Course Conclusion

Final week of class!  What a journey it has been...  I can honestly say that the hands-on applications that were required for this class were more helpful, to me personally, than the traditional course formats of classes I've had thus far in my MBA program.  I found the readings had real-world applications.  Guerrilla Marketing gave insightful knowledge into marketing and what small budget companies or individuals can do to market/advertise as effectively as a big budget firm.  Strategies were laid out clearly, concisely, and with examples which helped me to understand how the concepts could actually be applied to marketing campaigns.  Surfing the Tsunami was very helpful for understanding possible future states of technology and AI.  It served as an inspiration to become more knowledgeable and involved with AI so that I can be better prepared for the inevitable advancements and abrupt changes coming to the job market.

We were also expected to experiment with some AI applications, first-hand.  I have found ChatGPT to be extremely helpful in both school and work.  I have and will continue to use ChatGPT and it's future versions to find insightful answers, generate messages and ideas, and even help me as I learn about computer coding.  Although ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm recently, I may have never realized it's full potential without having to interface with the program during this class and use it to generate content for me.  I also had fun using DALL-E to create images from simple text.  I found the application to be easy to use and highly creative.  No more wishing I could find a picture or graphic that I'm imaging in my head!  Simply type what you want and in what style, wait a few seconds, and voila!  An AI created image that comes custom to you from your own ideas.  Both programs were created by OpenAI and I'm excited to see who they partner with in the future and what further offerings they come up with.

We were also tasked with creating our own blog, website, and running a real ad-campaign!  Blogger was an intuitive platform that was easy to use and came with many options for the style and background to make my blog unique and professional.  I created a website for a fake company that I made up.  ConsultingRx, a consulting company that offers personalized improvements for healthcare clinics, hospitals, and organizations.  I chose this since I work in healthcare and wanted to create a website that had the realistic appeal of my own start-up company that can offer services to the Chicago-land area.  First, I purchased a real domain on Google Domains so that I had a real site address (SchoellConsulting.com).  I created a my website using Google Sites and used Looka to create my own logo and branding.  The final result was a functioning website with a real domain address and catchy logo which represented what my consulting firm would hypothetically offer.  I was thrilled!  

 

Lastly, I used Google Ads to run a real campaign directed at increasing traffic to my website in hopes of attracting hypothetical clients for my consulting services.  Google Ads was an excellent platform to use and I imagine this specific tool as being the most valuable experience of the entire course.  My campaign was more successful than I anticipated (88 views to my site in 10 days!) and I am already looking for ways that I can use my experience with Google Ads to leverage some potential side hustle income. 

 

All of this was a new experience for me.  I would have never experimented with any of these platforms and now I can say that not only am I familiar with them, but I've actually applied them and created useful content from them!  I will be sharing my progress on LinkedIn to showcase the work that I've done and I have this class to thank for that.  I can see the value of having these skills and hope to become more efficient with each of them and more!

 Until next time,