About Me

I am a self-proclaimed geek! A lover of tea/coffee and sitting in coffee shops while writing, reading, and having deep conversations with friends. My life seems to be at a point where it is constantly changing and am starting to come to grips that I can't control and am fine with that. I am dedicated Christian who is finally finding a community to grow in and help people grow closer to God. I've also recently just accepted the fact that my role in the church may be changing and am called into some type of ministry (still in a phase of discerning this call and seeking advice from key mentors). Yet as my world seems like it is changing, I have a great career now that I absolutely love (getting to work with the people I work with is such an honor and meeting all the volunteers and hearing all these stories I get to hear will forever impact me).

Just to give you a little more background on myself, I graduated in May of 2013 with a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications and Marketing Management from the University of Akron. I really have garnered focus while continuing my education in the Master Program of Mass Communication and Journalism focus in Public Relations at Kent State University by focusing on Nonprofits and online media. There is an interesting point where an emotional connection must be created while using both marketing/public relations technique. The deeper I have gotten into this study has led me to developing ideas on how to relate these techniques to helping local churches (which is something I would like to get into as I gain more experience).

I have a couple blogs, Speaking Inferno is the one I write more often in and the other is about Fairy tales which only includes four entries as of right now (Sooner or later I will go back to writing posts for that one).

To give more insight on why this blog is entitled Speaking Inferno:

I have a difficult time expressing myself to others, which if you know me may come as a surprise or you may think I've grown out of it. Any way, when I was younger I had a hard time speaking my mind and giving my opinions. As I have gotten older I do not find this as difficult to express my point of views or embracing myself, but still find it difficult to verbally communicate my thoughts and opinions. Writing has always been an easier way to communicate my thoughts so that is how this blog began! So, Speaking Inferno has two meanings:

1. Speaking your mind can be hell
2. It's hell if you don't speak your mind

In January 2014 I wanted to give this blog some structure and decided to have themed days of writing. I went through which of my posts had the most views and began to plan the future of my writing. What I came up with is this:

Quote Monday

Business Wednesday

Random Saturday

I try to write these as consistently as possible and provide good insight. I try to be consistent, but as I am working full time, going to graduate school and am trying to have some type of life offline, I don’t always have a post (but believe me, I kick myself for not writing consistently). I do not think myself an expert, but highly enjoy researching meanings of quotes (including digging through the dictionary to completely understand words), learning different business perspectives and writing opinion pieces. I am young and starting out in my career and very willing to learn (I hope to continue this willingness to learn as I grow in my career).

If you want more about me, follow me on Twitter: @kelleygifford

 OR

Connect with me on LinkedIn