Throwback Thursday: Always on Offense

I know you're all dying to know how I'm doing in my work travels across the border. While I haven't seen much of the city and can't tell you much about what there is to do around here, I'd like to give you some insight into my work-life and all the crazy things that seem like a pain for anyone but can be a thrill to me.

My official job code is a 'business analyst', but it's so much more than that. Analyst and number cruncher one moment, charismatic and confident speaker the next. I go from cross eyed over spreadsheets to storytelling and influencing at a moment's notice.

As an analyst, a big part of my job is running reports and presenting information on a daily and consistent schedule, one that demands quick action and often needed before anyone else can begin their day's work. The other side of the reports that I run are fly-by or special requests from people much higher than me in pay grade and status. For them I'm expected to drop everything and dish the numbers on a beautiful garnished platter, along with the story behind all of the details that I'm summarizing at the highest level.

Does that sound terrifying or stressful to you?

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Something that makes me successful in my job and has ultimately saved me time and time again is preparing myself for the follow up questions that I know I'll get. Rather than doing the minimum to satisfy the request, I do my best to look at it the same way my audience will and begin to think of other avenues I can explore before preparing a story behind the numbers.

While having the great power and responsibility to pull the information, I can't drag these higher up's down into the swampy data weeds with me. I have to give them a clear breakdown at a very high level, calling out exceptions, making it visually pleasing and of course presenting it in a way that they can either print and bring into a meeting or that they can click the 'forward' button and begin to delegate action.

In addition, thanks to the digital age where iPhones and iPads are regulars at meetings, I also have be sensitive to the time and the possible location of the report's audience. Essentially this means that anything I send must be iPhone ready for people to review with their idle hands when they're trying to look busy in a meeting or are no longer interested in the topic. I can't even tell you how many times making something iPhone ready has saved me from re-explaining something to people.

Thinking one step ahead of the game, being prepared and doing my homework aren't foreign to me and my extensive time playing sports growing up is a key reason I possess these critical skills.

Today's Throwback Thursday is brought to you by a young woman who always read the game one pitch ahead and always will.

It's Always the Last Place You Look

It's been a week of madness around here and I can't believe it's finally Friday.

I've been spinning around like I've lost my mind the past few days and have a not so funny story about the panic that came with the case of The Missing Wallet.

I have a gorgeous card holder case that I use as a wallet (similar) and Tuesday evening as I was waiting in line to check in at the dentist office for a routine cleaning - it had gone missing. Nowhere to be found in my purse, I had to plead to the receptionist to ask me some questions to validate my identity and not lose the dentist appointment I'd scheduled close to two months ago. The entire time I sat in the chair opening wide and listening to the suction tube, I tried to re-trace my every step since the last time I'd remembered using it. Good news is that I hadn't used it since Monday morning (yay, savings plan!) but the bad news is that I couldn't get my mind together to remember even what I had worn the previous day, much less what pocket I'd stuffed it into.

So, I did the routine check: Did I switch purses, is it in my coat pocket, did I leave it on my desk, did it slip out in the car, did that dress have pockets, etc etc.

The worst part about all of the thinking and worrying is that I felt like I'd gone crazy. It's a serious feeling of insanity to lose track of a credit card sized case that holds your life in it. Credit cards, gift cards, membership cards, driver's license - sigh. It had me worried. I even felt good that Dan and I had just cleaned the house for Super Bowl Sunday which meant that the clutter level was low.

This pretty much sums up how I felt:

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I may have gone through the five stages of grief and was on the path from Wednesday night depression to Thursday morning acceptance before I had to call and cancel everything. I was dreading having to sit at the DMV, hating the idea of re-linking all of my credit / debit cards to pay my utilities and bills, losing the values on the gift cards, making the walk of shame into costco without a card to show, and obviously replacing the cute case that Amanda got for me a few years ago that I'd never be able to forget.

Come to Thursday morning, before work I checked ONE last place, then was planning a reset plan to get my life back in order. I had remembered that on my way to the dentist appointment I tossed my computer bag into my trunk as to not be left out in the car while I was away for an hour. In the dark of 7am, I opened up the trunk to my car and started rummaging around. Hidden under bags, coats, running shoes and DIY supplies, there it was - my beautiful wallet, chilled by the winter air and warmed by the valuables held tightly in it's grasp. A sigh of relief washed over me and I sent photographic evidence to Dan of what I had found in my final effort.

I'm so happy that I didn't have to sit at the DMV or file a police report, and even happier that I lived off of $17.85 in cash over the span of 3 days of a wallet gone missing... and $15 of that was the dentist co-pay!

Remember - it's always the last place you look. And... technically I never drove without my driver's license, only without the knowledge of having it!

<3 JE