I have been reflecting as I read this week’s material about what am I currently doing, and do I love it?

The answer is yes and no. Let me explain…

Currently I am pursuing my Bachelors degree. Personally I do not think that my degree will help me at all in my career. The piece of paper will get my foot in the door in few instances but my experience will propel me to open doors. That is why I am not happy doing school now, but I am following my patriarchal blessing and follow its counsel.

For employment, I am currently working at Home Care Pulse. It is a software company selling caregiver training to agencies. I love my job… there are few reasons why I do. First and most important, I love and believe in what we sell. I know that there is a need right now in the health care industry for caregiver training. Calling the people that own the agency to some degree are really nice. I have been in sales for a while and the educational industry is by far the easiest to call on and talk to.

Another reason why I love where I am at, is because of the people which is something taught in the material this week. My co-workers are awesome and I get along with them very well. I perform so much better with the right people around me. I have been in environments where people don’t support me and dont like me. I cannot do my job. It is just too taxing. But surrounding yourself with people that like you and want to be in your circle changes everything for me. My confidence is through the roof when I am on the phones.

That is why I love and dislike those two bigs things in my life.

This week, I reflect on my career and family goals. I realized that both should I align with each other to an extent. For example, I will not make a career choice without consulting my wife first. My family will always come before anything in my life. It is the most important unit on earth according to God’s plan.

As I wrote my code of ethics on a document, I realized that as simple as they are, they are going to be hard to live. Not because I don’t want to but because I know I will be presented with a situation in my life where I will have to choose between my code of ethics and my selfishness.

I am grateful this was an assignment for us to be able to reflect what is important to us. I’d like to expand on a few.

The first one is I will always stick up for people being mistreated. This week I had an experience where I was able to practice this. My friend at work was being told that his effort was not there this week. He was told to do better and not be lazy. My desk is past his so I have to walk by him everyday. Every time I walked past him, he was watching videos on how to be better in the role he is in. I was grateful for his example! During the meeting, I spoke up and mentioned that I had seen him working hard at his desk. Although the numbers didn’t show, there was an explanation. My friend appreciated my comment and so did my boss. He didn’t know what was happening behind the numbers.

I want to follow this small and simple code of ethic for the rest of my life because I know its what is right.

Dream big

I believe that you are just as or even more successful as you surround yourself with people that are successful themselves. Let me illustrate…

My brother Rodrigo is at Microsoft now in Seattle, their HQ. He LOVES it. Ever since he graduated college he has been so successful. I go to him for everything.. Every little question that I have about my future career, he is always there to help me. I firmly believe that I would have that success that I have now if it wasn’t for my brother and his example. I was able to learn from his mistakes in order to avoid wasting time.

I have accepted an offer from IBM to do sales in TX and I know it is because I surrounded myself with people of success. Saying that is crazy because if when I was young in my sales career, I would have never thought that I would be going to a fortune 500 company to do sales. I dreamed big and I knew through experience and hard work I would get there.

Randy Pausch once said, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.” I love this because I know the experience that I gained as a young lad has paid off big.

As I start this class, my entrepreneurial spirits are high. One of my goals is to be able to spell the word consistently without using auto correct…

As I start this blog, I’d like to describe my past and my big move to the US. My family was born in Argentina, including myself. My father Jose was a taxi driver with his father. Jose for saw a corrupt government and decided to move us to the US. When we came, we were on a 6 month travel visa. After six months came 7, then 8.. before we new it we were 6 months past the date we were required to leave. It was my dads plan all along to use that as our way in into the promised land. That was in 2000. In 2015 my parents began the process of becoming residents. It was such a hard process to go through financially, thats why it took us so long to even start it. My whole family are citizens of the US now and live in the US where dreams are made and freedom is given to us.

Today, my dad owns his own stone masonry business and my mother owns her house cleaning business. Both are great entrepreneurs that caught the vision. I tell this story to you so that you can grasp the the freedom that is within everyones reach here in the US. How blessed our we to have the chance to decide our happiness and financial stability.

My brother Rodrigo has taken a different route and decided to work under a corporate company Microsoft. Which is a similar route that I would like to take. Although that is not a entrepreneurial route, there will be plenty of non business opportunities. Personally I find that a lot of people think entrepreneurship is only in a business setting. I do not think that is the case. For example, I would like my home to be one of Zion. In order to do that, I must take beginning steps to make that happen.

On May 29th Nike came out with a word change for their slogan just for this one occasion, this one movement. It reads, “”For once, Don’t Do It. Don’t pretend there’s not a problem in America. Don’t turn your back on racism. Don’t accept innocent lives being taken from us. Don’t make any more excuses. Don’t think this doesn’t affect you. Don’t sit back and be silent. Don’t think you can’t be part of the change. Let’s all be part of the change.”

Nike a great PR move by doing this. By doing something like this, it really creates an image and reputation that Nike really cares about what is going on in the world.. They have established their opinion of everything that is going on. And its a great one and a great way of doing so. For as long as they have existed, their slogan has always been just do it. No matter what the situation is. When you look at a Nike logo, you always think “Just Do it” For this once, they changed it to “Just don’t do it” standing up for equality. They took a stand against racism. Which is such a big influence because they know they have at least half the world knowing who they are. Now they know that half the world know where they stand on the topic and this movement that is going on.

The timing of this video was great. It came out 4 days after George Floyds death. Honestly, I am sure Nike had the power to come out with it just after his death maybe the day after. But by doing that, it would look like they may be taking advantage of his death for a good PR move. By waiting 4 days I think it was a great move on their part.

Gucci has come out with a new announcement regarding their quarterly fashion shows.

“Clothes should have a longer life than that which these words attribute to them,” Gucci’s creative director said. Gucci will now have only two fashion shows a a year in hopes to reduce waste.

“Gucci has announced it will cut the number of fashion shows it holds every year in an effort to reduce waste.” Alessandro Michele the company’s creative director is thinking about only doing those two fashion shows in Autumn and Spring.

Personally I think what they are doing is a good move. Gucci is already on such a high demand that when the supply and the amount of fashion shows reduce, the demand of it will go up only meaning that Gucci wear will be a lot more than usual.

Their purpose is stated to be to reduce the waste of clothes. But I think there is a bigger purpose behind reducing the number of shows. It really just comes down to money and being demanded more.

“The coronavirus shutdown has hit fashion houses hard as the non-stop round of international fashion shows was stopped in its tracks.

The menswear and haute couture shows scheduled for June and July are off and a question mark hangs over September shows – if not any future catwalk events.

But the shutdown has also given fashion houses a window of reflection, not just on the value of endlessly churning out new styles but also on the rights and wrongs of consumption.”

This shut down has effected companies world wide not only by a decrease in revenue but a reflection on whats really important and things they need to change in order to communicate effectively with the public.

I’d like to talk about some of the hard and good times that the toilet paper industry is going through right now. This year so far compared to last’s, the toilet paper industry has increase their revenue by 112%. The pandemic has been a big business booster for all toilet paper companies. Along with a huge demand for toilet paper comes along with not enough supple which then leads to unsatisfied customers wanting more product. The toilet paper industry havent been getting the most friendly messages on social media from their customers that are short of their products.

I really admire how some companies went about this. Some took action as fast as 72 hours. Angel Soft met together to come up with a message to help people understand what was going on. Glassman says Angel Soft and Quilted Northern have been acknowledging how frustrated consumers must be feeling and reassuring them that more toilet paper is being made.

Some consumers asked to see the facilities of the toilet paper being made and shipped! Angel soft and Quilted Northern accepted the challenge and showed all their consumers what was going on inside the company to reassure them that they are doing everything possible in order to keep up with the demand.

Angel Soft says, “We also developed FAQs and infographics,” says Glassman. “We are using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get word out.” 

“We are putting out information about how quickly we are producing products and making sure to reassure everyone Charmin is on the way,” says Loren Fanroy, comms manager for Charmin. “TP isn’t going anywhere.”

Some of these companies did a stellar job with communicating with their consumers on what was happening and helping them understand that their voices are heard. That creates a long lasting relationship with the customer.

Source: https://www.prweek.com/article/1680120/5-toilet-paper-brands-responding-customer-complaints-social-media

Uber in the past week has laid off 3,700 employees. They are not jobless and searching for work.

The CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi, came out with this statement:

“This is not in any way a reflection of these employees’ efforts or contributions to getting us to where we are, as a service that everyone associates with movement and earnings opportunities. We wouldn’t be here without their efforts and I want to personally thank them for everything they’ve done for Uber.

… Days like this are brutal. I am truly sorry that we are doing this, just as I know that we have to do this. And while it’s easier said than done, we have to keep our heads down and keep executing, because that—and nothing less—is what will keep Uber going and get us to the other side.”

I have a few thoughts about some of the things that were said by Dara. First of all, I’m very happy that she showed her appreciation towards her employees. She is following a great code of ethics that will help each individual in their lives. The statement really did a great job of not making Uber look bad. They created a reputation of doing what needs to be done but showing gratitude at the same time for their employees that have been laid off.

I love that she led with “Days like this are brutal” going into the second portion of her statement. It relates and empathizes with the audience. Ending her statement with something that says that they wont stop until this all blows over shows great power in drive for Uber.

At the end of the day, Dara did a great job handling the situation with laying off thousands of employees. Protector not only her name but Uber’s as well.

Source: PR Daily “Uber lays off 3,700 employees, Frontier Airlines’ social distancing fee provokes anger, and Kraft Heinz Canada offers ketchup puzzles”

ESPN has come out with a documentary on one of Michael Jordan’s last season of playing basketball. It is called the “Last Dance” because of the playbook that Phil Jackson came up with being called that.

The documentary consists of 10 episodes that come out every Sunday at 9 PM EST. I chose this current event because first of all I love what ESPN is doing, and the man that Michael Jordan is. What stood out to me is that Michael came out to say that is is donating all of his proceeds from ESPN to charity estimated to be about 4 million dollars. This is awesome public relations that really favors Michael in the public’s eyes. I am sure his publicist told him that it would be a good idea as well to get more recognition. Plus he doesn’t need anymore money than he already has.

In conclusion, Michael’s PR move was a great one helping people improve their opinion about Michael and what kind of guy he is.