Moving Mini-Movies:
Making a Major Difference the Viral Way
Introducing
Mary Robinson Reynolds
Master Minding Maven ®
Founder of
MakeADifference.com and MasterMinding101.com
by
Ann Barczay Sloan
Featured Columnist, The National Networker
"When two or more people come together in the spirit of harmony ...
it's like putting LIGHTNING in a Bottle!"
I admit lately I'm tempted to congratulate myself: Seems I have a genuine skill for discovering interesting women to interview for this column ─ not merely "interesting", but downright admirable and inspiring! This month's subject: educator / innovator / entrepreneur, Mary Robinson Reynolds, is an excellent exemplar of what I mean. Come meet her!
How Mary and I first connected
Actually, I've been on Mary's list for a couple of years. Not sure how I got on it ─ it was probably through viewing one of the flash mini-movies she often sends out with her inspirational Newsletter (more on the movies later.)
Given my usual (not-so-admirable) habit of skimming what I read, I knew at quick glance at her frequent Newsletters that Mary has fresh, intelligent, heart-centered material to share. Yes, I see she's obviously an interesting woman with high visibility in certain circles ─ it would be great to get an interview! But when I more carefully perused her web sites I became more fully aware of the breadth of material, as well as depth of pure caring for people, available here within Mary's aptly named Heart Productions and Publishing company. So ─ I'm honored she accepted my invitation!
Who is Mary Robinson Reynolds and what is she all about?
Watch some of Mary's popular flash movies, and you'll have a clear idea of what she and her life's
work are all about. These movies are her current major art form and the acknowledged source of her ever-growing success: they are passed along virally and have had literally millions of hits world-wide. Recently these have spawned new offspring: an ever-growing number of flash Moviecards: brief messages with their own charming envelope and stamp. For your viewing pleasure, here are the direct links:
Flash Movies: http://www.MakeADifference.com/Movies
Moviecards http://www.MakeADifference.com/Moviecards
Take a look, for example, at "You are the Light." movie -- http://www.lightmovie.com/ as well as "The Teddy Stallard Story": http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/ ─ a sweet and touching story for educators: actually for everyone who has a heart. But there is way more than movies here: for example, books and other educational materials (for individuals, schools, and corporations): works that point back to earlier, solid phases of Mary's career.
In essence Mary and her husband / business partner Craig are focused on two interlinking programs: "Making a Difference" and "MasterMinding®". All products are in service of inspiring and empowering children, adults, businesses, families – pretty much the full spectrum of humankind.
A look at Mary's web sites:
(A) Making a Difference
Both of the following URLs lead to the same site, which focuses on Mary's Making a Difference-related products and projects.
http://www.heartproductionsandpublishing.com/
http://www.makeadifference.com/
There is much available here: Fundraising information, Children's products, an Affiliate program, and of course Movies and Moviecards. Let's not forget the links to Mary's Speaking and Coaching services info, and the Success Store. Here you also find a redirect link to the MasterMinding program, which we'll describe later.
On the "Meet Mary" page, we see her bio in her own words. Here's an excerpt:
My name is Mary Robinson Reynolds, and for more than three decades I have been focused solely on the energy transformation of people's minds and hearts. I've helped major corporations, organizations and people from all walks of life reshape their vision of what's possible.
Having personally transformed some really intense life opportunities of my own, I have a heart-connecting message about how to find the "possible" in impossible by intentionally utilizing one's inherent powers - mental, physical and spiritual - joined with others in the spirit of harmony.
I hold a M.S. in Educational Psychology, Counseling & Development, I consider myself a TurnAround Specialist and MasterMinding Maven®, and I am the author of six books: Make A Difference ...with the Power of Compassion, Make A Difference ...with the Power of Connection, Attitude Alignment, No Labels No Limits, MasterMinding for a Rich Life, You Are A Success, MasterMinding 101® online course, and Stay Married online course.
My entrepreneurial trek, which has included work with adults and children in educational, corporate and personal settings, began nearly twenty years ago when I started to realize I knew something about at-risk youth that a large percentage of the educators I worked with had not yet discovered.
My special gift was that I knew, intuitively, how to heal behaviorally challenging children. My ability to create for them a sense of community and "belonging" helped them achieve measurably high levels of success, no matter how overcrowded my classrooms were.,,,
Three more tabs on this site deserve mention:
BUSINESS ─ Here you can order a Corporate "Make A Difference" Team Synergy Package
EDUCATION ─ Focus is on "Healing Today's Child… and Ourselves"
Available here: a Curriculum and an "Educator Package" ─ plus the famous Blue Ribbons that proclaim: "Who I Am Makes A Difference!"
MIND BODY SPIRIT ─ Long list of movies to view on line and purchase on DVD
A look at Mary's web sites (continued):
(B) MasterMinding
Link: http://www.masterminding101.com/
Full name of course:
Master Minding 101 Online Course: 12 Sessions to a Rich Life
What is MasterMinding?
According to Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich, "No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind."
The MasterMind Principle is in play when two or more people coordinate in a spirit of harmony and work toward a definite objective or purpose, they place themselves in position, through the alliance, to absorb power directly from the great storehouse of Infinite Intelligence.
Mary is enormously proud of this carefully designed program and of the successes participants have achieved. She credits her own MasterMinding work with a friend years ago with bringing her out of major challenges and into her own ever-expanding success.
Well, now we've examined her products and services ─ time to get into our interview with Mary. My first question is:
How would you briefly summarize what you do?
"I am an Author who emphasizes that we are here to make a difference and who illustrates exactly how anyone can make a difference in 30 Seconds or less".
That certainly gets my attention! I laugh. Are you are referring to the internationally known "Who I Am Makes a Difference" Blue Ribbons originated by Helice Bridges?
Yes, that's right. Though very simple, this bestowing a ribbon process ─ call it a ceremony! ─ is very powerful. On occasion it has been life-saving.
What makes you, your company unique? In other words, what is the so-called Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of your product or service?
"That I'm not unique!
I am an ordinary woman – a small town farm girl from rural Nebraska – accomplishing extraordinary results through the power of MasterMinding and slowing everything down so I can 'connect' compassionately with the world around me to make a lasting difference with whoever comes into my care. I see myself as a regular person who makes mistakes just like everybody else, and when I do, I seek to understand my part in the equation and begin again for a better result."
What is your mission, the primary goal of what you do?
"When I asked myself what was at the heart of what I wanted to accomplish as an author of books, movies and moviecards that I create, the answer came instantly: I want to Make A Difference. I want to let as many people as possible know that they make a difference every day … and the question must always be, What kind of difference AM I making?
I give away any and all of my online books and movies to those who write saying that they cannot afford them. I give money as I feel inspired to do so. We give 50% of all of our Blue Ribbon Sales to Difference Makers International. Rather than belong to organizations we rather donate 50% net profits from our products to those non-profits who wish to use our movies as fundraisers via the Internet. It is my intention to do even more to help - as I am guided.
It is my strong belief that you must teach people how to fish; but your must first feed, house and care for them so they can learn!"
Please describe briefly how you got started in all this, and how you arrived where you are currently.
"It all began for me in high school when I realized that children were irresistibly drawn to me everywhere I went. I decided that I must have a special magic where all children were concerned. In ten short years as a teacher and counselor, every child's life I touched was dramatically improved for the better deliberately using my so called magic! Amazing measurable results happened that even surprised me. This was the impetus for me to begin developing programs and writing books about what I was specifically "thinking" that impacted children so profoundly. To support myself financially, I began MasterMinding on a weekly basis because "of myself" I could not do it. The dream pulling at me was bigger than I could do alone.
Just as I had a proven my Breaking the Cycles of Failure training program for teachers who were struggling with youth at-risk, the doors of education were closed to support my mission, due to state funding. Through MasterMinding, I found myself redirected to the Corporate Arena where I spent the next decade making my magic with adults as my livelihood while raising our children and working from home!
My husband drove long-haul trucks in support of my work when my corporate training contracts came to an abrupt end in 2000 with the downward shift in the economy. I saw it as an opportunity to get my books written during this downswing and for the next four years I wrote one book after the other until I had purged myself of everything I'd been speaking about throughout the
MasterMinding also put me into an (unexpected) spiritual arena and so everything I write about today incorporates a mind, body, spirit connection for Educators, Business and Spiritual audiences."
So amazing, how the Universe sometimes works things out!
"Yes, absolutely! And here's a side note for you: After our last child graduated for H.S., I learned how to drive the 18-wheeler with my husband at my side. I needed a break from trying to figure out how to get my work out to a larger paying audience.
Getting behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler is absolutely amazing and life-altering! It was just the mental, spiritual and physical break I needed to restore my spirit and renew my inner drive to receive the supernatural assistance I needed to take my message out to a larger audience.
Several months into long-haul truck driving, the "rich idea" I had been asking for came. We were able to develop rather quickly, the creation of flash online movies and our business took off. My husband and I both came off the road and we've working side by side on our movies since 2004."
Again, amazing! Now I've gotta ask: Still driving that truck these days?
"No, I only did it for three months - 20,000 miles - while we were in transition from moving from the West Coast to the East Coast after our last child graduated from high school. My husband, Craig, had been driving during the years I was writing my books and getting our last child through high school, 2000 - 2004. Then, that break away from my computer and trying to build my business, rejuvenated me and new ideas came in, i.e., the flash movie idea.
I came off the road after the cross country move and started generating new rich ideas. Craig bought a book and learned how to create flash movies. Our first movie generated the first real interest in my work that I'd ever received - world wide - and he then joined me in the business and we've been working together since."
Your husband sounds like quite an amazing guy!
"My husband ─ the long-haul truck driver?" Mary laughs. "Actually, he has a MBA from the
That's really inspiring!
"I really want to bring out his story here... I think it would be encouraging to a lot of people to realize that following a dream can take you to a lot of interesting places. Craig loved the open road. We both do and will most likely be out in a big honkin' RV one day, going wherever we are led.
Which of your projects are you currently most excited / passionate about?
"All of them. I am never bored and I am never done! I have enough creative ideas to last me another fifty years.
Our newest addition is our Make A Difference (greeting) MovieCards and I'm very excited about how I am using another area of my creative mind to develop them as a means for people to reach out and connect what's on their hearts and minds.
I actually see them as a phenomenal 'heart opening' way for networkers to stay connected to their prospects, clients and customers. My son is using them in his financial planning business to reach out and stay connected with his clients and prospects. Go to:
www.MakeADifference.com/Moviecards "
How much of your work is focused specifically toward women? Please explain.
"I love that my work attracts so many women in so many different walks of life and I love it equally when men are in my audience. The men that show up for my courses are genuinely interested in ─ and are 'relieved' by ─ what I have to offer. It is not my intention to be focused solely on women and yet, a very large percentage of my audience, at this juncture, is. I'm not about hyping yourself up to try to force yourself succeed. I've learned over the years that rollercoaster rides don't achieve any other than a high level of anxiety and doing things the hard way. I have found that by simply picturing a thing first and then simply matching your actions to the desired end result, that the energy and ideas will flow through you. This is the inner Power vs. Force way to go about living and enjoying life now."
What are some of the ways / places you promote your enterprise?
"Currently we are 100% Internet promoters through our 'word-of-mouse' free flash online movies."
Word of mouse? Love it!
"I love doing media – TV, Radio, Print – and did a 10-city all-media tour with my first book many years ago. However, my success really took off with the Internet. I'm always ready and excited about other forms of promotion as they present themselves and will happily do media again as it comes in for me."
Whom or what does your network currently include? OR: What is the size of your list , your outreach?)
"My subscriber and contact list is over 140,000 strong and grows each time we come out with a new movie. I also write to individual leaders of major organizations, schools and companies directly to offer my movies and services in ways that will be of greatest service to them."
What has been the best about building a network: Positive experiences? Benefits, expected and unexpected?
"It's all been amazing and wonderful. The feedback we receive from around the world is heart opening. My intention is always to make available what I have to offer to attract all those people who need, want and are ready for exactly what I have to offer. I give 100% of my attention to that audience and do not concern myself with individuals who my work is not a fit for."
What challenges (if any) have you found in your networking experiences? Unexpected events? Any benefits emerging from challenges in the long run?
"Unexpected? That when we had a huge growth surge this past year, we had to reorganize our infrastructure to be able to accommodate the growth. It was arduous and time consuming and I had to really work with my creative self to manage my frustration and desire to go forward in to larger audiences until we were ready. This experience was much more daunting than we expected. We had problems with high-quality printers – again setting our criteria at a higher level remedied that. What we learned through trial and error with three fulfillment houses – and our accounting infrastructure – was that we had not actually not set 'our criteria' high enough to handle rapid, exponential growth. When we finally upped our criteria, everything fell into place!"
That's great! So ─ bottom line – what do you feel is really working well for you, your
company?
"Breaking the rules!" Mary laughs. "Zagging while everybody else is Zigging! Everything that I am guided to do. Internet marketing do-s and don'ts ─ we are told not to do this and not to do that on the Internet, and yet my inner guidance is very specific with me about things to put out there and try with positive expectation / energy. In addition to writing to my subscribers, I reach out and directly contact people with the power to make a difference, every day – offering them what I have to offer with the hope that it will make a difference in someone's life today!"
Besides networking, how else are you promoting your company? What do you view as the primary vehicle and what makes it more important than the other(s)?
"Other than the 'word-of-mouse' online movie views – currently over 10 million and still growing – I would say it's my weekly connection with my audience. My number one desire is to give people hope and to show them easier ways to think about things."
What's the achievement, the accomplishment you're most proud of at this time?
"My family is my number one priority to me. Together we have achieved a healthy, loving, tremendously enjoyable family. Our children excelled in school and are enjoying all that life has to offer. The story continues and when I'm not accomplishing as much as I would like to as fast I would like to in my business, I take a deep breath and remember what's really important in all of this ─ and it's my husband and our children, and our children's children. Making the world a better place is all about them in my heart."
What are your plans and goals for the future ─ organizational / personal ─ especially regarding networking activities?
"My vision for the ultimate of networking activities is that our inspirational flash online movies and moviecards generating tens of millions of views from people throughout the world who need, want and are ready for the upliftment and inspiration that my God-given message has to offer. I see my Make A Difference Gift Books and DVD of my movies in the hands of every person who has a pull in them to make things better at home, at work and within the community and the world.
I also have a screen writer currently creating a movie about my life's work in education and how I specifically used my attitudinal energy to re-label children so that ALL children in my care experienced their best selves and high levels of academic success. This is very exciting! I always wanted to be in the movies since I was a little girl!"
Wow, that is super-exciting! Now ─ any other point you'd like to emphasize at this time?
"I have a vision: when I see people on TV or in the news in great despair about their current situation, I SEE them taking hold of their personal connection with that which breathes them and through MasterMinding, taking control of their beliefs and therefore their lives. I SEE them getting to experience life much more joyously and assuredly!
When it comes to children, my wish is that the adults raising them and working with them would come to know that healing today's children is actually about healing ourselves. That the children with behavioral outcries are not the enemy – they are simply holding up a mirror to us and teaching us exactly what we need to know about ourselves and how we are attitudinally treating them."
In conclusion, anything else you'd like to add for our readers? Some words of encouragement, inspiration?
I would like to say that the only thing getting in the way of anything that we deeply desire lies in what we've learned to believe in and expect at this point. Our expectations are habitual in nature and we must simply break in at the level of thought to get different results. We don't have to force things, we merely need to slow down and visualize the solutions we seek and ask to unfold for us in an easy, relaxed manner!
That with each level of new success you feel pulled toward, you must be willing to hold a vision of it and you must be willing to improve yourself by expanding your knowledge base and your mind about what can be possible. It's repetitive and it's a daily, gentle practice. Faith and believing are the way we flex our spiritual muscle which allows in the supernatural assistance we need to experience the miraculous. MasterMinding on a weekly basis allows for this practice to get to the 'heart' of what we really want … and what our soul's growth is demanding from us to do while we are here.
We'd best wrap this up now, Mary, though I could spend hours with you listening in admiration. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity of mind and heart. You and your family – and the millions you touch ─ are truly blessed!
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Mary's Contact Information:
Phone: 603-382-8848
www.MakeADifference.com/Movies
www.MakeADifference.com/Moviecards
Ann Barczay Sloan, M.A.
Author & Editor / Creative Writing Coach
www.linkedin.com/in/AnnBarczaySloan
Featured Columnist,
For more information, please see Ann's TNNW Bio.
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Author of the forthcoming book:
How to Use the Pieces of a Broken Heart:
Recipes for Rebirth
http://AnnBarczaySloan.blogspot.com
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