About

I bet you thought you were clicking over to an innocent little blog, didn't you?  Well, surprise!!!  What you're actually reading is little tidbits of my book!  Yes, I said it, I've written a book....well, almost...just a bit more tidying up and it will be ready for the real world.  You didn't think that I could be THIS excited about a mere slogan, did you?  Oh no.....it's so much more than that!  If all goes as planned, you'll be holding it in your pretty little hands sometime this winter, but until then, I wanted to share just a bit of it with you...and I hope you enjoy it enough to be here for the big launch!!! 

Until then, how about a little intro......

I’ve heard a little saying that goes something like this: ‘true insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome.”  The first time I read those words I was sure the person who had coined it must have crossed paths with me.  This quote describes the last ten years of my life to a T.  In my heart, I have never had a doubt as to what I wanted to do with my life, but it sounded so crazy that I just kept going back to things I felt were more comfortable.  I closed a cosmetic company, and opened a cosmetic company, I closed stores, I opened stores, I started blogs, I stopped blogs, painted, stopped painting…  Each time I secretly hoped that somehow my latest project would fill the void and help me to get a little closer to where I really wanted to be….and each time I was left feeling completely unsatisfied and disappointed with myself for once again turning my back on my true dream in order to take an easier path.

The irony is that in always going backwards towards what I thought was more comfortable, I was making myself more and more miserable each day.  Even worse were the hours spent sitting with a journal in my lap asking God what the heck he wanted from me and just assuming I wasn’t getting any answers.  Those were some dark days and if only I had just let go of all my fear, I could have saved myself and my incredibly patient husband a lot of grief.  But I guess sometimes you’ve got to crawl through the poop to get to the flowers right? (uh, yes, I take full responsibility for that little gem of an observation)

Since I was sixteen years old, I have known what I wanted to do when I grew up…. I wanted to write a book that would change the world and more specifically, I wanted women to be nicer to each other…. (Pretty heady thoughts for a teen-ager but once you get to know my background a bit later on, it will all make sense) Then somebody told me that only completely delusional people truly believe they can change anything and I decided I would rather be known as sane and not draw attention to myself, so I tossed the dream into a drawer.  I wish I could remember who that person was so I could thank them for temporarily killing my dream.

Fast forward to my early 40s and that nagging book, the one I have thought about since  I was a teen-ager, well by now I had been writing it for close to 12 years and I just couldn’t get to the end.  I find, just as I always have that I have an inexplicable and insatiable need to prompt some sort of change as far as the way women treat themselves and each other but I can’t seem to make the pieces fit.  It’s kind of like when you have a taste for something but you can’t put your finger on it so you eat everything within reach and you still aren’t satisfied.  I tried all sorts of different things from blogging to launching an entire network dedicated to celebrating female owned businesses and still, I felt empty. 

I don’t know if it was my insecurity or just plain old fear that kept me from finding my happy place, but for a long time it just felt like I was running my butt off but not really getting anywhere.  So, I did what I always do when I’m confused or searching for answers;  I started to write a lot more regularly, and I started to pay much better attention the women around me.  On a particularly normal day several months ago, I was thinking about all the different things that cause women to act the way we do.  I had just learned that some people in my network were saying some pretty crummy things about me and I felt lousy.  I fired off an email asking people to please come talk to me if they had some sort of a problem….I apologized for not doing a better job, and I sent the note.  

I expected to feel better for confronting the situation and letting these women know that I was aware of their judgment, but in truth, I felt worse.  Why was I letting the opinions of people that were mere acquaintances at best get so deep into my head?  Why am I always paying so much attention to what other people think?  Why do I allow anybody to make me feel less than fabulous about myself?  If I’m feeling like this, then surely there must be others who feel the same way, right? 

What  I had really wanted to say to them was “look….I’m no different than you are, I’m messy, and sometimes I stumble around.  I make mistakes, I fall short, I change my mind, act impulsively, I do all sorts of stupid things that I wish I could do better….in short, I am flawed and I know it, so just leave me alone and go pick on somebody else.”  That was the lightening moment. 

What would happen if we all learned to embrace our flaws instead of trying to hide or apologize for them?  What would this world be like if each and every woman finally and permanently could look in the mirror and unconditionally LOVE what she sees looking back?  What would happen if we ALL were WILLING to judge each other a little less and celebrate each other a HELL of a lot more?  How would things change if suddenly each and every one of us completely understood that to be flawed is to be fabulous?

I’ve heard about magical moments where the heavens line up and a bold streak of lightening hits somewhere so deep that you know things will never be the same.  I’d been hearing about that happening to OTHER people my whole life and now I finally understood what it felt like.  Suddenly I got it.  It was like I woke up out of a dream and completely understood that I have to share this idea with every woman I know!  I have to let every female on the planet in on the secret, we don’t have to try to be perfect anymore because Flawed is the new Fabulous!  If women could truly be okay with who they are perhaps there would be no more gossip….no more judgment, no more unhealthy competition, no more doubt, no more fear, no more striving to be somebody we are not.  If women really understood and embraced this idea then there truly and potentially could be a complete shift in consciousness that invited us to actually feel good about ourselves.

We would finally understand that we don’t need the big house, or fancy cars to be fabulous……we don’t need to put down someone else in order to feel better about ourselves.  We don’t need to apologize for what people have TOLD us are out short-comings… or feel as though we have failed because things are not what we had hoped they would be.  We can finally….FINALLY be there for each other in the most unconditional ways because we will be happy to share one another’s successes rather than be jealous or condemn them! 

It’s taken me almost 43 years to understand that I am a work in progress, I am evolving and growing daily, I am making mistakes, moving forward, taking side steps, dreaming , doing, and sometimes just sitting still.  I am at times a complete mess, and other times I am at the top of my game….but no matter what my successes or short-comings may be, no matter how many times I trip and fall, I am ultimately still standing.  I am flawed because I am human, and yet in spite of those flaws, somehow I am still oh-so-very-fabulous just like YOU! 

So, here we are……on the cusp of something I hope will be truly amazing. 

I am launching a campaign....a campaign that has nothing to do with you social status, the size of your home or bank account….it has nothing to do with your dress size, your bra size, what sort of hand-bag you carry, the car you drive or who your friends are.  There are no sides to choose in THIS campaign because everybody who gets involved and helps to spread the message wins.  This is surely a campaign for change, but how much or how effective it is is completely up to you!   I believe with every fiber of my being that it is time we took a little ownership for the way we talk to ourselves and each other.  We can continue to work against each other, we can stay on a path that prevents us from being truly happy or we can choose to change.  We can self-sabotage every dream we’ve ever had, or we can give ourselves the opportunity to bring them to fruition.  We can blame, point fingers, resent, live in the past and make excuses for everything or we can choose to change.  At the end of the day, there isn’t a person on this planet that isn’t at least a tiny bit screwed up….it’s part of the package.  What you choose to do with your FLAWS is your choice.  You can continue to let them dictate who you are or you can snap out of it….wake up right now and completely embrace the fact that yes….yes…..yes…..FLAWED IS THE NEW FABULOUS!

I know, I know, I must be crazy to believe that somehow five little words are going to change anything….but it would be far more crazy to be so excited about the idea that they actually could and then do NOTHING about it.  So, at the end of the day, I choose positive change for every single woman!  I choose to throw an idea out there that means SO much and hope to God it sticks.   We deserve for it to stick.  We deserve to know that no matter where we are right now, or what our history has been, we are going to be just fine!  We are flawed and yet in spite of it all, we are absolutely fabulous! 

I hope that you will help me spread this message far and wide because from where I’m sitting there are a heck of a lot us out there who really need to hear it!  But it starts with you….you owning the message, you embracing the concept, you celebrating yourself and then letting that enthusiasm spread like wildfire to every woman you encounter!  You are a bright, beautiful and powerful light and with your help I know….. I KNOW that we can change the world!

Thank you SO much for being here!!! 

Flawed IS the new Fabulous and the moment you absolutely understand it, I promise you that nothing will ever be the same!!

Many blessings to you!

Heather