My name is Keiko, I’m a certified digital marketing consultant who supports small businesses.
I’m originally from Sapporo, Japan, and I have lived in Tokyo, New York, Breda (the Netherlands), Boston, and am currently spending my time in San Francisco and Sonoma, the heart of California wine country.
Why am I here, and not in Japan?
When I was a pre-teen, I loved foreign cinema and learned about the world outside of Japan.
It was fascinating to hear people speaking not Japanese but English, French, Italian, etc.
One of many movies I saw, an English movie, “Melody,” became a huge hit in Japan (before many of you were born). I don’t remember how many times I went back to the cinema to see this. I can still hear the background music by the Bee Gees.
Although I was studying English at school, it was almost impossible to understand their words. Every time after the cinema, I went straight to my room to check where the movie was filmed on the world map and imagined foreign lands.
My dream to study English abroad began at this point. I started studying English very hard, memorizing new words every single day.
Years later, my childhood dream came true.
I landed at JFK airport in New York via Anchorage alone. I didn’t know anyone there. My huge backpack was my only friend.
Why New York?
I sent many letters (yes, postal letters) to get information about schools in English-speaking countries; UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I didn’t have any preference for where to live; I just wanted to study English with native speakers.
Among them, State University of New York (SUNY) Albany offered the program that fit me the most.
My adventure had begun.
After completing the program in Albany, New York, I went back to Japan, worked in Tokyo at an international financial firm, where I first learned about computer system. The company sent me to their Singapore office for further computer training.
After my exciting career in Tokyo, my journey continued in Breda, the Netherlands. I worked with a local firm and helped operate a new liaison office.
My biggest adventure in life happened there!
My first child (girl) was born!!!
What a life change!
Then, my journey continued in Boston, where I went back to school to pursue study in Business Administration. I became a full-time young mom and business student.
What a delight:)
After completing my degree at University of Massachusetts in Boston, I returned to Tokyo, where I opened my first business consulting firm. I supported small Japanese business owners who wanted to start businesses in the US.
Another big adventure happened!
My second child (boy) was born!!!
I became a full-time mom of a toddler and a baby while starting my own consulting firm.
I loved my time in Tokyo, but after a few years, we had to move to Sonoma, California. I’ve been here ever since.
I’ve supported opening and operating a small design firm and also an eCommerce company.
It was a big challenge to learn everything new in a new foreign land. At the same time, it was gratifying to see the businesses grow!
Again, my biggest challenge happened here!
My third child (girl) was born!!!
I became a full-time mom of three kids while operating new businesses.
Why digital marketing?
When my older daughter was doing an art residency in New Mexico a few years ago, I had a chance to visit her.
She was staying at a beautiful villa in Truth and Consequences and was able to focus on her artwork.
Besides being an artist, my daughter owns a UX design consulting firm.
When I was there, I noticed that she had zoom meetings with her UX design clients.
I thought, “Wow, this is cool. As long as she has the internet, she can keep providing her services from any location in the world!”
She could make her own schedule and choose to have more or less work.
I had a corporate job at that time and had to stay in the office every week day. Even thought I didn’t have to go to the office, I had to be available during working hours, with no flexibility.
My daughter inspired me to focus on how I want to live.
Because of my business background, I was interested in something digital supporting small businesses. Then, I decided to enroll in a digital marketing certification program at Cornell University, and I completed it in March this year!
I’m so happy to help clients use their full potential to grow their businesses. Since we are in a digital world, I can support clients who live in different time zones worldwide.
My adventure never ends!
Besides work, my interests are food, music, design, traveling, culture, and many more.
My new addition is a monthly wine tasting tour with a wine professional friend.
I’m fortunate to live in such a beautiful place.
English is still challenging, but I’ll keep learning.
Life is great. There are so many things to learn!
Thank you so much for opportunity.
Welcome lovelydays365!
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We never stop learning, we learn till we are out of the world
You passion to study English in a foreign land captivated me
Your zeal is encouraging
Welcome onboard..
We hope to see more of your knowledge in English.
😊
Hi, welcome to Hive! As a nice start, you might want to check the communities under the incubation program of OCD by following this link https://peakd.com/hive-174578/@ocd/ocd-communities-incubation-program-update-58
Good luck and have fun.
Hello @lovelydays365! This is @traciyork from the @ocd (Original Content Decentralized) curation team. We noticed you shared your first post here on Hive and introduced yourself to the community - congratulations and welcome! You didn't mention how you happened to find our blockchain home - did an established Hive member tell you about it? If so, be sure to tag them so they know you're part of the Hive community now.
Speaking of community, we have many different ones here on the blockchain, devoted to all kinds of interests. Here's a link so you can check them all out - Hive Communities. Based on what you've shared, I think you'll find these interesting to start off with -
Haveyoubeenhere Community
Foodies Bee Hive Community
Also, as Hive can sometimes be quite confusing, the newly launched Newbies Guide is a growing repository of useful and easy to understand posts about how the Hive ecosystem works.
Please be aware that Hive is a bit different from other social media platforms since you are monetizing your blog, so it is important not to include content that you don't own without sources (and it shouldn't exceed 50% of the post). For more information, check this post - Why and How People Abuse and Plagiarise by hivewatchers.
In addition, since you're new, you may run into an RC (Resource Credits) error when trying to comment/post because you don't yet have enough Hive in your account yet. For assistance with a temporary delegation to get you started, be sure to check out the Gift Giver site.
If you have questions, feel free to hop into the OCD Discord server and we'll do our best to answer them, and again welcome to Hive!
Welcome on board.
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Hi lovelydays365, so great to see a fellow traveler joining Hive! We've been around for over 3 years, building a community of travelers on Hive. I see that you are posting from hiveblog which is awesome, but the beauty of the Hive blockchain is that there are several websites available to use Hive!
TravelFeed.io brings together all the benefits of Hive decentralized blogging with features that you as a travel blogger will love: Photo galleries, Instagram embeds, custom maps, post scheduling and more. And if you want, you can even use our easy site builder to set up your own travel blog on your own domain which can be a great way to generate a passive income from your blog!
You can log in with your Hive account on TravelFeed.io to publish your next travel post, and it will be posted to Hive automatically! Every day, we select the best posts and reward them with an upvote and added visibility.
See you around!
@for91days