An overdue update from me

Hi new and old friends! 

There are a few new faces on my email list - so if this is the first time you are receiving my email, hi:) I hope you find my update much like a personal letter - not your typical newsletter. 

I'm now officially 2 months late for my newsletter update so here we are - combining the events of May and June of 2021. First things first, now that things have opened up a bit more, I have booked another cross-country trip for this summer! (My first one was last summer in 2020 during the pandemic)

Amtrak was running a $299 sale on the USA Rail Pass that allows travelers board 10 legs of train, no matter the length, which is a huge steal. I took advantage and booked a trip from Los Angeles to Tucson, AZ to San Antonio, TX and New Orleans, LA and then back. And I still have 6 legs left, with no idea how to use them before they expire 30 days after my initial trip. So if you have any ideas, let me know. 

My friend Lu and I will also be doing a Highway 1 road trip up the coast of California, from LA, to Big Sur to San Francisco and then back during the July 4 holiday. As someone experienced with the traffic condition of that route, Lu suggested that we drive up to SF for 8 hours straight the first day and then work our way down, so that we avoid being stuck the final day as everyone else will be coming back. I thought it's a great plan. Hope it works! 

On the work front, it is moving slow but steadily. We welcomed a new class of interns who are again amazing and diverse women. They are helping us come up with a 2.0 curriculum, which will expand to an end-to-end design learning solution, to be more competitive in the market and also helping us rebrand the Path Unbound brand. We are creating new custom illustrations and overhaul the look and feel of our current site. 

On the other hand, my furniture business is experiencing unexpected delays after we changed factories 3 times, which tested my patience and and perseverance. It is finally on a ship being delivered here in America sometime in the summer. 

Meanwhile, a networking meeting with my friend Deena Baikowitz yielded some valuable connections with interior designers and architectural firms, who I will hopefully be speaking to soon to get an "in" in a brand new industry. By the way, she is an amazing networker/connector. If you need new leads, help with personal brand, speaking coaching or brand strategy, she is the person to go! 

Here is what's been going on with my company Path Unbound :

1. I hosted a successful portfolio session with IterateUX, an active UX design community. 

2. I was a guest at podcast HelloUX, where I spoke about my own transition into design from another career.

3. I had my first Instagram Live with Rebecca Reuth, surface designer, on her Instagram account. We had a great 1-hour chat about my path from childhood leading up to what I am doing now. 

4. Path Unbound and Chicktech LA partnered up for the first time and is hosting the first big panel event: Off the Beaten Path to Design, on June 23, 2021 (TODAY!) at 5:30 PST/ 8:30 EST. We have 5 amazing panelists who all made successful transitions into design from another career, including Jessica Ko, previously designing at Google, Youtube, Opendoor and now Co-Founder of Playbook.com; Kerry McPhearson, passionate UX designer who landed a 6-figure job right out of a bootcamp; Stef Meeder, UX designer at Photon, a digital and IT company; and Lena Emara, Product Designer at Twitter who also landed a job right out of a bootcamp. Please join us if you can!

5. I will be a guest at a fireside chat hosted by PowertoFly on July 16, 2pm PST. The topic of my talk is "How to find your wow-factor to attract the right jobs, clients and people". Register and see you there! (I will be hosting from San Antonio, TX during my cross-country trip)

6. Path Unbound is in the process of launching our 2.0 curriculum. In our new curriculum, we will focus on creating customized course plans for each enrolled students based on their goals and background so that our course is tailored to the best interest of students instead of "one-size-fits-all", which is all too common in the bootcamp world. We also have a lot of really exciting new branding graphics coming out with the help of new and amazing apprentice, Ellen Weber, who is a talented designer and illustrator from the State University of New York. Check out one of her custom illustration work for us below! 

7. Path Unbound now has landing page housing all of our audio and video content from our interview series "Creative Office Hour by Path Unbound". I interviewed 16 inspirational creatives who are at various stages of their careers on how they got to where they are; the struggles they had; how they branded themselves and how they solve problems. Give us a listen/watch and subscribe on YouTube/podcast channels if you can:)