It’s time for my annual blog update.
Honestly, I wish I were a more frequent blogger (New Year’s resolution, perhaps?), but I’ve been MIA for good reasons. 2019 has been a year for the books (speaking of books, if you make it to the end, let me know what you think about my book-related question!). I officially got a passport and used it! I traveled to more new places this year than I ever have and got to meet with the most amazing people along the way.
Here’s quick recap of all the things I’ve been up to that have kept me from writing along with some upcoming projects that I’m super-excited about coming up in the new year!
- I officially drank the fuchsia Kool-Aid and I’m a huge Uberflip fan girl. My relationship began with Uberflip from a cold call, believe it or not and onboarding their platform has been one of the best decisions I’ve made for my organization and for my career development as a marketer. Uberflip allows brands to create content experiences based on how people actually consume content, and it has AI capabilities to serve up the most relevant content for each person. It also does a whole lot more than that, but you can check them out for yourself. From a product perspective, I love when solutions “just work” and Uberflip just works. And that would be enough for most brands. But, not for Uberflip. This team has continued to innovate and improve their product offering each year. But, what does this have to do with why I’ve been MIA? Well, I was fortunate enough to make Toronto the first stamp in my passport when I was invited to speak on a Marketing Trends panel at Uberflip’s Conex conference in 2018 and to participate in their Content Feud competition at Conex 2019. Aside from being engaging and educational, I have never been to a conference with better, more authentic networking opportunities. Everything was so organic, and you walk away from the conference with very actionable takeaways to bring back to your team. Click here to watch me on stage during Content Feud and to access all of the Conex 2019 sessions.
-
- For the first time in 15 years, I went back to visit my alma mater, Sewanee-University of the South. I actually visited twice this year! The first time was over the summer where I was fortunate enough to receive the 2019 Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. It was amazing to be honored for my achievements at the very place that’s so critical to those achievements. The second visit was to celebrate 50 years of women at the University over homecoming weekend. The entire weekend was full of excitement and activities commemorating women past and present. The highlight of the weekend for me was participating in the Decades Panel—a panel consisting of women who graduated in every decade since women have been admitted. It was neat to see that our experiences were so different, but we all bonded so well over our connection to the mountain. The stories between the women on that panel were so diverse and so rich and so vulnerable. I’m so grateful I got to be a part of the celebration. The Mountain was such a special place for me and it’s often hard to put it into words, but if you want a little glimpse, watch this video of various Sewanee women talking about their experience.
-
- I attended SXSW for the first time! One of the most notable experiences at SXSW 2019 was waiting in an insane line to try 3D-printed sushi. And, I also loved the Lush brand activation. But, my favorite brand at SXSW was CommonGenius—the mentoring service started by Facebook alum, Amber Hu—this company has made it simple to get mentorship from leaders you may otherwise have no opportunity to connect with.
- This year, I had the opportunity to share insights about my team’s work as a participant in a few Argyle events and webinars. Two of those events were focused on AI and chatbots specifically. And after getting the message—and meeting the Drift team—I added a friendly Drift bot to my website. Now, don’t get too excited—my bot is not automated at all. It will ping me and I can interact with you in real-time. Feel free to test it out! And, listen to the latest Argyle webinar, Boosting Your CX with Personalization, here.
- We launched a magazine y’all! My team launched a new digital magazine, Coming Home by Associa. The magazine, powered by the Uberflip platform, was developed to share stories that strengthen communities and inspire homeowners and I’m super-proud of the work we’ve done with it. Take a look!
As you can see, 2019 has been a very busy year for me both professionally and personally and from the looks of it 2020 is already shaping up to have even more in store, starting with leading a workshop at RootsTech 2020 for my UniversalPlaylist.com project. I’m going to update the blog more frequently in 2020—I actually have a long list of posts I’d like to share already, including my current reading list and which brands I’m loving right now. Which reminds me of a question I got recently, “Is listening to audio books the same as reading?” Let me know in the comments—or via chat bot😉