The most successful entrepreneur I know is definitely my father; and while he hasn't started a business, he essentially sells himself to companies and consumers. Merl Saunders Jr. He started working at the age of 10, and now at 61 he surely hasn’t stopped or slowed down. His most successful asset is himself because that is what he sells to the consumers. His whole life consists of networking, whether he’s at an event for work, a birthday party, or even at the grocery store; he’s always forming new relationships and that is what makes him successful. He learned very early on that in the music industry it’s all about who you know, so he introduced himself to everyone he possibly could and that has paid off. He started his career helping backstage at his father, Merl Saunders’, shows around the Bay Area. From there he made connections that led him to tour manage with David Crosby, Frank Zappa and even Michael Jackson. When he had children and could no longer tour, he went on to be the Director of Marketing and Artist Relations at Gibson Guitars, Senior Marketing Coordinator and Artist Relations at Dean Markley and Senior Executive Director at the San Francisco Chapter of the Grammy’s. Now he does consulting for business, most recently for Fleet Week in San Francisco. He would not be here today if it weren’t for all the networking he has done and all of the connections he has made and that has been my biggest takeaway from him. Networking is key and introducing yourself to as many people as possible pays off. Public Relations is the field that I am hoping to go into, but it seems as if most positions require you to do public relations, social media, advertising and marketing all in one. That is a frightening thought, but I think it’s something that I can handle. I enjoy handling multiple projects at once, and through organization and attention to detail, I tend to turn in all of my assignments on time. The thought of holding multiple hats at once doesn’t scare me as much as the idea of starting a career and being let go for circumstances that are out of my control (downsizing, budget cuts, etc.). In "Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship", author Mike Green wrote, “No one can expect to get hired anywhere in the country and work for the same company for most of their careers until retirement. That’s a twentieth-century concept rendered obsolete in the first decade of the twenty-first.” I currently work at the Union Pacific Child Development Center as a preschool teacher. The parent company is Bright Horizons, but we are contracted through UP and therefore only service UP employees and their families. Over the past two years there have been 3 instances where UP has made major cuts, forcing families to leave our center. Just last month I had a mother dis-enroll her child because she was afraid she would lose her job and then have to scramble to find sufficient care for her child. Another parent told me that when he graduated college fifteen years ago getting a job at Union Pacific meant that he had a job for life, but that isn't the case anymore. The idea of journalism being dead is also a scary thought. Green writes, “The way journalism will be conducted in the future will look different than it did during the past century. The craft and industry are evolving. And technology is playing a key role in that evolution.” I have to remind myself that journalism and media are always evolving and changing. The way journalism is produced now it’s different than both what it was 10 years ago and when it will be 10 years from now and that is due to the technological advances we’ve seen.
Much like my father, I would also consider myself an entrepreneur rather than an intrapreneur. According to green, that means I am part of a group of people that are, “creative problem-solver’s, critical thinkers, collaborators and calculated risk-takers. (We’re) Sacrificial, tenacious, motivated and driven toward measurable outcomes.” As of now, my long term goal is to succeed in a target market within a corporation as an entrepreneur. My short term goal would be an intrapreneur. I have to get my feet wet in the business and gain all of the knowledge I can before pursuing something on my own.
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The semester went by way too fast; that would probably be the only thing I didn’t like pertaining to this class specifically. August came and went and so did Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving and then, boom, it’s the last couple of weeks before finals. The semester went by fast, but I enjoyed every class period. This course was enjoyable for many different reasons; the topics covered, the course structure and most importantly, the professor. The topics covered in Mass Communication Technology intrigued me because I am living through a whole new digital age that is evolving every day. The topics in this class closely related to me because I use the technology we learned about, all the time. From social media outlets like Twitter and Snapchat to being able to use the social media outlets on different Apple devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Macbook, etc., almost everything related to my life. There was just enough out of class assignments, I think, with the course being a two hour credit class. I really enjoyed writing the blogs and I hope that my future journalism teachers require this. I don’t know if I could keep my blog going without a prompt, but maybe that will be my new years resolution. I thought the PowerPoint’s were very useful and helpful. For the first half of the semester I didn’t have the book so I relied on the PowerPoint’s and my notes for my blogs. I really enjoyed the visuals and examples given on the slides. All of them seemed to be relatable in some way. It’s refreshing when you have a teacher that is so passionate about his or her work. You can tell journalism is apart of who Carol is and that made taking this class much more enjoyable. I find it is easier to learn from a teacher who sincerely enjoys the subject and who can clearly teach the topics being presented in the course because of personal experience.
I don't think my ideas about journalism, media and computing changed, but I was definitely made more aware about how the three of those connect on a larger scale. Every day I learned something new in this class, and I think that is my biggest take away. Learning something new in class. From the PowerPoints to lessons from Carol's personal life I have knowledge that I can use personally and professionally that I probably wouldn't have received if I hadn't been in this class. Overall, I am very pleased with this course. I hope to take more of Carol's classes in the future and look forward to furthering my studies in the journalism department at Creighton. There are many qualities one must have to be successful in public relations in 2014. What may have been important for a person in public relations in the eighties may not be as important as a public relations employee today. Technology has evolved immensely making things such as speed, social media, and digital advertising important now when it hardly played a factor decades before. Technology has evolved from writing to typing and adding visual elements such as graphics and video. This has changed the standards of what it takes to be successful in public relations. According to Richard Edelman, one needs to embrace a more visual approach, create stories in two styles (rational and emotional) and form ideas based on data and insights. Consumers react to visuals. Visuals have become a standard in public relations and are more or less expected. Edelman talks about creating stories in two styles - rational (fact based) and emotional (shareable and social by design). Edelman says, "Storytelling at the speed of now is in the DNA of PR". This is so true. Writers must produce content to meet the high demands for online, print and broadcast journalism. One also needs to be a driven multitasker who can meet the demands of an evolving business. One of my best friends from high school was the Editor in Chief of the student run newspaper at Chico State University and went on to be the community manager at The Hunt. The Hunt is a community based shopping app where you can post a picture of an outfit or item you want but don't know where to buy it and the community will essentially hunt it down for you. Her position at The Hunt, let alone the company itself, wouldn't have been around decades ago because of the nature of the company being tech based. Her skills as a writer, social media nut and a keen eye for visuals among many other things helped land her the job. When the business changes your techniques have to change as well.
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December 2017
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