“We love each other, period.”
This week’s message is a little easier for me to write than most weeks. I just attended the three-day Mind Body and Spirit event with Total Life Changes in Orlando, Florida. Anybody who attended could not help but notice the fantastic example of this core value we love each other period.
Starting Thursday, the three-day event launched with very high energy. People from all walks of life and different geographic locations arrived at the JW Marriott in Orlando, Florida. Immediately it was evident that none of the event attendees were holding back from showing their excitement and engaging in all the various activities.
The festivities started on Thursday with various training, and the room quickly filled near capacity throughout the day. People from different places around the world and from different walks of life sat near each other, talked to each other, and shared their excitement for the information that was being shared and the community that they were all a part of. It seemed like everybody knew each other even though they didn’t.
Thursday evening brought more excitement as we hosted our own Thursday night live game show. That’s the best way I could explain it, but it was so much more than that. People won prizes, shared their stories, and we had a lot of fun. At several moments during the show, the audience was asked to do various things to help the contestants win, and even though they didn’t know them personally, they did crazy stuff like doing the chicken dance together.
The night ended with a young lady grabbing the microphone and singing a song that inspired hundreds of people that were in attendance to sing a catchy Bruno Mars song in unison. It was a beautiful sight and one that I will never forget. I can still feel those goosebumps from that night.
Friday, the energy and excitement continued as if it had never ended. A new product was revealed, which helped get the energy even higher, and we even had a partial stage collapse which brought many attendees running to the front of the room to help. This also allowed for a dance break where everyone made the best of the situation and had fun.
Everyone in attendance thoroughly enjoyed the training throughout the day. Stormy Wellington finished the training portion of the day with a fantastic speech that included five personal questions we should all ask ourselves. Once again, everyone in attendance, regardless of who they were and where they were from, gave positive feedback, took notes, and gave a loud cheer and applause at the end.
Friday evening brought on a meet and greet party, which was temporarily postponed because the party was planned to be outdoors, but it started to rain. The entire party, along with all of the seating, had to be moved indoors. The party was amazing not because of the food or the music but because everyone in the party took pictures with each other, introduced themselves to one another, danced, and showed love and respect.
Saturday did not disappoint either. I saw people be recognized for their efforts or alignment with the TLC core values, and I saw everyone celebrate them. Two young ladies showed courage and took the stage to share their personal transformation stories. People who didn’t even know them were brought to tears by their stories as if they were family because on that day, they were.
The first half of the day ended with a tribute to a young 23-year-old TLC employee named Kairee Douglass, who has passed on. I witnessed strangers who did not know him personally donate thousands of dollars towards a memorial scholarship fund that had been set up in his honor. After the lunch break, we did TLC trivia, which always creates amazing moments of people cheering and having fun and screaming at the top of their lungs to help someone they may not know when a small prize.
As the afternoon continued, there was an excellent training by Gary Brecka, which was very well enjoyed and was capped off by everyone doing some audience participation, including learning how to make themselves a quarter-inch taller in three minutes.
The recognition continued as the evening started to come to a close.
As we neared the end of the show, the highest-ranking people in attendance were honored and were allowed to speak. No matter who was speaking, they were applauded and celebrated by everyone in attendance, which was also beautiful.
As the recognition continued, something divine took over, and a series of unscripted events took place. Children were asked to assemble on the stage in one of the greatest moments I had ever seen, and also, once again, a young lady led the entire audience in the singing of a song. The song was “The Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston. The hundreds sang it of people in attendance; it was again a moment I will never forget.
They were so many beautiful moments, but when I look back at this event in the future, it’s not just the moments that I will remember. Throughout the three days, it is the show of love that even continued several days later as I sit to write this message that I will remember. We genuinely love each other at TLC, and never was that more visually obvious than July 22nd through 24th in Orlando, Florida.
There was no holding back, and there was no discrimination at all when it came to the love in the air and the support for one another. It reminded me how great it was to be a part of this community, but it also reminded me that there is hope for the world that things can get better. Ultimately here at TLC, we are known for selling tea, but what we sell is hope, and that hope is delivered daily with the love that we have in our hearts.
Let’s all use this example as a reminder that we all can get along and that the only sure way to change the world is with love. In our community, we love each other, period, but there’s no reason why our community can’t inspire the rest of the world to love each other as well.
Thank you for reading, and please remember to love one another even when it’s difficult because that’s what we do here!
Have a fantastic week and serve others this week!
