An Inspiring Personal Story About Achieving Your Dreams

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I was about eight years old when I remember seeing Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking on television to thousands of people.

I did not know anything about this man, I don't love him very much today.
But I remember how in awe they were of him. They were all very focused on him.

His message seemed super impactful, even though I didn't quite understand it.

I saw in him something that I wanted. I wanted to be able to orate, to speak to people. To speak to their hearts, their minds, and their souls.

Then, that day, the little mini speaker was born.

I did not pursue it or think that much of it because I thought I wanted to become a lawyer.

The thing that I loved the most about going to law school was presenting in front of people and building trust and rapport.

I remember one time I was in a mock trial there and they all gave feedback on each other’s presentations.

I remember the people that were on the mock trial jury, giving feedback saying something like:

“Heather, you can tell me that the sky is falling, and I would believe it because you are so trustworthy, you are so endearing”. I remember holding onto that feedback with appreciation, I just loved it.

It made me realize how important words were and I have just been fighting to maintain that integrity. Also, I do not take that very lightly.

So, I practiced law for a couple of years, but I did not love it very much.

I went on to quit and work with Mary Kay Cosmetics as a sales consultant.

I learned so much about money, people, and their outlook, with what they want to do or what they want.

Then went on to do more account management, sales, customer experience, and organizational development type roles. Each time I would be speaking or training in one sense or another. It was something that the eight-year-old me was so excited about.

Some years later, this idea of speaking became more and more interesting to me. And so, I began to do it as a side hustle around the other jobs that I had.

And I remember that I was doing more customer experience work. There was this one gentleman named, Shep Hyken, who I would see out in the world and saw him speaking on customer experience principles.

I would just watch him from afar and think to myself, “I wonder if he would talk to me.”

I reached out and he gave me fifteen minutes. He walked me through everything that I needed to do to become a professional speaker, which was different from what I had been doing up to that point.

He told me, “The next time I talk to you, you need to join the National Speakers Association”.
It took me three more years to join the National Speakers Association.

I joined the National Speakers Association, in Colorado, ran the national Program, started volunteering on the board, and became the chapter President.

I knew about these two certifications; one is the CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) and the other is the CPAE (Hall of Fame) speaker. The first is earned. The second is awarded based on peer nominations.

One of my speaker friends said, “It would be cool for you to walk across the conference stage while the conference is in Denver this year.” She said, “I believe that you can do it. I thought you were already a CSP!”

So, then I leaned in to get this done. I had a team member work hard to get all the details on the spreadsheet, and we made sure I got all my client evaluations in.

I am not perfect, being a CSP does not mean I am perfect. It just means that I am more experienced than 80% of the other speakers out there.

So, I was very excited to find out that I got the CSP and in July I will walk across the stage with about forty people in our class.

The CSP is a designation that the National Speakers Association awards to speakers who demonstrate excellence on stage and with their clients. Only about 17 percent of NSA members worldwide have earned the CSP.

So, what if you aren’t interested in being a speaker, but you have another dream or a goal like I had? Here are a few things I did to achieve my distinction and maybe they will help you:

I held onto the dream. I was always watching speakers on the screen and speakers on stages that could share their hearts, souls, and minds with the audience and thousands of people every day. I never let go of my dream to become an awe-inspiring speaker, one who could help people see another, better way to lead. I just decided that my season for achieving it would come later. Here I am. Are you still holding onto your dream?

I did the work and research and got better at my craft. All my efforts with training, taking free speaking engagements and watching other speakers whom I admired prepared me to be where I am now. My reaching this goal was not by accident and did not happen overnight. My entire career was like a “yellow brick road” to recognize my dream of being on stage. That was the only way I could be better at my craft. What are you doing today to get better at the things that will lead you to recognize your dreams later?

I leaned on a support group who knew I could do it. It took the people in law school, the visiting lawyers, my colleagues over the years, and my speaker friend most recently to help me see that I should keep with my dreams and keep doing the work to be ready for this moment. If I wasn’t receptive to these messages and stored them along the way, I am not sure I’d be where I am today. Who is speaking the good truth into you? Are you storing that? Do you believe it?

So that girl who was intrigued by that public figure speaking to audiences about something powerful that can impact them and change them is now speaking on big stages all around the world. It’s exciting to know that I have achieved this goal, but not overnight and not alone.