Day 17: Soaking up the W2O

Today we saw both spectrums of the profit - non-profit spectrum, got some delicious Italian food, and got soaked (but not in the fun way).

A new (marketing) perspective

Ok, that one's a stretch, but I had to wake up early today, so my creativity isn't at it's peak.

Yes, I am as tired as I look

Despite our early start, we headed out with plenty of energy to take on public transit and get to W2O, a small(ish) marketing firm in downtown San Francisco. There we got to meet with Aaron Strout, the Chief Marketing Officer of W2O. He took time out of his day to talk to us about some of the topics we've heard about, as well as talk a little bit about marketing. For those of you who don't know who W2O is (it's ok, I didn't either until this morning), They're a marketing firm that help companies with internal and external communication, as well as with social media presence and connections, both paid and natural. He also records the "What 2 Know" podcast, in which he interviews well-known individuals, mostly in business. More to the point of the class, Aaron introduced himself and let us lead discussion for the most part. He asked what were our important takeaways from the class thus far, and weighed in with his thoughts. The first one that came up was the old reliable, networking. As expected, Aaron fully encouraged us to pursue networking networking to it's fullest extent. However, he added a caveat: always let your contact know you do for them. Networking is a two way street, each party wants something (or even the possibility of something) from the other. This is especially true when you are looking for a job. Approaching someone and asking for a job generally isn't the best way of connecting with someone who may offer you a job. Let someone know that you care about making the connection, and you're much more likely to get something out of that connection. Sometimes that person or company isn't hiring, but they know someone who is, and will pass along your information. In that case, it's much better to have made the good impression rather than simply asking "will you hire me?" The next topic that came up was the concept of being uncomfortable in what you do. Not so much so that you're unsure of what you do, but just enough so that you have to constantly push your boundaries and continually learn new things. One recommendation that Aaron gave us was to get a feel for what each company feels like. Each company is different. A startup will run differently than a big corporation, especially in terms of the amount of work that you will need to take on. In a startup, you tend to be responsible for much more work than usual. This can be good for learning new things and pushing you into new roles, but it can also obscure the reason you initially took the position. A big corporation can help with that, allowing you to focus more on what you want and dive deep into the topic, but it can also be incredibly narrow in what you can do. Find the fit that works best for you, and try that out. Playing into that was the topic of passion. Aaron didn't have much to add on to what has already been said, other than echoing the idea that if you don't love a job, leave. People will be able to tell that you're miserable, and your work will reflect it too. The final topic we brought up was that of failure. Aaron again echoed what we've heard in the past--success is nice, but failure is where you learn. Owning your mistakes is important, even if you weren't necessarily entirely responsible. Aaron shared a personal story to that point, ending with the moral, "you only fail if you continue to make the same mistakes."

But what about the future of marketing? Will social media be important? Is it a fad? To that Aaron said he couldn't be sure, but he expects that social media marketing will continue to grow, though it will be less paid advertising and more natural advertising. Still, even he admitted that if you asked seven years ago, he never would have expected social media marketing to be as big. He also mentioned briefly that he expects Amazon to become a major marketing platform in the future. Will he be correct? Who knows. I'd believe it, but I also know very little about marketing a product (I just write the code for it). Besides, hindsight tends to be 20/20, so when we look back, I'm sure everything will look obvious.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your old-style elevator

If you judge by the light and the contrast, you can tell I'm not a photographer

After out meeting at W2O, we decided to hike up to Coit Tower, to climb to the top and see the view (because apparently I haven't climbed enough things on this trip). After heading up a steep hill (the same one we climbed up yesterday to get to gelato), climbing several flights of steps, and trudging up another hill, we reached the base of Coit Tower. There was already a great view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from the lookout at the base. Still, we were unpreturbed, and resolved to climb up the tower.

Should be no problem to climb (only 13 floors)

Much to our surprise, there was an elevator that led to the top (we didn't find stairs to climb, but to be honest, I'm fine with that). After riding in the elevator (that actually had manually operated doors, which was pretty cool), we did climb two sets of stairs to get to the top observation deck. So, exercise win, I guess. As usual, disclaimers for the fact that pictures are no substitute to the view apply.

If you look closely, you can almost see Lombard Street

The view was pretty fantastic from the top, well worth the small fee to ride up. Plus, it's almost a 360° view of the city, including good views of the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm not sure if it topped Twin Peaks on my list of great views in San Francisco, but it was definitely worth the trip (plus you can drive to the base instead of walking, if you're worried by the walk).

It was Coit a good time

Lunch in Little Italy

Riding in an elevator is tiring, and by the time we finished taking in the view and got down to the base of the tower, we were all starting to get hungry for lunch. Unfortunately, communications broke down and the group got separated as we tried to decide where to go. Erik, Kari, Katie, and I ended up going down to Little Italy to try to find a lunch spot. It took us a while to find a place that was open, didn't have a long wait, was reasonably priced, and accepted credit cards, but eventually we stopped at the Authentic Italian Company for authentic Italian fare.

We have a knack for finding the best holes-in-the-wall

It was a small restaurant, but they served homemade pasta and sauce, as well as authentic Italian sandwiches. I had tortellini with pasticciata sauce (mixed bolognese and bechemel sauces). It was absolutely delicious. We all left full and satisfied to walk back to downtown in order to meet back up with the group. On the way we walked through Chinatown, which was fun for the variety of sights, sounds, and (mostly pleasant) smells we experienced. I wanted to stop several times, but we were on the clock to get back, and I was full from lunch. Hopefully a return trip to San Francisco at some point will give me opportunity to explore around the district more.

And it turned out once we got to the meeting place that we had some time to spare anyway, so we walked around the mall to waste our excess time. I did find a LEGO store and spent some time looking around (though sadly not buying anything), which I thought was pretty cool.

A LEGOfigure made out of LEGO

I've heard that LEGO's are one of the best investments you can make since they increase so much in value over the years (at least, if you have complete sets, anyway), so, technically, this was a class learning activity.

Precious....

A microloan for a macro impact

Eventually though, we did have to meet up with the group, so I tore myself away from looking at LEGO's and we regrouped outside the mall. Our second meeting of the day was at Kiva, a microlending non-profit organization. What is a microlending non-profit you ask? It's an organization that connects regular people who are willing to loan small amounts of money to people, often in third world countries, that need loans to help improve or start a business. These people are considered "unbankable," meaning that regular banks won't lend them money, for any number of reasons. Possibly because of lack of credit or collateral, location, health, or the amount of money they need is simply too small for a bank. In comes the lenders, who can help put together a loan for a person. It's essentially crowdfunding loans for those who normally wouldn't be able to get them. The method is pretty simple. First you put money into Kiva, at least $25 is needed to start lending. Then you search through their list of applicants in order to find one who resonates with you. Then you give some money to that person. You then wait. Eventually, the money gets paid back, and you can invest again. Kiva boasts a 97% repayment rate, which is incredibly impressive. The trick lies in the fact that they are 0% interest loans. This means that the loaner will never see any profit (but that's not the point of Kiva), but also that it is easier for the borrower to repay. The money that is repaid is then invested again, and the cycle repeats. It's possible for one person to lend hundreds of dollars to people with one $25 investment. Seems strange, yes? But you have to admit, it is an incredibly cool system. I highly encourage everyone reading this to go out and sign up. Even if you only put in the requisite $25, you can really help make an impact all over the world. Check it out at https://www.kiva.org/. You can also follow them on Facebook here or on Twitter here. Please go and support this awesome cause!

I cannot stress enough how great Kiva is

Getting soaked... again

I feel like I'm talking about getting soaked at least once a week. This time, it was from getting caught out in the rain on our trip back from Kiva. Luckily Kari was kind enough to share her umbrella, so that helped me avoid the most of it, but I still got wet enough to necessitate a rapid change of clothes once we got back to the house. Since we've been under-budget on the trip so far (apparently), Brad has decreed that we should be able to cook food for dinner for the rest of the trip. That meant that some of us had to brave the rain again to get groceries to make tacos. I volunteered to go, thinking foolishly that having an umbrella would keep me dry this time. I was wrong. By the time we got back with the groceries, I was, once again, soaked. A second change of clothes later, I decided it was time to stay in for the night, since I didn't have any more pairs of comfortable pants to change into. Still, it was absolutely worth it, since the tacos were amazing. I heard rumours of some sort of Hawaiian chicken skewers for dinner tomorrow, so we'll have to see if that pans out. As has now become the norm, after dinner, we continued to work our way through RWBY, making it halfway through volume 2. I think we've converted at least three more members of our group into fans now. 

Tomorrow we get to start later and have a slower day again. We only have one book report and an afternoon meeting at Apptelligence. I'm looking forward to sleeping in.