Operations · Marketing · AI
I translate complexity into systems that scale.
I run operations and marketing for a boutique group of food and beverage businesses, and I'm making it AI-forward without losing the high-touch experience our customers come for. Through my consulting firm, Resonant Growth, I help a few other relationship-driven businesses do the same.
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Two plain-language guides I wrote for friends who asked where to begin.
The translation lens
I grew up across ten countries in a diplomatic family: Brazil, Algeria, Iran, Senegal, New Caledonia, Mexico, Australia, Germany, France, and the United States. That background gave me five languages and a habit I use every day: translating between systems, cultures, and ways of thinking.
In marketing, that means connecting functions that usually work apart. At Zynx Health, I transformed marketing from an order-taking function into a strategic department that generated $6.1M in pipeline. At Confie Seguros, I built and led a 17-person multinational team across the US, Mexico, and Peru, cutting $3M in advertising costs while improving ROI.
I'm COO and CMO of Toronix Gourmet, a boutique group of food and beverage businesses that imports specialty products from Spain. My mandate is to make it an AI-forward company without compromising the high-touch experience our customers come for. In practice, that means I build the systems myself: most days I'm in Claude Code, building the dashboards our leadership uses to see what's happening and the workflows that take routine work off people's plates.
I spent the 15+ years before that in regulated industries like healthcare tech and insurance, where confidential information is the job. I still work that way: structure first, then tools. That's the premise of IA Before AI, the framework I'm developing.
My consulting firm, Resonant Growth, is part of Anthropic's Claude Partner Network. Toronix is where I do this work every day. Through Resonant Growth I take on a small number of outside clients so I can stay hands-on with each one.
The thread across all of it: I build systems that make the work repeatable and lighter to carry, so people can spend their attention on what actually needs them.
How I work with AI
My AI practice is hands-on. I write code with Claude Code, build automation workflows with n8n, and architect knowledge systems in Notion. Every day.
I also build the infrastructure: custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that connect Claude to the tools we work in. I build them from scratch when I'd rather not hand a third-party tool our credentials.
My framework, IA Before AI, starts from a simple premise: organize your information and your thinking before you adopt AI. Then let AI take the busywork, so people keep the judgment. The organizations that get this right are the ones that structured their thinking first, whatever tools they use.
- Resonant Growth is part of Anthropic's Claude Partner Network
- 10 Anthropic Academy courses across the AI Fluency and Claude Platform tracks
What I've built
A few things I've built with Claude. Most of them get used every day.
What I deliver
How I lead
Some of my best leadership has been with volunteers and partners: people who could walk away at any time.
Rebuilt a 60-year-old, 2,000-member club. Membership up 25% in a year, volunteers up 150%, event attendance from 300 to 2,500. Named Zone 8 Region of the Year in 2020.
Co-founded with three-time international racing champion Christina Nielsen. Built 50+ corporate partnerships, including Michelin as title sponsor, Porsche Cars North America, BMW Motorsport, Audi Sport, and Sephora.
From a Korn Ferry 360° assessment of 17 colleagues across clinical, finance, HR, sales, product, executive, and vendor teams:
Leads through relationships and trust, not positional authority. Top influence technique: building rapport and connection before getting to business. Persuades through logic, example, and earned credibility.
Every function (clinical, finance, HR, sales, product, executive leadership, and external vendors) independently validated the same pattern: she builds trust across organizational boundaries and creates psychological safety for collaboration.
"Leave things better than I found them." The thread raters saw across every role, from rebuilding PCA-LA into Zone 8's Region of the Year to building Zynx Health's first integrated marketing-sales pipeline.
What colleagues and executives say
Mariana consistently brings valuable knowledge with a strong practical mindset, especially in tools like Claude, Notion, and other AI platforms. What truly stands out is her ability to translate complex concepts into real-world applications that can be implemented immediately.
Her ability to integrate marketing and sales operations created unprecedented visibility into our pipeline. She focused relentlessly on driving leads to the business and exceeded all my expectations for what a Head of Marketing could do with limited resources.
Mariana possesses a natural and unique blend of marketing and operations expertise that serves her well when building relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Her motto is 'leaving things better than she found them.'
Mariana's data-oriented thinking has been critical in building a solid technical and operational foundation for marketing initiatives. She takes a holistic approach that integrates the broader commercial team, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders into the process.
Foundation
- Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations · Harvard Business School
- Strategic Marketing Management · Harvard Business School
- Executive Presence & Influence · Wharton School of Business
- GOLD Executive Development Program · Hearst / Korn Ferry
- Hearst Leadership Development Program · Harvard Business Publishing
- Positive Psychology · University of North Carolina
- Public Relations (Distinction) · UCLA Extension
- Private International Arbitration · International Chamber of Commerce
- Penetrating International Markets · UC San Diego GPS
Let's talk.
I'm glad to talk about AI in relationship-driven businesses, or about speaking on marketing and AI.