Up close and personal with Hilton's Miok

I already had an idea of how she was like in person long before I met her. She was said to be bubbly, vivacious and chirpy. I still had apprehensions in meeting her though because I did not know what to expect.
I soon found out however, that my apprehensions were baseless when I finally got to experience firsthand the bubbly, vivacious and chirpy Emille Loyola, or simply Miok, Hilton's Marketing Communications Manager. Miok started the conversation by sharing her experience diving in the waters of Mactan - which is her latest hobby. She shared that she accidentally hit her lip with the scuba tank while she was putting on her wet suit during her first dive. Wow! She must have been too excited!
After breaking the ice, Miok then spoke of her passion for corporate communications - her experiences in the hotel industry, her job at the Hilton and her life away from home.

Up-close with Miok

Miok joined Hilton July of this year, and since then, she has been away from home. But being away from her family and friends has become a challenge for her to be independent. "I've always wanted to be here (Cebu). Though I'm far from my family and friends in Manila, it only takes an hour or more to get there by plane," she says.
Hilton is the fourth hotel Miok has worked with. After working as a copywriter and project coordinator in 1999, she ventured into the resort and hotel industry. Her first hotel job was in Sulo Hotel in Diliman, Quezon City as a public relations and marketing communications manager. In 2001, she took up Masters in Business Administration at the De La Salle University to strengthen her foundation in organizing and managing a strong marketing team. Then she moved on to City Garden Hotels as corporate public relations and marketing communications manager, and then to Holiday Inn Resort Clark Field as director of marketing and communications.
Dynamic and curious of the industry at the same time, she carefully composed herself and developed a keen understanding of the whereabouts of public relations and marketing.
Now with Hilton, Miok works for almost 15 hours a day - that is from 8:30 a.m. until around 10 p.m. as the marketing communications manager. You might wonder if she ever gets bored. Well, according to her, "I don't call it boredom. Let's say I hate it when everything I do is routinary. I love what I do, this is my passion. It's funny how a day is not enough to do everything here in Hilton. There's so much to do, there's so much to think about."
Miok's typical day at the Hilton starts with her reading local and national newspapers while sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. She then starts to conceptualize events and promotional and advertising ideas, attends hotel events, community and industry functions and all that's in between.
After a hard day's work, she even has the time to go to the gym. A day without lifting weights is incomplete for Miok. It's part of keeping herself healthy. And when asked if she's on a diet: "Eating the right food is vital. I eat a lot (laughs)," she said. Speaking of food, we have something in common - we both love KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). Consider her an addict at that. Whenever she's in the mall, she gets tempted of the aroma of the delicious spicy chicken of KFC.
One of the things that Miok loves about Cebu is the beaches. She's addicted to sunbathing. She mostly spends her day-off (that's on a Sunday) in the beach, sunbathing and reading a book by either John Grisham or Robert Ludlum. She confessed that she's a frustrated lawyer, that's why she enjoys reading Grisham's works. Does this busybody have time for love? "I get busy everyday. I think if I get to have a boyfriend, I can't give him much of my time. And it's not the right time for me to settle down (laughs). But when the right one comes at the right time, why not?" she said.
Not everyone in the world gets to do the things they love the most and Miok is one of the lucky people who get to live their dreams. After all, pursuing a passion is difficult to attain. But with persistence and enthusiasm, coupled with love for work, it is possible to make things happen.
"I'm not hypocrite. Pag hindi ko feel gawin ang ginagawa ko, di ko nalang tinatapos o ginagawa. Ayaw kong mag-project ng image na di naman yun ang tamang nasa loob ko. What you see is what you get. I'm real as much as communication must be real in order to communicate well and concise."