You must have felt it, too. The need to go out and make a powerful impact on the world.

Some days, you might feel like the world is against you. Things just aren’t going your way. I get it; I’ve been there.

And it’s hard getting out of that rut of looking at everything from your own eyes. It’s almost as if everything that has gone wrong builds up on the thing that went wrong before, and then you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.

What does one do in a situation like this? Who do you turn to? Will the insights from other people change the way things are? Will you somehow get inspiration from what they say? What I’m going to say might upset you…

It doesn’t change.

The only thing that needs to change is your perspective on the situation. Let’s just say that you need to start seeing things from an upside-down view.

Well, how do you do this? Get into a handstand! Why? Handstands are not only a wonderful way to condition your body but they are also great for conditioning the mind. You need strength, balance and belief to do a handstand. But these three essential things are what you need to tackle any challenges in life.

That is why on 25 June 2016, we challenged the world to go upside down for International Handstand Day. Founded by Alvin Tam in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, IHD is a day the earth celebrates the joy of being upside down to inspire fitness, friendship and making the world a better place.

I joined him to help make 2016 even bigger, by bringing the community together prior to the event. I also recruited one of the most influential Instagrammers in the gymnastics community, Emily Chan. (Who also happens to be an amazing gymnast I had the chance to coach for a very short time!)

She created an IHD Instagram account and grew it to almost two thousand before it got shut down. We all freaked out for a good few days, scrambling and emailing Instagram. Well, bad news: it’s not likely that you’ll get a deactivated account reinstated. So, Emily took one of her other accounts and re-branded to IHD.

(Note: we did manage to get the old account reinstated, eventually! Contact me and I’ll tell you what we did.)

Together, the team created an ambassador program, in which selected accounts would promote IHD in the month leading up to the event. Since we were all doing this voluntarily and with no funding, we had to get creative in ways to get people onboard with this.

Creative Ways To Give Back To A Community Without Spending Lots Of Money

1. Re-post or feature accounts. This was our main strategy for growth on Instagram. Sometimes we did contests: creative ones, such as post your handstands with a hat or flashmobs.

2. Use resources you already have. I had some craft materials to make custom rings. I pulled together my kids and we had a fun day making IHD rings. Making the rings = $0. Sending them out = $24.

3. Communicate with awesome tools. I set up a system where if someone said they wanted to become an ambassador, they would be emailed the Terms & Agreement. Once filled, it would be Zapped (Zapier) into our Slack channel letting us know. From there, Emily or I would make a referral link for them to put in their Bio, as we wanted to see where referrals were coming from.

4. Support your members. One of the ambassadors, Olivia Vivian, had a terrible fall in a competition. We wanted to do a little something to show her how many people really cared about her. We asked people to post videos or photos of themselves doing a handstand on Instagram, with a hashtag and messages of support for Olivia. What I really love about what these young talented handstanders had to offer is their creativity in sharing one simple message.

From there, we had quite a bit of momentum and I had to move on to influencer outreach. When reaching out to celebrities, huge brands and celebrities…

1. Find out what they are doing/promoting/working on.
2. Help them help you. Give them copy and links in a simple, sharable way.
3. Don’t be sad if you get a lot of rejection, because you’ll soon find out that it’s working.

Then, when the day comes, you’ll see super-cool, upside-down people in amazing places – from the youngest to the 100-year-old who handstands underwater. When an Indian superstar posted his handstand, his followers and fans filled Twitter with handstand replies and websites started sharing IHD goodness.

With that momentum, we saw British Gymnastics and BBC Sport jump on the campaign to spread the inspiration of fitness (they used a video I made of Emily!). Cirque also got in the spirit and put together an amazing video with their team all around the globe. Then, some of my personal heroes came to join the fun!

This event was the perfect example of how a community can come together in creative ways to inspire fitness and friendship. 

The post What Happens When Your World Turns Upside Down? appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..

“Aiming to set a new Guinness World Record, while balancing diversity with strength to make the world a better place.”

To be held on Saturday 25 June 2016 at Singapore’s The Yard, International Handstand Day is set to gather approximately 1,500 fun-loving handstand enthusiasts for a day dedicated to balance, strength and world harmony.

The three-hour, morning to noon event will attract and unite Singapore communities from across the board – from Singapore’s 15 gymnastic schools to yoga studios, parkour academies, the martial arts, acrobatics, as well as the general public.

The mission? To beat the current Guinness World Record of 399 for the Most Handstands Performed by a Group. The current record was set at an event organised by the Braderie Comity of Wevelgem in Wevelgem, Belgium on 17 September 2006.

Showcasing a network of Singaporean organisations including: The Yard, Alpha Gymnastics, Yoga-Nastics, Bubbles Gymnastics, GIM Sports, UWCSEA Dover Phoenix Gymnastics, UWCSEA East Dragons Gymnastics, Yo Fit!, Bodytree Gymnastics Strength Training, Yoga Haven, GymKraft, Sorts4Kids, Art du Déplacement Academy Singapore, Gymnastics Education, Superfly Monkey Dragons.

With Singapore Gymnastics as one of the event’s key partners, also in attendance will be glittering guests, such as Singapore’s national and ex-national gymnasts and cheerleaders.

In addition to the Guinness World Record attempt, International Handstand Day will also host activities, such as a handstand relay where participants will lead continuous handstands down a line, as well as handstand workshops for kids and adults who want to learn how to do a handstand. Handstand contests with prizes, provided by Happi, will be awarded to participants for creative, outrageous or strength-defying handstands that push boundaries and set new standards.

Throughout the event, the organisers wish to engage the global community of handstanders for a good cause – balancing diversity with strength to make the world a better place. Following its success, the event hopes to be an annual landmark event on the calendar, and strives to inspire similar communities and gatherings around the world.

Make your stand! Turn yourself upside-down at International Handstand Day and pledge towards solidarity in diversity.

The Organisers

International Handstand Day 2016 – Singapore World Record Attempt is organised by renowned gymnast coach and founder of LeelaPass, Casie Millhouse-Singh, together with Cassandra Riene Tan, founder of Bitsy Space.

Website &Social Media

http://singapore.handstandday.com

Facebook Event Page: www.facebook.com/events/1720042341599527/

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/IHDSingapore

Instagram: @handstand.day

Twitter: @handstand_day

Event Details

Date: June 25th 2016
Venue: Singapore’s The Yard
Contact Person: Casie Millhouse-Singh
Contact Person’s Email: casie@leelapass.com

REGISTER

_{Edited by Nedda Chaplin}

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She had the opportunity to pursue her passion when she was young, and now Casie Lane Millhouse-Singh gives parents the tools, resources and support they need to encourage their children in doing the same. She works tirelessly to ensure children are discovering their true passions and developing their talents.

One of her most recent endeavours with her business Leelapass is building a web application where parents can search for, find, book, and share amazing kids’ classes throughout Singapore! Whether your heart is for business that directly or indirectly supports children and their passions, this spotlight interview is sure to delight!

Tell us about you and your business/career, and what you were doing before?

I help parents discover their children’s passions and develop their interests with LeelaPass. We give parents an unlimited amount of freedom to do this with one simple platform service to explore all sports, music, STEM, theater and the arts. I’ve been doing this for over two decades in the U.S., Bermuda, China and Singapore as a high-performance gymnastics coach, and early movement educator. I consult with the Ministry of Education in Singapore and travel to international schools across Asia, helping them develop gymnastics programs as a foundation of all sports to better serve their communities.

Community giving back is what drives the vision of LeelaPass. We help small businesses and solopreneurs, who are doing amazing things for kids, grow so they can reach more families and be positioned as the go-to leaders in their industry. We only work with the best; we personally vet each provider and we make sure those we work with uphold standards that parents set.

We also work with multinational companies and startups to help them attract and maintain senior level talent with employee perks programs that suit the whole family. We believe that living in Singapore isn’t just about living in the most amazing country in Asia; it’s about enjoying the experiences and community that make Singapore special.

Leaving Your Job For Your Calling

I struggled at first with leaving a steady income and a program with a school and kids that I really loved and believed in. But I feel much stronger about the impact that LeelaPass will have and what it means for the future … this urge will never go away.

Dream Jobs Are Possible
Yes, it is. In fact, as a young child I dreamt of being an Olympian. I know that my love of gymnastics drove me to teach it in schools, clubs and impromptu classes when there is a gathering of kids. This sport has given me so much of what my life is today. I even met my husband doing a handstand!

But the lessons learned from being a high-achieving gymnast at a young age have stayed with me. The growth mindset that was instilled in me from a young age by my coach and parents, the adrenaline rush of getting over a fear or learning a new skill, being aware of your weaknesses and maximizing your strengths – these skills are embedded in my blood, and continue to support my mission in life.

Everyday I inch closer and closer to giving this opportunity to all children: to discover their passions and develop their interests so they can become leaders of a healthy, happy society. Nowadays, there are too many people who are living their lives unfulfilled, just wanting to do something more meaningful in their careers and livelihoods. Why is this? Is it because they never had the opportunity to develop their passion as a child or follow an interest into adulthood?

I believe, as adults, we forget simple things such as the importance of creativity, enjoying time doing meaningful hobbies and becoming incredibly good at a skill, no matter what that skill is. Perhaps this is not true, but I think living an unfulfilled life is a deep-rooted problem the global society is facing today. That is essentially why I get up early, before my children wake up, and why you’ll see emails from me at 2am; it gets me closer to that goal.

The Key To More Time In Entrepreneurship

My biggest challenge at the moment is time. I’ve been lucky enough to find people who are helping me save time by offering their advice and expertise in certain areas or partnerships, so I don’t have to do everything. It took a quite a bit of persuading to get me to hand over and delegate, but this is really the key to finding more time.

An Honest Do-Over

I would be honest with my friends and family about my intentions and that I might not be 100% available at all times. There is a bit of guilt when you have to turn down a dinner with a friend.

Working With Casie

LeelaPass helps parents discover their child’s interest and develop their passion in a simple, affordable way.

Visit LeelaPass page to find out more about Casie Lane’s work.

 

_{Edited by Nedda Chaplin}

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You must have felt it, too. The need to go out and make a powerful impact on the world.

Perhaps it is the fuel that burns within you. Or maybe it is something that has grown on you. Maybe it is because you want to be a positive role model to shape your children’s future, like I do. No matter what your reason is, I applaud you and look forward to being a part of your mission.

I want to share with you some really powerful takeaways that I learned from being a mother of two young females. These takeaways have giving me a razor-sharp focus for building my business by laying one brick at a time as we bring our vision to reality. You don’t have to be a mother to appreciate these takeaways, and I promise I won’t refer to any dirty diapers.

1. You Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission

We stall on making decisions because we feel like we need someone’s permission to do what we want. It might be that we are waiting for our partners, our mothers, our friends or people we admire to give us that open invitation to go for it.

I’ve got bad news for you: they won’t give it to you. If they do, you’ll find a reason to stall and wait for someone else to give you permission. Children, especially female children, are taught from a young age to ask for permission to do things. They ask for permission to speak, eat and even to go to the bathroom. Stop asking for permission.

What to do instead:
Tell people what you are going to do and ask for help or support in your mission.

2. Ask For Help

There is something powerful in asking for help, but many people think that by doing so you’re showing a sign of weakness. Are children weak because they ask for help when they can’t tie their shoelaces yet? Of course not.

This is not to say that you should get people to do things for you just for the sake of doing them for you. Nor do I believe that people will do it for that reason.

Try this:

Get super-clear on what it is you need and then ask. In the worst case, they will say no. But it puts you in a better position than the one you were in before you asked.

3. Be Present

If you have a lot of things going on, it’s important to be present. It’s easy to get caught up in things you need to do next week, or next year … and then you forget where you put your keys. If you stay focused on the present and what you need to do at that time, you will get much more accomplished and be able to enjoy those times when you are not working.

No more guilt from taking a call or staring at your screen when you should be giving your full attention to who and what is right in front of you.

Try this:

Turn off your phone when you want to focus on something. Turn it off when you need to write, when you want to wind down for the night, or when you’re going to be with friends and family. The phone, emails, and messages can wait.

You’ve got important people to be with and nothing will bring this moment back.

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