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Lorna Owens: bringing the sisterhood home
BY PETULIA CLARKE all woman writer
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sisterhood. For Florida-based motivational speaker Lorna Owens, it's as easy as getting together a group of wealthy women from around the world to share, laugh, be pampered and live a great experience in Jamaica.
This is what she'll be doing next October with Women Travelling First Class, an excursion to her homeland, the place the women - all professionals with disposable incomes - have chosen as their exotic venue for some 'girlfriend time'.
The aim: to draw the women to Jamaica, to sell the island as an exotic destination and then subliminally encourage them that the country is great to invest in, to live, and to shop.
Owens ... Sisterhood is the most important vehicle a woman has.
And from all accounts, the women are excited to come.
"Professional women are burning out at record speed," Owens said, adding that the experience will teach the women, among other things, how to take care of their physical selves. "It's a really upscale product with the flavour and energy of Jamaica. The response has been incredible from every profession - lawyers, doctors; women who own businesses want to come."
It's that flavour and energy that drives this Jamaican midwife-turned-lawyer-turned motivational speaker. It's the truly Jamaican flavour that she wants to sell, and to use to showcase the country "in a spectacular light".
And beneath all that - beneath experiences like champagne rafting down the Martha Brae - she'll sell the theory that embracing womanhood is important. That there needs to be that balance. That woman can meet, talk and poke fun at themselves, get relaxed and rejuvenated, and share their stories.
"I want to change lives," she said. "Sisterhood is the most important vehicle a woman has. When we meet we talk about balance, we poke fun at ourselves. We share our joys. If this goes like spirituality series we'll have lots of laughter and tears."
It's something she highly suggests, this sisterhood. Something she hopes Jamaican women will embrace. Something she hopes will help in our transformation, the acceptance of a balanced lifestyle, accepting the changes that are inevitable.
Transformation.
It's a word she's familiar with, having lived the experience - having given up a lucrative law practice to do what she loves, an experience she uses to teach others whether she's talking to women behind bars, or is requested as keynote speaker, life coach and motivator.
Owens' own transformation came seven years ago, when she says she got burnout from her law practice, and the reality of her situation hit forcefully when she came to Jamaica to attend her father's funeral.
"People were talking about all the things my dad had done and I thought, 'people will never say those things about me when I die'," she said. "I'd never taken time to smell the roses."
See as a child, Owens wanted to be a lawyer, but when she broached the subject to her mother at their home in Mandeville, the older woman said that all lawyers went to Hell. And so, to secure her place in Heaven, Owens decided to become a nurse instead - and after nursing school in Jamaica, left for England to study midwifery. But after some years as a nurse, Hell aside, she decided to go back to her true desire and studied law at the University of Florida School of Law.
After graduation, she worked in the state attorney's office and was an assistant district attorney under Janet Reno before opening her own practice. As an attorney who did huge death penalty and drug cases, Owens told all woman that she thought she had arrived - she had it all.
Then the revelation at her father's funeral.
"I never thought I'd give up my law practice," she said. "But I realised I had to be a better person, one day I woke up to be a better person."
And so, Owens returned to Miami, gave up her law practice and pursued her true passion - motivating and coaching people. The changes were rapid then. She launched an entertainment business but invested and lost her life savings. This wasn't enough to stop her though and she sold her Jaguar, became a professional speaker; executive coach; radio commentator; entertainment attorney and founder of a touring women's empowerment programme called And the Women Gather.
Owens is now an international motivational speaker and life strategist. She has spoken in over six countries and throughout the US and says her mission is a simple one - "to transform the planet one workshop at a time".
It's her own personal transformation that allows her to conceptualise this, and now she's taking the time to transform others.
Each year Owens hosts a charity/retreat/workshop, and next year the group of women, about 100, will get a chance to stay in the finest hotel, have the best spa treatment, best foods - an overall first-class experience that will start as soon as they get to the airport in Montego Bay.
She was on the island last week, where she met with government entities and groups including the Jamaica Tourist Board, as well as potential sponsors to cement her plans to get the Welcome Home My Sister And Come Back Often excursion off the ground.
And what an excursion it plans to be.
"We want to give women with money an opportunity to relax, relate and let their hair down, give them a few days of pampering," Owens said. "Women like to travel in fine style, and so from the minute they get on the airplane the process starts."
This will include luxury treatment on Air Jamaica, at customs, being greeted by the tourist board at the airport, getting shuttled to the Ritz Carlton, and enjoying four days of pampering - pampering with throw-ins that include chamomile towels, Bob Marley music, spa treatments, golfing and spiritual uplifting.
"We'll be saying subliminally that there are business opportunities here," she said. "We want them to come and look at property interests and partnering with women here." This partnering is important, as she gave examples of products here, made by women, which are ready for the US market, but whose owners don't have the backing from someone in the States.
Three years ago Owens was here and hosted an And the Women Gather session which got great feedback. "People want it, the sisterhood," she said. "I encourage Jamaican women to develop a sisterhood. A woman who's happy with herself is loving, supportive and sexy."
Now, once a month she does a series called women's spirituality where women gather to share thoughts and ideas important to their spiritual growth; she visits jails also in a women behind bars programme geared at helping those incarcerated to make better choices; she's an author, motivational speaker and the list goes on.
"I think all along God had a plan for me and this was the plan," she said. "Law just gave me the ability and the confidence to do what I do now."
Owens, who has authored Daily Sustenance has a new book Everyday Grace, Everyday Miracle, which will be launched in December. In three years she hopes to have her own spa and lifestyle centre here.
[/ QUOTE ]
Lorna Owens: bringing the sisterhood home
BY PETULIA CLARKE all woman writer
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sisterhood. For Florida-based motivational speaker Lorna Owens, it's as easy as getting together a group of wealthy women from around the world to share, laugh, be pampered and live a great experience in Jamaica.
This is what she'll be doing next October with Women Travelling First Class, an excursion to her homeland, the place the women - all professionals with disposable incomes - have chosen as their exotic venue for some 'girlfriend time'.
The aim: to draw the women to Jamaica, to sell the island as an exotic destination and then subliminally encourage them that the country is great to invest in, to live, and to shop.
Owens ... Sisterhood is the most important vehicle a woman has.
And from all accounts, the women are excited to come.
"Professional women are burning out at record speed," Owens said, adding that the experience will teach the women, among other things, how to take care of their physical selves. "It's a really upscale product with the flavour and energy of Jamaica. The response has been incredible from every profession - lawyers, doctors; women who own businesses want to come."
It's that flavour and energy that drives this Jamaican midwife-turned-lawyer-turned motivational speaker. It's the truly Jamaican flavour that she wants to sell, and to use to showcase the country "in a spectacular light".
And beneath all that - beneath experiences like champagne rafting down the Martha Brae - she'll sell the theory that embracing womanhood is important. That there needs to be that balance. That woman can meet, talk and poke fun at themselves, get relaxed and rejuvenated, and share their stories.
"I want to change lives," she said. "Sisterhood is the most important vehicle a woman has. When we meet we talk about balance, we poke fun at ourselves. We share our joys. If this goes like spirituality series we'll have lots of laughter and tears."
It's something she highly suggests, this sisterhood. Something she hopes Jamaican women will embrace. Something she hopes will help in our transformation, the acceptance of a balanced lifestyle, accepting the changes that are inevitable.
Transformation.
It's a word she's familiar with, having lived the experience - having given up a lucrative law practice to do what she loves, an experience she uses to teach others whether she's talking to women behind bars, or is requested as keynote speaker, life coach and motivator.
Owens' own transformation came seven years ago, when she says she got burnout from her law practice, and the reality of her situation hit forcefully when she came to Jamaica to attend her father's funeral.
"People were talking about all the things my dad had done and I thought, 'people will never say those things about me when I die'," she said. "I'd never taken time to smell the roses."
See as a child, Owens wanted to be a lawyer, but when she broached the subject to her mother at their home in Mandeville, the older woman said that all lawyers went to Hell. And so, to secure her place in Heaven, Owens decided to become a nurse instead - and after nursing school in Jamaica, left for England to study midwifery. But after some years as a nurse, Hell aside, she decided to go back to her true desire and studied law at the University of Florida School of Law.
After graduation, she worked in the state attorney's office and was an assistant district attorney under Janet Reno before opening her own practice. As an attorney who did huge death penalty and drug cases, Owens told all woman that she thought she had arrived - she had it all.
Then the revelation at her father's funeral.
"I never thought I'd give up my law practice," she said. "But I realised I had to be a better person, one day I woke up to be a better person."
And so, Owens returned to Miami, gave up her law practice and pursued her true passion - motivating and coaching people. The changes were rapid then. She launched an entertainment business but invested and lost her life savings. This wasn't enough to stop her though and she sold her Jaguar, became a professional speaker; executive coach; radio commentator; entertainment attorney and founder of a touring women's empowerment programme called And the Women Gather.
Owens is now an international motivational speaker and life strategist. She has spoken in over six countries and throughout the US and says her mission is a simple one - "to transform the planet one workshop at a time".
It's her own personal transformation that allows her to conceptualise this, and now she's taking the time to transform others.
Each year Owens hosts a charity/retreat/workshop, and next year the group of women, about 100, will get a chance to stay in the finest hotel, have the best spa treatment, best foods - an overall first-class experience that will start as soon as they get to the airport in Montego Bay.
She was on the island last week, where she met with government entities and groups including the Jamaica Tourist Board, as well as potential sponsors to cement her plans to get the Welcome Home My Sister And Come Back Often excursion off the ground.
And what an excursion it plans to be.
"We want to give women with money an opportunity to relax, relate and let their hair down, give them a few days of pampering," Owens said. "Women like to travel in fine style, and so from the minute they get on the airplane the process starts."
This will include luxury treatment on Air Jamaica, at customs, being greeted by the tourist board at the airport, getting shuttled to the Ritz Carlton, and enjoying four days of pampering - pampering with throw-ins that include chamomile towels, Bob Marley music, spa treatments, golfing and spiritual uplifting.
"We'll be saying subliminally that there are business opportunities here," she said. "We want them to come and look at property interests and partnering with women here." This partnering is important, as she gave examples of products here, made by women, which are ready for the US market, but whose owners don't have the backing from someone in the States.
Three years ago Owens was here and hosted an And the Women Gather session which got great feedback. "People want it, the sisterhood," she said. "I encourage Jamaican women to develop a sisterhood. A woman who's happy with herself is loving, supportive and sexy."
Now, once a month she does a series called women's spirituality where women gather to share thoughts and ideas important to their spiritual growth; she visits jails also in a women behind bars programme geared at helping those incarcerated to make better choices; she's an author, motivational speaker and the list goes on.
"I think all along God had a plan for me and this was the plan," she said. "Law just gave me the ability and the confidence to do what I do now."
Owens, who has authored Daily Sustenance has a new book Everyday Grace, Everyday Miracle, which will be launched in December. In three years she hopes to have her own spa and lifestyle centre here.
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