A Feel-Good Ending

You know when you applaud to the teacher on the last day of class because it was so good? Yeah, let's do that for this class.

I wrote one of my thoughts on the board on our last day of presentations that I really summed up how I felt:

"I learned things in this class that I would have learned in no other. Things such as: presentation skills, business terms, tips and tricks, useful software, correct grammar and a host of other things ." 

Deep, I know.

Also, yes, I know I didn't use the oxford in that quote, but it's a habit I'm going to keep, because AP style does that (#communicationsmajorproblems). Also, whether or not I can keep this grammar going well or not is another question. But I'm going to try!

Either way, I'm really glad I took this class. It has given me tools that I need to be successful in my career. I think everyone who has taken it can see that and will be successful in their fields too. Especially if their field is tricking their families into thinking they're engaged. Wait, just kidding, that sounded mean. I loved that story. Here's a more feel-good ending: "They will be successful in their fields too, especially if their field is being amazing communicinators." Dats it. Y'all done good. Peace out

Lulz,

<3 COleMaN

PS Totally kidding, you guys rock. Thanks for understanding my sarcasm.

PRSSA Event - What I already knew and What I learned

Free pizza is really nice. Especially when it's paid for by someone else. Making it free.

Oh, and guest speakers to listen to while eating your pizza is cool too I guess.

I had free pizza last month while attending the PRSA's event at the Pizza Factory where Pete Codella, my supervisor at my job, spoke to a group of public relations professionals and students. He discussed social media marketing, specifically explaining 10 tools that he uses to leverage social media marketing to make it worthwhile.

Well, being as I work for him, I already knew about most of the tools he was talking about, as we used them for our clients. But I learned though the importance of networking while I was there. I met some other PRSSA members there who were attending UVU studying PR. As we discussed what we were working on, wheels started turning as to how we could help each other in our individual projects. They were doing a project about speakers and could use a band and/or musicians to promote it, and we were looking for more people to know about our band at UVU. We exchanged information and some good conversations came from it. I need to keep networking at future events, because you never know how you can help someone.

-Coleman

Go React Blog Post

Wow. Go React is so freakin' cool. Watching myself and my group present live, with comments was invaluable. I learned some things I should keep doing, stop and start doing. 

First off, things I did well:

• When presenting the statistic about UTA's pricing, Cameron said, "Great way to illustrate the problem," when I had two volunteers stand up. Sweet.

• Professor Middleton said that I had a, "clear suggestion for [a] solution," during my part of the recommendations section. Also sweet.

• The GANTT chart. Seth Chatterly was like, "GANTT chart. Well played. Professor Middleton is going to love that." I hope she did, but mostly I'm just happy people could read it and that it made sense in the context.

Secondly, things I needed to better that I didn't see coming:

• From Nathan Harbison: "iron your shirt before a presentation, a wrinkled shirt is distracting."

• From Prof. Middleton: "Coleman- short-sleeves are not typically considered business professional (acceptable when under a suit jacket. Okay in the office, but not when in mtgs. etc.)" Good to know.

• From Felicia Bunting: "so far coleman has answered 2 questions without letting the girls answer. are all knowledgable?" I think this points out that I need to be more trusting of team members. They do know tons even if I'm worried that they don't. 

Lastly, what I'm going to do about it: 

1. Dress better. I think the time has come for me to iron my shirts. Yes, I know how, I've done it before. I just... get lazy. But it really makes all the difference. And yes, no more short sleeves on presentation days.
2. Trust. I need to remember that my team researched all the things that I did, and they are just as competent to answer the questions that I am. 
3. Show clear solutions to problems. It's too easy to blabber on without making a connection with what you're talking about to a real issue. 

Overall, it was an awesome experience. It was inspiring to be able to read other peoples' comments and learn from them. What a cool experience.

-Coleman

Other notes:

Not to be narcissistic, but my mullet was (is) pretty sweet, I'm stoked on it

Personal Presentations - What to do, not do, and what you need to start doing

To everyone who presented this week:

You were awesome. The preparation was great, you were timely, and you made really good points. Here are a couple ideas I had for you to do:

Keep:

• Prepare: It makes a huge difference when you have all visuals planned, your talking points written out, and it's been rehearsed. Everyone did a really good job at that, I could tell.
• Acronyms/lists: Pretty much everyone had one, and for good reason. They work, and they keep the subject easy for the audience to digest.

Stop:

• One-way conversation: Make sure your presentation is two-sided. Asking questions and getting to know the people you're presenting to makes a huge difference in the relevancy of your content. Maybe ask yourself, "Did I ask any questions? Who did I present to? How was this relevant to them?" at the end of your presentations to make sure you did some sort of interacting with them.

Start:

• On-the-spot innovation: It was really cool to see the presenters make quick changes to their presentations after getting feedback to streamline their presentations. Jake started wearing a watch, Seth kept his photos on his presentation, and Kim even added in a whole exercise at the end of her presentation to get her audience more involved. If you left feeling like you wished you'd implemented more ideas you had, just do it next time!

All in all, the presentations were great. I'm scared but excited to do mine.

-Coleman

PS thanks to Seth and Taylor for coming out to my band's show this weekend! They were a vital part of the energetic crowd, starting and maintaining the dancing and moshing throughout. Seth even shredded some drums with me. Here's a pic of the crowd, pretty sure you can see them on the right side,  ladies all around them (get it ladies):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=714653145252171&set=pb.253994167984740.-2207520000.1396756482.&type=3&theater

Remote Meetings are Actually... Really Convenient.

Yes, there's a lot of issues with conference calls. We've all seen the video. There's people coming and going, there's static, there are dogs barking, there are people cleaning the carpet in a circle around you (seriously, that happened to us), but even still, they are really useful.

Our group needed to meet quickly and discuss what needed to get done before we turned in the project. One of our members was at work, another at her home in Orem, and myself and @bridgetbanks in the HBLL. Well technology brought us all together. All I had to do was make a free account on freeconferencecalls.com. It totally worked and it was amazing!

It was another instance of my gratitude for technology. There is so much good that we can accomplish in this world now because of the advances in communication, science, medicine, and other technologies in recent years. What a beautiful time to be alive.

Here's the obligatory link to the conference call youtube video, just in case you missed it last time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ

-Coleman

Sometimes, when you're a man, you wear... stretchy pants in your room. Just for fun.

The title has something to do with this post. I promise on the honor of the magic eagle egg.

Go ahead and start here (watch the .gifs):

http://imgur.com/gallery/jRrUK

OK. Notice how Nacho goes through a lot of hard work before his big fight. He plans, gathers materials, collaborates with his only-believing-in-science ring-mate, and then works hard to achieve his goal. Yeah, that's what research is all about, as I learned this week; Research leads to solutions. Just like Nacho's amazing uniform gave him credibility, motivation, and ideas, so does our research.

You see, as we were brainstorming ideas for our group project, it occurred to me that you really have to have a reason to create something. You can't just sit down, "be creative", and invent something that will make you tons of moo-lah. Rather, you have to really understand a problem well enough to see the real pain points are that people are going through. Then you figure out how to solve it. Our group did that this week, and we did it well. Look forward to some awesome ideas in our presentation. Ca-chow.

-Coleman

The Do's and Do-Not's of Skype Interviews

In the professional world, it's rare to find the career and opportunity that is best for you in the place you want to live in. When applying for ideal jobs in faraway lands, an employer will often ask to meet with your for an interview on the phone or via Skype. 

I'd like to review a few key points that I've learned while doing these types of interviews.

1. Be yourself. Just because you're on a computer screen doesn't mean your interviewer won't see your personality. If they see that you can be personal online, they'll trust you'll be able to in real life as well.

2. Put yourself somewhere free from distraction. The difference between online interviews and in-person ones is place. You ultimately decide where you are when you make the call. If you're in your house, understand that your family member, friend, or cat could walk in at any time and become a distraction from your conversation. 

3. Make sure you have a good connection. This doesn't just mean a personal connection, but a physical internet connection too. If your wifi cuts out part way through your interview, you might have lost your chance. Some interviewers have so many people to talk to that they cannot afford to reschedule with you if your call is dropped. Find a place with good, reliable service and go there.

4. Look the Part. Dress as if the interview were taking place in real life. Just because you're in your house doesn't mean you can just throw on your PJ's and try to only aim your webcam at your face. If you have to move around, your plan will be soiled and you probably won't get a call back. Protip: if you're a glasses wearer, consider removing your glasses, as computer screens often cause glares that make it impossible to see your eyes. It's very distracting to the other party, and hey, you really don't want to be confused with a robot.

-Coleman

PS the struggle for us glasses people is real:

Glare 1

Glare 2

Glare 3

Stick it to the man! Wobbly tables, With or Without You, and Birthday Parties

So if you were in the same class as I was in this Thursday, you heard the story of all stories. The tale of all tales. The epic of all epics. Professor Middleton's fake engagement adventure. I was blown away by how gutsy she was to pull such a huge prank on her family and friends. It made me want to prank people, have adventures, and be spontaneous because, (1) #YOLO, and (2), stories don't tell themselves. In life, we have to make the stories.

I took that feeling to heart last night when my band played a show for a kid's birthday party. On the way there I was tired, in a funk, and just wasn't very excited for it. When we got there, there was no stage, no sound equipment, and no lights. We were going to have to play on the ground with our own stuff, in a poorly lit warehouse. Boring. Part of me just wanted to just accept it because it was the easiest, laziest path, but then I remembered Valene's story, and I said to the group, "Let's make a stage out of these wobbly tables." That started a beautiful chain reaction.

We moved a few tables, clamped them together, swept some metal shards away, found some extension cords, and made this ghetto little stage. It swayed a little in the wind, but we thought, "This is rock n' roll! We don't need support from 'the man'! In fact, we don't need any support at all!" So we went for it. The drums moved it around a little bit, we were afraid of our equipment being destroyed, but we did it anyway. Well, there was so much energy coming from all of us from our commitment to defiance of the man that we played our best. Our lead singer drew in the crowd and interacted with them in the perfect ways.

Probably the pinnacle moment was when our singer had Mitch, the birthday boy, come to the front of the crowd while we were playing "With or Without You" by the great U2. Our singer had all the girls line up and individually tell him how they felt about him. Each girl had great things to say and a couple even gave him a little kiss (bow chicka wow-wow!) We then had him come up to the stage and sing the  last chorus of the song. He was awesome. It was the birthday gift he'd been wanting.

This spontaneous action came from the excitement that we had built up throughout the night, which came from the decision I made to have a good time and make this experience a good story. I think we all need to remember that what we do now makes up who we are. If we want to be a fun storytelling person, we have to be fun and MAKE stories, because stories don't just happen.

-Coleman

PS here's the footage of the experience itself:

http://youtu.be/eRxDQ8U1LKc

So there I was in Church. Spirit was great, learning was cool. Then it hit me. I should get my old BMX bike from when I was a kid and ride it at the skatepark all the time. Wow.

Turns out this is one of many thoughts that have been a-brewin' in my brain this week since we did our mock interviews. You see, I "interviewed" for a job at a mountain biking company, as I am super into bikes. Once I did that, I started thinking, "what if I got the job??" and, "I could bike all the time!!" My mind has been wandering ever since, thinking of all the perks. Today was no exception.

In the interview, I learned that body language speaks very loudly. I crossed my arms at the beginning, which resulted in me looking closed off. Need to work on that.

I also learned something else on a completely different topic. It is hard to be a woman in the workplace. Women have to juggle responsibilities and dreams in their life in a more delicate way than their male counterparts. You see, men simply need to provide for a family and look after them, not actually birth them. Women on the other hand do. They have to take time out of their life to go through all this pain and difficulty to have a baby. Then they have to like, take care of it all the time. Though that's tough, tougher than that is making the choice to do it and leave work.

I've learned lots, but I have much more to think about.

-Coleman

PS this is the first bike I ever owned, a Specialized Fatboy. Flames and all.

Alright. Call me crazy, but, I really did miss going to class this week. I mean I love my other classes, but they just don't compare with the excitement that is MCom.

Speaking of Mcom, you've probably noticed that it's quite applicable to real life. Writing our "CLOUD" paragraphs was quite useful for me this week, as I just wrote things I would normally write, but applied the magial acronym to them. Having to go back and check that they lived up to the standards of the all-knowing CLOUD formula made my writing top notch. It was then that I decided... I'm going to use CLOUD style writing... for the rest of my life. I hope my future spouse is OK with that.

Let's see if I can remember what CLOUD stands for off the top of my head.

• C-cohesion
• L -Length
• O-
• U-Unity
• D-Development

So, I can't remember what O stands for. But I'll look it up and memorize it, because, like I said, this is going to be a lifelong commitment. 

-Coleman

PS I've been dying to talk about "twitch plays Pokemon" with all of my classes this week, but the opportunity has never arisen, so you, my friends, are the lucky ones. Basically, 90,000 people are all playing Pokémon as the same character, at the same time on the internet. It's absolutely brilliant.

Here is the explanation:

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/twitch-plays-pokemon-its-history-highlights-and-bird-jesus/

Here is the actual game, streaming live (you can control it, just type in your commands):

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon

This Week in My Life

So writing is so useful! I write all the time. I didn't really think about that until this week. I do. Quite often. Like I am... right now. And probably will later.

This week I helped my friend Nic write some Facebook posts for our band. We did a contest to see who is the "sexiest man" is in the band. We had to come up with creative and funny bios for each member. He asked me to write mine at like 1 a.m., so I was a little "tired drunk" as I like to call it. I came up with some HILARIOUS stuff. Here's a sample of what I wrote for myself:

"Meet contestant #3 - Coleman Barker Edwards. A man of many colors, Coleman is from the heart. He isn't always, but when he is. If he isn't alone, he's with someone. His mission statement: http://i.imgur.com/7gIyAxS.jpg As Finn the human from Adventure Time said, "Like BAM, fresh out the grease." Couldn't have said it better without... himself."

Yes, I purposely used incorrect grammar, because it's funny that way. It was so fun though to write stuff that people would laugh at. I came up with a bunch of other stuff, but that was the best of it.
I am excited to keep writing throughout my life, and keep all of the things I've learned in MCom too!
-Coleman


Here is the link to my band's Facebook page. Also, I will shamelessly admit that I won the contest.
www.facebook.com/redyetimusic

I'm very happy with our presentation this week! I think people were entertained with how we taught. Hopefully they learned something too.

Sadly, the comments didn't work on the GoREACT video! I was super bummed. But the video itself did, so I was able to at least watch our presentation and look for interesting things we did. Here are some thoughts I had:

1. I CROSS MY ARMS TOO MUCH. Seriously. At the beginning and end, my arms are crossed the whole time. It probably shouldn't be like that. It was kind of distracting and made me look like I was scared or something.

2. We got feedback from the class that we looked at the screen a lot. I think all of us in the group could work on that together. We'll talk about it!

3. I think we could have split up the CLOUD acronym to have two people teach it. I think it went a little long. Kim did an awesome job presenting it, totally no fault of hers. I think it was just a lot to cover.

4. A little bit of a funny note. My hair looked crazy. Just saying. Haha.

So yeah, that's my feedback. It was a great learning experience. I've seen a lot of bad presentations in my life, and it was really nice to practice somewhere that would allow for me to learn in a non-threatening environment. I'm really glad I did it. Oh and my group was awesome!

-Coleman

PS- I REALLY DID CROSS MY ARMS A LOT (see below)

One thing that will help you learn WAY better than you are now

As I was helping with our group powerpoint presentation this week, I realized the things I've experienced throughout my life have made me become who I am today. When we were trying to figure out how to format our information, Kim, in our group, looked at me and said, "You seem like you'd know how to do this." Well, I do.

Turns out I've taken classes in media-related subjects since elementary school. It started with Mavis Beacon (and Oregon trail) in 4th grade, continued in a multimedia class in middle school, and ended with 3 years of graphic communications classes in high school. Throughout all of them my knowledge of technology and software improved, culminating in what I know now. It hit me hard today that I choose those classes. I decided what I wanted to learn, and I am a product of those things. I learned that learning is a decision.

It's true that some things in life we can't control. You can call it fate, destiny, luck, or whatever. Learning, however, IS something we can control. If you want to learn powerpoint, it's up to you to open it up and start making things, or take a class about it, or ask that paperclip guy in the bottom left corner of the program that's always yelling at you. Either way, if you want to learn something, you can. Just choose to do it. That's how you will learn better than you are now. Choose to do it, and do it.

I hope I can continue to learn, because someday, someone else is going to think I know how to do something and I want to be able to say that I can.

-C


PS- Originally this post was going to be called, "Nothing that has happened so far has been anything we can control", named after a song I like by the band Tame Impala. Well, turns out that song name is the exact opposite of the point I'm making, so I changed the title. BUT here is the song. It's super trippy and awesome. Enjoy.

I USED THINGS I LEARNED IN CLASS THIS WEEK!

So, I work doing social media publishing at a PR and marketing company. It's great because I have to write things all the time, so I get to use my writing skills that I learn in class at work! I get paid to apply my homework to real life! So cool.

Well this week at work, I was writing some posts that needed lists. I KNEW TO USE A COLON AND NOT A SEMI-COLON! It was so satisfying typing the colon followed by the list, separated by commas  (except the last word however, because we use AP style, NOT Chicago style). Also, later in the week, I was considering using a semi-colon, but luckily, I caught myself. The first clause of the sentence was an independent clause; the second was a dependent clause. I could have looked like a fool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi23Cz4EW1o

^Enjoy.

-Coleman

Letterheads and Hammerheads

I've always thought I was pretty good at design. I've used Photoshop and Illustrator for quite a while, I've designed logos and flyers and have done plenty of printing. But even with all this, before this week, I had never actually made a letterhead!

Well, it turns out something as simple as a letterhead makes a big difference. It changes the look and feel of anything you write on it, making it more professional and credible. Anyone who reads it will take the writer more seriously, as they're expecting it to be quality work. In turn, those who are writing a document with a letterhead will take their writing more seriously, ensuring that it is up to par with what the reader is expecting.

So what am I going to do about it? A couple things. First off, I'd like to figure out what the company standard letterhead is at the job I just started this week. I think using it in documents I make will make it sink in more that I represent the company, which will force me to make my writing top quality. Also, I'd like to look at more examples of good letterheads and make one for myself to use on resumes, cover letters and other documents.

-Coleman

Ps you're probably wondering why this post is titled "letterheads and hammerheads" it's because sharks are cool, that's why. And this is a cool letterhead.

http://rlv.zcache.com/vintage_hammerhead_shark_illustration_retro_sharks_stationery-r5cb45cee8ba345b0b01555eb64a5d4a0_vg6ke_8byvr_512.jpg

The Real Lesson Is Sometimes Learned In Failure

If there's one thing that not doing assigned reading has taught me throughout my 3 years of college, it's that if you have a quiz on it, you'll probably fail it. Unless of course your clothes are made of four-leaf clovers, you have a bag full of rabbit feet with you and you have a dream catcher on your desk to filter out the nightmares you had the night before about failing the quiz. Unfortunately for me, I had none of such items this week and... you guessed it. I failed. It was only by the graces of the greatest teacher in all the land, Professor Middleton, who had mercy on us and taught us a valuable lesson. She said without words, "do your homework."

Well, the lesson (or principle) that I learned was to not only DO the assigned reading, but to STUDY it. Meaning read with the intent of learning something, because believe it or not, there will be quizzes, and more importantly, there will be writing to do every day for the rest of life. It's a good idea to be able to write correctly and not look like a komplete fewl (I mean complete fool... but you see what I mean?).

So now what should I do? Well, it's pretty obvious isn't it? I'll do the reading, study it, apply it and not look like such a fool! Specifically, read and quiz myself on it as I go. I'll take examples from the book, work through them, and if I have to, find more quizzes and examples online (I'm sure there's plenty out there).

That's my plan. Believe it or not, I'm excited for it. I just got a new job that will require a lot of writing so this will be really helpful!

-Coleman

PS here's a picture of a cat, because this is a blog.

(http://www.freegreatpicture.com/files/157/1562-cute-little-cat.jpg)