20A - Growing Your Social Capital


1) My first person who I would select is someone I used to volunteer for in beach cleanups, Mrs. Nardozzi. She was in charge of a beach cleanup crew back home in St. Petersburg where we went around the beaches in Pinellas County such as Redington beach, St. Pete beach, and Madeira beach. I believe she's a great domain expert because she has first hand account with cleaning pollution and debris from our waters and I know her well enough to know she is fully invested into this mission. I found her while doing my National Honor Society hours and signed up for beach clean ups. I believe her knowledge of what trash they usually find and where they find it along with things that would help pick up trash most efficiently would help me better come up with ideas for my product. 

2) My second person I would select is the owner of the bait and tackle shop by my old house, Skip. Skip's owned his own bait and tackle shop for I don't even know how long, since I was born and probably before that. He would be an important supplier for my business because he sells various nets and poles that could be used to make my product. I first met him while my little brother and I were being hooligans and fishing off the bridges near our home and we would buy bait and line at his shop. 

3) My third person I would select is an expert in the market of sales along the beach. He's the owner of Candy Kitchen down at Madeira and Redington beach. He knows how to market to the mass along the beach. I mean his product is ice cream and candy, but he targets the people who live on the beach and the tourist that come but he has an extensive knowledge of the area and what the people want. I met him first from obviously buying ice cream and I used to go there every friday after school with my friends. 

This experience was a little nerve wrecking because I knew these people when I was younger but I hadn't spoken to them since I moved but it was a lot easier than I thought. These people are always looking to give advice to younger people especially ones they knew as kids and could help them in any way so they were cool about it. It was a little awkward since I had my mom go in and talk to them and facetime me while she was there so I could talk to them but nonetheless it got the job done. This experience was similar to other networking things. It's all just talking about your idea and appealing to your customer.

Comments

  1. FahadNovember 3, 2019 at 5:19 AM

    Hi Nathan!

    I loved reading about your interview process and the people you found to fill these roles within your idea pitch, as they all seem like really interesting people. I found that personally, while I was scared that I wouldn't be able to find people that fit these roles at the start of the assignment, it was markedly easier to approach them and find them than I would have thought. I additionally noted how surprising it was to see how ready these professionals were to give any advice and feedback they could, which definitely also makes me feel much more ready to approach any more professionals if I were asked to.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nala MckieNovember 4, 2019 at 8:21 AM

    Hi Nathan,

    I think it was really awesome that you had a lot of people that you could go to directly and immediately for ideas. I think it is important to have social connections and contacts as soon as possible. I really would have like to know how each of your interviews with each person went. I would have liked to see a general idea of what they said.

    Good post!

    ReplyDelete

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