Education & Experience

I didn't know it then, but having to fit "all the things" into a trifold brochure set me up nicely for trying to fit everything "above the fold" and that creating graphics for and editing proposals in "war rooms" would start a lifelong love of papering walls with sticky notes.

Editing press releases is rough; the average "life span" is 3 years. I made it more than 4. Being yelled at daily by customers was just a normal part of the job, particularly during the dreaded "Earnings Seasons." Our process was ridiculously manual - anything in a table had to be translated into ASCII code before being sent out on the wire. An earnings press release for an average publicly traded company took anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to process and push live. Our customer would insist that a release had to go live in 30 minutes because there was a shareholder meeting already scheduled. We'd reiterate that it was impossible, and the yelling would begin. On more than one occasion, I had the phone handed to the CEO, who then started hysterically and repeatedly yelling at me, "But I'm the CEO!" And, through all of this, you had to make sure you didn't introduce any mistakes, and you had to catch any that they had put in - our accuracy ratings were very closely monitored - nothing below 99.7% would do. So, one of the most stressful jobs ever. But, it made me tough, and it made me lose any fear of talking to executives of all levels, even CEOs.

This job was interesting from the beginning. It was in the North End of Boston, so it was my first foray into the "fun" of commuting into Boston, but it meant being surrounded by excellent Italian food and pastries and being in an office right on the water. I managed a team of 6 bilingual (Arabic/English) writers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and 1 writer in Boston. The company aimed to bring a physical store and e-commerce site like Best Buy to Saudi Arabia, which, at the time, was about 10-15 years behind the US in all things web. In the Boston office with me were buyers and category managers sourcing products from the US and Europe and logistics experts who were then getting them sent to Saudi Arabia.

I learned a lot about retail and e-commerce and how to navigate some interesting cultural differences. What types of cultural differences, you ask? Well… 1) every other week during our weekly manager meeting, we would have the same argument where the owner would want to hold off paying everyone until the next paycheck, and we'd inform him that that doesn't fly in the US, 2) I learned a peculiar thing about estimating work that, it turns out, drove all of us Americans nuts. When I asked the people in Saudi Arabia when they would have some task done, they would always say "tomorrow," even though I knew it couldn't be done by tomorrow. I would reiterate that I just needed a realistic estimate to set expectations for my boss. But still, it was always "tomorrow." When tomorrow would come, and I would ask if that task was done, the immediate answer was, "No, but it will be done tomorrow" <deep breaths> 3) My visa application to go to Jeddah and meet my team was denied 4 times (and then we gave up) because I was a "young, single female." But it wasn't all bad. I also learned about the giving, generous, hard-working, and kind nature of my Saudi coworkers, and we eventually worked out all of the awkwardness by being open and talking things out. These experiences helped me realize that navigating cultural differences can be frustrating, fascinating, and extremely rewarding.

I had just attended a conference where I realized that I knew most of what everyone there was talking about. I decided to also write articles and speak at conferences. I asked a mentor for advice since I felt like an imposter. I hadn't "invented" anything and wasn't doing anything earth-shattering. I often share his advice when talking to mentees:

• You have something to say and wisdom to share, no matter your level

• What you may think is no big deal might be a brand-new game-changer for someone else

• Conferences and publications need content, so go for it

I took his advice and approached a fellow content strategist I knew was an editor at UX Booth. She wanted me to write articles and asked me to be a contributing editor. I absolutely loved both. I got to go deep and nerdy into UX and do fascinating research while helping others share their voices and wisdom with the world.

This seems a bit out of the blue, and it was, but it was terrific. My husband returned from a trip home to Morocco with raw and roasted argan oil, peanuts, and almonds his mother had roasted for him as snacks for the flight. We had a funny moment of cultural learning where I was shocked to know that people ate argan oil, and he was shocked to learn that people put argan oil on their skin and hair. Roasted argan oil tastes AMAZING. Eat it with a spoon or mix it with the tiniest bit of vinegar for knock-your-socks-off salad dressing. I don't know what possessed him, but he put some peanuts and argan oil in the blender to create peanut butter. And it was so good that we immediately decided, there, on the spot, to start making peanut butter. We researched our competition and found out that a lot of peanut butter has nasty ingredients (for your body and for the environment), so we started bringing samples to work to perfect our recipe. (I still get asked if I have any bottles stashed away). We found a food incubator in Warren, RI (shout out to Hope & Main), sourced organic, non-GMO peanuts from North Carolina, and began the arduous task of getting approval to import argan oil from Morocco and to make, package, and sell our peanut butter in Rhode Island.

We named the company Kooliban, an expression in Morocco that roughly translates to "you are what you eat" mixed with "health and beauty from the inside out." If you think argan oil is great for your hair, try eating it. It has fantastic plant-based Omega-3 fatty acids, proven highly effective at reducing inflammation (the root cause of many diseases). I created a brand strategy around health, taste, sustainability, and ethical sourcing (as our argan oil came from a co-op of Berber women in Morocco who were able to support their families with their product) and then learned all about package and label design (including the intricate rules of food labeling and health claims).

When my son was only 17 days old, we operated a table at an industry trade show where I handed out samples of Kooliban peanut butter to chefs, food distribution reps, and buyers from grocery stores and local markets. I had an award-winning food label designer praise my work (happy dance), a chef at a 5-star restaurant vow only to use our peanut butter from then on (more happy dancing), and we got jars on the shelves of several local boutique markets and the large-for-Rhode-Island Dave's Supermarket chain. The realities of keeping bugs out of a literal ton of peanuts, grinding and packaging peanut butter ourselves with full-time jobs and a newborn, and the cost of going from Hope & Main to a wholesale packager ultimately led to shutting Kooliban down. But, I wouldn't trade it all for anything (except maybe some more sleep… if you've ever had a newborn, you understand).

I am beyond grateful to have been a part of this project. I joined a group of fellow VTS enthusiasts and my VTS mentors to be part of a creativity, communication, and leadership program for high-potential engineers at a global Fortune 500 computer hardware and software company (NDA prevents me from naming the company). I coached dozens of engineers, some of whom spoke very little English, many of whom had trepidations about this thing that felt was very artsy-touchy-feely, but who ended up sharing deep, insightful learnings that made me realize I always want to have VTS in my life. Even students who I thought were not getting this at all or who seemed the most critical shared reflections about how they now saw the world differently and were inspired to be better leaders and better humans. Genuinely touching, gratifying stuff [insert chef's kiss].