August 2025 Newsletter

In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find highlights from our August event, details on September’s inspiring session, upcoming events you’ll want to mark on your calendar, wellness tips, and a very special member spotlight.

Please continue reading to discover what we have in store for you this month and beyond!

In This Issue:

• August Event Recap: Master the Art of Conveying Information with Maria Elena Amador
• September Event Highlight: Achieving Financial Independence with Enaid Savage
• Save the Dates: October & November events
• Membership Spotlight: Why Premium Membership Is Your Best Investment
• People Spotlight: Lilly Edgerton
• Healthy Living Hub: Black Pepper Boosts Your Food by Geri Brown + Healthy Brain – Healthy Mind – Healthy Life by Dr. Loredana Regep
• Social Responsibility Update: Supporting the Rahab Foundation

Make sure you follow PWNCR on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to like our posts and share them with your community.
Please feel free to scroll down to what matters most to you.

August 2025 Event Recap

In August, we had the pleasure of learning from Maria Elena Amador, who reminded us that conveying information about any subject is an art form. Whether your language is native or not, true confidence comes from thoroughly understanding your subject and conveying it with clarity.

Maria Elena shared practical strategies to help us communicate with impact in professional settings, particularly when discussing our businesses.

Key Learnings from the Session:

• Know your audience before you speak
• Stick to the Rule of 3: focus on three main points only
• Rehearse both your opening and closing lines
• Use posture, voice, and eye contact with intention
• Tell stories to make your message memorable
• Support your message with visuals or props
• Keep your language simple and clear—avoid jargon
• Practice your 30-second elevator pitch
• Confidence grows through preparation and practice

The session left attendees with renewed clarity, confidence, and practical tools to present their business effectively while engaging their audience with ease.

September 2025 Event Highlight

Join us for an empowering session with Enaid Savage, who achieved financial independence and retired early by making her money work as hard as she did. After a distinguished career in management across the insurance, financial, and telecommunications industries, Enaid founded her own successful HR consulting firm serving Fortune 100 companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Mobil Oil, and DuPont.

Her most significant achievement? Designing and executing an investment strategy so effective that she could retire comfortably in her early 50s. Now she’s ready to share those secrets with you.

At this event, you will:

• Learn hidden money-saving strategies to free up funds for investing
• Discover insider knowledge to turn savings into wealth-building investments
• Gain clear, jargon-free explanations of key investing terms and concepts
• Master risk assessment tools to invest with confidence, not fear
• Create your personal roadmap to financial success with actionable next steps

Where: Delta Hotels by Marriott San José Aurola, downtown San José
After the session: Stay for lunch to network with members and friends!

Entrance Cost:

• 3,000 colones for members
• 6,000 colones for non-members
• FREE for Premium Membership holders

Don’t forget to Save Your Spot—and share this invitation with friends and family who might benefit.

Save The Dates: Mark Your Calendar

• Saturday, October 18th
  “I Am Remarkable” Workshop with Andrea Atkins
  Join former PWNCR president Andrea Atkins for an empowering #IamRemarkable workshop! The #IamRemarkable initiative is a global movement led by Google that empowers individuals, particularly women and underrepresented groups, to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond. Andrea will guide us through practical exercises that build confidence, self-awareness, and the ability to share your story with impact.

• Sunday, November 23rd
  PWNCR Goods and Services Fair
  A fun and inspiring community event where members can showcase their businesses, services, and creative work. Connect, discover, and support fellow PWNCR entrepreneurs while sharing your own offerings. Details coming soon for interested vendors and shoppers!

•  Stay tuned for details on our December gathering!

 Why Premium Membership Is Your Best Investment 

The PWNCR Premium Advantage: Invest Once, Benefit All Year

While our standard membership provides tremendous value at ¢20,000 annually, our Premium Membership at just ¢30,000 per year offers exceptional returns on your investment:

Become a Premium Member today!

Payment information: Please contact Rommy Herrera, PWNCR‘s Director of
Membership, for bank transfer information at info@pwncr.com.
Sorry but SINPE is not available at this time.

Premium Membership Benefits

• Opportunities to network with other professionals
• Lifelong friendships
• Get collaboration and advice on your projects
• Promote your business using our social media & newsletter
• Get strategic contacts when needed
• Join our monthly meetings
• Knowledge and education on professional and personal development
• In-person events and workshops
• Opportunities to become a speaker at our meetings
• Opportunities to belong to our Leadership Team
• Join our WhatsApp community
• Increased job opportunities
• Future benefits: professional development webinars and virtual workshops, becoming a mentor or receiving mentorship

People Spotlight: Lilly Edgerton

This month, we shine the spotlight on Lilly Edgerton, a Costa Rican whose life journey reflects her deep curiosity for cultures and people. Having lived abroad and travelled widely, Lilly treasures these experiences through photographs and delicious recipes. She values friendship deeply and lives by the Nigerian proverb: “Hold a true friend with both your hands.”

Lilly began her career in journalism before discovering Educational Communication, working as a consultant for development projects and a train-the-trainer. In 2017, she proudly represented Costa Rica as Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, exploring the deep roots connecting Costa Rica with the Caribbean.

Recently, Lilly has been teaching migrants preparing for their naturalization exams, while also discovering new passions in artistic expression and gardening. She is eager to support expats navigating life in Costa Rica and is also consolidating a venture in textiles and offering artistic expression workshops for adults.

 In the pictures above is Lilly with one of her creations: an upcycled dress.
Find her on Instagram: @4me_by_Lilly

PWNCR‘s Healthy Living Hub

If you are not much of a spice guru and can only handle one spice at home, make it black pepper—and use it often. Not only does it bring rich aroma and flavor to every meal, but it also holds powerful secrets and has played a surprisingly big role in history.

Black pepper is one of the most famous flavors in the world, found in kitchens and on tables across every continent. Did you know that for centuries India produced nearly all the world’s supply? Or that during the Middle Ages, peppercorns were worth more than silver by weight?

Beyond its fascinating history, black pepper has been celebrated for centuries as a powerful medicine. Ancient Egyptians knew to combine it with turmeric, and modern science has confirmed its ability to boost nutrient absorption, improve gut health, and enhance the effectiveness of both foods and medicines.

 Read the full article here

Just as black pepper helps us absorb more goodness from our food, mental fitness or resilience helps us absorb life’s challenges more healthily. Stress and setbacks are inevitable—but how we respond is within our power.

“When the brain is cared for, the mind clears, and life flows.”

One of the most effective tools is the 10-second PQ Rep—bringing full attention to a single sense (like rubbing two fingers together and noticing every detail…or focusing on your inhale and exhale of air, and the movement of your chest and stomach with each breath). This tiny pause calms the nervous system and creates space for wiser, more compassionate action.

Over time, these micro-practices strengthen our ability to shift from reactivity toward clarity, creativity, and resilience.

Other strategies include:

• Meditation — walking meditation, stop meditation, sitting meditation
• Mindfulness — practicing awareness in the present moment
• Prayer — a sacred practice that nurtures gratitude, trust, and inner peace
• Conscious breathing — especially during challenging moments
• Practicing presence — as often as possible, even during mundane daily activities

The result? A stronger mind that uses challenges as fuel for growth, leading to a healthier brain, a healthier mind, and ultimately a healthier life.

PWNCR Social Responsibility

Supporting the Rahab Foundation 

Our current social responsibility campaign in support of the Rahab Foundation is well underway. An anonymous donor generously kicked things off with $100 and pledged to match an additional $200 if we reached that target by the end of June.

At our June meeting, members raised $372—an amount we were able to donate immediately to the Rahab Foundation. At our July meeting, the cost of materials for painting was less than anticipated and our wonderful teacher Ana Maria generously contributed this to Rahab, a total of ₡58,000 (about $116). With the donor match and the last donation received in August, our current total stands at over $800.

This is a powerful start for a cause that truly matters. Let’s keep the momentum going and aim to surpass $1,000 this year.

The Rahab Foundation is a local NGO that PWNCR has worked with for many years. This Foundation helps save women who have been victims of sex trafficking.

In addition to the women and children who are temporarily housed at their shelter in San José, they are currently working to begin a new shelter in the mountains of Heredia, where they will begin construction as soon as they can raise $30,000 USD.

The foundation has an urgent need for financial support to supply food and to meet the needs of these women and their babies and the long-term goal of building the space in the Heredia mountains.

The PWNCR still needs your help in collecting donations for them!

When you make the donation, please put PWNCR in the description so we can keep track of the donations for the match incentive! Also, please email a screenshot or photo because we want to recognize you as a donor  info@pwncr.com

Cuenta Colones

• Cuenta Banco Nacional: 100-01-095-000143-4

• Cuenta Cliente: 15109510010001434

• IBAN: CR2501510951001000143

Cuenta Dólares

• Cuenta Banco Nacional: 200-02-095-002327-4

• Cuenta Cliente: 15109520020023272

• IBAN: CR82015109520020023272

Prefer to make a U.S. charitable tax-deductible donation?
 Donate via Amigos de Costa Rica

If you missed the visit by the founder and director of Rahab, Mariliana Morales, at our June event, we encourage you to watch these recent TV spots describing the importance and scope of the Rahab Foundation’s projects:

• TN7 Report

• NR Report