Making Executive Decisions

Hey what’s up PinkShaders!

I know its been a hot minute and maybe since I last posted but your girl has been cooking up some projects that are manefesting themselves into something really exciting. I also celebrated my 25th birthday on a private beach in Ghana (may not be much of deal to some of you but it was the best birthday I ever had! Vlog available on my YouTube channel). So what’s been holding me up? I’ve been working on maximising my potential to better myself (reference to my #BOSSChallenge click here to see my latest travel and subscribe to my channel! xxx

For the past 2 months or so, I’ve picked up another blogging gig at Final Call Production and have started a master programme in International Business Management. This is in addition to my YouTube channel (which I know has had a few delays but will explain further below), still mentoring young people and working on a few secret projects *wink*. These are just a few examples of my initiatives to make an executive decision for my own personal life  and is a choice to pursue the things I know and hope, will spark something in future.

Now on to what this blog post is really about….

Those around me would have heard me say this a thoussand times and probably even more. It’s litterally been my personal tagline/ motto for the year and honestly an encouragement to help me make direct decisions and take responsibility of my own actions, life and future. I cannot stress how important it is to take responsibility on making decisions that affect YOUR own life.

Up until 2 years ago, I used to be told what to do and blame any mishaps on those who had a bigger say on what I ought to do with MY LIFE, MY GOALS and MY DREAMS.

As an Executive or BOSS of your life.

One of my favourite bible quotes that I translate into my own words (and totally applicable to this concept) is “You reap what you sew”. In other words you make a decision + you put the energy in = you reap the benefit.
If you decide to reap whatever without actually putting any energy in, you’re not exercising control and in that sense arr runnning on sheer luck and total reliance on the energy of others… trust me your luck will run out and what you expect may turn out to be the complete opposite to what you really want or need.

Another reason why executive decisions making is so important in life, is because, I’m tired of re-doing the things that aren’t up to my standards. Delegating work is part of the job of being an executive. And if you are able to demonstrate that ability successfully and up to your standards, then kudos to you. However,
when you have a goal that is not common with the person(s) you are deligating the task to, then the likelihood of achieving the same common goal is slim or barely existent.
In fact quite often (and be sure to let me know if you have experienced the same thing).. I have come to realise that whenever I trust someone with the most important project/ high level task to complete something, I often find myself having to re-do or takeover the work because it didn’t meet my qualities and thus realise that I am relying on others to do what I can do better and my way.

Now, 2017 is already coming to an end and the question I have for you is, are you not tired of being let down by people whom you have relied one too many responsibilities that are way too important to you? At this moment in our life, we need to think.. “what is that one thing holding me up from reaching that set goal?” and what different course of actioms will I need to pursue to ensure that I am no longer delayed.

Sit yourself down today and make that executive decision to hold yourself more accountable to your life and what you wish to achieve in the month or even year(s) to come.

Spring Cleaning My Act

Hey Pink Shaders! Happy Easter to you all!

Spring is finally here! And I am already feeling free-spirited, just because the days are longer and the sun is finally out. Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s been a while since I last posted and I would first of all would like apologise for my absence. I’m here to spring clean my act with a reason. Not an excuse because excuses are tools used by the incompetent right?!

Well, after posting my ‘Transitioning into 2017’ post, I realised that in order to make my 2017 the most amazing year of my life thus far, it meant that I had to create a few achievable projects and events to make my journey through out the year a little challenging but also fun and exciting. With that being said. I created my vision board for 2017, which outlined my goals and objectives for this year through images that will redirect my focus whenever I felt a little discourage. Some of the things I placed on my vision board seemed a little farfetched, such as earning £53,716, writing a book or producing a movie but those were images to inspire me to aim high, no matter what. My overall goal is to achieve at least 90% or if not all. Again its all achievable, only if I work hard towards it and keep myself motivated until I attain what I want and beyond.

So to start myself off, I rebooked my driving test. This would have counted as my 5 test (6th including the one I accidentally booked and forgot about because I had school exams). I was nervous because I hated to be told that I had failed again and nobody loves that feeling. I tried to remain calm and keep everything simple during the test. In the back of my mind I was already telling myself that everything happens for a reason so don’t stress about the result but to keep going until it’s over. Low and behold I passed my driving test and was able to tick off 1 thing on my 2017 vision board in January!  After receiving my license, I felt even more motivated to take time off from work to travel, and so I came across some really cheap tickets to Kansas, about a week before spring break for less than £500. Prices to Kansas are generally around £600- 700, so I knew that this was a sign that I was just meant to go away. Also, I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit some my friends and head out for Spring Break in Miami.

Now a 100 days into my B.O.S.S Challenge, I realised that my Spring Break trip might just be the time and place to allow me to demonstrate how far I’ve come with my positivity cleanse. As some of you may know, Miami is a place where you need to be confident in your own skin and be ready to have fun while trying out new things. I kind of knew about that fact but probably not to that level of extent that I encountered!

If you are in tune with my YouTube channel (Thalie Brown) you would have seen my attempt to vlog using my phone. It was fun vlogging but it sure was difficult to balance vlogging and enjoying the moment. Also at some points, my shots were all over the place or I completely forgot to vlog the event entirely *hides face*. But I know, it was a great learning experience, to which I know that I would have preferred to have a proper camera and stand rather than holding my phone in my hand because I would always look at my camera and remember its purpose. Nevertheless, Miami was great! We stayed  in Wynwood, Miami, which was about 10 min from downtown Miami and about 20 -25 min from South Beach. I had the chance to show off my inner B.O.S.S by comfortably wearing bikinis all day and less cover-ups. Although it took a bit of getting used to before I was able to get in an uber with my kaftan covering my bikini or flaunting my British accent, just get free entries or meet Mariahlynn from Love and Hip Hop and feature on her Snapchat and vise a versa. If anything, I think Miami was by far the best trip I have ever been to but it might be a little early to say since I have another trip lined up for me.

If you would like to see more of my Spring Break vlog videos, click on this link here:

In terms of working on my brand. I believe that I have had an epiphany on how to develop and establish my brand. I have been blessed to have met a few creative designers, who are keen to help me build my brand and respectively help me identify my career goal. Now it’s up to me and my efforts, to achieve this dream, which I believe will inspire and support young people in many shapes and forms. I know I’m probably not making much sense at the moment but all will be revealed in due time.

Overall, Spring so far has been refreshing. I feel a lot happier and positive than I was a few months ago, and have been able to challenge myself with life changing goals. I am hoping that in the next month or 2, I will be able to tick off at least 2 more goals on my vision board. But only time will tell.

B.O.S.S Challenge

Hey Pink Shaders!

So here is a new update. I’ve jumped on the YouTube train and started vlogging *hides face*. To be honest with you, I’ve been uploading for a while but I just hadn’t thought about breaking it to you guys yet. Mainly because I didn’t have enough content to share. I saw it as a fun opportunity to create and share video content of the things that I am passionate about, as well as the things that I am doing, leading up to an event.

It initially started with a school project, which actually required me to vlog the process to the final campaign ad for MAC Cosmetics called ‘#MACnified’. Check the link below!

#MACnified

#MACnified new edit

The original version can’t be viewed in some countries due to the song by Zara Larsson, so I re-edited the video and used our alternative song for the ‘New Edit’ video.

Seeing as I really enjoyed having the camera on me, I thought, hey why not vlog when your travel or other interesting things you do here and there? So I did and I uploaded my ‘Berlin re-cap’ video.

Berlin Re-cap 

So what’s the B.O.S.S. Challenge?

Great question. So you know how some people try to do a 100 day challenge, well I kind of hopped on that same train. For 100 days I have decided (and I came up with it myself) to develop myself body, mind and emotion. It’s a self- development challenge to improve how I see myself, I feel about myself and how I can listen and trust myself more. This is divided up by the 4 areas (4 letters) and essentially the main goal after the 100 day “cleanse” is to become the BOSS of my life.

So here we go…

B- beautiful: feel beautiful inside and out, in order to be beautiful all around.

O- optimistic: be positive, set yourself goals and opportunities and work towards it. 

Self-Assured: know that you have got this! Trust your instincts and have believe in yourself.

Sister: be kind and supportive. The sister to yourself and the the one that people need but not a superwoman to fix their life.

How’s the journey so far?

So far it has been a really good experience. I’ve achieved a lot just by taking baby steps and focusing on at least ine aspect at a time. But there were ofcourse some challenges. Like day 52!  People were talking about “blue monday’ but for me it felt like “blue week”. So many things went wrong  and I felt really stressed out and exhausted this week. Many things that I had been working on were just not going right. I started feeling like I was losing a battle and that possibly, my BOSS challenge journey might just end halfway through the challenge. But I had to remind myself (and I’m glad that I am part of the 100 day network) that I cannot give up on myself because I am not a forfeiture. More so, a challenge is supposed to see some difficulties because before you can go up, you need to experience the steep ride going down. In fact, I’d be contradicting myself if I gave up because the BOSS challenge is the very reason why I am trying to take more control of my life. So yes, it’s not going to be easy but so is life.

So if you want to take control of your life, rather than feeling  whatever then I really hope this is a little wake up call. In fact if you are in a situation where you know that you deserve better and want to reap better opportunities, then I am challenging you to start the 100 day BOSS challenge!

How do I start?

1. Write down your goal. Be realistic but give yourself an opportunity to achieve a step closer to your dreams.

2. Get yourself a notebook. You’re going to need to write your journey on a day to day basis in just a page or less.

3. Subscribe and Interact. I’m going to be uploading content on my YouTube channel (and on this blog too) regular basis. On this journey, you don’t want to be alone, you’re really going to need a community to support and encourage you along g the way.

4. Experience. This challenge requires you working for yourself and training yourself to be a BOSS. This means doing things to help you reach your goal.

FYI… although it’s known to be a 100 days, I have decided to extended my challenge until the end of 2017. So that makes it a 401 day BOSS challenge!!!

Check out my latest vlog- ep8

Graduation

After 4 years of long-suffering, endless all night studies, a hundred litres of tears and many hours of self-doubting moments on why on earth did I decide to procastinate, I am glad to say that I am now a graduate! As torturous as it all sounds, it was all worth it in the end.

Being at university taught me a lot of skills. Most of which was related to personal development rather than my degree itself. I learnt how to manage my time and projects so that I am able to meet my deadlines, optimise my opportunities to network with key individuals in the professional world (easy and for free) and I got to know myself a lot more (I know it sounds strange but I’ll explain later).

Now although my degree programme in Busines was supposed to have lasted 3 years, I decided to extended it by another year, in order to make the most of what my school had to offer. I decided to Study Abroad.If you ever come across this opportunity, I say “GO FOR IT“! I believe that this was the best and by far my favourite investment in my life so far. It had always been my dream to study in the United States but I thought that it was too expensive for my bank account. Thank God my student loans were able to cover this experience. And if you do get the opportunity to work abroad, see it as a double whammy! You get to live in another country, whilst earning some extra cash while you are out there. Just note that those opportunities are hard to find and require extra time to search, apply and plan. In advance. So if you know that’s what you want, then start a semester earlier than those applying to study abroad.

But anyways, my graduation made me realise how much I’ve achieved and how far I’ve come. From being that scared, timid late-teen, who started university later than everyone else, to becoming a confident, determined and challenging  young woman I am today. I’ve grown to love and respect myself first, organise my time wisely and do things outside of my comfort zone, in order to add them to my list of achievements and increase my confidence. More importantly I was able to conquer many of my fears, adding extra value to these achievements and for some of them realising that it wasn’t that bad after all.

I remember my first semester, I was dreading doing my economics module because I had failed it 3 times previously during my AS Levels. It took being litterally shaken into grips by my friend, to “man up and take control of my fears”, before attaining a first class in my second semester. But all that while, I had to work hard and play smart in order to find a way to tackle this problem of mine. And as ironic as it sounds ‘with sheer determination and hard work, I was able to conquer my fear and achieve something from this experience’.

Another thing that graduation reminded me was that I was worried of being the oldest person to graduate, when I first started my degree. I thought I’d be the laughing stock and seen as the “slow developer”. But realistically, throughout my 4 years I realised that on many occasions, it was the least of my concerns as most people mistook me for being much younger than what I was. And to be real with you, I even forgot that it was my concerns because at university, age doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to act accordingly. If your time at university does not transform your mindset or attitude towards affecting issues like dealing with various personalities, encountering challenging situations then you have not made the most of your university experience.

In all, I know this is going to sound crazy yet it seems quite real, wouldn’t mind going through this struggle a second time around by pursuing my Masters!

Starting University

I remember the day before going to university. I was nervous. My poor body was shaking with anxiety because I didn’t know what to expect. I was thinking what is my life going to be while I’m out there because I’ve never lived away from home and usually I have a list of rules that I have to abide to because of my strict parents. I was also thinking of whether I am going to make any friends seeing that I was starting school later than all my peers; or will I enjoy my classes? After all, I probably switched degree paths 5 times, before concluding to pursue a degree in Business. This was just difficult. However, the night before, my dad sat me down and told me that things are going to be ok. At least that was where he began, before giving me a list of rules that I needed to abide by whilst living on campus. “You need to be home by 8pm! If I you’re not home by then I will remove you from that school”, he said. “And be careful of the friends you make. No boys, no parties, no alcohol. Nothing! Just go to class, go to the library, go home and go to church. You hear me!” In my mind I responded with yes sir! But my eyes showed a completely different picture. My eyes were already filled with tears. I was a “bawler” at that time, a cry baby whenever I got told off or things weren’t going as planned.

The next day, we set out to my university. It wasn’t that far of a drive from our house to the school and so after a 30 minute drive; and the countless times we got lost because my dad thought he knew where the student accommodation was, we finally got there. It was raining. Not quite pouring, but enough to make my nervous day feel like a miserable day. The Fresher’s Angels came out to help me collect my welcoming pack, before moving into my dorm room. My room was fairly decent. I had a single bed and a window with a view piercing out to the other blocks. It wasn’t that bad. My dad and my sister sat down on the bed and stared blankly at my room. “This looks like a prison cell” chuckled my sister . “Eh, it is what is”, I replied. My dad then got up, and said  “well you have 3 years in this place. You have heard what I told you yesterday and so I will be coming by to check that you are home. You don’t have time to be messing around”. I nodded and again my eyes started to flood with tears. “You are crying? For what reason? Or do you want go home? Ahh just stop it!” dictated my dad ” just a few more years”. As I tried to recollect myself, he got up, gave me a hug and said “let us pray before we go”. I hadn’t realised that this was starting to get a little emotional for him too because I was too busy having crybaby tears in my eyes. After praying, both my sister and my dad left. I sat back in my room and began to cry. At least for another hour, wondering whether I’ve made the right decision on whether to go to university to study something that i wasn’t a 100% sure about. It is what it is I thought to myself. My flowing tears were ruddy (so I thought) interrupted by someone who was knocking at my door. It was my next door neighbour. One tall black, guy in a tracksuit. Boy I felt short at that moment in time! “Hey my name is John, I live next door. I moved in yesterday along with pretty much everyone else in the house. What’s your name?” I introduced myself to him as I took in a few deep breaths to bring myself together, from what felt like the most devastating event of my lifetime. We chilled in the kitchen for a little while, before I decided to head back to my room and unpack my stuff, to make myself fell a little more like home.

As the evening approached, and the sun had set, I lay on my bed, listening to my Gospel music, which were blaring through my laptop speakers. In the midst of my solo moment, there was a knock on my door. With embarrassment, I paused the music, fixed myself up and opened the door to see who was outside. Before me stood 2 new guys, VJ and Alex. “Hey!”, I said with a smile (still embarrassed by the fact that the entire house could have heard my awful singing. “Hey”, they said unanimously. “I’m VJ and this is Alex, we are your neighbours up here and thought we’d introduce ourselves. Will you be heading to the ‘T shirt party’ tonight at the on- campus nightclub?” said VJ.”Wait what party?” I asked in confusion. “It’s run by the Student Union as an introductory party. Each house was given a t-shirt as part of our welcoming present, which we’ll need to customize and wear. The house with the most representatives wins a prize. I’ve heard from my older siblings that it’s either free entry to a concert, £10 gift voucher or sometimes something completely random. But I know it’s always had a crazy turnout, you should definitely come!” “Err yes sure, I’ll see if I’m coming out. I’m not really a party person because I don’t dance nor drink. But I’ll let you know a little later if I’m coming”, I replied politely, not trying to sound like a weirdo or anything.

After an hour of pondering and seeing people wearing their customer designed shirt, I decided to go. But only for an hour! Just so that I can bond with my housemates for a little while and then come home. Our house colour was pea green and our animal was a stag. At the venue there were hundreds of people wearing yellow, orange, red, blue, purple customized shirts. I on the other hand did not know how to be creative, other than transform my t-shirt into a simple crop top, using a black hair tie. The night was amazing. And without any alcohol, I was able to enjoy my first night as a university undergrad.

 

 

 

Welcome to my blog

Hey lovelies! Welcome to my blog!

First of all, thank you for checking out my page!  I am not a natural writer. I usually like to keep my thoughts and opinions  to myself and so to start this blog is a huge step for me. I am hoping to use this platform, to just write about some of my past and current experiences in life and hopefully use this as an opportunity to hopefully inspire anyone and everyone who reads my blog.

There are many things that I’ve learnt over the past few years in my life. Most of which have helped to mould the person that I have become today and essentially have helped me to identify the areas I hope to develop as a young adult.  Since my childhood, I’ve always said to my parents that I would either want to be Peter Pan or Joseph (Bible) and the technicolour dream coat, as I always wanted to remain forever young, dream a multitude of dreams and live to rule a kingdom one day. Of Course staying forever young is pretty much unlikely. And knowing me, I am constantly filled with creative ideas on how to help others but sometimes struggle to give the right advice to myself. Hence why my life is full of various (almost) unbelievable experiences and lessons and I can’t wait to share it with you guys!

💗🕶📓