If you think you're born into mediocrity, and being 'special' is someone else's god-given priviledge, think again:
" And every Master has likewise had the same message: What I am, you are. What I can do, you can do. These things, and more, shall you also do. "
- God, from the bestselling book Conversations with God
I'm envisioning this is what I may just say on saturday's WeShare rally, to a crowd of a few hundred people:
Hi, my name is Kelly, and I have been involved in Unicity for 2 years now.
Some of you have come to know me as a confident, driven young man. Yet did you know I started off as an introvert?
At the point when I started out in Unicity, I was a shy young man who didn't like to speak. In fact, I would never, ever let myself speak to a crowd like this! Up till then I only made 2 successful friends in my Polytechnic days, so my track record in making friends was really bad! In fact, when I signed up for the business, I was like "What? You mean I have to make friends?!"
Luckily, I had a WeShare group; a team that I meet up with every week or more, consisting of fellow sidelines, and mentors who cared enough to help me grow. I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone of them, and I look forward to meeting them every week. This created a safe haven for me to experiment, to practice and to basically spread my wings. The nice thing was that we could have our team gatherings just about anywhere, even over supper at Lau Pa Sat.
Speaking of Lau Pa Sat, this reminds me of one particular evening where my team was having supper there. Everyone was having their Teh Tarik and Satay, when my Mentor, Eng Hai, asked me, "So how are you doing with business, Kelly?" You see, Eng Hai was very acutely aware of my confidence issue, and has been coaching me on it for a while.
So I told him "I'm ok... reading up a couple of books on NLP and psychology to help me become more confident."
"How long is that going to take?" He asked.
"Oh, about six month." Six months! You could rise up a new rank in 6 months if you use it properly! Eng Hai looked at me with gentle eyes but said to me firmly: "Kelly, you don't have to wait till six months to start being confident. You can do it right now!"
You see, Eng Hai said that because the best way to conquer fear is to get into action and face it! And that very night, I experienced my first breakthrough: I sponsored my own mother into my organisation!
And this was a big deal! Because my mother was a NuSkin distributor, and we've had several disagreements on this, so I was very afraid to talk to her. Yet that night, I did it, and it was because I knew I had a team who would support me at every step of the way. Today, my mother is one of my fastest growing legs in my organisation, and the confidence I learnt that night helped me expand my business later by signing up several other builders in my group. (You know who you are, guys! ;) )
I've also had many other opportunities to practice speaking by sharing within my WeShare group product testimonials, business experiences, and before I knew it, I am sharing my personal story in front of an audience of a few hundred people right now!
All this amazing change, because I was associated with a WeShare group, a group that met every week, and acted like a safe haven to practice my strokes until I was ready for the real world.WeShare works, and I am an example of it.
Seeing how Aaron Ong spoke beautifully on stage, I'm reminded of my own speaking engagement coming round the corner.
First up is the "WeShare Rally" on September 10, Saturday, at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Auditorium, 7.30pm. Aaron and Priscilla have reminded me that rehearsal is on friday September 9, and I have to get my speech ready.
I'm fine with speaking from my heart, even if its to a (small) live audience, yet for some reason rehearsals gives me the jitter! Maybe I'm afraid of how I'll be corrected while speaking; when sharing with a live audience, no one can say "yikes, stop, you shouldn't say it that way...". What's spoken out of my mouth STAYS spoken, and I won't take it back :)
In any case, I decide that I will talk about how I started my Networking career as an inconfident young man. Because I had a a mentor and a group of business partners who meet weekly in a WeShare (Cell group) meeting to talk to and learn from, I was given a safe haven to grow, and learn to spread my wings. Today, I speak and carry myself with confidence, and as a direct consequence, now have an ever expanding Networking business spanning the globe.
Now, time to get back to teaching those butterflies in my tummy to fly in formation.
Earlier in the Zufelt experience, one of my leaders and friend, Aaron Ong, professed that had always wanted to be a better leader and speaker, but he didn't know how. Jack Zufelt then advised him to find an opportunity to share his personal story to an audience, because nothing touches and connects with people more than a personal story from the heart.
And so, on the evening of September 7, Wednesday, when Aaron announced that he will be taking the stage and sharing his story, the rest of us came over to give him our support. Apart from our regular gang in my team, we were also joined by fellow "Zufeltees" Roy & Michelle, and Internet Marketing extraordinare Jaz Lai.
Aaron talked about his childhood: he remembered how his parents were so poor that they fought alot about money. Once, his mother was so angry that she wanted to kill his father with a knife. To stop his mother from hurting his father, a young Aaron hid the knife, and slept near it at nightfall, making sure that his mother wouldn't find it. And from then on, he promised that he wanted to make enough money so that his family will never again have to fight over it. Today, he is a Presidential Director in Unicity, the Network Marketing company we work with, teaching people how to make the same kind of money he does, and make life better for their families.
What an inspiring man.
On this day, Aaron allowed himself to rise and shine as the true leader that he is, and as friends, we are proud of him :)
I've always wanted to be invited for speaking engagements, and things are starting to happen at an interesting pace now.
I've been told by my mentors Eng Hai and Priscilla that I will invited to speak at an upcoming major event called "The Weshare Rally", aimed at promoting the idea of cell-groups among up and coming networking leaders. I will be representing the Executive Manager and Director levels to speak, so that is quite abit of added pressure to me.
Also, there has been news that I will be appointed the Emcee for the next Team Rich Make Life Better Rally. This is a once-a-month, grand-scale event held at The Pines Country Club that celebrates and recognise achievers within the team. Traditionally, Eng Hai and my senior in the team Sunny Chow takes on that helm, and boy are they good! Those are quite big shoes to fill, grasshopper!
If all goes well, I should look like this on stage:
... all sharp and prepared.
I'm excited to have these opportunities; now I must teach those butterflies in my tummy to fly in formation.
Standing beside me is the author of the best-selling book "The DNA Of Success", international speaker and a beloved "Mentor to Millions", Jack Zufelt.
On 2nd September, Friday, members from my networking team and I attended Jack's flagship event, "The Zufelt Experience" at the Meritus Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. We were also joined by a few other new friends who weren't from the team. Jack has already spoken to us at a few other public events held in collaboration with Team Rich, and so we had a rough idea of what he could do. We've invested money to attend, seeking the answers to questions in our hearts. Yet, many of us weren't sure of what we would expect from the session.
"Be Open and Honest," Jack had said in the course of the session, "The Truth will set you free." And set us free it did. Over the next two and a half days, Jack worked patiently with each and everyone of us, helping us unravel the knots and hiccups that get in the way of achieving our heart's desire. He asked us honest questions about ourselves, and I find it so amazing how little I knew about the people I was used to seeing everyday; and every one-on-one conversation with Jack uncovered a new strength or a new set back from the people I knew.
We all had personal barriers that get in our way, and some of us even have our worldly goals misaligned from our true desire. And once in a while, we had to cope with a few traumas from our past. There were lots of laughter and some tears. We all looked less perfect after that; yet we all became more "in love" with each other too - as lovers, business partners, friends, teachers and students.
My personal hiccup was that I had strengths that I didn't recognise, and while I wanted so much to be great, I never really believed that I had what it takes to become a truly great person; in my mind I was just a boy that no one took notice of. Then Jack showed me what my team mates and friends in the audience really thought of me:
This list now sits behind my bedroom door, so everytime I'm having a time-out alone in my room, I am reminded of how some people do actually believe in my abilities :)
Yet what really did it for me was at the end of the session while Jack was giving out our certificate of completion, he gave me a big bear hug and said "I'm expecting great things from you, Kelly." I guess thats all I really needed: someone who trusts that I will achieve great things in my lifetime, even while I can't prove it yet.
We all left the session with a sense of loving and agape for one another. I just know that all my friends who were with me at the Zufelt experience will move on in life to achieve great things. I'm also happy to know that we now all have a new friend called Jack Zufelt who lives in Denver, Colorado who is willing to lend us a listening ear when we need.
To my friends in "The Zufelt Experience", cheers to you all with all my heart!
... and there were some casualties along the way. The Zufelt Experience was so effective that Kelly (lower left) and Aaron (upper right) were rendered out of action.
NOT! Whats really happening is that Aaron Ong, our dear Presidential Director, was taking a nap amidst break intervals. I decided to butt in and create a little scene :)
Taking the photo with my PDA-camera was my accomplice-in-crime, Jason Pow. We had quite a good laugh, didn't we? ;)
Add me on FACEBOOK! 
And so, on the evening of September 7, Wednesday, when Aaron announced that he will be taking the stage and sharing his story, the rest of us came over to give him our support. Apart from our regular gang in my team, we were also joined by fellow "Zufeltees" Roy & Michelle, and Internet Marketing extraordinare
