Archive of ‘Motivation Monday’ category

Motivation Monday: Do you work your job or does it work you?

By Chanda Temple

Marcia and Marla Pruitte are motivational speakers, helping folks get their IT together. (Photo: Special)

Identical twins Marcia Pruitte, left, and Marla Pruitte are motivational speakers, helping folks get their IT (intimate truth) together. (Photo: Special)

In 2010, Marcia Pruitte thought she was working her dream job.

She had opened a natural hair salon in Jackson, Tenn., where things were good for business. But soon, she realized she wasn’t being fulfilled. She wasn’t a licensed cosmetologist, she just owned the salon. So if stylists didn’t show up to service clients, she didn’t make money. She didn’t like someone else having that type of control. To her, that wasn’t freedom.

Meanwhile, her identical twin sister, Marla Pruitte, was having a similar feeling about her cupcake business. Also in Jackson, Marla worked hard to make her bakery a success. But if customers didn’t come in, she could potentially have a bad week. Her store became more of a job than a dream. She felt trapped.

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Motivation Monday: Why it’s important to follow your heart in business

By Chanda Temple

Trust yourself.

Trust yourself.

Traci Ann Moore’s parents had picked what they thought would be the perfect career for their daughter.

She’d attend college, study accounting and work as a CPA. Case closed.

But during Traci Ann’s junior year at the University of Montevallo, she had a change of heart. She wanted to study interior design after taking it as an elective.

Her mother wasn’t having it.

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Motivation Monday: Do single women need a mate to start a business?

By Chanda Temple

Do single women need a husband to start a business? Absolutely not, says small business expert Melinda Emerson. Image by Michigan BD via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

Do single women need a husband to start a business? Absolutely not, says small business expert Melinda Emerson.
Image by Michigan BD via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

I have a friend interested in leaving her full-time job to start her own business. But what’s stopping her is that she’s single. She says she’d prefer to have a husband as a safety net to help with the mortgage and living expenses in case her business fails or is slow to produce income.

When married, she knows she’d love her husband and care for him, but she’d also love the idea of having a mate as a “cushion” in the event her business flops.

My friend’s comments got me thinking: What do single female entrepreneurs think about this? I posed the question to Melinda Emerson, a divorced, Philadelphia mother of one who’s known as “America’s No. 1 Small Business Expert.” 

Melinda, nicknamed the Small Biz Lady, got real in five seconds flat: A husband is not a back-up plan in business.

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Motivation Monday: Spinning with Fitness Pro Cherie Fields

Spinning instructors always play the best music in class. Image by Beverly Cromer via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

Feel the burn and the beat. Spinning instructors always play the best music in class. The experience makes you feel like you can conquer anything. 
Image by Beverly Cromer via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

By Chanda Temple

Sometimes it takes an oldie but goodie memory to push you to keep exercising. I wrote this in July 2011. Publishing for the first time today on #MotivationMonday. 

In 2010, my friend Cherie Fields had just started teaching a spinning class. She was so excited about her new endeavor that she invited her friends to try the class. However, I was reluctant.

Me: “Unh-uh. I’ve tried spinning before. I didn’t like it.”

Cherie: “Well, you haven’t taken my class.”

Me: “Umm, I’ll think about it.”

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Motivation Monday: How to build a better you for your business and your brand

What does your brand say about you and your company? Image by Rupert Ganzer via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

What does your brand say about you and your company?
Image by Rupert Ganzer via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

By Chanda Temple

I love a good conversation,  especially when it’s packed with engaging or powerful tips to help make me better in my professional and personal life. Earlier this year, a friend suggested I check out her former college classmate’s weeklong teleseries on branding. I’m glad I did.

Ten minutes into the teleseries, Atlanta visual brand strategist and image coach Brandi Mitchell had me hooked on wanting to improve my branding game. Her information was bold and helpful, especially for setting goals for 2014. She left listeners feeling that whatever held them back in 2013, will no longer be a factor in 2014. 

To get wherever you are going, she says, will take preparation and determination. “Don’t wait to be given the green light,” Brandi says. “Go create your own reality. She who brands it, believes it, builds it and becomes it, wins.’’

Impressive, right? Well, here are some of her tips for building a better you:

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Motivation Monday: Fighting to be fit

Lifting weights makes me smile. So happy to have it in my fitness routine. Image by Barry Miller via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

Lifting weights makes me smile. So happy to have it in my fitness routine.
Image by Barry Miller via Flickr/CreativeCommons.

By Chanda Temple

Every time a new year rolls around, I make promises to lose weight and to exercise more. And every year, I fall back into bad habits.

I work late and eat even later. I’m always cheating with sweets. I seek out new exercise classes, but find it hard to fit them into my schedule.

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.

After I cancelled another workout session for the umpteenth time earlier this year, my trainer told me: “You are consistent at being inconsistent when it comes to working out.’’

He’s right. I’m a backslider.

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