Happy Memorial Day!
Memorial Day not just a day to appreciate the soldiers that fight for our country, although that is very important, it is also a day to BBQ and hang out with good friends in nice weather! With that said, here are 5 delicious recipes for a great Memorial Day party:
1. Fish Tacos:
2 pounds tilapia fillets
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
Cooking spray
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 teaspoons canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
16 (5 inch) corn tortillas
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado – peeled, pitted, and sliced
1/2 cup salsa
2 green onions, chopped
Directions
1. Rub tilapia fillets with 2 tablespoons lime juice and season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Spray both sides of each fillet with cooking spray.
2. Preheat grill for medium heat and lightly oil the grate.
3. Combine yogurt, 2 tablespoons lime juice, cilantro, and chipotle pepper in a blender; pulse until sauce is well blended. Set aside.
4. Grill tilapia on preheated grill until fish is easily flaked with a fork, about 5 minutes on each side.
Heat each corn tortilla in a skillet over medium-low heat until warm, about 1 minute. Divide grilled fish evenly over corn tortillas and serve with cilantro-lime sauce, cabbage, Monterey Jack cheese, tomato, avocado, salsa, and green onions.
2. Patriotic Parfait:
¼ cup plus 2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 box vegan (or non vegan) vanilla wafers
1 pound vegan (or regular) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups vegan (or regular) heavy cream, room temperature
2 pints blueberries
2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced
Directions:
Heat 1/4 cup sugar, the lemon juice and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and stir in the almond extract. Let cool slightly
Toss cookies in the mixture.
Beat the remaining 2/3 cup sugar and the cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until smooth and light. Add the cream and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and the consistency of whipped cream.
Arrange half of the cake cubes in the bottom of 10-12 parfait glasses. Sprinkle evenly with a layer of blueberries. Next, dollop the cream mixture over the blueberries and gently spread. Top with a layer of strawberries. Layer the remaining cookies on top of the strawberries, then sprinkle with more blueberries and top with the remaining cream mixture. Finish with the remaining strawberries and blueberries, arranging them in a decorative pattern. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
3. Cool Slaw:
2 pounds green cabbage
4 carrots
1 medium yellow onion
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-4 tablespoons pickle relish (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Cut cabbage in quarters and remove core. Peel carrots and onion and cut into pieces that would fit through the feed tube of a food processor. Fit food processor with the large-holed grater attachment and push cabbage, carrots, and onions through feed tube to grate. In a large bowl, toss vegetables together.
In another medium bowl, prepare the coleslaw dressing by whisking together the mayonnaise, mustard, cider vinegar, sugar, black pepper, and relish. Toss dressing with the cabbage mixture, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
4. Chips and Dip:
½ cup heavy cream
1 8-ounce container of sour cream
2 tables spoons fresh lemon juice
2 scallions, finely chopped
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Blend the heavy cream in a blender until slightly thickened. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, vegan parmesan, scallions, dill and garlic powder and pulse to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill 2 hours.
5. Orange Splash:
2 ounces Absolute Citron vodka
1 ounce Cointreau or triple sec
1 splash fresh lime juice
1 splash orange juice
Sugar (for garnish)
Orange slice (for garnish)
Directions:
Pour all ingredients over ice in a shaker or large glass and shake vigorously. Rim a glass with sugar and serve on the rocks. Garnish with an orange slice.
Thanks to the following websites for these fabulous ideas:
http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/orange-splash-cocktail-recipe
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carolyn-scott/vegan-memorial-day-recipes_b_1543917.html
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Members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) attended a luncheon yesterday at the London Hotel in West Hollywood. Guest speaker Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, co-founder of Gilt Groupe (or just Gilt), spoke to both organizations about how her, and her best friend Alexis Maybank, built their innovative company. Alexandra had many years of experience behind the scenes in the retail world. Wilson managed retail operations at BVLGARI, managed leather goods sales planning for Louis Vuitton and even dabbled in investment banking with Merrill Lynch early in her career. Years later, Alexandra and Alexis have changed the online shopping experience for many people.
Gilt Groupe is an online, invitation only, shopping site where members are able to shop top labels at a discounted price. However, Gilt did not grow over night, but has flourished into a wildly successful company. Most recently Alexandra and Alexis wrote a book (By Invitation Only) in which they discuss how they built this remarkably innovative website. These 10 tips provide great advice for small start-up entrepreneurs. Alexandra and Alexis went from packaging boxes themselves to having a warehouse equipped with robots to package. Needless to say they have learned a lot on the way, but hopefully this is just the beginning for Gilt Groupe!
- The most successful and innovative ideas come from what you want in your life—or in this case what you want to buy.
- Personalization– This is extremely important to Gilt. When each customer logs onto the website, the site is customized according to their previous purchases.
- Apps are VERY important:
i. Design for each device (iPhone, iPad, Droid, etc.)
ii. Optimize for weekends and downtime (When customers have more time to shop – Black Friday)
iii. Speed, stability, and scalability matter (Gilt uses lots of pictures which can slow down the site, the pictures also have to be tailored to the different devices)
- Managing social media closely shows customers that you value customer service: Gilt has 2 employees managing their social media at all times. This helps with Q & A from customers and also keeps the company connected to their market.
- Contests are a great way to draw in more consumers: Gilt uses “wow sales”. Some of these sales include auctioning a Volkswagen Jetta for $5,995, which sold in 0.25 seconds (the company’s fastest sale)… WOW!
- Requiring membership to the website allows high-end designers to feel secure that their brands are not being cheapened by online sales. The time limit of the auctions also provides comfort to many luxury labels.
- Know and like your investors. Also, understand that there is no immediate payback; growth takes time.
- Find a way to go to the customer, while at the same time giving them a reason to come to you— make your company convenient for customers.
- Adding content to your site allows customers to spend more time on the website, although it is not always needed. Gilt finally found a need for content when they created Gilt Taste. This provides customers with reviews of different food and wine, as well as recipes.
10. Gilt gives their customers something they can access anywhere, anytime, at a great price.
After Alexandra spoke EO and NAWBO members were able to buy copies of her book and have it signed. Thank you to both organizations for a fun and information-filled afternoon!
Request an invitation at: www.gilt.com
How to stick out in the minds of your colleagues and customers–no gimmicks required.
In order to succeed, almost everyone—whether business owner or employee—must be memorable.
While you don’t have to be The Most Interesting Man in the World, being known is one of the main goals of marketing, advertising, and personal branding.
Out of sight is out of mind, and out of mind is out of business.
But if your only goal is to be known for professional reasons, you’re missing out. People who are memorable for the right reasons also live a richer, fuller, and more satisfying life. Win-win!
So forget the flashy business cards and personal value propositions and idiosyncratic clothing choices.
Here’s how to be more memorable—and have a lot more fun.
1. Don’t see. Do.
Can you speak intelligently about how clothing provides a window into the inner lives of Mad Men characters? Do you find yourself arguing about how the degree of depth lost in the Game of Thrones TV series as compared to the books?
Anyone can share opinions about movies or TV or even (I’ll grudgingly admit) books. That’s why opinions are quickly forgotten. What you say isn’t interesting; what you do is interesting.
Spend your life doing instead of watching. Cool things will happen. Cool things are a lot more interesting and a lot more memorable.
That’s especially true when you…
2. Do something unusual.
Draw a circle and put all your “stuff” in it. Your circle will look a lot like everyone else’s: Everyone works, everyone has a family, everyone has homes and cars and clothes….
We like to think we’re unique, but roughly speaking we’re all the same, and similar isn’t memorable.
So occasionally do something different. Backpack to the next town just to see how many people stop to offer you a ride. (Don’t take them up on it, though. Unless you appear to be in distress, the people who want to give you a ride are the last people you want to ride with.) Try to hike/scramble to the top of a nearby mountain no one climbs. (Trust me; take water.) Compete with your daughter to see who can swim the most laps in three hours. (If you live in my house you’ll lose. Badly.)
Or work from a coffee shop one day just to see what you learn about other people… and about yourself.
Whatever you do, the less productive and sensible it is, the better. Your goal isn’t to accomplish something worthwhile; the goal is to collect experiences.
Experiences, especially unusual experiences, make your life a lot richer and way more interesting. You can even…
3. Embark on a worthless mission.
You’re incredibly focused, consistently on point, and relentlessly efficient.
You’re also really, really boring.
Remember when you were young and followed stupid ideas to their illogical conclusions? Road trips, failing the cinnamon challenge, trying to eat six saltine crackers in one minute without water… you dined out on those stories for years.
Going on “missions,” however pointless and inconvenient, was fun. In fact the more pointless the more fun you had, because missions are about the ride, not the destination.
So do something, just once, that adults no longer do. Drive eight hours to see a band. Buy your seafood at the dock. Or do something no one else thinks of doing. Ride along with a policeman on a Friday night (it’s the king of all eye-opening experiences.)
Pick something it doesn’t make sense to do a certain way and do it that way. You’ll remember it forever—and so will other people.
4. Embrace a cause.
People care about—and remember—people who care. When you stand for something you stand apart.
But…
5. Let other people spread the word.
People who brag are not remembered for what they’ve done; they’re remembered for the fact they brag.
Do good things and other people will find out. The less you say, the more people remember.
6. Get over yourself.
Most of the time your professional life is like a hamster wheel of resume or C.V. padding: You avoid all possibility of failure while maximizing the odds of success in order to ensure your achievement graph climbs up and up and up.
Inevitably, that approach starts to extend to your personal life too.
So you run… but you won’t enter a race because you don’t want to finish at the back of the pack. You sing… but you won’t share a mic in a friend’s band because you’re no Adele. You’ll sponsor the employee softball team but you won’t play because you’re not very good.
Personally and professionally, you feel compelled to maintain your all-knowing, all-achieving, all conquering image.
And you’re not a person. You’re a resume.
Stop trying to seem perfect. Accept your faults. Make mistakes. Hang yourself out there. Try and fail.
Then be gracious when you fail.
When you do, people will definitely remember you because people who are willing to fail are rare… and because people who display grace and humility, especially in the face of defeat, are incredibly rare.
via inc.com
Citrus Studios has been certified as a business owned and controlled by a woman by the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC), the first national certifier of Women Business Enterprise. Over 700 public and private sector individuals participated in establishing the Standards and Procedures of this rigid certification review. The goal of the certification program in to streamline the certification process and increase the ability of women business owners to compete for contacts at a national level.
“Certification provides a marketing opportunity for women business enterprises to participate in outreach programs,” says Kalika Yap, CEO of Citrus Studios. “in addition, this program will enable us to develop relationships with larger companies and create opportunities for future partnerships with them and public and private companies.”
“NWBOC seeks to increase the ability of women business owners to compete for corporate and government contracts,” says Janet Harris-Lange, President of NWBOC. “At the same time, NWBOC also hopes to decrease the number of front operations participating in corporate and government outreach programs.”
NWBOC, a national 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation, was created in response to needs identified by the Procurement Special interest Group of the National Association of Women Business Owners. The study revealed that the public and private sector had not received nor recognized the benefits of contracting with women suppliers. This has prevented purchasers from obtaining the best value in their procurement and it has limited women business owners from penetrating these markets, which has stymied their growth. NWBOC seeks to provide more corporations with suppliers the opportunity to complete.
Citrus’ little mascot, Namu, turns one year old today!
Namu’s Birthday cake
Such a wonderful day! The food and atmosphere was perfect.
He is definitely not camera shy 
Very photogenic
Our Project Coordinator Aimee with her dog Namu
We hope that you will have a long, healthy and happy life!
75 million Americans believe that bringing their dog to the workplace would increase their job satisfaction, and a recent study backs those claims up by reporting that people feel less stressed with their faithful companion by their side.
![Can a dog increase job satisfaction? [infographic]](http://citruswebdesign.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dogs-at-work.jpg?w=425 "Can a dog increase job satisfaction? [infographic]")
via alltop.com
Understand the unique brain and personality types of your employees to keep them invested in work. You’ll see amazing results.
I am often asked about how I keep employees inspired and productive. It’s an essential question since companies today must accomplish more, with fewer people. The most successful start-ups must be lean, nimble, and fierce.
In a nutshell, you should hire bright, energetic, innovative employees. Then offer them the right incentives–the ones that will impact their personal brain and personality types–to keep them mentally and emotionally invested in doing their best.
It’s impossible to talk about motivation without mentioning Drive, a book by best-selling author Daniel Pink. (His TED lecture was turned into a fabulous video.) Pink notes that people perform best when they are given autonomy, opportunity for mastery, and the belief that their task is meaningful. He says money is not the best motivator, and that employees want to be “players, not pawns.”
Pink believes Google’s “20% time,” in which employees may spend one day a week on whatever they want is a shining example of how allowing intrinsically-based motivations (a sense of accomplishment or purpose) can flourish. Personal endeavors from “20% time” resulted in Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense. Long before Google–back in 1948–3M instituted the “15% solution” or “dream time,” which yielded both Scotch Tape and Post-It Notes.
There’s no question that intrinsic motivation is essential. However, I do not agree with Pink that all extrinsic motivation (raises, bonuses, commissions, awards, titles, flex time, and other perks) is harmful. A skillful entrepreneur keeps employees motivated with a combination of both.
That said, there is no cookie-cutter approach to motivating your people. What inspires one person may leave the next cold. When you understand an employee’s thinking and behavioral preferences, you’ll be able to maximize his or her enthusiasm. This will help you get your workforce aligned and moving in the same direction, and you’ll see incredible returns.
1. Analytical types want to know that a project is valuable, and that their work makes a difference to its success. They need a leader who excels in a particular area, and whose expertise they believe benefits the group. They prefer compensation that is commensurate with their contribution. If they have done a tremendous amount of work on their own, don’t expect them to be happy if you reward the whole team.
2. People who are “structural” by nature want to know their work aids the company’s progress. They prefer a leader who is organized, competent, and good with details. They like to be rewarded in writing, in a timely manner, in a way specific to the task. An encouraging email is appropriate to communicate with them.
3. Social people want to feel personally valued, and that what they are doing has an impact on a project. They go the extra mile for a leader who expresses faith in their abilities. They prefer to be rewarded in person with a gesture that is from the heart. If your own preference is for written communication, send a handwritten note to a particularly social employee.
4. Innovative employees must buy into a cause. To them, the big picture matters more than the individual who is leading the charge. They prefer to be rewarded with something unconventional and imaginative, and would find a whimsical token of your esteem very meaningful.
5. Quiet staffers don’t need a lot of fanfare, but they appreciate private, one-on-one encouragement.
6. Expressive people feel more motivated when assignments are openly discussed and an open door is available. They like public recognition, with pomp, and ceremony.
7. Peacekeepers hope everyone will move in the same direction. They’ll never demand a reward or recognition, so it’s up to you to offer it.
8. Hard-drivers are independent thinkers. If they agree with you, they’ll be highly motivated. They will let you know what they’d like as an extrinsic reward, and they tend to want whatever it is right away.
9. Those who are focused team members must have confidence in the leader and in the project, or their motivation may falter. They want know up front what kind of reward they can expect. Make sure you follow through on whatever is promised.
10. Flexible people go along with the team, as long as a project does not contradict their morals or beliefs. They’re also happy with any kind of recognition.
Watch for the weakest link among your employees. If you have a slacker who consistently does less than everyone else but seems to get away with it, this can dampen the motivation of everyone else.
via inc.com
- Citrus Studios is an interactive web design agency in Santa Monica, California
2500 Broadway Ave.
Building F, Suite F-125
Santa Monica, CA 90404
t: (424) 238-4372
f: (424) 238-4373
www.citrusstudios.com design@citrusstudios.com
