Perhaps a lot of you are like me (or not) and you’d never heard of Forbes Riley before the April 11th Luncheon. An interesting thing happened while I was having lunch with a client a few days before the Forbes Riley event. My client had offhandedly remarked about how there was a dearth of successful global female speakers and entrepreneurs as role models and mentors to other upcoming womEntrepreneurs.

And she added that the few people she knew were so busy it was difficult to engage with on a one-on-one basis to learn from them. So together, we put it out there as a goal and prayed that we’d have access to the right mentors, on a one-one/intimate setting, so we could really ask the questions that mattered to us.

And of course, as usual God and the entire universe have a wonderful sense of humour. Ask and you shall receive, right? In the words of Forbes Riley, be careful what you ask for because you will receive it, ALL of it (sometimes, at the same time!)

A few days after our conversation, an email lands in my inbox regarding an event in Toronto, an intimate luncheon with Forbes Riley, a successful female entrepreneur. And I simply made up my mind that nothing was going to keep me away, and was I ever glad that I attended!

Talk about sitting in a total immersion environment with a group of dynamic, beautiful, entrepreneurial women ( and a few good men too), and listening to Forbes Riley share her life-story; the good, the challenges and the ‘ugly’. She also did a very simple yet impactful exercise about the ability to articulate our wants with clarity and conviction. Personally, as a coach, with my focus and passion geared towards women professionals and entrepreneurs, this is huge!

As women we love to nurture, we’re natural care-givers and builders, yet we sometimes have great difficulty in firstly, knowing what we really want and secondly, communicating what it is we really want deep down, succinctly, with heart, clarity and power. It is no wonder that there’s a general belief women tend to use more words than men and still we communicate very little (Scientifically, it has been shown that women use an average of 4000 words per day, compared to 2000 words used by men). I’m not too sure of the veracity, however, it does seem to ring so true!

There were so many things that we were reminded of and new nuggets that we learned. I’d like to share my top 7 today (my notes had about 31 of them). So I guess if you want to know more, you may either choose to attend the next Forbes Riley Luncheon (She’s back in town on May 31st), or connect with me. My suggestion is of course you go for the former, because there’s nothing quite like getting it from the source!

7 Life Lessons from our Toronto Luncheon with Forbes Riley….

#1. Show up and be present. Opportunities are everywhere. Opportunities are always in front of you, be more present with any crowd, person or situation. You may be facing the person with the resources, connections or skills you need (and even resources you didn’t know you need)! She also shared her cool, bestselling workout tool, the spin-gym. You simply have to try it to get the power. Great things do come in small packages. And when she shared (or rather showed us) her spin gym sales pitch, wow, ‘cool’ is such an understatement. It is sales and marketing with a difference. It clearly hits and resonates with all our key senses-visual, auditory, kinesthetic…

#2. Know what you want, what you really want at your core and break it down into small, daily action steps. (And note: what you want probably has a lot to do with what you want your legacy  to be in this lifetime). It was so beautiful to watch Forbes and her cute son during the luncheon, and to see him experience his mother living her dream and sharing her passions from stage.

#3. ‘Fake it till you make it’ is a load of B.S! Be yourself and keep going. Don’t just be yourself but be a wiser, more resourceful version of yourself every single day.

#4.Visualize your dreams with such fire, clarity and conviction that they have no choice but to simply manifest in your physical reality. Live your dream and pursue your passions. Be the mentor to someone coming up and be a mentee to someone who’s already where you want to go.

#5. Surround yourself with the right coaches, mentors and teachers. Forbes shared an insightful story about Serena Williams, a world class athlete who has many coaches and mentors.

#6. When a door shuts in front of you, become more creative and resource both internally and externally. Forbes shared a story about starting out as an actress and being her own agent. It had everyone in the audience in stitches. Lesson? When a door closes, go through a window or through the roof…just keep searching for another way in, break the walls if you have to!

#7. Your dreams deserve your total commitment. Protect, nurture and grow your dreams. If you don’t, no one else will. And sometimes, you have to trust yourself and take a giant LEAP in life!

These are nuggets we all already probably know, however, we often need the gentle, firm and loving reminders. These are just some of the many reasons why Toronto loves Forbes Riley! And she’s coming back to Toronto for another weekend event. You do NOT want to miss this one! Save the date: May 31st. Register here http://tiny.cc/vrjqex, with Promo Code: WWNTBWS

What are you waiting for? Register today for the next Toronto Business Wealth Summit, which features Forbes Riley as one of the speakers!

P.S: One of the really most exciting thing about the Luncheon was that yours truly became the first person on the planet to get an autographed copy of Forbes Riley’s new food journal titled ‘e.a. t: a journal for what you eat and what’s eating you.’ Woohooo!! (I’m still doing my happy dance) :-)! According to her, it was hot off the press and she has both of us on camera as proof! A huge thank you to Forbes for her words because it touched on my dad, who’s now deceased as is hers. And when she’d asked me about what my biggest highlight of the whole day was, I had shared that it was when she talked about her father and the memories she had of him and so much more. That’s definitely a post for another day!

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The preceding is a guest post from Juliet Ume, MBA –Strategic Interventionist, Wealth Management Consultant & Leadership-Coach at Whole Woman Network. Juliet is the author of the upcoming book: ‘UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership.” She is an avid Life Connoisseur and a passionate advocate of WomEntrepreneurship, Leadership Training, Investment & Financial Literacy for women. Her mission is simply to engage, educate and empower women (and men), regardless of their levels of income or background, to return to ‘wholeness’ and live Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier Lives using Faith-based, Scientific, Behavioural and Universal (Common-Sense) principles! She shares her daily reflective posts on: www.facebook.com/wholewomannetwork. And to relax, she shares her love for Floetry (the spoken-written word), on her Poetry Blog. Follow her on Twitter: @wholewomaninc, @julietumeinc