NOTE: Originally written November 2010

It’s hard to stay positive all the time. Unread econ chapters stack up next to case studies that you have yet to begin analyzing. Calculus conundrums make you woozy as group projects overload your schedule. It’s so easy to just throw up our arms in frustration. It’s so easy to complain that we didn’t get the 85% we were going for. It’s so easy to lose track of what’s actually going on in the world.

Our problems are trivial. I don’t wish to demean anyone in any way, but the majority of us have trivial issues. In the grand scheme of things, a failed midterm is nothing. I’m not saying that you should stop studying, that you should stop aspiring. Trust me, a failed midterm will crush me as much as the next person. However, I think we all need to take a little more time every day to soak in the good things in life. It might seem like our days are cram jam packed with work and stress, but there’s always a little bit of joy squished in there. Maybe it’s just laughing about a nerdy joke with your project team. Maybe it’s avoiding that huge puddle on your way to class. Maybe it’s listening to Beach House as you breathe and attempt to collect yourself by blogging. Whatever it is, every day holds joy. You just need to be able to recognize it.

It feels good to realize how lucky I am to be right here, right now, calm with a cup of tea, good indie music, and the steady rhythym of my keys. It feels wonderful to realize that we always have time to do the things we love. It’s just a matter of talking ourselves out of our stress and negativity. What’s the point of doing my Calculus homework when I’m distracted and tired? Rather fill the time with joy, writing in my case, and then dedicate a smaller fraction of time for true concentration. Yes, I have a million things that I could be doing right now. But for now, I’ll just hit replay on the same song and let myself soak in these minutes of freedom.

I’m lucky that I’m receiving an education. I’m lucky that my hard work in the past is allowing me to pay for this privilege. I’m lucky that I’ve acquired a vocabulary that allows me to adequately express my gratitude. I’m lucky in so many ways and yet, I catch myself spilling negative phrases day in and day out.

We need to stop this. We need to believe. We need to be positive, to accept that we are capable, if only we stop constructing these mental barriers. We can acheive what we want; we can live freer, happier, and more successful lives if only we think it and will it. Good things happen to people who believe. It’s not some magic voodoo like they try to tell us. It’s the fact that when you’re positive, you’re more energized and able to work towards your goals.

Never forget that there’s always time to do what you love. There’s always time, no matter how many deadlines you have. If you love something, let yourself do it. It’s the only way to stay positive. Negativity breeds failure; positivity fosters success.

I know that every time I write, I’m a little bit happier and a little bit more capable of achieving my goals. So, if you’ve made it this far (hopefully I’ve managed to hold someone’s attention), consider taking up a challenge. Whether you love drawing, playing guitar, reading novels, cooking, dancing, solving math problems, just do it! You’ll be amazed how great you feel when you let yourself love life for a few minutes every day.

The Digital Age has brought a myriad of both issues and innovations to the music industry. While countless articles are dedicated to exposing how the Digital Age will lead to the death of the music industry, we can also look at the marketing innovations that bands are taking advantage of due to the rise of social media and online business.

Let’s take a look at a few New Release campaigns that have come across my radar. The good, the bad, and the ugly; it’s all here.

The Killers fall under the ugliest of the bunch. They launched a Facebook campaign to unveil the cover of their album cover. Though the premise doesn’t seem all that terrible, the execution failed to create much buzz. Instead of creating an innovative contest, the contest required fans to go through an exhaustive list of requirements that included liking and sharing the page, before you could unlock the image. The campaign failed to excite me for a couple fundamental reasons.

1) It was an inauthentic “Like” grab: At no point did I feel motivated or engaged by the campaign. It didn’t even attempt to pretend to be looking for engagement or loyalty. It simply called out for “Likes”, which as most marketers should have realized by now, don’t always equate to much equity.

2) It was too easy to bypass the requirements: Once one person liked and shared the page, they had access to an image that could be easily copied and shared across the web. Why jump through hoops to gain access to the album cover when you could Google it at this point? This made it impossible for the actual campaign to go viral.

Mother Mother took a stab at a similar contest, by creating an album cover reveal campaign that required social media followers to collect puzzle pieces to assemble the album cover. Though this one didn’t seem to gain a ton of traction either, it avoided becoming redundant too quickly by requiring the task to be completed over time. It was also more engaging because it required fans to follow the band’s social media in order to keep track of the pieces. This made the campaign more authentic, and most likely, more successful than that of The Killer’s.

Green Day recently made use of Chirpify to promote their upcoming trilogy. The campaign simply required twitter followers to reply “buy” to their account in order to gain access to an exclusive $30 deal for the full-set of albums. Given that it was a limited time offer and so easy to participate, they were able to quickly secure 250 purchases in four hours. Never mind the 9000 new twitter followers they earned within ten hours of launching the campaign. The only flaw I’d point out is that the consumer still needed to go and actually pay for the deal later on, which blocked the path to purchase a little bit.

The XX had one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in awhile. They sent a stream of their new album to a single person and set up a website to track their sharing from that point forward. It could have awkwardly failed at that point, but instead, it went on to actually map the virility of the campaign in real time. How cool is that? At this point, it’s already hit major music media sites, and has been listened to by people across the globe. All that from one initial fan and the power of the Digital Age. Check it out here: http://coexist.thexx.info/

Of course the Digital Age has disrupted the way that the music industry used to work. Bands now have to realize that by embracing the power of social media and by finding new, authentic ways to engage their listeners, they might actually be able to reach new heights with the way the industry behaves today.
What other campaigns have you seen kicking around? Which ones blew you away with innovation and which ones fizzled?

I had the privilege of working with three startup's this semester. From carpooling, to filing eco-taxes, to natural sweeteners, I dipped my toe into a lot of industries*. It was one of the most creative and thrilling experiences I've had at University so far.

Apart from having the opportunity to work with incredibly passionate and ambitious entrepreneurs, I had the opportunity to test out my design thinking. While working with these companies, I used an array of tools that helped push boundaries and develop creative solutions. These tools included the 6 Thinking Hats, Assumption Dumption, and the Constraints Toggle, to name a few. But the most incredibly useful tool of all was the Business Model Canvas. If you're an entrepreneur, you need to know this one.

The Canvas is a simple and visual tool that will expand your problem-solving abilities. Throughout the semester, my team had a large white-board version of the business model canvas up at all times. It's a quick and easy way to see relationships within the company and to predict how a single change in a fundamental building block can cause a ripple effect throughout different sections of the company. It gives you the freedom to switch things around, to wonder "What if we did this instead...", to play with your ideas before implementing them. Most of all, it can help out any company. Whether you're a startup trying to figure out what all the building blocks of your business are to begin with, or if you're a veteran in need of a fresh angle, you can use the canvas. Even if you're just a musician making beats in your basement, you can pull out the canvas to get a sense of what resources are available to you and what direction you want to head in.

The point is, The Business Model Canvas is dynamic and it's essential. Every startup needs it in their toolkit. Now.

*Check out the companies I worked with at their websites: Carsurfing, EcoTaxFile, Pura Sweeteners

I’m preparing to embark on one of the scariest and most exciting adventures yet. In May 2013, I will be moving to Toronto and jumping headfirst into a Brand Marketing internship at Kraft Foods. I’m exhilarated by how far it will push me out of my comfort zone. From living on my own for the first time (and hopefully fuelling myself on more than just KD), to working tirelessly to help grow Kraft’s business, I know that I’m in for a whirlwind of a ride.

Though I’m sure that I’ll be sharing my experience along the way, I thought that I’d first share what allowed me to earn such a fantastic opportunity.

In March 2012, I was accepted into the Brand Management Mentorship Program at the Sauder School of Business. With only a vague sense of what I was getting myself into, I committed to working as hard as I could in the program. No opportunity would be missed.  If anything, I wanted to be able to complete the program with no regrets and the assurance that I had given it my best shot. So, what exactly is the program and what is it like to go through it? Here’s a few facts to give you a sense.

#1. It’s a mentally exhausting program.

Especially as a second year who had yet to declare my option (I was still torn between Finance and Marketing), the program forced me to take a hard look at what I wanted out of my career. It forced me to answer scary questions about what I’m passionate about and whether I was willing to drop the comforts of living in a beautiful, familiar place (Vancouver) to join fiercely ambitious people vying for Brand Management opportunities in Toronto.

#2. It’s an honest, informative look into Brand Managements, and also into the CPG industry.

I originally felt that there was no place for me in a corporate behemoth like Unilever. Before the program, I hadn’t peeked into the organizations to see the cultures that fuel them. The BMMP showed me that the CPG industry makes a huge investment in career development and has a core focus on supporting a culture that attracts bright talent. Not only this, but the program introduced me to companies like Kraft who embody an entrepreneurial spirit, despite pulling in billions in sales. Throughout the program, and especially my visits to and interviews with CPG companies in Toronto, I discovered that Brand Management and the CPG industry fit my personality more than I expected. Rather than having to sacrifice my excitement for the startup spirit, I’m going to be able to bring that to Kraft, because it fits their mindset.

#3. It will make you a better marketer and businessperson overall.

Before joining the BMMP, I had only taken Introduction to Marketing. Now, I have earned top scores in my marketing courses (I’ll have completed 4 this school year), and have earned a Sales & Marketing scholarship for my success. I’m able to discuss marketing and develop ideas in new ways because I have the vocabulary and the intuition to back it up. If I hadn’t taken part in the BMMP, I might have been just another kid in class rifling through the textbook. Unlikely, considering I’ve never allowed myself to stagnate for too long, but I probably would not achieved so much so quickly without the program.

#4. It will refine your resume and interview skills.

 If anything, this is one thing you can bet on when joining the program. Though I’m not ashamed of what I was sending out before the program, it was light-years behind what I have now. This is not only because I developed new skills throughout the program that I could add onto my resume, but also because I was taught how to better present my experiences; I learned how to brand myself. In terms of interview skills, confidence is key. The BMMP prepares you rigorously for the types of interview questions you might be thrown and with so much practice, you not only learn your marketing content much better, but you also gain the confidence in your skills that is necessary in order to show your best self in an interview.

#5. It could land you your dream job.

Once you’ve trekked through the mental work of figuring out whether or not Brand Management is actually for you, and once you’ve sufficiently exhausted yourself with resume edits (3 official rounds) and mock interviews (countless hours of practice), you might actually land your dream job. This is assuming that after all the figuring out, you decide that Brand Management is your dream job. If you make it through the mock interview round, the BMMP will send your resume out to Toronto. This is when you get to cross your fingers and hope that all the work paid off. If you manage to land interviews, then you’re off to Toronto for a week to meet companies and interview for awesome internships. And if you’ve worked hard enough and the stars align, you could be signing on the dotted line of a very exciting opportunity. And even if you don’t make it to the Toronto round, you’re now chockfull of new knowledge and the skills you need to hunt down the next great opportunity. That’s what makes the program so great. Even if you don’t land something right off the bat, it has armed you with what you need to keep working at it so that you can land something in the future.

So where am I now? I’m creating a checklist of everything I need to survive and succeed during my 4 months at Kraft in Toronto.

Am I scared? Of course.  

Do I think I’m growing? You bet.