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Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes

"Let's be clear, they're not just pint-sized cakes. Cupcakes are something else entirely. At Sprinkles Cupcakes, with over tantalizing flavors to satisfy the sweet tooth, we get it right. Baked fresh in small batches throughout the day, Sprinkles cupcakes are handcrafted from the Finest Ingredients, including sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests. Topped with Sprinkles trademark modern dots, rich chocolate sprinkles from France or seasonal sugar decorations, Sprinkles cupcakes are a deliciously sophisticated update on an American classic. " (www.sprinklescupcakes.com)

The best pasalubong from anyone who is coming from LA is the Hollywood's famous Sprinkles Cupcakes. It is so far the best cupcake I've ever tasted. They bake it fresh on that day itself using fresh ingredients with a satisfying icing that is not too sweet just right. The cake is soft like a sponge and crumbles when you bite it. No wonder, this cupcake bakeshop was copied here in Manila. Do you recognize the similarity with the box design and font?


Just look at Aidan's face when I gave him his surprise pasalubong.... I got pogi points from my wife because of the cupcakes :) Sprinkles is located along South Santa Monica boulevard and it is already near the LAX airport. The cupcakes taste great for a day or two and they put it in a nice recycled box with elegant recycled fork and knife.

The Mavens of Internet Marketing

Read: New Beginnings! Strategic Profits Live 2008 Blog

I am still thrilled to have met and learned from almost all of the mavens in the Internet Marketing Industry namely: Rich Schefren, Jay Abraham, Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, Jeff Walker, John Carlon, and Gary Vaynerchuk. The conference gave me the right internet marketing mindset, the strategies and techniques on how to succeed in the interactive marketing and web 2.0 age. I also met a lot of friends in the internet marketing space who I can trust. There are a lot of "Sharks" out there and you need to be very careful if you want to go into the internet marketing space. The only Filipino I know who is serious in this space is Joel Christopher of Master List Builder University. Let me know if you know of other Filipinos out there so that I can reach out and network with them effectively.

It was the best conference I attended in my life. It beats an AIM MBA education and even more cutting edge from what I learned in P&G. My favorite marketers are Rich Schefren, Frank Kern, Gary Vaynerchuk and master Jay Abraham. I would like to share with you some of my key learnings from the 6 days conference I attended:

1. Know your strengths and passion. Create a pre-eminent position leveraging on your strengths and passion. You are the king in the area of your strengths and where you are most passionate of.

2. Different. Unique. Authentic. -- These are the keys to win in the interactive age. Copy cats and black hats will not survive in the Web 2.0 era.

3. Create your Maven-ship position in the market place. You need to create a strategy to become a "Maven" of your niche. Be conscious of creating your own persona, character traits and unique communication channel in the market place.

4. Brand yourself online. Most Filipinos I see are seduced by the easy money schemes and seo tactical strategies that they are killing their brand online. This is the wrong way to approach winning in the online space.

5. Market from your CORE Identity. Marketing becomes very easy when you talk from your CORE Identity. The key is understanding yourself more and identifying what your perfect day would look like.


I know some of these might be confusing. I can explain some more for those who are interested. I'm starting a new blog focused on the internet marketing concepts so that we can start educating Filipinos on what would it take to succeed in this space. Please email me if you are interested in this area and if you have specific questions.

I'm going back to Manila already. I super miss Rache, Aidan and syoti Josh already...