Meet Kristen Palchak ’16: Marketing, Global Business and a Splash of Entrepreneurship

Meet Kristen Palchak ’16, a simultaneously very focused and very open-minded recent graduate of FEMBA. Like last week, this is a special double-feature Drive Time podcast. We wrap up the biggest FEMBApalooza ever with an interview with Christy Marquez, and then our interview with Kristen offers in-depth perspectives on her FEMBA journey, including:

• Successfully mapping her FEMBA goals of Marketing, Global Business and Entrepreneurship
• Leveraging her MBA in real-time at work as the helped transform the TV show Jeopardy (a 30-year-old brand) and execute a digital marketing strategy
• Going global with a Global Access Program experience in Italy and two Global Immersions, to China and Israel
• Challenging herself and making it all work, including keeping yoga going during FEMBA

Download our podcasts for offline listening.

P.S.

Don’t forget you can follow Victor Gebhardt ’18, who is currently driving the Mongol Rally, from London to Mongolia for charity. Follow Victor and his team http://friskydingo.rocks

 

 

Podcast: Meet Amy Miller ’16 – “From Wondering to CEO”

 

“From Wondering to CEO”

Meet Amy Miller, UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016. Prior to deciding to pursue her MBA, Amy was co-running a family business, had four children and studied religion in undergrad. She was wondering if the MBA would be worth the time, the effort and how it could help her family business. She’s not wondering anymore, in this podcast Amy shares how FEMBA gave her a voice in business she didn’t have before, as well as a confidence. You’ll also hear about:

• Amy’s new role as the CEO of a Woman-Owned Business, Lester Lithograph
• Her global experiences from Barcelona, to Vienna and Prague, to Brazil
• How she ultimately earned a Certificate in Global Management
• FEMBA Flex and her FEMBesties
• Amy’s with advice for everyone embarking on their MBA journey

We hope you enjoy meeting Amy Miller, UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016.

Failing is just another word for growing

Ahh…Friday afternoon. The day before Saturday classes if you’re a UCLA FEMBA. The day before Texas A&M faces another Mississippi team if you’re me, and time for a Friday Footnote!

I’ve committed myself to no longer have email be an albatross around my neck, but rather to ‘go with it’ and open all of ’em.

In that spirit, as I ‘went with it’ this week and was reading all my unopened emails, I came across an incredible note from a favorite alumna, Amy Cheng-Tran ’13, Director, Strategic Partnerships, enso. Amy wrote me over a month ago to update me on an inspiring campaign they were launching for Khan Academy. Their launch film, see below, has 1,485,465 views in six weeks.

Amy Cheng-Tran ’13, from the enso website http://www.helloenso.com/we-are-enso/

Hi Dylan,

Hope you are doing very well. Can’t believe it’s been over a year since graduation.

Today is a big day for enso, and I wanted to share it with you.  

For the past few months we’ve been working with Khan Academy, as its first agency partner of any kind, with the objective of amplifying its current level of success (over 10M students per month, 400M+ lessons delivered and over 2 billion problems solved).

Rather than create an ad campaign for Khan Academy, our approach has been to develop a creative campaign that can spark a movement around learning.  We’ve based this on Dr. Carol Dweck’s work at Stanford, which shows that our relationship to struggle and challenges determines our success — a ‘growth mindset’ as opposed to a ‘fixed mindset’. In a fixed mindset people believe they are born with an innate, fixed level of intelligence and are ‘just not good at math’, ‘can’t do languages’ etc. — over 50% of people have a fixed mindset.   So our campaign is designed to put the core idea into the world:  

You only have to know one thing.
You can learn anything.

Today we launched the first creative for You Can Learn Anything, which we hope becomes an idea many people can get.

Here is the launch film You can learn anything.

This is something I think I knew was true in my heart but wish the growth mindset had been more ingrained for me earlier on in my education, as it could have perhaps gotten me through some really hard courses and all-nighters at Anderson with less pain! So I wanted to share this with you as I think it will resonate with a lot of fellow classmates.

All the best,

Amy

I hope you were inspired by the Amy’s enso film for Khan Academy, but wait, there’s more!

Amy directed a prize-winning film here at UCLA Anderson for our All Anderson Commercial Challenge in 2011, and I wanted to post it here, to give you one final inspiration for your Friday afternoon. (that’s Amy, front left)

P.S.

To get the reference to today’s title, you have to watch the enso film.

FEMBA-to-PhD, Jeremy Watson and Mahyar Kargar

Coming back to my office from the MEMES Conference, I ran into Jeremy Watson ’14+ and Mahyar Kargar ’13+.  Jeremy and Mahyar both transitioned part-way through FEMBA into PhD programs here are UCLA Anderson.

Two FEMBAs who are now PhD students, l-r, Jeremy Watson ’14 & ’17, Mahyar Kargar ’13 and Nathan May (Anderson’s Director of Digital Media…and future FEMBA…?)

When Mahyar Kargar, ’13+ entered FEMBA in 2010, he already had a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Now, as he pursues his second PhD, this time in Finance, he’s reinventing himself yet again. He loves academia so much he wants to make it his home from here forward.

Mahyar Kargar, when one PhD just isn’t enough

Jeremy Watson, ’14+, I got to know two summers ago when he was in my Strategic Business Communications section. My how far he’s come, as he’s now pursuing his PhD in Marketing!

Jeremy Watson, FEMBA 2014 and Marketing PhD in process, coming soon to a university near you

Jeremy and Mahyar both inspire me, as they have used their time in academe to create brand new futures for themselves.

And not to leave out Nathan May. Nathan joined UCLA Anderson as our Senior Director, Marketing and Digital Communications in April 2013, and instantly added value to the team. I love working with Nathan and this summer you’ll be seeing our new FEMBA website and its great new interface.

Next up, getting Nathan enrolled in FEMBA!

Nathan May, trusted consigliere on all things digital!

Josh Schachter ’14 wins an Emmy®

Congratulations to Josh Schachter ’14, for winning an Emmy® last night in New York!

Josh Schachter ’14, holding the hardware, his Emmy for “Outstanding New Approaches – Sports Programming Short Format” May 6, 2014.

Here’s what was waiting in my email inbox today; how cool is this?

Hey Dylan, 

Wanted to give you some more fodder for a future blog post. My team at the NFL won a Sports Emmy last night. It was for a project that I was intimately involved in called www.nfl.com/up. The award was for “Outstanding New Approaches – Sports Programming Short Format”

Best,
Josh

Josh Schachter ’14, on the red carpet

Josh, Product Manager for the NFL (A job he switched into during FEMBA) was honored by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) last night at the 35th Annual Sports Emmy® Awards, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P Rose Hall. Here’s a list of all the nominees.

Also, here’s a prior post about Josh, and his creation of the NFL Case Competition, if you’d like to be even more impressed with the results he’s creating.

Way to go Josh! Making us all proud. Can’t wait to add more to this story as it unfolds.

FEMBAs win “audience choice” and 2nd place overall at the “Interactive Launch Competition”

Here’s a great pick-me-up for Thursday afternoon. Four FEMBAs won in two categories, plus pocketed $1000 in prize money, at the “Interactive Launch Competition” at The NCTA Cable Show.

Kristen Palchak ’16, Senior Account Manager at TVGla

Arjun Ramamurthy, ’15, Sr. Product Manager, Sony

 

 

 

 

Laura Strauss ’16, Director, Affiliate Sales and Marketing at TV5MONDE

 

 

Lauren Johnson ’16, Marketing Manager at Beachbody

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristen Palchak ’16, Arjun Ramamurthy ’15, Laura Strauss ’16, and Lauren Johnson ’16 joined efforts and entered the case competition and walked away with two awards, $1,000, and a new, shared experience.

Dylan: So tell me about the case competition. How’d you learn about it? Why did you choose to enter, and how much effort was it?

Laura Strauss: It was actually just this past Monday, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Our team partnered with Cisco as the mentor company.  We presented 4K / Ultra High Def technology for the cable industry, and won the “Audience Choice Award” and 2nd place overall for the competition!

L-R Laura Strauss, Kristen Palchak, Lauren Johnson (all FEMBA 2016). Not in this photo is Arjun Ramamurthy ’15.

We learned about the competition when Craig Leddy, the event organizer, emailed the Entertainment Marketing Association.  Although the EMA sent out the information to all members – full time and FEMBAs – the FEMBAs were the only ones who signed up for the competition!  I posted on the FEMBA Facebook page to see if anyone would like to join, and we put together a great team.

The work started in earnest during Spring Break, with our first scheduled call on March 26. We had about one phone call each week with Cisco, a few calls with the event organizer, and then met as a team on campus every Saturday.  We also sent in a few rounds of rough drafts to Cisco and the event organizer.  

UCLA FEMBAs with Cisco Mentors at NCTA 2014.

I’m estimating we had about 4 hours of meetings and calls every week and 4 hours of independent work, so about 40 hours total of work for each of us.

In the beginning we had to research both 4K / Ultra High Def technology and the cable industry.  How does the technology work? How can cable companies use it to distribute content to subscribers? Should the industry use this technology and why?  Then Kristen and Lauren focused on the marketing plan – who should the industry target and how.  We put it all together in a presentation and practiced, then practiced again, then practiced again.  Finally, once we thought we were done practicing, we practiced some more!

There were about 200 people in the audience, including 10 people from our mentor company Cisco, and other industry executives including Michael Powell, CEO of NCTA, former head of the FCC, and son of Colin Powell.

Dylan: Thanks Laura, and all. Any take-aways from the experience?

Lauren Johnson: I’m happy to take a stab at take-aways. Pardon my brevity as I’m typing from my phone, in between meetings are work.

1) Importance of team dynamic – People notice! One of the judge’s comments was that she could tell we all really liked each other and supported each other during the presentation which allowed for each of our personalities to shine through yet still connect as a team. We all knew we liked each other, but it was interesting to a judge to notice and comment.

2) You don’t have to have flashy ideas to win. – One of my favorite judge’s comments was that our rollout strategy was “admirably pragmatic”. While at first this felt like a backhanded compliment and I wasn’t sure where it was leading, he quickly followed-up by saying we had the only presentation the judges felt the industry could actually launch tomorrow and have success with. In fact, someone from Samsung just informed us he used a few of the points from our presentation when selling 4K set-top boxes to cable operators!

Dylan: Well that is fantastic guys. Thanks for being “on the court” and for representing UCLA and FEMBA so well. Keep us posted as to what opens up from this experience.