Category: E & I

TRACTION JOURNAL – E4 WEEK FOUR

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Good morning/afternoon/whatever time you decided to read my week four traction journal! This week was the week where I learned all about what it means to be an E4. Meg did an awesome job of sparking curiosity in me and I’m really excited to explore some of the fields that pique my interest. I didn’t realize that we would need to have a legitimate offering by the end of this quarter so I think I might pivot in my thinking for my project idea. I think it would be really fun to plan and host a rave. Let me know your thoughts!

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

I’m not really sure that I have, I feel like I’m a week behind everyone else in the class right now. I had to take the E4 exam and so none of my attention has been on anything relating to expanding my research yet. I’ve been so focused on making sure I understand what’s required of me that I haven’t focused on anything else.

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

I think right now I am focused on “discovering you on purpose”. I want t find something to create that I really care about. Something that will be engaging, fun, and inclusive. Specifically to Bellingham. My major definite purpose isn’t going to really be something I focus on right now because my purpose in life is a heck of a lot different than my purpose in this minor. In this minor, I want to try things that I’d never try without this community helping me. In real life, I don’t fear my passions and purposes. I want to face the unknown while here.

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

This week’s learnings pretty much taught me that I need to possibly pivot my initial idea to something totally new. Not for any bad reasons. Simply because I want to do something else that allows for my own personal creativity to shine. I hadn’t ever wanted to do another event after E3 but I guess that it does seem like fun. The fun part being, how do I do this during Covid?

TRACTION JOURNAL- E4 WEEK THREE

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How did the prep for the E4 exam go for you?

I don’t think we got a very good prep for the exam. It was kinda thrown on-to us. I knew that we’d have an exam during E4, however, we weren’t told by any instructors. Also, I had no idea we were doing the empathy interview in class on Wednesday and so we had a hard time learning about him for the exam. In the end, I think it was okay because I knew what I needed to do.

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

I’m feeling pretty good honestly. I wanted to do a venture for a bagel pop-up shop but I decided to go a route that fits my dreams more. I wanted to create something that will have a real impact. I think I am going down the path towards helping youth who may be at risk after the COVID economic crisis.

What have you learned about SWOT and Pestle?

I’ve learned how to do them. I already knew how to do them since we did them for our E2 venture. I think something important bout them is that it allows you to see things about the inside of your venture and what’s happening outside of the venture. It allows for a deeper view of everything.

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

I’m not sure since I don’t have all the pieces figured out but I suppose that could be good. I think if I come up with a less detailed venture and then do a SWOT I could learn where I should continue the venture.

TRACTION JOURNAL – E4 WEEK TWO

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  1. What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    1. I loved the speaker we had come to class on Monday. As a psychology major, I really liked that the process he went through to discover the metaphor of the bees which to me compared to the business model canvas. He told us that he watched the bees as they behave in nature and then he applied that to how people in the business world behave. So awesome! I would have loved to start change leadership this week but it’s challenging to do tasks that require meetings nowadays.
  2. Applying the content from this week’s learnings, connect your understanding with something that’s relevant to your venture.
    1. The speaker did a good job of opening more context to the common notion that there are bound to be unexpected things that will interfere or improve your progress through a venture. The weather metaphor was what did a good job of this for me. You never know what obstacles may come or go throughout this process. I have to take that into account when creating my venture this quarter.
  3. What tools are you applying that you have learned from, or deepened understanding of this week?
    1. I am trying to understand how a BMC works and how to apply it to multiple situations. This has been somewhat of a challenge for me in the past but now I recognize that it will be helpful for my personal organization. I want to be able to do this naturally and quickly. 
  4. What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    1. Once again, the main challenge I am facing is deciding if I want to be on the leadership or founder track. I plan to set up a meeting with one of the student leaders in our class to get some guidance.

 

TRACTION JOURNAL – E4 WEEK ONE

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  1. What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    1. These first two weeks were, as always, spent on VP1. During this project, I loved the prompts. I think they were definitely appropriate for the current media and social issues. I think my team generated a solid idea for the prompt we picked which was the prompt for sustainability. I do wish that we would’ve been a more productive team. Taking online school and our skill sets being rather similar, I think this made this project rather hard for progress.
  2. Applying the content from this week’s learnings, connect your understanding with something that’s relevant to your venture.
    1. Honestly, before this project, I hadn’t considered why test cards would be useful. My team did a really good job applying our test cards to producing a better project and business model. It helped us realize what customers we should target and what they want from our product. I’m going to use these for my E4 project this quarter to ensure that I am truly filling the gap.
  3. What tools are you applying that you have learned from, or deepened understanding of this week? 
    1. This week I learned a lot from the younger E-levels. I hadn’t realized how much information had been lost over the summer and they brought a lot back to my attention. I think that using our community was probably the tool that deepened my understanding this week.
  4. What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    1. I need to decide if I want to follow the leadership or founder track. After class on Monday, I think that I am more likely to go down the leadership path because I want to learn more about the styles Meg mentioned. That information feels like something I would use more in the future.

 

VENTURE PROJECT TWO – E3 SPRING QUARTER 2020

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Venture Project Two – Spring Quarter 2020 

Team: All E3 Students in the Program

This project was a challenging one. Our team was asked to host and plan an event that would bring together successful entrepreneurs and those currently learning about entrepreneurship. That in itself wasn’t a huge challenge, instead, the challenge was doing all of this during a global pandemic! Hosting an online event seemed to be the only solution to the issue of the pandemic. This is when Creators Collide finally began! It would be an event set up like a festival. There would be many sessions you could attend, all of which had differing entrepreneurs (such as musicians, artists, and local business owners). The whole event stayed on two platforms – zoom and discord.

The first thing we did was separate into smaller groups in order to organize the work. I decided that I’d work best in the outreach team and my partner was Schantell (she was a great person to work with). Our focus for the project was to find local/global entrepreneurs to present at our online event. There were three other team members in the outreach group; Tori, Evarosa, and Alyssa. They were focused more on local artists and did a great job finding live music for the event.

Day of the event had a slight hiccup at the start because WWU changed something in our Zoom settings which blocked our users from entering the rooms. This was fixed within an hour and the rest of the two-day event went relatively smoothly. There were some more troubles when we switched to using discord and the music’s sound quality was having some issues. The second day of the event did not have nearly as many viewers which was upsetting to us all.

I learned so much from this project! Most of what I experienced was how to work with a big team on a challenging event. The most difficult part was making sure we were all on the same page and knew our responsibilities. If we weren’t all sure of our end goal then a lot of storming occurred. Storming via zoom is a very hard task. Luckily we were able to find a shared goal (with the help of our mentors and teachers) and our event was a success!

TRACTION JOURNAL – E3 WEEK EIGHT

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  • What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    • I loved being able to watch all the really great pitches this past week! I think the E1s did a fantastic job since everything is online. I do hope they were able to learn a lot and gain experience. We were spending this last week recovering from the craziness of planning the event. So, I barely focused on this class since I did have other work in my other classes that were more important. We did prepare for our pitch and I think we are all excited for this quarter to be done!
  • What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    • The only challenge I’m facing is finishing the business report! Otherwise, I am free as a bird. I think our teams next steps are just to finish the final parts of VP2 and then turn it in!!

TRACTION JOURNAL – E3 WEEK SEVEN

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  • What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    • I loved our event! It really feels like our whole team of 11 people finally found a shared goal and that was to make sure the event was awesome! It went great. I’ll admit that day one was more popular but I went to nearly every talk and I learned so much. I think my favorite talk was by Arathi because she helped me to plan a lot of things regarding my passions. I am so happy that this event is now done.
  • Applying the content from this week’s learnings, connect your understanding with something that’s relevant to your venture
    • I learned how important it is to plan every moment and every detail of an event. If Amelia had not made the event plan that was detailed by the minute we would not have been as successful. That showed me how much work goes into an event. You cannot do it alone. I don’t even want to think of how hard that would be.
  • What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    • We are now facing the challenge of the pitch. We agreed not to do a practice pitch and I hope it works out for us. I am nervous for planning a pitch online. It seems very confusing and a huge amount of work. We already did so much work I hope we have it in us to pull it off.

TRACTION JOURNAL- E3 WEEK SIX

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  • What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    • I loved how easy going this past week was compared to the previous weeks. As a member of the outreach team, I feel like we had to grind really hard these past few weeks to ensure the timeslots were full. Now it’s all done! The event will be great and I am very excited to see what happens.
  • Applying the content from this week’s learnings, connect your understanding with something that’s relevant to your venture
    • I didn’t really learn much from class this last week. I think a lot of my energy has been put into making sure this event is as good as it can be. It’s been really stressful and I personally am very ready for it to be over. I’m not sure I will ever plan another event in my life. It has been fun but not fun enough to want to do again.
  • What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    • Next, we need to make the event a success. That means on Friday and Saturday we actually do this thing! Holy sh*t I can’t believe this is real. The challenge I am facing is on that Friday I have two exams and a research paper due so a majority of my next week will not be dedicated to this event like normal.

TRACTION JOURNAL – E3 WEEK FIVE

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  1. What did you love this week? What would you have loved to have achieved this week?
    • I loved the game night! It was seriously so much fun and I am really happy that I got to be a part of it. I think it was the most fun for me because I somehow won two of the rounds and I really never win games like the ones we played. Usually, no one can match my humour but this group of people liked my answers which made me feel good. In class, I really liked Dr. S’s workshop about coaching. I thought it was really valuable and it taught me skills I will definitely need in the future.
  2. Applying the content from this week’s learnings, connect your understanding with something that’s relevant to your venture
    • I learned more about how we are going to be dealing with zoom-bombers for our online event. This was a really long conversation that our whole team had to work through. It definitely brought me some awareness of the negative sides of using the internet for our event. I think the chance of someone negatively impacting our event will be very low but it is always possible so we will keep an eye out.
  3. What challenges are you facing? What’s Next?
    • The big challenge that I think we are facing is finalizing all the people who are presenting at the event. I am starting to get worried that not all the people I have asked to present will be ready. I also find it challenging to schedule all of the presentations and the inability to meet with anyone in person has become a very big hardship for me. Other then those few things I think the event will run smoothly and is going to be great!