“I always knew I would be successful. So there was no element of surprise.” – Aisyawarya Rai

Go ahead – Be Feisty Today!

~ Angie

“Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it.” - Bill Bradley

Together Everyone Achieves More

Whether you are on a work related team, a sports team or working as a team in parenting – good solid teamwork is key to success.  We all have individual talent and skills we bring to a team and when everyone’s effort and abilities are combined, the team achieves the goal.

Are you a good team player?  How can you be better?  Who do you take for granted on your team?  Who on your team can you thank today?

I am grateful for my husband, Tommy.  He is my teammate and soul mate.  We work together and push ourselves to do more, achieve more and give back more.  When one of us is down, the other carries the load.  When we reach our goals, we make sure we take time to celebrate – and boy do we celebrate!

Happy Tuesday!

~ Angie

Enjoy the ride!

Over the years, I have read many inspiring articles and books on how to attain the perfect balance between my personal (family) and professional (work) life.  I say they are inspiring because after reading through them, I get all excited with a renewed sense of determination that if I just use the tips, tricks and systems – I too can achieve that place of balance.  I envision it to be like all of the planets aligning just right, the clouds will part and the sun will shine brightly down right on me and I’ll hear trumpets!  Guess what?  It doesn’t happen.  I may get brief glimpses of that perfect world, but overall instead of living in a world of balance, I find my life is more like a teeter-totter.  And I find that a teeter totter is not so bad.

Think about being a kid at recess… Wasn’t the teeter-totter one of the most popular pieces of equipment on the playground?  There is a thrill in the going up and down.  And remember, what goes up, does come down.  So, I have accepted the fact that there will be times when my career is going to require a tremendous amount of my time and focus and that just means I must prioritize things at home so that the most important is taken care of.  The same applies when my I’m focusing on my personal life.

I have also found that the teeter-totter can go up and down several times a day or it can even get stuck in one position for a long time.  Either way, I remember that what goes up, must come down and to enjoy the ride along the way!

Oh, and that other piece of playground equipment – the merry go round – well, that will be part two coming soon.

Lately I have been a little off track and not focusing on my own goals and dreams.  Somewhere along the line, I started focusing on the needs of others more than my own and I began to neglect those things that make me happy.  Here I am, the one who is always telling people to make their dreams a reality and do what makes you happy, and I wasn’t doing it myself.  I was trying to help others only to find at the end of the day that I had not really done much to help myself. Why did I let this happen?  I’m not exactly sure, but what I do know is that I won’t move forward if I keep looking back and beating myself up about it.   So, move forward I must!

One hard thing about making the change to focus on my own needs, goals and aspirations is that the other people I’ve been tending to may have a difficult time understanding why I’m not there for them as much as before.  To be fair to those involved, I have made it clear that I will always be there for them and that this shift in my focus is not intended to slight anyone – instead it is to make me happier and more pleasant to be around.  I am aware that this change may be difficult for some to adapt to, but in the end, I believe they will come around when they see that I am happier and more fulfilled.  Honestly, it’s not that I won’t be there, it’s just time to let others take a more active role in their own lives – like I will be doing.

All that being said – I will be writing again and focusing on the growth of my own business.  My new radio show on Diva Toolbox Radio, “What’s Your Bottom Line?” is doing very well.  I am excited about the quality of guests I have had on the show and the number of visitors and downloads has been encouraging.  I am working on closing a couple of sponsor deals and booking more guests.  After the New Year I will be expanding my coaching business and offering a few new learning journey programs.  Stay tuned!

I appreciate all the support and encouragement I get from my family and friends.  We are all in the game of life together and as we continue to support, encourage and edify others we will have richer and more fulfilled lives.

My best to you for a blessed day filled with success and happiness!

Many people say money does not buy you happiness.  To some extent, I agree with them, but I must confess unashamedly, that I do enjoy the finer things in life and money allows me to have those things.  Eleven months ago, I quit a good job making over six figures a year.  When I was making that kind of money independently, I did not worry much about $500 a weekend on shopping sprees.  My husband and I have always had separate banking accounts, so as long as my portion of the bills were paid, the rest was for me to use at my discretion.  I knew that quitting my job would change all of that, as we would be living mostly off his income combined with whatever I made through my new ventures.  In my adult life, I have never asked for money from anyone until this last year.  It was hard for me to ask my husband for money at first.  I even cried the first couple of times he gave me ‘spending money.’  I know he was proud to be able to give me money and my tears did not make sense to him.  They did not make sense to me either.

At the beginning, I would save the money he gave me and only spend what was absolutely necessary.  Then one day, just recently, I realized that it was time to take care of some things I had let go – like a new haircut and color and all new makeup, which were not cheap, and I bought a few new things like shoes, purses, tops, and accessories.  It is amazing how good it feels to take some time out to do some things for myself.  As I said before, I do like high-end things and I always will.  I quit my job, but I did not quit my taste for luxury.  I hear people say all the time that there is no difference between a designer label and a knock-off.  On some things that may be correct.  In general, though, my experience has been that the person who uses that saying has never experienced the high-end things.  For instance, once you own a great pair of high-end designer jeans, I promise you will never go back to the cheapies again except for the ones you would wear for yard work or other thrasher activities.  I would much rather have a couple of great fitting designer jeans than a closet full of inexpensive jeans that just don’t fit right, that don’t hold their shape and that fade.  I will not compromise no matter what on just some things.

I knew that quitting my job would require me to make some lifestyle changes, but I also knew the changes would only be temporary.  Our financial situation is ever improving and things are getting back to where they were before I quit my job.  By no means am I making six figures doing what I am doing (yet), but my husband’s business is booming.  I am happy I get to see the growth of his company as I used to travel extensively with my old job and would miss many of the fun things he had going on.  Now I get to be at all events and consult with my husband on all major business decisions.  Could that be another reason the business has skyrocketed this year?  I would like to think so.

It is true that money does not buy happiness, but it sure makes things easier.  Are designer labels important?  Maybe not, but I do enjoy the quality of some of the nicer things.  I did not quit my job to downgrade my lifestyle forever.  I quit my job so that I could make money building my own business doing what I enjoy and in time experience an even more luxurious lifestyle.  I find that sometimes the best therapy is retail therapy and it is conveniently located at the mall.

I had something eye-opening happen to me a couple of days ago. I got to meet Prince! Okay, so it wasn’t THE Prince, as in “The Artist Formerly Know As Prince,” but he is a music recording artist who goes by the name of Prince. His real name is Matthew Griffith and he is a member of GS Boyz, who currently have a popular hip-hop song out called Stank Legg, which also has a specific club dance that goes with it. It is always cool to meet someone who is doing well for themselves within their chosen industry, but here is where the eye-opening part comes in…

I have a list of things I will do in my lifetime and a vision/dream board depicting some of those things. On that list, I have “Meet Prince and get to talk with him.” What I wasn’t specific about is which Prince! So, here I am at an event the other night with my husband, Tommy and my daughter, Felecia, and we are introduced to Prince from the GS Boyz. We talk with him for a few minutes and after he walks away, almost simultaneously Tommy and Felecia look at me and say, “You got to meet Prince!” at the same time I said “That doesn’t count for meeting Prince!” To prove she has been listening to what I tell her, Felecia reminds me that I need to be specific about my goals and she suggested I review my list and get a little more specific. She was right! I wasn’t specific enough. Now I have some work to do on my list to ensure I get exactly what I want and not a substitute.

Do you have a goal list? Do you have a vision board? Are your goals specific – I mean really specific? I can tell you that writing it down (and believing it can and will happen) will dramatically increase the likelihood of making it happen. No matter how outlandish your goals may seem, write them all down and be specific! Oh, if you happen to know Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958, please introduce me!

“If you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”  Have you heard that before?  I know I have been told that a bunch of times in my lifetime.  I have another one for you… “When the time is right, the opportunity will present itself.”  Have you heard that one?  Me too.

So, which is it – do you have to find a way to go out and get it, or will it come and get you?  I ask this question because I have been going through an amazing year of discovering myself and figuring out what direction I need to take in my professional life and I have seen both of these scenarios play out in my own life.  I happen to believe that both of these sayings, beliefs, thoughts (whatever you call them) can be true at almost the same time.

I have had a few great opportunities kind-of land in my lap this past year, but once I seized the opportunity, the hard work then began to make things actually come to fruition.  As I look at my most recent decision to begin my own radio show with Diva Toolbox Radio, that opportunity literally came unexpectedly to me through Twitter.  Funny thing is that I had been thinking about starting a radio show, but had not found the right platform yet.  Then here came Janet from Diva Toolbox with an invitation through Twitter to host a show on her new radio network.  I immediately (like within hours) jumped right in.

Mind you, I have never done a radio show before and here I was jumping up and down with excitement because I just signed-up to be the host of my own live talk radio show!   Then the hard work started.  Within two weeks (and a vacation right in the middle of it), I planned my show, invited guests and learned how to use the live radio show technology.  Here I sit today with one live show successfully completed and guests booked out for the next 10 weeks with many of the shows featuring two high-profile guests each week!

Most of the hard work was in getting the nerve to ask highly successful people to be a guest on my show – a show that had not even launched yet!  A lot of self-doubt went through my mind as I began to send out my show invitations, but in the end, I felt a calm and self-assurance within knowing that this show will be a success and will benefit the guests.  I know that I know my radio show will be successful and will make a positive impact on many lives.  I know that I know I have a bigger purpose on this planet and I cannot make a big impact if I am sitting in my own small world.  I have to put myself out there if I want to make a difference.

All of the hard work I have been putting in this last year is now paying off and the opportunities are presenting themselves.  So, to be clear – I believe that if we want something we will find a way to get it and because of that drive and determination opportunities will  present themselves and that is when you have to work hard to take the opportunity from just that, and opportunity and make it a reality.

I hope you continue to work hard and be open to your next opportunity.  It might come disguised as a Tweet, so keep an eye out!