New job, new blog

Around this time of year, we all stop to think what we're thankful for. (At least those of us that live in the states/Canada and have a Thanksgiving around this time of year do.) Hanging out in a quiet office on a dark and stormy Friday night while you pack up your desk makes you think about what you're thankful for, too. (Don't get the wrong idea: I'm leaving voluntarily. :) )

I recently accepted an offer to be Marketing Communications Manager at a software start-up called SEOmoz in downtown Seattle. I'll be doing much of what I did at Moxie Software, my last employer, only "on steroids"--lots of soup-to-nuts management. This includes branding, voice, email campaigns, newsletters, event sponsorships, AR/PR, and so on. It's going to be an incredible learning experience for me, not to mention that the team is chock-full of talented, energetic, and bright people. At least, if anything, I'm going to get smarter by osmosis.

Roger mozBot, SEOmoz's adorable robo-mascot

But of course you have to give something up to take a new, exciting opportunity, and that's my great Marcom Manager job at Moxie Software. I've been here for almost three years now, and the amount of experiences I've had is incredible. This job has taught me so much and made me grow as a professional and as a person in so many ways. For that, I would be remiss to not give thanks. At a time when all other organizations wanted to corner me into an inside sales job, Talisma (the company name at the time) was the only company to step forward and take a chance by offering a Marketing Specialist job to a new college grad. This is fairly unconventional yet exactly what I was looking for.  Three company names, four product platforms, three sales conferences, countless collateral drafts, two title upgrades, many budget reviews, a handful of webinars, and over 25 trade shows later, here I am.


I'm going to miss the product and industry--enterprise collaboration & social CRM software is HOT, and Moxie is really picking up steam. The community is fantastic: I've met so many bright customers and incredibly smart thought leaders while I've been here that have been an inspiration to me. I hope we keep in touch because they're the kind of people you just want to have around. Finally, the people I've worked with at Moxie... I'm going to miss them the most. Just a fantastic team that made coming to work every day a pleasure. I very much plan on staying in contact with these people and perhaps work with them again someday.

However, all good things must come to an end. My last day with Moxie Software is today; I felt a pang of melancholy as I set up my (forever) out-of-office reply. I start at my new job on Monday, November 29th. I'll be taking the bus into downtown Seattle (which I'm totally excited about) and working on the top floor of a nifty building that must be at least 100 years old and within a stone's throw of Westlake Center (Seattle's premiere shopping district) and Pike Place Market (this place needs no explanation, o sacred Seattle landmark). The company is small-ish (30 people) but has a strong following: they're considered rock stars in the search engine optimization (SEO) world. Ask any web specialist and I'm sure they've heard of SEOmoz. It's a unique situation where they've been known for consulting services for several years, which they finally sold off this year and dove into SEO monitoring and reporting software. It's a big challenge--they have a very passionate following that hold the company to high standards. Thrilling!

Anyways, I re-read my job description again this week and asked myself, "Am I nuts?!" I tried to not let the anxiety strike me too hard. Sure, I've done a little bit of all of these tasks to some degree at Moxie Software, but not from soup-to-nuts management and execution on all fronts. I'm going to be SERIOUSLY on point. The pressure's on. This job might kick my ass, but the results will most likely be astounding. I thrive under pressure.

So why am I kicking off this blog with a post about my leaving?

1. I got tired of explaining to people what was going on--now you can read for yourself.
2. I've been meaning to start a blog for the last two years. Well, what better motivation than this? The time just feels right.
3. I need a place to start dumping my ideas and what I'm learning about business, marketing, social media, personal insights, etc. I can't promise you that I'll update it regularly (as you'll quickly learn that I have approximateIy one billion hobbies--I'm far more faceted beyond the business world, and I like it that way), but I do promise that I'll put careful thought into what I write. There's enough crap on the Internet as it is.

Thanks for reading! More to come.