Alana Muller (Part I), Entrepreneurial Connector - Writing the Book on Networking, Crazy & Stupid Decisions, and Inspiring Community

Alana Muller (Coffee Lunch Coffee) is an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire and empower community.  She is the former President of Kauffman FastTrac (a division of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation), a global provider of training to aspiring and established entrepreneurs, providing them with the tools, resources, and networks to start and grow successful businesses. Additionally, Alana spent a number of years as an executive with Sprint Corporation serving in a variety of general management roles, including marketing, talent management, corporate strategy and wireless data product marketing.  

Today, Alana is founder and CEO of Coffee Lunch Coffee where she is a networking speaker, strategist, workshop facilitator, coach and an internationally bestselling author of Coffee Lunch Coffee: A Practical Field Guide for Master Networking, the anthology Growth – Deconstructing GRIT Collection, and a blog, CoffeeLunchCoffee.com. Her accessible, relevant, immediately actionable approach to professional networking for those interested in connecting with others, getting involved in their communities, seeking to advance their careers or looking to build social relationships, has helped thousands of people formulate a strategic mindset around Networking.  Coffee Lunch Coffee is a WBENC-Certified WBE.  

Alana is also Community Director for American Public Square at Jewell, an organization that brings together non-like-minded people to engage in civil conversation about controversial topics, for which she launched KC Common Good, now a standalone 501(c)3, designed to give all members of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area access to hope and opportunity while reducing violence.  

Alana enjoys connecting with people around the world and sharing stories on topics such as Networking, Executive Presence, and Discovering Purpose.  She is the host of Enterprise.ing podcast, a columnist for American City Business Journals’ BizWomen.com and other publications, has been a contributor to Forbes.com, The Huffington Post and CNBC, and, twice, was a featured speaker at TEDxOverlandPark.

Alana has a master’s degree in business administration with concentrations in General Management and Strategy from the University of Chicago, where she was the recipient of the Mike and Karen Herman Fellowship for Women in Entrepreneurship, and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Smith College. She is actively engaged in the community and serves on a number of corporate and volunteer boards including Oppenstein Brothers Foundation, Enterprise Bank (NASDAQ: EFSC), ISCTE International Business School (Lisbon, Portugal), Morningstar Communications, Swartz + Associates, SevenDays, Jewish Community Foundation, and Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee. Alana is the immediate past president of the Kansas Chapter of International Women’s Forum.  She is an alumna of Coro Kansas City and the Civic Council’s Kansas City Tomorrow program.  She was recognized as the 2019 JCRB|AJC Emerging Leader, the 2017 Instructor of the Year by the Turner Construction Management Program, a 2013 NextGen Leader by the Kansas City Business Journal and a 2012 Influential Woman by KC Business magazine.  Alana is a Strengthscope-certified coach.

 

Please enjoy the conversation with Alana!