Hi! I’m Jess.
The Short Version:
I’m an international educator with a decade of teaching experience. A career move introduced me to entrepreneurship where I’ve supported founders and startups for nearly five years. I see common challenges small business leaders face when it comes to teaching and training.
I founded Allora to be a resource for the teaching and learning needs of small businesses.
I’m a certified, credentialed educator holding a Masters in Teaching and a Masters in Education.
I work for entrepreneurs, founders, and managers.
I understand the needs and challenges of small businesses and I understand how people learn.
The Longer Version:
I’ve had an atypical career path. I am a certified, credentialed educator holding two advanced degrees in the field of teaching and learning. I hold a Masters in Teaching (MAT) as well as a Masters in Education (MEd). My MAT focused specifically on instructional methods and best-practices while my MEd focused on curriculum development and leadership. Together, these degrees provide me with expertise on both how to both organize, assess, and deliver content for specific courses as well as how to build organization-wide strategic plans for the development, delivery, and assessment of teaching and learning priorities. My career as a professional educator provided me the opportunity to live abroad, teaching in Tanzania, Italy, Bulgaria, and of course, my home country of the US. My time as an educator provided me with quality, on-going education about education.
A career change introduced me to the fast-paced, multifaceted world of entrepreneurship and small business ownership. I’ve been fortunate to work for two Nashville-based entrepreneurs. I’ve worn multiple hats supporting my leaders as they got their companies started and to a point of growth. In both of these organizations, I’ve seen budgets developed and funds get allocated across the many business needs. Marketing, sales, legal, salaries, benefits, website hosting, accounting. The list goes on and on.
In the time I’ve worked for and with small business owners, I have been constantly reminded of one well-known, simple fact: owning and running a business is hard.
I came to learn that small businesses have many of the same needs as larger corporations. The difference for small businesses is usually time and budget. I get that.
I find this to be especially true when it comes to professional learning and education. No matter how big a company is, there will always be learning that needs to happen. Big corporations have the benefit of in-house Learning and Development departments. But these resources simply aren’t always available to smaller organizations.
I founded Allora Learning to be the fractional L&D support you need to grow your team and your business.
With Allora, you get big company skills for your small businesses.
Here’s Where I Come In
I bridge the gap.
I understand how to teach and I understand the needs of small businesses.
I don’t create dependency.
Learn only what you need to learn then get back to running your business.
My time with small businesses exposed me to a lot of competing needs. There was seldom a line-item explicitly for targeted Learning and Development resources. And, if we’re being honest, it makes sense for a couple reasons.
First, there’s simply a lack of awareness of adult learning needs. Second, there’s a lack of resources to support this.
I’ve seen leaders struggle to support the career development of their teams. I’ve seen vendors struggle to understand the needs and nuances of the product, service, or process. I’ve seen live events that are chock full of inspiration and insight, but leave the audience without a solid handle on new learning.
By integrating simple curriculum foundations and learning principles into your business practices, you can:
reduce the time it takes to bring your team and vendors to productivity
have the data to provide tactical growth plans for your team
ensure your events drive your message and growth goals.
I’m here to provide you with a process and standards. Think of it this way: you may personally manage your business finances because you know how. Or, you may hire a fractional bookkeeper. Either you know it well enough to do it yourself or you hire out. The same is probably true for your marketing. You either know enough to do it yourself or you hire the right team to make it happen. The value of fractional services is that your outsourced bookkeeper and marketing teams can jump in to support many businesses because of their subject matter expertise is transferrable. Adult education is the same. I can be the resource you need to hone your educational leadership skills so that you can manage this process in-house or I can be your outsourced learning expert. You decide.
With the foundations of how to best teach adults, you can teach anything! Once you have the knowledge and framework, you can revise pre-existing content and create new content aligned to your needs and subject matter expertise independently.
What’s In A Name?
It’s great to meet you! Or, in Italian, Piacere!
I had an amazing opportunity to live and work in Rome, Italy for a few years. I wish I could say I left fluent in Italian, but it simply wasn’t in the cards for me. I did come back with a deep appreciation for several Italian words that I still use in my daily life - mamma mia being a go-to fave.
Allora is one of those words that have a permanent place in my day-to-day vocabulary.
Technically, allora is a verbal pause - it doesn’t really mean anything. But it does indicate to the person you’re talking to that you need a quick second to think. With a single word, allora says “I just need a moment to think so I can get this right.” For me, I mostly used this phrase before ordering something from a restaurant or coffee shop. Being conversational in Italian but not fluent, words didn’t always flow naturally. Starting with a quick allora was how I took a breath, made sure my phrasing was correct, and settled my brain to anticipate possible follow-up questions. It also indicated to the person I was speaking to that I had enough understanding of the language to borrow some mannerisms and I was trying to communicate authentically.
To me, this quick word to says so much - “I’m not wasting your time. I need one moment to gather my thoughts. Aw, shucks, I thought I knew what I wanted to eat, but all the different pizzas on display look great and now I don’t know which one I really want.” Okay, that last one was definitely the most common use for me!
Allora Learning borrows its name from this concept. I want just a bit of your time - a moment - to help you and your team do better thinking. To get the phrasing right. To prepare for possible follow-up conversation. And maybe also decide which type of pizza we’re craving for our working lunch!
Your partner in learning,
Jess