The Brilliance of Simon T. Bailey and His Vujà Dé Moment

By Rosie Moore, MBC™, 27 Miracles Wedding Consulting, Windermere, Fla.Attendees at this year’s Business of Brides are in for a “brilliant” time with keynote speaker Simon T. Bailey. Bailey is the master of brilliant thinking and has shared his message with more than one million people worldwide. “When you reach a point that you are uncomfortable with life, change or be changed. Brilliant people focus on relationships and create experiences,” he says.Bailey is the founder of the Brilliance Institute, a consulting firm that has worked with more than 400 Fortune 1000 companies—driving productivity, increasing accountability, sparking creativity, and winning the race to innovation. He is also the author of Release Your Inner Brilliance and The Vujà dé Moment! Shift from Average to Brilliant. His personal goal is to inspire 10 percent of the seven billion people on the planet to release their inner brilliance and create the future, a goal that means his keynote at annual conference will inspire attendees to get up and pursue their dreams. Wedding Planner Magazine recently caught up with him and asked him to share his insight.WPM: You are known for being a compelling business thought leader in the wedding and event industry and a teacher of how to creatively release leadership and organizational brilliance. What are the qualities of a good leader?Bailey: A good leader is a good listener, a life-long learner, a person who leads from a servant mindset, not just someone who tells people what to do. It is someone that can make people the best they can be.WPM: Are leaders born, or can they be developed?Bailey: Leaders can be developed with proper attitude and a willingness to submit the need to be right. They have to be self-aware. A leader has to have the willingness to want to get better. It is a process in the making.WPM: Does everyone have an inner brilliance? If so, how can they unlock it?Bailey: Yes, everyone has an inner brilliance. To find it, they need to ask four questions:Where have I been?Why am I here?What can I do?Where am I going?They need to create an action plan, and get up and pursue the dream they have.WPM: How many people achieve this inner brilliance?Bailey: Less than 10 percent achieve inner brilliance. Because inner brilliance requires deeper work and consistent follow up, some people start and stop. Some get close and stop, because they think it’s not worth it so they quit. You have to believe in it.WPM: What is a vujà dé moment?Bailey: A vujà dé moment is when a person decides to create his or her own future instead of waiting for the future to be created. It is a twist on conventional wisdom. It is making the shift from average to brilliant. It’s when you wake up from the deep hibernation of average living and of waiting for things to change. It’s a feeling of confidence about what lies ahead.WPM: What is the Brilliance Institute? How do you enroll? What are the benefits and costs?Bailey: The Brilliance Institute is a consulting company with an online college curriculum. Harrison College is an online leadership program that will provide high potential professionals with powerful leadership competencies to navigate their careers. Students receive techniques to make them brilliant at work and life. You can enroll at www.SimonTBailey.com. You will benefit by learning how to move an organization forward. The curriculum will show you how to embrace change and create breakthroughs. It is a six-week course online, and the cost is $1,997.WPM: What advice do you have for planners wanting to be successful?Bailey: For planners wanting to be successful, I recommend they create a board of directors—not with planners but with other wedding vendors and people outside their industry. This helps create ideas on what may work in a different wedding market/industry other than planning. ••Meet Simon T. Baileyhttp://vimeo.com/59678704www.SimonTBailey.com