Can my teenager learn this?

Funny story and small world. I need to capture this because…

It’s almost stranger than fiction, plus I want to help you know what’s possible for teenagers.

So sit back and take a little ride with me. I need to begin about 2.5 years ago, when I received a Facebook message from the teenage daughter of a friend of mine from college who lived a couple states away from me.

Sharing with her permission:

1/7/19, 3:27 PM

Hello!! I’m Elizabeth’s daughter Emily, I’m 16 years old and thought I’d reach out and just say thank you!! I read Jackrabbit Factor a while ago and am pages away from finishing Portal to Genius. I’ve always been into business and I started one around May that has been a huge success, and being able to identify these principles has been amazing. Next on the list is Hidden Treasures .

I shared the Jackrabbit Factor with one of my friends who finished it in 2 days, and he was one of the only people my age who I could really talk about it with, but he’s leaving on a mission in two days.

I know there are so many other people my age with larger perspectives and more open mindsets who I’ll meet and be able to learn from, and I just need to be patient and they’ll come. Thank you for everything you’ve written. You were truly inspired and you are inspiring so many others. I can’t wait to apply these principles in my future family & children’s lives. Thank you so much!!

On 1/11/19, 9:42 PM she added:

Do you know of any kids around the ages 16-18 that have read these similar books? I’d love to have new people to talk to about it around my age range because right now a lot of my friends either think I’m crazy, or they don’t take what I share with them seriously.

Long story short, we tried to get a youth group off the ground but timing and conditions weren’t quite right. So she continued to apply the principles independently and kept growing her home based business, which turned into several. She stayed hungry, learned quickly, and kept applying new concepts as she learned them.

Teenagers often operate much more easily in the principles than grown ups who have a lot of trauma and baggage from decades of disappointments! Believe in your teens!

Like I said, she stayed hungry. She would ask me questions beyond her years, like this one:

2/5/19, 10:31 PM

Something that I’ve been wanting to ask you … is when it comes to passionate ideas and plans and dreams—I always seem to get this rush of inspiration at night around 11-2 am which stinks because that’s when I should be sleeping and most of the time when I act on these ideas, amazing things happen. That’s when I got my business started / created, and when I feel the craziest amounts of energy attached to ideas and goals I would love to see lived out by me in a few years, but I’ve gotten sick due to lack of sleep …

It’s like my prime time, but obviously the world doesn’t revolve around my wonky sleep schedule. My mom suggested when I feel this, to write all of it down in a journal, and to act on it and brainstorm in the morning. But the problem is I don’t feel the same energy in the morning. I am more of a night person and get so much done in the night as opposed to the morning.

Any ideas? Or if you’ve heard similar stories and been able to figure out why this happens and have any tips?

I replied:

That’s a great question. I’m a lot the same way. I’ve got to act when I spot the rabbit before it jumps out of view. One thing that has helped is to immediately capture the thoughts the best I can, and then prayerfully request help “seeing” it again when I can give it my full attention.

I have about 5 really powerful new articles waiting for me to write, which have been stacking up since last summer. But I’m mortal, and I’ve bumped up against my mortal limits. If the devil can’t make us bad, he’ll make us busy, so it’s important to remain consciously in control of taking care of our mortal body (which he doesn’t have), with the faith and peace of mind that comes with believing that if it is important enough, then the energy and thoughts will be there again when we’re ready to act.

And by ready, I mean, after I have made some of the less exciting things first priority, like sleep, haha.

Anyway, experiment with it. Sometimes I keep going, sometimes I make myself stop as an exercise of faith. It’s always good to keep exercising that muscle; it’s just interesting when it gets flipped around because sometimes it’s harder to have faith while choosing to do nothing than it is to have faith and get cracking on it.

She responded:

Honestly, I didn’t even think about praying and asking for the passion and ideas to return when I’m ready to act. Thank you for sharing this. And you’re absolutely right. I guess going to sleep having faith that this ‘rabbit’ will return is acting in faith. And haha that is ironic. Usually we see acting in faith is the action, not the lack of. But that all makes perfect sense! Thank you again.

Do you have any recommended podcasts?

I sent her two of my favorites, particularly for youth:

• #11: Mission Impossible and Other Outrageous Lies and
• #46: Your Greatest Show

A couple months later she messaged me again:

Hey Leslie! I thought I’d reach out to you and express my gratitude for everything you’ve done. I’m sure you get messages like this often, but I’ve been listening to your podcasts and similar podcasts on the daily, I’ve been meditating and writing down goals, and I’ve seriously never been happier than I am now.

After about 6 months ish of reading all the content you’ve provided and published, I no longer find myself dreading hiccups and roadblocks in live, but I’ve found myself genuinely excited whenever I approach a problem because of the knowledge that I now have of what’s to come.

I started writing down my dream partner, or best friend, really just wanting someone in my life who was driven and positive who I got along with and who had a similar entrepreneurial mindset as I, and a few weeks after this journaling I met the sweetest girl. She was a friend of a friend, 26 year old living in Austin in a little apartment with her husband and little girl. I reached out to her and long story short, I hired her and we’re now business partners AND best friends. Our skill sets are so complimentary, our personalities click and we joke all the time about how we are seriously the same person just a few years apart.

I’m amazed at all of this looking back, and I’m so thankful for you and this message you’ve shared with the world. It’s helped me understand myself and others better, and it’s helped me grow my relationship with my Heavenly Father immensely. My prayers are full of gratitude as opposed to a year or two ago when I almost literally listed out things I wanted help with. Anyways, sorry for the sappy rant haha but just wanted to say thank you.

I thanked her for taking the time to share that with me, and we didn’t really connect again until nearly TWO years later.

Now this is where it gets a little crazy…

12/3/20, 5:52 PM

Hello!! How do you and Cari Skrdla know each other? It made me so happy to see you post a picture of you two! She’s in our apartments two doors down from us and is an absolute Angel.

Wait a second, did I know that Emily moved to Arizona?? I responded:

She is my executive Assistant and program director!! How we met is one of those incredible stories, too long for text. I did a whole podcast about it (Principles of Personal Freedom).

1/6/21, 4:44 PM

Hey Leslie! Forgive me if this is too forward I have not been able to not think about the coincidences and line-ups of Cari being my neighbor, us feeling prompted to move to Gilbert and all the connections that have been made last year. I’m not sure what the bigger purpose is, or what God’s plan is but I felt like I needed to reach out and share this with you. I would love to work with you and learn from you. I teach a lot of the principles and laws you’ve written on in my coaching and social media programs I’ve held for women growing their businesses, and it’s changed a lot for me (as well as these clients of mine). Not sure how this comes across but It’s been bugging me for a week or so, so here I am!

Ohhhh I was already ten steps ahead of her.

Cari and I already see you doing just that. We’ve just been waiting to see what that will look like I definitely want you to be a part of what we are up to! The most natural path would be the facilitator’s track. Has Cari talked to you about that?

She replied:

I’ve heard a little bit about it, but I’m not too familiar!

So I told her to ask her about it next time she saw her, and that if she didn’t get a chance to connect I’d follow up with some info. Cari was interviewing people that week for our January group which was going to start soon.

Fast forward a few more months, and I see a photo connecting Emily to my niece, so I was like – Wait, what??

How do you know my niece?

Turns out my niece dated her sister-in-law’s husband’s cousin – If you can follow that, lol. Emily didn’t realize the girl was my niece when they started hanging out together. So she laughed:

6 degrees! You keep showing up in my life from all directions! I love it.

I was loving it, too. Our paths continued to cross, and because I was now following her on social media, I’ve been a witness to her personal and business growth, which had become quite impressive. She runs a successful photography business, and has clients of her own, making money coaching entrepreneurs in business success, and doing a phenomenal job.

In one of her happy updates she said this:

Referred one of my clients to the Jackrabbit Factor and she’s almost finished in 48 hours! Also booked two appointments in that 48 hour period (previously 2-3 a month). I know you already know all the amazing things you’re doing but I had to share it!

I love reading success stories!

Another one of her updates showed me just how much of an impact she is having, as she continues to stretch herself and follow her dreams:

Last weekend I hosted a brunch/networking event for creative entrepreneurs (vendors in wedding industry, small business owners, florists, photographers, esthetician’s, rental biz owners, etc) and it was incredible!

I’ve never felt so uplifted and supported and INSPIRED by a group of women in my life, and it’s only going to get better from here!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this! I’ve been dreaming about this kind of thing since the start of this year and it was so fun watching it all come together!

I’m hardly a planner, but all the right people and friends stepped in to help me make it happen. It was beautiful!!

And even with all of Emily’s growth and success, she continues to remain teachable. She joined me at my last Genius Bootcamp, and joined Mindset Mastery to start knocking out all the prerequisites in preparation for Facilitator Training. I love her fresh, unhindered approach to success. She makes it look so easy, but largely because SHE approaches it like it should be.

And actually, it really should be easy for all of us.

The principles are simple and powerful. When it’s hard, it’s often because WE’RE the one making it harder than it needs to be.

But even for Emily, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses. How did she ACTUALLY get to this place? What have her REAL struggles been? Well, Emily revealed some of those challenges, and has given me permission to share her side of the story.

She writes:

I haven’t talked about this a lot on here. I’ve kept my journey on the down low out of fear of judgement, not being respected, and prejudice 😅

Yeesh!! Here we go.

When I was 13 years old, I got a severe concussion that kept me from going to school, church, or leaving the house at all really without a terrible migraine. It was bad.

I was angry, confused, and a real jerk😂. I thought sass was cool, that I was better than everyone and that people were “lucky” to be my friend. Talk about narcissistic right??

13 year old emily was at home doing absolutely nothing for 10 months and had a lottt of mindset shifts and changes of heart… after being able to do nothing, see no one, hating my life and feeling more depressed than I ever had, I realized that the only person who could change how I felt was me. If I couldn’t change my situation, I could change my thoughts and make life a lot easier for myself.

So I did.

I decided to start a business from home selling slime 🥴. at the time this was trending on social media, and I was fairly familiar with social media and business so I decided to give it a go.

That grew and made me some money, but then I got sick of it so I started another business, and another one.

Around age 14 I started getting into self development. I soaked up any and every book about our thoughts, operating in laws of God, nature, and more. The book that really changed things for me at this point was The Jackrabbit Factor by Leslie Robertson Householder @rarefaith.

Fast forward to turning 16, I started @theshejewels and that took off, paid for me to go to college at 16 as a dropout and much more.

17 years old in college, I met Johnny, started educating on this platform and my whole life took a huge turn I never thought it would.

I got married right before turning 18, we moved into my dream apartment, got a puppy, and literally started building my dream life in a couple months that I had always had as a young girl.

I remember always hearing people talk about “your first place as newlyweds” as if it was inevitable that it was going to be trashy and small, and wanting so badly to disprove that, especially after everything I had learned about mindset.

If we believed we were going to have crappy living circumstances as newlyweds, then we were. And I didn’t want that to happen.

One of the reasons I was so sure I was supposed to marry Johnny is how goal oriented he was, and his amazing ability to have a vision, and make it come to life.

This was again, something I was told was too high of an expectation to have for a spouse/eternal companion, and I disproved that.

After getting married and moving to Arizona, Johnny encouraged me to start up my photography business again and see what happened. He helped me see that my work was GOOD and reminded me that there are always people out there looking for a photographer.

I decided to apply everything I had learned and applied to get to where I was to having a successful photography business. This was right at the start of covid.

There were so many photographers already, and “covid was slowing down business” for photographers but I ignored all of that and after a couple months of hard work and thinking outside the box, I was BOOKED OUT for 3 months. I had the business of a full time photographer after moving to a new state at the start of a pandemic, knowing no one.

Deep down I knew I had always wanted to help other business owners because of the knowledge and experience I had with my previous businesses, but doubted my authority as a 17 (almost 18) year old.

For my 18th birthday I went on a trip to st George, and realized how many struggling photographers back home needed what I knew. If a 17 year old girl with a camera who knew no one could be booked out for months amidst a pandemic, then a photographer with connections and previous clients DEFINITELY COULD. I wanted to help them, and this was the start of my coaching and educating dream coming true.

I started offering advice and sharing tips on my Instagram page around business, mindset, and other topics that could help out any service based business owner, and I grew a following!

My page was shared, and lots of people were being helped. It was so fulfilling and I knew I was headed the right direction.

Not long after I decided to launch a program. A business bootcamp that covered some Instagram basics that every business owner should know, as well as mindset topics I used to get to where I was.

This was a big success and after some fine tuning and rebranding, my Passion to Profit program was born! This was something I never would’ve thought possible 3 years ago. This program teaches the foundations of a successful business, rather than the “tips and tricks” tactics other gurus share that don’t have sustainable or lasting results.

I genuinely wanted to help other business owners succeed and knew everything else in my life lead to this. I’m sure this point is just another milestone for whatever God has in store for me next.

Dreaming is magical. Taking away all of the societal “norms” or “expectations” for someone in your position or of your age, and allowing yourself to DREAM gives power to the divine part of you that yes, can literally accomplish anything.

Letting God take the reins with my business and life was the best thing I’ve ever done. Growth, money, business, and success should be FUN! And enjoyable! Not draining , exhausting or leading to burnout.

I’m so grateful for parents who studied self development and introduced it to me at such an early age. I’m so grateful for my platform I have to share these truths with other women in business and I am SO grateful I crossed paths with Leslie’s book that draws a bridge between business, and Heavenly Father’s laws.

Thanks!
– Emily

Answer: I have food storage because the promise is that “if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” With the principles, we now understand why it’s important to stay out of fear, because it’s when we are in the opposite: faith, that we are in tune with His guidance. That’s the real blessing, in my opinion: in tune-ness. The promise is not, “If ye are prepared ye shall not starve, or suffer,” but that ye shall not FEAR.

More on How and Why to Fear Not

Onward and upward! 😉

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Leslie Householder

Leslie Householder is the award-winning, international best selling author of The Jackrabbit Factor, Portal to Genius, and Hidden Treasures: Heaven's Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters. Since 2002, she has helped people all over the world discover and apply the Rare Kind of Faith that causes things to happen for powerful life changes. Through story and shifts of perspective, Leslie aims to help her readers crush every challenge, achieve every goal, and vanquish every monster under their beds. Above all, Leslie is a dedicated wife and mother of seven children.

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