Hello again everyone. This week's blog post will most likely be my last post for my Entrepreneurial Mindsets 2 class. The year is quickly coming to an end with less than a month left before graduation. To prevent this post from becoming incoherent I'm going to keep this one relatively short rather than ramble on. These last two years part of DireLights have been very kind to me. While that might not necessarily make any sense to most people the class has been a great opportunity to build new connections all while helping run an amazing business. I know that it was very difficult to really build any sort of culture last year which is something I ended up bringing into my senior defense. I feel fortunate that I along with the rest of the HR department was able to bring our classes together in whatever manner that may be. I'd like to think DireLights was quite successful this year thanks to all of the department's hard work and dedication to the business. On the topic of these posts, I didn't even fully realize how much of myself I really put into writing these each week since I simply treat it more like a friendly text or a conversation. Whether it be relating to others, doing my best to spread positivity, or even my little weekly updates I did, I hope you personally took something away from each post you read. For those of us graduating this year, congratulations, we made it! To those who are staying next year, I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing what you guys can do. One last thing I'd like to highlight is how phenomenal Ms. Stillittano is. To me, she wasn't just our facilitator, but she was also my friend. She has always been unbelievably supportive, kind, and caring. I can say from experience that her positivity allowed me to recognize that I wanted to change my attitude and look at things in a better light. Her actions indirectly made me a more positive person and also motivated me to love myself. Ultimately, it's been a joy to have been part of DireLights over the last two years. I hope that those of you reading this also have some great things to take away from this class and have gained more than just academic knowledge. With that being said, don't forget to smile, love yourself, and let some light in! :)
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Hello there everyone! In this blog post, I will be reflecting on the wallet workshop that all of the entrepreneurial mindsets students partook in. This workshop was focused on the design process which triggered your inner creativity whether you realized it or not. After randomly being assigned a partner to work with, our first task was to interview our partner. The questions were all asked with the intention of creating a perfect wallet for your partner. We were then shown an example of what kinds of questions to ask to get deeper answers than a simple yes or no answer. The purpose of this was to better understand your partner as a person. Following the second round of questions, we were given some time to do some very rough sketches before presenting to each other for feedback. I personally didn't receive any feedback necessitating massive changes as my rough draft was close to what my client wanted. Now having a good idea of what we were actually going to be making we set off to use the available materials to build a prototype. Having built a prototype, we had a few minutes to show our partner what our version of their ideal wallet finally looked like. At the very end, we presented what we had created to the rest of the class. My partner wanted a large bag (very similar to a satchel) so he could be prepared for any daily inconveniences that came his way. I enjoyed creating this design although it was quite difficult to create a durable prototype with the materials available to us. Despite this, it was still relatively functional in the end. Overall, I feel that my partner and I succeeded in creating our ideal wallets under the set circumstances. I enjoyed the challenge of the design process with the time limitations as it really forced me to think on the spot. If I were to do this workshop again, I would spend more time on the prototyping phase to reinforce the satchel I created and potentially make it larger as I originally imagined. I hope you found the variation of this blog post to be refreshing compared to the majority of my posts. Remember to smile, love yourself, and let some light in!
As I talked about in my post from last week, the year will be over before we know it. Knowing this, the next school year will also start quite soon. A challenge DireLights deals with annually is introducing new students to each of the departments and familiarizing them with the different positions in hopes of them choosing a position they both enjoy and personally benefit from. Upon first being presented with all of the positions in the departments, it can be difficult to know right then and there what the best choice is. I know when I was introduced to all of the different choices, I had a few ideas of what I might want to do and my main two choices were HR and Operations. Fortunately, while it seems like a big decision you can decide on another position if the one you chose isn't for you. So am I suggesting you try out as many different positions as you can? For everyone's sake please don't, but if you truly want to change your position in DireLights I encourage you to explore different options. . However, I do encourage shadowing someone in their department if you're interested but unsure of what you want to do. Most importantly, watch the company playbook videos! I believe I blogged earlier this year regarding the importance of the playbook throughout the year, primarily at the beginning. If you want some personal knowledge and experience, feel free to ask anyone in the department you're interested in about what they do and if it seems like the appropriate place for you. For those who may be reading this whether it be this year or the next, I implore you to go through the playbook and add anything of importance throughout the year. For those who might be in a similar position to myself where the instructions left behind by previous years can't necessarily be perfected, feel free to add your own touch. :) Don't forget to breathe, smile, and let some light in!
Hi everyone, long time no blog! This week, I will quickly be going over what the last two months of DireLights are going to look like for me. During these last months, we were given the choice to pursue our own business idea or continue with DireLights. While the majority of us stick with DireLights, there are a select few individuals that focus on their own business and recruit the help of others. Personally, I will be sticking with the company and more specifically Human Resources. My day-to-day tasks won't really change much as HR will continue things like the weekly check-ins and DireLight of the Week. As a whole, HR will remain the same, but attempt to add more relevant topics in the check-ins during our last two months. We will also be focusing on nominating Seniors for DireLight of the Week so they can get the recognition they deserve. Something else HR discussed awhile ago was some form of competition. We never really figured out a great way to do this in a healthy fashion. This pretty much wraps up this week's post. Please use this as a reminder to take care of yourself and let some light in! :)
Hello again! Thank you for selecting my blog post this week. The content this week will be regarding the Shark Tank project that the Juniors just presented on. For those that don't know, the Shark Tank project guides students as they create their own business or service in which they pitch to Sharks similar to the Shark Tank TV show. This year, EM2 members were part of the Sharks on the panel to ask questions and provide meaningful feedback. From my experience last year, many Juniors took a different approach and focused on something personal whether it be an issue they deal with or those around them. A few of these ideas were water-resistant hearing-aid covers, redyeing black clothing, and a neck rest to promote vertical sleeping conditions for older generations. My personal favorite was 805 Golf which would have a variety of activities for not only kids but adults too. One of these unique activities they would provide is ax-throwing which is something we don't have around here and is quite fun. For those who have been to Boomers before, this would be significantly larger and have more options for all ages. The presenter's inspiration for his business came from his travels where he and his family would spend time playing mini-golf amongst other games. Overall, the creativity for the businesses this year was great due to their inspirations which were more focused on solving specific issues relevant to those around them rather than a general issue. I think the only feedback I have for next year's EM2 panel is to either request business plans of their own or have them shared among the entire panel as the guests were the only ones to see them. This hindered our ability to ask some questions as it was already listed in their plan. My only feedback for the presenters is to practice as much as you can and work on having a captivating energy to maintain the Shark's attention in my opinion. Thank you for reaching the end and enjoy the rest of your day!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another entrepreneurship blog post. If you couldn't already tell what this week will be about, I'll be covering this next week's to-do list for myself and Human Resources. The first goal after having a scrum meeting with my department is confirming and then announcing the DireLight of the Week from the last week's check-in responses. After this, our schedule during work time will be quite flexible I imagine but I believe we should prioritize discussing the Spring Newsletter with the Marketing department rather than wait. On the topic of helping and working with departments, we also need to run through the candle-making process with Operations to ensure their safety during production. Another task on the HR to-do list is to handle the organization of company files along with the Operations department. We also would like to organize the rest of the class (specifically the area around the sink) to tidy up the area and create a more spacious work environment during candle production. As we do every week, we will also need to make time to complete this next Monday's check-in and create what we hope are interesting questions for you! While most of the details have been worked out the for upcoming pizza party during lunch on March 14, there's certainly no harm in trying to potentially fit in something like a game or other fun ideas HR has discussed as a nice break either during class or an event like this party. Aside from these department tasks, EM1 and EM2 will continue working on their benchmarks due this Friday. On the other hand, consider putting your self-care techniques on a to-do list to help encourage your own self-care. Remember to smile and let some light in! :)
Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well this week. Today I'll be reflecting on a guest speaker from last week. So for those who didn't attend, Mary Weber kindly came in on her own time and shared her entrepreneurial experiences with us. She currently runs Cherry Pie Author Services with several different contractors. That being said, this ties in to one of my takeaways immediately as we haven't really talked about contractors too much in entrepreneurial mindsets unless you researched them on your own. In Cherry Pie Author Services, each contractor has their own expertise that contributes to part of the package deal they offer. Contractors are a great way to improve your product(s) or service(s) as they can help reinforce any of your weaknesses that you may not otherwise be able to deal with. This is also a great way to relieve some of the workload by assigning other trusted people to complete the task. Now when most people think of entrepreneurship, one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the risk factor. As I've blogged about in the past, this is obviously a real thing that many entrepreneurs have had to wrestle with. I believe a great example of perseverance was in one of Mrs. Weber's stories of attempting to publish a book she had written. She wasn't rejected twice, 10 times, or 50, but 87 times! Despite this, a publisher approached her and she ended up selling 100,000 copies. That's not a lot, right? Perseverance and risk go hand in hand as you can give up at any point or continue putting yourself out there and potentially risk more. This helped to remind me once again that the entrepreneurial mindset can be applied to your daily life, not just for those who aspire to be entrepreneurs. For me, these were some important reflections, however, there were a great deal of other important takeaways from her presentation. I suggest you read some other posts regarding their takeaways or reflections as it's intriguing to see what others grasped. Below I will leave a link to her website which I highly suggest you explore. Thank you for reading, stay positive, and don't forget to smile! :)
https://www.maryweber.com/ Hello there again my devoted blog readers! For this post, I wanted to go for a slightly different approach than what I've been doing in the past. Those of us in EM2 have been tasked with figuring out how to leave and be proud of our legacy as we leave DireLights this year. The driving question we were provided with is, "How do we design a business that works and that we are passionate about while leaving a legacy for DireLights that we are proud of?" The problem was brought up by Asher in his post about the hourglass effect that time is flying by faster than we realize. Our legacy is increasing in importance as we near the end of the year and don't have a solid answer on how we plan to do this. So with the realization that HR will have a lot more time on their hands for smaller projects with the cozy corner out of the way, this could be a fitting task. While this is a task for all departments in their own respective ways, I feel that we may be able to create a generalized plan to carry on our legacy, making it easier for others to fill in the blanks. In addition to this, we can also now work on supporting the other departments a little more as they need our help. For example, we need to work with Operations to ensure the safety of their department as they make candles. Another idea is helping marketing with their posts or working with them for our newsletter. A smaller update is that the DireLight of the Week doc has been added to the weekly form for convenience. I think this wraps everything up for the last week regarding the legacy of DireLights and what HR can do to assist our other departments. Have a good rest of your day!
Hello again everyone! Apologies for a bit of a late post with everything going on lately. Aside from our usual HR tasks, my department has been spending the majority of our time in the cozy corner while we continue to bring it all together. The mural that Kai has been painting is nearly done and I love it! I've been attempting to get the Cricut machine up and running which has been somewhat of an arduous task to complete. The biggest issue I'm having is that it requires an operating system other than a the Chrome system the Chromebooks run off of. With that being said, it's been impossible to do any preliminary tests to see what our little machine can do. Hopefully, within the next week or so, we can get the app approved for our Chromebooks that will allow it to connect with the Cricut but that update will come sometime later. Another HR task as always is to manage the weekly check-ins. Ideally, we will end up spending some time this week or in the near future cleaning up the spreadsheet as it's starting to look crazy and becoming a mess when looking through it. Continuing with other improvements to the check-in, I think a big next step would be including a link to the doc with past DireLights of the Week to make the process of voting less dependent on an HR vote. I say this as we often get repeat votes for those who have already been recognized. I think this wraps up this week's post and I hope you remember to take care of yourselves. :)
Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well this week. In today's post, I'll quickly be covering the dreaded term senioritis and then going over a little HR update. So as most of us already know, senioritis typically kicks in around spring for most seniors. Honestly, I think it can apply to any person, not just teachers. I know in the past month or two, many of my friends and I are all suffering from a lack of motivation when it comes to our school work. It's safe to say that this is indeed senioritis hitting us in full effect already. Despite this, I hope that we can end the year strong and let this phase pass soon. Following this, I can't stress the importance of self-care enough right now. Personally, I've noticed a huge dip in my self-care and I'm doing my best to maintain my usual routine at the very least. I encourage you to do something simple whether it be cooking, reading, spending time with friends and family, or whatever suits your fancy. For me, I've been going on walks after school to clear my head and refresh myself. On another note, the cozy/creative corner has seen some major progress since the last blog post. Nearly everything has been moved to where we planned and our vision keeps improving. With our budget in place, the last finishing touches will be to buy a few amenities to brighten up the corner. Thank you to those of you who helped out (not just HR) as we really appreciate it. As an end note, consider buying a candygram for a friend with the intention of improving their self-care in mind. Don't forget to let some light in! :)
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