My First Blogapalooza Experience

I have a confession to make. My blog has been in existence for what… 4 years now and really I haven’t done anything bring up the ante apart from saying yes to more event invites this year. I guess I’m just lazy, er, busy that way.

However, when I got an email about Blogapalooza this year, I signed up. Inside me, there’s a voice that tells me I need to do something more about this sleepy blog. I just need to find the time to do that.

Event itself, after almost two hours of traffic, husby and I finally got to much talked about SM Aura. I have to give credit to husby who's sweet enough to drive me around even if I know how :) He even let me buy the christmas tree I always wanted in SM Aura :)

Upon entering SMX convention, I got a load of what’s hip and happening with the brands that collaborated with organizers When in Manila and Our Awesome Planet. Kudos to these amazing guys. They even passed around pink piggy banks for the Yolanda victims that day and raised around P82K. Yay!

The attendees went home smiling with all the new connections for collaborations and projects and tons of prizes and giveaways. I surely did :)

The setup for the presentation of products

Tempura, one of my fave restos in town, happily served their fare of yummy dishes for the bloggers

She's so cute I can't help a photo op

Chef's Noodle. I looked closely at how they made the makis. I always wanted to learn Japanese cusine

 Figaro didn't miss the fun and offered their new treats in time for the holidays

The line up of booths - Mind Museum, Enjoy, BYS, Plato Wraps, Grab Taxi, View Park Hotel, NY Theraspine, Chooks to Go and more!

Hope to be there in the next Blogapalooza.

OOTD: bustier dress, Damit, Sisidlan, atbp (look her up in FB and Instagram); cardigan from sister; shoes: Michael Kors; bag: Linea Italia in Glorietta. 

Aerosmith Live in Manila

I was supposed to post something else today but I couldn't resist posting this first.
OMG! Aerosmith is coming to town on May 8. I now have one entry on concert-to-watch list this year. All you Aerosmith fans, mark the date!



photo from: http://www.rappler.com/entertainment/23139-aerosmith-to-perform-in-manila

I totally had a blast watching the eternally cool Sting in concert last year and I can't wait to see this ultimate rock band perform LIVE!
No ticket prices yet but organizer Pulp Live Productions and SM Tickets  will release ticket pricelist soon. 

In Charge and In Control: Belle de Jour Event

When I got an email invite for this event, I read through, not really sure if this event if really for me. After reading, I immediately signed up to attend. They had me at corporate and Saturday. This is definitely for me. An event for working women on a Saturday :)

On the event day, I arrived a little late (thanks to metro traffic) and got a wee bit of Kat Dy’s talk about power dressing. Good thing, I made it to the juicy part, Q & A portion where real women asked real life concerns on dressing up for work, all those tips and what nots. 

Kat Dy also hosted the event and I find her very entertaining, so natural on stage and very chic.

Kay Dy

In between the games and raffle draws (I believe everyone brought home something), a guest speaker from Unilab gave a very informative talk on how to take care of our intimates and work clothes by understanding the labels/instructions and how to take care of our LBDs. Did you know that we can actually clean our jewelry with fabric conditioner? 

After more raffle draws and fun games, it was time for PJ Lanot’s talk. PJ is a motivational speaker who has travelled locally and globally for speaking engagements. He also owns several restos such as Burger Project and Pepino among others.

I have been to many talks and management seminars and as our speaker was being introduced, I silently hoped that my time will not be wasted listening to what I already know.

Truth be told, I actually held my wee until the end of PJ’s talk because I didn’t want to miss any part of his talk. When I looked around me in the middle of his talk (the event was held in heavy-traffic concourse area of SM Makati), quite a number of passersby actually stopped to listen. He is one engaging and magnetic speaker. He has the power to draw in a crowd.

PJ Lanot

What was his talk about...how to become filthy rich! Or as they formally titled it 11 Factors that Make People Really, Really Successful. That's why it drew in a crowd. 

According to PJ, the 11 factors that can make a person successful are:

1)    Location – take advantage of what’s good in your location. My personal example: If water is hard to come by in your area, then sell water. 

2)    Situation – example are those who succeeded even in time of great wars. They took advantage of the situation, war being a great equalizer; with diligence these now business magnates became sucessful;

3)    Time – almost all successful men have one thing in common – they wake up earlier that everyone else. The early bird gets the worm as they say :)

4)    physical self – perfect example would be Michael Phelps, his unique physical attributes made him become an award-winning olympian in swimming.

5)    Information – information is power, ‘nuff said.

6)    Experience – practice makes a habit. Agree? I do.

7)    Talent – either you have it or you don’t but one has to exhaust and know himself to identify his strenth and talent

8)    Networks – No one succeeds alone. Amen!

9)    Technology – just as information is power, so is technology and it's all around us to explore.

10) Passion – the driving force that will keep us going despite all the trials and struggles. I totally agree, I have been in the business of Post Production for 15 years now and I believe only passion keeps me going. 

11)  Money – last on the list, yes. PJ believes you don’t need money to be successful. What’s more important is that you have all other 10 factors.

 I went home with goodies from this event and more importantly, an inspiration take on something new and big and pursue to be successful. Thanks to Belle de Jour for the invite and for making the ultimate organizer for women. Thanks too to HerWord.com. 

Along Came Baby Kids and Babies Fair

Here is one event that I'm sure mommies and kids alike will love. Found this on eventful.com. Mommies can do their advanced shopping for kids' Halloween costumes, Christmas gifts,etc. Plus there are exciting activities in store for the little ones while moms shop :)

Cashflow 101

I received this invite from a friend two weeks ago. Since my March 26 is free, I decided to attend this seminar. I have wanted to attend this kind of seminar but the cost is no joke. The cheapest I researched is P2,000 per session and it only tackles one part of financial management (stocks or mutual fund, etc).

Not really expecting anything from this seminar (since it’s practically free), I went to Ateneo one fine afternoon. I was the first to arrive and had to wait for more than an hour for the people to come in. Good thing speaker Jeric Lee was very cordial and chatted with me for a while. The event was organized by LD (Life’s Directions) and I can see most of the members are younger than me (makes me feel old again). Later I found out that LD is a group for singles! haha!

The speaker: Jeric Lee is a business coach, trainer and investor. he also started in the rat race or corporate world but knew he needed to get out of it and gain financial freedom and have time for his family and the people that are important to him.

His seminar is more of helping the others realize where they are right now financially and how to get out of the rat race or the corporate world and gain financial independence. The seminar focused on how to make money work for you rather than working for money as inspired by the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

I have read this book 10 years ago and this inspired me to prepare for my financial future. Kiyosaki was already retired and playing golf by age forty. I hope to be as financially confident by that age (although after the seminar, it looks like I’m gonna have to work double or triple time now).

The 4-hour seminar was spent mostly playing the board game Cashflow 101. If you played Monopoly as a kid, it’s basically like that but focused more on investments like stocks, real estates, businesses,etc. It also has consequences (Doodad), lose a turn, etc.

The game commenced with every player on the START of the rat race and the goal is to be able to get out of the rat race and into the Fast Track where you choose your dream. It’s role-playing game so each player chose a particular career or job which is also provided by the game. A job has corresponding financial statement and each player will work from the given FS. It’s really a fun and challenging game because you have to be wise what to purchase and invest althroughout the game. By the way, each player starts off with 0 kid and each child you have along the game adds to your total expense. Okay, I get that but being a mom is totally fulfilling in so many other ways. Oh well, I guess the game will only measure quantifiable things J

As the first part of the game finished, I ended up having the highest Profit in our group :0 What that means? I am capable of revolving my income as many times as possible. I got 3.17 which mean I can revolve my money 3 times over. In the real world, I can say I’m like that. I’m basically your thrifty (not stingy!) kinda mom because savings for me is very important. I can spend 10 minutes per product type in a grocery (more if there are more choices) just to make sure I get the best value for my money. Imagine how much time I spend inside the grocery store haha! Unfortunately, in the game, majority of us was unable to reach the main goal which is fast Track. To get this, your ‘passive income should be bigger than total expense’. If you analyze this, your passive income which you invested in is earning dividends, interest,etc. without you sweating over it so much while it also answers your total expenses. Your paycheck can go untouched. Isn’t that great! Talk about money working for you. Guess who achieved this goal in our game? A janitor! It’s not important what your profession is, it’s how you play smart in terms of increasing your passive income.

Other things I learned during the course of the seminar:

Rich vs. Wealth – rich is if you can provide for you and your family’s needs comfortably even if you don’t work for years. Wealth means having secured income for generations even if you don’t work. Yes, we are talking of generations. Those lucky lucky great grandchildren!

Assets vs. Liability – assests puts money in your pocket while liability takes the money out of your pocket. So, is real estate an asset or a liability? :)

Income will get you out of the Trap from the Rat Race. The best income is the passive income and the goal is that passive income is greater than the total expenses.

During the course of the game, we were adviced by our ‘financial advisor’ to put all our money on a certain stock which eventually gained us (those who followed the advisor’s advice) 40 times than what we invested. The lesson? It is also important to seek advice of a professional in making major financial decisions. There are very rare self-made multi-millionaires. Even the most successful tycoons have advisors until now.

Hope you learn from this entry.

the cashflow 101 game board . each player chose their mouse for the game :)

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that's my dream but it cost $250,000 which my total income did not reach :(

speaker Jeric Lee. Thanks Jeric for that very enlightening seminar :)

Go Negosyo: Babae Kapuso Ka ng Bayan

My husband and I attended the Go Negosyo exhibit and seminar at World Trade Center in Pasay City last March 5. We dropped off the kids at my parents’ house near the area, attended a short family affair in Sucat and went to the exhibit. With all the activities we had that day (and the horrendous traffic in QC!), we got to the exhibit aorund 4pm already. Before we got in we filled up a raffle coupon and paid a registration fee of P50/pax. Fee includes snacks already. We tried to check out as many booths as we can with the time we have left and found some interesting business ideas: novelty items, clothes and shoes, food carts for franchising (there are more of these than any other businesses), skin care and toiletries, herbal and organics products and even appliances. The choices were very diverse, some new and some are already in existence for decades. Aside from checking out the business opportunities, I was also able to buy some goodies, the 50% discounted Maybelline products and the pair of outfit for Sam for only P50 were such a steal!

a guest tried out News reporting at a GMA booth

This is one of my best buy so far, a Gold Star English Workbook. It contains a cd and workbook, teaches kids basic english words, spelling. There are also exercises for the memory, logical thinking, counting,etc. This is only P195 and is such a big hit with Sophie. She was able to stay on for hours (without complaining) on the computer doing different activities. 

Got a chance to catch the last two talks for that day, too. The one is entitled ‘The Beautiful and The Rich’ by Lisa Pamintuan, a young entrepreneur (and a UST grad) with a gift for public speaking. Sometimes it’s not only important to know what you’re talking about, it’s also important to capture the audience and interest them in what you have to say. So I have give it to this lady for being able to do just that. She talked about the advantages of women in the business, of changing the mindset and having the guts to go into business, on how to choose the right business for you, etc. It was a short talk but very enlightening. The next speaker (sorry I missed his name) discussed franchising business and how to know whether it is a good for a certain individual or not. 

All in all , I would say it was a successful event, very well attended and organized. Congrats to Go Negosyo and it's sponsors and event partners!
Thank you too to Antel Global for making me win an accommodation for 2 in their new Boracay resort. Yipee! :)