If you attended, you’ll see some words and thoughts you will recognize and a new thought or two. 

Unleashing the Power of Your Voice by Breaking Your Own Rules

When I launched Bilingual in the Boonies in 2006, just a few months after leaving my job as a reporter, I emailed a link to my former editor with the subject line:

“Look Ma, No Hands!”

Blogging was liberating and exciting.

A little scary, too.

I spent nearly 20 years in newsrooms and during that time at least three sets of eyes looked at my copy before it was published.

Suddenly, it was just me, the dashboard and the publish button.

There also had been a lot of rules to follow: correct grammar, the AP Stylebook, even specific newsroom rules of style — everything from the abbreviation of states to how many words should, or could, be in my first graph. (And sometimes, a few rules depended on whom was your editor that day…)

Suddenly, in blogging, I was not bound by my newspaper’s or editor’s rules.

Know the Rules: They Give Confidence

But, I kept to many of the good rules I learned from talented and passionate reporters and editors. I believe in rules. Understanding the basics and norms of whatever you are doing gives you a firm foundation and confidence. A grip on the basics often will point toward a better way of doing things — and in your own style.

Being comfortable as a writer gave me the confidence to try a wholly different medium for writing, one that was somewhat bold and non-reporter-like in 2006.

Back then, journalists didn’t really blog. Plus, as a reporter, not a columnist, I am trained not to express an opinion – and that is pretty much the opposite of blogging.

I had to get over that and by 2009, I especially had to.

Here’s an example of the Disruptive Voice we’re talking about in this Latism session. (#latismvoice)

Personal (and Social Media) Disruption

Nashville voters were facing an English-Only Resolution that would ban city government from working in any language other than English. That meant translations for immigrants and refugees would have been a no-no.

I did a few posts blasting the resolution and a way-too long 4-minute video in the accent and character of a Cuban, Carmen Miranda Remolino, to trash the councilman. The video is painful now to watch. I want to scream “cut! edit! cut! edit!”

Well, the thing was defeated. Amen. But, that was the first time I used my big mouth and my personal blog for a cause became a broadening of what I wrote about.

It also was my intro to vlogging, something I now love and something I learned to do only after I broke two of my own rules:

1. Don’t express your opinion.
2. Cover your face from any video camera.

Know this:

The Rules You Have to Break Most Often are the Ones You Make Up for Yourself

If I had kept to the belief that I was always and forever a writer, a person who avoided the camera, I never would have taken up doing video.

But the truth is that as my blogging style emerged, and when the Tiki Tiki Blog was born to tell the cuentos of what it is like to live Latin in the USA, I had to confront the fact that some stories have to be told on video. (Despite how long Carmen Miranda Remolino went on, I got great feedback from readers and friends.)

So, for the Tiki Tiki, how could I capture the accents, the gestures, the facial expressions with just words? I can’t. So, I got a Flip cam, breathed deeply and went for it. It was scary and unknown, but a necessary way to tell the stories I want to tell.

It is an irony for me that this year the Tiki Tiki and I have been recognized for our videos — not our writing. So, the attention has come for something that I did not know a lot about two years ago, something that forced me to break rules I had established for myself.

The videos bring traffic. I optimize them just as I do blog posts. The videos also bring comments, and they have helped create the community that — blessedly — hangs out with us at the Tiki Tiki’s social media channels. In addition, videos and the Tiki Tiki help win me freelance work, so that’s not bad.

And so, back to the good rules: This new love of video means I have had to study things such technique, editing, software. It means I have watched a whole lot of vlogs, videos and business videos and heck, even commercials, which are great for teaching you to get a point across in 30 seconds. Knowledge is possibility.

And all the good stuff that doing video has brought has happened because I had the confidence to open my mouth, broke my own self-imposed rules and took a chance. When you break down your own barriers, new stuff appears for you. New paths and passions.

Breaking past fear and rules means the authentic appears, and that’s the voice, the person, whom your readers and viewers really want to know.

What Rules Do You Need to Break to Unleash Your Voice?

• What self-imposed rules are keeping you from telling it like it is?
• What rules are keeping you from expressing yourself with a more authentic voice, or in a different medium?
• What rules do you need to break in order to experiment and grow?

PS:

You don’t have to go off and Find Your Voice. You already know what it sounds like. Your Voice is the person who talks inside your head, the sound of your Spirit — the one who tells you to try new stuff, but whom your outside voice, your public persona, often quiets.

Let that Voice out, scary as it can be, and many right things will happen.

#Latism11 Links

If you want to search through the Web to find more of what was said at the panel, search #latismvoice or #latism11.

Here’s a cool list of Latism11 tips sent via Twitter curated by Frankie De Soto.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

A few weeks ago, I escaped on an overnight to Atlanta with a good friend. She had an appointment down there, 4.5 hours south of Nashville and I basically invited myself.

The plan was to eat and shop…and we did, though I did not score anything much. I do not count the $39 Ikea blanket as a fabulous score, despite the reasonable price. I marked it as “necessity.” I got one cool dress, but my goodness, there was disappoint to discover II can’t even score big with the clothes in Atlanta. Something is wrong with me and I think it is a combination of age 44 and extreme cheapness.

However, success was found in solitude, in the disconnect from the daily routine — the lunch-making, the car-line, the working, the cooking, the dog walking. I know you know.

When my girlfriend left for her appointment early in the morning, I was left in a hotel room all by myself for five hours.

I had coffee, watched the morning shows — which I rarely ever do — I read the free newspaper in bed. I went to the gym and worked up a sweat. I took a long shower. I sat at the desk, fiddled with Twitter and Facebook, jotted down writing ideas, read about Angelina in Vanity Fair. I wore fuzzy socks.

In my college world religions class, I learned about a culture who believes that when we die, our soul travels up to the top of the Universe and is suspended for all eternity in its own Bubble of Bliss. There are others in their own Bubbles of Bliss all around you, but you don’t know it, and if you did, you wouldn’t care anyway, because you’re in your own Forever Bubble.

Hotel rooms are my own Bubble of Bliss.

I didn’t think about this much until I started attending blogging conferences. For as much as connecting with my tribe is wonderful, heading back to a hotel room alone is just about as sweet.

Writing down all this hotel love, I am struck at the memory of thinking a friend of mine odd for her hotel habit. She told me about it maybe seven years ago, or so (Our daughters are the same age). Every once in a while, when she needs to disconnect, to recharge, she leaves the husband and kids at home and checks into a local hotel. I remember her telling me that she sleeps well, she reads, she watches movies.

I don’t think I got it then, but I so get it now. (The woman is genius, really.)

As the Atlanta escape ended and my girlfriend and I got back in her Mama Fab Van and headed north to Nashvegas, I was recharged (an a little high on free hotel coffee).

And a recharged me means I connect better with my family and the creative goods flow better in my work.

And well plus, I’m always happier when someone else makes the beds.

Hallmark came to Nashville last week and I snagged an invite to a small gathering they had with local bloggers.

It was mostly conversation about celebrating the little things in life, and getting to know a little bit more about how they go about creating the cards and products that help us express words and feelings.

I learned some of them have titles such as “emotioneer” and I would love to be a Hallmark “font specialist,” as I have a thing for fonts. I love how they evoke emotion by the very simple point of whether there is a serif or not, whether it is curly or long or not. Anyway, I can’t design a lick, so that is out. I have to stick to writing.

Quickie disclosure: I am working with Hallmark over on the Tiki Tiki on the Life is a Special Occasion campaign, which means they sponsor essays in the ‘del alma” section. (Here’s the last post on “dichos of encouragement.”)

OK, one of the things we did during our gathering in Nashville was to announce what is a most special occasion in our lives. Hallmark gave us a t-shirt and a purple Sharpie.

See what I wrote: “Singing in Spanglish with my Daughter…is a Special Occasion.”

I explained I often have to trick Maria into speaking Spanish with me via games and song. And when she sings along with me to anything from Julio Iglesias to Marc Anthony to In the Heights, I am delighted, elated, overjoyed, proud.

This super cool tee — a blank one — and other cool Hallmark stuff will be given away soon on the Tiki Tiki. Watchea for it.

And, if you want to see the beautiful and talented Nashville crowd — the Center of the Blogging Universe — and what they wrote, check out the photo gallery.  (The photo of me was taken by the talented Kevin Cozad, a Hallmark photographer. Imagine that job! Wepa!)

Now, tell me:

What makes a Special Occasion for You?

Latina Bloggers in the Meat Packing District: Melanie from Modern Mami; Ana, Spanglish Baby; me; Sylvia, Mama Latina Tips; Jeannette from Todo Bebe.

Little more than two years ago, I wrote a post titled Looking for All the Latina Bloggers. The post was inspired by my attendance at a great conference that was sorely lacking in Latinas. I later determined, as best I could, that there were three of us out of a couple hundred. Que-que? Why so few? I already knew of lots of Latina bloggers, but they weren’t at the conference, and they sure weren’t getting the swag, ads, and corporate sponsorships our non-Latina blogger friends were raking in.

But, we’ve come a long way.

I just got back from Blogher, my first Blogher convention, and there were a few dozen Latinas that I knew of, and hung with. (Ay, que fun!) There also was an all-Latina panel, organized by a group called Latism and focusing specifically on creating content for Latinos, marketing to Latinos and reaching out to Latino blog publishers — the latter being of high interest to the non-Hispanic marketers and publicists in the session. We can be a confusing group of gente, after all.

My trip, and that of six other Latina bloggers, was sponsored by Vme TV, a national network of Spanish-language programming that I respect (no half-naked dancing girls) and one of the first American companies to reach out to Latina bloggers in the same way other American companies have reached out to “mommy bloggers.” We were there to help educate and spread the word about Vme’s programming. Easy. Fun. A win-win for them, and for me, and the relationship will continue with their ads running soon on the Tiki Tiki Blog.

Below, I’ve posted a round-up of links and stories on Latina bloggers that have come out of the Blogher event. Take a few minutes to spin through them and click through to the blogs listed. The voices are varied, the women interesting, and inspiring.

Some cool stuff.

I got my face all done pretty-like for a Yahoo! Shine interview on Reinvention. My video should load in a couple of weeks and I will update this post with it.

Matt Lauer, a few feet from me, in the Plaza.

The Today Show invited bloggers to attend a morning taping so we got up close with Meredith Viera, Matt Lauer and Al Roker in the Plaza and in the studio. They were gracious. We also got to go into the control room, which was a blast. One of their producers, the lovely Alicia Ybarbo, also interviewed me along with Melanie of Modern Mami and Ana of Spanglish Baby on the rise of the Latin blogger.

There were a bunch of parties sponsored by big names. I went to a few and got a bunch of swag. So much that my amigas who know I often reject all the mierda laughed their rears off when they saw me with four bags of stuff…two bags were not mine, but I joked that my eyes were spinning red and white like a cartoon character.

I have to say that my favorite things were hanging with friends, new and old, seeing the Vme folks and learning about their plans, the Today Show experience, an amazing brunch at the Loews Hotel (those people know class..and fancy cheese!) and filming a Spanish video spot for Spanx. Yes, I told the world about my underwear…and it was fun.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Explosion of the Latina Blogger from Wired Latinos.

Latina Bloggers Courted by Spanish TV Network from She Posts.

Bloguera Power from RL Public Relations.

Latinas in Social Media: The Power of Familia and Sisterhood by Angelica Perez-Litwin at Modern Familia.

Click here to see Roxana Soto from Spanglish Baby in the Yahoo! Shine Reinvention interview. It is in Spanish, but it looks like all, or most, of the others are in English. Roxana is a smart, passionate and dynamic woman and I was lucky enough to hang with her this weekend…especially at the Wax Museum on Time’s Square…what happens at the Wax Museum, stays at the Wax Museum though.

Pa’lante.

So, the path to pro-blogging is through mucho advertising, paid blogging on somebody else’s site, becoming a consultant or the most popular among the mom bloggers, paid spokesmommying for a product or service. Of course, there’s always porn, but let’s pretend there isn’t.

How to go pro is a popular topic at blogging conferences. It’s money and validation, afterall, and not just sitting alone in a room shouting into the cybernets for free. (Kind of like what I am doing now…ahem.)

I have had a couple of blogging/spokesmommy offers from companies, and while tempted by riches, I walked away. The products were good, the companies lovely, but my gut told me they just weren’t the right fit for me.

So, because I too want to get in on the game, I put my brain to work to discover just whom I could go all blog-whorey for, just whom I would gladly bore the heck out of you over…and absolutely not care.

Tiffany, Apple, Honda, Canon and Bustelo all popped right into my brain. I’m no fool.

But then the real answer came to me in a big, giant, sugar-high flash: Dulce de Leche!

I’m all about the caramel sweet stuff. It’s always in the house, I put it on everything from bread to flan and I even carried back a giant glass jar from Buenos Aires once. How’s that for a testimonial?

So, because I believe in things like vision boards and putting it all out there for the Universe: I want to be the Diva of Dulce Leche, the Carrie of Cajeta, the Mami of Manjar!

Now, I just need someone to pay for my devotion.

But, in truth, I had another agenda as my prime focus.

To ask women who are focusing on making money online Just How in The Ever Living Hell they balance the constant pull the of computer with kids, husbands and toilet cleanings.

I am here admitting I am woefully lacking in setting strong limits on computer time.  My kid has told me I don’t play with her enough. She has told me I am on the computer ALL.THE.TIME.

And, I am.

Now, I have taken steps to remove myself from the computer more, and my obvious lack of regular of posts here is evidence that I am making strides. However, I still work over at the Tiki Tiki and I have private PR and copy writing clients and all that requires I sit on my culo a lot. And, of course, I am the production, office, shipping and customer service departments of Los Pollitos Dicen.

There’s always one more e-mail to write, one more post to edit, one more Tweet to send. But, if  I died tomorrow, you, dear reader, may leave a comment here,  or if you know me for reals post a link on your Facebook status. My demise may end up as a Tweet, even. But, my husband and only child would not be giving too much of a crap about whether I posted enough.

So, I have been struggling to make it all work.

How to I continue to build something for myself, something I love and adore, without sucking as a mother and a wife?

Turns out few of us who are blogging full-time have got it all together. At least that is the feedback I got from the women I hung with at Blissdom. They wanted more on the topic, they wanted the speakers with successful, money-making blogs to tell them exactly how in the hell they manage to produce content, make a living, nourish their families and themselves. One panelist said she realized there were days she didn’t look into her small child’s eyes because she was online and Tweeting. WTF? Sadly, too many of us would have to nod in agreement.

For the record, I know if I was working for someone else, I also would be complaining and whining about lack of time…but, in my fantasy land, the fact I work for myself should translate into clean closets and time for mani-pedis.

OK, OK, blah blah blah on my part.

Are you online too much? Not sure? Read the wonderful Angelica Perez’s post Is Your Time on the Internet Impacting Your Children? Powerful Ways to Find Out and What to Do.

Now, I’m going to go play with my puppy.

Screw the tweeting.

xo

So, I may just Twitter them to death until I get some resolution.

In the meantime, I did learn that I did not have to create a new feed and ask email subscribers to switch over. I simply could have transferred the feed y ya.  So, if you haven’t re-signedup yet, ixnay on the sign-up-ay. And hey, if you want to unsubscribe, now is the time.

Very few things bring me to near-tears of frustration…but this blog transfer managed to do that last week…

To make up for the cyber flakiness, I am going to tell you this week about those free chile and lime chicharinas and churros I gladly accepted for free as Mommy Blog Payola…I usually turn down free gifts, but seriously, would you turn down free churros?

Last month, I wondered aloud where all the Latina bloggers are hiding and introduced a round-up that unveiled some awesomeness.