ELEVATOR PITCH 3

https://youtu.be/Gb4j-NWYOBg

For my third elevator pitch, I really liked how I was focusing on covering all bases on how to sell my idea for a company. I also felt I talked with more emotion this time as I focused more on looking at the person and not around them. I felt I really did change up how I was filming this pitch with this video so hopefully people like it more.

NEW BOOK TIME

This week I spent some time to go out and read another book that was outside of my usual circle and that book was The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki. The general idea of the book was to be a large amount of information on how to maximize your potential use of social media and how every aspect of it can drastically change how your online image is perceived. In my opinion this book tied into the things we are learning in this class as we often talk about how to control the image of our business in order to maximize potential customers and marketing options, but often social media is a more vague field in what to do given how new it is. This book directly aids students in marketing and customer outreach in making people actually want to engage with us and our businesses. If I had to make an exercise around this book for class it would be to create fake Instagram accounts based on several business ideas (ones we're using or not, doesn't really matter), and the goal would be to successfully communicate with people and get them to engage with us as people rather than as a bot or a troll. The learning curve comes in how to build your account in order to convince people that you're a legitimate business, which comes in with the profile picture, the bio, the content on the feed, and how many other accounts you're linked to along with a follower count. For me, the most eye-opening part of the book was when it discussed the nature of how people immediately look at the links on profiles and make assumptions about a business or identity based on it. How clean these links can be stacked, whether or not the sites they lead to are legitimate, etc. It made me realize myself how often I do this when I look at online profiles and am suddenly quick to distrust certain accounts based on this simple observation.

COUNTIN ALL DIS SOCIAL CAPITAL

I went through a phonebook and did some Internet digging and found three individuals who I would consider experts in the fields that I am aiming to get a leg in.

The "supplier" of my operation is a fellow I met from when I got my car towed for illegal parking. Didn't really like him at first for obvious reasons, but I kept my composure and gentlemanly conduct and it seemed to wear off on him. He's not a trucker, but he's got a mini-truck and knows how to drive in tight areas. The supplies he could offer me would include sanitation wear, buckets, sponges and soap, and a truck to haul the gear and animals in. In exchange for me using his supplies, we have discussed the possibility of getting him involved with some profit that could arise from the business. Not a stock option yet, but perhaps a percentage of the profits and labor pay as well. This allows me to run my business at all, so in that essence I am exploiting this aspect of our relationship.

The "domain expert" shall be my girlfriend's roommate, who works at a zoo and also is working towards getting herself a degree in animal sciences. Given that we are dealing with animal behavior and corpses, her expertise regarding how animals act (faking death, moving en mass towards less populated areas, etc.) will be invaluable towards making sure that our service not only aids the community but is also humane for the animals themselves. In return for the expertise in the field her name shall be added to the staff and with that she'll receive the same share of the profits as everyone else does. Having someone like her in pocket will aid the company because it will allow us access to the greater animal-related services community and give us more legitimacy within the field.

The "market expert" I've decided to get in contact with is one of my grandmother's neighbors, who often comes around to help her with chores and her personal life. I asked her specifically because of her involvement in the community, having a more active relationship with the average person who lives in my area. Not only do they help my grandma out, but I also come around to participate in the church events that she and others host so in a sense we already have some relationship. This new relationship would come in exchange for a more active participation in the church, spreading awareness of animal diseases and the importance of the service to the flock. That's all she's requested as of now, still. This market expert expands my business because now we finally have a core audience to listen and watch our moves as we begin to start helping the community.

With regards to this networking experiment, I've found that I can rely more on my local neighborhood and contacts of contacts than I thought before. If I'm being frank, still, it didn't differ much from my previous experiences. Generally speaking, talking to people and getting them to do what you want is a very tedious experience. Exciting and nerve-wracking, but ultimately a systematic process.

IDEA NAPKIN NO. 2

Hello! I am Victor Ellifritt, an English student at the University of Florida. I'm very passionate about innovation, community growth, and proper education, and my hope is to one day be able to live a life with a coexistence between these things. This business aims to be an example of this. I am offering a service of cleaning the streets and neighborhoods of animal corpses when they appear, keeping the area clean and sound. This service is aimed towards lower middle class and middle class neighborhoods/communities that contain couples who both work and lack time to take care of efforts such as this. The demographic will likely also contain couples with children. People in these areas will pay for an easy and cheap service that not only improves the atmosphere of the community but also protects against diseases. We do a service that simply isn't offered by most community services, and insofar as people care about their safety and health this service will be quite helpful.

I believe that I've created a model of business consistent with itself in regards to its goal, function, and purpose in society. At the very core of my business is a devotion to improving the lives of other people, and the service and process of accomplishment reflects this. Regarding feedback, I took time to be more specific yet also plainspoken in how I describe my demographic and goals in life. Also, I've focused more on having a complete and whole piece to present. Each idea leans into and connects with the other to create a whole.

AVATAR: THE BLOGPOST

Alright I tried several times to properly download the avatar I created and it kept giving me this racist caricature of a man so I'll be contacting my lawyer while I write this post (SARCASM). The avatar of my average customer is someone in a suburban home, likely a college graduate who spent their time listening to music about the peace and love era that is long dead and gone. They've accepted the decline of humanity and the erasure of their individuality, leaving them time to dwell on humanity by reading Hegel and watching Bojack Horseman while also wondering how long their current lifestyle can last. They're past their twenties, they're employed, and, worst of all, they're assimilated. The prototypical customer for a guy like me is someone who views everything new with a sense of distrust, and therefore rarely purchases new products or services. They don't have kids themselves, and that leads them to actually like kids more so than other adults. They'd care more about the problem of urban decay, natural death creeping into the civilized world. Do I have a lot in common with them? Only in an American sense; I personally wouldn't care whether or not the nature of death starts to appear in our society and frankly I'd welcome it with regards to how we actually view ourselves within the world. That said, we both care a lot about things that no one else sees. Also, my prototypical customer doesn't lift weights. Can't even squat their body weight.

ELEVATOR PITCH 2

https://youtu.be/vLr8V3vRznM

The most improved aspect of this elevator pitch from my last is the length. It's a lot longer giving me more time to go into the newer aspects of what I've researched regarding my product. I also feel, given previous feedback, that I'm less anxious and nervous in this one. I'm speaking slower and more clearly overall. The other thing I changed is holding the camera myself like I'm Tai Lopez or something. He seems to be pretty okay for himself so I learn from the best.