When they applaud…

It seemed this week as if anything and everything was conspiring to stop me from joining my pals at a reunion here in sunny Orlando, Florida. On the tail end of Mercury going Retrograde (I am a stubborn believer in the concept) my computer crashed (literally and figuratively), one of my banking relationships went technically haywire (I was one of thousands across the country to whom this happened), I couldn’t get a round trip flight, and then the furnace at the guest house went on the fritz, right when guests from China were arriving for a two week stay. There’s more, but this is plenty enough to illustrate my point.

I was sure the message was, “STAY HOME!”

But…here’s the thing. Last year, I was fortunate enough to be chosen by Seth Godin (yep…that Seth Godin) to come and join 80 other folks from all over the world to learn how to truly make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. To say that I was thrilled to tears would only tell a part of the story. The bigger chunk was the struggle I had with believing I deserved the opportunity.

I grew up with people who for the most part meant well, but never gave or allowed me the feeling that what I was doing was enough, let alone, great. I heard the statement, “don’t rest on your laurels” enough to make sure that I never did and the fall out of that was that I never learned to relax or savor an accomplishment or feel truly pleased with myself. It meant to me that I had to work to deserve anything and when I got “there” the bar was raised yet again.

The team of people I have around me now would not allow me to cancel this trip…and from Lewis to Bjay to Marie to Sandy to Jamia to Jan and so on, I was surrounded by love and determination that I get to this event.

The irony? I am here to speak on the art and science of manifesting.

I arrived at my hotel in Orlando this morning, worried that I was here too early for check in, but Francesca at the front desk had no problem sending me right up to the 10th floor, to a room with a beautiful view of the town and a lake I cannot identify. When I got all settled in, I sat down at the desk to put in a good day’s work. I opened my email and soon found that The Cooking School at Irwin Street has just won a national award for excellence from Groupon. I was frankly blown away because I didn’t know there was such a thing.

We have one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings of anyone working with Groupon and now we have the “badge” to prove it. The school is a business that we started in 2011 and it is truly one that Groupon helped build from the ground up. In our first “sale” we sold 1100 + classes and that empowered us to grow and grow and grow. We worked with other coupon groups as we grew, but none delivered the impact that Groupon did and for that we remain eternally grateful.

We are able to stand on our own feet now and while we don’t rely on Groupon income anymore, we still appreciate the exposure we get from them and now, today, the recognition that we have done our job well for our beloved students. Thank you Groupon, thank you Sandy, Tony, Carlton and thank you to all of the literally thousands of students who have walked through our doors to learn how NOT to be afraid of the kitchen and to have a blast learning how to feed themselves yummy food from scratch.