Headline: Your demo reel is your actual resume. In the speaking world, people don't really care what you say you can do. They care about what they see you doing. If you don't have a solid 2-minute "Sizzle Reel," you’re essentially playing the game with one hand tied behind your back Elements of a High-Conversion Reel: - Fast Start: First 10 seconds must show you on stage with a crowd. - Social Proof: Flashes of logos or testimonials. - The "Aha" Moment: A clip of you delivering a key insight. - Reaction: Footage of the audience laughing or taking notes. Don't overthink it: It’s actually better to have a 60-second reel of great iPhone footage than a 5-minute reel of a boring "professional" recording.

This Mother’s Day, I wanted to share something a little different for this community. As speakers, coaches, educators, and leaders… we spend so much time helping people feel seen, understood, encouraged, and inspired. But sometimes the women who shaped us never really saw themselves that way. Not fully. So here’s a prompt designed to turn a simple photo into something that feels like legacy, memory, storytelling, and honor all at once. A cinematic portrait worthy of framing. Upload a photo of yourself, your mother, grandmother, daughter, mentor, or the woman who helped shape your voice — then use this prompt: “Create a high-end cinematic cartoon portrait inspired by luxury animated films and editorial illustration. Preserve the exact identity, facial features, skin tone, age, expression, and recognizable essence of the uploaded person. Do not turn them into a generic AI character. Keep them looking like themselves — warm, real, radiant, and emotionally grounded. Style: A blend of: • Pixar-level emotional storytelling • soft glam editorial illustration • modern luxury animation • painterly cinematic lighting • elegant cartoon realism The image should feel like a scene from an animated film about motherhood, sacrifice, wisdom, softness, resilience, and legacy. Wardrobe: Elegant. Refined. Timeless. Flowing fabrics, satin textures, tasteful jewelry, graceful silhouettes, layered textures, rich jewel tones or warm neutrals. No revealing clothing. No exaggerated fantasy styling. No plastic perfection. Lighting: Warm golden-hour glow or cinematic studio lighting with soft highlights and emotional shadows. Emotion: The portrait should communicate: • emotional safety • nurturing • quiet strength • wisdom • comfort • resilience • generational love Include subtle storytelling details such as: • flowers • books • handwritten letters • framed memories • warm window light • heirloom jewelry • soft fabric movement • gentle hand placement Optional typography: Add one elegant word such as:

Our elders speak of the eagle feather. As a youth or young adult you start at the base, the wider part of the feather. So many choices. So many options to try - where to live, what to do, where to study etc. This continues for quite awhile but with time, the paths narrow by choice or circumstance. Not a said thing, just a chosen path. But then it gets exciting, as you move closer to the tip of the arrow. Things get laser focused here. No more time for fluff. Now you know who you are and where you want to go and you quickly learn how to get there. My tip - The Approachable Indian. My rebrand - blue to represent the calm waters and the calm I bring to those stressed over Indigenous/Canadian engagement and relationship building. Blue to appeal to the Conservatives I so often work with (in Canada blue is Conservative and Liberal is red, opposite to the US). New pics showing my passion and energy and Indigenous pride. And the promise - to always be approachable to Indigenous and non as we build this bridge together. Laser focused. Intentional. The Approachable Indian. (New colours coming to website by week's end.) LOVE!!!

My story is being played at a museum in Washington D.C. Let that sink in. I came to America at 17 with nothing. I slept on cardboard in a basement. No money. Eating peanut butter and jelly just to survive. Took 17 years to finish college. Then one day, a manager at The Home Depot asked me how I was doing. I told him the truth: I was sleeping in a basement and didn't know how I'd make it. He didn't just listen. He gave me $600 dollars to buy a mattress. Then he took me on a journey. Showed me what leadership actually meant. Showed me that people matter. That your story matters. The Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream selected my story among 10,000 Americans featured in their exhibit. Same room as Oprah Winfrey. Kevin O'Leary. Magic Johnson. And the late Bernie Marcus Co-Founder of The Home Depot. ( RIP). The company that believed in me when I was sleeping on cardboard. I didn't come from privilege. I came from a basement, sleeping on carboard. I came from nothing. And somehow, my story is now on a museum wall. Today I help leaders find their story, tell it with confidence, and use it to build authority and influence. Because what happened TO you is not the end. It's the beginning of someone else's breakthrough. I've watched leaders get promoted. I've watched them build movements. All because they stopped hiding their story and started owning it. This is why I speak and coach others to tell them this: Your story is your strategy. Not your setback —> your strategy. Don't you ever let anyone tell you your story doesn't matter. It belongs in rooms you never imagined. Who's the person who believed in you when you didn't believe in yourself?

This morning, as I was starting my day, I was watching Taylor Swift's recent interview for the New York Times. In it she shares how her fans do not want to see her responses to trolls on the internet. In her summation of her fan's thoughts, "We want your art". And I couldn't help thinking of how that applies to all of us in this community. Your fans and followers and eventually customers (given enough time) do not want to see your party pics from the weekend. They do not want to see you rip apart a troll. They want to see your art, your expertise, your wisdom, your calm in the storm, the calm (or passion or purpose or whatever you preach) that they want to have which is why they follow you. The easiest way - THINK OF EVERYTHING YOU POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA as a representation of you and your company. Are there some things you should go delete? Keep it real but don't shoot yourself in the foot. Food for thought ...