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Beyond the storm
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| Life coach, public speaker and business owner Elaine Love shows some serious muscle at the Village Fitness center in Castle Pines. Love works out every day to “make certain the wrong things don’t jiggle,” she said with her customary good humor. Rhonda Moore |
By Rhonda Moore
For some people, giving up is not part of the deal — and Elaine Love is one of those people.
Love lives in Castle Pines, a second residence following a move from Steamboat Springs, her home for 29 years.
There she ran a thriving business, raised two sons and came to terms with the reality that her only chance for survival was to escape an abusive marriage.
It was a second marriage for Love, the first derailed by a faithless man. She chose her second husband as a strong male role model for her two young sons. At 6 feet 5 inches tall, he was trained as a boxer in the service and towered over his petite wife.
She didn’t know his strength until he spun out of control when his drinking got the better of him.
Ten years into the marriage, she left him. Gone was her hope for marital bliss, half her business assets and three years of maintenance payments to the man who once sent her to the hospital for 38 stitches in her head.
But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Love raised her two sons into loving fathers, built her business to more than its original value and bought a second home in Castle Pines.
And for Love, that’s just the beginning.
After 17 years as owner of a property management business, she turned her sights on a career in financial education, helping people make wise decisions with their life and finances, she said. As part of her job, she attends a number of public speaking seminars.
It was at a public speaking seminar, following a presentation filled with distracting “umms” and “ahs,” that she decided she could no longer ignore the voice in her head, which whispered, “You’ve got to do this.”
When Love decided to learn how to master public speaking at 64 years old, she had no idea she would unearth a talent that would take her on national speaking tours.
Love joined Toastmasters International in November 2008 and by Dec. 11 delivered her ice breaker speech — her life story. Needless to say, it was a winner.
She has no doubt the timing is right to share her story, as many battle despair in the face of the recession and its blanketing effect on families and professionals.
“I have a feeling there’s a message of hope here that people need to hear,” she said. “I thought it might be a good time to let people know there’s hope out there.”
Love prepared a speech titled “Baby, I’m Back” and mastered a one-year Toastmasters manual in four months. She delivered 10 speeches in easy time and, along the way, decided to enter the organization’s international speech contest. The competition pitted her against speakers who have been on the circuit for as long as a decade.
Love won at the club level, the area level, the metro division and on May 16 competes at the district level in the hopes she makes her way to the international stage.
Before she gets to the district competition, Love must prepare a new speech. Writing a new speech is an addition to her to-do list — along with her job as a financial consultant, her daily workouts and her never-ending quest to make life better for herself and others.
Building a business as a life and financial coach, Love sees public speaking as another way to enhance what she has to offer. And she leaves no doubt that what she has to offer begins with a positive attitude.
One of her favorite quotes is pulled from the e-book “As a Man Thinketh,” written by James Allen: “Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.”
“The bottom line is it’s not what happens to us in our life, it’s how we choose to deal with it,” Love said. “Life is an attitude, choose to have a good one.”
“Life is an attitude; choose to have a good one.”
Elaine Love
Love lives in Castle Pines, a second residence following a move from Steamboat Springs, her home for 29 years.
There she ran a thriving business, raised two sons and came to terms with the reality that her only chance for survival was to escape an abusive marriage.
It was a second marriage for Love, the first derailed by a faithless man. She chose her second husband as a strong male role model for her two young sons. At 6 feet 5 inches tall, he was trained as a boxer in the service and towered over his petite wife.
She didn’t know his strength until he spun out of control when his drinking got the better of him.
Ten years into the marriage, she left him. Gone was her hope for marital bliss, half her business assets and three years of maintenance payments to the man who once sent her to the hospital for 38 stitches in her head.
But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Love raised her two sons into loving fathers, built her business to more than its original value and bought a second home in Castle Pines.
And for Love, that’s just the beginning.
After 17 years as owner of a property management business, she turned her sights on a career in financial education, helping people make wise decisions with their life and finances, she said. As part of her job, she attends a number of public speaking seminars.
It was at a public speaking seminar, following a presentation filled with distracting “umms” and “ahs,” that she decided she could no longer ignore the voice in her head, which whispered, “You’ve got to do this.”
When Love decided to learn how to master public speaking at 64 years old, she had no idea she would unearth a talent that would take her on national speaking tours.
Love joined Toastmasters International in November 2008 and by Dec. 11 delivered her ice breaker speech — her life story. Needless to say, it was a winner.
She has no doubt the timing is right to share her story, as many battle despair in the face of the recession and its blanketing effect on families and professionals.
“I have a feeling there’s a message of hope here that people need to hear,” she said. “I thought it might be a good time to let people know there’s hope out there.”
Love prepared a speech titled “Baby, I’m Back” and mastered a one-year Toastmasters manual in four months. She delivered 10 speeches in easy time and, along the way, decided to enter the organization’s international speech contest. The competition pitted her against speakers who have been on the circuit for as long as a decade.
Love won at the club level, the area level, the metro division and on May 16 competes at the district level in the hopes she makes her way to the international stage.
Before she gets to the district competition, Love must prepare a new speech. Writing a new speech is an addition to her to-do list — along with her job as a financial consultant, her daily workouts and her never-ending quest to make life better for herself and others.
Building a business as a life and financial coach, Love sees public speaking as another way to enhance what she has to offer. And she leaves no doubt that what she has to offer begins with a positive attitude.
One of her favorite quotes is pulled from the e-book “As a Man Thinketh,” written by James Allen: “Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.”
“The bottom line is it’s not what happens to us in our life, it’s how we choose to deal with it,” Love said. “Life is an attitude, choose to have a good one.”
“Life is an attitude; choose to have a good one.”
Elaine Love
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