Dear Readers,

     I write with a heavy heart today.  A very dear friend of mine has passed and it is hard to hold back tears.  As I spoke with the family we focused on the fact that he is in a better place, in god’s loving arms, as we reviewed the what if’s ,if he had been in prolonged pain or had to be on life support it was clear that we we striving to see the good in this horrible time. 

     I know that looking at the positives helps us become stronger, motivated and helpful to others.  When I wrote, Discovering Your Dawn, I knew I had to share that when I became negative I created a personal prison. When I share the mistakes I made it has helped others. I have learned that even when I am speaking about leadership people relate to us and learn from us when we share the reality of our lives.

     As a Corporate Motivational Speaker I have seen people hear my message and act on the ways to unlock their potential. My friend who pass ed shared his business struggles with me and helped me see how I would grow my business one day. He also let me share my personal struggles and he and his wife showed me how faith can help you overcome anything.  As a  Christian Speaker I share how God sent people to help me.  My friend Ned and his wife Geri were the first people I ever met who were open about their faith.  They gave me a great gift in my friend Renee.  Renee gave me friendship that changed my life.

    As Renee and I shared our love for her father Ned we remembered how he taught us  Exceptional Teamwork and he always valued his employees and everyone he met.  Ned modeled to me, Increasing your Passion and Productivity and now as a  inspirational speaker I have the blessing to share ways to motivate people and change their world.

    Through my tears I can see the sunset tonight and say “What if I had never met Ned”  he changed my life, believed in me and helped me help others.  God Bless you always Ned you are the very best of what a business owner, a father, a mentor and friend should be.  I am sure God is looking at you saying, “Well done good and faithful servant” 

Love you always,

Katherine

 Increasing your Passion and Productivity  

As a business motivational speaker, I was asked to explain how passion leads to productivity.  I shared a story about a student who had tremendous talent but was numb to learning. The student had not found his passion.  As a corporate motivational speaker I meet employees who have lost their passion and become frustrated. 

I am blessed to work with a client this week who needs me to speak to provide resources and motivation to employees.  My speech is called “The power of Leadership, Problem Solving and Positive Attitude”  The client is showing their employees they care about employee retention, motivation and passion.  The first step to taking care of your employees is to give them tools to increase their passion and work smarter not harder.  The result of giving employees tools and resources is employees who are stronger, healthier and productive.

 Passion is gained through not finding exactly what you want but starting a journey to find your purpose and putting your commitment to the test.

Risking, giving up everything and believing in your purpose is tough but living your life without passion means complacency and living a lie. My mentors taught me that you must find your truth!  I call it discovering your dawn, the moment when your truth is known and you learn from your past.

One of my mentors says this is the day when you begin to live. It is not easy and does not mean your life is always happy it just means that you cannot deny what your purpose is and you cannot go back to the way you used to live. 

Some people wait for someone else to take action and I found that I was waiting for someone to write a book to help college students and my mentors pushed me to realize I had the story, the experience and the passion to help college students.  Mentors see potential in you that you cannot see.

Today secure mentor who will help you find your passion and take a risk to find your purpose.  You will unlock your potential!   

Wishing you all the very best!

Katherine

Check out this new title, Marketing and Motivation CZAR. One of our clients called me the Marketing and Motivation Czar and I was grateful.  I never would think to give myself that title.  I am blessed with clients and staff that inspire me and I am thankful I can help them.

 As a university speaker, I speak on securing mentors and positivepeople in your life but most importantly, finding out what holds you back or what I call your shadow.  I let my shadow hold me back from success and happiness too long and I call my truth about this, my Dawn.  My book “Discovering Your Dawn” is a story of love, friendship, tragedy and hope.  

Please know how grateful I am to you for reading this blog and my book. I never imagined the impact the book would have I just knew I wanted to help people.  At our first book signing January 16th I was shocked over 125 people attended and I signed books from 12:40 to 4pm  it was amazing. 

I really wanted the book signing to be more networking and I wanted to interact with everyone not sit behind a table and sign books but Barnes  and Nobles was packed because my staff marketed the event so well. As a top motivational speaker I want to give my best to everyone I meet and I did not get to spend the time I wanted with each guest so my friend Tom Stephens is hosting the next event.

We are having the second book signing Feb 6th at Liberty Tax in Wadsworth at 1:30pm  this event should be smaller and I will get a chance to talk to everyone.

My book “Discovering Your Dawn”  was written to help people unlock their potential and I am hearing from people across the United States and now from other countries that the book is life changing.  I am so thankful the book helps people that was my goal.  I just want readers of this blog to know  that this book was hard to write and the journey contained many tears. To make an impact I had to share my mistakes and show the reader the reality of my bad choices.  I did not want to publish this book but so many people came to me that needed the book that I could not turn my back on the truth. I begged God so I did not have to publish but he had other plans.  I have learned to trust God and not push my own agenda, please know that is a daily struggle but I love God and trust his will for my life. As a christian speaker I am not perfect and I am a sinner like all of us. I just want you to know that I am trying to be a help to God.

I hope “Discovering Your Dawn” helps you and you share it with anyone who needs it.  The book benefits three charities and I want to thank each of you for inspiring me to get the courage to publish.  Jasmine wrote a nice note to me and I wanted to share that if you want to find me on twitter I am katherinemiracl    no e on the last name.  Jasmine thank you for inspiring me. 

I love marketing and motivating people and businesses to unlock their potential and I hope to see you Feb 6th for our second book signing!

Why do you let fear stop your success? As you learn from your past, do you see moments and opportunities that you regret not pursuing? Learn from them! As a university guest speaker I see that your fear of failing prevented your success and often your happiness. If you had tried and failed, you would have at least learned something, improved for your next attempt and had no regret. If you do not try you will not learn, you will not grow and you carry regret…you just push yourself away from what you want. During the time I was writing “Discovering Your Dawn”, I learned that I should have been there for my friend’s families but I was afraid it would upset the family to hear from me. When we reconnected in 2008, it was a time of healing for the family and me. This healing changed my life and I stopped holding myself back and saw my true potential. My next step was to ask for forgiveness from all the people I hurt during a time of tragedy. I was afraid and many tears flowed about how I should I ask for forgiveness or should I just bury all the pain. The ask to each person built new relationships, cleared up assumptions and healed the past. I struggled with forgiving the men that killed my friends and I knew it was unsafe to meet with them, just like some people you cannot have a relationship with but by forgiving them, you can move on and not give them power to hurt you. When I work with audience members as a christian speaker I hear of relationships that are unsafe and people we need to remove from our lives or maintain a distance.  If someone hurts you and you can forgive them and grow a healthy relationship that is amazing. But I have to acknowledge as a Corporate Motivational Speaker I have seen times when people cannot have a relationship. Sometimes we fear moving away from unhealthy relationships but that contains a risk of continued unhappiness, unhealthy behavior and loss of self.

When we fear, we let the fear dominate our actions. I know each decision I made could have a positive and sometimes negative effect. I finally decided that my book may bring up painful memories and it may hurt someone but the thousands of people who have read the book and share that it has helped them let me know I made the right decision. I knew I would have to pay a price for writing “Discovering Your Dawn” and I had to face my fear to show my past and my mistakes in an effort to help people unlock their potential. I used to be afraid to let my scar show and to talk about my friends who were murdered. I realized that my scar is a symbol that my parents love me. My parents made the decision to have an experimental surgery that no one knew would work. My parent’s decision saved my life, what if my parents chose to fear and I did not have that surgery? My friend’s murders have defined who they are and this year I have decided that is not acceptable. I am not afraid anymore because people need to know who my friends were and how important their lives are. My motivational speaking  and my book shows how my friends helped me and our other friends. I will not let fear stop our story from helping people. If you choose to not fear you can have what you desire, enjoy success and even if you fail, you will have no regret because you tried. Sometimes not everyone is happy with your risk but as you consider the risk consider the reward for you and for others. Fear can dominate your life…how long are you willing to let fear hold you back?

Do you know the secret weapon that can help you in 2010? 

Confidence is your tool to overcome obstacles andas a christian speaker I share my testimony and my times of no confidence and I am blessed that my story helps people.  In business motivational speaking I am finding audiences are more open about their struggles than I have seen in the past. The economy, increased debt and relationship issues have made it difficult for people to have hope and be confident.  In 2009 I was blessed to be the womens speaker for several amazing organizations. I felt a connection to the audience when we discussed the following issues about confidence:

Confidence

Is perception reality?

What does confidence look like?

 Standing Tall

  Positive Attitude

Self Motivation and being proud

Good Communication

  Powerful

Dress for success

Walk and Talk

Make others feel good

Unstoppable

Examples of confidence: My college students made this list(remember everyone on this list is being paid to be confident and create a confident image)

 Gabrielle Union

 Beyonce

 Jada Pickett Smith

Angelina Jolle

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Danzel Washington

  Tom Cruise

  Will Smith

  Brad Pitt 

What is the benefit of being confident?

  Success

  Respect is given

More Opportunities

 Gain Trust   Doctors/ Military as an example

  Rubs off on others

  Gives off energy

 Better outcomes if you are confident

When confidence is absent?

  Potential outcome of failure

Bring down others

  Codependence

 Negativity

 Fear

No Trust

Depression

 Reluctant 

Fake it till you make it? Does that work?

 Does this work?

 Do you really look confident when you act confident?

What if you could figure out why you should be confident?

Uncovering your lack of confidence:

 Negativity- do you have a valid reason for the negative thoughts?

Are you allowing someone else’s judgment hurt your confidence?

Are you looking for negativity because you fear success?  Is guilt feeding your negative thoughts?

Consider confidence as a choice: If you wake up look in the mirror and think about your past mistakes, the times you were rejected and anything bad someone said about you, you have set the tone for your day. 

If you wake up look in the mirror and think about your times of success, the nice things people say about you and the obstacles that you have overcome, you have set a tone for the day that helps you be open to challenges that may lie ahead. You confident attitude can protect you and help you! 

I wish you all the best in 2010 and remember my campaign theme for 2010  “Whatever it takes”  make a campaign theme for 2010 and live by it to help you grow confidence, happiness and success! 

Stop Marketing….Start Motivating…. your clients and customers are being hit with so many messages from your competition that they are wondering which choice is best for them.  Your clients and customers will only become a raving fan of your product or service if you motivate them to buy your product.  I know your thinking,  Katherine owns Miracle Resources, a marketing firm!  How can she say I should motivate and not market to my clients and customers?   Great question and my answer is go above and beyond to help your clients/customers by giving them a reason to buy!  You must motivate them to see your product as a need not a want.  Think of your favorite restaurant, great service, great food and the atmosphere you feel comfortable dining and bringing guests.  If that experience is less than perfect you may give them another chance but if you have two bad experiences are you recommending the restaurant?  Probably not!  The restaurant owner like any business owner must motivate customers to not only share their feelings about the product and to ensure the patron comes back to buy more product.  When this is done incorrectly the server pushes completing a survey by calling a 1-800 number for a discount, when done correctly a coupon for the next visit is given at the moment the survey is completed.  As a marketing speaker I focus on a diamond four point strategy to market your product or service.  The motivational speaker in me shows the four point structure as motivation as the top point,  resources as the right point, goals as the bottom point and actions as the left point.   Here is how it works  your goal of engaging customers is only ensured when actions to make it easy to collect feedback are in place.  The resources for customers are the discount coupon given on site when the dining experience is fresh in the patrons mind.  The motivation is the ask of the server show the patron that the restaurant values the feedback of the patron.  The four point diamond strategy only works when the genuine desire(motivation) to secure feedback is provided by the server. The goal can only be achieved by actions and resources.  As a corporate motivational speaker I work with corporations on the truth that my industry, marketing has bombarded the consumer with meaningless messages and now individuals on constant contact and facebook push their product so much relationships are lost. How sad, the key to marketing is relationships  and without motivation marketing does not work! 

What has marketing done for the Christmas season?  I want your comments and I will share that my wish for you this Christmas is that you do not let the marketing of products ruin your holiday.  Start new traditions, talk with your family, buy products from companies that motivate you not bombard you with messages and think about what this holiday means to you, enjoy your friends and take a moment to thank those who have helped you this year!

Tis the season….joy, giving, goodwill and to all readers I am blessed to have your support and prayer as I

recover from surgery.  I am stronger everyday and being in the hospital I saw exceptional team work that I

am thankful for this holiday season. 

As you consider the holidays and how you will interact with family, friends and co-workers at holiday parties

you may be experiencing apprehension and have a tough time seeing how people function as a team. 

As a corporate motivational speaker I am asked to work with teams so they can function effectivily and create

success.  When I meet with audience members they tell me horror stories of office bullying, discrimination,

exclusion and workplace violence.  Miracle Resources has created a new product called “Workplace

Bootcamp”  We found experts in all the areas that teams struggle with, communication, deadlines, respect,

leadership, confidence, selflessness, cliques and staying true to the team mission.  The Workplace Bootcamp

rolls out in 2010 and I will be working with companies on the following part of the boot camp: 

“Exceptional teamwork, increasing your passion and productivity” 

 The seminar will help you be an effective team player, create a team charter, manage timing of projects, find

confidence to grow as a leader, create a professional work style and meet deadlines.   This session helps teams

stop gossip and negativity in the workplace. This session builds accountability teams, mentor programs and

breaks up cliques. The interactive and fun exercises break down barriers and build relationships. The results

of this session are increased productivity and workplace harmony.

I am so excited to help organizations, corporations, non profits and small businesses with our boot camp. 

As you approach the holidays consider the topics in our bootcamp. If your holiday was free of negativity,

gossip and carrying past issues you might actually enjoy the holidays and not sweat the small stuff.  2009 has

been a journey for me and it surrounded the publishing of my book “Discovering Your Dawn”  so many people

were included in the book and I was not required to ask their permission but I felt it was the right thing to do.

I need to ask forgiveness for the mistakes I made and the way I treated people during a time of tragedy in my

life.  I call 2009 my radical forgiveness tour, I met or spoke with 26 people who I needed to forgive.  This year

changed my life and I am free of guilt, carrying past issues, negativity and gossip.  I have learned so much and

trust me this journey included many tears and learning the truth about myself.   My wish for you in 2010 is

that you Discover Your Dawn,  what I call the moment in your life when you learn your truth.  When you

discover your dawn you can take your past, combine it with your passion to create your future.  Thank you

for your comments and support of this blog.  Thanks to the corporations and colleges who selected me to be

their corporate motivational speaker or university speaker.   Have a great day everyone and enjoy the

holiday season !

You know the story,  workplace disagreements, gossip, negetivity, rumours, backstabbing and lack of teamwork.  Why would anyone want to go to work with these issues plus dealing with personal issues?  As a corporate motivational speaker I am hired to work with corporations to provide tools, resources and motivation to increase revenue and productivity.  When I meet with the staff and leadership team I learn about issues that are personal and professional.  The stress in the workplace is created by issues that are left unresolved.  Many corporations try to work on the issues internally but need outside help from an objective corporate motivational speaker.  The interactive and fun approach my team has created, addresses how to benefit from the power of positive attitude, stopping negativity, creating a communication plan that engages all stakeholders, ending the gossip circles, accepting accountability practices and creating a personal code of ethics.  The fun and engaging seminar provides the entire workplace with a comfortable setting that leads to team work that leads to a peaceful, productive and engaging workplace.