A gross misrepresentation

Just because it looks good doesn’t mean that it is right for you and /or your business. 

At the end of last year my car of 8 years died with over 300k miles and I had to quickly purchase a new vehicle in order keep my business growing.   Being self employed made buying a vehicle a little challenging, but I was finally able to purchase a “great” car.   Everyone that saw the vehicle said “WOW that car was a great buy for the money.”    I agreed it was exactly what I needed at the time until … the check engine light came on, the brake light came on then two months from the day of purchase the car just stopped working .  So, was it a good purchase?

We often meet people who we think will be an asset to our business.  These people tell us all the amazing things they have done /are doing and it matches up EXACTLY to what we think we need to take our business to the next level.  We do our due diligence and check out their website to see if it mirrors what they told us.  We even check on a few of their clients/recommend associates to make sure that we are partnering with best situation for our business.

What we didn’t see was the smoke screen.  The person/business that we were hoping to partner with has never actually done what they were said they could do… it was just a theory.  It looks and sounds good, but if you look under the hood it is missing a few major parts.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a person speaking into existence what their business will be doing in the future, because all of our businesses began with a theory or an idea.   In the perfect world the theory would work flawlessly and the partnership would help your business leap past its stagnant state.  However, you need to have all the facts so you can decide if you want to take the chance and knowingly be a “guinea pig.” As business owners it is important that we do not misrepresent who we are and how far we have come.  We all try to show the best side of ourselves, but we must be honest with where we are in order to let our potential partners make the best decision for themselves.

I believe what is for you, is only for you, so there I no need to misrepresent your abilities, knowledge or experience in order to secure a job, contract or partnership.  Let your authentic brand shine and you will see the benefits.

BTW… My car was a great purchase at the time.

Be Blessed

A. Mayartis J

Are you are a "?" or "!"

At your job or in your relationships are you known as a “?” or an “!”

You may have a puzzled look on your face trying to figure out exactly what I am asking, so let me rephrase it…. Are you seen as someone who is a keeper or someone that can be replaced by whoever is waiting in the wings?

Ask yourself; at work are you the one ALWAYS asked to lead the conference call or head up the project?  Do your bosses value your input when making an important decision?  If so, you are definitely an exclamation point.

An exclamation point is a person that is highly valued in a particular circumstance, organization or relationship

However, if you are sliding by at work and your bosses never call on you to be the “go to” person or you are never up for a promotion, then you may be known as the question mark.

The question mark is a person that does their job, but they do not stand out.  They are never picked to lead/inform those within the company and/or represent the organization.  They are normally the first to go when layoffs happen, because they are not seen as he valued employee

It is like the saying “always the bridesmaid, but never the bride.”  Most of us strive to be the bride, but in order to be the bride we must show value and not settle for anything and always give our best.

If you are in a relationship and do not know how the other person views you then you are a question mark, however if the other person shouts from the rooftop...he or she is the love of my life... you are definitely an exclamation point.  If you are a question mark and want to be an exclamation point do not settle.  Find a way to be an exclamation point or walk away.

Your perceived value determines your punctuation, so decide whether you want to be a question mark or an exclamation point and be happy with your decision, because you are determining your brand.

Be blessed

A. Mayartis J.

I would love to hear if you are an exclamation point or a question mark and 

What are you worth?

I met with a prospective client a few weeks ago and after the meeting I sent him a follow up email to recap the meeting and tell him what I thought he needed to help expand his brand and grow his business.  He agreed with every thing I wrote and asked me to put the proposal together.  I then asked the question that makes or breaks some deals…

What is your budget?

He had a great response… he asked me to compile past proposals that were similar to his needs, so he could determine a budget.  I worked on it feverishly for a couple of days, but didn’t send it over right away, because I was scared of his reaction when he saw the price.  Now I am confident that my work is worth the price I was suggesting, but I really wanted this clients business.  I had no idea of his budget and did not want to lose the chance to work with him, but in order for me to give him the services he needs I had to charge him this fee.

There have been times that I charged clients much less than the services were worth in order to get the business only to find out later that they would have paid my fee, so I made the conscience decision to start charging what I am worth.  If I discount for this person and he refers me to a friend or colleague, I have set the bar so low that I may have to stick with it.

Although there are times you have to give a special client a break do not make it the norm and settle for less than you are worth, it is not going to help you in the long run.

Be Blessed
A. Mayartis J.

Control Freaks... Let go

As an entrepreneur you feel as though you have to be in complete control of everything or your dream(s) will fall apart, however that is not always true. Letting go could actual benefit you in the long run.... personally and professionally. Last week I let go and it was an awe-inspiring experience.

A family member passed away and I had to travel overseas last minute to attend the funeral, however at the time I was in the process of working on two crucial contracts and was honestly scared to leave. Additionally, I was working through some personal issues and feared that the reason for the travel and the extra time on my hands would make the problem worse.

After much consideration I decided to bite the bullet pay the ridiculously high price for my flight and go support my family as well as pay my respects. When I boarded the plane I made the conscious decision to take my hands off the steering wheel of my life by doing as much as I could do and releasing it. I wrote the proposals for the prospective clients on the plane sent it to a business partner to check over before emailing it to the client's. I also crafted a message to send to the people I was having a personal issues with so that I could release it and move past it.

When I landed in the beautiful country where I would spend 5 amazing days... I let go.

At this point I did not care if I got the business. I did not care If the personal issues worked out. I know I had done all I could do and I shut down... only checking email once a day and contacting the people just to check in.

By the time I returned home. I had the contracts, a speaking engagement, sold several books, acquired a new mentor and connected with someone who was already driving business my way. On the personal front we were able to hash out our differences and we are in a better place than I could ever imagine.

Life is amazing if you just take your hands off the wheel of life SOMETIMES and just coast.

Our Children Posting Violence

Has the advent of the camera phone and the ability to post its contents to social media with a push of a button created a society that only cares about getting an image online verses helping those in need? Its nice, to post random acts of kindness or cute pet images that are uplifting and make us feel good, but is filming someone being injured when you can help cool? Today, I watched a horrifying video recorded on a cell phone of a teenaged girl being beaten by several other teenaged girls at a McDonalds in Brooklyn, NY. The video really bothered me. I was saddened at the fact that no one (and by no one I am mean no adult) stopped the fight. I was saddened that no one in the crowd called the police… I understand peer pressure/ bullying and the fear of retaliation, but no one thought about leaving to call the police... None of the victims friends helped her, asked McDonalds management to help or called the police. Is this the world we live in now?

Where are we going wrong with our children and what do we need to do to bring up a generation that cares about others more than their 5-minutes of fame?

It use to be that our children would act out to get attention from their parents, but now they are using social media to act out in front of the world and make themselves famous. How will the actions of these children translate in the workplace when they are adults?

These are our future employees, executives and CEO’s and although most of them will shed their childish behavior as they cross over into adulthood and look to build their financial future/ a legacy, we still have to ask… How will their hunger for fame effect their work ethic? Are we raising our children to enjoy their childhood, but also be socially responsible? How can we harness this need for the spotlight and make them exceptional employees, executives and CEO's?

I do not know the answer to all of these questions, but I do know as social media continues to evolve we need to teach our children to be socially cautious, value life over fame and that their actions today may hurt them tomorrow.

I would love to hear your thoughts and/or solutions on our leaders of tomorrow.

Be Blessed

A. Mayartis J.

Never Give Up

On February 1 , 2015, I along with millions of people watched my New England Patriots win their 4th Superbowl. The game was lack luster until the third quarter. I remember being in a house filled with predominantly Seahawks fans and them telling me that there was no way that my team would win this game, especially after Tom Brady threw two interceptions. The only thing I said until the last two minutes of the game is Brady is a fourth quarter quarterback, so do not count him out until the last whistle is blown. They laughed and continued to taunt me.

I like everyone else never thought the last few minutes of the game would be so eventful taking two amazing turns that could make either team the winner. When the final whistle was blown and the Patriots were the victors… I celebrated.

On the ride home the question popped into my head… what are we giving up on?

If you have a dream and you truly believe in that dream then giving up on it when the odds are against you or when things get tough is not an option. The time for us to dig in and work harder is the moment when we do not see the victory.

I remember everyone at the party congratulating me for the win AND never giving up on my team even when my odds seemed bleak. We never know when things are going to change in your favor, so today I congratulate you on accomplishing your dream(s) and not giving up when it seemed like you would never succeed.

Be Blessed

You are beautiful

We need to instill confidence in our children to help them surpass the potential we see in them is one of the many nuggets I gleaned from being at the Hope Global Forum this weekend.

In the early 90’s I remember watching classmates being picked on because of the color of their skin, whether it be too light or too dark.  I am of a darker hue, so you would assume that I would be included in children being harassed, but I was not. I recall being called aspook once, but the ironic thing was he was much darker than me.  I rebutted his comment with the fact that he was darker than me, which made our peers target him.  I remember others asking him why he would say that about me, especially since I had done nothing to him.  He had no response he just shrugged his shoulders and hung his head in shame.  I really think that he was tired of being picked on and wanted to defer the harassment to someone else for once.  I was a pretty quiet, so he probably thought I would not say anything and our classmates would leave him alone and focus on me.  I actually felt sorry for him and tried to defuse the situation with a random joke (luckily it worked). 

Years later I remember being asked if I thought my skin color ever hindered me from anything.  I replied, my skin tone may have been a limitation without me really knowing it, but there were no specific instance that I can recall.  However, I never saw my skin tone as a negative.  My mother did an incredible job of telling me how beautiful I was and how my skin tone was amazing, so I always thought that I was extra special and my color was an asset.  My mother instilled confidence in me, without me realizing it.

Hope Global Forum had an awe-inspiring Saturday opening session (Expanding the Gains of Women and Girls “How to Prosper in the Global Economy”) packed with women who are successful change agents.  A common theme among the panelist was: I can do anything I put my mind to; which was a confidence builder that their parents instilled in them, through words and actions.  The city of Compton’s, Mayor Aja Brown, said that instead of allowing her to watch TV on Saturday morning, her mother enrolled her in computer and engineer classes that expanded her mind, which prepared her to be ahead of her classmates and gave her the confidence to push herself past the norm.  The managing Principal at Seventh Capital, Monica Mehta, told us how she was read Fortune magazine instead of famous childhood books subconsciously telling her that you are smart enough to understand these businesses stories that will help you later in life.  The common thread throughout all of the stories that the panelist told was that words and actions from their parents instilled in them a confidence to excel to unknown heights….which they are doing.

The opening session was followed up with an incredible break out session (The Youth Entrepreneurial Mindset: Taking Action for Generational Change), which reinforced through facts that building confidence in our children was a key factor in helping them be successful.

As Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon said– “Confidence gives you the power to see what is possible” Let’s help our children dream the impossible dream and then make it happen.

In closing … if you have never heard it before or you have not heard it lately … You are beautiful (Handsome)!