BE YOUR BEST SELF | Oprah’s Live Facebook Interview

This video spoke VOLUMES to me, and I wanted to share it on my blog – it’s long, but it’s worth taking the time to watch. Toward the beginning of Oprah’s live Facebook interview, she talks about feeling “fear” when she made the decision to end her show and open her own network.

While obviously on a much smaller scale, I felt a great deal of this before launching the new line and website. Oprah asked herself, “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?” Subconsciously, I wondered the same thing. Taking the step to focus my business energy on something different altogether felt like a huge risk, but it was a change I felt was necessary - not just for myself, but for what I thought I could offer women everywhere. Oprah goes on to mention that she feels that part of her mission is to get people to see the best of the themselves, to be individually empowered.

That is the similar mission of this brand - to help women feel individually empowered, to express their essence and to celebrate themselves.

One of my favorite things Oprah says in this interview is, “I think that what we all desire is the fullest, highest expression of ourselves.”

Couldn’t have said it better. When we think of who we want to become, when we set goals or we think of ways to be better people, we are essentially setting our sights on the highest expression of ourselves.

BE YOUR BEST SELF. Make the choice to be as AMAZING as you have the potential to be. Everyone is destined for greatness!

DAUGHTERS

Before all else, I am a mommy.  It's one of the things I am proudest of, amongst any and all accomplishments in my life.  When I started to develop the concept of the Stunning brand, I thought often of my daughters.  At 5 and 4, they are extra impressionable, especially inquisitive, and their innocence is beautiful.  Often, I find them playing dress-up, pretending they're princesses, or quietly watching me put on make-up.  When I fix their hair or they have a new outfit on, they're quick to ask if they look pretty.  I always wonder who they'll grow up to be someday, and what it is I can teach them about what really makes them beautiful.

True beauty shines through when it comes from within.  Physically, everyone has something going for them - great hair, luscious lashes, straight teeth, a good jawline, perfect skin, toned arms, curves, etc.  Similarly, we all have quirks about what we don't like about our physical selves.  When someone is beautiful from the inside though, it shines brighter than any physical imperfection.  While you can't tell a person's personality from a photograph, I can say that it is possible to bring that beauty out so that the captured image does reflect it.  Before I launched the Stunning line, I thought about that very thing - capturing TRUE beauty.  Professional hair & make-up application can enhance our physical qualities, and when we physically feel beautiful, the beauty beneath it all makes itself evident.  The Stunning experience, as I've said before, is intended to draw that "beautiful" out.

More than anything, I want my daughters to grow up to be healthy, kind, patient, loving, respectful, confident, intelligent, honest women.  I want them to have integrity, to be helpful to those in need, to be strong and to always stand for something good.

I want them to be stunning, from the inside out. 

...THIS IS MY DREAM

Hello INTERNET!

This post on a brand new blog has been a long time coming!  

For several months, I've thought about revamping my business, focusing on something I enjoy, and running with it.  Like the fabulous image above reads, I have been devoted to this idea all year long, and while, clearly, it's taken me AGES to get this off the ground, today I'm "making it happen" -- a new website is launching, an entire new brand is developing, and I've designed a new line of photography I've dubbed STUNNING - I couldn't be more excited to share it with you; there's so much in store!  

This is my DREAM!

XOXO