Verity's Blog

A very new song....

Footage of our first performance of my new song "Miracle". It is more for a reference of the song than anything else as the venue was very badly lit and we had only had one rehearsal of workshopping it so just took a chance on trying it out on a live audience. The first line I was horribly flat - still learning the melody - but hey this how all songs start out and we just have to let it grow from there. It needs a lot of work and but this should be enough to give you an idea...

Lisa Nichols is in SA & I am singing with her!

YIPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I am so stoked to have been asked to sing Shine and other songs and talk about The Lucky Packet Project for Lisa Nichol's tour of SA in May. If you haven't seen The Secret - then what are you waiting for? If you have, then you will know exactly who she is and will be as excited as I am to attend one of her fabulous talks or courses! I will be at all her Cape Town & Joburg appearances and after my experience of working with Dr John Demartini I am certain this will be another amazing thing to add to my list of things I have done in my life.

Check out the details below  for CAPE TOWN DATES and book a slot for the one that looks best for you!

Lisa Nichols is being brought to South Africa by Going4Gold International – distributor of The Secret in South Africa and a company that specialises in teaching personal empowerment.

Lisa will kick off her tour in Johannesburg on the 9th May with her most winning seminar to date, Motivating the Teen Spirit. The seminar is recognised by many as the best empowerment skills program available for teen self-development, which has impacted the lives of over 30,000 young adults around the world.

Lisa has addressed over 650,000 people, is credited with preventing over 750 suicides and has encouraged hundreds of disillusioned teens back to school. She has also personally coached numerous CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, princ ipals, and religious leaders and has been welcomed onto America’s most prestigious talk shows such as Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres and Larry King Live.

Lisa’s tour will also take in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.  Lisa is joined by her co-presenter Sanyika Calloway Boyce, international motivational speaker, writer and financial coach.

Visit www.going4gold.co.za; or email info@going4gold.co.za or phone 021 9147692 or 0833891766.  Click to see DATES for all TALKS below....

'Shining' with Demartini

This is one of Dr Demartini's talks where I got to sing Shine to his audience at the end of his seminar. We weren't sure if we could film it or not hence the bumpy footage in the beginning but you can hear him telling the story of how I approached him & can have a good listen to Shine... I promise to learn to edit these video soon!!!!

About my song "Perfect"

"Perfect" is my saddest love gone wrong song. It was a heartbreaking moment to realise that who I was just wasn't enough for the person I was with. It was a process for me to realise that I didn't need to fit someone else's idea of what they wanted and be happy to just be me. I hope I never put my expectations on anyone and leave them doubting who they are. We are all 'perfect' the way we are. Don't change to keep someone's love. Love is a gift - not a condition.

Click here to email me comments and read the lyrics below...

On Meeting Demartini

This is me sharing about how I got to meet Dr John Demartini and what I learned from saying 'screw it just do it'!

Taking a chance...

Recently, Dr John F Demartini (The Secret) was in SA running his Breakthrough Experience and promoting his new book Heart of Love. I headed off to one of his public talks with some friends and was blown away to see over 800 people turn up to listen to him. He is one hell of a speaker who really moves and inspires people and it was great to soak up his story and energy. He spoke often of us allowing ourselves to shine and be the best we can be, and I kept thinking 'man, I should be singing to these people, they would love my song Shine!'

So... after much deliberation, I mustered up the courage and joined the queue for his autograph after the talk. I must have let five people in front of me as I tried to work out what to say to him. What came out as I handed him a book to sign was 'Hi Dr Demartini, I am Verity and I am a singer and songwriter. I think that you should have me sing at your talks...' At this point he looked at me like I was a bit strange so I continued... 'you tell people to shine' he nodded (indeed he does), 'I have a song called "Shine" that I think will complete your message...'

At this point my palms were sweating. What the hell am I doing was running through my head... He took a moment to take it all in and then asked if I had a CD. Aha - 'I don't' I said 'but there is a piano over there and I can play it for you if you like..'

Well I played and sang Shine for him and when I finished he turned to his agent and asked 'How soon can she start singing at my talks?'.  The gamble had paid off, and the next day I was in Khayelitsha with him singing at his youth development workshop there and again the following week at his Young Adults Inspired Destiny Course. What an experience that just goes to show that you have nothing to lose by stepping out and asking!

The Night We Sold Copy #1000!!!

">

On Thursday 12th April I hit 1000 future copies of my album being sold! I was playing a gig at Roosevelts in Cape Town and the editor of CapeTownMagazine.com was in the audience and bought the last 4 albums we needed to hit 1000 copies.   While I was still performing Donna set herself the task of getting to the magic number, and unbeknownst to me was charging around the crowd signing people up as Future Owners. CapeTownMagazine.com set her a target that if she hit they would buy four CD's and she did it! My magic Fairy Godmother or what???

Yippeeeeeeee is all I can say! We were all over the moon as you can hear but I do apologise for the complete lack of lighting in the video clip. Suffice to say my friend on camera duty did capture the magic of the moment. What a journey!!!!

Celebrating the moment with Donna, Tony and Helder.

Lucky Break with The Business Network

When I sang at The Women's Show back in February, I didn't know that in the audience was an incredibly dynamic woman who is the founder of the Business Network in South Africa (www.businessnetwork.co.za), Tanya Jovanovski. She got chatting to Kirstin - from my management team - and asked if I could be a guest speaker at the various Business Network breakfasts around town to help promote the album and boost sales. 

Preparing a 10 minute talk to deliver to a room full of business owners at seven in the morning was a tall order for a girl who likes her sleep, but I took on the task regardless! It was actually quite fun to work out how I would talk about The Lucky Packet Project and the more I worked on the speech the more present I got to how amazing this journey is proving to be.

All of sudden I am being thrust into public speaking, not only about my album and encouraging people to join my project, but also talking about the power of intention and dreams to create magic in our lives if we just step out there and take a chance. I decided that part of my presentation should include a song, so Nelson and I headed off to my producer friend Selwyn's studio to lay down a rough piano backtrack for Shine.

Suddenly I was ready to go, and before I knew it one morning I was up and showered by 6am and bundled into a car with Donna and Kirsten to go and do my first talk.  As I finished singing Shine I was greeted with a standing ovation and a huge rush for people to sign up at Future Owners. It was awesome!  Since then I have spoken at numerous breakfasts and gain more support each time. I have sold over 100 albums in the last month which is epic!

It is pretty fantastic to be discovering that speaking is something I enjoy and that I can inspire people with my story as well as my music. YAY!

French Revolution vs Inconvenient Revolution...

A few days ago I went to watch Marie Antoinette and while I found it a rather slow movie, it did capture the opulence and frivolity of the era in a tragically beautiful way. With my knowledge of the history of that time, it was disturbing to watch the lifestyle the royals adopted with no apparent awareness of the plight of the common people. The film is very clever in the way that it never reveals the other side of France, as at the time the royals most likely never saw any of the poverty the masses endured while they were safely enveloped by the palace gardens..

It is a tale of how greed and indulgence led to the ultimate ruin of the monarchy. What really spoke to me was how completely unaware they were of how their lifestyle was impacting an entire country. It got me thinking about An Inconvenient Truth and what it points out to all of us how our lifestyles are impacting the planet. Watching the royals feast on meals of indescribable extravagance and indulge in orgies that left each room littered with half eaten plates of food, drew my attention back to how most of the western world lives and how it is depleting the planet at such a frightening rate. It hit me that just because I may not see the impact of my actions in the way that I live, doesn't mean that I will be protected from the repercussions of them down the line. Perhaps the revolution we are creating is one that is fought with hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes?

It brings me back to my song Devastation - "and I wonder how it came to be, that devastation is the only way we see? How fragile we are - and we finally open up our hearts..." 

Show with a cause this Sat 14 April...

This will be a special evening to enjoy some great acts all raising their voices for AIDS awareness in South Africa. For those of you who don't venture past Century City, it is a good opportunity to make your way to The Belville Civic Centre and join the magic. I will be awarding an INTEC Bursary worth R5000 on the evening as well which I hope will help someone along their path.