don’t need it, not sure how I’ll use it, considering erasing all my posts from my “having fun in my 20s”, but it’s mine

April 1: Official first day in my new role at IBM (not kidding!). This was a wildly positive step forward in my career/life for many reasons, especially:

1. Remote Work. My day-to-day work life is now completely remote.
2. 40% Raise. Perks of working for a big company that wants to keep young talent!
3. Client Travel. If a client wants to meet with me, I am encouraged to get on a plane and go. aka Points, side trips, and being valued by company.

Day 2 of WFH Life: Joined the Dallas entrepreneur community to hear Mark Cuban speak. El Cubano is loved by many, but no one loves him the way Dallas does.

Cuban’s message is consistent: Grind.  I cringed at his “don’t take vacation” advice, but I love how honest he is with the audience and himself. Plus I am competitive to a fault, so his “business is the most competitive sport” spiel always gets me amped.

After Day 4 of my new glorious WFH Life, I got on a plane to my second home:

Las Vegas

For the grand opening weekend of KAOS, the new dayclub/nightclub at the Palms. One of my best friends (hi Brent!) played a big part in the behind the scenes work leading up to the weekend, so I showed up excited to witness the madness and support my friend.

After checking in with 4 of my best friends at the Cosmo, we headed to Kaos (feeling super VIP thanks to Brent – you da real MVP) for an insane performance by Skrillex and Travis Scott.

KAOS is flat-out amazing and over the top (aka Vegas):

65-foot bronze Damien Hirst sculpture (statue with penis)

Tesla coils that work with cyro units and aqua fog systems to recreate weather

Bottle service upgrades up to $100,000 that allow you to do anything – from zip-lining across the club to activating the Tesla coil

Another wild Vegas weekend:

• KAOS DayClub for Marshmello + running into TCU friends
• Generous Catch dinner (I dream about the cauliflower)
• Nghtmre at Omnia Nightclub
• Gorgon City on the beautiful Apex rooftop club
• Kaskade at KAOS

Sunday Scaries: After a couple shots and attempts to change my flight, I reluctantly boarded a quick flight to LA. My friends in Singapore snagged a free pass for me to attend the Security Token Summit at the Ritz.

Los Angeles

I woke up bright and early, ready to be a professional. At the conference, I quickly saw many familiar faces from my weekend at SXSW last month. Particularly Blake, a COO of a VC firm, that saved my life in Austin by graciously getting myself and my boss into several invite-only events during SXSW.

Another favorite part about my new role:  The opportunity/incentive to work with and befriend people in the digital asset market. As my network grows, so does my passion for the space.

After a long day of collecting business cards and spreading the word about IBM’s involvement in the crypto space, I headed to an overly indulgent dinner at Broken Spanish that involved gold flaked desserts. Over mezcal, we talked the day’s panel discussions, travel plans, and how much we love not paying state income tax in Texas.

After dinner, I went straight to bed because the next day I was headed to my 3rd home:

New York City

Land in NYC and head straight to Midtown to check in to my boutique hotel called the Arlo NoMad. It’s an Insta worthy hotel thanks to its floor-to-ceiling windows in each room.

Weakness: Hipster hotel bars. I pulled up for “just one drink” and ended up making friends with a fellow business traveler who persuaded me to check out a pub around the corner. The pub underwhelming, but the Thai food delivery waiting for me when I got back was not.

After waking up to a bed view of the Empire State Building, I went to the IBM Astor Place office for the day.

Out of all of IBM’s NYC offices – This is the nicest. It’s especially evident upon arrival when you notice the the giant Jeff Koons sculpture in the lobby that set an auction record for a living artist at a cool $58.4 million.

My day was spent doing something I love: talking to people much smarter than me. I met with two blockchain architects that were assisting me with a client meeting the following day.

Fun fact: IBM employs more academia than any company excluding educational institutions.

 

My evening was spent in the hotel’s ornate study area where I found my beloved Dustin Yellin’s art book and a glass of Cab.

I mean really, how can I complain?

Home Stretch: Client meeting in Midtown. Despite my general confidence, I felt nervous as I entered my first big NYC meeting in my new role. Fortunately, my nerves helped me step up to the challenge and woo the client and everyone else in the room. Plus I got to sit in on a guest speaker – Did you know you can invest in classic cars for as little as $50/share? Check out Rally Road.

Vegas club grand opening? Check. Security token conference in Los Angeles? Check. Slay my first big client meeting? Check. Time to head back to:

Dallas

Back home. Time to relax and recharge? Think again.

In my short 5 day stint at home I:

• Headed to my coworker’s wedding in north Dallas where I spilled red wine on my dress and witnessed the power that is Old Town Road
• Checked out my friend Francois’ new cafe in Lower Greenville – La La Land
• Raged in yoga pants to Goshfather‘s set at Circo Loco’s pool club

And packed my bags because my next stop was:

London

Less than a week after my Vegas/LA/NYC stint, I took off on an overnight flight to London. Thankfully, I slept through the flight because the moment I landed in the UK I:

• Took a train to London’s city center
• Remembered how much I didn’t care about Buckingham Palace
• Got a cab to my friend’s flat
• Freshened up then used my friend’s Oyster cards to public transit my way to Canary Wharf
• Started drinking at 3pm with her coworkers and other finance Londoners

Almost immediately I was handed a stranger’s Barclays card and given hefty pours of rose. After a little drunk shopping, we headed to rooftop bar Bokan where the drinks were as beautiful as the views.

Despite all of the cocktails, we managed to make it to the airport the next morning so we could head to:

Istanbul

Where we were meeting my work wife turned best friend at The Ritz Carlton.

Being the amazing human she is, she had called ahead to let the hotel know that we were celebrating my work promotion. Upon arrival, the room was doused with rose petals, balloons, + free champagne and cake.

Night #1: Dinner at Park Fora, a beautiful seafood restaurant on the Bosphorus, and shisha-ing at hookah lounge, Huqqa.

Day #1: Culinary Pathways food tour recommended by Conde Nasté. Halfway through, we ferried to the Asia side and got to know the couples on our trip from South Africa and Manila.

Night #2: After a day of eating, we wanted to go out and experience Istanbul nightlife. We decided to contact our Airbnb Experience host ahead of time to see if he was open to taking us out on the town. Our host, Onur, ended up being the man.

Our host, Onur, ended up being the man. We went to a lounge on the Bosphorus, an disco bar, and finally Klein, a nightclub. Party is my love language so finding a deep house late night club was a dream come true. We didn’t get back to our room until 6 AM which meant that Day #2 was a struggle.

Running on a few hours of sleep and no food, we headed towards the famous Hagia Sophia where we met back up with Onur to do a day of photos around the city.

He took us to some less known spots with views that I am still taken aback by when I look at photos.

After an exhaustingly worthwhile day trekking through Istanbul, we went to eat dinner with Onur and his friends. Like him, they were warm, friendly, and interesting to talk to. They all worked for companies we had heard of – Vodafone, Google, and Expedia. We all hit it off and dinner turned into another 6 am cab ride home.

After another day in Istanbul, I headed back to London to “work from home” for a couple of days before returning to the States. I was able to check out a WeWork that overlooks Tower Bridge, eat fish and chips, enjoy an amazing dinner and rooftop view at The Ned’s Club with two girlfriends we met in Vegas, and run into the producer of the UK version of The Office, Ash Atalla.

I booked my return flight two days before I took off back to the States thanks to a Thomas Cook voucher I had from a gnarly flight delay the year before. While it was nice getting a free flight – I highly recommend never flying this airline on an international flight longer than a couple hours (you’re welcome).

RECAP:

• April 1-4: Dallas
• April 5-7: Las Vegas
• April 8-9: Los Angeles
• April 10-11: New York City
• Apri l2-16: Dallas
• April 17-19: London
• April 20-23: Istanbul
• April 24-26: London

That’s 15 flights, 18,393 miles, 4 states, and 3 countries. Not a bad month!

 

 

Social media is both a blessing and a curse – A statement that is easy to agree with. As a millennial, I often find myself aimlessly scrolling through one of social media feeds. Starting with MySpace in middle school, I saw social media have a negative impact on my mood and perception of others. It seems silly, but just seeing a photo and reading a caption can bring about many negative emotions – Feeling left out, jealousy, alone.

In college I made a concerted effort to clean up my social media feed for my own well-being. At the time, this meant unfollowing several people that I considered my friends, but often made me feel excluded, dissatisfied with my lifestyle, envious of their relationships, or unhappy with my appearance.

Millennial women be warned: Many Instagram users utilize a third-party app that notifies them when they are unfollowed. I caused some temporary rifts with several girls that I considered my friends solely based on the fact that I unfollowed their social media account. This seems ridiculous, but I had to explain to them why I made this decision.

I’m a big advocate of curating your own content to the best of your ability. For the most part, you pick and choose your physical surroundings. For your “digital surroundings” you have even more freedom to hand select what you want to see and what you don’t want to see.

Some of my favorite Instagram accounts that inspire me professionally are:

1. Alyssa Julya Smith – One of my favorite Cheddar anchors. Her Instagram story updates motivate me to hustle – This woman is always on the go. During the week her content shares with her audience different stories she is covering – Anywhere from a studio interview with a CEO, a tour of a cannabis facility, or sampling Taco Bell’s secret menu items.
2. Bozoma Saint John – Uber’s Chief Brand Officer whose Instagram handle couldn’t be more fitting (@badassboz). I was led to her profile while watching live feeds of this year’s SXSW festival in Austin. Her bio made me fall in love immediately:
   

   There’s nothing more badass than being who you are… I am a force of nature in fierce stilettos

   Ladies, if this doesn’t get you hyped up I don’t know what will. Her posts reflect her bio – Bold outfits, #MondayMotivation, career updates.

3. Sara Blakely – THE inventor of our beloved Spanx. This woman hustles – Not only does she run her business, she raises her 4 children. Her content is always very honest – She’ll show her “before makeup” face to anyone who asks and shamelessly shows her followers all of her guilty pleasures and flaws (i.e. airplane junk food necessities, overdue hair roots, etc.)