Dear Readers,

     My title may concern you but as you send me comments I am inspired by your ability to overcome obstacles, find your passion and discover your truth(what I call your dawn).  As a  Christian Speaker for a retreat last weekend we discussed that people will betray you and you will put faith in people who let you down. God is the only one who will not let you down.  In an executive womens retreat I served as a  Motivational Speaker and Womens Speaker and we discussed how to increase revenue in a tough economy I realized how blessed I am to have a staff who works hard to help businesses and non profits increase their revenue. We were excited to be featured on Outreach News this week. Check us out on you tube  http://youtu.be/y4YBgCCapqw

   My work as  Marketing Speaker and Keynote Speaker is featured on this broadcast and I share how non profits can hit revenue goals in a challenging economy.  My prayer for you today as you grow your non profit or business is to look at the pain and become motivated to turn it into beauty.  One of our clients lost an employee and created a memorial and engage vendors in an effort to raise money for cancer. The event was beautiful and the tributes to the employee motivated all of us to continue our work with passion. 

   Have a great weekend everyone and remember during pain it is hard to see beauty but even in betrayal you can learn great lessons.  I wrote this quote after a very painful realization happened to me this week. “Whatever you are going through use it,  if you lose love learn to love yourself, if you are hurt help another, if you lose faith fight to find it”

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! 

As a Keynote Speaker I have the honor to share from experience the realities of being a business owner, college instructor and marketing professional.  Clients tell me that the audience members need tools, resources and motivation.  The experiences I share are often from the success or failure of one of my companies products and the lessons are tough but they can help others.  As an entrepreneur I have experienced the proudest moments and the sadness of laying off employees when the economy fell apart in 2008.  The toughest day was when I called competitors to ask if they could hire two of our employees. I was worried about my team and I wanted to help my two laid off employees but it was a humbling moment to ask a competitor for help.  Unfortunately, our competitors were laying off as well but in that tough time we all learned a lesson.  The lesson of alliances, persistence to move to a better business model and the patience to keep going even though times are difficult.  As a Keynote Speaker you can share your success but I also share the lessons learned because I want audience members to avoid my mistakes, be motivated to keep going and see there is hope and I am proof!  

My keynote speeches range from power of positive attitude to marketing / personal branding to motivation/inspiration.  I recently gave the keynote at a seniors luncheon and I was so impressed with the audience. Everyone was so engaging and very interactive.  I love to get everyone involved and the seniors were amazing.  I loved my time with them and after my presentation I met with several audience members.  A gentleman kept moving to the back of the line and he was much older then the other audience members.  I did not want him to wait so I asked the person I was talking to if I could move the older gentleman in front of the line.  Everyone in line agreed because no one wanted the older gentleman to be last in line.  We all quickly learned the older gentleman did not want to be first because he said, “I want to talk with Katherine alone! “   I thought oh no, this should be interesting.  When the older gentleman approached me he said,  “Katherine, I am 90 years old and I need you to do something every time you speak,  tell people that I have helped many people as they lay on their deathbeds.  Katherine, not one of those people talked about what they did with their life.  They all talked about what they wish they would have done.  Katherine tell people I am 90 years old and I have no regrets, I have done everything I wanted to”   I thanked my new friend and promised him I will tell people every time I speak.  I told him that he has lived a life full of passion and that is a life well lived!