Meet The 20 Eligible Singles Of The 'Ready To Love' Season 4 Cast
Cuffing season just got a little bit hotter! This fall, Ready to Love is coming back to our screens for an all-new season, just in time for us to screen and cuddle up with potential baes in real life. For its fourth season, the hit show is trading in their popular Houston and Atlanta backdrops seen in previous seasons for the nation's capital: Washington, D.C. And as host Nephew Tommy Miles tells it, it's all about "location, location, location," baby!
Since its debut, the hit OWN dating show has been a fan favorite of audiences who tune in week to week to learn who is truly ready to step up in the name of love. Viewers have followed the series diligently as contenstants navigate the romantic hopefuls in search for meaningful connections they couldn't otherwise find. Starting Friday, October 15, viewers can tune into the two-hour premiere of the new season that will feature two one-hour episodes. And if the first-look trailer is any indication of what is in store, Ready to Love is definitely turning up the heat with shocking twists. (Two surprise "sexy singles"? We see you Nephew Tommy.)
The lucky number is 20 as this time the show will feature 20 eligible Black bachelors and bachelorettes who all have one thing in common: the search for an authentic connection. DC isn't nicknamed Chocolate City for nothing, and in preparation for the highly anticipated new season, we wanted to start things off on the right foot by introducing you to Ready to Love's Season 4 singles.
Meet the Women of the 'Ready to Love' Season 4 Cast
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Mumen Ngenge, 36 | Singer/Songwriter
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Zadia Murphy, 35 | Personal Trainer
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Shiloh Trianna, 33 | Intimacy Life Coach
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Sabrina Tullos, 45 | Fashion Designer
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Aisha Alilah, 37 | Hair Salon Owner
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Tisia, 33 | Tech Startup Founder
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Kheri Carter, 37 | Real Estate & Interior Décor
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Kamil, 42 | Fine Arts Department Chair
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Courtney Nelson, 30 | Business Consultant
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Meet the Men of the 'Ready to Love' Season 4 Cast
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Lamont Wilkins, 44 | Cyber Security
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Frank Mills, 35 | Cocktail Brand Owner
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Dontá Smith, 38 | Deputy Superintendent
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Cornelius Bryant, 39 | Electrical Engineer
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Cornelius Bryant, 39 | Electrical Engineer
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Carrington Barbour, 33 | Nightlife Marketing CEO
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Walter Maxfield Jones, 46 | Entrepreneur
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Tyrone Wilson, 44 | Cyber Security Professional
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Phil Guillaume, 37 | Marketing Consultant (PR) Govt
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Nai’im Bilaal, 40 | Program Manager
OWN / Kelvin Bulluck
Tune into the new season of Ready to Love on Fridays at 8 p.m./9 p.m. ET/PT, starting October 15.
First Look: Ready To Love Is Back- In DC! | Ready to Love | OWN
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ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Not Enjoying Your Career Journey? Try The Anti-Goals Method.
We've all heard, at one time or another, about the importance of goal-setting and the various methods you can use, especially when it comes to career goals. For me, some of the methods have just been ill-fitting. I'd been searching for the best goal-setting approach for someone like me who has struggled with negative self-talk—always feeling overwhelmed due to focusing on my failure to achieve certain goals within a certain time frame.
I’m also okay, at this point in my career, not knowing exactly what I want my professional life to look like in the future because, at this point, I've accomplished a lot before the age of 30. I have hit that so-called mid-level career wall that many ambitious women face when they reach a certain age and level of experience.
For sure, the last 10 years of my life have been all about speaking up and setting boundaries for what I no longer will do on the path to success. I kept thinking that there had to be a goal-setting method that works within that context—to use to my advantage, as I’m good at pinpointing what I don’t want to do, where I don’t want to be, and how I don’t want to feel in the work that I do.
Well, this is where anti-goals come in.
What Are Anti-Goals?
Anti-goals are goals that center on happiness, avoiding certain actions, decisions, or habits that will certainly deter you from making career fulfillment a reality. Leadership consultant and speaker Selena Rezvani elaborated on the essence of this concept well in a recent Fast Companyarticle.
“An anti-goal is a way to customize your work life and decision making,” the author of Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself, told the publication. “Do that by looking at what doesn’t serve you. You can figure out pretty quickly some of the frustrating patterns you might fall into and what you want to actively avoid.”
Anti-goals allow you the space and permission to work along with (not against) what really motivates you to achieve a goal. You think about what you don't want to happen versus what you do.
For some of us, it’s the less attractive outcome that drives our decisions one way or another. (Research has proven this to be a real psychological phenomenon. You can read more about that here, and here).
I’ve found that I’ve been this way my whole life. Oftentimes, for example, if my goal was to remain on the Honor Roll at high school, I wasn’t thinking about the joy or perks of being an excellent student. I was thinking about the other outcome: My mom not being proud of me, or not getting into college in order to have a better prospect at a decent job in my adult future. As a copy editor, I didn’t set a goal of writing more in order to become a features editor.
I’d outgrown the copy editing jobs and thought about the dead-end dread of spending one more year of dotting i’s and crossing t’s for a living, so I set out to write more and took on assignments in digital publishing.
Thomas Barwick/Getty
How To Set Anti-Goals
First, you think about things backward. Where don’t you want to be? What feelings at work do you loathe? What companies do you want to avoid and why? What types of people do you want to be sure you’re not working with? What skills are you lacking that are needed to get you to where you actually want to be in your career? Write these things down. Get them out of your head on paper.
Work with a coach that’s familiar with anti-goals and won’t shame you because you’re not starting with S.M.A.R.T. or F.A.S.T goal-setting. (You might need to come back to those methods when you’ve actually set out a plan to go against what you don’t want.)
For example, after working full-time in media for more than eight years finally becoming a manager with the pay I thought I deserved, I found I didn’t really like being a manager. I wrote down my whys and a lot of it had to do with wanting to just manage the greatest asset to my career advancement: me. I didn’t want to have to deal with the attitudes, the politics, and always being the first to put out fires when someone was insubordinate, numbers didn’t add up, or key deliverables weren’t being met.
I knew I didn’t want to sit in an office all day and be the last one to leave. I wanted freedom, autonomy, and a flexible work schedule where I could manage content, projects, and one-on-one clients from anywhere in the world. I didn't want to be responsible for a massive team of full-on human beings.
I then began setting anti-goals and taking steps, motivated by those anti-goals, to create the career life I’d dreamed of. I created my exit plan and eventually resigned to go freelance full-time, but I had to set anti-goals like:
- Decline your employment contract renewal as a manager. Instead, build up a client base.
- Don’t apply for any more managerial positions or promotions. Start doing freelance work on the side.
- Don’t spend frivolously on eating out or clubbing. Save x-amount by the quit date.
- Don't overdo it with meetings and emails. Use that time to go to after-work networking events.
- Don’t continue giving time to managerial training or other related coaching. Get mentors and coaches who are living the career lifestyle you want.
All of these anti-goals not only positively aligned with my regular way of thinking but they helped me avoid being so hard on myself, sitting in negativity during the processes of transition throughout my career, and they helped me enjoy the journey. For several, I still had to write down and follow through with specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.) details only when applicable. I’ve found that we can think something will go a certain way, and life (well, God) has its way of taking you somewhere else exciting, and that’s okay.
Anti-goals are a great way to rethink how we maneuver through setting realistic career goals that align with purpose, allowing us to get clarity on what we don’t want in order to work toward what we do. Hey, a win is a win.
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