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Editorials
One Shot To Win
Empowered Greetings.
What do you do when you only have ONE SHOT TO WIN? How do you handle it when you only have one shot to win at making an impactful impression? Can you pull it off with one shot to win at pro- moting your product, service, business or organization?
When you only have one shot to win you better be pre- pared with the perfect pitch. The perfect pitch is the con- versation starter that gets peo- ple wanting to know more about what you do and what you or your company has to offer. Preparing the perfect pitch requires prior proper planning. Here are a few sim- ple tips to prepare the perfect pitch for your one shot to win:
• Plan on introducing your- self by stating the answer to
their problem (ex. I make suc- cess simple... We make learn- ing fun... Our company saves you money...).
• Do it with a K.I.S.S. by keeping it short and simple. 60 seconds or less. Your pitch should pique their interest and imagination so they want to hear more.
• Explain your expertise concisely and with confidence letting your listener know why others have paid you for your service and why you are the one that can get the job done for them. Share a brief story of how you recently benefitted a clien;t be sure to include the positive outcome your client received.
• Preparation and practice makes perfect. Prepare more than one pitch for various sit- uations. Modify your story to
match the product or service that’s appropriate for the rea- son why your client hired you.
• Create a call to action and ask for what you want or tell the listener what you want them to do now and how you want them to do it.
When you only have one shot you better see yourself as Michael J in the fourth quar- ter of ’92 and make that last one shot to win.
I would love to help you make the winning shot in your business or life by perfecting your pitch. Join me at my sig- nature event, Millionaires March Forth Conference 2016, where I have pulled together a team of powerful presenters to develop your pitch and your millionaire mindset to make massive profits from your passions. Register at https://millionairesmarch- forth2016.eventbrite.com
Call or text 813-956-0185 for more information on per- fecting your pitch. Be sure to let me know you read the 60 Seconds On Success Column in the Florida Sentinel. Face- book: Selphenia Nichols, or on Instagram: selphenia.
Emory and Iowa State Univer- sity suggests that from the al- ready limited pool of Black candidates, Black coaches are still less likely to be promoted for the top jobs than their white counterparts. Clearly, there is still work to be done.
No one ever ruled the Rooney Rule a touchdown, but it demonstrated a clear and de- finitive effort to engage and in- clude people of color at every level of one of America’s fa- vorite pastimes.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must demonstrate that same drive and commitment to create real and substantial strategies to- ward inclusion. The Acad- emy’s promise to diversify – for the second year in a row – rings hollow. Furthermore, the reforms announced, even if they are enacted, will have far too little effect on the nomina- tion process.
The diversity problem in en- tertainment neither begins nor ends with awards nomina- tions. But award nominations translate into box-office suc- cess, which affects the green- lighting of future projects. If the Academy cannot break this vicious circle, it risks its own ir- relevancy.
We’ve asked to meet with the Academy’s leaders so we can develop a clear and specific blueprint for moving forward, and outline a plan to hold the Academy accountable. We’ve heard no response.
I hope that one day we will be able to retire the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag for good.
Tackling the Academy’s Diversity Deficit With the NFL’s Playbook
Clinton And Sanders: What Would Happen If They Joined Forces?
Watching a recent Democratic presidential candidate “Town-Hall Debate,” we know we aren’t the first ones in America to say Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary
Hillary Clinton’s presidential platforms are so similar that the two candidates could easily be mistaken for political BobbseyTwins...andthatisnotabadthing...notbyalong shot.
Take, for instance, Clinton and Sanders’ mock slug fest as to who’s got the biggest progressive. Suddenly, a word that also means “advanced,” “far-sighted,” “enlightened,” “mod- ern,” and “up-to-the-minute,” now runs the risk of becom- ing private property and of being seen as miles apart from the term “moderate,” which also means “reasonable,” “ju- dicious,” “modest,” ‘unpretentious.”
According to Bernie Sanders, Hillary can’t be both. Let’s be reasonable. What would love to be seen as a struggle be- tween Clinton and Sanders to distance ideologies is in fact a not so well-hidden fact they agree on such crucial issues as universal healthcare, free collegiate undergraduate educa- tion, human rights, immigration sanity, environmental recov- ery and a bevy of others ... and what could be wrong with that?
Therefore, we suggest a dream-team: A presidential-vice- presidential ticket composed of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The idea almost happened in 2008 with Hillary and Barack Obama. And even though the late President Lyn- don Johnson once said being vice president wasn’t worth a pitcher of hot spit, maybe because their platforms are so close, neither Clinton nor Sanders would feel so vitriolic about whoever comes in as V. P.
As we said earlier, we’re certain the idea of a dual Dem- ocratic ticket (Hillary and Bernie) has crossed many Amer- icans’ minds. And it would certainly be a lot better than a Trump-Cruz presidential ticket.
MARC H. MORIAL
President and CEO National Urban League
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and cele- brate those differences.”
Audre Lorde,
Our Dead Behind Us: Poems, 1986
A lot has happened since the on and offline uproar that ex- ploded after the Motion Pic- ture Academy failed to nominate people of color across most major award cate- gories for the second year in a row. Chief among the reactions has been the academy’s deci- sion to re-examine and course correct its internal push for diversity among its well-publi- cized overwhelmingly older, white male ranks.
Meanwhile, there have been numerous calls to register our collective disappointment with the academy by tuning out the broadcast or boycotting the Oscars ceremony all together, while another cultural touch- stone has begun to take its time-honored place in our national imagination: Super Bowl XLIX.
On its face, Sunday’s big game was an epic showdown
between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, but beyond the gridiron lies history and the hard-earned results of the NFL’s resolve to promote inclusion among its ranks—a commitment that might serve as a lesson to the Motion Pic- ture Academy.
In a sport that can boast nearly 70 percent representa- tion of people of color on the field, the anemic representa- tion of minorities off the playing field and in the board- rooms is a problem, but it is a challenge that was met with a definitive strategy to diversify coaching staff in particular.
In 2003, facing the threat of lawsuits, the NFL established the Rooney Rule, named after the chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, who was the chairman of the league’s diversity committee. The rule requires every team with a coach or general man- ager vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate.
The results have been mixed. While there has been a visible change in the racial composition of coaching staffs—especially among assis- tant coaches—new research from professors at George- town, George Washington,
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
Donald Trump Is Right About Ted Cruz
No, not in our wildest dreams did we ever anticipate ad- mitting Donald Trump is right about anything. But the time has come for us to fess-up to the fact Trump was on tar-
get when he said Texas senator and presidential hopeful Ted Cruz stole the Iowa Caucus elections.
Furthermore, we are waiting for major media to make Cruz’s staff’s antics front page news. In case you were out of town or something, shortly before Iowans went to the polls to vote for the Republican candidates, Ted “The Born-Again Evangelical” Cruz sent out a tweet that read, “(Ben) Carson looks like he’s out. Iowans need to know that before they vote.” Cruz’s rendition of Richard Nixon’s Watergate gang then proceeded to lobby Carson voters during the caucus as if Carson was no longer in the race. Unfortunately, the sur- geon-Republican presidential candidate’s staff and support- ers were not able to alert caucus members to the lying tweet.
Certainly, Senator Cruz’s religious acceptance sermon is a classic example of religious hypocrisy and gives religion a bad name. Quoting scripture in the face of having used a lie to manipulate voting in his favor is sickening, to say the least. Equally nauseating is Cruz’s failure to promise to in- vestigate the source of the false tweet. If accepting staff be- havior of this type is an example of the people surrounding him, then Americans can count on another GOP campaign riddled with lies and dirty-tricks. We Americans definitely deserve better.
Meanwhile, we Americans wait to see what Cruz and com- pany will come up with in New Hampshire. So, let’s pray campaign tricks and lies will not become so predictable that news media and social media will simply ignore them. We hope voters will resist and take back American political in- tegrity by rejecting Cruz. An apology after the fact is too late.