Week 1 - RY Personal Introduction

ABOUT ME: BA223 Principles of Marketing Personal Introduction

    Hi, my name is Ray. I am a chemical engineer by day and a strength and conditioning coach by night in the local area. They provide me with contrasting features from head-down technical engineering to head-up talkative coaching. Now, here I am, enrolled in a Marketing course!

    First and foremost, I enjoy learning and personal growth. I am always reading topics of interest including technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Longevity, fitness/nutrition/health, grappling sports (wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu), leadership/communication/relationships. Basically, I'm a nerd for knowledge. I have an engineer's mind in that I like to know how things work. Right now, businesses, the modern economy, and technology are a mystery to me. I'd like to close that knowledge gap at least a little bit. This course is a first step (well, a second step, I took some courses in Winter 2021).

   Because of the wide-ranging application of business, I enrolled in BA223 in order to gain business and marketing skills. After this course, I plan on applying to a Master of Business Administration in Fall 2021. This will be a good precursor to my graduate level education as my undergraduate degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering did not have many business-related courses. 

    Outside of learning and work, I am passionate about fitness and Jiu-Jitsu. If anyone wants to talk about these topics then I can go on and on about them! I love coaching, training, and sharing my knowledge. The best reason to be into fitness and Jiu-Jitsu in the modern world is that the level of distractions is extremely high. Focus is a rare skill. When you have a heavy weight overhead or you have a training partner breathing down your neck, you aren't worried about your electrical bill, that argument you got into with your Mom, or whatever other daily stressors is getting to you. Fitness and Jiu-Jitsu provide moments of complete focus and that's a rare thing in this world. It's meditative in a sense. I encourage everyone to find something that they can get lost in the process like I do with fitness and Jiu-Jitsu! 

    All in all, I am looking forward to the class. I love Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin so I am pumped to dive into their books, discuss learnings with classmates, and soak up this marketing material!

• ABOUT YOU -- Who's who in BA223-Principles of Marketing this term:
• Q&A Format (even though Mindy said not to! 👎🤦🤦
• I already wrote this part first and I like the completeness of it.)
• Introduce yourself. Where are you in life? 

 Hi, my name is Ray. I am a chemical engineer by day and a strength and conditioning coach by night. 

• What prompted you to enroll in this course?

I enrolled in this course because I am interested in gaining marketing and business skills to prepare for a Master of Business Administration. 

• Are you a business/marketing major?

No. I am exploring these business courses in preparation for a master's degree (MBA).

• What are you most interested in learning about marketing? Tell why.

My primary interest in marketing is how companies approach marketing today especially with social media and the internet. The marketing and business landscape is constantly changing and I am interested in learning how companies are adapting. I have experience in manufacturing and fitness but I do not have much knowledge of marketing and business. I would like to integrate my experience with the new learning I do in this course. 

• Tell us something you are passionate about outside of college (e.g. I'm trying to be a long distance runner, natural sprinter. Signed up to do my first half-marathon in Corvallis (hopefully in October), have participated in two Hood-to-Coast relays in the last few years, and looking to do the Wild Rogue next. I have played sports since I can remember, and I still play on many sports teams within the community. And cryptocurrency is a year-round obsession, whether I'm playing or traveling for enjoyment. I am always checking the numbers!)

My primary passion is the pursuit of health and fitness. I love coaching, I love sharing my knowledge, and I love training. I especially enjoy training with kettlebells. Outside my fitness interest, I love grappling, both wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I coach wrestling at high school level and I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

• What prompted you to enroll in this course?

I enrolled in this course because I am interested in gaining marketing and business skills to prepare for a Master of Business Administration. 

The wrestling mat is symbolic to me. It symbolizes a place where I forged my work ethic, gained mental and physical toughness, sweated pounds and pounds. It goes beyond that though. Wrestling helped me meet multiple best friends, find a lifelong wrestling coach/friend/engineering mentor all-in-one, gain my two favorite hobbies in fitness and Jiu-Jitsu, get into an elite university, get a job as an engineer, and give back as a high school coach. If it weren't for wrestling, I wouldn't fully be me. Thank you, wrestling.