30 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

A couple years ago I filled one of these things out on Facebook and, much to my dismay surprise, it was kind of fun. I thought I didn’t enjoy them, yet I smile every time I read one from someone else, so I guess I do like them? Ugh. Anyway, here’s an unsolicited list of a few things you probably didn’t know about ‘lil ole me:

1. I have popcorn for lunch or dinner at least once a week. It’s the food item I crave most often, and the first thing I want to eat upon returning home from out of town.

2. When I was 19, my boyfriend at the time handed me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. I devoured the book and it monumentally shifted my thinking forever. That was the beginning of my personal development journey and of “thinking bigger.” That boyfriend’s name was Dave, and I would absolutely not be where I am today without him. I think about it all the time.

3. I rarely watch tv, but love to watch movies.

4. I’m a big visualizer. I have strong visualizations sometimes, often that end up so on the mark that it freaks me out. Call them daydreams, I don’t care. Many of them come true, and it’s for this reason that I am a huge believer in dream boards.

5. I drink a cup of coffee, a Verve, and a glass of wine practically every day.

6. My biggest fear is dying and no one remembering me. Not me, personally, but the mark I made on the community/country/world or the people I inspired…that it wasn’t substantial enough or meaningful enough to have made a difference after I was gone. This drives almost everything I do.

7. In junior high I wanted to be an architect. In high school, a physical therapist. My freshman year in college I wanted to be an orthodontist. Sophomore year I realized I loved business, so I switched to the biz school and graduated with a degree in MIS. I then took a design job with a healthcare software company that I cared nothing about. If I were to do everything all over again, I’d go into the book publishing industry. Which reminds me…

8. There are few things in life I love to do more than read.

9. I’m a naturally-quiet homebody. Networking is a constant growth area for me, every minute of it is work. I like to think that my willingness to push through that part of my personality is a differentiating factor between my level of success and others.

10. I don’t eat dairy because I’ve read too much about it and it grosses me out.

11. I love the smell of cigars, rain, wet dog, and that fishy/watery scent that hits you when you’re near a lake.

12. In July my dermatologist found a mole on my stomach that had developed into melanoma (skin cancer). It had not yet metastasized, which means we caught it in time. I had to have surgery to remove a giant chunk of skin and now have a 5 inch-long scar on my stomach to prove it. Because of this, all the hubbub in October around Breast Cancer has really annoyed me this year. Yes, breast cancer deserves awareness, but don’t other cancers deserve that much publicity too?

13. I got married two years ago to a man who makes me laugh every day and is a spitting image personality-wise of my father.

14. I admire bits and pieces of Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, LeBron James, Chris Brogan, Bear Grylls, Dean Karnazes, Steven Spielberg, Tim Ferriss, and Melinda Gates.

15. Unless I’m the one who initiates it, I hate talking on the phone. The Ignore button on my phone gets a lot of use. I KNOW I KNOW, I’m terrible. Move along.

16. I suck at cooking. I rock at baking.

17. I’m going to live to be 129 years old. Hey-oo!

18. I don’t care about politics, even though I know I should.

19. I went to Las Vegas senior year in college with three roommates. A drunk guy playing blackjack at a $100 minimum table at Mandalay Bay recruited us as his good luck charms. He would hand each of us a chip whenever he won a hand. When the guy started getting up from the table an hour later, the pit boss gave us a nod indicating we were actually ok to walk away with the chips, and we ran away as fast as our high-heeled feet could go. We raked in over $1000. Each.

20. That same Las Vegas trip, I begged everyone to spend an entire day traveling out to see the Hoover Dam. Early proof of how much of a geek I would turn out to be, and how amazing my friends were (and still are).

21. I could people watch all day long, especially at a state fair or in an airport.

22. During the fall and spring I never leave the house without either a hat or a scarf. Accessories, FTW!

23. 9 out of 10 times I shake a man’s hand during an introduction, he comments on my “strong” handshake. I mean, come on, girls. A gal with a normal handshake is considered extraordinary by comparison’s sake only because your handshakes lack confidence and suck. It think it’s pathetic.

24. I consider myself decently well-traveled, but have never been to New York City or Washington, DC and feel kind of embarrassed about it.

25. I will be an author someday. Fact.

26. I have one sibling, a younger sister, who lives in Minneapolis. I used to shove her into the turtle sandbox when we were kids and sit on the lid. She’s ten times cooler, more stylish, and more fun that I will ever be.

27. My family has called me Annie my entire life, yet I was Ann to every one else until I graduated college and accidentally wrote Annie on a demographics form my new boss sent me before I started work. I have to think twice when signing my name on messages between old friends on Facebook.

28. I am open-minded to learn just about anything. It saddens me when others aren’t open-minded to learn about anything other than what they already know.

29. Angel food cake is my favoritest.

30. Being outdoors energizes me.

31. (30 Things? Wha?) It saddens me when people aren’t willing to take personal responsibility for their lives; to take even one, tiny step towards improving it, that they’re always the victim. Inspiring people to even open up their minds to the possibility that they can do something – anything – is what drives me day in and day out with all of my businesses. It is the central passion around which everything I do rotates. I want to grab people by the shoulders that think they have no say in their own lives, shake them and say, “you can do it, IF YOU JUST EFFING DECIDE TO.”

Tagged as: personal, random