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Monica

Monica O'Brien on Untemplater

Monica O’Brien was born in Germany and spent her childhood jet-setting around the world with her Air Force parents. Her travels include most of the US, Europe, Guam, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines.Monica graduated from Truman State University in 2006 with a BS in Computer Science. After graduation, she spent 16 months at Caterpillar, Inc, where she consulted the manufacturing management team to implement technology solutions throughout the Joliet, IL facility. Later, she moved to Trading Technologies, a fast-paced software company, as a software quality engineer on futures trading software. In 2009, Monica graduated from the Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA in marketing, strategy, and entrepreneurship. She recently wrote a book called Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It, and currently works in interactive marketing.

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Monica on Twitter Social Pollination

Round Up!

By Monica on August 21st 2010 in Untemplate 1 comment

It’s link round-up time! Today we’re celebrating Dirty Dancing, which came out on August 21st, 1987 and went on to become a massive box office hit despite being a low-budget film with no star names attached! You can watch the movie in honor of today if you want, but I’m going to spend the day [...]

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Open Thread: What Will You Do For Yourself Today?

By Monica on August 18th 2010 in Open Thread 2 comments

So many of us get into a routine — go to work, go to school, come home, eat, sleep, watch some TV… What’s missing though? Everyone needs some down time — a chance to read something that has nothing to do work (I prefer fiction myself), a chance to feel better with a workout, a [...]

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When should you take advice?

By Monica on August 13th 2010 in Business 14 comments

I am good at giving advice. This is not to say I’m good at giving good advice. Honestly, I’m just good at giving advice I like. The hard thing about getting advice is, as humans, we have a tendency to ignore and discredit advice we don’t like, while heavily weighing advice we do like. The [...]

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Round Up! The U.S. Patent Office Edition

By Monica on July 31st 2010 in Untemplate 5 comments

Today’s edition is called the U.S. Patent Office Edition because The U.S. Patent Office opened for business on this day in 1790, established to protect the work of young America’s inventors. The first patent granted was to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont, for a new method of making fertilizer. Annually, more than 185,000 patents are granted. [...]

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Open Thread: What Three Big Tasks Will Move you Forward, Today?

By Monica on July 28th 2010 in Open Thread 2 comments

Productivity is one of the things I’m struggling with right now. Something that has worked for me, however, is a mindset of accomplishing three things each day. Every week on Sunday night or Monday morning, I write down 10-15 of the biggest tasks I have on my plate to move me towards my goals. These [...]

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Linchpin: Seth Godin’s Newest Book

By Monica on January 26th 2010 in Career Leave a comment!

Seth Godin is well known for writing great marketing books, but his latest book, Linchpin, really struck a cord with us here at Untemplater. You see, Linchpin is about living the untemplated life. Godin explains how employment has changed from the last 50 years, and how each one of us should move forward in our [...]

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What Do You Need to Start Living the Untemplated Life?

By Monica on January 11th 2010 in Untemplate 4 comments

Note: these giveaways are now closed. We have some awesome giveaways coming up in the next few weeks and we want YOU to take a shot at them! Each of our giveaways is meant to further your goals, whatever they are – from developing a stronger brand online to starting a new company to starting [...]

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Don’t Ask For Permission to Change Your Life

By Monica on January 4th 2010 in Business 14 comments

Recently, one of my friends asked me to write an inspirational post for women, asking me to touch on “anything you learned that aspiring female leaders should know to be as successful as you.” My first thought was, “Huh?” You see, I’m not that successful, and I’m not a leader. I’m 25 years old, armed [...]

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