Before you get lost in my articles, ranging from 5 Life Hacks for Social Media Users to How To Ride A Bike Like An Italian, let’s break the ice a little. Shall we?
I’m From
Originally from Hawaii and raised on an island off Miami, I grew up always traveling somewhere. Trips spanned from scuba diving in Egypt to riding horses in the Dominican Republic.
I’ve lived in
- Hawaii until I was two when my family moved to Miami for work.
- Miami was home for many years. It’s still my home base where some of my family and close friends still live. I love so many things about Miami like the music and culture, but I always wanted to live in many different places, so I did.
- New Orleans, Louisiana where I went to Loyola University and studied Drama and Communications.
- Boulder, Colorado where I worked at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, hailed as Digital Agency of the Decade. Worked hard during the week, snowboarded every weekend.
- Florence, Italy where I was married to my first love. We met in Miami when we were 19. Fast forward a few years and I was back living in Florence for 3 years working at an agency and married to my first love.
- Sestriere, Italy—deep in the Italian Alps just north of Turin—is where my ex-grandma-in-law had an apartment, so why not spend every winter and summer there?! I miss this place! Population 800 and me, the only American until tourists showed up during holiday.
- Jackson Hole, Wyoming where I lived with family and snowboarded the Tetons. Everyone needs to visit at least once.
- Southern Oregon where I learned to embrace a slower pace of life and found more of myself in the calm via reading, meditating, hiking and over-indulging in podcasts. I love podcasts.
- Now Los Angeles because I’ve always wanted to live in California and it was time. I work as a digital marketing consultant and produce and host Torch Podcast dedicated to women in leadership – those curious about personal development.
What I do
I founded Torch Podcast: women in leadership for your life, career and love. I also manage marketing clients who need help with content, strategy and social media production.
My past corporate role was Director of Social Media, Influencers and Content for a $1B enterprise. I was so proud of the social team and the talented freelancers I worked with.
I’ve organized 6—and counting—World Wide Instameets, one being on snowmobiles in Wyoming! What’s an Instameet? Well, Instagram rallies the world to go out and photograph twice a year during a specified weekend. Every individual meet-up (usually at the city level) creates their own group hashtag, and uses Instagram’s universal hashtag during that weekend. Then Instagram features the top images from the weekend on their account. It’s the perfect way to meet other like-minded photo fanatics in your area.
I’m into
Photography!
At 8, my parents gave me my first camera. It was from a trip they took in Egypt, so probably in duty free. It was shiny and red – a Konica. I loved it! At 10, I enrolled in a summer photography class where I built my own camera and took photos of random every day objects and shadows. Then I graduated to portraits. From high school to University, I was obsessed with portraits and let no one stand in my way of a shot. I have folders of negatives of all the strangers I passed in my life. After University I gave it up to ‘play adult’ and make money in sales and marketing. Photography came back into my life when I lived in Italy from 2012 to 2015.
Nonni! Nonni!
Meaning grandparents in Italian, is the subject of an Instagram account, @notmynonni, I started in 2012. Basically, I take photos of old people. I love finding them on the street (mainly in Italy), taking their photo and writing sweet little every day captions on each Instagram post. Check out an Instagram blog post where they wrote about my project. It has turned into a community with over 23,000 photos of people tagging me in their nonni photos from around the world. @Notmynonni even has its own swag, check out the shop!
Pilates!
I’ve had back pains since I was 17 and a doctor recommended Pilates. It’s heaven sent. I stopped my practice while traveling around Italy and as soon as I got a desk job again the pain was back. It’s now a part of my life whether I do it at home or in a class.
Vegan-ish life!
Yes, I am coining it now, veganish, it’s my thang. I grew up with an amazing aunt who taught me why we shouldn’t eat animals and showed me how easy it is to eat meat-free. Fast forward a hundred years to 2016 and I’m finally eating waaaaay less meat. Haven’t touched much besides fish and eggs on rare occasions. Btw, I don’t care what others eat, this blog and comments section is a judge-free zone. I know how damn good a Florentine steak is, I mean, I used to eat them twice a month in between munching on prosciutto when I lived in Italy. No shame.
Travel!
I have serious issues with staying home two weekends in a row, so you’ll see my taking road trips whenever I can. And I mean anywhere… even sleeping in my car in the California Redwoods just to get out of Dodge.
Reading!
My goal is to read at least one book a month, and I’m averaging 1.2 a month, so I’m on track. So far this year, I’ve read:
- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
- The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- How To Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie
- Eat The Frog by Brian Tracy
- …more to rattle off, but this is a start
What you can expect
I write about what I’m into and I’m into digital marketing, productivity and how to be a better human. You’ll get a taste of these subjects through my mix tapes aplenty, since I write about leadership, life hacks, social media, influencer marketing, travel, books, podcasts and a few surprises sprinkled in.
Don’t forget to follow my adventures on Instagram. Plus, check out my photography project @notmynonni. If nothing does it for you, then you can just check out the time I went bungee jumping off an ancient bridge in the French Alps.
Drop a line with any questions or topic ideas at tianakaimadera @ gmail [dot] com. Also, feel free to reach out if you’re looking for a digital marketing consultant, let’s work together.
Thanks for stopping by,
Tiana Kai M.
