Category: Traction Journal Fall 2021

How did this quarter go for you?

I thought it went great, I ended up pivoting from my Kombucha Creations venture, but I feel that I learned a lot and it served a very valuable lesson to me.

What did you love?

Being able to work on my own and pursue my own venture, I am more of an independent worker.

What do you wish would have gone differently?

I wish I could have made a venture work this quarter to carry out with the next 2 quarters.

How has your definition of an entrepreneur changed since the beginning of the quarter?

I don’t think it has changed too much, I feel that I have a good understanding on the definition of entrepreneurship being an E4.

Something outside of E&I this week

Lots of work preparing for finals and wrapping up some projects! I had a fun week before at home spending time with family and friends.

What did you see that you loved at pitches this week?

I really liked hearing the E1s pitch and I was glad to finish my pitch!

What went well this quarter?

I thought traction for my project went great. I started off strong and figured out what I wanted to do, started to work towards my goals. Then in the end realized it was not going to work out. Learned a lot this quarter.

Outside of E&I

Had a great week back home with my family celebrating thanksgiving, got to see my grandparents for the first time in a while which was nice and got to hang out with my friends back home!

Between now and Final Pitches, what traction steps do you need to make?

Not much, I am pitching tomorrow and feel prepared. One thing I will be changing is to make the expenses section more detailed so it is easier to digest for the audience. Then after pitches I just need to do a little more drive work.

Outside of E&I this week

This week was pretty good, didn’t do anything crazy during the weekdays just a lot of work and school work. I have been doing a lot more work with NFT trading which has been a lot of fun. Then on Friday and Saturday I hung out with some friends and housemates!

 What are you going to do to exceed the standards this quarter?

• I am going to focus on finishing strong. I think a lot of people feel this way and I certainty do, that you start the quarter strong and start to get overwhelmed as the quarter progresses and then you fall of track a little. That is why I think it is just real important to focus up the last month of each quarter.

Why does it matter to you?

• Why does finishing strong matter to me? I care a lot about my work and I like to follow through with my commitments, weather its school or anything in life.

What jumps out to you in the VP2 rubric?

• I guess not having to do a BIC is nice.

Where could you use support?

• Not too sure where I could use support, If I ever have a question the teaching team is very helpful.

What did you learn in shift and share- what did you love, what would you have loved to see?

• I did my presentation on stock trading which I enjoyed to do, and I also enjoyed hearing Lacoya’s presentation.

What did I do this week outside of E&I?

• Not too much, was really busy with school work and kombucha town, got to go out Friday night with some friends which was a lot of fun.

What did you love this week?  

I enjoyed the fellow presentations on Wednesday! I also liked going over my POA on Monday, it was reassuring to see I was ahead of my plan.

What resonated with you in workshops?

Listening to Jono talk about his journey during the fellow presentations, he had a lot of setbacks in his journey, but it did not discourage him from pushing forward.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

I will look into setting higher standards for myself in the winter quarter POA.

Outside of E&I this week

I kept myself busy this week with work and school. I created an Instagram for my venture, kombucha_creations, and I got a lot of positive feedback from my friends and peers. I have also developed a full business plan to follow through with next quarter to start selling my kombucha, currently in the talks with Chris from Kombucha Town to work out a deal in which I can list the Kombucha Town facility as my “Plant Location” on the food processing license, if I can do this then that will be my most important advancement in this venture, so far.

What did you love this week?  

I enjoyed class on Monday with the random pitches, I also enjoyed the guest speaker.

What resonated with you in workshops?

Getting better at pitching in person, always good practice.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

Did not learn anything new for the most part, so if anything I would just carry that momentum from pitching in class into my final pitch.

What did you learn in shift and share- what did you love, what would you have loved to see?

(N/A) We didn’t do shift and share this week

Something outside of E&I this week

I started a new part time job at kombucha town to further progress my fermentation skills, also had a lot of fun this weekend dressing up for Halloween.

Who have you reached out to for resources and support?

• I happened to befriend the CEO/Owner of kombucha town when I was first getting my supplies, he gave me some free scoby for brewing, as well as his phone number to call him for interviews or tips. I called him the first time earlier this week on Wednesday and he offered me a part-time job at kombucha town, so I can learn to brew/ferment properly.

How are you doing with evidence and customer discovery? Need support? If so, who will you connect with?

• Don’t need any support. I feel great, I have my work cut out for me I just need to keep working to deliver through on my overall plan.

What have you learned in the last week about coaching?

• In class? Don’t think I learned anything regarding coaching. I feel that I have a good grip on the class material as an E4 now.

What might you apply to your relationships?

• Within my venture? I will show that I am a hard worker and eager to learn/create.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

• The only thing I will apply is the Design Thinking model we briefly touched on at the end of class on Wednesday. I will design my pitch around it.

How have you deepened your understanding of business research, empathy and alignment?

I cannot say that I have learned anything new in this class that would deepen my understanding in those 3 categories, just because this is my 4th time going through the class work. I feel that I am deepening my understanding in all three of those categories by pursuing my venture project.

How does IdeaGrit and Major Definite Purpose resonate with you right now?

Reminds me of what to stay focused on within my own venture and recognize the importance of certain aspects more than others.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

Get a good JTBD statement down for my VPC, as well as something to reference the rest of this year while pursuing my project.

How are you feeling in the process of self discovery and venture formation?

• I am feeling good, I have a better idea of what I want to do for my venture and I plan to get started on it more this week.

What have you learned about SWOT and Pestle?

• I can’t say I have learned too much more than what I already knew. I actually just finished going over SWOT and PESTLE again my management class, so I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of both models.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

• When we were talking about what sparks us I thought on that a little further and even went into more detail about the sparks with professor Sherwood in our coaching meeting, these new sparks that I am starting to recognize is what I will take with me going into this new venture.

Something I did outside of E&I this week.

• I was able to make some time on Wednesday to get outside and go for a hike which was really nice, and one of my housemates parents came to visit and brought his dog up to hang out with us for the weekend which was cool.

How are you preparing for success this quarter?

• Making sure I stay on top of all my work, this class is not my main challenge, but keeping all my other classes in check while doing work in this class will be the main challenge. I just need to study a lot.

What do you expect for E-level  journey this quarter?

• To hopefully come up with a great idea for my E4-E6 venture.

How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?

• Not too sure, this is my 4th VP1. As much as I enjoyed it, I cannot say I really learned too much new information this past week.

What did you love this week?

• Pitching in person was a lot of fun and this quarters VP1 prompt was cool.

What would you have loved to have achieved this week?

• I would have liked to be a little more prepared for our pitch.

 Please share your personal experiences and the lessons you learned from completing VP1 this quarter?

• That pitching in person is fun! I have only pitched online, so this was a great learning experience.

How may they help you have a successful and fulfilling VP2?

• They? I am not too sure. I have my times scheduled with Art to help me with my VP2 which will be a lot of help.

How will you put that into action?

• By going to my meetings and staying focused on my school work, no slacking off.

What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?

• Coming up with an idea for VP2, I fear it will be hard to go all in on a venture with my current work load of 19 credits this quarter. Brainstorming is next.

Something outside of E&A that I did this week?

• I just got back to Bellingham last week and it has been a lot of fun to see all my friends.