Nat C from ProsperityLighthouse.com told me about this great video.  More than 200 dancers were performing their version of “Do Re Mi”, in the Central Station of Antwerp.  I mean really - who knew traveling could be so moving!

Stefanie and I both read every comment and went back to every store to SURPRISE everyone who posted with Mittens but only found 2, they were all sold out – we did mention it was the hottest 2010 Olympic commodity.
 
EVERYONE WAS SO HEARTFELT so we left it up to the gods (and flipped an Olympic coin) – and the 2 winners are:

Angela & Kat!

Honorable mentions too:
Barbara Semple
Kat Altine
Judith Wilcox
Sahana & Dee Dhaliwal for originality
Janet Smith
Angela for giving back – passing it on.
Coach Laura

Congratulations!  (I promise we will have another great giveaway soon as well!  So hang on for that!)

Warmly, Tania

If you are feeling stressed out and want to let it go….read this post.

First,  as you may know, years ago, one of my clients was Ruben Gonzalez, 3-Time Olympic Champion and now the ONLY athlete in the world to compete in 4 Olympics over 4 decades.  Very cool.  Anyways, Ruben has an interesting story as he was called “the unlikely athlete”.  Really he had almost non-existent sports background but his dream was to be in the Olympics.  In fact he KNEW he would be in the Olympics – so he went to the library – tried to figure out what sport he could do – and then followed his dream, one little step at a time.

Last week during the Olympics here in  my home city & country, Ruben and I went out for dinner, plus he slotted me in to interview him for 30 mins before the NBC TV and right after the NY Times.  I laughed at that.  In fact he kept NBC waiting for an extra 5 minutes while he chatted with me.  I LOVE it!

Anyways, he did this call just for ME and just for YOU!  Listen to it TODAY and pass it onto your kids & friends and family – EVERYONE needs to hear this call!

His Story & Private Interview for you: http://www.privatejvclub.com/millionairementors/rubengonzalez

Also as something fun – I get so frustrated with airports sometimes and wonder where all the personalities and fun went out of flying.  Some days it feels like airport personnel are prison guards (and guess who the criminals are) so this showed me that the human fun and human spirit are STILL here – watch and be surprised.  This REALLY happened at a Portugal airport.  It was a planned – yet looked spontaneous for the passengers.  This is for All those who are flying!  I was inspired to send this as my Business Olympians are travelling to spend 3 days with me to brainstorm and create their businesses! 

Airport Surprise video: http://vimeo.com/8468959  (copy and paste into browser)  Be patient – keep watching.

See you guys soon – I can’t wait to give you big hugs and see your big breakthroughs!

If you ever need some good songs to get you inspired here are my 2 top favorites:

Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI

Black Eyed Peas – Today’s Gonna Be  Good Day!  http://www.youtube.com/watch#!videos=Eb6hnZYtiOY&v=CVQorfIX84w

These songs are my THEME songs!!!!  Feel free to make them your own.

Guaranteed – these items will PERK YOU UP!!!

Hope you are smile today.

Much love!!!
Stefanie

If you ever need a good songs to get you inspired here is one of my 2 top favorites.  This song is my THEME song!!!!  Feel free to make it yours as well!

If you ever need a good song to get you inspired here is one of my 2 top favorites.  This song is one of my THEME songs!!!!  Feel free to make it yours as well!

TAP Portugal and ANA wished their passengers a Merry Christmas at Lisbon Airport in an unique way!

This is a great video montage that Stephen Brunt from the Globe and Mail sent into CTV about What these games mean to canadians.  It’s worth a look!

Thank you by the way for all your responsive posts and emails back to me – 98% of you were so happy to share the experience, and 1 or 2 were annoyed and thought it was a waste of time.  Hey – I can’t please everyone but it would be impossible for me to live here, go through this and not share it with you, my readers.

It’s just my nature to share my experiences – I do it every day with you in business & marketing and giving you behind the scenes info, so is it so out of place to share this experience too – especially when the whole world is also watching?  So once in a while I will share my personal thoughts on my blog as well as my business ones, and I’ll try not to offend too many people.

Well, I promised I would write about my Medals experience.  It was really cool.  We were lucky enough to have a company provide us with VIP tickets to the Mint to see the medals.  What this meant was that we could by-pass the line and get in free.  Listen, I’m not a “showy” person who goes after these kinds of things but when it fell into my lap – I’d be an idiot not to go.

People were lining up in the rain at 4:30am to go inside and we basically just showed up and walked in at our set time, which was 8am on a Saturday – but hey we didn’t have to get up at 4am.

I felt bad getting this ticket as I saw the line and wished I could sneak every single person under my jacket.  If I could have I would have!!!  I went inside swiftly and quietly and tried not to make eye contact with anyone in line.  Once inside I was thrilled.  The building is set up with 3 main areas – the kid area (downstairs) where you do kid stuff and send live video tweets.  Then the top floor on the left held the medal room and the right held the coin collection room.

Obviously I went to the medals first.  It was a fairly large room with only 20 people at a time, so you were given tons of chances to take photos and touch all the medals – Gold , Silver & Bronze.  Plus it included how the medals were made as well as display of Paralympics medals.

Here are the pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefaniehartman

People asked me what it felt like.  Well literally it was heavy, and I love the fact they are not round, they have some style.  The back has the Olympic symbol plus Braille text.  That was a neat surprise.

Emotionally I felt grateful to get this chance to hold one.  Then I thought about the athletes getting one and tried to imagine the pride they’d feel at simply achieving a huge dream.  Then I thought  – damn I want to be recognized for something.  I want an award!  Ha Ha!

But what really hit me was how great it must feel to achieve your ultimate dream.  I have achieved goals but never had that overwhelming feeling of pride or an Ultimate Dream, so that was a weird realization.  Maybe my big dream hasn’t happened yet.  Food for thought.  I typically have a huge goal, but when its reached, there are new goals.  How do you know what you’re ultimate dream is?  How can u measure that?  Do you have an Ultimate Dream?  If so, please post a reply and let me know what it is.  I’d love to hear about it.

Later I saw a $4 million dollar coin and held a gold bar.  I walked out with some gold Canadian Olympic coins – don’t worry I bought them, only cost me $5 bucks.

Anyways, on another note, I had a contest to give away FREE Olympic mittens.  And I wanted to surprise everyone who entered by buying them a pair- but the store was sold out – AHHHH – so I have 2 to give away and I will choose those people shortly.  I so wanted to be your HERO!  Hopefully I can be in other ways.

So check back to see if you won!

Morgan James recently gave me a contract to publish Canadian & American authors with them to get international HUGE distribution.  I was thrilled!

Thanks guys!  Love you too!  You are so good to me and my people.

Stefanie

live coverage of Olympics – http://www.ctv.ca/

Here’s his photos & email

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Marisol loves Canada and all things Canadian.  She loves your gift and was really surprised!

Much love and thanks!

-Scott and Mari
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You’re welcome Scott & Marisol!  Love you guys!

live coverage of Olympics – http://www.ctv.ca/

Stefanie