Author: Jason

MozCon 2014 – Day 1 Recap

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I’m currently at my very first marketing conference: MozCon!! Here are my top three takeaways from yesterday’s speakers, from the perspective of a (fairly new) digital marketer:

– On delivering an unforgettable customer experience: keep your promises to your customer first, then make more.

– On building addictive and sustainable communities: create shared experiences that make members vulnerable to one another.

– On a/b testing: make sure to run an experiment multiple times to double check the result is valid and not statistically significant, and make sure your sample size is large enough to see a minimum detectable effect (MDE).

Michael King also had a phenomenal session at the end of the day on back-hacking your way to creating a lead profile for every visitor. Sign up for his new SaaS product, Quantum Lead. It’s free!

2014 – Half Year Update

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Well, it’s exactly halfway through 2014! Here’s a look at how I’m progressing in each of my goals laid out for the year:

  • Paid off remainder of my student loans. — In retrospect, I think this goal was a bit too aggressive. I graduated with roughly $85k in loans from undergrad, and despite several months of extended travel in late 2011/early 2012, I began the year with about $42k left. So far this year I’ve paid off an additional $10k, but am hoping to payoff an additional $1k per month for the remainder of the year. 
  • Ran a half marathon in under two hours. — I haven’t made it just yet, but am making (in my opinion) progress. I’ve FINALLY gotten into a habit of running at least 2-3 times a week from my apartment in Arlington to the Smithsonian in DC. I have two more half marathons coming up this year, in August and October. Hopefully I can crack the barrier this year! 
  • Completed the minimum requirements of the marine corps fitness test. — I’ve probably made progress on the running portion, but nowhere on the crunch or pull-up test. I should start getting on that…
  • Launched teamdone.io — This project has been off-an-on my plate for nearly a year. So far, I haven’t made much progress on it besides mockups I did at the beginning of the year. For now, this project has been put on pause. 
  • Attended mass at least once a month — Done! 
  • Blogged monthly — Nope. Only two so far this year. Hope this changes! 

For the remainder of the year, I’m going to try to simplify most of my goals into three categories: financial, fitness and personal. Here’s to another six months!

Three Years Later

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While clearing out my inbox this evening, I stumbled upon an email from my website’s host server — my site had been renewed for another year. When I created onefootonsand, three years ago, I never imagined this site would still be around. I created this website in part to keep my friends, from college, from study abroad, from home, an opportunity to follow my life beyond the facebook statuses and pictures. Over the past three years, I’ve used my website as a medium to set goals, log my travels, and jot down my thoughts on development economics, politics, and my other academic interests. A lot has happened in my life over the past three years since I first created my website:

  • I’ve created a life here in DC. When I first created this blog, I lived in a studio in Rosslyn and knew literally a handful of people in DC. Today, I still live in Arlington, but in a house with some great friends. Moreover, I’ve been fortunate enough to have met dozens of people throughout the DMV area. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, people truly make the place, and I’m so glad that I can share my life and experiences here in DC with others.
  • I’ve traveled far more than I could’ve dreamed. I’m no means well off, but I’ve always placed traveling as a priority in my life. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on rent in over-priced DC, I’ve scrimped on my housing expenses (paying $300/month for rent for the past two years), to save for travel. Since creating this blog, I’ve jumped into the chaos that is uncertainty and spent time backpacking throughout Taiwan and Southeast Asia, vacationed in Istanbul, Athens and all over India, as well as throughout North America including Toronto, Chicago and New Orleans. Our 20s are meant for a time of exploration, right? I can honestly say, I’ve done a whole lot of that. Truly grateful.
  • I’ve figured out what I like, and don’t like, when it comes to a career. At the end of the day, I want a career that offers opportunities for international travel while giving me the opportunity to conduct qualitative and quantitative research. I want a career where I am not a cog, where I can clearly see my impact on the business. I’m so glad and fortunate that my current position at Flat World affords me most of these dreams.

There are countless people and experiences that have made the past three years and unforgettable journey. My early 20s were certainly one of growth and self-reflection. I can only imagine what the rest of my 20s will have in store for my life.

Thanks for reading!

Monthly Resolution #1: January 2014

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I’m trying something new this year. Rather than establishing quarterly goals as I’ve done in the previous years, I’m going to break them into smaller, monthly commitments. With that in mind, by the end of January, I’d like to say I:

  • Have a working wireframe and mock-up of teamdone.io.

  • Did p90x everyday when based at home.

  • Ran three miles three times a week.

  • Read at least one book.

Back to work!