Stanford is where I opened up and discovered a passion for communicating and social media. I have always been a complete nerd, so in high school I was much more likely to be programming (I started my first website at age 11), or playing a computer game on a Friday night than at a party. Stanford allowed me to bring my nerdiness together with a new social side of myself. I started blogging for the first time and had a few articles featured on The Huffington Post. I started using Twitter and of course, Facebook. I developed a passion for communicating ideas that led me into community management and marketing.

When I started college, I was almost sure I was going to major in computer science. I didn't want to limit myself though so I used my first couple quarters to branch out and try everything. I ended up falling in love with political science, psychology and communications - they challenged me to think about what we called "fuzzy" majors in more challenging and concrete ways. My decision to major in politics was based around a desire to understand how people organize and make group decisions. I believe the thinking I learned there has helped me every single day.

Oxford was where I truly learned to work efficiently and quickly. I had normal classes as well as a tutorial where I had to write a 10-15 page paper each week to read aloud to my tutor. As reference materials my tutor would give me 10 full length books and around 50 articles for each week's subject. The whole idea of it was that it was impossible to get everything done. On top of it, I wanted to take every opportunity to explore England and travel as much as I could, so there was an even bigger incentive to get work done quickly. This could not have prepared me better for life at a startup where everyone has more on their plate than they could possibly get done. The only way to survive is to ruthlessly prioritize and be endlessly efficient.

I found Nombray through a Stanford Venrock event, I showed the founder my personal blog as well as an article that has been featured on Huffington Post and he hired me to do blogger outreach for them. I learned a lot that would be useful for me later -- how to identify influencers, how to talk to them, how finicky they can be if you don't approach them the right way. It was an incredibly valuable learning experience. Palo Alto Software is a software company that my dad started. I have actually lived around entrepreneurship and seen the inner workings of the company my whole life. It's part of what encouraged me to get involved in small business and startups. I loved the idea that something could go from an idea to life in such a short amount of time. I would definitely recommend a college student try out internships. More than simply the experience they bring, they also give you the chance to find out what you like to do so you know what type of job you want when you finish your degree.

I found Mobclix through a Stanford career posting. I'm sure my GPA and transcript helped, but I think what really helped me stand out was the blogging - my own personal blog and on Huffington Post. I didn't know any other classmate who was doing it. I was actually even a little embarrassed at first to share that side of myself with my classmates, thinking it was "not cool," but luckily that didn't stop me from doing it anyway and discovering how much I loved it.

I had been at Klout for almost two years -- for the majority of the time I was very involved in product, but as the company grew bigger, my role transitioned away from that and I really wanted to find a place to get back involved with product and early startups. My first step was to start LiftFive, partnered with Lerer Ventures. It was a social product and community management consulting company focused on helping jumpstart early startups. RebelMouse was one of my clients and when it started to take off, it became the company I was most passionate about and I stepped in full time. In that sense the daunting step was starting LiftFive, but the transition to RebelMouse felt seamless since I was already working on the team beforehand. I definitely recommend consulting as a great way for anyone who wants to test the waters with a company before making the full leap.

Basically my role is to manage our product roadmap including ideating on, documenting, prioritizing, clarifying and testing all the new features that go live on our site. An "average" day if one exists would go something like this:  

7AM -8:30AM: Drink tea, respond to questions about features from our global engineering team and check in on the most important tasks in the roadmap 

9AM -12pm: Arrive at the office. Sync up with our head of product support on outstanding issues our clients are having and possible solutions. Sync up with our Managing Director of Engineering on features in the queue we need to clarify and assign. After those convos I'll update and clarify product docs and tickets. 

12PM - Lunch, catch up with our head of design on outstanding design items 

1PM - 3PM - Client meetings. Either to talk about our current roadmap or to hear the items they would like to add into the roadmap. 

3PM: Sales call(s). Generally in a given day there's at least one quick internal sales call to figure out if we can support a request from a potential client and close a deal. 

3PM - 5:30PM - Another round of emails and questions from the global team. 

5:30-8:00PM - SoulCycle and dinner. I need to take this break to exercise and de-stress to be able to keep working. Sometimes this happens a lot later and I'm in the office until 7PM but some days I manage to get out to a 5:30 soulcycle and it really helps me focus in on what matters. 

8PM  - One more round of emails and then some time to look at product docs if I'm feeling energized.  

Some nights I do a lot here and some nights I acknowledge a total lack of mental energy and relax instead.

It was based on what I had learned at Klout about creating a social product, leveraging influencers and building social traction. I found that I started to really enjoy informally meeting with startups to brainstorm how they could jump start their community. LiftFive was the chance to do this full time and I was lucky enough to be partnered with Lerer Ventures and work with their great portfolio. It definitely involved a lot of late nights working and more work than I had ever done before, but I was incredibly inspired so that made it all worthwhile. I was also proud that I built it to a point where it was making about double what I had ever earned before in my career.

I first started as a guest blogger when Huffington Post was looking to get more college students blogging on their platform. I wrote a piece on how businesses were getting on Facebook and I got a lot of great feedback on it so it inspired me to keep writing. I started guest writing at Mashable when I was at Mobclix and I saw how my posts actually helped the business by building their brand. It made me realize it was an important thing to make time for. I almost always wish I was blogging more, but I can safely say it's something I will always come back to.

When you love something you spend time on it without realizing it is work. That's the only way I can recommend anyone try to become knowledgeable on a given topic. I love seeing the clever things people are doing in social media, product management, and community. I'll read about it while waiting in line, on a Sunday afternoon or think of ideas while in the shower. And believe me, I always have more to learn -- this is a space that changes every minute.

They will change and evolve or die. Anyone who thinks social media is "static" is not watching close enough. People are constantly looking for new ways to express themselves, to make their mark and to share what they care about. They have loyalty to their friends but not to any one platform. New platforms can take off like never before which means that any current platform is in constant peril of becoming obsolete. The real winners in the space are winning because they have struck a real chord with how we want to share and communicate right now and they will need to continue to evolve with society if they will last.

I thought I had worked in fast-paced environments before RebelMouse but honestly I have never seen anything like this. Partially it's our global team which means that work is being done at every hour of the day. Partially it's that this is a group of incredibly passionate, smart people who keep driving each other to new heights. I have the utmost respect for everyone I work with and am honored to be on the same team with them.

I won't lie, I'm a social media addict. I'm a total foodie so I can't help but Instagram my favorite dishes. When I'm out with my friends we put up photos on Facebook. I try out every new platform when it comes out to understand its dynamics and what people like about it. That being said, I also strongly believe anything you put online is public so I am aware of what I am sharing and have my limits.

Choosing just one would be impossible. It's when a new feature I've been working on goes live. It's when a favorable press piece goes out. It's when a client who was previously unhappy turns around and becomes a huge fan.

Ultimately, for me, it comes down to learning and people. As long as I am learning everyday and working with people who inspire me and I have fun with, I am in the right place. Beyond that, I try to leave myself open to whatever that may be.