Chase Your Dreams

On the morning of Wednesday, March 29, 2017, Olivia Easly spoke to my Internet Communication's class. Olivia Easly graduated from Appalachian State University (go Mountaineers!) in 2015 with the plan to move to Utah for three months to work as an intern. Once she realized that we wanted to move closer to home and work full-time, she found herself in a pickle. All of the professional connections she had established were in Utah and of no help to her in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Olivia decided to join a professional organization that focused on the public relations industry for the Raleigh area and through that organization she networked and started her first full-time, salaried position working for a startup company. The decision to move back to a place where she had no initial connections and then accept a position within a startup company is very similar to that of Joanna Gaines.

Joanna graduated from Baylor University with a degree in Communications and dreamed of becoming a broadcast journalist. But after a design internship in New York City, she decided to move back to Waco, Texas to open her own decor shop. After meeting Chip, they both combined their wild ideas and skills into what is now the "Magnolia" brand. The couple started with little to no money and have now developed a successful empire.

Although Olivia is in the beginning stages of her career, she continued to remind us that with everything you do now, you are developing yourself and your skills for future jobs. As a college graduate, Joanna Gaines probably had no idea that she was going to have her own successful brand build around interior design. Everything that she has accomplished in her life and every opportunity that she has been given, has led her to do what she does now.

#hgtv #socialmedia #businessideas #media #fixerupper #appalachianstate #app