Assignment 20A. Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

Elizabeth (I've decided not to include the last names due to privacy) and she has started a Instagram page devoted to eating right and exercises. She wants to encourage  people in her area to eat healthy and exercise regularly. 

2) How this person is a Domain Expert

She encourages people in South Florida. She has many followers and she is encouraging people not only about eating healthy, and exercising but also about their mental health, which is so important on this journey!!! I consider her an expert because she has experience in eating healthy and exercising.  

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I went to High School with Liz and she happens to be married to my brothers best friend. I have contacted her via text and on Instagram because that's where she posts the most.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

Liz has gave me some tips on how she feels when necessary to post and what to post. I'm not sure if any favors were exchanged but we did talk about ideas and we gave each other tips on what we think would work best for an app.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This will enhance my ability to get people to use my app down in South Florida, I don't go down there as much as I used to so having Liz as a friend would help spread the word in different areas that I necessarily can't reach all the time.

Market Expert:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

Deonte (I've decided not to use last names due to privacy). He is a former cop and now works at Gainesville Health and Fitness (GHF)  which is one of our local gyms

2) How is this person a market expert?

Deonte is a Market expert because he works and engages with people everyday who would use my app. 

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

Deonte is my roommate, I have sat down and "interviewed" him about the gym and his fitness background.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

We exchanged advice on workouts and healthy meal eating. Deonte not only works at the gym but goes to the gym everyday and eats extremely healthy so he was a great person to talk to.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This will enhance my ability to get the people on my app together. If we could rent a room at GHF the locals on the app could all get together once or twice a week to socialize and workout. This would make the app more interesting.

Supplier Expert:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

Daniel ( I've decided not to use last names because of privacy). He sells workout machines and sets that you can do in the comfort of your home.

2) How is this person an industry supplier?

He is an industry supplier because he sells the equipment we would use to us and other gyms around the city.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I also went to High School with him. He lives in Gainesville now so I've interviewed with him and emailed him. 

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

We exchanged the best machines for what we want and at a responsible price. Daniel also loves to eat healthy and workout so we exchanged ideas on the best way to get the fastest results.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This will enhance  my ability to get the word out in Gainesville. Daniel moved here knowing a lot of people in the city of Gainesville so once I talk to him he could get the word out about the app faster than I could.

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events? Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

This experience will help me to always keep my mind open to new things. All three of my interviews I got different feedback so it was cool to take a little from each of them and brainstorm my ideas as well. Everyone has different ways they like to workout so I just need to figure out the best one for my target market and go from there. This hasn't differed from my networking experiences, I feel networking is basically the same across the board, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and for the moment that is my moto!