It’s Been a Year and I Love My Family at Collective Bias! #cbias

Mid-February of 2013, I received a call from Courtney Velasquez offering me a full-time position at Collective Bias. I was excited beyond belief to be joining the Community Management Team with Kim Janocko, Mel Lockcuff, and Brandi Jeter (now Brandi Riley). What an amazing offer to be able to work at home and with such a fun and innovative company. Prior to blogging on Mama Luvs Books, I was a teacher for eight years. I had always thought after the kids were older that I would go back into teaching, but working in the blogging world lead me to my next career and I love it! As a Community Manager, I get to organize campaigns, work with Campaign Leaders, work on the client side of blogging campaigns with Account Managers and Account Executives, and still use my creativity to help with community programs. I absolutely love what I do!

March of last year, I was able to head to the Collective Bias headquarters to meet my colleagues who I had been working with online, and of course sign all my paperwork to become an official full-time employee. Being in Bentonville, AR was amazing! I was greeted by Courtney and Kim with open arms and I knew I made the right choice to join this family. They both showed me the ropes, took me around town, and really made me feel a part of the CB Team! I thank them greatly for choosing me to join their team and for being so wonderful to me in person. They are both amazing women who lead the community side of CB called Social Fabric. Also, my colleague Mel, who I had been really close with online before joining the team full-time, came to meet me at the office as well. That was so nice of her to do! Mel really helped me in learning about my role as a Community Manager, and I am very grateful for her guidance and friendship. Lastly, I had a great time meeting a new colleague coming in at the same time as me. Mike Duley and I were lucky enough to take our CB professional photos at the same time. We had a blast and it was good to get to know him. He is an incredible professional who has made it so far within his time at CB. I am very proud of his hard work and leadership skills!

Lastly, I got to meet my team member, Brandi, who was actually hired full-time a month before me. We met at SoFabCon in May, and it was so exciting to finally meet her in person. We bonded quickly and became close colleagues and friends. She is smart, well-spoken, and an overall strong woman. She inspires me daily! I feel lucky to work with her and we work well together.

I can’t wait to see where my career at Collective Bias will lead. I love working with training new employees, helping out colleagues and community members, and I feel that all success comes from respecting all those around you and working as a team. I look forward to working on more campaigns, helping to lead Collective Bias to be the top company in social media shopper marketing, and continue to grow and get to know all those at CB. I love the Account Managers and Account Executives I work with, as well as new Community Managers that have recently joined the team. Sara Blake, Ali Kirby, and Alicia Peiffer are amazing women that are already bringing great ideas to the team and working to lead their campaigns to success. I am lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people at Collective Bias! Debba Haupert and Rebecca Parsons continue to educate our community to make it and special place to work. I love working with these wonderful women!

I hope to be able to visit the New York office soon and see some fabulous colleagues that I look up to, Holly Pavlika, Annette McCormick, and many more! I have already had the pleasure to see the Chicago office with all the MANY AWESOME people that work there, Sydney Dunn, Laura O’Steen, Rachelle Lasquite, Hunter Poole, Chris Henry, Randi Kleckler and more! Such a great office with people who genuinely love working together! 

I can’t wait until SoFabCon 2014 coming up this May! It is sure to be an amazing event, as was last year’s conference. If you are a blogger and on the fence about going, I can tell you it is worth it! This year is going to be great! Also, I can’t wait to meet my current team members in the Bentonville office that I haven’t met in person yet, like Kim Harris, Mike Abb, Tyler Taggart, Patrick Grace, Lindsey Hodous, and Susie Dagastino. I will also be able to see others again that I’ve previously met at the office before and it will be so good to see them! Jerra Nalley, Lauren Collins, Kathleen Coughlin, Bailey Carroll, Lauren Blass, Angelique O’Bryan and Jared Delaney are colleagues I work closely with online so it will be great to see them again! If I didn’t name you by name, please know that I love working with you because everyone at CB is great and part of the CB family I have grown to love! And I can’t even begin to name bloggers I have met and Campaign Leaders I have worked with! So many of you bring joy to my life daily! You know who you are! 

I will continue to assert my creativeness, excitement, and individualism as I continue to work with Collective Bias. I love that we can be professional but also have fun! That’s what makes CB unique and a great place to work! Everyone should love their job and have a blast doing it, right? Thanks Matt Garcia and Candice Kilpatrick for teaching me the CB awkward stretch, and most of all thanks Amy Callahan for taking a chance on me a year ago today!