The Joy of Wandering

Wrapping up my 3rd week of interning at Participant Media means I'm nearly 1/2 way through my time in LA! I had planned to update the blog more while I'm here, but I've been so immersed in the experience that it has been challenging to put it to words!

One of my favorite things in the whole-wide-world is to be in a new city and simply wander around, noticing the details and soaking up its unique history and culture. The vastness of LA, with its pockets of cities and neighborhoods, is the perfect place to feed this joy of wandering. Similarly, my internship in the Social Action department has been a joy as it is allowing me to combine my varied experiences, interests and education all in one role.

What does a Social Action intern do exactly? We support the Social Action team, whose job it is to create and execute campaigns designed to engage audiences in the themes of Participant Media's films. For example, the documentary, Waiting for 'Superman', which explores the state of our current public school system, has a campaign giving people tools to get involved and impact the system at local and national levels.

Working in the Social Action department in just these 3 short weeks has allowed me to draw on my work experience in campaign development and community engagement. I'm also drawing on my undergrad degree in Sociology by employing research methods and statistics to identify or rule out social trends and themes. My quirky filmmaker habit of "interviewing" people I meet during my travels is paying off too. Tying it all together, of course, is learning from the Social Action team how to put into practice the business and digital strategies I've been studying for the past year.

And just when I thought this internship was the perfect intersection of my interests, it got even better! I've recently been assigned to design a digital campaign on a topic that's near and dear to my heart both professionally and personally. I can't say much more than that for now... stay tuned!

So, as the title of this post is the Joy of Wandering - let me wander back to the main point here - I'm overjoyed because I'm using the fruits of my wanderings among seemingly far-flung professional, educational and geographical explorations and have the opportunity to learn so much more at such an amazing company!

A Light Bulb Went Off in the Desert

That's Texas in my rearview mirror - and if you look closely, you can discern the spider that we seemed to have picked up somewhere in the desert.

The 1,400+ mile roadtrip from TX to CA was an amazing journey with my Mom where along the way we saw old friends, stopped off in Tombstone (where I got a "talking to" from the Marshall - which I guess wasn't too bad considering the reputation of the town), soaked up the iconic southwestern culture and had a misadventure with my car key (yay, Triple A!). It was a beautiful mother/daughter experience... despite my Mom freaking me out by repeatedly referring to us as Thelma & Louise. They wound up in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I wanted to make it to LA for my internship!

In between disagreeing over what music to play, Mom and I listened to the classic, Good to Great by Jim Collins. The findings of the author's research on what separates "good" organizations from "great" ones are compelling - and what I found most provocative were his thoughts on the use of technology by the "great" companies. In an age when social media is typically touted as a fool-proof method of marketing and networking, Collins' research is perhaps more important than ever. In Collins' interviews with leaders of "great" organizations he points out how little those leaders emphasize the use of technology. Now, that's not saying they don't use technology... of course they do. Collins, however, stresses that technology is an accelerator and not a creator of success.

Without proper analysis of the market, a sound business strategy and the discipline to stick with the strategy, technology becomes a tool in unskilled hands, yielding, at best, short-term gains. Collins uses the example of DrugStore.com and Walgreen's at the height of the Dot Com Boom. While the financial markets and analysts fell all over themselves regarding DrugStore.com, they practically had the obituary for Walgreen's written. I won't get into the details here - you should read them for yourself in chapter 7 of Good to Great - but Walgreen's emerged from their "slump" with a solid business strategy, trouncing the internet's wunderkind DrugStore.com, who has continued to flail since the Dot Com Bust.

Listening to Good to Great upon completing my first year of my MBA studies was perfect timing. Because the program has a focus on Digital Media Management, the book, like the program itself, reminds us that the tools of technology are critical accelerators, but are no replacement for a solid business foundation.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Since starting this blog about my experience of St. Eds' dMBA program, I've had prospective and future students send me questions about it. The most common questions have been about how to best prepare for the program.

My answer is pretty simple: come academically prepared and have an effective stress coping strategy.

To academically prepare, 1st, check out the list of required courses and look for your weakest areas. This will, of course, be different for everyone depending on your work and undergraduate experience. For example, I've worked in Marketing pretty extensively, and in undergrad I was a Sociology major, so I felt pretty comfortable with Marketing and Statistics. Because I have written copiously in my career and, as an undergrad, took way more writing component courses than were required and completed an independent study research project, writing and Marketing Research weren't an issue. My areas of weakness however, were Accounting and Finance and that's where I had to work the hardest.

2nd, upon identifying areas to strengthen from the list of required courses, begin to fill in any knowledge gaps now. You can do this by taking a course at your local community college, or, at the very least, pick up a "For Dummies" type of book to familiarize yourself with key concepts - trust me, your future self will thank you! Before starting the program, I took Accounting at Austin Community College, and boy, am I SUPER glad that I did!

An effective stress coping strategy is just as critical to the program. I can't emphasize enough how quickly this program moves - 3 new classes every 7 weeks. But don't be fooled, that doesn't mean the curriculum is watered down - we're being prepared for the national MBA Major Field Test (in 2 days - wish me luck!). Throughout it all, my favorite stress release has been training in Krav Maga at Fit and Fearless (2 blocks from campus!) 3 - 4 nights a week. There's nothing quite as physically and mentally refreshing as punching the heck out of a bag for an hour.

On the eve of starting my 1st year, the best advice given to me came from a dMBA graduate who advised, "Its not rocket science, you just gotta do the work." That summation became my mantra, reminding me that I CAN do it and that, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. So, as I reflect on my successes and perhaps, even more importantly, my challenges over this 1st year, I'm grateful for the how well the dMBA program has been preparing me to continue forward to pursue my passions.

Making Movies That Matter

This video is a TED Talk from Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of Participant Media, the company where I'll be interning this summer. Watching this video has me more excited than ever to work with them!

1st year of business school... DONE!

WOO - HOO!

As I celebrate completing this 1st year of the dMBA program, I can't help but think how this year has been like the 300-meter hurdle event I ran in high school, an event which requires both speed and endurance.

Like a sprint, this program has moved at a super-fast pace as we've completed 3 full courses every 7 weeks. To put that in perspective, in one 7 week term we:

• Digested 10 chapters of Finance,
• Designed and implemented a marketing research project (similar to one I did in undergrad that took 1 full semester) and,
• Covered the basics of the entire Adobe Creative Suite.

When each 7 weeks were up, however, it was on to the next set of classes, making this more than a sprint, but a test of endurance as well. And of course, there are the hurdles... you know, just those everyday things of life that we have to overcome to make it to the finish line.

Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy to have signed up for such an intense program... but us dMBA'ers, we're our own special breed :) So, congrats to my classmates on a job well done! Now a little R&R before I'm off to my amazing summer internship!

Why My Cat Thinks I'm Aloof

Its Finals Week!

Exams are done, but projects are due next week:

• 1 Marketing research paper,
• 1 Marketing presentation,
• 3, yes, THREE chapters worth of homework for Finance (no, I didn't procrastinate, they were just assigned!),
• 1 video editing project (complete with color correction, sound mix and original score!)

I am SO taking a vacation to Barton Springs after this!

Who Said, "Grad School Isn't The Real World"? Part Deux

OMG - SO freaking excited! I am THRILLED to tell the world that I've landed the coolest internship this summer with Participant Media in Los Angeles! In addition to its upcoming features, The Help and Jodie Foster's The Beaver, Participant is most notably known for its Academy Award Winning/Nominated narratives and documentaries including Charlie Wilson's War, Good Night and Good Luck, North Country, Food Inc., An Inconvenient Truth and The Cove.

I will intern in the Social Action department, working with Kristen Irving, the Director of Campaign Development, to develop a social action campaign aligned with a soon-to-be announced major motion picture.

I've long been a fan of Participant's films, but its since starting the dMBA program, that I've begun to study their practice of creating social action campaigns in depth. In fact, it was in a Marketing class in our very 1st term that I began to research their business model. Since that time I've continued to follow them closely with the hopes of landing an internship there. So I'm happy to say, my hard work and persistence has paid off :)

As excited as I am about this opportunity, its taken me a couple of weeks to blog about it... "life has gotten in the way", as Professor Nair from HR likes to say. Almost immediately after accepting their offer, my Grandmother was admitted to ICU with pneumonia... and just a few days after that, she passed away. My Grandmother has been a very influential person in my life - so much so, that I've been filming her and working on a documentary, Grandmother Storyteller, about her for the past several years.

Losing her has been devastating. In the days between her passing and the funeral, all I could do was eat Lucky Charms and listen to the '60's gospel-meets-psychedelic-rock hit, "Spirit in the Sky." And oh yeah, see to the "minor details" of grad school (you caught the sarcasm, right?).

The timing of these 2 big events, coupled with the fact that hard work must still be completed, reminded me of something I noticed recently in my 100,000,000th viewing of the classic, "Rocky". You know the famous workout scene which culminates with Rocky triumphantly ascending the steps of the Philly Museum of Art? Its an iconic feel-good scene where Rocky is experiencing the pay-off of all his hard work. But here's the kicker - immediately after that, we cut to Rocky the night before the big fight - he's restless and agitated. He wanders the city and ends up in the Spectrum where he runs into the fight promoter whose comments completely shatter Rocky's fragile confidence. He goes home and tells Adrian he can't go through with the fight. After speaking with Adrian though, he realizes he must go on and his goal becomes to simply "go the distance" with the Champ.

What floors me about this is how quickly Rocky goes from his ultimate high, on the Art Museum steps, to his ultimate low. My own high and low hadn't yet happened, so at the time I was simply struck by the well-crafted writing and how it beautifully juxtaposes such tender human experiences at such extreme ends of the spectrum.

I'm getting back in the saddle now with school. It was hectic for a while - being at Grannie Annie's bedside in her last few days - giving and receiving support with my family - planning the funeral - somehow managing to pull myself together to give her eulogy. During all that, I didn't miss a deadline with school.

Sure, I thought about asking for a little wiggle room from my professors, but I didn't. Each round of classes is only 7 weeks so there is little room for wiggling - it just seemed easier to suck it up and do my homework in her hospital room while she slept rather than to put it off. Besides, I'd look up to occasionally catch her proudly watching me study - and she wouldn't have put up with me not, "going the distance". She was as tough as they come.

I'm off the Lucky Charms now and I'm back to focusing on this exciting opportunity with Participant. After all, it was Grannie Annie and her gift of storytelling who taught me about the powerful impact of a well-told story. With that I leave you with a quote about my Grandmother - one that succinctly explains her grand style of telling a story:

Its a Texas thing.

If you can't improve on a story, why tell it?

Creativity... MBA... Ice Hockey... What???

With the start of this new term, I've been feeling like something of a Renaissance Woman lately. After all, this "Digital Media" MBA is no regular MBA.

Perhaps two of the strongest examples of what makes this degree "digital" comes from our latest round of classes:

1st, in my Finance class we've been studying all the traditional financial ratios and formulas, then applying financial analysis to current companies and market trends. For example, for one of our projects, my teammate Crystal and I are analyzing Disney. Specifically, we are conducting a financial analysis of Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar as well as their risky decision to produce Wall-E (after all, it starred a robot and a cockroach for heaven's sakes!). The objective of the project is to examine how to effectively balance creative and financial risks and rewards.

The 2nd example of what makes this MBA "digital" comes from my Interactive Technology and E-Commerce class. This class picks up where Information Systems left off last term. The 1st few weeks are devoted to understanding the framework and organization of technology, with the remaining weeks dedicated to hands on experience with Adobe's Creative Suite 5 and other creative digital tools. What I love about this class is that, while we're being trained in the business of digital media and not to be the "experts" in the actual creative software (otherwise I'd go get an MFA or an art degree instead of a business degree), this program expects us to be well versed enough in the standard digital tools that my peers and I will be effective collaborators in creative teams.

So its this intersection of business, technology and creativity that leaves me feeling like a Renaissance Woman lately - but better yet, as discussed in Daniel Pink's, A Whole New Mind, that I find myself being trained to understand traditional business principles as needed for our digital media world.

With that, I leave you with yet another sports metaphor (thanks to my friend Mary who reminded me of this awesome quote!):

I skate to where the puck is going to be,

not where it has been.

- Wayne Gretzky

South By: 2011

Well, another SXSW has come and gone. As a long-time Austin resident I've had the privilege of enjoying the festival as an annual spring ritual over the years. But this year, as a dMBA student, was particularly fun - people's eyes would light up when they learned I'm a filmmaker AND and a digital media business student. I'm finding organizations are hungry for this blend. I felt so popular :)

So as the festival is ginormous - how do I even begin a blog entry on it? So many panels! So many screenings! And oh yeah... so many parties!

Here are just a few of the most memorable highlights:

Participant Media's Creating Social Action Plans for Films panel. After attending, for every documentary I saw (and I saw A LOT), my mind automatically began to consider a Social Action/Social Media strategy for each film.

Swapping war stories with producer Monnie Wills on the ups and downs of working in Russia.

Attending a panel on visual storytelling by Robyn Girard, a deaf filmmaker and gaining perspective on telling stories from a soley visual perspective.

Getting stuck in the bathroom at the Vimeo theater with another germ-o-phobe. There were no paper towels - only hand dryers and you can't use those to open a door.

Flow Non-Fiction's Branded Documentary** panel. I had actually interviewed these guys on that very topic for a paper. And the panel was awesome as it included a 360 view of from all the stakeholders (clients, ad agencies, etc.)

Making a famous rockstar blush.

Meeting the producer of How to Die in Oregon while in line for a film - when he told me the name of his film I thought he said, How to Dye an Organ. We spoke for a good few minutes till I realized my mistake. Boy, that was weird.

Connecting with a ton of illustrators interested in working on the animated short I am producing with MacBoy.

The Unexpected Non-Fiction Storytelling** panel. Wow - these guys are up to some really creative stuff, challenging the definition of documentary and creating new ways for audiences to engage with stories.

Crying my eyes out during Where Soldiers Come From.

Attending a private reception for Where Soldiers Come From and speaking with the guys and their families. Getting to know some of them on a personal level was way more rewarding than any amount of "industry networking".

Enjoying the rich serendipity of randomly meeting just the right people.

...and doing every bit of it in 3-inch heels.

**Click the link and you can hear the recorded session.