me

Nichelle’s Year In Review

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First, I want to say that subsequent “year in reviews” will be easier thanks to Facebook Timeline, Photojo’s Time Capsule and Timehop.

GPOYM

January, I froze my ass off. There was lots of snow. I spoke at Long Island Social Media Club, and was featured in a NewsDay article about social media and business.

Blogging While Brown February Meetup
In February, I organized a Blogging While Brown Meetup at Bier International in Harlem.

Pictures from SXSW
In March, I went to SXSW with a press pass. I also was quoted in an Entrepreneur article about cupcakes.

me at tea Ritz Carlton
I went home to Atlanta for Easter, and my sister and I had tea at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead.

Cupcake Craft Night At Etsy Labs

I organized our fourth annual Cupcake Craft Night at Etsy Labs in May. We made polymer clay jewelry and we had a big crowd. Also Rachel and I went up to Gardiner, New York to judge the Gardiner Cupcake Festival.

TECHmunch NYC photos
In June, I co-produced TECHmunch NYC with Babette Pepaj. Also, Cupcakes Take The Cake hosted our annual picnic in Central Park.

2011 Philly Vendy Awards

In July, I traveled down to Philadelphia for the Philly Vendy Awards. I had a blast! I also went to Montreal in mid-July. It was my first trip to Canada and first time using AirBnB.

@raquelita and me on a ship!
Rachel and I went on a tour of Celebrity Cruise ship, The Summit, as we doing a Cupcake Cruise in August 2012.

Thursday!
Just a photo of myself wearing blue eyeshadow in August. I also spoke at Berkeley College in downtown in late August about blogging and social media.

Bracelet Styling
I love this trio of bracelets. I also try to take more photos in natural light.

Nicole and Nichelle
I volunteered all year long doing social media for the Vendy Awards and the event was in September. Here’s a photo of me with Nicole Taylor. I also spoke at Rochester Institute of Technology at a social media conference.

Jesse Jackson Birthday Event in #Detroit
In October, I met Jesse Jackson while in Detroit visiting a cupcake bakery business, Just Baked.  I also won the Casserole Crazy Cookoff with Patrice with a winning casserole of a cheeseburger casserole.

Smuckers Socks
In November, I went to Orrville, Ohio for the Smucker’s Blogger Conference. I had so much fun, and learned a lot.
I was also in Upscale Magazine in an article about cupcakes.Me in Upscale Magazine
I was also in the November of Upscale Magazine in an article about cupcakes.

Me at the #CTTC7 Raffle
Cupcakes Take The Cake celebrated our 7th anniversary of cupcakes blogging.

This year has been challenging with two moves and two deaths of loved ones. Also, money has been tighter as I keep hustling to make ends meet. I would like a full-time job doing what I love. I would love to lose about 50 lbs. I would love to connect with a man who can I share my life with. I’m ready for 2012! It may not be better, but it will be different and new. Happy New Year!

me

12 Tips for Better Networking

Digging through notes from my oldYahoo account, I found this.  It’s tips from a class I took nine years ago, and it is still relevant today.

  1. See Yourself as a resource for others.
  2. Seek common personal and professional interests.
  3. Balance the amount of time you talk and listen
  4. Introduce yourself to ‘people of influence’.
  5. Join other conversations already in progress.
  6. Introduce colleagues to help them increase their contacts.
  7. Offer and seek referral when you feel it is appropriate.
  8. Circulate and talk to as many people as possible.
  9. End your conversations on a positive note and ask for the person’s business card or way to stay in contact.
  10. Promptly call or send information to a contact after the event.
  11. Follow up periodically on all your networking contacts.
  12. Help others achieve their professional or personal goals and they will think of you when they or someone they know needs your skills or service.
me

Hot Grease With Nicole Taylor

peppers at Roberta's garden

Today I had the pleasure of being on Nicole Taylor’s show on Heritage Radio Network, “Hot Grease“. We talked and laughed about the latest news in food and hot food topics. The radio studio is in a recycled shipping container in the back of Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick. There’s a garden and I took a picture of the peppers growing in the backyard.

After the show I ordered the Speckenwolf pizza. I love Speck. It is the bacon of fancypants.

BTW, Nicole and I will be down in Atlanta in December for Lavish. I will be moderating a panel on food trends.

me

Blog World Expo: Fun, Fun, Fun

Techmunch "Curating Content" Panel
I really enjoyed my first Blog World Expo. It was great to meet new people and learn tips on how to make my blogs and social media better. Thanks to Babette Pepaj founder of BakeSpace for producing TechMunch Food Track and for Jenn-Air for providing the demo kitchen.

Things I loved about Blog World:

  • Thanks to Babette of BakeSpace for inviting to come and speak. It was fun!
  • Meeting my fellow Techmunch panelists–LA Time’s Rene Lynch, LAist’s Lindsay Williams-Ross, and TechZulu’s Amanda Coolong. Our panel rocked!
  • Seeing old NYC friends who now live in LA– Jayme Waxman and Tara Settembre.
  • Eating lots of steak and shrimp at the Omaha Steaks event. Lovely talking to Todd Simon.
  • Getting a hop scotch (butterscotch) cupcake from Kari Haskell of Retro Bakery. She’s cupcake royalty in Las Vegas.
  • Meeting Manouschka Guerrier (Single Serving) of Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills.  She’s a blogger and celebrity chef.
  • Seeing Scott Hanselman’s presentation, “32 Ways To Make Your Blog Suck Less“
  • Recognizing Brett Erlich at the Techmunch dinner as the host of Rotten Tomatoes on Current.
  • Lovely tasting of sashimi, short ribs, octopus at Yellowtail. Thanks Light Group.
  • Thanks Pop Chips for a basket of potato chips. I ate a lot of chips.
  • Meeting Edouard Lambelet of Paper.li.  I wonder if Geneva has a burgeoning tech scene.
  • Being interviewed by Sam Smith of Restaurant Business Magazine at the Pepsi booth.
  • Getting on stage to sing “Don’t Stop Believing” with a bunch of techies at the Palms. Thanks Mashable.
  • Hanging out with Erik Trinidad (Fancy Fast Food) and his buddy Terrence. Brooklyn Represent!
  • Tip from Aaron Aviles: when traveling, take a photo of your hotel room number with your phone, so you know where to sleep when you get back after a night of partying.
blogs

Conferences And BlogWorld Next Week

TechMunch at BlogWorld Expo
Recently, I changed my twitter bio to say: “Cupcake Enthusiast, Editor, Connector. Tweets about food,conferences and Mad Men.” I added conferences because I go to lots of them. In the past week, I have spoken at Pod Camp Philly and attended Finovate. Next week, I will be speaking at Blog World Expo as part of TechMunch.

This year, I have been to about 10 conferences. At PodCamp Philly, one of the speakers said something that resonated with me. People go to conferences mainly for two reasons: networking and education. I would also add to deal-making and branding yourself as an expert. I like speaking at conferences, and hope to get paid to speak one of these day.

conferences

Influencer10

Influencer10,influencer,tastemaker,branding,marketing,social media,fashion,Nyne Lyves,NY Times,Heineken,Livestream,Served Fresh Media,Nicole Miller,Jana Water,Tokoin Factory,Mark Ecko,World Management Group
Thursday and Friday, I attended the Influencer10 conference which took place at 45 Bleecker.  I really like the panel discussions which centered around influence. The first panel was about innovators and influencers.  You can be inherently innovative, but can you be inherently an influencer. In my opinion, influencers are often more extroverted.  They have to be out there for people to see them and be influenced by them.

Key Takeaways from Influencer10:

Digital literacy is incredibly important.

The more an influencer TRIES to influence, the less influence they actually have.

Be true to yourself.

If you can engage a core fan base, then you are rock solid.

Respect your digital self the same way you respect your personal self.

We are not monolithic.

food and drink

Edible Institute at the New School

Yesterday, I attended Edible Manhattan’s Edible Institute at the New School. It was a very informative afternoon of panel discussions about food and drink here in New York City. This week is Eat Drink Local Week and this event was a part of the celebration.

Did you know that there’s a Food Studies Program at the New School? The program is a part of the Continuing Education college. BTW, there is a class on how to write a food business plan at the New School on October 23rd. The class is $170.

Here are some of the choice quotes by panelists:

“Make cooking into a more of a social activity” –Cathy Erway
“Know your food in a intimate way.”-Cathy Erway

“Brooklyn Kitchen is a kind of a clubhouse for the DIY food movement”-Tom Mylan

“To me it is taste.” -Ariane Daguin explaining the rise of the Brooklyn DIY food movement.

“When you’re frustrated, you make the political personal.”-Tom Mylan

“Food is a medium for creativity.”-Cathy Erway

“I don’t sell anything cheap. I sell things that are reasonable.”-Lou DiPalo

“There is most delicious per square inch in New York than ever before”.-Ed Levine

“We are more obsessed with food than before” Robert Siestama

“Artisan does not always mean that it is delicious”-Ed Levine

“Being in wine business means being in a distribution business.-Trent Preszler

It's Nichelle With An "N"