Gone App H APP Y

Going back to the Boston Conference, FutureM ...panel members, consisting of representatives from start-ups and agencies (such as CampusLive, Mullen and Digitas ) were read the following statement by the the monitor...

" Most brands need a mobile app,"

Responses varied throughout the panel. Some argued- depends on the brand (like any other tactic when marketing). Some said, yes - if it's a brand that provides a utility or service. And some said - essential, when done accurately; giving the case and point of Gerber, the baby food company, and how they turned their app into a valuable tool providing new moms helpful hints/facts about pregnancy and nursing...

My stance? Well after getting my Transform fixed, (a less sophisticated Droid, but nevertheless a smartphone) I asked myself why I'm not using this phone to it's full potential? My everyday app use consisted, of course, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and sometimes I dabbled with Words with Friends. So, I added a couple apps (Ok, maybe more than a couple). During the past week while on vacation, I...

Checked my status of my flight/ checked in on my Southwest app, all before entering the airport

Transferred money from my savings to checkings with my Bank of America app before paying my over-priced bar tab

Wrote a blog post with my blogger app after visiting the Hollywood sign in LA

Confirmed requests on my LinkedIn app

Received a deal at a very nice restaurant in Newport Beach with my Groupon app

Directed my boyfriend to the John Wayne Airport with my Google Maps app (why he doesn't know how to get there after living there over a year? Beyond me).

Granted, a lot of those are for utility, and indeed were SO Helpful. I don't know why I wasted so much time waiting for the Internet to load before (wow that sounded spoiled). But seriously. The apps in that sense, have won me over. Now to think if brands that I'm head- over- heels for had apps ...

Say Khiara could open up an Alex and Ani app and get an automatic listing for whats new, deals, digital coupons, maybe a game to create your own pendant and have it created for her? Or if DSW, a shoe store, had an app that I could browse in seconds to find that shoe (the one you know exactly what it looks like in your mind and look everywhere till you find the one that fits the criteria ) and could order it, or find what location has it.

APPS give you what you're looking for. Faster, easier, and for free. Brands are on the verge of something entirely groundbreaking here, and it's with APPS.

My Beach Day

Fall has officially moved in. Although I didn't sink my toes in the sand once this summer, I can't even complain. The tourists are gone, the water in warm, the air is crisp and there is no other time I'd rather be at the beach than right. now. Dave and I spent our day off by the water this past Monday and I couldn't have asked for a better beach day. This, by far, is my favorite time of year...

"Women, Work & The Art of Savoir Faire"

Thanks to one of my Public Relations Society alums, I was handed down the book "Women, Work & The Art of Savoir Faire" (meaning, how to do it well, in French) by Mireille Guiliano. I am what you would call - a bookworm. Give me a book and I'll spend the day with my nose in it until it's done. However, I took my time with this one. It has been the perfect guide this summer as I endured my job-hunt. It is only fitting that I started it when I graduated in May, and finished it as the season changed as I enter this next phase of my life. It is inspiring, motivating, and educational. Unlike other dry "how to get the job" books, it encompasses a greater scope of information that is valuable to any person, and more specifically women. As the author says " ... That's why I dare to talk about style and clothes and food and wine and entertaining and LIFE in a business book. We don't work in a vacuum. Our work is part of the rest of our lives."

When beginning your professional career it is imperative to find a mentor. The book touches on the mere fact that women, for one reason or another -( jealously or what have you), don't reach out as often as men do to be a true mentor. As a young professional myself, I appreciate all the help that I have received, and vow as I continue my journey to help those following in the similar footsteps. My advice? READ IT. And do what my fellow alum did, pass it on!

And Then There Was Boathouse

My Alumni Reunion was this weekend- can you believe it?! ALUMNI. Mixed in with the conversations of fond memories and gossip, I was prepared for the questions of, "what are you doing now?" To my surprise, I was way more confident explaining my situation than I had thought. 

"Still looking... interviewed at this place...met really awesome people...FutureM... The perfect job waiting is for me." When the conversation was taken to the next level of intimacy, I was asked to describe that perfect place. I answered with three things:

The people, opportunity for growth, and the quality of work.

(Fade into the day before)

My interview at Boathouse Group went so well. I met with five amazing people- two Account Managers, a woman in HR, one of the co-founders, and a good friend. Everyone I met with was inspiring. They were passionate about what they do, spoke so highly of Boathouse, and attributed it all to the people that work there. With this company, there are no titles on businesses cards, no cubicles and no separate departments; everyone is on the same team. I mean, even the CFO met with me- how cool is that?!

I left the interview so pleased. Not only with myself but with Boathouse Group. No matter the outcome, Friday was another experience where I learned a little more about myself and the amazing opportunities that are out there. Big and glamorous in the city, or small and passionate in Waltham, MA- Boathouse Group has caught my attention.

Greetings From Hollywood

Despite all the stress/excitement I've experienced during this time of trying finding a job (sooner rather than later), I still wanted to uphold my promise to go on an adventure before I get my nine to five. So here I am in the Golden State. More specifically, Orange County, CA. Yesterday we ventured north through the cliche LA traffic for hours before making it to the Hollywood sign. We hiked up the canyon and the view up top was amazing (despite the smog).  We spent the rest of the afternoon down at Venice Beach at a bar called Cabo Cantina, where happy hour consisted of doubling every drink order for the price of one. To say the least- awesome.

Inbox (1)

This girl has an interview tomorrow at Boathouse Group! It's a small advertising agency in Waltham, MA I had visited for an informational interview back in April. I'm so excited! Of course, Gessenia is across the country visiting the state she can practically call her second home, so unfortunately my excitement hasn't been shared with her yet (it's 6am there). But I'm sure she'll wake up with my positive vibes.

The rest of my day will be spent preparing. Off to the "I'm Awesome" chart...

"Pleasure To(oth) Meet You"

It was our last day of events at FutureM and we were ready. Although the previous events were AMAZING, we found ourselves sometimes wishing we had done some things differently. For two girls who find themselves more confident than not, we didn't realize how intimidating networking at this level of sophistication could be. So like I said, this time we were ready...

Elevator speech. Check. Outfit. Check. Rule #4 -No glass of wine until our last event. Check. List of things not to bring up (for example: The reason I have a lisp...."I have a fake tooth in my mouth that can be removed - want to see?") Check.

Unfortunately the dreaded tooth removal (read post) had taken place the day before and the result of it was as obvious as a bad hair cut. The fake tooth caused me to have a terribly embarrassing lisp, and a tooth that would occasionally pop out at the most inconvenient times- like when I was introducing myself to Barbara, CGO of Digitas, or while I was eating cheese and crackers at our last networking event. My eyes lit up in horror as I realized I was chewing on a piece of plastic- now toothless- at a black tie event, while Khiara had to cover her mouth from shrieking in laughter.....

So it was a tiny bit of a hassle, but hardly a damper on the day. Khiara, Dave and I were going to make the most of it- and we did. Our first event, Rich Media and Mobile Advertising was held at Digitas. (The building was something out of a movie!) Speakers gave their perspective on the path of Mobile Advertising and the barriers it has been breaking thus far.

 After, we grabbed some lunch and decided to head to Hill Holiday in order to get good seats for the next event, "The Pitch". We waited in the lounge on the 34th floor and envied employees on their lunch breaks - to them, this was just any other standard work day.... We had another chance to connect with some employees of Hill Holiday. Khiara introduced us to both Chris and Lauren who happened to be walking through, and it was yet another chance to practice our networking skills. Finally the Pitch began, and it was by far one of the more exciting events. Five people representing real start-up companies entering the market, had to give their pitch in a matter of eight minutes, followed by a real live panel of judges made up of journalists and agencies.

Boris from CampusLive receiving feedback from the panel

The seminar was then broken up into a networking event, where Khiara and I broke rule #4 and found ourselves sipping on some wine as we mingled. We had a chance to meet with the young entrepreneur of CampusLive, Boris and his lead sales member Melanie. Melanie was nice enough to share her story of how she got to where she was in Boston, and encouraged us to reach out to her.

Leaving Hill Holiday we had some time to kill and headed over to Faneuil Hall. Khiara dragged me into Coach where we almost impulsively bought a bag (the equivalent of half a months of rent in Boston). In return, I dragged her to the Salty Dog across the street to indulge in something more in our range of financial capabilities, Sam Adams on tap.

One drink later we headed back to our final event, Content Curation, where we had the chance to get more insight on start- up companies from a Community Manager herself, Elizabeth.

Although this conference wasn't going to result in a job offer, the insight we now have about the industry is twice as much as we had a week before (and nothing we could have learned in class). Above all, now that I've had a taste, there is nothing stopping me from having anything less.

Tweet.

This entire week at FutureM has been absolutely amazing, but for now, this is all I have to say about yesterday...

Living My Life Like It's Golden

At times like these, I need to do two things.

1. Sit back, reflect, and be thankful for the amazing opportunities that have come my way.
2. REMEMBER this moment during the times I feel discouraged.

As a result of the Jack Brand Camp (which I still need to talk about) I was informed of the FutureM event that is happening this week. I am now home from the first two days of workshops, panels, and networking and recharging for the rest of the week. Let me give you a run down of what my life has consisted of the past few days.

Sunday: Photo shoot with SERAi Hair and Makeup Artistry at the Bridal Garden in East Greenwich. As soon as we walked in the door at 4pm, Gessenia and I played Bride-To-Be: trying on dresses, picking out jewelery, and getting our hair and makeup done by Samara and her team. Our session of playing dress-up was followed by a photo shoot that would have made anyone feel like a celebrity!

After a rush of flashing lights and enough lip gloss to last one million kisses, we left there like two teenage girls who just met Justin Bieber. It was so incredibly fun and Samara was absolutely fabulous. However it wasn't long until the reality sunk in that we were leaving for Boston the next day and had a lot of preparing to do. We attempted to do work at her house, but we didn't even make it an hour before our eyelashes seemed heavier than before and called it quits.

Monday: Woke up at 6:45am to meet Gessenia at the office to print our resumes and business cards. Blasting Adele in the background to calm the stress of our "To Do" list, Adele helped us through a dozen failed attempts to align the business card paper correctly. Exhausted, frazzled, and laughing at our situation, we left with only copies of our resume in hand. Dave picked me up at 9:00am and we were finally Boston-bound. The first event Dave and I attended was The Future of Marketing in Sports Entertainment. It was awesome. People from Hill Holliday, NESN, the Patriots, and a Non-Profit were there sharing their marketing wisdom about the one thing that unites people from all over the world-Sports.

One parking ticket later, we headed over to the Microsoft office to Tap Into Gen Y- a panel led by Edward Boches from Mullen. This event particularly got me excited during the segment where it talked about how our generation "brand" themselves while looking for a job via social media. (Hey! Gessenia and I know all about it!) After that event, Dave and I somehow managed to lose the car which took us 65 minutes to realize it was parked only two streets away. (Thank God I took off my heels). We later picked up Gessenia from the Back Bay train station with a surprise in hand...her Mom went to Staples and printed out our business cards!!!! So proud, we headed to the FutureM kick off event where we met a wonderful woman, Alison from Smarterer. She connected with us immediately and offered to help us in any way possible. It's people like her that keep us going!
 
We grabbed dinner and drinks at Red Lantern before making it back to our hotel.

Check out our Business Cards!

 














Tuesday: We woke up bright and early to make our way back to the Microsoft Headquarters for our first event, Massachusetts: The Future of Marketing is Here. A panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and marketing professionals discussed the ways in which they can keep and attract the talent to Boston in order to grow and foster better businesses in the area. Brilliant people with great ideas.

The last session we attended was by far my favorite, "Boston's Digital Showcase." Young entrepreneurs discussed their career paths, and up and coming success stories presented their elevator pitch. The one that made my jaw drop? Krush. Look them up. This guy is a genius. (I could go on and on about these sessions but for the sake of interest, I'm trying to keep this short!) We ended the day on a networking event that directly followed, and met more fascinating people. Boris: CampusLive. Peter Stringer: Celtics Social Media Guru. We made some rookie mistakes during the next hour, for example: when I was asked "Where are you from?" I replied, "Exeter, RI. You know, closer to the southern end." ....He was looking for where I worked... there were a few more- but hey! we are still learning.

While I am gasping for air, I have to say the first few days of this week were an overall success and I cannot wait to go back for more tomorrow.

City Lights

Here we are back at Sophies. Walking in from the torrential down pour we couldn't help but reflect on our first meetings here at the beginning of the summer. It really put the time that has passed into perspective comparing our cold shiver to the heat we were trying to escape just a few months ago.

Today's goal- make business cards. (Don't get me wrong, there's a list of 50 other things behind that) We've been brainstorming for nearly an hour now. How can we be creative while portraying the right message? What will differentiate us from the millions of others while still being professional?

...That's what we've come up with so far, but no purchases have been made yet.

This coming week is the FutureM in Boston. Gessenia and I are registered for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for awesome events involving Sports and Entertainment, Branding, Social Media and virtual workshops as well. While the intentions behind this production is to educate marketers and keep them on the forefront, we want to take it as a networking opportunity and be as prepared as possible.

It's been a hectic week of playing catch up all the while trying to stay ahead of the game. My trip to Oklahoma was just what the doctor prescribed. I enjoyed spending time with my family, clearing my head and finally having time to relax. I soaked it for all it was worth because the fantasy world came to an abrupt end as soon as I returned home. Wednesday morning I was off to New York for yes, my interview at GLAMOUR MAGAZINE! That day I spent 8 hours traveling for a 45 minute interview and to me, it made perfectly good sense. Thanks to the "I'm Awesome" chart Gessenia and I had worked on just a few weeks prior, some serious research on the company and a good friend in NY, I walked out of the interview beaming. Finally an interview I had no hesitation when saying it went really well. Not only that, the role of Promotion Assistant turned out to be one that I genuinely believe I could thrive in- Creative proposals, budgets, event planning, even stuffing bags- it's a position that would get me excited. I can just see it now......*sigh* (daydreaming)

Before I left the city, my sister and I had the perfect dinner date at Alice's Tea Cup on the corner of Lexington and 64th. The tiny place sweeps you into a fairy tale as soon as you step in. Fairy dust is sprinkled everywhere, the food is exotic and tasteful,and the waitstaff are super sweet.



The whirlwind of my return didn't stop there. I afforded myself 5 hours of sleep when I finally got home only to make my way up to Boston for an all day Brand Camp at Jack Morton. SO worth the lack of sleep!

...more to follow

A Light Bulb Just Went Off - (Or On)

Yesterday around 5pm, a light bulb simultaneously was ignited by not only electricity but also an epiphany.
After going Five whole days without power, running water and cell phone service, I was feeling disconnected. both the world and myself.

A lot can change in a week huh? To get everyone up to speed. Following the freak- of -nature earthquake on the East Coast, came Hurricane Irene (said to be in the top 10 deadliest hurricanes to hit the US ever). Rhode Island was fortunate enough to not get hit dead on with the old broad, but the storm that radiated off her caused 60% of the Ocean State without electricity, and some still won't expect it until Labor Day Weekend. Of course it could of been worse, at the end of the day you realized what's important, your family and friends- and life basically - but still... it was TERRIBLE.

Not only did Irene come abruptly, so did a a job opportunity. A friend of mine gave me a lead to an opening at Konnessi, (a company he's been helping while finishing his MBA). The lead turned into a interview, which then lead to a second interview, which then lead to a job offer and a " See you on Tuesday at 9 and we will get started."

For those who have been keeping up with this blog, have most likely gathered the following: I am determined to get out of RI - want to have a career at a prestige agency - and have a career in Public Relations or Marketing. On the contrary, this job opportunity is in RI - is a small start up- and is a sales position. To my surprise all my determination for a goal I have been tirelessly working for was being thrown out the window, and I was beginning to entertain the idea of this new career path. After all this market is unforgivable, I don't have any planned interviews or ins at the moment, I am young and everyone needs stepping stones, and time is passing faster than sand in an hour glass.

I weighed the pros and cons back and forth. I would be excited at one moment as I envisioned a day working for this company, and the responsibility I was accountable for, and overall dominating the human race. The excitement would then be replaced with anxiety and second guessing. The salary being offered was "peanuts" as my father said. Granted in sales, the sky is the limit to make income, but there was an undeniable risk here for what seemed to be an extensive demand for a more than 40 hr work week.

But in the end, it wasn't the amount of work being asked that bothered me, nor the pay check. It was my vision. Life throws you windows of opportunities at random times and there will always be a risk in taking them- that's the only way you get anywhere. But the one thing I hold dearly is this vision, well- you all read it in the first post. And this wasn't it. As Khiara puts it - "do you feel like you have exhausted all your options?" - and I don't. The fight in me is not even close to being tarnished.

So what did I do? The unthinkable for an inexperienced college grad living in this economy. I said I respectfully declined.

As I sat in the living room with my father, as I internally made my decision ...A sign from God, Buddha, or just the right tilt of the earth in this universe - The electricity I was lacking all week fired back on literally and figuratively all at the same time.( I am not even lying.) Not to mention Khiara was back in town and I finally had a phone that was charged long enough to be able to fill her in. After talking to her I felt grounded again...so as of today we are both officially signed up for a marketing conference in Boston in two weeks and it looks like the #jobhuntcontinues.