Well, this is it.

What just happened? I think 8 weeks went by, but I'm not sure. There's no way.

This week I've been tying up loose ends before I head back to Mount Union. Kathy asked me to recreate the Customer Service bulletin board materials to be sent to CST in South Dakota and Elyria. I included packets of instructions for carrying out the Customer Service and De-Escalation Training reinforcement activities and knowledge checks that the supervisors will be helping with over the next month.

While my projects and tasks have been dying down as I complete my final week, a lot has been happening within the HR Department. This week, Jessica began her three week CST training for the new hires. She is being shadowed by our two new trainers, Beth and Andrea. As a former team lead for CST, Beth was an internal hire. Andrea is our new junior trainer. I have essentially been doing her job all summer, so her joining the team this week came at a great time. Also, our new VP of HR started on Thursday.

In order to make space for all of these wonderful new HR team members, Jessica, Beth, and Andrea are moving into an office together on the fourth floor of the Berea building. I had the awkward task of trying to help the movers rearrange the office at 8:15am while Jessica was in training. Mind you, I had no key fob access to the room, no idea where to put all the extra conference tables, and wasn't exactly sure how the whole cubicle break-down and rearanging thing worked, so I was basically in panic mode trying to direct the poor movers. Naturally I resorted to, "I'm so sorry, I'm just an intern..." (Help, help, help...)

The office saga continued when Jessica, Beth and I returned later that day to scrub dry erase marker off the walls. I should note that the walls of the office were covered in a paint that is specifically made to be written on like a dry erase board. I was not implying that ETC promotes the use its walls for notetaking. The marker had been on the walls so long that we ended up going through three containers of Clorox wipes to get it off. We joked that a permanent marker was used on my wall, because the writing was going nowhere. It's been three days and my fingers are still blue. Another side note, the HR department did NOT torture me as an intern. Don't worry Jessica, I won't tell everyone that I was not scrubbing your walls all summer :) But, now you can think of me everytime you look at those sparkling, Clorox scented walls...

On Wednesday, Jessica organized a happy hour for my going-away at the Upper Deck. It was so much fun! Andy and Tiffany came from Elyria, and, due to the CST payday happy hour tradition, many of the CST members I worked with were there. It was an awesome way to get to spend time with everyone I worked with this summer. I really appreciated it!

Summing up how much I appreciated this experience would be incredibly lengthy, so I will do my best to keep this short. I cannot imagine having spent my summer any other way. Being a summer intern for Equity Trust Company has been hands down the most valuable experience that I've had in my college years in terms of making strides toward a future career. I was given so much more responsibility than I had anticipated, which really enhanced the experience. I grew close with everyone I worked with and truly felt like a part of the ETC family. Not once did I feel like a temporary employee. So, a HUGE thank you to ETC for everything you have done for me. I would enthusiastically recommend this internship program to anyone!

Busy Busy Busy

These last two weeks have been a blur.  I am not sure where to begin with what I have been doing this week, so I suppose I will start with vacations.  Next week Brendan and Heather will be going on vacation.  I do not think they knew they both took vacations in the same week, but it is definitely something we have been working diligently to offset.  I have been taking on pieces of three different positions in these last few weeks including assisting Kent with Tax-Free Wealth Seminar and Real Estate Investor Association mailings and databases, taking some of the projects off Heather's hands while she is gone, as well as my own work.  I  compiled a mailing list of REIA organizations around the country and sent them four documents that works towards bringing their members to our Networking Conference.  I had to contact some of the organizations that we did not have a mailing address for, and even worked with a man in Canada to help foster a relationship between his organization and ETC.  I also began drafting some of our emails for our drip email campaigns we will be running throughout the month of August in addition to some press releases we will be sending out.  I have worked closely with Heather to gain a better understanding of how she utilizes our Genius email software and to learn how she crafts each piece of writing for the various campaigns we are working on.  It seems that everything has been coming due at one time, so naturally everyone has been working feverishly.  When I told my dad what I have been doing, and the extra work I have picked up, he frankly replied, "welcome to the real world."  It was a blunt assessment of a valuable lesson I have been learning throughout my internship here at Equity Trust.  It does not matter if people get sick or are on vacation, the work still needs to be completed.  It is encouraging to know that, while stressful, I welcome the challenge and do not mind stepping up to the plate.  Another aspect that softens the blow of my increased workload is the wonderful people I work with.  Michelle excitedly scheduled my going away luncheon for today with the entire department.  I truly enjoy spending time with everyone in the department and it is not just words when Equity Trust states one of our core values is we have fun here.  It is always fun and interesting in the office, something that I find important in the workplace.  Although I still have one more week, we wanted to spend time as a team before Heather and Brendan leave on vacation.  I am also pleased to announce that Michelle also scheduled a welcome back party for me as well!  I will be returning in a part-time position during this fall after taking a week and a half to get settled in for school.  I am so excited to have been asked to stay on here, and feel validated.  If I could give an intern some advice it would be to look at your internship as an audition.  There is no doubt that an internship is critical as a learning tool, but one should also look at it as an opportunity to audition for that company.  I have attacked each day with the thought of proving myself, showcasing my skills, and helping ETC in as many ways that I can.  If you look at it more than what I can get out of this, but also as auditioning yourself as a job candidate you increase your chances of finding somewhere to stay.  Once I make it through this next week, it will be nice to take a week of to recharge before school starts.  I will then return to the office with a renewed vigor and will hopefully continue this wonderful experience here at ETC.

There is so much merit to the saying "time flies when you're having fun"

I say this every week, but I really just can't believe another has gone by. I just have way too much fun here!

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished the Customer Service and De-Escalation Training for CST, which was put into action this week. I sat in on 4 training sessions where Jessica presented the material I came up with. Just about all of the Client Service Representatives and the Project Apple Team attended the sessions. It was definitely rewarding to see the presentation carried out! I've received a lot of positive feedback, which is always nice :)

Jessica has been making fun of all of my crafting this week. I've been working on a bulletin board to reinforce the Customer Service training. The last bulletin board on our floor was a little plain, so I thought I would liven things up a bit! I also created little reminder cards based on the training to hang in the cubes for Client Service Representatives to reference. If anyone is on the CST floor, prepare to be surrounded by beach ball themed reminders of how to be more client friendly. I may have gone a bit crazy with the theme, and use of colored paper. Many trees died in the process of this project...

I'm also finishing up the presentation on how the departments within ETC function and how they interact with other departments. Jessica will eventually use this information for a self-taught training program so that after new hires have been with the company for a few months, they can make better sense of how they fit into the company as a whole.

Things have been pretty hectic with CST New Hire Training fast approaching. Well, more hectic for Jessica, but I help out when I can. We've been putting together binders of the material that Client Service Representatives will learn in their first three weeks here at ETC. It is crazy how much information these binders contain! I find it amazing that the Representatives are able to learn it all in just three weeks, and that Jessica can teach it all in the short amount of time.

Just one week to go. Can someone slow time please?

Wait, it's week 6 already?!

Where do these weeks go?? Time is seriously flying...

This week was a short one for me due to a death in the family. But, I have a great ETC family who sent flowers and was very accommodating! They're way too nice to me :) Despite a short work week, it was still a very productive one.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been busy working on customer service and de-escalation training for Client Service Representatives. On Friday, I met with Kathy, Phil, Jessica, Beth, and Rob to present the training I created. It covers the basics of customer service, techniques for approaching escalated calls, a basic overview of why client satisfaction is important, and what not to do while on the phone with a client. While most of the topics covered may sound like common sense, Jessica, the CST team, and I found it valuable to review them with the Reps. Having little to no personal interaction with clients, it is obviously very important that the company provides excellent customer service over the phones. The training concludes with client scenarios that the Reps will be responding too. Jessica always emphasizes the importance of making training interactive, so I included a fun beach ball activity.

The reaction that Jessica and I received to the training was much more enthusiastic than I expected; CST loved it! In fact, they liked it so much that we are starting training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, just three days after presenting the concept. I won't lie, I'm feeling pretty good about this one. It's really awesome to see all of my hard work paying off and my presentation being utilized so quickly. All of the current Client Service Reps will be going through training this week in shifts before the new class comes in on August 13. The new class of Reps will also go through the customer service training as part of their new hire training. 

In an effort to reinforce the "continuing education" aspect of the customer service training, CST has adopted a theme on their floor to act as a reminder of how to be client service friendly. Next week I'm working on a beach themed bulletin board that will review all of the topics covered in the training. Kathy mentioned hanging small beach balls in each cubicle as a reminder of how to deal with the client scenarios acted out in the beach ball activity. It's a subtle way to incorporate training into daily calls. 

Stay tuned for next week!

Weeks 4 and 5 recap!

Sorry ETC, I've failed you as an intern. I was unable to finish my blog for week 4 so I will combine it with week 5. In my defense, I think that this just goes to show how busy I am here!

The last two weeks have been very productive. Since finishing the New Hire Orientation presentation, I held my first GoTo Meeting with Jessica to show Andrea and Tony, two members of our HR team, the final product. I reviewed the organization of the presentation and how it should be presented. It was perfect timing because Andrea will be handling a fairly large group of new hires during orientation on August 13th. I'm attending the presentation so that I can make adjustments to it afterward if necessary. I'm excited to see how it goes!

One of my newer projects has been creating customer service and soft skills training for Client Service Representatives. The main focus of the training is how to de-escalate a call. I had a great time working with Liz, one of the CST team leads, to come up with effective ways to approach some of the more common issues that occur over the phones. I listened in on a few calls with her to get an idea of how Client Service Reps interect with clients. She really knows how to handle escalated situations! I give her a lot of credit; I don't know if I would have been as calm as she was. I finished up the training this week and plan to present it on Friday to Kathy, Phil, and Amanda, who are the CST supervisors, along with Ira and Rob, who are working on Project Apple. Hopefully this training will improve the call experience for both our clients and CST Reps!

Recently, Jessica and I have been taking on a hefty task list for Project Apple with Ira and Rob. Luckily, I get the tasks that don't require knowledge of IRA's. Jessica, however, has been working on a real estate training program for Project Apple Liasons. Ira gave her an intimidating-looking book that covers everything you would need to know about real estate investments. Way over my head. So instead, I've been working on Outlook training to show CST Reps some of the shortcuts that Outlook has to offer. This will hopefully make their lives easier! It's actually making my life a bit easier too as I learn about some of the shortcuts.

Sadly, I no longer get to spend time with Tiffany and Andy in Elyria. Luckily, they send me funny emails to make up for it! With project Apple requiring many new training programs and me living closer to Berea, it's just easier to be here full time. Andrea did stop by from Elyria to go out to lunch with Jessica and I, which was a great time! I was happy to get Aladdins twice this week; once with the other wonderful interns and once with Jessica and Andrea. Not mad about that!

Overall, it was another fantastic two weeks here at ETC! It's crazy to think that I only have three weeks left... :(

Yeah on the catwalk, on the catwalk Yeah

When I heard that the Equity Trust intern program exposes you to a wide range of careers, projects, and tasks I never thought it could pave a way to a modeling career.  KT had some shirt samples come in from a vendor for our employees to wear at the upcoming Networking Conference in Orlando, Florida.  We were deciding if we liked the look of the royal blue, button-down shirts and I was asked to try one on.  Naturally gifted model and all, I struck a few poses so KT could send a picture to Jeanette to hear her thoughts while she is out of town.  We then compared how it looked with the khaki pants Wes was wearing and the black pants I was wearing.  Needless to say I won the competition!  Now before anyone tries to scoop me up for their modeling agency let it be known that I only won because I happened to be wearing the black pants that looked better with the blue shirt.  It was no indictment of Wes's own modeling skills.  Like I keep telling you, interning at ETC keeps you on your toes!

On a more serious note, I continued plugging away at the competitor analysis I have been working on.  I looked at the first fee comparison and brainstormed another scenario that would delve deeper into how the fees actually work through multiple years and differentiate us even more.  I then set up the second scenario and scripted another portion of my analysis.  I drafted my hypothetical profile that I will use when I call each competitor's sales team and act like I am interested in opening an account with them.  I also thought of some questions that I will ask each sales team that will give a more complete profile of each company.  We continued posting for our Olympic Facebook campaign.  We have not been getting that many entrants to the Equity Trust Games contest we are promoting so we used a different method with our most recent post.  Rather than explaining how to enter, we focused on what one could win from the contest.  We decided people aren't as interested in what they are guessing and what the contest is for as they are for what they can get from it (and rightfully so).  I'll let you know if it worked in my next blog.  Kent needed a letter mailed to our Gold Level Service clients and asked if I could help him out.  He sent me over an excel spreadsheet with the information of all the GLS clients in Florida.  I then created a mail merge and printed the mailing labels and copies of the materials that would be included in the mailing.  Also this week, Jaime Acosta in the IT department was a great help with my Evergreen project.  I sent him some questions that had arisen regarding the coding and programming aspects of the program.  I asked him what it would take to host the program on our own server as opposed to the one provided by Evergreen.  After he took the time to analyze my situation he provided his answer and we concluded that it would not be practical to try to host it on our server.  It was decided that, as of now, we would push forward with the current settings of EBS so we can get a live program out there to analyze.  Finally, Alicia, Tyler, and I went to lunch again this Wednesday.  One of the many benefits of ETC's internship is the relationships you can form with your other interns.  We are all in the same situation as college interns so it is great to be able to hang and work with some of your peers.

I'll catch you all next week! Unless I leave ETC for a modeling career that is...

Olympic sized headache

This past week was primarily focused on social media.  We began our Olympic Facebook campaign yesterday so last week was full of planning, drafting, and brainstorming.  I was exposed to a side of contests that I have never seen before.  There is so much behind the scenes work that must go into setting up a contest.  We first had to read through the International Olympic Committee's legal publication regarding the copyright and trademark restrictions for the 2012 London Olympics.  You wouldn't believe how stringent they are!  We wished to run a contest coinciding with the Olympics that asked contestants to like us on Facebook and then guess how many medals the United States would win this year.  Little did we know but the words London, Summer Games, Olympics/Olympian/Olympiad, or even 2012 were copyrighted!  It goes without saying that it was extremely difficult to brainstorm a way to run our "Olympic" promotion without specifically mentioning the Olympics.  We used to crafty marketing lingo to come up with the 2012 Equity Trust Games!  We first had to set up the contest on a program called Shortstack.  This sets up a tab for the game to be played directly from our Facebook page.  Another long, arduous process we had to go through was reviewing our own rules and regulations.  It is mind-blowing to me all the detail that must be put into each game or contest because of all the lawsuits that are filed in today's day and age.  Luckily we got the contest up and running and I will be posting a new Olympic themed post each day until the end of July. 

Also this week we threw together a short campaign because we were closing in on 1,974 likes on our Facebook page.  Since Equity Trust Company was founded in 1974 we thought it would be a fun idea to post some fun facts about the year 1974.  I drafted and posted four different posts talking about how gas prices have changed from 55 cents a gallon, how that was the year the speed limit was changed to 55 mph, and also mentioned the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match that took place that year between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.  It was exciting to me to see the quick feedback to these posts as I received a like only one minute after posting.  Now if only my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts could be so popular! 

This week I also continued with my competitor analysis and met with Kent and Jeanette about the Evergreen system.  I am hoping to start running with that later this week.  Finally, great news from the BiggerPockets blog forum that I have been monitoring.  A gentleman responded to one of my posts, he must have liked that I was an informative and educated poster, asking for information regarding a self-directed IRA.  I passed him along to our sales team and I learned later that they had converted this lead and he opened an account with us!  I was extremely excited that the posting I have been doing on the site is generating business for our company. 

I should hopefully be posting later this week to update you on my work.  I'll cross my fingers the IOC didn't notice how many times I mentioned the Olympics in this blog, since I'm sure they follow the ETC marketing intern very closely.  Until next week!

Week 3

Another great week in the HR Department of ETC!

     This week I've been finishing up the New Hire Orientation Presentation. I've been working on shortening the presentation to only the most relevant information so that we don't scare any new hires away during their first week! I added some fun activities to engage them in hopes that they will be just as excited to be at ETC as I am! Over the course of the next few weeks I will be working with Jessica to create self-taught training materials that new hires can complete on their own time. We're trying to cut down on the amount of time that they are just sitting and listening to a speaker, and rather provide more hands-on ways to get information across.

     This week I sat in on my first HR departmental meeting with John, Tiffany, Andy, Jessica, Tony, and Andrea. We discussed the progress of the department and goals for each member of the team. We also touched on some of the open positions that HR has been recruiting for. On Wednesday we had an Open House in Berea to hire a new batch of Client Services Representatives. There was a fairly decent turnout for the position. I had to play secretary for a bit, but there was free lunch involved so it was totally worth it!
     In Elyria I worked with John again on a department headcount for Operations. I set up meetings with all of the supervisors of the department to verify their numbers. I jotted down the responsibilities of each team in the department and how they interact with other departments within ETC. Jessica and I plan to incorporate that information into the Orientation material so that new hires have a better idea of how the company functions. I really enjoy getting to work with the supervisors of other departments because it gives me the opportunity to get to know more of the employees here. I was impressed with how accomodating and friendly each supervisor was.

     I scheduled and held my very first meeting on Friday! Granted, it wasn't the most exciting of discussions, but it's a step! The purpose of the meeting was to review the CST script I've been working on. Kathy, Amanda, and Phil, the leadership team within CST, attended the meeting and gave me feedback. The script will likely be incoporated into the CST training materials and be placed in each of the call center cubicles as a quick reference guide of phrases that the Client Service Reps can use during calls. The script was also help to make calls more uniform.

    I have to say, the employees of ETC are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm not even saying that because I'm sure my supervisors are eventually going to read this. :) But really, I have to hand it to ETC for finding such a positive and helpful group of employees. Maybe I'm shocked because I spend the majority of my year around rude college kids. But, I would rather give ETC the benefit of the doubt. The smiley faces at the end of each email I recieve certainly lends to a positive work environment, and I genuinely enjoy being here each day!

Now I can stop brain freeze

Another successful week has been completed here at Equity Trust.  It was jam-packed with meetings, new projects, and Dairy Queen!  Since my parents always told me to save my dessert for last I will hold off on the DQ until I tell you what I have been working on. 

After our Evergreen meeting last week I began researching some of the program's competitors.  Wes provided me with over ten different programs that provide webinar automation services.  I went on their websites and documented what features they offer and how they compare to those offered by EBS.  I threw out the majority of the programs on the list but flagged about three that are somewhat comparable to Evergreen for further research. 

We have been brainstorming how best to handle any complaints that are posted on our Facebook page.  Since we recently upgraded our systems we have been having a few issues handling our customers accounts.  We have had one particularly unruly customer who continues to post negative feedback on our page.  Although we follow up, and eventually resolve, each issue this client is still not satisfied.  We got together and decided we would contact him again with an opportunity that should assuage him. 

On Wednesday Brendan assigned me a new project.  In the past several marketing interns have conducted a competitor analysis that looks into the website content, fee schedules, and sales procedure of the top firms in the self-directed IRA industry.  Since it has been a few years since the last analysis I am going to update our information.  I am excited for this project because it allows me to play detective.  We have agreed on a client profile that includes my age, occupation, investments I am interested in, and how much I have to invest.  I will then utilize this profile to contact our competitors and learn how they pitch their products.  I hope to compile an extensive comparison and help our company to continue to improve.  I had to leave a little early Wednesday because I had my 2 month check up for my elbow surgery.  It is extremely valuable that ETC allows me the flexibility to leave a little early for my appointments.  The doctor gave me great news!  I am finally cleared to begin strengthening my arm in the weight room for the first time in over six months.  To say I am excited would be an understatement, even if it is just to curl five pound weights! 

In addition, I had another meeting with Rich Desich and Kent to discuss how we would like to continue with our Evergreen Webinar program.  We are planning on utilizing one of the 2,600 Homevestor franchises.  We hope to produce an educational webinar that will run continuously.  We will use Homevestor to help drive traffic to the webinar and thus tap into their leads.  Rich did a great job explaining the thought process that was put into each slide.  It was amazing to learn more about the psychological component of marketing.  Every word, every topic, and every slide has a specific response it should provoke.  Rich encouraged our team that this program should help revolutionize how we produce webinars and generate leads from them.  Like I've mentioned before, this is an opportunity most interns do not have.  I am lucky to be in the position that I am and I have no doubt I am learning more than many of my peers.   

Is all this work making your hungry?  Me too.  Once again the marketing department infused fun and food into the work week.  Brendan decided it was time to treat the department to Dairy Queen to celebrate Kelly registering over 100 people for our Tax Free Wealth Seminar in San Francisco.  She has been doing great work with TFWS and I was more than happy to "help her celebrate."  I got an Oreo Blizzard, which unlocked an extremely useful piece of information.  KT informed me that you can stop brain freeze by pressing your thumb against the roof of your mouth.  I figured there was only one way to test this statement.  I began to shovel copious amounts of Oreo Blizzard into my mouth until I felt that familiar pain in my head.  Sure enough it worked!  I will no longer live in fear of the dreaded brain freeze thanks to KT.  I guess it just proves my theory that interning with ETC will teach you more than the rest!

My Time At ETC So Far

     Equity Trust Company is an awesome company. I've been here since the beginning of May and I've loved every minute of it! I've been kept busy though for the past week or so, so I'm just finally getting around to my first post on this blog. I am the Summer Computer Networking Intern here at ETC. My supervisor, John Moses, has been assigning me little projects since I started here. For my first project, I had to create an imaging server using the open-source imaging solution FOG to make computer deployment a more efficient process. After doing almost everything I could with that, he has moved me on to another project in cleaning up the Active Directory and updating employee information. I've been working with Tiffany from Human Resources to get the information I need. She's been a great help.

     Updating Active Directory has been a little more interesting then my previous project because I've had the opportunity to talk to a large number of ETC employees I probably never would have spoken to. When there is information missing from the reports given to me to update employee information in Active Directory, I have often had to call and speak with them or send them an email to get this information. Now when I receive company-wide emails, I can often remember the names of the people in the email from when I have spoken to them, which is kind of neat. I have also been helping Jessica with technical support, since she has been in Elyria for the past two weeks. That has also been a great way to meet some of my fellow employees. I will most likely finish up working on Active Directory today. I'm excited about what is in store for my next project from John. He has mentioned in the past that he wants me to organize all the crazy wiring on the server racks, so that could be next.

    ETC has such a great atmosphere to work in. Everything is laid back. The business casual dress code is great (we even get to wear shorts when it's hot in Fridays!). We get an hour lunch break every day, and sometimes we even get free food from a catered cookout provided by ETC in the parking lot! I've also had the pleasure of going out to eat and to an Indian's game with all of my fellow ETC employees paid for by the company. It was an awesome way to get to know everyone.

     I'm excited about what's in store the next couple of weeks. My internship is supposed to end around the beginning in August, but I'd be more than willing to stay a bit longer if I was offered. We'll just have to see how that goes...Hopefully the rest of my time at ETC will be just as great as it has been so far!

Week 2

Week 2 has been just as good as week 1! I have been very busy working on projects. 

      In Berea, I mainly focus on the training and orientation aspect of Human Resources. Jessica has me working on the Corporate Training New Hire Orientation Presentation. Phew, that's a mouthful! I really like this project because I get to be a bit creative and add in my own orientation activities and games. I also like working with the heads of departments to incorporate important information into the presentation that new hires would need to know about those departments.  Jessica and I have been working with Phil, Amanda, and Kathy from CST. They're a great group! We had a meeting this week to discuss creating different levels in the CST training program. I'm also working on some scripting for CST so that calls will be more standardized. I was able to sit in on calls with both experienced and new call center employees to see how they interacted with clients. My goal was to determine which parts of the conversion could have a script incorporated. There are many projects going on within the training side of HR, so I will keep you posted as I start the next one!

      In Elyria I get to experience the recruiting side of Human Resources. This week I helped post job opportunities on Monster.com, NEOintern.com, various career service sites for colleges in the area, and social media sites. I reviewed resumes for potential candidates for job openings and scheduled interview appointments. I have learned that there is an art to reviewing resumes. Recruiters have to be able to determine whether or not a person will be a good fit for the company and stay with the company based on work patterns and histories. Even the layout and wording of a resume can make a huge difference in whether or not a candidate will be interviewed. I'm taking notes for my own resume! I got to work with my first member of the Executive Management Team, John Cameron. I helped create a department headcount report with Andy. Also, I finally got to work with Tiffany, who is back from her conference! 

      One of the things that drew me to ETC was its dedication to community involvement. I really like that ETC takes part in Relay for Life and Corporate Challenge, among many other events. This week, I signed up for the 10k relay for the Corporate Challenge. Also, I ran the Towpath Freedom 5k for which ETC was a sponsor. I ended up being the 18th female finisher and got 3rd in my age division! I think that ETC does a great job of providing fun opportunities for employees outside of the workplace, and I've really enjoyed getting to be a part of them!


I love working here!!

First week as an HR Intern at ETC!

      This is actually my third week on the job as an HR Intern at Equity Trust Company. I was having some technical issues with my Google account, but now everything is good to go thanks to our Marketing Intern, Keith! Luckily, I have been keeping a journal for the online course I am taking in conjunction with this internship to receive credit for my major, so I won't be too far behind.

Here's what I wrote to my professor regarding my first week here at ETC:

      My first week as a Human Resources Intern for Equity Trust Company has been great! My supervisors have quickly made me feel at home. Despite having only been here for a few days, I feel very comfortable working with everyone. The HR department is fun and energetic, which makes for a comfortable and entertaining work environment. The dress code is casual, which makes for an even more laid back atmosphere.

      On Mondays and Thursdays, I will be at the Elyria location, while on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I will be in Berea. 

      In Elyria, I will be working with Tiffany and Andy. Tiffany has been at a conference in Atlanta, so I won't be able to work with her until next week. Fun fact: Tiffany is also a Mount Union Purple Raider and was in my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Pretty cool! Andy is definitely a jokester. From day one I could tell that I was going to be entertained. He is a Baldwin-Wallace grad, which means there will certainly be a rivalry! I need Tiffany to return from her conference so we can team up on him!

      In Berea I will be working with Jessica. She was also an intern at ETC when she was in college, so it's fun getting to work with her. It sounds like she has some big projects planned for me, and I'm excited to get started!   

      The HR department has really held true to what they told me during my interview for this position: there would be no mindless tasks involved. This is not your average internship where filing or paperwork make up the majority of day to day work. I really like that my supervisors rely on me to complete important tasks. I have a lot of freedom and can request more entertaining or difficult projects at any time. I really appreciate how trusting my supervisors are of me.

      I am amazed by how quickly a full work day goes by! I really didn't know what to expect, seeing as I've never worked a traditional, full work day in an office environment. I anticipated watching the clock and feeling anxious for the day to end. Surprisingly, that is not the case at all. I actually enjoy waking up early and coming to work here!

The 4th of July is on what day again?

Since the Fourth of July fell on July 4th this year..er I mean since it was on a Wednesday, it was a nice break midway through the week.  Before our off day, I met with members of the IT and marketing departments about the Evergreen webinar software.  I summarized the capabilities and potential pitfalls I have found while testing the software.  David Griffiths, our Salesforce developer and administrator, is a pivotal figure in this process.  Since he runs our customer relationship management software, it is important to ensure that any issues between Evergreen and Salesforce are addressed before moving forward with the software.  This meeting was another valuable experience I have gained through my internship with ETC.  It was my first opportunity running a group meeting and it gave me an opportunity to practice in an office setting.  We spent an hour discussing the program and how we would like to proceed.  We decided we want to research some competitors before moving on with some expanded testing.  There is no way to simulate what a real meeting is like, which is why it is so beneficial that Equity Trust Company puts their interns in those positions. 

I also participated in two online webinar meetings with representatives of ReadyTalk and ActOn Interactive Services.  I logged on through my phone and also shared a computer screen with each of the representatives.  Once again I was placed into a situation that is quite common in the workplace but not in the classroom.  I spoke with the reps and told them what we were looking for, what our current software provides, and then listened to their pitch.  I then typed up the summary of my findings and passed it along to the rest of the team.  It has been helpful to compare the ability of each of these programs to Evergreen in order to make the most educated decision. 

Finally, I met with Sarah to learn more about Salesforce.  She is going on vacation next week and I am hoping to be able to help with some of her workload while she is gone.  She tutored me about how we input our leads and create the various campaigns.  It is another skill that I am desperately trying to learn and add to my marketing repertoire.

The summer interns concluded the week by meeting for lunch in the third floor cafeteria.  It was the first time we were all together, which was nice to get to know one another further.  The jokesters that I work with in marketing deemed it the Intern Summit.  While the name is more official than it was, we hope to reconvene the summit at a later date.

Until next week!

Week 4 in Review

My fourth week started with my biggest moment as an intern here at ETC.  On Tuesday I had a meeting with Kent, our business development manager, and Rich Desich, our co-founder and one of the leaders of the company.  Needless to say I was excited to showcase what I had been working on with the Evergreen system, but also a little nervous.  I created a PowerPoint presentation and a fact sheet that overviewed the capabilities, pros, and cons of the program.  We spent close to an hour discussing how we would like to use the program.  It went extremely well!  Rich and Kent seemed impressed with my work and gave me the go-ahead to delve deeper into the program.  I walked out of the meeting with a feeling of accomplishment and a new found confidence that can only be acquired by gaining real-world experience in an office setting.  The opportunity to meet with executives does not come along for many interns.  It is just another example of how great an internship this is.  The remainder of my week consisted of posting and following up on the BiggerPockets blog.  I was able to generate two leads already from the posts I have made so I sent them along to our sales department.  I also drafted my first Facebook post for our Fourth of July campaign.  We offered a free Blueprint for Success kit as our version of fireworks to offer our fans.  Finally, after meeting with Wes and Kelly I was assigned with creating event postings on a multitude of websites for our Tax Free Wealth Seminars being held in San Diego, San Francisco, and Cleveland.  Wes had compiled an Excel spreadsheet with a list of web pages that list events in various cities around the country.  I then created an event for each TFWS in their respective cities.  This week we also welcomed the newest member to our marketing team in Jen Lynch.  Jen came over to us from the Cleveland Clinic and will be our Marketing Supervisor.  We all went out to lunch together and had a good time laughing and sharing some “fun facts” about ourselves.  Welcome to the Equity Trust Company team Jen! 

Week 3 in Review

In my third week I continued the testing process with Evergreen.  I am corresponding with their technical support staff on a daily basis answering questions, gaining a better understanding of the software, and making suggestions.  Kent, our business development manager, informed me that our CEO’s Jeff and Rich Desich were interested in hearing about EBS.  Kent said he would include me in his meeting with the two next Tuesday.  I then created a third test webinar that will run Monday and Tuesday of next week.  This way the Desichs can see the system work for itself.  I also told Kent that I would be willing to give a presentation about the software.  Talking about throwing my hat in the ring!  I am now working on that presentation.  I typed up an overview progress report that summarizes the findings and issues that have shown themselves in the first three tests.  I am also beginning my PowerPoint presentation, which I will finalize and practice next week. 

            My other main project that I am monitoring is BiggerPockets.com.  BP is an online blog, forum, and social network of people interested in real estate.  Equity Trust Company had worked with Bigger Pockets at a recent conference in Denver so that is how BP got on our radar.  My goal is to get online and educate the members about self-directed IRAs while also increasing our brand awareness.  If they can see my posts as worthwhile and informative then it should hopefully generate leads for us.  In my first day I posted in a forum about the Private Bank Concept to help clarify how you can borrow from other people’s IRAs to fund your investments.  I also had my first colleague request accepted, and it turned out the guy was already a lead in Salesforce.  I hope we can convert him to a client through the help of my posting. 

            I attended two of the webinars I mentioned in last week’s blog and took notes for the department.  KT and I learned about the possibilities and functions of RegOnline mobile.  This is an app that we can use at the Networking Conference that should really connect us with the attendees.  I also sat in on a webinar meeting with the entire marketing department along with some of the executives to get the report from a company called Wider Funnels.  Wider Funnels took a look at our landing pages and presented the changes they would like to make and the results of the changes they tried.  This was an extremely informative meeting where I was able to learn more about how we generate leads from our websites.  In school you hear so much about the use of the internet for marketing, but it was not until I began this internship, and especially sat in on this meeting, that I began to truly learn about it. 

            Some other minor tasks I have been working on this week include contacting GroupOn and registering to become a member of the site.  We would like to use GroupOn to advertise for our Tax Free Wealth Seminars in San Diego, San Francisco, Nashville, and Memphis.  I also helped Kelly to send out a newsletter in the mail to our Gold Level Service Members.  I also attended a three hour training session for the Salesforce program with the Equity Institutional department.  Finally, we had some fun on Tuesday for Brendan’s birthday.  KT made a delicious fudge Oreo brownie cake that was out of this world!  Our whole department also went out to Maya for lunch and embarrassed Brendan with a sombrero and a beautiful rendition of the Happy Birthday song.  He later told us that that was the one thing he hates the most, whoops!  It was just another example of the fun that we have here at ETC and a nice break during what has been a busy week.

Week 2 in Review

My second week started when the results came back from my first Evergreen test run.  The results were less than stellar and I realized that I had a little too much confidence regarding how much I “thought” I knew about the software.  Who would have thought that I wouldn’t have the entire system figured out and ready to use in one week?  I encountered several issues with how the emails were sent, the format of many components of the system, and with the tracking analytics.  I typed out a bulleted list of issues and questions I had with the first test and sent it to the technical support staff for EBS.  Throughout the remainder of the week I began a second test with the changes and adjustments I had learned through my dialogue with the tech staff.  It has been a continued back and forth discussion with them throughout my entire time working with the program. 

            I also began researching how we could advertise via Twitter.  I sent an inquiry though email and then had a nice phone call with Rick from Twitter.  Rick outlined the information and details I needed to know in order to get us started with them.  I then typed up an outline of the notes I took and sent it off to our Interactive Marketing Manager, Wes, and our Copywriter, Heather.  We had our social media meeting Thursday in which we discussed what I had learned from Twitter, brainstormed campaign ideas, and created a general plan for our social media marketing campaigns. 

            This week I also was helped out immensely by Sarah, our Data Analyst.  Sarah was kind enough to meet with me two different times this week in order to teach me both our GotoWebinar program and Salesforce, our customer relationship management software.  She is the expert when it comes to these databases so it was very helpful for her to familiarize me with the programs that are so instrumental in what we do in the marketing department.  It was especially relevant to learn the current webinar program so I can compare it to the new software I am testing in Evergreen.  Speaking of webinars, this week we received two emails advertising different webinars that might help our company.  One was about promoting your webinar and how you can increase traffic driven to view your webinars.  The other was about mastering the art of welcome emails.  Since I know how busy everyone is, and because I want to soak up as much information as possible, I volunteered to take the lead and watch each webinar and provide the rest of the department with the notes I took. 

            The remainder of my time this week was filled with miscellaneous tasks that supported the projects various members of our team were working on.  I also spent part of Wednesday making phone calls to registrants for our Networking Conference in Orlando to confirm and update the database we have already compiled.  This supported KT, our event coordinator, with a small portion of the workload she is responsible for regarding the upcoming conference.  I also helped Kelly, the business development assistant, integrate our Tax Free Wealth Seminars database with what we have on Salesforce.  TFWS are educational seminars we host around the country to inform the members about self-directed IRAs and hopefully generate people who would be interested in becoming our clients.  

            I was finally able to set up my voice-mail this week as well.  What a relief! For whatever reason I was blocked from setting up my voice-mail and directly receiving calls from outside the company.  With the help of our IT department I was able to work both these issues out and begin to feel more official.  Week two continued to engulf me with various projects and other experience that you cannot gain until you are in the workplace.  It was also not without fun.  Our sales team decided they wanted to set up a putting green at the Networking Conference so, being the helpful intern that I am, I took some time to test it out.  It has been quite awhile since I golfed last but don’t worry, I still could knock down my putts.

Week 1 in Review

I have been recording my experiences from my first week.  Here they are!

I had never had an internship or job before that was an eight hour a day desk job in the corporate world, so I did not know exactly what to expect.  Luckily, I am interning for a great company with a department full of wonderful people who made it easier to adjust to my new position.  I began the week with the required formalities of paperwork, introductions, and tours.  That first day I was nervous about making a good impression and because I was not really sure how I needed to act in the workplace.  My colleagues quickly put me at ease.  Our whole department sat down and I got to know everyone over pizza and salad.  As soon as I heard the jokes, sarcasm, and good-natured ribbing between all the team members I knew I was in a special place. 

When I had my first meeting with my boss, Brendan, the marketing manager he assigned me my first task.  I was going to be responsible for learning, testing, and teaching Evergreen Business Systems.  EBS is an automated webinar generator software that our company is looking into.  Since no one has spent much time with the system, I was charged with learning and testing it out.   The other task I was assigned was to take about half an hour to meet with every member in the department in order to get to know them, learn what they do, and get a feel for how everyone is working together in the department. 

I spent most of the week watching the tutorial videos on EBS’s website, taking pages of notes, and learning the capabilities of the system.  I then began setting up a test webinar and drafted an email with the instructions for all my co-workers.  It was an involved process to get all of the details just right so that the test would run smoothly and in a way I could easily analyze.  During the week our Graphic Designer, Marc, busted out his sound effects system on his computer.  We all had some fun eating candy, telling jokes, and laughing over perfectly timed sound effects.  Thursday of my first week was the first time I felt like an intern.  We are redoing our entire website and the CEO asked for it to be printed out so he can approve which pages he wanted to keep.  I was given an excel spreadsheet with over one thousand links on it.  I spent the entire day clicking links, clicking print, and putting the pages in four large three-ringed binders.  I didn’t mind the work because just like in sports, seniority rules.  How can I expect a freshman to have to clean up the field, carry the equipment, etc. since he hasn’t “paid his due” and then get angry when I am asked to do the same at work?  It was never a problem for me, I’m just happy to help the company in any way I can.  I wrapped up the week crosschecking and entering registrants of the upcoming Networking Conference into our RegOnline database.  With my first week in the books, I can look back and say that I am very lucky to have landed the internship I did.  I enjoy the company of my co-workers, my boss is understanding and truly invested in helping me learn as much as I can, and I am already given the responsibility to take the lead on some projects.  Let’s hope the fun continues in week two!

New Year, New Interns

Hi everyone!

My name is Keith and I am the summer marketing intern here at Equity Trust Company.  I had always intended to blog about my experiences but things got so busy I never had time!  Luckily, I have been keeping a little journal about the various tasks I worked on each day.  I am going to write about these first four weeks after the fact, and then hopefully stay on top of the blog throughout the rest of the summer.  I hope you enjoy!