Saying goodbye to this 2020…

Saying goodbye to this 2020… It’s been a while since the last time I wrote to all of you my dear readers and it has happened a lot in the last months. Definitely this year 2020 has left all of us a bunch of reflections, learnings, does and don’t in our daily lifestyles. There have been a lot of fast changes and those, at least for me have given me a lot of challenges to deal with in the last months.

Specially dealing with our daily routine, because for sure before all this fast changes we were all used to do our things and daily work in different ways, I really appreciate to be able to work from home, avoid lost hours in the traffic, and gained more quality time for my family and myself, that is just priceless.

In contrast I really needed to learn and get in balance my personal life, because some of you may feel really similar to me at this point, in which almost all of the day you were out at the office, at work and so was your significant other (boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, free, or whatever you want to call it). But then, all of a sudden we are both trapped for hours and hours in the same small space… and at the beginning it was wonderful, I mean it… until I realized each of us needs it’s personal space and time. So sharing the same space at the house or apartment for so many hours, days, months, continuously can get really difficult to accept and find the beautiful equilibrium in life.

Here begins my reflection, saying goodbye to this 2020… The first months of the pandemic were really productive and I really enjoy spending most of the time with my boyfriend, but as time passed by sometimes I got too busy (working hours will extend later at night), sometimes he will get too busy (working till morning hours) that is precisely where the “Equilibrium” we thought we had completely got lost. Sometimes just feeling my partner is such in “his stuff” but this can continue for hours, days, months that personal life balance can get rally breakable, sometimes him and sometimes me.

Foto by: Spirit Navigator

This is something to think about, because on this 2020, many couples and marriages will be lost forever, I have friends who were not used to get along for so many hours and that probably will be separated by 2021. On the other hand I have friends having babies and making stronger the bond between them. Such is life balance, to give the person you love their space and time the need but also learning to be present for the other. The worst feeling someone can have, is that one of feeling alone being with others, or being with someone that makes you feel that loneliness, which can be different. Is also about learning to love yourself and being alone with yourself and feel happiness and gratitude for that moment and that time.

Saying goodbye to this 2020… Has given me a lot to think about, many people lost their jobs, not being able to support their families and loved ones. But not everything has been bad memories, or sad situations… It also has empowered us to create different job opportunities, new ways of selling products, new ideas on how to make things better, different, innovative. Definitely, there are many things and situations to be sad for, and sure, if you are reading my article until this point, a minute of silence for all of you who have a relative or beloved one who is sick, or if you have lost someone to this pandemic (we all had) sad, and true story… but grateful because YOU are alive and able to keep going with your life and your goals.

I just hope, and want to tell all of you who read this article that everything will be ok. We are ALIVE and strong enough to re-build ourselves, to look for new opportunities and to continue to create a wonderful world for next generations. This will not be easy, but is not impossible. I am dreamer, as I told you once in some other of my posts, and my passion is to travel, and sure I have not been able to all this 2020 (frustrating and sad), but I have a life, and YOU too.

Dear reader, follower, friend… Please make me the promise to me and to yourself, as I will to myself too, that I will do what ever it takes and everything on my hands to make things different for me, and for future generations… because this pandemic was and still is a hard learning for all of us, and has lead us to reinvent our lifestyles, ourselves and the way we live. We are much more than this pandemic and we can re-build a new future. That’s my wish for this 2021 to come, for me, my family and for all of you.

Happy Christmas to all of you and Happy New Year 2021 / A year that goes by…

Do’s and Don’ts when starting your own blog…

DO’S AND DON’TS WHEN STARTING YOUR OWN BLOG

My dear readers, today I am going to talk to you about a subject that has been a little bit hard and difficult to assimilate for me. I am not sure if any of you probably have been before in the same situation… If so, please let me know down in the comments I will be more than happy to read you, such as I am about to tell you about mine. About all the do’s and don’ts when starting your own blog.

In 2016, I made my first backpacking traveling to South East Asia and my whole idea was to start a Traveling Blog for all my travels and adventures, like a diary for everything that happened to me during my trips. Until that point, the idea was just awesome but definitely I did not wanted to be carrying the lap-top in my backpack all the time because I will be traveling for almost 3-4 months. My decision was to take with me a small tablet and thought that will be enough for what I needed to write.

Professional Blogging

In this post I will give you my list of my Do’s and Dont’s when starting a blog. If you will like to start yours the subject of the blog does not matter at all it can be traveling, food, pets, innovation whatever you are interested to write about. But,it is important that you take this into consideration:

THESE WERE MY THREE BIG MISTAKES WHEN STARTING MY TRAVEL BLOG

1. Selecting the best working tool Lap-Top vs Tablet: I did not take with me to Asia my lap-top… this was a really big learning on the road, and I wish that this never happens to you. The tablet I took with me, which was way more lighter, was never enough for all the work writing a blog represented.
   
   
   In that moment I did never realized until I was already in Thailand trying to write an article and really needed and missed my laptop. The only thing I had left to do was to take the photos, videos, and document my travel so that later, back in Mexico I will be able to write all my adventures.
   
2. Choosing correct platform for blogging: if you blog is only a hobby is OK if you decide not to pay for a good hosting and domain. In my case I thought that it would not make a difference, so just started using a free blogging domain some of you maybe already know roadtripscarbax.wordpress.com, this is my Travel Blog, considering that maybe later I will pay for it and make it more professional later. I kept writing there for a long time all these last 4 years, and guess what…?
   
   Now that after all these 4 years I have been writing there, including all my travels from Mexico, and I DO want to make it in a professional way, considering I will like to add my own advertisement, affiliation links and personalized it… I need to change platforms from wordpress.com to wordpress.org which is a lot more easier and customizable.
   
   When I first started blogging I wasn’t aware of the implications of using one platform instead of the other, one has a free bloggers domain, the other needs domain and hosting. I recommend that you chose wise which platform to use when starting your blog, here in this link you can find really useful information on it: Difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org, and if you need any other platform comparisons you can find them here.
   
   
3. Considering SEO in post writing: this is an important consideration when you want your blog to be prioritized in browsers like Yahoo, or google. So when starting your blog you should always consider this important step SEO on your content when writing your tittles an the content in your posts. That is something now I needed to study and learn how to use it now on in all my writing. Here in Yoast SEO you will fin some good insights about SEO and if you want to have a professional and later on monetize it take it in real consideration hehe.

If you would like to know some other recommendations about Do’s and Don’ts when starting your own blog, this other blog from a blogger I like a lot called Guide Your Travel has amazing content, advises and tips for blogging that have been really helpful and amazing for me in my road to discover more about how to become a good and professional blogger. It has been a long journey for me reading, understanding and studding a lot on the subject, specially on technical matters so that way I can avoid repeating the same mistakes. Takes a lot of time, practice, and mistakes to become an expert on how to have an excellent blog with SEO, that it is easy to read and attractive to followers.

Hope you liked my article, and if you had had some similar stories or situations, please let me know your story on the comments, I will be glad to read them!

Struggling to wake up early…

My dear readers and followers, on the last post I told you a little bit about myself and some of my daily battles at the call center. But also working at a call center has helped me a lot in working on my own abilities and habits, one of those habits was to wake up early, since at the call center at 07:00 am we need to be already-ready to be taking calls for sure I needed to wake up at least at 5:30 am to get everything done and ready to be at the phone at 7:00 am. The call center gave me the structure to my daily routine that I was missing because I consider myself a creative person and I have always had a really hard time organizing my time and getting things done. So… after almost 7-8 months at these call center, I almost have a defined routine, though sometimes when waking up that early I feel so tired during the day.

At the call center my resting days are not as the normal people usually have, because I really have a long day routine starting at 7:00 am and finishing at 18:00 or later, so there are more than 8 hours journey a day a little bit tiring at the end of the day, and my rest days are Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, feels like a really more long weekend because I rest 3 days, but… the rest of the week you feel that the day will not last that long to finish everything you need to do… make your food and meals, do all housekeeping, having everything at home perfectly good, hahaha….

Since my life as you have been reading in the last posts is always in a rush, in a constantly change looking for better job opportunities and I am always that type of person who gets really bored about doing the same routine every day, I am always that persons who love learning new things all the time, new stuff to do and work to get done, I need to confess that I have just started a new job in which now I am taking care of online exams (proctoring) for online certifications, so… I am still in the customer service area, but my routine has come a little more relax again. BUT…. I really need to tell, that considering that I am really bad at managing my time… what I miss from working at the call center is that great structure and defined strict times I used to have because helped me a lot with the managing of times… I am really missing that and now I do have a hard time trying to keep the  “waking early routine” I used to have.

I am constantly trying to adapt myself to new changes and new routines, but sometimes I am struggling to get back to that path because also I realized that my body is feeling really tired about all the stress I used to manage at the call center, the few hours of sleep I used to have somedays… so now just trying to get again a new routine and try to keep up with all the good habits the call center taught me on the last months…

Of course, I still have my own projects in which I am working on the few free hours I have, and since my major was in business administration, but I love social media and digital marketing, you can now imagine I also need to spend some of my time learning these new whole bunch of information and studying these new role job opportunities for my own businesses.

Here I leave you an interesting article on how to wake up early that liked me a lot because they explain the step by step routine to achieve it. You know I always consider life as a roller coaster, and business is always about innovating, changing, adapting, or dying for it, but never surrender no matter what, surrender has never been an option.

Working in a call center multicultural environment

My dear readers and followers, I am really sorry for what is going on these days in the United States about the protest, the racism, and the abuse of power by police members… But also I will reflect on an article I read from another colleague, co-worker in the call center. Unfortunately, these actions and protests happen sadly all around the world, and for sure is a matter of concern because WE ALL are HUMANS, the word <human being> does not know anything about: races, colors, ethnicity, roots, ancestors, predecessors, country, place, affinities, and I can continue this list forever…

It is just a small thought I will like to share with you because racism has always been a problem, especially about the abuse of power… Not only from the police but with any person in the role of “authority”. In the last 8 months, I have been working in a call center, and though I live in Mexico, and I am Mexican all my customers and the calls I attend to and solve problems with are all customers from the United States, I really love this role because now I see how much my English and pronunciation also my vocabulary have grown a lot.

I will like to tell you a little bit more about my experience with the USA culture because even though I have a really good English and pronunciation, for sure I am not a native speaker but I have had the opportunity to teach English to children around the world and get to know different cultures, and so sorry for that but all around the world racism happens. I work at a call center here in Mexico, and all my customers are from the USA, so all my calls are in English, I do have many customers who have told me that my English is pretty good as if I were a native speaker, I have laughed with some customers, I have cried with some others regarding their personal situations, but… I have also witnessed and felt racism in my own skin, especially when I get nervous because I do not have the <exact or correct answer> to some questions, which of course I am human, and even though I KNOW MY BUSINESS, sometimes there are questions I am unable to answer or solve.

I have been told by some customers during a call asked me or told me: “you are probably from Pakistan” (as if being from that specific country was an insult), or worst “you probably work at the Philippines” (what an insult to be from the Philippines) but for sure on of the most racist and worst comments I have received were: (me being Mexican, and I do not need to tell my customers where I am located unless they ask me directly).

• While troubleshooting a remote “This remote is not working, took off the batteries, placed them back, and said, Oh! this remote was made in Mexico, that’s why it has bad quality and stop working” (me… in my head Mexico bad quality? ok… must of your cars are assembled in Mexico, just for your information)
• While answering some questions to another customer “you really don’t know how to speak English, and what is worst… since you are Mexican please contact me to someone in the USA who knows how to do his work correctly”
• Another customer who felt with “power” to insult and “demand”: “you definitely don’t know how to do your work, and yes I am laughing at you in your face (with his wife also at the phone) and I use to work at that Company were you work and I know how this works so you better do what I ask you to do, please transfer me to your manager”
• When a customer asks “are you American?” my answer to him/her is “YES, I am. (Mexico is part of the American continent as well as Canada and the United States) then I received as an answer “Thank god you are not Mexican, I hate speaking to Mexican people” (in my head, so sad to hear that because I am truly Mexican but I cannot say that to you…)

Still… I also have really good and grateful customers those who really make my day and like my job and do the best effort we take in to make each of theirs calls the best experience ever, make them laugh, connect with them, and hear them how thankful they are for us to solve their problem at that moment. But sadly racism is not only about Afro-American people, about Arab people, Chinese people, Philippines people or Latin people is also and must about our values, about what we believe, what we have learned in school, what we see in our families, and what the systems have told us <what is right, and what is wrong, what to accept or what to reject> What about what we truly believe, want and desire because we are all HUMANS.

I will just give you this small though, to think about what we truly want and believe, what we want to leave behind us for future and next generations, what about a world filled with love, companionship, respect for each other’s life, friendship, equality, but most important of all our own FREEDOM: to speak, to live, to have a job, to have access to food, water, a place to live <home>, to dignity.

Thank you so much for reading my post and for your support in my blog, In this complex times we are living and now that we need to sum up this complexity with COVID19 and racism, violence, the desire, and pledge of many, including myself for CHANGE, real change in our society and in humanity <me, I am a Dreamer> Nothing has become more important than ever as Martin L. King told once in his speech “I had a Dream” (a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States).

DREAM BIG! 

 

Keep up with metrics…

Hello! My dear readers and followers, as I was telling you on my previous posts my working life at the call center has been really challenging especially in what technical issues are about hehe, definitely that has been the most difficult part for me! But I am doing my best to keep those problems and those issues under control for my customers.

What for me has been really complex regarding these COVID19 times is to keep up with the metrics… It is not like when I was back at the office and whenever I had a question or doubt I will just turn around to another co-worker or agent to ask about how to solve a problem, or just walk a few steps and ask any support or supervisor, but… Now that we are at home office is much difficult when you have a question, because you cannot respond and solve as fast as before, and there is the complexity because now we need to do all the research by chat, and WhatsApp which is really helpful but not that fast at all… You can imagine, if we only have between 15 and 23 minutes to get a problem solved during a phone call but…

• You need to wait for the answer of your question to be respond “at the chat” and then left the customer on hold but no more than 2 minutes (for curtesy, so every 2 minutes we shall say to our customer “please wait another two more minutes… like 2-3 times) so at the end, your response arrived on the chat <5-8 minutes after you asked> what is worst…
• You definitely need to transfer the customer to another department, because of course there are specific agents depending on the complexity of the technical issue, so… Guess what? another waiting time of 15-20 minutes for the customer (considering that the phone call is not lost or dropped during transfer, and the customer will call back again) on my call center us/agents cannot call back customers, we do not have that option available.

At the end, your time for solving some of the calls definitely is not 15-20 minutes because you will need to sum up and the time if:

• Call drops during transfer and customer calls back again
• The time that the customer waits on the line for the transfer and the time spent with the second or third agent.
• The time you take to have a question answered at the chats

Considering these last comments at the end keep up with metrics that have been challenging these times and also we depend on the perception and the comments our customers put up on the surveys they got by e-mail.

So… you can imagine sometimes my stress is too high to keep up with all these metrics, especially those which for sure not depend directly on me. And the challenge to wake up at 5:00 am this last month, has been set up for a second goal as long as I can get this resolved for the metrics and at the call center, still, I work from 7:00 am to 18:00 pm.

I will be telling you more about my personal experiences and how these 8 months have been enriching not only in my professional career but also in my personal life.  Especially because I been really having a hard time finding the fine equilibrium between my personal life, my own projects (which I will talk to you about them later on in this blog), manage my time correctly, and my professional life and work. How you ever been in this situation in which managing your time correctly has been difficult?

Working in a call center during COVID19

Thank you for reading my posts! This encourages me to keep writing my story, and if you can learn from it or do things differently the way I did them you will have gain more experience faster than me hehe, and that is excellent and awesome. Sometimes we are teachers, sometimes we are students in this amazing path we all call life.

On my last post, of every Thursday, I have talked to you a little bit about what I am on right now in my personal and professional life, and working at a call center has been challenging and enriching at the same time. Always working with people requires a lot of personal skills, especially when the interaction is just by phone and you are not able to see the other person on the other side of the line at the phone, hehe. Imagine if working with people and customers face to face is a challenge, it is more challenging working by phone and giving excellent customer service and experience.  It gets a little more interesting when you need to take into consideration all the different ethnics, and accents to which you are exposed to is just simply amazing the cultural diversity around the world.

Now that COVID19 has come to our lives to stay, we must be taking all the correct measurements on our offices at the job and with our all work stations. I am really thankful because sometimes these measurements get a little more complex and difficult to adopt in a call center, at the beginning none of us had a computer assigned so every day you will come to work and sit on the available station to receive your calls, for one moment we thought we were going to be sent home without-payment until the situation will get better… Fortunately for us, and for the company I work for did all that was on their hands to send the biggest number of colleagues home, I am really really grateful for that titanic work and for being able, considering everything that is been happening worldwide, to have a job, to be able to work from home, and always give an excellent customer experience. Thank you very much for that effort!

This has been awesome for me because I have been able to practice my English on a daily basis getting to learn new vocabulary and try to understand each of my clients, connect with them which in some cases gets a little bit complicated, but always solving problems and questions. I rather say, that at the beginning of my new job at the call center I started as a customer service representative, but after 3-4 months of customer service, I was trained in the technical part of the equipment we work with and really I been having a hard time in the beginning… why? Well, I have never been a tech-savvy person and also never been that interested in video games, computers, cables, TV, and engineering stuff, so… There is still my challenge! Always learning new ways to get the problem solved for my customers, sometimes I learn together with them while doing all the troubleshooting (but, that is something they don’t know, so please don’t tell them that, hehe..) other times they ask to me questions that not even me or my tools are able to resolve but still we show confidence because for sure, WE KNOW our business! Do any of you who are reading this post have you ever feel this way?

For example, sometimes they call about some specific issue but it is amazing that before we start troubleshooting all of a sudden the problem solved on its own, Boom!  Some of you most feel identify with these situations, please let me know one experience that you have had like these? It will be awesome for me to read you back. In the next posts, I will be telling you about the book of the 5AM club, which I am having a hard to make it a habit in my daily routine to wakeup every day at 5:00 am… Stay tuned!

New beginnings, new challenges

In the last post, I was telling you about the last changes that happened in my life the last year, with less time for writing, a lot of work of consuming hours and also a lot of learning. At this precise time in my life, I am working in a call center, I never imagined myself to be working there, my thoughts, my dreams, my options I thought they were different, each day and month that passes by for me feel like I found my self going in the opposite direction I ever wanted to go, and living a life I did not want to be living because for sure is nothing compared to what I ever dreamed of for me. Still, I am learning a lot of things about myself the, my light and my darkness, finding and working every day on the things and the habits I will like to change, to keep learning and keep growing, it has not been easy, especially when I wanted to be somewhere else or doing something different for a living.

The Call Center, as told you on my last post has been a lifetime adventure and a hard challenge to face in the last 7 months.  I will start telling you my story starting from the beginning…

When I got fired last year in October 2019, I started looking for a “temporary work option”, at least that is what  I thought at the beginning when I decided to apply to the call center and all the process was indeed really fast, smooth and simple. After 2 days I was already working there taking calls as a bilingual agent, that is exactly where my adventure started and I will be explaining to you why.

When I started working at the call center in November 2019, I was still living at my parents’ house, and the call center is really far away from where they live. One of the first decisions that were needed to be taken, was to change to live near where the new office is located now. To tell you a little bit more of my story, my boyfriend and I already months ago talked about living together again, we did it in the past on 2017, but for both personal reasons and money needed to go back to our parents’ house on that time. At this present moment, everything the call center, my new job, the new office too far away from where I was living, the traffic in this lovely Mexico City and all the present situation, we needed to act fast and take decisions that will change everything from that day on.

Photo by Burst on Unsplash

After reviewing all our options, we have been looking for apartments since May 2019, but now we needed to act quickly and make the best decision for both of us, our lives, and our professional careers. I will make a parenthesis here in the story, because definitely when you are focused and have the mental clarity to make any decisions life is wonderful and the best options and the best deals come into your perspective like they just pop-up right in front of you to embrace them because they are THERE FOR YOU! Just take them and make them your own. That was exactly what happened to both of us, after 2 days I started working at the call center and after 3-4 months looking for an apartment to share, the perfect option appeared just right in front of us and surprised us with an excellent location, near of our jobs for both of us and what is more enjoyable of all the amazing price we are paying for the rent.

For sure I do not have yet the economic independence that I will like to, but going back to live with him opened to me a different view and perspective of the whole situation I am still living at this specific point of my life. I love my parents, but it was also necessary to put some distance within them, as we have already talked in some of my other posts, sometimes family can stop you to going for that desired dream, not in purpose but because they want “the best’ for you and most of the times your best is different from what they expect it to be. In this case for me was a complete relief, because I am still in touch with them, and see them really often, but sure I needed my own space to develop my ideas and my own projects.

Some of the complex parts of going back to live with my boyfriend are that in that year that we were far apart is like recognizing once again the person you fell in love with, is a new space, new rules, new ways of distributing the house payments, meals, and constantly getting to agreements to live happily and in comfort with each others company.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

I cannot even start to realize all the changes I have been trough in the last 7 months, for me have been like a lifetime, it meant a change in my routine and habits, adapting to a new space, to his own new habits, so it has not been easy to assimilate everything all of sudden, still, I am happy because I have my own space and now we both can establish a new routine that will work for both in this new beginning.

A clear example of the changes in my routine is that on the call center at 7:00 am I need to be connected and ready to start taking calls, different from when I was in other business that we started at 8:00 or 9:00 am, so this has been really challenging because in order for me to be ready at the office at 7:00 I need to be on my way to the office at 6:15-6:30 in the morning.  Some of the big differences that I do like from working in the call center are that when you finish your shift there is no “extra work” to be taken home, so you really earn the rest of your day-time. Adapting to all these routine and changes has been a great challenge for me and my boyfriend, but fortunately, he has been so empathic and supportive, I really appreciate that from him, especially because my days-off are on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and work on Sundays, so you can imagine the crazy whole thing haha.

On my next post, I will be telling you about how we have been doing along with this COVID19 pandemic quarantine that has had some benefits like working from home and giving me still a little bit more of personal time to enjoy and to work in some other projects that I will be speaking to you about on next posts, and for sure about a new routine that both of us is now trying and is called the 5:00 AM CLUB, a really interesting concept we started working on, so stay tuned for more of our adventures in our crazy lives! We still are working in that desired business life dream, but we are still on our path and working hard to discover, keep learning, keep growing and most of all keep sharing with others our experience through it: adaptation, changes, re-organization.

 

What comes next?

Hello, my dear readers and followers! It’s been a while since the last time I wrote, a lot of things have been happening in my life, to me… Too many changes in my personal life, too many changes in the work-job area, and also too many changes everywhere.

Sometimes it’s complex knowing where to starts first, always say you should do it from the beginning, right? Hehehe… the beginning can become for instance so blurry and confusing, in a way difficult to put up in words and explain what has been going on and happening through all these days and months.

It has been a year since the last post I wrote to this community, and so many things have been going on now and then. I will start to tell you about all the changes that had happened in this last year and the challenges that I have been trough lately. As I was telling you on my last post I started my own business, but then needed to go back to an 8 hours job, I really admire all the entrepreneurship people that with all the guts that being an entrepreneur requires, after all that hard and continuous work they had built empires and have their own businesses working for them, definitely all my respect to them, so… I went back to an 8 hours job with a recognized firm in the technology market but after 8 months of hard work, extra hours of my time invested in re-activating one of the HR Learning Department in Mexico City, I got fired again. This situation 8 months later, put me back again in the urgency to find a job to earn the money I needed to survive, because for sure even though I worked for 8 months, I was not even near of achieving my “economic independence”, and what is more I was just beginning to stabilize my economic situation after the other 6-7 months I was trying to put my own business and ran out of money.

Now again, I realized that my small business will need to wait some more time, at least as I regain confidence and start believing once more in what I am capable of doing and achieving because I can tell that like me, many of you just have once in a lifetime at least experienced being fired, this can be devastating and for sure, in my case made me start questioning about my own value as a professional, my career and my capabilities of feeling that I will never be able to achieve a goal or do something relevant. It is very difficult sometimes to keep going with all these feelings in your heart and your head, which really made me feel with no value at all. Especially when you have been fired from the last 2 jobs, realizing that something must be really wrong on what I was doing.

I needed a job and it was November last year 2019, so started looking again for new opportunities still to survive without money. The first option appears just right in front of me, I walked in into the offices of a Call Center, in these places they are always looking for new talent and new agents so I did all the required tests and I was in after 3 days the call me and started working there, as a bilingual agent, at this time I am still working there. I will tell you about this whole new adventure in my next post because started working in this new place, the call center was a whole new adventure for me, filled with changes, changes and more changes that have been a difficult path, but still, I had learned so much this las months than I did ever in my life, it has taught me a lot about myself, my strengths and my own weaknesses, also about how to adapt and embrace constant changes and transformation for personal and professional growth. All these adventures sum up to the COVI19 situation everyone including me is facing around the world and the imminent changes that must be embraced from each of us. Take care, my dear readers, and stay safe these complex days all my blessings for all of you and your families and friends.

“Someday the storm will pass and the sun will shine bright again through the sky, embrace the past, live the present, prepare for the future”

 

 

Chasing a dream! Hard but satisfying

Becoming an entrepreneur person, for sure has not been easy, working a full time job while trying to keep on going with your dearest and wildest dreams is something difficult to handle sometimes… You feel tired, you start realizing that is necessarily to sacrifice some things in order to achieve the Great Stuff.

For me having my own little business idea and struggling sometimes to make the “enough money” to survive it’s been the hard part; specially because I was used for so many years to have my “secure job” as I will call the 8 hours job, kind of a jail for me hahaha, which everyone knows for sure are more than 8 hours a day of working in an typical boring office. The good thing about it was the great people I got to know while I was working there, who are some of my best friends of life, and with whom I have made some of my best travels these days.

After I got fired from one of my 8 hours job, I decided to make one of the best travels and life changing adventures ever, traveling and backpacking for three months between Thailand, Laos & Cambodia, doing some volunteering and social work during my travels.  Then I came back to Mexico, with lots of good ideas about what to start my own project, but as it was going to happen, I ran out of money, and even though the idea of my project is still working and going on, I needed to go back to an 8 hours job (yes, that was not my idea of becoming independent but sometimes we need to take action and make the right “decisions” for a while, until we become stronger again), to earn some more money and continue with my own business.

Sometimes I feel like I haven’t got the enough time for myself, to finish everything… It’s like having and living two different lives at the same time, during the day I got up and go to work, and at night… I start finishing and doing what must need be done for my little business idea. I have so many ideas but very few time to take them all and transform them in reality. Though I am still on this path and always doing my best to make things better, choose and make better decisions for my whole life. Life is filled with decisions, all the time since we wake up, till we finally go to bed.

Many people has walked in and out of my life along all this years, some of my best friends remain close at heart but far in distance, living in other countries, chasing their own wildest dreams, we still keep in touch, write to each other, and try to be present in each others fast lives. Some other people just disappear from our lives, leaving behind great master lessons to be learned and assimilated.

Starting my own business, has brought to my life a new perspective about things, about work, about the way people and our own parents tell us what is “the best or the worst” for us… But the only ones who really have that answer are ourselves. Is challenging to make things different from the way people tell us they “need to be done” but at the end we can really prize ourselves for making not the right, not the best but what GOES just fine with us in that time, in that moment, to learn to believe in ourselves and the legacy we can leave behind us for the new-comer generations.

 

 

A Little Bit of my Personal Dreams…

World Life Experience

I am a dreamer, a change maker. I want to leave legacy in this world we are living to make a difference. Now a days I am really concerned and moved about everything going on with all the plastic waste contaminating our oceans, rivers, about all animal and plant species about to go extinct, for me is to heart-breaking hearing the daily news in my country, to see and hear about every human being suffering climate change effects, extreme poverty, governments becoming wealthier while people in their countries are suffering hunger, have no access to clean water, the country money distribution is being hold by corrupted governments. I am tired of people killing other people, about immigrants not having a place to live happy and without being killed or helped out.

I want and love to make a real change for my own country Mexico, and for humanity. Starting with improvements to education, which shall be accessible to everyone. New clean and eco-friendly technologies that will mark and make a difference in the way we are all living now, specially I want to make a difference in the way we manage PLASTICS in Mexico, my dream is more and more stores apply European ideas, about using less packages in the products creation = less plastic generation. I will love to improve some new plastic manage ideas to reduce the usage and the way we are finishing with our oceans and rivers in Mexico, to reduce our impact and teach new generations to fight for that, we are the ones who can ask and do real change in companies.

I am very sad to see how some governments do not care about natural areas and biodiversity and instead they built great resorts destroying large amounts of land and exterminating long number of animals and plants. This must come to an end, and the new generations, we must teach the old ones, better and new ways of doing things, everything must be done in Sustainability with our environment, try to do our best in order to minimize our human impact to our only home and planet earth, in everything we do, in all of our activities with less impact possible to our only home.

I want to learn from other countries, cultures and places new ways to do things, new technologies I can improve in my own country, new ways for our activities and show the entire world that a real change is possible if more people get aware, and if more people do what it needs to be done to make that difference in the world and in their own countries, because change IS POSSIBLE.

I love teaching children, giving conferences about how to make things different, because I want to show the world different perspectives from other countries, stop aggression to immigrant people, and let us be more emphatic and better human beings with other human beings, they are not animals, to be treated the way we treat them… Every time I travel to other countries I become ambassador of that country where ever I go, and I also became ambassador of my own country abroad. I am a nature lover and promoter, I organize travels within my own country to show people the most beautiful places but always with this local-economy-empowerment for local businesses and communities, looking always to make the minimum nature impact possible, I am always looking to do sustainability social practices in all my travels and activities, always making a difference to every place I go. I love volunteering, and one of my biggest dreams is putting in my country a plastic recycle project, if we all separate the recyclable stuff from what is no recyclable then “waste” for real will be less, because all the organics can be reused in a much more sustainable way. I want to learn what other countries are doing different, and come back to Mexico and create an amazing project to show that changes can be possible when you want them to become possible.

I want to make videos and write about other countries: traditions, culture, ideas, people, communities, sustainability, nature, architecture to show the world all amazing people and places, I love history and I want to make a difference applying all my knowledge to the available projects, I love to work near communities and learn from their local culture and traditions, so then I can write and make documentaries about their life, way of living, and if there are some good new ideas, how to teach the world on how to improve them in their own countries and make a difference. LET’S ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

One of my biggest passions, has always been to work hand by hand with NGO’s and making a difference with the communities we work for in my country Mexico and in other countries, I traveled for 3-4 months Thailand, Laos and Cambodia doing social work with children, giving English classes and for sure it was a life-changing experience, though I was giving classes to them, I learned more from them than they did from me. Living among the local people is always been my favorite way of traveling, because is the best way to learn from a different culture, as long as you teach them about your own country. And also one of my great passions has always been my concern about environmental issues in my country, in my own place I recycle organic waste, and also separate everything to try and give always a second use, I am really concerned about what is going on this days, and I want to be part of that small group of people, which starting to become bigger (thanks a lot!) that are trying to make this world, our planet earth a better place to live for future generations, and I WANT to be part of that change, I want to help those small groups of change makers to become a reality for all.

I really wish I can get this new opportunity that opens again to me, as they say, you need to try: one, two, three, ten, twenty, always keep trying and fighting for your ideals so the hard you try the close you get to achieve your goals and dreams. And one of my lifetime dreams since I was little was traveling the world, make a difference to people, to my country, show the world the beauty in Mexico through my travels, my photos, my blogging, always trying to communicate the best of each country and place, every country I visit becomes home to me, and every people I met along my travels becomes a brother or sister, because all universe is connected and whatever we do to another human being, we definitely do it to ourselves… So let´s become more conscious, more aware, more loving and caring for each other and our surrounding… LET’S MAKE A REAL IMPACT!

Pequeña Reflexión: Sociedades Mercantiles

Hoy es un día cualquiera…

Tiene mucho, que digo muchísimo tiempo de la última vez que realmente me senté a escribir a desahogarme que los Blogs son un medio increíble para hacerlo. Hace algunos meses atrás ocurrió algo que me ha hizo replantearme mi vida, la forma en como “siempre” hago las cosas, para darme cuenta que como es bien sabido… “no se pueden esperar resultados diferentes sino se hacen los cambios pertinentes” y eso aplica para TODO, absolutamente todo: pareja, trabajo, amistades, y vida personal y espiritual.

He de confesarles que A MÍ, específicamente me cuesta mucho trabajo la Disciplina, desde que tengo memoria, y ahora me doy cuenta de lo relevante que ES, hacer aquello que dicen e implementar pequeños cambios en mi vida.

Hace meses que estaba en la búsqueda de trabajo, pero por otro lado también me asaltó la idea de iniciar un pequeño negocio, la idea siempre la tuve dando vueltas en mi cabeza, hasta que hace dos años en 2017 a inicios, le conté a una amiga sobre el plan. Nos pusimos a trabajar arduamente en la misma, cada una en las áreas en las que se consideraba más apta y más fuerte, y así empezamos a trabajar desde el 2018, pensando en la estrategia de Redes Sociales, la estrategia de negocio, ¿cómo hacerle para atraer más clientes? Conseguir proveedores, elaborar los contratos, elaborar todo lo que diariamente se tiene que postear, planearlo, hacerlo, definir contratos, y en fin… Varias muchas, muchas otras cosas que no me imaginaba y todo el trabajo que conlleva llevar esa idea a la realidad y que no sólo se quede en el “qué hubiera pasado”…

Definitivamente ahora me doy cuenta, que emprender no es nada fácil, y no es para cualquier tipo persona, se requiere un perfil de mucha tolerancia a la frustración y paciencia.

A lo largo de todo este tiempo, se ha ido sumando gente increíble que ha ido incluyéndose en diferentes partes del proyecto, y con diferentes y valiosas aportaciones, cada persona le ha apartado algo muy especial al proyecto. Hemos tenido que invertir muchos recursos, principalmente tiempo y dinero, a veces es difícil mantenerse cuando las situación económica no se pinta muy favorable, y se va volviendo complicado mantenerse positivo, y hacer lo que se tiene hacer para sacar el proyecto adelante.

Por otro lado la relación con los socios, se vuelve algo muy complejo y delicado, cuando hablamos de dinero, de los activos de la empresa, de quién ha puesto qué cantidad dinero cuando el proyecto apenas está iniciando y apenas se consiguen los primeros clientes, y todo va muy bien, pero al mismo tiempo se tornan complicados algunos temas. Se vuelve muy difícil cuando uno de los socios es quien aporta la mayor parte del capital, y el otro socio aporta la parte intelectual, las ideas, la creatividad del proyecto y también dinero, pero en menor cantidad. Es súper difícil y frustrante cuando uno de los socios tiene “mayor poder” de decisión que el otro, y hace uso de ese poder para manipular, y hacer sentir “menos” al otro socio, y el problema se agrava cuando uno de buena fé, cree, piensa, que conoce a la otra persona, y NO pone nada por escrito, no hay contrato, no hay convenio, no hay acuerdo, nada de nada, básicamente está en la calle y no puede hacer nada por ingenuo… por llamarlo de alguna forma, y el otro socio se aprovecha de eso, cambia todas las contraseñas de la cuentas, y le niega el acceso a toda la información, quedándose también con toda la parte intelectual y creativa de la idea… UNA IDEA que ambas personas habían estado trabajando en conjunto y resulta que un socio le echa en cara al otro que es “su empresa”.

Supongo que son situaciones de la vida diaria, que suceden, una y otra vez, en mayor o menor medida, socios que se aprovechan unos de otros y al final uno sólo se acaba quedando con el trabajo de ambos. Lo más increíble es que haya persona que se quejan de situaciones en las que les aplicaron algo así, de esa manera, y al final ell@s sean los que terminan haciéndole a los demás exactamente lo mismo de lo que “antes se quejaban”, y se dan muchas incongruencias…

¿Cuántos negocios y cuántas amistades, no se han acabado por eso? ¿A cuánta gente no se la han llevado al baile y la han dejado sin nada? Los “amigos” se vuelven los peores “enemigos” y después ya no se pueden ver ni en pintura porque no se soportan, no se tragan se traicionaron uno al otro. ¿Dónde quedan esas promesas, esos acuerdos mutuos, esa supuesta “amistad”, dónde queda la confianza? Todo queda quebrantado, todo se vuelve cenizas, y cómo y cuánto cuesta y duele reponerse de una traición. La mentira destruye, hiere, el poder enferma, el poder de control sobre el otro termina por disolver el “vínculo” que desde un inicio fue “inexistente”, “aire”, pum todo se esfuma en NADA.

La persona que “ganó todo”, simplemente se niega a responder llamadas, no contesta los mensajes, claro ya lo tiene “TODO” porqué habría de dar la cara, porqué habría de dar alguna explicación a su “actitud”, a sus “acciones”, es más fácil esconderse y acobardarse cuando “no tienes nada que perder”, ya has “despojado al otro de todo”.

De qué sirve una idea si no se lleva a la realidad, sino se lleva a la acción y se le pone en práctica, para absolutamente nada… Sólo es un pensamiento aleatorio, un esbozo fugaz, un instante inmortalizado en la memoria. Cuando se pone en práctica, cuando se lleva a la realidad todo cambia, todo lo intangible se vuelve tangible, el sueño se hace proyecto y se realizan acciones concretas para aterrizarlo en metas, en objetivos, en actividades, se le pone amor, corazón, coraje, desvelos, anhelos y se vuelve realizable, alcanzable. A veces es más fácil dejar morir una idea que llevarla a la práctica, pero una vez que se ha tomado la decisión no hay vuelta atrás, requiere constancia, sacrificios y mucha disciplina para no desistir a mitad del camino.

Me entristece y me enoja al mismo tiempo haber confiado en una persona, a quien yo consideraba mi amiga, y que la relación se viera afectada y por asociación el proyecto completo. ¿Qué se puede hacer en estos casos? ¿Cómo se enmienda la confianza, la credibilidad, la amistad, y por supuesto la idea de proyecto?

Me siento sobrepasada, y abrumada… Tanto tiempo invertido, trabajo, esfuerzo, relaciones, contactos, socios, servicios, proveedores, ideas, acciones, me siento dolida, traicionada, estafada, decepcionada, sin rumbo… ¿Qué puedo hacer para que la situación y las cosas sean diferentes? ¿Cómo puedo cambiar el rumbo de acontecimientos?
Hay muchas lecciones aprendidas en toda esta situación, una debe dejar de ser tan ingenua y NO depositar plena confianza en nadie, ni siquiera en aquellas personas que se hacen llamar “amigos” y al final resulta que no lo son, y pero tantito <socios>.

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Cómo funciona Instagram: ¡algoritmo revelado!

Excelente artículo sobre instagram, me encantó el contenido. Súper actual y bueno para aplicar y poner en práctica.

Mi Negocio Creativo

A finales de mayo recibí un comentario de uno de mis seguidores en Instagram que le gustaba mucho mi perfil, pero que me recomendaba utilizar menos hashtags por el tema de “shadowban”, ya que escuchó consejos sobre este tema en YouTube y vió que yo siempre utilizaba muchos….

Había muchísimas leyendas urbanas y mitos sobre Instagram y su algoritmo. El algoritmo fue una enigma total y todos los expertos intentaban ofrecer su mejor visión sobre esta red social para atraer seguidores. La palabra “shadowban” o “shadowbanning” horrorizaba a los seguidores, se crearon muchos artículos, talleres, curso sobre como evitar el “shadowban”….. Hasta que a principios de junio Julian Gutman, el product lead de Instagram reveló en una reunión con periodistas en San Francisco cómo de verdad funciona Instagram.

Estoy muy feliz que Instagram decidió aclarar estos asuntos. Porque a mí siempre me parecía tan absurdo que Instagram te ofrece la…

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The beginning of my great adventure to South East Asia

Today my great adventure to Southeast Asia begins, and my first stop is Bangkok, Thailand. I prepare to go to the airport, my flight leaves at 19:00. I cannot describe the mixture of emotions and feelings that I perceive in me … it is euphoria, it is nervousness, it is happiness, it is fear, it is joy, it is sadness, it is everything and nothing at the same time. My parents come with me to the airport and the only thing certain in all this is that: I have a one-way flight and without return.

It is the first time that I am going to travel on my own, in such a long journey, far from home, from my family, friends and loved ones. That makes me immensely happy because I’m finally going to pursue my dream and make it come true, traveling to Thailand, Cambodia and Southeast Asia; but at the same time, I feel some fear and uncertainty, because I am leaving to an unknown country and culture, with a foreign language and thousands of miles away from home.

It’s time to board the plane, and with tears, I hug my parents as hard as I can, I take my backpack and, I head to aisle to start my journey. I do not know when I’ll see them again, or how long I’ll be away from home. Although I am filled with so much happiness and joy at the beginning of this new adventure, I also perceive my own fear that makes me nervous as I wait for the plane to take off.

It will be a long, multi-stop flight (Mexico> Los Angeles> Taipei> Bangkok), however, there is no rush. When traveling on a tight budget, the cheapest flights are those that cover several stopovers and from my experience, if you have enough time to travel without worrying, I recommend to you that you take in consideration this option and save some money that you can use later during your trip.

Some pages that I recommend to you, where you can find flights that are very cheap when planning your trip are:

• momondo.com
• kiwi.com
• skyscanner.com
• google.com/flight

Taking in consideration the above and al the long flight hours to reach my final destination city, I must confess sadly, even if you don’t believe me … The best food (considering it is airplane food) was served on the flights of the Chinese Airlines. All American and Mexican low-cost airlines like Volaris charge extra for those services. Here is a photo of my meals by China Airlines, after that long flight I really appreciate the wonderful food, and you can choose between two options, so it is awesome:

 

The backpack of a traveler for Southeast Asia

 

An important part of planning my trip through Southeast Asia is to define the type of backpack that I will be taking with me to this great adventure. What makes my decision a little bit complex is that I do not have clear how long I will be traveling, or what countries I will be visiting during my journey.

I do not have a clear idea of what to bring, so I started researching on the Internet in different webpages and blogs from other travelers who have already been to Southeast Asia and that gave to me a really good idea so I followed their advice.

Nowadays the Internet and social networks are wonderful, we are really well connected and communicated, so that opens for us a huge panorama of options. We can search and learn from the experiences of other world travelers who have already done the same thing we are planning to do and let us be better prepared for our journey.

Based on that idea, and after reading several blogs, I would like to make a special mention to a traveler who I admire a lot, for all the countries she has visited, traveling alone backpacking, and of whom I greatly appreciate been able to take the best advice for my own travel through Southeast Asia. Here I leave the link to her blog (it is in Spanish), especially the entry that helped me choose my own travel backpack: A traveler’s backpack for Southeast Asia.

Taking her example, about what she packed and the type of backpack she decided to take, I share the photo the backpack that I choose for myself it was a very successful decision, especially because of the weight. Each extra kilo in the backpack becomes extremely heavy when you have to walk 2 or 3 kilometers on your own, so the weight becomes extremely important when choosing the model and type. In my case I am not very tall 156 cm, so I was looking for an intermediate size and light weight backpack. My challenge in this trip to Southeast Asia is to travel very light and carry only the essentials.

38L Salomon backpack  with covering included

An important thing to take into consideration when selecting our backpack is that it has to have a front or side closure/access (in addition to the main opening at the top), so that we can access to our things in a simple way and without having to unpack everything out; for me this model with lateral opening (picture below) is wonderful, I can access to all my things very easily; and it was important for me, that it needed to have several compartments to store things, so I made an excellent choice.

In addition to your backpack, my recommendation is that you also take with you a small bag (if it is a waterproof bag better), which we will call Life Bag. In this small bag we will always carry with us all our important documents and objects that can’t be left at the hotel / hostel: wallet, passport, tablet, camera, and so on. That way we will not have to carry all the time our big backpack with everything inside. If you do not have a small waterproof bag, and you don’t want to spend more money, you should always bring a plastic bag to cover the one you already have, because in Southeast Asia rains a lot that’s what I did with my small bag / Life Bag).

Here I put for you the list of all the clothes and things I took for my journey to South East Asia. At the end my backpack weighted 11 Kg, not bad for my first backpacking adventure.

• Big Hat
• Cap
• Slim bed sheet sewed like sleeping bag type (weights less)
• Light jacket for rain or raincoat
• 1 Solomon’s storm pants
• 3 cotton leggins, 1 blue and 2 black (one thick, 2 thin)
• 3 shorts·  1 beach pareo (to cover ourselves when entering temples)
• 1 Buff for the walks
• 3 short sleeve t-shirts
• 2 bathing suits
• 1 3/4 sleeve blouse
• 1 pair of tennis shoes
• 1 pair of flip flops
• 1 pair of sandals without heel
• 5 pairs of socks
• 3 sets of underwear
• 1 microfiber towel
• 1 waterproof backpack protector
• 1 bag that works as a handbag (preferably waterproof the life bag)
• 1 Warm clothing (thick leggin + light jacket)
• 1 mosquito net

About what type of clothes you should be taking for your travel, it is not necessary to worry that much, nor to carry too much from the beginning, since, the best clothes suitable for warm weather can be purchased there and at a very low price. What you indeed should consider for your trip is the warm clothing, because of the type of weather you found in South East Asia is difficult to get or is too expensive, and it is important that you take that in consideration if you plan to travel to the north or do some trekking and camping in the mountains (the temperature is low at night and in the morning from November to February).

For the travel medicine kit you can read about my advices in this other blog entry.