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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. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 7: June 15, 2020 – June 19, 2020

During these past few weeks when I began learning market research, I was surprised to learn that researching isn’t just about numbers, charts, and graphs. Subjective value like personal experiences and opinions are more important when it comes to figuring out your target audience and your customer’s motivations and behavior. You need to hear their stories instead of attempting to quantify it with spreadsheets and charts.

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
Last week I coordinated a Zoom meeting with a professional market researcher, Isabel Aneyba.

Here are the steps on how to conduct individual in-depth interviews for market research. To learn more in-depth about research techniques listen to this podcast episode, Isabel Aneyba: Listening From the Heart and the Techniques of Empathy.

It’s important to note that this is an exploratory stage where we don’t need to ask specific questions. Ask broad questions instead.

Remember, keep this interview conversational as if you’re talking with a friend.

This process can be simmered down to 2 steps: start with an emotional handshake and then organize your questions into buckets.

1. Before you interview, begin with figuring out your research objectives, what do you want to look for?
   
2. Then open the conversation with an emotional handshake, find common ground and connect with your interviewee and get to know them. Start with an easy, broad, and non intrusive question, e.g. “What do you enjoy in life?” or “Tell me about your hobbies/last vacation/interesting beliefs you hold.”
   
3. Then ask another broad but more specific question relating to your research objectives, e.g. “What inspired you to start your own business?” Keep asking until you find info about your interviewee’s motivations.
   
4. Remember, don’t ask “why” too much because it can put people into a defensive mode and they might think they answered your question wrong. Instead, say “Tell me more” or “How so?”
   
5. Follow this interview guide sample to help you organize your research objectives and questions.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
A friend of mine shared this video on Facebook and it is one of the most inspirational and eloquent speeches I’ve heard.

Jeff Deist is the president of the Mises Institute, an economics think tank and the fountainhead of the Austrian school of economics.

In his speech, Deist points out that the most effective form of action, for a libertarian attempting to plant seeds of liberty, is to redirect the individual’s energy to things within their immediate control. For example, things like choosing to read self-help books or learning a new skill instead of arguing with strangers on Twitter.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I moved a step forward by scheduling a time to talk with Isabel Aneyba, the professional researcher who helped me learn the beginner basics of in-depth interviewing. Her expertise helped me gain a clearer idea of how to conduct interviews and that subjective research is more valuable than cold, hard numbers.

I’m currently planning who to interview within my network and I’ve gathered the questions I want to ask.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I’m still working on our market research and figuring out 18-29 year old entrepreneurs. I’m responsible for finding active learning resources as well.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I figured out a way to learn faster and it all boils down to one simple step: looking for patterns. This has worked for me and might help you learn anything, especially with topics that are based on patterns and rules like language learning or verifying sources/stories/personal experiences by comparing with other individual accounts. Find the things that are in common.

Weekly Monday Workshop:

What Praxis Monday session did you attend last week (ie. what was the topic & who was the guest)?
Getting a pay raise with Tim Chermak

What was your favorite highlight from the session?
Tim gave us Praxians practical retirement advice; save at least $1,000 per month.

What was your biggest takeaway from that session?

1. “When you’re specific, it forces you to think about what you have to do to justify the raise.” — Tim Chermak
2. Don’t just do more work. Think of how you can create new value.
3. “An NFL quarterback doesn’t make more money by being a kicker too, or playing defense. He can earn more money by being a better quarterback.”
4. Don’t just say you’ll “create value.” Be specific about the type of value you’ll create.
5. Become an entrepreneur inside your company. Learn about the business model. Make sure you understand the revenue structure and profit margins and costs. Your boss will be thrilled you’re curious too, and you’ll learn which levers you need to pull in order to create significant value.

How do you intend to apply that takeaway to your life?
When I negotiate a raise in the future I’ll be specific about the value proposition I offer my employer and show specific examples of what I’ll do to increase value. This is all about working smarter and not harder; I think it’s also interesting to note that this principle puts a dent into the labor theory of 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 an operations associate for a non-profit. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 6: June 8, 2020 – June 12, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
Words matter. The connotations associated with a particular word invokes attitudes, feelings, and zeitgeist and can change people’s actions.

How does this relate to my current marketing project? My coworker and I are searching for new terms to replace the current vocabulary we use for entrepreneur related topics. Part of our mission is to bring back positive connotations associated with entrepreneurship.

For example, “spearheading a project” would instead be called “leading a project” and “trial and error” is now “trial and exploration.” Our goal is to replace these militaristic terms (fighting for market share, crushing the competition, invading a market, etc.) with what we call a “beauty” term, something that is civilized and invokes positive connotations.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
UX design is a multidisciplinary career and encompasses visual design, programming, psychology and interaction design, to name a few. Graphic design is a launch pad into a UX design career.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I created another document for my marketing research project and gathered a list of resources for self-directed education.

Also, I reached out to the vice president of the nonprofit I work for and asked if I could volunteer for one of their biggest seminars and it turns out that the VP was thinking about contacting me. The VP said they’re in need of help and would pay extra in addition to my monthly paycheck. This is how you take the initiative!

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I’m still working on the marketing research project with my coworker.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Taking notes down whenever an idea pops into my head, even if it seems silly.

Weekly Monday Workshop:

What Praxis Monday session did you attend last week (ie. what was the topic & who was the guest)?
How to Build a Community of Badass Friends and Allies with Praxis alumnus Nick Rundlett

What was your favorite highlight from the session?
Nick is very down to earth and makes his presentation and advice lively and easy to replicate.

What was your biggest takeaway from that session?
Nick’s recipe for success is:

1. Become self-aware
2. Be helpful
3. Make allies

How do you intend to apply that takeaway to your life?
This recipe for success is an example of the value creation mindset. I intend to be more self-aware and recognize my mistakes and own up to it.

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 an operations associate for a non-profit. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 5: June 1, 2020 – June 5, 2020

What I’m Learning: 

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
My previous notions about how to conduct market/target audience research was quite wrong. Previously, I thought that market research was simply facts and figures about demographics but it’s much more than just dry numbers.

My coworker (who is spearheading our project) introduced me to his colleague, Mr. Amador, who is a professional marketing researcher. Mr. Amador taught me a novel research process that I wasn’t aware of that combines the Maslow and Rokeach Hierarchy of Needs.

The first step is to focus on your core target audience, which is a specific profile of what you think is your future customer, e.g. young millennials and Gen Z who are looking for intellectual discussions on social media.

Note that the best sources of data comes from first-hand observation. It’s perfectly acceptable to draw information from the internet like social media because this process involves figuring out your core target’s opinions, behaviors, and how they feel. Another data source is through a sample size of ten people (five men and five women) also from your core target.

Then brainstorm and fill out the following categories:

Features are tangible things. Let’s say you’re interested in creating a social media platform and you figured out what it would have such as ease of access, easily consumable content, user friendly, quality articles, and intellectual conversations.

Attributes are intangible things. Continuing with the social media platform example, the attributes could be peer guidance, perceived value of shared articles, credibility of the platform.

Functional benefits are the practical use of the product that empowers the core target. This can look like debate groups that a user can join or monitor, or consult qualified professors.

Emotional benefits is what the user feels when using the platform. Perhaps they feel empowered and confident with their new knowledge.

It’s important to note that while you’re conducting your research, constantly ask yourself why or what motivates this particular group to behave a certain way.

To learn further in depth about this core target profiling method, check out this episode from the Economics for Entrepreneurs podcast.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
Wave-shaped brick walls are sturdier and more stable than a straight wall due to its arch support. I fact-checked these claims from the Facebook post below and it does appear to be accurate, according to the sources on this Wikipedia article.

This type of brick wall is called a crinkle crankle wall and it’s more common in the U.K. Thomas Jefferson designed this wall for the University of Virginia.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I sent check-in emails to my coworker and my boss so they know I’m making progress and keeping communication open. I also presented my ideas about our target audience in the first team meeting that I attended.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
The same project as last week which is the marketing research project.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m relearning how to learn faster by looking at how children learn. As an adult, we lose the ability to learn fast and it’s not because of a deteriorating memory (although that is a big factor for some) but rather a mental block.

Younger children tend to dive straight into the new ideas or lesson they’re learning instead of procrastinating and questioning all the ways it could go wrong for them.

If they make a mistake or come across a hurdle in the road, they either experiment and find creative solutions or ask for guidance. I’ve observed this many times when I used to be a supervisor at a swim school.

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 an operations associate for a non-profit. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 4: May 25, 2020 – May 29, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
The process of figuring our your target audience requires conducting research and gathering data. I found a few sources to find data:

• statista.com
• cbb.census.gov
• census.gov
• kauffman.org

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
Chien-Shiung Wu was Chinese-American physicist who made significant contributions to the Manhattan project, discovered the Wu experiment, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Wu was also outspoken against gender discrimination in the workplace. Yesterday would’ve been her 108 birthday.

You can see more about her life here.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I picked a project that my coworker and I agreed would suit me, then started a rough draft of my target audience project.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
A marketing project about gathering data on our target audience.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Staying organized by updating a to-do list and learning outside work.

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 an operations associate for a non-profit. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Week 3: May 18, 2020 – May 22, 2020

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work this week:
I learned a new concept called nerve centers, which is a hub or epicenter for a particular subject. McKinsey & Company is a prime example of a nerve center and their purpose is to improve society through changing actions and ideas.

Check them out here.

Basically, nerve centers can be think tanks or even Wall Street; an authority on a specific topic, a fountainhead.

One cool thing I learned outside of work this week:
There is evidence of an iron mine in the Giza Plateau of Egypt, right outside of the Khafre Pyramid. This means that the Ancient Egyptians had iron at least 2,500 years before, contradicting what mainstream academia has claimed.

Why is this so important?

According to independent researcher and Egyptologist, Ancient Architects, iron ore was found next to a structure that appears to look like an ancient mine which “…implies they could make iron or even steel tools and this could well explain how the ancient high technology, and how the Ancient Egyptians cut such hard stones like granite and basalt.”

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work this week:
I created a presentation and pitched my ideas to my coworker who is planning to start an organization from the ground up. Unfortunately, I don’t have permission to release the Canva.com slides since this project is being kept under wraps for the time being, so this also means I can’t release too much info about its purpose.

My coworker needed my help in identifying our future target audience, which is the number one rule in marketing. I suggested targeting Millennials and Gen Z since this generation needs updated guidance about life and career paths.

After I presented my ideas, my coworker thanked me several times for putting it together and spending time on research. This presentation demonstrated proof to my coworker that we’re on the same page but more importantly have the same mission and think alike.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m continuing to organize my thoughts by writing everything down in a paper notepad. This method has truly helped my anxiety about forgetting important things and I highly suggest it to anyone who struggles with remembering tasks.

Weekly Monday Workshop:

What Praxis Monday session did you attend this week (ie. what was the topic & who was the guest)?
The Creative Process with Jérémy Chevallier, Director of Marketing for Crash.

What was your favorite highlight from the session?
I loved the way Jeremy presented his ideas. It embodied an element of the start up culture, meditation and holistic alternatives.

What was your biggest takeaway from that session?
If you need ideas then get bored.

Ideas come from the subconscious and is built off of previous ideas and it takes time to form. Let ideas simmer and slow-cook.

Inspiration also comes from talking to people.

When you are assigned a project, build something simple.

Then set a timeframe to ship your project, which allows for feedback. Don’t be afraid to ship things if it isn’t perfect, you have to let go of the emotional connection to your project like thinking you’re not good enough.

How do you intend to apply that takeaway to your life?
I already do it all the time.

Week 2: May 11, 2020 – May 15, 2020

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 an operations associate for a non-profit. At the request of my boss, I’ll be keeping the details of my employer under wraps for the time being.

Ownership and taking the lead. These qualities were the central theme of my second week in my apprenticeship and I’m feeling the progress I’ve made so far. My boss encourages all employees to embody our organization’s principles of individual liberty, no micromanaging, and personal responsibility.

What does this mean for employees like me? I have a lot of freedom to choose the direction of the projects I either wish to pursue or is assigned to me.

However, it also means I have little instruction from my boss.

For some people this might be terrifying because they’re uncertain of what to do, how to do things, or fear their performance is not up to par. But I see this as an opportunity to take the lead and suggest ideas for improvement.

In fact, I see this hands-off management approach as an advantage; I’m being given the room to brainstorm projects.

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work this week:
A few years ago, I learned what freedom means from an economics perspective which is different from what most people think. Freedom is more than just our constitutional rights, or activities that the government allows us to do.

What does it mean to have more freedom?
More freedom = more personal responsibility.

And that is the one thing I learned to apply to my work this week, take responsibility for myself, in the form of giving directions, and give myself and others action items. This week my boss introduced me to one of our other employees, a scholar, about a new project. So I took the lead and emailed the scholar about setting up a Zoom call for us.

One cool thing I learned outside of work this week:
There is a little known fact about American citizenship that ought to be taught in schools. Chinese-Americans defined the modern day legal terms of jus soli, or birthright citizenship.

In 1895, an American born Chinese man by the name of Wong Kim Ark was detained in San Francisco after a visit to China. His parents were born in China and that was the opposing opinion of why he shouldn’t be allowed into the country. He was not allowed reentry into the U.S. on the basis of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (the first anti-immigration law based on race, in America). Wong sued the government and cited the Fourteenth Amendment in his defense which eventually helped him win his case.

You can read more details of United States v. Wong Kim Ark here.

This is why it’s so important to know your rights.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work this week:
The vice president of the non-profit asked me if I could help one of their long-time donors to move boxes of books since he was moving and needed to give away some of them. There were about 300 books in ten boxes total which were successfully moved into my garage with the help of my dad, and then at the request of our archivist/librarian I created a spreadsheet for inventory purposes.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I mentioned earlier about the scholar and co-worker with whom I had a Zoom call. This scholar needs my help to launch a new platform and organization loosely connected with our non-profit. His biggest hurdle was figuring out the target audience of the services we would offer in the future, basically a marketing problem.

I’m not allowed to share the details of this new project so I’ll try to make sense of what exactly I’m doing.

The challenge is to build an online platform, organize and assemble content, and build an audience. We plan to have a prototype before the end of this year.

Here is a rough proposal that I suggested to him:

• Target millennials and Gen Z because they’re more likely to learn and adopt new tech platforms.
• Younger generations are still malleable and not set in their ways yet.
• These age groups need the most guidance and one-on-one mentoring.
• More likely to collaborate and share with others – this fits right in with our future plans of creating a collaborative platform that thrives on peer-to-peer feedback.
• Our non-profit’s principles will be easier to teach and implement for millennials and Gen Z because this demographic is more likely to support local businesses. This ties into our principle of individuals.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
Keeping track of my ideas by writing everything down even if it’s one vague word or idea. This has tremendously helped reduce my anxiety because I can be forgetful and easily lose my train of thought. A good friend of mine taught me this and I thank him for it.

Week 1: May 4, 2020 – May 8, 2020

Hello dear friends, it has been a long time since I last updated my blog but I’m back with exciting news to share! Previously, I was an operations apprentice at Zcash Foundation but was let go in November 2019. Now, I’m an operations apprentice again at another non-profit, details of which I will keep under wraps for the time being.

During the months while I was in between projects, I reentered the placement module of the Praxis bootcamp which is the job hunting phase of the program. If I’m being honest, I felt despair at having to return to placement because it felt like the rug was pulled out from under me right when I was settling into my apprenticeship.

But the support of my program advisor got me through one of the toughest days in my career and for that I’m grateful for her because she anticipated my needs without me having to tell her the whirlwind of emotions I felt at the time. My advisor knew I would need time to decompress, so to speak, after receiving the termination letter from my boss. This is one of many instances of why I love the Praxis program so much! Their team truly has their students’ backs!

In December 2019, I received a message from a Facebook friend of mine who asked me if I was interested in working for a notable and well-respected non-profit. My friend was looking for a candidate who embodied their principles and was willing and able to learn the business side of running a non-profit. I accepted my friend’s offer and after months of delay due to the coronavirus, and coordinating interviews and travel, I’m finally in my apprenticeship with a wonderful boss and a work-from-home position. As I’ve said earlier, I’m keeping the details of my employer a secret at the request of my friend who is now my boss.

Now that I’m restarting my apprenticeship, I’ll post weekly updates again about my progress and the projects I’m working on.

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work this week:
Don’t be afraid to take the initiative and push things along when communication with your employer has slowed down considerably or stopped.

Pro-tip: sending a one sentence email with a simple and direct question, or action item works wonders.

Doing so will demonstrate proof to your employer that you’ve taken the initiative; this was especially important for this non-profit because one of their principles is personal responsibility and individualism. Speaking of individualism, my boss let me choose my start date which is almost unheard of.

Since this was my first week, it also meant I needed to be onboarded with the necessary employment paperwork sent to me so I emailed my boss about setting up a time to talk and reminded him what I needed from him. This is an important lesson in managing up your boss, especially if you’re an executive assistant.

One random fact I learned outside of work this week:
Retail stores will go out of their way to please their customers and many will offer price match. I recently ordered office clothes from JCPenney with a coupon but a day later the same items went down in price again. So I called them about their price match policy and they agreed to refund me the newly discounted amount. It never hurts to ask.

Also, now is a great time to go retail shopping because of this coronavirus pandemic. The lack of sales has retailers slashing prices by as much as 50% or higher and oftentimes the online prices are cheaper too. That’s more than Black Friday discounts!

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
For my first project, my boss needed to figure out which webinar platform would be ideal for our needs since he was planning a live seminar and is expecting 1,000 attendees or less. His other concern regarding this project was how to capture new email subscribers for their email list. Increasing the email list means a higher likelihood of someone donating money.

Here is my solution:

• Create a spreadsheet comparing the different webinar platforms. You can view it here.
• I suggested to choose either WebinarJam or Vimeo Premium to be our ideal streaming platform because of their affordable options.
• Have our social media marketer post in relevant LinkedIn Groups and post in the usual social media channels.
• Create a lead magnet to incentivize people to register. Offer a free ebook after an attendee registers for the event.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I will collaborate with a scholar who also works for the non-profit and figure out how to educate entrepreneurs about economics. I’ve also been tasked by the vice president of the organization to pick up a large collection of books and transport it to the organization later this year.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m constantly brainstorming projects that could help the non-profit and writing it down in my notebook. I plan on creating a clear proposal of what I’ll do and present it to my boss.

Weekly Monday Workshop:

What Praxis Monday session did you attend last week (ie. what was the topic & who was the guest)?
I attended “How the Recruitment and Hiring Process Works w/ Jackie Nevins.”

What was your favorite highlight from the session?
My favorite highlight was knowing that Jackie launched her HR manager career without a related degree.

What was your biggest takeaway from that session?
I learned that the majority of hiring managers actually expect and encourage candidates to negotiate for higher pay. If a candidate negotiates pay during an interview it will determine if they get a raise later on.

How do you intend to apply that takeaway to your life?
I will be more confident in future interviews and negotiate higher pay and back up my decision with figures from Glassdoor or Indeed.