To say 2011 was a bad year for me would be extremely inaccurate. I’ve have a harsh last couple of years and simply carried the baggage over. I’ve lost friends, had my heart broken more than once, and my dreams shattered. I made a long string of mistakes, bad decisions and I made myself numb to any feeling. 2012, is the year of redemption.

In retro respective, putting a side the dark place my heart was at, I had a fantastic 2011. I lived in Chile, explored the country, took a bajillion pictures, and made  friends I will have for the rest of my life. I  reconnected with my father, and my family who I haven’t seen or talked to since 1994.

Also, I had a crap load of fun.

Most importantly, I realized what I wanted out of my life. Learning about cultures and traveling are my passion and have finally decided to attend college for it. Design is my bread maker and I still enjoy, so obviously i will still be doing it for a long time.

The end of 2011 has been fantastic in regards to work, and getting my ish together. I expect 2012 to have a lot more of this, and that frequent travel is also part of the plan. Life is all about perspective and mine has been scared straight.

Let’s live long, prosper, and rock this biatch.

I can usually be spotted reading books about physics, astronomy, art, design, and tons of graphic novels. It’s my nature. However, I am addicted to expanding my professional skill sets. I have overflowing towers of book about writing, web, and social media. I have acquired profound knowledge on these topics from extensive research. But I realized one problem – I didn’t sound like it.

This was most likely due to a lack of presentation skills although I’m no stranger to the topic. My first job was at a production agency where PowerPoint presentations were our bread and butter for no less than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

But then it hit me.

I’m good at presenting others’ knowledge, highlighting their achievements, making them look and sounds like a million dollars, but I did not know how to do it for myself. Upon realizing this, I got to work. I decided to head to my local library to find some books on the topic. After rummaging rows of books, I found one that spoke to me in particular. A medium sized  paperback pastel blue and hot pink book called, Speak Up! A Woman’s Guide to Presenting Like a Pro.

I will admit I am not one to fall into the trap of girl focused books. After all, I think we are all equal. I will chalk it up to the colors of the cover (ironically, I like this color scheme) and the time limit I was under as the reason I checked this book out.

First page in, I was glad I did. This book is extremely easy to digest, and the writers have a friendly, warm personality that just comes right off the pages. Each chapter is short, concise, and clear. At the end of each chapter they provide you with bullet points summarizing what was covered which is great for someone with short attention span. At the end of the book, the writers provide resources,  top ten tips, and FAQ’s which condense the book and serve as a refresher.

The writers, Cydi Maxey and Kevin E O’Connor, specialized in presentation and communication and seem to have the art of speaking and conveying messages in public down to a science. However, this is the first public speaking book I have ever read, making a lot of this content brand new to me.  The author’s also cover a lot of tips on communicating and making great impressions in the corporate world. That said, I doubt you will find their tips on  writing emails, holding meeting, and making good impressions on corporate suites useful.

Speak Up! A Woman’s Guide to Presenting Like a Pro gives you the tools and the knowledge to make it happen. Can’t guarantee what you will read will be new to you if you have read presentation books before, but the information is so well organized and so easy to digest, that I would give this one a try as a refresher. If you are not into corporate communications, I would give this one a pass. The book is all about dealing with the corporate world from writing emails, organizing meeting, giving keynotes, and even eulogies.

Buy Speak Up!: A Woman’s Guide to Presenting Like a Pro on Amazon!

A client wanted a video to show the success of her gallery show in Coral Gables, FL. There was only one problem: no video. The only video provided was a series of clips taken by her father on his iPhone.

So I got to work.

After some serious editing on Premier, on my first go with the program, I was able to create a decent quality video. At least, a vast improvement from the original(s). Enjoy!

Mavema Art Show

While working at Atakama Labs from their Santiago, Chile office, I functioned as a Community Manager and Marketing Graphic Designer. I created loading screens, marketing materials, images for pop-ups, monetization screens,  promotional images for Facebook, proposals, and more.

I also designed and coded all the email marketing from the company.

It is with some serious sore muscles, and lack of motivation to move today that I present to you my photos for yesterday’s bike tour around the Chilean countryside. The 41 mile bike tour around Lago Acuelo, was organized by a really awesome bike group my dad is part of called Chili Dogs Fitness. These people go out every weekend to beautiful locations around Chile and bike their hearts out for one simple reward — fun.

Now, biking for 41 miles might have not felt like much fun or a great idea at times, but  I loved it.  If you know me, you know I’m not in shape or care much for gyms. The most workout I have gotten as of late has been at raves and dance parties. Not to mention last time I was on a bike, it was adorn with some kind of cartoon character, and the bike was most likely a pink tint. Needless to say, I wasn’t very prepared for this bike ride. I decided to go for the challenge anyway because, 1) I had a bus readily to pick me up and 2) I wanted to get out into the adventure.