Life-in-Progress

Life is more than a day job.

Building a Sales Pipeline

Posted by Alora Posted on Dec - 03 - 2009

There is nothing harder for a non-salesperson than building a sales pipeline. In Bagging the Elephant I highlight a post about a recent event in NYC, in which entrepreneurs discussed how to build strong enough relationships with larger businesses in order to be taken seriously enough to close deals with them. This is part of  [ Read More ]

Categories: Entrepreneurs

Tis the Season to be Independent

Posted by Alora Posted on Dec - 01 - 2009

In Deck the Halls with Pink Slips I discuss the November round of layoffs at several big companies. Of course, part of what brought these to my attention is that a dear friend of mine got caught in the pre-holidays cut-backs at Adobe. Even worse, however, was the fact that my friend loved working at  [ Read More ]

TechRanch Employee to Entrepreneur

Posted by Alora Posted on Jul - 19 - 2009

Like Luke Skywalker, apparently I can no longer escape my destiny. After years of avoiding self-employment, I’m now in the thick of it. And because one of the most important things to being successful in this space is connecting with others, Charles and I are starting TechRanch’s Employee to Entrepreneur program this week. It’s been  [ Read More ]

Keeping Your Spirits Up During a Job Hunt

Posted by Alora Posted on Jul - 01 - 2009

Job hunting is rough for oh-so-many reasons. One of the things that is hardest about it, though, is managing your own attitude and spirits. If there is one thing that is liable to get you into trouble during a job hunt, it is unmanaged anxiety. I’ve written before about some of the things that I  [ Read More ]

Interactive Austin Conference Overview

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 29 - 2009

This week was the second annual Interactive Austin Conference. Focusing on the value of social media for business, AI09 convened a broad spectrum of experts, locals and practitioners to share, debate, network and learn about how to take advantage of social media for the benefit of business. Keynotes Starting off the day was industry leading  [ Read More ]

Categories: Entrepreneurs, Leaders

20/20 Hindsight – Getting Your Start in a Startup

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 23 - 2009

People who did not meet me until at or around my 25th birthday would never believe it, but in school, I was the Queen of Slackers. Truly. School was too easy, too routine and I spent too long doing it to be able to breath new life into the experience. I could dodge classes, do  [ Read More ]

20/20 Hindsight – How Early Career Choices Can Set the Stage

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 22 - 2009

I had a couple of discussions this week that got me thinking back to the early days of my career. Aside from leaving me feeling older than I care to think about, it did spark a pleasant memory or two that I’ve been mulling over since. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how early career choices  [ Read More ]

Enterprise 2.0 Discussion at Web 2.0 Expo

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 12 - 2009

At Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, we recorded a short video on the happenings in the Enterprise 2.0 space, the activity at the event, and the upcoming local event (local to me, anyway) here in Austin at the end of the month: Interactive Austin 09. The video is posted and, as always, while I  [ Read More ]

Categories: Entrepreneurs

Nine Unemployment Survival Tips

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 11 - 2009

Not working is easily ten times more stressful than working — unless, of course, money is not a concern in your life. Unemployment or underemployment is difficult to manage on multiple levels, because — just to name a few examples — it has such a huge impact across all spectrums of your life: Financial stability  [ Read More ]

The Value of the Role

Posted by admin Posted on Apr - 07 - 2009

If there is always one part of the early interview process that is a sticky wicket it is the, “What were you making at your last job?” question. This is a question that, particularly as someone who recently moved from NYC to Austin, Texas, is a problem to answer. The bigger problem is having this  [ Read More ]

My First Visit to California in Over a Year

Posted by admin Posted on Mar - 27 - 2009

The hardest thing about leaving JetBlue last year was giving up the travel benefits that helped ease the difficulty of living 3,000 miles away from my family and so many of my friends. One of the things I’ve realized lately is that, even though I am really loving being in Austin, I have been horrendously  [ Read More ]

Highlights from SXSW 2009

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 17 - 2009

Highlights and lessons from my first time at SXSW Interactive.