We are pleased to introduce the newest member of #TeamVIDA, Alex Bliss, who serves as the Community Manager at the Beaverton location.
Alex is California native who recently relocated to Oregon, and found VIDA in her search to continue a career rooted in Community. Previously, Alex worked in Marketing providing in-house social media, influencer, copywriting, and community-building services for start-ups in California. In true extrovert fashion, she fills her cup by connecting with new people, listening, and finding ways to help others. In her free time, Alex enjoys exploring the outdoors, volunteering, catching up with family and friends, and attending a variety of concerts, shows, and sporting events.
To get to know her a bit better, we asked Alex our classic, “Five Questions”…
1. Tell us about your work…
I’m the new Community Manager for VIDA Beaverton! I joined the VIDA team in the beginning of May after searching for an opportunity that revolved community (check!) and required in-person work that would bring me face-to-face with new people (check, check!). If you’re in Beaverton, you can find me introducing myself to everyone, queuing up the next mood-curated Spotify playlist, or brainstorming new ways to engage our community.
2. What led you to this career?
In college, I worked as a Brand Recruiter & Social Media intern — and after graduation, I joined an up-and-coming start-up that aimed to make micro-investing accessible for all. I started in Customer Support and eventually found my way back to Marketing – leading the company’s social media efforts as the Social Media Marketing Manager. While I enjoyed talking strategy and brainstorming the next creative pitch, I missed the one-on-one connection to the customer and the ability to push feedback up the chain to enact real changes within the app that were meaningful and tied into our mission.
* Cue the switch to Community *
I pursued a new opportunity to become the Community Manager for another financial start-up aimed at empowering teens and young adult to build credit, save, invest, and spend. In this role, I was tasked to create an online space for our audience to come together to learn, educate, and support each other in pursuit of financial literacy and destigmatizing money talk. I co-developed a Discord server that grew from 0 to 10K members in a year, nurturing the community with a variety of engagement opportunities (ie. Livestreams, AMAs, contests, beta-testing) and making a deliberate effort to be a sounding board for any and all questions and app suggestions.
That role, the community members, and the energy that filled the space has inspired me to search for Community-based opportunities ever since. While I’ve enjoyed and appreciated remote work and the expansive impact of online connections, it’s hard to replicate in-person relationships.
* Cue VIDA *
3. What are your passions – personal or professional?
In my personal and professional life, I care deeply about relationship building and making others feel seen, heard, and supported. My relationship with my family (including my soon-to-be husband!) and my friends mean the world to me, and whenever I have a spare moment, I’m either with them, reaching out to them, or booking the next experience we can enjoy together. My hobbies – in no particular order – include cooking, exercising, reading, traveling, collecting and fixing up film cameras, and getting outside whenever possible.
4. How does community play a role in your every day work life?
Community is my *new* everyday work life! When I joined VIDA, I made a promise take care of our community, be exceedingly helpful, find solutions that work everyone, and deliver excellence at every opportunity.
When I first joined the “workforce”, I picked a mantra for myself to live/work by, wrote it on a Post-It, and stuck it on my desk: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. – Maya Angelou
I still have that first Post-It, and now I have a tapestry of this Maya Angelou passage hanging up in my home.
5. How do you find a healthy work/life balance?
Working in social media — an industry that never sleeps — I was constantly connected to my phone and computer, scrolling (ie. “researching”) the latest trends, sounds, influencers, etc. to stay abreast on the “next-best-thing” on internet. Couple that with remote work, it was too easy to stay online and the guilt of disconnecting was real.
Luckily, I’m slowly finding my way back to a healthy work life balance, and have been more intentional about finding moments to sit outside and enjoy the occasional sunshine or scope out a new restaurant during weekdays. If I start my morning at the gym, and end the day sore, I’m happy. And of course, I do my best to fully disconnect from my phone on the weekends to take in our new home!
Welcome, Alex! What an amazing addition to our VIDA community, and we hope you can meet her in person soon at VIDA Beaverton. ✨
VIDA is a coworking community designed to #MakeLifeWork for our members. With locations in Portland, Oregon and Beaverton, Oregon, we offer private offices, dedicated desks and open coworking, alongside highly curated onsite amenities and an amazing member community.