Our time, AL

Our time, AL

MEETINGS MEAN NOTHING WITHOUT ACTION

EDUCATION AND DEGREES ARE USELESS……UNLESS, USED

 

Sunday reflection day, as I made a little vision board to keep me motivated and hung it in my home office. The vision papers as you see are taped with electrical tape. Why? To remind me that electrical tape’s main use is to hold things together when they don’t naturally stick, and this reminds me to hold things together when it doesn’t seem to be glued. That is actually a lie, the reason it is held together with electrical tape; is because my kids get all the scotch tape that I own, to tape their art work to their bedroom door. When they decide to take the art work down, it pulls the paint off the door! I found the positive in the electrical tape and hoping that mentality continues for year 2020. As far as, finding the positive in the fact that there is scotch tape all over my kid’s brand new bedroom doors….it may take a little while lol. I am kidding, my kids are wonderful artists, and have amazing visions, and I love to see the new art work as I walk up to put away the tenth thousandth load of laundry that my family goes through in a week. When the kids finish an art piece, they are bound and determined to find tape to hang it and if they can’t find tape in this house, they will continue to ask to go buy tape all day long, on repeat for hours; “Mom, can we go buy some tape?” Complete tenacity until they are able to show off their work.  This goes for so much in life: If we have a master piece tucked away in a cabinet where no one can see, WHAT IS THE USE?!?!

As I drove home from Publix yesterday, I started thinking on the time eight years ago when we moved from Florida back to Alabama. Alabama is home, but one thing that killed my positivity of moving back home; is that there wasn’t a Publix in my town! You all may think this is ridiculous, but if you are a mom; you get me! When I have an almost two-year-old, and I have to grocery shop (this was before the invention of pickup and delivery); and you can walk into a grocery store that has car buggies, gives them coloring book and crayons, a balloon, free cookie, and has the best produce and health food section……. believe when I say, I will pay triple the price of anything in a store!!! So what did I do? I grabbed cooler bags and I drove an hour one way to the nearest Publix store to do my grocery shopping! Call it crazy, but it was sooo worth it!  Now, my kids are old enough to go shopping with me (they still get the free cookie); and thank the very good Lord, we have a Publix in our city now! My love for Publix is not why I am writing this; nor, did they give advertising dollars for this: (we have a family of 6, so Publix; feel free to throw a lady a coupon or two, anytime) My reasoning is that I am so tired of my ALABAMA HOME BEING THE CATCH UP KIDS! Eight years later, we have a Publix! Our town has grown 7% in population over the course of 8 years; which is a really good number, but that is only an additional 1000 people in our small city. Disposable income has always been above average in our town, and has always been known for great schools that bring great families.

I spend my career days is Small Business Development helping Economic Development; I sit in meetings after meetings in many different municipalities all over the state – MEETINGS MEAN NOTHING WITHOUT ACTION. I see our state being ok hearing its weaknesses and being complacent to think that big things can’t happen in Alabama. Do you think Publix said to my town eight years ago; we can’t come there because you need at least another 7% in population before we look at your area? No! Our surrounding populations were well over the threshold of Publix requirements and don’t get me started on the disposable income- ours was greater than the one I drove an hour to eight years ago! IT’S CAPATALIZING ON OUR STRENGTHS AND USING THEM FOR FURTHER THINKING; INSTEAD OF LETTING ALL THESE OTHER STATES BEAT US OUT ON INFRASTRUCTURE. I am so tired of being thankful for Mississippi- the one state that usually falls under us on everything! Now, I will say; Alabama is much better now, and making changes in many of its areas to be sure we are the, “comeback kid.” Alabama has so much to offer, but municipalities have to learn to capitalize on its strengths and stop meeting about its “wants,” and put its “wants,” into action- just as we should have had a Publix 8 years ago, let’s go for bigger! Step out of the box, and realize that growth happens with forward thinking, productive meetings, tenacity and vision. Take your meetings and stop talking about it,  and do it! I am the CFO of a compassionate non-profit, Team Freeze Foundation- we had a meeting two months ago with a vision of a city wide block party that would raise money for families, and become a staple for the hometown of the Founder, Jerraud Powers. In two months, we went through full city planning, sponsorship packages, document prep for County Commission vote, Commission vote, permits for PD and Fire Marshall and city barricades, invitations, food, marketing, community engagement, and pulled off the best NYE party the city has ever seen-and raised a lot of money! If five individuals can sit in an hour meeting, have a vision, put planning into effect and go after the impossible-think of what Alabama can do if their meeting turn into actions.  FIND YOUR STRENGTHS AND MARKET THOSE; INSTEAD OF BEING CONTENT ON YOUR WEAKNESSES.

As you see in the photo, not much art work. You will not find my degrees on my office wall. I have a Bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and a Master’s Degree from the University of North Alabama; and will start my Doctorate soon (for those of you who needed to see my credentials before thinking this rant is legit). Oh and I work for the University of Alabama- so I encompass the entire state. They have actually never been framed or hung; why? Well, you can have every degree in the world but they are useless unless……. drum-roll please; THEY ARE USED! Wow, that was really profound right? Some of the smartest people I know, do not hold a single degree; and some of the dumbest people I know have multiple degrees. You want to know the one person I take the most advice from? My husband, who has worked in a Steele Mill his whole 15-year career- no degree. He sees things just as they are; sees optimism from production; and production based on market. As I speak about what I want to see or do; my husband gives the advice, “Don’t use this knowledge talking to me in our home, make it happen.” While I feel education is very important, it’s far more important to use the education, than to get the education. I use my education to understand and be optimistic for my state. I am a research data nerd, while I hate the narrative portion of research (which makes it odd that I decided to write today); I love the part of finding out the driving forces behind generational preferences that drive decisions of work, play, and live. I spend my days assisting small businesses, and a lot of times, I have to retrain their focuses on their target markets because this is vital to sales and success of any business! Target market is an elementary term when referring to small business research, but municipalities are missing this elementary view on economic growth! If you want to drive growth, you have to know your target market and research their preferences, and align them with your strengths! I am now tired of typing, and leave you with this………. Don’t spend countless un-productive hours in meetings without action; and allow your strengths to shine - stop being complacent in your weaknesses. ALABAMA, LET’S START LEADING INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING. WE HAVE A MASTERPIECE THAT NEEDS TAPE, SO WE CAN HANG IT UP FOR EVERYONE TO SEE.

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