SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 GIRL ON TOP OF THE MONTH

FEATURING LUAN MITCHELL

Have you ever met someone who inspires you by their mere presence?  Well, our September/October 2011 Girl On Top of the Month, LuAn Mitchell, will do just that to you.  This leading female entrepreneur is so amazing that we have decided to feature her for two months!  Her motivation and perseverance coupled with a positive attitude and impeccable work ethic has created an admirable paradigm for females worldwide.  While we would love to share LuAn Mitchell’s entire life story with you, we alternatively recommend you read her book, Paper Doll (Lessons learned by a life lived in the headlines), which provides an in depth coverage of her experience.  However, we are going to share her career highlights and the obstacles she overcame to obtain success.  We would also like to introduce ways to join forces with this leading female entrepreneur to help achieve greatness.

Let us first begin with a quote by B.C. Forbes (who founded Forbes Magazine) that opens her book, Paper Doll.  “History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart breaking obstacles before they triumphed.  They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”  LuAn Mitchell focuses on learning and leveraging life‘s lessons to turn adversity into opportunity.  She seems most concerned with preaching these lessons to those who will listen: how to trust your instincts, build an inner circle of support, set new priorities and define your dreams so you can chase after the biggest ones. An important lesson learned along the way is that at any moment, we can take charge and write our own headlines—and the storylines that go under them.  LuAn married Fred Mitchell (president of Intercontinental Packers), who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis right before the marriage, and fortunately he was miraculously treated.  They were told they could not have children, but they overcame that obstacle and had three of them.  The Mitchell’s almost lost everything in legal disputes (living out of a van), but recovered and brought the company back to success with the new name, Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods.  Although Fred was able to treat the cystic fibrosis, he later died unexpectedly the year after receiving Turnaround Entrepreneur of the year in 1998.  So, rather than cashing in the multi-million dollar company LuAn and Fred built together, to everyone’s surprise, LuAn took over the business, preserving 1,000 employees jobs. She opened a new state-of-the-art facility and grew to become one of the leading suppliers of meat products and processed foods in North America and was delighted to be recognized as Canada‘s #1 Female Entrepreneur three years running in the man’s world of meatpacking.  From beauty queen to business entrepreneur, LuAn states: Being acknowledged for my mind has always been more of an honor (and much more to my liking) than any beauty pageant could have ever provided.  While she won her local beauty pageant, she lost the Miss Canada pageant when she gave a speech about the advancement of women in society as her “talent” presentation.  Imagine the reception of that topic at a beauty pageant.  LuAn has also been named one of the 40 Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World. She says, “What an experience to travel to Madrid, Spain and meet my fellow award winners.”

The following concepts from Paper Doll really define LuAn’s entrepreneurial orientation: Getting Comfortable with Risk and what are you willing to risk.  Nothing could better describe how she reached success.  Taking risks can be a great character-building exercise.

LuAn attests to these 3 easy steps for genuine success:

• Make a realistic plan that will get you closer to your dream,

• Follow your God-given instincts

• Find the seed for good.

She states, “I have been fortunate in my life to be able to cut through the public‘s image of me as just a ―paper doll, a piece of fluff—a headliner (someone who was only defined by the clothes she wore). It gives me a tremendous sense of satisfaction to know that people can gain something from the lessons I‘ve learned—and that they can do it without the hard knocks I‘ve endured!”  Ultimately LuAn focused on learning skills that she could always use to support herself and be self sufficient and they have carried her through til today.

Here are 3 pieces of advice for females in the business world:

1.      Do your homework.  Know your stuff so people can’t talk around or over you.

2.      Don’t make gender an issue.

3.      Remain true to yourself no matter what.  Be professional, but be yourself.

LuAn advises to surround yourself with people who inspire you.  Learn from them and draw energy from their story.  Then use the knowledge to propel yourself closer to your dream.  With hope, faith, and perseverance, you can overcome the odds. Believe it.  Once you have gained knowledge from those who inspire you and believe, then its time to seek alliances to support your dreams.  She says: Don‘t get in the bad habit of beating yourself up. It is far more important to build yourself up.

LuAn has leveraged her situation as an opportunity to help people.  Her mission and passion now is to give back.  LuAn developed a board game called Save The Planet designed for children so families could play it together and learn about conservation and ecology, coinciding with the non-profit organization, Kids for Saving Earth, which LuAn served as the volunteer National Advisor for North America.  LuAn and Fred planted a wonderful seed for good.  They developed the Fred Mitchell Scholarship Program to help beautiful, intelligent yet challenged young people to grow and be all that they can be.  What an excellent    to give back!  LuAn states, though, that giving back isn‘t always about money—it‘s mostly about giving of yourself.

One clever comment that makes a lot of sense from LuAn’s book is, “I‘m a careful observer of people—not a judge, an observer.”  This approach is admirable and something we could all model our life after.

As an entrepreneur, corporate executive, author, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and mother, LuAn Mitchell has lived a life of wide experience, harsh reality, and repeated triumph.

Mitchell has reached the pinnacle of business success being named Canada‘s Number One Female Entrepreneur for three successive years by Chatelaine and Profit magazines. On the international stage, she has been honored annually since 2001 by the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World. McGill University of Montreal has named LuAn as the 2003 recipient of the McGill Management Achievement Award for excellence of achievement in business and community service.  What an honor to feature LuAn Mitchell as our September/October 2011 Girl On Top of the Month.

Keep up with Luan at www.LuAnMitchell.ca

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