... moving on to .... ?

Ever since I started this blog, I looked forward to one day typing on here, "I'm moving my family to [some non-Utahn city here], and I'm going to work for [some very professional company here].

Well, I received 1 offer from an advertising agency that was going to let me go to Hawaii after about a year. But as I researched and even did a week of on the job training, I realized they were trying to go national with a business model that was never going to be sustainable for more than about 2 salesmen in the state of Utah....... I turned it down.

I've been consulting for another organization, but they are looking to hire hardware expertise and I have software..... maybe I just haven't sold myself by not stressing that I understand the market just fine.

And as I've thought about this "expertise," both what I have and what I want to do points me in 1 direction ---->> Terence, start your own company

This is the whole reason I came back to business school. Knowing how to start, manage, and grow my own company is the whole reason I got an MBA from BYU. I took every single class I could about starting a company.

The problem is, my plans all require some experimentation. I'm planning on relying on Page Rank for a lot of my advertising ..... a great strategy to build something on the side for a year or two until it reaches critical mass. Starting and depending on something immediately has not been in my plans (and I question if it is in the economy's).

And yet... I'm setup great to do it. Expenses are very low right now. I still have some consulting on the side so can cover those expenses. I don't have a work commute. To summarize: I have a lot of time to build a company.

I have to re-strategize, and figure out a different business model (still need cheap though). I have put together a lot a web-advertising software to use that should be useful. And I have to have a product delivered very quickly.

I am starting one
I will be starting my own company. I do still have a few interviews, and I'm going to dedicate an hour or two each day to the job search, but I'm going to start a company! :)

Right now, I'm focusing on web-news critical to certain industries like Tom's Hardware or Engadget. I am passionate about Scuba Diving and would love to be the Scuba leader on the web, but I haven't researched to see if that is a good starting point right now. I do have a few other industries that I have had some automated researches on though and will venture into there.

And I am reading over my Entrepreneurial Marketing & Strategy notes (my 2 favorite classes at BYU). Maybe there are some other ideas I haven't hit yet.

I wanted to start a blog dedicated to Social Entrepreneurship happenings around the world, but that will have to be delayed as well.

As my sites gain in popularity, I have some other ideas about selling communities to those who want to start one but not manage it...... and then of course my thousands of ideas. As time goes on, I'll come up with more and more.

These first steps will not build my big, international organization like I want, but they are stepping stones to get there.


Well, here it goes. Just got to give myself one more reminder:
Use your gut, but not too much emotion! Pay attention to why ideas make you nervous, and solve problems... do not just ignore them.

Notes from Leadership Seminar

Well, I am packing up and I've got quite a few papers I want to throw away -- but a few things that I would like to remember.... so I'll be transcribing a few things into here.

Below are some notes I took at a leadership seminer put on by Zig Ziglar and others in the Fall of 2007.

Spearker: Peter Lowe

• Using words alone, he improved our performance. To change your future, change the words you use
• Believe what you say has happened
• To practice, envision where you want to be -- Simulate it! (pratice before you go out and do)
• Had a lady break a board with her hand -- lesson was that it is easiest to break a board in the center (don't pussy foot around the edges)
• If you think you can't breakt the board, simulate it
• "All things are possible to those who believe" (.... Walt Disney? :) )
• Waht you believe is more important tahn how much. A winning belief system is knowing you've won even when down @ half time (some sort of football analogy (Canadian Football no-less))
• See the whole background, not just what you're focused on.
• "Quickest way to change your life is to change your relationship w/ God" (... he was preachy, but I think there is logic in this)

Speaker: Rudy Giuliani

Leaders are Made

1. you have to know what you believe in
   Leadership about ideas. You have to have them! Knowing public opinions and following it is not leadership!
2. To be a leader, you have to be an optomist
   Got to be thinking success in order to obtain it (on a side note, congrats to the Pittsburgh Penguins! wininning two nights ago)
3. Courageous People can manage Fear.
   They also reduce risk
   Eon't let intimidators break your spirit
4. Relentless Preperation -- Practice & Rehearse
   If you prepare for everything you can think of, in that prepration you'll take care of what you can't (said in reference to 9/11 and how nobody saw that coming, but handled it pretty well)
5. Teamwork -- you can't accomplish on just your own. E.o. accountable... even you.
6. You have to love people. More important to be there for people when they are more wrong thatn right.

Speaker: Tom Hopkins

• Need ot change your attitude toware the word "no" (it's now so bad to hear it)
• Think of failure as a learning experience or change to change
  * develop humor
  * practice
  * gam to play to win
• when someone quits, they eventually become a negative person -- want to be a positive comittied achiever!
• -- In sales, ask questions requiring a "yes" (isn't it?, don't you agree?, doesn't it?)
• Alternate force -- 2 options for agreement
• Procupine response tactic
• You're not judged by how often you fail, but how often you succeed (& they are directly proportional)

Speaker: Dr. Robert Schuller (some minister)

• When you have an unsolvable problem, you just need to talk to more people
• 5 ways to turn good inda into a Dynamie Achievement
  1 - Nesting
  2 - Testing
  3 - Investing
  4 - Arresting
  5 - Resting
  ..................... yeah, I have no idea what this is talking about
• ......... I'm done with this guy... my notes aren't making sense.

Speaker: John Stockton

He and Rudy were my 2 favorite speakers at this. He was pretty funny

• Competition is a school
  you learn from everybody
  you learn what not to do
• Let kids take their bumps... don't protect the whole way
• Outcome is secondary to the effort to change that outcome
• Put whole heart & sould into everything you do and you will be a success
• Talks about how success takes a whole lot of repetition
• To be a good teammate:
  Enjoy your teammates' success
  Be on the same page as teammates
  Know the rules
• It's amazing whatt you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit
• Be energetic, don't be a drag

My first Case Interview

I had my first case interview -- actually got out about an hour ago. I've got a few takeaways I'd like to remember.

Last night, a good chunk of my evening was spent figuring out what a case interview even is. I found a few good resources for this:

• McKinsey
  
• Stockamp

So the interview wasn't quite what I expected. I was anticipating a full on role-play so I was thrown off when I started. Actually, it was more like studying an actual case: here is the situaiton - what to do?

I was expecting to be able to ask more questions than I was allowed. I thought I'd be judged on my probing skills, once I figured out they wanted to see what I brainstormed, I was on my way. I estimate that getting accustomed to the interviewer took about 1/3 of the time. I was much happier with my performance in the latter half of the interview.

and so what did I learn?

• The 3 C's Cool Calm & Collected. I could have handled this a little better I think. As I realized my assumed structure wasn't going to play out, I probably showed a bit of confusion. This also stopped me from taking the notes that I wanted so I could analyze better.
• Could you ask about structure before actually start? Judging by what I saw in this interview and what I read about on McKinsey's website, there are probably quite a few variations out there. To better play the role that is meant for me, it might be good to ask what to expect in the structure.
  Who are you in this?
  Am I allowed / should I be asking for more information?
• Brainstorm Options Things finally started clicking when I just said: there is this huge amount of info. If it were this, I would do this.......... He liked seeing that I wasn't sold on one solutions
• How will get Buy-IN I didn't see this one coming. I had a few ideas, and I really tried to focus what I've learned in negotations class and working with the stakeholders. Hmmmm........ if anyone has more ideas here please comment Obviously people don't just accept your ideas because you are a consultant.
• Articulate Well I always know I've got to improve here. I should practice saying what I mean. I often do have great pictures in the back of my mind; somehow it all gets translated into mumbo-jumbo :)
  

I look forward to a few more of these. Remembering what I learned should help me move from my earned 70% of all wow to a solid 100% Wow Factor.

New Goal in the MBA Program : 100% Wow!

Execution & Strategy

I've been thinking about what I've learned from my internship and classes. I've gained a lot of technical skills over the last few years, and this has not helped me to start an internet company--- so what will?

I think it boils down to execution & direction. One needs to have a direction to go. Just after college, I worked for 2 different small companies whose owners were just winging it day to day--it was easy to see they were not going to stay in business long.

I've been pretty good at planning out the internet product, but then have had very loose plans for how I was going to advertise it. The internship this summer definitely taught me a lot about executing a go-to-market strategy.

Courses I've had this year like entrepreneurial strategy and entrepreneurial marketing (FYI, this professor is going to release a pretty good book on startup marketing so watch for it) have shown what to base a strategy on.

So now I can create a much more robust and useful strategy. Anything left? Oh yea, execution! Tom Hopkins used to say that the salesman with enough desire will succeed, but he now says he has changed his mind and its the salesman with the most discipline.

And I really think that discipline is one of my greatest weaknesses. Its fun to dream of the future-I love that part! But working for it? I get bored pretty easily. I'd rather just hangout with friends.

Of course seeing that I've got a good strategy and knowing how to define one should help me to trust it better and be more willing to give it my time.

Catapulted by Dr. Dave Jennings (review)

Last Year, all first year MBA Students at BYU had to take a communications course from Dr. Dave Jennings. This year, he quit to promote his new book: Catapulted.

So I ordered the book and then Amazon posted to my account that they delivered it to me... only I never got it. I called Amazon to inform them I didn't receive "Catapulted" and they sent it again. I still didn't get it, but a few hours after they said it was delivered the guy that is now in my apartment at Wymount showed up on my door step delivering me both boxes. So, I hope this one extra book helps Dr. Jennings out :)

And now for a review
The book was pretty good. It is told in the form of an alegory -- I'll admit I don't like leadership books like this because the stories aren't real and I feel there is too much "theory" in it all. The only book I've ever liked in this form has been "The Greatest Salesman in the World"

That said I did like a lot of the advice in the book. It talks a lot of leadership and finding where you want to lead someone. It also puts a very necessary focus on people and relationships.

I don't want to give away the "meat and potatoes." I've heard similar things from Zig Ziglar, but "Catapulted" gives the reminder that we can't just follow money and we can't just chase promotions, we really need to focus on accomplishing the goals our values would let us have, and we need to lift others not climb over them as we do.

Short review I know. But he book is not expensive and its a quick read. I really suggest reading it and noting down the advice. There are conversations between the protagonist and a few supporting roles. Again-- very fictional, but you do pick up on some good insight from Jennings. Doing it over again, I would definitely buy the book.

My one complaint about the book is that Dr. Jennings did not focus on his "pit of despair" or "pit of opportunity" that he would talk about in class (and which I assume were his own invention). He hints at similar principles to what he taught us in class (about overcoming challenges.) These were my favorite lessons in his class and I think he'd be well served to write another book on these subjects--and to do it using more anlaytics and logic instead of one general allegory.

It's back.... Minto!

Went to a meeting yesterday where an IT consultant was telling us how to better integrate our systems. I was there because of my responsibilities for making sure e-commerce is awesome.

So we get in this meeting and the consultant goes: blah blah blah. For each "blah" he was supposed to say, it seems he said forty-extra "blah's." In mathematics, that's a blah-speach to the 40th power. So what should have been 5 minutes was quite a bit longer.

I spoke with an executive after the meeting and he said the guy should have displayed 1 chart slide and said the systems aren't integrated and too many manual processes are used to link them.

Then put up a second slide saying that phase one is just to get csv files to link them-- creating X manual processes per day instead of per order. 3rd slide: Phase 3 eliminates those manual processes etc...

Ok fellow BYU MBA'ers, do you know what this guy was describing nearly to a "t"? Minto. Start with a story: "Data Entry is going on and it sucks"

"Here's why it sucks"

"Here's the band-aid fix"

"Here's the long-term fix"

5 minutes and 4 million less "blah's" later, everyone is able to make their carpools and read over the full version of the report if they need to.

Glad I wasn't the guy presenting. When it comes time for me to, I will remember this lesson.
----------------------
I'm not trying to be rude to the guy here, but just make a point. He was actually well prepared, but most the people at the meeting wanted to donate precious few minutes and his strategy was to explain his findings in great detail. If they had more concerns they could get them addressed (hence be prepared), but I think the biggest concern was "let me know the problem is beiing taken care of and I won't get in your way."

Make sure you're prepared to answer questions but people in most businesses are busy; communicate necessities and then hand over your report.

get 'er done

I've been put in charge of a few vendors to get my projects done. I'm learning a lot in dealing with them. Thursday, I had to have everything in place for our new website to go live. The vendor has been really difficult to work with and commuicate with. On Wednesday, they actually sent me an email saying I interrupted too much.

I didn't care! I only wanted it set up, I wasn't worried about their schedule. I went to their office Thursday afternoon to discuss what was left and to make sure they were working. Trying to respect their need to focus, I didn't bother the programmer too much for the first hour. Then I went and asked about the progress and he told me he was woring on soething entirely different!


So I sat there and discussed it with him for 10 minutes and then 10 minutes later the programmer had given me what I wanted. I was excited and I was apalled at this web-designers system! They charged us for an hour of work when 20 minutes was what was needed! Well, from now on I will make sure they repeat back to me exactly what I want.

That's the principle I'm trying to highight-- know what you want and make sure they can tell you. Until then, they do not have permission to start the work.

what day is it?

Haven't been on this in a while. Wow this has been an intense summer! For the first time in my life, I actually forget what day it is. I think it's partially because I just don't hae time to pay attention but I'm also haviing a lot of fun so who cares what day it is--just enjoy it!

It's been really fun to get into Celio and see everyone running at 150 mph getting ready to go to market and now we're slowing down a little to make sure we're doing things right and being consistent.

I got some cool respoinsibilities yesterday and now am very involved in coordinating the marketing internationally. I'll tell ya what, you can have an awesome internship in a small company and get some great titles on your resume. But you also have to make sure you are very results oriented.

I wish I was this focused on results back when I played hockey in highschool-- I might have doubled my varsity goals (from 2 - 4) :)

Project Summary

My largest task I've had so far is getting up a new website for Celio. I believe my technical skills from my previous career made me a strong candidate for this internship. I'm not using those technical skills directly so much as I'm leveraging them to better advise our vendors as they put pieces together for us.

However, this has been such an educational process. Previously I worked for a public university and it was not an environment that was very results driven-- stuff got done, but deadlines were often passed. This has been such a fun place to learn to do business. I've got a budget to get my projects done, but getting something that works isn't the most important part-- I also have to make sure the website converts to revenue in some way.

So I'm getting to dip my toes into some market-research by exploring what effectively steers customers-- this isn't just ad-copy but also making sure the site is friendly and intuitive. You can only get so far with intuition-- it also comes down to anlayzing data and seeing how customers are actually behaving.

Another task I'm taking on is writing some copy and analyzing the messages. A large part of building a brand is consitently showing what the brand is and does. The are some unique challenges because our product isn't a laptop, but it lets you use your smartphone in a similar manner. How do you communicate that to consumers concisely?

I'm really greatful for the chance to explore this company and this market. It's definitely fast paced and it is a great opportunity to learn how marketing works. Going with a startup has been good for a few reason. I didn't have much marketing background, so getting to start immediately is going to give me about 2 extra months of marketing experience. Also, I'm getting such broad experience in so many areas. Utah has a strong venture backed startup industry-- I'd really suggest people look at it thoroughly when they are looking for jobs and internships.

Why a Startup?

So I'm on the bus from Provo to Salt Lake. Most of my entries on this will be written while on the bus (using this REDFLY that I'm promoting during my internship) so you know... no getting worked up about my spelling errors because ths bus bouncs a lot!

From what you can see in the other blogs, I'm one of the few students that climbed on board with a small-company. I did this because I wanted a strong look at a company going through the Venture Capital process. In fact, the only bad thing about this internship is the commute (I'm pretty whiney about it) and that I didn't take a couple of week vacation (I'm going on a cruise for-sure when I graduate now!)

I really suggest going with a startup company if you have interest in it. I do think you have to do better research into things like the market your entering, the executive/founding team, t he product and areas like that. If it doesn't work out, you won't have a big name on your resume so I believe you should study the company out well and make sure it will match you an take your career where you want it to.

The internship has been a lot of fun. I've been given a lot of responsibility and a lot of freedom to meet my objectives. Its also nice because I'm getting to touch a lot of areas of marketing. I'm doing some direct-advertising, some brand management, and some market research.

I also see what everyone was saying about learning a lot more in the job function. I've learned some cool ideas for prototyping products and researching with those. I am even learning strategy about dealing with world-wide suppliers. My last year of classes has definitely been a good framework for how to market within a start-up, but this is definitely helping to fill that Skeleton in.

If you'r interested in a start-up I really suggest it. I thoroughly enjoy the lack of red-tape that I was plagued with before. I like working with pretty advancded technology. And I like working with a clean-slate in marketing-- I'm not tied to any previous images that people may have had.

I've been found!

Well, I just saw a letter from MBAMA saying they knew this was my blog. I haven't been broadcasting who I am because I am frankly a terrible writer.

Oh well, now that I've been found out, I guess I better step it up.

I start my internship on April 24th, and I have been working for Celio Corp. I really wanted to do marketing but at the same time go with a company that was in the Venture Capital Rounds.

Hope everyone is having good summer!

Interview Preperation

Ok, so this MBA program at BYU-- is it paying off? YES!

I have an interview today for my dream internship. So I've been asking around for suggestions a lot. I think I interview pretty well, but one thing I need to remember in an interview is to be confident! Sometimes questions are meant to be tricky, don't be feeble as stating what doing.

One friend told me to document all my experiences into categories. These are the categories I think that apply:

• Leadership
• Marketing (as a marketing student -- may even break this down further into areas like product and brand management)
• Problem Solving
• Dealing with Problems
• Dealing with Problematic People

Also, another friend was telling me how you want to do your homework and know what to expect from the position (do your homework to make sure you even want it) and know what is going on with the company. I've assembled the following list of what you should know about the company going into the interview:

• What is the product? (this can be deeper than what you think)
• Who is the customer?
• What has the company done well in the past? (not well?)
• What are problems are in the future? What strategy should be used in the future?
• Why work for this company?
• Who is the competition?
  

There are obviously a large amount of other questions that could come up. Some interview questions, though not effective, still get asked (what is your greatest weakness?). but for that I'm sure you can search for interview questions.

Ok time to focus my studies on these areas.

Decided on Industry

Well, its been a lot of back and forth deciding what I wanted to do when I was done with this MBA, but I think I've done it finally.

My Venture Capital Class this semester has been amazing. I'm learning a lot about growing business fast and trying to see what can be successful with a small amount of tweaking. Entrepreneurship has always been in my blood, but is it a mistake to start a company without first establishing yourself with a large company. That way if your venture fails at least you've got something else on your resume to prove you learned something.

Well, I've decided I'm going to take a chance. I want to grow a business not wander in bureaucracy so I am looking to get involved with a startup that is currently dealing with VC Firms. I want that exposure and hopefully can make the jump one day. I've been hustling and making a lot of phone calls.

In my opinion, the future looks good. I'm working really hard, but I think I am getting some things done.

Elevator Statements (as taught at BYU MBA's Orientation)

these are the instructions they gave us for elevator statements. Basically the advice is to get across "What is special about you?" - "What's special about me (my comp.)?" - "How do the 2 connect?"

Before this lecture, I thought they we're called elevator statements because it was like you were rising from no relationship to them being interested in you.

So here are the notes (remember after each are examples, don't feel tied to it):

• Who am I? Hello, my name is ___________
• Why am I talking to you? (Referral's Name) suggested that I speak to you.
• What is my objective? I am interested in advancing my career in financial management
• What are my strengths? I have 5 yrs. experience and will complete an MBA in finance in April. I have been effective in problem solving, collaboration, leadership, and increasing profit margins.
• How did I achieve these strengths? I developed these skills in a variety of positions with XYX Corp. prior to my graduate program. In my MBA Program, I focused on corporate finance & financial analysis.
• What are my passions? I enjoy working with a team to improve processes & solved difficult problems.
• How do these apply to your company/industry/location (c/i/l)? I am confident in my abilities to assist an organization improve its financial processes, reduce costs, and achieve its cash flow objectives.
• What do I want from you? I am especially interested (c/i/l ) and would like to learn more about finance operations within you (c/i/l).
• Put it all together, reduce the # of I's used & rehearse it until it sound natural and unscripted.

Interviewing Challenges

I'm doing some housekeeping to get a little organized for next semester and a little less stressed for finals.

I found some notes that I took during orientation on interviewing and thought I'd get them written down and then get this piece of paper thrown away.

Interviewing Challenges:

• Smart & Wise
• Confident but not arrogant
• "Can I trust you with my clients?"
• Prove you're worth the pay.
• "Tell me about yourself" = "Tell me all the things about you that helps you with this job" (personal things are ok, but it needs to relate to the job)
• Who? What? Where? When? How? --- you're not allowed to answer questions "yes/no"

got my first interview!!!

I just got chosen for my first interview for a marketing internship!!!! woo woo.

The interview is at BYU and the internship is at Wal-Mart Corporate Headquarters!

I'm pretty stoked, this is one of my top 3 companies I would like to work for.

I've been hyperventilating about it though. ok... breathe... breathe.

get involved

Friday morning (at the ludicrous time of 6:45 AM) we met with a panel of marketers from companies like Con-Agra, Kraft, Wal-Mart and others.

The question was asked when we do our internships next summer, how can we show that we can compete with some of the other top-business schools like Stanford & Kellogg etc...

What we were told was to just get going immediately. Don't sit there and wait to be told what to do but find out what needs to be done and just start. That's what companies want to see is people with initiative.

There was more advice given than that, but that's the comment I walked away with the most from.

Textron's Ken C. Bohlen -- part II

I just wrote a little about Ken Bohlen, but I wanted to add a little more on something he said that really rang true with me.


Mr. Bohlen spoke of trust as being a huge issue among the different generations. Generation X doesn't really trust corporate or government because of things they've seen (Nixon, Enron, layoffs, are a few of MANY reasons). Also they are coming from families with a 51% divorce rate-- seeing that even family is difficult to trust.

He said that something hurting the world is that there isn't a lot of trust and its probably rightly so that there is not:

• People don't often tell their true intentions, especially once greed is involved.
  
• People are often looking for "what can you do for me?" and not worried about what they can do to return the favor or just earn the reward.
• Another big point he made was baby boomer's are very competitive and that is what corporations have been the last 30+ years. More progress would be made if businesses weren't trying to be better than the other, but make everything better.

Anyway, what I took away from all this is that trust is a big deal and since all I want to do is start my own international, billion-dollar company, I need to not worry about finding a job. I don't want one and will cut-and-run the as soon as I can (trust).

Well, the guns are focusing! -- watch out world.

Gary Crittenden speech to BYU MBA

On Friday, Gary Crittenden (CFO of Citigroup) spoke to the MBA Program. This guy had a lot of great advice, and while I've forgotten most of it, I wanted to write down 2 things that really sat well with me.

First, he said to make sure you exercise. He talked about the merits and life enjoyment that will come by doing it, but he also said that after work for Bain for about 6 months, he was actually told that he wouldn't get very far in the company if he kept 'porking up.' I haven't been running too much for the last 3 years-- Saturday Morning, I went running.

The best advice that I thought he gave referred to knowing what you're willing to work. He said, "Any job/company will take however much time you're willing to give it." So we need to set limits to make it home to the family and spend time with them. He said he always left by 11:59pm on Saturday so and reserved the whole Sunday for family and worship. I'm not worried about it right this second, but in the future, I need to decide what I'm willing to give to my employer or my own company. He did say that the more talented you are, the easier this is-- some companies may not be willing to accept your limits (so would you want to work for that company?)

Interviews. Getting an MBA just made these harder!

Today, we've been doing mock interviews. I jut got out of one with a guy who has a ton of experience with some big named companies. His background is corporate strategy.

I just wanted to document some of the advice he gave me. It should be very helpful in the future.

There are going to be lots of questions (I can probably look a lot of them up) that I need to have general answers to:

• Why BYU's MBA? Why an MBA?
  
• Why now?
• What would you like me to remember most about you? (this was his favorite question he said. He was glad I didn't just choke and give nothing, but I definitely needed a good answer to this question)
• Why Marketing?
• Where do you see yourself in 2.5 years?
  

He went on to say as a marketing major, I definitely needed to market myself confidently.

Man! I wish I could remember more of the interview. He said he really liked my answer about why I went to my undergraduate program and just said I needed to have my reasons memorized for the other pat-answer questions.

The fact is initially BYU was not my first choice, but then I fell in love with it. I don't need to tell them the first half of that story though, just tell them how I fell in love with it in the strategy class of Dr. Dyer's that I attended.

He also said that he thinks of the MBA as a 2 year business search and that the saddest thing to him is if someone either:
Does not know what they want to do at the end of that 2 years
or
Does know what they want to do, but did not gain the skills to get there.

I guess I know what I want, I'd better make it happen!




Also I observed an interview too and one question the interviewer asked that I liked was, "What are you doing to make sure you get your dream-job after you've completed the BYU MBA?"

My answer there? ------- Networking!!!!!