The fact that I have found a church that I absolutely love has been a blessing. Ever since my first visit they have made me feel like family. I walk in the building and I feel at home. Friendly people and they are so passionate and excited about the Lord. You can't help but be excited with them. This past weekend we had a Women's Ministry Fellowship. The night started out with a pot luck dinner, we played some games, had a workshop on overcoming our fears and doubts and then ended the night performing a play about the 10 virgins.
The weekend really helped me put a lot of things into perspective. I've learned to stop thinking so small about my business and what God has called me to do. As I continue to prepare to open up the bakery, things keep happening that I thought were roadblocks but they were actually blessings and lessons to learn. I am moving this weekend to another city near by, at first I thought it was going to stop me from opening up my business when it's actually helping me with the process even more. The house will be mine, I will be able to expand my kitchen when it's time and I have more space. I am truly thankful. My business will be up and running as soon as I get all the paperwork and permits done. Not going to rush things because they won't come out the way God wants them to, so I am being patient and watching God work. My God, He is working because the blessings that are already flowing are just overwhelming me.
Well off to bed I go, got lots of boxes to move in a few hours.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Almost time!!!
Have you every been so involved in a project that you lose track of time? You work so hard on getting things in order and preparing for the big day. Well right now....that's me!!! I have been working non-stop since August 2nd to get my business up and running. The journey has not been easy, but it has definitely been worth it. Long nights, early mornings, phone calls, emails, countless readings, recipe testing, researching business tactics and now it's almost time for me to launch my website, Facebook Fan Page and let everyone know what I have been working on for the past few months.
I'm excited, but also nervous. I've had some set backs along the way but I learned to embrace them and learn from them, some have taught a lot about myself and my business. I can truly say this has been a learning experience. I am extremely thankful to the core group of people that have helped me along the way, some of you were a part of the focus group others were there for me to bounce ideas off and some were taste testers. I appreciate you all so much!!!
Shivawn Mitchell at L.O.V.E. Consulting has been a blessing. I am so grateful for all her help. She has definitely kept me motivated. I couldn't have asked for a better business development coach. If you have a dream and need help getting things started check her out, you won't be disappointed. Her vlogs and Empower Me Over the Hump emails are such an inspiration.
Until next time!
I'm excited, but also nervous. I've had some set backs along the way but I learned to embrace them and learn from them, some have taught a lot about myself and my business. I can truly say this has been a learning experience. I am extremely thankful to the core group of people that have helped me along the way, some of you were a part of the focus group others were there for me to bounce ideas off and some were taste testers. I appreciate you all so much!!!
Shivawn Mitchell at L.O.V.E. Consulting has been a blessing. I am so grateful for all her help. She has definitely kept me motivated. I couldn't have asked for a better business development coach. If you have a dream and need help getting things started check her out, you won't be disappointed. Her vlogs and Empower Me Over the Hump emails are such an inspiration.
Until next time!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Dream Pusher's Academy
It's a been a while since I've posted, I need to get back on schedule and post a lot more. Looks like Dream Academy will have me posting at least once a week. Many of you know I have been working with Shivawn Mitchell from L.O.V.E. Consulting on starting my home-based bakery. This has been a journey, I am learning a lot about the business, myself, and the people I surround myself with.
Shivawn has graciously taken me under her wing and is guiding me along the path of entrepreneurship. As a memeber of her Dream Pusher's Academy, I am receiving weekly business development sessions, where I go over tasks and agenda items to get my bakery up and running. There are weekly homework assignments (Yes, I said HW) and mid-week inspiring and motivational emails, vlogs...and in my case text messages too!! These emails and vlogs are called Empower Me Moments...they definitely empower you! For the past few weeks I have found myself re-reading the emails and watching the vlogs a lot more, meditating on them and really taking the time to apply them to my personal life and my business life.
This past week we had email sent to us with the title "Getting Over Speed Bumps" this one hit home pretty hard, and I didn't realize how significant it was until today in church when Pastor Lundy began preaching about going through struggles and the reason why we must go through them. Sometimes we want things to happen too fast, and try to make them happen in our time instead of on God's time. Patience is a big thing, now I consider myself a patient person, although their are times where my patiences is very thin and I don't want to wait. But waiting is all a part of live. Sometimes you want to drive right over the speed bump in life and act like you don't see it but if you do, what happens?....we can mess up our car or in some cases cause an accident. After reading Shivawn's email I had to really stop and think about the speed bumps in my life, how many things have I tried to rush and make happen to only fail in doing so? If I would have just waited and did things on God's watch I would be just fine and not back at the start line. Even today during the sermon, Pastor Lundy hit on being patient and not causing problems for ourselves by rushing God's work. There will be pain, there will be moments of solitude and reflection but trust and believe if God gave it to you, you will birth it!!
Each of us was given a purpose in this life, we have to choose to live out the mission He has given us. Like a mother having contractions during labor, the pains will be there. I have experienced some myself on this journey, there have been days where I have wanted to give up, but I can't this is a gift that was given to me to share with the world. I have also tried to rush this process by thinking I could do it all on my own and in my time...HA!..definitely learned that lesson. Taking a different approach and waiting for God to place Shivawn in my life to make this happen has been a blessing in itself. The Empower Me emails and vlogs are just a small portion of the work that she does, but each piece serves it's purpose.
I truly understand why I had to wait to get my business started, why I had to join Tastefully Simple for 3 years to learn about owning my own business, watching both my father's own theirs as well...a learning process. I can take what I have learned from each of them and bring them into my own business. There is so much that I want to do in life, the bakery is just the beginning. Walking in the purpose God gave me is allowing me to pursue my dreams and help other's in the process. Even with my full time job, I am learning things to add into my business and gaining customer's as well. See...look at God, at my last job things weren't this easy. Doing things God's way is the ONLY way for me!
I didn't mean to have this post be so long, sorry about that. I guess I was just writing what was on my chest. We have had quite a few of these vlogs and emails so what I am going to do is go back and read my notes from each of these and post them to by blog, feel free to subscribe to her YouTube channel so the vlogs come directly to you. You don't want to miss any of these.
Until next time....
Shivawn has graciously taken me under her wing and is guiding me along the path of entrepreneurship. As a memeber of her Dream Pusher's Academy, I am receiving weekly business development sessions, where I go over tasks and agenda items to get my bakery up and running. There are weekly homework assignments (Yes, I said HW) and mid-week inspiring and motivational emails, vlogs...and in my case text messages too!! These emails and vlogs are called Empower Me Moments...they definitely empower you! For the past few weeks I have found myself re-reading the emails and watching the vlogs a lot more, meditating on them and really taking the time to apply them to my personal life and my business life.
This past week we had email sent to us with the title "Getting Over Speed Bumps" this one hit home pretty hard, and I didn't realize how significant it was until today in church when Pastor Lundy began preaching about going through struggles and the reason why we must go through them. Sometimes we want things to happen too fast, and try to make them happen in our time instead of on God's time. Patience is a big thing, now I consider myself a patient person, although their are times where my patiences is very thin and I don't want to wait. But waiting is all a part of live. Sometimes you want to drive right over the speed bump in life and act like you don't see it but if you do, what happens?....we can mess up our car or in some cases cause an accident. After reading Shivawn's email I had to really stop and think about the speed bumps in my life, how many things have I tried to rush and make happen to only fail in doing so? If I would have just waited and did things on God's watch I would be just fine and not back at the start line. Even today during the sermon, Pastor Lundy hit on being patient and not causing problems for ourselves by rushing God's work. There will be pain, there will be moments of solitude and reflection but trust and believe if God gave it to you, you will birth it!!
Each of us was given a purpose in this life, we have to choose to live out the mission He has given us. Like a mother having contractions during labor, the pains will be there. I have experienced some myself on this journey, there have been days where I have wanted to give up, but I can't this is a gift that was given to me to share with the world. I have also tried to rush this process by thinking I could do it all on my own and in my time...HA!..definitely learned that lesson. Taking a different approach and waiting for God to place Shivawn in my life to make this happen has been a blessing in itself. The Empower Me emails and vlogs are just a small portion of the work that she does, but each piece serves it's purpose.
I truly understand why I had to wait to get my business started, why I had to join Tastefully Simple for 3 years to learn about owning my own business, watching both my father's own theirs as well...a learning process. I can take what I have learned from each of them and bring them into my own business. There is so much that I want to do in life, the bakery is just the beginning. Walking in the purpose God gave me is allowing me to pursue my dreams and help other's in the process. Even with my full time job, I am learning things to add into my business and gaining customer's as well. See...look at God, at my last job things weren't this easy. Doing things God's way is the ONLY way for me!
I didn't mean to have this post be so long, sorry about that. I guess I was just writing what was on my chest. We have had quite a few of these vlogs and emails so what I am going to do is go back and read my notes from each of these and post them to by blog, feel free to subscribe to her YouTube channel so the vlogs come directly to you. You don't want to miss any of these.
Until next time....
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
A lot has happened!!!
So it's been a while since I have last posted here. A lot has happened since March. I have settled in with my new job, which I absolutely love, found my home church, and I'm working on getting my bakery up and running. In between all of that I have been traveling a lot, visiting family and friends.
While doing all of that traveling I had to opportunity to do some leisure reading. About a year ago I became an Ambassador for Harlequin Books, in which they send me a book to review every few weeks, followed by a survey and the opportunity to distribute the other 4 copies to friends, family, strangers, etc. 4 copies isn't a lot and most of the time I really do enjoy the books that they send, so I have decided that I will write a blog post about each of the books. This way, I can go into more detail about the book and let you know what I thought about it. The first post will be up by the end of the week!!
I got a question the other day on twitter asking me about my natural hair journey.....I'm still on the path. This head full of thick curly kinks is steady growing. The VA humidity makes it look even bigger, my roots swell something serious. I love it though, there are a lot of women at my job that are rocking their natural curls as well, one just did the BC and it came out beautiful!!! Speaking of natural hair, one of my younger sisters has gone natural...that's 3 of us so far!!! She has TWA and it's so cute!! Funny thing is she kind of went natural by accident. LOL She got pregnant last year and kept her hair in braids the whole time, so now there is no more relaxer left. I was doing a twist out on my hair one night and she said 'Can you do mine, when I take my braids out? Now you know I was excited!! Doing her twist out was so much fun, she actually wore the twist the work for the week and then rocked the twist out for about 4 days..said she felt like a totally different person. Woo Hoo!! We are doing this natural hair journey together and loving it. I need to take more pictures of my hair, maybe I can get the enthusiasm to do it this weekend. I'm thinking braids and a bantu knot out will be my weekend style, it just might be my style for a week knowing me. LOL
Food, food and more food.....well as you know I have another blog called Tastey Treats by Kim (here) where I discuss everything food related, write product reviews, and give out recipes. Well after working on that for a year I have finally decided to do what people have been asking me to do...sell my baked goods! I have started the process of working on my home based bakery, getting my business plan in order, along with with a product listing. But....I still need a name LOL Yeah I know I should probably already have one, but I don't..I'm working on it. I don't want it to be something I just threw together, I want it to have a meaning..some purpose. Brainstorming sessions are releasing some interesting characteristics, and I'm playing around with a few words to see if anything sticks. Hopefully I will have a name picked out soon. It's a lot of work to do, but I am really motivated and extremely happy that I have a support system to help me through this process along with my business coach Shivawn Mitchell from L.O.V.E. Consulting. She is amazing! If you are ready to live out your vision...CONTACT HER!! My journey to having my own bakery has begun, there have been some sleepless nights but I don't realize them until the next day when I get to work and I'm exhausted lol. I'm loving my journey and all it has to offer!!
While doing all of that traveling I had to opportunity to do some leisure reading. About a year ago I became an Ambassador for Harlequin Books, in which they send me a book to review every few weeks, followed by a survey and the opportunity to distribute the other 4 copies to friends, family, strangers, etc. 4 copies isn't a lot and most of the time I really do enjoy the books that they send, so I have decided that I will write a blog post about each of the books. This way, I can go into more detail about the book and let you know what I thought about it. The first post will be up by the end of the week!!
I got a question the other day on twitter asking me about my natural hair journey.....I'm still on the path. This head full of thick curly kinks is steady growing. The VA humidity makes it look even bigger, my roots swell something serious. I love it though, there are a lot of women at my job that are rocking their natural curls as well, one just did the BC and it came out beautiful!!! Speaking of natural hair, one of my younger sisters has gone natural...that's 3 of us so far!!! She has TWA and it's so cute!! Funny thing is she kind of went natural by accident. LOL She got pregnant last year and kept her hair in braids the whole time, so now there is no more relaxer left. I was doing a twist out on my hair one night and she said 'Can you do mine, when I take my braids out? Now you know I was excited!! Doing her twist out was so much fun, she actually wore the twist the work for the week and then rocked the twist out for about 4 days..said she felt like a totally different person. Woo Hoo!! We are doing this natural hair journey together and loving it. I need to take more pictures of my hair, maybe I can get the enthusiasm to do it this weekend. I'm thinking braids and a bantu knot out will be my weekend style, it just might be my style for a week knowing me. LOL
Food, food and more food.....well as you know I have another blog called Tastey Treats by Kim (here) where I discuss everything food related, write product reviews, and give out recipes. Well after working on that for a year I have finally decided to do what people have been asking me to do...sell my baked goods! I have started the process of working on my home based bakery, getting my business plan in order, along with with a product listing. But....I still need a name LOL Yeah I know I should probably already have one, but I don't..I'm working on it. I don't want it to be something I just threw together, I want it to have a meaning..some purpose. Brainstorming sessions are releasing some interesting characteristics, and I'm playing around with a few words to see if anything sticks. Hopefully I will have a name picked out soon. It's a lot of work to do, but I am really motivated and extremely happy that I have a support system to help me through this process along with my business coach Shivawn Mitchell from L.O.V.E. Consulting. She is amazing! If you are ready to live out your vision...CONTACT HER!! My journey to having my own bakery has begun, there have been some sleepless nights but I don't realize them until the next day when I get to work and I'm exhausted lol. I'm loving my journey and all it has to offer!!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Stop Settling!!
2011 started off with a bang! I started the new year off a little different than I normally do, I'm usually with my family in Northern VA. But this year I was in Virginia Beach, with my BRC family!! We brought in the New Year playing MJ Experience and Just Dance 2 on the Wii. It was awesome. I had so much fun. In a way I felt bad that I wasn't with my biological family but on the other hand I was happy that I had found new friends. I was in town for 2 weeks and there were people that I have known for years that I didn't see while I was there. At first I was upset that I had been there all that time and hadn't see people, but as the weeks went on, I heard 3 different people tell me that some people from 2010 will not carry over into 2011. That is so true, I guess I felt that certain people would always be around, no matter what.
For the past year I have been saying that I want to move to Virginia Beach, VA to be with my sister and to just get a fresh start. The entire time I have saying this I have been receiving more negative feedback than positive feedback. Very few people were actually embracing my idea of moving. People have told me I am being selfish for leaving my grandparents, other have said I have no business leaving the state and I need to get my priorities in order. I would pray about this move every chance I got, I just kept asking God, to do what He sees fit. If He feels this move should take place then so be it, if not then I know it wasn't in his will for me to move.
Well the Lord decided the move was just for me. He made a way for me to obtain a job, a place to live and transportation back and forth to work. The job even pays more than what I was making before!!! No one but God, I tell you. I am extremely grateful for the blessings he has provided for me. The Lord places people in your life for a reason, at first I let all the negativity get to me, stopped preparations for my move and just got content with the way my life was going. BIG MISTAKE!!!! I became miserable and started to hate everything around me. Let's just say I fell face first in prayer asking Jesus for help with this situation. I was tired of just letting everything pass by me.
Never settle for less than you deserve. If God, tells you He is going to make it happen, then He will. You just have to keep the faith, keep pressing, praise your way through. Your blessing is on it's way!!
For the past year I have been saying that I want to move to Virginia Beach, VA to be with my sister and to just get a fresh start. The entire time I have saying this I have been receiving more negative feedback than positive feedback. Very few people were actually embracing my idea of moving. People have told me I am being selfish for leaving my grandparents, other have said I have no business leaving the state and I need to get my priorities in order. I would pray about this move every chance I got, I just kept asking God, to do what He sees fit. If He feels this move should take place then so be it, if not then I know it wasn't in his will for me to move.
Well the Lord decided the move was just for me. He made a way for me to obtain a job, a place to live and transportation back and forth to work. The job even pays more than what I was making before!!! No one but God, I tell you. I am extremely grateful for the blessings he has provided for me. The Lord places people in your life for a reason, at first I let all the negativity get to me, stopped preparations for my move and just got content with the way my life was going. BIG MISTAKE!!!! I became miserable and started to hate everything around me. Let's just say I fell face first in prayer asking Jesus for help with this situation. I was tired of just letting everything pass by me.
Never settle for less than you deserve. If God, tells you He is going to make it happen, then He will. You just have to keep the faith, keep pressing, praise your way through. Your blessing is on it's way!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)