WHAT IS ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? Nudity, Body Image and Living a Fearless Life

My mind was blown in both Ottawa and Niagara falls  recently. Just came back from Welland ...caught the 6 a.m. sun rise in Oakville while the city was still sleeping and and I'd never felt happier, even with very little sleep. This was my second women empowerment One Woman Summit weekend in a few months and I mostly flew the car back. 

It all began a few months ago on Facebook when I saw an ad for a women empowerment seminar in Ottawa for a full day, dirt cheap. They're talking my language. A full day of listening to inspirational women doing Ted Talks  for 20 minutes each. Because of the nature of my business and the name Spoiled Rotten I end up giving way too much of myself to make everybody else's vacations perfect. I really don't do much for myself so I jumped at the chance and signed up and was very excited. 

Then I scrolled down further and saw that they were asking for speakers. My heart stopped and skipped with excitement at the same time. I'm always talking to people about their bucket list and always doing something that scares them everyday and I knew this is something that I had to do. I know I have a message to give. So I approached the organizer and told her I was interested but there were no more spots and Ottawa, only in Niagara Falls on July 7th. My friend said let's make a road trip and go together. It's always my new friends getting me in trouble and then backing out, those darn hags. So then the organizer sent me a link and I realized I was getting paid $500 for this; woohoo that was awesome news but then when I read it more closely it said I had to pay $500. What the hell. So I read up on it and found out it was an Oprah initiative sponsored by one of her mentorees to raise money for grandmas and young girls over and Africa.  Okay, okay it's a fundraiser. I was big time on the fence and my friend Joanne said what is your gut telling you? Are you disappointed that you're not going and I was, so I said I'm going to do it.

Cathy Boretski

What is On Your Bucket List?

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Owner - Spoiled Rotten B&B

https://onewoman.ca/product/fearless-womens-summit-niagara-falls/ 

I'm glad I had an extra two months to prepare my speech which was written years ago. I practiced it at nauseam but only recently gave it publicly to a close friend Claire and then to her and another bestie Louise and they were so supportive. Finally I took the plunge on my way to Niagara Falls and gave it to my drunken hillbilly family at our reunion enroute. They had told me that 20 minutes was a lifetime to sit quietly, they talked all the way through it, heckled me, interrupted me constantly and told me their own stories throughout my speech, and in the end they finally listened and said they enjoyed it, or as you can see in this photo, they were just to loaded to care.

Have you ever seen a more captive audience?  They look thrilled!

Practice it a few more thousand times on the way but was still so very nervous on the day. 

I stayed in the most wonderful Airbnb in Welland with Catherine and Nancy. After that long of a day, 11 hours of driving, they served me a free supper, offered me booze, gave me the run of their medieval mansion. It was heaven; they even had a pool. 

Went to the trade show at    Odarkhundred, got the best table and set up. Now I am not into aesthetics and everything looking pretty. As an afterthought I pulled out a wrinkled old sheet full of jewelry from under my couch that ended up being my table cloth. Wasn't sure why but I knew there would be a reason so I laid out all the jewelry from my friend; it's always a good draw for other women who like bling like me. I only had my ugly outdated house pictures that I forgot to update- what a missed opportunity since I have so many new renovations at the bed and breakfast. 

Years ago I gave away one night stays like candy and nobody ever took me up on it but recently they did and it was a year out of date on the expiry and it wasn't even the person who won the prize and bloody hell, it included a massage.  WTH was I smoking?  So I decided not to give away a room this time. I gave away the bed of nails for aloonie an entry. They loved it. I also did my standard free massages while I talked up the bed and breakfast.

These trade shows attract a lot of Lifestyle coaches who have books.   They're very good at it and their displays are exquisite. Not me- I look like I was having a wrinkled old garage sale. The lady on one side of me is an event planner and she had chiffon and frames and color matching and gifts wrapped in purple, oh my. I was out of my league.

Nathalie on the other side had done all kinds of trade shows, had candy to give away, beautiful flowers- nope not me.  I looked like I should have had dump trucks of crappy yard sale items left over at the end of the day filling up my table. I gave away many many postcards for the bed and breakfast. Such a busy day and on the breaks the droves would come for massages,  for shopping at Cathy's, and  contest entries. I felt very blessed. The speeches were phenomenal from these women who have raised themselves up from nothing and created their perfect lives, manifesting their dreams. 

My time was coming and my stomach was getting heavier and more nervous. I really felt like I was going to be sick as always when I give small speeches at my church in the past; the only place I've ever given my speeches.  My heart was racing and it was at that moment that I said to the universe you got to help me here. I know I have a message to give and I know it's a good message but I need you to fill me with peace and clarity and be a good channel for the audience so that they can get the message they need. The moment came and peace entered me. It was magical. My eyesight isn't phenomenal so when I put my glasses on to read something I couldn't see the crowd very well anyway. They didn't need to know that . 

Surprisingly the PowerPoint clicker worked great when I remembered to press it. When I practice in my car a few million times nobody ever laughed. I was shocked with the response and I hadn't practiced pausing for laughter. When it was all over with, I knew it went well. In 8 weeks I will have my professional video.  No idea how to upload my amateur copy of 20 minutes but make no mistake, you will have to suffer thru that as well.

Back to the lobby to find my table and relax for the rest of the day. I could not have imagined what was to come next, it was beyond my wildest dreams. The women came out and surrounded me and thanked me and hugged me saying I changed their life. One woman told me her friends said "I hope she never stops talking". Others told me they couldn't stop crying and I was surprised because this is not a crying speech but I guess when you're at a point in your life or you're not living the life you should be,  hearing what you should do is an aha moment which I was thrilled to provide. I had one woman tell me that she is forever pushing the bucket list, which was my topic, on to her family and friends but she forgot to do one for herself.  

Another told me "that was wonderful -now where is the book? You could have sold a hundred books today if you had them. You wetted our appetite and we want more." Now I know book is in my future someday but I have no idea how to do it. It is my dream. Sure I do have one book that my daughter Christelle created for me out of all my traveling blogs but nobody would want to read that. Would they? One woman said "I just need to hug you for a very long time". I felt like she'd gone through a change in her life. Always so uplifting knowing that you're reaching women at the midlife crisis time in their lives after 40 where they know change has to happen. 

The last line of my speech was to make a joke, post a tasteful picture of me nude on the beach and say maybe one day you could join my adventure and we will paint nude together. And then I added, speak in front of a large audience, check... meaning it's off my bucket list. The women after said we don't understand what the last line of your speech meant. 'You didn't mean that this is the first time you've ever given to public speak did you?' I told them I'd only given talks at my church and they were shocked. And at that moment the organizer walked by and said loudly, "you should be giving speeches for a living". Oh my God that felt good because she's heard a lot of inspirational women speak. I'm really milking the speech that I made for my church 5 years ago after my pilgrimmage, aren't I?  

The last picture of my presentation was me nude on the beach. At my bed and breakfast that's one of the pictures on my travel wall that the male guests zero in on out of 30 on the wall. It's like they have a radar.   One of the only males in the audience wanted to talk only about one of my biggest topics of my speech; body awareness and being nude. 

I stayed till the very end cleaning up my garage sale when another speaker came by and said I really should have written a book. I confided I really have no idea how to do it.  All I have is blogs and she says put them all together and make your book-  it will sell! 

The universe is sending me so many messages that I should write a book that I'm thinking maybe I should. It makes my heart race with excitement. And who wouldn't want to have a house full of unsold books about herself to look at everyday? I can make furniture out of it and give them as thank-you and Christmas gifts like socks that nobody ever wants lol. 

Oh well it's all over with or just beginning not sure yet. I really do feel so blessed that I not only had the opportunity and saw the ad on Facebook but that for a change I actually followed my heart. I think good things are going to come out of the speech. 
One woman said don't change a word on that speech. There's a group that meets in Niagara Falls and I think you should come back and give that exact speech to them. Would you be interested? Hell I'm always interested to pay $500 to give a speech, who wouldn't be? This may be the first of many speeches around the world with Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra. Oh, they will come, if we build it... and you talk about nudity.

VIRTUAL REALITY AT A BED AND BREAKFAST...whaaaat???

Virtual Reality is not something you expect to experience at a B&B but then again, this is not your ordinary Bed and Breakfast. 

Most of my experiences are done standing up so this MUST be fake.  

I share my technology, my music on I-pod, cell phone (especially if they have an out of country sim card) and my virtual reality (VR). Now that is one hilarious sport to watch. https://www.facebook.com/vicky.langton/videos/10154904661866311/

The first time I tried on VR glasses, I knew I HAD to have it for the B&B, no matter what. As a result of owning a pair, I have probably increased the sales of the VR headgear beyond what other marketing companies could ever hope to achieve. I should actually have bought shares because once you try it, you are hooked. I encourage the use of the virtual reality experience twice per guest; the first time for the feel good Introduction to VR, and the second time for the high adventure, Fear of Heights. The latter is so intense that when I did it the 2nd time, I had to lift up the glasses to see my red carpet and reassure myself I wasn't teetering over top of a wire at the top of a skyscraper.  Don't even thing of asking your guest to hold your hand while you bring them closer to your counter and away from a wall because they will scream and wail, "No I can't do it.  I will fall".  I now make people hang onto the back of a chair for their own safety. I know the game so well that I stand nearby and coach where to look for the optimal experience.  Spoiled Rotten is the place  where people go to die AND they walk away laughing.


The Logistics of Owning VR With Your Cell Phone:

The headgear comes in two types; one for an I-Phone and one for an Android.  I used to have an old phone, S5 but 'they' suggested I upgrade so when I did at the local big box store, as a reward they gave me $100 gift card.  The entire headset came to $45 for me altho it could have been cheaper because sometimes they give $200 cards.  I am thrifty so I downloaded the two free apps, Occulus and VR and in those apps, all the free ones where the ratings weren't too sad.  I haven't paid a cent more than $45 for hours and hours of fun and one day, I will find the courage to ask a child to teach me how to use it for more than two programs.  Recently, a guest commented that if I had a 360 camera for my family reunions, we could watch them on VR.  I am soooo tempted for $144.  

One of my favourite moments was encouraging a man to try it.  His company had just taken on a client with VR capabilities and his team was representing them, BUT NOONE ON HIS TEAM HAD NEVER USED VR BEFORE!!!  Can you imagine?  I let him play for as long as he wanted so he could at least talk intelligently about it.  That's just the kind of good Samaritan I am.  

The challenge with entertaining this way is that the headgear uses my cell phone so it's tied up whenever the whole group is trying it out and loving every minute of it and I'm getting behind on my emails. If a personal message comes in, they can see the subject line and that's a little unnerving.  On the upside, it's pretty hilarious to watch people diving and screaming and overly dramatic but of course I can't take their pictures because THEY HAVE MY PHONE!!!  Often the grown kids are hooked and want to do another one and another but I draw the line at two or I'd never find out what spam or urgent porn is anxiously awaiting my action.  

And this is one of the only pictures I will ever have sadly.

Sharing my phone is a pain but the laptop is worse. I live on my computer laptop but there are times when guests arrive with only mini tablets, older cell phones that they can't see because they've forgotten glasses or they hate small technology, like myself so I lend them my laptop for hours and hours and hours at a time; ok, it's probably just 20 minutes but it's sheer torture for me because I am just as addicted as they are to their media and emails. I am forever getting behind in my duties but it's always for a good cause, even if I get a little twitchy waiting for my turn. And no matter how much I'm crawling the walls, you will always get the same company line from me, "No, no, it's no problem at all. Take your time", as my head is bursting into feverish flames and I'm imagining throat punching them. Oh, the things us innkeepers do for you.  I'm just kidding, "It's no problem at all.  Take your time".