My Initiative Journey: Exercise 3 – 5 Close Contacts
Exercise 3 Deliverables:
Think of 5 close people, friends or family members. The goal is to get 5 pieces of advice on any combination of the projects, and 1 vote from each person.
Sample Script: “I’m doing an entrepreneurial exercise. I’m going to tell you 5 problems and 5 solutions. I will then ask you for 5 pieces of advice, and one vote. If you want to talk about them, we can do that after I run through the ideas.”
Present the 5 problems/solutions. Approx. 10 minutes (Don’t take too long!).
The goal is to get advice, not judgment. From advice, they will form a connection with your project. They will become invested in it, rather than through judging, which they will feel disconnected.
Important: Respond with “Thank you.” DON’T judge the advice, if you judge the advice (i.e. “Wow that’s a really good idea!”), they may subconsciously recognize that you judged them, and even though it was positive this time, it might not be next time. The idea is to keep them engaged!
After each talk, update the project (problems or solutions) as you get new information that makes you want to change your project. Also, giving up one project and changing to another is OK!
Interviews!
Close Contact 1: J.S.
Vote: Bamboo
Advice:
- Bamboo: missing emotion. Why are they degrading their land?
- Bamboo: what do they want to do? What is the problem you’re solving?
- EV apartments: find out how much power you can fit into a van?
- Community Solar: look into “generation 180” solar in schools
- Ride-sharing App: what’s different from lyft? Uber?
Close Contact 2 – E.G.:
Vote: Green consulting
Advice:
- Comunity Solar: for people to invest, need motivator (money probably), how could individuals reap benefits? Maybe at a community center instead?
- Bamboo: how do you convince farmer that it’s profitable? How to monetize? If you had a plan, it would be good.
- Ride Sharing: could find users, but what’s the incentive for driving? Needs to be better than Uber. Logistical challenges are difficult. Need a good model to succeed.
- Green Consulting: Home or small business target is best. Feedback needs to be specific. Easier than other ideas, just need to tap into customers.
- Mobile EV Charging: Really liked. Many people talked about this to Eric. Eliminates a barrier to EVs. What about a portable battery that they bring home?
Close Contact 3: M.K.
Vote: Bamboo (Restaurants 2nd)
Advice:
- Community solar: audience doesn’t care about solar. Bills come first. Even contributing as a group wouldn’t be possible. Need to really showcase how it would end up saving costs. Metrics and data really important. Emphasize saving money.
- Bamboo: Make it compelling. How can you make bamboo profitable? Need to make bamboo profitable.
- Green Consulting: Growing industry, need to showcase why I’m better than others who are already doing it.
- Apartment EV: Too early. Not enough EV cars on the road right now. Instead, try working with apartment complexes to electrify apartment parking lots.
- Restaurant Waste: Problem: you need to become a brand first.
Close Contact 4: M.D.
Vote: Community Solar
Advice:
- Mobile Charging: How much would you be able to actually charge? Capacity is possibly unrealistic. Generator?
- Community Solar: Know where to get the panels, who finances, installers. Where are you installing them?
- Restaurant Waste: People don’t pay attention to signs. Need a more effective way to get the message across.
- Bamboo: Need suppliers, people who know how to grow it, then how to use it. Connections to markets.
- Restaurant Waste: Need to have clearly defined benefits to THEM. Not just the environment. “Encouraging” alone doesn’t help. The system needs to control it: no paper napkins. Bamboo straws so people don’t have the choice. Like recycling.
Close Contact 5: S.I.
Vote: Community Solar
Advice:
- Mobile EV Charger: Installing more apartment chargers would be more practical. Or just increasing the amount of chargers at supermarkets etc.
- Restaurant Waste: Just don’t do free. After 1 napkin, charge money. Or sell better quality products: sell a napkin pack. Design so that it makes it more desirable.
- Green Consulting: Award certificates on top of the consulting.
- Bamboo: You must have to be able to show that there are profits to be made from making the bamboo. Have the connections in place to sell bamboo. Need to show profit.
- Community Solar: Start with apartments. Can use the roof, electric is already connected.
Revised Problems/Solutions
Note: Mid-interviews, I changed out one of the projects. I decided the ride-sharing app wasn’t that great of an idea and switched to an idea for helping restaurants cut down on waste. These projects were also revised as I went.
- Problem: The gap between those with money and without is increasing, leading to people feeling frustrated, trapped, and unable to make ends meet. Solar systems that could help lift people out of poverty and provide energy independence to so many are prohibitively expensive those that could use them the most.
- Solution: Community Solar Help them form a cooperative or community-driven solar electric project where many could benefit and contribute to one system, which would be much cheaper for individuals contributing. In particular, for people living in community housing/projects/apartment-style living, much of the roof space goes unused and many buildings are often packed together wall to wall, allowing combined space for installation.
- Problem: Decades of industrial farming has left some land-owners with degraded land that produces less-optimal or no longer produces crops. Desperate to find uses for their land, many are turning to selling the land, but finding few buyers.
- Solution: Bamboo Use the currently unusable land to grow bamboo, which grows very well even on degraded land. It rapidly sequesters carbon in biomass and soil, requires almost no tending, and can be cut down and sold for thousands of uses: from paper-making to a sustainable replacement for aluminum, concrete, plastic, or steel in a variety of applications. Bamboo will make their land profitable again.
- Problem: Many business owners and homeowners are feeling a desire to “green” their companies to reduce expenses and aim for net-zero emissions, or respond to customer pressure. (Similarly, many people are also looking for solutions to “green” their homes)
- Solution: Green Consulting Provide “green” consulting by performing energy audits and advising on how their companies/homes can reduce their environmental impact.
- Problem: Many people who want to own EVs can’t because they live in an apartment or don’t have a garage to charge their car with. They may ask their apartment management to install a charger, but the apartment management don’t want the hassle nor the upfront cost to install chargers.
- Solution: Mobile Charging Service: A mobile charging service that could schedule charging via a smartphone and a ‘charger bus/truck/van’ could be dispatched at the scheduled time to charge users’ EVs.
- Better: Provide the capital to install chargers in apartment buildings. Apartment building owners get a chance to respond to the pressure for tenants who want to own EVs at no cost to them, but we can collect a small fee from the tenants. Depending on the rate, the chargers could potentially pay for themselves over time. All parties have a solution solved.
- Problem: Restaurant and hotel owners feel frustrated and helpless while losing money at people taking free things more than they need, but can’t say not to. Ketchup, napkins, etc. But they can’t say “Only take a little at a time!” because it may harm their image.
- Solution: Restaurant Waste Control Service. Become a third party that can be the “environmental voice” of many companies. We go and place signs in all the stores saying “We are cooperating with VG Environmental to reduce our environmental impact! Please take only as many napkins as you need!” – Verdant Growth Environmental
- Problem: Transportation by car is expensive, polluting, and causes traffic in most major cities, leaving commuters feeling frustrated and helpless with no alternatives.
- Solution: Ride-Sharing App Smartphones could make carpooling and ride-sharing much more viable than in the past.
Step 3 Reflection
Before starting the exercise, I felt a little nervous, but because the requirements were just to ask people I am close with, it didn’t seem too difficult. I did feel a little embarrassed about the ideas. “What if they’re not good? What if they think they’re stupid?”
What I realized after a while, was that more than anything, this was an exercise in learning to get the information I want from people: it was much harder than I imagined to get advice, rather than judgment. As I did the exercise, I started to realize that to get beyond judgment, all I had to do is discuss the problem with them more. Once people just felt like they were part of a conversation about a problem, and not being put on the spot with “What do you think? What’s your advice?” the ideas started to flow and the conversation also got much more comfortable. I think as the ideas started to flow, the other people seemed to start to enjoy the conversation more as well. The nervousness seemed to fade away. I think most of them would be interested to hear which one I choose and why. The conversations were fun for both parties.
What I got most from this project was the ability to more properly engage people in deeper, non-judgmental conversation. The advice I got really got me to think more about the details or my projects and various aspects I hadn’t considered. As I talked to the close contacts, I started think of some of my own improvements and ideas for the projects as well. The quality of SOME of the solutions improved, but some ideas merited just coming up with a totally new solution that was better than the original.
Previous Part: Exercise 2 – 5 Problems, 5 Solutions
Next Part: Exercise 4 – [Coming Soon]