The term I use to describe the last decade is one of shock & awe as our sensibilities on so many fronts were shaken at their foundations.
I can personally testify to this experience as in one year of the last decade, I experienced shock & awe in marriage, health and employment . Around our recent Christmas dinner table , I had a tear-filled moment as I remembered being wheeled out of a hospital by my brother and his dear wife on New Year’s eve, 2000. I am forever in the debt of care and grace of them and many others who supported my restoration from my season of enormous struggle.
.
I was able to land on my feet, and finished this decade with a growing hope of the future.
.
Others have not been that fortunate. They have experienced shock & awe of greater magnitude and lack the support network to rebuild and restore. They suffered from menacing hurricanes in the Caribbean, Katrina, or are caught in the vortex of the global economic tsunami with the resulting loss of homes , jobs, and dignity.
Shock & awe also produces the menacing fog of fear.
.
.
It is like a category five hurricane tearing through our spiritual and emotional lives, crippling our will and cowering our faith. A general of yester-years shared that fear kills more people than death. We fear poverty, dependence, illness, pain, being abandoned, and being ignored. The stress this produces is more crippling than arthritis!
How do we overcome this life stifling environment?
.
Realize that how we respond to circumstance does matter. Leverage hope and the freshness of a new beginning to flush the fear-filled attitude and drink deeply from your well of faith.
Realize that keeping up with the Jones is so yesterday, and prepare for a new normal where internal treasures matter more than external show.
Join an organization dedicated to rebuilding or restoring the social trust of an institution that has been overwhelmed in the past decade.
.
Our material well-being is also very important.
We will need a new mind set to also turn the tools of technology from being job eliminating to job creating .
.
The Internet’s omnipresence is menacing to so many, but we need to adapt our sails to take advantage of the new wind.
.
Yes, the last decade was life disrupting. We however find ourselves at a critical life intersection. What will you do?
I pray that we will energize our circumstance with a spirit of resiliency , lock arm in arm, and move forward in faith.
I have not been to the local mall since last year. Before you acuse me of not supporting the effort, the FEDEX and UPS trucks know my address better than the postman, as I prefer the on-line experience. My youngest daughter cajoled me into experiencing a real mall experience as we made our way back to college, yes back to school shopping.
.
The only other shopping season that surpass back to school is Christmas. I was in for a rude awakening at my real mall experience. Sure the anchor strore were still there, but severl store windows were darkened, or new enterprises occupied old store fronts. I find myself looking at the mall map to get around. I was witnessing the aftermath of our economic Katrina. A cautious mood at best is in the air.
.
Ladies, you our chief purchasing agents have spoken. Take a look at the latest trends
.
Although women have been affected less from an unemployment perspective , 73 % of women shared that this recession has changed the way they think about saving and spending.
.
Given this, others are adopting to the new consumer reality. Here are a few tips shared by Marti Barletta, a leading thinker on marketing to women.
Price overshaows value – brand loyaly loses
Thrift counts more than convienence – time saving is taking a back seat.
Sustainables trump disposables – resuables are in
Essentials eclipse indulgences – upscale products are hosed.
Online shopping in in vogue- the internet offers more ways of finding savings
.
One of the winners in all of this is Walmart. Their pricing and convienence continue to bring them consumer success even in this terrible recession. They also have another powerful weapon that needs to get more profiled because of its success. It is Walmart’s use of social media through their elevenmoms blogging program.
.
Wal-Mart equipped eleven mommy bloggers known for their shopping smarts with a video cameras, makeovers, a photo shoot, and an opportunity to turn their frugal ways into short videos of money-saving tips.
The unemployment rate and other technical terms used to describe the impact fail to capture the anguish and human toll of the economic tsunami.
.
Like a tornado, it strike swats within communities and industries leaving many staggering and drowning in a sea of debt and despair.
.
One powerful tool that we do possess to battle the sinking feeling of despair is hope.
Hope is said to give energy to the mind to explore the possibilities of a new day. Hope stays the course even when doors are slammed, and phone calls are not returned.
.
Putting a face to and sharing the odyssey of the journey from joblessness to employment can hopefully inspire those of us in the unemployment vice.
“I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
Maybe you were laid off, or finished your schooling, and here you are trying your best to secure that interview . After working your network, and exercising all your skills, you have an opportunity to show your stuff. How you you make the most of the interview opportunity?
.
I have compiled a list of suggestions from at HBR article by David Silverman. Here goes:
.
Dress appropriately. a business suit is appropriate. If you’re a man, wear a tie.
.
Be prepared to be crisp in your responses. Do not waste the interviewees time. Rehearse if that will refine your delivery.
.
Listen well. The most useful skill in sales is listening — and in an interview, you’re selling yourself.
.
Ask questions. Have a few prepared questions ready to roll out.
.
Show interest. This could also be called “sucking up.” When an interviewee doesn’t ask me anything about myself, she’s not just saying “I’ve got pride in my accomplishments and don’t need to pander to you.” She’s also showing me that she isn’t good at showing interest in other people. Which means she’s going to have a hard time politically in the company.
.
Do your research. You can show the hiring manager that you took the time to learn something about the company.
. Answer the question you wish they’d asked.
.
Be courteous to the interviewer’s support staff: secretaries, assistants.
.
Use the interviewer’s name a least once in a response. “Well John, with my background in ….” or “Well, Mr. Jones, you should know …”
.
Close the interview with a handshake and say something along the lines of: “I’m interested in working with XYZ and the team here.” (Ask for the sale!)
.
When I’m interviewing, I want to know the candidates’ philosophy, their experience, their vision, and their ability to come up with concrete ideas. A good candidate will be able to demonstrate that they can picture themselves doing the job that we’re asking them to do.
.
Take a thank you card with you and as soon as you leave the interview take 2 minutes to personally write a thank you, mention a positive part of the interview that the interviewer particularly bought in to or if something did not go so well its a chance to explain positively. Mail it immediately.
Have you noticed the commercials of credit card companies lately?
The usual taglines of:
“Don’t leave home without it”
“What’s in your wallet”.
are as popular as Bernie Madoff in New York.
More people are now singing the jingle of freecreditreport.com instead.
We consumers are leaving home with credit card-lite wallets!
In addition, the card companines are discouraging credit expenditure by cutting credit line limits without warning!
.
Would you believe that you the consumer sent a powerful message to the credit card financial institutions by paying down credit card debt by $6B from November to December of last year!
Even with this pay down, the economic tsunami is still wreaking havoc as credit card delinquency grew by 5.9% in January after the Christmas season.
Even the gold standard of credit cards, American Express has seen 11% quarterly loss.
.
What’s in are debit cards, being promoted heavily by Visa and MasterCard. Both these companies are doing quite well, growing nearly 30% in income in the last quarter. Why, they make monies for each transaction you make as they are really middlemen (toll collector function in the financial highway) between you and the bank who owns the debt, banks such as Citi, Chase, etc.
Look to experience commercials from these institutions on how they are helping us “outsmart these tough times”.
.
Here is the latest snapshot on how US consumers are paying for our transactions.
Debit cards 37%
Cash 29%
Credit cards 22%
Checks 12%
* I thank Beth Bulik of Adage for the research data.
.
As Easter approaches, my mind goes back to many moons prior, a time where I went with mom in January to the department store to pick out my next coat. Come Springtime with eagerness, we made a second trip, to pick up that new item. Yes, mom used lay-away!
How are you living “the pay as you go” life style?
Thank God it’s Friday has taken on new meaning for you!
With a momentary sense of relief you amend this statement to say
“Thank God it’s Friday and I still have a job!”
You did not hear that kiss of death phrase, “The boss wants to see you”.
“How do I become my boss’s MVP?” haunts your mind, but that self discussion is for another day.
.
Have to call Marge to see how she is doing with her job hunting this week. Poor chile, last week, she got pre-fired. (Job disappears before one formally applies)
.
As you head home you remember the cupboard is empty so you stop by the supermarket to pick up a few items.The kids have been complaining about all the Chinese noodle soup you have been having lately. You need to switch it up some.You pass the meat counter and just keep going to the can food section. You pick up a half a dozen cans of Spam, the new bully beef.
.
You then pass by the price for quick sale table and see that Jancrow has been there already.Your cell phone rings at it is Roy, your husband. He is calling to see if he can have the guys over on Saturday night for a game of dominoes.
.
You kiss your teet and ask him why the game is always at your house before you hang up.You decide to swing back by the meat counter to see if there is anything on sale worth considering, and then a special visual crystallization takes place.
.
All of a sudden these two items seem to jump out of the crushed ice bed in the display; chicken back, and chicken foot.
.
Your nutritional brain becomes engaged, and rule out the back due to its high fat content. Your brain is also stretched to count off all the myriad of meal options that can be created with the foot- soup, curry, —.
.
The story above was written by my marketing mind that placed myself in the mocassins of a Jamaican consumer. (Let me know if you think I am smoking some of that Latin lettuce).
.
Other food companies have been wondering about the cash-strapped consumer and providing solutions to attract them to their product. For example, the graph below shows a marketing correlation between tuna-noodle casserole and the Dow index.
.
The casserole is making a big comeback as it is cheap, and easy to prepare. Campbells Soup have also noted that 7 of the top 10 recipes are for casseroles.
.
Well, I have not decided to become a food blogger, but was interested in :
what innovations at the grocery store are you making to stretch the food dollar?
Have you notice a growing line these days at the coin exchange machine in your local supermarket?
I could not help but notice a line of adults at the machine while shopping on yesterday.
This scene triggered some memories of a few year ago. I had used penny collecting as a means of teaching my youngest daughter a keen life lesson. I wanted to teach her the discipline of patience to under gird her emotional intelligence development.
.
I would give her all of my pennies. Every few months, we would go to the coin machine and, wah lah!, her diligence and savings turn into a receipt that became $10! She could use this money to invest in a personal item.
.
Overtime she badgered me for nickels, and dimes, but I stuck to my guns, and she had to live within the limits of the power of the penny. She does know how to pinch a penny , I just wished her college education could be measured in those terms.
.
Folks are using all their imagination to make even the penny count. Take a look and see if you agree.
I live in a space of thankfulness, and I have been rewarded a million times over for it. I started giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased. That’s because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it.”
– Oprah Winfrey
How are you leveraging your pennies to stretch all your budgets?
With the turning of the calendar to March, march madness takes on a new meaning for those of us who are getting ramped up on filing our taxes in the USA. For those of you who would prefer that your bank account Not be liberated by the IRS,
I invite you to listen up to the keen insight of Mr. Simeon Kerr.
Simeon Kerr was born in Hanover , Jamaica and attended Ruseas High School .
He immigrated to the US in 1979.
He graduated from Loyola University in Chicago where he received his MBA and has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1986.
Simeon’s career started out in Corporate America, then in Government and now has a public practice.
He founded S J Kerr, Ltd Certified Public Accountants in 1995 which is based in Illinois .
His specialization: Taxation, Audits, Business Valuation, Financial and Estate Planning
As we rebuild our lives, it’s good to know what to avoid and what new regulations will be meaningful to foster a sustainable economic future.
.
The media tends to exaggerate negative news; focusing on the most dramatic statistics; constantly making comparisons with the great Depression . It can become down right depressing.
If you were unfortunate to lose your job, especially for those of us over 40, our worst fear can become a crippling ,depressing event.
Grieve the loss! but don’t remain there!
if we remain flexible and retain a positive attitude, we can look for ways of turning our lemons into lemonade.
We can create unexpected opportunities. Sure, we will be forced to take a new strategy, we may be able to pursue career paths that we previously never thought of.
.
Share your comments on how you have moved beyond a job loss to a new possibility.
