Brand id│Strategic Partners Launches Revolutionary Personal Branding Success Program for Women

The Breakfast Club is a 12-month strategic mastermind program for Baltimore women who are ready to expand their “circle of influence, strategically map out their personal and professional path to success, and uplevel their visibility in the marketplace through personal branding.

Baltimore, Maryland (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Two Maryland business women have partnered to unveil a program specifically designed to help 25 local entrepreneurs and executives dramatically elevate their personal and professional lives in 2013 and redefine the "goold old boy network.". The program is called The Breakfast Club, a 12-month strategic mastermind that will expand their “circle of influence” and strategically map out the personal and professional path to success of each participant through networking, personal branding, life coaching and strategic planning.
Founded by Jennifer Ransaw Smith, CEO of Brand id Strategic Partners, a full-service personal branding agency and Susan Stern, CEO of Live Now a Personal Success Coaching firm, The Breakfast Club is revolutionizing “business as usual.” This program leaves no stone unturned when it comes to mapping out a plan for success.
Although named The Breakfast Club, the program is so much more. In fact, a monthly breakfast is just a small component of what is being offered (held at Miss Shirley’s Inner Harbor). Twice a year, participants will meet at the Mt. Washington Conference Center for an all day “working session” to design personal and professional blueprints. In addition, each participant will have access to both Brand id Strategic Partners and Live Now group coaching programs, meaning they will spend six months working on their “personal brand” and four months working on their “life’s vision.”
“As far as the level of comprehensiveness, Susan and I wanted to put something uniquely special together that truly supported local women. So many women are not use to investing in themselves, so we wanted to use an affordable price point. “You are your greatest asset to your company, spouse, children and/or community. Our personal and professional lives are more connected than most people imagine, and investing in both aspects will dramatically uplevel your life this year, “says Susan.
Our members are going to get opportunities to elevate at every level. From networking monthly to yearly strategic planning and online support, we wanted women to be able to walk away knowing they had taken their lives to an entirely new level and felt supported every step of the way,” said Jennifer Ransaw Smith. “We wanted something for all of those women who know they want more, but just don’t know how to get it.”
The program is ideal for mid-to-senior-level executives and entrepreneurs who want to:

    Be surrounded by a group of women who are committed to helping you succeed
    Receive support, encouragement and inspiration as you skyrocket toward your goals
    Become more focused on where you are going and what you need to do to get there
    Expand their person “circle of influence”
    Be able to test ideas, connect with amazing resources and feedback
    Maximize what they are able to accomplish in a 12-month period
The Breakfast Club (http://www.breakfastclubonline.com) runs from January 24rd until December 31, 2013 and is limited to only 25 participants. First come, first served. The investment is $3,000 and payment options are available. For more information about the program, please visit http:///http://www.breakfastclubonline.com
Brand id│Strategic Partners is a full-service integrated personal branding agency that helps entrepreneurs, senior level executives, and subject matter experts transform from unknown to known. We offer a multi-disciplinary approach to brand elevation both on and offline by providing both business-to-consumer (personal branding) and business-to-business (leadership branding) communication strategy.

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New poll shows Israel's leader losing altitude

A new poll shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poised for an election victory but losing support to a rival who opposes Palestinian statehood.
The Dialog poll gave 35 of parliament's 120 seats to Netanyahu's Likud Beiteinu list, indicating he'll head the next government after the Jan. 22 vote. That's down from 39 in the previous Dialog survey.
The centrist Labor Party polled second, with 17 seats.
The poll shows a continued surge by the Jewish Home Party. Its leader, Naftali Bennett, stirred up a storm last week by saying he'd resist evacuating settlements if ordered to do so as a reserves soldier.
Bennett's party received 13 seats in the poll published Tuesday, up from 11.
The poll of 491 people had an error margin of 4.3 percentage points.

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Kenya Red Cross: 30 people killed in clashes

At least 30 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, the Kenya Red Cross said.
Five children and five women were among the dead, the Red Cross said. Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Red Cross spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.
Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent attacks in the region, said that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the semi-nomadic Orma herding community at dawn in the Tana River Delta. He said the raiders were armed with spears and AK-47 rifles.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in August and September.
The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the U.N. Humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said late August. However, on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture and other resources, he said.
Political tensions and tribal animosities have increased due to competition among potential candidates in the March election.
Violence after Kenya's last general election, in late 2007, killed more than 1,000 people. Officials are working to avoid a repeat during March's presidential election, but episodes of violence around the country are raising fears that pockets of the country will see violence during the voting period.
The Tana River area is about 430 miles (690 kilometers) from the capital, Nairobi.
The utilization of the waters of the Tana River has been at the middle of a conflict pitting the Pokomo against the Orma, according to research by the Institute of Security Studies in 2004, following clashes in the Tana River area in 2000 to 2002. The Pokomo claim the land along the river and the Orma claim the waters of the river, said the research by Taya Weiss, titled "Guns in the Borderlands Reducing the Demand for Small Arms." At least 108 people died in the 2000-2002 clashes, according to the parliamentary record.
The longstanding conflict between the two tribes had previously resulted in relatively low casualties but the increased availability of guns has caused the casualties to escalate and more property to be destroyed, said the report.
It said a catalyst to the conflict was the collapse of three irrigation schemes at Bura, Hola, and Tana Delta, which influenced residents' lifestyles in terms of employment and sources of income.
"The collapse of these schemes forced the nomadic pastoralists to move during the wet season, while the farmers remained along the river. During the dry season the pastoralists move back to the river in search of water and pasture," it said.
The Tana River area has the characteristics of any other conflict prone area in Kenya: underdevelopment, poor infrastructure, poor communication and social amenities, and social marginalization, according to the report.
"Communities are arming themselves because of the need to defend against perceived attacks," said the report. "They feel that the government security machinery has not been able to effectively respond to violence. Isolation has led to increased demand for guns.

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Burning pipeline fire sign of Nigeria's woes

 The gasoline pipeline burns unstopped near a village close to Nigeria's sprawling megacity of Lagos, shooting flames into the air as leaking fuel muddies the ground. All around it, the ground is littered with plastic jerry-cans, used by those who hacked into the line to steal the fuel within.
The pipeline explosion here in Ije Ododo shows the ongoing problems oil-rich Nigeria faces. While the nation's politicians and businessmen have long profited from the country's production of roughly 2 million barrels of oil a day, many Nigerians remain desperately poor and take dangerous risks to try and earn a living.
Meanwhile, nothing ever seems to change, locals say.
"That sort of thing always happens every year," resident Samuel Otor said with a shrug.
This pipeline explosion happened Monday in Ije Ododo, in a swampy mangrove forest in the western fringe of the sprawling city of Lagos. Officials say the explosion happened when locals tapped into the pipeline to steal the refined gasoline moving through it. A spark from the scavengers likely set the line ablaze. It's unclear how many people were injured by the initial blast.
On Thursday, the flames still burned as fire-fighters sprayed water around the site, trying to stop the fire from spreading. The ground turned to a foul-smelling mud, with puddles of fuel and dirt looking red.
The line belonged to the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. It is the second-such pipeline rupture in the recent months around Lagos. In September, the company said suspected thieves shot dead three of its workers in southeast Ogun state after rupturing a gasoline pipeline to steal fuel. Another pipeline rupture in Nigeria's southeastern Abia state killed about 20 people.
Pipeline ruptures remain common in Nigeria, where militants and criminals routinely tap into lines to steal crude oil and refined gasoline. Fires can easily and accidentally be sparked by those attempting to gather the fuel.
While the government criticizes theft from the lines, it often remains the only quick way to make money in a nation where most earn the equivalent of a $1 day. The International Energy Agency recently estimated that widespread thefts of crude oil in Nigeria cost the country $7 billion a year.
Despite efforts to crack down on oil and gasoline thieves, locally called bunkerers, the practice continues unstopped, just like the flames in this small village.

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55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast

The U.N. refugee agency says 55 people have drowned or are missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast.
UNHCR said the incident late Tuesday represented the biggest loss of life in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants drowned while attempting to reach Yemen.
The U.N. says five people survived Tuesday's accident. The survivors said the boat was overcrowded and capsized 15 minutes into its journey. Twenty-three bodies were recovered; the rest are presumed to have drowned.
Bruno Geddo, the UNCHR representative for Somalia, said the deaths are a reminder of the risks Somalis take to flee their country. Geddo said the Gulf of Aden is the deadliest route for people fleeing conflict and rights abuses in the Horn of Africa.

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Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes

A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.
Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.
The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, according to the U.N.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.
Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.

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RIM beats estimates in Q3, but subscriber base shrinks

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday posted its financial results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended on December 1st. Investor sentiment has been mixed leading up to the struggling vendor’s third-quarter report, with some analysts insisting there was still money to be made ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 launch and others already counting the days until the company buckles. Wall Street’s consensus for fiscal Q3 2013 saw RIM posting a loss of $0.35 per share on $2.65 billion in revenue and RIM beat expectations on Thursday, recording a net loss of $114 million, or $0.22 per share, on $2.7 billion in sales. This marks RIM’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss as the company pins its hopes on BlackBerry 10, which will be unveiled during a press conference on January 30th.
[More from BGR: iPhone 5, iPad mini users report iOS 6.0.2 is a big drain on battery life]

As far as product shipments go, RIM shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones on the quarter and just over 250,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets. The 6.9 million smartphone shipments represent an 51% year-over-year drop from the third quarter of 2011. Even more ominously for RIM, its subscriber base shrunk by 1 million users over the quarter, as the company now counts 79 million total subscribers.

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RIM beats estimates in Q3, reports revenues of $2.7 billion

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday posted its financial results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended on December 1st. Investor sentiment has been mixed leading up to the struggling vendor’s third-quarter report, with some analysts insisting there was still money to be made ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 launch and others already counting the days until the company buckles. Wall Street’s consensus for fiscal Q3 2013 saw RIM posting a loss of $0.35 per share on $2.65 billion in revenue and RIM beat expectations on Thursday, recording a loss of $0.22 per share on $2.7 billion in sales. This marks RIM’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss as the company pins its hopes on BlackBerry 10, which will be unveiled during a press conference on January 30th.

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RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone to be called the ‘Z10′

Research In Motion’s (RIMM) first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, formerly known as the L-Series and “London” will apparently be called the “BlackBerry Z10″ according to marketing materials obtained by UnwiredView. RIM’s QWERTY BlackBerry 10 device that’s slated for a release sometime between March and June will reportedly go by the name “BlackBerry X10.” As we inch closer to BlackBerry 10′s launch on January 30th in New York City, all eyes are on RIM to deliver a new smartphone and OS that finally catches up to iOS and Android. Most recently, RIM’s Dev Alpha B smartphone running BB10 was spotted crushing the iPhone 5 on iOS 6 and HTC (2498) Windows Phone 8X running Windows Phone 8 in a Web browser speed and rendering comparison test. All RIM needs to do now is deliver compelling hardware and apps to sway users who have long since abandoned BlackBerrys for iPhones and DROIDS.

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RIM shares jump after hours following results

U.S.-traded shares Research In Motion rallied in after-hours trading on Thursday after the BlackBerry maker posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss excluding one-time items.
The company's Nasdaq-listed shares were last up 8 percent at $15.25, extending a 3.6-percent gain in regular trading hours. They are also on track to close with a fourth straight month of gains.
The stock has more than doubled since the start of September, including a more than 46 percent gain in November, but was still negative for the year at the close on Thursday.

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