Like most of us on the planet, the sudden and untimely death of Michael Jackson has both of us trying to grasp the truth in it, all while recalling the joyful memory of the first concert we ever went to. Yes, The Victory Tour in the Astrodome. We wore a sparkly glove, we are pretty sure. The media tributes and montages today are sprinkled with a little of what we don’t want to remember about him, too. So, it brings us abruptly to a topic that we teach and speak about often… so listen up, or we may be using you as an example one day. We hope not, but we’re just sayin’ in our Rock Star U terms, there are awards, and then there’s the Hall of Fame:

Admit it. You’ve watched the Grammy Awards on TV and wondered in some blurry-dreamy-state what it would be like to win such a public award. What would it be like for someone to give you a standing ovation, a trophy, in front of a worldwide audience based on the fact that you did a great job at “what you do?” It’s quite a concept. Can you imagine the pomp and circumstance that would be around the Stay-at-Home-Mom Awards? What about the Military Family Awards, or the Single Mom or Single Dad Awards show? Yayehuh!! What about the Janitor Awards, or the Teacher Awards, or the School Bus Driver Awards?

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A post by Aly: Andrea’s story

I wanted to share Andrea’s story with you, and trust me, everyone needs to know the light named Andrea.  Here’s why…

As a rock star, it is the standard interview question.  “What was the inspiration for this song?”  In our case, it translates to, “Who is the inspiration in your life?”   For every single a rock star drops, there stands a chance for it to flop or flourish.  In order to increase the chances of success, the people that shape each song in our life had better be some amazing people.  In my life, they are.

I use the words “people” and “they” on purpose.  That is because there are so many people that shape every song in my life.  In almost every phase, or song, my rock star twin sister, Andrea, has been one of those people.  Andrea is a rock star to a lot of people.  She likely has more people in her fan club than anyone I know.  They have been lining up to meet her since she was born.

Andrea’s own life started with real adversity.  As I shared with you earlier, by the time she was only a day old, she had already had her last rights read to her by the priest.  It just was not realistic to expect a two-pound preemie to live.  I’d never recommend arguing with a priest, but it turned out to be a good idea in that moment. 

But at 24 hours old, Andrea’s obstacles had only just begun to mount.  A nurse came in to give us a bath. During that bath, Andrea turned blue because her lungs were still incapable of functioning correctly outside the incubator.  Since she could not breath, her tiny body was placed back into the incubator and the nurse turned her oxygen on the highest setting.  With no one noticing her chart or oxygen settings that were much too high, 18 days later, Andrea was totally blind in her right eye and was left with only extremely limited vision in her left eye. (more…)

“I am sorry, but they will not make it through the night.  Call in the priest.”  While we believe in miracles, and certainly that many had occurred prior to that day, this was the first one we had ever experienced.  We were only a few hours old when our mom heard those words about her identical twins.   After all, two pound preemies did not “make it” those thirty-some years ago.  But we did.  We made it big time.  And despite obstacles that Hollywood could not have written, we became Rock Stars.

Don’t misunderstand us.   Neither of us can carry a tune in a bucket.  But that’s the point.  See, we believe we are all Rock Stars.   At least, we all should embrace our own inner-rock-star, and fight to be discovered.   In the next two weeks, we begin highlighting your stories.  We’ll be posting about all the Rock Star women in business that we can find and love, so we want to be clear on what we mean by that.  In becoming Rock Star You, it is not about selling a million records, or making a billion dollars.  Sometimes it is about making an impact on a gazillion people.  Sometimes it is just about touching the life of one.  It is about finding and using the God-given Rock Star qualities that each of us have within us, in order to shape our own World Tour in Life and make it exactly the way we want it to be.  And with those tools, we create our own meaningful platforms and causes.  No matter what our life circumstances are, truly, it is about never underestimating the impact we can have on others.  

So of all the people in the world, what is it that sets apart a celebrity Rock Star from Rock Star You?   (more…)