Journal

I don’t think I follow any companies on social media, or at least not ones I can think of off the top of my head. I probably do follow a few clothing lines but my feed doesn’t show me their posts because I interact the most with memes.

I only have Instagram and a Snapchat. Technically I have a Facebook account but I haven’t logged in since middle school.

I follow a few local businesses in town and based off their social media presence they need a lot of help. One business I follow is a winery in town and they are relatively new and it is run by two older women. Needless to say they have some gaps to fill in their social media knowledge. They would benefit from a social media person.

Another one I follow is a local outdoor adventure non profit. It is a startup as well so their following is quite small. But, they are run by younger women and they use a lot of reels and engage daily on instagram. They have a nice aesthetic to their page as well, compared to the winery where the photos are all different quality and of different things.

The winery’s social media page does not discourage me from wanting to go though, what thy do post is fun and they seem genuinely excited to have opened.

This quarter was chill and easier than the last 2 which was nice. But this quarter felt more unorganized and confusing than the last. I hope that the new transition helps fix things.

To be honest I don’t think I learned very much or felt like I developed much. I think I am not getting what I want or need out of this course. This really bummed me out because Zosia Sherwood spoke so highly of the program to me but I think unfortunately we got very different experiences. When I told her what had changed she was shocked. Hopefully redoing the program or changing the focus will help. Or at least give students in-class work time. Asking questions over text is terrible. Usually, when we ask questions we need an answer right away and having to wait is awful. providing in-class work time would seriously help students. We would be able to ask questions in person as they came up which in turn might produce better projects. I hope you guys really consider this; even if it was one day a week for half the period.

I will take forward the confidence in myself after this quarter.

I will be dropping the course in the fall. Thanks for the confidence and the new friends/relations! <3

My highlight was the warmer weather and not having to walk home in the dark this quarter!

Take care all.

Pitch went well. I liked having it spilt between 2 rooms. It made it less intimidating. I think I did fine on pitch. I always like the E1 pitches, they are so creative and fun. I like the sustainability twist this quarter… provided them with more direction I think.

My phone might have cut out during the Q and A part but that’s fine, there is nothing I can do about that. I wish I had gone first because I really hate waiting. I also wish it was more organized about where I was supposed to send my pitch. I sent it everywhere until finally I was told I sent it to the right place. Also, Zoom wasn’t working for the mentors which was a pain. I just wanted to present and be done.

Not much resonated from pitch day. I basically just got a “job-well-done” from the mentors and that was it. Suppose it made me feel good though which was nice. 🙂

The event was cool. But it felt like the E2s were hardly in charge and had little to no say about what was going to happen. It seemed like they had so many restrictions on what they could do. It definitely felt like it was for E and I, not the E2s. I didn’t really connect with anyone, but I did talk to one gal selling plant cuttings. I wasn’t sure what was happening for the most part. I volunteered and sat at the front and welcomed people.

Support I need for wrapping up VP2 is someone explaining to me what a customer report is. No one told me what it is or what it should include. I wish things were explained more in this class. I know entrepreneurship is supposed to be kind of confusing and you’re supposed to figure it out on your own but this is a class, not the real world (yet). I think more guidance and mentoring from the teaching team and actual in-class work time would do wonders to correct this.

Something cool… I am helping put on the Naked Bike Ride this June! We are bringing it back after 2 years of the pandemic. It is on June 5th and is apocalypse themed haha. Should be a good time :))). Also, no one said anything but I guess my photos aren’t working, sorry ’bout that. But that’s okay I only have one more journal left.

I was not at class this week. My roommate went missing late (or early?) Monday morning and we only found out she was safe on Thursday afternoon. Very stressful and emotional week.

To prepare for final pitch I am going to ask my fellow E3s to take a look at my pitch deck and give me some feedback.

From Sawyer’s presentation, I learned a lot. I think it is essential for entrepreneurs to know what all the options are and how they are different. I learned that I will probably want to be a sole proprietorship and maybe later turn to an LLC depending on what I decide to start up.

I liked the Kahoot she made. I thought it was a cool way to test what we learned. I liked that she gave us real-world examples and asked us what kind of business it was. Much more fun than just filling in the blanks or something like that.

I really enjoyed the diversity in the presentations. I liked how Karl and Meg had us meditate but allowed us to do whatever that meant to us. My dad is a Buddhist and he meditates crisis cross on a pillow with incense and everything. So I’ve always thought that that is what meditation is. I liked messing with the legos and just allowing myself to build and let my thoughts come and go. It was nice to focus on something small and creative with rhyme or reason.

Adian’s presentation was really helpful. I hate the fonts that canvas has and google docs, I’m excited to use Dafont for my final pitch. I couldn’t really understand how to get the free canva thing but I bet if I ask he would help me out.

I think Bryan taking us outside was such a nice change in pace for the class. everyone seems to really like nature and I think it was really nice to go appreciate it as a class. I mean everyone raised their hand when he asked if we believe that nature is healing. That’s the thing I love about Western. Just about everybody really appreciates and takes care of the nature around here.

Change leadership went really well. Not a lot came up for me. It was nice to think through a couple of ideas using the BIC. It allowed me to see all the things I would need to make some of those ideas happen. I also liked that it was a bit shorter than some of the other ones too haha.

Outside of E&I, I haven’t been doing a whole lot so besides school and chilling with friends. So here is a photo of my dog with a fish-eye lens.

The evidence pitch was good. I feel like confident in what I am doing. I don’t remember getting a lot of constructive feedback, mostly just clarifying questions and reassurance I am on the right track. I really enjoyed creating the pitch deck for it. I am just going to continue doing what I have been doing. I know quite a bit about my customer base. I still have more questions that I want to ask. I know that for most people spirituality is a very personal thing and represents a lot of different things to everyone who considers themself spiritual. They also prefer to practice spirituality alone because of this. I also know that this is not an end to a meet for most. It is a lifestyle and mindset more than anything it seems.

For most of the quarter, I have been sticking with interview questions that all relate to one broader question. I then make a vpc for that set of questions and test cards. I feel that having larger curiosities allows me to get into the nitty gritty of them and ask detailed questions to really find out what people think, feel, and do. I want to create more surveys and I want to find more people. They feel hidden… or maybe I am hiding.

I have to be honest I am feeling really tired. I feel like I am just going through the motions. I don’t feel I am learning too many new skills and I feel a little stagnant. I am also really ready for summer. My brain is burning out. But I feel like I can still do things I can be proud of. Having summer to look forward to as well as my 20th birthday is the light at the end of the tunnel.

outside of E&I…. I found this memory in Google photos of a painting I was working on. Also featuring my huge aloe plant that has since been reduced to a measly 3 leaves thanks to the cats I live with :/

The JTBD workshop was good. I feel that I don’t learn a lot of new things when we do these workshops though. But it is good practice. It feels repetitive. I wonder if there is a way to teach the upper E levels different things or a more in depth lesson so we don’t get board or burnt out from the same workshops and information. I don’t have any questions I can think of. I think my JTBD for my venture works. But it feels confusing to not be offering a product. I also don’t have a lot of information right now so I had to dig deep to come up with one.

I got a lot of good feedback on interview questions to ask for my VP2. People seemed to think it was a good community to focus on. Got Your Back Consulting was good. I felt like I had some useful information for people, especially the event team. The even quarter is really stressful. Though for some people I didn’t have anything to say because it felt like they knew what they were doing, or I wasn’t very familiar with that topic. I think ugly but tasty is really useful but it felt too soon to have it this early in the quarter. I wish I would have had more time to prepare and get better more useful feedback after I had gotten more information. I had only 5 interviews I was basing everything on so I feel like if it was later by even a week, I’d have had more to present and work with.

VP2 is going well. I like how chill the project is this quarter after the event. I really enjoy working by myself at my own pace and only having to worry about one person. Though I am confused about what exactly I am supposed to be doing. Am I supposed to just be getting as much research done as I can? Or is there a question I am supposed to be trying to answer? If so, I don’t know what that question is. I would love some clarification. Also, I don’t really know if some of the rubric for the evidence pitch applies to the E3s since we don’t have a product to talk about… The evidence pitch feels like it is going to be like rehearsal for the E3s since our whole pitch is evidence anyway. I am interested to see how that will work. I don’t want to present the same evidence twice…

I have not started the change leadership assignment yet. I enjoy doing them. I think they are interesting. But sometimes I don’t understand how it applies to entrepreneurship or why we do them in this class and not a different class like the class “innovating you” or something like that.

This weekend was really fun. I got to hang out with my friends and be weird. It was nice. I think I am getting really burned out from school, I am ready for a long long weekend (summer). The pic below is not a recent photos but it is a photo of my friends.

For my poa, I tried to set out an easy-to-follow and achievable timeline for myself. I took a break over the weekend to rejuvenate mostly because I was sick all week and I really needed the rest. But I think it was a smart move. I haven’t made any progress on my venture yet because I took time for myself which I have been learning to prioritize lately. I know I will be able to do a good job on this project this quarter so I feel okay about starting a smidge later.

To stay accountable since it is just myself, I will check it weekly to make sure I am following it close enough and I am on track to meet deadlines. I may even have my roommates help keep me accountable by doing homework with them.

Overall I feel good about VP2. I like the concept of just learning about my customer instead of immediately trying to come up with a product while also trying to learn about my customer. But, I am a little confused about how to approach my target market. I think my customer/group of people are very spread out and don’t necessarily have a huge community. A big challenge for me will be finding people to interview. I feel good about my plan to get there though!

I think the space we were in was super cool. I like the idea of having a place strictly for collaboration and networking. I drive by that building all the time, so it was cool to finally go inside. I don’t think I can afford a membership there but hopefully, I can use her as a resource anyway.

This weekend I spent time at home and in a hammock with my friends. I feel like I have been doing things nonstop. Plan after trip, after outing after hike blah blah blah. It was nice to just relax and recharge. I hope everyone can take some time to do the same!

This quarter was good! The prompt felt more challenging. But I am feeling very burned out from fall and winter quarters I feel like I don’t have a lot of motivation right now. It was hard to find a problem to fix. I don’t observe a lot of disability or accessibility problems on a day-to-day basis. My team was good this quarter. I definitely think we could have met more often and maybe tasks could have been more equally distributed but overall it went fine :). Every quarter I learn more about entrepreneurship and what means to find quality evidence.

What I have learned about myself is that I need to put less on my plate. I also think I need to speak up a bit more as well. I can only do so much and it is important to work with my team!

For my next venture project, I will listen to my needs and work on getting quality evidence from my customer as well as learn more about them in the customer deep dive which I am excited to work on. This is important to me because it will help me build skills so in the future I don’t get taken advantage of and will help me build more confidence as well. Diving deep into the customer is important because it can be tricky to know if you really know all there is to know about the customer or not. It is important to make sure you are giving the customer exactly what they want and not shoving something down their throats.

Something extra:

I went camping on the beach this weekend. It was beautiful and so nice to get out of town for a bit!

How are things?

Things with my team are good! Slow-moving but that is okay. I am not feeling very motivated this quarter, I think it is burnout and the nice weather. I feel like I don’t have a lot of energy. But at the same time, I have offered to do a lot for our group so far. I’ll get it done. I am excited to work on a solo venture soon though. While I really enjoy team projects and getting to know folks, I am eager to get started on something personal and work with myself.

As for evidence-based entrepreneurship, I feel like I have a better grasp of how to write interview questions and how to provoke more answers. Honestly, most of this has come from my journalism class where that is a huge part of the course. I think we have found a cool place where accessibility could be increased on campus. We have found that many students, ourselves included, have a hard time finding opportunities for jobs, scholarships, internships, etc. I like our idea so far.

I feel like I need to take on less in group projects. this happened last quarter too when I got anxious things weren’t going to get done so I put a lot on my plate. Partly because I didn’t want to feel bossy and ask people to do things, but partly because I knew what I wanted it to look like so I just decided to go ahead and do it myself. I think I need to develop more trust in my team members. This will be a work in progress. It is nothing personal for my team whatsoever just to be clear. It is my own anxious brain that decides that I should just do everything.

This weekend I went to see Tyler The Creator in Seattle with some friends. it was a great show. I don’t really listen to him but I love his personality and the energy he brings to the stage.