The Entrepreneurial Adventures of Gabe Meyer

Which class day did you gain the most traction?

I would say the class with Arthi and the class with Jonathon were some of the most impactful class days for me as far as personal growth. I would say on both those days I got some really good notes and really good insight from people with much more experience than myself. I also really enjoyed the class day that Kristina, Kaeylyn, and Katie pitched their projects as one larger project. That day there seemed to be tons of really good nuggets of information. I also really liked that we were required to take notes on the project but as a mind map. I recently was looking back on my class notes and the mind map was working to revamp my memory of the presentation despite it not being dense with words like most of my other notes.

At what point in the quarter did you feel the most empowered?

A time this quarter I felt the most empowered would certainly have to be during my VP2 project. This first project without guidance from upper E levels was a rough ride, but it ended up turning out wonderfully. I remember a specific point during that project when it became apparent that no one was going to step up and take the leadership role for that project as soon as we needed them to. It was then that I took it upon myself to really lock in and practice my leadership skills. In no time at all (especially thanks to Isaiah) we had our project rolling and back on track. I felt proud, excited, and happy I could be a positive impact on the team, and that all combined was definitely an empowering moment.

Think back to a time when you felt the most challenged in this class? How did that challenge make you feel?

The time I felt the most challenged in this class was actually the moments right before the time I felt most empowered. When we were given our VP2 at first it was very relaxing. It seemed like we had a really cool group and we thought three weeks seemed like plenty of time. However, as the due date quickly approached the stress levels increased even quicker. It was very scary, we seemed completely unorganized, and it seemed like there might be no hope. Soon after I had the opportunity to step up, we got back on track, and just like that we were no longer stressed and feeling much better about the project. I would say that challenge that I faced in this class sucked. However, I would also say that facing that challenge brought out a better version of myself. That pressure lead me to discover skills I didn’t realize I had and significantly furthered my self-discovery.

What content within the Learning Toolkit in the E&I website would you like to know more about?

At this current time, there is not anything in the Learning Toolkit I would like to know more about.

Reflect on your interview process:

• Drop a few of your questions here:

1) How do you feel about the current food waste situation? Do you notice it as a problem? Why or why not?

2) Would you be willing to purchase edible food from establishments that would otherwise get thrown out? Why or why not?

3) Would you consider the food options on campus to be satisfactory? If so, why or why not?

What were some of the answers? 

1) I notice that we waste a lot of food, especially in restaurants, but I don’t personally see it as a problem since there isn’t a food shortage at the moment that would require us to be more mindful of our wastefulness.

2) Yes because that would decrease food waste and it would provide me with more options other than on-campus food.

3) I consider them satisfactory for the purpose of being the last resort option. If you don’t have the resources to eat off-campus, such as a car, or if you have limited resources when doing so, then I think the food is fine. But if I reasonably had any other option to eat somewhere besides the dining halls, I would.

What did you learn?

We learned that most people do see food waste as a problem and believe that it would be a better use for it to get repurposed. We can also draw that most people do not understand the potential impacts that food waste can have, such as climate and economic effects.

Next, we learned that the majority of people would be willing to buy food that would otherwise go to waste. We learned that people not only would be happy with more affordable options but also with feeling like they are contributing to a good cause by reducing food waste.

After this, we learned that most people are moderately satisfied with the on-campus options but do not prefer them. We also learn that one of the main things holding people back from eating from places other than the on-campus options is not having the resources such as a car or money.

From this, we can draw that college students would be a viable customer basis to target for an anti-food waste corporation that would operate to provide students with unused additional food at a lower cost.

Do you feel like your interviews were successful? Why or why not?

I do not personally believe these interviews were a success. The interviews got to a point where they became redundant. It seemed some of the questions were wasted by asking similar questions to others. This made the interviews a very difficult source to pull from when collecting evidence which was not helpful and something I would not qualify as a success.

What would you do differently next time?

Next time I would think more deeply about the questions before creating them. Really trying to understand the path that the question will lead you on and the potential answers you might get. Then think about how those answers could assist in your venture or neglect to assist your venture. Also, I think creating interview questions solo or in small pairs rather than with a whole group might be a more effective method at least for pre-prototype questions.

If you guys would like to please let me know how your interviews went and any of your methods for success when conducting interviews!

What are you super proud of in your venture project right now?

As of now, I am super proud of the idea we came up with for our venture. I really like that our idea seems like it really fills a lot of gaps and would be utilized if we were to actually turn it into a reality. Another thing I like is how it solves multiple problems which makes the idea much more justifiable. Sadly as of now I can’t really say I am super proud of the effort we have been putting in as a whole team but I am proud of how our team all seems to get along.

What blocks or challenges are you experiencing with your venture project? (interviews, canvases, secondary research, or prototypes)

I am really finding prototyping to be difficult. We are making our main focus for our venture an app so I feel a bit confused as to where I can create app design prototypes. I think it was also a bit difficult coming up with what I feel would be an exceptional interview/survey question. Another thing I am finding difficult is pushing out the surveys without becoming a survey spammer. I don’t want people to just start blowing off my surveys but I do want to reach a large audience to get the best data so that is a bit of a struggle.

Regarding Wednesday’s class, what category are you struggling with the most within your venture project? What traction did you make or not make during the mini-pitches? 

I was really struggling with the order of operation for every aspect of these ventures. I was a bit confused on what would be the best method or order to complete the tasks as well as figuring out what tasks are best paired together. However, after a bit of thinking, analyzing, and consulting with the class on Wednesday I now have it mostly figured out.

What resources could you reach for on the website or other platforms to help you solve any problems you are experiencing. 

I think I could look at all of the learning toolkit parts, I haven’t ever fully dived into the learning toolkit but I know there is useful information stored in there that I should review a bit closer at some point. However, I would say the weekly discussions definitely help with this when they force us to watch videos from the toolkit. That way we can be completing an assignment while reviewing the videos rather than being expected to just create and delegate additional time to them.

Describe your plan of action for the next week.

My plan of action for the next week is to lock back in. We are reaching the end of the second quarter and the school exhaustion is starting to kick in. Not to mention taking a trip to Oregon mid-quarter was a bit out of my comfort zone and surely did throw me off my rhythm a bit. However, as far as next week I plan to focus heavily on sleep, meditation, and exercise. This will fuel my mind and body so that I can work more productively. We still have quite a bit to do for this venture not to mention other classes so I will need to be on top of my game to accomplish all of that and for me, focusing on my health first seems to be the best method to achieve that.

Reflect on the IDI workshop from Monday:

• Did your results surprise you?

Yes, my results most definitely surprised me. I don’t know if I was just too vague on answering some of the questions or if this is a valid assessment but I scored much lower than expected. This really surprised me because after living in another country for two years I would think that I would not still be in such a low phase of the Intercultural Development Continuum. However, while living in Panamá it often seemed a lot like the U.S. even though it was qualified as a developing country. I think this could definitely attribute towards the much lower-than-expected score. Even though I was living outside of the U.S. it didn’t always seem like I was that far away.

• What feelings came up for you during the IDI workshop?

The IDI workshop really had me thinking about all of the intercultural experiences I’ve had. I was feeling proud for our class that we were taking this into consideration but also slightly bummed that Americans need this direct tutoring on intercultural behavior. This is especially embarrassing for our nation when the U.S. is supposed to be a mixing pot. Often instead what seems to happen is it just becomes a segregated mixing pot where not much mixing can take place. I do wonder though, what someone’s score who is from another country and has lived in that other country all their life would look like?

• What was your biggest takeaway from that day? Why did it resonate?

My biggest takeaway from that day was that no matter where you are on the Intercultural Development Continuum we all can still improve. This takeaway was only enhanced after reviewing my scores where I was placed much lower than previously expected. I think this resonated with me because of how much we covered what the transformations look like between each stage. It also really resonated with me because it is often common that we overestimate our abilities and unsurprisingly this is somewhat of a similar situation.

Reflect on your experience at the E4 Shift N Share presentations:

• What is your experience with mind-mapping? How did it feel to use that to take notes? 

I wouldn’t say I have immense amounts of experience with mind mapping, but I am certainly not the least experienced. Personally, I love mind mapping as a way to take notes. It is not often that I utilized it but when I do, it makes note-taking much more fun and relaxing. I think one of the main reasons I really like it is also because it creates more of a visual component to the notes. Rather than all of the words being organized line by line on regular paper mind mapping provides an image with lines of thoughts. This is really powerful for me.

• How do you learn best? Visually? Orally?

One of the reasons why I’d say this is so powerful for me is because I most definitely am a visual learner. When I was in third grade I got pulled out of school to be homeschooled. This was because after struggling with school and then being assessed by multiple psychologists I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD. Taking me out of school helped me to catch back up through private teaching with my mom. One thing she always tried to do while teaching me was to provide a visual aspect. This is because of those diagnosed with dyslexia, about 85% of them think mostly in pictures. As a result, I learn best visually.

• Do you use a specific method of time management? If so, what is it? If not, how might you integrate one?

My method of time management at the time is a little bit more flexible. I have a monthly calendar with all of my class times as well as any specific appointments. I also have a planner where I write down due dates and anything I need to do and what day I think I need to do it on. After that, each day I will try to write out a schedule on my whiteboard of where I need to be and when. On this whiteboard, I will also write down the assignments I need to complete or at least start on for that day. This way by only having my actual classes and appointments limited to times I don’t get overwhelmed about not being on schedule with the rest of the work I need to complete that day.

• What habits are you trying to build in your life? What challenges are coming up with that? 

The core habit I am trying to build in my life right now is the habit of having positive mental health. The way I am achieving this goal or my “system” is to stay consistent with meditation, exercise, and sleep. I believe these are the core three for me since it seems like the habits of eating healthy and drinking enough water seem to already be thoroughly implemented into my natural rhythms, even if I don’t stay consistent 100% of the time with those. Specifically for each of these three subgoals, my goals are to meditate at least five times a week, work out at least three times a week, and sleep anywhere between 8.5 to 9 hours each night. The biggest problem I have run into with each of these is just a feeling of “there isn’t enough time.” I have recently been really combating this by trying to make an emphasis on prioritizing these aspects of my life. The reason I am doing this relates back to our talk a week ago with Arathi where her main point that I took away was, you will complete your best work when you are at your best mentally.

• Have you ever felt imposterism? If so, explain! How have you dealt or not dealt with that?

I don’t believe I have felt imposter syndrome, I do not feel I am currently in a position to be a victim of imposter syndrome. However, I may have experienced it in the past and just not noticed it or I might experience it more severely in the future.

BMC

• Reflecting on the BMC workshop, evaluate your journey. Sample evocative questions are below;
• what surprised you? How has it changed after the workshop? Where would you like to grow? How did the process go for you?

The process of the BMC workshop went well for me. Discovering the correct order of the BMC was a bit of a surprise but I think that was mostly from not understanding clear definitions for each piece of the BMC. After the BMC workshop was finished I feel I had a slightly better understanding of the definitions of each term as well as why they are placed where they are. It was definitely a surprise at first to see “customer segments” placed first but after further explanation, it made much more sense. Our group had the VPC placed first which made sense to us because we thought that was the base of understanding your customer. However, now after understanding that customer segments are finding out who your market will be and who you are creating value for it makes much more sense. You can’t create a value proposition canvas if you don’t know who you are aiming your product for.

Arathi

• What was your biggest takeaway?
• What is coaching to you?
• How has coaching worked for you in the program? Has it worked for you? If it hasn’t what would you love to see? What could it look like?

My biggest takeaway from Arathi was that good self-care equals good quality work. Arathi really emphasized the importance of taking care of your mental health to produce the best quality work you can. I think a key question she asked us was, “what kind of work do you do when you are in a good mood? Now compare that to the work you do while in a bad mood.” When Arathi said this it really stuck with me and had me thinking. I think this is a very important aspect to take into consideration that often gets overlooked when trying to be the most productive and the most successful. Coaching to me is providing consistent support, being there to guide when necessary, and leading by example. Whenever I’d have coaches for sports it always stood out to me when the coach would actually get on the field or the court and run the drills with us even just for a little bit. Not commanding your team to do anything you wouldn’t do is a crucial aspect of being a good coach for me. When coaches exhibit this behavior it appears to me as the sign of a true leader. This action alone builds trust, builds rapport, and builds a bond between the coach and the whole team. Coaching in this program has seemed a bit scattered. One thing I’ve been beginning to notice more recently is that the coaches within this program are here but you first must seek them out to receive any sort of guidance. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it promotes the practice of self-advocating however, more structure implemented with the coaches in this program would be a pleasant change to see.

Reflect on Jonathan Bremer’s presentation about Komodo Boat covers?

• What did you love?
• Any thing that you would argue?
• Would you like more presentations like this?

I loved how chill and friendly Jonathan was. I really liked how open he was with talking about his venture. I also really liked that he served as a realistic embodiment of an entrepreneur for the class. I thought his brand seemed really cool too. it actually had me loving his product by the end of it even though I don’t have a boat or the product in hand!

There is nothing I would argue, except that…

Yes, I would love more presentations like this. I thought it was really cool getting to hear about Jonathan’s journey and the path that he took. I feel like it is really valuable to get to speak with entrepreneurs and understand the path they take/took. I feel this value would only be enhanced by more presentations like this because it would give us the chance to compare and contrast amongst the entrepreneurs currently in the field and extract our favorite methods they used or just their most effective methods and strategies.

Think back to Jonathan’s thoughts about the difference between a small business owner.

• What do you think the difference is? 
• Is there one?

This question seems a bit vague since I don’t really know what I am supposed to be comparing the small business owner too. However, when comparing small business owners to individual entrepreneurs, it seems small business owners would have more stress and much more management responsibility working with a small group of people versus just being able to do everything solo and only having to depend on oneself. When comparing small business owners to large corporations it also seems like it might be more stressful and more work because the structure of a larger business is not already put in place. Small business owners are also more likely to struggle because they don’t have as much traction as larger more developed corporations that might even have small or large monopolies. So yes, there does seem to be a difference between small business owners and large corporation owners or even just individual entrepreneurs.

As you may have noticed, the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC) is a very important piece in distilling interview data into something digestible and clear.

• Reflect on your experience with the VPC
• Do you like it?
• Does it help you?
• How is the VPC process going in to VP2?
• Does your product side of the VPC match your customer side?

Yes, I actually do really like the VPCs. I feel like they are not too much work and easily put all your info into something that you can understand quickly and easily. It has helped me quite a bit. It is a good way to layout the customer’s problems and really develop that empathy to solve those problems for them which in turn will result in a more successful business that has a realistic fit. The VPC process in VP2 has gone well, there were definitely a few issues with fully understanding the VPCs initially but as of now, I feel I have a decently solid grasp on VPCs. However, for our project VPCs were a bit difficult because we were conflicted about whether to focus on the homeless who will be brought into our program (almost as if our program is the product) or to focus on the actual customer that will be consuming our product to fund the whole program. For this project VPCs, we decided to focus primarily on the homeless since that was the initial focus for the project. After completing our VPC, yes, the product side does match up with the customer side pretty smoothly. This was really satisfying to see while and after completing the VPC.

As you plan out success for this quarter, what does that mean to you personally? With your team?

Personally, success this quarter means being able to comfortably accomplish all of my goals. Success this quarter to me means forming new, sturdy habits to cultivate victories. Success with my team is being able to fluently communicate with one another as well as effectively distribute and accomplish work. Success with my team means abiding by deadlines and not just pushing things off for later. As a whole, success this quarter is getting in a groove that compliments my life and my goals.

Reflect on your experience at our field trip

• What did you learn? 

I learned that interviews can be hard to come up with questions for on the fly. I learned that Bellingham does not seem to have too much easily available assistance to offer homeless communities. I also learned more about my teammates, I learned where they are from, what they want to do, what direction they are pushing their lives in. I learned a lot just from one short field trip, its inspiring to think about what I might learn within the course of this entire quarter or even this entire minor as a whole.

• Where did you go? Who did you talk to? What did you see, hear, and experience?

For our team, we are focused on poverty and on the homeless problem. For us, there was no better way to empathize with this issue than by taking a trip down to the Opportunity Council and Lighthouse Mission. This brought us to some sketchy, but also beautiful areas of Bellingham. Here we found a fair amount of homeless people whom we were a bit too afraid to talk to due to their aggressive seeming nature. But we also ran into some really great people with really inspiring stories. Upon arrival to Light House Mission, we met Randy, a worker for Lighthouse. At first, we were greeted with glares and confused expressions but as soon as he opened the door it felt like nothing more than talking to an old friend. He told us the story of his life and how he was once on the street much like the people he now strives to help. Randy gave us good insight and perspective that none of our group members would have been capable of supplying. Even though it was a long walk through the cold and we didn’t pull too many interviews from it I believe the trip was very worth it. We got more insight and perspective at first just by immersing ourselves in the typical setting of our customers. We then furthered that insight and empathy immediately by talking to the right people.

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• Has your perspective of interviews changed?

I wouldn’t say my perspective on interviews has drastically changed but I will say it has gotten a bit more enhanced. I understand the importance of asking the right questions. I also would say I understand the importance of interviewing the right people. One can work smarter, or one can work harder. I feel this trip gave me the experience I needed to understand how to apply that to interviews. You could interview a hundred people and have millions of questions, but if those aren’t the right questions for the right people those interviews are going to be much less likely to support you with the information you need.