We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Pluckebaum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Atlanta has over 7,000 Purdue alumni living in the greater alumni area. The ages range from recent graduates to alumni living in nursing homes. Along with the challenge of living in a large city and dealing with traffic, we face the generations differences. The older generation (baby boomers) likes mail and maybe can’t use email. The younger generation (Gen Z) doesn’t really drink and doesn’t have a Facebook. The millennials like a location to be walkable and use platforms like Discord and instagram. The Gen X are very busy with their kids and need help with using other apps. Their sole app that they are comfortable with is Facebook. So what my club is working on doing to reach all generations is have an event in different areas of the city (ex. watch party), send letters to older generation about events, link (not their yet) all platforms together, and work with Purdue Alumni Association to send emails (we can’t actually send emails due to privacy laws). We are hoping this way we can reach everyone more easily.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi! My name is Lisa Pluckebaum. I graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering. I moved around after I graduated from college while working for Whirlpool. I never liked sitting at home so in order to make friends in all the cities that I lived, I would google things that I liked. One being Purdue! I was able to meet and connect with other Purdue alumni in the cities that I lived. It allowed me to 1. make friends. 2. have people to share my love for Purdue 3. have people to watch Purdue play basketball and football. I can never just be a part of something and sit back and watch. I love to led so I started getting involved in alumni chapters in the cities that I lived. I took over Cincinnati Alumni Chapter and later Atlanta Chapter after I moved here 4 years ago. I have a passion about Purdue due to the amazing experience that I got – from education, to friends, and live experiences. Being a leader of Purdue, I’m able to share my love and spread my passion to others. Heck, my little sister also graduated from Purdue and my parents though not Purdue graduates – are football season ticket holders and huge Purdue fans.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I learned that you will never make anyone happy. I will try to make every event perfect – invites, to decorations, to getting the best speaker and cool auction baskets, but I still get someone to complain – price, food, location. So I learned that you can’t make everyone happy and to not beat myself up over it.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best way that we get new members is that personal touch. All the board members have business cards in their purses and cars. If we see someone with a Purdue shirt on – we go up and say hello. If we see a car in the grocery store parking lot, we put a card on their window shield. If we have new members add use on social, we send them a personal note. We also have a student send-off that hosts all including freshman who live at Purdue to get them excited about Purdue. It’s also the first touch point that they have to an alumni association so hopefully it was a positive one and they will find an alumni club after they graduate. A lot of times too, the parents (though not graduates) will come to some of our events.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.purdueforlife.org/clubs/atlanta/
• Instagram: @purduealumniclubatl
• Facebook: Purdue Alumni Club of Atlanta
• Linkedin: Purdue Alumni Club of Atlanta