My Summer at unMazer.ai: Finding my Alternative Interest
It has been three months since I, Vibhanshu Mishra, joined unMazer.ai and what a ride it has been. I started this journey as a content and social media strategist. My motivation behind this internship was to double down on my soft skills, especially communication and content writing, given that I had some time off before I go for my Masters.
unMazer.ai is a B2B startup that provides businesses with deep and contextual information using third-party data such as mobile location, satellite imageries, social media, identity resolution, movement patterns and more. When I learned about unMazer I found the idea very striking. It is something I believe will be very fruitful for offline businesses, especially in the coming digital age. Who will want to leave such a golden opportunity? Not me, surely.
Below are my learnings from this voyage:
- Consistency is the Key: Showing up every day is a power move. Not only it improves your skills but gets you on the growth curve. In day-to-day life, we slack and procrastinate for some short-term benefits. Staying consistent with your work will not only reap benefits but also increase your chances of success.
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” ~ Anthony Robbins
2. Communication: I was always a shy kinda guy who didn’t use to voice his opinions because he fears he might sound dumb in public. This experience taught me the importance of expressing your opinions. Voicing your thoughts/ideas shapes your thinking process and helps you get clarity on your thoughts.
Many of us aren’t taught to express our instincts & emotions freely. Don’t be controversial, don’t do something selfish or stupid, and I was no different. My entire life I was frightened of anyone not liking me, to the extent that I was a people’s pleasure and I never learned to say NO. As a result, I focused my entire life on pleasing people and hiding my faults.
This is where I learned this concept of “vulnerability”. I picked it up from this book named Models by Mark Manson and applied this philosophy to my current experience. He defined vulnerability as, “consciously choosing to NOT hide your emotions or desires from others.” This basically means, you just freely express your thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions regardless of what others might think of you. It can mean putting yourself in a position where you can be rejected.
This simple concept has worked like a gem for me. Even though it’s still a work in progress, I can definitely observe changes in myself.
3. Content Writing: Throughout this journey, I learned some key elements of writing:
Read widely: What we think is writer’s block might just be your lack of enough information. Often, what I think is writer’s block is just my lack of knowledge on that topic.
Taking a break: It works like a gem (at least for me). Sometimes, you are just not in that zone where you can unleash your creativity. Take a break, chill out and then get back to work.
Write, then edit: What do I mean by that? When you start writing, just get everything out of your system whatever comes to your mind. Don’t think about the grammar, spelling mistakes or anything, just jot down your thoughts. After you are done, then only move onto editing. We, generally, write and edit simultaneously. When you do that, what actually you are doing is a context switch. You are now in a state that is less creative. You are essentially breaking that creative momentum, whereas the desired state should be to wear that creative hat and dig deeper.
4. Measure Progress: In the communication section, I ended by saying “I can definitely observe changes in myself”. This is sole because I started measuring my progress. At unMazer, we have an all-team discussion every week where the whole team would review and measure our past week’s progress. The trick is not to blatantly focus on results but rather be aware of the process.
“The things we measure are the things we improve. It is only through numbers and clear tracking that we have any idea if we are getting better or worse.” ~ James Clear
5. Regular Feedbacks: Keep asking for feedback from as many people as possible to hear different perspectives and give yours as well. Not only this gives us a chance to voice our opinions/ideas, but also learn the skill to communicate effectively. Articulate your instincts in a manner that other team members can understand and apply those insights.
This was my first time working in a startup. I read somewhere that small organizations are a great place to learn, enhance your skills and implement your ideas. After working in an early-stage startup, I can definitely vouch for this. It drives me crazy when I think about how much there is to learn out there. Limitless, absolutely limitless!
Needless to say, it was a fully remote set-up because of the pandemic. With fewer meetings and collaborative working, I never felt burdened or stressed with too much work. It was nice to experience a remote working setup and imagine what could be probably the future. If the right systems are set in place and you have designed the environment that keeps you productive, then remote culture can surely change the world in the coming future.
As they say, every good thing ends.
But before I end, I would like to express my gratitude to Vivek for believing in me and for getting me on board. Remember I talked about consistency, that’s something I took from Vivek. The guy has been working hard and showing up every day. This is something I would like to instil in myself down the lane. I am very sure, the passion and consistency with which he is performing his role, in the near future unMazer.ai would be a one-stop solution for many, many businesses.
Special thanks to Shalmaly and Gayatri for helping me out on the communication front. I personally learned a lot about how I can express my opinions in a more articulate manner with certain boldness from these two wonderful humans. Both of them have been very kind and humble to help me out throughout this journey.
For any discussions/queries, feel free to reach out on Twitter, or Linkedin.
