3 Things Everyone with A Dream Can Learn from Cheescake Factory

Today as you may know is National Cheesecake Day in the U.S. I was randomly browsing online, secretly wishing (not much of a secret actually) that they had a chain here in Canada. I'm sure they would make some good money. 

Nonetheless, came across an article about how the company got started, and instantly got inspired, and of course I wanted to share :)

Not much of an original

Did y'all know that the original recipe wasn't even "original"??? Evelyn Overton, the Detroit homemaker whose recipe is now a heavily guarded secret, actually got the recipe from a newspaper!! All she did was follow the recipe and because everyone loved it, her family was smart enough, and business savvy enough to capitalize on it. 

Ladies, there are so many ideas out there that have already been invented. We get discouraged at times listening to peoples' opinion that the market is oversaturated. So what? Yes, "everyone" does and sells hair. Yes, "everyone" sells graphic Tees. And yes, "everyone" is a blogger. You need to realize however that you have something unique concerning a non-unique opportunity. You just need to believe in yourself enough to dare pursue it. 

Started from the bottom (literally) 

Ms. Overton started her business in her basement kitchen! I'm sure when she started she never dreamed of how big the business would grow. But guess what? You don't need to have it all figured out to get started. I've quoted Tony Robbins before saying this, but it deserves repeating:

"It's not resources, but resourcefulness that ultimately makes the difference" 

If you need to run your business from the garage, do it. Heck, I've even seen some very functional offices in a closet space! I'm telling y'all, we are too full of excuses. Start where you have to, but please, START.

Used the last of their savings

Now once you've actually started and you notice that you've got a hold of something that could actually take off. You need to have the guts to put your money where your mouth is. If you've ever watched Shark Tank, one of the questions they always ask is how much money the owner has invested themselves. You can't expect somebody else to invest in you if you're not willing to do it yourself. 

Investing can be many things, it could be an online course, learning how to use a camera class for dope pictures, it can be renting a space or facility, or perhaps attending a conference for learning and networking purposes. Whatever form of investing you come across, trust me, to get to the next level you are going to have to invest something.

I hope this inspired you to take the plunge and go pursue your dreams. Who knows, you could be the owner of the next big franchise. But we'll never know unless you try :)

Let me know below what fears you think hold people back from pursuing their dreams.

Love & Bless Y'all!

Stay Pretty & Precious, 
Peace

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Get Started - Journey to Your Life's Purpose

Happy Friday beautiful people!! Praying that your week was amazing. Heading into the weekend I want to encourage you to continue to keep a clear vision of what it is you want and begin to make actionable tasks towards achieving those goals.

This week I'm seeing 2 visions come to life from 2 different people that I just want to quickly share and I hope this encourages you to pursue your dreams. The bible says:

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin..." (Zech 4:10)

Realize that everyone's gotta start somewhere. No one starts off being great. Allow yourself the grace to make mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, and to grow along your journey. Enjoy your journey!

CreateHERStock

The above image is actually from one of the visions I mentioned in my intro. Neosha Gardner is the founder of CreateHERStock, a company she started as she saw the need to fill the void of stock photos that catered to and portrayed women that look like her, women of colour. She's actually launching today!! Follow the hashtag #CreateHers on Twitter at 8pm EST today to catch the scoop. You can also check out her website (linked above), and if you are a female blogger and/or creative of colour, and want access to her database of images, sign up!

Generation One

Bringing it back real quick to Lamar & Ronnie Tyler, founders of BlackAndMarriedwithKids.com. Their movie, Generation One, launched on July 14, and had a live screening in DC last night. From what I heard it was a HIT. I talked about it in more detail in a previous post, which I encourage you to check out, but I wanted to bring it up again because tomorrow the national wealth discussion surrounding generational wealth takes place on social media using the hashtag #GenerationOne.

Get Started By Being You

The 2 visions mentioned and launching above are of different nature, and the businesses may be in different phases of their existence and journey, however both are doing what they felt called to do. Know that there is space for you and your vision because no 2 people are alike, and so even if someone does what you want to do, no one can deliver it like you. Does that make sense? Don't be intimidated by other people's successes and think that you missed the boat, that it's already been done. NO - Whatever's pressing on your heart to do, the world's waiting for you to bring it. So please, live by the purpose and design that you were created to be. 

Comment below what you think is holding you back from getting started, or if you're doing what you feel called to do, please share how you got started.

Love & Bless Y'all!

Stay Pretty & Precious, 
Peace

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You are Enough - Journey to Improve Your Self Esteem

HEY THERE!!! (As I dust off the cobwebs from this blog, lol).  Gosh, it truly has been forever and a day. What have y'all been up to??!!  I've seriously been everywhere it feels, both physically and mentally, lol.

One of the reasons I'm back at it now is that I've been working on expanding my network for a number of reasons, and I'm actually seeing the results. I've also been telling people I'm a blogger, so figured, perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is and actually BLOG, lol. 

I've learned some valuable lessons while I was away, soul-searching etc, and a big one that I want to share with you today, is to not sell yourself short. I believe us as women do that a lot, we undermine ourselves A LOT. Why?? 

As I've been sharing with people what I do, some people have actually been impressed, and I have this strange look on my face, thinking huh? "Have you seen so-and-so's blog, so-and-so's website, twitter/Instagram followers", and so on and so forth. It wasn't until recently that it sunk in that I'm not, for lack of a better word, useless, lol. And guess what, the same applies to you!!

I know a lot of us are perfectionists and hardly anything is ever good enough. It's not bad wanting to hone ones craft, however if the pursuit of perfection is holding you back, rather than pushing you forward, we have a problem. 

So how exactly do we appreciate ourselves, pat ourselves on the back, and begin to practise self-love and self-worth? I'm not a psychiatrist/therapist, I can only speak on what I've done, and am doing, and that is to take it day by day and celebrate the little victories. 

So you didn't write a novel, but hey, you wrote a chapter, or even a page. You didn't go to bed with the house in immaculate condition, but guess what, half the dishes got done, and little Charlie didn't go to bed hungry, lol. Like seriously, it's NOT that serious. We need to hear this from time to time, that it's OK, everything is going to be OK. 

Maintain your goals, keep reaching for success, and do the best you can. Tomorrow's a brand new day. Hit the reset button if need be, and go at it again. 

The only way to fail is to give up.

I hope this gives someone out there the encouragement to keep going and keep trying. Greatness is within you, it's your birth right as the daughter of King ;)

Love & Bless Y'all!!

Stay Pretty & Precious, 
Peace

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How I got out of an abusive relationship

Hey ladies!

I just read a tweet from Ruby Wives™, they retweeted that "most problems don't require prayer. Problems require decisions." This reminded me of something that I meant to post earlier today. I felt the urge this morning to share a bit of my story and I really pray that it's God's urging as I don't talk about this ever.

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What sparked it was my dream last night and the picture you see to the right. I used to be in an abusive relationship and for years I prayed and prayed that things would get better. Being married I didn't want to become a statistic, and what I believed to be alcoholism was in the picture so I kept telling myself that when He doesn't drink things aren't that bad. If only He'll stop drinking... Well, what do you do when seemingly the answer to your problem and the key to your happiness is in someone else's hand? 

The truth is, it's never in somebody else's hands. It's always in your control, either through a change of thinking or through some much needed action. In my case I had to leave the relationship, not only to keep my sanity, but to spare my life. How you ask? By deciding that keeping up appearances didn't matter and realizing that it takes 2 for a relationship to work.

Domestic abuse should never be taken lightly and sometimes prayer alone (you should always pray about everything, good and bad) won't do it. In my case I learned that I can pray from a distance. I'm not advocating divorce at all (just to take the easy way out, cause there was nothing easy about my situation and if I'm talking to you, you know). You have to walk away if that's what your gut, your spirit is telling you to do. Coming from a Christian I might get a lot of slack for this but hearing similar testimonies/stories from other Christian ladies confirmed to me what I already knew. The spirit of discernment is HUGE. Pray about everything and ask God to show you clearly what your next step is. Then when He shows/tells you, don't ask Him again just because you didn't like the answer or are too afraid to act on what He told you. He'll carry you to your expected end.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jer 29:11 KJV)

My happy ending is that my ex realized that he had to do something about his problems (ladies, only God can "fix" him, we can never fix or will for a man to change, regardless of how much you love him) and God allowed me to marry my prince charming, my happily ever after :) A believer that God does bless marriages, and a member of the Happy Wives Club®, I'm grateful that I cared more about my life than what "church folks" would have to say about it. God's opinion of me is the only one that matters.

I hope this helped someone. 

Love & Bless Y'all!

Stay Pretty & Precious, 
Peace

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Your Crown of Glory

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Hey guys! I have some time to spare so I thought I'd give the 2014 Blogger challenge a go. I know I said yesterday I'd pretty much given up on it, but I figure I'll simply pick and choose the topics that appeal to me (and hopefully you too). 

Speaking of topics, the topic of the hour is hair. Oh the time, money, importance and emphasis we put on the hairs on our head. As a woman of colour I feel that managing my hair is even more challenging. Isn't it funny though that regardless of our colour or hair texture, most of us manage to find something about it to complain about. Why can't we just love it for what it is? 

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When God said that he knows the number of hairs on our head (Luk 12:7; Matt 10:30) I have to believe that He knew the importance we put on it. He could have used any other analogy but chose this to demonstrate how much He cares about us. The way this analogy is used however also (to me) denotes the insignificance of our hair. 

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No matter the love or hate relationship you have with your hair, know that, as India Arie so beautifully sang, you are not your hair. I know you've heard, and I've said it before, true beauty comes from within. Even when the bible refers to gray hair as a crown of glory (Prov 16:31) it does so in speaking of how old age is beautiful when following a righteous path. Which says to me that gray hair obtained any other way (stress, not walking in the righteousness of God) is not a beautiful crown. 

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Don't let this life cause you to want to pull your hair out. It ain't that serious. Trust and believe that life does go on. And if your hair is what's causing you stress; cut it, braid it or weave it and keep it moving, lol. We've got bigger fish to fry in our pursuit of happiness :)

As always, Love and Bless Y'all!

Stay Pretty & Precious,
Peace

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Find Love & Be Fearless

As promised, here is my rendition, or interpretation, and take away from day 1 on my 21 day journey to fearlessness.

A quote which some of you may have heard is that being fearless (or courage) is not the absence of fear but the mastery of fear (the bravery/courage to do "it" anyway). There are a number of variations to this quote but the principle is the same, you can't be fearless without fear being present to begin with.

With that said, the main message of todays lesson was the following sentence: "I live my life from a centre of stillness which is the true source of love, joy and fearlessness."

As I mentioned yesterday (read here), I'm doing this journey scripture based. If it doesn't line up with the word of God, it's not for me. So I took a look at the sentence, prayed about it and looked for scriptures to back it up. What initially came to mind, which isn't a scripture per se, was Jesus being the centre of my joy. The second was "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10).

Then I came across 1 John 4:18-19 which says: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us."

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This solidified to me that where there is love, there's no fear. Although not currently applicable in my life, this word has a perfect application when it comes to relationships. I've been there though, feeling insecure, inadequate, not pretty enough etc, clinging on to a relationship with all my might, just praying he won't find someone better. If that's you, sweetie it's not worth it! Either walk away, if your man's the cause for your insecurities, or allow God to restore your confidence, for at times it's nothing your (current) partner did but the result of something else. It's true what they say, confidence is the sexiest thing in a woman (not to be confused with conceited or arrogant). And as my husband says, having to constantly reassure your woman is not flattering. 

With the other scriptures in mind, whom/what do we have to fear but God alone? If we look within, our centre, and find Christ residing there, we're golden. For He is love, He is our joy, and as we've read, were there is love there is no fear. 

Day 1 Take Away: To be fearless, I need God in my life, my core. Knowing that He's ruler over my life will allow me to be still and not fear.

Love & Bless Y'all!

Stay Pretty & Precious

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