Moving Forward 2016 part 2

Another week, another experience! It's only the second week into the new year and it seems quieter than usual.  Everyone seems to be hitting the grindstone and also looking for greener pastures elsewhere.  The job market seems to opening up so make sure you have your resumes polished up and find yourself a good recruitment agency to help you out with your job search.  I had a look at mine, and giggled, it was a bit like this.. :

blow off the cobwebs and smarten up your CV

Word of mouth from friends and acquaintances are also a gold mine for prospective jobs, but make sure you go through the job spec carefully because sometimes the job description is completely different to what was relayed to you.

It's always important to stay positive, like my gal pal and I say when things come crashing around you, look for the positives in that experience.  Make sure in between the searching and fretting that you exercise, it helps keep those endorphins flowing, when I was feeling a bit low it was exactly what my good friend Riz did, she got me out of the house for a lovely long walk in one of our botanic parks.  It puts reality back into perspective and of course helps burns calories! its a win win situation I tell ya.

So then I walked all the way to Sydney and back  (heh heh) 

Help yourself by feeding your brain, I've been helping myself to a good dose of TedxTalks.  Here are a couple that I enjoyed  : Getting stuck in the negatives (and how to get unstuck!)  and of course there is the very forthright How to stop screwing yourself over  I especially like the part about the internal chatter! Seriously it really never stops!

Last week I was blogging about how to make immediate cash by utilising your cooking skills, or anything you do well from teaching another language to scuba diving lessons while waiting for the job you want or figuring out what you really want to do.    It's funny when people ask me what I do, I never know how to answer them, once I even said "as little as possible"... and the retort was "yes , well we all try to, but apart from that.."  My other girlfriend leans over and whispers "say you're in between jobs".. Uh.. well that seems to imply I'm not working! I do have several jobs actually, four, if you count being a mum!

After coming back from Hong Kong, it seems the universe opened and started showering me with "marketing jobs" ! And you will probably come across them too.  One of them was for real estate bonds,  since it was a good friend who had offered this opportunity,  I heard them out (I'm nice that way :-p ) .  I realised with this type of  investment,  the parties that I would have to approach would be corporate ladder climbers and those with a substantial disposable income.  So I got ahold of someone I thought who filled the criteria and who was savvy with investments.  I  sat  with her through the presentation and had her break it down in layman terms to me and at the same time She felt it was wort her time and effort.   It's quite simple really, it's a bond that will be held for 2 years, it's in pounds, the profits are paid biannually and the interest rate is pretty good.  Here's a link to their website Lifesgood Property Investment .  Just remember, it's all about your comfort zone, if you think you can do it, go for it.

A few days later , in the midst of screaming at the TV monitor during the Rugby World Cup at our regular watering hole, my friend says to me as I'm hyperventilating ,   "how about earning in USD?"  The All Black's score a try and I'm whooping loudly, I look at her and say "hell yeah". "OK" she says, "I came with you to the property investment, come with me to this network marketing launch, lets check it out".    "Fair enough" I say with my eyes glued to Sonny Bill's glutes.. sigh those Kiwis.. uh where was I?

All Blacks all the way!

Life Force

So essentially you have MLM's, Pyramid Schemes, and Network Marketing.  I've tried a few, in between my productions, one of them was Life Force ,  it's health products from power drinks, nutrition and beauty.  I first joined it was via  the New Zealand division, and then they finally brought the products to Singapore.  That was in 2009, and it cost me $440 and I only signed one person on.

 Then  in 2012, I was introduced to another called Exfuze .  This one was yummy, it was a health drink and supposed to do all sorts of beneficial things for you, so much so that my son thought it was a soft drink, and drank most of the bottle in one sitting!! Heh Heh.. and with them as well I only signed on one person. It cost me RM530.

Exfuse

I've been approached by herbalife etc but ( I can feel you all squirming in your seats) I knew I did not have have the type of personality  or interest to pursue it. Both were MLM businesses. So when I went to this networking launch, I was already in defence mode. However, once there , it was made abundantly clear it was not a MLM scheme, it was all about network marketing, it was about travelling and having fun while doing it as well as making money along the way.  Finally a product that I could understand, as I travel a lot.   When I spoke to people about this exciting product, they were so receptive towards it, because everyone travels!   I thought to myself, 'hmmnn this is also a good way to empower loads of women', friends I know who've had to downshift due to the economy, and in such a supportive environment.   Don't get me wrong,every networking program you come across has negative stories about it, and I did my research, I grilled the Regional Director and he answered all my questions and allayed my fears.  It also leaves me with loads of time to work on my production, writing and presentations.  This was a perfect match for me.

My Team!

Not only do we network together we have lunches too!

What I'm saying is, my girlfriends and I try out these different programs, some are a good fit some are not, there are  many more out there.  My aim is to impart as much information as possible about these different ventures should you decide to go for it.  If you have some experience of them, and would like me to publish it on my blog, do drop me a line and tell me about them.  My e mail is daphnenasir@yahoo.co.uk  I'd love to hear from you, we're creating a hub for women by women, I find it so exciting!

I'll cover more possibilities next week, till then remember - a dream is only a dream until you make it a reality.

The Year 2016.. in the beginning

Happy New Year everyone.  I do hope for everyone this is going to be a great year.  2015 had so many bumps in it, it seems like everyone is happy to see the back of it. I for one waved it off with close friends and a few days of recuperation!

In my last blog I was talking about empowering women and what we can do for ourselves financially and spiritually in this economic state of uncertainty. I'm not going to bog you down with figures and tech speak, but have a real heart to heart about what we can do to help ourselves.  We've been informed that there have been so many budget cuts which means a lot of people being made redundant, downsizing of departments, companies going belly up or being bought over or like the radio station I had been working for, shutting down with 2 weeks notice.

Last day at the Station!

Me and my partner in Crime on the Morning Show

Once the initial shock is over, I think the most important thing is to ensure your tribe, and that is your most faithful and most supportive friends and family rally around you.  There will be a lot of ideas being bandied about, but the most important thing I've discovered is to trust your instinct and go with your gut.

Now for some of us , it's the age factor, lets face it, more companies prefer to hire younger people and to also pay less for the inexperienced ones. Plus the younger folk can hop around from one company to another and it's quite the norm, but if you've had an established career and a defined work ethos that you've been following it can be harder.  You will come across a myriad of  work opportunities, from MLM to introductions to investing.  Lets cover them one by one shall we?

My Almond Shortbread

Firstly if you find yourself at home, going through the ads and recruitment agencies without as much luck as you'd hope to have, lets look at what you can do immediately.  Do you cook?  Is there a specialised dish that everyone ooos and ahhs over?  I've spoken to quite a few women and they do a few signature dishes that they advertise online and cater to folk who don't have the time to cook.  All it takes is a little bit of patience and PR.  Make sure you bring you signature dish to the next get together, tell your friends you're available to cater the dish you've brought , make sure you also have a price in mind of how much you will charge.  Post it on your social networks, it's the best way of being visible and word of mouth also works and make sure you take some great shots of the food (not the person holding it or eating it!!)   Also as my girl friends mentioned to me, a lot of restaurants and cafes are accepting home made goods that are up to their standards so look around your neighbourhood to these places where you can possibly promote your dish.  This is immediate cash.
I make about 4 specialised dishes, apart from my Shepard's Pie and Apple Crumble I also do

killer quiches in many flavours

I also make tasty tuna puffs!

Then there's part time work at UBER, why not, if you own your own car, have a few hours to spare and want to earn money, apply, I'm sure your network will tell you where and at what time there's the most need for public transport.

The same can be said for your actual skills, you can always offer your services on a free lance basis whilst looking for the next major job, (anything from teaching yoga, cooking, accounting, language classes etc)   just make sure you know what the going rate is and charge accordingly.  Cash money more money.

my pal Riz does dive classes in her free time

and has some pretty awesome experiences along the way!

There are many MLM, Pyramid and Networking Jobs. out there, ranging from health products to time sharing.  The most important thing about this type of work is to actually believe in the product, believe you can market the product and make the initial payment (yes there is always an initial investment starting from RM 500 upwards.)   I'll cover them all in detail in the next blog, suffice to say this is to just kick start your year with a quick patch up and to let you know that you are not alone, we're all in this boat together, and we believe with more women supporting each other and building a network together or as I love to call it a TRIBE , we can do it and there is light at the end of the tunnel.


I'm in the midst of gathering other blogs for micro financing and also investing.  If you have a topic you'd like to share please don't hesitate to let me know, I'd love to hear from you,

So What NOW? part 1

Ahhh this post has been a long time coming, you know , you say  "I'll do it next weekend, when I've more time to spare and in a better frame of mind', well guess what, it's not the weekend, I am in a better frame of mind and I'm no longer on air! WHY you ask, lemmie fill you in.

My partner Bel on the breakfast show, which is from 6 am to 10 am weekdays on CapitalFm, and I were sorting out our holidays, we have to schedule them so at least one of us is anchoring the show with whomever that fills in.  Bel's going before me as she's got "stuff" to do overseas, so after another intense show also due to the fact that we're still under sweeps, (sweeps are the surveys done to the radio stations to see how they are performing in all categories including against each other)  we trundle down to HR to fill out our leave application.   We bump into our Station Manager who's beginning to look like a Mexican jumping bean with all the meetings she's been hopping in and out of.

"Hey Ladies" she says, "we've got an emergency meeting this afternoon, please make sure you are there, no excuses".   Bel and I look at each other and groan, we were hoping to bugger off home right quick to decompress, both of us at the end of our tethers and ready to burn out from the grueling and intense schedule .  "Ok bawse, " I retort, " I hope it's good news".  She gives us a sheepish look and says " it's about the finances",  I give her a sharp  "I hope they arent' thinking of reducing the salaries, coz it's going to be mutiny on the bounty " .  She says " well you guys will find out at the meeting".

Forward to the meeting, we're all seated around the conference table, throwing remarks at each other, taking the mickey , it's a women's station, we can get down and dirty and no one takes offence, we're essentially sisters in the hood .  Our COO walks in and without much preamble says, "the board of directors had an emergency meeting last night and have decided to shut down the station, so as of 30th Sept, the station will run on automation"... clang goes my jaw on the table, Bel's lost it, everyone is stunned and the tears are glistening on a lot of the faces around me.  Well now, that just about gives us two weeks to pack up and go... charming.

We had worked public holidays,  worked ourselves to the bone to push the station forward to make it even more successful, worked without producers, proper budgets and publicity and now this.. whoaaa.  For those who didn't smoke or drink, this was one day when all that went out the window.

Our COO invited us all out  that evening, all the announcers drifted in eventually. Though it was a sombre night, we still managed to have a few laughs.  My COO or should I say former COO,  looks at me and says "Thanks Daph, for coming on board, and I truly appreciate all that you have done to turn the station around"  I said " I did it for you Kudsia, you inspired me to come back, you wanted to make it for women, by women and that was the hook, and I'm glad I took the time out to do so, it was quite the roller coaster ride!"  She looks at me and says "lets talk some more later ok"  sure, everyone wanted a bit of her time, she was making herself available to all the announcers to discuss what was on their mind.

For the next two and a half weeks, Bel and I had to pretend to our audience on air  all was ok, we had to ensure the show was still on point, to not slip up, it was  hard, we couldn't  tell our regular contributors why we were not having them on the show, we couldn't  accept any more invitations to interview, we were not really answering our company e mails, so when the final day came and we were given the green light to say farewell on air, it was a lump in your throat, eyes glazed with tears, trembly and wobbly lower lip emotional moment.  We had established so many regular callers, contributors, NGO's , amazing people who were pushing boundaries for women, enriching our lives as women.  Bel was leaving on the same day, and we clung to each other, "gonna miss you mate" we both said at the same time. We had created such a strong bond, I feel we'll always have that special connection.

I kept waking up at 5 am in the morning for the next few days after our final day on air,  freaking out I was late for work, only to realise I didn't have to wake up!  I sat around watching my kids, reading facebook posts, scrolling through twitter and prepping for my trip to Hong Kong.  I had  previously booked and sorted my vacation to my hometown of Hong Kong for my school reunion, on one hand I was really looking forward to it, and on the other obviously I was concerned as I was now out of a job.  I spoke to my mother that evening and she said "Go Daph, enjoy yourself, relax, be with those who know you and I'm sure you'll figure out what you're gong to do next"   I also spoke to my school chum Annie as we're still close and she said the same, my other bestie said "go bonkers in Honkers!" 

As the days got closer to the big reunion date in Hong Kong,  everyone started to post frantically on our reunion wall on Facebook, I forgot about the sting of being made redundant, .... well I told myself here's to the next adventure,  Hong Kong here I come!  (you'll have to read the next blog for that little nugget!)

Half the People

I was scrolling through my home page on FB catching up with news and saw a post from Mary J Blige  with a title that said "bring back our girls ", in it I saw a picture of 4 African women walking and moved on to other stories.  A day later I get a private message from Marina Mahatir asking me to sign the petition that says "bring back our girls ".  So I did a little reading, where I found out that :

"In Nigeria, over 200 girls were recently abducted from their boarding school by a terrorist group, Boko Haram, that may be selling them as brides for $12 each. This petition calls on the Nigerian government and all enabled international parties to immediately rescue them." 

I was driving along in the car today (where ,lets face it apart from the shower, I do a lot of thinking... go figure) and thought, hang on a minute here, we (the females of the human race) make up HALF of the people on this planet, and no one has gone in and smoked the bad guys out and gotten the girls back?

Lets put it this way, if they had been your  daughter, sister, or cousin, or niece, or granddaughter or even a friends child, would you stand there and do nothing?  If this had happened in a western schooling facility for girls, do you think it would be this quiet? (hah, I would say not on your Nelly) 

Where are the huge headlines?  Where are the women activists making noise and getting on the press band wagon?  Why has there been so little fuss globally about them?   

Is the world trying to put a different value  on human life depending on "WHERE" you come from?  Is anyone aware that 3 of the 200 are dead and "no reports " of how they died have been given, (I'm sure anyone with an iota of intelligence will know that they were obviously badly 'abused',) and WE as women, just stand here and act "HELPLESS"??!!

Through decades of arguing, cajoling, protesting, fighting and chaining ourselves for OUR FREEDOM to be WOMEN with  EQUAL RIGHTS,  to join the Army, to join the Police Force, to become Politicians, to being Astronauts,  in Intel, to being Leaders in all sectors...... and NO ONE has done anything to get these young girls (between 15 and 18) back?  
We say we're emancipated, we say we're empowered, we say we have a voice.... then don't you think it's about time we started acting like the women our Founding Mothers paved the way for?  
Pool your great intelligence together sisters and lets bring them back.
Dx

Was That IT ?

As usual when the girls get together and start talking, the talk turns to things which should not be heard by men, and sometimes we're upset enough to say some of these things to them! Should be taken lightly with a sprinkling of sugar! x
Dx