Working for the Weekend

"Everyone's watching, to see what you will do
Everyone's looking at you, oh"

Loverboy must have attended a Startup Weekend at some point. What else could have inspired such profound lyrics?

I've gushed on and on about how Startup Weekend Changed My Life, but really, it's the gift that keeps on giving. We had the third Philly Startup Weekend on April 20–22, and this time I was there as an organizer instead of a participant. Since I can only attest to the second, I can confidently say that 3.0 blew that one out of the water. The quality of the projects was so high that I'm certain Hangplan wouldn't have come close to placing in the top three.

My organizer duties were two fold. One, I had to get designers there. The previous event had so few, and it was my job to change this. This was NOT an easy task. I basically hustled my ass off, telling every designer I could get near about what an AMAZING opportunity it is, annoying the crap out of a few people along the way. But I've come to the conclusion that the majority of people would rather spend a weekend on their couch than bettering themselves. Fine, I can accept that. There's only so much I can do to push people. I was lucky enough to recruit a handful of superstars that really made the event spectacular.

The second part of my duties included creating materials for the event. T-shirts, programs, posters, name badges, slide decks. It was fun to put my own little touch on these things.

The weekend itself was a riot, a blast, exhausting, educational (Mel and 5-Hour Energies don't mix), motivating, inspiring, and satisfying. On one hand, I was glad that I didn't participate this time around. Last October was so freaking intense. I honestly didn't think I had it in me. But on the other hand, I was a bit jealous of the designers who spent a crazy amount of time building something legitimate. I kinda wanted to play too. No regrets though. I had the best time. Meeting new people, getting to know some others, and spending much needed quality time with my partner in crime. What could be better?

Well, I guess I'll find out. Philly Startup Weekend 4.0 isn't that far away. There's a lot to plan. And in the meantime, I'll be helping out with SW Health Philadelphia. That'll give this junkie a fix in the meantime. One thing's for sure, I love this team of misfits that I was lucky enough to join.

Feeling Proud

In the ten years at my previous job, I rarely worked on anything that I wanted to share. My friends and family didn't know much about the designs I created because I shamefully hid them. I didn't have a portfolio website up to showcase any projects because I felt that none were worthy. I was embarrassed.

I saw the work some friends were creating and instead of motivating me, I came to the assumption that I was not cut out for design. Perhaps there was another field in which I could excel. I blamed my poor work on things like tight deadlines and small budgets and a terrible corporate logo. But I think the key factor was that I just wasn't passionate about what I was doing.

I spent the majority of my last few months at work creating PowerPoint presentations. They became the bane of my existence. Hideous decks with paragraphs of text and flow charts galore. They were fugly. And because I always only had a matter of hours to work with these 40-something slide beasts, I couldn't do much more than clean them up to make them a bit more presentable.

So when I had the opportunity at my new job to work on a presentation (Keynote, thank god), I knew I could take some creative liberties. I did some illustrations, played with textures, made it super visual instead of full of bullets. And for the first time in a very long time, I was proud of what I had created.

I'm still lacking confidence. When I need to show my work for approval, I get very anxious. I'm hoping this will subside over time. In my previous position, the standards were low, and I didn't try very hard to surpass them. Now that my creativity is being encouraged, I must be sure to not hold back out of fear. That might take some practice though.

Opening a Chapter

It's amazing how quickly things can change. The last time I wrote, I had given notice at my corporate job of a decade. And now, if feels like forever since I've worked there. On my final day, which included a happy hour where I wore a crown and a tuxedo t-shirt (classy all the way), I felt a mixture of emotions. I imagined that I'd be doing cartwheels out of the building, but leaving something that I was a part of for such a long period of time was a bit emotionally draining. Yes, I even cried. And that was mostly due to saying goodbye to my team, whom I had grown quite attached to. But it was time. Actually, it was overdue.

The following morning I embarked on a mini solo vacation to Portland, OR. I wanted to reward myself for making this leap, and really, I just needed some time to refocus and mentally prepare for my new journey. I instantly fell in love with the city for so many reasons. Despite the freezing cold rainy weather, I was overwhelmed by the abundance of charm. I met up with numerous friends while I was there, drank a ton of coffee, ate a lot of bacon, and I cannot wait to return.

The first thing I did when I arrived (after checking into my hotel and grabbing a latte) was something I had been wanting to do for years now. I got the words "Create" and "Inspire" tattooed on the insides of my wrists. I had been in contact with the artist beforehand, and I decided to leave the design up to her because I was never satisfied with anything I had made. She did a beautiful job, and I feel as though these tattoos are the perfect symbol of the Mel I want to be.

These mark the start of my new chapter, and I really couldn't be happier with my life right now. I just completed my second week at my new gig, which I absolutely love. It feels incredible to be making stuff and accomplishing things. I'm finally proud of the work I'm doing, for the first time in my life. And I feel so insanely lucky to be a part of a brilliant team from whom I will learn so very much. In addition to that, I'm becoming a part of the fantastic startup community in Philadelphia. It really is like everything I have wished for regarding my career is coming true.

I'm so excited to see what the rest of 2012 holds.

Closing a Chapter

After nine years and eight months of my life, I resigned from my job today. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. This is the only job I've known as an adult. I've complacently gone through the same routine, day after day, year after year. Change has been a long time coming.

And now, thanks to this recent passion I've discovered, new opportunities have presented themselves. Two of them actually. Both awesome, both great fits. And now I have to decide which path to take. It's not easy. And it's all happening so very fast.

These final two weeks at my day job are going to be like closing a giant chapter of my life. It'll be partially sad. My coworkers are my family, and it will be hard to leave that. But honestly, I feel a ginormous sense of relief. I'd say this should have happened a long time ago, but timing is a funny thing. And I can only hope that everything has purposefully led up to this amazing point in my life.

Opportunities for Designers in Startups

My friend and fellow designer, Sharon, tweeted this video to me yesterday, and it was just what I wanted to hear. Jenny Lam is a designer, a founder, a maker of software. As opposed to all of the articles I've been recently reading about why startups need designers, she discusses why designers should strive to be startup founders themselves.



From 27:20 to 30:45, there's a great snippet about Startup Weekend and why it's a great opportunity for designers. I know I sound like a Startup Weekend poster child. Did I mention I'm an organizer for the upcoming one in Philly? Oh, it's gonna be phenomenal!

Startup Weekend Changed My Life

Dramatic title, right? It's kind of a long story.

Last fall I decided that I needed to up my game, learn some new skillz, and thanks to a Geekadelphia blog post, I discovered Web Start Women. After a class or two, I noticed on the WSW message board something about a thing called Startup Weekend in Delaware. It said something like, "Learn to make an app in 54 hours!" Hmm.

It wasn't long after when I noticed the same event was going to be taking place in Philadelphia. I did a bit of research and realized, hey now, it's not a weekend class in app building after all. But it sounded neat and scary and intense and scary, so, venturing completely outside of my comfort zone, I signed up.

I was absolutely terrified for the weeks leading up to the event. I probably read this document 492 times in preparation. I spent hours upon hours trying to come up with an idea to pitch. I wrote my 60 second pitch and memorized it word for word, practicing in the car for an hour before heading into the building. I sat in the lobby and noticed that there weren't really any other ladies picking up badges. I walked up to the second floor for "mingling," where I stood against the wall, clutching a bottle of Coke like it was made of gold, and wondering why the hell I signed up in the first place. I was a socially awkward nervous wreck.

As 150-ish geeks filed into a lecture hall, I thought I was going to vomit. At the urging of a fellow attendee, I changed my pitch slightly (you know, the one I had totally memorized) and only had a few minutes to prepare in the ladies room. But I did it. I gave my pitch. And I dizzily stumbled back to my seat holding a giant white piece of paper that read "Hangplan."

To avoid giving you a diary-esque play by play of my entire weekend, let me sum it all up in a very long, run-on sentence. My idea got lots of votes so somehow I was lucky enough to formulate a power team of 10 amazing people and we worked tirelessly (thanks to luke warm Red Bull) to build a web app, a mobile app, an API, attack social media, make a video, survey people, etc. and on Sunday evening we pitched to a panel of judges and came in second place. (Side note: Woohoo!)

Having said all that, while none of this may sound life-changing, there were some personal side effects of Startup Weekend. The most prominent would be meeting a person who has since become a creative project partner, a brilliant career mentor, an inspiring life coach, and one of my absolute closest friends. Without getting too sappy, you know when you meet someone and you're sure that your world will never be quite the same? Yeah, so that happened.

Another side effect was this budding interest in startups and a new area of design (for me). I had always vowed to be a print designer. My dream was to do stationery and invitations. Interactive frightened me. But getting a little taste of UX/UI design definitely whet my appetite. And now I'm ready to devour it all. The more I learn, the more I love it. And really, I owe that to Startup Weekend.

And lastly, this event instilled a sense of confidence in me. Hey, my ideas don't totally suck! Well surprise surprise! Living in the in-house world for ten years, I've been on my own. I've never worked on a creative team. I worried that I wouldn't know how to interact with others or explain my thoughts. I worried that maybe I did things wrong but never knew it. I worried that my designs were garbage and my opinions were crap. But working so closely with my team was amazing. I wasn't afraid to share my perspective, and you know, people listened. And others shared their viewpoints and made my ideas even better. I started to understand what I had been missing out on for so long, and I left feeling optimistic and self-assured.

I have been recommending Startup Weekend to everyone. (Particularly designers because there was quite a lacking in that department at the one I attended.) I understand that not everyone will experience the same monumental revelation that I did, but it was also just crazy fun. And I'm really grateful for the trajectory it put me on.

Love Notes

Dang it. *grabs tissues* I can't tell if I want to marry this guy, grab my scissors and make a pop-up book of my own, or just buy a whole crapload of Field Notes. Heartstrings successfully tugged.

Field Notes: Red Blooded from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.