Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

The Guide to Embracing Change and Developing Positive Habits: Blog Featured Author: Kevin Ogle

 


Change is an unavoidable aspect of life, and it can be overwhelming, particularly when attempting to establish new behaviors. Feeling intimidated or disheartened is natural when faced with a fresh or distinct challenge. However, change is vital for personal and professional growth. This article will examine methods for welcoming change and positioning yourself for triumph with constructive routines. By using these recommendations shared below by Brown Girl From Boston, you'll be able to cultivate the appropriate mentality, foster beneficial connections, and sustain your motivation on the journey to achievement.

Embrace the Power of Small Actions

Change doesn’t happen overnight, so take small steps to start. Break your goals into smaller, achievable tasks, and don’t expect perfection. Consistency is key, so commit to your daily routine and keep pushing yourself forward.

Form and Market a Business

Starting your own business can be an exciting and rewarding change in your life. However, taking the necessary steps to protect yourself and your business is important. One popular way to do this is by forming a limited liability company (LLC). An LLC provides personal liability protection for the business owners while allowing for more flexible management than a corporation.

Next, it’s time to start marketing. Spreading the word via social media is a great place to start, but supplement this with some time-tested approaches like business cards. If you aren’t sure where to start, some tools provide plenty of templates for business card designs that you can customize. From there, share business cards with potential customers and leave some at coffee shops and restaurants.

Why Having a Mentor is Crucial for Success

A mentor can offer guidance and support when you’re facing new challenges. Look for someone who has expertise in your field or has been through a similar experience to yours. A mentor can provide valuable insights and help you avoid common pitfalls, putting you on a faster track to success.

Head Back to School

Returning to school can be pivotal, opening doors to personal growth, new opportunities, and a renewed sense of purpose. Whether formal or informal, education often contributes to a more positive outlook on life by broadening horizons and instilling confidence. With the advancements in digital education, going back to school online has become an accessible and flexible option for many. For instance, pursuing an online business bachelor's degree provides a well-rounded understanding of principles, economics, finance, marketing, and operations, equipping individuals with comprehensive knowledge to excel in the modern business landscape.

Practicing Self-Talk Can Boost Your Confidence

Your mindset plays a crucial role in change and personal growth. Speak kindly and positively to yourself, and visualize success. Take time to reflect and focus on the good things that come with progress and goals achieved.

The Importance of Establishing Supportive Relationships

A strong support system can make all the difference when dealing with change. Surround yourself with people who lift you up, encourage you, and inspire you to grow. Avoid people who bring negativity, discouragement, or cause distractions.

Seek Healthier Friendships

Seeking healthier friendships is important in cultivating a supportive and positive social circle. Reconnecting can be a great way to rekindle those relationships if you've drifted apart from old friends and acquaintances over the years. One effective way to do this is by using a search engine to find fellow high school graduates from your hometown.

You can quickly access a list of potential contacts by simply typing in the necessary name, graduation date, and school. These search results often provide options to reach out and reconnect with long-ago friends, allowing you to revive old friendships that may have once played a significant role in your life. Re-establishing these connections can bring back fond memories and offer opportunities to build healthier, more fulfilling friendships.

Be Kind and Patient with Yourself

Change takes time and effort, so be gentle and patient with yourself. Understand that setbacks are normal, but don’t give up. Take time to rest, recharge, and celebrate small victories. Self-care habits like exercise, relaxation, or meditation can help you stay motivated and focused.

Celebrate Achievements

Tracking your progress can help you stay motivated and celebrate small achievements. Keep a journal or use an app to record your daily activities, goals achieved, progress, and setbacks. Celebrate your progress with a reward like a treat or a fun activity, and use the satisfaction to drive you onward.

It takes a lot of courage, discipline, and determination to embrace change and create positive habits. It’s not always easy, but being adaptable, persistent, and patient will help you navigate challenging times and stay on track. By following these tips, you’ll be better equipped to create the right environment for yourself and achieve your goals.

 

Please visit Kevin's amazing website at www.anxious.biz!


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Brown Girl Branding 101


Brown Girl Branding: Artists, creatives and side hustlers, please protect ya neck and your brand. Please have a website. Please register your business. Please have contracts. Please research names and brands before naming and brand your business. Please have a business account. Please have an EIN number. Please run a dignify, integrity filled and honest business.

Schedule Your Start Your Startup Strategy Session Today: 

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck: Free Audio Course





Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck is the audio version of the Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck book. This audio course helps individuals who are interested in starting a side hustle while working their 9-5pm. This course is a step by step plan on turning your strengths, passions, and skills into multiple streams of income. This is a self-coaching guide.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Brown Girl From Boston Celebrating 2 Years of FLYness



"We ain't gotta wait It's a toast to you and me
Bills ain't so bad, celebrate that
Party in the yard 'til the lights come on
Ain't nobody crying
We've come so far, been climbing
Now the clouds they passed us by
C'mon and raise your glass up high"- Common, Celebrate


On May 14, 2016, Brown Girl From Boston officially celebrated two years of being a blogger and business owner. Most startup businesses usually fail or business owners quit their businesses around this time. Many are not supported, they go into business for the wrong reasons and intentions of becoming a billionaire and making a profit from people. Yes, you want to profit from your business because it will be your main livelihood one day. If you are going into business to make money off the rip, you need to review your intention of starting a startup because the money will not fall from the sky in abundance. The clients are not going to kick down your doors waiting to buy your services and business. You will fail over and over because you may not find your formula yet, you don't have someone to mentor you and guide you, and you don't give things a try.


I am thankful that Brown Girl From Boston is still going strong because I wanted to quit Brown Girl From Boston every day. Things got tough, I wanted to quit. I had writer's block, I wanted to quit. I got taken advantage of by some people who wasn't part of my tribe, I wanted to quit. I didn't have any structured order and formula, I wanted to quit. I was alone, vulnerable, and stuck, I wanted to quit. Every time, I wanted to quit, I had my village especially my husband pushing me to keep moving forward. Each time, I thought about quitting, blessings and opportunities came all the way through and I am thankful to God for that.

Let's talk about Celebrating FLYness:
Hunti, I work hard, I play hard, I love, hard, and I coach hard. The grind is too real and I am about the grinding life. I had to slow down on the grind to celebrate a milestone. I was working so hard the first year, I didn't have time to celebrate and embrace Brown Girl From Boston. I love telling my story of Brown Girl From Boston's beginnings. I always make people laugh when I tell folks that I used to work for the Devil Wears Polyester, not Prada. Despite leaving my job as a Director, I did learn a lot about myself and managing folks from various walks of life, personality traits, and character. I need to go through that experience to know how to effective run my business, attract my clients, and press forward when times got rough and tough.

Everyone should celebrate their greatness and FLYness because, in the society we live in, folks are on autopilot. Folks forget to celebrate milestones, accomplishments, and thriving in life. I know there is plenty of work to do but you still don't want to rush through life and forgot to celebrate the small and large victories. Celebrate your life and your life work.

I wanted to celebrate in Providence first because I started BGFB here, I build partnerships and tribe members here, and I just wanted to give back and kick back and enjoy the Brown Girl Tribe. I wanted to celebrated and enjoy one another company and network because we need one another. Also, there isn't a lot of events that celebrate women's FLYness in Rhode Island and other areas. We had women from all walks of life who came out and showed love to BGFB. We have the twenty-something year old to the young and vibrant baby boomers. BGFB definitely bring out best of both worlds and women in between. This celebration was laid back, fun-loving, positive, and open. I stated whatever happens in Brooklyn Coffee Teahouse will stay here. No, I will not share our intimate conversations but know that it was live and plenty of aha moments appeared. Thank you, sistahs, for being so open to share.

I want to share a few blessings that occurred before the celebration to help it become magical:

1. I have to give a major S/O to Diana who is a Brown Girl From Boston, my husband's former high school classmate who was so gracious enough to give and sponsor three deserving women to attend this event.
2. We had a few connections and reconnection during the FLYness celebration. My Mattapan FLY Girls came through and two of them reconnected after not seeing one another since the 6th grade at Thompson Middle School. It was awesome to see the reconnection. We also had two women who connected because they knew the same person. That person was one person's brother and he was the other FLY girls supervisor. Life is crazy.
3. While we were talking about balancing life, business, and intimate relationships; Mr. Imafidon rolled through (LOL). My face was priceless because I wasn't expecting him. Thank goodness I was bad-mouthing him. That is a no-no anyways.
4. We had the perfect amount of women, the perfect energy, and synergy in the room. Each woman was different, similar, came from various walks of life and connected through BGFB. How beautiful! Check out the photo above. No one was domineering, no one was shaming folks, no one bashing folks, and no one brought heat or judgment to the FLY Girl Sistah circle. We all brought our shine and FLYness to support one another.v
5. We were bummed that it had to come to an end. We were vibing, laughing, and enjoying one another's company.

To end this blog post, I have to say this, no copy and paste Brown Girl From Boston because there is only one me. No this isn't an arrogant statement nor a boastful statement. Being Brown Girl From Boston, running Brown Girl From Boston blog and coaching services may look FLY and easy but it is not. I had to find my voice, find my FLYness own my power, and refine Andrea. Brown Girl From Boston isn't going anywhere because we are just getting started. For those who rock with Brown Girl From Boston, I love you, I love how you let your FLYness shine, and I appreciate and see you, FLYness! Thank you for allowing me to be kind, FLY, honest, authentic, funny, Hip Hop Brainiac, brainy, brown, and the FLYest Brown Girl that you know thus far.

Thank you all for the love, support, readership, and well wishes throughout the two years of Brown Girl From Boston! I thought I told you that we won't stop, we are just getting started, Baby!

Peace, Love, and FLYness
Drea
Brown Girl From Boston

Monday, April 4, 2016

Money Making Drea: Why I'm Leary on Partnerships and Collaborations

"Feeling like I'm money making Mitch, in the store like I'm broke baby
Forgetting all that I got on, ain't my ropes crazy?
I'm in this bitch looking like I sell dope baby
To these women, I sell hope baby" -Skyzoo, The Moment That Matter

Recently, I have been struggling with whom to trust when it comes to partnerships and collaborations.  I like working alone because I know that if things don't pan out, I have to take full accountability and responsibility for the failure which is okay. I am starting to fall back on jumping into partnerships and collaborations for numerous reasons in which I will get into soon. From the start, I always cringed when we had to do random projects in school with a group of folks who you and I know some wasn't going to pull their weight and some who were in it wholeheartedly. I am the person who is in it to win and get this grade, B.I remember being in groups in graduate school with a good friend, but he was lazy as hell but still received the same grade as the rest of the group with their half-ass attempt on collaborating and bringing half-ass ideas that were already established from the beginning.

As Brown Girl From Boston is steadily building, people are coming out the cut wanting to collaborate and partner with BGFB. I cringe, I contemplate, and I slowly say yes and I am quick to say no as well. First, I have been burnt numerous of times while collaborating with others.  I decided to say yes to collaboration and the person and their "brilliant ideas" turn to black. I heard excuses, broken commitments, no call, no show, and the list continues. I tend to be a patient and understanding but when one no call, no show turns into a consist no call and no show or my favorite deal breaker is when they have decided to start and work on other projects and fail to market, promote and abandon the entire project, we have worked on without communicating the "Why." The majority of the time, I can tell when a person's motivation and momentum died off due to them not promoting the project, liking and commenting on your social media marketing, not returning emails or forgetting to return a call or text numerous of times. Well, I am here to shut all that nonsense down and proclaim a new day. I am doing things a lot different this time around. 

Here is my #MoneyMakingMonday Tip on Partnerships and Collaborations: 
  • "Be careful and mindful on collaborations and partnerships in business. If someone is interested in partnering with your business, have lunch with them and see where their mind and business are at. Check their portfolio to see the quality of work and who have they've worked with and possibly do a reference check. 
  • Make sure both of your businesses are in alignment with one another. Make sure that your business partner is bringing quality, commitment, and consistency to the table. Put everything in writing to protect both of your businesses. Communicate clearly, concisely and regularly versus communicating irregular and irrational." -Drea, Brown Girl From Boston
  • Don't try to sell me empty promises, non-commitment, and fill my head up with "Sis, let's make this money" because I am not buying it. Just because you see me over here working,  building, healing, and transforming lives doesn't mean you are invited to the party just yet. You have to show up and show out if you truly want to work with me. This goes for family members and so-called friends. I put my heart and soul into my business affairs and have no time for folks trying to make money off my hard word. So, if you want to really make money, make a difference, and transform lives together, let's go to lunch, let's look at one another's portfolio and body of work, provide me some of your previous partnerships' contact information to see about your work ethic, let me tap into my intuition to feel it this is the right fit, let me get to know you before we jump into a partnership. Yes, Boo if you are going into partnership with me, we are getting to know one another well before I make a commitment. Along with that commitment, we are going to sign contracts that will detail our roles in the partnership and what we are committed to bringing to the partnership. No more, my word is bond, you are my sistah-friend and let's get this money. Nah, B! I am protecting my business and protecting my neck.
  • Partnerships and collaborations should be an evenly yoked situation. It should help cross-promote brands, build one another up, and compliment one another skills, strengths, and passions. It should be a win-win situation rather than it be a win-lose situation in which one person fulfills their duties while the other person's reap the benefits from the hard-working partner. 


So, let's get this money, B, and cheers to Money Making Monday! How do you feel about partnerships and collaborations? Do you jump into partnerships or do you take your time to get the know the person and their business before you say yes or no?

Peace, Love, and FLYness,
Drea

Friday, February 26, 2016

Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck: How to Monetize Your Passion, Strengths and Gifts

Andrea Imafidon turned her passion of helping her family, friends, and clients turn their ideas into a profitable side hustle/small business for over 5 years. Andrea started from online and remote business and blog with a few dollars, a dream and determination. Andrea is an innovator, big picture thinker, problem solver, and a business alchemist. 

Purchase Your Book Here:Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck

Turning Your Passion Into A Paycheck was an audio teleclass taught by Andrea to encourage individuals especially women of color to start their side hustles and small businesses to supplement their income. This book will give you a snippet on how Andrea started Brown Girl From Boston, her online and remote coaching business through trial and error. 

This book is a step by step guide to help the reader tap into their passions, strengths, and gifts and profit from them. 

  • Define your passions, strengths, and gifts
  • Create multiple streams of income
  • Understand what it means to make money while you are sleeping
  • Make Money Online
  • Market Yourself Online through Social Media and Blogging
  • Be your own Boss

Saturday, October 24, 2015

You Can't Knock the Hustle





You can't knock the hustle! Remember, you are the best and you deserve the best. Don't allow anyone to knock your hustle.




Thursday, April 16, 2015

Ask, Believe and Achieve: Be Bold, Be Fearless and Believe!


It was the December 13, 2013 when I made the leap of faith to leave my abusive, dead end and damaging job as a Director of Social Services at an international nonprofit. I was broken, beatdown and betrayed by a job I used to love. I have experienced ageism, racism and any kind of ism that I was able to experience. I gained weight, lost sleep, had night tremors and became temporary cray cray due to working in an abusive, toxic and unhappy environment. I have suffered in silence and took it out on the ones I love.

One day, I was on a free teleclass that changed my life for the better. I was sitting on this conference call desperately ready to change my life by any means necessary. I have reached my rock bottom as a professional woman who have reached the pinnacle of her career. I was 30 years and I was a Director of a nonprofit agency. Mama, I have made it!!! I looked amazing on paper but I was a Hot A$% Mess in reality.

It was meant for me to be on this call because I officially but unofficially found out about life coaching through the amazing Valorie Burton. She shared of story on how she moved passed a divorce, depression and desperation. I was silently on the other end saying 'Yass" because I have been divorced, depressed and desperate for a miracle. I remember saying how I was over being a social worker because I have been there and done that and haven't felt as if I made a big enough impact on the world. I knew I couldn't save the world but I realize that I haven't even saved myself. Yikes!

As Valorie Burton kept describing what she does, I kept envisioning myself speaking, teaching, coaching and writing. I just didn't know where to start when it came to coaching, finding clients nor speaking. I knew that I can put together empowering events for women because I have hosted numerous of natural hair events and empowering events for women. I put a check mark next to that. I knew that writing was a piece of cake because writing and blogging came easily to me. Check mark next to that. But I was stuck on this entire coaching piece even though coaching is closely to clinical social work. I have left that area blank. After Valorie Burton discussed her new book "Happy Women Live Better Lives" she proceed to say that she is hosted a Coaching Training Intensive in Reston, VA in May 2014. I screamed to the mountaintops or rather in the spare room and my husband ran in and asked what happened. I proceeded to tell him that I found my passion and purpose through coaching.

My husband asked me what did I need and I told him financial support and emotional support because I knew I was going to endure something while seeking my purpose. Well fast forward a month later at my abusive workplace. One day I fell ill and was on medical leave for a week from my job. My supervisor called me and disregarded my illness and thought I was faking. How can you fake an illness when your primary care physician put you on medication and medical leave. I have never felt so disgusted, undignified and worthless. Well that all change once I went back to work on December 13, 2013. Well that morning, I took the leap of faith and put down a deposit to attend CTI in Reston, VA. My husband called me to let me know that he have received a raise and promotion at his job. He said the magical words that any significant other can say...QUIT YOUR JOB! Chile, I hurried up and typed my letter of resignation, packed up my office and left the premises. I never felt so liberated in my life. I had to literally block my supervisor's number because she stalked me via phone.

When I achieved my certification in life coaching, I wasn't afraid of putting myself out there because I was once broken, considered a failure and confused. I said in order for me to obtain clients and help other women to be unapologetic and peaceful while pursuing their passion and purpose. I knew how it felt not having peace and I just wanted to help women find their peace and happiness within.

In conclusion, if I would have stayed at my former employer, I wouldn't be making a major impact in my life and the lives of others. I wouldn't be able to use my voice to share my story and help other women pursue their life passion and purpose in a peaceful and unapologetic way.  This past weekend, I used my voice in a powerful way and told my story to the women who needed to hear my story. Many of these women like myself suffered in silence until Sunday. Sunday during my workshop, I gave them permission to use their voice. I gave them permission to find their passion and purpose in a powerful and peaceful way. Many of us are not living in peace. Many of us gave our power away to negativity, toxicity and bullying. Today, I want you to know that you are powerful, valuable, beautiful and great enough!

Ask, Believe and Achieve all your hopes and dreams. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Take back your voice, beliefs, power and hope!

Much Peace, Love and Light!
XOXO,
Andrea

Coaching Question: What is one thing you must quit in order for you to achieve greatness?
PS: The pictures above are from my first major speaking engagement in Pikesville, MD at the Heal a Woman to Heal a Nation, Unlimited You Conference