Rooftop Proposal

It’s amazing how smoothly life flows when you’re doing something that you KNOW you’re supposed to be doing. Not to say that it’s easy! But if you’re pursuing a path that is the right path for you, it’s incredible how natural it all feels.

Personally, since I’ve thrown myself into auditions and performances life has been moving. FAST! And I like it. I’ve been working hard and constantly filling my funnel with new opportunities.

After returning from Nashville for the first round of the Avon Voices competition. I’m excited for the voting to start on April 22nd! They flew us in and put us up at the breathtaking Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville and we spent the day running between hair & makeup, shooting interviews, and recording our music videos for the next round.

Check out this video from our time in Nashville.

Out of thousands of videos only 80 of us made it to Nashville, and only SEVEN of us performed live at the Gala Dinner event. What an incredible experience! One of the judges, Grammy award winning David Pack from Ambrosia was at the even and the seven of us even ended up singing a song with him onstage! I’ll try and find a video of the performance.

Since then I’ve been going to as many auditions and competitions as I can find.

My most recent adventure took place on a GORGEOUS rooftop in Chicago last night with the best fiance in the world, Jon. (note: Jon is not MY fiance. 😛 . Just an awesome fiance.) I met Jon through Craigslist after he posted an ad looking for a singer to help propose to his girlfriend. After about a week of email correspondence between Jon, his friend Nic (the guitarist), and myself, we arranged quite the sneaky surprise.

Jon had called in a few friends and we set a professional (and ultimately quite elaborate) photo-shoot on the rooftop of this funky and spunky artistic studio in Chicago for Nic and his “band” (i.e. – me ). After meeting Nic for the first time about 30 minutes before showtime, we headed up to the rooftop in a funky lift-elevator and ran through the songs a couple times.  When the cute couple arrived, Nic and I found that, despite both of our wide range of musical tastes, the only song we could come up with to pretend to be performing was “Simple Man” by Leonard Skynyrd. Which we proceeded to play repeatedly until they arrived. When we launched into Train’s “Marry Me”, Jon got down on one knee and proposed. I’m very proud of myself for not BURSTING into tears along with the lucky lady. It really was beautiful. After much crying and clapping on all of our parts, Nic and I played James Morrison’s “You Make It Real” for an fantastic slow-dance. Cutest. Thing. Ever! I’m so excited to be a part of such a fantastic proposal! And hopefully will be heading down south to sing for the wedding in June.

Between training at Second City, performing in multiple competitions, and singing rooftop proposals, I couldn’t be happier or more excited to see what comes next.

So if you’re going, going, going at the speed of Charlie Sheen and you feel like you’re repeatedly smashing yourself full force into a brick wall — try a different path. There may just be an open door slightly to the left that leads to a similar destination.

Life is a Stage

What an exciting month March has been already! It seems like every aspect of life is changing and most have just EXPLODED into new opportunities. It’s amazing what happens when you take action. Even if you’re not sure what lies ahead, just the act of moving forward consistently with a dream in mind will open doors that you never even knew existed. It’s your job to walk through them.

I’ve met some incredible new people lately including a great new friend who has given me the opportunity to become a spokes-model for his clothing line. We’re still in pre-launch, but check out some of the upcoming designs at www.sabaideewear.com

I’ve also been accepted as a contender for Round 1 of the international Avon Voices singing competition! Avon is very generously flying me out to Nashville next week for a 3 day video shoot. I’ll also have the opportunity to perform solo at the Gala Dinner. Guess that means I need to go shopping! 😀 I’m excited for a full makeover before the shoot and to meet some incredible performers who will be joining me from around the world. Voting begins April 22nd, so I would REALLY appreciate your vote so I can move onto Round 2!!!!

I have to say that I didn’t take the competition very seriously at first and only submitted my 30 second video for fun at the request of my wonderful Mother. 🙂 Check out my dorky submission video HERE . Lord only knows why they chose that screenshot……

Ain’t No Sunshine – Rachel Mazza Avon Voices Video.

Rachel Mazza Avon Voices Profile

Between the new photoshoots and preparing for the trip to Nashville, I’ve also begun classes at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. What an incredible group of people! At first I wasn’t sure what to expect out of their acting program since Second City is well-known for it’s improv and comedy. But our instructor Hank Hilbert is an incredible teacher with the perspective of a professional working actor in Chicago’s theater community. I’ve gotten to work on my monologue from Nicky Silver’s play “The Altruists” — (hilarious by the way if you like dark humor) — and am excited for next weeks class!

Pictures and videos of the aforementioned adventures as well as our spring break trip to Florida are on their way!

By the way, Harry Potter World is definitely worth checking out Universal Studios. 😀 But don’t drink butterbeer and then go ride the Rip Rocket Roller-coaster. It’s bad for business. 😛

snopocalypse

Blizzaster

SnOMG

Snowpocalypse

Snowmagedon

Whatever you want to call it, the 2011 Chicago blizzard did one thing that even Oprah’s Black Eyed Peas party couldn’t accomplish — it shut down the ENTIRE CITY for over 24 hours.

Hundreds of cars were abandoned on Lake Shore Drive as their stranded owners climbed over medians to head to warmer environments as 25 foot waves of ice smashed into Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.

Like the rest of Chicagoland, my family spent the day digging out. Although getting to the light at the end of the tunnel (or in this case, the driveway) isn’t quite as exciting when the road is 5 feet high because the plows are buried.

Nothing to do now except pull up a chair and enjoy the show. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people outside at once in my neighborhood. Ever.

Jabberwocky

You know — my Mom’s a bad influence. I have coffee with her every morning and she always gives me these ideas. She makes me do things. One thing that I love about my Mom,  something that makes her such a valuable person to have in my court is that she always gives you objective advice. Even if something is really personal, she always steps outside of the situation and does her very best not to influence your decision. Now that might sound like NOT giving advice at all, but it’s really forcing you to think through the problem from both sides and make a decision knowing all the pros and cons.  And she doesn’t take my crap either. When I told her I wanted to go train tigers she sent me an email with airfare deals and my frequent flier number. This either A.) Makes me super excited and reinforces my desire to just do it, or B.) If it’s too ridiculous it makes me balk and say, “Whoah! I didn’t think you’d actually go for that. Lets just think about this for a minute.” But what I really love, is that she never laughs at my ridiculous ideas — and she always tells me to go for it when I actually act upon them!

Like this morning, when I told her,  “Mom, I think I want to be an actress!” So she stops what she’s doing and looks to me and says, “Well honey, I guess you just need to move to L.A. then. I’ll call Uncle Jimmy and see if you can stay with him for awhile. ”

My friend Jason told me that the main actor from the popular show Mad Men just decided he wanted to be an actor one day. He said he’s always been interested in acting, and gave himself 5 years, and picked a date in the future. He would go at it full force for 5 years, and if he didn’t make it after 5 years he would move on to something else. I love this philosophy because too often we quit JUST before we succeed. Most people who have failed didn’t do so because they weren’t good enough or couldn’t do it, they failed because they gave up too early. Most of the time we have NO IDEA how close we are to success when we quit!

I was talking to my friend Carolyn yesterday, telling her about my thoughts of maybe going back to school for theater and weighing it against the decision to just move out west and give it a try. After saying it out loud I thought it sounded so stupid! I looked at her sheepishly saying, “Well I guess it does sound kind of ridiculous.” And then thought about it for a minute and said, “But you know what? I’ve done a lot of ridiculous things lately!” Carolyn laughed and told me, “That’s right! Rachel you always just go out and DO things where most people would be afraid to even entertain the idea.” Carolyn is so right! How can you know if an idea is too absurd until you pursue it? You could spend forever and a half planning and researching and gathering information but eventually you just need to go do it and learn along the way.

One of my favorite movie lines is from the 2010 production of Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska. When Alice’s father would listen to her dreams and ambitions, he would tell her “You know Alice, I sometimes think of 6 impossible things before breakfast.” When the 6 impossible things that Alice thinks of start becoming a reality, this advice ultimately helped Alice slay the evil Jabberwocky.

At the risk of sounding campy and cliche, we all have our own Jabberwocky don’t we? The first step in achieving your goals, or realizing your dreams is to believe that you can. One of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford who said, “Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you’re right.” The second step is just to GO DO IT! Yes you should do your research, and yes you should weigh the pros and cons and make a rational decision, but just take action! And don’t let your planning to plan paralyze you.

It’s okay to go try something, and decide that you hate it. You don’t know what you want! There’s no way you can know what you want until you try some things out. You’ll never know until you try.

Oh! Hey 2011! What up dawwgg?

Does anyone actually believe in New Years Resolutions? I mean, it’s great to offer yourself a fresh start, but why do you have to wait until the new year? For example, in 2011 I want to work my patootie off to be in the best shape of my life! So I started a new routine at the gym on Dec 31st. So far so good with a little (or an enormous LOT) of annoyance and nagging from my younger sister who OBNOXIOUSLY burns about 100 calories MORE than I do every workout. Curse those siblings. Good thing the new semester starts soon at Loyola. Then I will be rid of her and her unrelenting motivation.

Speaking of the gym, my team has been working hard on expanding our presence at LA Fitness’ Membership Appreciation days several times a month. What a great opportunity it is to be in one place with so many health conscious individuals.  So far Crave Energy Drink has been a huge hit! Congrats to all our team members who have been getting into ACTION and consistent promotion.

New Years Eve was a blast at my house! We had an “open house” potluck and ate ourselves to death! Carne Asada and Vegan Lasagna and other deliciousness. Missing our expat friend Bobby, we had a skype party as well and carried him around via computer screen so he could hang with the rest of us. He even watched the countdown with us from the futuurrre. haha. It was already the new year in South Korea by that point.

Still getting back into the swing of things after the holidays and nice long Christmas spent at our lake house in NY with family. A season filled with good company, good food and incredible grotesque drawings on our Christmas presents compliments of Dad. Happy New Year!

Subscribe

Subscribe via RSS by clicking the link below:

https://rachelmazza.wordpress.com/feed/

Chicago Leadership Summit!

Just a quick update! I have to scoot soon because my Dad just returned from a trip to New York with a bushel of apples and 6 gallons of juice to make hard cider with!

What a whirlwind! This past weekend was the first Chicago Leadership Summit! We had an incredible turnout (standing room only!) as Art Jonak, Keith Schreiter and David Bertrand flew out to Naperville for some fast-paced training that left everyone feeling pumped up and excited to use their new skills!

Friday Art spoke for our generic local Meetup group and I had an awesome opportunity to pick his brain afterwards over dinner (well — by dinner I mean great food at 1am). Poor Art! Haha, he must have been TIRED after flying in, teaching all day and then being forced to converse with the crazy Chicago team after the event.

The next day was our Vitamark specific training which was inspiring and innovative!

At Portillo's after the event

My Mom did a great job organizing the event! Although she was a bit NUTS driving all of the speakers back and forth to the airport — seperately…. I’m sure it was a great opportunity to get her questions answered. We took the guests to Portillo’s for a real Chicago hot dog experience and they loved it!

Keith and I sucking in our Portillo's food babies for the picture. haha

 I ordered a mondo meal for Keith (who triumphantly devoured a Dipped Italian Beef with Hot Peppers, a Chicago Hot Dog with everything, Cheese Fries and a slice of Chocolate Cake! phew!) Haha, check out his facebook profile for pictures.

Art and Keith getting ready to devour Portillo's!

Mark, Adri and my sister Stephanie at my house this past summer

Next week we have Coach Mark Davis flying in from Melbourne, Australia to do a session for our Chicagoland Networking meetup group on making money by becoming famous on the internet (or something along those lines. :-P).

Can’t wait to see Mark again! He’s crashing at our place so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

Ciao for now! I’ll let you know how the cider turns out!

Bring me more meat Gaston!

It is June! Yay! If May had lasted a few days longer it might have destroyed me with it’s whirlwind of busy-ness.

The fam went to Zed451 for my Dad’s birthday last week. Out. Of. This. World. In fact, it may have been one of the best restaurants that I’ve been to yet!

The concept revolves around the idea of a Brazilian steakhouse . Meat meat meat, and more succulent meat (sorry you veggie-pals).

Zed451 Harvest Table

Zed451 supplements it’s endless array of delicious juicy morsels (served in tiny bite-size portions for maximum tasting) with it’s Harvest Table. The Harvest Table is a beautiful layout of hand-crafted vegetarian dishes, each served with it’s own customized sauce or reduction. 5 year old Goudas, sesame broccoli with miso sauce, Mediterranean couscous with tomato-pesto-fusion sauce — and my personal favorite — french bread with white truffle butter. mmmmm.

As your sampling your Harvest Table spoils, you keep noticing these men in white hats carrying large spits of meats. Just circling — waiting. When you’re ready, you take a small, smooth stone from the middle of the table, and place it on your corner of the table.  In an instant a shank of lamb appears. You grab the thin slice with your tongs as the chef shaves off a fresh piece. He leaves and is instantly replaced with a man displaying seared tuna — accompanying wasabi sauce of course. As the tuna man leaves, you look up to see (and smell) Moroccan chicken waiting for your plucking. 17 specialty meats later and two trips to the harvest table and you’re begging for a second stomach. sooooooo goooooood.

Sorry. I couldn’t stop myself and I think i may be drooling. Anyway, things are really heating up in the business. The power leg is growing FAST and people are REALLY starting to get excited! I mean, who wouldn’t be excited if you have a new team member already in your downline the day you get started in your new business. Not only that, but you have a full team of leaders to help you train and sponsor your new affiliate. After all, getting a bonus check your first week in business is exciting to most people that I would know.

Tailgating with Section 8 at the Fire game!

I’ve also been working with a luxury bus service to get people to the Chicago Fire games. It is so much fun! Basically the deal is, you get on the bus at your favorite bar (several stops along the way in the city — only 1 in the burbs), there’s free beer on the bus, bathroom on the bus (oh yeah you know you’re excited). When you get to the game you head over to tailgate with Section 8 — those guys are amazing! Throw them a

Watching the Championship with the Fire, Redstars, Windy City Wanderers, and Fire player Calen Carr!

dollar or two and they’ll stuff you full of burgers and a keg of half-acre or some other microbrewery treat. We take care of your tickets, parking, gas and tolls. You get on the bus after the game and get dropped back off at the bar. It is a blast!

Random note: I dropped my digital camera on the hardwood floor and now the lens is stuck out. By stuck I mean bent into an odd position and unable to retract. Any suggestions? Or is it a lost cause?

Enough with the pleasantries — I’ll have a new blog up at NotYourParentsLife soon!

Ciao

Honeybee Champagne in the Birthday Piano

This may be one of the busiest month’s I’ve had in years – but I love it!

Every day is packed full and I don’t mind one bit because it means that things are really moving forward.

Started off the weekend with a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Lincoln Park,  Chicago. It was gorgeous! Saw the most beautiful flowers and trees, and even dragged my boyfriend Chase along with me (Shhh, I know he liked it even if he won’t admit it :0D ) They were just putting out all their “bee boxes” — relocating the hives from the winter. It was quite a site to see. We got pretty close but since we were the only ones without face nets — we left after they started slamming the bees into their hives.

Last week ended with a great visit from Google Superman, Coach Mark Davis and his great fiance Adri. I think I ate my weight in pate and smoked Gouda that night as we masterminded into the wee hours of the morning.  His seminar on how to use Social Media to build your business was great! Everybody loved it and it was perfect for both beginner and advanced Social Media players. Mark also serenaded us (sort of) in honor of my younger sister’s 17th birthday. Here’s the video.

   Good Job Mark!! 😀

This week I look forward to my “official” graduation ceremony (although I’ve been finished since December), which is definitely more for my parent’s benefit than mine. Although, closure to that part of my life is probably important. I am definitely ready to be done with my “formal” education, and am fiercely pursuing a personal development “self” education day in and day out! Your success can only grow to the extent that you do!

Mother’s Day was relaxing and filled with great food! We took Mom to Tango Argentinean Grille for a Skirt Steak and Crab Leg Champagne Brunch. Ohhhhhh maaannn was it good. I don’t think I ever need to eat again!

We had an incredible call last night with Art Jonak and the rest of the Power Leg Freedom Team. It was great to meet the other team members who are committed to building a MASSIVE organization of network marketers. And we’re starting right NOW! There are completely life changing things happening here. I am SO EXCITED!

I took a whole day and re-built my website. I’m having trouble using my current domain to host the site here (at this site) so I’ll have to work on that. But check out the site and I would love to hear what you think!