Link Internship at Verde Brand Communications:
Business Description: Verde Brand Communications is an independent full-service brand communications, media relations, and digital marketing agency focused on the outdoor and active-lifestyle markets. Our success is tied to the passion our staff has for the industries, brands, and media with whom we work.
Link Anticipation and Preparation
What it took to get my internship:
My link aspirations started huge. I knew that I wanted to work in the outdoor industry and particularly the biking industry. At first I was in contact with Scott sports. We had arranged for me to go to Switzerland and work in their RnD department. I was beyond excited for this possibility, so much that I jumped in without considering other aspects such as cost of trip, finding housing, etc. All of this made the trip unreasonable and ultimately left me looking for other options. At this point in time I had gotten an offer for an internship at Verde, I took a trip with the companies CEO, Kristian Carpenter, and her son to a mountain biking event. On the ride back we began discussing my link internship and what I wanted to do for it, we then began talking about what she did for a living and it was incredibly interesting to me. Before I had always thought that I would like to have a career in a field of engineering but the more we talked, the more working in journalism and marketing seemed like the right fit for me. To test this I chose to do my internship at Verde where I worked in both marketing and journalism. I thought this internship would be perfect for showing me what this was like as a profession, and let me know If it is something I would like to explore further. As Kristan and I talked i became more and more exited about the role I would have at Verde. I worked with world class athletes on projects, created journalism pieces on events I attended, and brought a different perspective to the team at verde. I am incredibly happy with how the internship went. I got to leave my mark in terms of writing a blog for verdes clients to read, as well as show a younger perspective on marketing and provide insight on what my generation looks for in brands and products.
My link aspirations started huge. I knew that I wanted to work in the outdoor industry and particularly the biking industry. At first I was in contact with Scott sports. We had arranged for me to go to Switzerland and work in their RnD department. I was beyond excited for this possibility, so much that I jumped in without considering other aspects such as cost of trip, finding housing, etc. All of this made the trip unreasonable and ultimately left me looking for other options. At this point in time I had gotten an offer for an internship at Verde, I took a trip with the companies CEO, Kristian Carpenter, and her son to a mountain biking event. On the ride back we began discussing my link internship and what I wanted to do for it, we then began talking about what she did for a living and it was incredibly interesting to me. Before I had always thought that I would like to have a career in a field of engineering but the more we talked, the more working in journalism and marketing seemed like the right fit for me. To test this I chose to do my internship at Verde where I worked in both marketing and journalism. I thought this internship would be perfect for showing me what this was like as a profession, and let me know If it is something I would like to explore further. As Kristan and I talked i became more and more exited about the role I would have at Verde. I worked with world class athletes on projects, created journalism pieces on events I attended, and brought a different perspective to the team at verde. I am incredibly happy with how the internship went. I got to leave my mark in terms of writing a blog for verdes clients to read, as well as show a younger perspective on marketing and provide insight on what my generation looks for in brands and products.
Link Project
For my link project I took over the blog for the six weeks leading up to the outdoor retailer trade show. I wrote articles about a variety of things such as an overview on the Soldier Hollow Bike festival, a look into the generation Z perspective on brands and marketing, how the role of athletes are changing in sport, a recap on last years Outdoor retailer show looking into the trends, movements, and many more.
My blogs will be going up on the website weekly until the trade show!
Link Reflection
Going into my link I was nervous. I didn't know much about marketing and what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to selling me goods, but this is what made it interesting. Heading into the internship the only thing I was confident in was my writing ability. During the first week we were not sure what I should do for my project. I ended up writing one blog in this time and Kristen loved my writing style. When I showed up I realized much more goes on behind the scenes. I got to learn a lot about how to attract more people to my writing using different search engine optimization strategies and have gotten a much better understanding of what to do to make google "crawl" my posts to make them appear higher in search rankings. My writing has also greatly improved throughout my internship. I have developed a new writing style that is less scientific and more fitting for readers. For instance before this internship I had no idea how to make a blog and write something opinionated. Now after my three weeks I have been offered a job doing just that. I had my struggles throughout my link as well. The biggest one for me was my time management skills. I would often find myself procrastinating the blog posts I was supposed to create then rushing to finish them before my due date. Towards the end of the internship I got better at this, I began to realize my procrastination and proactively fix it. Going into this internship I didn't think I was going to be doing important work. It surprised me when my mentor wanted me to do all of verdes blogs and work as a journalist during there most important trade show. It really showed me that I was valuable to this team and how my younger perspective would help them have an edge over their competition. I hope I showed Kristian what the benefits of having an AHS intern are and have made her consider taking on more in the future. What I learned throughout my internship has has a dramatic effect on the college path I am planing to take. Before I had never considered marketing or journalism as a career path for me. After doing it for three weeks it has made me consider it as a new career path widening my scope from just engineering.