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DeLores believes that perhaps society needs to
change their views: “
Sometimes we call little girls bossy,
but when little boys take charge, they are seenas leaders
.”
DeLores’ natural motivational abilities also came
out in her classroom years when she adapted the
familiar slogan,
“Stop, Drop & Roll”
to help her
students improve their test-taking skills.
When confronted with a difficult question or
problem, she taught her students to:
-Stop, and take a deep breath.
-Drop their pencil, take another deep breath
and relax.
-Roll their head to release tension, before
continuing with the test questions.
This same “Stop, Drop & Roll” technique can be
adapted to help stressed-out entrepreneurs, when
confronted with a difficult problem in their business.
DeLores taught elementary school for 27
years, but always knew she wanted to be a
professional speaker. While she was teaching, she
started building her speaking business making
presentations to corporate clients. A short list
of corporations that hired DeLores to bring her
message to their employees include: Coca Cola,
Timken, Union Pacific Railroad, Lubrizol, Roche
Pharmaceuticals, Mars, Network of Executive
Women, and the American Heart Association. You
can find the complete list at her website.
DeLores kept her day job hidden to her corporate
clients, until an appearance several years back on
the popular “Oprah Show” outed her and helped
to take her business to a new level.
How did she get on Oprah? Persistence and
tenacity. While performing her duties as a teacher,
over a two-year period, she mailed copies of her
book to Oprah’s producers at least three times a
year. She drew inspiration from an interview with
famous author, Jack Canfield, who had to send his
manuscript, “
Chicken Soup for the Soul,”
to over
200 publishers, before he signed a book deal.
She learned from that experience that when you
have a dream, you must have the tenacity and
self-confidence to continue to reach for the stars,
even when receiving negative feedback.
Inadditiontobeingtenacious,DeLoresreliedonher
predisposition to be a life-long learner and a risk-
taker to realize her dream of being a motivational
teacher to more than just her classroom students.
Although she earned a safe paycheck as a teacher,
with a retirement and medical plan, she had to go
outside her comfort zone to realize her desire to
become a well-known speaker and author.
Anearlyendeavor tostart amodelingagency forplus-
size women completely bucked the trend of bulimic