Toni Torres

Everything started in 1985, when I had the opportunity to live the full experience of a concert from the inside: the arrival of the truck, the rehearsals, the show, and the backstage with Emmanuel.

That day, something in me became very clear. I realized that this was what I loved. I wanted to work around music, artists, production, and everything that happens behind the scenes to create a memorable experience. I shared that dream with Gerardo, who at that time was a very dear friend of mine. I still remember the conversation and the feeling behind it.

We are often taught not to share our wishes when we blow out the candles on a birthday cake. We are told to keep them private, almost as if saying them out loud could take away their magic. But something inside me has always believed the opposite: that when you share certain dreams with the right people, someone in your circle, your environment, or your connections can become a bridge to help make them happen.

At that time, I did not have proof. I only had a dream, intuition, and the courage to say it out loud. In 1986, David Copperfield’s team asked who they could recommend, and someone recommended me. That opportunity changed the direction of my life.

Years later, I understood something even deeper: I have also become a bridge for other people’s dreams. Through public relations, communication, events, artists, brands, and personal stories, much of my work has been about helping others reach places they imagined, but did not always know how to access.

So, what did it cost me to say it out loud? Vulnerability. Saying a dream before it becomes real always exposes you. But it also opens a door. And in my life, many doors have opened because I dared to name what I wanted.

My father began giving me leadership books when I was 12 years old. At the time, I did not fully understand why those books mattered so much to him, but over the years I realized he was giving me tools for life. Through those books, he taught me that leadership begins with knowing yourself: your strengths, your values, your abilities, your mistakes, and your areas of opportunity. He believed that the more you know
yourself, the better you can lead others.

He also taught me that a career built on relationships requires trust, commitment, one’s word, and doing things well, with passion.

Through Rotary, he lived by a philosophy that also marked me deeply: “Service Above Self,” or as we say in Spanish, “Dar de sí antes de pensar en sí.” He believed that the person who serves best is also the one who receives the most from life.

I did not know it then, but those lessons became part of my internal compass. When I started working with David Copperfield, I was very young, but I already carried with me many of the values my father had planted.

For me, professionalizing public relations in the entertainment industry was not about inventing something
out of nowhere. It was about bringing order, structure, and a clear way of working to an area that, at that time, was often handled through intuition, personal relationships, and improvisation.

My first great experience came with David Copperfield, and later with Luis Miguel. Through those experiences, I began to develop my own way of managing public relations around an artist. That meant creating guidelines for how to work with the press, how to take care of VIP guests, how to coordinate special invitations, how to handle access, timing, discretion, and the relationship with the artist’s environment.

It also meant understanding how to coordinate with the record label, the manager, business partners, promoters in different countries, producers, and media. There were many people involved, and everything had to be aligned with the artist’s image, priorities, rhythm, and level of exposure.

Professionalizing, in that sense, meant that things were not done casually or as they came. There had to be a method, a sense of responsibility, and a standard of care. If someone else had to step into the role, there should be a way to understand how things were done and why they were done that way.

I do not see it as creating a rigid manual. I see it as building a professional culture around the artist: with order, discretion, respect, service, communication, and attention to detail.

Tourism was never foreign to me. My first job, when I was 15 years old, was at a travel agency. Later, I moved to México City to study International Tourism Relations, so travel, hospitality, and destinations were part of my professional foundation from the very beginning.

I have always been a multifaceted person, and over the years I learned to develop myself in different fields and very specific areas. But there has always been a common thread: public relations, communication, events, image, hospitality, logistics, people, emotions, and storytelling.

Even when I worked with artists, tourism was present in many ways. Tours involve cities, countries, hotels, promoters, media, VIP guests, logistics, events, and experiences. Later, working with corporate and entertainment brands such as Six Flags and 20th Century Fox also allowed me to connect communication with entertainment, events, experiences, and audiences.

So, for me, Riviera Nayarit was not a complete jump into an unknown world. It was a natural expansion of many things I had already lived and studied. What changed was the scale and the responsibility.

With an artist, the center of the work is the person: their image, their story, their rhythm, their decisions, their
environment, and the way the public connects with them.
With a destination, the story becomes broader. You are communicating a place, but also its people, its culture, its experiences, its beauty, its emotions, and the memories it can create in someone’s life.

What transferred from entertainment was the ability to build emotional connection. People do not connect only with information. They connect with what a place makes them feel: nostalgia, beauty, belonging, celebration, peace, or the desire to return.

What I had to expand was my way of listening. A destination has many voices and many interests. You have to understand the community, the authorities, the hotels, the visitors, the media, and the emotional promise of the place. Riviera Nayarit allowed me to bring together my experience in tourism, communication, public relations, events, hospitality, entertainment, and storytelling to help position not only a brand, but a destination with soul.

Your agency describes itself as ‘binational, multicultural, and trilingual.’ That is a positioning statement, not just a description. In 2026, with the US–Mexico relationship under significant geopolitical strain, is that an advantage or a liability — and how are your clients navigating it?

For me, being binational, multicultural, and trilingual is definitely an advantage, especially in a world where
communication requires more sensitivity, context, and understanding than ever before. It is not only about speaking more than one language. It is about understanding culture, timing, sensitivities, and the way a message can be perceived by different audiences.

Because I grew up between Tijuana and México City, and because I have worked with artists, brands, destinations, media, corporate clients, and international partners, I learned that communication cannot be separated from culture. The same message can be received very differently depending on where people are, what they have lived, and what they expect from a brand, a destination, or a public figure.

Our team also reflects that perspective. We have a binational vision and the ability to understand both sides of the border, not only from a geographic point of view, but from a cultural and human one. That allows us to approach projects with more sensitivity, structure, and respect.

In moments of tension between countries, communication has to be more thoughtful. Clients need clarity, discretion, cultural awareness, and a strong sense of responsibility. It is not about creating noise; it is about building trust.

Our value is in helping clients communicate with sensitivity, strategy, and respect across cultures, always taking care of the legal, contractual, and professional framework that each project requires.

So yes, I see it as an advantage. But like any advantage, it has to be handled with intelligence, sensitivity, and responsibility.

When my father passed away, my book was already mostly written. He knew about the project, and one of my greatest hopes was that he would be able to see it published. After 33 days in the hospital, COVID took him from us. His passing changed everything. As part of my grieving process, I had to pause. I could not return to the book as if nothing had happened, because I was no longer the same person who had started writing it.

Later, when I was ready, I went back to those pages from a very different place. I had to rewrite the final chapter. What I had written before his passing no longer carried the same meaning, because life had changed the way I understood my own story.

Finishing the book was not only about discipline or strategy. It was about coherence. If I was writing a book about making things happen, I had to be honest with myself and live what I was sharing. I could not speak about taking action, believing in your dreams, and moving forward if I was not willing to do it myself, even in one of the most painful moments of my life.

The message of the book could not remain only in theory. I had to live it. That did not mean ignoring my grief. It meant allowing myself to feel it, to be vulnerable, and still understand that the dream of publishing my book also deserved a place in my life.

The final chapter, “There Is Always a Light at the End of the Tunnel,” became even more meaningful to me. It was no longer just a closing chapter. It became part of my own process of finding light, purpose, and a new way forward after loss.

Completing the book taught me that limits are not always there to stop you. Sometimes they ask you to pause, to breathe, to be more compassionate with yourself, and to decide how you want to continue.

For me, Sin Manual de Instrucciones is about making your dreams come true, doing what is necessary to make things happen, and building a personal brand with credibility, trust, commitment, and respect. But above all, finishing it taught me that coherence between what you say, what you believe, and what you do is one of the deepest forms of strength.

I have been building my personal brand for more than 40 years through my work, my relationships, my reputation, and the way I have always chosen to do things. Like every human being, I have had successes, mistakes, falls, and moments where I had to stand up again. There was even a moment in my career when I climbed onto my own pedestal, and life taught me how important it is to come back down, reconnect with humility, and keep learning.

I do not believe I have the absolute truth. What I do have is experience, perspective, and a deep commitment to share what I have lived in a way that can help others reflect, grow, and connect with their own path. Through all of that, I have remained relevant and built a solid personal brand based on credibility, trust, commitment, respect, loyalty, and results.
That personal brand is what has opened doors for me with artists, talents, entrepreneurs, foundations, corporate clients, destinations, and people who have trusted me for more than 30 years, and in some cases, almost 40.

For example, to celebrate 40 years of my professional trajectory, I went to celebrate that milestone with
David Copperfield, the artist who opened one of the first great doors in my life. For me, that moment represented much more than nostalgia. It represented years of dedication, trust, loyalty, and the importance of being present in key moments of people’s lives and careers.

What is different now is that my own voice is more visible. As an author, speaker, and coach, I am not only working behind the scenes for others. I am also sharing my experience, my story, and the lessons I have learned throughout my life.
That part is freeing, because I can speak from a place of truth. But it also requires discipline, because when you become more visible, you have to be even more conscious of what you communicate and how you continue to evolve.

The hardest thing about doing PR for myself is not only staying consistent; it is knowing how to reinvent myself without losing my essence. It is knowing how to remain current, how to keep growing, and how to continue giving value from a place that feels honest. For me, personal branding is not only about image. It is about finding your purpose, living with passion, and being conscious of who you are, what you do, what you communicate, and how your actions impact the people and the environment around you.

It is also connected to conscious leadership: understanding that every word, every decision, and every action can create an impact. I do not believe I have the absolute truth, but I do believe that what we share from experience, honesty, and purpose can touch someone’s life and leave a meaningful mark.

As a multifaceted person, I feel fortunate that my purpose can be expressed in different ways: producing and creating events, mentoring, coaching around self-esteem and balance, writing, speaking, and helping people connect with their own story. It is about credibility, trust, respect, coherence, congruence, relationships, decisions, and values. But above
all, it is about understanding how you can use your story, your experience, and your work to create a positive impact and become an agent of change in your own environment.