Whether it’s for any position, crafting a compelling job description is vital to inviting the most qualified candidates for the position. This critical document performs functions such as describing required skills and competencies, defining the job title, serving as the basis for the employment contract, and serving as a valuable performance management tool. To write a clear, concise, and effective job description, you just need to follow these amazing tips:

Specific job titles

Be sure to use specific job titles rather than generic ones. A perfect job title should possess the following qualities:

• It must perfectly define the nature and duties.

• Must include a key phrase that accurately describes the role

• Avoid internal jargon that may confuse the candidate.

• It should reflect the sort order.

• It must be free of age and gender implications.

Example: parking inspector – a good job title, while a council compliance officer, a bad job title.

A suitable job summary

A strong and eye-catching summary has all the potential to captivate the job seeker. You must provide an overview of the company and expectations for the position. Let readers know why your company is unique. Information on company culture will summarize why a candidate would love to work for you. Include an exact work location so the job seeker has much-needed clarity about it. Mention the salary range that is competitive with similar positions in other organizations rather than assigning a particular salary to the position. Make sure the salary section is updated from time to time to match the changing salary scale.

A good job description should also include reporting lines and employment relationships. Report lines provide a clear view by showing who the candidate is reporting to. It is not only important to know about compliance issues, but also to have a better understanding of the hierarchical structure of the organization.

The employment relationship involves the people and departments with which the candidate will work closely. There is no better way than an organization chart to shed light on this aspect.

Responsibilities and Duties

A list of duties and responsibilities associated with the position is strongly recommended in order to select the right candidate. Although this list will vary in length, it should be concise and brief. If you bombard the job description with numerous tasks, the document will become an operational manual rather than a job description. Roles in smaller companies are generally multi-skilled in nature, but need to be as short as possible. Highlight the daily activities of the position that will help the candidate understand the daily tasks. Previous work experience, educational qualifications, certifications, and other skills are also required to be specified. If the job demands it, it should also include the required personal traits, such as soft skills, problem solving, and excellent communication skills. You may be tempted to list all the necessary skills, but follow the rule: short and concise.

A well-written job description gives the reader a sense of the priorities involved. The accuracy of the job description will provide more success in the future.

Many times, when I have created a DVD from an AVI file and played it on my television, I have to turn the volume up on the television almost to the maximum level to be able to hear the actors. Then when the action changed, the TV would blare at full volume and I was almost deaf, so I had to turn the volume down. Of course, for quiet scenes I had to turn the volume up again. This started to be very annoying. I told myself that there had to be a way that I could normalize the AVI and have the volume level at typical TV volumes so that I wouldn’t have to constantly turn the volume up and down depending on the part of the movie I was watching. .

I had similar problems with my mp3 music files, but I was able to equalize them so that they all played at the same volume when I played the CD in my car or audio system. The volume of an AVI file cannot be treated in the same way as mp3 music, since AVI has a much wider sound range. AVI sound can go from very low to very loud where mp3 volume tends to be at a more stable level.

To see if I could do something similar, I ran an experiment with an AVI file, which when I created a DVD, had a very low volume that made the TV volume go up and down constantly.

The following were the software programs that I used.

1) Audiograbber 1.83 by Jackie Franck

2) MP3gain from SourceForge

3) Normalize -0.25 by manual Kasper

4) Pers-o-FrontEnd 4 Normalize Gui to Normalize-0.253

5) Pazera audio extractor

6) AVIcodec

All of the above software is free to download. Just google and search. The first thing to do is find out what type of audio file is in the AVI. We do this by running the AVIcodec program. We select the AVI in question and then click on it in the program to see its characteristics.

In an AVI, the audio is usually mp3 and can be any of the following:

1) 128 kbs bit rate, 44,100 hz sample rate and 2-stereo channels, or

2) 128 kbs bit rate, 48,000 hz sample rate and 2-stereo channels

The first thing we do is extract the audio file from the AVI using Pazera. We extract an audio file as a PCM WAV file. Then we extract the audio file again but as an mp3 file. The mp3 file is usually the audio encoded in the AVI video file. If the mp3 file is sampled at 48000hz, you must first extract it at 44100hz as this is how audiograbber expects the wav file to be.

We rename the files as:

1) TestPCM.wav for the PCM file

2) TestMP3.mp3 for mp3 file

Now we open Audiograbber and enter the normalization window. We input the 44100hz PCM wav TestPCM.wav and then hit the test button to see its peak and average value (volume).

The following were the results:

Maximum value: 77.77

Average value: 13.68

By mp3 volume standards, the average would be considered extremely low. Now we open the MP3gain program and enter the mp3 file TestMP3.mp3 and perform a hint analysis that gave:

Volume: 82.6

Since this has been converted to a DVD, it seems that if the audio file extracted from mp3 is 82.6 in volume then this can be considered too low for normal DVD conversion.

Now we run the Pers-o-frontend GUI and input the 44100 hz TestPCM.wav file. We use the -m parameter at 100% to set all peak audios to 100%. To get 100%, the program indicated that it had to use a gain factor of 2,184 dB.

Now we used audiograbber and entered the modified TestPCM.wav -m and ran a test run which gave the following:

Peaks: 100

Average: 17.58

We see that even with the audio peaks set to 100%, the volume was still on the low side. I found that applying a gain of about 12 db always seemed to give good volume levels. Since the -m option applied approximately 2db of gain, we only need to apply a 10db gain to the modified TestPCM.wav to increase its overall volume. We run the Pers-o-frontend GUI and again input the modified TestPCM wav -m. This time, however, we chose the -aa 10 db option. Now we run Audiograbber again and this time we input the modified -a file and do a test.

The following values ​​are now displayed for the modified -m and -a TestPCM.wav file:

Peak: 100%

Average: 53.09

We see that the Average (Volume) level increased dramatically and is within a good volume level. Now we run Pazera again and convert the modified -my -a TestPCM.wav file to an mp3 file. We run MP3gain and enter this new modified mp3 file and do a track analysis that gave:

Volume: 94.4

The MP3gain showed a volume increase from 82.6 to 94.4, approximately 12 db of gain which coincided with the maximum gain of 2,184 db and the amplification gain of 10 db.

The AVI file was then converted to DVD using modified -m and -a TestPCM.wav as its input audio which would automatically replace the audio the AVI was made with. When played on the television, the audio volumes were fairly uniform and within the average volume levels of the television. This was a dramatic improvement over converting the AVI file to the audio that it was made with.

Now we can summarize the correct procedure to normalize AVI file before DVD conversion.

Step 1:

With Pazera, first extract the audio file as an mp3 file, which is what it normally should be.

Step 2:

Using MP3gain, do a track analysis to determine the volume level.

a) If the volume level is around 82, continue with Step 3.

b) if the volume level is around 92 db or more, do the following:

i) Using Pazera, extract audio as PCM wav, sample rate doesn’t matter

ii) Using the Pers-o-frontend GUI, modify the PCM wav with just the -m 100 option

iv) Convert AVI to DVD using -m modified PCM wav as audio and video source.

Step 3:

i) Using Pazera, extract the audio again as a PCM wav, the sample rate doesn’t matter.

ii) Using the Pers-o-frontend GUI, modify the PCM wav with just the -m 100 option. Take note of the gain the program uses to boost the peaks to 100%, say x db.

iii) Still using the GUI Pers-o-frontend, enter the -m modifed PCM wav but now switch to the -a option set for a gain of (12-x) db.

iv) Convert AVI to DVD using -a modified PCM wav as audio and video source.

So far this AVI normalization method has worked quite well creating good DVD volume levels.

Another essential characteristic of the brand identity lies in the flexibility and adaptability to implement advancements and progressions. Custom branding allows brands to stay current and prominent, with acclimatization options to keep the shopper engaged. Branding is an important advertising guideline and should make a business more identifiable and, in turn, allow the brand to perform remarkably well in the competitive marketplace.

The basic requirements that the custom brand must always meet are:

• It has to be related to your industry and your competitors.

• It must include essential elements and a minimalist and consistent design.

• Must have a clear and understandable perspective

• It should be capable of being used in various media.

• You must represent your company as a whole while meeting its business policy, objectives, and prospects.

What are the advantages of custom branding packages for companies?

Understanding the brand is so important to the advancement and identification of your business; you need to understand the kind of benefits it can bring to your business:

Create an inimitable individuality for your brand

Maintaining a unique personality is vitally important to all businesses today and investing in custom branding to accelerate business is the best way. Not only will it sanctify you from the competition, but it will also improve customer loyalty.

Increase business credibility

Ensuring credibility is the best way to earn customer trust and strengthen brand image. When a prospective buyer finds your brand promotion strategies, such as logo design, to be of high quality, they can easily be convinced that your products and services are also of high quality. It’s the smartest way to secure potential buyers.

Custom branding packages give you a definite edge over the market

Today, business owners are using every tool possible to get ahead of the competition, and a strong brand identity is an extremely powerful weapon in doing so. A branding package with a creative, influential, and beautiful custom logo can easily give you an edge in the marketplace and keep you ahead of the competition.

Custom brand can send a message

With a beautifully designed logo and personalized brand identity; you can easily send any message you want your customers to receive. With an experienced and trained brand creator and logo designer, you can create an artistic representation of your brand to attract potential customers. With an artistic and creative combination of packaging, use of color and styling; you can easily send the right message to your customers.

Link building is a very popular and unique way through which you can increase the popularity and traffic of your website. Link building depends on the number of links pointing to your site. The more inbound links you have, the higher the exposure of your site. This process also helps improve your site’s ranking in search engines.

One-way link building

The link building process is not very easy these days, because many website builders are involved in it and selfish reciprocal link programs can even be penalized. One-way link building is very beneficial in increasing the popularity of your website. Obtaining one-way links is even more difficult than the usual reciprocal links. But after getting One Way Links, you can be completely sure of getting a long-term position in the top ten in the search tool’s ranking result.

Many search engines have a database through which they can evaluate and rank web pages. During the popularity search, links are often considered an additional benefit to the quality of the web page. Google, Yahoo and many others have a toolbar that shows the ranking of your page, so through them you can see your current position very well.

While securing one-way links, you don’t have to worry about the type of link, the most important thing to consider is acquiring as many links as possible that point to your site. These one-way links must come from sites that have the same theme or related theme as your own website.

Advantages of one-way links

1. A very essential benefit of one-way links is that you don’t have to worry about links to sites that have low quality. If your site’s link would also point to such sites, it could even result in your site landing a very low page rank.

2. Another important merit of Unidirectional links is that these types of links usually stay in the same position for a long time. A website that has a one-way link to your site does so because the owner believes that your site visitors can also benefit from your site’s text.

3. Sites that have reciprocal links tend to drop links when they see that they no longer need them.

Ways through which you can get one-way links

Some ways you can get links from other websites are directory links, blogging, trade associations, newsletters, original articles, e-books, and white pages.

I hope that through this article you have learned about many essential points related to the one-way linking process.

Stock photography sites have made it easy for photographers to sell their photos online. However, just because you take photos does not mean that a stock photo site, like Istockphoto, for example, will accept them in their market. In order to sell your photos on a stock photography website, the website must believe that your images can be sold. Fortunately, internet photo blogs provide tips on how to sell your photos. Here are some helpful tips:

Narrow Your Focus: Yuri Arcurs, a well-known professional stock photographer, writes a blog full of interesting facts about selling stock photos. In his blog post “What should I shoot and what sells well?”, He tells his readers to develop a niche of their own and search for it endlessly. I think this works with whatever you do. I really love food photography and it felt so much better once I realized that this was where I wanted to direct my focus. And guess what? My photos improved. The better your theme, the more competitive advantage you will have in the market. And remember, if you are going to develop a niche, make sure you are honest with yourself. Is this something that you really care about? Do you love photographing it? If you are dedicated to your subject, you are more likely to spend the time it takes to make your photos attractive and genuine.

Add a little edginess: Arcurs also suggests having a selection of photos in your portfolio that have a more edgy feel (for full details, see your ‘I see, I see with my little eye’ article). This bolder feel can be achieved in a way that still allows you to sell your photo. Arcurs calls this adding a bit of “clutter” to your photo. In the photos that are displayed throughout his article, there is always an element of distraction. A portrait is taken through glass or, for example, through grass. By adding a bit of “clutter” to a photo, you make it visually appealing and inspire curiosity in your viewers. Done right, this is a recipe for increasing sales.

Research the marketability of your theme: Is your theme in demand? Are there already a lot of people filming your subject? Do a search and see if your potential topic is something that people are looking for. If you see that there is a market for your subject, but there are not that many photos available to buy (such as less than 10,000 images), it is probably a good subject to start shooting.

Plan Your Shots – Professional photography doesn’t just happen. Plan your vaccinations in advance. First, find a location or topic. Get an idea of ​​the type of lighting you want by visiting it at different times of the day and remember to take notes. Be sure to bring the appropriate authorizations for the models or owners to sign.

Keyword Selection – Make sure you write the right keywords in your topic so other people can find it online. Use stock photo keyword tools to correctly describe your photos. Another helpful tip is to test the popularity of your keywords through the Google AdWords keyword tool to determine the most effective match that buyers can search for.

Sell ​​your photos on multiple stock photo websites – Most stock photo sites are not exclusive and allow you to sell the same photos on more than one site. The more exposure your photos have, the better your chances of selling them and increasing your monthly income.

Many of these bloggers make it clear that photographers should focus their efforts on producing photos that will be sold on these stock photography sites. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always encourage creativity. Most stock photo sites expect certain types of photos to be sold, often rejecting a lot of good photos in the process. I think things would be better for both buyers and photographers if the stock photography site’s standards for photo selection were less stringent. As time changes, you never know what kind of images buyers will be looking for. I think it is problematic to assume that buyers are not interested in more creative photographs. Why not try putting it on the market and see if it sells? If you give buyers more options, they may use them.

The mind map is perfectly suited to innovative thinking as it consumes all the skills commonly found with creativity, especially imagination, idea association, and flexibility. Psychological research has identified several fundamental elements in creative thinking including: the use of colors, shapes, dimensions, unusual elements, the adjustment of conceptual positions and the response to emotionally attractive objects, etc.

The principles of mind maps are a peripheral manifesto of all these defined categories: it is a peripheral manifesto of the entire thought process. The almost identical nature of creative thinking and mnemonic principles (memory) confirms the Mind Map as the essential and natural tool for these thought forms.

Correct application of the creative thinking mind mapping technique can make it easier for individual mind mappers to create at least twice as many innovative ideas as a large traditional brainstorming group in the same time frame. Tony Buzan (the father of mind maps) states that there are 5 stages in the creative thinking process:

1) The rapid-fire mind map explosion

Begin by drawing a stimulating central image that represents the topic of general interest. Your image should be placed in the center of a large blank page, and from it you should radiate every idea that occurs to you on that subject. For about 20 minutes, you should let the ideas flow as quickly as possible. Having to work at high speed triggers your brain from habitual thought patterns and encourages new ideas. Many of these new ideas may seem absurd at first, however, don’t ignore them, as they often contain the keys to new perspectives and breaking old habits.

2) First reconstruction and revision-

Take a short break, allowing your brain to rest and begin to integrate the ideas generated thus far. Then make a new mind map, in which you identify the main branches, categorize, build hierarchies, and find new associations between your preliminary ideas. It may be apparent that similar or identical concepts are present in several different places on your mind map. These should not be dismissed as unnecessary repetitions, as they are fundamentally “different” in the sense that they are attached to different branches. These peripheral repetitions reflect the underlying importance of ideas that are deeply buried in your store of knowledge, but that actually influence all aspects of your thinking. Following the flow of your brain, the mind map explores your current thinking in this new center to replace the old one. In due time, this new center will be positioned by a new and even more advanced concept. Therefore, the mind map helps and reflects exploration and intellectual growth.

3) Incubation –

Sudden creative achievements often occur when the brain is relaxed, i.e. sleeping, daydreaming, running, etc. This is because such mental states allow the radiant thought process to extend to the farthest reaches of the Parabrain, increasing the likelihood of mental breakthroughs.

4) Second reconstruction and revision-

After incubation, your brain will have new insight into your first and second mind maps, so doing another quick blast of mind maps will be helpful. During this rebuilding stage, you will need to consider all the information collected and integrated in stages 1, 2, and 3 to make a complete final Mind Map.

5) The final stage

Now you need to search for the solution, decision or realization that was your original creative goal. Often times this involves linking items on your mind map, leading to important new insights and breakthroughs.

With the introduction of traveler-based mind maps in recent years, mind maps have become even easier. Mind mapping software like Tony Buzan’s iMindMap uses true mind mapping principles and duplicates the brain’s nonlinear thinking process, creating an explosion in creativity, innovation and knowledge sharing. Computer-based mind maps can be as effective as traditional mind maps as a creative thinking tool, if not more!

Summary of the benefits of the creative thinking mind map:

o Automatically use all creative thinking skills.

o They generate increasing mental energy as the mind mapper moves towards its goal.

o They allow the Mind Mapper to see a large number of elements at once, thus increasing the likelihood of creative association and integration.

o They allow people’s brains to track ideas that are normally found in the dark at the edge of their thinking.

o Increase the probability of getting new ideas.

o They foster playfulness, humor, and innovation, thus increasing the likelihood that the Mind Mapper will deviate from the norm and produce a truly creative idea.

o Try mind mapping software like Tony Buzan’s iMindMap and see how it helps further enhance your creativity.

This is a very short list of FREE (yay) easy ways to advertise your dance class. It is important to have enough people in the class to run it. After classes are established, there are definitely other ways to build and retain clients, but these are basics that are pretty easy to get started.

1. When writing an advertisement for your classes, be sure to include detailed information

• Time, date, location and contact email or phone number

• Include a call to action (eg, Call xxx-xxxx to register)

• Post frequently. Most people make a first contact after seeing an ad 5-7 times. You have to be patient and persistent.

2. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are highly effective free advertising platforms.

• New posts are better than shared ones.

• Images with text are more effective

• Tag yourself in picture posts as you will reach more people in your network. If you’re on Instagram, tag your studio and the city you live in.

• Post at times when a lot of people are online (for example: on weekends in the morning before 11 am and on Sunday nights, on weekdays around 11 or 12 pm. M., At 3 p.

• Ask your friends from different networks (not dancers in Toronto) to share your posts.

3. Online advertising is also a free way to advertise your classes.

• Look for like-minded message boards and sites, such as dance enthusiasts (not BD), pregnancy groups, and even yoga communities, who may be very interested in trying new classes outside of their practice.

• Craigslist, local online fanzines and Kijiji, etc. (include pictures and as much information as possible)

4. Your friends and colleagues

• Carry study cards (or your personal business card) wherever you go. Talk about what you do and offer people a card.

• ASK PEOPLE TO TRY YOUR CLASS! This is almost the most important point of all. I would say that most of the time, people are dying to try your class, but customers want permission to buy. It is something that is emphasized a lot in sales seminars. You have to tell people “I think you would enjoy this class, you should sign up.” WORKS!

• Tell your friends and family to spread the word. Mothers, for example, can be the best lawyers!

5. In the community

• Leave cards and flyers where it makes sense. Probably in the shops and cafes that you visit regularly in the center or near (more or less) the studio. Dance supply stores and costume stores are definitely an option!

• It is also possible to post announcements on the boards of the community message centers (not on the posts, there may be a large fine in your city. Check local rules and regulations). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

• Talk about your class after the presentation. Always have letters!

• You are likely to meet a large number of people in one day. Share information about your class. What you are offering is fun, interesting and beneficial to people and your enthusiasm will be contagious.

Lastly, don’t hesitate to contact your studio if you have been hired to teach at a specific dance school. Express your needs. If you need help getting the word out, let the studio know what they can post on your website or social media pages on your behalf. Your success will also be theirs!

If you are unfamiliar with all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing, it will be helpful for you to do a little research. While this can be a very lucrative opportunity, there are some chances of losing more than you win. Being aware of the whole process can only be beneficial to you.

Blog affiliates must keep their readers informed at all times. Blogs, by nature, have regularly updated content and therefore receive recurring visitors. Create a resource page for your visitors so they can easily check and find old content if they are interested in learning more.

Don’t try to mislead your readers by hiding your financial interest in your links. Your visitors are used to affiliate marketing and they know that you are running a blog or site to make money. Let them know that you will make money from the links they click. They will be more likely to go ahead and click, if you are honest with them.

Know the audience you are trying to attract. Consider why they visit your site and what interests them. Make sure that the affiliate products that your site offers them provide a solution to your visitors’ problems. Stay with the theme of your site.

As part of your internet marketing plan, consider including a surprise gift with every purchase you send out. This gift doesn’t have to be particularly valuable. It could be a branded promotional item or surplus inventory that you need to get rid of. Surprise is the important thing. A surprise gift will make customers think better of you and encourage them to come back and buy again.

A great way to appear trustworthy to your audience in article marketing is to use testimonials on your site or within your articles. Real user testimonials show that the product or service you are marketing is really effective and can help people improve if they just buy the product.

Without real-time data, you can’t know early enough which links or ads are productive. Make sure any affiliate program you consider offers a secure website with 24-hour access to real-time statistics. This data will show which different recommendations, strategies, text links and banners are working and which are not. This is even more important if you advertise online with programs like Google AdWords, as this information can stop or prevent you from losing money.

Before getting involved with a particular affiliate program, test the products before you start promoting them. Do your research on the products you are considering to make sure they will be something your target audience will be interested in buying and will come back to buy something else.

As stated at the beginning of the article, it is important that you do your research on affiliate marketing. Make sure you fully understand all aspects before trying to invest in something. If you have any questions about something, it is best not to participate.

This article is about blogging topics, intended to help you understand why you should have a blog on your website, or if you do, how you can improve it.

What is a blog?
Blogging is huge on the Internet. A blog is a website or part of a website that is constantly maintained by one or more people. The goal of a blog is to comment or chat about news and topics related to the website industry. Example: a restaurant blog would have content about new restaurants opening, gastronomic experiences and talks. Today, we have more than 100 million blogs that are constantly updated. There is a blog for every industry and beyond, which makes competition difficult. Having a successful blog means having interesting and quality content.

Why is it important to publish?
You could almost say that the blog is the heart of the website. A blog is what keeps a site dynamic and fresh. It gives search engines more content to index, gives visitors more to read, and gives other websites more content to link to. There are many types of blogs: personal blogs, business blogs, video blogs, and more, but our theory is that as long as it generates quality traffic, it doesn’t matter what type of blog it is.

To keep your blog healthy and dynamic, you need to constantly update it with several blog posts a week. Each blog post should be unique and talk about interesting business related topics. Incorporating quality keywords is very important to also receive search engine attention.

First most important rule:
There are many ways to generate potential visitors and business by running a successful blog, but the first most important way to maintain it is: Have quality content that people want to read. The person will not only read the post, possibly read others, but will also be able to subscribe to your blog and be a recurring visitor. If your blog is amazing, the reader will likely take the time to share this blog with a friend. Maybe two. Maybe even paste your RSS news feed on your own blog. The possibilities are endless, so I can’t stress it any more: write blog posts that are interesting.

The keywords.
Second, you want to incorporate keywords into your blog content. This will increase your chance of ranking high in search engines for your chosen keywords by doing so. But don’t forget, keep it low-key to avoid getting kicked out of search engines. It is also called Black Hat SEO. Post a topic on that later.

Feeding your readers:
Last but not least, make sure you have the functionality in place. Have a field for people to subscribe via email, RSS feed reader, or even just Twitter. Make it easy for your visitor to subscribe to your blog so they don’t have to go back and search for your amazing stories. Submit your RSS feed to increase your blog exposure. Connect it with your Twitter and Facebook page to keep your followers updated.

Finally: Keep posting.

When I finally got my first full-time job at 17, I wondered why I later found myself a few years later in my twenties, broke and struggling to make ends meet. After all, making more money while moving up the “food chain” would solve my problems, right?

Why did I soon find myself living paycheck to paycheck? Most likely … it has to do with my upbringing and my ethnic culture.

Does it really matter if you are a minority in the US when it comes to your level of financial education and your ability to make smart financial decisions? Does being raised on the “other side of the tracks” actually matter?

According to various reports, it absolutely does.

1) Lack of education and financial awareness

In the late 1990s, I was in the middle of my second active duty enlistment in the United States Marine Corps. Returning from an anti-drug deployment in the Bahamas, I walked into my house located in a military dwelling at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and found a pile of credit card bills. Oh Joy.

My wife at that time had collected over $ 15,000 between 3 credit cards. As a corporal, this was close to a year’s worth of annual salary. Needless to say, this was a major area of ​​discussions between us that eventually led to our divorce and two years of child custody battles. (An insider military joke, but not really, is that you can’t leave active duty without getting married, having a child … and then getting divorced. Ask, it’s sadly true).

What was my attempt to get financial aid? I would ask my fellow Marines, high-level leaders who turned out to be black and Hispanic, only to find that they, too, faced the same financial difficulties only at different levels. In short, they had no answer. It was the blind leading the blind.

I learned my first rule in personal finance … stop asking your bankrupt friends (and even your family) for financial help.

If it hadn’t been for retired Sergeant Major Carleton Enloe, whom I met in the bathroom of a Best Buy in Laguna Hills (don’t laugh), I would never have started a journey to learn how to make money. He worked at a financial firm that opened my eyes and took me under their wing.

My solution beforehand to get out of a financial pot was to simply find ways to make more money in town, off duty, as a bell tech for Jiffy Lube and a bartender at the Officers Club on base.

When I share this story at financial conferences and even our weekly financial workshops, I find that this scenario hits almost everyone in the room … even non-minority Caucasians who also grew up on the same side of the slopes as me.

2) neglected, neglected and biased by the financial services industry

The fact is, if you are black and Hispanic, the financial services industry deeply neglected you. Most financial firms won’t even extend a conversation to help a potential client unless you have at least $ 250,000 in liquid assets to invest or don’t have the one-time $ 500 planning fee (some as high as $ 5,000) for pay a certified financial planner. / Investment advisor just to tell you … “you’re broke!”

I spoke at a Women’s Diversity Conference and became friends with a financial planner who was the ONLY black financial professional in the WHOLE state of Illinois for her national firm. And yet his office was in the suburbs … not near the city.

Do you think you can find a minority financial professional that you can relate to and understand your cultural struggle and your desire to get out of the financial rat race? They are not very common. The American Council of Insurers exposes a significant gap in pass rates only for minorities who pass a simple life insurance exam as an entry point into the financial services industry.

3) Education and financial cultural ignorance

Does it have to do with cultural trends and parental education to manage their personal finances? Comedian Kevin Hart made credit score jokes towards dark-skinned women, for which he later apologized, in connection with a common aspect of poor credit.

Sure, it’s comedy, but could it be true? When was the last memory of your parents teaching you the value of credit and how to build your credit score on the kitchen table?

You know the answer.

Like me, he has had past experiences holding his breath while out to eat with friends in the hope that the server won’t come back asking for another form of payment.

For the past two years, I am proud to help build a financial movement in which we have recruited and trained a new generation of financial professionals entering the money business.

The level of connection with our audience, regarding their financial struggles and finding solutions to transform their financial lives has been nothing short of transformative.

We’re helping close the sizable gap for minorities earning $ 100,000 per year, where today less than 5.9% of six-figure incomes are Asian, 5.6% are Hispanic, and 5.5% are black. (Source: Wikipedia.com)

Of the 43 financial professionals I have mentored as a marketing advisor and trainer, 35 are Black, Hispanic, or Asian. 8 are biracial couples raising biracial children. We already have a six figure earner that is a Hispanic woman and a retired Filipino nurse who flowed in over $ 13k last month.

My advice? Continue to love your friends and family, but unfortunately, the facts are that they are not the ones who will help you lead the way to financial freedom.

From what you learn about money, bring it back to your community and be that agent of change within your family … regardless of their negative views of you. Stand firm, stand firm, stay focused, stay disciplined.

Reach out, reach out and to win the mentoring and association of people who want to have more, be more and be willing to DO more. Look beyond the color of your skin. After all, money has a color and you want to hang out with those who know how to care for it.

Your children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren will be glad you did.