Ceil Stanford is a coach, leader, business owner, entrepreneur, investor and mother. She is consistently recognized as a leader who teaches applicable and revolutionary processes for personal and professional development, helping others to develop their “inner champions.” Ceil transforms lives in extraordinary ways across the globe with entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, go-getters, parents, athletes and performers alike. In this interview with Stellar Woman Magazine she opens up about what success means to her and so much more.
See excerpts below
So what does leadership mean to you?
Leadership to me is walking the talk. I don’t respect someone that tells me to do things that they’ve never done or that they don’t know how to do, or that they don’t even know works, but they’re just telling me to do something just because to do it. And so leadership to me, a true great leader walks the talk, and they’re able to lead and guide another person for the betterment and doing it on the right gradient but being an example someone that others will inspire to be like, or maybe there’s an attribute that they have and is seeable for other people, so that that person can achieve that too. But it’s leading and guiding. It’s kind of like you know, that lady that I told you had that had an effect on me, she didn’t know she had that profound effect on me. And it wasn’t until I got into this work, honestly, it wasn’t until 2003, and I was being grateful, I had landed this job making more money than I ever dreamed, I mean, ever dreamed possible from Oak Grove, Louisiana and I couldn’t believe the job I had landed and I started looking at who had influenced me and helped me get to where I am. And it started back with her and I wrote her a thank you note and I just laid out the steps and how she had positively affected me and helped me get off the negative side of myself and the smallest side of myself into being that great person that i had the capability to be and she was in tears when she read it but she led me she didn’t open up, you know, 20 pages for me to learn at one time. No, we took one concept, one hour each week, something I could learn something I could grab something I could understand something I could win with. And so that’s a leader and, she was positive. I asked her I said why did you decide to help? You know, because that took time and she had the biggest block of business in the whole entire company and that office. And she said because you had the desire to know, you wanted to know, you wanted to learn, so that is a leader, someone that walked the talk when I read the sacred thing, increasing your power, wealth and happiness by Alan. This was my perception. And I didn’t know who this man was. I read that book. And I said, this author walks the talk, because if he didn’t, he would never have the information that he shared with us in this book. He walks the talk and I will tell you when I met him and spending those years from 2002 to 2009, Oh my gosh, he walked the talk and you just know it. You know it right when a leader walks the talk. That’s a leader to me. Leading and guiding in a positive way.
How do you define success?
Well people have all these things about success, right? So, when I look up the definition of success, the way I define it is; getting what you want, or attaining what you want. You know that feeling you get when you when you get what you want, that’s success. That’s how I define success.
What needs to happen to bring about change for women?
You’re gonna love my answer, I hope. So, it goes back to women knowing who they are. Yes. Women, knowing who they are, and realizing what they’re capable of realizing that the world is theirs and they can create themselves and they can create exactly what they want in life.
And how important are women’s networks?
Your network is everything. It is very important to have networks of people that will inspire you and help you become more positive and help you tap into that potential.
Have you ever failed at anything before? And how did you manage to get back?
Oh, my gosh, I fail every week. You know I’m wearing many different hats in my company because I need to expand my team. Okay. But I do I’ll give you an example. I may not deliver the best coaching session. It may be good. But it’s not the best, you know, there may be a piece of knowledge I’m missing. So how do I get back up? And this will apply no matter what you’re doing in life. I find out what I don’t know. What do I know need to know a little bit more about? Then I read about it or practice and then I go apply it? And then, usually, my next session will be a very great session. So that’s good. And I’ve helped, but it’s not to the level I want to. But there are many hats I’m wearing, if you will, I mean I’m in marketing, I’m in sales, I mean coaching. I run a ranch that’s, you know, an 8000 square foot large with nine cabins. There’s maintenance, there’s 135 acres so there’s getting people input, so there’s a lot that I’m doing and I am not brains on those areas. I fail every week but my hope is that I get a little bit better.
Who is your ideal stellar woman
First of all, I think everybody within themselves has that star, regardless if they’re using it or not. They all have that star. And my ideal stellar woman would be a person who is leading and who treats others the way they would want to be treated. And when she connects to people, whether it’s one or a group, the person feels just as positive if not more positive. When they get out of her space, and they feel like they’re inspired and they feel like they can accomplish what they want to accomplish and they feel empowered.
Where do we see Ceil in the next 5 to 10 years?
I want to see Alan’s work in this body of knowledge expanding and reaching more people around the world so that they can basically have more happiness and have more love and have more prosperity, and just recover or restore themselves and be back to who they truly are. And basically, just achieving what they want. And so, I want to make this knowledge available to as many people as possible.
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