Engage Charlotte Blog

Jamelle Sanders Engage Charlotte guest blogger

As the landscape of business is changing, young professionals must be more devoted than ever to staying ahead of the learning curve. In this ever-changing market, it is vital that you develop the networks that will cause you to be distinguished in the marketplace. As the saying goes, it is often not about what you know but whom you know. First, you must become a skilled communicator to survive in the market today. Often times we are not lacking the skills we are lacking the speech. Your speech will give you the ability to market yourself and expand your value in the marketplace. Identify what you want your presence to be. Then invest time in making your communication powerful. Secondly, you must get connected. If you don’t build strong connections, barriers will always restrict change in your life. Connect with community and professional organizations and learn how to network. Challenge yourself to come out of your comfort zone and you will be amazed at the relationships that you develop in your life. As you connect, you will be challenged to break out of the status quo and aim for success in all areas of your life. Connections are powerful because they give you capacity. Capacity is essentially making the investment to become a master in your field. Capacity is the thing that will cause you to climb the ladder of success. As your capacity is expanded, you will be able to create excellence in every area of your life. Change your strategy and create something sustainable in your life.

Megan Sadler

Those of you ladies who were able to attend know that the most recent Good Friends Luncheon, held on December 13, 2011, at the Grady Cole Center, had more than 750 ladies in attendance. These ladies (including yours truly and other female members of Engage Charlotte) helped the total monies raised by Good Friends over the last 25 years surpass $2.5 million. These funds are used in our community to help those folks and families who may have slipped through the cracks meet basic needs like receiving job training and/or acquiring and maintaining appropriate living conditions (to name only a couple types of assistance provided by Good Friends).

Good Friends employs one person who oversees the distribution of monies directly to those in need in our community YEAR ROUND - not just during the holiday season. If you are looking for a relatively simple way to get involved, and you are a woman, please consider joining the wonderful tradition and fellowship of Good Friends. The only true commitment is attendance at one luncheon a year (during which you can handle all of your holiday donating in one fell swoop); however, there are many more ways to get involved with Good Friends if you have time. If you still aren't sure whether you should shell out the $55 and join, email me or speak with me at any of our events over the coming year, and I will bring you as my guest to next year's Good Friends luncheon. You'll be able to check out Good Friends free of charge as well as get in the Holiday Spirit a little early.

And fellas, don't feel too left out. If you are looking for a relatively simple yet extremely rewarding way to get more involved in our community, check out Good Fellows.

by Ashley Peeler

I don't want to go the route of clichés and "tis the season" for this and that, but I did recently learn a valuable lesson over the Thanksgiving holiday that can be applied to all of us just about any time outside of the designated time of year we are supposed to count our blessings and remember what matters most.

my wonderful parents

To start, my family has always been very supportive and close, with three children, parents who have been married to each other for my 33 years, and holiday and family traditions occurring in the same house they purchased when I was one year old (I know, an anomaly in this day and age). For what it's worth, we have always been thankful and (I believe) grateful for what my family has provided us, a loving home, caring and attentive parents, good relationships with my siblings, and support when we needed it throughout our education and now adult lives. What I tend sometimes to take for granted is the hard work my parents put into afford us this environment, home, vacations, holidays and general discipline that formed me to the adult I am.

I have recently been under the stress of finishing my MBA, staring a new job, juggling personal commitments and dealing with some marital strife. However, through all of that my parents, brother and sister have been a wonderful support team. This all came to a head on a particularly stressful day where my sister, who values my opinion so highly, texted me that they bought a brand new car. A car, a simple item that they needed and, to their credit, have the ability to afford. That’s it, a car, something to get you from point A to B, and for whatever reason it started a three-day war between my sister and me resulting in nearly the worst Thanksgiving ever. On top of a prior argument over who got to bring their dogs home (pugs vs. great danes and the little ones won), I was so beside myself I burst into tears when I walked through the door Wednesday evening of my parents and didn’t speak to my sister or her husband for going on three days.

Without belaboring the details of her husband ignoring me and my father basically telling us to take it outside and figure it out or there would be consequences (yes, for 30-somethings he still wields that power), I was forced to consider the fact that the rest of my life and all of my stress had spilled over and on to the group of people who matter most. If you have a family like mine and you know that the biggest argument used to be over who got the middle seat to themselves on a family trip, then a ruined holiday is by far a crushing feeling, much less dividing the family over trivial matters like a purchase that has nothing to do with me personally. (Don’t get me started on what happens to the person who has the first grandchild.)

my family

So what is the point I am trying to make? No matter who it is in your life – family, spouse, colleagues, friends – these people are your support system, whether acknowledged or not. And each and every one of them has a life outside of yours, believe it or not, and has their own list of things they are dealing with. It’s how you chose to handle yours that can make or break it. I am extremely thankful for my family, I am grateful for the things we do for one another, and I am now humbled by the fact that nothing should ever be so overwhelming as to make me take my frustration out on them to the point of running a relationship. I stubbornly refused to even look at the car over Thanksgiving, but I should have been so humble to swallow my jealously to be happy for them. This was a moment for them, not me, and at the end of the day it had no bearing on my life, work, decisions, finances, etc. Do not get so swallowed up in yourself that you think the world must revolve around you. Enjoy the moments you have with the people that matter most. Jealousy is energy wasted that could be used for helping those less fortunate than you, which there are many. Be thankful for what you have, not what someone else has. If you work hard you will be rewarded. In the spirit of giving, forgo a few lattes these next two weeks and donate to an angel tree. or if you have had a longstanding argument with someone, be the bigger person and call them up and talk it out. Harboring the frustration will only wear you down and cause you to lose sight of the things that matter most.

So I ask you to enjoy the season, whatever you may be celebrating and once New Year’s rolls around, continue to be thankful, grateful, and most of all humble.

Andrea Arevalo

Each weekend, crowds stream to the Knight Theater for unique concerts such the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s KnightSounds series, which promises “daring and innovative musical experiences that will stimulate and delight the senses.” Next door, other culture-seekers fill the Bechtler Museum to enjoy jazz or films about architecture. Across the street, the Mint Museum beckons with nationally recognized exhibits such as the current "Romare Bearden: Southern Reflections," which celebrates Charlotte’s own internationally renowned artist 100 years after he was born right here in the 3rd Ward. And it doesn’t stop there. The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture extends the Levine Center past The Green and out to Stonewall. Be sure to check out their annual Arts Festival this weekend, October 28 and 29.

While the cultural buzz may be particularly noticeable on Friday nights and Saturdays, this corner of town has something to offer all week long. The Bechtler has a “Modern Mondays” series of enlightening Art Talks. The Mint Museum offers free admission on Tuesdays from 5 to 9 p.m. What’s more, Halcyon Restaurant, located in the Mint Museum, is open daily for some of Charlotte’s most innovative, cutting-edge dining to satisfy the appetite you are bound to develop as you enjoy the events that fill the rest of the Center for the Arts.

Megan Sadler

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s seeing Halloween decorations before the fall leaves start falling. And I definitely hate it when I see Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. That having been said – I have always been a silver lining kind of person. So while marketing takes its evil toll and gets me to buy a Christmas present in October, consider this even though its extremely early: as the holiday seasons approach, it’s a good time to start considering those in need in our community. Sure, sometimes it feels like these are the “worst of times.” But there are thousands in our area struggling simply to survive. For example, at least one local group estimates that CMS has mpre than 4,000 homeless students this year. So go ahead and start researching local groups, so you can get involved before the crunch of the holiday season starts. Planning ahead now will also make it easier to plan to add a line-item of giving – whether it’s a gift of your talents or a monetary gift – to your monthly budget. Planning now to help meet these needs will make it easier to do so within your budget (whether it’s your weekly schedule or your pocket book), and it might even help you feel the holiday cheer that much more.

So as you gear up for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas or Festivus, consider committing now to donate your time, talent or funds to help some really worthy causes, including:

• A Better World – A “Non-profit organization that reaches out to children and their families in the Ashley Park Community and the surrounding area to offer after school care, classes and training which will assist them in many areas of their lives.”
• A Child’s Place – “A Child’s Place works to erase the impact of homelessness on children and their education.”
• Loaves and Fishes - Loaves & Fishes “provides a week's worth of nutritious groceries to individuals and families in a short-term crisis.”
• Urban Ministry Center - “The Charlotte Urban Ministry Center is an interfaith organization dedicated to serving our homeless neighbours and helping end homelessness.”
• United Family Services – The Vision of United Family Services “is that those families and individuals who are victims of violence or are touched by an emotional or financial crisis receive support and encouragement to create a better future.”

Also, be sure to go ahead and mark your calendar for Engage Charlotte’s After Hours event November 16, 2011 from 5:30pm to 7:30 p.m., when we'll try to do our part for the community by helping raise awareness for two local groups – Good Fellows and Good Friends – who have been helping Charlotte for a combined total of more than 100 years.