Bold and Beautiful

It's important for me to talk about what its like Being BBJB (yeah I came up with this blog before Being Mary Jane came out on BET). Anyway, apart of Being BBJB are talking about some of the not so good things about me. There are two things I've always battled with and that's having short hair and biting my nails. Seems so minor when you write it down but boy have these things had a major impact on my self-confidence.

Having a mother with lovely long hair and a sister with thick voluminous hair, I wondered why I was born with short brittle hair. I would have loved to just have at least one good quality, why did I have to get stuck with hair 2 bad, hair that couldn't grow and then to lose the ones that did!! On top of that I have a terrible habit of biting my nails. Even down to the skin (yeah its a serious habit). For 28 years I have been trying to break this habit. At some points I actually did until I looked down and saw all my nails gone (not cute).  It got so bad that I didn't even know when or where I was doing it. I had gotten out of control.

This all had to stop!! I had to look for ways to believe that I am Bold and Beautiful just the way God made me. Regardless of what I had and the bad habits I had formed. So one by one I found ways to embrace my downfalls and control my own beauty. So how did I start? First I decided that if i was gonna be stuck with short hair that I would rock it out!!!

I got it cut and styled just like I've wanted to but have't had the guts to do. Since the cut a I have gotten nothing but compliments (which is an immediate boost of self-confidence.) This trickled into the way I dressed and developed into the confidence I thought I didn't have.

But I couldn't stop there, I had to come up with a plan for my nails. It certainly wouldn't be cute if you looked good  but had jacked up hands, would it? So I decided it was time to invest (which I never do). I invested in pampering my nails every two weeks. And if I make it two weeks without biting my nails I get to choose a nice color (red, pink, orange or aqua). For those of you that know me, I never have any nails to paint in the first place so this is truly a treat. Here's my progress:

It sometimes can be the simple things in life that can make a person feel Bold & Beautiful. These are just some of mines.

B&B

Starting a non profit

Since I got my Master's in Non Profit Management (MNM) I am getting requests from friends and family members who want help on starting a non profit. So I decided to write this blog to give some tips on how to start one. 

The IRS has a lot of information on this especially starting with this video: Starting Out

But if you don't have a lot of spare time here are some quick tips to get you started.

First, create a non-profit organization under state law for the state you live in. Do some research and find out the necessary requirements your state suggest. 

Second, acquire an Employer Identification Number by clicking here.

Third, you need to prepare your organizing documents. This for most organizations will be your Articles for Incorporation. Here is a sample form to use as a guide. 

The next step is Applying for Exemption 501(c)(3) with the IRS by completing Form 1023.

After you receive your exemption certificate from the IRS you need to be sure to comply with the necessary filing requirements. These requirements are the annual exempt organization returns (return info), unrelated business tax returns, and other returns and reports that an organization may have to file. In addition to the required filings, a charity may have other ongoing compliance obligations.

Significant Events  include but are not limited to audits by the IRS, private letter rulings, and termination proceedings.

I hope I have provided you with some quick tips to starting a non-profit organization. Be sure to visit  this website in order to Stay Exempt.

MNM, B*B*J*B

Matter of Lifestyle

Has the Lord ever dropped your future into your lap? If He did, would you know it was from Him? The God I serve works in the most mysterious ways and that I have seen myself.

Four years ago I met a woman that has had an awesome influence on my life and in return I am trying daily to pay it forward. Today is her birthday and the launch of her new product line.

Click here to check it out. http://www.matteroflifestyle.com/

Happy Birthday Gwen!!!!

B*B*J*B

I'm sorry.........but

To start this off, I am just going to just clarify something from the beginning of this blog. When you are giving anything close to a genuine apology it cannot include a BUT or an IF, because it means you are not really sorry. This is a serious issue that I want to address and I find it hard to believe that someone could actually be sorry if they follow up the apology with a "but".

So I will address this in a very quick manner because I think its pretty self explanatory. Apologies aren't always easy to come by. In most cases the person who has offended someone else doesn't even know that they have said something offensive. We are all guilty of this, at least I know I am. However, I am trying to take efforts not to hurt people as I go through life. And if I get to the point where someone else's feelings are not important to me, how can I then profess to be a Christian???

An apology that includes a "but" also means that if the opportunity presented itself again you would make the same decision over. Therefore, how the person feels or the fact that someone was offended really doesn't matter at all. There are many situations that we each can ponder on and wish we had handled it differently. Maybe there are relationships that we could have salvaged if we had only just been sincere in our apology.

It is my goal not to offend anyone that I come across and if I do to apologize for what I have done and make every attempt not to do it again. Imagine what the world would be like if we each began to care for each other.....


Apologetic B*B*J*B

What's your temperament????

The older I get the more I am expose to people with different personalities. Friendly people, quiet people, aggressive people and then there are people just like me. The more personalities I come across the more I try to learn how to understand people.

Over the years I have attended many seminars, AY programs,  listened to countless sermons, attended various workshops and taken every quiz that exist to learn my personality trait. But now, as I work along side many different types of people, I need to focus on other individuals and their personality trait. When I can identify who someone is, I can then understand why they do what they do. Their temperament can easily help me to follow their decision making. 

So today I want all my followers to share their main temperament with me.  

   

                 

My goal is to help you understand others and to understand what it's like Being B*B*J*B!!!

Here is a short description of each type:

*Sanguine--joyful, optimistic, compassionate, storyteller, disorganized, restless, forgetful and easily distracted

*Choleric--leader, strong-willed, independent, confident, impatient, hot-tempered, cruel, quickly moves to action

*Melancholic--analytical, thinker, detailed, organized, pessimistic, moody, skeptical, and a perfectionist

*Phlegmatic--quiet, practical, efficient, dependable, dry sense of humor, stubborn, selfish, and indecisive

So let's see which one you are. Click on the link below to take the quiz and share with me which trait you are: The Temperament Test

Credit Check.............

Well here it is.......How to get your credit in check Part 1!!!!!!!

Many of you have asked how to start or repair your credit so that you can be financially stable. First step will be to double check your report and make sure what is showing on your report is a reflection of the actual decisions you have made. So don't be fooled by the "freecreditreport" commercials or ads. And go to the only website that gives you your report:

www.annualcreditreport.com

This site will access all three credit bureaus that you need to know about:

Experian--http://www.experian.com/

Equifax--http://www.equifax.com/

Transunion--http://www.transunion.com/

You are allowed to see your report once a year per bureau.  So I recommend that you request a report from one bureau every 4 months. This way you see what each bureau is reporting and what changes are being made throughout the year.

I know you may also want to know what your score is but I do not think that's important when your trying to repair your credit.  The score is a direct reflection of what your creditors are reporting to the credit bureaus. So once you fix any disputes the score will self adjust (with time of course).

So you go to the site, you choose the bureau you want to start with, you pull your report, print it.......now review it!!!! Look for errors, if you don't find any good for you!!!! If you find some it's time to get to work.....Are you ready? I hope so, breathe its not the end of the world but it might be the beginning of a battle.

You will need to begin the dispute process through the bureau that is reporting the error so look at the bottom of your report for their contact information.  Draft a letter, with your account information and anything the bureau may need to identify you correctly. In the body of the letter state what the error you noted is and provide any information you have to support your issue. If you need some guidance here is a sample letter.

Stay tuned for Part II as I help you get your credit in check!!!!!


B*B*J*B Credit Rep

Queen Beats Tribute

Oh my how time flies. I remember our director, Chris Bartley, drilling us  hard on learning our cadences. An all female drum corp made up of girls with little to no experience on how to play a beat. But with patience we, 15+ learned how to make beats. 4 cymbals, 5 snares, 4 tenors, 3 bass, and 1 quad is all we had to work with. So many girls wanted to be in our drum corp we had auditions one year. Here's our history:

Fall 2002 at an Andrews basketball event a group of guys playing on drums perform at halftime. There was no girls in their group. So a couple of my newly made friends asked if we could join the drum corp. We didn't stand a chance, the guys immediately said NO!!! Although, one person told us he would teach us how to play and then we could start our own group. It took no time for word of mouth to spread and by the time we had our first meeting there was 10 girls ready to learn from the master, Ronneil Harewood. Within a month, we debut at our first performance during halftime at a BSCF (Black Student Christian Forum) Basketball game.

The crowd loved us, BSCF sponsored us, and the students supported us. We just needed a name.......what should we be called? We battled for a few weeks on what we should name ourselves (a group of girls playing drums) until we figured it out......Queen Beats. It suited who we were and what we were doing. How we started.....

White T-Shirts and Dark Blue jeans

Cow Bell: Chaely
Cymbals: Berenice, Monique and Lauren
Snare: Nadia, Amy, and Leilani
Tenors: Candice, Amber, Rachel, Katiana, and Berdene
Quads: Cherise and Roberta
Bass: Famose and Deidre

But like anything else, things change. Years pass, members graduated, the group grew larger, and drums break down. This did not stop us....not at all. We made new members try out, we learned beats, we traveled to perform, we changed positions and we got a uniform. Along with changes, after three years of supporting us we also lost our director. But they say when one door closes another opens and we were introduced to Christopher Bartley, our new director. Mr. Bartley focused on our precision and using his networking connections exposed us to performing at larger events. One that included and invitation by Dr. Joseph Warren a professor from Andrews.  We prepared for this event for months in 2005 and we walked into the Howard Performing Arts Center (HPAC) all blew everyone away.

Check out our performance by clicking on this link http://youtu.be/StmrX_Fs-bY. This was never done before nor has it happened again. We became legends........

From Queen B to all of my Queen Beats. Miss you all!!!!

Practice outtake videos:
http://youtu.be/qohuASop-5k
http://youtu.be/-X-MW8cAe0c