Pitting women of color against each other is so passé
There’s no doubt Hollywood loves the Chrises. Pines, Hemsworth, Pratt, and Evans are all blessed with a healthy dose of movie star looks; that winning blend of Will Smith and George Clooney-esque charm that seems to be bestowed upon a select handful of A-listers; and of course, enviable careers.
What else do they have in common? These are four, straight, white men who are all individually and independently successful in the same industry and have been typecast somewhat to a close degree of one another.
Why is the same privilege not afforded to black actresses?
The curse of the firsts
In 2002, Halle Berry made…
A better strategy for creators to convert leads: Workshops
I’m sick of webinars. Every budding entrepreneur and digital startup has a webinar now to funnel you to buy their product.
They advertise it under the pretense of a ‘free’ masterclass where somehow, miraculously in only 60 to 90-minutes you will gain enough value to pivot your life and become as successful as them.
Auto-webinars in particular are the worst. I cleared space in my calendar for you. At least do me the courtesy of showing up live.
It needs to stop. And thank God audiences are starting to wisen up, creators are slowly stepping up their game, and the…
Storytelling always wins
In the past year, I’ve scored highly in two pitch rounds in an entrepreneurship program and I don’t deserve it. Okay, my pitches are clear, concise, and direct. They address the most important criteria in an elevator pitch: the problem, the goal, and the audience. I also delivered them confidently, despite my stuttering speech impediment.
On paper, winning these pitch rounds could make sense but it’s not with faux-humility that I say I shouldn’t have won.
So, what’s the problem then?
They were safe.
Playing it safe as an entrepreneur is like mixing oil with water. It doesn’t work. Safe…
I suffered extreme side-effects from a date-rape drug to realize this.
It was 6pm on a Friday and I looked forward to starting the weekend with some much-needed sleep. I crawled into bed and I was out like a light. The next day I woke up at 11pm, extremely groggy and crazed. I wanted to get back into bed for several more hours but I had to pee. I was also hungry. Damn, I thought, roofies should be outlawed.
Thank God I was safely at home and not at a random bar.
The day before, a GP had given me a controversial prescription for Rohypnol to help me deal with stress…
Here’s how to launch personalized marketing campaigns without repeating these mistakes
A few years ago, Coca-Cola.com saw an 870% spike in traffic. The brand welcomed 25 million new Facebook fans and the marketing team celebrated.
This was the result of a unique marketing campaign that highlighted an interesting fact about people: we love to see our names on things. Our name is our identity. We associate our name with a sense of ownership and belonging, which drives brand loyalty.
Some of the biggest brands in the world have caught onto this marketing ‘trick.’
Coca-Cola kicked-off their unforgettable #ShareACoke campaign in 2011. …
The first step you need to take to determine if your business has a chance or is doomed to fail
Many entrepreneurs have a failed business before it even starts. This sucks because it’s only after investing years of pain, sweat, time, and money that they realize they need to call it quits.
Some refuse to face this reality and pummel on, to the detriment of everything else in their life. They hope and pray their business will turn around far past its expiration date to the point where other areas of their life have suffered too.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We can determine earlier on when it’s time to pull the plug on our business, whether…
How a TV sitcom taught me about our hopes and dreams and had me in a puddle of tears
They say the richest real estate on earth is a cemetery.
That’s where people are buried along with their million-dollar dreams. Either their dreams didn’t come true despite their years of toil and struggle; they just couldn’t make it happen; or worse, they never tried at all.
I wonder, did all those people die unhappier because what they wanted to do or achieve never materialized?
Can you still be happy when your dreams don’t come true?
Often the people around those with big aspirations suffer the most, and usually in silence. They get a front-row seat to their loved one’s…
Get your groove back and change your life
Being stuck in a rut is one of the most frustrating and annoying stages I’ve experienced. It’s the “no man's land” space we occupy, and it feels like we can’t ever get out of it.
As a Type-A personality, it makes me feel like a total loser — as if I’m lagging behind everyone else, which eats at my self-esteem.
I know many people who feel powerless about being stuck in a rut. And sadly, they eventually accept it, almost in defeat.
We don’t have to.
Certainly, ruts come and go, but I want to highlight the go part. We…
It’s all about redefining failure and yes, you can do it.
What do birth, death, and failure all have in common? They’re all certainties in life. We don’t have a say over the when and how of the first two, but failure is inevitable and how we respond to it is completely in our court. Even success isn’t a guarantee.
It is unavoidable that everyone at some point in their life will experience failure.
Why we abhor and run away from failures has a paramount effect on our major life decisions. …
