Skip to main content

Reclaiming who YOU are!

Penned by J Nicole
Growing up, I was never one of those kids that had a definitive answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would think of cool things, but then come up with a logical reason for why not. I could be a Vet, I like animals but they would be sick, injured, and well bloody...nope. An Astronaut! I don't like heights. At some point I came to the conclusion that when I grew up, “I want to be happy.” As an adult looking back at things at some point I probably should have defined what happiness would look like.  I did know, music was LIFE, it was Janet Jackson, TLC, and Aaliyah. I consumed music as much as possible, I started and ended my days with MTV, VH1, & BET. I had a TV with a built in VCR and a stockpile of VHS tapes each dedicated to my favorite artists and music videos.
Twenty years later, I'm a graduate of Columbia College of Chicago with a B.A in Entrepreneurship concentration, Music Business. I also have my Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications! So what does this mean? At the core it means that I figured that my passion was rooted in entertainment and marketing. I have invested in myself and my happiness. This lends to a spirit of entrepreneurship, I wasn't raised with this background, so my default was to find a decent job that was stable and sustainable, whether you liked it or not.

 During undergrad, I had plenty of opportunities to literally step into my destiny. On a college trip to New York a few opportunities arose, they were small at the time, but in retrospect incredibly important. Things like being in an elevator and it randomly stopping at my favorite record label's floor (didn't step off the elevator), interviewing with Sony Chicago (the awe of being there got to me), and meeting Programming Directors at Hot97 (probably should have followed up). In every situation I hesitated. Why? I thought I didn't belong there, I thought I wasn't prepared. In actuality all I had to do was take a step forward and make it happen. The truth of is, EVERY room we step into we are meant to be there.
If I could go back to give undergrad me advice on what to do to properly prepare for what's ahead it would be these flashes of brilliance.
  1. Recognize your passion
  2. Define your vision
  3. Set SMART Goals (google it)
  4. Create a plan of action
  5. Create a timeline to execute
  6. Find mentor in your field above decent
  7. Whatever room you walk into, you're supposed to be there, be confident in that!
  8. Pay attention to your intuition
  9. Prepare for your opportunity/success
It’s time to reclaim your time, stay centered, focus and recharge often. Thoreau said “Walk confidently in the direction of your dreams.” Remember, you are not your current job title! You are an entrepreneur, you are writer, you are who you envision yourself to be!  When you clock out the real work begins. You got this!

 J Nicole Smith is vital to the Sista Gurl Team! She not only contributes to the blog, she's also a photographer and vital in all marketing and management on this blog and elsewhere. For more information about her follow her on Facebook and IG @jnicole.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ladies, Make Him Act Right! (From a man's perspective)

So ladies, we have a tendency to get advice from women about MEN far more than we should. So I have a special treat today. We're going to get some advice on how to entice, encourage, and exalt a man from you guested it.. A MAN. I picked one, who speaks with the sole purpose to educate. So some of his language may be a bit harder than you're used to but.. you will not be disappointed. Capt SistaGurl Out!  Introducing Tikko Brohey  Ladies do you feel like “dudes ain’t shit” or “dudes don’t act right?” Have you ever thought about the things you do that contribute to that? The answer is probably not.  Now granted there are dudes out there who just ain’t shit, and that’s just what it is. Majority of men are good men. But his partner can often determine just how good he'll actually be. Every woman deserves to be treated like a queen, as every man deserves to be treated like a king. The disconnect comes from when there’s an argument all the King and Queen shit is out the
2 comments
Read more

It's Not Love, it's Love Adjacent

It’s my thought that the heart and the mind take turns in sharing authority in how we pattern our personal decisions. They cannot both be in control at the same time, and I believe that there’s a celestial straw pulling to determine which will rule within each given moment. The dangerous part about this is, sometimes when the heart wins, we forget to use our brain . When this happens, we start making decisions that are completely passion driven, hunger driven, and backed behind a receptor that shouldn’t receive as much showtime as it’s getting. Sometimes you fall in love with someone that is all wrong for you. They don’t feed you spiritually, they don’t feed you mentally, and maybe they don’t respect you. But they have ONE or two things on our list, so we keep them around. But by osmosis, all the signs that you saw in the beginning appear a bit less obvious, and now you THINK you love this person. Your heart is in control and your brain is taking a break, your brain has
Post a Comment
Read more

RAPPER RESET: MAYBE IT IS TIME FOR RAPPERS TO TAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA BREAK

By Capt SistaGurl Once upon a time, in the age of a coke-induced Russell Simmons, rap battles were king, LL Cool J wore a Kangol, and the female rappers were fresh and diligently working their way up to the mainstream within the culture. As the years progressed, and Russell said no to drugs, and yes to very young women, the image of the genre changed, but one thing still reigned true.  RAPPERS RAPPED their frustrations in the studio and on rare occasions award shows and radio stations. There’s a period in between where rap was aligned to violence and our most popular rappers were at the center of a feud, but let’s leave this out for now because those times were outside of the norm. Except for that one time in the studio, 50 got jumped, Murder Inc got raided, and the beef spilled outside of the booth. But that’s really it, right? Well no, not really, it happened a few more times.  BUT PRIMARILY, rappers used their words for a primary pursuit of dominance and it was friendly, and lucrat
1 comment
Read more