The Business of You: Hiding in Plain Sight; The Journey From The Shadows To Standing In The Light, written by Sandra Kemayou who was recently interviewed by the Stuck in The Middle Podcast (SitMpodcast) Team to talk about this impactful, empowering book. click to watch the episode on YouTube and while you are there check out previous interviews and subscribe for updates on upcoming interviews with people from all walks of life on how to break out of the norm.

Talk about reading books… What more can I say about the impact of reading that has not already been said? According to an article by the Huffington post titled “The reading habits of ultra-successful people” (Sept 26, 2017) link, people like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey, just to name a few read anywhere from three hours per day to one book per week or one book per month at the very least. Another article by Business Insider (Jul 20, 2017) link goes into the details of reading habits of the previously mentioned individuals including the CEO of Tesla who is also the co-founder of Paypal, he read for about ten hours per day prior to the invention of Tesla and still continues to read.

My initial interest in reading non-school related books was sparked by a conversation with my Dad during the summer holidays of 2002. I was in form three; somewhere in junior high to relate to the US school system. He introduced me to reading newspapers, then magazines. The first book I read that summer was the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. After that, I mostly read novels (fiction/drama) till I moved to the US in summer of 2006.

New to the US with nothing to occupy myself with or mentally challenge me, I read newspapers, magazines and Yahoo articles. Then I came across a book by Daniel Steel and another by Iyanla Vanzant laying around the house. I can’t remember the titles because I later signed up for a library card so I could read more books by the same authors until my initial encounter with reading self-help books which was when I joined the book club organized by Sandra Kemayou in the Fall/Winter of 2013. After I gave a talk about one of the books we were reading for the book club; “Purpose Awakening by Toure Roberts” my love for reading spiked and just when my dresser began to overflow with books and I was slowing down on my reading, I was introduced to Audible.

I still do love to feel the pages of books (call it old-fashioned), so I always have a book with me and a few others on my dresser waiting to be read. While standing in a long line at the store or waiting on something or someone, I’ll whip out a book or turn on Audible. Yeah, sometimes I would log on into Instagram, the only social media site I’m on. The reason why; that would need another blog, which will also explain why I watch less than four hours of TV on the weekends only.

I’m always curious about what books other people have read and what they got from it. I light-up like a firefly when I hear or engage in conversations about books. As I read, highlighted and folded the pages of this empowering and impactful book by Sandra Kemayou; The Journey From The Shadows To Standing In The Light, I constantly felt like something within me was awakening. With the permission of the author, here are a few quotes from her book that rekindled a flame within me.

“To hide is to put someone else’s dreams and hopes in front of yours and believe that making them proud will fill the hole that you carry on the inside.” I did feel that way when I pursued a major I was not passionate about until I asked myself this question, what if they are proud of me and I’m not happy? Will I spend the rest of my life blaming others for how my life turned out? ...I share more of this experience in my previous blog post on my journey to a non-traditional profession.

“I learned how quickly people can stop celebrating you and it scared me,” I remember feeling this way when I changed to a non-traditional career path. Looking back I now understand that people could not celebrate what they did not understand.

“Sharing your gifts with the world is your job, but how they receive it is totally out of your control.”

"We tell people to be themselves, but we bring them down as they try to decide what being themselves looks like.” This is pretty self-explanatory but it stood out to me as I reflected back to when I was on Facebook and I saw people being encouraged to follow their dreams and yet were criticised by the same people who encouraged them to stand in the light.

“You must forgive them. You would like to love and forgive once and for all and move on with your life, but you simply can’t. It seems to you that the nice once end up last.” I felt this way during my first year in grad school.

“You should be able to perform a solo without having a mental breakdown.” This literally got me out of my seat! Being a member of a choir, while I was away for grad school, I missed singing with them and singing for me is therapeutic. So for my graduation party, I planned to sing a solo but with the stress of planning a graduation party and finishing the last semester of school, I changed my mind to not sing. But looking back now, I can boldly acknowledge that it was my FEAR of having a mental breakdown that made me change my mind. Singing a solo has been and is one of my bucket list items. So to my choir “family members” (colloquial term) I’m sure going to follow through on that. This also helped me reflect on other areas of my life where I backed-out because of fear. Interestingly, at the beginning of this year, I decided that I'll face my fears rather than run away from them because from experience, when I face my fears, I acquire a new level of strength but when I run away from it or avoid it, it holds me back from attaining my highest potential.

“Purpose is not loud, it simply leaves clues. For you to see the clues, it is imperative that you take the time to remain still enough so that you could watch, listen and breathe…”

“You will be walking down the road of purpose and face a situation where you will have to call on your gifts to unlock the door. You will do it so effortlessly that people will wrongfully assume that it is easy to walk in your lane.” Guess what?! I talked about these in the most recent blog in relation to how I ended up in a non-traditional profession, and that was before I read this book!

“Who wants to admit that they do not have it all together? Most people have a hard time accepting that there are areas in their lives that do not align with their public image. Most of the time, people would rather live with the issue just to maintain a status than asking for help with something that is threatening our sanity.” A prolonged threat to our sanity can impact our mental health, asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it takes strength to admit that you need help.The SitMpod team had a forum discussion on mental health where professionals in the field shared insight on the topic. Listen here Another perspective tailored for first-year college students Link

The author mentions winning strategies in chapter 9 to include morning ritual, who has your ears, what do you see (vision board) and setbacks. The two strategies that stood out to me were morning ritual and vision board. This is another thing that made me jump out of my seat and reminded me of the book titled Commanding Your Mornings by Cindy Trimm;  it was also a recommendation from the book club organized by Sandra K. So I began making changes to my morning routine but the kick to get the vision board rolling was when the SitMpodcast team interviewed Theressa Bowman; founder of Official Young Visionaries click to watch episode. The interview took place not too long after I finished reading the book so I believed that it was a clue to put one together. I have a board which I bought after my graduation in June 2015 with the intention to create a vision board and it has been collecting dust behind my dresser. Best believe I’m putting that to use and will be completed by October 31st!

I could write on and on about how this book by Sandra Kemayou has impacted me but I’ll recommend you get it and read it for there is something in it for everyone irrespective of your journey in life. I can guarantee you that something within you will either be awakened, rekindled, empowered or strengthened. Get yourself a copy on Amazon and thank me later link Sandra Kemayou is also the author of “Guide to Creating WOW Retreats: Transforming Lives One Retreat At A Time.” Book Link Yes I have attended one of the retreats and there aren’t enough words to describe the transformation I went through during and after.  Retreat Link