What's Your Theme Song? The Contest Begins NOW!

I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response I got to my recent post about the “Truth About You, Inc”.  Many of you shared with me that you’re beginning on your journey and could use a little guidance on how best to find your brand.  Ask and ye shall receive! J

Today I’m going to help you by issuing a fun little challenge.

But before I go into the details, I wanted to share with you how I got the idea for this little friendly competition.  Last week I was driving home and a song that I always knew that I loved came on the radio.  It’s called “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus.

I’m not one for teeny-bopper tunes (ok, I’m totally fibbing right now…I can’t get enough of the stuff!)

So anyways, I’m singing along (very terribly, by the way!) and for some reason I started actually paying attention to the words that I was singing:

The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down but
No, I’m not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments
That I’m gonna remember most, yea
Just gotta keep going

And I, I’ve gotta be strong
Just keep pushing on….
‘Cause there’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb
…

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
I’m strong enough…strong enough to climb

Keep the faith…
Keep your faith…yea.

I got chills. 

There it was- a song that perfectly described my life. 

When I got home, I played the song again and memories of my life flashed by like a movie.  I couldn’t believe that some 16 year-old kid was the one who summed up my whole outlook on life.

You know, I have absolutely no idea  where I got this outlook.  It wasn’t wise advice from my family (although they gave me plenty).  I never read about the concept in a book. Heck, I didn’t even know who Tony Robbins was until I was 26 when I met my husband Rich! But for as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved tackling challenges.  

There was always one thing that I never could figure out.  And that was why I never really cared about the praise I received after achieving the goals I had set for myself.  Not only did I not care about it, the praise actually made me feel very uneasy.

The one thing I knew was that I always enjoyed trying new things, pushing myself to new limits, and helping others at any chance I got.  Although I was always like this, my friend and family were always surprised to find that once I achieved one goal, I almost immediately had another one that I had begun working on.

It never really made sense to me.  I kept setting these bigger and bigger goals for myself, but then couldn’t care less once I achieved them.  In fact, I was always most satisfied in the midst of the challenge.

When I finally paid attention to the words of that song, I realized that when it comes down to it…I just love the climb.   

So what were some of the mountains over the course of my life that came to mind that afternoon? Surprisingly, there were a ton of them, but here are just a few:

The first one I can remember was during the summer before my senior year in high school.  My dad knew that I loved politics, so he helped me get a job as a “yard sign volunteer” for a US Representative’s race.  When I started, I loved it, but I wanted to be more involved.  I saw the campaign was short staffed and I wanted to help, but I was only 17 and couldn’t even vote… so what could I do? 

At first I volunteered to do research for the candidate’s speeches.  After being told that I did a good job, I asked if I could take a stab at writing a press release.  The campaign manager thought it was “cute” that I would offer to do something like that, but he gave me a shot.  I studied up on how to write a press release, did all of the research, and then proceeded to write the best damn press release I could.  The following week, I became the Press Secretary of a US Congressional race at the age of 17.

The next mountain came shortly thereafter.  There was a very prestigious scholarship at Southern Methodist University that was awarded to 20 out of about 700 applicants- the Nancy Ann and Ray L. Hunt Leadership Scholarship. It was a full 4-year scholarship (including a year abroad) that was awarded based on scholarship, leadership, and community service.

Now my grades weren’t the best.  In fact, when I did the research about the scholarship’s past recipients, I discovered that most of the people had been at the very top of their graduating class.  I wasn’t anywhere near that.  But, I wanted that scholarship.  The challenge was, how in the world could I differentiate myself from 199 over-achievers with just an essay?

Then I thought of my random talent…

 Rhyming.  (like Dr. Seuss-style rhymes)

I decided that I would write a Dr. Seuss style book called “Meet the Nat in the Hat.”  Throughout the book, I included pictures of myself and rhymed my way through the accomplishments in my life that I felt made me “Hunt-worthy.”  (Guess I was always destined to be in marketing….) ; )

To my amazement- I GOT that scholarship! My parents were SO freaking excited.  I was pretty excited to because that meant I got to study abroad in Paris.  But honestly, the biggest satisfaction came from creating that book. 

Another mountain that I thought about was when a college friend and I decided that we wanted to collect and distribute 10,000 stuffed animals for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.  I’ve already written about that story on my blog here because it is honestly what I feel is my biggest accomplishment to-date.  But to sum it up- my friend and I created an international stuffed animal drive in just a few months which collected and distributed 10,000 stuffed animals to the kids down on the Gulf Coast and the kids who were relocated around the country… while working full-time at our day jobs.

The most recent mountain was when Rich and I decided three years ago that we wanted to move out West from our home in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a pretty major decision, to pick up and move away from our cushy lives and high salaries in Memphis during the worst economic time that we’d ever witnessed. 

I mean, we had all of our friends and family in Memphis, our house, job security everything!  That wasn’t enough.  We had fallen in love with Boise, Idaho and we wanted to make our dreams come true.

People thought we’d literally lost our minds to even be considering moving close to 2,000 miles away.  They said there was no way I could find a job in this economy, but I did.  And when I did, we packed up our lives, sold our house and moved to our dream location. Not only that, once we moved to Boise, Rich was able to finally achieve his dream of becoming a full-time internet marketer.  We did that almost a year ago and couldn’t be happier.

By now you’ve probably guessed that moving to my dream location isn’t the end of the story, right?  So, what’s the next mountain?  Well, this is the next mountain.

You see, my first online “life” was cut short after my first network marketing company told me I had 48-hours to remove every bit of information I had put out on the Internet for the past 2 years about the company.  In an instant- all of my hard work was erased.  I was devastated and decided that network marketing just wasn’t for me.  (That’s a clever way of saying that I was totally lame and quit).

I watched my husband, Rich, having tons of fun marketing online and making sales.  I decided that I wanted to have that kind of fun again.  So, I decided to pick myself up, dust off the bad experience, and try again.  This time I wouldn’t make the same mistake again: I wouldn’t tie my brand to any particular company. 

But even more importantly, my new mission was clear: to help others avoid the same mistake that I made by helping them discover their personal brand, cultivate it and then share it with the world.

So, that’s my story.  What’s yours?

Here’s the challenge:  I would love for you to write a blog post or shoot a video (or you can just write your response in the comment section below) and tell me (and the world):

What’s Your Theme Song?

Why did you select your song?

Is there anything you’ve discovered through that song that might be a skill that you could share with others?

Your post/video doesn’t have to be long.  Just post a link to your response in the comment section below.  I’ll feature the top 3 entries on my blog at www.NatashaNassar.com.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a competition without some prizes, right?  So, I’m going to select the top 3 submissions and here’s what I’m giving away:

1st place: 1 hour personal coaching session AND the choice of a custom blog header design OR an another 1 hour coaching session. (Value: $350)

2nd place: 1 hour personal coaching session (Value: $175)

3rd place: 30 minute personal coaching session.  (Value: $87.50)

The contest ends on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 5:00 PM EST.    Winners will be announced on Thursday, August 12, 2010.

Can’t wait to see what song you pick!

To Your Success,

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