I braced myself as I logged into Facebook to share another post from the campaign trail because I knew there would be mean-spirited comments waiting. Yes, that comes with the territory, and I probably shouldn't have read them, but I couldn't seem to help it. Running for State House of Representatives in 2020 would prove to be one of the hardest things I would ever do.

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Between covid mandates that polarized us, the lockdowns that were costing people their homes and businesses, the burning cities from BLM riots, and one of the most tumultuous Presidential elections of our lifetime, emotions were at an all-time high, to say the least.

 

Social media was where everybody was taking out their frustrations. Comments from friends and strangers alike were vicious. I was devastated as lifelong friends walked away simply because they "couldn't believe I was a Republican". And then, the unthinkable happened... 

 

My adult son started joining in the hateful chorus of comments. I went from being totally shocked that we didn't share the same values, to feeling so hurt by his public disregard for our relationship, to being absolutely furious with him. I then indulged in a meltdown. 

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I left him a voicemail, something to this effect: "You don't have to agree with me, but pick up the phone like a man and call me to discuss it privately. You're not going to hide behind a *$*#*%* keyboard. I'm still your mother and I deserve your respect."  

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He retaliated to my furious reprimand by canceling me from his life. That was torture. It seemed that everything I tried to do to close the distance only made it worse. I can't begin to express the pain of being uninvited on his wedding day and then not being able to hold my new granddaughter. I honestly didn't know how I could get back up from this fetal position.

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So many of my girlfriends were going through the exact same struggles with their adult children. Then, I heard more and more of these stories through other channels of women I encountered. It seemed to be an epidemic of political division within families.

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I went into the deepest depths of prayer, begging God for healing, not just for me, but for all the other moms that were going through the same pain. That's when it happened.

 

I had a divine "ah-ha moment"!

 

Since that moment, I've been laser-focused on developing Lady Up America. God has been revealing things to me, slowly and profoundly, in what I call the best "drip campaign", ever!

 

Before running for Office, I had been very successful as a former business crisis consultant. I was contracted to enter very hostile environments, where emotions were running high, and pump life back into those dying businesses somehow. 

 

I had developed and honed signature techniques in these challenging environments, such as "learn to respond, not react", "learn to earn permission to be heard", "learn to release the outcome", and ironically, my personal favorite: "you've lost the luxury of a meltdown".

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I later shifted all my focus to working with professional women, holding enchanting symposiums called Lady Like Leaders, where I broadened the concepts around my signature techniques. 

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Weaving in between the consulting seasons of my life, I have always had a professional songwriting career, which is a world-class education in evoking emotions that move the needle in the human heart. 

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The epiphany was...

 

All of my signature techniques that worked to help heal businesses in crisis could have been applied to prevent the estrangement from my son, and can actually be applied to the crisis of political division we find ourselves in today in families across America.

 

If only that had "clicked" sooner! 

 

I pulled together a world-class BETA class to test my techniques and see if they truly did transfer to personal relationships. They did. Then, I put them to the test with a tour of 18 battleground counties ahead of the 2022 Mid-Terms to see if they resonated in voter and political circles. They did.

 

The Lady Up America movement is simply a natural evolution of what I spent years learning, cultivating, teaching, and applying in crisis situations in business, as well as carefully observing what resonated with an audience as a professional songwriter.

 

Now that I'm convinced these techniques transfer to the real world, I'm training Christian moms in them as fast as I can! 

 

I hope what I've learned from my painful experience, as my son and I are slowly healing, will prevent other moms from experiencing similar painful divisions in their relationships. I am on a mission to help them become super influential around their dinner tables, neighborhoods, and communities using my signature techniques. 

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It is futile to try and force outcomes and the more we try to do that, the more frustrated and miserable we become, not to mention the more we drive people further away. People hate someone else's views being pushed on them, they can smell the stink of desperation, and they can also sniff out even well-intentioned coercion. 

 

Another thing they can detect is weakness. I was weak because I didn't have a "response" to the attack. I "reacted" instead, allowing myself to have a meltdown, and now my relationship with my son has suffered severe damage. It will take time to heal. But my story doesn't have to be YOUR story.  

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People are drawn to inner strength and authenticity. If Moms can PREVENT political division within their relationships, and then learn to gracefully win them to our values, at scale, it'll be a serious game changer for our country. THIS is how we can break the trajectory of Socialism and Marxism.

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MASTERY OF AUTHENTIC EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY MOMS CAN WIN PEOPLE TO CONSERVATIVE VALUES, GALVANIZE THEM TO VOTE, AND COURSE-CORRECT OUR COUNTRY. LET'S "LADY UP"!!!

 

Let me leave you with the sobering understanding that there is no cavalry coming out of Washington...the power lies within us to turn our country back to God so that He can heal our land.