Three Awesome Days.

The week of June 21st was a fun and busy week for me! Monday, the 21st started out as a long day, jam-packed with activity.

I began the day with training on a new social marketing platform. The conference was a memorable experience- four of us, our four Macs, crammed into one office, using one desk, with an iPhone on speaker as the means of communication between us and the representative. Very cozy. During the training, we noticed a few things that the platform would NOT help us do. The cool thing is, though, that the developers of the program are so willing to please their customers, that they actually asked what we wanted their program to be able to do.... and told the programmers to work on it! Now THAT'S customer service. I wish I could just call up the companies I like and directly influence their product. Social Media is making it easier to do that kind of thing, but this was a really spectacular example.

After the meeting, my boss met with me briefly. He asked what my thoughts were on "continuing the internship after" I "leave Seattle." I felt my eyes open widely and my jaw drop a bit, and accepted that offer promptly. Of course, I am VERY interested in any way I can continue work related to my field. The time I've spent at Nology has made me a better writer- (Check out a writing sample here)- more concise and a bit more professional sounding. I certainly don't sound professional here- this is my personal blog, and I am a very down-to-earth, easy going gal. But I am excited to continue the internship even after I leave, as it will improve my writing skills- skills that can NEVER be perfected.

The rest of my day included Twitter engagement for an account I mainly manage, compiling a list of contacts using software that provides a database of journalists in uncountable publication, and started forming Twitter lists for a new client/project.

My day didn't quit being educational after work... No. I hopped in a car with two girls from work and headed to Issaquah to hear Chris Pirillo give a presentation on social media use for small businesses. Even though it was an introductory course and I already understood social media's value, it was wonderful to hear someone as knowledgeable as him talk about it! The event was hosted by SMC Seattle. Chris' main highlights included the fact that social media is used to grow and learn communities, and is a fantastic way to connect with potential customers.

Quotes I liked:

"The worst question is a question unasked."

"You WANT people to steal your stuff." (as in, your stuff is so good, it's going to go viral.)

-Chris Pirillo.

After this informational seminar, Cindy and the girls picked me up and we went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the twins' 17th birthdays! I know its gluttonous... but I LOVE the Cheesecake Factory. Mmm.

Tuesday of this week (June 22nd) was one of the best days I've had out here, hands down.

We started the day off with our weekly staff meeting, which I always enjoy. It's nice to have everyone in the same room and get on the same page. On this day, one thing that was discussed that really interested me was the need to show our clients how "we pay for ourselves". The need to prove your worth in numbers, and therefore in dollars and cents, is extremely important, and Nology has risen to that challenge. Overall, I would say our clients seem extremely impressed and pleased with our reporting, and things are going well. But listening to everyone talk about how we could make ourselves stronger & even more credible was enlightening.

Later that day, I met with my boss, Leigh, to discuss my progress as an intern. I hadn't felt I was getting much feedback. I am treated more like an employee than an intern (which I like very much, but) sometimes I'm not sure if I'm on the right track and I need guidance. I was a bit nervous before my meeting, as I was not sure what to expect.

The meeting couldn't have gone better! Leigh's feedback was very positive, and we again discussed continued employment for when I return home. I was so flattered and felt relieved to know that the crew at Nology felt like I was a contributing member. When I asked Leigh how I could improve, he gave me two bits of advice that I would like to pass on to everybody, especially those wishing to get an internship or are just embarking on their first job:

1. NEVER stop learning. BE CURIOUS! Read as much as you can. Even silly stuff. You never know when it will be useful in some way.

2. Focus is everything.

I have little trouble with advice #1... I'm a nosy, inquisitive, curious kid. I'm never satisfied. I always have to know more. #2.... I need to work on still. But I'm not doing too poorly.

The next day was an exciting day, but the excitement came AFTER interning. I met with Rod at the Purple Cafe and we met Jen Gehrt & Colleen Moffitt, co-founders of Communique PR, the other company I interviewed with for a summer internship. I was so thankful to meet them. They are two of the sharpest women I've ever met and I really look up to them and what they've done. It was nice to introduce myself in person, and awesome to get to know them better.

After snacking at Purple, Rod took me to a place called Consumer Opinion Services. AKA, a focus group for his company, PEMCO Insurance. I sat on the hidden side of a 2 way mirror and watched a group of 25-30 people answer questions about insurance policies- they were polled on whether or not they liked the idea of the various policies. PEMCO currently offers NONE of the policies, and the focus group was to obtain sentiment on the various services PEMCO may want to offer. None of the participants had PEMCO as their provider. 10 of them were asked to stay after the questionnaire and participate in a roundtable discussion. THIS was what was really neat to watch. I love watching people discuss and argue and come to a conclusion. And it's neat to know that a company is going to alter their policies a little bit all because of 30 people who took some time out of their day to participate in a discussion.

Between listening to Chris Pirillo, getting excellent feedback from my boss, meeting some people I really look up to, and listening in on marketing research, I'd have to say it was a pretty awesome three days. And educational, too. I LOVE when awesome and educational coincide. It needs to happen more often.

What Doesn't Kill You Definitely Makes You Stronger!

Yesterday, my boss encouraged me to keep writing in my blog. I knew I should have been doing this, but hearing somebody else suggest it was the extra push I needed transfer my writing to my blog. But because of some stuff I published, things turned a bit sour for me today.

I guess I got in trouble today. That's weird for me to say, because I rarely get in trouble. I'm boring. The only time I really remember getting in trouble at school was in the 1st grade when I got caught walking out of the boys bathroom. (My friend Michael was about to flush a styrofoam cup down one of the toilets, and as a seven year old I just HAD to see that!)

Anyway, of course I apologized and fixed the content immediately.

There were two problems that were brought to my attention.

1.) The main problem was that I overstepped some lines of confidentiality in a blog post. This is of course inappropriate and I changed the content of my post immediately to better respect client confidentiality. Upon accepting the internship, I signed a document staying I would honor client confidentiality. Of course. This is nothing but reasonable.

In our weekly staff meetings, we first discuss our list of current clients. Some of these clients have an (NDA) at the end of their name, meaning that we have a Non-Disclosure Agreement with them-- aka, we can't tell anyone they're our clients. The rest, we are allowed to discuss.

Today I learned there is a difference between saying "Client X is our client" to a curious passer-by and saying "Client X is our client" on a blog. I go to great lengths to follow instructions, so now that I am aware it was inappropriate, it won't happen again. Fortunately, it was quite simple to go through my post and edit the writing to address this issue.

But then there's number 2, which is longer and gets me into a tangent about something else!

2. I was asked to not blog about the tools I use in my job. I can see some reasoning to this… if my company pays good money to use an amazing program to aid in their work, that should probably be kept confidential so competitors don't buy the same product and get on our playing field.

However, I was asked not to blog about even the free tools that are helpful in my job. This, I have a huge problem with. I love social media, because it's just that- it's social. It's to be shared. I think everyone should be aware of what they have access to at their very fingertips. I think being secretive about a free, easy to use tool is dishonest and goes against the strong commitment to sharing that social media has created for many people.

These free tools shouldn't be seen as competitive advantages- they should just be seen as tools. First of all, if your competition is really any kind of competition at all, they will already know about the freebies. Secondly, AGAIN, these tools are free and available to the public, and I think that trying to profit from the fact that you can make use of them is akin to trying to profit from the fact that you are really exceptionally good at breathing in air.

However, I consented to this request as well and edited the tool names out of the post.

Next up is my tangent. I've been thinking about this in one way or another for a few weeks now, and I'm just beginning to piece the words together in a way that makes a bit of sense. This is just a simple prediction. I'm not placing any bets, I'm not trying to convince you that THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE!, and I'm not trying to get you to think the same way I think. This is just a little prediction of mine, and I will enjoy measuring it up with what happens as the industry changes.

Social Media Marketing. Right now it's hot. It's up and coming. I think a lot of the things it has to offer are here to stay for a good while in one way or another. But overall, I think the industry may be a short-lived one. (Maybe another 10-15 years.)

Right now, companies that have existed for 5, 10, 20, 50, or even 100+ years have had to ADD social media into their pre-existing marketing, PR, and communications strategies. In other words, they didn't begin their marketing strategies with the concept of social media in mind. It was a change, a shift.

In the future, the people that start businesses are going to come with some of the core values of social media planted in their heads. In other words, social media will be an element of their overall marketing plan from the get go. Also, as time goes on, more and more people will understand social media better. As more people become familiar with social media platforms and the fun (and often free) tools that compliment them, the need to hire an outside agency to do some of the simpler tasks will diminish.

Anybody can use Twitter. While I may not have thought to use Twitter as I have in my internship in my personal life, the way I have approached people and talked to them has been primarily my own. I already had experience building a brand- Me. Doing it for clients is different only in the fact that the audiences are different. And in my PR courses, I have learned to think strategically about what an audience would want or expect.

Where value will remain for Social Media Marketing will be in the listening and outreach platforms. These super deep searching databases are just far too costly for the average company to afford on their own for their in-house marketing department. But if an agency can purchase the platforms and then support 20 clients through them, the agency-client relationship will be a beneficial one.

What I hope to see pop up in the next few years are communications courses that train people in social media. (I wonder if WVU's COMM program offers anything like this!)

Not classes that explain how to use the computer programs that are beneficial in the marketing side of social media, but rather, classes that just explain how effectively communicate with people on various social media sites. I could probably teach such a class, and feel that I DO teach such a class when I'm explaining the use of Twitter to a new user. I want to explain to people:

"THIS is what you're looking for.

THIS is how you approach people.

THIS is how you get them to talk back.

THIS is how you get them to like your brand (you).

THIS is how you get them to have a full blown conversation.

THIS is how you foster a meaningful relationship.

THESE are realistic results you can expect."

You know, really general guidelines. Because none of that is very hard or complicated. Just not a lot of people care enough about it yet to play with it as much as I have.

Lessons Learned Today:

*ALWAYS double check to make sure you are not breaking any rules.

*Do the Rachel thing and ASK ASK ASK questions! I'd rather have someone be annoyed with my many questions than be annoyed that I did something incorrectly.

*An internship is equally about figuring out things you like AND things you don't like.

Today was probably one of the most important days of my internship so far. This was a great experience to have at an internship, and not a "real" job one day.

PS- I don't like the term "real job". Life is everybody's REAL JOB and everything you do matters.

Learning lots despite distraction!

Here is a recap of my experiences as an intern at Nology Media for the week of June 8-15.

I must confess I was a bit distracted this week. Many things were going on in my life that had nothing to do with my internship:

*My boyfriend flew across the country on his birthday, June 8th to come spend a week with me. I made a huge Italian dinner, baked a cake. We had streamers, the whole nine yards.

*I got my first ever speeding ticket. Killed my 5 year streak of perfection, and cost me almost $150. Fail.

*Ironically, the next day, my father bought me a car. (2009 Chevy Cobalt, yeaaaah!)

*I spent gratuitous amounts of time on the phone to sort out the payment of my electric bill for my apartment back east.

And so on, and so forth.

But that didn't stop me from learning valuable lessons!!

I met one of my new best friends-- a site that allows people to search for Twitter users by the information they provide in their 160 character Bio as well as their location. This is really helpful! For instance, sometimes it is my job to follow new people for a client. One client is a nonprofit for bereavement and grief of children, led by a professional athlete. While we already knew to get in contact with the sports crowd, this service helped us find people that, though they may not be attracted by the starlight of the athlete, care about the cause.

I helped find material for posts for some of the communities that the other girls manage. This is probably one of my favorite tasks. I like putting myself in the shoes of the client's audience. I like thinking about what I would be interested if I was in this audience. And then, I love finding interesting and relevant content to post for this client. The best part is when you were dead on, and you get likes and comments on that content.

On June 10th, the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce hosted a Business Showcase at the Hilton in Bellevue, and the Nology team attended. I had never been to such an event before! It was like a college fair or career fair, except a lot better because everyone has businesses, money, and they want you to be a new client. A ton of freebees were given out. Among my favorites were free cookies (I have a sweet tooth that is never satisfied) and a free massage (Need to schedule that SOON!)

We had their own booth at the showcase, and we were explaining/passing out a new device called a Poken. Pokens are the business cards of the future. With a simple "poke" of your Poken, you can instantly exchange all the information you could ever want to give a business contact... Name, address, number, twitter handle, Facebook page, even stuff like your XBOX 360 account, if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, this was the coolest thing. I loved explaining how a product worked to the rest of the attendees of the showcase. "LOOK AT OUR AWESOME SHINY PRODUCT! HERE I WILL TELL YOU HOW IT WORKS! I WILL EXPLAIN TO YOU WHY IT IS BENEFICIAL!" That is what I like to do. I felt useful. I felt well liked (the Pokens were a hit)!

Our booth also consisted of a giant projector screen that displayed Nology's Twitter Wall. I didn't understand Twitter walls at first, but they are really cool. If you click that link, it allows you to type in whatever you want in the top right corner. Then, tweets containing the words you typed will begin to pop up on the screen. It's cool because you can find out what people are saying (in real time) about the topic of your choice. In our case, that night the word that was typed in was #BCOCShowcase. People liked the thought that their tweets about the event were being shown off to everyone at the event in real time! Pretty awesome.

I remember that one day I did a search for healthy summer eating for a client in the medical industry. This was probably my favorite task to date. All morning I looked at delicious food (Don't think I didn't bookmark some of those recipes!) and found ones that would be appealing for men... after all, Father's Day was fast approaching! I do love that on any given day I may be asked to research something that I totally did not expect to check out. I hope I am asked to do something food related again. Mmm.

I also began my involvement with an elder care facility that prides itself on having the care system of the futre. I began to grow their Twitter follower base. I took a shot at creating some Facebook advertisements for them.

At first, finding people to follow for an assisted living facility was kind of tricky.

*First of all, there aren't a ton of old people on Twitter. Especially not the elders that need to move into an assisted living facility.

*Second, if I WERE to stumble across an elderly tweeter, it would probably really freak them out or offend them if nursing homes began to follow them. (On MY Twitter account, I am being followed by @VampireMob..... not so sure how I feel about that either... )

*Third, I didn't want to follow other nursing homes because they are potential competitors.

Luckily, though, I found many caregiving resources, as well as users that provide information on diseases that affect the elderly. Additionally, I found many people who reach Baby Boomers--- Those who are stuck in the "sandwich generation" (Caring for young adult children financially, and caring for elderly parents physically.) The number of followers of the account have multiplied by 8 since I began working with it (About 3 weeks ago). *Pats self on back.*

It has to do with the way you talk to people. You can't just send out one cookie cutter message to each follower. Learn about your followers. Go Erin Brockovich on their ass. People don't want to talk to a company. They want to talk to a PERSON from the company. With what I do, they will very likely never know they are talking to Rachel Nieman, intern at Nology Media and student at West Virginia University...... but they know they are being paid attention to. Listened to. That's what people want. That's why people use Twitter.

June 1-8: Acclimation Complete

Here we are at the end of June! How time flies!!! I have been living in Sammamish, WA for seven weeks and one day now. This month has been absolutely packed with new experiences, adventures, and ideas! Here part 1 of 4 of the past four weeks (since my last post). I take an awful lot of notes.

June 1-8

The first week of June was a busy one around the office! I was a bit disheartened to learn that a client I had been doing a lot of work for decided to end their services with us. It was probably for the best, as they were not a good fit for what we do at Nology. But as quickly as they left, we acquired some brand new clients! Now, I had to become a mini expert on some new topics like baseball, the high-end car market, and the elder care industry. Three things I knew squat about.

My manager, Megan, took some vacation around this time to visit Germany. This meant I had to bother someone else every five minutes. This wonderful woman was another Community Manager named Abby. Approachable, friendly, and highly skilled in listening platforms, Abby taught me much in this week. She explained to me how our process for Facebook and Twitter analytics reporting worked, as well as provided guidance for what makes a good post. I was happy to become more comfortable with people in the office, and enjoyed feeling brave enough to ask anybody for help when I needed it. I sure do ask a lot of questions.

I spent a good portion of the week wrapped up in Excel Spreadsheets and Pages documents. As tedious as it sounds, I can honestly say it's a task I enjoy. I like being able to explain how a client's outreach has grown over the course of a week. I like to observe the trends. Do we get more followers by posting video? Or do we get more responses when we ask a question? Stuff like that. Different clients' audiences respond better to different things. One of our clients, a nonprofit organization headed up by a professional baseball player, gets a lot of feed back when given the chance to ask a question to the baseball star. Another client, a car dealership, gets a lot of fan response when we post information in our Miss Washington Wednesday series. Some clients have phenomenal Facebook response. Others do better on Twitter. Different people are moved by different things.

I got to test my skills --- and my patience --- by updating a logo for one of our clients' Facebook pictures. I learned about Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign last semester, but it was a very basic overview and I still struggle a bit with them. However, after a bit of playing, I changed the logo and it was made public on their Facebook page. Very cool, to look at a page and think "I had a hand in that." But here in this first week of June, things were just starting for me, as I would come to know that I would have a hand in a lot of the content that went public for our clients.

I also learned about a new tool that exists to help brands create engaging Facebook fan pages. It allows you to manage multiple social media accounts on one page, much like CoTweet does for Twitter. Today, I am not sure if this platform is all it was cracked up to be, but I was very impressed when I first saw the demonstration. I think they are in the beginning stages of something great, but I don't know if Nology can benefit from what they currently offer.

The ideal package would be something that allows the management of multiple accounts on multiple social media platforms, completes high quality searching (like some other deep search programs that already exist but hopefully much more user friendly), gives a plethora of options on how to organize the results of those deep searches, automatically tracks feedback information so analytics would be nothing more than a simple click of an "export" button, allows for the scheduling of posts, and gives the user control over the media that is attached with that post.

Is there anything out there like that? If so, Nology could really benefit from that, so please get in touch with me.

Overall, this week was about really getting settled in and building up my confidence. Two really, really important things.

Three Deep

I'm three weeks into the adventure of my summer internship. I am learning so much. So much about aspects of my future career, about life, and about what I really want.

I'll focus first on my internship. First and foremost, I have learned how to use the tools I often take for granted and actually put them to good use. For instance, while I typically use Facebook, Twitter, and the Internet as a whole just for fun and recreation, much more can be done with the information that is flowing around. I have learned to use two programs, Radian6 and Vocus, that can probe the Internet for the information you need in just a matter of seconds. I have learned the practical uses of sites and programs such as TweepSearch, Facebook Insights, and NetNewsWire. I've become familiar with SocialCast and DropBox, WordPress and CoTweet.

I have learned to glean for the most important information with minimal searching. I have come to be familiar with key words for several of our clients, and the more I learn about the topics, the easier it becomes. Just through the nature of my business, I have learned a great deal about property taxes and the great lengths one must go through to appeal them, about entrepreneurship (including how to spell it correctly), about car dealerships, and about the elder care industry.

I have also learned a few things about how to handle myself in a business-like setting.

1.) I have always thought the way to peoples' hearts was just to be real with them. This is not always the case. Unless you are completely professional, do not be completely real with them.

2.) Do NOT bring up anything you do that may be considered unprofessional. Even if it's funny.

3.) Lay off the jokes until people understand you.

4.) When you're the newbie, take a moment to consider what you are about to say or ask so you don't say or ask something stupid, irrelevant, or that has already been explained to you.

5.) "The Office" is in no way similar to how a real office works. Huge let down, but probably beneficial for the economy.

I say all this, not because people have been unwelcoming, but because I have truly had a handful of foot-in-mouth moments since my arrival. I chalk it up to inexperience, my small town mindset, and my rather immature sense of humor. Nothing has been catastrophic. But I'm glad I'm learning all this now.

Now, on to what else I'm learning. You know, about life and stuff. I have learned two important things thus far.

1.) Living with another family is really, really, fun. If you ever have the chance to do so, take that chance. I have been having a wonderful time with Rod, Cindy, Abby and Amelia! Abby and Amelia are like the younger sisters I've never had, and watching them interact (as well as my own interaction with them) leads me to believe that every girl deserves a sister. Being with a family that isn't your own allows you to behave as a family member that doesn't have any negative past. No bad memories of getting in trouble or anything like that. It makes for very peaceful living.

2.) I'm learning that I'm more relationship-oriented than career-oriented. Now, I don't think I'll be taking the Mommy Track any time soon, but I travelled 3000 miles to do a summer job and yet my heart is elsewhere. Don't get me wrong. I want to learn as much as I can while I'm out here, do a good job, and gain a rich and valuable experience. But maybe I'm not as grown up as I thought. My mind is very much still yearning for a carefree, sunny summer with good times and the best of friends. I may have been mistaken when I assumed I was above having another responsibility free summer. My brain is proud of myself for going the route I have gone, but my heart is a little bummed.

These past three weeks have been a blast. I've learned a ton about the Social Media Marketing industry, I've learned to make three new dishes (Squash Casserole, Apple Pie, and my mother's WORLD FAMOUS Zucchini Pie), I have been more diligent about exercise (my room has an elliptical in it, it sits there and stares at me until I use it), and I have been fortunate enough to visit the beautiful Lake Chelan, my favorite place in the world. Things are going absolutely peachy. :-)

Day 2- Wednesday May 12, 2010

"Today was my first full day as a West Coaster. This morning, I woke up and swaggered downstairs to be greeted by Chloe, my host family's dog. As I enjoyed a bowl of cereal, I did something I had wanted to do for a very long time.

I made a grocery list.

My passion for grocery lists began in my late high school years. This is when I realized that white bread, prepackaged lunch meat, and hostess products weren't the epitome of healthy. This was also around the same time I uncovered my passion for spicy, flavorful, and organic foods. No matter how much I begged, mom wouldn't buy Naked juice. Or an assortment of hot peppers to chop up into a deliciously fun stir-fry. Or flax and grain bread that actually has some nutrition to it.

Probably the thing I've done to anger my mother the most- to make her more mad than my piercings, my tattoo, and my participation in premarital sex- has been to become a pescatarian. This means I have stopped eating mammals and poultry. Although I have done this for a variety of reasons, it is primarily for my health. But talking to my mother would lead you to believe that my main reason behind forgoing meat has been to undermine all she has done to raise me right these past 20 years. She acts surprised, then disappointed when I politely decline her meatloaf and chili. "Yes, mom, I am aware it is delicious but it is still made of dead animals."

But today was the day I could choose for myself. With a pen and pad in front of me, I wasn't sure where to begin. But a list was compiled. I bought black beans, canned salmon, a half gallon of Naked Blue Machine, protein enriched bread, crab bisque (yum!), lettuce, onion, tomatoes, spinach, corn, veggie burgers, and minestrone! Today, I felt like I truly took charge of my diet. And boy was it good.

Maybe you think it's silly that the most exciting, empowering part of my 1st day as a West Coaster was grocery shopping. But I don't care. I've been waiting for this for a very, very long time."

These next couple posts do not follow the main plan of this blog- to blog about my internship.

But traveling away from my family has given me a lot to think about. So I wrote in my journal. And I think that this edited version is worth sharing here.

Tuesday, May 11 2010- Day 1

"If there's any possible way to sleep comfortably on an airplane, I would like to know at this time. The past three weeks have included very little sleep, and the first thing to finally droop my eyelids has been a 6 hour flight to Seattle, Washington. It's not like this trip crept up on me or anything, but the reality of it all was very sudden.

Allow me to explain why I'm 35,000 feet above the great state of Iowa or something.

5 months ago, I was utterly depressed. Maybe it's insensitive for me to say that since I have never received a diagnosis, but I believe I truly was. On January 6, 2010, my world turned topsy turvy with the death of my paternal grandfather, the cornerstone and patriarch of my very close-knit family. My whole family resides in Morgantown, WV, and this sudden explosion (literally, as his aorta ruptured,) both tore us to pieces and made us much stronger and closer. I had never dealt seriously with such great loss and grief before.

Six tear-filled, mourning-filled, devastating days after my grandfather's passing, a very emotional, testy and worn out version of myself had to move back into the dorm and begin a 20 hour course-load of school. My dorm was a cell at times, my roommate an ex-best friend with whom things would never be fully reconciled. Listening to her and her boyfriend being happy, while I should have felt happy for them, enhanced my depression but mostly made me feel very alone. I wondered if anyone would ever love me again the way my grandfather did. For who I am, for my abilities, and through the most compassionate of eyes. With the most caring heart. Wrestling with the question of being loved again included traumatic flashbacks of failed relationships- romantic and platonic. It also included a montage of my life alone, each scene myself progressively becoming grayer, fatter, and with a wider assortment of cats.

But things have turned around so much! At the beginning of February, a contact of mine, my mentor if you will, in Seattle emailed me to say that he had put out the "bait" among his network to help me obtain an internship for summer 2010. With all the trauma, drama, and turmoil, I had all but forgotten a conversation I'd had with my mentor in early December, shyly expressing interest in a summer intern position.

Now, I had to do stuff. You know, get my shit together. If I was ever going to make something of myself, the first thing I needed to do was drag myself out of the muck I was in. "Because this may be my turning point," I thought, "This may be the beginning of an excellent opportunity." And I was very, very right.

Within nearly a month, through the use of social media, fancily worded emails, and the expert guidance of my fabulous mentor, I had been offered two positions. One was at a public relations firm, and the other at a social marketing company. I chose the one that offered compensation, because nothing makes less sense to a large rural Appalachian family than traveling cross country to some big city to work for free.

This deal was sealed at the end of February, and I couldn't have been more excited. Finally, a real escape from Morgantown, the drama, the humidity, and the monotony. A real chance to learn and explore my future career firsthand. And that is why I'm here today, flying above the clouds."