Dear Boulder

My friends at Boulder.me are putting together a collective list from local Boulder bloggers on "What Does Boulder Mean To You? Of course I wanted to participate, because the very premise of this community project is part of why I love Boulder.

Dear Boulder,

You enticed me so much, I packed up my car (job-less and apartment-less), drove across the country and decided to call you my home this past August 2008. Here I am, March 2009 with a job I love, nestled in the start-up, tech community living in a house looking out at the Flatirons, just moments from hiking trails.

For this and many more reasons, I want to thank you for:

Your Community: It's eclectic by being mixed with locals and transplants who want a life with more balance and harmony. There's a surge of power here. People ask how you're doing and care to hear the answer. Upon moving here alone, I didn't feel alone because I found many groups and organizations focused on niche interests from Boulder Outdoor Group to New Tech Meetup.

Your Weather and Geographical Location: Nice spot to land. You're nestled so nicely against the Flatiron mountains and the Rockies are just at your back. I can snowboard each weekend on some of the country's best resorts within a few hours or hike moments from my front door. With 300+ days of sunshine and summers that are not humid (coming from New England this is amazing), it's a deal breaker in itself.

Technology, Wit and Smarts Oh My!: As I work for Lijit Networks, Inc., I'm thick in the midst of the start-up and technology scene. There's a lot of intelligence and creativity weaving through Boulder. The pulse is beating. There's something in the air and it's not just based around technology. It's no wonder The American calls Boulder the, "Start-Up Town."

Delicious Morsels: Mmm, from The Black Cat to Mountain Sun the culinary range makes a foodie like myself happy, rivaling other city's cuisine selection, per Boulder's capita.

Thank you again Boulder and all that you have given and supported me. Your fresh air, beauty and intelligent people keep me going each day.

Yours truly,

Grace

Customer Service Goes a Long Way

Customer service. Seems pretty easy, right? Be personal, listen to your customers, follow-up, create a general sense of friendliness and validate why they, your customers, use your service or brand. Unfortunately, I think it's one of the hardest 'actions' to be consistent in.

I'm not talking about fireworks. Sometimes it's the simple little things that companies do to make their customer feel special. I just experienced one such customer service approach that I had to share:

Since I've relocated to Boulder, I've been grabbing new doctors, mechanics, and dentists. Through a recommendation, I've gone with Boulder Dental Group. I set up a consultation and regular teeth cleaning for next month and within a week I received a large manila envelope from them. Perplexed I tore the envelope open with my bubbling wonderment. Inside was a kind, "welcome" letter that told me exactly what to expect on my first visit to their office (partof this included a tour of the office before my teeth cleaning)! Then with clear branding on some 'dental SWAG' they included chapstick, a pen, post-its and a personalized appointment card. Wow.
Not a lot of work to put together, but it made me feel like I made the right choice. It made me feel welcome and it evoked a warm feeling inside of me. Definitely something any small business and especially a Dentist would want to do. Bravo, Boulder Dental Group.

What are some examples of customer service you've experienced recently that have wowed you?

February 12th Update: There are a lot of good conversations going on in the comments, including reader's exceptional experience with customer service and the not to so good ones. Join in!

Launching and Learning

Last night I helped host a Ladies Who Launch event focused around public relations, marketing and branding for local Boulder ladies looking to launch their new or existing business. It was held at Common Threads on Spruce Street and about 35 women attended. Each of the four speakers were well versed in their topic and I thought each brought informative and appealing knowledge. I mean really, who doesn't love entrepreneurial women all meeting in an adorable, clothing boutique shop, sharing their ideas, buzzing with humor, enjoying hummus and veggies and pellegrino?

Listening ladies at Common Threads

To recap, Victoria Keziah, Founder and Principal at Egg Strategy, spoke about the power of branding. Through her current studies at Naropa University she relayed the philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel thoughts about thesis and antithesis, representing one end of the spectrum for branding to the other end. Branding shouldn't be forced, it should bring together two co-existing powers to a synthesis in the middle by filling a greater need (i.e. Whole Foods, Core Power Yoga).

Tara Anderson, (@tarable) Marketing Manager and a fave co-worker of mine at Lijit touched on the online tools that help to leverage business. She focused on blogging, while intermittently offering her humorous stand-up skills. If you didn't catch Tara's drift ladies, start blogging!

Tara (speaking on the right): "Start blogging!"

Elaine Ellis, (@Elainiac) an Account Executive from Metzger Associates gave insightful views about media and public relations practices, mixed with social media strategies. I liked her hand out of relevant sites to use, because many women hadn't even heard of Bad Pitch Blog or Filtrbox for staying on top of the coverage your business is getting.
Melani Ward, (@melaniward) copyrighter, marketing strategist and coach gave five succinct points on how to convey your topic with ease. 1) Understand target market. 2) Know audiences hot buttons. 3) Leave your ego out of it, what's in it for me? 4) Call to action 5) Tell your story.

Young and old learning together. Mother in for a visit, soaking it in.

Although I'm not an entrepreneur (yet) I still liked the knowledge swirling around in that room and I definitely felt fulfilled with some takeaways for my own life. Stay tuned for the next Ladies Who Launch event in December...

Ladies Who Launch

Since this September I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the Boulder/Denver, Ladies Who Launch (LWL) branch. Our team Director is Ricki Booker, an entrepreneur and vivacious trained leader. LWL offers tools, resources and a system of support for women launching or maintaining a business.

With that being said I have taken on the role Event and Marketing Coordinator. A few of the support and resources LWL offers, we host local events and speakers to help build a community around the challenging hurdle of entrepreneurship for women. I wanted to write about a few upcoming events we're hosting.

1-Chit Chat: This is based off the LWL incubators. It’s free to everyone (even non-members). It is tomorrow, Wednesday November 5th at 6:30-8:00 PM, at Common Threads on Spruce Street in Boulder. No strings attached, if you’re interested RSVP here and bring a friend! If you’re looking to grow your current business, launch one or would just like to meet a supportive group of women the chit chat would be a great way to start.

2- Branding, Marketing and Public Relations event: This is November 11th at Common Threads 6:30-8:00 PM. Also free, this event features speakers in the area that will speak on their designated topic to leverage your business or idea, then we will open it up to discussion. We have Tara Anderson, Community Catalyst and co-worker of mine at Lijit, Victoria Keziah, Founder and Principal at Egg Strategy, Melani Ward, copyrighter, marketing strategist and coach and Elaine Ellis, Account Executive from Metzger Associates. Please RSVP here for this event.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at gracekboyle @ gmail dot com or Ricki at rbooker @ ladieswholaunch dot com. We would love to see new faces and grow this branch, because it really is about you. I look forward to seeing you there.

Too Lijit, Too Lijit To Quit

Drum roll please...yesterday I started my job at Lijit .

Lijit is a hot start-up in downtown Boulder, Colorado that offers a free service to publishers (mostly bloggers). This is how is works: We offer a search-powered web application that allows readers to access all of the publishers' online social media content (ie: Flickr, Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, your blog, etc.) We also include your extended trusted network in this search. This means when someone does a search, they will get results from your blog, all your online content, and the content of your network. It's a much more personalized and relevant search component. If people are coming back to your blog because they trust what you're writing, they will also trust what you're bookmarking and writing about in the wild world of the WWW.

I'm doing Business Development and personally reaching out to Bloggers, and segmenting who we're forging new relationships with. I love the environment, the people are great, it's a progressive start-up, and right now at my desk, I have a view of the mountains and downtown Boulder!

Regarding landing the job, as I talk with Career Services at Champlain, I say network, network, and then lots of research. I didn't even know they were specifically hiring, but then the fit for Business Development ended up being just right. In the morning I met with Micah Baldwin, VP of Business Development to chat about the 'local market' and see if he knew of any employment opportunities. It turned into an impromptu interview with the COO, Walter, and that same day (Friday the 12th), I was hired, and Monday the 15th I began work.

Here's an office tour of our downtown digs. This was a little while ago, so there are recent renovations and new decorations but you get the idea. Tara, one of my colleagues in the Biz. Dev. team (her title is Community Catalyst) is the wonderful hostess. Enjoy!

Check out the widget to the right for my blog ---->

Any questions? E-mail me here: gboyle@lijit.com

Boulder Bound

I like to think that 'Fortune Favors the Bold.' I am shaped and fashioned by this phrase. So, here I find myself...

After packing up my Honda Accord, with determination and zest I find myself in Boulder, Colorado. I-80 from Southeast Iowa is a straight-shot into Boulder. In fact, I drove with my pinkie and/or knee the entire time. The landscape is vast and expansive, quiet and desolate. But the sky opened up, almost like it was drawing me in. Ready for my new adventure, new home, new job (in the works) and next step in life.