In the Mix with Aaliyah Miller

#OscarSoWhite is trending on social media and it's getting contentious. Prominent A-List black industry insiders like Jada Pinkett-Smith, her husband Will Smith, and Spike Lee are boycotting this year's Oscars and encouraging their peers to do so. It's a noble gesture, but for me the "Oscar White Out" is the symptom of a much bigger problem within the entertainment and film industry. Hollywood has a race problem, but so does America. It's the pink elephant in the corner of the room staring at us, yet many of us still refuse to recognize it.  The topic of race and racism is a divisive subject that pits those who are misguided and believe we live in a "post-racial" society since the election of President Barack Obama, against those who embrace ignorance, racial division, and prefer to keep that status-quo, with those who recognize and acknowledge institutionalized racism and white privilege's impact within our society. When these voices con...

It’s still a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving, but I went to the mall this past weekend and was hit with shiny red, green and silver decorations in stores. Yes, the holidays are here. Even before I ventured into stores, my emails were a tip-off. The pre-Black Friday deals have begun to hit my inbox. Holiday shopping can be hectic. In my experience I’ve found people either love it or hate it. I can see why many feel the latter. While Christmas and Hanukkah are primary reasons many people shop during the holidays, commercialism of the season has been an underlying effect for some time now. Consumers are focused on price, getting the best deal and want their perks like free-shipping. When you’re trying to purchase a limited-edition item and the deal is “while supplies last” it’s no wonder the universal message of caring and helping others may fall of the radar. However, it doesn’t have to. Holiday giving can also be a time when your gift to a family member, friend, co-worker, ...

Content marketers and their brands know that, "Content is king," but that doesn't make the job of marketing content easy. Now more than ever there's a fight to get your attention. Twenty years ago marketers had 60 seconds to hook you, about five years ago that was reduced to 20 seconds and for now it looks like the folks at Vine have it right with about 6 seconds. There's way more content. We're getting hit with approximately 5,000 ads a day, this is up from around 3,000 about five years ago. We can thank the Internet, social media and mobile devices for the plus 2k messages were now bombarded with daily. Yes, I said daily. So what's a content marketer and customer to do? The answer is not to stick your head in the ground like an ostrich. Although, that may seem like a viable option as we approach an election season here in the United States. In search of the answer to this question and many others regarding content marketing I attended the 2015 Content...

I'm a proud nutmeger. Born and breed in the state of Connecticut. Like many other states across this nation, you'll find the good, bad, and the ugly. Despite my fondness for my home state. I also like to travel. One of the things that I've been hearing over the years and hearing more often than not is that people from Connecticut and the tri-state in general are we're not very friendly people. On quite a few occasions I will get a backhanded compliment like, "Are you really from the northeast, you're pretty friendly." I smile and accept it, but it got me thinking. Are we really that unfriendly? Since I was a kid I was used to hearing this about New Yorkers and it's a generalization that some even embrace. However, I've met plenty of New Yorkers that have demonstrated friendliness and kindness to me. I didn't realize other folks around the country felt this sentiment toward Connecticut . The state was recently profiled as having two of the ...

Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.” ~ Unknown We live in a competitive society. We work in a competitive industry. Most of us at some time in our lives probably played a competitive sport. Competition is a part of our lives and studies suggest that we learn to be competitive at an early age. When I was younger I used to perform on a gymnastic team. At gymnastic meets I would go to my assigned rotation after I warmed up and stretched. While waiting my turn it I often common checked out the other team to see what their skills were. This would either make me happy or doubt myself; it all depended on the skill level of the other gymnasts. When I first joined the team I was 10 and my skills were pretty basic. At my first gymnastic meet I was both nervous and excited. There were a few girls around my age, but performing tricks at a higher level than me. Doubt began to set in as I watched them. Aisha, one of my se...

We had a very lively discussion in the blog post, “ Are you actively listening ?” I appreciated the comments and insights you shared. After I read through your comments I thought it would be helpful to also look at how we can be better at active listening in our online communications.  Whether communicating with a person face-to-face or online, it’s important to remember that effective communication is two-way communication. This can be hard when we’re using technology because we  see a person’s emotion or response. Kaitlin Duck Sherwood’s, A Beginners Guide to Effective Email summarizes the problems we experience with online communication: “Email also does not convey emotions nearly as well as face-to-face or even telephone conversations. It lacks vocal inflection, gestures, and a shared environment. Your correspondent may have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy or sad, frustrated or euphoric. Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use ...

During your one-on-one meetings do you have the undivided attention of the person sitting across from you? Did you give them your full attention?  Active listening seems easy, yet most of us aren’t as good as we think.  Hear What People Are Saying Listening to others is important, but according to Mind Tools , a website that provides tools and resources to help individual become better leaders, reports that, “we remember between 25 percent and 50 percent of what we hear.” Given that we communicate with people every day, we’re missing a lot of important information. Becoming an active listener helps to improve productivity and our ability to lead and influence others. Research suggests that individuals that are active listeners are more effective at communicating and managing conflict. Becoming an Active Listener If you want to be a better basketball player you practice. If you want to give your best speech, you practice. If you want to be a better l...