Category: Fall 2020

Last Post of Fall 2020

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How did this quarter go for you? What did you love? What do you wish would have gone differently?

This quarter was kind of like my own personal hell. I constantly was confused and turned around in where I wanted to be and what I needed to be doing. I understand the idea of “don’t steal someone else’s struggle” but honestly a little push or some ideation couldn’t have hurt me that much. But I also think I struggled so much because I didn’t have a team or an idea I was overly passionate about. I fell into a rut and by the time I came out I was already half way through the quarter. So, yeah, I have been overwhelmed and kind of shot from ever having to do this again. But the next quarter is already sneaking up on us, so I am going to get myself ready and set up for success.

What did I love? I loved the connection I got to my E level. It was so incredible to connect with other entrepreneurs that are working on their own projects, but supporting one another. It was amazing, and made me smile on so many days that it had been difficult to get out of bed. I also loved the speaker series. That was so good. Hearing and connecting to people that have already gone out into the world and done incredible things as entrepreneurs is something that inspires me every time I heard them.

Different? I would have joined a team and let myself be a team player again and not the ideator. I also would have changed the timeline for the E4 exam. Holding that immediately after VP1 means that none of us had the chance to get started on our own ventures in a real capacity until weeks 3 or 4. I also would make sure that the traction journal groups are running smoothly. As I write this post I have never had any of my members interact with any of my posts. And to be honest, that really sucks. Why am I writing this and asking for feedback and connection if no one is ever going to ready it? Another thing I would change is making a place to connect and get to know the other E levels and their projects. I had no idea what any one was doing and I would have loved to hear about the cool projects that people were doing way before now. There are so many things that I would love to adapt and change in the program. And there are even more that I would have changed in what I did, but at the end of the day I am proud of what I learned about myself and the amount of work it took me to get here. So thank you for the amazing quarter, I’ll see you again in 2021!

One Week Left

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What did you see that you loved at pitches this week? What went well this quarter?

I loved seeing the first ventures that my fellow E4s put together. We all were on our own for the first time in the minor and that felt like a special moment. I also loved seeing how and what the E1s put together. I guess overall I was just excited to see what everyone in the quarter had put together. It felt like this was the first time I had heard and seen any of the projects outside my E level’s.

As for what went well, ummm right now it didn’t feel like anything went well. The only thing I can think that went well was the increase in connection and support I felt from my E level. After the last quarter I am so glad I got to create that event with them, but working as colleagues in a larger organization in different department helping each other out, feels way more natural. I am really enjoying the dynamic our team has at the moment. As for me, I am proud of how many times I got back up when I was downed. I feel battered and injured in my mind, but I was able to get up and try again each time. And that feels like the biggest accomplishment in the world right now.

Anyways, I now have the mountain of a work load to complete before VP2 is due, wish me luck!

PITCH Tomorrow

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

Between now and Pitch I need to finalize my Pitch deck, practice, and create some of the documentation for my journey. This seems overwhelming right now, as I have never Pitched on my own, and I am terrified that I forgot something. This quarter has felt like I am flying blind and just can’t seem to get my vision cleared. So putting my Pitch deck together has been a huge mess and I am more stressed than I have ever been for a presentation. I really hope I have everything together. Tomorrow I am going to practice a bit on my own and the hopefully someone in the community wants to practice together. Who knows if that can calm my nerves though. Lastly, the documentation. I think I completely forgot how much documentation we have to do in this class. I fell like it has snuck up on me, and maybe that’s because I am working all on my own this quarter. Oh well. Here’s to be proud of what I have done, no matter what happens tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

E4

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Man, if you want to know what I am proud about, check out this assignment that I completed. I am always amazed at the incredible people that I get to connect to during this project. I’ll be posting about the people I meet over the next few weeks with links to their sites and projects. I really hope that you can appreciate these wonderful people like I do. I am going to say this again, but I love this project.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oPfd9C–PS4RZgk6KPDo450keZnTP2tk?usp=sharing

 

Keep Chuggin Along!

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Let’s see what di I love this week? I loved getting to interact and watch all the different types of shift and shares there were. It was incredible getting to sit through them and just watch my amazing teammates passions come to life through the class. I also loved getting to be in a small group of students that just got some time to step aside and help each other on our projects. That was an incredible feeling and I got some amazing feedback. We all reached out and found the help that we needed at that time.

Somethings that really resonated with me from the workshops are just how you can develop skills and showcase new knowledge. There was a workshop that was purely lecture based and that was incredible. They gave so much information and I was able to understand that points that they wanted to get across. But then there was a workshop that was completely short assignment based. And as someone who learns more with the hands on approach I feel I learned more through their process. But both of those were incredibly helpful and awesome. I think this was one of the most interesting set of shift and shares that I have seen.

Moving forward with my venture, I am putting on the first event this week. So, I’m getting really prepared and making sure I have the pre-event BIC and test cards done. I really want to learn from this experience and find information to really help others. This week I really got help with putting my survey out there and know I can start into interviews as well. I am so hoping to find something valuable in my venture.

Here’s the poster for the event:

You’re INVITED!

 

Shift and Share here we come!

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I loved listening to the workshops and really getting to see some unique and different partnerships from other groups that my E level has formed before. It was also incredible to listen to the guest speaker this week. She had such passion and drive for what she was doing. It inspired me and made me want to dive into my own projects and industry to love them even more. I believe that she resonated with me more than the workshops this week did. I really did love all of class though. As for what I am going to apply to this weeks venture. Well, that would be my own work shop. I cannot wait to show it off. Zosia and I feel really confident about what we have put together.

As for what I would love to see in the future shift and shares, is more engagement and less lecture. I would also love to see things that are unique and wildly out of the box sometimes. It feels like shift and shares can get caught in a circle and you see very similar ones every quarter. I want to see more in-depth passions. But I really did think that the workshop/lectures put on were extremely helpful and created an amazing starting point for a lot of ventures.

As for things that sparked my interest this week, well that would be a secret as you will have to wait for Wednesday!

Goodness Me

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I have reached out to Meg and Sarafima during class for help. They are amazing resources and I love being able to use them and connect. I also have been really connecting with my fellow E-levels as well. They have been amazing in terms of support and connections. I will be super sad at the end of this year when we all graduate the program. As far as evidence and customer discovery, those are in the works. I need to gather a lot more interviews and connections through surveys, but I feel like I’ll come out pretty strong in terms of all of them. If I need help I will probably reach out to me E-Level and Max. I have experience working with them and getting a lot of good feedback from them.

What have I learned from this past week? That people are excited and want to participate with my ideas. They are actively searching me out and asking to connect or showing interest in the events that I want to put on. I have learned a lot about coaching as well, but more so about how to be confident and jump into a plan that is only partially formed. The background story boards take a lot to put together and working with others on them is hard. But adaption and flexibility is key.

This is late and might not be cohesive but it is here from last week. (All the wordpress site were down)

Getting Curious

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I may have panicked this week. I don’t know what I want to do or how to get there. It has been a very stressful week and I was not prepared for my brain to be do angry. But we had many sessions in which I found support and caring companions within the class. I reached out for help and people were there to listen, even if they couldn’t take away my struggle. That seems like a very large thing that I got to learn this week. It feel important and I am so thankful that I have taken to trusting the process. And so I will take my time and continue struggling towards a project that is waiting for me. I also was able to connect with multiple other students to set up interviews and create connections that I am treasuring. All this leads me to believe that I have deepened my understanding of empathy and alignment. It also helped listening to the guest speakers the last few weeks.

As for how IdeaGrit and Major Definite Purpose are sitting right now, I don’t know. I am searching to find where I fit within those and they are constantly in the back of my brain. But I don’t think I have found them yet. These are big and overarching questions that help to guide us and I am trying to use them to find my perfect fit.

As for my venture I am still searching for it. There are a lot of places of growth and pains within myself that I am exploring and searching through. We will see where I end up and I am excited to find the answers to these questions, as I am sure they will lead to many more questions. Ugly But Tasty is right on the horizon and I’m sure that I’ll have something super ugly to show, but I can’t wait to hear about the piece that spark interesting in others. So future here I come. Let’s dive into the unknown.

Here’s the song I feel right now:

A Doosie

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Hey y’all, you might know you might not, but this week we have a LOT to talk about. Let’s just say I have been feeling mighty overwhelmed and increasingly stressed from this class this week. I love ENTR, but man they don’t let anything slide and the amount of work that can be thrown at you to do within the shortest time frame possible is something I have only experienced in this class. With that in mind I hope you stick with me and let’s go on an ADVENTURE!

Prompt #1:

I am gearing myself up and trying to take care of myself so that I can power through all the online pieces of the world these days. There are planners and ideas and journals everywhere around me. They all have different purposes and some overlap, but it’s all to keep me grounded and motivated to stay engaged. As for this quarter, i expect a lot of uncertainty and change. I have no idea what I am doing with my life and COVID has thrown everything that I wanted to do out the window. So this is going to be another quarter that I just have to trust the process and know that I am being lead to somewhere I can thrive. Even if I am being lead blindfolded right now. I want to make change and create something positive and long-lasting. That being said, I believe it means that I need to take my time and learn what it is I want to create. Being patient and slow is not my speed, but I really want to find something to care about enough to give it my passion and a lot of time in my life. My sparks: global connections, listening to people and growing their passions, books, adventures, living life for the joy, animals, relationships, empathy, hope. How do I explain my life in just a few sparks. How do I narrow down my field and find the questions to ask. What problems are out there that just I can solve.

Prompt #2:

I believe I answered most of prompt 2 in my last Journal Entry, so we will be skipping this one!

Prompt #3:

Soooooo, the E4 exam. That was probably more challenging because I made it so. But it still took a lot of energy and time to dissect something that gave as little information as possible throughout. True West Ventures is an interesting deep dive, but also what the heck you have NO information online. Your business model SUCKS to research. But it was very informative into how much work I feel I need to put into any project that I care about. I really will dive as deep and as far as I can if I hold any interest in the topic at hand. As for creating a venture myself, I still feel like I have no idea where I am in a very dark forest. And SWOT and PESTLE are still fairly easy, I don’t feel that I learned anything more about how to use them from this project. What did I learn this week? I learned that even if you don’t have a fully fleshed out business venture you can still have more online than Tim. If he wants to reach out to the younger generation or the internet natives, then he needs to get himself online and active. But that’s all in the past now, I’m ready to move forward with what I did learn and make the most of this quarter.

See y’all on the flip side!

Venture Project 1 Fall 2020

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And so it begins. Hello to my new classmates and to everyone else to finds this blog, hello to you too.

I want to start off and say this community is amazing and I really want to keep it engaging and fun so if anyone has any ideas or comments please, interact with me and let’s connect!

But to move on to the topic at hand, VP1. Man it was a dozy. Every time we do this project I’m thrown and I get so much energy from the innovation and connections that we make, but it also takes every ounce of my soul. I throw everything into that project and it feels pretty good to have such a great outcome. But as we are here to talk about the learning that went on, I will dive into that. My group was high engagement and we worked out a pretty good system. It was highly effective and I was able to learn about a different side of the team as I didn’t lead this project. A piece that I wasn’t super excited about was the interviews. I am very much lacking in the department of interview and the questions you ask to get to the information that you want. I would love to get better at that and change my weakness into strength. As it turns out, I felt really good during the post-prototype interviews and feel as though I knocked them out of the park.

So what did I love, I loved my team and the work they put in. I love the idea that we came up with and the cool interviews I got to do because of it. I loved making a product whose purpose was to bring kids joy. What did I want to have this week? I would have wanted to meet with my team more and of course I would have loved to meet with them in person if we hadn’t been inside a pandemic.

As for what’s next, we’ll see. It’s quarter four for me, so I’m off to make something entirely myself and to see if I have what it takes. It’s exciting and nerve-raking, so wish me luck, and we’ll see you next week.

P.S. Here’s some sick toons I’ve been listening to this week.