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Here about what I've been up to and what you guys can expect with the Shameless Life Podcast in 2021


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Here’s my steps for being authentic on social media:

1. Determine who you are:
Determine who you are and who you want to connect with. Remember, this is the foundation. If you don’t know this, you will be lost in the sauce. 

2. Determine your overall “why”
Why are you on social media? Are you trying to build a brand or business? Wanting to inspire and motivate others? Sharing your experiences and life with friends/family? Maybe you don’t really know and need to dedicate the time to figure this out.

3. Create intentional & aligned content
Once you know who you are, who you’re connecting with and why you’re on social media, create a list of all the things you look forward to sharing and posting about. THEN, once you have that list, find creative ways to capture content that aligns with those things while staying authentic to who you are.

4. Be intentional about your captions
Remember, your words shape your brand and directly reflect the type of person you are. Your captions are the equivalent of you standing on stage with a microphone, everyone's listening, what are you going to say and how will it affect others?

5. Show your true self.
Get comfortable with posting pictures and stories without filters, overly edited effects, or anything that doesn’t highlight your true self. You’re beautiful! You don’t need those filters. You want someone to see you in person and still recognize who you are. Don’t hide behind the filters, they will subconsciously bring down your self-esteem. 

6. Be consistent with your authenticity
Remain true to yourself by not allowing your competitors or other people to influence what you do or how you do it. I know this can be hard at times but practice makes perfect. Continue to remind yourself that you are the only you and the world needs ya!

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Thanks for coming back to part 2 of "Reasons Entrepreneurs Fail".

5. Lack of Preparation

It’s important to properly plan, strategize and execute during the preparation stages of your brand or business. I’ll break each of these down. 

1. Planning: the process of making plans. So many people try to start a brand or business without even having a logical plan for doing it. 
2. Strategizing: Your strategy is the HOW of your preparation stage. It’s how you plan on completing each of the things included in your plan. 
3. Executing: carrying out or putting into effect a plan, order, or course of action.

6. Lack of Commitment/Consistency 

Once you are able to plan, strategize, and execute, it doesn’t stop there. This is a constant cycle that you will continue as you build your brand or business. You will always be planning, strategizing, and executing. Here is where a lack of commitment shows up. 

If you’re not completely committed to your brand or business you will lose momentum the moment it gets hard. (which it will get hard). It’s in those moments that you find out just how committed you really are and whether you can continue forward with consistency or if you fall off and end up having to start all over again later down the road. 

7. Lack of Authenticity

Stop trying to be someone else or do what others are doing. Young entrepreneurs who succeed do so because they are true to themselves and what makes them unique. They find a niche that aligns with who they are and they master their personal brand by just being true to themselves. 

It’s great to do market research and check-out your competitors but you don’t want to become them. You want to stay in your own unique lane finding ways to promote what you offer while remaining true to your authentic self. 

8. Lack of Support 

So many entrepreneurs try to maintain and grow their brand or business alone but it becomes overwhelming, creating self-doubt and stress which ultimately leads to quitting. 

It’s important to know your strengths and weaknesses so you can properly outsource certain tasks that you’re not good at or that take up too much of your time. 

9. Lack of Systems 

Having a business idea is not the requirement for operating a business. Ontop of having a great idea, you must also create great services or products, a great customer experience, a workflow process and automation for your business and social media platforms. 

10. Lack of Awareness/Marketing 

Even if you mastered all of the previous 9 steps, no one would know about your brand or business without proper awareness and marketing. The reason why I teach people how to organically grow their Instagram following is that it’s a FREE way to gain awareness and market yourself online. What you’re doing doesn’t matter if the people who need what you have don’t know that you exist.  

Until next time, be shameless!

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There are many reasons why some entrepreneurs fail at maintaining and growing a brand/business but I'll be breaking down the top 10 reasons in this 2 part series.

1. Limited Beliefs  

A limiting belief is a state of mind, conviction or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. This limiting belief could be about you, your interactions with other people, or with the world and how it works.

You will never be able to succeed at entrepreneurship if you’re limiting yourself and your beliefs. Stop thinking small, it’s time to dream BIG! You have to get to the point where you believe you are capable of anything you put your mind to. Think outside of the box. Stop looking at what everyone else is doing and ask yourself…”What do I want to do?” No idea is too big, you simply have to have a vision, believe in, strategize, and commit to the smaller goals that will ultimately get you to that big picture vision you have. 

 2. Lack of Confidence

When you finally kick limiting beliefs to the curb, you then have to have the confidence to see your vision through. I’ve mentored so many women who put in the initial time and work into launching a business but because of their lack of self-confidence, they end up giving up before they gave themselves a real chance. 

Having confidence in yourself and your ability or value you provide to the people you’re helping is a huge factor of whether or nor not you succeed. You have to dismiss the limiting beliefs and allow your confidence to be your driver. You have to believe in yourself, otherwise, no one else will. 

3. Lack of Knowledge

Once you have let go of limiting beliefs and gained the confidence you need to succeed, you need to be knowledgeable about whatever it is you’re wanting to do. 

Imagine trying to promote something you have little to no knowledge of. I see so many people right now trying to be social media managers or social media coaches but they don’t even have their own social media together. How can you help me with my social media if you can’t even help yourself? If your social media looks like crap, you have a low following and no brand identity how could you possibly help me with all of those things?

You are a walking billboard for your brand. Whatever it is you’re wanting to share and offer to the world, you must be knowledgeable on it. If you call yourself an “expert” you should have all the answers. You should be able to articulate what you do, who you do it for, and how they can get involved.

4. Lack of Skill 

It’s great to have the confidence and knowledge to do something but skill is a whole other monster. Skill is the ability to do something well. It’s the thing that makes you considered an “expert” in your field. The best way to showcase your skills is to build a portfolio. Before asking anyone to give you money for a product or service, you have to show proof that the service works or that the product is good.

Now keep in mind that as an entrepreneur, you will constantly perfect your skills and products. As more time goes on, you will naturally increase your skillset and the quality of your products. Just make sure you do the necessary work in the preparation stage before accepting payments. Which brings us to the #5 reason entrepreneurs fail….. We will pick back up here next week with part 2 of “Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Fail”.

Until next time..... Be Shameless!

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1. Research & Make A Plan

This first step is a given and it’s also something I talk about frequently. Researching and making a plan is the best way to gain the confidence you need to start something. The research will help you prepare and have knowledge on whatever you’re doing in order to create a great plan.

2. Excellence Isn’t Required for Growth

Now that you’ve done the research and have a plan, remember that you don’t have to be excellent to grow. Your growth will come from the act of trying new things, putting yourself out there and always striving for your goals. 

No, it won’t be perfect and it won’t be easy, but what in life is? Abandon the idea of perfecting the process and instead strive for progress.

3. It’s More Important to Start, Than to Succeed

When I look at my life now, everything that I’m successful in started from a failure. Your path will lead you to places you couldn’t have imagined but in order to get there you have to start. The longer it takes you to start, the longer it will take you to succeed. 

4. Don’t Compare Yourself To ANYONE

Stop looking at the gram and comparing yourself to people who you know nothing about. You are titled to have desires and to live the life you want but don’t base those things off what you see other people doing, what they have or how they live.

Be your own person. If you don’t you’ll never make the leap to start anything because your motives are misplaced. You can’t want something just because someone else has it, you have to look deep down at who you are and what you want out of life in order to get the balls to actually go after it. 

5. Create Accountability 

Once you make the choice to start, what’s going to hold you accountable? Choosing to start is amazing but having a plan to commit to it is even better!

What can you set up with your plan to hold you accountable? Is there a person who can help? A system you can put in place? Think about it and find something that works for you!

6. Reward Yourself 

Once you have an accountability plan in action, set up a reward system. How can you create benchmarks and different rewards to help keep you on track and motivated?

For example, Orange Theory was my accountability partner and my rewards were massages. Each week, if I showed up to all 6 classes, I would get a massage on the 7th day!

Your reward should be something that you really enjoy and that makes sense for what you're working towards. For example if my reward was fudge brownies (even though I love them) they would not be helping me with achieving the goal of getting in shape.

Be creative! Your rewards could be given as often as it makes sense depending on your goal and how long it will take to achieve it. 

7. Never Give Up 

Starting is great! Now that you’re finally doing it, remember not to give up! Create a list of all the reasons why you want to accomplish your goal as a reminder to not give up when things get tough!

Put your list somewhere where you can see it daily! If you forget the reasons behind what you’re doing, you might fall off the track and never get back on. 

I’m so thankful for the day that I decided to start something. That 1 thing led into so many other things but it all stemmed from that one day! That one moment of abandoning fear, committing to becoming my best self, and creating the life I always wanted!

1. Create a plan from start to finish

In order to work smart, you need to know exactly what the plan is in order to properly execute it. Creating the plan is simply understanding the steps of what’s needed in order to accomplish the goal. The plan provides a step by step guide for what needs to be done in order to reach the goal which in this case was creating and launching a podcast.

2. Think of everything

In order to work smart, you need to think of all the things that will allow you to get the max results with minimal effort. For example, I realized that I could use the podcast scripts and turn them into blog posts. Allowing me to launch both a podcast AND a blog without adding additional work to my workload. Max results, minimum effort.

3. Do proper research or outsource

Once you have your plan and you’ve thought about all the other possible things that could help your process and plan, research what you need to and outsource what you need to.

If you’re going to do it, do it right!
 
4. Batch Work

Batch working is literally my lifesaver. If you truly know me, you know that I hate being on social media and I hate taking pictures. I know, this doesn’t add up at all with what you see or probably assumed of me but that’s because I’ve mastered the art of batch working. I understand the importance of social media and because my businesses thrive off of it, I have to be intentional with it.

5. Automate

Automation is by far the number one time-saver! You will make your life soooo much easier once you start to automate. 

You can automate everything from social media posts to emails and newsletters. 

Think about all the things that you currently do or would need to do on a weekly basis and automate them so that you only have to worry about it 1x a month instead of weekly!

Or if you’re really prepared, automate 1x every 6 months like I do! It’s amazing to go on with my life and know that every week, my subscribers are getting a blog post, a podcast episode, a YouTube video, social media postings, and updates via email! 

Allowing me the proper time to dedicate to bigger projects, my clients and my loved ones!

If you haven’t already listened to episodes 15, 16 and 17 which talk about the power of saying no, setting boundaries and finding balance, that would be the perfect place to start. Because in order to work smart, you have to have your priorities figured out and you have to be able to say no to things that don’t align with your goals and waste your time. 

Once you have that down, you can start with step 1 of shifting your mindset in order to work SMART, not hard, create a plan, execute the plan, batch work and automate. 

This won’t be easy at first but practice makes perfect. If you truly want to reach your biggest goals, follow in the footsteps of those who have reached goals of their own. Most likely your friends and family won’t be able to help you because chances are, they’ve never done it themselves. So get around people who are where you want to be or who have like minded values as you. 

Listen to podcasts, just like you are now. Read books, do your research! Your goals aren’t as far away as you think they are, trust me I know!

Put in the work to prepare yourself, dedicate yourself to execute your plan and use these tips to work SMART, not hard. 

I hope you enjoyed this episode and until next time, be shameless!

1. Determine your biggest goals.

Sky's the limit! I want you to dream BIG! Throw reality out of the window and really dream. These goals are what I consider life-time goals, meaning in your life, what do you overall want to achieve.

2. Break Down Your Biggest Goals

Now, the work begins. If you’re aware of the end goal, you can start seeing what would really need to happen in order for you to get there. The big goals are so large that you have to break them down in order to feel they are actually possible for you and not just some crazy and wild dreams.

Take the list of big goals and for each one of them, create a list of things from small to big that align with reaching that goal.

3. Prioritize & Plan
Now that you have your big goals and sub-goals, it’s time to prioritize and put together an action plan. You CANNOT go after all your goals at once, you will overwhelm yourself, fall short, and give up.

Look at your list of goals and choose 1-3 to focus on first. Based on the goal, your plan and timeline will look a little different.

Once I have my full visual, I use trello to organize the plan and set deadlines and tasks. Trello is a desktop and mobile app that works as a virtual planner. I look at it everyday! It’s the only thing that keeps me organized and allows me to have a daily To-Do list that I know will assist me in reaching my biggest goals.
Getting into this habit of working smart instead of hard will be a challenge at first because it’s not the norm or something you’re used to.

But it’s the thing that will set you apart and allow you to begin the process of turning your dreams into reality!

Next week’s episode is all about working SMART, not hard so if this is something you’re ready for get ready to tune in!

Until next time, be shameless!

LINK: Trello 

Here are my tips:

1. I always kept an open mind

This means that even when things didn’t go as expected, I kept an open mind to finding solutions or other routes to still reach my goals or even just move a little bit closer to them. I’ve been faced with adversity so many times but I never let it stop me in my tracks. I also had an open mind about HOW I could reach my goals. I was never closed-minded when it came to meeting people or attending events or accepting opportunities.

2. Be optimistic

Bad things are going to happen. It’s unfortunately, a part of the process of growth and success. You will make mistakes and you will learn from them and be better off because of them. Never allow yourself to doubt who you are and your purpose in life, even if at the moment you’re unsure of what it is. You can be unsure of WHAT your purpose is but never be unsure of if you have one. You do! We all do! And sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom to truly find what that purpose is.

3. Be realistic 

I say this because I know that from experience when you set the bar too high and don’t reach it, you will bring down your confidence and possibly give up altogether. This doesn’t mean you don’t dream big. It means once you have the dream, once you have the vision, create a realistic plan in order to make that dream come true.

4. Be patient & find peace 

This is the most important part of it all. Your success won’t come overnight. You need to be patient through the process and find peace in the journey.

5. Set and reach your goals

This is by far the biggest factor as to why I am where I am today. I don’t just dream and visualize, I create a plan of action with specific smaller goals in order to achieve the overall big goal. 

So quick recap!

1. Be open-minded to your plans or path changing and the people or opportunities that can help you along the way.
2. Be optimistic and don’t allow challenges or mistakes to keep you from going after your dreams. 
3. Dream as big as your little heart can dream, but be realistic with your plan so you don’t overwhelm yourself and end up giving up before you give yourself a chance!
4. Be patient with the process, it's not an overnight thing. Find peace in who you are and your journey!
5. Set and reach your goals, it’s not enough to want something, you have to strategically plan and put in the work to turn your dreams into reality.

When I look back, every obstacle, every bad day and every person who said I couldn’t make it was all worth it in the long run. My journey is nowhere near over but I'm enjoying every step of the way!

If you’re ready to get closer to the life you want, keep these 5 tips in mind. In my next episode, I will go into detail about setting and reaching your biggest goals!

First, let me say that entrepreneurship was never an option or thought for me when I went off to college. My dream was to be an early childhood teacher and one day move up to Principal and eventually a college professor. Why? Honestly, I’m not sure. I always loved school and my favorite 1st-grade teacher was the one who inspired me to want to teach. She was filled with so much Joy and made school so much fun! I never really thought about being or doing anything else.

No one in my family before me ever went to college so it was something I felt proud about and was excited to accomplish. But as I was going through college I started to feel a shift. I felt a major lack of purpose and was no longer clear about why I actually wanted to become a teacher. Or even what I wanted to teach and why.

I knew I wanted to make a difference but the classroom became a confined place that made me feel small and I wanted to impact and make a difference on a larger scale.

I had no answers though, I just felt confused and the plan was to finish school and hope that I found clarity in the process.

It wasn’t until dancing for NBA Cleveland Cavaliers that I started to step into realizing my potential. I had such a bad experience with the organization that it brought an even larger problem to my attention.

The lack of confidence and self-esteem that young girls and women have in themselves due to society's standards of “beauty”.

I struggled so badly with this that I remember thinking, “I can’t be the only one dealing with this”. I started to think about all the women out there who could be struggling with loving themselves, feeling beautiful, and being comfortable in their own skin.

Moms who just had a baby and are experiencing something different with their bodies. women who leave abusive relationships and are used to being told they are worthless. Women who never had high self-esteem because of their daddy issues. Women who were sexually assaulted who feel like they are just an object. The list and problems go on.

I felt like this was the thing that I could help make a difference with. If I could help myself, I could help others. So I went out on a personal mission to regain my confidence, build my self-esteem, and be an all-around shameless woman who loved herself no matter what!

Tune in for more.

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Yikes yall, I don't even know where to begin. Let me start by saying that the number 1 cause of my felony was my anger and the lack of control I had over my life and my emotions. 

A little bit of background story so you can clearly picture and understand the night in question. 

The first time I was ever arrested was due to driving with a suspended license at the age of 19.

I was pretty reckless and in a 3-year time span, I was arrested multiple times for driving while under suspension, a DUI, and multiple arrests for assault. Let me explain. 

There’s absolutely no excuse for how reckless I was and I think about this phase of my life often. 

Truth is, I’ve always struggled with anger. I’m not afraid of people and always stick up for myself but when I was younger I didn’t know how to let things go or know when it was time to be the bigger person.

My first fight was at the age of 14. I went to a neighborhood house party with my best friend and her older sisters. It was definitely a party for older kids so I really had no business being there in the first place. It all happened so fast, I remember being in a basement dancing with my friend and chaos breaking out. All I know is I felt pressured by my friend to jump into the fight because her sister and her friends were in the fight and they were outnumbered. I had NO CLUE what I was doing but was afraid of what would happen if I didn’t partake. 

I was shocked at how good I was doing but I also remembered feeling like “why am I doing this, this girl did nothing to me.” All my luck quickly ran out and ya’ll no lie, I felt like I was in a movie. I swear It was like a giant stomped over to me, the room got dark and I felt wind against my neck as if I needed to turn around and soon as I did….boom!

It felt like I was punched by a man. I didn’t fall, but I remember it took a lot out of me to stay standing. I couldn’t see so at that point I kind of blanked out and was swinging at anyone who got near me. 

As the fight ends, my friends were so proud of me for stepping up but I still wasn’t over that 1 punch. When I saw who it was who hit me, the only thing I could of was to call my older cousin. This girl had to be 17, 18 years old. She was HUGE. Much taller and much more solid than I was so the last thing I wanted to do was to fight her or have any beef. 

I went home and I remember my mom being so mad that I came home with a black eye. Let’s just say, that was the first and last time I ever got beat up on. From that point on, I was going to make sure that if I got in a fight, I was the one to win. I know this sounds so bad but as a teenager, I looked at fighting as a way to say, “don’t mess with me”. 

Throughout high school, I had a handful of fights and I won each and every fight. Every Time I got into a fight, it was something I couldn’t get out of. I was always hit first or put in situations where I had to defend myself or someone else. 

By the time I started college, I matured and realized that fighting was not cute nor the answer to solve anything but I was also a little cocky in the confidence I had to know that if and when I had to defend myself, I could. 

So I had a couple of other situations where I felt like my back was against the wall and it ended in fighting. 

One time a girl who I fought, later on, broke into my car, pressed charges against me, bullied me online, harassed me by calling my phone to the point where I had to change my number. Randomly 1 day while being pulled over for speeding, I was arrested for a warrant I didn’t even know I had. The girl had filed an assault claim and I was arrested and held in jail for 5 days over something that had happened months ago. 

Tune in now!