Tag Archives: kind

Believe In People

Believe in People: Bottom-up Solutions for a Top Down World is an awesome new book that I was blessed to receive an advance copy of from authors Charles Koch & Brian Hooks. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know both Charles and Brian personally over the last several years through Stand Together, a philanthropic […]

#BeNice

Tonight my kids showed me a social media post where someone shared their view on something and someone else disagreed with them by calling them a derogatory word, and sadly this exchange took place between two people who supposedly loved each other. I wrote a blog on this very subject five years ago because I […]

A Parents Thoughts To Their Child On Graduation

In yesterday’s blog I shared that my daughter Ashley graduates from BYU tomorrow (Friday April 24th 2020).  I also shared the thoughts she wrote about the things she learned from her college experience. Today I thought it fitting for me to share a parent’s thoughts to a child that’s graduating, so here are my thoughts: […]

Why Me?

I started reading through things I’d written in past years Aprils to try and remind myself of what my Aprils used to be like before this pandemic. Ironically, the first thing I flipped to was an article I’d written back in April of 2013 that was published in Forbes, and when you read what I’d […]

Bad Things Happen To Good People

“That moment when you pour a bowl of cereal and realize there’s no milk so you sit there wondering why bad things happen to good people.” (tee hee) It’s so easy in life to think that because you are trying to live your life right and do good things that therefore nothing bad should happen […]

The Most Valuable Currency There Is

“The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.” – Jim Carrey It was nine years ago yesterday, October 16, 2010, when I got the phone call letting me know that my best friend Steve Gasser had died. It was totally unexpected and a complete shock when it happened. I was […]

The Difference Between Okay and AWESOME

I believe strongly in the importance of paying attention to details because I know that the details can make the difference between something being okay and something being AWESOME. And I always prefer AWESOME! I once shared a story about an experience that happened when my daughter was 14 years old that shows how the […]

Imagine Dragons, NASCAR, friends and family made for a birthday weekend to remember

For my birthday last Friday a group of friends took me down to Las Vegas in a private jet to go to a VIP meeting with the Imagine Dragons and then to hear the Imagine Dragons perform an acoustic concert for the Tyler Robinson Foundation Gala (the foundation raises money for the families dealing with […]

Turning Weakness Into Strength

We were all born with our own unique challenges. Some physical, some mental, some circumstantial. Some all of the above.  But those challenges we were born with were never meant to hold us back, in fact, they were meant to help us become strong in the areas we would most need to be in order […]

Assume The Good And Doubt The Bad

Too often in life we allow ourselves to believe what I refer to as “the monsters in our head” -those negative thoughts that too quickly jump to judgement of ourselves or other people. It’s those thoughts about ourselves where we think we aren’t liked, or we don’t fit in, or that we aren’t good enough, […]

For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas

Tonight my husband and I were able to go and see Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol at the new (and amazing) Hale Center Theater. I’ve heard the story a million times but it still gets to me every time.  It’s impossible to watch the play without thinking about your own life and where the ghosts […]

Take A Walk Down Happy Memory Lane

“Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how great it has been!” Today I had to pull a bunch of old photos from years past together for a project and as I was sorting through years and years worth of photos I couldn’t help but be pulled into a walk down memory […]

How Wonder Woman Helped Me Make Millions

I still remember watching the Wonder Woman series on television as a little girl. The series began when I was just four years old and the series ran until I was eight years old. I remember each week how excited I would be to watch the next episode. She was the most amazing superhero I […]

What one successful entrepreneur said was the most important advice he could give me as I began my entrepreneurial journey

Yesterday afternoon someone I love dearly passed away.  He was Marion D. Woods to others, but he was Uncle Buzz to me and Buzz Woods to his good friends. He had been fighting cancer but unfortunately his body wasn’t able to fight it any longer and he passed away surrounded by his wife and children. […]

What does it take to become a powerful person?

If you were to take a poll of what it takes to become a genuinely powerful person you would likely get answers such as: holding a high level position, or having a lot of money, or having a large social media following, etc. But all of those answers would be wrong… Sure, a person can […]

What To Do and What NOT To Do

Throughout my life I have been blessed with some incredible mentors and role models. They have taught me the “what to do” things in life, and the “how to be” qualities, that if we embrace will turn us into someone others will want hope to emulate someday as well. The more in life I would […]

What would you do?

Here is an interesting story I came across: A letter was found in a baking powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water in a very long, seldom-used trail across the Armagosa Desert. The letter read: “This pump was all right as of June 1932. […]

Apply The Triple Filter Test

I think most all of us have either been guilty of either saying something we shouldn’t have, or listening to something we ought not to, and likely we’ve made the mistake of doing both. It’s likely we have all made those mistakes more times than we wish we had, and I can’t think of a […]

The Kindness of Strangers

Late Friday night my husband and I began our drive home from Idaho where we had attended our Aunt’s funeral, back home in Utah. We had intended to get an earlier start home but we had spent the day scanning in all of our Aunt’s photos and papers so the family members could have digital […]

Because That’s Who You Are

“She’s banged up, mentally and emotionally. Literally and metaphorically. But every day she walks outside with a smile on her face because that’s who she is.” I cannot tell you how much that quote has inspired me during times in my life that I have been struggling. Part of the reason I love it is […]

My Lunch with the Dalai Lama

Today I had the experience of attending lunch with the Dalai Lama at the invitation of my dear friends Governor Gary Herbert and his wife Jeanette. (Quick reminder to my fellow Utahns that we all need to vote on June 28th in Utah’s primary election so we can ensure Governor Herbert can continue with the amazing job he does as […]

Successful Mothers (and Happy Mother’s Day!)

“Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled, they are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s a time we all take a moment to think about all the things our Mothers do for us in life. It’s also a time when […]

This feels like a great week to be HAPPY!

The desire to be happy. It’s a desire shared universally. It is one thing in life we all have in common – the desire for happiness. Some people wait for happiness to find them, only to learn that this kind of happiness is temporary and it goes as quickly as it comes. Other people have […]

You Can Choose To Be A Proactive Person Rather Than A Reactive Person

There are two types of people in this world…and it’s not those who like Neil Diamond and those who don’t (love that quote from What About Bob movie!)…it’s proactive and reactive people and which type of person you choose to be will significantly impact the life you will have. Let’s look at the difference between […]

Be careful with your words

“Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.” Lashing out, saying things in anger, yelling, name calling, demeaning, putting someone down…all of these things create wounds that are far slower to heal than a physical wound and they leave emotional scars behind that never quite go away. […]

Heroes will always outshine the villains. Addressing today’s tragedy in Belgium.

Waking up this morning to the horrific news of the bombings in Belgium was heartbreaking. Hearing that three of the people injured were from Utah (one from my same town) and were missionaries for the LDS Church serving in Belgium was even more devastating. As a mother of a daughter who is currently away serving […]

Take the 14 Day Challenge to Love One Another!

February is upon us! Which means Valentine’s Day is only 14 days away (friendly reminder, especially to all the gentlemen out there who don’t want to end us as one of those men in the hallmark card aisle the night before desperately looking through the last remaining cards in the store). Whether you have a […]

“Charity is expecting the best of each other”

“If it is our nature to criticize or demean, we can cause the voices of gladness to be silenced. We need those who bring gladness into our lives. We need those who give encouragement and reflect optimism.” – Marvin Ashton What the world needs more of is people who are encouraging and optimistic. The world […]

The Rules for being AMAZING!

All i can say is…ENOUGH SAID! Have an incredible day everyone – go BE AMAZING! ~Amy

The Traits I Admire Most

Today I have been thinking a lot about the character traits that I admire most in people. I sat down to make a list of traits I see in a person I very much look up to in my life and here was the list that came to mind: Integrity – does the right thing, […]