About Lara...

When I first started to explore the world of blogging, ready2spark was one of the first blogs I began to read on a regular basis. It was always fresh, well written and diverse covering everything from an invitation design one day to an innovative marketing campaign the next.

As I tentatively began to blog, I reached out to the woman who was writing ready2spark for some advice. Lara McCulloch responded right away with an answer and some html code. Coming from the world of magazines where editors share nothing with each other, I was surprised and touched. I was already a fan of her blog. I was now a fan of her.

Throughout this past year, I, along with many others, have watched as Lara has become a leader in the events community both off- and on-line with her twice-weekly Twitter chats (#eventprofs) and her unflagging encouragement of others to begin their own group-specific chats as well as blogs. I've learned more about her and her very busy life through her blog posts and tweets and she always leaves me inspired.

True to her word, Lara is ready to spark and spark us she does, igniting the flame of self-improvement within everyone she meets. So when I began Fuel: Passions That Drive Us, Lara was one of the people I knew I wanted to ask this question...

Lara McCulloch-Carter

What Drives You?

When I was young, my Nana would often seat me at the dinner table and put a pen and pad in front of me. “Go on, write something,” she’d say. After writing a short sentence she’d come over and inspect my work and she’d have me reproduce those words over and over until I got them right. You see, my Nana has the most beautiful writing of anyone I know. Flawlessly looped Ls, and Ts that stand perfectly straight - she was brought up in a time when good penmanship was vital. Your penmanship told people whether you were well educated, creative or detailed. And it was her goal to ensure I understood its value as much as she did. I realize now that those lessons at the table taught me far more than how to dot my ‘i’s. They showed me that what I do tells people what to think of me and if I wanted to be good at something I had to first try it, then I’d have to work at it.

WHAT YOU DO TELLS PEOPLE WHAT TO THINK OF YOU

It might sound silly to say that how good your writing looks can tell someone what to think of you…but it’s true. Mind you, with the advent of the computer, it may not be as crucial as it once was. Instead, things like the way we dress, how we speak and more importantly what we do tell our story and influence how people see us. We’ve all heard the sayings: "Actions speak louder than words" (unknown), "Be the change you want to see in the world" (Mahatma Gandhi), and my personal favorite "Talk doesn’t cook rice" (Chinese Proverb). The common thread that binds these sayings together is action. The act of saying is really easy, but doing is what separates the cream from the crop. I think the best leaders earn their title. I’m driven by showing people how to think of me by taking action.

TRY IT

There are so many things that scare me. The thought of jumping out of a plane used to scare me. Then, on a business trip to LA I decided to make a pit stop in Monterey and jump the world’s highest tandem dive. The thought of public speaking used to scare me. Then, I signed up to speak at our nation’s largest event conference, got accepted, and delivered a speech to 60 event professionals on a topic I was just learning about. Boy, it sounds so easy, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t. These were some of my most terrifying experiences. But the reason I succeeded was only possible because I tried it. The other key was never allowing anyone to see me sweat. Even my husband, to this day, believes that I wasn’t nervous before I stepped out the door of that rickety plane 18,000 feet in the air.

WORK AT IT

People often ask me how I do everything I do in a day. I have a full time job, I have a family, I donate my time to my ISES chapter board, I speak at events and conferences, I author a blog, I founded a Twitter group called EventProfs & participate in twice weekly online chats, I read religiously, and much to my husband’s delight, I bake almost every night. My answer is always: “I work really, really hard at it.” It helps that I love what I do…but more than that, I have a passion for learning. I always wished I was one of those people who was naturally gifted at something. I think I’m good at a lot of things, but I need to work very hard to be great at them.

Liese’s question: "What drives you?" has to be one of the toughest questions I’ve ever had to answer. It really gets to the root of who you are and the response requires honesty peppered with some soul searching. I like to think of myself as a work in progress. I’m never satisfied with what I have and am today. That doesn’t mean that I’m an unhappy person – quite the contrary. I love life and appreciate what I’ve earned; however, status quo just doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. Perhaps it’s my appreciation for how short our lifetime really is and the fact that we get one good kick at the can…but I want to make the most out of my time and I want to be the best person I can be.

Follow Lara on Twitter: @ready2spark or on her blog www.ready2spark.com