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The New York chapter of the National Bar Association, the largest organization of African American lawyers in the country, was having a conference. As a young mother thinking of getting back to work, I was interested in networking. And while there, I found someone who was looking for me. 



Of course, Stephanie Thompson, a producer for Court TV, didn’t know she was specifically looking for me, just as I had no idea who she was or that she would be at the conference. I used to say that it was sheer luck that she and I bumped into each other that rainy day. But someone recently said to me that luck didn’t have a thing to do with it. It was preparation meeting opportunity. I believe that now. It wasn’t a random, fortuitous twist of fate. I wouldn’t have been at that conference if I wasn’t eager to network. I knew there would be employers there. I had the flicker of a dream that was getting stronger. I was looking for something. 



We started chatting and after a few minutes she said something that would change my life. 



“You should be on TV,” she said, stopping me in my tracks. 



Stephanie told me who she worked for and that the network was seeking lawyers who could analyze and explain the hot legal cases of the day to a cable TV audience. As a journalism major who had be- come a lawyer, I thought the gig she was seeking to fill sounded perfect. I sized up the situation very quickly and rattled off my education, my credentials, and my interest. 



“I have a journalism degree and really want to combine that with my law degree, but I don’t quite know how to do it.” 



Stephanie asked me if I had a head shot and a résumé. “Not with me,” I said quickly. But I took her business card and said I would get them to her right away. 



I didn’t mention that the closest thing I had to a head shot was the senior portrait I’d taken when I graduated from Dominican Academy. That didn’t matter. My parents, who had juggled jobs, strategized to get a nicer apartment in a safer neighborhood, and worked overtime to send their daughter to an expensive school, taught me to never be ashamed to seize hold of an opportunity. I wasn’t about to play around. 



I immediately looked up photographers and booked an appointment with the studio that could get me in the fastest. A day or two later, I headed to the shoot in the pouring rain, had the photographer print my proofs, and when I spotted a shot that I thought was fairly decent, I overnighted it to Stephanie at Court TV with my résumé glued to the back of it. 



Within a few weeks, I got a call from one of the network’s bookers. She asked if I could come on a couple of days later to appear in a segment. I immediately agreed, then went into a mild panic. 



….



When I showed up at Court TV for that first appearance, which was essentially my tryout, I felt confident. 



I was interviewed by two of the network’s anchors, Ashleigh Banfield and Jack Ford, but most of my interaction was with Jack. He was incredibly warm and gracious, and our rapport was so strong that though I was supposed to be on for one segment, he asked me if I could stay a few more minutes. Then a few more, and a few more, until I looked up and the show was over. I’d been on air for most of it. 



Throughout my academic and professional life, how comfortable I felt in a given place or space had really been my litmus test. If it felt like home, I knew I was in the right place, like I did when I went to SUNY Binghamton and Notre Dame, like I did when I clerked for Judge Bell, researching and writing briefs, and when I was in the courtroom, arguing a case. Offering my opinions and knowledge on that Court TV set, the studio lights shining above me, I felt at ease. I was in the right place. 



When the show ended, Jack said to the thousands of viewers who were watching, “It’s Asunción’s first time here with us. But it won’t be her last.” 



Jack later told me that he had never seen someone who was a total television novice be so perfectly on point and comfortable. He said that he knew that I would be doing TV for the rest of my life. 



I felt triumphant after that appearance, elated that I had gotten the opportunity and made the most of it.



 Excerpt from <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/i-am-these-truths-sunny-hostincharisse-jones?variant=32117891661858" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds </a>by Sunny Hostin. Published by HarperOne. Copyright © 2020 HarperCollins.



 Photo by © Heidi Gutman / Courtesy of ABC

An excerpt from ‘I Am These Truths’ by The View co-host Sunny Hostin

An excerpt from ‘I Am These Truths’ by The View co-host Sunny Hostin | SUCCESS

When Preparation Meets Opportunity

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When Preparation Meets Opportunity | SUCCESS

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Attorney and multi-platform journalist Sunny Hostin is the four-time Emmy Award-winning co-host of ABC’s The View.

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Sunny Hostin

Business &amp; Branding

Business &amp; Branding Archives

Stay ahead in business: strategies and insights for success

If the Internet has ever stolen time from you, here&rsquo;s how to get it back.All you need is a smartphone, an ingenious program called IFTTT and a Google account&mdash;and you can forget about boring, time-consuming tasks like tracking shipments, updating contacts and cleaning up inbox clutter because the Internet will do it all for you, like a personal assistant of sorts.Check out the five tasks the Internet can take off your to-do list:1. Plan Your Day: There is nothing more distracting to your morning routine than checking your phone. You pick it up to see the weather forecast, spot a notification about a high school friend&#39;s wedding and down you dive into a deep, dark Facebook hole.Instead, set a wake-up call (yes, an actual phone call&mdash;so 1990s). Use&nbsp;<a href="https://ifttt.com/recipes/120360-school-wake-up-call-with-morning-weather-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this IFTTT recipe</a>&nbsp;to schedule a daily call that reads you the date, time, temperature, forecast and a slew of other relevant information that you can edit to your personal preferences. <a href="https://ifttt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IFTTT</a>&nbsp;helps you connect separate Internet services&mdash;Gmail, Evernote, iOS, Android and Dropbox&mdash;through simple conditional statements known as &ldquo;Recipes.&rdquo; These recipes are triggered automatically when the specified conditions are met. IFTTT has more than 130 &ldquo;channels,&rdquo; with more added on a daily basis, enabling you to automate almost everything you do online. You can use it on all your mobile devices and from your desktop.2. Deal with Email: As I&rsquo;ve&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-ways-to-make-working-from-home-work-for-you" target="_blank" title="4 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">written about previously</a>, email is undisputedly one of modern life&rsquo;s biggest distractions. Unfortunately, the Internet can&rsquo;t read and reply to your email for you, at least not entirely. If you are a Gmail user, try some of these automated solutions to cut down on inbox time:Automatically create to-dos from email messages with&nbsp;<a href="https://ifttt.com/recipes/126848-if-i-star-an-email-in-gmail-create-a-reminder-to-take-care-of-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this IFTTT recipe</a>. Simply star an email to create an iOS Reminder to take care of it. Don&rsquo;t use iOS? There are numerous &ldquo;channels&rdquo; to choose from, so you&rsquo;re sure to find one that fits your workflow.Clear your inbox clutter without hitting a single key with&nbsp;<a href="https://unroll.me/features" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Unroll.me</a>. This service identifies all your subscription emails and compiles them into one email for you to peruse whenever you choose.<a href="https://www.boomeranggmail.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boomerang</a>&nbsp;lets you schedule times to automatically send and receive email in Gmail, set reminders to make sure you got a response to that important message, and specify a time or date to return an email to your inbox when you&rsquo;re ready to deal with it.3. Track Your Shipments: If you do a lot of online purchasing, either for business or pleasure, you are probably wasting time tracking packages&mdash;opening the email, clicking the link, signing up for the notifications from UPS or FedEx, etc. You can stop all of that now.Simply download&nbsp;<a href="https://www.slice.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Slice</a>&nbsp;(for Android and iOS) and allow it access to your email account. It will pull in any email dealing with shipments or purchases and then automatically track the shipment, pushing a notification to your phone when it&rsquo;s shipped, out for delivery and delivered. You can also set up an&nbsp;<a href="https://ifttt.com/recipes/195228-add-package-delivery-date-to-your-calendar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IFTTT action</a>&nbsp;to automatically add the package delivery date to your calendar.4. Track Your Miles: If you have to track your mileage for work, you know how time consuming it can be. Even with apps set up to help you, it&rsquo;s still a lot of manual data entry.<a href="https://www.automatic.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Automatic</a>&nbsp;($79) is an intelligent gadget you plug into your car (most makes and models made since 1996) and that talks to your car&rsquo;s onboard computer and uses your smartphone&rsquo;s GPS and data plan. Automatic has a slew of features, but my favorite is&nbsp;<a href="https://ifttt.com/recipes/148434-log-all-of-my-trips-to-a-google-spreadsheet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this IFTTT recipe</a>&nbsp;that automatically logs all of your trips to a Google spreadsheet.5. Manage Your Contacts: <a href="https://rapportive.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rapportive</a>&nbsp;saves time by researching your contacts for you. It pulls their LinkedIn profiles, job titles, websites and any other relevant information available on the web right into your Gmail inbox. It also displays a picture and lets you connect with them on LinkedIn without leaving your inbox&mdash;which is great for those who have trouble remembering people or need to keep track of a large number of clients.There&rsquo;s an app for keeping your address book up to date, too. Personal assistant app&nbsp;<a href="https://www.easilydo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Easily Do</a>&nbsp;has a feature that automatically pulls contact info from your emails and prompts you to add it to your address book, either to an existing contact or a new one. All it takes is a couple taps and your contact is in your address book, you&rsquo;re connected on LinkedIn, and the details are populated to Evernote Hello and Salesforce, if you so desire.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-steps-to-a-paperless-life" target="_self" title="3 Steps to a Paperless Life | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">The digital world can be distracting&mdash;but so can mountains of piled paper. Check out 3 steps you can follow to manage a clutterless paperless life.</a>

If the Internet has ever stolen time from you, here&rsquo;s how to get it back.All you need is a smartphone, an ingenious program called IFTTT and a

If the Internet has ever stolen time from you, here&rsquo;s how to get it back.All you need is a smartphone, an ingenious program called IFTTT and a | SUCCESS

5 Tasks the Internet Can Mark Off Your To-Do List

5 Tasks the Internet Can Mark Off Your To-Do List | SUCCESS

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I am a writer, and I love paper. I love the feel of it, the smell of it, and the promise it holds. I could sit in a stationery store and stare at its many forms for hours (that is, if I could find a stationery store anymore). But I am in the midst of a passionate pursuit of a paperless lifestyle.You see, I love paper so much that I don&rsquo;t want to hate it. I&rsquo;m tired of towers of old bills and endless boxes stuffed with paper I might need, one day. I want the paper in my life to be solely the paper I love: my hardback copy of Webster&rsquo;s Dictionary, my son&rsquo;s drawing of the caterpillar he found in the garden, the Sunday edition of The&nbsp;New York Times. These are things trees would be proud to sacrifice their lives for. My water bill? Not so much.I started my paperless crusade two years ago and I&rsquo;m proud of the results. Through a combination of my iPhone and a cloud-based storage system (I use <a href="https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/" target="_blank" title="Microsoft OneDrive | OneDrive.Live.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">OneDrive</a> for documents and <a href="https://evernote.com/evernote/" target="_blank" title="Evernote | Evernote.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Evernote</a> for everything else), I have cut my paper clutter down by 80 percent. I now have instant access to the &ldquo;papers&rdquo; I need via any computer, tablet or smartphone. The next time you are pulled over for speeding and realize your new insurance card isn&rsquo;t in the car, but on Evernote, will be the moment you realize what a life-changing step going paperless is.These are the three steps I follow to manage my paperless life:1. Photo Documentation&nbsp; If I have a paper item I want to keep, I take a photo of it with the Evernote app on my phone, tag it, and then throw it away. Evernote has an excellent document camera built in that takes well-defined images of text and also crops out any fingers and thumbs.Note: There are countless blogs and eBooks dedicated to getting the most out of Evernote&rsquo;s wide range of services. A couple to get you started:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jamierubin.net/2013/11/26/going-paperless-a-primer-to-going-paperless-in-2014/" target="_blank" title="Going Paperless: A Primer to Going Paperless in 2014 | jamierubin.net " rel="noopener noreferrer">Going Paperless</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://getuntethered.com/about" target="_blank" title="Untethered with Evernote | GetUntethered.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Untethered with Evernote</a>.2. Print to PDF&nbsp; When I come across something I need to &ldquo;print,&rdquo; I choose the Print-to PDF option, available on Macs, the Google Chrome browser and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/150891/how-to-print-to-pdf-in-windows-4-tips-and-tricks/" target="_blank" title="How to Print to PDF in Windows: 4 Tips and Tricks | HowtoGeek.com " rel="noopener noreferrer">software plugins for Windows</a>. Then, instead of a physical piece of paper, I end up with a portable document file I can save directly to OneDrive.3. Take Notes&nbsp; I still make notes with a pen and paper. When I&rsquo;m done, however, I take a picture of my finished notes and store them in Evernote. I quickly discovered that a paperless system works best when everything you need is always in one place, not scattered in different drawers or sitting on your office desk when you&rsquo;re working from home.These steps worked perfectly for me for the first year of my paperless pursuit. But then my son went to kindergarten. If there&rsquo;s one system in this country that has yet to embrace the paperless concept, it is the public school system. The daily deluge that arrived home with my 5-year-old was a new challenge. And it dawned on me, half the battle of a paperless life is managing the paper other people insist on giving you.Here are some tricks I use to cut out &ldquo;other people&rsquo;s clutter&rdquo;:Documents Other People Want You to Store: When my son brings home mountains of paperwork from school, I let him put them in our flatbed scanner and digitize it himself&mdash;an excellent learning experience for him and a clutter-freeing procedure for me. The scanner system also works for longer documents given to you by colleagues. Make sure you choose a scanner with an auto-feed system. Most scanners come with a &ldquo;scan to email&rdquo; function that lets you scan directly to your chosen cloud drive.Documents Manufacturers Want You to Read:&nbsp; Most electronics manufacturers have realized the savings of not printing their manuals in three languages, but for some reason appliance makers still insist on producing instruction pamphlets a phone book would envy. These can go straight in the recycle bin. Make a note of your model number, head to the manufacturer&rsquo;s website and download the manual as a PDF to your cloud drive.Documents Marketers Want You to Spend Money On: Unwanted credit card offers and fancy catalogues I can&rsquo;t afford to buy from, you have met your match.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.paperkarma.com/about" target="_blank" title="PaperKarma | PaperKarma.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">PaperKarma</a>&nbsp;is an awesome app that lets you snap a picture of the junk mail you receive and then contacts the company on your behalf to have you removed from the mailing list. And it really works; I&rsquo;ve been using it for two years now and my physical mailbox is far more streamlined than my digital one.There are so many benefits of a paperless life and very few drawbacks. When I catch a glimpse of my clutter-free desk as I sit down on a Sunday morning with a cup of coffee in one hand and the solid feel of The New York Times Review section in the other, I realize that paper-less doesn&rsquo;t have to mean paper-free.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-ways-to-make-working-from-home-work-for-you" target="_self" title="4 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You | SUCCESS.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">With technology, going paperless is simple. See how else tech can make life more efficient, including 4 ways it can make working from home work for you.</a>&nbsp;Jennifer Tuohy writes about consumer technology for eBay. See her recent piece on paperless solutions for students and parents (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/gds/6-Tech-Tools-For-Going-Paperless-at-School-/10000000178807786/g.html" target="_blank" title="6 Tech Tools for Going Paperless at School | eBay.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>). You can follow Jennifer on&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/+JenniferPattisonTuohy?rel="author&quot; noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google+</a>&nbsp;and at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/usr/jp2e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eBay</a>.

I am a writer, and I love paper. I love the feel of it, the smell of it, and the promise it holds. I could sit in a stationery store and stare at its many

I am a writer, and I love paper. I love the feel of it, the smell of it, and the promise it holds. I could sit in a stationery store and stare at its many | SUCCESS

3 Steps to a Paperless Life

3 Steps to a Paperless Life | SUCCESS

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When I sat down to write this article, I planned to divulge my secrets for working efficiently from a home office while ignoring a pile of laundry and pretending you&rsquo;re too busy to spend an hour at your son&rsquo;s kindergarten class.Then I realized that article would be a lie. I work from home because I don&rsquo;t want to separate work from home&mdash;or more precisely, life. I work from home because I want the flexibility it affords: the ability to combine work and life and not miss out on any of it. And I&rsquo;m not alone.Whether it&rsquo;s because, like me, you are a parent who wants to be more visible in your children&rsquo;s lives, or you&rsquo;re a small-business owner just getting your dream off the ground, many of us want to free ourselves from the confines of a stuffy cubicle. But freedom comes with a price; the marriage of life and work. Be prepared to throw away that oft quoted quest for &ldquo;work/life balance&rdquo;; the struggle to keep the two most essential parts of life separate is exhaustingly pointless. It&rsquo;s yet another way we set ourselves up for failure; another pile of guilt to lump alongside that pile of laundry.With this in mind, this article is not a list of typical work-from-home guidelines telling you to create a separate workspace, be organized, set goals and don&rsquo;t let friends stop by. Instead, these are tips for using technology as your ally, letting you run your business from the palm of your hand wherever you are. This will set you up to leave the actual work to the precious time when you are sitting in your home office, uninterrupted by life.1. Conquer Your Calendar&nbsp; Once you&rsquo;ve admitted the 9-to-5 schedule is not for you, make sure you replace it with something else. I used to devote three hours once a week and a full hour each morning to combing through my calendar and to-do list, making sure every minute of my day was accounted for. Now, thanks to an iPhone app called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.any.do/cal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cal</a> (free for iOS and Android), my day is on track within five minutes. Cal and its sister app, electronic to-do list&nbsp;<a href="https://www.any.do/anydo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Any Do </a>(free for iOS and Android), automatically appear on my phone every day at a prearranged time to walk me through my appointments and tasks. After showing me my schedule, each to-do appears with an option of scheduling it for today, later, or to cross it off my list for good. Organizational nirvana achieved.2. Activate Your Personal Assistant&nbsp; The hallmark of a perfect piece of technology is that you don&rsquo;t notice it until it has done what you need it to do. Claiming to offer you the right information at just the right time,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.google.com/landing/now/#whatisit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Now</a>&nbsp;(available for iOS, Android and computer) is this valet for the modern age. Google Now does everything, from literally handing you your plane tickets as you walk out the door, while whispering in your ear that the traffic is flowing smoothly between here and the airport. It also works by parsing the information it learns from your web habits and email to anticipate your needs and present you with tailored information before you even realize you need it.3. Eviscerate Your Email Just thinking about my inbox was once enough to put an end to my productivity for the day. Then I discovered&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mailboxapp.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mailbox</a> (free for iOS and Android). While standing on the soccer sidelines or waiting for a source to show up at a coffee shop, I can swipe my way to inbox zero in mere moments. Mailbox is a simple app that lets you &ldquo;triage&rdquo; your email by swiping to archive, delete, snooze (choosing when you want the email to return to your inbox) or send to a folder. Mailbox zen is a powerful thing.4. Vamoose the Video Conferencing&nbsp; &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s do all our conference calls over video,&rdquo; said no one who works from home, ever. Despite the countless articles telling those who work from home to &ldquo;get dressed as if you were going to the office,&rdquo; we don&rsquo;t. Why spend 15 minutes applying makeup when only the dog is going to see me all day? I&rsquo;d rather use that time to do the laundry. There are very few times when video conferencing is necessary; just because a technology exists, does not mean you have to use it. Save time and mascara and stick with the phone&mdash;with the bonus of being accessible anywhere, anytime (even if there&rsquo;s no Wi-Fi, which, it turns out, aquariums and zoos rarely have).&nbsp;<a href="https://mobileday.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mobile Day</a>&nbsp;(free for iOS and Android) is an excellent app to securely and quickly dial you into a conference call with the touch of just one button. The app pulls the call details from your calendar and pops up on your phone just as the conference is about to start.These four small steps will set you up for a successful marriage of life and work, letting you enjoy both in equal measure, while letting neither rule the other. The biggest hurdle however, will be convincing the partner in your real marriage that just because you work from home it doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;ll always get the laundry done.If you&rsquo;re working alone from home, you&rsquo;ll appreciate these five tactics that can help you battle isolation and stay energized.&nbsp;Jennifer Tuohy writes about consumer technology for eBay, where you can find a selection of&nbsp;devices&nbsp;to help you work from anywhere. Follow Jennifer on&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/+JenniferPattisonTuohy?rel="author&quot; noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google+</a>&nbsp;and at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ebay.com/usr/jp2e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eBay</a>.

When I sat down to write this article, I planned to divulge my secrets for working efficiently from a home office while ignoring a pile of laundry and

When I sat down to write this article, I planned to divulge my secrets for working efficiently from a home office while ignoring a pile of laundry and | SUCCESS

4 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You

4 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You | SUCCESS

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Sunny Hostin

Latest Articles

When Preparation Meets Opportunity

5 Tasks the Internet Can Mark Off Your To-Do List

3 Steps to a Paperless Life

4 Ways to Make Working from Home Work for You