Turn Up The Base On Your Brilliance

Every time a child is born, the world inherits another body of brilliance. We enter this world excited about the possibilities and the opportunities that life has to offer. Not afraid to take risks or speak our truth. But somewhere between taking your first step and yesterday, someone told you, you weren’t good enough. But here’s what being told “you’re not good enough” looks like. Bill Gates first business failed. Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was 4. Jim Carrey was homeless. Stephen King’s first novel was rejected thirty times. Oprah was fired from her news anchor job. Michael Jordan was cut from the Varsity team in high school. Jay-Z couldn’t get a record deal anywhere and Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. And you’re worried about Peggy from Accounting or the dude with commitment issues telling you that YOU are not good enough. Stop listening to the scarecrows. You know the people without a brain, who refuse to see your greatness.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/yaxap75a

TIPS ON HOW WOMEN CAN MOVE UP IN THEIR CAREERS

Choosing your career path as a woman can, and in some cases, will be the most difficult decision you’ll ever make.  But once you get in the trenches of your career, you want what every man wants, advancement.  More often than not, we hear the phrase “the first woman to ever”.  That’s because, companies are now beginning to focus on the ability to do the job as opposed to the gender.  Your education, experience and track record is starting to speak for itself and that’s a beautiful thing.  But if you’re still challenged with male dominated leadership and looking to break down the walls of gender bias companies, here are a few tips to get you to the top. 

1.     Choose your career wisely:  If you choose a field that is generally male dominated, then breaking down gender bias walls is not impossible, but can be difficult.  In environments that are heavily male skewed, you have to constantly take them to school and teach them by using visual aids.  You remember that old saying “I can show you better than I can tell you”, it works well in those type of environments.  People will always do what they’ve always done, until you show them something different.

2.     Knowledge is Power:  Know your stuff!  Everything there is to know about the job you want should be embedded in your brain and regurgitated in a moment’s notice.  What you know is essential to how far you go.  And what you don’t know, learn it.  You already come to the table with a cloud over your head for just being a woman, but coming to the table as a woman who isn’t knowledgeable about the job she wants, will be the beginning of your demise.  Knowledge is the difference between the top and the bottom.

3.     Don’t ever play the girl card:  Being a woman can be your secret weapon, so don’t use it in public, because now everyone sees it and it no longer holds any value.  And if you use it one too many times, it then becomes “the boy who cried wolf” story.   The best weapon you can use to advance your career is your mouth.  Keep the fact that you’re a girl off the table.   Tell your leadership what your goals are and where you would like to position yourself within the company.  How else will they know if you don’t open your mouth?  Remember a closed mouth never gets fed.

4.     Engage in a little competition:  As a woman working in any industry, you will compete.  But your main competition are not men, it’s other women.  Yes, it can become a good old catfight, but don’t let it!  Competition can make us crazy but collaboration will make us better.  Pull your resources together because you’re both going after the same thing, the opportunity to advance.  The beauty in that is, if one of you get the job, you are now in position to reach back and pull up the other one and show them, “Who Run The World” Girls!

5.     Find the balance:  The hardest thing to find in life is balance, and the more successful you become, the less balance you have.  Finding balance between work-life and family is not as much an issue for women than it is for those looking to hire and promote women.  While it is important to maintain all areas of your world, don’t allow your decision to have a life and a family, affect your choice to have a career too.   As women, having it all doesn’t mean having everything you want, it just means having the same work and family choices that men do.

While this is still a man’s world and the “good ole boy” network is still in affect, women will continue to infiltrate industries that do not see the value in the advancement of women.  But ladies, don’t let that stop you, let that drive you.  Many women have knocked down walls, broken glass ceilings, climbed ladders and balanced it all, while remaining a woman, all for the sake of advancement.  So go get what’s yours

"MAID" IN ERROR

In Theaters now is the new movie “The Help”.  After reading the book and seeing the movie, I need some help understanding, why.

“The Help”, a screenplay written from the book by Kathryn Stockett takes place in Mississippi, in the 1960’s when being a maid was not a choice, but a requirement.  The book and the movie takes us back to a time of segregation and sheer disrespect for another human being, regardless of color, education or occupation.  This movie makes you want to say, we hear you loud and clear.  We heard it in The Color Purple, we saw it up close and personal in Roots, and we felt it in our hearts in Precious.  How much more do we need?  Yes blacks have been slaves, maids, poor, abused, and uneducated.  We get it!  African Americans do not need a refresher course every year to remind them of what it was or is to be black.

It amazes me the words used to describe this film; “Encouraging”, Empowered, Riveting.  Do you think a black maid ever felt empowered about cleaning a white woman’s house and then going home and cleaning her own?  Do you think a black maid was ever encouraged by serving a white woman’s family while her family fins for themselves? Do you think it is riveting for a black maid to care for a white woman’s children while no one cares for hers?  How exactly does “The Help” help women today?  What is the message? That white women can be friends with their maids.

We are living in a time where the President of the United States is a black man and the first lady is a black woman.  African Americans have come such a long way from being just the help.  When I think of the roles that are available to white actors as oppose to black actors, it lets me know, that’s where “The Help” is really needed.

I was born in the 60’s, raised in a two working parent home and spent all my summers in the South with my grandmother and aunt.  My grandmother worked in a flower shop making beautiful flower arrangements for all occasions; my aunt was a social worker, who also owned the only beauty salon and flower shop in her town.  What is this movie saying to those of us who don’t have the “maid” story or can’t relate to it? Just because you’re black, don’t mean you’ve been to Africa.

Kathryn, if you want to write maids, write about the women who clean houses today.  If you called Merry Maids today, 95 percent of their staff is white or Mexican.  The only difference is, their maids cost $120 an hour, and black maids in the 60’s were paid $1.20 an hour.  Why must writers continue to take us back to a time of humiliation, low self esteem and depression?  Why are viewers still paying good money to see the same story told over and over again?  Educated white women make friends with the uneducated black help.  And as always, in the end the white woman is the hero for helping out the black folks. 

The writer of “The Help” uses a quote from Hattie McDaniel to justify her lack of harm in writing this book and screenplay.   Hattie McDaniels was reportedly quoted as saying “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid?  If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week being one.” Why did Kathryn use that quote?  Is that supposed to be encouragement for the black folks?

 “The Help” doesn’t represent encouragement or empowerment.  The dialect used in the book and the movie was appalling in the 60’s and is appalling today.  Is that all you have as a writer?  I say to all writers, stop taking us back into a time and place that was degrading for many black women and men.  We live in the 21^st century where being black today means something more than just being the help.  Today, we make decisions that change lives; we heal through development of new medicines; we educate through teaching, we build families by example.  That is the kind of help we provide today!

You have writers out here who write about things that change lives and impact worlds forever more and they can’t even get a book deal.  But Kathryn Stockett comes along with another sad story, about the poor black folks, and it becomes a feature film.  Go figure.  The help is not a positive message on any level, for any race, under any circumstances

The meaning of the word “Help” is to aid; to assist.  Let’s ask Kathryn Stockett to aid and assist us in writing about things she knows, white people.  Because if this is the best she’s got, then she doesn’t know black folks at all!

FOR LOVE, MONEY AND FRAUD

Volume 213, Issue 1

Alycia Kaback, is the face of VIP Talent Connect, The “It” Factor, Kaback Model Management, Colby Models and now The NYC Women’s Empowerment Summit, but who is she? Where did she come from and why is she in Philadelphia? Born and raised in Boca Raton, FL, her father a prominent lawyer, her mother a paralegal, Alycia spent her younger years pursuing a career in the entertainment industry, but unfortunately she did not have The “It” Factor. Being raised with the law at her fingertips, why would this Boca Raton Jewish girl be associated with one of the biggest SCAMS in the entertainment industry.

VIP Talent Connect a.k.a. The "It" Factor is an entertainment networking event that allegedly takes place in New York every 8-10 weeks.  The cost of this networking event ranges from $1,495 - $1,695. Wow! Sounds to me like any inspiring actor, musician and/or model should walk away a star.  What exactly do you get at this event of that kind of money?

In the regularly scheduled open calls, Alycia Kaback states the event is a nine hour day that includes breakfast and lunch, networking with celebrities and 35 top executives in the music, acting and modeling industry. Unfortunately, the attendees have no idea what celebrities or industry execs will be at the event.  For your money, shouldn’t you know who is going to be there? Why do they keep the names a secret? During their many open calls, it is said only 125 people will be able to attend this infallible networking event. Let’s do the math, 125 times $1,495 will generate an income of $186,875 for Alycia Kaback, VIP Talent Connect and The “It” Factor. If they do this event every eight weeks, they are raking in a whopping $1.3 million a year. Artist who have attended this event once before, said you will meet washed up actors and no name people within the industry. Maybe that’s why they can’t tell us who will be there, because they have no name.

Employment with Alycia Kaback, VIP Talent Connect, The “It” Factor, KMM and Colby Models has been a revolving door. No one currently working for the company has been there more than eight months, yet the company has been in business for 4 years. Where are all the past employees? Today, people from all walks of life are employed there, drug addicts, washed up singers, actors, models and Aly who has a personal grudge against the industry for not letting her into the Mickey Mouse Club as a child actor. Those employed by this company as a Talent Scout, have been scammed also.  Aylcia Kaback is really making a name for herself, unfortunately, it’s not a good name!

But Alycia Kaback does not work alone. She has a trusted sidekick who knows the scam game all to well. What we have on our hands in Philadelphia is a real modern day “Bonnie and Clyde”, except instead of banks, it’s the entertainment industry.

Michael Fomkin, a.k.a. Mike James started his scam career as the brainchild of Impact 210. His background also includes leadership at the infamous Wilhelmina Scouting Network scam. He owned a franchise which scammed thousands of young people. Impact 210 was his first scouting operation. Fomkin called himself the "CEO/Visionary" of Impact 210. Wilhelmina Scouting Network used to claim it was visionary and revolutionary before it went bankrupt in a cloud of controversy. Fomkin has never set any standards for the modeling industry except bad ones. He's been part of the worst exploitation of young talent the industry has ever seen. After WSN collapsed, following extensive exposure by the media, including a Dateline NBC report, Fomkin started Type 1 Model Man-agement, an illegal business, which morphed into One Source Talent, which he created with his WSN business associate Anthony Toma. These companies were running a photo mill, the oldest modeling scam in the book. Impact 210 was made in the mold of the Wilhelmina Scouting Network scam, which also ran an employment scam using HotJobs and Monster.com. (It was banned by both, as Newsweek Reported). Impact 210 offered "seasonal showcases to promote and expose top-notch talent to numerous talent scouts casting agents and industry movers and shakers. Wilhelmina Scouting Network also offered this overhyped, overpriced service which was virtually useless for almost everyone who paid.

Mike James /Fomkin is now showcasing himself as the President of VIP Talent Connect and The “It” Factor. While he says president, we say mastermind. He is back and up to his old tricks again and he is the brains and mastermind behind this entire SCAM. Mike does not make himself visible much, probably due to his past. All office space is leased to Alycia Kaback. All checks are signed by Alycia Kaback. All credit used is that of Alycia Kaback. Are they dating, married, shacked up or just friends? Alycia often refers to her boyfriend but never men-tions a name. They could do a sequel to the “The Secret Life of Bees” entitled “The Secret Life of Thieves”. How long will Michael James Fomkin continue this SCAM? How long will he continue to SCAM hard working people out of their hard earned money? Mike and Alycia have nothing to offer models, actors, musicians or anyone else in the entertainment industry that they can’t find for themselves. This SCAM has got to stop and it has got to stop TODAY!

But today, right here in the City of Brotherly Love, their SCAM is still in full effect and the name has been changed to protect the criminal. Same game, different name! Alycia Kaback, VIP Talent Connect, The “It” Factor, Kaback Model Management, Colby Models, The NYC Women’s Empowerment Summit and Michael Fomkin has taken this show on the road again, and they are performing at 125 South Street and a new office in Feasterville, at 210 E. Street Road. This is a warning to all people in the tri-state area, Alycia Kaback, Michael Fomkin a.k.a. Mike James and all companies associated with them is indeed a SCAM and has the track record to prove it!

Please visit Dateline NBC and type in Michael Fomkin and/or Impact 210


Other References

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/modeling/pdf/newsweektct.pdf
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/modeling/pdf/nbcmichaelfomkin.pdf
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/modeling/pdf/nycpbwsn2.pdf