Month: July 2020

Finding Cures for My Condition and Making Networking Connections

The Armchair Economist’s Apprenticeship is a weekly series documenting my progress throughout my journey in the apprenticeship module of the Praxis program. I’m currently a market research analyst apprentice for a non-profit (my position is subject to change depending on the needs of my employer). At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 12: July 20, 2020 – July 24, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
Last week I spent most of my time on a new side project which was about event planning for a seminar. This was my first time planning for an event and I started out by looking for a different venue because the original venue canceled on my employer due to COVID-19.

My first step was to ask my employer what their criteria was for this one-day seminar and then create a checklist for the venue. Basically, I asked for the number of attendees, catering options, social hour preferences, the number of hours we’ll need to rent, equipment for the speakers, and parking space accommodations for 50 plus people.

I then created a spreadsheet with a list of viable venues and restaurants (for the social hour).

This side project took more urgency than my main marketing project because the seminar is in a month and we were left scrambling to find the right place for a smaller crowd. I’m still trying to find a restaurant but it’s been difficult because of COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
I started the carnivore diet and it’s the first diet I’ve tried in my life. My goal is to not lose weight, I’m around 115-118 pounds so obviously I don’t need to lose weight and if anything I’m trying to gain pounds. I’ve heard so many great things about the carnivore diet like improved mood and staving off depression, reversing diabetes, and curing auto-immune diseases.

So if I’m not looking to lose weight then what do I hope to gain?

My main reason is to hopefully cure this rash-like blister that flares up on my lips, which starts from the edges of my lower lip and in the middle of my upper lip. I’ve suffered from this condition for over ten years and I have no idea what it’s called and I’ve been to doctors and dermatologists who couldn’t give me answers, the closest condition I’ve found that resembles mine is angular cheilitis.

If I let it get bad, my lips will produce this watery substance that oozes out of my pores and it dries into this gross yellowish crusty layer. It makes my lips hard, itchy, and chapped, and if I peel it more of that gross watery substance will ooze out. It also made me feel self-conscious because people noticed how gross my lips looked.

Every time I apply any type of lip balm it’ll only make it worse and make it more irritated. Nowadays, whenever I apply cheap lip balms and sometimes certain lipglosses or other lip products, I start to feel flare ups starting with the swelling of the edge of my lips. I guess it’s made me more sensitive to cheap products you find in grocery stores. So now, after years of experimenting, I finally found the right lip balm that won’t make me flare up and it’s from the Sephora collection.

I’m not entirely sure of the causes for my condition but I’m guessing it has to do with high cortisol, which correlates to high stress. But recently, about three years ago I discovered a treatment to manage it and it’s called hydrocortisone cream.

I bought the cream for about a dollar from Walmart out of desperation and not knowing if it’ll work, and after numerous experimenting with various other over the counter and prescription creams. To my surprise it worked, and kept the rash/blister at bay, for a while. If I stopped applying it once a day, my lips would start to flare up.

It wasn’t until two years ago I discovered another simple treatment to prevent the flare ups. Water. Yes, drinking enough water prevented that whole mess. Aqua est vita indeed.

So how does this relate to the carnivore diet? So far, after a week, my lips have not flared up once and I’m so happy I could cry tears of joy knowing that my cure was simply a nutritional and hydration deficiency. I’m not sure if it was the increased protein or fat intake but whatever it was, eating more meat saved me from a lifetime of suffering.

Nutrition really is everything, folks.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I made valuable networking connections and in fact it was with a connection I made last year when I was at my previous apprenticeship. My friend who works part time for the Blockchain Center in Miami, emailed me about the courses they offered and later called me to see if my organization would partner with them.

I introduced my coworker who is head of the project with Scott Spiegel of the Blockchain Center and they will coordinate a time to hop on a video meeting to discuss how Scott can create a course for our platform.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I’m finishing up the market research I conducted and completed all the needed interviews. Soon I’ll start a marketing plan that will be presented in October this year.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Be kind and apologize. Always own up to your mistakes.

Weekly Monday Workshop:

What Praxis Monday session did you attend last week (ie. what was the topic & who was the guest)?
LinkedIn with Patrick Downs of PandaDoc.

What was your favorite highlight from the session?
I appreciated the step-by-step guide he provided in his slides.

What was your biggest takeaway from that session?

LinkedIn’s algorithm is slightly easier to break compared to Facebook.

Step 1: Build a profile
– Get a professional headshot
– Upload a cover photo of your personal brand or company you work for
– Create a unique and personalized tag line, e.g. I help sales team ditch documents. I help x do y.
– Add your fun personality

Step 2: Posting Behavior
– Post 3-5x a week
– Follow a scheduling formula
– Infuse your personality
-Hashtags, but not too many. Check for the most active ones for your audience.
– Comment on every comment but over several days to reengage your post.
– Medium sized word posts work best. This means no links on the post nor photos. Just text.

Step 3: Follow the right people
– Follow people respective to your interests and niche

Step 4: Comment habitually
– Comment 3-5x daily minimum. Be thoughtful and add personality
-Post ASAP on influencers’ pages
– Don’t post useless thoughts unless it’s meaningful

You can view the slides here.

Taking the Initiative

The Armchair Economist’s Apprenticeship is a weekly series documenting my progress throughout my journey in the apprenticeship module of the Praxis program. I’m currently a market research analyst apprentice for a non-profit (my position is subject to change depending on the needs of my employer). At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 11: July 13, 2020 – July 17, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
I’m officially one of two people in the entire organization who knows how to run the bookstore POS (Point of Sale) system. And I learned it all in one day but there was still a few things I needed help on like processing special discounts. Not bad for a one time crash course.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
Fun fact: rabbits can’t vomit which explains why they have such delicate digestive systems.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
In addition to learning the bookstore POS system, the value I provided was freeing up my coworkers time so he could fulfill more bookstore orders. I also had a meeting with my boss and coworker about my market research updates and my future role within the company.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I’m finishing up my research project for figuring out the core target of the organization. Then I’ll be taking ownership of the new marketing plan.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Taking the initiative and doing grunt work without complaint.

3 Steps on How to Start a Business and a Surprising Link Between Grad School and Creating Value

The Armchair Economist’s Apprenticeship is a weekly series documenting my progress throughout my journey in the apprenticeship module of the Praxis program. I’m currently a market research analyst apprentice for a non-profit (my position is subject to change depending on the needs of my employer). At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 10: July 6, 2020 – July 10, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
I’m continuing to conduct interviews with entrepreneurial dreamers and experienced entrepreneurs for my market research study. One of the common themes I’ve found among entrepreneurial dreamers was the uncertainty about how to start a business. Many expressed their concerns and to them it felt like entrepreneurship is a nebulous and confusing concept to bring into fruition.

A few of the entrepreneurial dreamers said a program (courses) that is formatted like a roadmap would help them tremendously. So something similar to Salesforce Trailhead would give them the means to learn how to lay the framework and foundation of their future business instead of wasting countless hours and energy on gathering resources from the right people.

I explained this hurdle to an experienced entrepreneur I also interviewed and he said these three basic steps that he came up with helped him launch his own business:

  1. Identify the problem in the market, which means figure out what people complain about the most, then come up with a solution.
  2. Draw a customer → solution “map.” Make bullet points about who is your customer in one column and do the same for your solution in another column. The arrow in the customer → solution “map” represents your marketing plan and this can be figured out using your basic marketing tools like SEO, social media insights, social media engagement, trade shows, ads, vlogs, etc. It’s imperative that you are as specific as possible about who is your customer because otherwise you might accidentally target the wrong people (or have no clue who to target) and end up wasting thousands on product development then realizing nobody wants it.
  3. Find your first group of customers. This group will be the early adopters of your product. Step 3 also ties into step 2. The point is to figure out your marketing plan because marketing comes before anything else in a future business including product development, sales, operations, and customer success.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
The best way to increase your likelihood of getting accepted into grad school is by creating value. A grad student explained to me his experience with grad school and the factors that would significantly make applicants stand out among the thousands of applications professors sort through.

What I find fascinating is the fact that there’s a common theme I’m seeing pop up in my entrepreneurship program, Discover Praxis, and other places like going on a job hunt. But I was surprised to see the same principle be applied to academia since they have a reputation of being detached from the real world.

Even academia is admitting that applications and credentials alone don’t make you stand out. More creative solutions must be done to fast track your way into grad school since the old ways are slow and efficient.

My grad school acquaintance recommends doing the following to avoid getting your application in the discard pile, where many hopeful students end up.

  1. Email the professor you wish to study under and introduce yourself and bring up a specific paper he/she published that you genuinely want to explore more on behalf of the professor. Then ask if he/she has the time for a 30 minute Zoom call (schedule 15 minutes if the professor is pressed for time), so you can get a feel for each other’s personality and if you would be the right fit. This is the time to ask questions about their needs and hurdles they’re facing. Keep in mind, be genuinely interested and passionate about this professor’s research.
  2. Managing up your professor. Time is very valuable and hard to find for busy professors. Find ways to alleviate their stress especially around exam time. Grad school professors want their ideas to be heard and respected more by their peers and it’s the reason why they write countless papers but many don’t go back to correct mistakes or logical inconsistencies in them. Choose one of their unique ideas that hasn’t been widely explored and ask if you could explore more of it in your thesis, or offer to edit their existing papers.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I interviewed a young and experienced entrepreneur who also happened to be a friend of mine. He has given valuable insight into the minds of millennial entrepreneurs and what sort of solutions they need.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
Market research about future and current entrepreneurs and their wants and needs. I’m still conducting research interviews and waiting for participants to reply back. The interviews are easy to conduct since I record them on Zoom and I come prepared with a list of questions. Most of the time I treat it like a conversation between friends.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Be friendly, supportive, and finding the silver lining. I think my coworkers and boss appreciate having hopeful and positive thinking people around them since their profession is centered around the dismal science.

Tailoring Twitter, Disturbing Habits of Birds, and Actionable Self-Improvement

The Armchair Economist’s Apprenticeship is a weekly series documenting my progress throughout my journey in the apprenticeship module of the Praxis program. I’m currently a market research analyst apprentice for a non-profit (my position is subject to change depending on the needs of my employer). At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 9: June 29, 2020 – July 3, 2020

TL;DR Interesting tidbits about what my market research uncovered and true facts about pelicans.

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
Last week I started interviewing candidates for a marketing research study and discovered several cool things.

Twitter is a surprising and excellent source to find mentors despite its notorious reputation for being one of the most toxic social media platforms.

Think about it, Twitter has produced mini cults of personality and not just bad ones either but inspiring entrepreneurs and well-read academics. It’s not just a platform for who can screech the loudest about their polarizing politics.

The key to turning Twitter into an intellectual and networking platform, like LinkedIn, is quite simple. Tailor and filter who you follow, meaning it’s time to unfollow those who don’t contribute to your growth and start following accounts that are actively giving advice or contributing constructively in some way.

I’m sorry to say that overconsumption of memes won’t do you much favor, it’s like eating too much junk food.

This new feed could be spiritual guidance, learning new recipes, learning your favorite academic subject from top professors around the world, etc.

If you’re looking for a business mentor or someone you want to model yourself after, find someone and don’t be afraid to reach out to them. Ask, “I’m in X situation/position, how do I get to where you are and what advice would you give me?”

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
I’m not sure if this would qualify as a cool thing but it’s rather terrifying and downright freaky.

Get some eye-bleach ready because if I had to see it so do you. It would be rather selfish of me to keep this knowledge to myself.

I came across this post, on Instagram, of a shoebill and pelicans seemingly vomiting their spines to cool themselves. You’re welcome.

But wait! This isn’t entirely true. These birds are actually yawning, not cooling themselves off.

This article from IFL Science! debunked the meme shown above.

“What these images are actually showing are some, still very freaky, yawns that force the birds’ lower, soft-tissue beak over their neck, giving the appearance of a spine due to the flesh color of the inner beak. Sometimes pelicans will also stretch their heads up and seemingly push their skulls through the same part of the beak.” 

Rachel Funnel, writer for IFL Science!

I fact checked the scientist, Dr. Dani Rabaiotti, that the writer sourced and it checks out. Here is a video of a yawning pelican in action.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I’m continuing to make progress on my marketing research project by reaching out to experienced and inexperienced entrepreneurs. The purpose of the research is to hear their journey, needs, and how they became successful.

After each interview, I recorded my results into my work document that’s shared with my team.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
Marketing research and finding out the motivations, inspirations, needs, and wants of our core target.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m brainstorming ways to create value for my coworkers by talking to my Discover Praxis network and letting ideas simmer.

This will be a continuous self-improvement process, one that I recommend you try. Talk to people smarter than you and let their ideas sink into your brain. This helps form new ideas and can solve hurdles you’re facing at work. It also puts you into a creation mindset and with enough practice you can become a one-person idea machine that’s valuable to your peers.

Basically, this concept is similar to rubber duck debugging. It’s a process that programmers are familiar with when faced with a creative block. Programmers use a rubber ducky as a sounding board.