Andraya Carson: Think Super Bowl is just about Football? Think Again.

Help end human trafficking. Arizona is hosting the 2015 Super Bowl. Andraya Carson has started a project called Bag of Change. You can find Dray Carson's project at www.bagofchange.com. Contribute towards this project and your proceeds will go to help Phoenix Dream Center. We appreciate your support!

Andraya Carson :: Exploring Sex Trafficking and Prostitution Demand During the Super Bowl

Much has been said about the impact of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking, most of which indicates it is a key variable leading to a dramatic increase in commercial sexual exploitation and victimization. Recent reports and dozens of news articles strongly point to the Super Bowl as the most prominent national event where sex trafficking flourishes, with estimates of as many as 10,000 victims flooding host cities to be offered to willing purchasers intent on buying sex. While this has attracted a great deal of attention in the media and has served as a key point in the national dialogue on sex trafficking, support for such assertions has been sparse. While some such inquiries have been conducted capably, evidence supported research on the influence of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking has been limited.

With the support of the McCain Institute, researchers from Arizona State University sought to investigate and understand the true impact of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking, to further the national discussion on sex trafficking and its local and national impact as well as to develop a baseline understanding of regional sex trafficking trends for the 2015 Super Bowl which is to be held in Phoenix. What follows is what we believe to be the first comprehensive and systematic review of the quagmire that is the Super Bowl and sex trafficking and the first attempt to add clarity to a complex, national epidemic.

Please click here to read the full report

Dray Carson: Workplace Wellness Programs Can Save Us???

There is always so much discourse about the condition of our country’s healthcare system. Wouldn’t it be refreshing, and perhaps more rewarding, if as Americans, we were to focus as much energy on the state of our wellness?

Some could argue that we are a rather sickly nation. According to a recent report issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services, among Americans there is an especially high prevalence of risk factors such as tobacco use, high cholesterol, obesity, and insufficient exercise, which are associated with chronic diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. In fact, 45 percent of Americans, almost half the entire adult population, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. Even more frightening, 13 percent of Americans have two of these conditions and three percent are struggling with all three. It’s no wonder our healthcare system is so taxed.On a brighter note, however, these conditions can improve with lifestyle changes. To that end, more and more progressive employers are creating workplace wellness programs that promote, and sometimes even reward, healthier lifestyles.

Corporate wellness programs are nothing new. Traditional programs help employees maintain their health and prevent illness by providing education, fitness regimes and regular health screenings to ensure early detection of problems. Many corporate wellness initiatives even include an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help employees cope with personal or emotional issues that may be affecting their work and family lives.

In addition to delivering positive health benefits to employees, wellness programs yield employers significant benefits as well. Successful programs have been proven to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and decrease healthcare costs.

Of course, to be effective wellness programs have to be utilized. Poorly-designed programs can miss their mark if they don’t take into consideration the health needs and interests of the employee population. One Midwestern company, for instance, launched its wellness program by opening a fitness center and implementing a campaign to combat prostate cancer. The gym was a big hit among employees, many of whom already participated in regular exercise, but the prostate screenings were largely ignored. When the company did some after-the-fact analysis, they learned that some 70 percent of their employees were women of childbearing age. They also found that many of their employees were smokers. Obviously, prostate cancer was not a concern for this workforce, but women’s health issues and smoking cessation were.

Conversely, Volkswagen is breaking the mold with a highly-customized wellness initiative designed to take their employees’ performance to the next level. At the company’s new $1 billion assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, newly-hired Volkswagen employees are undergoing on-the-job training in advance of the facility’s production start early next year. As part of their training, assembly line workers are being required to participate in two hours of fitness training each day. The fitness program, which is specifically-designed to help individual workers develop the strength and endurance necessary to meet the physical demands of their particular job, is intended to create “industrial athletes” who are able to grip, lift, bend and push without tiring. (Volkswagen has no intention of instituting a weight threshold for assembly line jobs, but some workers who initially resented Volkswagen’s required fitness training have lost as much as 30 pounds in a matter of weeks.)

Corporate wellness initiatives are usually voluntary, so mandating that employees participate in customized fitness programs so they can better perform their jobs is a provocative concept that could gain traction over time, especially if American’s persistent health issues, such as obesity or high blood pressure, make physical labor difficult or even dangerous. For the time being however, companies are doing well if they can build a wellnessprogram that permeates the corporate culture and genuinely advocates for and promotes employees’ health and wellbeing.

When creating or redesigning a program, employers should try to adopt several best practices: 1.) assess your workforce’s health needs and put them before any personal cause or passion; 2.) consider the whole employee to address all areas of wellness, including physical fitness, disease prevention and detection, and emotional wellbeing; 3.) create a work environment where wellness is pervasive, going beyond the fitness center or health fair to include snacks and drinks available in the vending machines; and 4.) consider incentivizing employees to take advantage of wellness initiatives by holding workout or weight loss contests or offering small give-a-ways for participating in health screenings.

Corporate wellness initiatives cannot fix our healthcare system, but cultivating a more health-conscious culture, not just within one company but throughout our country, could certainly lead Americans to be less reliant on our already over-taxed healthcare system.

Original Post: http://www.gnapartners.com/news/can-workplace-wellness-programs-fix-what-ails-us-11

John Allen, is President and COO of G&A Partners, a Texas-based HR and Administrative Services company that manages human resources, benefits, payroll, accounting and risk management for growing businesses. For more information about the company, visit www.gnapartners.com. Andraya Carson is a business advsisor for G&A Partners and can be reached at acarson@gnapartners.com for a consultation.

Who is Andrya Carson?

Andraya (Dray) Carson is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in business development, operations, sales, marketing and consulting.  She began her career as a financial advisor and quickly advanced to the position of Managing Partner for a Phoenix based, full financial planning firm, and was recognized as the top advisor each year.  Additionally, Miss Carson created and implemented training programs, documented procedures and participated in product development. She then co-founded a private equity firm where she led the Investor Relations division and the managed the firm’s operations. In 2009 Miss Carson launched Carson Connections, a boutique business development firm, and enjoys working personally with small to mid-size business owners from a variety of industries, helping them identify the possibilities of their business and find solutions to significantly improve productivity and profitability.

Currently Miss Carson is also a Business Advisor with G&A Partners, a licensed professional employer organization (PEO) founded in 1995.  Together they provide best-in-class solutions that take businesses to the next level, creating a more streamline approach to managing Human Resources, and gaining access to better benefits, stress-free payroll and administrative relief

Andraya Carson- Dray Carson- wins again

Recently Andraya Carson, also known as Dray Carson, was just announced as one of the Top producing sales people in the company she represents, G&A Partners. She is a valued Business Advisor with the firm, and has brought them very successful companies to work with in the areas of Human Resources.

Dray Carson: 7 steps to successful cold calling

Hello all you sales people who hate cold calling!!! I read this article and it helped me, so I am passing it on to you!

(MoneyWatch) A reader writes:

Will you share strategies that work best when breaking the ice with new prospects over the phone? I have to make some 20-30 calls within a 2 hour period and most clients are rushed and hurried and I find myself racing to get to the point, leaving very little time to build rapport. How do I build rapport immediately in these circumstances? I am genuinely interested in building a relationship to learn as much as I can about their core issues so I can build proposals that directly address their objectives and needs. What’s the best way to engage them (in 30 seconds or less I imagine), which would cause them relax somewhat so they want to share information with you. If you would be willing to share this, I would appreciate it very much.

Absolutely.

Before we get started, though, you need to be aware that there’s a vast difference of opinion, among experts and sales pros alike, about the effectiveness of cold-calling.

Many sales experts think cold-calling is a waste of time and prefer other forms of generating leads. Others see cold-calling as a last resort, while still others see it as a mainspring of any effective sales process.

Later, I’ll discuss some of those other viewpoints. For now, let’s just get the basics down. Andrea Sittig-Rolf, author of “The Seven Keys to Effective Business-to-Business Appointment Setting” is an extremely well-known proponent of cold-calling as a lead-generation technique.

When I spoke with Andrea a couple of years ago, she observed that cold-calling is all about getting the appointment. She therefore gears the entire cold-calling process toward achieving that end. Here’s a summary of her approach:

Research a list of prospects. Before making your calls, research your prospects. Look for prospects who have a similar profile to those who have bought from the past. They’ll be easier to sell. Next to each prospect, note any of your current customers in the prospect’s industry, region, job classification, or anything else that might help you to position your offering. Don’t spend a lot of time on this, just find out enough so that you can pitch using terms that the prospect can understand.

Build your script. Once you know whom you’re going to call, focus on what you’re going to say. Write a brief script (no more than three or four sentences) that introduces who you are, what you do, and what you provide. An effective script asks for the appointment early. Please note that the purpose of the script is NOT to communicate substantive information about your offering. Instead, the purpose of the phone call is to win the right to actually sell to the prospect.

Anticipate objections. Each time one of them materializes, you’ll need to handle them appropriately… and then ask for the appointment. Most objections are common to all sales situations, so you should have little or no trouble listing them out. The trick here is to practice handling objections until the response is automatic. Note: the most important part of handling the objection is asking for the appointment.

Get positive and get calling. Attitude is everything. If your offering has value to the customer, you’re doing the prospect a favor by giving him or her the opportunity to meet with you. Therefore, have confidence in your ability to provide value. That confidence not only helps you communicate more effectively, it provides the motivation that will drive you to actually sit down and start making the cold calls.

Leave a message (if necessary). If you end up in the contact’s voice-mail system, don’t despair. Leave a very brief message based upon your calling script. However, rather than setting a time for an appointment, say that you’ll be calling back on a certain date and time, but would appreciate a callback. The next time you call, ask the admin if the contact is in. If not, tell the admin that you’ve been trying to connect with the contact and would like to know when would be a good time to call.

Handle the objections. Once you’ve got the contact on the line, execute the script. Don’t read it! Put it into your own words, with enthusiasm. In almost every case, you will get at least one, and probably more, objections. Since you’ve anticipated these objections, you should respond to them as necessary and then ask for the appointment again. If you receive more than 3 objections, it’s fair to assume that the prospect is not going to meet with you, so thank the prospect and politely end the call.

Repeat the process on a daily basis. if you’re determined to excel, commit to an hour a day attempting to achieve two appointments. If it takes fifteen minutes to get the two appointments, then you can quit early. Practice this regularly and, according to Andrea, you’ll very quickly have a calendar full of qualified prospects.

This post originally appeared on BNET.com

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

ByGEOFFREY JAMESMONEYWATCH  Originally posted on: September 20, 2012, 1:49 PM

Andraya Carson and Panelist Group is a Success in Atlanta

Andraya Carson recently spoke at a Women's Conference in Atlanta, starting off the weekend of Oprah's The Life You Want to Live tour launch.  Because of Dray Carson's extensive business experience in the areas of Business Development, Sales, and Outsourcing, Andraya Carson's topic was how to do it all without having to do it all. The panelists interacted with the audience and viewers offered feedback that Andraya  Carson's input was valuable in their business and personal lives. Dray Carson shared the stage with Mary Lou Henner, Dr. Melinda Silva, and other thought leaders in their areas of expertise. There were 300 in person attendees and an additional 500 live stream attendees. There were over 13,000 attendees to Oprah's event, where she personal recognized the COO that invited Andraya Carson to be a part of the event.

Andraya Carson is also passionate about speaking up against Sex Salvery and Human Trafficking in the USA and globally.

Andraya Carson :: 5 Ways to Get the Most from Virtual Employees

BY PETER ECONOMY  @BIZZWRITER

Today, your staff can work from anywhere, but to make the most of that increased flexibility, leaders need to pay special attention to remote workers. Here are the key things you need to focus on.

The virtual work force is growing fast and bringing many benefits to companies. According to Chris Ducker, an expert on virtual staffing and author of the book Virtual Freedom, a typical business saves $11,000 a year for each virtual worker it hires. Beyond that, the ability to hire the best people you can find, regardless of whether they work from your office, can produce immeasurable benefits.

But although that's all well and good, managing virtual employees brings challenges that you just don't have in a standard office environment. The good news is that these challenges can be conquered with just a bit of effort on your part. Here are five tips for managing your virtual employees more effectively than you ever thought possible.

1. Increase communication as you increase distance

The old saying "Out of sight, out of mind" really applies when it comes to virtual workers. It's easy to forget that they're out there--at least until something really good or really bad happens that involves them. Make a point of reaching out to your virtual employees regularly, even if it's just to say hello and ask how things are going. The farther away you are from your virtual workers, the more important it is to keep in touch. Put a weekly call on your calendar to each of your virtual employees, and make sure you follow through on it.

2. Bring your virtual employees into meetings

Technology now makes it easy to include your virtual employees in regular business meetings. Invest some money in getting a quality speakerphone system for your conference room that allows everyone to hear and be heard clearly, or set up a PC or laptop with a camera that you can use to make calls on Google Hangouts, Skype, or a platform like GoToMeeting. There's no reason to leave anyone out of your meetings, regardless of where he or she may be.

3. Schedule periodic team-building events

People naturally build strong relationships when they work together as a team. It's much harder for virtual employees to build these strong relationships with co-workers--especially co-workers whom they never meet in person. You can help your virtual employees build strong bonds with their co-workers, both virtual and nonvirtual, by hiring a facilitator and scheduling periodic team-building sessions with all of your employees. Not only will these employees enjoy meeting one another in person, but you will help them build better working relationships and bridges of trust that will make them more effective and productive.

4. Make your expectations crystal clear

Because virtual employees don't work in the office, they are not subject to the standard rules that your other employees have to adhere to. If they work at home, every day may be Casual Day, and you may find them working at a Starbucks in the evening or on a schedule that has little relationship to the one your business runs on. Although some amount of independence in your virtual workers is usually a good thing, if you have specific expectations for them--for example, that they will work during normal business hours or that they will always be available by phone--then you need to make those expectations perfectly clear. If everyone's expectations are in sync, you can avoid a lot of misunderstandings and potential conflict.

5. Celebrate their successes

All your employees need to be recognized and rewarded when they do good things for your company, and this includes your virtual workers. Make sure you take time to reward your virtual employees, and publicize this recognition widely throughout your organization. Though you may not be able to bring your virtual employees into the office for recognition, you can send them thank-you notes and recognition items such as gift cards, coffee mugs, flowers, or any number of other items to celebrate their success.

FOR SOURCE CREDIT, AND TO SEE COMPLETE ARTICLE, VISIT: http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/5-ways-to-get-the-most-from-virtual-employees.html

Andraya Carson :: Tired of Complainers? How About You Offer Bundled HR Service Plans

IBy Andy Porter · 06.19.2014

magine you’ve just invested a ton of time and money designing and implementing an employee engagement survey so that you can get a real sense of what’s going on in your organization because you know, you care.  Now imagine the big day is here—you’re presenting the findings and recommendations to the senior leadership group.  Overall, the data is quite good (with some pockets of concern), and you’re really excited to get an opportunity to talk about all the good things the HR team is working on and how it’s impacting the business.  But your excitement starts to wane as the team starts to focus (over-focus you think) on some of sub-pockets of poor scores on things like career development and satisfaction with your boss.  The tone of the meeting starts to shift: “HR needs to do a better job of…” and it goes on.

You know these are important components of building an engaged workforce and you also know that the heads of the groups that are driving the poor scores want absolutely nothing to do with HR in any way, shape or form.  And they make sure their teams know exactly how they feel.  In fact, they actively choose NOT to participate in precisely the type of initiatives that would address the poor scores.  You try and explain why, but no one wants to hear it.  You leave the meeting annoyed with a laundry list of things HR needs to do to fix it.

Ever find yourself in that meeting?  Yeah, it’s an annoying one.  Over the years, I’ve come to accept that there are some parts of the business who are eager for support and some who couldn’t care less.  So, I focus on the groups who care.  But HR is often still held accountable for good “scores” for everyone in the company.  This got me thinking that there must be another model for how HR engages with the business. Last month, as I was complaining to my wife about our lack of cable channels she said, “Why do you always act so surprised that we don’t have all these channels?  It’s not like you want to pay for it.  You know we only signed up for basic cable.”  That’s when it hit me. HR needs to adopt a similar model and offer annual service packages to employees… and if we were getting really crazy, charge them for it!  Here’s the menu of options:

The Basic Plan (also know as the “Don’t Bother Us and We Won’t Bother You” plan).  If you sign up for this plan you’ll get basic services taken care of like getting paid on-time, ability to participate in our benefits programs, and well, that’s pretty much it.  You’ll be automatically enrolled in our annual merit program, but you’ll have to wait until everyone else has been given a raise before you get one.  As an additional perk, you won’t get spammed with any requests to participate in any company-wide initiatives.  And if you find yourself with an emergency situation on your hands requiring immediate HR attention, you’re going to have to sort it out yourself (unless you purchase our ER insurance program for a small fee every month).

The Deluxe Plan (also known as the “Employee Development Bundle”).  As a member of our deluxe employee program, you’ll have access to all of the services in the basic plan plus 12 personal coaching sessions per year.  You can use these sessions to work on things like developing your career, getting 360 feedback on your performance or figuring how to better work with Sally in accounting.  You’ll have access to special content like training courses, and you’ll hear about upcoming career opportunities before they become public to give you an edge on your basic plan competition.  In addition to being eligible for our merit program (before the basic plan, people) you’ll also be enrolled in our rewards program where you’ll be eligible to receive cash and other perks based on your performance.

The Premium Club (also known as the “We Have To Invite You To Join” plan).  As a member of the Premium Club, you’ll have access to all the latest and greatest tools and approaches when it comes to developing your career.  You’ll have unlimited personal coaching available to you 24/7 throughout the year, along with a career plan tailored to your specific needs.  Not only will you have access to special content, you can have content developed specifically to suit your needs.  When it comes to new opportunities, you’ll  have the right of first refusal for anything that you’re interested in pursuing.  You’ll also be eligible to receive extra perks like bonuses and stock options… and have first access to the annual merit pool.

If we did this, and segmented employee responses by plan and the people in the premium plan weren’t engaged, then we have a problem.  But if you’re basic plan folks aren’t engaged, you go sell them an upgrade!

SOURCE CREDIT AND COMPLETE ARTICLE: http://fistfuloftalent.com/2014/06/bundled-hr-service-plans.html

Andraya Carson against Sex Trafficking and Prostitution

Andraya Carson is passionate about people and life, valuing highest the human body, and feels that people are not meant to be traded as a commodity. Therefore Andraya Carson is involved with organizations that promote social awareness and relief support to help in ending the ongoing issue of modern slavery, known as human trafficking. Andraya Carson’s long term goal is to exclusively dedicate her time towards the mission of eradicating sex and labor trafficking in the United States and worldwide.

Andraya Carson has a blog that is dedicated to the purpose of social awareness in the areas of sex trafficking, prostitution, labor slavery, and other forms of oppression that hides under the category of Human Trafficking.

Blog: http://andrayacarsonagainstprostitution.wordpress.com/

Andraya Carson Has Helped Me A Lot

I met Andraya Carson about 8 years ago. She helped me close the financing on my first house. Andraya Carson worked her but of for me then and I can truly say she got me the best deal and made it so easy. Thanks Andraya!!

In the meantime, Andraya Carson has become my best friend. I have seen her go through the up’s and down’s of life and she has seen me do the same. In all of this I have seen Andaya Carson always rise to any occasion she was faced with. Be it business development, treating friends right, being inspiring and forward thinking, in every way Andraya Carson comes through with the highest quality and the highest ethics.

I am grateful to have Andraya Carson as a friend and am looking forward to many more adventures with her.

- Susana Lange

Andraya Carson in Business- Success

I’ve known Andraya Carson for 10 years now. About 5 years ago, I experienced some credit card issues and went to Andraya Carson for advise because of her strong financial background. Andraya was there for me and helped me to create a plan (gratis, by the way) to work with those credit card companies. Today, almost 5 years later I am 99% complete towards paying back what was not an insignificant debt, totally interest free. Andraya Carson is a special human being, extremely talented, and passionate about living. I am grateful to have Andraya Carson in my life. D. Moriki – Executive Search Consultant

ANDRAYA CARSON HELPS BUSINESSES EXPAND

ANDRAYA CARSON helps businesses develop their planning strategies. Andraya Carson is available on linked in to connect with and discuss potentials of expanding your business.

Andraya Carson Business Development

ANDRAYA CARSON IS WORKING WONDERS IN THE AREA OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. Andraya has helped many companies expand their reach in various market places through developing their business. Andraya Carson has worked in the areas of wellness industries and other industries. Andraya Carson is an assett to any company.