The video opens with a powerful call to action: “You want a new chapter or you just fancy a miracle? Pick up your pen and write a different story.” This sets the tone for Verity Price’s message about personal agency, resilience, and optimism. She emphasizes the importance of daily discipline—polishing one’s goals every day and holding space for miracles. Simply believing that good things will happen primes the mind to see opportunities and create positive outcomes.

Price highlights that happiness is not a random gift but a conscious choice made every day. By choosing to believe that the best is yet to come, by perceiving the good in each situation, and by expecting value even from challenges, individuals reframe their reality. This perspective triggers the brain to focus on what is right, what is going well, and what sparks joy. The result is greater resilience in facing adversity.

The video then transitions to an announcement celebrating Verity Price as the newest World Champion of Public Speaking. The audience responds with applause, underscoring the inspiration drawn from her message.

This short but impactful clip captures the essence of her winning style: authentic, encouraging, and practical wisdom delivered with passion. The overarching theme is that anyone can rewrite their own story, find meaning in the everyday, and cultivate happiness through conscious choice.

Verity opens by contrasting short-term expectations with decade-long possibilities, crediting perseverance for Heavy Chef’s growth and inviting the audience to raise their ambitions. She frames a core choice: react to what happens or create what happens because of you. That distinction becomes the through-line of her story.

In 2005 she faced a major constraint: recording an album required R300,000 she did not have. After two years of unproductive complaining, a coffee with her sister and Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats helped her ask a better question: how do I record and release an album without going into debt. In that creative space she designed a pre-purchase model where supporters became “future owners,” voted on songs, and were acknowledged in the artwork, with 10 percent of proceeds supporting anti-abuse charities and emerging artists.

Industry insiders said it would not work; outsiders leaned in. Early believers proved that language shapes reality. As she spoke about the project with clarity, people responded with trust and generosity. Momentum was slow at first, but over time more than 2,000 supporters from 25 countries funded the album. Along the way she received remarkable acts of support, from individuals buying large batches to families contributing monthly. The project delivered funds to shelters and financed demos for young musicians, catalyzing careers.

Unexpectedly, media attention reframed her path. Requests poured in for talks about the thinking behind the project, not the performances. She learned to follow flow over ego, eventually meeting Edward de Bono and being invited to teach his methods. Her message closes where it began: results come from asking different questions, building community around a compelling story, and committing fully. Crowdfunding is not guaranteed, but the growth, resilience, and creativity it develops are invaluable. Choose to create, not just react, and move from surviving to thriving.

Verity Price begins her speech with childhood memories of sitting on her father’s lap listening to fairy tales, which shaped her early belief in a perfect life story: marriage, children, a beautiful home, and a thriving career. By forty, however, she found herself unmarried, childless, and living in her sister’s spare room a stark contrast to the fairy tale she had imagined. She describes the despair of those years with humor and vulnerability, painting a vivid picture of binge-watching Netflix and avoiding people whose lives seemed perfect.

The turning point came when she rediscovered the last letter her father had written to her. In it, he urged: “Your life is a book, and if you’re not enjoying the read, write a different story. And then watch for a miracle.” His own example inspired her he had once lost everything, yet reframed the hardship as a holiday, worked door-to-door selling insurance, and ultimately rebuilt their family’s life. His optimism and resilience became her model.

Choosing to “pick up the pen” herself, Price reframed her circumstances. She began to see her spare room not as shame but as a safe space to start again. She stopped “kissing frogs,” embraced gratitude, and let go of the pressure of unmet expectations. Within a year, her story transformed: she found love, welcomed a baby at 44, and built a new chapter of joy and fulfillment.

Her message resonates universally: life is rarely a perfect fairy tale, but we are always the authors of our own story. Even in challenging times from personal setbacks to global disruptions like the pandemic we can reframe experiences, discover silver linings, and write new chapters filled with resilience, gratitude, and unexpected miracles.