Meet Allison St. John, MPS | Chief Learning Officer & Virtual Facilitator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Allison St. John, MPS and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Allison, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The Remote Leader Project was born out of the sweet overlap between a world need and given strengths. As 2017 was coming to a close, I became acutely aware of the rising need for virtual leadership. Well before the 2020 pandemic, more and more individuals were being hired remotely as a special case and others were being allowed to work from home more frequently. Yet, these remote workers existed on the fringe of businesses’ every day life; they continually felt isolated and under utilized. I could see that the solution was the managers’ leadership style. I knew leaders would need a new, adapted skillset to navigate the virtual working realm and to maximize technology to create meaningful, virtual relationships. I could see this need and I also had the given strengths to lead, teach, and empower people. I also fully acknowledged that this challenge could not be tackled alone and found incredible alignment and complimentary strengths in Christina Rowe, fellow co-founder of The Remote Leader Project. She also saw the world need and had incredible strengths and skills to create highly collaborative teams. When the world need for remote leadership skills and our given strengths overlapped, the Remote Leader Project was birthed and fueled by an aligned energy! When you find this type of alignment, it can’t be ignored. So we stepped over the symbolic start-line and never looked back.

What should our readers know about your business?
The Remote Leader Project has been revolutionizing how people and businesses thrive in remote work by teaching individuals the nuances of the virtual landscape and how to adjust leadership behaviors to maximize long distance, virtual connections. We create on-demand courses and live, group trainings for organizations to teach people how to navigate the nuances of the virtual working landscape and to lead united, connected, remote teams. Yet, providing new knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean change will happen; we’re dedicated to educating for change. All training from The Remote Leader Project is created with adult-learning philosophy and a micro-learning approach, which means information is provided in small, digestible modules with action steps for direct application. Learning, then applying & practicing is how adults learn and ultimately how remote leaders change behavior.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First stop: Sushi Rama for a wide variety of delicious sushi hand-picked from the conveyor belt in the middle of the restaurant. Other activities would include: a picnic at City Park to see the Denver city skyline framed by the mountains in the background; a wander around Union Station with a stop into Next Door Eatery and Tattered Cover bookstore; and stroll down Golden’s main street after hiking Windy Saddle Park trailhead at the top of Lookout Mountain. If time allowed, we’d do a weekend in Salida or a camping trip near Fairplay for a full immersion into the fresh rocky mountain air.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
A big shoutout goes to my childhood pastor, who was a certified coach with CliftonStrengths and introduced me to my top five strengths for the first time when I was headed to college. That began a many-year journey seeking and understanding my personal skills, interests, and ultimately my vocational purpose. I also want to thank a myriad of people in Chicago who came into my life during the first five years of my career. Many of those people were significantly older than me and they poured out their life wisdom without hesitation. I feel like I learned about the world very quickly by learning from their life lessons. Ongoing education and support is also what has fueled me to my present success, so here’s a shoutout to the University College at University of Denver who gave me access to knowledge that I implement regularly today.

Website: https://www.remoteleaderproject.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remoteleaderproject

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-remote-leader-project | https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonstjohn