Taking Risks Because Why Not?

https://unsplash.com/photos/XkcnfE_GO30

The idea of taking risks in all aspects of life can be both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. While many people enjoy playing it safe and feel comfortable in their current situation, there are others that crave the excitement of taking risks and seeing where it takes them.

Of course, some of these are less risky than others, and it would be wise to stay within your economic lane when deciding what sort of venture to undertake. However, if done sensibly and with thorough research, it could turn out that such risks were more than worth taking and you might end up in a situation that changes your life for the better.

LOW RISK, HIGH REWARD

Well, not all in, obviously. That would be something highly irresponsible, but looking into solutions to improving your finances that offer low-risk but substantial rewards could be something to consider, as long as you remain disciplined with your activity.

Entering into high reward explorations through things such as the mega millions and other low-risk gambles could end up being more beneficial than you might imagine. Of course, these gambles are low risk for a reason, and so it is unlikely that you will make it big in such endeavours. However, as the saying goes, you won’t win the raffle if you don’t buy a ticket.

YOU’RE A BUSINESS, MAN (OR WOMAN)

While it may seem that everybody is running their own business, it might be that you have identified a gap in whatever market you are interested in that you can take advantage of. Starting your own business is an exciting time, and if you have found something that no one else is doing, it could pay off huge.

Many new entrepreneurs choose to start their business on the side while they are still formulating ideas and doing their research as they build their brand. This saves them from falling into any financial trouble and having to start all over again. When considering your business tactics, ensure that you understand exactly what you need to do to achieve your dreams of financial and professional independence.

First contribution is live on the @nichemovement blog! Check them out for my story about how I found my unique brand.

A post shared by Dustin Ramsdell (@highered_geek) on Oct 5, 2017 at 6:26am PDT

FARAWAY VENTURES

You will no doubt have heard your friends and family and coworkers talk about how simply incredible their travels were. If you have never had the chance to travel, then taking the opportunity while you still can is something that you won’t regret.

While some people elect to take a month off from work and return when it is all said and done, others instead choose to quit their job entirely and embark on a globetrotting odyssey. This represents a massive risk, of course. However, going somewhere wholly unfamiliar can provide you with the chance to learn and discover new things and perhaps grant you opportunities for better personal and professional growth than if you had stayed at home.

RISKY BUSINESS

If you want to experience everything that life has to offer then taking risks is something that you might want to consider. It can be nice to feel comfortable in your everyday routine. However, there is so much to see and do and achieve in the world that it would be foolhardy to miss out on any potentially fruitful opportunities. You will only get one chance to explore the unknown and go for it, so do it while you have the chance. You might regret it otherwise.

Preparing the Perfect On-Boarding for Student Affairs

First impressions are everything, as they say.

Starting a new job is no different. The early days are highly impactful in how they shape your relationship with a new organization, its culture, expectations, and where you fit in.

I'm sure all of us have had less than ideal onboarding processes throughout our careers. I know I have. I was just thrust into a job with literally no training or any sort of warm welcome. I felt isolated and confused about how to navigate the organization and my role in it. Needless to say, I was figuring my way out pretty early on and didn't engage deeply with the work or the institution. They had someone in the role doing the work, but my productivity could have been so much more if I was better supported at the start.

I'll include more resources at the end of this post, but I'll boil down the essence of them all here and you can see what the wisdom of the crowd is.

Plan Ahead

This may seem straightforward, but from my experience and those of others I know, it warrants being said. Give this important time in a new team member's life cycle the attention and thought it deserves. Figure out what you might want to change from previous onboardings (hopefully you have feedback from previous new hires). How are they going to spend their first day? First week? First month? The more you figure out ahead of time will greatly benefit you. Chat with your new hire to figure out what they're going to need too. Which leads me to my next point...

Get Everything Set Up and Prepared

Once you know your plan, put it into action. Set up meetings with important people, get their tech situated, and figure out any other details they might need like parking, office supplies, new furniture in their space. It doesn't give the new hire a good impression to walk in and not have what they need to do their job, make them have to figure things out on their own, or force them to run around getting things set up. It makes it seem like you don't care. 

Introduce Them and Show Them Around

Meeting new people can be awkward. Especially when you work with them and don't know how you'll be interacting with them moving forward. Being a sort of "wing-person" to your new hire will help a lot with this. They'll meet with the most important people relevant to their role and get a little context for the relationship. You can also schedule quality time versus time that might feel rushed and need to be focused on other demands. 

What Do They Need To Know

Sometimes we go a little overboard with unloading information on a new hire. We think we're benefitting them by giving them every morsel of the institution they could ever possibly need to know. You would be better off trimming off some of the fat and keeping the initial content lean. There is going to be so much to transition to in a new role that if you give too much info, then you'll overwhelm your new team member and stress them out. Dole out info as it is needed and when it is relevant so it exists in context versus just static text or video trainings. 

This is just the simple, distilled guidance on this topic. There is so much more to explore and things that would be unique to your institution or the role you're hiring for. Hopefully this at least gets you thinking differently about how you onboard new hires. It's a really important time to make a positive impression and a smooth transition. 

Resources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamvanderbloemen/2017/03/16/how-to-build-an-effective-employee-onboarding-system/#632a31273a6f

https://www.higheredjobs.com/articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=1022

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/new-employee-onboarding-guide.aspx

https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/building-an-onboarding-plan.html

https://www.peopleadmin.com/2017/08/onboarding-processes-driving-away-higher-educations-employees/

https://www.humanity.com/blog/employee-onboarding-guide.html

Episode #13: Selena Rodriguez, aka "Selenityy"

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention "Higher Ed Geek", you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Selena Rodriguez (aka Selenityy), gamer, community builder, and full time Twitch streamer!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• Selenityy's Twitch Channel

• Heroes of the Storm

• World of Warcraft

• My Favorite Murder

• Google Pixel 2

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Bye Bye College, Hello... Business?

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The aim for every young person as they work through college is to reach the other side and then be ready to face the world doing what they have worked so hard to achieve throughout their school years. But what happens to you if you decide that starting up a business is your calling?

Coming straight from college to entrepreneurship is a huge lifestyle change. You may not realize exactly how hard this aspect of your working life will be until you get out of the education system and start up your empire. Before you do get started on your business venture, here are some of the things you will want to think about...

Is your idea good enough?

It is crucial when you are planning to start a business that your idea is actionable and will work. It might be worth doing some market research to find out where there is a gap in the market for what to want to create, and also whether someone else has already thought up the idea before you.

Are You ready to start?

The next question you must ask yourself is whether or not you are ready to jump in and start up your business right away. Think about whether you have the funding and resources to create your product or service, and think about premises. Is this something you can work on from home or will you need to build a workshop out of Armstrong Steel to complete the work?

Are you prepared for hurdles?

Starting up a business isn’t just as simple as making your product and selling it on, you will likely face many challenges along the way. There will be people who will doubt your ability to succeed, and you may find it hard to reach out to your target audience to begin with. To run a business you must develop a thick skin and be able to deal with everything that comes your way.
 

Alone or with a team?

Think about the type of business you want to set up and whether it is something you need help for, or if you can set it up yourself. You might possess the skills and resources to start up the business alone, but it can be greatly beneficial to have someone there helping you along the way and giving their ideas to the project too. Decide if there is anyone you know who you could go into business with.
 

Can you afford it?

Running a business is an incredibly expensive business when you take into account the taxes, materials, shipping, employee wages and office rent. Decide whether or not you can possibly afford to run the business in the first place before you just dive in blindly. You could find that you need the help of an investor or even a loan from your bank to get you up and running before you are stable enough to go it alone.

Episode #12: Amma Marfo

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention "Higher Ed Geek", you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Amma Marfo, speaker, writer, and higher ed free agent!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• Amma's Past Podcast Episodes (#1 and #2)

• Amma's Best Laughs of 2017

• Amma's Best Reads of 2017

• Invisible Man

• Black Mirror

• You're the Worst

• Mudbound

• The Disaster Artist

• Catastrophe

• Detroiters

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

What You Need to Know About Working in (and with) Ed Tech

I feel like I've been given a unique gift.

I've worked in the higher ed technology space (what I'll refer to as simply "edtech") for a while now and it has given me an insight that was completely foreign to me before. While my experience may be different and m company unlike others in the space, I feel there are some important considerations that I've garnered. This goes both ways; traditional higher ed folks need to be open to our insights and we in edtech should be welcoming the insights from campus based professionals. There is at worst this stigma against non campus based professionals and at best just a shroud of mystery. I hope I can shine a light on what the work looks like and how we can all best work together.

We Are Your Partners

Something we talk about a lot at my company is how the relationships we have with the universities we work with are true partnerships. We're each putting an investment on the table, and we share in the successes (and failures). It's more than just a transaction. We want to help campuses reach their full potential. When our partners and their students win, we win. There is no point in trying to leverage something where we are the only ones benefitting from the relationship. This is what a edtech partnership should be, if it isn't, you might want to reevaluate things. 

We Have the Same Goals

Furthering my first point, we want to help institutions reach their full potential. We do that by equipping them with the best tools to augment the work they do best. We don't want to replace institutions. We don't think we're better than them. It is a true partnership in that sense. I feel as though there can be this adversarial point of view some people have in higher ed, but again, I think this is tarnished by bad partnerships in the past. We're at a point now that we know how important fostering shared goals are between edtech companies and campuses. 

We Can Learn From Each Other

This is one of my biggest recent takeaways from this latest journey of mine. Not enough of us are aware of or seriously consider higher ed adjacent roles off campus. We can all greatly benefit like I have from this sort of experience but these organizations can benefit as well. We bring something valuable to the table that these companies at times don't know they're missing. They often see themselves as a business first and a higher ed organization second. We can bring in a student focus and developmental theories that can help improve the student experience. I've also learned a lot more about the academic side of the house as well as the business of higher ed (which is a component even if it isn't talked about a lot).

These were just some random thoughts I've been having the past several months that I thought I'd share. We're all on the same team and part of the same ecosystem of higher ed. We should try to work better together to help achieve great student outcomes. You never know, your next career opportunity might be something you didn't even know existed before. 

Episode #11: Henah Parikh

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Henah Parikh, Scarlet Knight, professional communicator, and social change agent!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• The Good Trade

• Pencils of Promise

• em-pact

• She's the First

• Longreads

• Modern Love

• This American Life

• Dinner Party Download

• 99% Invisible

• Hidden Brain

• Dirty John

• Homecoming

• The Daily

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Surviving A Company Take Over

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When a company exchanges hands, it makes sense for the new owners to keep on the existing staff. The team will be a great asset to the owners as they already know what they are doing and will be able to keep the place running smoothly as the changes take root. Because there will be changes. But what does it all mean for the employees? A take over doesn’t have to be a cutthroat as it sounds. But it can cause a host of issues. Look at Jozef Opdeweegh who said that ‘Unless the ownership transition is undertaken with great care, it can undermine the continued success of the company and its value.’ Yet a lot of takeovers happen with speed for one reason or another, and speed doesn’t always allow time for care. So how do you survive?

Time

Give things time to settle down. Everything will be a bit confusing. If you work in the lower ranks, there shouldn’t be too much upheaval for you, but there will be for management. If you are part of management, remember that the people under you will be looking to you for stability and answers. The new owners will want to go through all of the company paperwork with a fine tooth comb. The original owners will have sold for some reason, and the new owners will want to see where the mistakes have been made. Where the financial leaks are. Entrepreneur states three reasons that businesses might be sold as ‘Business value...Tired of risk...Change.’ And hopefully, the company you work for will be changing hands for one of these reasons instead. Regardless, they will still be looking through everything to see where they can make changes to make things more efficient. So be patient. Things will settle down again. Once the dust clears there might be a few changes, but don’t tear your hair out and quit during the transitional period.

Changes

Changes are going to happen, and there is no point in fighting them. If you’re high up in the pecking order, you can voice your concerns, but don’t expect them to listen without evidence to back up what you’re saying. They might make changes and then come to realise that you were better off before and be changed back. And they might make some that work out better for everyone, and they might change some things that work just the same as the old system. But you can’t fight it if you want to keep your job. It’s possible that changes will be small and not affect you; rebranding a company looks huge, but it doesn’t have much to do with how it operates. And they might bring in new software and systems that will take some getting used to. You just need to keep your head down and learn what you need to and teach those under you how to do the same.

Ear to the floor

Keep an ear out for news throughout the whole transition. If there will be new software, the sooner you can prepare for the change the better. You will also be able to keep an ear out for if there are going to be changes to staff. Don’t spread gossip, particularly bad things, this will just create panic within the ranks, but it’s worth knowing for yourself. Plus bad mouthing the new boss is a sure way to get fired - a lot of new owners look to make their authoritative mark on the company, and a simple way of doing that is to making staffing changes. It might not happen, but in a just in case scenario, you should keep your mouth shut.

Work hard

Just because you have new bosses does not mean that you should work less. During the turbulence of the transfer, it can be tricky to keep things running as smoothly as before, and it’s your job to see that your work is on the same level as it was prior to the business being sold. If you didn’t get the opportunity to rise through the ranks under the old management, now could be that chance to show you can deal with change and pressure. See the new ownership as a new opportunity; hopefully the business will grow, nad there will be people who decide to move on because they don't like the changes being made. And it is always better to promote in house than to hire externally - which is what most companies aim to do.

What College Success Really Looks Like

When you really get down to it, we need to prepare students for success in college before they even set foot on campus. We can do a lot to help them once they're here, but if we work smart beforehand, we can get them off to a strong start.

For example, we need to choose the right environment for students to thrive in and then maximize that time. This could mean homeschooling, charter school, or boarding school. Then, they need to try to take advantage of Advanced Placement (AP) courses to get college credit and also look into summer college programs that will help them to also get credit but more importantly understand what is going to be expected of them once they arrive on campus. Any of these ideas can be cost prohibitive, so try to find the most affordable options or see about scholarships to help defray the cost. Especially with AP courses, the upfront cost of textbooks and exams is still far less than the cost of multiple credits of tuition and a full semester of your time while at college. 

Once they're proper college students, we need to work to give them the highest level of support they need. The common buzz phrase, "meeting students where they're at", is about far more than figuring out if your office should get a Snapchat account. It means adapting your campus and services to the students' needs. This could take the shape of student success coaches, peer mentor guidance, financial assistance, emergency funds, or in the case of Paul Quinn College, dramatically reshape your entire campus life. 

There is never going to be a one size fits all approach to college success and student services. It all depends on the students you have and what they need. These are some generally applicable tips however, and I hope you find them useful.

There are a lot of choices one needs to make when it comes to their own schooling, much less our own children, or students we work with. We can make the most of the time that is given to us to prepare, then do what we must to ensure that all students have equal access to the resources they need to be successful. 

Episode #10: Ariel Tan

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Ariel Tan, current graduate student, residence life professional, and anime fan!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• Ariel's Posts (Anime Mentors & League of Legends)

• Ariel's SAC Podcast Episode

• Director Satoshi Kon: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0464804/

• Legend of Zhen Huan: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2374683/

• Nirvana in Fire: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5141800/

• Civilization V

• Overwatch

• Don't Starve Together

• Chinese Paladin

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!