The 1-Day Interview Prep: Rocking an interview even with limited time to prepare

Today, I got a call from a family member/friend/professional associate: my sister, who was stressing out about a job interview that she had scheduled for tomorrow.  Oh Dear… Now usually, if I were officially coaching someone on preparing for a job interview, I would suggest at least a one week window for preparation.  With only a day to prepare, my tried and true 1-week program was just not going to work.  I quickly leaned on my Lean/Agile coaching techniques to offer her value that would take her a long way before the interview tomorrow.  Here I have laid out a 3 step strategy to assist her and anyone else who finds themselves in a time crunch to prepare for an interview and GET THE JOB!  Let’s go.

Step 1: Do a Full Self-Assessment

In this step, it’s all about being honest with yourself.  Review the job announcement for which you are interviewing, and honestly answer this question? Technically speaking, am I qualified to do this job?  If your answer is

The Empty, Empty Nest…

Reflections of a Single Mother

It’s a busy hectic work day as usual around my office (my kitchen table/will explain laterJ). Youngest daughter needs money for food before basketball game. Cell phone blowing up, email inbox pinging me.  Lingering thoughts about the conversation (argument) that I had with my older daughter last night. Trying my best to get through this yoga workout before anyone realizes I’m not actually online working yet… Workout finished, now trying to blend a smoothie and load a pod in the Kuerig® to make a cup of coffee at the same damn time. Email pings again, bang out quick response.  Multi-tasking at its best… wait cellphone chirps and vibrates simultaneously… special notification set up to let me know my daughter needs me.  I stop everything I’m doing to read her message, you know because everything she does is the most important thing that I have going on…let her tell it.

2014 Year in Review and 2015 New Year Message From the CEO

 As I sit back and reflect on the many amazing things that happened over the last year, I am truly amazed. One year seems so short until you really look at all that you have accomplished in that amount of time. It has truly been a year of ups and downs, but each down has truly been a blessing and has at times stretched me beyond what I thought I could take. But I am still ticking, life has certainly moved forward beautifully and one thing I know for sure, if you don’t stretch outside of your comfort zone, it is impossible to grow. And boy have I grown… personally, professionally, spiritually, academically, and all the other –ally words you can think of.

2014… Wow – The blessings

Almost 10 years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would travel each year to a foreign country. I have yet to break that promise and must give thanks to Gerald Smith, my daughter’s father, for making me get that passport back in 2004. He opened my eyes to living outside of the box and showed me a world much bigger than Atlanta, GA!

This year on the tenth anniversary of my promise, I decided to introduce my 15 year old daughter. I took her on a 3 week trip to Europe where we explored Germany, Switzerland and France! I hope her eyes and world are wide open and she realizes that there are no limits in life, just hard work and a strong desire to just do it!

Creamy Red Delight Smoothie

 

I, along with everyone I know, have jumped on the green smoothie train and have become really interested in finding a natural way to increase my libido, get beautiful radiant skin, purify my blood, maintain my blood pressure, feel more relaxed, yet have more energy.  Through my research, I have found an amazing super food that is readily available year round in your local supermarket...BEETS!!  I know. I know.  Nobody likes beets, right?  Well, let me tell you why you should start liking them.

Satya Nadella’s Advice on Raises Stirs Wider Discussion Among Women

Alexis Fritzsche, a member of Levo League, an online network

for professional women, says Satya Nadella's comments have inspired

women to ask for raises. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times        

“The conversation around salary, the conversation around the art of women asking and how to ask are conversations that are happening organically already between my friends and myself,” she said. “For us, it only fuels the fire that they should be asking for raises.”

For one female engineer in Chicago, Mr. Nadella’s remarks were a reminder to ask not just for a raise but also for more challenging opportunities at work.

“The comments just reminded me that you have to keep up with it,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified talking about compensation. “I keep becoming more aware of how it’s not just

No Such Thing As a Bad Hair Day

Temperatures have been above 100 degrees and humidity levels are high; perfect conditions for a bad hair day!! Go Getter Girls beat the heat and continue to look flawless doing it by using simple fuss free buns and up 'dos to tame their tresses.  While summer is almost over, its still scorching outside in many places.  Opt for simple, minimal effort styles that allow you to stay cool and still look put together.  To a Go-Getter Girl, there is no such thing as a bad hair day.  TLJ has scoured YouTube to find a few videos that will show you how to pull up and tuck away those tresses!!  And don't worry, long hair, short hair, straight or curly/natural, we have you covered.  Click on the videos below for full tutorials.

SMAT-J: Staying Motivated Around This Joka'

Six years ago, I went through a series of life changing events.  Though tough at the time, all of these events made me a better person.  In September 2008, my eleven year relationship with my daughter’s father came to an end and that event led to my decision to take a position overseas.  I was separated from my children for the first time in their lives.  Needless to say, I was on the fast track to having a breakdown but the only thing that kept me from crumbling was the gym.  I went hard every day running, elliptical machine, free weights, yoga, you name it.  I didn’t have time for tears! I sweated my anger out and pain was my motivator.  I left 37 pounds of the old me in that gym in Iraq.  Fast forward three years later and I was ready to start my life anew back in the states, Richmond, Virginia.

The first year back was great.  I was able to maintain my weight loss but was very aware that I was only maintaining.  It had been a year and I was staying at the same weight.  I guess that’s good but there was so much more that I wanted to accomplish.  I realized that I was starting to eat poorly and was still working out but was just going through the motions of working out unenthusiastically.  I was totally unmotivated

Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookies

In anticipation for my upcoming trip to Europe this summer, I have cleaned up my diet and increased my exercise to drop a few pounds before the trip.  Over the last month, I seriously removed all processed foods, sugar, alcohol, coffee, bread, gluten and artificial sweeteners from my diet.  I have successfully lost 14lbs in a relatively short amount of time.  For the most part I have been fine! No cravings at all because I have been pretty satisfied eating various vegetable dishes, salads and choice meats.  Today, however, I had the biggest craving for Peanut Butter Cookies.  Why?... I don’t even care that much for peanut butter cookies. 

The craving was one of those that no amount of deep breathing nor hope would make go away.  Refusing to give up on my healthy eating efforts, I decided to take a stab at altering a peanut butter recipe that I had into a low carb, low glycemic recipe.  The result was PHENOMINAL!! With a little ingenuity and taste testing along the way, I made a cookie with less than 10g of Carbs and over 7g of Protein, without skimping on taste or texture! Check it out below or go to my SparkRecipe page to view my Low Glycemic, Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe and a full list of the nutritional information.

What's Your Fitness Style?

Nope!, I am not getting up at 5 am to go for a run.  I’d much rather hit the snooze button on the alarm and get my last winks of sleep before starting the day off.  I ‘aab-soo-lutely hate working out with others because they tend to slow me down or break my concentration.  And Oh how it pisses me off when someone tries to give me fitness tips when they have never worked out with me… How do you know that I don’t already do that?  What I do love is going high intensity on the elliptical machine, zoned out, music blasting in my ear with an up-tempo beat!  My favorite time to go to the gym is after everyone else has gone home so that I can concentrate on me.  What does this all mean?  I know my personal fitness style!  I am highly competitive with myself and am self motivated to beat my personal best.   I am The Competitor.

 

Compromise in the Kitchen

It’s Sunday afternoon and frankly I am tired of eating out and I am tired of eating grilled chicken and fish in support of this yucky diet!!  With my oldest daughter off in the Navy and my youngest away visiting her dad for the summer, it’s just me and Chris at home.  Been pretty wonderful but I’ll have to let you in on a little secret… THIS MAN’S EATING HABITS ARE PLUCKING EVERY LAST ONE OF MY NERVES!!! He is not Muslim, nor is he of Islamic faith… so why the heck does he not eat beef or pork?

Hmmm...Exercise Triggers Orgasm???

According to an article by Bonnie Rochman in a Times Magazine Healthland report, up to 15% of women apparently experience orgasm as a fringe benefit of physical exertion. Crunches, anyone?  Count me in and start counting them out!!

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/21/what-a-workout-women-report-exercise-triggers-coregasm/#ixzz20o1z4qIf

On the floor doing pilates, yoga, crunches and lunges trying to get to the O!


Ms. Me

Passion for Travel: Episode #1 Day Trip to Historic Charleston, SC

TLJ Supporting American Tourism

Wentworth Mansion, Charleston SC

PASSION

[pash-uhn] noun

 1.      any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

I love to travel: Scoping out interesting places, the planning, people watching in airports or train stations, arriving and seeing new cities and exploring different cultures!! I love it all! Places I have been include Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Thomas, Germany, Amsterdam, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Ireland and more! I also love blogging, so I have decided to merge the two in a new segment called Passion for Travel!!

It has been amazing finding a life mate/fellow blogger (U-Topix)/future husband (#hint-hint), that shares my passion. We woke up early Saturday morning, both feeling restless, and decided to make a quick day trip to Charleston, SC. I am so glad that we did, because Charleston is an amazingly beautiful place full of rich history. It is a symbolic place particularly for my family's history. My brother began tracing our family lineage some years ago and was able to find documentation that details where my family, and many other African American families ,were first brought over on slave ships to America through ports cities like Charleston and Savannah, GA. I look at this trip as a sojourn into my families history! ...Let us never forget our past, but learn and grow from it to create better tomorrows. See the slideshow below and go on the journey through the picturesque streets of Charleston with us!!

Good Will Hunting

It was a sobering experience to see the latest Census Bureau data showing that the economic crisis has been especially crippling for women and their families.  Poverty and extreme poverty among women, men and children in the United States increased significantly in 2010, with the overall poverty rate among women rising to 14.5 percent – the highest rate in 17 years with incomes less than half of the federal poverty level.

Seeing these statistics makes me angry because  media outlets aren’t telling these stories.   In the age of reality TV and celebrity gossip columns, it appears that reality is being swept under the rug!  Even in my own blog, The Lipstick Journal, we cover fashion and beauty; talk about latest fashion and trends, however,

Shhh...Gonna Get Some Work Done

The Black Health Zone, 2011

Work out, Check.  Eat healthy, Check.  Try not to overindulge, Yep.  So then, why is it so hard to achieve the body that I want?  This is the question that many women have after spending hours in the gym, paychecks on fruits and veggies, and splurges on countless other over the counter diet and weight-loss products.  After carefully evaluating my genetic makeup and my own fight with mother-nature, I am beginning to think that the surgeon’s knife may be the only way to achieve that illusive perfect physique.  A lot of recent research on this same subject reveals that I’m not alone in this thought.  According the article, “Beauty: To What Extreme?”, by Kay Harris, “39 percent of women are dissatisfied with at least one facial or body feature and 25 percent of the women surveyed would consider cosmetic plastic surgery. “

Wine-Oh? Wine's in Review: Chocolate Shop's Chocolate Red Wine

Wine-o? Not!  But oooh do I love a good glass of wine… My neighbor and good friend Candice and I try new wines every chance we get (nightly!, O_o No Judging)… A good glass of chilled wine + great food =  Head tilted towards the heavens, eyes squinted in bliss;  umph, a perfect evening at home.  I love both red and white wines, fruity or spicy, dry or sweet.  We mix it up so much that it is only befitting that a proper dedication be made to the spirits!  TLJ will post once a month (more like 2 posts per week, lol) in honor of new wines that we have tried and love.  If it gets a ‘(O_O)…really?’ rating from our taste testers, then you won’t find it reviewed here!! Only those wines that make us smile will make a review on TLJ…. So without further ado, Chocolate Shop’s Red Wine, The Chocolate Lovers Wine!!!

 

Got That Snapback!!!

Concert Review: Jill Scott’s Summer Block Party

Saturday night, I along with my boyfriend and good friends, Candice and Gina, went to the Jill Scott Summer Block Party concert at Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Atlanta, GA!!  Though the evening was a lot less than perfect (…a tale worthy of its own blog post), Ms. Jill did not disappoint.

The Review:  Kem opened up the concert and was a little less than exciting in my opinion (not really a fan), however, his true fans thoroughly enjoyed the show.  DJ Jazzy Jeff got it in though!!  He kept the party hype in anticipation of the headliners appearance.  The crowd went wild throughout his entire collage of classic old-skool hip hop spins: Summertime (Will Smith), Rock the Bells (LL Cool J), Real Love (Mary J. Blige).  And then there was Jill…

She shocked the crowd when she stepped out on stage with her new hair cut; yep, boy short and still she was fierce.  Jill’s voice stirred my soul and according to my friend/neighbor, Candice, her sexy lyrics mixed with the 104 degree Hotlanta heat had her wanting to come out of her panties, and church fan herself!!!  If we had popped another bottle of wine, we would have been outside at Chastain panty-less and church fanning together!!! 

I score this concert 8 out of 10 so if you weren’t there, you missed out and if you haven’t picked up Jill’s latest CD, The Light of the Sun which dropped last summer, you are slow!  Go get it and take the lessons in love and loss, redemption and reaffirmation that Ms. Scott sings in soft lullaby and soaring big notes wrapped up into some of the best music out today.

Check out TLJ’s Photos from the concert and tell us about your favorite Jill Scott song! 

Signing out,

Ms. Me

P.S. my favorite is A Long Walk from her debut album, Who is Jill Scott!!

How To Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving

Book Description
Publication Date: June 18, 2002

"Most people think of love as a feeling," says David Richo, "but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present." In this book, Richo offers a fresh perspective on love and relationships—one that focuses not on finding an ideal mate, but on becoming a more loving and realistic person. Drawing on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, How to Be an Adult in Relationships explores five hallmarks of mindful loving and how they play a key role in our relationships throughout life: 1. Attention to the present moment; observing, listening, and noticing all the feelings at play in our relationships. 2. Acceptance of ourselves and others just as we are. 3. Appreciation of all our gifts, our limits, our longings, and our poignant human predicament. 4. Affection shown through holding and touching in respectful ways. 5. Allowing life and love to be just as they are, with all their ecstasy and ache, without trying to take control. When deeply understood and applied, these five simple concepts—what Richo calls the five A's—form the basis of mature love. They help us to move away from judgment, fear, and blame to a position of openness, compassion, and realism about life and relationships. By giving and receiving these five A's, relationships become deeper and more meaningful, and they become a ground for personal transformation.

Who Moved My Cheese?

Book Description
Publication Date: September 8, 1998

With Who Moved My Cheese? Dr. Spencer Johnson realizes the need for finding the language and tools to deal with change--an issue that makes all of us nervous and uncomfortable. Most people are fearful of change because they don't believe they have any control over how or when it happens to them. Since change happens either to the individual or by the individual, Spencer Johnson shows us that what matters most is the attitude we have about change. When the Y2K panic gripped the corporate realm before the new millenium, most work environments finally recognized the urgent need to get their computers and other business systems up to speed and able to deal with unprecedented change. And businesses realized that this was not enough: they needed to help people get ready, too. Spencer Johnson has created his new book to do just that. The coauthor of the multimillion bestseller The One Minute Manager has written a deceptively simple story with a dramatically important message that can radically alter the way we cope with change. Who Moved My Cheese? allows for common themes to become topics for discussion and individual interpretation. Who Moved My Cheese? takes the fear and anxiety out of managing the future and shows people a simple way to successfully deal with the changing times, providing them with a method for moving ahead with their work and lives safely and effectively.

Why Women Mean Business

Book Description
Publication Date: November 3, 2009

Never before has there been such a confluence of international attention to the economic importance of women and the need for policies to enable them to fulfil their potential. The position of women - as employees, consumers and leaders - is seen as a measure of health, maturity and economic viability. Why Women Mean Business takes the economic arguments for change to the heart of the corporate world. This powerful new book analyses the opportunities available to companies that really understand what motivates women in the workplace and the marketplace. Find out how companies that learn to adapt to women will be better able to respond to the challenge of an ageing workforce and the demands of the next generation of knowledge workers. The authors compare policies and approaches in countries around the world, that offer surprising and envious results. The optimisation of women’s talents will boost the bottom line. Taking action to achieve this will require sustained courage and conviction from today’s corporate leaders. Reading Why Women Mean Business will be an important first step.