The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘books that impact’

Invisible Mentor: Shannon Moroney, Author, Advocate & Speaker

Website: http://www.shannonmoroney.com/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Shannon Moroney:  I’m the author of a book that just came out titled Through the Glass. It’s my memoir of a personal experience as a victim of crime but moreover of the spouse of an offender and the journey through the justice system. I’m based in Toronto, and I travel all over the place doing public speaking and putting some of my efforts into restorative justice.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Shannon Moroney: It’s a challenge! I think so much of my professional life is personal because it is about sharing my story. When I go to do a speaking engagement I always bring somebody with me who is just for me – my husband, my mom, my dad, a friend – and that brings everyone together so that I’m not alone with my experiences. When I go out and speak to a community group or work in a prison, somebody is there with me just to share it, and to debrief afterwards and that’s a really wonderful thing and I I’m lucky can do that. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Shannon Moroney: I spend it doing the things I want to do, and spend it with people who I love to be with. The work that I do is very emotional and involves a lot of output so I really have to focus my downtime on recharging my batteries. I love to cook. I like to do yoga. I can’t wait until I’m not pregnant so that I can really exercise again – that would be good. I try to do things that are a pleasure, relaxing. Definitely the most helpful and grounding activity for me, other than spending time with my loved ones is doing creative work, whether it’s painting or knitting or making a photo album, something that involves creativity is a really grounding force for me.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Shannon Moroney:

1. Know yourself. Act within your own values else you’ll be very uncomfortable.
2. Prioritize the people in your life over possessions and work.
3. The days sometimes go by slowly but the years go by quickly, and it’s good to embrace what you have every day because you don’t know how quickly it can change. I was grateful before this trauma happened I was somebody who was quite aware, and appreciated my life. When the life I knew suddenly came to an end, I knew that I hadn’t wasted any time before that happened.
4. Let people talk about you, sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, and other times you have to try not to take things personally, because most people when they criticize, they are coming from where they’re at in their own lives.
5. Be compassionate and hope that the compassion you show for other people, and the understanding and trying to put your feet in somebody else’s shoes is what you can expect from other people, and that you’ll be shown that same compassion.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Shannon Moroney: Success is a generalized feeling of positivity, of the right combination of purpose, fulfilling your purpose that you define for yourself, and having people around to share it with. For me, that’s really important. We use the word balance a lot these days, and I think it’s important to try to achieve the right balance of work and play, volunteering and having time for yourself – that’s a good formula to try to achieve. It’s different for every person.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Shannon Moroney:

1. Frida Kahlo, the Mexican self-portrait artist. I would thank her for being an example of someone who could be open to the pain she was in, and not try to make it pretty. She’s not trying to please anybody but herself through her artwork, and in so doing, impacted a lot of people.
2. I’d love to meet Lucille Ball just because in my family whenever anyone was feeling sick, the solution was always to eat cinnamon toast and watch I Love Lucy, so I feel like she is a member of my family.
3. There are some authors that I’d like to meet and have dinner with. But mostly I would be very nervous about what I would say to them. I would listen to what they have to say to me and not do too much of the talking myself. Authors I admire are Barbara Kingsolver and Jeannette Walls who wrote a fantastic memoir called The Glass Castle and Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote all the Anne of Green Gables books because I feel the values she puts forward in her books, as I read them as a young girl, impacted how I grew. The character of Anne shaped who I wanted to be – how she was different from other people, coped with her own frustrations. All those authors are people I’d like to thank for what they give, and for giving me a story or a book I can read and learn so much from.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Shannon Moroney: There are many books but I’ll say The Catcher in the Rye even though I haven’t read it for years and years. At the time, I was 16 or 17 when I read it and the main character Holden Caulfield, I felt that I understood him and the actual catcher in the rye is a person that all they want to do is stand on the edge of a cliff and save all the little children who are playing, from falling over the edge of the cliff.

When I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager, I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do in the world was to keep the little children from falling over the cliff, so much so that I wrote that as my ambition in my yearbook, my career ambition. By becoming a teacher, by working with young people who’ve experienced violence, and by finally becoming a mother myself, my passion is for children and young people and trying to keep them away from the dangers, and allow them to grown and fully be themselves. I hold that to the main character Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Shannon Moroney:

Two Years

If there is anyway I could bring my guitar with me, I would because the guitar is the best travel companion. I would try to build a connection with nature around me, observe and get involved with the natural life rather than try to fight it, and look for ways to survive and realize that everything I need would be around me.

I would also spend a lot of my time crying, I’m sure, because I’m a very social, outgoing person, very extroverted, and that would be the number one hardest thing about being on my own, would be not having other people around me.

Five Books

1. I would take a really long book that I have never read before, something really hard like War and Peace, something that would make me a better person. I have actually lived in some very isolated places where you read anything because there is nothing else to do so it’s a good way to get through hard books.
2. I would take some of my favourites that I can really escape into. I would take something like Anne of Green Gables: The Collection, or Little Women (Sterling Classics) – these classic books from my childhood that I could escape and love.
3. I would take one of my favourite Buddhist books of literature, which is The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Shambhala Library) by Pema Chodron because I think that would give me guidance as I coped with being on this isolated island.
4. I’d take a Barbara Kingsolver book, maybe Prodigal Summer: A Novel or the The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel. These are the kinds of books that each time you read them you get more so it would be okay to reread them.

Movie & Music CD

For music I would take the Indigo Girls, the album that has “Closer to Fine” (Indigo Girls) which has been a staple of my life. I’m not a big movie person, but it would probably be Little Women. I don’t watch new movies all the time, but Little Women is one I like to watch every year and I feel so comforted. I think where I’m going for this life on the island is for comfort and security and not new or scary or anything like that.

Indigo Girls – Closer To Fine

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by IndigoGirlsVEVO on Oct 25, 2009

Little Women (1933) – Trailer

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by warnervod on Jun 13, 2011

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Shannon Moroney: Possibilities, the opportunity to travel, the growth I have in my relationships. I’m at a wonderful point of new beginnings with my new husband, with our children about to be born. There are a lot of things. I feel so lucky to have the life that I do, to have the perspective that I do, to have come through such a horrible situation. I feel very lucky to live in Canada, very lucky for the opportunities that I have. I’m very lucky for my education and all of those things make life a lot easier, and it’s something that lots of people in the world don’t have, is the opportunity even just to dream and get excited about life because work and daily survival is so important.

For me, even though I lost my ability to dream for a while when I was just having to survive day-to-day and make all these difficult decisions that when I finally emerged and got back that ability to dream and have hope, it’s a wonderful experience. So lots of things excite me about life, and I hope it’s long.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Shannon Moroney: Connecting with nature is the number one thing for me. Usually if I see myself coming off balance because I haven’t spent enough time in and around trees, connecting with the beautiful wilderness that we have in Canada. But I do live in a big city so I also have little practices that I do that offer me a chance to reflect, whether it’s lighting a candle, burning some sage, or just sitting quietly is very important to me. And my soul is nurtured so much by other people and by being around the people who I love.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Shannon Moroney: I would wish for more compassion in our world – that’s the number one thing I could think of, less judgement and more compassion.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Shannon Moroney: I’m happy when I’m with the people I love.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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“No matter how much it rains, or how much it pours, the sun will always shine again. It may not be today or it may not be tomorrow, but it will shine.” Joann Lim

Invisible Mentor: Joann Lim, Making It Happen Specialist & Professional Coach

Company Name: Big Picture Fine Focus

Website: http://www.bigpicturefinefocus.com/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Joann Lim:  I’m a connoisseur of life and a make-it-happen specialist. I’m a lover of all things food and world travel.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Joann Lim: Most of the time it’s fairly synergised in the sense that what I do professionally comes into my life personally. The context and the discussions pieces that I have with clients are things I internalize as well. I often give make-it-happen opportunities in my client sessions, and they are pieces that I would never give somebody that I wasn’t willing to do myself. Part of my work is to help people grow within themselves, to have a deeper connection to their lives and to others, by having a deeper connection with themselves.

My work is simply an extension of who I am personally and the more I am as a person the more I am able to offer, the more enriching my professional life becomes. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Joann Lim: I love to travel. I love seeing the world. I think it’s one of the best and most nurturing ways to learn about people and life. I love spending it with family and friends – the people who inspire me, and help me to see things from a different perspective. I love cooking, for me it’s a freedom of expression and creativity, taking ingredients and making it into something of value, of nutrients of nurturing. It’s just a wonderful experience. The last part is just having quiet time. I think that it’s in the silence that I get inspired the most.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Joann Lim:

1. To truly embrace life we must be willing to face death. And face death in the sense of coming to terms with what death means to us, and how it’s going to impact our lives, and how we may live life differently.
2. To be completely free, I have to be completely me. We embrace who we are and take responsibility for our lives, and then we can experience true freedom.
3. Richness and abundance is available to all of us. There are a lot of people who think materialistically, which isn’t abundance that stems from within, and it’s when we have that attitude and perspective that everything in our lives becomes more valuable, meaningful, richer and more abundant.
4. Let love rule! Love is the ultimate power in our lives. As human beings we have the capacity to love and be loved, and it’s when we open ourselves up, when we’re vulnerable, when we’re willing to give the very best that we can that we truly set ourselves up to receive the very best that life has to offer.
5. Laugh! Life is not that serious. Have fun, and for some people it may be scheduling fun. If you need to do that, then that’s great. Life isn’t meant to be serious, we’re meant to have a great time. Make it a point to celebrate each day. Find time to make “now” moments “wow” moments because this is your life. Make it one of purpose, meaning, richness and amazingness. Celebrate each day and have fun.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Joann Lim: I listen to a play list every day, it called my big picture play list, and it has artists of all genres that inspire me. Just listening to their words, and the way they communicate truly inspires me. It’s in reading all sorts of different books. Dr Seuss is probably one of my favourite, and sometimes even just looking at a blank journal. Seeing a blank page and having colourful markers in front of me, that’s sometimes all I need to just let loose and be free.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Joann Lim: “Dying is an inevitable consequence of life, living is man’s privilege.” In that quotation we are challenged or invited to think of living as no longer an obligation of “I have to,” but it’s a privilege of “I get to.”

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Joann Lim: Make success part of the journey. If success is the journey, every day will be a success. Love what you do, give everything that you have, give your best every single day, and you will set yourself up to have the very best that life has to offer.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Joann Lim:

1. Identified what success meant to me. To make success meaningful to me I needed to understand how I defined it.
2. Asking myself what it would look like to give my best to the world.
3. How can I be more completely me? And that ties into the step above. How can I give more to this world? What do I need to give my best?
4. Sharing, sharing with everybody. Sharing honestly and authentically. Just being me with the people around me. Be willing to be vulnerable, sharing the ups and the downs. And beyond that, giving them a space to be completely them.
5. Perseverance – to not let one closed door end the dream. More often than not, one closed door results in another amazing door to open. Embrace opportunities as they come, and maximize very ounce of who you are, everything you know and everybody you know, take them along the journey, and the journey will be a success.

Joann Lim:

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Joann Lim:

1. Jesus Christ
2. Mahatma Gandhi
3. Mother Teresa
4. Pope John Paul
5. Dr Seus

The question I would ask is, on the days that you may have not felt good enough, what pulled you forward? What helped you to keep going, what inspired you, and what pulled you to the next level?

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Joann Lim: One of the books that had the most profound impact on my life was a journal that was written personally to me. It took place over the course of a year, and this person as opposed to writing a journal recounting things to him, he did it to me – he wrote it to me. There is only one in this entire world and I have it. it was beautiful because this person wrote this intentionally for me, sharing in an experience from a different perspective, and it is something that I will always hold close.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Joann Lim:

Two Years

You know what, I actually don’t know how I’d spend my two years. I was thinking to take each day as it comes. I’d spend a lot of time reflecting, exploring, and just being in the moment. There is a great saying that says, “Man plans and God laughs.” We can plan all we want to the nth degree, but more often than not, it’s not the way it happens. So it’s embracing the here and now and making use of every moment, and giving my best into every moment.

Five Books

1. Blank journal: For the inspiration, for the empowerment, for anything that came to mind.
2. SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions by Rainn Wilson from The Office: It’s really a fun book, but has all sorts of questions that probe deeper, let us challenge who we are, that help make meaning in our lives.
3. Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Collection #1 (Your Favorite Seuss (58 Volume Set)): A large book that has 12 of his most famous books. They are fun and inspiring.
4. Daily Readings from Love Your Life by Victoria Osteen: She is a spark plug from Houston, Texas, who speaks with passion and vigor, and has a zest for life. She is someone who women can learn from.
5. The journal that was written especially to me. It’s a reminder of how somebody feels for you, how somebody sees things, and what it means to care for somebody, and what it means to create a customized experience for someone.

Movie & Music CD

My one movie would be Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. It’s a fun movie that I could watch over and over again. And for the CD, I would take the Grace. They are an amazing group from South Africa, and when they sing it is like fire works in the sky, it’s magical, it’s an amazing thing when voices come together and produce such beauty and harmony and giftedness. It’s incredible, and I encourage anybody who has a chance to hear them sing to please check them out – they are amazing.

Something’s Gotta Give – Trailer

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by TheMovieSceneUK on Jul 20, 2010

Soweto Gospel Choir – Amazing Grace (Most beautiful version!!)

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by scutter4christ on Mar 4, 2009

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Joann Lim: The potential of it. There is so much to experience and so much joy to be had. The potential is truly outstanding, and I think it’s when we embrace what life has to offer with very little attachment to the outcome, life is amazing. It’s an adventure, and it becomes like a maze where we don’t necessarily know where we’re going to go next, but at the end, we know where we’re going to be.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Joann Lim: Surround myself with amazing people, spend quiet time with my Heavenly Father, reading great books, spending time with mentors, and showing up every day. And not just showing up, but asking myself what I need to do to give my best, and to do it – to really give everything that I have, everything that I am, everything that I know to each and every day are the best ways I know to nurture my soul.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Joann Lim: The group of people I would use it on are the people who feel most alone in this world, the people who have never been told that they matter, those are the people I would use this wish on. To let them know that they do matter, to let them know that they are loved, and no matter how dark it may seem, there is light and to offer them that glimmer of hope to remind them that you matter and there is more to life than what they have experienced.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Joann Lim: I’m happy when the sun is shining. I’m happy when I’m surrounded by people who I love, care about, and am fascinated by. I’m happy when I’m giving the world the very best that I have.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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Invisible Mentor: Miranda Vande Kuyt

Website: http://mirandavandekuyt.wordpress.com

Avil Beckford: In a couple of sentences, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Miranda Vande Kuyt: I am a mother of three kids, married to a youth pastor, and have been working in the career development field for the past 10 years. I am an eager overachiever person, and I consider myself a renaissance personality – I do a little bit of everything and whenever I need to learn something new, I go and learn it. Right now, since 2006, I coordinate a lot of blogs for different companies. Most of them are in the career development field so I write, but I also take people who don’t know how to write, and coach them on how to become better writers. I spend a lot of time doing that and I also facilitate an e-course on self-employment for a company, and I’m a student advisor for a career development company, Life Strategies.  I just finished editing a suite of curriculum for another company, and they are all in career development. I’m working in the field but I’m not necessarily a career coach right now, I’m in the middle of branding and figuring out what I want my business to be.

Part Three: Life

Avil Beckford: Describe a major challenge that you have had in life and how you resolved it. What lessons did you learn in the process?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: When I decided to have kids, I had to figure out a way to make an income. My supervisor at the company I was working for gave me a big break because he suggested that I take part of my job, which was running a little youth employment website. I took that part of my job with me and did it by contract from home and I quickly realized that I couldn’t do everything myself so I got other staff members involved. That was my major challenge, how to raise a family and still stay connected to the field that I enjoy working in so much. I look at life as seasons then figure out how I am going to solve a problem. I love to solve problems and since then I have been self-employed meaning and work has always found me. I have never gone out and looked for contract work, work has always found me. This year I have decided that I want to be more intentional about my business so I’m trying to figure out what my business is going to be about, what I’m going to do and what I’m not going to do, who I’m going to do it for and who I’m not going to do it for.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: My biggest failure is that back when we first got married – I finished college and then I got married – we moved and I had to start a career, all within a couple of months. I couldn’t do it and I struggled with depression for a number of years. That consumed me that I was really lost for a number of years and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had the mindset that the world was against me. One day, that supervisor that I have mentioned a few times now, that believed so much in me, gave me an opportunity to go to a conference. Someone else was supposed to go but she got pregnant and couldn’t go, so he asked me if I wanted to go and it was presenting at Cannexus about the websites that I had been working on. It was a good idea but technically I wasn’t employed there anymore because I was home as a subcontractor for them.

When I went to the conference, I attended a session on positivity, and I learned some strategies on how to be a more positive person and probably a year or so before, I had woken up and decided that I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I wanted a different life, so I made some choices on how I went about living my life. So I would say one of my biggest challenges, I wouldn’t say failure, was depression because I had to see that the world was more than just me. I had to see that true joy comes from investing in and helping other people succeed in life using the experiences I’ve had to help other people to find their life purpose and live it out daily.

I don’t necessarily look at things as failures because I’m always trying new things and there are lots of stuff that do not work, but this is the biggest challenge because at the time it didn’t feel like a choice. It didn’t feel like something I had caused, but overcoming it was mind over matter. It got to the point where I had to choose to live, and now I take all those lessons and help other people to also find success.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: It was following my husband across the country several times. I had to decide to make his career more important than mine. We moved from British Columbia to Ontario, to British Columbia to Ontario, to British Columbia and now we live in Alberta and that led to the depression.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Miranda Vande Kuyt:

1. When I was 15, I went to a leadership summer camp and that’s where I started to make some choices about what I was going to do with life and what I valued.
2. Having kids, once I had kids, I didn’t have time to be depressed anymore because they needed me and I didn’t have time to sit down and worry about myself. I had to put myself aside and realize that they needed me more.
3. Taking the job as an admin assistant, even though it was a low paying position and it wasn’t what I wanted to do, but that’s where I met that supervisor, and his belief in me empowered me to believe in myself.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: This one is exciting. A couple years ago I won a national contest. I had to do a write-up of what my biggest “fit” challenge was in dressing myself. I had to send a full body picture of myself. I did that and forgot about it. A couple months later, I got an email that I had been chosen as a finalist for this contest. They gave each of the 12 finalists, four in each category – four petite, four regular, and four plus sizes, so I was one in four in the regular category – $200 to go to Reitman’s. The contest was between Reitman’s and Canadian Living. I had to go to Reitman’s and use the $200 to purchase three outfits, and then I had to do a write-up for three outfits and take a picture of me in those outfits and send them in.

Each week they posted the picture and the write-up then the public had to vote on who they liked the best out of those four contestants. At the end of the first week, one person was eliminated, and then they put up the second outfit and at the end of the second week another person was eliminated. In the third week there were only two people left. When I found out that I was a finalist I started researching voting campaigns to find out how I was going to win the contest. I’ve always been involved in social media, so I created a very detailed, elaborate strategy on how I was going to win this contest.

The original reason I entered, I had just started to get excited about writing and I was looking for a contest that I could write, and I came across this contest in either an email or Facebook. I wrote and I was very intentional about what I wrote in my write-ups. I wrote to the audience, and thought about how I was going to connect to the most amount of people in my write-ups. Of course my friends are going to vote for me, but I want to get other people to vote for me, so after three weeks, with a very strategic voting campaign, I won this contest.

Eighteen hundred people entered, they chose 12 finalists and I won in my category of regular size. I got a trip to Toronto, over $1,500 in clothes, accommodation at the Royal York in a suite bigger than my house, and a camera. They took us shopping and we did a photo shoot for Canadian Living magazine. I am in the November 2010 issue. I blogged about the experience on http://mirandavandekuyt.wordpress.com, so the article is also there. It was a life highlight and I did it by myself, yes I needed to get people to vote for me, but it was very cool.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Miranda Vande Kuyt:

1. Take care of yourself because it’s no one else’s job to take care of you. Make sure that you’re doing well.
2. Know your life purpose and live it out daily.
3. Say no to things that do not support you, taking care of yourself and living out your life purpose.
4. Make a plan to do the important things otherwise they won’t get done.
5. Love people because the “stuff” doesn’t really matter. Having people around you matters.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people (living or dead) that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Miranda Vande Kuyt:

1. Jesus Christ because that’s a huge part of my life.
2. Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook.
3. Billy Graham
4. Catherine Marshall who is one of my favourite authors and I read a lot of her books when I was in high school. She was married to the Chaplain to the President back in the early 1900s. She writes about her journey and I really connected with it when I was in high school because she had kids, her husband died, she struggled with depression and she got very sick and through it all she kept her faith and still knew what her life purpose was.
5. Arlene Dickinson

The question I would ask is how do you balance it all? How do you have a life, a business and a family?

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: On a regular day I would say the Bible because I read that one the most out of everything, but when I was thinking about this, I was thinking about career development, and I wrote down Happenstance (Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career), (Planned Happenstance: Making the Most of Chance Events in Your Life and Your Career) by John Krumboltz because that when I realized that I don’t have to have all the answers of how I’m getting there. He suggests that you don’t even need to know where you’re going, but you need to be moving, and you need to capitalize on opportunities. That’s what I have been doing for the past several years is to follow the opportunities, and this year I’ve decided to figure out what it is that I want from life so I’ll know what opportunities to accept.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on different deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the time? The prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million.

Miranda Vande Kuyt: The first thing I wrote is that since I have young kids I would never consider it.

Two Years

If I could, I would bring a laptop because I would spend that two years writing my story. If I ran out of things to write, I would scrapbook or if there was internet I would take courses. I would spend that time putting into that area of my life.

Five Books

1. The Bible
2. Dictionary
3. Something More by Catherine Marshall
4. The Love Dare Day by Day: Wedding Edition (The Love Dare) by Stephen Kendrick
5. Practical Grammar: A Canadian Writer’s Resource
   by Maxine Ruvinsky

Music CD & Movie

My favourite movie of all time is Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables: The Collection) because she had a challenging life and overcame it and kept her spunk. I would want to take a music CD of my dad playing guitar and singing. My dad plays and sings, and he is great. I love him.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: My kids. I love to see my kids grow, learn and become the people that they are meant to become. That’s the most exciting thing and the reason I’m doing it all is so I can spend more time with my kids.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? How do you nurture your soul?

Miranda Vande Kuyt: I journal. I don’t get to do it as much as I used to, when I was younger. I hang out with my friends and I take my kids to the park.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Miranda Vande Kuyt: I’m helping somebody else succeed.

Anne of Green Gables (Official HD Trailer)

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Happenstance

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Interviews You Might Have Missed

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Mike DeSousa
The Invisible Mentor Interviews Mike DeSousa Part Two
The Invisible Mentor Interviews Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Resume Writer, Facilitator, Public Speaker & LinkedIn Entrepreneur
The Invisible Mentor Interviews Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Resume Writer, Facilitator, Public Speaker & LinkedIn Entrepreneur Part Two
The Invisible Mentor Interviews Karen Parsons, Human Excellence Coach
The Invisible Mentor Interviews Karen Parsons, Human Excellence Coach Part Two

Interviewee Name: Diane Craig, President

Company Name: Corporate Class Inc.

Website: http://www.corporateclassinc.com/ 

To get the most from The Invisible Mentor Interview with Diane Craig, while you are reading it, answer the following questions:

1. Are their similarities between Diane Craig and yourself?
2. In what ways can you use the information?
3. In what ways would you respond differently from the interviewee?
4. What are your five takeaways from the interview?
5. After reading the interview, what is one concrete action you can take?

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Diane Craig:  I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve had my business for many years now. I love my work and I love life, I love my family and I enjoy people.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Diane Craig: I live what I preach. Whenever I can involve my family in what I do professionally, in a way that is good, in terms of whether it is travel, opportunity to speak, I make sure that I can integrate both. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Diane Craig: I love to cook and I find it very relaxing. I also read and workout.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Diane Craig:

1. Not to assume.
2. Not be as impatient as I’ve been over the years.
3. Make time to do things for myself, whether it’s a workout, going to the spa, getting a manicure, visit friends. I’m getting pretty good at that.
4. I’ve learned to support and encourage my son without telling him what to do. I let him learn by his own errors and mistakes. If he is passionate about something and I’m not too crazy about it, I may voice my concerns, but I will support him knowing that when you fall you get your biggest lessons.
5. Don’t wish for miracles, just expect them.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Diane Craig: I love to get up before dawn even if I know that I don’t have to go into the office early or if I have a day off. I have a special chair and I sit there. I meditate and just let things come to me. I have very strong faith, and I hear the messages in those times, and my best ideas, and solutions have come from those moments.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Diane Craig: For me, success is being able to go to bed at night with a clear conscience. I think that’s a successful day. And on a more practical level, I’m not a big goal setter, except that every year on January 1st, this is a ritual that I’ve had for many years, I write a life script. If everything was perfect in my life, what would it look life, what would I be doing, at all levels – personal, professional, health and family. I go through that and I record it and listen to it for the first month. And I do set some goals along with that.  I only look at them the following year, and I look back on the other years and I see how I made most of them happen. And I think it’s just the subconscious for me to put it there, and not dwell on them, but plant the seed and it gives me a focus. I guess that I’ve done that for so many years now that I don’t even think about it.

Of course you have some goals businesswise, deadlines to meet, minimum revenues to generate, but beyond that, I think that when I can plant the seed and look back later then I see where I’ve had some success and making those things happen. It’s making your dreams a reality.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Diane Craig: I was diligent in making sure that I was technically sound in my knowledge. I didn’t diversify into 20 different areas. Sometimes I look at the websites of some of my competitors and they do all sorts of different things and I don’t know how they can be an expert at all those things. I focus on all the areas of image and etiquette and building an executive presence and everything that’s related to that. So I stick with what I know and instead of working on things that I’m not very good at, I keep working on the things that I’m very good at so I can become even better at that then it makes competition a little more difficult. I focus on my strengths instead of my weaknesses.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Diane Craig: Focus on the area that you are strong in and become known as an expert in that area. Otherwise you’re going to be good at something, very good at something else, but will you be excellent, extraordinary, unique in one thing?

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Diane Craig:

1. I would love to meet Eleanor Roosevelt (Profile of Eleanor Roosevelt). She was a great conversationalist and it’s a skill that so many people lack. I’ve studied it so much and I would love to meet her.
2. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to Albert Mehrabian, the doctor who did the research in body language, but I would love to meet with him, and find out what drove him to do this study, that so many years later still stands.
3. I’d love to meet Michelle Obama.
4. I would have loved to meet Princess Diana.
5. If I could get some time with Laureen Harper, I would love that. I would ask her if she understands the power she has in the position she has in being Canada’s First Lady, and how does she thinks she contributes to our country?

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Diane Craig: It’s If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg. I wanted to walk on water in many ways, I wanted something to happen, but unless I got out of the boat that I was in, nothing was going to happen. The title of the book says it all.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Diane Craig:

Two Years

I would exercise a lot and find a way to cook new things, discover on the island what I could cook that’s new and interesting. I would also meditate a lot since I would have the time. I would make up some imaginary friends since I’m alone on the island.

Five Books

The Bible: You can reread it and reread it.

One Movie, One Music CD

For my music CD I quite like Chris Botti (Chris Botti in Boston (CD/DVD)). I really like the old movies, for example, The Sound of Music (The Sound of Music (Three-Disc 45th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging)).

Chris Botti – When I Fall in Love

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The sound of music – Do Re Mi Fa

Cannot view this video? Click here. Uploaded by EqualMac on Jan 26, 2011

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Diane Craig: I’m very excited about getting up every morning and thinking about what I have to do during the day because I love what I do. I love it when I am able to get a new client – I find that very exciting. Every time I speak to my son he energizes me – I’m so proud of him.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Diane Craig: I meditate and I like to read spiritual books. Another book I really like is Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith by Henri J. M. Nouwen.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Diane Craig: I’m not afraid of dying, but I’m afraid of how I’m going to die. I’ve seen so many good people suffer so much on their death bed and I hope I’ll be spared that, and that it will be peaceful.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Diane Craig: I’m happy when I’m with my family. I’m happy when I know that I was able to help someone, able to make a difference – that really excites me too.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Interviewee Name: Gary Vurnum, Author

Website:  http://www.vurnum.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Gary Vurnum asks a question (Photo credit: Ralph Zuranski)

Gary Vurnum:  I’ve been earning a living from the Internet full-time since December 2001, and in that time, I have created 15 products in the self-improvement niche, from general success to leadership to goal-setting to law of attraction to stress relief and so on. I’ve also written 20 books over the last few years, and set-up my own publishing house last July, and I publish other people’s books as well as my own.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Gary Vurnum: My work really is my hobby because I love to read and write about self-improvement, marketing and the internet. I choose how often I work so I don’t need to integrate anything at all. I take time off whenever I choose, whether I’m with my daughters, fiancée and so on. It’s one big melting pot for me because I choose when and how often I work then there isn’t too much conflict between the personal life and the business life. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Gary Vurnum: Because I have my daughters for a couple of days each week, and half of any holidays I focus on them because I don’t have the quantity of time, I focus on quality. I read books on the topics that I write about and I watch very little TV. Apart from that, I spend time fiancée and we go out for meals and date nights and things like that. That’s essentially how I use my free time.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Gary Vurnum:

1. You have more chances of making people miserable if you always try to make them happy because they need to make themselves happy rather than you doing it for them by bending over backwards. If you try to bend over backwards trying to make others happy, quite often, it’s at the expense of you being happy. And it ends up blowing up in your face.
2. The best way to deal with a setback is to say, “So what,” and get on with it. Deal with what happens and move on. It’s not always easy but essentially that’s what I try to do.
3. Being successful at anything may be complicated but not difficult, whether it’s internet marketing, being an author, trading stock, real estate, whatever. The steps involved are not difficult, you don’t need degrees, or need to be a rocket scientist, but there are usually a number of steps involved. If it’s important to you, you’re going to find a way to make it happen.
4. Always get paid more than once for everything you do, which is a rule I try to stand by whenever I can, and refuse to be paid per hour. That’s why I have books and products that earn me money years after I created them.
5. You always get what you expect. A lot of us in our lives expect the worst, and guess what happens, the worst. Again it’s not easy, I’m human and you have to catch yourself if you’re focusing on the things you don’t want to happen. It’s so easy to focus on what you don’t want rather than what you do want.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Gary Vurnum: If you’re doing the same thing day-after-day then new thoughts and avenues won’t appear and I never ever have a problem with ideas. In fact, I have too many of them. I have many product ideas and things I can do and that’s because when I approach a task, I keep on with it and look for new ways to improve it. There isn’t a set process, I just basically get on with it and solutions often appear.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Gary Vurnum: It may sound a bit vain but it’s one of mine, “Never ignore the obvious, that’s what it’s there for.” Too many people talk themselves out of starting because they over-complicate things. Start with the most simple and obvious thing first and then you find quite often that things start to fall into place once you get moving. Don’t hold back from doing the most obvious thing because it’s obvious.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Gary Vurnum: The formula and definition for such is really the same thing in my book. Success is doing what you love as often as you want to, whether that’s in business or life. In my mind, how happy you are should be the currency for success not a monetary figure. There are enough miserable millionaires and billionaires around to prove this. Unfortunately, the gurus will tell you that you should be a millionaire and aspire to this, but essentially everyone wants to aspire to be happier in their lives. My definition and formula for success is to do more of what you love in both business and life.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Gary Vurnum: I push beyond my comfort zone because if you’re not moving forward you’re moving backward while other people are moving forward and leapfrogging. We’re always in motion so you may think that you’re standing still by not doing anything, but you are going backward because you are nor learning and applying. The reason why I’ve become a speaker, author, publisher, marketer and so on is because if I didn’t believe I could do something, I looked and saw that other people could do it and thought I should give it a go, and sometimes it’s scary, but unless you can push your comfort zone you won’t find out what you’re capable of doing. Once you start doing a few things that you didn’t think you were capable of then you find that there are very few things that you can’t do.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Gary Vurnum: Work out what you’re already world-class at, and everyone that I’ve ever met whether they were failure, rich or poor is world-class at something – painting, motivating people, fantastic parent, whatever. Everyone has something that they find either easy to do or comes naturally to them, and enjoy it as well. Take that and see how you can build something around it and do it as often as you can. You do what you love and the money will follow except you have to look at it in a business sense.

But basically someone, somewhere will want what you can do, or wish they could do what you find easy to do. So if it’s organizing, you have very successful personal assistants out there, if it’s painting, people will pay you for your paintings. If it’s being a great parent, there are many avenues to monetize your world-class talent. Everyone has been given a world-class talent at something. That’s the best place to start from rather than follow a process to go and do this then that. Start from inside out.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Gary Vurnum:

1. Napoleon Hill: He is the man who wrote Think and Grow Rich and also Law of Success, which is my favourite book of his. I would ask him, “Can I have your original notes to your interviews of over 600 millionaires of the day?” He converted those interviews into Think and Grow Rich but it was a two-day seminar that was the Law of Success. I would want to see those original interview notes to get insights.
2. Warren Buffett: I would like to get information from him on investing.
3. Dalai Lama: Aside from meditation, I’d like to find out what he would recommend to focus on happiness as often as I can.
4. Richard Branson: I would ask him how best to manage your to-do list because I’ve seen his to-do list at the back of one of his books, and he has a big to-do list.
5. Leonardo da Vinci: I’d like to watch him but not necessarily ask him any questions. He was a polymath and involved in many different things.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Gary Vurnum: There have been many that had a profound impact on me. One at the time when I was going through all my problems to quit my job and so on, which tuned me in to the more spiritual side of success, was a book written back in 1912 I think, The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles. You can get it for free online. It’s a short book and might be a bit too spiritual for a lot of people. It made me focus and took me away from the reality that I was facing and made me appreciate possibilities rather than restrictions.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Gary Vurnum: This is the hardest question because there are too many books and I have eclectic music taste and I go to the cinema quite a bit.

Two Years

I would do a lot of writing, thinking, teach myself meditation and try to find a way to invent a happiness machine so I could work out whether I’m being happy or not. The hardest thing when you’re on your own is being happy irrespective of technology and the tools you have in your life. So I would work on a happiness machine so that I would come off solitary confinement happier than when I went on.

Five Books

1. Law of Success, Napoleon Hill
2. The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles
3. The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason
4. Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires, Esther and Jerry Hicks
5. Reality Transurfing 1: The Space of Variations, Vadim Zeeland – It’s just becoming known in the west but has sold millions of copies in Russia. It adds a completely different spin on law of attraction and spirituality in a completely different language and approach. Very few people have heard of it but it’s fascinating

Movie and Music CD

One music CD would have to be a compilation of 80s music because I was a child of the 80s. I was born in 1969 and it was my teenage years in the late 80s (Journey – Greatest Hits DVD 1978-1997 – Music Videos & Live Performances). In terms of films that is very difficult because I don’t tend to watch movies more than once, and I have a number of favourites. One of them for pure comedy value is Step Brothers (Unrated) with Will Ferrell. That’s the only film that made me laugh before the credits started and it’s a film that you either love or hate.

The 80s – Greatest hits

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Step Brother, Trailer (iHD), Will Ferrell and John Reilly

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Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Gary Vurnum: Knowing that I am the only one who can choose what I do with my life. If there are any limitations in my life, they are due to me, which is a scary thing because you start to question yourself. Essentially I’m the one in control, that’s what excites me, if I choose to do something, there is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to do it.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Gary Vurnum: My business life is about that side of things, the best way for me to nurture anything is to teach other people, share it with other people because you learn so much more by trying to teach someone or put it down in words. The way I develop and cope with things – problems or challenge,s is to get it down on paper, and take a step backwards and see how I would suggest other people do it. So I nurture my soul by getting things out of my head and see what other people think.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Gary Vurnum: I would wish that everybody in the world would aspire to be as happy as possible instead of aspiring to be a millionaire.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Gary Vurnum: The people I love are happy.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.