Owens to Keynote The 2008 Highlands County Women’s Symposium.

This year, the women of Highlands County are in for a real treat as organizers of this year’s symposium work to put the final touches on the event.  The theme for the countywide gathering is “Creating Balance In Your Busy World” which will be held on Saturday, November 1, from 10am to 3:00pm at the Unity Life Enrichment Centre. 

The keynote speaker for the day is Lorna Owens who is know around the world as a women who lives what she teaches and helps others create balance and achieve their dreams.

Lorna Owens knows a thing or two about what she calls “massive change.” A high powered criminal attorney pulling down six figures in Miami , she got the call several years ago to change her life’s direction. Little did she know it would mean selling her beloved Jaguar for riding the bus everyday.

Today, the author of “Daily Sustenance” says she has no regrets and would do it all over again. “I was an Assistant District Attorney under Janet Reno. I had a great law practice. I was doing very well by anyone’s standards: little girl from Jamaica makes it big in America .” Then, something happened, at her father’s funeral that convinced her she had to make a change.

“It was… a soul thing,” Owens reflects. “My father was being honored and blessed by so many people whose lives he touched. I suddenly realized, ‘what are you doing for others, Lorna Owens? Stop taking up space. ” Returning home, Owens resigned her position at the State Attorney’s Office and started a brand new company, Positive Vibe, in Miami Beach. She quickly found herself racking up the accomplishments and accolades: professional speaker, executive coach, entertainment lawyer, radio commentator, and CEO of women’s empowerment program called “…and the women gather”.

Driven by sheer enthusiasm and a clear focus, she poured over a half million of her savings into the successful launch of an independent record label, Positive Vibe Records, and produced films under her own production company, Zion Films. “I wanted to play with the big boys, so I needed to use my big girl money!”

After a time, passion—and her depleted savings—weren’t enough for the high-stakes world of the entertainment industry. Broke but not discouraged, Owens says inspiration struck while watching a sunset from her condo balcony. “I so clearly remember asking God for a sign, and then the fading rays of sunlight passed directly over my Jaguar in the parking lot!” According to Owens, selling her car the very next day was not a defeat but rather liberation. With funds in the bank- and a new budget that accounted for bus money—she got still, and an even higher calling came through.

”I look around and see all these brilliant, accomplished professional women, just burning out and running on empty. I say, ‘Don’t believe the myth.” It is possible to be a superwoman and do it all. To quote, Marianne Williamson, we truly are powerful beyond measure But for me doing it all means following your passion. Once you do that, everything else falls into place,” Owens declares.

Owens’s latest mission: leading women to success through a balanced lifestyle and that involves mastering the only constant there is in life—change. “I decided to become a student of change. So I immersed myself in studying neurolinguistic programming, behavior modification. For one year, I read everything I could get my hands on. I remember being in The United Kingdom and buying a book on the anatomy and physiology of the brain. I wanted to know everything about the brain, how we process information, how we learn. I kept thinking maybe if I can understand how the brain works I can, maybe, just maybe I can help people change their lives.”

“I do not want to motivate people because motivation does not last. I want to change lives. Success can be taught,” she preaches. “It is a process.” No surprise her first CD is called Decision to Change . It sets out six concise steps to changing your life. Her second CD is called The Undiscovered Self . This is an all music CD designed to get the listener to an alpha state. Alpha state is a state of total relaxation.

Now a highly sought after international speaker garnering thousands each engagement, Owens says she’s here to transform the planet, one speech, one seminar, and in the case of her first book, one Bible verse at a time. “ Daily Sustenance came about because I used to carry around my favorite Bible verses on note cards and I’d misplaced them over and over again. Or I’d have them marked in my Bible, but I never had my Bible with me when I needed it, which seemed to be all the time,” Owens laughs. “So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I could have a little pocket-sized book with all our favorite verses? So that is what Daily Sustenance is. A little hardcover 4.5 x 6” book filled with powerful scriptures to sustain us daily.”

“God has a plan for all of us and mine is to be a catalyst for change. It suddenly became clear to me the big trial, the high-stakes negotiations, the luxurious condo or the fancy car is a masquerade if you are not living your genuine self.”

Genuine selves is more like it for Owens. Her list of accomplishments reads like the alphabet: BA, CM, JD, and RN. She began her professional career in the field she chose in a defining moment at age twelve. “I remember standing in the hallway of my house in Jamaica and, with my hands on my hips as I declared to my mother, ‘I want to be a lawyer,’” recalls Lorna. My mother didn’t bat at an eye and calmly warned me: ‘Lawyers don’t go to heaven.’ “Chuckling at the memory, Owens says, “Soooo… I found a profession where people go to heaven. What could be better than a nurse?”

Heaven-bound, she worked tirelessly as a nurse and licensed midwife for years in her home country before landing a hospital job in the United States . Soon, her childhood dream to practice law came surging forth, so she applied to just one law school. . “I was too naïve to know any better. I didn’t know applying to law school was supposed to be this big, dramatic, drawn-out thing. I applied. I was accepted. I was happy.’ She smiles at the memory of her floored colleagues and fellow nurses when she informed them she was going to the University Of Florida School Of Law !

Committed to a rigorous schedule of classes during the week in Gainesville, Owens then changed gears and commuted to a Jacksonville hospital for weekends of brutal 16-hour shifts. “It doesn’t matter how many times I had to reinvent myself. When I want to do something, I just do it, because I don’t want regrets.” Her message for congregations and audiences today is very similar– and direct: “When you decide what you want to do, you have to do whatever it takes to get it done. God will be there to support you.”

To see Owens, tickets are available on a first come first serve basis by calling  Unity Life Enrichment Centre,  Monday - Friday 10-1:00 at 863-471-1122.  Seating is limited.  Tickets for the event are $20.00 per person, which include meeting and working with Lorna and her staff, round table discussions and lunch.

The event is sponsored by; The Spa at Hammock Falls, Halo’s Hair Designs, Vistanet - Internet Service Providers, Advantage Floor Coverings, Sweetbay Supermarkets, Inn On The Lakes and Unity Life Enrichment Centre.