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It’s all about people!

In this space you usually find articles written to help our graduates continue their journey of continual improvement.

This month I am going to do some thing a little different - this article is a letter from my heart reflecting on the last year. My desire is that these words, from my heart, will reinforce the underlying theme at Empower U…It’s all about people! In doing this, this article will help our graduates continue their journey of being "Under Construction".

For those of you that don’t know - Empower U just celebrated our 1-year anniversary of our first class as a training organization. I consider success to be a journey and not a destination. As you take this journey of reflection with me, my desire is for the reader to realize the importance and need of people in our lives. As I reflect on this last year and the successes we have shared as a team, family and organization, I am humbled by what has been accomplished in such a short period of time.

We had 14 people in that class and to this day it was probably one of the most special classes we have ever held.

The power of a TEAM along with Synergy and Synchronicity have accomplished more in one year than one or two individuals could accomplish in many years. Case in point, Empower U has accomplished in one year what it took my former employer 7-8 years to do! July 10, 1998: Empower U conducted the first-ever Leadership Awakening class in Reno, Nevada at the now-closed Riverboat hotel. We had 14 people in that class and to this day it was probably one of the most special classes we have ever held. We did the class for free - we didn’t charge anybody for anything except hotel & meal expenses. I wanted to make a statement with our first class. I went to some of my old clients from when I worked for a former training organization and told them that I had re-written the previous training and made it more powerful, more complete and more positive. I told these clients that I wanted to show that we were different than my previous company, it wasn’t about money, and I was willing to prove it by giving them free classes with no strings attached! Either they or any employees, family members, or friends – whoever they chose - that couldn’t afford the old training could use these classes. Some people accepted the gift, others chose not to give someone this gift.

As I reflect back on this past year, I feel many different emotions. I remember at the end of Class 101, the team commented on how organized our training was, that they had never seen a class so organized and well put together. At graduation we had to be honest with them and tell them that we were actually still writing the class as we were doing it. We had no manual, just an outline. I had Bob Stokich and my wife Kim on team with me and they kept asking me on each module "What are we doing this module?" I would tell them "Just watch me and be prepared for anything." We laugh about it now, and back then we were laughing. Kim, Bob and I spent countless nights typing and writing and putting together handouts, class design and flow. I spent hundreds of hours reading and researching to take good training and transform it into the most powerful leadership training in the world. We would go until all hours of the night and sometimes the morning. It was something I could not do by myself, and those two people were the first of many that christened The Empower U Leadership Team… and the ‘Cause’ had begun.

Since that first weekend in July so much has happened. So many people have come into our lives. When I speak of our, I am talking about Empower U. In one year Empower U has accomplished the following:

30 Leadership Awakening classes
Over 25 Power Goal Setting classes
4 HBS Leadership Adventure classes
1 EQ: Communicating w\Power class and some custom training

In this year all these classes were written, tested and also marketed to the public. In addition to all of this we needed to generate sales so that we could keep the doors open. In order to do all that, we needed people. I tend to get all this credit because I have trained all the classes, sold 90% of the classes, written and re-written all the classes. Behind the scenes I have had so much help. There is no way I could have done this by myself.

Empower U is not about Scott V. Black, it is about people, a team of committed individuals. In the words of the great Anthropologist Margaret Mead,

Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

The credit for our success over the last year belongs to the team that has come together here at Empower U. This team has been ever changing. Our team has been made up of many different people and these people played many different roles. Some have been graduates, some friends, some staff and employees, others have been people that believed in our cause and wanted to assist in some way. Some of those people are still here, some have left, some left and have now come back.

I spent hundreds of hours reading and researching to take good training and transform it into the most powerful leadership training in the world. We would go until all hours of the night and sometimes the morning.

The assistance has been varying in degree of importance. Some helped us type up our manuals and helped me to believe in myself, like Bob. Others helped us financially by committing to purchase classes, when others wouldn’t, like Chris Hollabaugh. Many different people, many different contributions. That is what a TEAM does. I would like to mention some of those people. As we celebrate the beginning of our second year, it is important for me to remember it’s all about people. These people, by helping us out and believing in us, gave others permission to do the same. These people gave us the ‘lifeblood’ to do what we are doing and then they sustained us and kept us "On Purpose." These people allowed us to assist other people in reaching more of their human potential. We have been blessed with some special people… It’s all about people!If you are reading this, then you have probably been through our Leadership Awakening course. Near the end all of our graduations we talk about the Power of One and Nelson Mandela. We end all of our Leadership Awakening courses with this quote taken from Nelson Mandela’s inauguration address:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Here at Empower U, we believe in playing big. Before I had had Leadership Awakening completely written, Chris Hollabaugh and the Hollabaugh brothers’ team out of Seattle and Portland committed to pay for 20 people to attend our training. I had yet to even start writing the HBS Adventure experience- although I had known for years how to put together the ultimate Adventure class, I couldn’t get anybody to listen to me. We were working out of our garage and Chris helped us to get into an office. Len Savage and the Savage & Sons team has been another important factor in our success. Len allowed us to get out of a 5-year lease when I left my previous company. I went to Len when we were ready to move out of our garage and back into an office. Len and his family allowed us to move right back into that same office, almost a year later, and we just picked up right were we left off. I never signed another piece of paper. Mike Klaich and the team at Muckel, Anderson, Claussen, Behrenz, et al, were responsible for 3 people being in our first class. Mike believed enough in me, that he trusted me with his friends and family. Mike and his firm are now Empower U’s CPA firm. From that class, Lonnie Klaich, who is a member of Team 101, and I have become very close personal friends. Lonnie got us into the Riverboat when it was open, the Holiday Inn, and St. Mary’s Hospital. His wife, Laura Klaich, and Mike’s wife, Patrice Klaich, have become very close friends and have been a huge support in our personal lives as well.Gary MacDonald joined our team as the first team member to go full-time. Grant & Shirley Nicholson and Team ADE jumped on board and really propelled Empower U to the next level. Grant has been responsible for at lest 100 people attending Empower U, he is also responsible for Empower U going global and doing our first classes outside the USA.

Our team members at Empower U are sooooo special, they believe in my vision and wanted to make a difference, to make it matter that they lived on this planet, at this time, in this body. My vision has now become our vision. They trusted me enough to commit 100% to the ‘Cause.’

We have our first few classes scheduled in Canada and we are on our way to Australia. Michelle and Keith Hebert joined our team and walked away from better paying jobs to make a difference with the Empower U Leadership Team. Q & D Construction, Norm Dianda and John Breternitz hired us to do training for them when very few people gave us the opportunity. Ricky Reviglio and the Blue Team at Western Nevada Supply helped spread the word about Empower U. Scott Owyen and the Genie Team in Washington sent through about 60 people in a 5 month period. They sustained us until while we were still struggling to build our client base. Deputy Chief of Police Ondra Berry stood by our side and is responsible for at least 20 people going through class and bettering their lives and the lives of those around them. He stood by me financially, spiritually, emotionally and made me realize I wasn’t crazy. Bruce Guimont helped me build my garage into an office and was the best friend a person could ask for. Lefty Monson for making it possible for us to build our own private ranch. He made a statement with his actions that I have never experienced before, he taught me about belief in a fellow human being.

These powerful individuals trust me with their lives and their futures, there is no greater trust. I am humbled to be on their team. Kymberlee Simantel was the first to step over the line. Kymberlee arranged for me to meet Erica Millick, and from the first time we met I knew…what a great addition to the EU Leadership Team! Ken Sheppard in Colorado joined the team, and finally walked away from all other income sources to commit to the Mission of Empower U. There are so many people to thank and so small a space: Garry-Wray and Debbie Schott and the P\G Auto parts team, Lee Mattar, Ron & Mickey Tilton, Angelo Bucciol and family and the Dixie Electric Team, Mike Chapman and Beth Chapman (Speidel), Lee Ruff, Don Simons jr., Claire Riendeau and the Design FX team, Troy Arnold and the Websetters team, Oscar Riveron, Larry MacDonald and the McElhaney cattle company, Vicky and Tim Puliz, Barbara Andrade- I will forever be indebted to, Steve Pascal, Jerry & Sally Baggott, Mike Moody, Diana Nicholson, The Montano Family and the Tuscon Alternator Exchange Team, Lorne Johnson, David Huber, Barbara Johnson, The Hiatt family and A&K Earthmovers, Danielle and John Grotjahn, Mike Kosak and the team at Lahontan Golf Club, Joel Blaker and the team at Tahoe Donner Resort, Tom Cinko, John Burruel, Joe Blanton, Jack Baxley, Tony & Charmi Harrah, Mr. & Mrs. LJ, Glenn Strothers and many, many more.

I want to thank those people I have mentioned and those that somehow have slipped through my thoughts at the moment. Our success is a testament to the great people that we have been blessed to have in our lives. I am excited about the successes that the Empower U Leadership Team will have in the next year and 5 years and 20 years. I am just as excited to meet those people that will enter our lives to make us successful, as an organization as individuals and as human beings. Remember my favorite definition of success...

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived…this is to have succeeded!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I write this letter we are 2 weeks into our 2nd year and we have just expanded to another country. We have conducted our first teen class. We had our first class training where Scott V. Black was not present, and it was a huge success. We have weekends coming up where we will have 3 classes going on simultaneously, one in Dallas\Ft. Worth, San Diego and Toronto, Canada. We scheduled our first private Awakening mid-week in Phoenix, Arizona. Our success is growing exponentially. Thank you graduates, thank you supporters, thank you Kim and my family, thank you God.In closing remember that unless our clients are successful, we won’t be successful. So keep pushing toward your dreams to be better: better parents, children, spouses, bosses, team members, employers, employees, church members, community activists.…There are three things we must do to be our dreams:

WANT IT.CREATE IT.LIVE IT!

Let us know what we can do to help you LIVE IT. Following this article you will see a collage of pictures taken at our one-year anniversary. We had the celebration after the graduation of Team 129. Enjoy the pictures, enjoy the emotion, enjoy the people. Remember…It’s all about people!

I remain...

Enthusiastically yours,

Scott V. Black
The Empower U Leadership Team
August 1999

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