Episode 79

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Published on:

12th Nov 2021

Career Guidance Programs for After College and Beyond, with Elissa Unton, Ep. 79

Elissa Unton is the CEO at ArcVida, a modern career guidance company based out of Los Angeles, California. Elissa partnered with career happiness coach Anna Hunter, and together they've been able to take career coaching to the next level. ArcVida uses an online software platform that provides ambitious U.S. professionals with the structure, expert guidance, and community to find and land fulfilling work, faster. Prior to founding ArcVida, Elissa spent several years mentoring college undergraduates while also recruiting and hiring professionals for her own corporate finance teams. She mentioned several helpful blog articles on their website that will be useful for professionals who are looking for a change.

In this episode, Elissa speaks about her past and present experience working corporate jobs, how she transitioned to working from home, and she lays out some of her experience as a serial entrepreneur. While earning her bachelor's degree, she started her career in investor relations, working full time at a small agency and then, after graduating, working in communications and investor relations for a small B2B e-commerce company. She moved to work at a larger investor relations agency before transitioning to strategy consulting. While working full-time by day in construction rental fleet and enterprise valuation, Elissa earned her MBA at night. Later, she managed and led financial planning and analysis teams. In 2015, while working full-time, Elissa also co-founded the Skid Row Spa, a volunteer project that resulted in the Refresh Spot, a publicly funded, 24-hour hygiene center for people living outside in downtown LA.

Elissa talks about how prioritizing exercise every day has been really important for her physical health and focus, and she loves her Pelaton and the Peloton app as well and doesn't mind taking a call while on a walk around the neighborhood as walking and talking is her favorite way to hold catch up and networking conversations. She also shares about how she's been exploring different ways to do her shopping and trying out meal delivery services. During the heat of the pandemic, she and her family tried many different services but landed on a balance with a weekly grocery order delivered by the local market weekly and one meal planning (recipe and ingredients) delivery a week for four meals. She finds that this is the right blend of convenience, cooking, health, and quality; because she discovered, by trying delivery of fully-cooked meals, that the ritual of listening to jazz or folk or whatever happy music, after lighting a candle while cooking for her family makes for a happy bookend to the workday.

Elissa enjoys mentoring first-time founders and strategizing on start-up financial models. She also volunteers as a finance consultant for her church and is excited to lead the local elementary school's book fair in Spring 2022!


You can learn more about ArcVida or contact Elissa in the following places:

Website: https://arcvida.com/

E-mail: elissa @ arcvida.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArcVidaInc

Twitter: https://twitter.com/arcvidacoaching


Also, don't forget to check out some of the helpful blog articles that Elissa mentioned during the episode:

https://arcvida.com/blog

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About the Podcast

Yes, I Work From Home
April Malone interviews people who work from home
Yes, I Work From Home is a community where people share stories about their work-from-home journey. April Malone is the host and interviews a wide variety of people who work from home in different capacities. Guests include entrepreneurs, freelancers, teleworking employees, and those managing a home-based business or remote team. April and her guests discuss how they started working from a home office, some of the challenges they've faced, benefits, and tips and tricks that might help others. Interview guests will talk about why and how they work from home, what they do, who they help, and how they balance work with household responsibilities. They'll also talk about how they manage staying connected with colleagues, clients, and work to maintain healthy habits and a social life. Listeners will be informed about upcoming WFH community events and hear about helpful physical products, digital tools, and services that April and her guests feel are worth recommending.

This podcast has a typical run time of 45 minutes, published twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Learn more about April Malone and the community at Yes, I Work From Home: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/

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April Malone

April Malone is the founder of Yes, I Work From Home and the host of this podcast. She is an adult educator who helps people improve their work-from-home situation by cultivating a community of sharing and accountability for people who work from home. April has worked from home for 12 years in a variety of roles including as an employee of a major health organization, running an online store selling physical product, and she spent two years as a full-time online ESL teacher. April is in the USA and is originally from the northern state of Minnesota known for its lakes, mosquitos, and brutal winters; but she now lives with her husband and three children in Arizona, where the desert summers are incredibly hot but the winters are lovely.