An Evening To Remember #NotableAwards

I am coming off one of my favorite evenings in the past… well…  I can’t remember how long.

A few weeks ago I was notified that I was nominated for a Quebec Notable Award in the Best Blog category.

This award just felt different. A nomination in my own province, Quebec, and one whereby one of the four judging criterias was philanthropy and giving back to your community.

I then received this email last week. I was now down to one of the top 100 finalists. A celebration for WomenOnTheFence!

Anyhoooo, let’s fast forward to last night, the Quebec Notable Awards. I walked into a beautiful room where the energy was so vibrant, so palpable. You could feel it buzzing –  600 young (under 45), dynamic, hard working, talented professionals, all together in one room. You had the best in their category in Quebec in this room- the top chefs, the top athletes, the best restaurants, the best entrepreneurs, the best social media peeps, the best in advertising, the best in healthcare. The Quebec Notables.

There was something special about this evening for me in my own home town.

I walked in with my man, who has been sick with fever this week. He sucked it up for the evening and brought his smile and his support.

We all then sat down, ate a little, schmoozed and little, drank a little and got right to the awards.

The program was moving along nicely, and then came my category… BEST BLOG. EEK! They showed the 5 nominee names on the big screen, but the announcer left my name out, calling all four names except mine. My table then started calling out, “You forgot to say Erica Diamond!” I was like, “It’s cool guys. Don’t worry.”

Then, “The winner is… Erica Diamond!”

Obviously, I didn’t expect to win. Heck, I traveled to Toronto last year as a Digital Personality of the Year nominee, to of course lose.

Well, they did things a little differently at these awards. There were no acceptance speeches but rather Julian Brass, founder of Notable was calling up each winner onto the stage in groups of 4 or 5, to have a notable “discussion.” I was honestly shitting in my pants, and I think you can see by my answer, by my ums, just how nervous I was.

Meanwhile, back at home, my babysitter had instructions to put my little guy to bed at 8:15. But after I Instagrammed this

I get a notification that my boy “likes” my photo… at 8:52pm!!! Gotta love him. He was “waiting up” to see if mommy won.

But it was a beautiful tweet like this that made my night.

The rest of the ceremony came to a close, and they called all the winners up to the stage.

As you can see, I am standing next to legendary hockey player PK Subban. Because everyone was swarming him all night, I decided to physically give him his personal space. I literally took two steps away from him. There I am kind of awkwardly dangling off to the side not to invade his personal space (something I greatly dislike when someone does to me).

And here we are too… PK and I.

Then it was time to party… at the after-party.

But the lesson in all of this (cuz you know I always like to share a lesson), is how we parent our children. How YOU yourself mother your babies.

I know you’re wondering what parenting has to do with winning a Notable Award. But it has EVERYTHING to do with this award.

After studying success for years, specially as a success coach, my findings have been that: Most successful people say that as children growing up, their parents told them they could be anything they wanted to be. Their parents supported, encouraged and believed in their dreams. This is important information to a parent. These successful people said that their parents DID NOT clip their wings growing up, rather they encouraged them to fly. Their parents were NOT the kind of parents who if they got a 90% on an exam, said FOOLISHLY, “What happened to the other 10%?”

“The best advice I was ever given was from my father when I was very young. It was simple. He was always encouraging me, telling me I was a bright girl and that I could do anything I set my mind on. This, from someone I looked up to and admired. It made me think to myself, yes, I can probably accomplish anything. I can’t say enough about encouraging children. We need to bolster their dreams and their accomplishments.” ~Martha Stewart

So, if you are a mother reading this blog post, please use this information wisely in your own parenting journey.

I am fortunate to have had two cheerleaders champion my growth, and I owe everything to my mom and dad for raising me the right way. For teaching me that no dream was too big, and that if you want something in life, well, it’s simple – you have only to work for it. They taught me to NEVER be afraid of hard work because the worst thing that was going to happen was… you’d fail. No biggie. They really knew what the hell they were doing.

I got this from my dad this morning at 5:50am.

I too am trying to be a mother who champions her own two sons, but at the same time, resisting to always provide that safety net to rescue them. It isn’t easy. I think for our children to grow, we must let them fall sometimes, allowing them time to figure out how to get back up, and then we need to provide unconditional love, support and encouragement.

But I digress…

Thank you Notable for this beautiful award that now sits in my son’s room. He said he wanted it. So he got it.

Happy Thanksgiving to my wonderful friends and family south of the border. Send some turkey up this way!