In this audio, I am a special guest on the “A New Day Show” with Dr. Daphne Clarke-Hudson of the greater New York area. This multi-part show offers thought provoking, empowering, and inspirational dialogue as I relate my message to a new audience.
Related resources:
More about Daphne Clarke-Hudson
Jackrabbit Factor FREE download
The 12-week Mindset Mastery Home Study Program
TRANSCRIPT:
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Rare Faith Podcast where the solution to every problem is only an idea away, where the same activity with just a little more awareness, always yields better results. Award-winning bestselling author Leslie Householder brings some of her best information to this inspiring series of life-changing episodes that you won’t want to miss. Show notes for this episode can be found at ARareKindofFaith.com.
DR DAPHNE: Good morning and welcome to the “A New Day Show”. I am the queen of the empowered soul and I’m so blessed to be your host this morning. I’m excited about today’s show because I call her the “Jackrabbit Lady” and she’s none other than Leslie Householder. Good morning, Leslie.
LESLIE: How are you, Daphne?
DR DAPHNE: I am so blessed and highly favored. I thank you so much for joining us this morning.
LESLIE: Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure.
DR DAPHNE: It’s a pleasure. You know, I have been following your work for many years and after I ask you to do your introduction, I’m going to share my story with the first time I read The Jackrabbit Factor. So I want to welcome you, Leslie to the “A New Day Show” and for being so gracious and accepting my invitation to be here. Would you please take this opportunity and introduce yourself to the listeners, and we have quite a few people in the chat room. I’m not sure how many of them are familiar with your work but please take a few minutes and familiarize yourself with the listeners.
LESLIE: Okay, thank you. All my life, all I wanted to do was to be a mother and enjoy the blessings that come from motherhood, and it’s ironic because I was the youngest in my family. I didn’t have any little brothers or sisters. Maybe that’s why I wanted to have children so badly because I enjoyed little ones, and my family lived in Asia for many years during the age that most girls babysit. So I can count on one hand probably how many times I ever babysat. Now, it’s interesting too because I had no experience with children so when I did have children, it was a little bit of a shock to my system at how demanding it was.
DR DAPHNE: Yeah.
LESLIE: But I knew that somewhere through the challenges, there was the greatest joys to be had and I was determined to find that and when my husband and I married, we’d decided that when the children came along, I would stay home with them. That’s what I wanted, that’s what he wanted for his children as well and so it was agreement and we married, and at the time we could not afford to be married but you know, we believed that God would provide the way.
So after, after about one year, we had our first baby and I put my trust in the Lord and said we have decided we’re just going to make this sacrifice, we’ll figure it out and a year later after that, we were deep in debt. We hadn’t been before, we were deep in debt and my husband lost his job and it forced me back to work and you know, I have to admit it was a very, very hard time for me. I began to wonder for the first time if there was a God. I’d never questioned it before in my life. I felt like I was mourning the loss of a dear friend to even question it, but I had the one baby. I’d drop him off at daycare in the morning when it was still dark and I’d pick him up again at the end of the day when it was dark again, and it just was a depressing time.
So we had some friends who told us that “you know, you really ought to come with us to these seminars. It will help you with your thinking, it will help you be able to prosper” and so we started going to seminars and we could tell from the things we learned that wow, we have a lot to learn! Positive thinking instead of griping and all these things, but it had become so cliche that I lacked belief that it would make any kind of difference but there was something about what we were learning that kept us coming back month after month after month, and we literally attended more than a hundred seminars in the next seven years and it was enough to keep me from just throwing in the towel altogether.
It kept me hopeful but nothing like changed and finally one day, I was at one of my darkest moments and I had two children at the time, and we were in a small two-bedroom apartment and it was not in a good neighborhood, and I just decided you know what, I am tired of this. I can’t keep hoping, I can’t justify going to any more seminars. I think I’ll just go to bed and if I can’t have the life I want in reality, I’ll just pretend like I have it and live in a dream world, and I was beating myself up for being so pathetic, you know.
DAPHNE: Like having a pity party.
LESLIE: A pity party and this was a big one. I remember thinking about all the seminar speakers who had told me “dream big, think positive, blah blah blah” and I thought “fine, I will!” So I’m going to bed and I’m going to dream big and think positive in my sleep. What I didn’t realize is that what I did that day, where I thought it was something wrong was exactly what they’d been telling me to do all along, but I hadn’t had any belief that it would make a difference and you know, at that time I was picturing myself in a home of my own and the children running in from behind me, and having a yard and all these different things, and a year later we were living that experience.
I didn’t see a connection between the two until another two years where we were broke at a higher level. I was depressed again. I was at a point in my mentality where I snapped. At one point I even called the police on a neighbor kid who broke my broom. This is where I was coming from. So anyway, along comes another seminar and I was set up again and I told my husband “you know what? This is the last one I’ll go to and that’s it. If nothing changes, I’m so done and I’m just going to have to figure out how to be happy the way things are.” We went and something changed in our hearts that day. We realized the connection between what we were doing wrong and our results, and it was so simple. We turned to each other and our mouths dropped open, and we’re like “Is that all it is? It’s so simple” and we came home in three months tripled our income.
DAPHNE: Leslie, before we continue our conversation, I want to point out to the listeners. You and your husband had gotten $1,000 for your wedding present and when you started off this investment in yourself, you took that thousand dollars out of the bank and you invested it in seminars. You then turned to your credit cards and you accumulated thousands upon thousands of dollars just going to these different seminars, and I wanted to point this out to listeners because you know something? There are a lot of people, Leslie who want a “microwave” result. They want it now! They want it bad! They want it now and they refuse to read a book, even from the library. They don’t want to buy a DVD or they don’t want to do a thing, but I just wanted to let people understand the importance – if you want it bad enough, you got to invest in yourself.
LESLIE: Yes.
DAPHNE: So let us continue our conversation and you need to tell the listeners how many children you have, Leslie.
LESLIE: I have seven now.
DAPHNE: Seven, I notice you say now so am I thinking there are plans for more?
LESLIE: No, I have discovered my mortal limit.
[Laughter]
DAPHNE: I said that because I realized when I looked at the picture and everything, I said “man, they really love children!” I look and I see all the love, not only in your face and your husband’s face but also in the children. There is so much love!
LESLIE: In that picture, my two-year-old wasn’t feeling much love but usually she does.
DAPHNE: You know, I mentioned that I wanted to share my story about your work. I used to have a client, a lady a couple of years ago and during my night shift, I was flicking through and looking for some stuff to read and all of that, and that was my first encounter with The Jackrabbit Factor. I read it and I was crying, I was crying, I was crying and then I went up to change my client and I was still crying, and she asked me what was wrong and I mentioned about what it is I read and how it had touched my heart and everything, and she said “Oh!” She could not believe that I read something that was having me in tears so much. So then she said to me “can you print it for me so I could read it?” So then the next day when I got home, I printed it and brought it for her, and she read it and she was in tears. So since then Leslie, I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been addicted to your work. I just want to thank you for the work and the commitment that you have put into each of our lives.
LESLIE: Thank you.
DAPHNE: Let us go forward now. Thousands of dollars in debt, you have bought and invested into going to a hundred seminars. Let’s now talk about The Jackrabbit Factor.
LESLIE: Okay.
DAPHNE: Because that was kind of your first piece of work that you got known by, right?
LESLIE: After about six months of this breakthrough, we had started to have a savings of up to about $9,000 in the bank and we had never had a savings like that before, and an inquiry came out from the seminar company that said “have you ever thought about teaching what you’d learned?” and I had never wanted a career. I told you I just wanted to be mom but there was something inside of me that had to do this, it was a duty. I felt like if I had been given such a gift that it was my responsibility to share it and so I began to teach seminars. At the time, I had five children and it was very time-consuming and difficult to put them together and reach out to audiences. Most of all, because the people who knew me knew where we came from and who am I to teach them how to do better?
So I struggled with that for a couple of years and finally decided that with another child on the way, I needed to find a way to get the message out without doing seminars so that I wouldn’t feel guilty. So I first actually wrote a series of articles for my good friend, Marnie Pehrson. She is the owner of IdeaMarketers.com and SheLovesGod.com, and she had met me through the Internet and I had helped her with some money questions that she was having, and she asked me to write a series of articles for her readers and so I did an article a week for about eight weeks on the laws, and then that ended up being compiled into what is now Hidden Treasures – Heaven’s Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters.
That was actually the first thing and we were making that available as an e-book for awhile and and I realized that’s kind of meaty. It’s a little more advanced and people needed something to warm them up to understanding it, and so that’s when I decided to write The Jackrabbit Factor in a story that would help people get to a place where Hidden Treasures would make sense, and people ask so, you know, “why did you write the book?” and I said “well, so I can sleep at night!”
It kept me awake, I knew it had to happen and and when it was released, it was a bestseller and ironically, you know I wrote the book so that I wouldn’t have to do seminars at the time. Not that I didn’t enjoy them, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to do it and when it became a bestseller, all of a sudden there was a demand for seminars that wasn’t there before, and I thought well, that kind of backfired, but it did make it easier to get my message to other families who were struggling.
DAPHNE: Yes, it helped you to build credibility and gave you visibility.
LESLIE: Yes.
DAPHNE: You know, it’s like you tell people all the time don’t be in a rush. Jump up on building your credibility, adding value and serving because once you do all those things, there’s no way God will not compensate you, but I think we just get into a ‘get rich quick’ scenario where we want it all now with the microwave with us and a lot of times we lose our blessings. So thank you for sharing that so we can understand that our successes will come, so long as we do our duty and do the things that God wants us to do.
LESLIE: Yes.
DAPHNE: Leslie, let us talk about some of the feedback that you have received.
LESLIE: Oh, if there were to be a comparison between the money that comes from helping people or the feedback that you get, I thrive and live on the feedback every day. Everyday we get emails telling us how the book and how our work has changed lives, how it’s saved lives, how it’s saved marriages, how it has given people wings. That is so gratifying and you know, my husband and I even after releasing the book, we have made mistakes and we’re not perfect, and sometimes we’ve had to face challenges that were difficult as life provides.
You know, no matter where you get, there will always be challenges to overcome and I remember at one point, looking at each other and saying “you know what? If we were to lose everything…” you know, because we’ve made some real estate investments that weren’t the smartest thing to do at a time when we had no business being in the real estate market, but we looked at each other and said “you know what? It doesn’t matter what happens to us because this is what we do. We know how to overcome challenges. We don’t promise that we’re going to take away or make it so that people never have another challenge, but we do have the tools to help them come through on top” and no matter what you face, there is the other side of it and we can help you get to it, and we have tested the principles ourselves time and time again even since the book came out and they are as true as ever, and I’ve learned that no matter what goal you set and no matter how many times you’ve achieved a goal using these principles, the next goal will stretch you.
No matter how good you get, no matter how many times you’ve seen it work, the part of the process is that it must stretch you. That is part of the equation, that’s part of the formula and so I am stretched every day even still but I have confidence knowing that we’re going to win. I have confidence knowing that on the other side of it, we will conquer because we’ve done it time and time, and time again and we know the principles that get you to that point, and thank heavens for the challenges because if we’d stopped having them, we’d stop growing and it’s only through growth that we’re really happy.
There was a contest for the world’s best job. Queensland, Australia was putting this together. They were looking for an applicant to give them, they were going to give them a job that was going to be six-figure income to live on an island paradise and be the ambassador for tourism of Queensland for six months. There were 34,000 applicants and the winner of that contest attributes their success to The Jackrabbit Factor.
DAPHNE: Wow.
LESLIE: That was exciting because I had never met the person who’s from England and I only heard about it because someone in Canada had overheard it on Canada’s version of “Good Morning America”, and so that was a rewarding day. You know, this is going to help other people and those of you who have not read it, it really comes down to being able to recognize, enlist and trust the voice of inspiration, or that gut instinct in your life. The instructions on success, they’re going to be different for each person because each person is at a different place in their life.
DAPHNE: That’s right.
LESLIE: So you’ve really got to look inward and find that little voice that kind of steers the way in an almost imperceptible way, and there’s very specific things you can do to trigger that in your life and make it a part of your existence. It’s just an amazing process and I’m just so grateful to have been made aware of it and that I’m able to share it and by the way, The Jackrabbit Factor is a free download. Anybody can read it at no charge at JackrabbitFactor.com.
DAPHNE: Exactly, and you know it’s a great thing you just said, Leslie about each of our successes because we are all unique, we are on different journeys. We start at different places but the important thing is that we continue from where we are, and some of us we can just continue the journey and for others, we have to go back from the beginning and start over, but it really doesn’t matter.
LESLIE: For small goals, as well as big goals, I mean that’s a pretty big goal. I think a lot of people wouldn’t even aspire to do what he did. A family whose son really, really loved music and wanted to go to this Philharmonic concert. I think the tickets were about $50 or $60 or something and they heard on the radio that they were going to give away tickets to the tenth caller, and they applied the principles from the book and they got those tickets, and I know that sounds shallow, it sounds trite but what it comes down to is what is it that you want? What do you need right now? Do you need to find your car keys? It’ll help you do that.
DAPHNE: That’s right, that’s right. It is there for you and you just need to apply the principles and believe that it’s going to work. If it is to be, it’s up to you. So what sacrifices and commitments are you willing to take to have these things work in your life? I tell you something, I’m still amazed by that and as you said, Leslie that you can download it for free, there is no charge and give them your contact information as well now, and then we’re going to go back into conversation.
LESLIE: Yes, the best way to reach me is at JackrabbitFactor.com. There is a little button at the bottom that says “Contact” and that’s where you can reach me.
DAPHNE: Okay, thank you so much and I pray that some of these listeners will see value in to obtaining that material, to get them to where they need to be. In the beginning, when you just got married and you were going through those challenging times and things weren’t working for you, did you encounter an AHA moment that turned things around for you?
LESLIE: Oh, absolutely! You know what, and actually all those years that we were attending seminar, I had an AHA moment every time and what I realized is that just because I had an AHA moment didn’t mean my life was going to change but what I’ve realized since is that success is like opening a combination lock that has several dials, and you know those number locks that you have to dial three different things whatever to line them up, every time I had an AHA moment, it was like putting one of those dials into place. The lock didn’t open with that one AHA moment but one at a time putting them each in place, I was that much closer and there did come a day where the final dial got put into place and the lock sprung open, and that’s why I encourage everybody to invest in yourself. Read another book, go to another seminar or listen to another call like this because every time you have an AHA moment, it’s putting into place the next dial. There’s a finite number of dials that need to be put into place for you before it will spring open.
DAPHNE: That’s right, that’s right and for some of us it’s two, some it’s three and for some it might be a hundred because it depends on how much investment you have done with yourself. So for each of us, it’s different but the important thing is that you keep putting these different things into place because you never know when it’s going to pop open, yeah.
LESLIE: You have to have faith in the process and just keep walking, and so long as you have something you can do, it’s not over. You have a roof over your head, you have a telephone. You know by many people’s standards, you’re already rich and so um…
DAPHNE: Exactly, you know a couple weeks ago we had Dr Myles Monroe on and he was talking about overcoming crisis in his new book and he shared a story about a lady who walked in his office a couple years ago, and said to him that she had lost her job and he said to her “good!” and she was not very happy that he made that statement and she said “well, what do you mean ‘good’?” He said to her “do you have an oven?” and she said “yes” and he asked her how often she uses the oven and she says “on Sundays.” So he said “well no, go use it every day. Get some flour, get some sugar and butter and water, and make some cookies” and to fast forward to now, when he shared her story in the book, she was a multi-millionaire. She now hires seventeen people because she has a cookie factory, and she handed him a check for $10,000 thanking him for helping her to see the way.
LESLIE: Wow.
DAPHNE: So I know there is a cookie maker in all of us, you know. So we have to stick it out and believe in ourselves.
LESLIE: I love it. Sometimes you have to get to the end of everything before you discover that hidden nugget within you. Honestly, that has been my experience more than once, to get to the very end of all I can see and then discover that only there does God show me the next step.
DAPHNE: Exactly. What I have encountered is that I had to separate myself from certain associations because I know God created me for a purpose and I realized that every time I still myself, I get clarity on what God wants me to do and where He wants to take me, and I noticed that over the years, my associations with the love and concern that they have for me that have often tried to derail me off the track that God has me on.
LESLIE: Oh yes! In fact, I’d like to share with you a really quick story that helps you understand why that’s so important, and I’m just pulling it up so keep talking until I find it.
DAPHNE: Yes, I just mentioned to you some of the obstacles that I’ve encountered and I’ve realized from your reply that I was not unique at all in this way, and I think most successful people who stick it out, they have encountered that too but you got to know in your hearts of hearts, and believe that you’re following through on what God has for you to do.
LESLIE: I’d like to throw in too, that those who are listening are already being moved by that inner voice to be here, and whether or not they recognized what it was that drew them to it, that’s how quiet and imperceptible it is but to learn to trust it, and I did find this little story.
DAPHNE: Awesome, awesome. Go ahead.
LESLIE: This is from Richard Bach’s book called Illusions. He says once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all, young and old, rich and poor, good and evil. The current going its own way, knowing its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life and resisting the current what each had learned from birth, but one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it’s going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.”
The other creatures laughed and said “fool, let go and that current you worship will throw you, tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!” but the one heeded them not and taking a breath, did let go and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current against the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom and he was bruised and hurt no more, and the creatures downstream to whom he was a stranger cried “see a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies!” I get choked up every time I read that because I hear that, that comes to me for the things I’ve done and it’s almost as though people are saying “wow, look at her, she flies!” and I tell you, it’s just letting go and trusting. It’s just letting go.
DAPHNE: Oh Leslie, don’t have me crying like that! Oh, it could not have been read at a better time and the one thing I want to say after hearing this, Leslie I want to tell the listeners, follow your heart. When you get that tingling in there, follow it. Don’t take it to anybody else to seek for their affirmation and approval. Wow, that is deep, that is deep, oh.
LESLIE: And yeah, I love the point he makes that yes, he let go and he was smashed by the rocks but he refused to cling no more and in time, was lifted to freedom and so yeah, it’s not going to necessarily be easy, but trusting in the flow in the long run is the better and more abundant way.
DAPHNE: That’s right, because I said there is light at the end of the tunnel and if you cling in the middle, you’ll never see the light. After every rain, there is a rainbow, right? It’s all enough, if it has to be, it is up to us. Oh that was deep, Leslie. That was deep, that is one I will treasure again for the rest of my life.
LESLIE: If there’s time before we finish, I would like to share one more thing that had the same effect on me. God seems to teach all of our most important lessons through symbols and if we can identify the messages contained in his Creation, we can be at peace on our own path to prosperity and abundant life, even in our greatest trials, and I was in my car and an image from nature came to mind, and I had to hurry and run home and write it down because it was so powerful to me.
If you picture a little acorn, imagine it’s like little person who wants to become all that its blueprint promises that it can be, just like we believe and hope that we can become the best that we can be. This acorn is meant to become a grand and mighty oak but for now it’s just a simple nut, dangling by a stem. Sometimes I feel like the little nut. It hangs on the parent tree and reaches high, wanting to see the grand view sweep the vast sky with broad branches. It wants to experience the fluttering of leaves and swinging of limbs but alas, it can barely feel the breeze slowed by the shelter of its protecting parent.
Finally, the parent hears its cry and says “yes, little seed. I have great plans for you. You will scrape the sky and sway in the wind, and the view will be glorious. You’ll provide a home for many creatures giving shelter and food. Your friends will be many, your influence will be vast and you’ll be great and happy.” The little acorn’s heart swells with excitement as it stretches its rigid shell upward to receive the promised reward but instead of enjoying the exhilaration of greatness, it is shaken from the tree and takes a long, hard fall, landing with nothing more than a slight thud, and I’ve been there. I’ve felt that promise within me that you will prosper, that you will do great things and on the other side of that was a great fall instead.
So in fact, after he falls there is no apparent compassion or understanding since its terrible fall seems to go unnoticed. Its very world seems to have crashed down and yet time marches on for everything else around it. The tiny acorn soon finds itself trampled upon, with dirt kicked rudely upon it. Eventually, it’s completely buried in the dark and alone. “Have you forgotten me?” he cries but there is no answer, no explanation, no reprieve.
Instead of rescue, the rain begins to pour and at once, the buried seed believes it may just drown as well. It tries to throw its weight one way and then the other, to force its way out of the ground or to find its way back to the tree but nothing changes. It is as though it is trapped and cannot escape its doom. Weary of the fight, it surrendered to its fate. Holding still with a sigh, the elements around it take notice of its calm demeanor and begin to respond to its mere presence there.
In fact without any more futile struggle, it begins to notice there’s a subtle change taking place within itself. It discovers that as it remains calm, it actually already has all that it needs right there in its immediate environment. It hasn’t perished from being cut off from its parent as it feared it might. Though the fall was frightening and terrible, there it remains as alive and as well as before. No, it hasn’t perished, rather it has sprouted new parts of itself from within that it didn’t even know it could sprout, and the little seed begins to experience the joy that always accompanies growth and soul expansion. Though it hasn’t achieved its ultimate goal, it feels good enough just to grow.
After that temporary period of loneliness and fear, soon the seedling has broken through the crusted earth and can finally see the goal again, Though it has never appeared to be so far away as it is now. However in truth it has never been closer. Be patient little seed, you were created for the greatness that is in store for you. Allow yourself time to develop roots and keep reaching for the Sun. Trust God and success is inevitable. All you need to accomplish the goal will be yours in the right time. Just remember – peace, be still.
DAPHNE: Be still, be still because it’s in the quietness that we receive clarifications and you know, how many times we ask God the question have you forgotten about me? Have you forgotten about me? A couple of months ago, I was going through a turbulent time, Leslie and to be honest, I thought within my heart, all that I do, when? when? when? and I just keep asking God when, and three weeks after that almost every person that I encountered, Leslie had some message for me, telling me and affirming with me how important it is for me to wait, just wait.
I happened during that time to visit a meeting and that man didn’t know me anywhere from Adam. It was the first time he was seeing me and he called me up and he said “God wants me to tell you that he heard your queries about when, when, when but just be still and wait” and the tears rolled on my face, Leslie and I said okay Daphne, let me remove Daphne out of the place, and let me just be patient and keep on Father’s business, and each of us have time in our lives when we question but I want to thank you for sharing that reading with us now, and to let us know it is okay to be patient. It is even okay to be asking “when” so long as when we get the reply from Him when it is, we will obey God’s rule.
LESLIE: Yeah, there is an answer and I am also learned that God has all the answers but He doesn’t provide them until we ask the right question. Sometimes we’re asking the wrong questions and there is no answer to a wrong question. Life’s experiences take us to a place where we begin asking the right question and He has to create a space in our heart for the answer, and there’s not room in our hearts for all of His answers yet and so through experiences He creates places in our heart.
DAPHNE: And you know Leslie when we think we are ready, we are not halfway there. He knows when we are ready and He is just going to give us the reply that we did when He knows that we are ready, right?
LESLIE: Yeah. He doesn’t always come when you want him to but He’s never late.
DAPHNE: Always on time, He’s always on time. Leslie, how do you maintain your focus and inspiration?
LESLIE: I can’t say that I always do.
DAPHNE: Okay.
LESLIE: I mean I go, like I said, I just my inspiration my guidance comes from need or desire. If I want something different for my family, that’s a desire that creates a need that gets me asking questions and seeking answer and so if you’re not trying to go anywhere or accomplish anything, you know your inspiration bank is going to probably be very low. For a person who allows themself to dream big, to pay attention to those thoughts and feelings in your heart that says you were created for greatness, you were created to make a difference in this world. There is something you have to offer and your experiences and your challenges that you are trying to overcome now become value for other people who are also trying to find answers.
So it’s your duty to solve those problems to find your way out so that you can show the way for others and create bridges for other people. That’s what will bring you so much fulfillment in life. That is what will make it so that when you are on the last day of your life, you can think back with gratitude for the work that God was able to do through you because you were willing to be determined to find the solutions, that you had an expectation that you would, that you would not give up until you did and even if it takes until your last day on Earth to solve the problem, are you committed to solving it?
DAPHNE: You are known all over the world and you work alongside some of America’s best but I’m going to go out on the limb in saying that your success has not been without struggles and challenges. Would you like to share with us some of those challenges that you have encountered and however you still stuck it out?
LESLIE: Well, one big struggle for me was at a time when and and I have had many, many mentors over the year and I don’t want to discount that, but I remember at one time where a mentor of mine, I had this person up on a very, very high pedestal and as I got to know them, and I learned so much and my life changed so much because of things I had learned from this person, and then some things happened that were very disappointing and made it very difficult for me because the mentor had fallen off the pedestal, and through that experience I learned that the greatest guidance you’ll ever receive is from your own heart, and sometimes your heart will lead you to a teacher and that’s perfectly in line with God’s plan but you need to understand that the teacher is not who you should idolize ever.
DAPHNE: That’s right.
LESLIE: And that was a hard lesson you know, for me to feel like this person had done so much good, how could they do or say that? It was hard to pick myself up. I began to wonder if everything I had learned was false, and I just had to realize you know, no this is just a person who was moved to do and say the things that they’ve done and said and honestly, in hindsight, I look back on that and I honestly, I wonder if that person allowed themselves to fall off the pedestal in front of me to teach me a lesson. That maybe it was on purpose, I mean this person was brilliant enough that I wouldn’t put it past them but it was a hard lesson for me to learn, and to find my own wings and listen to my own voice and trust it more than I trusted, you know, I will listen to other people’s advice but I will always check it against my own feelings.
DAPHNE: That’s right, that’s right because what you just share, a lot of people and churches go through that same experience because I was having a conversation with a woman not too long ago, and she used to worship at the same church I worship and I had not seen her in awhile. So I asked her what happened and she said to me, she was no longer coming to the church because the senior pastor allowed the other pastor to preach at the main service and I asked her the question ‘are you coming to worship and praise God, or are you worshipping and I called the pastor’s name? Because people put human beings on these pedestals and we have to understand that we should learn lessons from people, and we should separate the lessons from who the individual is because as human beings, we are going to do stuff that people are not really accepting about us because they still have us on high pedestals.
LESLIE: Right.
DAPHNE: Which was the situation in your case, and thank you Leslie for sharing that. How important Leslie, it is for an individual to have a mentor or a coach in their career life?
LESLIE: I’m going to answer this honestly and I don’t know if it’s exactly what you hope I will say, but I think that a person needs to have a vision of a better self, a place where they are trying to aspire to go, or become or do, and then wait upon God to show them the way. Sometimes He will lead them to a coach or a mentor, and I think we should always look to other people who have what we want and try to learn lessons that they have learned. It can save us a lot of time and be willing to look to someone who can give you a new perspective on what you are experiencing, and sometimes it takes someone on the outside to show it to you and it can become so obvious, so quickly.
Sometimes and you’ll know this in your heart, you might say “right now, I need to look inward and just follow the inspiration that I am getting on my own” or I’m going to speak that or I’m going to go to scripture, or other books that can help me but I believe and this has been a pattern for centuries and you can find this in all of the ancient works, that people are ministered to and encouraged, and strengthened, and shown the way by other people. God uses other people to help His children. You know, I’m not going to say everybody needs to go get a coach today unless they’re feeling like, you know I need a coach, and it’s because God is going to put that into their heart, you need to find the next teacher that I have lined up for you.
DAPHNE: That’s right, that’s right. That’s a great answer, Leslie because for me, what my coaches and mentors do for me, is allow me to stretch. They are not making my decisions. They allow me to stretch and help me to come up with a plan B, C or D with the original plan that we started on the conversation. When we started the conversation because they are actually to me, they are a sounding board versus an advisor.
LESLIE: Right.
DAPHNE: And as you say in each of our hearts, we know what we need and you have to listen to your heart but I know, there are some people who don’t have the support in their families and all of that, and they need somebody to help them stretch or put their goals in priority.
LESLIE: Right.
DAPHNE: How do you over the years, Leslie, how do you select your mentors?
LESLE: I make a list. I make a list of the qualities of a person and experiences, and I haven’t always done this but this has been my process more recently. Before, it was just someone was placed in my path and it felt right but more recently, where I was feeling an emptiness and I was reaching out and searching for someone who could help me in the place I was at. I remember one time I made a list that I wanted it to be someone who was aspiring to do great things, someone who had a large family, who had a lot of children who was a mother who believed as I did spiritually. I wanted to find out if there was anybody out there who was trying to do all the things I was doing because at the time, my mentors were businessmen or women who had a career but not a family, or you know and I thought who is out there like me who has done something like this?
DAPHNE: Yeah, anybody else.
LESLIE: It took me six months to a year but all of a sudden, about ten people with that description fell into my life and I had a whole support team.
DAPHNE: That’s something, isn’t that something? What they say, put it out and it will be supplied.
LESLIE: Yes.
DAPHNE: What is your take on journaling, Leslie?
LESLIE: Oh, it’s vital. Oh my word, you know journaling and whether it’s in a blog or it’s in a regular journal or whatever it is, whenever you face a challenge, just get it out on paper – even in all its ugliness. I used to tell people only write positive things but I now say let it all out, get it out, get it released but always, always, always end it with optimism, saying “yes, all of that happened but I am determined to find the way through this. I look forward to my victory.” Always end it with expectation of positive.
DAPHNE: Okay Leslie, I just heard something that we have 90 seconds, so now you also have a promotion that you’re doing now where people can take advantage of different work that you have put together.
LESLIE: Oh yes, in fact we have the home study program. Like I said, after the book came out, I started doing seminars again and started teaching a lot of people in person and again, felt like I needed to reclaim some family time and create a program that was better than the live seminar because when you have a home study program, this one is actually designed to take 12 weeks and there is only so much information you can digest in three days but there is so much that you can learn and apply, and experience in 12 weeks.
We’ve attended seminars that cost us more than $3,000 and I guarantee there is more in this program than we ever received in anything like that. So there’s never been a better time to get started with a program that will transform your life at no risk. You can look at it for 30 days and if you don’t believe it’s going to make a big difference then return it for a refund. So the place you go to take a look at that and it explains everything about it, I won’t take the time to explain it here but take a look at ProsperTheFamily.com.
DAPHNE: Thank you for being generous with your time and for the listeners, I greatly appreciate each and every one of you and Leslie, I thank you and we will be communicating later on.
LESLIE: Thank you, Daphne.
DAPHNE: And I pray that you’ll be back soon enough. Just keep doing God’s work, my sister.
LESLIE: And you, too.
DAPHNE: Thank you much and what the listeners, remember you have a destiny. Follow it and I hope there is something that you have heard from Leslie today, that can help you to accomplish all the wonderful things that God has set out for you to do.
LESLIE: Hi guys, this is Leslie. Thanks for listening to Part 1 of this interview. Be sure to look for Part 2 at the Rare Faith Podcast.
ANNOUNCER: This concludes today’s episode of the Rare Faith Podcast. You’ve been listening to Leslie Householder author of The Jackrabbit Factor, Portal To Genius and Hidden Treasures – Heaven’s Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters. All three books can be downloaded free at ARareKindofFaith.com. So tell your friends and join Leslie again next time as she goes even deeper into the principles that will help you change your life.
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