What I’ve Been Up To: October Edition

October flew by because it was packed with things to do, places to be, and people to see. My favorite ways to fill up a busy schedule!

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Johnnie Bud and I spent the first weekend of October visiting my little sister Mandy and her other half Joe up in Delaware are their first house. We got a special tour of Dover Air Force Base where my sister is a veterinarian and the officer in charge at the Dover Air Force Base Veterinary Treatment Facility – check out this great Veteran’s Day article on her and the patients she sees daily: Base vet supports mission, your pets. It’s a long 6+ hour drive (about 2 hours north of D.C.), but always worth it to spend some quality downtime with family.

Johnnie’s brother got married the next weekend on a Sunday – congrats Christopher and Nikki! – and the very next morning was the WRAL TechWire Executive Exchange: Fiber Transforms the Triangle half-day conference held at SAS that I spent no less than three months working on. Every detail, from venue, down to nametags, was painstakingly planned for by my incredible team at WRAL.com and this high-caliber event went off without a hitch. It’s nice to occasionally have a nice, long planning and marketing timeline and a moderate budget to work with!

Just four short days after the Fiber event, Johnnie Bud and I hoped on a plane bound for Louisville and not only traveled to see NCSU play at Louisville (notice I didn’t say “win”… bummer), but we spent a few days checking out a “new to both of us” city and toured and tasted as many of the stops on the Urban Bourbon Trail as possible. Louisville’s got a great food and beverage culture, but their downtown foot traffic is surprisingly slow on the weekends compared to somewhere like Raleigh. I would love to visit again in 5-10 years to see if that has changed.

We wrapped up the month with more places to be at the UConn vs. ECU game in Greenville (thanks for the hospitality, Cory and Alison!), another lovely night of fundraising for the Rex Foundation at the Rex Gala, and as with every October, a quick visit to the NC State Fair!

Business-wise, I’m thrilled to say that several projects were completed for Raleighwood Media Group clients and I even had the opportunity to develop three proposals for new business (social media management and email marketing projects) which are all coming to fruition now that we’re in November… also known at #Movember. So #LetItGrowRDU and I’ll check in next month. Thanks for reading, y’all!

What I’ve Been Up To: May Edition

Busy May schedule for Lisa Jeffries
Busy May schedule
May was a super busy month. So busy that instead of writing this post at the end of month, here we are at June 2. Nonetheless, here we go:

  • Spoke at the Raleigh Chamber Expo on social media engagement. Get a recap of my presentation here and some pictures here
  • Wrapped up Band Together sponsorship deliverables for WRAL.com’s role in the annual fundraising concert and had a great time at the concert itself celebrating the second anniversary of when Johnnie Bud and I realized there were greater forces at work for us
  • Hung out with over a hundred cool kids and their moms/dads/nannies/etc. for a WRAL Go Ask Mom open play session at North Hills
  • Watched my little sister graduate as a doctor of veterinary medicine from NCSU and get promoted to a captain for the US Army
  • On the same day my sister graduted, I signed a lease for a new office, just across from the NCSU Belltower, for Raleighwood Media Group. Once there’s a coat of fresh paint on the walls and some furniture moved in, we’ll invite everyone over for an office warming cocktail party!
  • Built a fence for an adorable dog named Domino with the Coalition to Unchain Dogs as a Raleigh Rotaract service project
  • Speaking of Raleigh Rotaract, I accepted the role of board president for the 2014-2015 service year with gratitude to the entire board I served alongside this past year… won’t you join us for some professional development and community service?
  • Hosted a promotional tent for WRAL’s Go Ask Mom brand at the Great Glow Run benefiting Eastern Seals/UCP… proceeded to complete the 5k with Johnnie Bud, Tank, and Delta in tow. Actually, who am I kidding? They towed me.
  • Took in a little continuing education for my real estate license (4 hours down, 4 more to go this week.)
  • Launched a new website, CapitalCityCocktails.com, and am slowly adding content, while working on the look of the site (ie: no judgements yet, please – it’s work in progress)
  • Hosted a mixology program for the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA) as a member appreciation event at Person Street Bar in Downtown Raleigh
  • Did the wobble, sort of, while at a TIMA board meeting as part of promotional video campaign. Let’s never speak of that one again, ok?
  • Added several new stories to iheartretail.com and am finalizing plans to monetize the site, which basically means creating some valuable placements for business and brands who want to pay to play!
  • Authored a post on WRALWorks.com about new native advertising opportunities on the WRAL mobile app
  • Wrapped up about two months of PR and marketing work for CityCamp NC and live-tweeted the majority of the 3-day unconference

I’m sure there are other important things I have forgotten to list, but as you can imagine, I’m looking forward to a mini-vacation to Ocracoke this weekend!