I thought I would stir off topic a bit from the apprentice to get into one of my favorite subjects. Life! I can talk about this subject for hours!
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine about how we many times take ourselves and things so seriously. We give so much meaning to things that it holds us back from being as “care free” as we would like to be. In fact in our society being carefree many times is looked at as bad. If you are not busy and stressed you are not being productive and there is something wrong with you. Plus, everything we do must have a goal or an end result in mind or else you are "wasting time".
Most people think that wanting and focusing on an end result will make it happen faster or assure it happening. However, so much of our energy is wasted on wanting an end result that it adversely affects the quality of everything we do. Think about it, when you are involved in something doesn’t the fear of failure or the desire for success take an enormous amount of your thinking? Notice the last time you screwed up in something important for you and you will probably find that during the situation you were probably saying to yourself “I hope I don’t screw this up” or “I have to succeed or else I’ll be dissapointed”. This attachments and fears actually prevent people from giving it their very best.
Now, I do not mean to have no motivation to succeed or not to have goals in life. In fact it’s the complete opposite. I often use the phrase “being committed to an outcome but yet not attached to it”. I got this phrase from one of my mentors and it reminds me every time to focus on the journey not the destination. The byproduct of this practice is that everything you do is more enjoyable (instead of stressful) and the end results end up being much better than you can imagine!
How do you stop being so attached to an outcome? Every time you are trying to get to a goal you must be o.k. with whatever happens and realize that it doesn’t have to determine your happiness. I have been asked this many times “how do you do it to be so happy?” or “how do you stay positive with people even when they might not be?”. ACCEPTANCE. I accept situations as they are and people as they are. Granted it is more difficult with some situations and people than with others.
How do you begin doing this?
Value the simple things and lower your standards/expectations for what makes you happy. Value the fact that unlike other people in the world you will never starve or be hungry, you will probably always have water to drink, and it is unlikely that you will ever be without shelter. Same with validation, value a simple smile from a stranger or even better a smile from YOURSELF. So if you were to realize that you will always have everything to be happy what would you be afraid of?
Once you build the capacity and realization of needing less you will have far more power over your life. Why? Because, you will have NOTHING to loose and thus nothing to fear.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Project 2 wrap up!
OK. So project two was very eventful to say the very least. We started the project without a clue of what we were going to do. The only vision we had was our goal of promoting the recycling event, educating people at the event and recruit volunteers.
Over time is when our strategy really developed. Although, we were only a two person team we really worked well together and everything flowed very well.
Our 1st task was to use social media like Blogger, twitter, Yahoo groups, Myspace and others to promote the event and educate people. We researched into it and even attended some social media workshops to get an idea of how to use it. We decided to make a video about who we were, what we were doing, and promote our event and other social media websites. The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eIQ2ITqFYc. We gave updates and educational information on these sites daily. Plus, we even used direct email marketing to advertise our event to targeted recycling groups.
As we are managing these websites we also used other conventional marketing tools like press releases, newspapers, and so on. One of the most effective promoting activities we did was the recycling event we had at the Auraria campus. Our plan was to get students’ emails, phone numbers and have these students also promote the upcoming recycling event to their friends. How? We gave away slices of pizza to people who filled out “commitment cards” in which they would put their name, email address, and their phone number if they were interested in volunteering. Also, they had to text five friends to tell them about the upcoming recycling event. Not only did we have great success with this Auraria event but it gave us experience of what to expect on the actual recycling event.
Anyway, we did so much that I’m only scratching the surface here and talking about the “bigger” stuff.
March 7th recycling event:
So finally the day came to put everything we had been preparing and planning for to the test. We had “Thank you” cards to get people’s information and do a post recycling education program and survey them about the event. We had 5 volunteers come to this event and help us out. Of course everything started perfectly, NOT. In fact, when we first got to the recycling site at 6am we were already overwhelmed with so many cars lined up. We had no clue of where to start or what to start. Our plan went out the window. I saw Jesse panicking so I had to slap some sense into him.hahaha and remind him that we could do this. He relaxed a little and joined with me in an improvised version of our plan.
We had our DJ already setting up so we decided to make our little area more “official” by putting up our Comcast tent, and posters.
Now, for the improvised part we had a “three section” approach to our thank you card/education plan. First, I would talk to the people at the designated “official” area “educated” them and give them the thank you cards to fill out in their cars. Then I would tell them to give it to Cindy who was positioned further along in the line of cars (so we didn’t slow traffic down). She would give out prizes to people who gave her these cards. Jesse was the second person these people would encounter after me, and he would encourage them to text to a number to be entered to win Rockies tickets. After getting people subscribed their phone number he would thank people for coming and give them recycling education facts through phone text messages. We collected more than 200 thank you cards and did the post education program and survey with great success!
We definitely had a positive impact on the event!
Over time is when our strategy really developed. Although, we were only a two person team we really worked well together and everything flowed very well.
Our 1st task was to use social media like Blogger, twitter, Yahoo groups, Myspace and others to promote the event and educate people. We researched into it and even attended some social media workshops to get an idea of how to use it. We decided to make a video about who we were, what we were doing, and promote our event and other social media websites. The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eIQ2ITqFYc. We gave updates and educational information on these sites daily. Plus, we even used direct email marketing to advertise our event to targeted recycling groups.
As we are managing these websites we also used other conventional marketing tools like press releases, newspapers, and so on. One of the most effective promoting activities we did was the recycling event we had at the Auraria campus. Our plan was to get students’ emails, phone numbers and have these students also promote the upcoming recycling event to their friends. How? We gave away slices of pizza to people who filled out “commitment cards” in which they would put their name, email address, and their phone number if they were interested in volunteering. Also, they had to text five friends to tell them about the upcoming recycling event. Not only did we have great success with this Auraria event but it gave us experience of what to expect on the actual recycling event.
Anyway, we did so much that I’m only scratching the surface here and talking about the “bigger” stuff.
March 7th recycling event:
So finally the day came to put everything we had been preparing and planning for to the test. We had “Thank you” cards to get people’s information and do a post recycling education program and survey them about the event. We had 5 volunteers come to this event and help us out. Of course everything started perfectly, NOT. In fact, when we first got to the recycling site at 6am we were already overwhelmed with so many cars lined up. We had no clue of where to start or what to start. Our plan went out the window. I saw Jesse panicking so I had to slap some sense into him.hahaha and remind him that we could do this. He relaxed a little and joined with me in an improvised version of our plan.
We had our DJ already setting up so we decided to make our little area more “official” by putting up our Comcast tent, and posters.
Now, for the improvised part we had a “three section” approach to our thank you card/education plan. First, I would talk to the people at the designated “official” area “educated” them and give them the thank you cards to fill out in their cars. Then I would tell them to give it to Cindy who was positioned further along in the line of cars (so we didn’t slow traffic down). She would give out prizes to people who gave her these cards. Jesse was the second person these people would encounter after me, and he would encourage them to text to a number to be entered to win Rockies tickets. After getting people subscribed their phone number he would thank people for coming and give them recycling education facts through phone text messages. We collected more than 200 thank you cards and did the post education program and survey with great success!
We definitely had a positive impact on the event!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Project #3 - CHFA
Last Friday we were informed about our next project. It has to do with working with CHFA to get more people to use resources that help them avoid the foreclosure of their homes. Our job is to come up with a Marketing plan to make this happen.
I will post more about this later. I'm starving and need to eat some breakfast.
Que tengan buenos dias!
I will post more about this later. I'm starving and need to eat some breakfast.
Que tengan buenos dias!
March 7th's Recycling Event
So our electronic recycling event was a huge success. We had almost 5,000 cars show up and by noon unfortunately a lot of people had to be turned down. It was an amazing even.t People who showed up were telling me they were really excited to get rid of their old electronics the right way. For many people this meant getting rid of electronics they had stored away for YEARS!
Although it was freezing our group (The Contenders) focused on interacting with people face to face. We were educating people, asking for their input on the event (how they heard about it), giving away tons of prizes, our DJ was blasting away some music and just making their wait more enjoyable. In fact some people mentioned feeling like they were in a Disneyland ride.
By the end of the event we were all exhausted and ready to go home. I felt like i was going to loose my voice from talking to so many people. Overall though i had a fantastic time talking to them. They were super friendly and open. Telling me how they wanted to see these kind of events happen more often.
Talking directly to hundreds of people was above all the funnest thing out of the whole event for me. It was priceless having to joke with everyone and having people feel like they were old friends of mine. In fact it was hilarious people would drive up to me and THEY would start joking around off the bat. Good times! :) I'm sure we all made their drive a little less boring and a bit more educational and entertaining.
Thanks to everyone who helped! Cindy, Herman, Peter (our DJ), Grant, and Ivan.
Although it was freezing our group (The Contenders) focused on interacting with people face to face. We were educating people, asking for their input on the event (how they heard about it), giving away tons of prizes, our DJ was blasting away some music and just making their wait more enjoyable. In fact some people mentioned feeling like they were in a Disneyland ride.
By the end of the event we were all exhausted and ready to go home. I felt like i was going to loose my voice from talking to so many people. Overall though i had a fantastic time talking to them. They were super friendly and open. Telling me how they wanted to see these kind of events happen more often.
Talking directly to hundreds of people was above all the funnest thing out of the whole event for me. It was priceless having to joke with everyone and having people feel like they were old friends of mine. In fact it was hilarious people would drive up to me and THEY would start joking around off the bat. Good times! :) I'm sure we all made their drive a little less boring and a bit more educational and entertaining.
Thanks to everyone who helped! Cindy, Herman, Peter (our DJ), Grant, and Ivan.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Social media "The New Marketing Tool"
Ok so I got an email that I should be blogging some more so here it goes. I have a cold so bare with me if some things make no sense.
The heat is up on project 2 and I have to say our team “the contenders” is really bringing it. Our strategy has been solid since the beginning and the results are showing. I’m learning so much about social media far more than I expected to learn.
I recently attended a social media workshop at Regis University. Although, I lost my folder where I had my notes while filming our E-cycle video I will go over what I learned.
Social media has become the new medium by which businesses are promoting their products. The spin on this new marketing approach for businesses is an “interactive” approach. It has become evident that social media is a direct communication between businesses and their consumers. Businesses have far more control over their image through these internet communication tools. They can address customers’ concerns and questions. Social medium also allows organizations know how people are reacting to their product, and advertising efforts faster than ever. If a person has complaints about a particular brand of product you will sure here about it on a site like Twitter.
On the other side of the coin regular people can network very easily with high ranking people in any business. It is fascinating how in the old days people used to network with people from the bottom up (through the secretary to higher levels) and now it is possible to start right at the top perhaps by connecting with a CEO who is using twitter.
In the Social media workshop I learned that it is all about giving (like it is in life in general) and people who are ineffective with this internet tool make the mistake of solely focusing on what they want. For example many people who are there to promote their products or even their opinion solely focus on that. Instead of taking the time to help out people, give advice, pay attention to other people’s messages and responding to them. It’s kind of like in real life where most people want to talk and talk without listening. Well when a person comes a long who REALLY listens people are drawn to them. It is the same for social media. It is important to listen to others on these websites if you plan to be listened to. Again it is an INTERACTIVE medium of communication not just a one way form of communication.
I asked several questions to the panelist at this social media workshop. One was about how to publicize a local event through social media (answer: find and contact the influencers in your field and geographical area, make use of the social networks that the organizers are already on), and how to build a business using social media (answer: create trust, give away something of value, contribute to others' goals.)
Overall I learned that the possibilities with social media are endless. I hope this post was informative to everyone who might need social media in the future.
Till next time and best wishes to everyone!
Felipe
By the way check out our own social media effort to better the environment at:
http://ecyclecountdown.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ecyclecountdown
http://twitter.com/EcycleCountdown
Also for more information about social media visit my good friend Carol Ross’ website at http://www.abiggervoiceblog.com/.
The heat is up on project 2 and I have to say our team “the contenders” is really bringing it. Our strategy has been solid since the beginning and the results are showing. I’m learning so much about social media far more than I expected to learn.
I recently attended a social media workshop at Regis University. Although, I lost my folder where I had my notes while filming our E-cycle video I will go over what I learned.
Social media has become the new medium by which businesses are promoting their products. The spin on this new marketing approach for businesses is an “interactive” approach. It has become evident that social media is a direct communication between businesses and their consumers. Businesses have far more control over their image through these internet communication tools. They can address customers’ concerns and questions. Social medium also allows organizations know how people are reacting to their product, and advertising efforts faster than ever. If a person has complaints about a particular brand of product you will sure here about it on a site like Twitter.
On the other side of the coin regular people can network very easily with high ranking people in any business. It is fascinating how in the old days people used to network with people from the bottom up (through the secretary to higher levels) and now it is possible to start right at the top perhaps by connecting with a CEO who is using twitter.
In the Social media workshop I learned that it is all about giving (like it is in life in general) and people who are ineffective with this internet tool make the mistake of solely focusing on what they want. For example many people who are there to promote their products or even their opinion solely focus on that. Instead of taking the time to help out people, give advice, pay attention to other people’s messages and responding to them. It’s kind of like in real life where most people want to talk and talk without listening. Well when a person comes a long who REALLY listens people are drawn to them. It is the same for social media. It is important to listen to others on these websites if you plan to be listened to. Again it is an INTERACTIVE medium of communication not just a one way form of communication.
I asked several questions to the panelist at this social media workshop. One was about how to publicize a local event through social media (answer: find and contact the influencers in your field and geographical area, make use of the social networks that the organizers are already on), and how to build a business using social media (answer: create trust, give away something of value, contribute to others' goals.)
Overall I learned that the possibilities with social media are endless. I hope this post was informative to everyone who might need social media in the future.
Till next time and best wishes to everyone!
Felipe
By the way check out our own social media effort to better the environment at:
http://ecyclecountdown.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ecyclecountdown
http://twitter.com/EcycleCountdown
Also for more information about social media visit my good friend Carol Ross’ website at http://www.abiggervoiceblog.com/.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Project #2 E-cycling Event
I have to say the first time I heard about the project before it was explained to us I was a little nervous. Surprisingly though it seemed to be much simpler than i thought. Our main purpose in this project is to help the Denver Recycles program and Comcast in "Comcast E-Waste Eco Rally" cause. Simply put this eco-rally is an event to both help people recycle their electronics (especially Televisions) and educate the general public of the importance of recycling. Our role in this project is to promote this event and also recruit volunteers.
Our group is composed solely of male students “The Three Amigos”. I think we are going to do great in this project, having Erik and Jesse on my team will definitely put a lot of drive in to our efforts.
Personally this project is becoming an opportunity to learn and have fun with social media to promote this cause. Also this has inspired me to take a creative role and get more experience in my area of study, which is marketing. I really can't wait to see how this project will turn out.
Check out what all the buzz is about soon on:
Twitter, Myspace, Blogger, and more!
P.s. Please join us at: 183 Inverness Drive West on March 7th for our E-Waste, ECO-Rally! It will be fun and environmentally wise
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Project Numero Uno 1
This first project has been a very interesting experience. We have gotten a first hand look at the poverty that many people face on a daily basis and what we could do to improve this situation. In this project our objectives was to volunteer at a food bank, and also to come up with a strategic plan to help the Metro State food bank operate more efficiently.
I worked on the project area of community partners and had the luck of being referred by a friend to a great nutritionist/chef who specializes in low income meals. She helped me put together a cook book and find the resources that the food bank needed. Along the way I learned a few things about myself and how to be more effective in these projects. The first project has taught me that simple is better than complicated especially when you only have two weeks to come up with a plan. Moreover, I saw the power of networking and connecting with people to make a project that much easier.
Regarding the team I think the biggest insight I have gotten is how we all fit in according to our strengths and the areas we need to improve on. I got some great advice from one of my teammates about needing to be more assertive since I’m normally a very “mellow”.
So far my greatest experience has been meeting a number of great people in the kick off event, while working on the project, and during our meetings and media events. I don’t know what to expect in the 2nd project but I can’t wait to see what’s coming.
I worked on the project area of community partners and had the luck of being referred by a friend to a great nutritionist/chef who specializes in low income meals. She helped me put together a cook book and find the resources that the food bank needed. Along the way I learned a few things about myself and how to be more effective in these projects. The first project has taught me that simple is better than complicated especially when you only have two weeks to come up with a plan. Moreover, I saw the power of networking and connecting with people to make a project that much easier.
Regarding the team I think the biggest insight I have gotten is how we all fit in according to our strengths and the areas we need to improve on. I got some great advice from one of my teammates about needing to be more assertive since I’m normally a very “mellow”.
So far my greatest experience has been meeting a number of great people in the kick off event, while working on the project, and during our meetings and media events. I don’t know what to expect in the 2nd project but I can’t wait to see what’s coming.
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