Preparing for a comeback...

"In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a moment, an hour, a day. Some are dreams, some visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between them. To some, they are the same; however, not all dreams are visions. Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. But visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person's vision may not be that of another. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. The spiritual side of life knows everyone's heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision." - High Eagle

Evening Bloggers,

It's great to be back in the blogging community after months of soul searching and heart wrenching priority shifting. Did you miss me? LOL! You don't have to answer that! :) Anyway, as I was contemplating on what to write on my very first come back post, I came across this quote that I feel best describes my Birthing The Dream journey. As the High Eagle so cleverly puts it (please don't ask me who that is because I have no clue!), we often have difficulties disinguishing dreams from visions. I am so struck by this particular phrase: Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. Wow. This statement is so very true. I am a living testimony of that! I was rudely awaken in the last 6 months by the realization that as I was focussing on birthing the dream at all cost, I ended up losing track of the divine vision that God gave me back in 2007 and almost aborted MOMpowered in the process. You see, this business is really a part of a much bigger vision that I received from God. Instead of committing to the vision, I committed to the dream I had about making MOMpowered a multi-billion dollar company. The truth is, this dream will never become reality outside of the overall vision that it's a part of! Does that resonate with anyone's spirit out there?? I thank God for His grace and mercy peeps! He remains faithful to the vision He entrusts us with, even when we are unfaithful. As I have been turning back to Him and following His will for my life, there has been an incredible emergence of unexpected turns of events that has brought me back on track with great excitment to see this vision come to fruitition. I am once again committed to carrying this baby to term, not my way but His way! And how many know it's the best way? Ok, I'm so sorry but I just need to say a short prayer right now, is that alright?? Here it goes...Lord, I thank You that You already knew all that was to take place before it even happened. I thank You that ALL things work together for the good of those that love You and are called according to Your purpose (Romans 8:28) . You already knew that I could be trusted with this vision, and I thank You for giving me a second chance. And so I publically recommit to working and labouring to birthing not just the dream but the vision that You gave me. All the glory belongs to You. I love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strentgh!! Forever and ever, AMEN!

AHHHHHHHHHH!! Thanks everyone for agreeing with me in prayer! I now sense I can share with you the vision I received from God in August 2007:

Kareen Aristide's purpose and destiny is to push the kingdom of God (change the mindset) and to stand against unrighteousness (speak life) to Women.

I have been put on earth to come against everything and everyone that seeks to kill, steal, and destroy life in all its shapes and forms in the FAMILY.

The wages of righteousness is life and the gate to the family realm is the woman. If the woman has the wisdom of God, the understanding of her purpose and destiny and the knowledge of the times and the seasons, we have won entire generations.

The way to destroy the earth is to get at the woman's desire to give birth and produce life in whatever shape or form.

So my purpose is to allow the Jesus in me to give life, replenish the earth, and build future generations.

MOMpowered is a militant stance against the Kingdom of darkness.

MOMpowered is my prophetic response in my generation and generations to come.

As God equips the woman physically to birth, He equips her spiritually to birth.

My mission is to make every woman that God gives me the privilege to connect with in my life a Proverbs 31 woman.

Alright peeps there you have it! So I'll say like Bishop T.D Jakes now - GET READY! GET READY! GET READY!!!! See you at the next post and thank you for reading me after all this time! Your patience will be rewarded!!!

Knowing Your Purpose

Hey bloggers!

I've been meaning to post for about 2 weeks...please excuse my behaviour!  Taking that 10-15 mins every other day or every week (I came to grips with the fact that I can't realistically commit to everyday like I originally set out to) to share my thoughts with you will become a habit if I make a decision to JUST DO IT, à la Nike.  Whatever happened to that campaign anyway?  You can see how highly effective it was since we still remember it.  Anyway, I've been pondering on the importance of knowing your purpose.  According to webster dictionary, one definition is "an action in course of execution".  Have you ever thought of the sum activities of your life as a singular action?  What if everything you've gone through or about to go through in your life is meant to do one specific thing?  Wouldn't you embrace hardships and difficulties more?  Wouldn't it give you the wisdon, strength and courage you need to see your life through?  The bible says in James 1: 2-4 (CEV) : "²My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. ³You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. ⁴But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything."

This is so crucial for an entrepreneur like me.  I'm realizing everyday that for the purpose that God has made of my life, everything I've been through has been preparing me for such a time as this.  We are living in the greatest time in history.  So many world changers are being formed as we speak.  I read this great quote that personifies where I am in my thinking right now:

"God is continually preparing His heroes, and when the opportunity is right, He puts them into position in an instant. He works so fast, the world wonders where they came from," said A. B. Simpson. 

How exciting is that???  Yes, we are all heroes in our own right, when we allow God into our lives.  The world needs more of us who believe in FAITH, HOPE and LOVE...this is exactly what makes the world go round.  The bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (Amp): "And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love." Yes, wether you believe or not, love is the major ingredient in why this wolrd has not self-destructed.  Even the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, had something great to say about this. This exert is part of a Q & A session he had last year with students from Emory's Goizueta Business School and McCombs School of Business at UT Austin:

"Emory:

How do you define happiness and what about your life makes you most happy? When you make good on an investment, do you allow yourself to enjoy that success by getting excited - and on the flip-side, when an investment turns down, do you find yourself equally disappointed - or do you try to remove emotion from your work, as much as possible?

Buffett:

I enjoy what I do, I tap dance to work every day. I work with people I love, doing what I love. The only thing I would pay to get rid of is firing people. I spend my time thinking about the future, not the past. The future is exciting. As Bertrand Russell says, “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” I won the ovarian lottery the day I was born and so did all of you. We’re all successful, intelligent, educated. To focus on what you don’t have is a terrible mistake. With the gifts all of us have, if you are unhappy, it’s your own fault.

I know a woman in her 80’s, a Polish Jew woman forced into a concentration camp with her family but not all of them came out. She says, “I am slow to make friends because when I look at people, I have one question in mind; would they hide me?” If you get to be my age, or younger for that matter, and have a lot of people that would hide you, then you can feel pretty good about how you’ve lived your life. I know people on the Forbes 400 list whose children would not hide them. “He’s in the attic, he’s in the attic.” Some of them keep compensating by joining board seats or getting honorary degrees, but it doesn’t change the fact that no one will give a damn when they are gone. The most powerful force in the world is unconditional love. To horde it is a terrible mistake in life. The more you try to give it away, the more you get it back. At an individual level, it’s important to make sure that for the people that count to you, you count to them."

(Taken from Underground Value Blog.  To view the entire post, Click here)

 Preach Buffet, preach!!  Your primary purpose is to love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.  Is love the "action in course of execution" in your life?  If it isn't, it's not too late!  Now that you know your purpose, you decide.  Be a Hero today!

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!

Many blessings to you all!

I know it's been a long time coming and you are well in your right to be annoyed at me! I have been the queen of procrastination for too long in my life and I've made a decision to change this slowly but surely. I've been contemplating on what the content of this post should be since it's been so long. Today I decided that I would not justify my procrastination by adding this thought process to the long list of excuses for not getting back to doing this. Does that make sense? In other words, what matters is I'M BACK and I'm writing again! And yes, you'll be happy to know that I'm back to building MOMpowered again. As I shared on my Facebook status, I'm truly astounded at how something that was so dead can come alive when you prophecy to it.

Have you ever given up on something because in your eyes it was just too complicated to fix or it would take to much to get it going again? Or maybe you've lost all hope that something or someone you care about would be saved, able to function or reach its purpose? Well, that's where I was with MOMpowered! After the accident, I just wanted to call it quits. I did not see how I could continue with so many previous bad decisions made and bills coming out of my ears! All I kept saying in my mind is: MOMpowered is dead! But the funny thing is everytime I tried to do something concrete, like close my bank account or my office, something would happen to deter me from doing it. And God even sent me angels to help me keep things going and get back on track. I was most surprised by my property manager, who I owed 4 months rent to, that told me not to give up, that he believed in this, that I was a good person with a good heart and that what I was doing was really making a difference in people's lives. I was like WHAT??? He even said he wanted to work with me and that I should send him my business plan!!! Can you say: Do you see what God is doing? And God is saying: Do you see what I see? It's as if God gave every one the vision when I had lost mine!

Let me share a scripture with you that really woke me up. In Ezechiel 37 it says:

1Some time later, I felt the LORD's power take control of me, and his Spirit carried me to a valley full of bones. 2The LORD showed me all around, and everywhere I looked I saw bones that were dried out. 3He said, "Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones come back to life?" I replied, "LORD God, only you can answer that." 4He then told me to say: Dry bones, listen to what the LORD is saying to you, 5"I, the LORD God, will put breath in you, and once again you will live. 6I will wrap you with muscles and skin and breathe life into you. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

That's how I saw MOMpowered people, like a valley full of dry bones. And I just could not see how it could be revived, but it's like God was speaking to me through cirumstances and people saying, prophecy to it, meaning speak what I said about it. A prophecy is a prediction of the future, made under divine inspiration. And for the first time in a long time, I came back to the realization that me declaring that I'm building a multibillion dollar company is a divine inspiration, coming from my spirit. And everything that has happened to this day has been part of that process. One of the laws of the kingdom of God is this: The way up is down! It's also a law in entrepreneuship. Things get worst before they get better. You can't give up at the sight of trouble or struggles. Perseverance is a key and surrounding yourself with visionaries is another key, so that when dark days come, you have at least one Ezekiel that can shed light! Be blessed today and I'll blog you later this week!

Gotta Wuvit!

Good evening everyone! Today started as a day of discouragement and has ended in encouragement. Psalm 13 was definitely my song today. Let me share it with you in case you've never read it before:

1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome [her]," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

See how the psalmist starts off in sorrow and ends in joy? That's what happens to a soul saved by grace. Everytime I get this way, God makes sure that I get reminders of how much I am blessed and highly favored. Not only did God comfort me in my tears, but I received many emails, phone calls and visits today showering me with so much love. Ok, I have to share this story because it touched me so deeply. Due to the accident, I had to cancel a monthly event called Inspirational Birth Stories that was scheduled to occur today . It's a breakfast networking event where a successful mom in business comes to tell her story of how she birthed her business, and offers advice and tips to help the women who aspire to start a business or who are already in business. So, due to miscommunications, she only learned last night that the event was cancelled. Thinking that she would be upset seeing that it was the 3rd time I've had to postpone her, this is the response she sends me:

Ahhh! Dear Kareen

You are a walking miracle. How many times especially after a day’s work have we all in our own way slightly closed our eyes for a mere second … just to rest and woken ourselves in fear imagining what could have actually happened if we had truly falling asleep at the wheel. Our eyes responding quicker & opening faster than a mere second takes to close them… I can totally relate to what you are saying about closing your eyes or falling asleep at the wheel for a very brief moment. And I’m sorry, terribly sorry, to hear about your car accident.

A life can change in a fraction of a second … you are truly blessed Kareen. Perhaps in your recovery it’s been a time of reflection, a time to count your blessings that you are still alive and a time to ask God how you can serve Him through this experience. The giver & taker of life who has a plan for you who is in His care. It is a time to trust you will be serving Him somehow …

Last night, thanks for responding so quickly to my email & advising me of the changes due to your car accident situation. I was unaware and no one notified me. I’m glad you did.

Please keep me posted on how you are doing & I will, in time, be delighted to speak at your Mompowered Inspirational Birth Story Event.

Remember Kareen your story now is also a blessing – a very inspirational & empowering story to tell in helping other women with self care or helping other women with listening to their intuition or their body language or with stopping long enough between tasks and truly connecting with self (& God) to know that a drive home to meet family needs instead meeting our “women needs” can be fatal.

In this very special time of recovery, take a few moments to imagine a warm healing bright white light in your body, soul, mind, & spirit moving every so slowly to give you comfort, love, healing, & joy … I’m happy you are alive, blessed and able to recover…

God bless your journey

Isn't this powerful?!! It set the tone for all the other encouraging emails I got today. I shed so many tears today that I'm probably very dehydrated right now!!! But it's all good, it's all part of the process.

Another great comfort measure (this time for my physical aches & pains) is my Wuvit! Yes, you read right! LOL! Have you never heard of the Wuvit?? It is a wonderful product that an amazing woman of faith and mom entrepreneur called Kim Lavine created on her kitchen table! A spa therapy pillow that you heat up 2 to 3 minutes in the microwave. You can check out http://www.greendaisy.com to get your own! Last year Green Daisy was estimated to be worth 9 million dollars!!! That's right! If Kim did it, so can YOU! Anyway, when she so graciously agreed to come and be our keynote speaker at the launch of MOMpowered (check out the launch party pics here: http://www.mompowered.com/picture_gallery_birthingthedream.html), she brought one just for me! This story is yet another testament of faith I tell you. This woman did not know me from a can of paint and she had no reason to accept my invitation. But she did with so much enthusiasm, I was stunned! It's after reading her Mommy Millionaire book and visiting her mommy millionaire community (http://mommymillionaire.com) that I got up the nerves to ask her to come all the way to Ottawa, Ontario (she is from Michigan). Check out Kim's latest interview that occured last Friday on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet here: http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/working-from-home-continued.

I encourage you to believe and ask so you can receive!

Alright y'all, I'm going to get back to enjoying my Wuvit! See ya at the next post!

Taking a step back...

Evening bloggers! Here I am, taking a step backwards in my journey. But how many believe that often times when you take a step backwards it can also help you leap forward? Just picture an athlete right now...do you see it? Yes, after such a halting experience, one could either give up, give in or take the time to reflect, make the necessary changes and move on to bigger and better things. I must be honest in saying that it took me a few slaps in the face from loved ones and a lot of prayer to get me to say this and really mean it! Now I have to hold myself from doing too much too soon. I'm trying to take things one day at a time. My husband is on my case everyday so that I don't work too much so that I can actually recuperate right. How many feel me when I say that it's very hard to take it slow when you're so used to being on the go? After I got over the 'I'm so stupid, how could I let this happen' phase, I really could receive the thought that this has been good for me. As it says in Romans 8:28, ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. This is unequivocally true for me I tell you.

Among the many many benefits, this has been a time of serious soul searching that will have a great impact on the rest of my life. I'm sure that this happens to all of us that have had a near death experience. One thing I can say is that this experience has revealed that I am indeed a leader more than a manager. I found this really cool site where you can test yourself to see if you are a leader or a manager. Of course, I scored 13/15 for leader. Here is the link: http://www.schulersolutions.com/leadership_self_test.html. I'd love to get your feedback on how you scored!

This has also made more clear (as I've always known) why I would be more skilled as a business owner than as a self-employed entrepreneur. A business owner is a leader while the self-employed entrepreneur is a manager. But the self-employed have to be both leader AND manager, and this is where my issue is. I'm more of a big picture person so I've been managing the day to day operations of MOMpowered as a leader. I basically structured the company according to the big picture and then tried to manage the day to day operations of a huge corporation by myself! Obviously it was bound to catch up to me! So now I have no choice to switch from self-employed to business owner or I can kiss my MOMpowered dream good bye. Stay tuned for updates on this! Have a blessed evening!

I'm still here! PRAISE GOD WITH ME!!!!

Greetings Bloggers! You don't know how glad I am able to do this post tonight. After a prolonged absence, I'm writing tonight because I need to celebrate that I'm still here! I give ALL THE GLORY TO GOD!!! I am not proud to say that it's a crisis that has brought me back to taking the time to come here and blog. I want to apologize to my faithful readers and I am hoping that you will forgive me and decide to keep accompanying me on my journey! As many of you already know, I've suffered a major halt in my journey recently. But at the same time, I am realizing how much of a true blessing this 'interruption' has been. For one, I'm back to my commitment of writing every day. Aren't you all happy?? Ok, at least some of you are right?? LOL! I see it as a privilege now because last month's post could have been my last. As 8 is the number of new beginnings, it is no surprise that I feel a little bit of strenghth to write on the 8th of October. I can't really stay too long, you will understand why soon. But I did want to share two things:

1) A wonderful quote by Susan L. Taylor (ESSENCE magazine) that has brought a lot of light to me this week:

"In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change--breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place."
More on my reflections on this later...

2) I want to share my husband's note with you. His words have also brought alot of strength and encouragement to me and many others. For those of you who have already read it on Facebook, you get a refresher! I will start telling my side of the story as soon as I can. I promise.

Here it goes...

THE EVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS
Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 6:28pm

On Monday night in our Life Sessions, I was teaching on how we as believers cannot think that nothing will ever happen to us; there will always be something to come and test your faith, test your substance. While I was teaching, I was mostly talking about married life. I met and counseled lots of couples and I have come to realize that there will always be something to test you. You cannot have it all, and the notion that because I’m a believer this means that nothing will ever happen to me is simply erroneous and quite arrogant I think. The Bible states in the book of Mathew chapter 5 verse 45 and on going that He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous....Often I hear that if I have faith then nothing will happen to me...... again, simply erroneous, arrogant and a slap in the face to those who suffered, never to see their promises but who yet STILL KEPT THE FAITH. Take Hebrews 11 as of verse 36 ‘…some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. **39 these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. **’

Our God is always looking for SUBSTANCE in us. IS IT IN YOU? The essence of your faith which is invisible can only be displayed in good times....absolutely NOT! LOL. It is when you go through trials and tribulations that we see your true faith. Now, that does not mean that I go out of my way glorifying trials in my life in a way that gives glory to the devil thinking somehow that the trials validate my faith. It is not faith in the trials that was counted for righteousness to Abraham, the father of faith, but it was FAITH IN GOD...I want to thank the Lord for what He did for my family, specially my wife. On Tuesday, September 30 around 4:45pm our faith, our substance was tested, mine and that of my wife and our entire family as my wife blacked out in the car and slammed directly in a duplex apartment window right next to our house. The pictures you will see will show you not how crazy the accident was but how great OUR GOD IS. Miraculously she was taken out of the totaled car with a few minor cuts, chipped teeth and scratches. TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!!!!!!!

My wife will her self tell you eventually her side of the story but this is mine...

As myself and the kids were eating at the table sharing a good time and waiting for mommy, around 5pm, I saw the lights of emergency vehicles right in front of our driveway. I decided to give a quick look through my living room window only to see a swarm of cops, medics and firemen. I told the kids to finish their food and stay at the table as I slipped on my coat and shoes to go outside to see first hand what was going on. To my surprise this is what I saw…

I could not believe it! I honestly first believed that it was a movie, in my head it was a movie they are filming or something around my home. I decided to get closer to the scene and when I saw the license plate on the vehicle…for a sec there I felt my legs go from under me. The next words I heard was she’s fine, she’s fine. From that moment I made up my mind that the only thing I was going to focus on is WHAT IS and not WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.All things works together for the good of them that loves the Lord…TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

The end

Heart-Based Marketing - A Revolutionary Concept

Hi Bloggers,

Thank you for your continual support and encouragement for this initiative. I'm really loving this blogging experience. I've discovered how my gifts and talents can benefit people all over the world and it's a true blessing to me. So thank you again!

I wanted to share with you an amazing discovery I made last week thanks to my Facebook friend Iris Benrubi (check out her website at http://simplysuccess.ca) called Heart-Based Marketing. I find that this soft selling approach is what I'm all about! I've been dealing with the fact that my basic sales and marketing experience has been a real road block for me in my entrepreneurial journey. I always struggle to make e-sales letters and e-flyers because I always feel like I need to speak from the heart but then wonder if it is really going to give me results. And then there's always this fear of 'bothering people' and being perceived as 'pushy'. The heart-based marketing approach really addresses all these things. It's so important to get over these humps because ultimately, I'm in business to make money or else I might as well call it quits and apply for government grants and make this thing a non-profit initiative right? I know that I can't do that because one of the reason I want to build a multi-billion dollar company is to be able to be a grant giver! It is such a lengthy and competitive process for non-profit organizations offering amazing programs for women when dealing with the government. I want to bring a solution to this and also to women who have great business ideas and help make their dreams come true. My ultimate goal is to pay moms to be home for at least the first 5 years of their child's life! But I'll save that topic for another day.

So going back to this concept of Heart-Based Marketing, experts and pioneers Judith Sherven and Jim Sniechowski (http://judithandjim.com) have totally revolutionized the way we view sales and marketing. I am so glad to have encountered them because this is EXACTLY what I believe I've been doing without the knowledge and understanding. I missed the interview they did with Iris today but I did come across another powerful one that you can access at http://divinepurposeunleashed.com/soft-sell-heart-marketing-podcast/.

Here are a few things that I learned from listening to the recording that really struck me:

'Opening the relationship vs Closing the sale'

• We are interdependent – the sales process is a co-creation, we are in a partnership going through the sales process…

‘Selling is spirtual service’

• Dynamics of Soft Sell Marketing – the seller has the solution, the buyer is searching for a need to be met
• If you are not marketing, not getting your info out there about what you have to offer them, you are withholding and short changing them, but when you see that you’re in service, you’re actually in spiritual service
• When you get your word out – you’re marketing, when you get your information to them and you’re helping them make the decision to work with you – you’re selling, then you are in spiritual service, to be of value to the people to want what you have to offer
• If someone has a problem, and you have a solution and we are interdependent, then if you don’t let the market place know that you have a solution, then you are short changing them, yourself and God
• Selling is also a spiritual service, it is your responsibility to take them through the sales process to help them determine what they need to do and hopefully buy your product
• Raising your prices – by not doing it you are short changing yourself, your buyer and the culture, it is a spiritual and sacred event and everyone benefits from you doing it

I hope some of you will jump on the band wagon with this new approach! I think that this is especially common in women in business but now that we have the comprehension behind it, we can make it even more effective! For all those women and moms out there, I am looking forward to meeting your needs! MOMpowered is here for YOU! (Soft-selling in effect...LOL!). Have a great evening y'all!

'How to market your products and services online that’s in alignment with your heart-based professional values and personal integrity - it’s called Soft Sell marketing . . .' - Judith Sherven