JayeSpotTV#24: RHOA S6;Ep15, "Dropping The Ball"

JayeSpotTV: SUCKIT Video#1: CMCS, Scandal, American Horror Story, Agents...

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Job Hunting In A Depression

So many Americans are (and have been) unemployed.  We hear these words being thrown around like "recession" and for the most part none of us really understand the political parts to this whole we call the USA. What's the difference between a recession and a depression? If you ask me there are a lot of middle and lower class households that are pretty depressed every time they look at their bank accounts or see the mountain of bills that continue to pile up on their tables.

I know how many people love our president; I'm one of them, however, despite the fact that there have been quoted "thousands of jobs created", why are so many people without work? It baffles my mind that people with degrees are still struggling to find work. Moreover it seems that in a world filled with technological advances, those who are a bit more analog than they are digital are being laid out to die in the upheaval of limited employment opportunities.

Let's face it, if you're 30 and up with no degree and no experience in a technological field you're pretty much a fossilized worker. It is often said that technical trades are an insured way to stay employed as many of our plumbing, electrician, and masonry workers are all of a preceding generation and in desperate need of recruitment.  So I guess you can go to a trade school, learn how to lay some pipe, and venture off looking for plumbing work and be fulfilled unclogging someones drainage.

But what if you're in a position (like most) where a technical trade is just not something you can or want to do for the rest of your life? You have drive and passion and are looking for a truly satisfying career path. Most would say "go back to school!!" Then you realize that in order to go to school, even a community college, you need a small fortune or be willing to go into a small fortunes worth of debt! Other's say "get what you can to pay the bills!" But do you really want to spend the rest of your life JUST working to pay bills?!


I hope you didn't think that this blog was going to have the answer because BAAAAAAABY it doesn't!  This problem is more than me or the Jaye Spot can even FAKE to solve. However I can say that in my experience things work out the way they are meant to; sometimes with a little extra push from...you guessed it...OURSELVES! I know first hand that drive and passion don't pay the rent, if it did I'd have SEVERAL houses!!! Yet you have to be willing to stay true to yourself and not get caught in a job that simply allows you to work to live. Sure we have responsibilities but who said that we had to settle for less than what we're worth or capable of?

As hard as the job hunt is out there today, this may be the time where going back to school IS the answer or to start a business that you've always wanted to start. We know that EVERYTHING has some type of cost attached to it but if that's the case then  God/the universe/whatever has to supply the provision for what you're meant to do, right? Hey they could be simply waiting for your to get off your ass and actually do SOMETHING!!!! In all my days I've never seen a parked car go ANYWHERE!!! Even if in the wrong direction it's able to make a few turns to get back on track but first and foremost the engine has to at least be on.

We may be in a recession (or depression) but I do believe that with all of the advances that many of us don't understand we have all we need to make things happen for us. We're in a time where it's very much a "do it yourself" kind of world.  So why not go out there and throw irons in every fire to see which one truly lights up?!

Branded Behavior: The Do's & Don'ts

As a blogger and online radio host I get a lot of people that want me to support their projects or simply pull them in to do an interview and my questions are always the same:

1) What do you have going on currently?

2) What do you have coming up?

3) What's your following like?

However, for whatever reason, people don't understand how the game of BRANDING works!! Building a brand is much like building a car. It takes a while to get the idea together, gather all the necessary parts, piece it together, make sure it works and then actually get people to trust themselves inside it.  When you're building a brand or any type of business it's going to take people a while to trust it.  Point! Blank! Period!

So if you don't have a huge following, chances are bloggers aren't going to notice you or have much to say. Bloggers, such as myself, aren't blogging about things that aren't reputable.  If we're supporting an idea, project, artist or whatever, we're doing it because we can see the following they have.  One thing about being reputable in today's world is where I can find you online.  Are you Google-able?



71% of bloggers are blogging about brands that are REPUTABLE!!! That means we can find you easily in a Google search, we can look at your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and see that you actually have people supporting what it is that you're doing.  It's not going to help your brand if I type it in a search engine and nothing pops up.  If you're just starting, that's understandable; however, do the work it takes to get your brand to the next level before seeking the network and promo of professional bloggers.

Here's my advice if you're trying to gain some Internet traction through the world of blogging:

1) Make sure that your Brand is YOUR Brand!! Nothing worse that seeing an idea that someone else has already had, branded and pushing.

2) Work your connections! Get your friends to like you, family members, co-workers, etc.  The more people you have following your social media the more reputable you seem.

3) GET ON GOOGLE!!!  Whatever you need to do to make sure that your brand pops up in a Google search is paramount to having bloggers want to talk about your brand.

I know sometimes it seems like a lot but hey, no one said building a brand was easy!!!

For more info on building a reputable brand click these links:
Forbes
Alison Doyle 

Danyol Jaye Sings I Love You Lord

RSS What?

There are a million blogs on the Internet; some of which give us helpful tips for daily life; others that are about as useful as a hole in a bottle of water.  Yet no matter where we go there are always those windows that pop up asking for us to subscribe, right?

You know exactly what I'm talking about; do you ever go to a website and you get all these requests to subscribe to an RSS feed? Do you even know what an RSS feed IS?

At first it sounds like some government tax form but they're actually really great for keeping up to date on blogs and sites that you really love without all the mumbo jumbo.  I follow a lot of different blogs from entertainment blogs like TheYBF and Nicole Bitchie to organizational blogs to give me tips on staying organized such as Natural Born Organizers.  However I don't always have the time for all the graphics or routine of a full flash website.  An RSS feed is an online slang abbreviation which stands for "Rich Site Summery" or "Really Simple Syndication".  They enable to you to receive emails with the bullet points of the blog or site that you're following.  Gives you a quick update and lets you know that new content has been added and you might want to check it out when you have time.

I have a few blogs myself and I have to say that the people that have subscribed to my RSS feed find it very helpful. Specifically when you have a blogger who are constantly posting and have a myriad of things being added to their site, you may not want to be overloaded.

On the opposite side of things, if you have a site without the option of an RSS feed you might want to reconsider.  It's a great way for bloggers to expand their reach and make their sites more accessible.

For more info on the importance of an RSS Feed check out these links:
Search Engine Xperts 
Gov Delivery 

Best Friends: How Many Is Too Many?!

I always wondered about the definitive requirements for a "Best Friend". Especially when you have people who seem to have about 5-10 of them! It would seem to me that a best friend would obviously be someone that goes above and beyond normal friend duties right? unfortunately people use the term 'Best Friend' as loosely as they use the term 'Virgin', but that's beside the point.

I have always been big on titles and their meanings; specifically when it comes to relationships in all facets. I structure my social circle on 3 basic categories:

Acquaintances

Associates 

Friends 

Look at that! Even the letters get smaller the closer you get to a real friend LOL.

Acquaintances are people whom I know and who know me yet we don't really hang out.  We see each other at parties and other social functions; we say hello, promise to have cocktails and conveniently call and cancel on each other just hours before we're scheduled to meet. Why? Because right up until that time we probably had forgotten we ever made plans with one another and figure it's no big deal.

Associates are a little different; we actually schedule time to hang out, we gossip, have a few cocktails and a kiki and call it a day. These are the people who are simply for fun. They don't know much about my personal life, they damn sure aren't the ones I go to for advice but they get to be a little closer than most who simply know my name and nationality lol.

Now we get to the nitty gritty: Friends; they are the people I borrow money from and who borrow money from me as we share in each others daily lives. I see these people on a regular basis, I call them on a regular basis and when I need advice on things they are who I call. We've probably had a few disagreements and have fought it out, gotten over it and are now on speaking terms again.

Looking at these vastly different categories of my social life, you can imagine why I find it so hard to call so many people my BEST friend. A best friend goes even beyond what a mere friend would do (according to my social circle definition). These are the people whose hands you'd place your very own life in. They are the people who are more like family than friends. I think about my best friend and ALL of the things that we've experienced together.  Car crashes, family drama, even a small stint of a jail experience that we'd NEVER thought we'd make it through but did. We've shared things with one another that we haven't and aren't able to share with anyone else around us simply because they wouldn't get it.

So how do people have ENOUGH of themselves to give to 8, 9 or even 10 "best" friends?  We really should take some inventory of our lives and consider what we're really saying when we give a title to someone in our lives. Titles and positions in our lives should be like money.  You wouldn't just GIVE $500 to a total stranger would you? Hell, you wouldn't give that to someone you knew without a background check on where it was going, when you'd get it back and why they needed it in the first place!

Point being, Best Friends are like marriages; they take work and quite frankly you really only have room and time for ONE!!!