Recently, I came across a television episode of Oprah’s “Where are they now?” One of the featured guests was Carol’s Daughter founder, Lisa Price, who shared how shortly after her now well-known products were highlighted on “The Oprah Show” she received so muchinterest in her product that visits to her website increased from 17 to more than 10,000 in a matter of minutes. Yet in addition to visibility and positive support, she received negative social media comments that felt very personal. With people were calling her things like “sell out”, she found the words so hurtful that she had to resist the temptation to reply as she knew that she would not have responded in the right way.
As Lisa was mentally dealing with the challenge of negative chatter, she attended Oprah’s “The Life I Want Tour” in Miami, where she listened to Oprah share her own recent story of receiving criticism and negative commentary about her new network OWN. Oprah described how she had a moment in which she made a choice to shift her perspective. She began to say to herself, “how amazing that a little girl born in Mississippi, who was raised to be a maid, now owns her own network.” “What would my grandmother say about my network?!” As a result, the story helped Lisa change her perspective, recognize the comments for what they were, focus on the positive and press on toward further success. Today, Carol’s Daughter is in stores nationwide and she has recently signed a contract with a major company that is expected to secure her brand and product for years to come.
So what’s the point of sharing? I’m sure you get it. The headline of this is what is your story, so…what is it? How can you think of everything happening in life with that in mind? Sometimes when challenging situations, criticism and negativity come we begin to focus on the negative, allowing it to permeate our thoughts and overshadow all of the great things that are happening in our lives. What if we all took a moment like Oprah to shift our perspective and consider our story? What stereotypes, barriers and/or expectations have you overcome that show how awesome…or at least good, things are and how much you have to be grateful for? No, we all can’t be Oprah, but everybody has a story. Each of us has something…even it seems small to you. Someone recently asked me “What is your testimony” and I was initially taken aback as I hadn’t thought about it in some time. As I answered the question, I found it refreshing to reflect on my story and share.
So today…this week, I encourage you to take a moment and think about your story. Then after you think about it, share it with someone else. Like Oprah inspired Lisa to keep pressing forward, you may just inspire someone else too.