CreateAthon Spring 2012 @yaakovmcfadden-blog - Tumblr Blog

The Box

The title is a reference to how one would leave a gang. I would hate for my final Tumblr entry to be confusing. I am, of course, comparing CreateAthon to a gang for a reason. CreateAthon is something that you can't opt-in and out of at will. It takes a commitment and I'm not referring specifically to the semester long course you've been reading about. I'm still exchanging e-mails with my client. So, since I've got this branding on my forearm now, what will I do with it? I've asked Peyton to come back for the next event. In my CreateAthon wrap-up post I mentioned how I don't think I could be a team member. There is the gO! Team. I'd like to come back and get involved that way. That's only me though. I already bullied a lot of my friends into signing up for CreateAthon this semester. I bullied my friends into signing up for Peyton's Project Studio class. I'll bully them to sign up to be team leads. I'll bully them to sign up to be team members. And I'll never stop telling people about the work we did for the West End Community Center. Hopefully, as a combination of our materials and their hard work and dedication, people will know what I'm talking about.

We got to FIX IT!

Hello! This is finals week hell. It feels like it has been that way forever, so I have been missing. I am back though! For today's entry I am supposed to write about how to make CreateAthon better. I only have two suggestions and I think either one precludes the other from being necessary. The better suggestion would be to have a class period (or something with the same weight) before the actual event where team members are required to show up and meet their leaders to go over their clients. This precludes any speeches or explanation of events (which are already not happening - so why add them) but is strictly informational. Timing can be a bit of a nightmare, so I'd suggest renting out library rooms at 10PM. If anyone complains about that being too late then you don't need them for the 24 hour event. I tried to do a little of that at the social event at the Camel, but it was impossible. It wasn't the right environment. That way, when the team members show up a week later, they have had the organization in their head and will come with their own ideas. Team Leaders won't need to spend the first hour and a half explaining to their team who they're working with and answering questions. Speaking of that hour and a half, my second suggestion is a little tired but I really mean it. No mentors before 11. The team finds their room and starts rearranging everything. Everyone grabs their spot and unpacks for the 24 hours. They come together, start learning about the organization and get halfway into that before a mentor comes in and starts trying to organize their schedules. Which ends up delaying the schedule, because this 40 minute distraction just took us into the first check-in with no solid work and a vague idea of direction. Ultimately, it comes down to getting the team members familiar with the organization without being disturbed by others. Team Leader and Team Members, no distractions.

Another Machine Shop

Monday we went to Carter Printing. It was very cool. My father is a machinist. I've spent a lot of times around giant CNC machines and lathes. I've been inside a machine that could rip the flesh off a mans body in seconds. And I've cleaned up tons of coolant and killed a cockroach with my steel-toed boots. So I like big machinery and big shops. And Carter Printing has a lot of big machines. And it has the other thing I really like too; Conveyor belts. If you know enough pop psychology you can tell alot about me from that. I was particularly impressed with the folding machines. I have no picture for this post, but Ablamski does. I was genuinely interested in the white plastic-covered ball bearings that kept these giant posters from going off track. I inspected those bearings. I determined their purpose, and wanted to get a better view of the mechanism that actually folds the paper. Then she made me pose. And I never got to see that mechanism. It was the most scarring moment of the trip. I will look for a similar machine on Modern Marvels.

GTFO

During the CreateAthon event there were some achey-hearts about a sign that was hung on my rooms door. On it each of my team members, feeling as strongly as they did, wrote a variation of "stay out of here." This is how I work. I love critiques and direction when it is time - I can not stand being undercut before I even have an idea. I know that isn't how people meant it while we were beginning the event - nobody meant it that way. I'll repeat; I know that. But it felt that way to my team and I. We had just started the event when people came in to give us advice. Half of my team didn't know what our NPO was when the mentoring began. I even tried to stuff my feelings at first, knowing most people are more sociable than me. Just not this group, I guess. Anyways, I'm an isolationist. I always knew this, but what I learned during the event was how much of an isolationist I am. I will come to you when I am ready - don't try to preempt me. I'm the sort of guy who minimizes every window on his computer when someone walks near me. I just don't like anyone seeing work-in-progress. And when I show the work - I want vicious, brutal critiques. I want whatever I'm doing torn apart. Aside from this turtle shell, I'm also an organizer. I like to make a plan of how things are going to work out. I work great when I can oversee various pieces of a project, jumping in to evaluate or assist in whatever task is before me. I can make time-tables and I like to think I can motivate people to work. Group work for me is a series of small tasks to be completed by X:XX time. And I can really cut down and clean-up copy. I'm super succin

Client Relations

I have a lot of experience working with clients on the strategic side. In my day to day job I run the advertising sales staff of the Commonwealth Times. Basically, I spend my day having people e-mail me asking for free things. And there is a language to working with them. It involves a lot of commas, Line breaks and summary promises. What I don't do very often is work with clients on the creative side. It's a little different, but a lot of it is the same. For starters, the language is basically the same. And everyone has the greatest idea - they just haven't done it yet. And it is frustrating sometimes. The differences when you're being creative is that it isn't your prices that are balked at - it's your ideas. Your brain is not good enough. And that's tough. Also, someone has sought you out for what you can do because they believe you are the best person to do it. Until they sign that paper. My previous experience doing creative work has all been outside of the constructs of the university. To speak frankly - it's been a ton of insolent, shitty little bands and hacky, no-talent writers who want me to fix up whatever slop they've committed themselves to. Usually my payment is a good horror story and a case of nice beer. CreateAthon was a totally different experience because the client was good. Fundamentally good. Providing space for communities to share and grow. And the people are great. Everyone was very nice and encouraging and really wanted to include me in what they were doing. And nobody put a painted guitar on my bed that left paint chips on my sheets. I wanted to work with the team at the WECC. I wanted to make something that would really benefit them into the future. Without any beer promised to me in the future I was excited to deliver something. Giving the work to the clients at the end of the event was exhilarating. It felt really good. Having a team of people who helped make that happen made it even better because we had shared something. It didn't hurt that they liked it. So, what did I learn about client relations? Nothing I couldn't infer, I guess, but I'll restate it for clarity.

If you have a good client you can have good client relationships.

And stay away from ink-y palmed, drumstick equipped, guitar bandelier'd 20 year olds.

Why do CreateAthon?

Why not? You're an institution. You think you're good people. You think that you do good work with whatever you do. You think you're pretty alright. But what are you doing? What sets you apart? Are you an ad agency that makes phenomenal ads? Who cares. Every agency says they do triple A work.

Are you a school that works really hard to provide the best education and experiences for your students? Who cares. Every school says they're the best place to get a degree. That's cool. Bring in the money, do your routine. That's for everybody.

But, not a lot of people do CreateAthon. Don't change. Make great ads and provide education and experiences for your students. Just do it with CreateAthon. Use students to make actual ads and promotional material that will be used by professionals in their community. Teach them client management, deadlines and concepting in a truly unique environment that you won't be able to replicate anywhere else. Or organize a park clean-up and force the SGA to show up; it's whatever.

Be what you want people. Just be something that helps the people who help others while helping yourself. Was this post helpful?

Co-Labrador Retrievers

I have a golden lab. I would like two.

Everyone else posted some of their work. Click on that photo, check out WECC's first Annual Raffle for Fundraising.

Re-Blogged

I remembered I have a tumblr thanks to the national CreateAthon blog reblogging my antithetical CreateAthon wrap up post. Was that confusing? God, I hope so. So here is a quick rundown on what I've been doing since the event;

1. Copy revisions, copy revisions. Copy revisions.

2. Slight layout changes, making some new business cards.

3. Sweating.

4. Refreshing myself with InDesign, my least favorite Adobe program.

5. Checking 160 One Show pictures for my entries.

6. Senior Year.

7. Sweating.

Sometimes I feel like the worst Tumblrer around, but that's okay. I'm really good at sweating.

Whatever and Ever, Amen.

This is the third time I have rewritten this. I am having trouble expressing myself in regards to CreateAthon. For starters, it happened. That's true. I won't say it was fun, but it was totally awesome. It was insanely rewarding and I'm very happy our presentation to the client went well. That said, it was not a water balloon fight underneath the highway overpass. It was some seriously stressful work. This was like the last week of every May and December, except now I could let down whole groups of people in addition to myself.

I didn't get tired. I didn't have time for that bullshit. I was busy. I had to move. We were sharks. We were swimming. If we had slow time, I'd go continue the rivalry we established with ACTS or UPS. I couldn't stop working. My team was awesome. Everyone did an incredible job. Bradley made an amazing marketing and outreach strategy for our client. Shannon helped me understand exactly what the hell a website is supposed to do and what works (all this while super sick. She left around 4AM, which was amazing considering she started off the day being ill). Milgo and Nicole both killed it with design, while Raven saved us an hour with some really tight writing. Even Cody, who was stepped in at 4am after an entire day mentoring, helped keep our feet to the fire with his design work on the website.

(Most of) The mentors were great. This one may not be what I'm supposed to write about, but I'm not going to dance around it. We had some real annoying (I danced here) mentors and some great mentors. Grant Mizell and Jolinda Smithson were huge parts of our success. Peyton, Tara and Christina were on-point when we needed them. Chad Woods, Joel Austin and Nelson Johnson on the various gO! teams were indispensable. Then we had some people who slowed us down and got in the way of what we were doing. There was a reason we hung our "STAY OUT!" sign early in the morning. I know that they were as excited as we all were and really wanted to help. I don't blame anyone for that. I blame them when they forgot that we (myself, and by the end of the night especially, my team) were the best advocates for our client and I have no patience for the person who walked in and asked why we didn't have [x] done yet. I know that I speak on behalf of my team in this regard; I tried being cool initially [I am known for a certain hot temper] and I was met with an immediate "why did you let that happen?" from my people. Let me sum this part up by saying that we do not hate criticism and I certainly don't think we were above it ever; but when people walk into a room and assume knowledge and take condescending tones then I'm tossing you out.

Social media is timely. I made one Tumblr/Facebook and Twitter post the entire night. And I love Twitter. I still had 40% of my battery when I left the building at noon. They gave me a camera. I didn't do anything with it. There was NO TIME. Actually, during the midnight check-in I said as much to someone on the gO! team about that and they responded "I knew you wouldn't." Ugh. I hate video. But I did make a podcast out of it! I expected it to be much longer and have much more energy, but there was no time. I'll post that here when it comes out. Just no time. So it's over. The event, anyways. And I loved it. Despite the complaining, the stress, the mentors, the rumors and everything I loved it. That was the highlight of any Spring Break (and a couple semesters ago I jumped out of a plane on Spring Break). My team was awesome and giving that presentation in the morning felt awesome. That the client liked the work meant a lot. I told Bradley as we were wrapping up I was getting a little emotional. I lied. I was getting really emotional.

I felt amazing when we were done. I stayed up til 2AM the next day. I had dinner that night at the Camel, just to get back to the meet and greet.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. I'd probably need to be a team leader though.

createoncampus

#vcucreates2012

yaakovmcfadden-blog

I might have cracked earlier today. Or I might be just right.

createoncampus

IMG_7018

Alone

Jacob here.

Holy crap, I'm busy guys. Team WECC is kicking ass. I sent everyone out for a break, so now is Jacob time.

I'm alone, in a dark room, in my wifebeater, music cranked, writing copy. It's Super Rad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCBvGcMyQ5c

#createathon #vcu #rva #createathononcampus #wecc #Jacob Time #Jacob McFadden #WERK

Let's do this (Part 1).

All of my fear posts were queued up and didn't publish. I have no idea how to find them. Oh well.

So let's do this. Thursday morning, 7:15.

I used to have a joke in my act where I would elaborate on my daily schedule and people would say "How do you do so much?" And I would answer "Oh, horrible nightmares. Horrible, terrible, plain and realistic and entirely plausible nightmares on repeat."

Well, I had terrible nightmares last night. On the upside, none of them about failing at CreateAthon. Just a lot of weird lease problems.

Okay, we good? Let's do this.

Fear Countdown: Day 7

Last Class Before CreateAthon

The blog is not dead. It is still happening.

I'm just super busy.

Speaking of things that are making me busy; CreateAthon is in 8 days.

That's 8 toes. It took 8 minutes. I gave 8 cares. Surrounded by 8! But for real, that's happening. We met with our teams last week. I have a good group, but I did lose one of them already. We've pulled some strings and I'm back at fighting strength - but I'm nervous. What if someone doesn't show up? I need my power nexus to expand. I think I could handle it, but I haven't done this before. I'd like to start with an even hand.

Here is a weird worry I have too; I can't eat milk. I'll get sick, stomach-wise. And trust me, Temple Hall is not Charmin Soft. And cheese and whey and all that stuff is so subversive. It's in everything. I got a hot dog yesterday with mustard and it had milk in it. And I'm gonna miss my dog. So that's it. 8 days, and I'm worried about being shorthanded, having diarrhea and getting lonely. BUT! I am excited to do this and I'll be glad once it's done. I've even abolished my roommate from the apartment on Friday.

Get off Tumblr

Hey guys,

Get off Tumblr. Go see live comedy, tonight, in just two hours.

As you read this I am currently loading equipment and setting up the space for a free comedy show at Pie, which is 214 N. Lombardy St. Show starts at 8PM. It's open to all ages, but the show will get dirty. Also, I am hosting and opening the show with my A+ set.

Also, I took my Strengthfinder Assessment. Here is what it kicked back, followed by my paraphrasing of what each means and whether I agree. Then, for fun and so you get to learn who I really am, I'll show you how I internalize and ruin the strengths.

Activator

Command

Analytical

Individualization

Significance

1. Activator I make things happen. When everyone else wants to talk about it and wonder what could go wrong I want to smash the fingers holding the door shut. I figure we'll solve those problems when we get there, but right now it's time to actually do something... Damn it! Do I agree?: Yes! Let's just do something instead of wasting time. How I ruin it: You're annoying and impulsive and will eventually get someone sued.

2. Command I take over everything. I speak very frankly and often intimidate those around me. I have a thought about everything I hear and will share it without being asked. I will assign people tasks and crave confrontation. Do I agree?: God, yes. I'm pretty rude. How I ruin it: You're a bossy prick.

3. Analytical I think about things, all the time. I look for patterns and seek to figure out exactly what causes (x) to happen. I don't let people make false claims without seeing any proof or evidence. I correlate the data to make informed decisions and statements. Do I agree?: Sure. I can never shut my brain off and like to make connections between things. How I ruin it: You think you know everything.

4. Individualization I know that people are different. I subconsciously observe and form opinions about how people think, react, do and say. I then apply that knowledge in developing individual relationships with people. I detest statements that begin "You know how (group) is..." Do I agree?: Yes, absolutely. I don't believe in treating people the same as everyone else. How I ruin it: "Everyone thinks you play favorites. Maybe you do."

5. Significance I need to be recognized. It is a compulsive desire to be recognized for my strengths and talents that will drive me forward. Likewise, I prefer to associate with other recognized people because I feel it reflects on me. I want my work to define my life and need that work to have lots of leeway so I can do it how I choose. Do I agree? Yes. I genuinely need people to tell me I'm awesome. How I ruin it: You have compensatory narcissist disorder.

Try living with that. But if you take it all together, I'm an awesome manager of people. I'm really great at sales. I'm phenomenal at talking up the achievements of my department/group. Those are the types of jobs I have held and done very well in.

You know what else I'm good at? Comedy. So come down to Pie, 214 N Lombardy St at 8PM. Say hi!

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CreateAthon Spring 2012