuratively hear, "...and the award goes to______" and know it all paid off.

What do you see yourself accomplishing on your vision board?
What has been the most difficult part of realizing your "next big thing?"

I'd love to help you or your group get your ideas off the ground. Check out my  speaking topics 
and let me know how I can help you ignite your idea and please sign up for my  newsletter  


Want to join others who are trying to launch their ideas?
Register for CALLED WOMAN 2013...I'll see you there and help you get started!!

Related articles

• 8 Reasons You Really Want To Win An Oscar
• 14 things you (probably) didn't know about the Oscars

Now What Do I Do? 5 Steps Toward Sowing for Growing

Speaking to groups, over the past several years, I found there is one recurring question that inevitably comes up when people discover their passion; "How do I grow my passion?"  I think it takes just a bit of "sowing seeds" no different than if you were trying to grow a vegetable or flower garden. 

If you begin to see your ideas as seeds and think of your desination as a garden, you can begin to take the steps to having a green thumb or in this case a successful product. We will look at how this applies to three different ideas: opening a cupcake bakery, writing a book or becoming a golfer just as examples.

#1 GATHER YOUR RESOURCES

 Before you plant, you might look at where you want to plant your garden and determine if the area will get enough or too much sun, if the soil needs to be conditioned first or if you need additional nutrients. You look at the seed packet to see what the directions say for best results and you look at your idea and determine what the ideal situation would be for best results.

 If you are planning on baking cupcakes that means looking at your ingredients and bakeware and determining if you have the right equipment, for someone who wants to write a book, that might mean making sure you have a journal, computer, even a pad and pencil handy when you think of ideas and making a list of all the things you would enjoy writing about and for the aspiring golfer, that might mean buying some used clubs and getting some golf balls.

A tray used in horticulture (for sowing and taking plant cuttings) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#2 PLANT
You can't grow seeds without putting them into some ground. You might want to start small and grow them indoors or take your chances on just digging outside. But you will have to plant the seeds somewhere to ever have anything that resembles a garden. So, you will have to start your ideas, either on a small scale or perhaps just digging into the idea and beginning to work at growing it to get it off the ground.

For the person who wants to run a cupcake bakery that means BAKING.
For the person who wants to write a book that means WRITING
For the person who wants to become better at golfing, that means HITTING SOME BALLS.

REMEMBER...NO SOW, NO GROW

#3 WATER 
Great gardens require a little extra effort to continue to produce blooms. What nature doesn't naturally provide you will have to! You need to make the situation as ideal as possible for the best results.

If you have been getting some positive responses from family and friends, consider looking into other venues to spread your goodies around. Look at the local ordinances that govern selling food products and see if you can begin to offer your cupcakes to bed and breakfasts, specialty shops, caterers etc. If you have started writing think about sharing your thoughts with a blog, or even submitting articles to magazines or periodicals. If you have been going to the driving range and hitting some golf balls, start to think about playing nine holes on a beginner's course.


#4 WEED and FEED
Even the most abundant garden must be weeded, protected from insects that sabotage growth and fertilized to be stronger. Maybe this means, taking some classes in baking or business at the local community college or learning more about preservatives, cooking for special needs, presentation of foods. Like the weeds in the garden, the weak spots in writing can be eliminated by taking some classes or even joining writer's groups and having your writing critiqued and learning about character development, editing and publishing. By now, it might be time to take a few golfing lessons to work on a technique that helps "weed out" the problem areas so you can become a more consistent golfer and you may want to start thinking about getting some clubs specialized for you!

#5 SHARE YOUR ABUNDANCE
Think about how special offering someone without a garden a basket full of fresh vegetables or a vase full of beautiful blooms would be. Same with your products. Think about who might be wanting to receive your baked goods as a monthly treat. Perhaps you can become the official cupcake baker for a once monthly office luncheon, or nursing home treat or you can affiliate with someone to take treats into a local shelter regularly. Affiliate with a cause you are passionate about and write an article for their blog or website to help further their mission or consider offering to help mentor some students become better writers. Maybe you could participate in a charity golf event where how you golf isn't as important as raising money and you could enjoy the day while contributing to a great cause. What about organizing a golf event to help someone who could use the proceeds to defray a personal expense?


                       
                     ENJOY THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR.
When the price of fresh fruits and vegetables is skyrocketing, you can enjoy an array of goodies from your own back yard or sit and enjoy the beautiful flowers you helped grow. Now you can do the same with the "idea" seeds you planted.

It's time to open that cupcake bakery, write that book or join that golf team and see how your seeds have managed to grow. You will still need to continue to plant, water, weed and feed and share but you will also be able to enjoy knowing you CAN GROW SOMETHING SPECIAL.

www.freshcupcakes.com

So, what do you do next after you have an idea?
Investigate Your Resources
Plant
Water
Weed and Feed
Share Your Abundance 

And repeat, and repeat and repeat for amazing growth.
Yes, sometimes there are disasters that wipe out gardens and you have to start over.
Guess what? Once you have succeeded, you can always plant again.
So get sowing!!

So how is YOUR garden growing? What do you need to do to make it more productive?


I'd love to help you or your group get your ideas off the ground. Check out my  speaking topics 
and let me know how I can help you ignite your idea and please sign up for my  newsletter  


Want to join others who are trying to launch their ideas?
Register for CALLED WOMAN 2013...I'll see you there and help you get started!!

How You Can Use Your Words To Save A Life

No one wants to hear the facts. It's the kind of information you want to just close your eyes to and pray will disappear. Few want to share the stories and hear the tragic endings for so many victims, but I want to tell them, because it is just as much of a crime to know and do nothing about it.

I will be posting regularly on this blog information about Human Trafficking. When I first heard about it maybe some 8 or 9 years ago, I thought it might have been blown way out of proportion particularly about the trafficking that is taking place in the United States on a regular basis. I was so very wrong. Information can't be shared too often. This is a heinous crime going on under many people's noses.

Children, sometimes as young as 12, taken from malls, schools, sometimes oblivious to what their future will hold, sometimes responding to an offer for a better chance, clueless to what is really going to happen.

Just a few days ago, there was a major raid in Georgia and another in Florida involving teachers who assisted in abducting children for trafficking purposes. Teachers!

You can be blind by choice but that will not make this disgusting crime disappear. The only way to resolve this problem is to be part of something bigger that is addressing it and making a difference.

That's way I am on the Exodus Road blogging team, because this organization is on the ground providing surveillance teams and rescue operations for victims of human trafficking through its coalition with numerous operatives whose purpose is to bring those involved in this crime to trial and rescue the victims whose lives have been hijacked by these monsters.

What can you do? Volunteer to help. Get your friends, family, organization to help purchase a camera for surveillance missions, read everything you can to educate yourself about the facts, laws and where you can get involved locally in your community to make a difference...then share what you know with everyone you can.

Because no neighborhood, no community, no one is safe from this crime. You might think it does not occur in your backyard, but the statistics say you are so wrong and that is just the tip of the shocking truth.

Related articles

• Crackdown On Human Trafficking In SC Coming Soon
• The Exodus Road

What Ruby Shoes and Glass Slippers Have to Do With Your Success

Cropped screenshot of Judy Garland from the trailer for the film The Wizard of Oz. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shoes do matter. Ask any woman. Dorothy and Cinderella knew it was all about the shoes and it's the same with anyone who wants to achieve a dream, wants to get a passion started, wants to be a princess or simply wants to go back to Auntie Em's.

Cinderella didn't recognize her beauty and while she had her daydreams, she remained reluctantly subservient to her nasty step-sisters. Her luck changed when her fairy godmother arrived on the scene, presented her with her famous glass slippers and gave her a chance to see  a sliver of the good life on the other side of her bucket and mop. She didn't go looking for her glass slipper when it was lost, but resigned herself to just wishing that wonderful life would blessedly come to pass once again. It was a rags to riches and back to rags story with a happy ending because the handsome prince arrived to save the day...glass slipper in hand. Yep, she was LUCKY!

Dorothy on the other hand, tightly held on to that basket filled with her little dog Toto and was undeterred trying to get to the Wizard. On the way, Dorothy met no fairy god-mother but only other unfortunate souls searching for parts of their whole as well. She befriended each one insisting there was hope at the end of the journey for each of them. She obtained her "power" from the feet of one of her obstacles, the bad witch. When she met the Wizard, she realized he was nothing more than a fraud but instead of disappointment, she believed the Good Witch who assured her she did not need a Wizard to get back home but had the power all along in those ruby shoes. Oh yeah, she was DETERMINED.

Okay, I am taking some license with these fairytales, yet this is often how people see their lot in life. Some, like Cinderella believe things will only change when they get lucky and their fairy godmother arrives to give them what they need to catch a glimpse of the good life, while others set out on their own, facing the obstacles and looking for open doors and if the opportunities are not what they expect they tap their shoes together, keep believing and move on in the direction of their dreams.

It makes a huge difference whether you view your circumstances from Dorothy or Cinderella's shoes. While people are blessed with luck and fortune every day, waiting until your "fairy godmother" shows up to change your circumstances is a long shot. Dorothy knew each day you spend waiting for your luck to arrive is one day less you could already be "home". She ventured out on her own and in the process learned she was not alone, discovering she had more abilities than she once imagined.

One thing I know is that YOU are not alone. Everyday there are countless individuals going after their passion, living their dream and it started because they went looking for it. 
You can wait, dream and hope you have a fairy godmother to get you to the ball and a handsome prince that will find your matching glass slipper and rescue your dream when it's about to be over or...


You can look at what you already have to get you where you want to be and start tapping those ruby shoes together to get you on your way.

Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, 1938 Sixteen-year-old Judy Garland wore these sequined shoes as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is no place like "home", when your passion is waiting for you there.

So what shoes do you want to be wearing?


Kathy Brunner is an author, speaker and branding specialist. She helps people discover their passions and move from burned out to fired up. 

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