Inspire to be Inspired Women’s Conference – June 30th, 2018 – My experience!

On entering the room, I was pleased to see how the room was decorated, black, gold and yellow.   On the table was a lovely vase with purple and yellow flowers.  The lights in the ceiling changed colours adding to the ambiance of the room.   I felt welcomed, after all the room was prepared for me and all the other women who had also booked the date.  My spirit was lifted and I was filled with anticipation.  The moment was finally here!

The advertised  “Inspire to be Inspired Women’s Conference” hosted by “Tailored by Terrieann”, was finally about to unfold at Venus, Grand Anse, St. George’s, Grenada.

When I first heard about it, I felt a stir within me, I think it was the word “inspire”.  I love that word and what it represents.  About a year ago, God spoke to me through a very good friend.  She often commented on my Facebook posts, noting that they inspired her.  One day she said to me “You should start a Blog”, little did she know that the Holy Spirit had already given me the nudge, in that direction, and I was struggling with it.   Long story short, my blog was started soon after and I called it “InspireMe”.    Now, you should understand why I immediately connected to the Ad on the then upcoming Women’s Conference.

I seriously considered attending and immediately booked the date.  I thought to myself that the oganiser, Mrs. Terrieann Charles was certainly passionate about inspiring other women.   I wondered about her story, her journey and looked forward to learning more.   I remember wondering if this Conference would reach me.  You see, often when we have been exposed to much learning and have been afforded the opportunity to serve others, in so many different capacities, we often think “this is not for me” and we can be so wrong.

The early moments of the Conference met us listening to a YouTube video with Steve Harvey” Above Inspiration”.  The early birds listened while the room slowly filled up with attendees and their light happy chatter.  I found it a little difficult to focus amidst the stir of persons settling in and was only able to pick up bits and pieces but, I guess you know what I did, I listened to the video again, in the comfort of my home. 😊

Steve started off with this quote by Albert Einstein;

“Imagination is everything, it is the preview to life’s coming attractions” Then he said, “Your real life is in your imagination.”  This statement woke me up..

Steve Harvey pointed out, that we don’t need all these fancy books, telling us how to be rich, powerful and positive, because the reality is, all these principles are taken straight from the Bible.  Whooohooo! Love this!   After uttering such a powerful statement, he quoted one of my favourite verses: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1.

What is important here, is the connection made between Hebrews 11:1, and Einstein’s quote.  He pointed out that our life is not in our current situation but rather in what we imagine, what we hope for, what truly makes us happy, and faith is demonstrated, as we leap forward to reach for those dreams, to make them a reality. Very appropriate video for the moment!    Hear is the link if you wish to listen;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xcuc7nfWGY

There is so much more I can share about the Conference, but I can’t write about everything,  so here are some other highlights:

I loved the Break-out Session

It was called “Speed Dating” and It really achieved the objective of getting the women to mix and know each other a little.  It certainly helped to break the ice that is created, when a group of persons are in a room together for the first time.  I have seen it work many times.

Featured Speakers, in the order of their presentations were;  Dawn Mark, Denisha Daniel and Victoria Preville.

I was only familiar with Dawn, the other two speakers were new to me; I enjoyed all three presentations.

Dawn is the Founder of E-Dawn Coaching & Consulting ( check her out on Facebook), she addressed the important concept of Goal Setting and trust me, if you want to live a meaningful life, you must learn to set goals. Dawn pointed out that, our Values are usually the driving force that determines the kind of goals we set.  For example:  If you value education, one of your goals may be to pursue higher education.

It is also important that once these goals are set, we acknowledge the external factors that motivate us and use them to our advantage, but also find ways to allow ourselves to be internally motivated; this is what helps us to persevere.  Hope in turn, inspires you and spurs you on to keep pushing towards the finishing line.

The second speaker was Denisha, an Accountant, by occupation. She struck me as a young lady with great potential for Public Speaking.  I really enjoyed her presentation.  It was fueled by her personal experience.   She allowed God to speak through her personality, as she related a personal story, showing us that we need to overcome fear to become successful.

Fear often comes between us and hinders us from moving forward, from acting; fear is destructive.   Denisha pointed out that fear gives us a limited scope on life; all it does is just feed us the negative; it truly blurs our vision.

We were encouraged to step into our fear and face our monsters.

This question lingered in my mind and I think it was my favourite take-away from this presentation; “What is that thing that is in you that could push you forward and help someone else’s life to be better?”.  In other words, you never know, who you would inspire, if you could only find the courage to face your fears.  Your victory story, would do amazing things in the life of others.

The last featured speaker was Victoria Preville.   She touched on her personal struggle briefly, linking it to her current success.   Victoria is originally from St. Lucia but lives in New York, and is the Founder of Nu Luna.  You can check them out on Facebook.

Victoria hit rock bottom, coming from a life of comfort to being homeless, BUT, she was able to rise-up and embrace hope again.   Victoria is now in the business of transforming the lives of other women; she visits various shelters around the world, empowering women to face the world, to begin life a-new; she dresses women for Good success.

Victoria’s presentation spoke to us, she said “Sometimes our calling is to create a business that would transform someone’s life, give them a new start, a new perspective, hope and the possibility of seeing their dreams come through”.  WOW!! She reminded us that true fulfillment comes, not when we have all the money we need, but when we are living our dreams, when we are living a life of purpose, when we are helping to change someone’s life for the better.

Attendees were encouraged to ask themselves “What is that gift I am sitting on?”.  We were warned against sitting and doing nothing about our gifts, less they get transferred to someone else and we lose the opportunity and the blessing.

There were also group discussions that allowed the attendees to take a deeper look into some of life’s probing questions, looking at comparing ourselves with others, social media, friendship and relationships.

The Conference was filled with light moments; laughter and giveaways, which certainly added to the experience, making the evening a memorable one.

I cannot fail to mention how honoured  I was to be given the opportunity to minister in song.  About two months ago, I wrote this song “Let Faith Arise” I did not know then, that the words of the song would fit so well with Terrieann’s theme for her Women’s Conference.  It was certainly a privilege and a blessing.

“Let Faith Arise”   (1st Vs & Chorus)

Vs 1

Here you’re sitting, contemplating anxiously

Here you’re thinking, over thinking senselessly

But you’ve got dreams

Chorus

Let faith arise, won’t you walk by faith and not by sight

Get up, get ready, set, Go!

I am extremely grateful to the Hosts for the opportunity, I do feel encouraged to share more of my songs with the world.

I am glad I met Terrieann,  I am inspired by her youthful discipline and energy. I was delighted to see her husband share the stage with her, supporting her fully.   In my quest to find out more about the brain behind this experience, I asked Terrieann two questions, which she gracefully answered;

1. How long did you nurse this dream before launching out?
2. How did your relationship with God help you to finally launch out?

Terrieann’s Response

“Honestly, it was not a dream.   I never knew or had the slightest clue that Tailored by Terrieann was going to be birthed.  I remember attending an event in 2016 and one of the presenters, Carlana Charles, was speaking about business, and I was intrigued because I was always fascinated with business. So after the event I communicated with her and she told me about a weekend startup she was having the following Saturday and Sunday.   I invested in that workshop and that’s where tailored by Terrieann, was birthed.  It was scary for me because I had no clue of what to do with this new task of becoming a blogger, but I embrace it with love and much attention”.

“Oh boy! I needed God now more than ever. I had to depend on God totally for strength to launch Tailored by Terrieann, because I was a novice in the blogging world.  I had no experience, at the time;  I did not know anyone else doing what I did,  so I felt lonely, but excited at the same time. I really had to learn to trust God, in every step of the way to help me to launch out.  My relationship with him grew significantly.”

Terrieann’s bravery to pursue a new idea of blogging, lead to many other things, including inspirational events such as the one I attended on 30th June, 2018.

As I wrap up, I wish to say that for me, and many others, God is the center of everything, I love that some of the speakers at the Conference were daring enough to say “I am a Christian”. I love the idea of diverting the attention away from ourselves and towards God.  He is truly deserving of all the glory, all the honour and all the praise!

Thanks to my two colleagues from work, who agreed to attend with me, I enjoyed hanging with you both and I know you were happy you came.

It is my prayer that the gifts, ideas and dreams bestowed upon us, women, would not be wasted and we would not sit, contemplating and over-thinking; we’ve got dreams and we need to get ready, set, go.

Let Faith Arise!