How He Hustles: Vito Grippi

During my four years at York College, I've had numerous great teachers, but I can honestly say that Vito Grippi, adjunct writing professor at YCP, is one of the best--and not just because he's now my boss and could fire me if I said otherwise. Taking Intro to Creative Writing with Vito two years ago made me actually like creative writing despite the fact I normally feel more at home in the academic sphere. Not only did I have a great experience in Vito's class, but my younger brother was also influenced by Vito's teaching in freshman comp, going from an incomprehensible understanding of essay writing to effectively piecing together decent rhetorical analyses.

Of course,Vito's resume is much more extensive than just teaching adjunct at York. Presently, he's the digital editor of Story, a freelancer, and soon-to-be entrepreneur, but even these accolades don't do justice to his wide array of experience. His education reads like a cacophony of words that don't seem to belong together: table tennis aficionado, restaurateur, accountant, music engineer wannabe, small performance car part business owner, and finally, writer.

Photo Credit: Vito Grippi

Vito's became serious about writing when a professor encouraged him to pursue writing as a career as opposed to accounting, which was the original reason Vito came to get his undergrad degree at YCP. "I jumped ship almost immediately. I changed my major to writing and finally felt like I had joined my people. I started out thinking I would be a music journalist. So within weeks I had started contacting small, local entertainment magazines. Nightlife Monthly, which is no longer in business, was the first to give me a writing gig.  That led to others," said Vito.

After making connections in the writing world and pursuing a MFA, Vito and fellow writer, Wayne Cresser, started Shaking Like A Mountain while Vito worked as features editor for an entertainment weekly. Despite loving his work, Vito searched for a job that would lead to more financial stability. "I figured I could actually work part time while earning the MFA. That’s sort of how I stumbled into teaching. I had tutored as an undergrad and I came back to see if I could tutor while in grad school. I set up a meeting with the writing program director and I think I actually caught him while he was trying to fill an intro composition course because he almost immediately offered me the course," said Vito.

Despite all of these accomplishments, Vito is hesitant to describe himself as successful, "Success implies you’ve reached something and that would probably make me stop reaching. Maybe I’ll know when I get there."

Advice from Vito

• Don’t be afraid to try stuff. A lot of what I’ve learned has happened because I told people I could do it before actually knowing how. Someone needed a website and I offered to do it. Then I spent the next few weeks figuring out. A big-time logo designer asked me if I did copywriting on a freelance basis and I immediately said yes, no hesitation. I’m not even sure I knew what a freelance copywriter was. He asked me how much I charged and I said “whatever you think is fair.” He said, “I’d feel terrible giving you anything less than $50 an hour.” So that became my starting fee. I think you should try to learn everything. My dad wouldn’t let me run the family restaurant until I learned how to prep, clean, work as a line cook. I try to apply this to everything I do. 
• You have to put in the time. My father came to the United States and has become really successful because he put in the time. He had no idea how to run a restaurant, or how to cook even. So I take that approach, just try to jump into new things. I also don’t say no to much work that comes my way, which is great for building up a client base and paying the bills, but can really wear you down. I’m trying to get better at turning things down. The downside of all of this is that if you’re constantly busy doing work for others, your projects, the ones you really care about, always get put on the backburner. At the same time, I’m at my best when I’m busy. If I have multiple projects going at once, and if I feel anxious about it, that’s a good thing. 
• Take education seriously. I had an English teacher in 7th grade who would make us memorize and recite poetry. We would have to stand at the front of the class and recite the poems. This caused me so much dread. I hated that guy. One time I forgot to bring my textbook to class and he taped a book to my right hand and made me stand at the front of the room for the entire class. He was the worst, and yet, now looking back I wish I had paid closer attention to him. I think I would have learned a lot from him. I wish someone had told me to take my classes in high school more seriously too. I really limited my opportunities early on because I just assumed I would eventually work in the restaurant business. Education didn’t really play into that. It took me a long time to really appreciate learning and books. But part of me also wishes I would have tried to make a go of it on the table tennis circuit. I could have been something. 

How She Hustles: Samantha Czekanski

As you may have noticed my senioritis is definitely still kicking considering I didn't actually write a blog post update about my attempts to beat it this week. So I'm going to nix my original idea and instead start something fun that has been in the works for a few weeks.

I'm starting a blog series called "How He/She Hustles" focusing on different people I am fortunate enough to know who are hustling and making their dreams come true. These individuals are an inspiration to me and I hope they will be able to inspire you too.

First up is Samantha, my wonderful friend and business partner. We met on Twitter 2 years ago and have maintained a great friendship ever since. Samantha is always encouraging me to listen to my gut and follow my dreams. This Minnesotan has developed a serious case of wanderlust and has taken her goals across the globe.

Before starting her grand adventure, Samantha lived in a "little cocoon of Midwestern monotony" that made her feel safe and predictable, where she was unhappily "hopping from boring job to boring job." However, life began to change for her when she embraced her "dreamer/weirdo" nature and repeatedly popped the movie About Time into her DVD player, which inspired the first step in her journey.

Samantha left me in complete awe this past summer when she chose to give up her life in the States and go to graduate school in England, where she knew no one. Naturally, this lovely woman flourished in England and is already planning amazing things for her future. She is currently in the process of launching a Youtube Channel and has a new branding process in the works. Together we're working on a start-up called The Polished Network, which will act as an online community connecting classy, authentic woman of all backgrounds and financial brackets.

Samantha isn't the type to let completing one dream stop her. "I went from living at home with no direction to traveling Europe, studying for my Masters in Oxford, England, and starting my own business. It’s an odd feeling, but good, of course, knowing that you’ve accomplished what you set out to do and then some. Suddenly you find yourself asking ‘now what?’ I didn’t have to wait long before my next dream materialized in my head. Two words: Los Angeles," said Samantha.

Advice from Samantha: 

• Make sure you are doing what you love: I’m not one for cliches, but really, life is too short to waste it doing something you hate. I always hear the excuses of time, energy, resources, money. If you want it, it’s up to you. YOU. Your fairy godmother took the next decade off so it’s up to you and how well you hustle. You will find the time, the energy, you will network your ass off until you have the resources and the money. There’s a reason GoFundMe exists. Just start. A bit every day.  And if you’re already doing what you love? Take your profession to the next level by taking chances. Learn to love being different. You cannot be afraid of the critics, because when you start to stand out, to challenge the status quo, or simply wear a dress on casual Friday, they will multiply like you have never seen and try to tear you down will all means of ridiculousness. . Eyes on the prize and one hand on the troll whip, you’ll get there. 
• Stop listening to the what ifs: It seems like what ifs are a constant companion to dreams, and they seem to come from the most unlikely of places, the people you thought would be so happy to see you set goals are the ones asking ‘are you sure?..but what if...?" It’ll drive you mad. There will never be a perfect time. You’ll die waiting for the most opportune moment. Gather your courage, compile your resources, say a prayer to the dream gods, and jump. 
• Be prepared to do paperwork and research: Lots of it. Seriously, have you seen the time it takes to get a visa and US loans for another country? I studied the UK Boarder Agency website until I had fellow expats coming to me with their questions. I budgeted until I thought I was good at math (at a 8th grade level). I read every site written for expats and students, talked with those who had been there, done that, and bugged the crap out of my university’s student relations department so much I though they were going to revoke my acceptance. But as educated as I thought I was, I had curve balls come at me left and right, things I didn’t even think about. Know what you're getting yourself into, but always be ready to turn around and jump off the proverbial cliff of "but actually, who knows" at a moment’s notice. In the end, it’s nothing if not a good story, which the world always needs more of. 

Senioritis Hacks

During 99% of my academic career, I've been extremely studious, but lately the academic setting has had little appeal for me. I'm ready to join the work world and I'm desperate to get a head start. A lot of my free time is spent looking at online job postings and stalking out people on LinkedIn whose careers I admire. With this one-foot-out-the-door mentality, I've struggled trying to focus on my schoolwork.

Photo Credit: Liz Sauerbrunn's "College Graduation

Fortunately, I packed a lot of work into my first three years of college and now have a fairly relaxed senior year. My culminating project for my major was completed during my junior year so now I'm merely racking up the credits I need to graduate. The only downside to this is that I don't really feel as compelled to give my all to the assignments because I don't perceive them as having as much value as my past classes.

In order to make the best out of this final semester, I've decided to come up with some "hacks" to make getting through the end of my college career a little simpler and hopefully more fun. But coming up with these hacks means nothing if I don't hold myself accountable so at the end of the week I'll be posting updates on how successful I've been at overcoming my senioritis. Here are the hacks I'll be using this week:

1. Find your passion project: I think what is holding me back the most with my school work is that I don't really feel passionate about the work I'm doing. Constantly reading things that I don't care about or resonate with gets me down, and I don't feel obliged to struggle on. However, if I take time out of my busy schedule to do something that sparks ideas and promotes creativity, I find it a lot easier to get back into the boring doldrums of regular work because my mind has be stimulated again. 
2. Start a countdown: As a visual learner, I've found that the best way to remind myself that graduation is close is to put up a calendar, mark the day of graduation, and cross out the days that have passed. This way I can actually see myself getting closer to graduation and not get stuck on how much work is left to do. I can see that in the scheme of my lifetime, I'm so close to starting the next chapter that I feel the immediate weight of readings, papers, and tests lifted off my shoulders. I recommend using a printable calendar, posting it on a bulletin board, and marking each day off with a neon pink sharpie
3. Network: Whenever I find myself feeling bored by academia, I look for opportunities to network. Talking to people who have finished their degree and are living their dreams is an ideal way to gain inspiration and potential contacts. I would recommend going to any networking events that your alumni relations office holds because you get to see people who survived graduated from your school and have most likely been prosperous. Bonus: These events usually have free food, which is perfect considering your student loans will start looming soon enough. 

On Sunday, I'll update you with how I'm using my hacks and hopefully show some progress on defeating my senioritis. If you have any tips of your own, please share them in the comments and maybe I'll implement them in my strategy!

Don't Let Twitter Ruin Your Life

As someone who is hyper aware of identity construction and branding, I spend a good deal of time thinking about how I present myself online. I'm extremely cautious about what I post, carefully weighing the pros and cons of every sound bite of my life. If something doesn't feel right a few moments after I posted it, I'll delete it. While we all know that the internet is forever, at least I have a chance to alter posts that don't fit with my vision or image.

However, not everyone has this same luxury. Jon Ronson of The New York Times wrote an article that examined the lives of people who were"ruined" because of insensitive and poorly thought out tweets. Justine Saccos is Ronson's primary example of regrettable tweets gone horribly wrong. After tweeting a racist comment that was intended to be satirical, Saccos's tweet was picked up and retweeted to a larger audience, basically going viral. As a result, Saccos ended up losing her job and becoming a social pariah.

In an effort to prevent this sort of conundrum happening to others, I thought I'd share my rules for posting content online while maintaining and be true to my constructed identity.

1. Audit your content: My first thought after reading Ronson's piece was to audit my own Twitter feed. Although the good deal of my tweets are industry related, I do include my personal musings and things related to my hobbies (e.g., fashion, British Royal Family, etc.). In theory, potential followers will often look at your past tweets to develop an understanding of the content you're posting. While you can't permanently delete a tweet from history, you can certainly audit your content to more closely align with your brand or personal identity, hopefully engaging more like-minded followers in the future. 
2. Don't use polarizing hashtags: This may be one of Twitter-related problems I struggle with most. Certain hashtags such as #superwhitegirlproblems or #basic have the potential to be offensive to whomever is reading your tweet. While hashtags such as these are generally meant to create a conversation about stereotypes, these phrases or terms have the potential to be offensive or discriminatory to others. Unless you intend to brand yourself as someone who engages in hot button issues, avoid topics that may be misconstrued even if they're socially popular. 
3. Ask yourself if this is what you want to be remembered for: Such as was the case for Saccos, her one tweet essentially has defined who she is and her relationship with the world for the rest of her life. I think it's important to realize the potential of your tweet being picked up and circulated to a massive audience that could define you and measure your future actions by this tweet. If you're worried that a tweet may negatively affect your image in the future, refrain from posting it. 

For more ideas on identity creation online, leave a comment or tweet me at @Sarah_M_Walsh. 

When You're Not The Cinderella of Twitter

I love hearing stories about social media accounts that have become famous overnight or "gone viral." It's like the Cinderella story of the modern world: Person posts cool content, a few awesome people and one particular opinion leader see her at the Internet ball, and poof! instant internet fame with thousands upon thousands of followers, leading to happily ever after.

Photo Credit: Andy Sabis "Cinderella and Charming"

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to think of what I could do to have my Twitter or Instagram account go viral. What hashtag will get X famous person to read my post and suddenly I have tens of thousands of followers? Admittedly, I haven't quite given up this dream yet (maybe this will be the post that goes viral!), but I've also started thinking up more practical, sustainable ways to grow my following.

So far my plan has been working pretty well. I'd been hovering between 110-120 followers since October, but at the end of January, I started making tactical and thought-out decisions to increase my follow rate. I'm happy to say that in the past 2-2.5 weeks I've increased by followers by 100 with minimal effort.

As you can see from the chart I pulled from Twitter analytics, my following has skyrocketed. Since I'm having a good run at this, I thought I'd share my tips that have worked for me so far.

1. Post at least 5x a day: For my internship, I was asked to come up with a social media guide for our alumni volunteers in order for them to learn how to be most effective in getting event attendance. I knew from my experience what works best for my sites and accounts, but I was curious to find out what actual studies had to say about the frequency of social media usage. I found this cool tip sheet that recommends posting to Twitter at least five times a day. At first I didn't think I would have enough to say, but between retweets and engaging in conversations with people I admire online, five posts a day is nothing.
2. Find your niche: When I first started tweeting and developing my online presence, I was really hesitant about limiting myself to a specific type of tweeting. I wanted to be able to talk about everything, but I think this initial fear was based on the fact I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to share my random musings that are quintessentially me. A week or so ago, I was able to let go of this fear after listening to Amy Porterfield's podcast on Instagram usage. She mentioned how she often had more interaction with her personal posts on her various platforms, and this sort of reassured me that if I post good, meaningful content regularly, my followers are still going to be interested in the "life behind the business," so to speak. Basically, I think if you tweet about your passions and throw in quick sound bites of your life, you'll find a lot of success online. 
3. Start a conversation: This piece of advice may have had the most profound impact on me and am so thankful that my new mentor decided to share this tip. He explained that in order to get noticed on Twitter by various accounts you follow, it's imperative that you start a conversation with them. At first this sounds like a no-brainer, but I've always felt awkward about the appropriateness of jumping in on a conversation that's not specifically directed at me. However, my mentor told me that whenever someone posts a link, they're generally asking you to join in on the conversation. Now whenever I see that someone I admire on Twitter posts a cool link, I'll tweet back and add my two cents, hopefully opening a dialogue (and a lot of the time getting a follow back!)

Tips for Grammar in the Digital Sphere

As a die hard grammarian and Oxford comma enthusiast, I initially had trouble adjusting to social media and the confines of 140 characters. I didn't want to be cheated out of appropriate comma placement and mellifluous word choices with too many letters.

Recently, I took to my Twitter account to ask some of my followers what their thoughts were on using correct grammar in tweets and other social media related posts, and I received answers on the opposite ends of the spectrum. My friend Nate, a recent grad from York College's Professional Writing program, doesn't believe in the need of using correct grammar for posts.

@Sarah_M_Walsh Dig. writing is about speed, not accuracy. Reader pointed out errors can be fixed in a second. Errors =/= lack of ethos now.

— Nathanial Alexander (@NaterXander) February 5, 2015

On the other hand, the writers behind The Refined Side, who I've been fortunate enough to develop a digital relationship with, feel the importance of using proper grammar online.

@Sarah_M_Walsh There is a terrible lack of grammar online! Will look forward to reading your surely great piece 😘
— Refined Side (@RefinedSide) February 5, 2015

At first I thought I would disagree with Nate's assertion that posts in the digital sphere don't need to be accurate, but the more I thought about it, I realized I've taken many opportunities to delete a tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram post if I've belatedly noticed an error. The fact that you can easily remove or edit text does take the pressure off when quickly shooting of a tweet.

So far in my social media career, I think I've done a good job at navigating between my grammarian side and the part of me that wants to use social media as effectively as possible. I have a few key rules I stick to:

1. Always, always, always include the Oxford Comma: I'll either re-craft a tweet or not post it at all if I can't include my favorite piece of punctuation. The editor I am at heart requires it!
2. Don't sweat the small stuff: I outwardly cringe when I notice an error in something I've written, but there comes a point when you're in the middle of a conversation and it's just not worth it to delete your tweet. 
3. When in doubt, consult the Chicago Manual of Style: I think Nate makes a great point about any errors being easy to fix, but from my experience, I would rather take a few moments to double check anything that I'm not 100% sure is the correct grammatical form. Although your ethos as a writer might not be affected if you post something with a few grammatical errors, I'd rather not take the chance. 

Marveling at Life

Although I use this blog in a professional capacity, I thought it would be fun to provide a glimpse into my every day life. I got this list idea from Ashley from Sed Bona and Samantha from Mastering Oxford—these ladies are brilliant and certainly up-and-coming in the social media sphere. Without further ado, here's what I've been up to lately: 

Enjoying: My last semester as a student—at least for awhile!
Listening: Ellie Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do" 
Wearing: Camel & black J Crew heart sweater, old black pencil skirt, Banana Republic leopard print scarf, thrifted black heels, and black Ann Taylor tights.
Making: Edits to my resume and cover letter
Cooking: Instant Oatmeal
Drinking: Ginger ale over ice. The ice is key.
Feeling: Stressed. Very, very stressed. 
Reading: Textbooks :(
Looking: At my sweet little pup curled up on a pillow
Wishing: For a miracle & a trip to a tropical paradise
Liking: Season 5 of Downton Abbey
Waiting: To get my nerve up
Snacking: On cashews
Coveting: A pastel blue/periwinkle coat a la the Duchess of Cambridge
Hearing: My fan on for white noise
Learning: That taking a philosophy of religion course is a lot harder than I thought!
Loving: My internship with YCP's Alumni Relations Office
Watching: An Idiot Abroad with my family
Admiring: The grace and kindness of my friends
Getting: Excited for what the future holds
Wondering: What plans I'm going to make for my birthday
Playing: Every day & embracing my inner child
Noticing: That the future has started to look a lot brighter
Giggling: At random text conversations & how funny I think I am
Bookmarking: Profound HuffPost pieces such as this one on Nice Girls
Deciding: To take risks
Hoping: To continue improving upon my happiness
Contemplating: How to plug away at this thesis paper
Wanting: Better sleeping habits
Thinking: About my Twitter usage and how to increase my following 
Knowing: I am loved
Opening: A window and closing a door
Feeling: Content
Marveling: At life