Hi, my name is Dan and I’m a newbie to Exsilio Solutions’ marketing team. As a part of my corporate induction I was asked to write a short intro blog about myself.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of ‘About Me’ writing assignments, never have been. This sentiment dates all the way back to those ‘introduce yourself to the class’ moments back in grade school. I’m not sure why that is, and I chose not to read too deeply into it. So with that being said, I’m going to make this as short and sweet as I can, for my own personal sake. 

I was born and raised in Bothell, WA just northeast of Seattle and not too far from Exsilio’s office in Redmond. I have two wonderful parents, an awesome younger sister, a skillfull brother-in-law, a charming 1yr old nephew, and a beautiful girlfriend that I live with in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood. I’m a Taurus. And more importantly, I’m a Husky. Go Dawgs!

I’m truly excited to be joining Exsilio’s team as a Marketing Manager, working with Microsoft’s Live Events team. Just two weeks into my new role here and I’m already working with product teams from Windows 8, Windows ‘Mango’ Phone, Windows Azure, and SQL Server ‘Denali’. That’s pretty cool in my opinion.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me at Exsilio!

Cheers,

Dan

Hello all—my name is Miko and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself as one of Exsilio’s new Marketing Managers.

 No, not this guy.

I wish I could just tell you that I was a military child and let you make the connection that I've lived in many places, but I can't; for some reason, my family was always on the move. I was born in the Philippines and have lived in Hong Kong, Texas, Nevada, California, and now Washington. I like to think that because of my constant relocation, I’ve developed an ability to adapt to many different environments.

Being at Exsilio is an exciting venture for me because of the work atmosphere. The folks here are very talented and hold their work to extremely high standards. As I am an entry-level addition to the team, I think it’s fantastic to be able to start in such an excellence-driven culture.

I’m glad to be on the team!

Miko

Elizabeth Gilbert, the recently famous author of "Eat, Pray, Love," has a very insightful, and funny, oratory on the creative process and writers in her February, 2009 TED Talk. What I found most profound about Elizabeth's talk was how accurately she described the creative process and the idea of a etherial being of some kind which helps to inspire and shape work.

While I don’t consider myself a “creative” by profession, I did earn an English degree in college, and I’m using it (thankfully) more than I anticipated. I guess this sort of puts me in that creative arena; creative writing and copywriting are definitely part of my role as corporate marketing manager.
That said, I go through phases of how I feel about my writing; some days I feel extremely confident about what I’ve written—be it web or email copy, or a client presentation.  Other days I feel like I have no business ever writing again. The latter is an extreme, and won’t ever happen, because I truly enjoy writing.
Often times, I use writing as a way to express emotion and think through issues in my personal life. Actual handwriting…typing is far from therapeutic. If I’m struggling with something, I write about it—free form, and most of the time, I feel much better after getting it down on paper. 
I do have a specific writing style and voice, and sometimes it’s challenging for me to step outside of those—but this is often necessary, especially as I write for different audiences and purposes.
I came across a couple of validating articles recently which helped me to see that perhaps my struggles are normal for writers.
Ali Luke is a writing coach with a popular blog called Aliventures. She shares some inside information on the writing world, in her post “Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You.” Ira Glass is a National Public Radio personality, famous for his involvement with This American Life. He offers the following about the creative journey: