Head to Market Noel This Weekend in Birmingham, Alabama

The Junior League of Birmingham's Market Noel is always a fun event.

The Junior League of Birmingham’s Market Noel is always a fun event.

By Chanda Temple

‘Tis the season for giving and the Junior League of Birmingham has a way you can do that and help more than 30 community organizations this weekend.

For the sixth year, the Junior League of Birmingham will present its Market Noel at Cahaba Grand Conference Center, 3660 Grandview Parkway. General admission shopping takes place Friday, Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday, Nov. 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. More than 90 vendors will be on hand to meet all of your holiday shopping needs over the weekend. Go here for a list of vendors. 

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9 ways to make a sales call

Is your sales pitch strong enough to get potential clients through the door? Image via Flickr/Creative Commons.

Is your sales pitch strong enough to get potential clients through the door?
Image via Flickr/Creative Commons.

By Chanda Temple

For the last three weeks, business expert and social media guru Melinda Emerson has been hosting webinars on how to improve your sales game. I’m not in the sales industry, but tips from the webinars can be applied to any industry, including public relations.

Today’s post includes Emerson’s nine tips on how to make a sales call. If you like these tips, she has two more FREE webinars. They will be on Thursday, Nov. 20 and Thursday, Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. EST. Visit http://www.getsales14.com for details. Her webinar co-host is Jeffery Gitomer and he’s just as awesome as Emerson.

1. How to make a bold call

Call someone you’ve already met. Cold calling does not work. Do your homework. Use LinkedIn to look for info to connect. Look at your contacts’ volunteer interests to discover their passions. It can help with your conversation. People give their time and money to things they care about.

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Happy Veterans Day: Alabama Veteran Noah Galloway Makes Cover of Men’s Health Magazine

Disabled veteran Noah Galloway of Alabaster, Ala. appears on the cover of the November issue of Men's Health. Image courtesy Men's Health.

Disabled veteran Noah Galloway of Alabaster, Ala. lost his right leg and arm in a 2005 roadside bomb while serving in the Army in Iraq. Image courtesy Men’s Health.

By Chanda Temple

In October, Noah Galloway sat on the Today Show set waiting to see if he had won a national contest to appear on the November cover of Men’s Health magazine.

When it was announced that he was the winner, Galloway smiled. But when Galloway returned to his hotel room, doubt settled in. He thought the other two finalists, also appearing on live television with him, should have won. Then he wondered if he won because he was a disabled veteran. (He lost his right leg and arm in a 2005 roadside bomb while serving in the Army in Iraq. He went through a period of depression and heavy drinking before he used exercise to get a new take on life. He shared his story in his quest to win. More than 400,000 readers cast votes in the contest, which had nearly 1,300 entries. Galloway made it to the Top 3.)

“There was that moment, ‘Oh crap! I don’t deserve this,” Galloway recalled the way he felt after winning. But Men’s Health assured him that he was the right winner and there was no special treatment. “Finny (Akers), one of the other contestants, called me and congratulated me. He was like, ‘You earned this and you have every right to be happy about it.’ ”

Said Galloway:  “Now I’m taking it all in. It’s been an incredible ride.’’

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Motivation Monday: What would you do if you lost an eye?

Kenisha Shamburger Photo by Handy Media Photography

Kenisha Shamburger Photo by Handy Photo Media

By Chanda Temple

Picture this: You’ve just pulled out of your driveway and you’re headed to work. On the way, you hit a patch of black ice and your car goes zooming into a ravine. You hit a tree, head on.

The airbag deploys and you walk away – without a drop of blood on you. Minus a swollen right eye, you think things are good.

But future doctor examinations will reveal something else: You have high pressure in your eye, which threatens the life of your right eye. Your vision is touch and go. You develop glaucoma and later have a cornea transplant and then an eye transplant. Two years after all of that, your eyelid begins to droop. What would you do?

For Kenisha Shamburger, all she could do was lean on her faith.

“For a long time, I couldn’t read or watch TV. Things were blurred and I couldn’t see,” she said of what she experienced before the eye transplant. “I would literally have to sit in bed and talk to myself, saying, ‘You will not die. You will not quit.’ ’’

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Oprah Winfrey and Friends’ 20 tips to writing a new vision

Find your flow, surrender to it and write your own story. Photo by Sonya Boatwright.

Find your flow, surrender to it and write your own story. Photo by Sonya Boatwright.

By Chanda Temple

For six straight days, I wrote about the inspiring messages delivered during Oprah Winfrey’s “Life You Want Tour’’ this fall. This blog post is my seventh and last post about the event, which was designed to renew people’s minds and souls to help them go after what they want in life.

In order to write your new vision, Winfrey said you must have a new language. To get there, here are some helpful comments from Winfrey and presenters life coach Iyanla Vanzant, pastor Rob Bell, “Eat Pray Love’’ author Elizabeth Gilbert,  spiritual leader Deepak Chopra and Soul Cycle fitness instructor Angela Davis.

  • Be aware of negative thoughts and release them. Stop telling yourself: “I’m so fat’’ or “I’m not going to get a job.’’ You are not those things. – Oprah Winfrey
  • Change your mindset. Instead of saying, “I’m so tired,’’ say, “I can’t wait until I get a second wind.’’ – Oprah Winfrey
  • You cannot care about every cause. It’s OK to say no. – Oprah Winfrey
  • Life taught me to tell the truth to myself and about myself. If you don’t tell the truth, you will end up with something you don’t want. – Iyanla Vanzant

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Stop waiting for the perfect moment

Stop waiting on the perfect moment to start your journey. Begin today. Photo via Creative Commons.

Stop waiting on the perfect moment to start your journey. Begin today. Photo via Creative Commons.

By Chanda Temple  

Note: I attended Oprah Winfrey’s Life You Want Weekend Tour earlier this fall. I’m blogging every day this week about main messages from the event. Today is Day 6. 

Pastor Rob Bell doesn’t wait for the perfect moment or a big holiday to dine on the china at his home. He and his family use it every day.

Why? Because they have today, he said.

The practice, which Bell shared during Oprah Winfrey’s Life You Want Tour this fall, got me to thinking: How many of us wait for the perfect moment to do something but that perfect moment never comes and all we do is end up waiting?

Pastor Rob Bell Photo by Sonya Boatwright

Pastor Rob Bell
Photo by Sonya Boatwright

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Even in your darkest moment, fight to find beauty in the world

 

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat Pray Love,'' was one of of the "trailblazer'' speakers during Oprah Winfrey's Life You Want Weekend Tour this fall. Photo by Sonya Boatwright

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat Pray Love,” was one of of the “trailblazer” speakers during Oprah Winfrey’s Life You Want Weekend Tour this fall. The tour was designed to motivate attendees to live their best life yet.
Photo by Sonya Boatwright

Note: I attended Oprah Winfrey’s Life You Want Weekend Tour earlier this fall. I’m blogging every day this week about main messages from the event. Today is Day 5. 

By Chanda Temple

Several years ago, Elizabeth Gilbert walked into a New York City post office and had this thought: I can’t wait to get home and have a good cry.

She was in the midst of ending her marriage and had just had a bad morning in divorce court. She figured that a big ugly cry was what she needed. But God saw something different for her. He told her she could go home and cry, but she first had to walk through the streets of New York City to find something beautiful. Why? Because she had to realize that even in her darkest time, the world is full of beauty.

Gilbert walked out of the post office and saw five elephants walking through Manhattan. The elephants were in town because of the circus, and Gilbert was thankful for what she had just seen. She told God, “That will do. Thank you.”

The experience taught her that people must demand to go on a quest for beauty every day, a sentiment she shared with the audience attending Oprah Winfrey’s Life You Want Tour in Atlanta earlier this fall.

Gilbert did not go home and cry on her couch that day. Instead, she went home, exalted. Soon she started seeing elephants everywhere. When she saw elephants, she felt they were signs, signs that she was on her path and that she should not dare stop.

Two years after seeing the elephants in Manhattan, she was in India, riding an elephant. She would later write the New York Times Best Seller “Eat Pray Love.” Three years after that, actress Julia Roberts was on an elephant, playing Gilbert in the movie, “Eat Pray Love.” The experience was electrifying for her.

“…ya never know how a good quest will end,” Gilbert told the audience.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert, left, and Oprah Winfrey at the Life You Want Weekend Tour in Atlanta. Photo by: Sonya Boatwright

Author Elizabeth Gilbert, left, and Oprah Winfrey at the Life You Want Weekend Tour in Atlanta.
Photo by: Sonya Boatwright

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